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Every Mazda SUV offers you an elevated driving experience and refined performance. Discover it at your local Mazda dealer today. This week On Meet the Press, as the nation looks to 2026, how will concerns over the economy, health care and immigration shape the midterms? Kristen Welker sits down with Senators Raphael Warnock and Rand Paul. Plus, Steve Kornacki breaks down a new poll this week on MEET THE Press. Listen to the full episode now. Wherever you get your podcasts.
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Welcome to here's this group of NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugin. Today on the show, the president could be easing federal restrictions for marijuana. Plus, the president has ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. And remember the TikTok Kia Challenge? Millions of car owners are finally getting anti theft tech that actually works at first, though. Nick Reiner, son of Rob Reiner and Michelle Sigur Reiner, was arraigned in Los Angeles Superior Court today. He was formally charged with two counts of first degree murder for their killings. Nick Reiner did not enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. Owning it right To NBC News correspondent Gotti Schwartz, who's been at the courthouse today. And we want to warn you that our conversation contains mentions of suicide. Hi, Gotti.
B
Hey there, Yasmin.
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Great to have you. Let's talk about Nick's arraignment. It had been originally scheduled for yesterday, but it was delayed because Nick had not been, quote, unquote, medically cleared to be transferred to the courthouse. How did his arraignment go today?
B
How did he look in this courtroom? A camera was allowed to to be pool, which means that they're the ones that disseminate the images to everybody. And at the beginning, everyone thought that we were going to be able to see Nick Reiner. And what ended up happening was he was sat kind of behind this bench. The colleague that we have that did get a glimpse of him said that it looked like he was wearing one of these blue protective smocks. Sometimes those are given to people that are on suicide watch. We don't have the particulars of why he was wearing that. And then his lawyers, his defense team, including Alan Jackson and two others, they almost shielded him from view. And then they asked the judge that their client not be shown on camera. The judge granted that. And at that point, the pool camera knew not to shoot him. So he said, yes, your honor, when he was asked if he understood what was going on. And those are the only words that he said to the judge. Those are only words that were heard. And his lawyer is now waived his first appearance and pushed it down to January 7th.
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Do we know why he wasn't medically cleared for yesterday, Gotti?
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We don't. With 100% uncertainty and so much of the speculation out there, and part of this story is really his mental state. When you're booked into Los Angeles county, you have to undergo a physical screening, and you also have to go undergo a mental evaluation, a very preliminary mental evaluation. But part of that mental evaluation includes asking things like, are you suicidal or have you had ideas of suicide? Any sort of detection of suicidal ideation? And again, we don't know what has happened. We will not because of HIPAA laws. And again, one of the things that's really important, Yasmin, that we keep forgetting is like, we see the clips that are all over social media from the movie that he made with his father being Charlie. And we think that that's. That was recent. It was 10 years ago. We know two years after that he would call into this show called Dopey. It's a podcast for recovery, and he would talk a little bit about some of the struggles that he was continuing to have. And in one of them, he talked about getting pretty violent inside of his guest house and smashing things and punching the tv. But the big question is, what has his mental state been like in recent history? And that we just don't know.
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I know that Romy and Jake, Michelle and Rob Reiner's two other children. Rob also has another child with his ex late wife at Penny Marshall as well. They were not in court today, but we have heard from them. What did they say?
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Yeah, they sent out a statement, so it's heartbreaking. They say words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day. The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michelle Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren't just our parents, they were our best friends. They go on to express gratitude for the outpouring of condolences. And they say that they are hoping for respect and privacy and speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity. And yet there is no mention of their brother.
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Do we know how it was that Nick came to retain Alan Jackson as You mentioned he's a pretty big attorney, has represented some major folks. Do we know who's paying for his retainer?
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We don't. We don't. And that is a very big question. Alan Jackson, he is a well known, high powered attorney here in Los Angeles. Like he was a prosecutor here. He prosecuted Bill Specter. He just defended Karen Reid in her trial. He's defended Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey. So who made that call to his firm to retain him? We still don't know.
A
You also talked about the timeline and I want to get into that a little bit because it's been murky and all the details have been coming out. But, but let's start first with the Conan o' Brien Christmas party, which I understand happened on Saturday evening, in which Rob and Michelle attended. And reporting indicates that they brought their son Nick along. Walk us through what we know about when that party happened and what actually happened at the party.
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Yeah, so much of this is, it's coming from our colleague Chloe Molas. Apparently what happened, the three of them, Nick and his parents, Michelle and Rob, they went to the party hosted by Conan o'. Brien. It was this holiday party and it's a little murky, but from what we understand, Nick was making people feel uncomfortable. And Chloe was told that, you know, one of the people that, that he interacted with was, was Bill Hader. And Nick was asking questions like, who are you? What's your name? Are you famous? And then kind of just being antisocial and having these awkward moments with people. And at one point Rob may have said something along the lines of like, you know, you're making people feel uncomfortable or this is inappropriate or not acting right or something like that. And then allegedly words were exchanged. But again, we don't know exactly what was said. We don't know if they all left together. But that from what we understand was the last time they were seen publicly. And that happened Saturday night. Then Sunday at 3:30 3:40, the bodies were discovered. So sometime in between the party at Conan o' Brien's house to that afternoon, possibly that morning or overnight. That's when the murders happened. And then we pick up the trail around 9 o' clock at night. Oddly enough, ironically enough, at the around the same time that LAPD was having a very eyebrow raising press conference where no information was being given and people were scrutinizing every word. Sounds like robbery homicide. Along with the gang task force or one of the gang divisions in Los Angeles, they were honing in on exactly where Nick was. That was exposition park miles and miles away over down by usc. And we see that surveillance video from him walking into the gas station buying his Gatorade. Then he comes out, he crosses the street and you can barely make it out, but you can see all of a sudden these unmarked units, they spring up on him. Unknown how they knew exactly where he was, whether it was cell phone tracking or camera tracking, but they seem to know where he was at that exact moment. They circle him and he is taken into custody without incident. So a big question mark as to what happened from, you know, that party to the murders to his apprehension. And we're hoping to learn more in the in the coming days.
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Here we mentioned Bill Hader and a possible interaction that took place at Conan o' Brien's holiday party. And it's important to mention that he did not reply to a request for comment from NBC News. Gotti Schwartz, you have been doing some really great reporting on this. And we thank you. Sure.
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Thank you.
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We also have an update on that other weekend tragedy in Australia. Authorities have charged the surviving suspect in the Bondi beach shooting, Navid Akram, with 59 offenses, including terrorism and 15 counts of murder. All right. We are going to take a very quick break. And when we are back, the president could be easing federal restrictions on marijuana. What that will mean coming up next. What are you doing in a meeting? That could have been an email. Losing interest. Don't let it happen to your money too. Vanguard's CashPlus account can't help you at work, but we can help with your savings. Find out how much interest you could earn@vanguard.com cashplus offered by Vanguard Marketing Corporation member FINRA and SIPC. This season, find the gifts they'll love with shop today's gifts. We love gifts to surprise him and delight her. The hot toys for kids and those hard to shop for teens with Shop Today's Gifts We Love. You can shop our top 100 gifts for everyone on your list. So you can find everything they really want and maybe even a little treat just for you. It's your ultimate holiday gift guide with incredible deals you don't want to miss. For the gifts they're sure to Love, head to today.com GiftsWeLove and start shopping now. Hi there and happy holidays or as.
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I like to say, Hollys. It's Craig and Savannah from the TODAY show inviting you to spend the holiday season with us.
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We're spreading holiday cheer with special live performances from Gwen Stefani, Lady A and Brad Paisley, plus some of Hollywood's biggest stars stopped by for our annual toy drive.
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It's the most wonderful time of the year and there's no better way to spend it than with the TODAY show family every morning on NBC.
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From our family to yours, happy holidays. And we're back with here's the scoop from NBC News. President Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week that would fast track the reclassification of marijuana and acknowledge its medical benefits for the first time. That's according to four people with direct knowledge of these plants. This would be a major shift in US Drug policy. For that, I want to bring in Julie Serkin. She's a correspondent covering the White House. Hi, Julie.
C
Hi, Asmin.
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Great to have you on the podcast. This has been in the works for a while now. The president talked about reclassifying marijuana while he was on the campaign trail. The Biden administration tried to do it. It didn't actually happen. Why is it happening now?
C
Well, the Biden administration kicked off the long formal process. This is not something that typically happens by eo but nothing is typical with this administration. So Biden President Biden could have technically also signed an EO to essentially force the dea, the Drug Enforcement Administration, to fast track what's called a rulemaking process, essentially taking Cannabis from Schedule 1, where it has been since 1970, and putting it to schedul. President Trump decided to do it by eo, but it doesn't happen at the stroke of his pen, meaning his EO would just force the DOJ and the DEA to fast track and get to the last step of the process.
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What does classification three actually mean in layman's terms?
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So under the Controlled substances Act of 1970, when that was first set up, passed by Congress, signed into law, cannabis was put in Schedule 1, meaning it is in the same exact schedule drug class as heroin and as lsd. It also means that currently, formally, there is no approved medical use or potential medical benefits of cannabis. Moving it to schedule three puts it in the same drug class as Tylenol with codeine, meaning there is potential medical benefits of those drugs. Cannabis has never been studied formally at the fda. And if you think about it, Yasmin, a lot of states already have medical cannabis laws on the books. There have been a lot of independent studies done that have shown that cannabis does have medical benefits, and yet none of them have been sanctioned or approved by the government until potentially now.
A
How much is this about big business making deals, making money? And I say that because, you know, we have seen the president, for instance, strike deals with Eli lilly with the GLP1 drugs. We saw that announcement coming out of the Oval. The President also met with a group of cannabis executives in the Oval Office last week, holding multiple meetings with the FDA commissioner, with Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. As well as. How much is this reclassification about striking deals with those executives.
C
Yeah. And how much of it is giving something back to some of the young men and supporters that elected the President last campaign cycle? I know that the President has been meeting with a lot of industry executives in the cannabis space. He has some close friends who also own CBD companies, cannabis companies that he has golfed with, who have been talking about this with him for years. As you know, the President doesn't drink, so he does have people around him that might take a gummy. And he's learned about this, I'm told, on a personal level as well.
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Do you have some news to break on the President and a possible gummy habit?
C
I do not have any news to break on.
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That would be very big.
C
That would be big.
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That is.
C
I'll keep working on it, Yasmin, but this is, you know, you're really valid to raise that point. People in the business, they've been pushing for this for years. I mean, if you think about it, this industry, in totality, it is hundreds of billions of dollars. I think what would impact this, even more so than rescheduling, it is potentially if the President directs Congress to pass legislation known as the Safer Banking act, that would help legal cannabis businesses get access to traditional banking and financial institutions for the first time.
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Right.
C
Right now, if you're a big bank, if you're a federal bank, you might be in trouble on a federal level, if you do business with a cannabis business, even if it is in a state where those laws are legal, it kind of just helps remove some of these barriers and these loopholes to stop with the patchwork frame and make something that is whole for the entirety of.
A
The US there's going to be a possible trickle down effect when it comes to a possible change in the reclassification of marijuana. I'm talking about the dea, the Department of Justice as well. There are still thousands of Americans in prison for low level cannabis offenses. What could this reclassification mean for those departments and for those individuals?
C
I spoke to somebody at the Last Prisoners Project, which is a huge advocacy organization. They help thousands of people who have been incarcerated, some since the 1990s with the war on Drugs, when it really escalated around cannabis. They still have so many people who are in prison writing Letters to presidents of various administrations who are there on low level marijuana possession. These are nonviolent crimes. I spoke to a woman, Yasmin, who owns a dispensary in Arizona, and her father is still in prison for low level marijuana offenses. And this primarily impacts black and brown communities. And I hear this all the time. They are grateful for this step that is being taken by the president, we think this week, but it is definitely not enough. And I heard that as well from Democrats up here. Senator Ron Wyden told me this week that what they need to do is decriminalize it. This isn't enough.
A
And could that feasibly be the next step? Have we heard anything from the White House that that could come next and or from Congress?
C
Well, here's the thing. Mr. Trump loves to issue executive orders, but they really have no teeth unless there's follow. Even for this rescheduling, Pam Bondi, the attorney general, still needs to push it through to the final step. It works similarly if you're looking at decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana on the federal level. That requires an act of Congress. Yeah, but the FDA being able to study medical benefits will certainly help, especially convince some conservatives and Republicans who I talked to some just today. They're really skeptical about even this first step.
A
The president, while I have you, Julie, I want to talk about this address tonight. The president is giving this address in primetime. We're not quite sure what it's going to cover, but the expectation is that he will cover his first year in office and what is to come in his second year, what is ahead. I'm wondering, first and foremost if this is slated to be part of his address and what else we can expect that you're hearing.
C
You know, I was wondering the same exact thing. The timing of this address, it's not necessarily something that we knew about for a long time. It's unclear when the president ultimately decided to do this tonight. I was asking some top Republicans today, even Leader John Thune said, do you know what he's gonna say? Because I have no idea. And it does not seem like anybody really wants to get ahead of the president or knows what he's gonna say. But certainly he's going to try to tout the economy, given that we just had such poor job numbers yesterday. And that is definitely something he's frustrated by. The work at the border is something that one Republican told me today. We might not talk about it, but the president might is likely to tout all the work that his administration has done in trying to close up the border, as they say. Obviously, a lot of attention on those boat strikes off the coast of Venezuela. Healthcare, a huge issue. I know you probably talked about it all week long, but this key vote that's gonna go down in the House probably means that millions of Americans are looking at sticker shock when it comes into January if they're on the Affordable Care act with those premium costs. And the president's a populist. He doesn't like any of that. So I'm sure he's going to address that tonight. Is he going to preview this cannabis executive order? Maybe. He kind of did it on Monday, but again, just so many things swirling.
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Julie Sarkin, we were trying to get you to break some news on the president's possible gummy habit, but it didn't happen here. Who knows?
C
Next time, Yasmin, I promise.
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All right, let's get to some headlines. Four centrist House Republicans just broke ranks to force a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies. Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan, Ryan McKenzie and Mike Lawler from New York joined all 214 Democrats in signing a discharge petition after Speaker Mike Johnson ditched a compromise over the weekend. Representative MIKE lawlor, I think everybody recognizes the fact that there needs to be.
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An extension, there needs to be reforms.
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And we'll see where this starts. Given the timing, the ACA vote will likely be too late to meet the Dec. 31 deadline when premiums will double for 22 million Americans. The House is set to vote, though, on a health care bill today that does not include provisions to extend the enhanced subsidies. President Trump is increasing his pressure campaign on Venezuela. Here's senior White House correspondent Garrett Hake. The president has once again significantly upped the ante on Venezuela, posting overnight that the US Would conduct a full blockade of sanctioned oil coming in and out of the country. That could have huge impact on Venezuela's economy. And if we're going to follow through on it, could involve a major use of American military force the likes of.
C
Which we have not seen in this.
A
Hemisphere in a very long time. Where is this all going and will.
C
The president make his case tonight?
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We'll be watching President Trump's address tonight at 9pm Eastern. In more White House news, the president has expanded a full travel ban to five more countries, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria, plus anyone with Palestinian Authority travel documents. Another 15 countries, including Nigeria and Angola, were hit with partial restrictions. Warner Brothers Discoveries Board is telling shareholders to reject Paramount's massive $108 billion hostile takeover bid. The board says Netflix's pitch is, quote, superior to the Paramount offer despite having a lower $82.7 billion price tag. According to that deal, Netflix would get Warner Brothers movie TV and streaming assets, including HBO and HBO Max, but it would not include Warner's cable channels cnn, TNT and tbs. Hyundai and Kia will be replacing anti theft tech on about 9 million vehicles going back to 2011 models as part of a $500 million settlement with dozens of states in 2021. Viral videos showed how easy it was to steal these cars with just a screwdriver and a USB cable. Minneapolis saw an 836% jump in thefts in one year alone. You might remember it as the Kia TikTok Challenge. As part of the agreement, Hyundai and Kia will outfit all future vehicles sold in the US With a key piece of technology called an engine immobilizer and pay up to $4.5 million of restitution to people whose vehicles were damaged by thieves. The FDA has now approved a brain tumor warning for the birth control shot Depa Pervera. Pfizer says it first learned of the risk of meningioma, a typically non cancerous brain tumor, in 2023 and sought to add the warning in early 2024, but the FDA declined until the company resubmitted back in June. The contraceptive shot is used by roughly one in four sexually active US Women, with black women using it about twice the rate. More than 1,000 women have accused Pfizer of knowing about the risk of for decades lawsuits, citing studies dating back to 1983 linking the drug to the tumor. And there is a new face in the US Capitol. A statue of Barbara Rose Johns has been added to National Statuary hall. She was a 16 year old black civil rights activist who led a strike against poor conditions at her segregated Virginia high school back in 1951. Johns is now one of two statues representing Virginia, taking a spot formerly occupied by a statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which was removed back in 2020. Here is House Speaker Mike Johnson at the unveiling ceremony today.
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We are here to honor one of America's true trailblazers.
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By the way, Johns is just one of 15 women in the Statuary hall collection. The other 85 are men. All right, that is going to do it for us at here's this group from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vestigin. We'll be back tomorrow with with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe. Wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you tomorrow.
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Date: December 17, 2025
Host: Yasmin Vossoughian (NBC News)
Episode Focus:
A deep-dive into the arraignment of Nick Reiner—son of Rob and Michelle Reiner—on murder charges, followed by an analysis of President Trump’s upcoming executive order to reclassify marijuana, and a rapid rundown of the day’s news.
This episode is split between breaking coverage of the shocking Nick Reiner court case and the White House’s impending game-changing shift in marijuana federal policy. Host Yasmin Vossoughian, along with NBC correspondents Gadi Schwartz and Julie Serkin, aim to illuminate the facts and implications behind these high-profile headlines, while grounding discussion in expert, on-the-ground reporting.
[00:54–09:23]
[11:03–17:20]
[19:12–23:18]
The episode maintains a balanced, fact-driven tone with urgency in news coverage—clear, accessible, and occasionally conversational, especially during guest segments and when discussing the intersection of politics and policy. Speakers use straightforward yet empathetic language when discussing tragic events, and maintain journalistic detachment when covering policy and business developments.
This episode of “Here’s the Scoop” delivers clear, concise, yet nuanced reporting on two dominant stories: a shocking Hollywood tragedy and a significant federal shift on marijuana, both examined for their broader implications—on mental health, criminal justice, business, and American politics. The episode rounds out with the day’s top headlines, giving listeners a sharp cross-section of the stories shaping the end-of-day news cycle.