stay right there, more news on the way. can former president trump stay on the tw2024 ballot? no criminal charges for president biden after a special counsel investigation found the president willfully retained classified documents

the questions about the president's memory and how we look it a potential jury bud light raise raises a gl middle america middle america. at top teams in the nfl prepare to face off, the top players are getting their nods before kickoff, all eyes will be on a private plane over the pacific. taylor swift attempts to live up to merher last name, but can she make it to the big game? "early today" starts right now good friday morning to you i'm frances rivera we begin in dek .c. where our nation's top court will make a decision that could impact the election as nbc's alice barr reports,

justices seem skeptical. >> reporter: tasked with resolving a monumental political dispute, u.s. supreme court justicesappeared skeptical of colorado supreme court decision barring former president trump from the republican primary pl ballot on grounds he engaged in insurrection in trying to overturn the 2020 election, culminating on the january 6 capital attack >> for the first time in history, the attack was incited by a sitting president of the united states to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power >> reporter: the trump legal team argues he did not participate in the storming of the capitol and that it did not qualify as an attempt to overthrow the government >> this was a riot it was not an insurrection the events were shameful, criminal, violent, all those thing, but it did not qualify as insurrection >> reporter: the justices questioned whether congress should enact a national standard before states can invoke a

version of the 14th amendment which was enacted after the civil war to prevent people who engaged in insurrection from holding office, and whether that provision even includes the president. both conservative and liberal justices voiced concerns about allowing individual states to decide who is an insurrectionist. >> a goodley number of states will say, whoever the democratic candidate is, you're off the ballot and others, for the republican candidate, you're off the ballot >> i think that the question that you have to confront is why a single state should decide who gets to decide who gets to be president of the united states >> reporter: former president trump weighing in after listening to the arguments. >> it's unfortunate that we have to go through a thing like that. i consider it to be more election interference. >> reporter: a consequential case with the presidential election season already under way. in washington, alice barr, nbc news overnight, donald trump did

score another victory in the race for the white house nbc news projects that he easily won the nevada caucuses, claiming all 26 of the state's delegates. he did not have much competition in this contest. the only major challenger left in the primary race, nikki haley, did not register for the caucuses the two will face off again when haley's home state of south carolina holidayds its primary february 24th. the special counsel investigating mr. biden's handling of classified documents cleared the president of any charges but does question the president's memory here's gabe gutierrez. >> reporter: the long-awaited report by special counsel robert hur concludes that no criminal charges against president biden are warranted. but, the investigation uncovered evidence that president biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a

private citizen, including marked classified documents about afghanistan and notebooks with sensitive intelligence sources and methods which he shared with a ghostwriter. the report says that posed serious risk to national security and, at a time when polls show most americans have concerns about the 81-year-old president's mental and physical health, the special counsel's report offers scathing details of what it calls diminished faculties and faulty memory, writing if charged, mr. brooid will likely present himself to the jury as he did during our interview as a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. it would be difficult to convince a jury they should convict him. according to the report, mr. biden did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended on forgetting on the second interview when his term began. he did not remember even within several years when his son beau died >> how in the hell dar daras

that >> reporter: later in the press conference, president biden referring to the president of egypt as the president of mexico >> as you know, initially, the president of mexico, el sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in. >> re >> the extraordinary circumstances require the appointment of a special counsel. >> reporter: merrick garland appointed the special counsel in january last year after classified documents were discovered at one of his former offices on november 2nd, 2022. he waited until after the midterm elections to tell the public and it includes these photos of where prosecutors say more documents were improperly stored near a collapsed dog crate in the delaware garage.

a separate special counsel investigated former president trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents at his mar-a-lago estate. some documents found inside a bathroom mr. trump was charged with 40 criminal counts to which he's pleaded not guilty the former president is calling the lack of charges in the hur report a two-tiered system of justice, but the report argues the two cases are different. and that while mr. trump was given multiple chances to return classified documents he allegedly did the opposite and enlisted others to help destroy evidence in contrast, the report says mr. biden alerted authorities. the president says he cooperated completely >> our thanks to gabe for that report ukrainian president zelenskyy has dismissed his top general at a crucial moment in the war with russia. valerii zaluzhnyi acknowledged his ouster saying a decision has been made about the need to change approaches and strategy it follows months of reported

tensions between the two men let's go live to claudio lavanga. do we know why zaluzhnyi was replaced >> reporter: good morning, frances. if you read what zaluzhnyi and president zelenskyy said about this decision, you would think it's amicable and consensual he said on his telegram account that urgent changes were needed. he thanks the general for his concern and as you mention ed, this follows months of reported tensions between the two, especially after zaluzhnyi gave an interview to the economist meg m magazine saying the war was at a stalemate, especially after the unsuccessful counter offensive last year. meanwhile, across the border, president putin gave an interview to tucker carlson, the former fox news anchor he asked whether he was planning

to expand russia's borders as feared let's take a listen. >> can you imagine a scenario where you sent russian trips to poland [speaking in a global language >> translator: i mean, inone cae if poland attacks russia why? because we have no interest in poland, latvia or anywhere else. why would we do that we have no interest. it's just threat mongering >> reporter: tucker also asked whether he was willing to release evan gershkovich to him. he is the wall street journal journalist who has been in russia for about a year. now also he asked him about ukraine, as you mentioned, and putin replied that he was willing to negotiate with ukraine but accused ukraine of being a satellite of the u.s., something that carlson appeared to agree, not unsurprising

because carlson has always been a vocal critic of ukraine. >> claudio, thanks for the break down we have a tragic update on the marines that have been killed here. the military helicopter crash in southern california. all five marines are now confirmed dead, and the rescue effort has switched to a recovery mission so far only one victim has been identified the mother of alec langen said we will miss him dearly. the aircraft was flying from an air force base in nevada to miramar, california when it crashed in a ploimoichbtsous ara jetblue saying two planes collided in de-icing lanes passengers were on board both. visible damage can be seen on one of the planes. the flights were canceled and the planes taken out of service.

the groundhog may have been on to something here michelle grossman has a look at the spring-like temperatures on the way for some of us good morning >> good morning, frances happy friday, and it is looking good in terms of the temperatures sunshine for a lot of the eastern half of the nation temperatures 10, even 30 degrees above what is typical for this time of year, into the 60s and 70s in some spots. a big-time warmup today and temperature also start to peak before we see realistic numbers by sunday. take a look at these numbers 70 in little rock. 17 degrees above normal. into the 60s in cleveland. 61 in d.c. that's 16 degrees above average. and another warm day tomorrow, 70s in richmond. 62 in philadelphia boston, you're going to be 18 degrees above normal, 55 and 64 in louisville. and they're also watching the chance for heavy rain and showers extending from portions of texas to the tennessee valley, also parts of the interior parts of the northeast

into new england snow falling in the rockies. and by sunday more rain falling in portions of the southern plains on the backside of that system in portions of oklahoma any spo. 59 in philadelphia 60s in the ohio valley and warm throughout portions of the southern plains. 79 in corpus christi, 80 degrees in brownsville that's your spring-like friday forecast, frances. >> i cannot wait to enjoy it, just in time for the weekend the ravens' star quarterback flies into the history books but first swift travels. will the biggest name off the field be able to make it in time for the super bowl e it in time for the super bowl? rmacist. ♪♪ this is not just a refill.

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she said let's get out of this town. yeah, taylor swift about to embark on a whirlwind travel weekend to get from tokyo to las vegas. but before swift grabs her passport and plane, japan gets two more nights of eras tour mania. here's janis mackey frayer >> reporter: few topics can get people talking quite like taylor swift. the singer is kicking off her asia tour with four sold-out shows in tokyo but all the buzz is about what comes after. can music's biggest star make it to football's biggest game in time now swift has not publicly confirmed she will even attend the super bowl to cheer on her boyfriend, travis kelce, as the kansas chiefs take on the san francisco 49ers for the championship the burning question, is it even possible to make it from tokyo to las vegas before kickoff if the last concert is on saturday night. now the internet has been on fire with flight trackers and time zone calculators.

even japan's embassy in washington has been trying tie sure swifties that it will all be okay. they issued a tongue-in-cheek statement saying they should quote shake it off and be quote, fearless meanwhile, fans in tokyo are kpaut up in taylor mania there are long lines for merchandise. fans wearing glitter, tassels, sharing homemade bracelets all the hall mashemarks of the tour every show sold out. there no dates planned for here in china taylor swift of course fresh mof making history with her fourth win at the gram ease jagrammys. there is a full 17 hours ahead of vegas so it's more than feasible for taylor swift to land there before dawn on game day.

though private jet parking these days is apparently tricky. >> janice, thank you i think she knows some people, right? she might be boarding with her costume like she has in the past still to come t's not a super bowl ring, but it might be the next best thing. find out who took home prestigious awards, right after this tigious awards, right after this. to give your teeth a dentist clean feeling. start with a round brush head. add power. and you've got oral-b. round cleans better by surrounding each tooth to remove 100% more plaque. for a superior clean. oral-b. brush like a pro. ( ♪♪ ) feel the power of osteo bi-flex®. taken every day, it's clinically shown to improve joint comfort in 7 days, with significant improvement over time.

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now you might know me from those nfl ads that, where we told everyone that the 2023 nfl season is scripted you guys remember those ads, right? and you remember i said that i loved the ending well, i'm a lie, you know that was fake >> he kicked off festivities with a vegas flair at the nfl honors a pair of texans took home trophies for rookie of the year with c. j. stroud winning an offense, and edge rusher will anderson for defense it was a good flight to and cleveland brown.

among the team's three awards, joe flacco was named comeback player of the year after his late-season resurgence lided the browns to the playoffs cam cam cameron heyward gave a tribute to his father. and with his second in five years, lamar jackson became tt the 11th to win the top honor multiple times and the pro football hall of fame class of 2024 was announced. the first member of the texans to make his way to canton was included this year's class will be inducted in august turning to basketball and l.a. honoring a local legend the lakers unveiled a 19-foot bronze statue kcommemorating koe bryant it is modeled off the pose he

made walking off the court in 2006 the unveiling comes four years after bryant and his daughter gianna died in a helicopter crash. he spent his 20-year career with the lakers, winning two mvps and five nba championships when we come back, a frozen food warning after some people found rocks in this dinners. plus, win big at the olympics, and you get to take a piece of the paris landmark with you. e o the paris landmark with you. le ! - whoa! ♪ reality checkup ♪ there's toothpaste white, and there's crest 3dwhitestrips white. whitens like a $400 professional treatment. [pilot] prepare for non-stop smiles. crest. nature's bounty hair growth. clinically shown to help grow thicker, fuller hair with just one capsule a day of advanced hair complex. conquer hair thinning... ...and fall in love with your hair all over again. only from nature's bounty. wanna know a secret? more than just my armpits stink. that's why i use secret whole body deodorant... everywhere. 4 out of 5 gynecologists

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instead of culture in a new ad that will cost $14 million for 60 seconds it's an expensive gamble for a company needing a comeback bud light lost title of best-selling beer to modelo last year, which had been on its hiels for a bit, possibly ignited after a fire storm after a partnership with dylan mulvaney >> bud light sent me possibly the best gift ever >> reporter: many conservatives calling for a boycott. >> bud light [ bleep ] anheuser busch. >> reporter: the ceo saying after the mulvaney video that the company never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people, while mulvaney says she felt abandoned by bud light. >> for a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person at all.

>> reporter: they responded saying we remain committed to the proegs and partnerships we have over decades, including those in the lgbtq plus community, but it's a high profile example of the fine line that experts say is a challenge for many companies instead, they are going back to what they know best, comedy, like some of the ads you probably remember. >> dilly dilly >> bud light >> reporter: nostalgia, a big part of this playbook. with budweiser running a separate ad that brings back the famous clydesdales >> let's do it the old school way. let's go >> reporter: the bud light not fully staying away from controversy or the culture wars, partnering with shane gillsis, the nbc news reached out to anheuser

busch for a comment. they did not respond with bud light still down 30% from where it was last year around the super bowl, experts say the pivot is all about moving past last year's pr mess. >> they want to you think about the commercial they're going to run on sunday. if they can do that, you're going so tee see people feeling better about the bud light brand. >> if they can bring people together it will be at the super bowl enjoy the super bowl, thanks for watching "early today" for

♪♪ [ crowd chanting ] right now at 5:00, queue the excitement. the faithful ready for game day. niners fans waking up extra early this morning, showing up and showing out for their team ahead of super bowl lviii in las vegas. >> and the scene nearly set