entered a whole new league if this goes forward, in terms of democrats really going and saying -- one thing to vote nens a nominee. we've seen that in the past and i understand that. but we've now gone from the evolution of agreeing that there are certain people who has the right as long as they are qualified. we've seen that in the past. john roberts had 79 votes. when you see that go in one direction versus now, that there will literally be the first filibuster of a qualified judge, we have come a long way. i think democrats are setting a very dangerous precedent when it comes to how they want to do this. because this isn't about voting against somebody or having an issue with them. it is trying to stop using the filibuster for something it was never intended for. never has it been the >> what is president trump doing

behind the scenes to make sure that judge gorsuch is confirmed by the senate and what message does he have on capitol hill for the filibuster? >> it's four democrats that are now supporting, saying they're doing to vote against the filibuster. i think we feel good about that level of support. i think we have done a very good job making sure that we have the republican majority support that we need to to pass it. it's an internal question for senators to determine how they want to do it. when leader mcconnell said friday, judge gorsuch will be voted as the next supreme court justice. >> and friday, a major meeting with the president of china. his eyes will be on washington. will he be making phone calls thursday night -- >> we look forward to headed to florida thursday to engage in bilateral meetings with the president and his team from china. obviously that will continue on

a friday morning. we'll see how friday evolves. again, i don't think there's any question right now according to leader mcconnell and others that we'll have an associate justice of the supreme court ready to go. it's a question of how it happens. zeke? >> a couple questions about briefing earlier. you mentioned the counsel. was there a donation to a nonprofit? >> there was a list of government entities that can accept donations. ironically it's not as easy to give money to the government as you'd think. except for the irs. and then i don't think you're giving. my point is, he chose the

national parks service. it's a decision he made based on -- his counsel presented him with several options. as secretary pointed out, there was great work being done there needed to do restore our great battle grounds and wanted to help. >> the president going to mar-a-largo again in florida. there's not federal funds for the travel to those plays. or to reimburse those local government out of his own pocket, this is a president wealthier than what we've seen in modern times. is that something the president is caring or -- >> there's a few things. number 1, the requests to go to mar-a-largo is something that the chinese -- that was negotiated with the chinese. this is a high level visit that

really has a huge impact on our economic and national security. secondly, the president has an opportunity as all presidents -- president bush went to crawford. president obama went to hawaii. there's a security aspect. the secret service determines when the family and the president travels. that's not dictated by the president of the united states. third, i'd know, this is a day that the president just donated a significant amount of money of his salary to the federal government. so respectfully, it's -- at what point does he dough enough? he just gave a sizable donation -- >> it's small -- >> that's now how we judge. to say -- he's not taking a salary. he walked a way from a lot. let's -- at some point he's done

quite a bit in terms of making a donation. john? >> sean, back to susan rice. the fact that it's the former national security advisor associated with the trump campaign. that puts it squarely in the white house. when you look at that, combine it with the nec rules at the end of the obama administration to more broadly share intelligence, does this white house look at what she allegedly requested as a national security issue or political issue? >> well, i'm not -- that's a nice back door into a line of questioning. until we -- until there's a finding of that, i don't want to get to a motive. me getting to the motive assumes certain things in fact that we're not ready to get into. there's been enough public

discussion and reporting that i'm not going to comment on this any further until those committees have come to a conclusion of that sort. so we're not going to start going down and guessing the motives of something that is not assume in fact yet. i think it's interesting, as i mentioned earlier, the level or lack thereof of interest in this subject versus what has been commented on previously in terms of alleged people involved and processes. so i think -- margaret. >> you mentioned that jared kushner has a team working with him. can you help us understand what is in the portfolio and who is on the team? >> yeah. he announced the office of american innovation today. we named a bunch of those folks part of that team. he looks at various aspects of government. he works with different people in the white house that oversee different parts of that portfolio. part of the team doing the middle east is one thing.

you have grayson greenblatt travelling to the middle east. there's chris liddell part of the team. the office of american innovation that he discussed with opioid use and others. so there's a team depending on the subject that is working with him and he's providing oversight and direction. >> so he's overseeing teams handling these issues? mexico, canada, iraq, saudis -- >> on iraq? don't go too far there. he was invited by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff as was the assistant to the president of homeland security to see what's being down there first hand. i don't think that's translated to he's overseeing iraq is an accurate assessment. he was invited to see something by the joint chairman of the chiefs of staff and he's doing it. >> i appreciate how he's in a unique position and trusted by the president. there's people that can look at

the situation and say, the white house isn't meant to be run as a family business. there's experienced diplomats that have decades of experience on the ground. >> you just -- you just said -- can you be clear? you said with years of linguistic experiences. what situation are you referring to? >> partly what i was asking, exactly what is in the portfolio. it's our understanding that mr. kushner is involved with mexico, saudi arabia, canada. involved with a number of issues, china. >> he's made clear initially during the transition, he played a key role in helping to facilitate a lot of those. now the state department is running, he's pushing a lot of those. there's people that will -- there's a lot of relationships that jared has made over time with different leaders. mexico being one of them you mentioned, that will continue to have conversations with him. that doesn't mean by any means

it's being done without coordination with the state department. in fact the opposite. he's continued to work with him and facilitate an outcome. he brings a perspective to this and began doing that during the transition. it's not a binary choice where he's doing this at the expense of somebody else. >> so he's a direct line to the president whereas the other institutions are not? >> great. that's a win for our government. shannon? >> on healthcare, has the president reached out or anyone reaching out to democrats in congress? can you say specifically who and does he have the opportunity to work more closely with the democrats given the difficulty with the house freedom caucus? >> the president made it clear that he wants to work with anyone that wants to help. he's had a very productive discussion with senator paul. i know the vice president has ben actively engaged and other members of the house in

particular. they're going to find a way forward. there are some -- i'm not going to expose every member that has had -- some want to offer solutions of constructive ways forward. those conversations are happening in several levels to find a way forward to get the number of votes. but you know, the president continues to work hard. he's having the conversations. members have reached out to him to make their suggestions known. so that's -- but we continue to feel optimistic in the sense that there's a lot of constructive ideas coming to the table to get a way forward on healthcare. i want to make one admin announcement. tomorrow the president is giving a speech with a roundtable of ceos on the american work force. team he will be speaking at the national building trade union. he will be speaking live.

so tomorrow we'll have something for you in terms of what we'll do for a briefing, we're working on that now. with that i'm going to end for the today. have a good one. take care. >> shepard: sean spicer ending the daily briefing. i'm shepard smith in report. this is "shepard smith reporting." sean spicer wrapping things up after the president sounded off about russia on twitter claiming the story is fake and telling the news outlets to drop it and focused on president obama wiretapped trump tower, this comes days after the president's former national security advisor, general michael flynn offered to testify under oath about russia in exchange for immunity from prosecution. president trump is facing key tests.

he's set to meet with the chinese president at mar-a-largo. he says they will talk about issues including north korea. president trump said the u.s. is willing to act alone against north korea if china doesn't take a tougher stand. the president says the u.s. could totally handle north korea without china's help. on capitol hill, neil gorsuch just cleared a major hurdle in the senate judiciary committee. democrats say they have enough votes to filibuster the nomination. what does that mean? republicans have said they will deploy the so-called nuclear option if democrats try to block them. so judge gorsuch could win with 51 votes instead of 60. that's never happened. president trump's senior adviser, jared kushner, is visiting iraq with the chief of

staffs chairman. this as iraqi forces wage a broody battle to take back mosul. so few things going on. john roberts is in the briefing room now. good afternoon. >> one of the pieces of breaking news today, multiple sources tell fox news that the former national security advisor at the white house, susan rice from the obama administration is the one that asked for the names of trump campaign officials and trump transition officials to be so-called unmasked in that incidental collection of intelligence. that would place the unmasking right here at the center of the white house. it would be at the c.i.a. or the nsa or the fbi. sean spicer was asked a number of questions about that. he refused to really answer directly as to what he may or may not know about the facts that susan rise might have been the one that was responsible for asking, requesting the unmasking. only to say that sean spicer and the white house are surprised to see the lack of interest among

many journalists in this room as to that information compared with the interest that was shown about 1 1/2 weeks ago when we learned that a couple people at the white house, one from the nse and one from the white house counsel's office assisted devin nunes to obtaining that information. we got more clarification on at least one of those players, shep. i'm told ezra watnick, that was in some way involved in this was involved in a routine assignment to look into the policy of united states masking and dissemination to recommend potential recommendations. he took the lead counsel at the national security council who said, okay, thanks very much. we're going to pass this along to the white house. stop doing what you're doing.

so there's been a native going on that he was responsible for gathering the information on behalf of devin nunes, shep. looks like that was not the case. >> shepard: sean spicer mentioned neil gorsuch with his nomination going to the full senate. >> that's right. 11-9 along the party line. it's likely that the vote before the full senate will probably come late thursday, more likely on friday though. there are some 56 votes it looks like for gorsuch at this point with one democrat saying they'll vote against the filibuster and three democrats saying they will support gorsuch. that still leaves with with four of 60 votes needed to get past the filibuster. if you can't get 60 votes, you don't change the rules, you change the nominee. but the president said that he would encourage senator

mcconnell, the senate majority leader, to go with the nuclear option, which would reduce the threshold to pass gorsuch as a nomination to simple majority. sean spicer this afternoon reiterated that the president still supports that idea. listen here. >> the president said several weeks ago that this is something that he would support. we're comfortable that that decision is up to leader mcconnell on how he wants the senate to deal with this. the majority leader's comments are clear in the direction he's headed in. i think this is -- we have entered a new league if this goes forward in terms of democrats really going and saying it's one thing to vote against a nominee. >> that's because this would be the very first time, shep, that the opposition party has filibustered a judicial nominee. there's been plenty of nominees that have passed with 70, sometimes 90 votes. some that have just barely crossed line.

never have they been filibustered in the past. that's why senator mcconnell is looking at this and saying, if you're not going to get the 60 votes, you will go for the nuclear option and pass this with a simple majority. they'll take a look at this thursday or friday morning and say if they don't have the votes, they pull the nuclear trigger. shep? >> shepard: the press secretary also talked about jared kushner and his various roles in the white house. >> yeah, he's currently in iraq with the terror chief. people say why is jared kushner on a trip like that as opposed to the secretary of state. if you do look at his portfolio during the transition, he was the point person for being in touch with many leaders overseas, which is how we found out about the meeting that he had together with michael flynn when they met with the russian ambassador to the united states. the united states is saying this portfolio and they're comfortable with him representing the president on the diplomatic front.

>> shepard: let's go to john busy now from the "wall street journal." neil gorsuch, as a supreme court justice, this is a road never traveled. >> if there's a vote to block the filibuster, these are all things that will happen this week. this will be the big news of the week. looks like he will be the next supreme court -- member of the supreme court. what this will underscore, shep, is that if anybody was expecting democrats and republicans to work together in this administration, this seems to underscore how truly polarized these two parts remain. he will eventually -- he's very, very likely to be our next supreme court -- member of the supreme court. but it's going to be fought down to the last moment. in part because the democrats feel that this seat was stolen from them. the nominee that was forwarded by president obama never got considered by the senate. so why should they cooperate with gorsuch? >> shepard: then there's the matter of jared kushner.

in other times, probably the secretary of state makes this trip. in this case, the son-in-law makes this trip. >> or the president makes the trip or the defense minister. the national security adviser. it's the son-in-law. this is something that we'll have to get used to. we're going to find jared kushner in a lot of different roles and his daughter, ivanka as well. a lot of roles that we would expect to see members of the administration fulfilling. there's a trust factor the president has. an influence factor that the son-in-law and that the daughter have with the president. this is sort of a new road map for us, which we should probably get used to seeing them represent the white house in more instances. >> shepard: i guess before we go, the other matter is the attempt at narrative control that all sides are trying to work on in the midst of this series of investigations, one by the house, one by the fbi over

the russians interfering in our elections, their efforts to help donald trump and hurt hillary clinton and if there was collusion or help from the trump white house, they would like us instead to talk about this unmasking business and susan rice's alleged involvement. >> right. there's reports -- we haven't reported it yet, reports that susan rice is the person that asked for the identities of the people that were caught up in the incidental surveillance of foreign nationals. >> shepard: in other words, who sergey kislyak was speaking with from inside trump's world. >> exactly. you're allowed to do that if you're an official. it looks as if it was done legally. we don't know the details yet. it is alleged as you point out. only a couple news organizations reporting this. it will be a factor in the discussion. i can't imagine that it's going to change the core narrative here, which is who in the trump campaign was communicating with the russians, what were those conversations about, did they in

any way effect the u.s. electoral process. that's the focus of the senate and house committees as well as the general public. >> shepard: did you see the handshake today? >> i did not. >> shepard: there were two. angela merkel. she didn't get one. and -- >> the merkel things was confusion. did he not hear her. >> how about the handshake? >> we don't know. what we do know is this is a president that feels that he wants to chart his own road with traditional allies of the united states, including angela merkel, who is the most prominent leader in europe. >> shepard: john bussey. >> and president trump warns if north korea's ally, china, doesn't stop north korea, the united states is ready to act alone. so what does that mean? what are the implications?

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the biggest week in tv is back. [ doorbell rings ] who's that? show me watchathon. xfinity watchathon week! now until april 9. get unlimited access to all of netflix and more, free with xfinity on demand. >> shepard: president trump says the united states is ready to go it alone against north korea if necessary. that as a one-time high-ranking official in the north says the world should be ready as he puts it to deal with if dictator, kim jong-un. president trump is set to meet with the chinese president later this week. the president told the financial times newspaper china has great influence over north korea and china will either decide to help us with north korea or they won't. if they do, that will be very good for china and if they don't, they won't be good for anyone. on whether the two leaders can

reach a grand bargain, the president said if china is not going to solve north korea, we will. that's all i'm telling you. the president said the u.s. could totally solve the north korean conflict without china's help. that's his word. meantime, the highest profile defector from north korea in the last couple decades said kim jong-un is desperate to stay in power. the defector is a former north korean ambassador to the britain. the entire planet needs to be on alert. >> are they ready to take on the world? that's what this would be. >> north korea always takes on the world. they have a history of using violence to upset status quos

that they feel is unacceptable. kim junk on is not going to launch a nuke unless he has a choice. his country will be obliterated and his family could loose power. one thing he could do, start a series of crisis where it makes sense for him to do something awful. the other step, north korea could take accrued atomic device, set it off and we may never know. so we may never retaliate. kim jong-un thinks that could bolster someone in the regime. >> shepard: what could china do to help make things better and what sort of leverage do we have on that front? >> china could cut off all of north korea's commerce. right now 90% of their commerce is with china.

china supplies something like 90, 100% of north korea's oil. clearly 100% of their jet fuel. basically beijing could throttle the regime. we have a lot of leverage on china if we're willing to sanction chinese banks that are participating in their commerce. that would rock the global system and tell beijing that we're serious about defending the american homeland. we haven't had the political well to do that. what trump was saying, that he was willing to do almost anything to push china in a better direction. >> gorden chang. great to talk to you. wish we had more time. >> thanks, shep. >> shepard: a showdown in the senate over president trump's pick to fill the empty supreme court seat. republicans do not have the votes to confirm neil gorsuch and our capitol hill team reports that gop leaders will probably use what they call the nuclear option to get that done. so what does this mean? for this and for going forward. that's coming up as we approach

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>> a fox report now. headlines from the fox news desk. three people died at a factory. a large boiler flew through the air and into a nearby building. crews rescued a victim trapped under the boiler. it weighed 1.5 tons. and "american idoamerican servi prison strike in iran. the man was convicted of collaborating with the government. buzz aldrin becoming the oldest person to fly on the thunder birds squad. happened yesterday in an air show in melbourne, florida, southeast of orlando.

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>> shepard: bottom of the hour, top of the us in. the senate judiciary committed has voted along party lines to send president trump's pick to the supreme court. the democrats say they have numbers to block it. 41 say they plan to vote no on confirming neil gorsuch. that puts republicans short of the vote they need to advance the nomination. they also have the ability to set a new precedent and lowter threshold to a simple majority of 51 votes. that's what they have been calling the nuclear option. yesterday the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, said that neil gorsuch would be confirmed by the end of the week. the senate minority leader, chuck schumer said if republicans don't have the votes they need to confirm neil gorsuch, they should change their nominee, not the senate

rules. mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. what are senators saying about the use of this nuclear option, mike? >> there's some on both sides concerned about the change as they were in 2013 when senator harry reid made a change to help presidential nominees and others get confirmed. they say the idea of filibustering judges is not part of the senate tradition and expect a change. >> i disagree saying this is the end of the senate as we know it. this is a restoration of the status quo before our democratic colleagues erected this artificial 60-vote requirement. >> a lot of republicans are arguing democrats would not have accepted any president trump nominee so they intend to get judge gorsuch confirmed this week. >> shepard: the democrats have been specific about their objections here. >> no question about that. look, there's a lot of anger on the left about the way that judge merrick garland was

treated and left in limbo in the senate. others are saying for a lifetime appointment, the nominee should have support. >> its decisions must ensure the rule of law is preserved for real people and our constitution continues to protect us from overreach and tyranny. that is why it's so important that the nominee of -- to the supreme court be approved by more than 60 votes. >> there's not a lot of good will these days between the two parties. we expect a show down on the senate floor unless a deal can be struck later this week. shep? >> thanks, mike. let's go to josh gerstein. he covered the nominations and confirmations of sonya sotomayor and elena kagan.

this is a rules change but not without precedence. >> right. it would take away the 60-vote threshold any senator historically has been able to impose an option to matters being brought up on the floor. they needed 60 votes to move forward or was considered filibustered at this point. that was the rule for everything in the senate. as mike mentioned a few years ago, the democrats changed the rule and said that lower court nominees, you would need a simple majority vote and also for executive branch appointments a majority vote. but for the supreme court, it was unchanged. looks like the republicans will make the change and lower the threshold from 60 to 51 friday assuming the democrats don't strike a deal with them. >> it was the reason that in many quarters the senate was seen as the more compromising group, the adults in the room we've heard them called. they had to come up with some

bipartisanship. they had to reach across the aisles to get much of anything done, this doesn't get rid of that, but it's one more step. >> right. it has been the consensus foraging body, either bipartisan or even within parties sometimes you had to forge consensus normally to get legislation through, in order to get nominees through. this wouldn't change the legislation. senator cornyn of texas was clear about that. he said we'll still have our rights to filibuster and insist on a 60-vote majority for legislation, even if we do away with it completely for judges and all types of confirmations. there's clearly some in the senate and both sides that are concerned this is a slow slide to doing away with the filibuster altogether. >> shepard: the idea there is for these appointments, the rules would change. but for things they have to do every day, the everyday work of the senate, they require the super majority without a

filibuster. and the leaders right now are clear that they're not going to make a change there. that says nothing about future leaders and how concerned should everyday people be? this is flying above 10,000 feet above people caring. there's an important thing about the democracy, isn't there? >> the big question, is there a role in the democracy for some institution that doesn't respond to the immediate whims of the people. so the question is that a valuable thing for the country to have a body that is a bit more deliberate where people are a bit more detached from the day to day concerns and elections. senators are elected for six year terms unlike two-year terms for the house and have a bit more consideration and is there a value in consensuses. democrats were angry that the nominees were held up under

president obama including more recently judge garland. so they sat in motion doing away with the 60-vote majority for those types of nominations and now republicans may click that forward another notch. it does sort of diminish the individual power of each senator. something to give concern to. >> josh ger stein, thank you. >> shepard: over the weekend, adam schiff said it's too early to say whether the trump campaign played in role in the russian election. >> i don't think we can say anything at this point. we're still in the very early stages. the only thing i would say it would be irresponsible not to get to the bottom of this. we need to find out exactly what the russians did. one of the most important

conclusions that the intelligence community reached is they're going to do this again to the united states. >> right now there's a criminal investigation through the fbi and two committees on capitol hill. one in the senate, one in the house investigating former and current associates of president trump. they will continue. the associates that either had contact with russian officials or done business with the country in the past. kristin fisher is live on capitol hill. kristin, what are you hearing about what they will be discussing specifically? >> hey, shep. it's hard to know for sure since this is going to be a closed session of this committee. there's two big developments over the last few days that will almost certainly come up. one is the former national security adviser, michael flynn's request for immunity in exchange to testify before these congressional committees. the top democrat, congressman schiff, said that that request is being met with healthy

skepticism, especially after the bomb shell that dropped over the weekend. news that michael flynn failed to disclose $70,000 in speaking fees from companies associated with russia. the other thing that will come up, congressman schiff had a chance to look at the same documents as his republican counter part, congressman nunes. this is the first time that this committee has met since congressman schiff has had a chance to check out the documents. when asked if he agreed with congressman nunes assessment of the documents, listen to how he responded. >> i can't say i don't agree with the chairman's character sayings. that's why you don't share documents with one person or even two people. they need to be shared with both full committees. >> now, all of this is happening amid growing calls for an independent investigation into all of this. senator john mccain has been one of the leading voices on this.

he reiterated that call yesterday. he said the time has come for an independent investigation into the trump campaign's ties to russia and russian interference in the election. mitch mcconnell disagreed and here's why. >> we don't need yet another investigation. we know the fbi is looking at it from their perspective. it's being handled appropriately and will be handled well. >> so the senate majority leader is pointing to the senate intelligence committee, which is also investigating. they've been leading a much more bipartisan effort than what's happening her at the house intelligence committee. they're doing to be going in here in about 30 minutes. of course we'll try to stop them and see what exactly they're going to talk about today. >> shepard: we look forward to that. kristin fisher on the hill. horrible explosion in st. peters berg in russia. deadly blast underground. ten people are dead.

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>> shepard: plus are looking for two suspects after an explosion on a russian subway train this morning killing 11. that's according to the russian news agency. petersberg police say they found and detonated a different device at another subway station. the explosion happened in 2:20 in the afternoon there. witnesses posted videos to social media showing the mangled train there and the victims on the ground next to it. they said smoke filled the station and people started panicking. vladimir putin said that officials are looking to whether this is a terror attack.

>> we will do everything to identify what happened. give a full evaluation of what happened. city and federal authorities will do everything possible to support families of our killed and injured citizens. >> shepard: the blast happened while president putin was visiting his hometown of st. petersburg. lea gabrielle has more. >> we're learning there could be photos of one of the suspects. we have not confirmed it, but according into the interfax news agency, the person pay have left a bag with an explosive on the train. russian state media said the bag had more than two points of explosives and rigged with shrapnel. today authorities shut down all 62 of st. peterburg's train stations.

>> shepard: this is not the first time we've seen this in russia. >> there's been several attacks in recent years. 2013, 24 people were killed in back to back suicide bombings. 35 people were killed in 2011 after a suicide bombing in moscow's biggest airport. and in 2010, a duel suicide a tax on moscow's subway system killed 40. russia has fought two bitter wars with chechnya after they declared independence in 1990. one analyst said that russia is still feeling repercussions from that. >> you have this longstanding wave of violence and retribution taking place in the caucuses. you've had a lot of fighters from those areas that have gone into the battles in syria and iraq gaining important battlefield skills that can be brought back and used against the russian state. >> russia is investigating the

explosion as a possible terror attack. no group has claimed responsibility. shep? >> shepard: deadly storms sweeping across the south. a live report from mississippi where the mayor's wife died when a tree crushed their home. new bike? yeah, 'cause i got allstate. if you total your new bike, they replace it with a brand new one. so, kinda like your second husband. kinda. it's good to be in (good hands). hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning

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>> shepard: from the extreme weather center, four people are dead at violent storms tore across the deep south. that's according to emergency workers. the national weather service confirming an ef-1 tornado flipped a mobile home in louisiana on sunday. killed a mom and her 3-year-old daughter. happened about an hour west of baton rouge. across the border, heavy flooding in mississippi where investigators say a woman died after apparently driving into a creek in florence, which is

about 13 miles south of jackson. the coroner said the woman made a 911 call as she was sinking. in glendora, mississippi, 50 mile south of oxford, a tree crushed a house with a woman inside. so happened, that was the mayor of the village there, his wife. some photos of the destruction from these powerful storms ihis. this is from st. maarten parrish. another shot of the home where the little girl died. the tornado flipped it off the center blocks. that was the base there. up close, some of the kids' leftovers. you can see the low lies areas there south of baton rouge. this is rescuers carrying a dog crate in vicksburg, mississippi.

severe storms across the southeast. matt finn has the news from glendora, where the mayor's wife lost her life i'm told, matt. >> yeah, shepard, a heart-breaking tragedy. the mayor said he and his wife lived in this home for 23 years. they were together relaxing when this tree came crossing down on their home obliterating it. the mayor said he crawled out and survived. unfortunately his wife did not. here's what he said happened. >> we were sitting here, watching tv. heard a lot wind. looked like it was instant. just a loud wind. she said what? we have a tornado or something coming? she jumped up. i jumped up. she evidently was trapped -- caught by the roof. >> now shepard, we spoke with

the national weather service a short while ago. they said this was not a tornado. there was no siren that they did not hear. instead, a strong line of winds. the system that caused these winds is now heading to florida and georgia, shep. >> shepard: matt finn, thanks. pay phones would become largely a thing of the past because of what happened on this day in history. that and your top of the hour headlines coming up. weeds. nature's boomerang. at roundup®, we know they keep coming back.

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>> shepard: open this day in 1973, a top engineer at motorola made the very first cell phone call. martin cooper was his name. he phoned his rival at at&t from a street corner in manhattan. the two companies raced to make the first mobile phone. cooper said i'm ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end. nowadays, you can use your cell phone to surf the internet and

play video games after the cell phone became a reality 44 years ago today. georgetown hired a new basketball coach. it's patrick ewing to lead the hoyas. he was a knicks once before everything fell apart. see you later. >> now there's literally going to be the first filibuster in modern times on a qualify judge that will end up going on the court, we have really come a long way. democrats are setting a very dangerous precedent. >> neil: that dangerous precedent is this. the supreme court justice that will likely win majority approval of senators, but not that 60-vote majority that we've gotten used to. it will be reality come friday when most expect that neil gorsuch will finally be replacing antonin scalia on the supreme court of the united states. why they're saying this is without prece