to seek pragmatic solutions. bloomberg: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. president trump stirs the political pot with pardons of a number of convicted felons as he faces tough questions on his own attorney general >> the attorney general is a man with incredible integrity. just so you understand, i chose not to be involved i'm allowed to be totally involved i'm actually i guess the chief law enforcement officer of the country. and this morning new details on reports that barr has considered quitting. all eyes are on las vegas, where the democrats get their first crack at billionaire michael bloomberg, who'll be

making his debut on the national stage. disgraced hollywood mega mogul harvey weinstein's fate is in the hands of a jury early signs on what they're focused on plus the inspiring story of one woman's rise to the big leagues. it's wednesday february 19th "early today" starts right now good morning i'm cori coffin. >> and i'm phillip mena. president trump is flexing his pardoning power for some of the nation's most high-profile white-collar criminals perhaps most notorious is rod blagojevich. the president commuted the sentence of the former illinois governor who was removed from office and convicted on corruption charges for trying to sell the u.s. senate seat vacated by barack obama. the president also wiped away criminal records for several other big names including michael milken, once hailed as the king of junk bonds the disgraced financier became the face of insider trading in the 1980s. the president also pardon former new york police commissioner bernard kerik. he served four years in prison for tax fraud and making false

statements former san francisco 49ers owner eddie debartolo jr. also received a pardon for his role in a casino bribery scheme nbc's dan scheneman has more >> you guys from chicago >> we are. >> congratulations on getting out. >> reporter: former illinois governor rod blagojevich awarded his freedom after president trump commuted his sentence. >> president trump is the one who did this, and i'm -- like i said, profoundly grateful. my gratitude is forever. >> reporter: the former governor was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he was convicted of trying to sell the senate seat of then president-elect barack obama. >> i've got this thing, and it's [ bleep ] golden and i'm just not giving it up for [ bleep ] nothing. >> reporter: president trump -- >> rod, you're fired >> reporter: -- who once fired the former governor on the reality show "the apprentice." blagojevich's wife >> that was a tremendously

powerful, ridiculous sentence in my opinion very far from his children they're growing older. they're going to high school now. and they rarely get to see their father outside of an orange uniform. >> reporter: now with his freedom blagojevich will now try to move on with his life >> i just believe that sometimes out of evil you can -- good things can happen. and i think the wickedness and evil that was done to me and any family can be turned to good >> reporter: rod blagojevich can go home. dan scheneman, nbc news. as the justice department faces one of its greatest controversies over cutting recommended prison time for roger stone, attorney general william barr admits that he thought about calling it quits barr reportedly told people close to the president that he considered resigning over trump's tweets about the justice department investigations. a justice department spokeswoman says the attorney general has no plans to resign. there have been growing calls for his resignation, though, after interfering in the stone case can a slick

multimillion-dollar ad blitz translates to success on the debate stage that's the question tonight for billionaire mike bloomberg the former new york mayor will face off against his democratic rivals for the first time right here on nbc. bloomberg is already trying to get ahead of some criticism. his team announcing overnight that he would sell his company if elected president his $381 million in ad spending has fueled poll numbers. in our latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll bloomberg rocketed to third place behind front-runner bernie sanders and joe biden. nbc's maura barrett joining us from the campaign trail in las vegas. maura, good morning. so bloomberg's rivals, they're not holding back now >> reporter: absolutely not, phillip. interior many rivals bloomberg will be facing on tonight's debate stage here in las vegas and this comes after about a week and a half of criticism coming up from bloomberg's past. like you mentioned with his company some skepticism there. but there are also comments resurfacing, seemingly racist comments about his stop and

frisk policy when he was mayor of new york. and some derogatory comments toward women as well at his company. and so the democratic candidates, while they've been focusing on iowa and new hampshire, michael bloomberg has had a monopoly on the super tuesday states, visiting voters there who have never seen any candidates before, and he's been up on the airwaves spending that more than $300 million and that's what contributed to the spikes that we've seen in the polls that got him on the debate stage tonight so we can expect a lot of criticism and other candidates going after mike bloomberg on the debate stage tonight because of his rise in the polls and the more attention that he's been getting in this democratic race. and so last night cnn held some town halls senator sanders and mayor buttigieg gave maybe a preview of some of the criticisms we'll see tonight about bloomberg's spending so far. >> mr. bloomberg has every right in the world to run for president of the united states he's an american citizen but i don't think he has the right to buy this election >> what else do you call it?

what else do you call it when you dip into your endless reserves of millions and billions and don't go through the process of campaigning in states like nevada or iowa or new hampshire? >> reporter: senator warren also got in on the criticism, calling it a shame that bloomberg could buy his way onto the debate stage. but she did say donald trump will now get a live demonstration of how they'll take on what she called an egomaniac billionaire. phillip? >> it's on tonight you can watch it on nbc, that debate all right, maura, thank you so much let's head over to new york now where jury deliberations continued today in the trial of harvey weinstein after day one ended with no verdict. this as the sexual assault case against the hollywood producer heads toward a dramatic conclusion here's nbc's gabe gutierrez. >> reporter: harvey weinstein's future is in the hands of a jury made up of seven men and five women. the day began with prosecutors

accusing lead defense attorney donna rotunno of jury tampering for writing a magazine op-ed proclaiming her client's innocence. the judge ordered rotunno not to speak to the media again saying "i would caution you about the tentacles of your public relations juggernaut." the four-week trial had little physical evidence and the judge told jurors he will have to decide the credibility and the believability of the witnesses weinstein has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of sexual assault, including rape. >> and he held me down on the bed. i tried to get away. >> reporter: the charges focus on the allegations of mimi haley, who testified weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006 at his apartment and jessica mann, who told the jury weinstein raped her in a manhattan hotel room in 2013 their testimony was bolstered by four other women including "sopranos" actress annabella sciorra. prosecutors are using sciorra's rape accusation outside the statute of limitations to support the most serious charges of predatory sexual assault.

the charges jurors had questions about just 40 minutes into deliberations. weinstein's defense team argued their relationships were consensual and presented e-mails showing haley and mann communicated and had sexual encounters with weinstein after the alleged assaults >> now harvey's worried. >> reporter: lauren sevon is not part of the criminal trial but one of more than 100 women who've accused weinstein of sexual misconduct. >> as much as we would love to see a guilty verdict and we're hoping for a guilty verdict, i think all of us are bracing houflz that that might not be the outcome. >> reporter: if weinstein is convicted of the most serious charges, he could get up to life in prison. even if he's acquitted here in new york, he faces separate felony charges in los angeles. jury deliberations here at the courthouse are expected to continue later today cori >> gabe gutierrez for us this morning. gabe, thank you. the coronavirus continues to spread on land and sea there are now over 74,000 confirmed cases worldwide.

and the death toll has topped 2,000. another cruise ship has been exposed to the virus this one in cambodia the news comes as nearly 400 americans who evacuated from wuhan, china have been medically cleared and freed from quarantine for the latest on the outbreak we turn now to nbc's janis mackey frayer live in yokohama, japan. janis, what's next for these patients >> reporter: well, aboard the diamond princess cruise ship there have been hundreds of people waiting for their test results because today is the day the quarantine officially ends and japanese officials said that anyone who was testing negative for the virus will be allowed to go home. so we've seen people coming off the ship already this is a process that will continue over the next few days. what's curious is that nobody coming off the diamond princess here will need to do any additional quarantine here in japan. that's despite some questions about how effective the quarantine was on the ship, with

1 in 7 people on board becoming infected with the virus. japanese officials are sticking to this. there are several americans who are going to be coming off that ship the u.s. officials have said that any american who wants to go back to the u.s. is going to have to wait an additional 14 days so this will be keeping in line with the quarantine restrictions being placed on other americans coming off the cruise ship or from wuhan they'll undergo this period of observation. u.s. officials telling americans here who choose to stay on the ship that they're going to have to undergo the same sort of monitoring period before they'll be allowed to come home. phillip? >> all right that is janis mackey frayer joining us from japan this morning. janis, thank you we turn now to another round of rain forecast for the south in areas already facing a flooding disaster. in mississippi hundreds of homes were inundated with water after days of heavy downpours. the pearl river cresting in jackson with the water reaching

eight feet above flood tage. officials are now warning people not to return to their homes just yet stay out of the water. one big danger they fear is manhole covers that have been moved by swift current >> let's get the latest on the flooding as well as the rest of the weather today from janessa good morning >> good morning. we have a rough situation continuing for the south bands of moisture continue probably another half an inch to a quarter of an inch of rain throughout the rest of the night into your early morning hours. you can see the banding starting to happen. also making its way into the mid-atlantic we're going to continue to deal with flood concerns, possibility of another inch across the 83 aa into miami

so we're also thinking about carolina snow. do you know which one? >> north >> all right, janessa, thank you. in today's quick hits, popular streetwear brand supreme is coming up with oreos for a pack of limited edition cookies as part of its summer line each $8 pack contains three oreos and it will be released tomorrow at supreme stores in new york the new orleans saints quarterback announced he will return to who dat nation for the 2020 season. the white house correspondents association is bringing back comedic entertainment to the annual dinner with kenan thompson set to host on april 25th. and hassan minute haj will return to the dinner as a featured entertainer her skin could actually soak up wetness her diaper doesn't that's gross. that's why i use pampers pampers absorbs quickly to trap and lock wetness away keeping your baby's skin drier and healthier

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fenway tweeting "ryan is awake and speaking with family and doctors. the race's winner, denny hamlin, writing "foremost, i want to give well-wishes and prayers to the driver they call rocketman." former race car driver kyle petty is a nascar on nbc analyst. >> i slept very little last night, worried about ryan and his family and i know the saying is that time heals all wounds. i realized yesterday, this is a wound that will never heal >> reporter: kyle petty lost his son adam in a 2000 crash but he's encouraged by new nascar safety measures in the decades since. >> we know the drivers today are in a much safer environment. >> reporter: some fans remembering this day 19 years ago when legendary driver dale earnhardt died on this same track. >> you think about dale earnhardt when this happened >> i was here on that race i knew that the game was going to change. and that race made a huge difference in how this sport is raced today. >> reporter: all health updates to this point have come from

ryan newman's racing team. the hospital behind me hasn't said anything about his condition. dale earnhardt was brought 19 years ago to this hospital, jumpstarting the safety measures that we see today that likely saved ryan newman's life phillip? >> all right, thank you for the update just ahead, fast food wars wendy's takes the crown with a whopper of a burn on burger king >> and making a splash a death-defying kayaker takes on a 134-foot waterfall next we could even help you with homeowners... oh! not again! oh, thanks! you know automated lights are just the beginning. pretty soon they're gonna have eyes... everywhere. well goodnight. geico. over 75 years of savings and service. geico. discover a new world ♪

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i call it the husband. two drops behind each ear and he'll try to hit more home runs than hank aaron. >> actress ja'net dubois who played the feisty neighbor willona on "good times" has died her acting credits include "i'm gonna git you sucka" and "the pjs" and "everybody loves raymond. ♪ we're moving on up ♪ to the east side >> dubois also co-wrote and sang that theme song right there from "the jeffersons. she was found dead in her glendale, california home. she was 74 years old

now to a battle of the billionaires bill gates sxelon musk they may have forged their fortunes in tech but the do could not be more different when it comes to electric cars. the microsoft co-founder recently revealed that he bought an electric porsche tican and he wasn't impressed by the range of electric car choices tesla ceo elon musk reacted to that by tweeting that his conversations with gates have been underwhelming now to the trailblazing coach who's become a game changer for baseball here's nbc's katie beck. >> reporter: major league baseball for rachel balkovec was a field of dreams, just not coming true. >> great job >> i applied for a bunch of jobs and just got like crickets, like nothing back >> reporter: the strength coach wondered if her hurdle was her gender so she changed the name on her resume from rachel to ray. the calls came but offers didn't. >> they just said you know, i'm really sorry, i really would like to hire you but our

administration said we're not going to hire a woman. >> reporter: but she kept her eye on the professional ball breaking through in the minor leagues with the st. louis cardinals, later the astros. plus earning two master's. >> it's an advantage that i was discriminated against because i had to work harder >> reporter: now balkovec making history, becoming one of the first women hired by a major league team to work as a full-time hitting coach in the minors >> nice job. >> you spend an hour with rachel you understand her value >> reporter: this season she's one of three female hires in the mlb and balkovec says there are more ceilings to be cracked. >> just do that. >> it feels like this is your dream job. is it? >> it's my dream to be able to empower people and so yeah. baseball's the vehicle for empowering other people. >> reporter: a dream job in a more inclusive playing field katie beck, nbc news, tampa, florida. >> love to see that. let's celebrate some birthdays today. "stranger things" star millie bobby brown turns 16 "family ties" actress justine

bateman is 54. singer-songwriter seal turns 57. dumb and dumber star and acclaimed thespian jeff daniels is 65. and the ageless wonder, motown legend smokey robinson turns 8

. this guy has a rental unit going on and i knew something bad would happen. >> right now at 4:30, a woman found dead inside of a south bay home. what we're finding out about the house that may lead to clues in the case. plus facing backlash. a possible new twist in the scandal involving san francisco mayor london breed and a corruption probe. very good morning. and thanks for joining us, i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. let's look at the forecast. how is it looking. >> very nice to start out and another beautiful day. a live look outside in san francisco. there will be at times be