breaking news overnight, iran state media confirms the death of the country's president and its foreign minister in a helicopter crash. we'll have a live report for the latest details and get expert analysis on the geopolitical implications.

also ahead, donald trump's hush money trial resumes today in new york city. we'll have a preview of what could be the final week in court. plus, we'll have some of the highlights from president biden's commencement speech at morehouse college where he attempted to thread the needle on several issues connected to his re-election campaign. ♪♪ good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this monday, may 20th. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day and week with us, and we will begin with significant breaking news. iran state media is reporting that the nation's president and foreign minister have died in a helicopter crash. search teams arrived at the site of what was originally called a hard landing, and they found no sign of life. according to a news outlet affiliated with the iranian

government, seven other officials were on board the aircraft at the time of the accident. the "associated press" cites iranian state tv is giving no immediate cause for the crash, although, weather could be a factor. the group was returning from an event near iran's border with azerbaijan when the helicopter went down. heavy fog prevented search and rescue-teams from finding the wreckage for hours. a hard-line conservative within the iranian political landscape, the president, raisi, has been iran's leader since 2021. joining us now, nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel live from europe. richard, tell us, what's the latest we know here about the cause of the crash and tell us a little bit more about the man who died. >> reporter: so what we know is from iranian state media that

there was this trip meeting with officials in azerbaijan in the border area. this is a mountainous area in northern iran covered in forests. there were, according to iranian state media, three helicopterers traveling together. one of them went down carrying the iranian president raisi and other officials. they initially said it was a hard landing. there was quite a bit of skepticism, however, when images of the area started to emerge, totally blanketed in fog. generally helicopter crashes don't end well, don't end with survivors in the mountains, in the forests with those kinds of conditions. then for the your night period in iran, there was quite a bit of silence. people were anticipating that iran was going to be making an announcement. the anchors of state television started wearing black. there was the presumption that

soon they would be announcing that he had died, and a relatively short while ago, because this is now about 167 hours or so since it happened, so quite a few hours passed before they made the announcement that they did not find survivors among the wreckage. it causes short-term problems for iran, but more importantly, it raises some serious succession issues about the iranian regime because president raisi was, as you mentioned, a hard-liner, but he was also very likely tapped to be the next supreme leedser in iran, and iran doesn't function -- iran is a theocracy. it's opinion in power since 1979. they threw out thousand ofts years of dynasties,

bureaucracies, and shaws. the second ayatollah is 85 years old and raisi was widely anticipated to replace him. a man who was in his 60s. who could have been lead eig ran in the ultimate position of power for the next two decades, and now he died in this helicopter crash. so they have two immediate problems. one, to replace the president. technically the vice president steps in and should hold new elections within the next 50 days, but the president is not the one who wields the power. the main decisions in the country are with the supreme leader, and he was being graumed to be the supreme leader, raising real questions about the future of rule in that country, could it expedite more power being -- could we start seeing

more power being wielded by the revolutionary guard as some analysts and intelligence officials believe we should watch this internal space. they to not expect to see any major changes in policy, that the basic positions of iran, which are three and have been fixed for the last several decades will not change, and those three core principles of iran being that israel should be replaced with palestine, that the united states should be driven out of the middle east, and the u.s.-led world order should be overturned and iran needs to make allies with whoever is on that page, including iran or maduro, or a host of others. so they do not expect those three basic principles of iran is going to change, but it does create a leadership crisis, which could potentially even threaten clerical rule at the expense of seeing a more

traditional manner with the military stepping in. >> the world is certainly watching what happens here. nbc news chief correspondent richard engelle. thank you. we'll see you again very shortly on "morning joe." we'll have complete coverage of iran's president's death here on msnbc and including here on "way too early." for now we want to turn to matters here at home. the trump hush money trial will resume today for what could be the final day of testimony. court's scheduled to begin early at 8:45 a.m. michael cohen is expected to return to the stand for a third days of cross-examination. they say it will be the final day of questioning him. the prosecution has already confirmed cohen is its final witness and will likely rest their case after his testimony is complete. they focused thursday's cross compassion on a key 2016 call

where cohen said he spoke directly to trump about the hush money payment to stormy dabbials. the lawyer pressed him, bringing up an exchange he had with trump's former bodyguard which seemed to be about a prank caller, not stormy daniels. cohen insisted he spoke about both things dae spite the short conversation, about a minute and a half. last week lawyers for the former president were still unsure whether trump would testify even though he's publicly said he would like to. they always said they may not call any other witnesses. judge merchan told them to be ready tomorrow if both sides rest. joining us now, a former district attorney in machblts thank you for being with us this

morning. so first let's start here. if you were prosecuting this case, would you redirect michael cohen once the defense was done with him? would the effort here to be to clear up some of the story after cross-examination, or just let it be? >> i would redirect only because of what happened on thursday about that phone call that he testified on my direct examination that he made and had a conversation with donald trump about stormy daniels, and on cross-examination, the jury is left with that he lied, that he really didn't talk about stormy daniels. he was talking about this 14-year-old who was doing crank calls. now, he either was mistaken, which is probably what happened, or hi was untruthful. so if i'm the prosecutor and i believe it's mistaken, i want the jury to know he was mistaken. you know, he spoke to -- he, meaning mr. cohen, multiple times to donald trump.

it is likely he is mistake p. i wouldn't spend a lot of time with him because the defense would do redirect or recross. the prosecutors would have proven beyond a reasonable doubt. so i expect they will today, the prosecutors say, the people rest. >> so, catherine, let's talk about the biggest question, the idea of trump taking the stand. he said he'd like to. what do you think? do you think he'll do so? >> no, one, i would tell him not to do so if i was his attorney. two, i don't believe he will. most defendants do not testify.

this defendant won't. it would be ridiculous if he did. it would be a gift to the prosecution. they also should not call defense witnesses. once they call defense witnessesing its opens the door for the prosecution to talk about the defense witnesses. if the defendant doesn't testify and the defense doesn't call witnesses, the prosecutors can't talk about it at all. if they call witnesses, the prosecution can say, look at the witnesses they called. they were incredible. they probably thought about it over the weekend and won't call witnesses. we'll see. if they don't, there will be closing arguments today starting with the defense and ending with the prosecution. >> thank you for joining us. we'll talk to you again soon. still ahead here on "way too early," president joe biden delivers the commencement

address at morehouse college. we'll take a look at what he had to say there. plus, former president trump makes a pitch to gun owners at a massive nra event. those stories and the helicopter crash and a check on sports and weather when "way too early" returns. s and weather when "way too early" returns. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it.

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crisis and showing the power you can change the world. also, you know, some of you ask, what is democracy. we can't stop wars that break out and stop our hearts in a democracy. we break and dissent about america's role in the world. i want to say this very clearly. i support peaceful nonviolent protests. your voices should be heard, and

i promise you i hear them. >> president joe biden delivered the commencement address yesterday at morehouse college. this was his most direct engagement yet with college students since the start of the israel/hamas war. a few protests -- few students did protest the speech by turning their backs to the stage, but they were isolated incidents and no irinterruptions. the president told graduates at the historic black school he was still working toward a cease-fire with the war between israel and gaza. and he talked about the extreme forces that threaten the soul of the nation. >> i never thought i would be a president at a time when there's a national effort to ban books

to a race history. they don't see you in the future of america, but they're wrong. to me, we make history, not erase it. we know blake history is american history. biden has made a read effort in trying to shore u up support in recent days. meanwhile donald trump on the same topic yet again is claiming he's the best president for black americans, telling a crowd at an mra conference he's done more for the black dmuntd than abraham lincoln. lincoln, of course, abolished slavery. >> likewise we're doing record numbers with the african voters they're tired of what's happening to them, and, honestly, there's been no president since abraham lincoln and perhaps in a way including president lincoln, but there's

been no president since abraham lincoln that's done more for the black individual in this country than president donald j.trump, nobody, not even close. >> fact-check, not true. still ahead here w we'll turn to sports and bring you the latest playoff action in both the nhl and nba, in a weekend filled with game seven drama, including the defending champion denver nuggets fighting to stay alive in their push for repeat. plus, we'll show you if the new york knicks put an end to the pacers' dream season. all that and a check on the forecast when we come right back. forecast when we come right back mike is still living in the red. with a very high risk of another heart attack or stroke. he doesn't know with his risk factors his ldl-c (bad cholesterol) is still too high -

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i do have to come up with a rebound if they miss. what will kill you will be an offensive rebound here. finally -- oh, my goodness. karl-anthony towns! >> that putback dunk from karl-anthony towns seemed to take the fight out of o the denver nuggets in a minute as the minnesota timberwolves closed out the biggest halftime comeback in game seven history. towns and jaden mcdaniels each scoreded 23 points. anthony edwards took off with a slow start and finished with 16, mostly in the second half, as the t'wolves will eliminate the champions the denver nuggets on the road last night. the wolves will advance. minnesota will host the dallas

mavericks on game one on wednesday night. meanwhile the magic ran out for the new york knicks against the indiana pacers yesterday afternoon. already decimated by injuries, stargardt jalen brunson added one more as he exited the second half with a broke about left hand. meanwhile the pacers simply could. miss, and they set an nba record by shooting over 60% from the field and ended up rolling at msg, beating the next 30 and they advance to the eastern conference finding for the first time. indiana will play the celtics in boston tomorrow night. the canucks will host the edmonton oilers in game seven with the winner to face the dallas stars in the western conference finals. now to pro golf in yesterday's thrilling finish at the pga championship in

kentucky. >> this is the moment you dream of as a kid. you've practiced it as a kid thousands and thousands of times so you're ready for this very occasion, to win it all. >> victory at valhalla. >> xander schauffele's first major title came down to that birdie putt and he made it. schauffele, shooting a 6 under 65 in the file round to finish with a 72-hole, total of 21 under. he defeated liv golf captain bryson dechambeau by one strike. it marks the lowest score to par and the lowest 72-hole score in a major tournament. schauffele is the first golfer since phil mickelson in 2005 to win the pga by one shot with a

birdie in the hole. meanwhile world number one scotty chef ber posted 65 yesterday, his best score and finished the tour tied for eighth. his top ten finish surpassed his top ten finish in his past 13 major starts. following his arrest outside valhalla golf club on friday morning he posted a 566, but he had a tough saturday. he was two over 73 in the third round. probably saturday morning it really hit me what happened. friday i didn't eat. for somebody who's a big eater, that was a strange feeling. obviously my body was a bit off with what happened in the morning. like i said, i did my best to leave that behind me and do what i love. >> he was charged and booked for assaulting a accomplish who claimed he was dragged by

schaeffler's suv when he was stopped outside of the course on friday morning. louisville mayor admitted they did not have body camera footage. schauffele has been telling nbc news there have been discussions about the charges being dropped. he's scheduled for a virtual arraignment scheduled for tomorrow morning. time now for the weather. let's go to michelle grossman with a monday morning forecast. how does it look? >> it looks a lot like last week. we're looking at severe weather throughout the week, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday. we're looking at millions under the threat for severe storms. we're looking at supreme heat from portions of the southwest all the way to the northeast. we're looking at ten states that could break records. and back behind this, we're talking spring snow. so as far as that severe weather goes, we've been watching storms all night long into the rp early

morning hours. you can see this heavy rain falling. the reds, orngs, yellows. the purpose purpose is where you could see hail as we go throughout this morning. millions where you see the orange platt. the yellow portions, into texas as well or oklahoma. then as we look toward tuesday, it gross to 43 million. southern plains into the great lakes, we're looking for a chance of large hail and severe tornados. so it does continue through thursday of this week. >> we'll keep an eye on that. thank you as always. next here on "way too early," we'll return to our top story of the morning with more on the death of iran's president and foreign minister. what it means for the country during a tumult yult moment

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welcome back to "way too early." it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west on this monday morning. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. we want to return to our top story. iranian state tv is warning the president and foreign minister both have been killed in a helicopter crash. it happened in a foggy region in the mountainous northwest region of iran. there were nine people onboard at the time leaving no

survivors. the country's cabinet has appointed a new foreign minister. joining us now, nbc news chief international correspondent keir simmons. also with us, retired cia officer marc polymeropoulos. he's an nbc news and security and intelligence analyst. marc, let's talk about you. what do we know about the crash and please talk about the implications of these deaths? >> well, in terms of the cause, we did hear from the iranians early on initially. the iranian interior minister was saying there was a hard landing last night due to fog. certainly from the pictures you can see there's a lots of fog in that region, that it is mountainous, that those are the pictures of the rescue effort.

the actual rescue itself took hours, hampered by those conditions. that is going to be the primary focus, the, if you like, the chief suspect in terms of what the cause of this crash might be. and then in terms of the implications, well, listen, this is a region in the middle eeftd known for conspiracy theories, known for finger pointing. there will be that aspect to it. in fact, the senate majority leader overnight racing to indicate his information from yourself intelligence, saying that there is no nefarious involvement by one of iran's enemies and what happened this. what we have seen is messages of condolences from countries that consider themselves partners of iran, those on the fence, that

even some countries, frankly, do not. so president putin striking raisi as a very, very good politician. president xi in china talking about him as a good friend. and other countries like turkey, many in the middle east who have relations with iran, in the same reen. much shorter messages from the europeans, but western capitals will be watching right now because the question really is going to be how much instability does this bring to iran at a time in this region. president raisi was talked about as a possible successful to the supreme leader. he is 85. who will that person be now? we know as you mentioned who the replacement is in the immediate term, but in the long term, what this means for iran and,

therefore, what it means for this region and this world. that is a larger question. >> nbc's keir simmons live from the gulf region. thank you so much. we'll see you again on "morning joe" in just a bit. this comes -- this crash comes as a really fraught moment and just a few weeks after a real exchange of hostilities between iran and israel. certainly there's a lot of speculation that, you know, iran would point fingers at us real for what happened here. at least at this point that has. occurred. talk a little more about how dangerous and delicate all this is. >> good morning, jon. mondays on wpt weather means a lot occurring and lots to talk about. the intelligence will be asked a simple question, does this matter in terms of iran foreign policy. remember, iran foreign policy has been against u.s. personal

interest including proxies helping to kill americans. the bottom line is raisi, who it would sound like had a very important role as president. he actually was not commander in chief. that was khamenei. they don't even report to the iranian president. it's status quo. it's going to continue. that's going to be the big question. on the other hand, in terms of domestically, this will be interesting. i think this is where the analysts will take a very close look. there will be an election within 50 days. there will be some kind of jockeying. bottom line, i think what would be critical, certainly not any kind of expression of condolences but for the iranian people who have suffered under ricy and his brutal crackdown over a number of year ts.

this comes at a time there's a war in rafah and a real invasion of rafah could happen more or less at any time, jake sullivan in the region now. give us a sense of how it may atact things this. >> to change. . that's going to be something that, of course, the intelligence community will be monitoring. but i don't think they're going to challenge anything. iran is still an adversary, someone to be attended with. next up here, we'll go live to cnbc for an early look on what's driving wall street after a week that ended high, the dow clearing 40,000. we'll be right back with that. w clearing 40,000. we'll be right back with that.

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ja time now for business. for that list's bring in arabile gumede from london. dow is up after closing at 40,000 for the first time ever on friday. how long should we expect this market rally to last? >> yeah, that's a big question actually. that's a very good question. when you speak to markets par it is paunlts, they certainly think the uptick will continue. one, you could get the momentum trade to push further on. that's why you're seeing positivity. plus, the impetus could come with the fed's speaking at lower states. that will detail the kind of sentiment that the fed shared in their last meeting and that will give a clearer picture on what their thinking was. plus we have a few speakers coming out as well, so any sentiment could also change

things. this week we have earnings out of nvidia. artificial intelligence will certainly be top of the interesting topics to focus on this week. >> cnbc's arabile gumede. short segment. we'll talk live tomorrow. next up, dew point vows to roll back gun restrictions if elect. we'll play back his comments at the nra when we come right back. . for maximum air flow. so, i breathe better. and we both sleep better. and stay married. ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term

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welcome back. donald trump says he'll roll back national gun laws passed by the biden administration if he were to retalk the white house in january. speaking at the nra's annual convention, which was held saturday in dallas, trump vowed to kill the dreams of, quote, radical gun grabbers. take a look. >> we will roll back every biden attempt on the attack of the

first amendment. it's fast and furious. we'll do that as quickly as biden is out of the white house. gun grabbers will run into a very, very powerful brick wall. the dreams of tanging away your god-givingen rights will die when the polls close on november 5th 20rks 24. those dreams that they have will be dead. that i will be dead dreams. >> also in that speech, trump once again claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him and suggested if elected in november, it would actually be his third term in office. >> fdr, 16 years. almost 16 years. he was full term. i don't know. are we going to be considered three term or two term, what do you think? are we three-term or two-term? >> o'tiemts trump suggested he will run again in 2028. joining us now of the fast

politics podcast, molly jones fast. thank you for being here this morning. it's a false election claim yet again. that comes with the tyer wf donald trump. it's interesting he chose to go to the nra, a company that's weaker but still carries cachet. give us an assessment of what you heard this week on the rare campaign trail? >> we were just talking about this on a break. the nra is not as powerful as it once was, but it does vice signaling, which is what he so wants to do, i'm your gun president. i do these things which are sort of considered to be very base. the think the fact that he's going to stay for a third term, he's telling us what he's going to do when he gets in office. he's going to shred the

constitution. i do love that he compares himself to fdr. that was a bit of a stretch. >> it was a banner day. >> yes. right. just like lincoln. >> let's turn to president biden. earlier we played some of his speech to morehouse college. there was a lot of anxiety as to how this would go. it was his first commencement speech since the gaza war and the first since the protests on college campuses a few weeks back. a handful of students respectfully protested and there were fewer protests than expected that i thought it went really well. biden knows they need to reach out to black voters. he said, which i thought was great, you have every right to protest and they did and were respectful and peaceful. look, you have a guy who says

you have every right to peaceful protest or you have this other guy about donald trump who jokes about locking them up, roughing them up, this is a binary choice. biden did a good job. he said he wants the war to end right away, which i think all of us do. he's doing the hard work to win hearts and minds. >> of course, the middle east more unstable following the president's death yesterday. so, molly, this comes as you say this comes as the president focused black voters. in this speech yesterday it's about black voters and young voters. these are two groups he's really struggling with. do you see him doing enough at this moment in the race? >> we're at 168 days until the election, so he has time. so he's focused.

look, this is a very focused campaign. thisis like one of these boring campaigns where they go to pennsylvania for three days in a row and michigan for three days in a row. they're very organized. they have money. they're opening field offices. they're doing this my knew shah which you do at a campaign. he's sitting there while his former fixer testifies on him. >> cohen pack on the stand today. we may have a verdict by week's end. >> yeah. a verdict by week's end. >> yeah.

anyone who knows doesn't really know. definitively, the ways it could break through will almost incalculatable, but i do think some of this is breaking through to local tv news like the 6:00 p.m. news and a lot of o people watch that and there's sort of a lot of breakthrough. the answer is i don't think we'll know. >> no one can look at the issues. if there is a conviction, does that turn off. tion, does that turn off. down the road. up next here. up next, can donald trump put minnesota in play? john allen joins us with reporting on why they haven't voted for a republican president since richard nixon. the latest on iran, where

the country's president and minister was killed in a helicopter crash. what it means in the country amid real regional turmoil. plus, live reporting from outside the courtroom in lower manhattan where hours from now, michael cohen is set to return to the witness stand in trump's hush money kriel. acting secretary after labor julie su will be a guest. "morning joe" just a few moments away. ng joe" just a few moments away listen to your heart. talk to your doctor about repatha. repatha plus a statin lowers ldl-c (bad cholesterol) by 63%, and drops the risk of having a heart attack. do not take repatha if you are allergic to it. repatha can cause serious allergic reactions. signs include trouble breathing or swallowing or swelling of the face. most common side effects include runny nose, sore throat, common cold symptoms, flu or flu-like symptoms, back pain, high blood sugar, and redness, pain, or bruising at the injection site. talk to your doctor about repatha. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools, like dynamic charting and risk-reward analysis, help make trading feel effortless.

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welcome back. at a campaign rally in minnesota on friday, donald trump had some trouble with his podium. >> terrible. but americans are not struggling. you know, this is the worst platform. who put this stage up? this is the worst -- the fricken place is falling down. >> lost his balance, caught himself, and blamed bad contract work. it is a setup of a product he'd refuse to foot the bill for. no kidding. the biden campaign called trump

out for something he mocks the current president for. quote, "a feeble trump nearly falls down on stage after he leans on his podium too hard and then goes on an angry rant calling his event workers crappy." it did seem the platform was a little suspect. joining us now, jonathan allen, politics reporter. we'll set the podium aside, but let's talk about where the podium was, minnesota. which is interesting. it is a state, as notd before the break, hasn't gone republican in a long time. trump lost it twice. to be fair, relatively close last time around. it shares demographics with the blue wall states he did win back in 2016. talk to us about the state of play in minnesota. >> yeah, this is kind of been the white wail for trump. he came up a few points short last time around. looked at minnesota again, wanted to campaign there. i think he feels like when he goes to minnesota, he gets a pretty good reception.

ended up losing by seven points there last time. of course, politics aren't static. each election is different, and he is spending time there. part of the reason is he has internal polling which shows him running pretty close, neck and neck, with biden there. if you expand it out to multiple candidates, also a very close race, according to the trump internal polling. there's not a lot of public polling in minnesota, but this is why you're seeing trump go there. and i should note, the biden campaign, when trump came in there last week, they brought out some of their heavy surrogates, some of their big-time surrogates. they brought in the governor, waltz, and senator schmidt to counter what trump is doing. they say they don't have a problem, they'll win minnesota, and at the same time, it is clear they're trying not to take it for granted. >> it is all about getting the 270 electoral college votes and trump trying to build more pathways to it. the states he's appearing to try to flip red, minnesota and

virginia. there is skepticism whether he can do that. for president biden, florida, a long shot, but north carolina looms as one that a lot of dems think could really be in play this time around, particularly because of the problematic gop gubernatorial candidate. looking at the map, who has more pathways to winning? >> it is definitely that there are more pathways for donald trump to win. that doesn't mean he is more likely to win. that is to say, there are more states that are available to him that were close last time that could be flipped to try to get to the 270 electoral votes. the reason for that, of course, is that joe biden won those states last time. had donald trump won re-election and won, you know, arizona and georgia and michigan and wisconsin by small amounts, it'd be the democrats that have more pathways. simply a function of who won a bunch of states by a close margin last time, but there are more routes for donald trump to get there. that doesn't necessarily mean he

has a better chance of winning. the democrats still have, if you look at michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, nebraska's second congressional district, they have a pretty, you know, solid path there, plus some of the others. you know, again, more pathways for trump, but not necessarily meaning he'll win. >> take us deeper into the numbers. polls show president biden's struggles with young voters, black voters, latino voters, where he is hemorrhaging support. also state-specific polls that show americans aren't blaming donald trump necessarily for overturning roe v. wade. i know some democrats really angry about that in texts i got in the last 24 hours or so. where do you think things stand right now on the key, under the hood issues? >> it's a close race, and i think on these issues, a lot of voters haven't tuned in yet. it is hard to imagine any voter who spent any time with the issue or just watched television the last couple of years not knowing why re versus wade was

overturned, not knowing who appointed the supreme court justices and who had that as a litmus test, whether they'd overturn roe. some polls show some are unaware of that, and democrats need a better way to communicate. >> biden's fear of the case, as you said, americans simply not paying attention yet. they agree to the early debate to force americans to pay attention, some say, and realize they might be staring at four more years of donald trump. jonathan allen, thank you, as always. we appreciate it. thanks to all of you for get ing up "way too early" with us on this monday morning. a jam-packed "morning joe" starts right now. president biden and president trump have agreed to two debates this summer. for a preview of the debates, take a bottle of ambien and adderall at the same time. biden posted a video challenging trump saying, "make my day, pal." trump responded, "let's get

ready to