Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday that authorities believe the suspect in the National Guard shooting was radicalized in the U.S.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal came to the U.S. in 2021, during the Biden administration, but was granted asylum during the Trump administration in April. Before he settled in a quiet part of Washington state, he was part of a secret unit of Afghans who operated under CIA direction and hunted down Taliban commanders in highly dangerous missions.
Some administration officials have claimed without evidence that the Biden administration failed to vet Lakanwal.
But members of these so-called “Zero Units,” also known as National Strike Units, were among the most extensively vetted of any Afghans who worked with American forces. CIA officers hailed their bravery, skill and loyalty, and the agency prioritized their evacuation from Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul in 2021 because they were prime targets for the Taliban.
As a member of the force, Lakanwal would have undergone extensive vetting before he joined the Zero Unit and had regular security checks during his tenure, former intelligence and military officials said. Like other refugees, he would have been vetted again, multiple officials said, when he applied for asylum.
Authorities have not provided a motive for the shooting, and a relative of Lakanwal’s has said the family cannot fathom why a man who fought alongside Americans in Afghanistan may have carried out such an attack.
But since arriving in the United States, thousands of Afghan veterans have lived in a legal limbo without work permits, struggling to feed their families, according to refugee advocates. Their former CIA and military colleagues appealed to both the Biden and Trump administrations and to Congress to take action to resolve their legal status, warning that the lack of progress was driving some veterans into despair, the advocates said.
FDA claims Covid shots killed 10 children in an internal memo experts say lacks evidence
The director of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine division told agency staff in a memo that an internal review found that at least 10 children died “after and because of receiving” the Covid vaccine.
The 3,000-word memo, obtained by NBC News, claims that agency staff determined that “no fewer than 10” of 96 child deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, between 2021 and 2024 were “related” to Covid vaccination.
Vaccine experts said the memo was irresponsible and omits key details about how officials arrived at the conclusion because it did not include the children’s ages or medical histories, timelines or documentation for the deaths referenced and does not identify the manufacturer of the vaccine. The FDA’s findings have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
‘Meet the Press’
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are “not serious people” in response to their comments about a video Kelly and several fellow Democrats made this month urging military and intelligence personnel to “refuse illegal orders.”
“This president thinks he can bully and intimidate people, and he is not going to, he’s not going to stop me from speaking out and holding him accountable for the things that he does that are wrong and unlawful,” Kelly told moderator Kristen Welker.
Officials at the Defense Department this month said they were launching an investigation into Kelly after Trump accused him and several other lawmakers of “seditious behavior,” a charge that the president said could be “punishable by death.” Trump later walked back his comments.
Still, Kelly said that the video was about the future, not referencing any potential illegal orders that may have already been given.
“We’re concerned because of this president, with this secretary of defense, we could have a significant problem. So this was a simple message, ‘Follow the law,’ and it was looking forward,” Kelly said.
Politics in brief
- Boat strike oversight: Both the House and the Senate have started inquiries into a reported second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September that killed the survivors of an initial strike. Meanwhile, Trump said that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered “closed.”
- Noem denies defying order: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said deportation operations are her decision and denied defying a court order to halt deportation flights to El Salvador this year, attacking “radical decisions” from “activist judges.”
- Tricky Dick’s comeback? Some of the most influential right-wing figures insist that Watergate was actually an underhanded scheme by the “deep state” to take down Richard Nixon because he was a popular Republican president.
- More university settlements: Northwestern University agreed to pay $75 million in a deal with the Trump administration to end a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding.
Ukrainian soldiers see Trump plan as capitulation, even as they dream of peace
From his position on the eastern front lines, the original peace plan backed by President Donald Trump looked more like a proposal for Volodymyr Rzhavskyi’s surrender.
“It’s not a plan. It’s a real capitulation. There is nothing to discuss here,” said Rzhavskyi, a senior sergeant serving near Pokrovsk, a supply hub under intense pressure from Russian forces for some 18 months.
While Ukrainian officials fought for changes to the 28-point plan that emerged last week, NBC News spoke with soldiers in the country’s embattled military who expressed frustration at the idea Moscow would be handed its hard-line demands but also hope that they might soon be able to return to their lives.
- Where talks stand: Top U.S. officials and a Ukrainian delegation had a “very productive” meeting in Florida on Sunday, though “much work remains” to end the war, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Lane Kiffin leaves Ole Miss on brink of its first playoff appearance to take LSU job
College football’s strangest saga of the season is finally over.
Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin announced he will take the same job with the LSU Tigers, leaving the seventh-ranked team in the nation for its conference rival.
“After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” Kiffin wrote in a social media post.
The Tigers job became available after the school fired Brian Kelly in October. Kiffin immediately became heavily rumored to take over, despite the Rebels being in the midst of reaching the College Football Playoff for the first time.
- ‘Sunday Night Football’: In an already trying season for the Washington Commanders, their next challenge comes in the form of the 9-2 Denver Broncos. NBC News is covering all the action.
- Thieves eye draft picks: Identity thieves have in recent years narrowed in on a particularly lucrative target: athletes on the verge of going pro.
- MLS Cup final set: Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami will face Thomas Müller and the Vancouver Whitecaps in next weekend’s championship match.
Notable quote
My best friend’s mom died unexpectedly, everyone was in shock and sobbing, and I couldn’t cry at all. I just felt nothing.
Liana Shatova, a business development manager who wanted to go off antidepressants after 18 months
Antidepressants, primarily selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are some of the most widely prescribed medications in the United States, taken by tens of millions of adults. But now a “deprescribing” movement is building up in the psychiatry field, aimed at helping patients reduce or stop their medications when no longer considered necessary.
In case you missed it
- British playwright Tom Stoppard, a playful, probing dramatist who won an Academy Award for the screenplay for 1998’s “Shakespeare In Love,” died at 88.
- Four people were killed and 10 others were hospitalized following a shooting at a California banquet hall where a family was hosting a celebration, authorities said.
- Despite wider economic uncertainty, U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online to snag holiday deals on Black Friday, according to Adobe Analytics.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submitted a request for a formal pardon amid a yearslong corruption trial, just weeks after President Donald Trump said he should be pardoned.
- Several protesters were arrested in New York City after they blocked streets and exits in an apparent attempt to prevent federal agents from carrying out an immigration raid, according to police and video footage from the scene.
- A 45-car pileup in Indiana and a Delta jet skidding off the runway in Iowa were among the travel disasters stemming from a powerful winter storm on one of the biggest travel days of the year.
