as to where this boeing 777 is. of course, there are theories and confusions only made worse which the malaysian government walking back reports that military radar picked up an unexplained blip hundreds of miles off course. witnesses report seeing a plane in flight off malaysia's coast but none have been confirmed. they are also investigating an oil rig claim he saw a plane on fire in the south china sea, in the complete opposite direction. 42 ships and 39 pieces of aircraft are now involved in the search and can you help from home. a u.s.-based satellite imaging country is posting hoy res images on the web. users around the world are looking frame by frame and tagging anything that could be a clue. nbc's tom so sello has been all over this story for us. tom, what is the lateest? >> the late set both the faa and nets bao with in malaysia and assisting the malaysian and looking at the civilian and military radar tapes to try to

get to the bottom of this discrepancy. you referenced it earlier, but the malaysian military a couple days ago suggested almost definitively that in fact the plane made a u-turn, came back, flew back over malaysia, back over the straight of malacca and was headed out perhaps towards the indian ocean. the malaysian military yesterday seemed to back off that. today the military said, well, we're not sure yet that that was the same plane. it may have been, but we're not sure so the faa and ntsb have staffers in malaysia assisting with that but that confusion has clearly led to a lot of people scratching their heads and trying to understand what is the search zone here. you referenced the known search zone, the east side of malaysia, the south china see, the gulf of thailand and then on the west side you've got the strait of malacca. if in fact this plane flew on, look at the green dots, if the plane flew on along that green dotted line, we're not in the search zone, folks. this plane kept flying, it would

appear in that's true, into the indian ocean, and the indian ocean is not included in the search zone. what does that mean? potentially they are looking in the wrong pleas still and potentially if this plane had five hours of fuel on it it could have been flying and flying and flying on that path out into the indian ocean. could you be talking about 1,500 to 2,000 miles. now we immediately concede that this is all conjecture based in part on confusing data coming from the malaysians, but so far no sign of this plane anywhere along its original flight path, and by the way, that report from the vietnamese of a possible fire near an oil tanker out there south of -- south of ho chi minh city or saigon, so far there's no confirmed wreckage, nothing confirmed whatsoever, and that area has been blanketed by search and rescue and naval units. back to you. >> tom, costello, thanks. >> back with us is ntsb

investigator greg fife. we know the transponder went from on to off. is that something only a person could have shut off? >> there's two transponders on the airplane, independent of each other to. have both of those transponders turn off or fail at the same time is very curious because they are on two independent systems so for them to lose the data that the transponders provide is very, very rare, and it would have to be more or less either an intentional act, somebody turning them off or an electrical failure that would have affected two independent systems. >> greg, we had a couple of maps we wanted you to take a look at over here if you would walk with me to kind of get a better picture of the lay of the land that we're looking at. now this first one is what tom costello was just referencing, and here we see this green dotted line that would show if this military radar blip is accurate. potentially a hard left turn in that direction. meanwhile, we're hearing of this possible sighting of an oil man

in the south china sea of a plane on fire. i mean, when you look at this set of information, what do you make of it? >> it's curious that this information with this one eyewitness who saw what he believed was a burning aircraft is now coming forward five plus days into the investigation. >> right. >> where was this information early on? it was also cure about the flight track that the military released and basically indicated that they confirmed that this airplane had in fact made a semi-u-turn and now are backing off. but my sources have said that that is pretty much valid radar data, and if that's the case, then this would be the search area, but the last radar point is not necessarily the accident site or crash site of this airplane because that's where the radar coverage is lost. so the airplane could continue well beyond it and taken, as tom said, into the indian ocean if not further. >> greg, why is there some ambiguity about whether or not the plane was spotted on this military radar in that spot?

>> well, one of the concerns is that the civilian radar interrogates the transponders on the air. the transponders provide very dis-crete information, amountitude, speed and actually has a data tag that identifies it as mh-370. the radar that the military is using doesn't have a dis-crete tag. it just says that there is an object at this location. the radar hits it and it bounces -- it bounces out there and we can't tell how high or how fast. >> want to take a look at one other map. the airline says that this plane had seven hours worth of fuel at takeoff, so if we're considering it could have gone in potentially any direction, potentially in the direction of the hard left turn or the general radius, this is the radius of area that this plane could potentially be in. this is a huge, huge area. >> and this is what makes it such a challenge, not only for investigators waiting to do their job of accident and

criminal investigation, but it creates such a very large search area, especially with all the water that's involved, because if the airplane does go down, the only telltale sign will be any kind of floating wreckage on the surface, and that's going to take visual observation to identify. >> wow. >> we now know that the pilot's final words to air krask control was all right. good night. sounds like no distress going there. now, my friend is a pilot, and he's been bending my ear for days saying that the mechanical things that people are saying just don't add up, and he's saying this has to be a hijacking. what do you think about that theory? >> hijacking is one of those possibilities that if it does happen it could be that the hijacker got into the cockpit, told the crew i want you to turn all of these things off that would track the airplane and stand there while it happens. it could take a level of knowledge but they could do it.

happened with the ethiopian airliner several years ago. the hijacker commanded the pilots to fly them to a certain place. the pilot said we're going to run out of gas, we won't make it there and tried to do it anyway. >> wouldn't they have a moment to push a may day button to let the ground know what's going on. >> there isn't a may day button. would you have to put in a discreet transponder code of 7600 or 7700, depending on what the circumstance, is and then push the ident button so the air traffic controllers would find it on the radar. may not have had time to do that if this kind of situation took place. >> hey, greg, this is ari in washington. there's three ntsb investigators on the ground in malaysia looking at air traffic control information, looking at data. walk us through what kind of things they are doing? >> typically they are going to play a support role to the malaysian government who is in charge of this investigation. they are there basically as technical resources.

they have boeing with them. they have the faa with them, so if there are any issues about the integrity of the airplane itself, any of the aircraft systems, they have instant access to whatever the malaysians would need about the airplane, about the airspace and, of course, our expertise with the united states in how to decipher radar and what the basic tools that could be used to try to find this airplane. >> such a mystery. >> greg, thank you so much. appreciate it. >> you're welcome. we're waiting on word out of president's white house meeting with the ukrainian prime minister. we'll bring that to you live and up lanext the latest on the new york city building explosion. much more on this very busy cycle. all that you can. the hotel gym is short for gymnasium. the hotel pool is usually filled with water. and the best dot com for booking hotels, is hotels.com. it's on the internet, but you probably knew that. or maybe not, i don't really know you.

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we received 22 patients. many of those patients came on their own and were not transported by ambulance, so there are some discrepancies of the numbers you might be hearing, the different agencies reporting. those patients suffered various injuries, many of them minor. we do have one critically injured patient here who has admitted and some of the patients were children. >> continuing coverage now with the big breaking news here today in new york city. two people are dead and two dozen are hurt and many others may still be missing after a building in harlem exploded this morning taking another down with it. doctors at mt. sinai hospital where the bulk of the victims are being treated are updating the situation right now. the impact of the explosion was heard a mile away in a portion of the manhattan sky line has been filled with smoke in the six hours since the initial blast. local utility crews were

responding to a gas leak in the area shortly before the explosion, but investigators haven't definitively ruled that out as a cause. whatever happened it literally rattled an entire neighborhood and the nerves of a lot of people. >> i heard an explosion and i immediately looked off my terrace and saw a cloud of smoke rising with debris in the air. it looks like paper and other products, and then the cloud just got larger and larger and then within a minute sirens started to sound and i started to hear police and then also fire fighters arriving at the scene. it actually shook my building. i'm six blocks south and a little bit to the left, but, yeah, i could feel the -- it did feel like thunder. >> nbc's katy tur is on the scene with what she's learned

from investigators and the mayor. katy? >> reporter: quite a chaotic scene, very dramatic and beginning to unravel trying to figure out what exactly is going on. just down the block from where it happened. if you're looking at the screen over on the left-hand side, that's where two of the buildings were completely decimated after an explosion. fire fighters are still fighting a fire underneath there, underneath that layer of rubble. they believe the flames are still going pretty strongly. it's an active scene even though it wasn't as active as it was a little while ago. no word on how many people rec actly still missing. the mayor says they don't want to give a number on that because people could not be answering their cell phones at work unaware of what's going on. two buildings affected. the bottom floor was a commercial property and top floors res sensing. 15 apartments in total. unclear who was at home at the time of the explosion. the fdny says two people are dead, 24 injuries, two serious life-threatening injuries, five serious non-life-threatening

injuries, 15 minor injuries and there's no word exactly where the people were in relation to the explosion when it happened, whether or not they were on the street or in the building. they are still actively looking for potential survivors or more victims still underneath there. the explosion itself was really strong, really powerful, and an gel characters you live in this building right here? >> yes. >> you were inside your apartment when it happened? >> i was actually sleepingterm woke me out of my sleep, sounded like a huge bomb, and looked out my window and seen a whole bunch of smoke, and my neighbors came banging on my door and that's when i real i'd i was jammed in. since the impact of the explosion jammed my door and i couldn't get out. >> you were stuck inside your apartment? >> i was stuck inside my apartment for maybe like half an hour before i actually got out and my neighbors are the one who actually banged the door open. >> you must have been panicking. >> i was having an anxiety attack. i was crying, didn't know what to do. i didn't know if this building would explode. didn't know what would happen

and i called my parents and they came right away, you know. thank god, i'm just happy that i'm i'm alive and still here. >> the explosion blew out windows on your block. >> blew out windows in my building on the second floor. and my building itself is kind of cracked. >> and the stuff in your apartment fill to the ground. >> everything on my window sill fell down. >> did you smell gas? >> i didn't smell anything. i was actually sleeping. i woke up to the explosion. >> had you smelled gas in the area, anything unusual? >> no, never. fairly knew. didn't know anything about it and like i said until the explosion came and i didn't know what to do. >> what businesses were there? >> you have like a check cashing place, a tax place and the corner store and, yeah, and a meat market. >> and those places were open. >> those places were open, and i spoke to one of the ladies who work in the tax place. she told me that her ceiling

collapsed. >> we've spoken to some families who says they are still missing their loved ones. >> yes. >> do you know anybody that is still unaccounted for? >> no, thank god, all my family is safe. >> they think it might have been a gas explosion. does that give you pause or concern for your safety? >> they are letting people inside the building now by i don't think it's safe. i think they should run some tests because you just never know. anything can happen. if it happened there, why can't it happen here? >> what was your immediate thought when you felt it? >> i didn't know -- i thought either somebody broke something or something fell or maybe something collapsed. i was just clueless. i didn't know what was going on. >> reporter: the president was briefed on this, on the explosion and this was concern initially that it was manhattan that there's terrorism involved, always a concern. no tape. involved, no criminality. they believe it was a gas explosion. con edison was called 15 minutes before the explosion down the

street of a reported gas minute. two minutes before they got here, that's when the explosion happened. mayor de blasio says it happened so suddenly, it's unfortunate more lives could not have been saved, more people could not have been helped in the situation, but right now they do believe a gas explosion, and the investigation is still very much ongoing, and the search for the missing is still ongoing. back to you guys. >> what a story. katy tur, thank you very much. so hundreds of new york city police and fire fighters have been fortunate to be searching through the rubble in mild temperatures, but as night falls tonight, conditions are going to rapidly deteriorate with severe thunderstorms moving in followed by a bitter blast of cold air. we're talking temperatures 30 and maybe 40 degrees colder and windchills below zero. the weather channel's kelly cass is tracking what is hopefully winter's last hurrah. >> thanks, toure. this is quite a storm. we're talking blizzard conditions across western new york. even had thunder snow reported on the south side of buffalo, and it's still really coming down out there. take a look at the radar.

all the darker blue indicates where we have very heavy rain going on -- heavy snow, i should say, heavy snow extending back into the northeastern parts of ohio as well. we're not quite done with the snow in cleveland. that's where it's really coming down there, but detroit kind of on the back edge as well as toledo, light snow flakes out there. as you can see the new york state thruway getting hammered with very heavy snow. able any area, wintry mix of sleet and even freezing rain. we've had moderate icing going on north ofable any around glens falls and snow continues across vermont, new hampshire and maine, and that will continue to be the case as we go through tonight with a lot of wind blowing that snow around. about, you're right on the edge. we're calling for a wintry mix for you guys. new york city looks like mainly rain, but back towards pittsburgh it's all snow, and then tomorrow the steadier heavier snow continues across northern new england while it will just be scattered snow showers across the hudson valley and back into new york state, hartford as well and even a few snow showers out there tomorrow.

look at how much snow we're talking about, at least a foot in the darker shade of purple and some places up here in northern new england we're going for two feet of snowfall. definitely a big storm for the middle of march, that is for sure, so travel is going to continue to be very difficult as we get back into the day tomorrow. >> back to that. >> up next on this nussi afternoon. the president and vice president are right now meeting with ukraine's prime minister at the white house. but does the president still have the leverage with the american people to get something done in the numbers don't lie, and "the cycle" rolls on, krystal. >> jen hayman launched rent the runway where customers rent dresses and accessories for a fraction of what it would cost to buy them so mobile became a very big part of their business

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with less than eight months to go before november's mid-term elections, president obama and the democratic party do face an uphill battle to retain control of the senate or retake the house. in the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll the president's approval rating has hit an all-time low of 41%. the silver lining though for the

president is that the gop is still less popular than him. only 27% view the gop positively. still, not much better for the dems, only a third of voters view them positively so what does it all mean for november? joining us now is a man who knows more about this poll than anyone out there. nbc news political director chuck todd, host of "the daily rundown" and "new york times" national correspondent josh barrow, an msnbc contributor. welcome to you both. chuck, an interesting point emerged in the nbc write-up about this on how congressional candidates are doing based on their policy positions. 69% of voters say they are less likely to back candidates who want to cut social security or medicaid to address the deficit, and on another big policy question right now, as the president is meeting with the ukrainian prime minister, when you ask people about whether they want the u.s. playing a bigger role in resolving conflicts, 47% of voters less likely to back those kind of

candidates. only 23% more likely. my question to you, chuck, is there any kind of room here in both parties for a candidate who runs on defending social insurance but having a realist and sort of humble foreign policy abroad? >> well, i can tell you this. the other -- the poll always has -- the poll every month, the big top lines that everybody obsesses over and today with the political top line in florida 13 there's plenty to talk about there, health care, president obama and all of that, but there is a larger story in this poll that i think we'll look back a year from now and say, wow, look, it was all sitting there. a net neutral issue for congressional candidates is being a supporter of defense spending cuts. it is a negative voting issue, as you just pointed out if you are somebody that is advocating getting more involved in conflicts around the world, being more of an interventionist. the point is there is definitely

you see a bipartisan consensus, even on the question we asked about what the various options that the united states is considering in punishing russia over the situation in ukraine. there is bipartisan consensus around the one that is sort of the least interventionist of them all, stick to sanctions and things like that. no interest in sort of escalating on the military front, and that is a -- it is clear the country's in retreat as far as the public is concerned in both parties. there are still facets of both parties that believe in some interventionism, but it is -- it is not a way to win swing voters, and, if anything, you're more likely to be punished if you're advocating it, if you're -- and i look at this and say if you're lindsey graham dealing with a tea party challenge, that's going to be one of his negatives as far as that primary republican electorate is going to be concerned he's a big advocate of a muscular american foreign policy, that isn't afraid to get involved militarily when necessary or believes that they should be getting involved in

resolving conflicts, whether it's through aggressive diplomacy. my guess is he retreats and doesn't talk about it, but if you talk about it as an issue, it's potentially a toxic issue for you on the campaign trail. >> wow. >> josh, let's talk about some more of the news that fits the print out of this poll. once again we see the divisions in america are stark and clear. in republican districts, obama's approval rating is 33%, extraordinarily low. in democratic districts his approval rating is 51% which, if that was his national number he'd be very happy, and we also see what you think of obama endorsing somebody is vastly different given where you live. we are living in two america side by side and how you see the nation varies widely given where you live. >> yeah, and i think that's why there's never been a ton of suspense about the house election coming up later this year. the map is very much sorted into strong republican and strong democratic district. part of that about

gerrymandering but a lot is about how we choose to live as americans. democrats have really sorted themselves into large cities so even if you draw a fair and compact and non-gerrymandered map on a lot of states you advantage republicans. so, sure, if you look in those districts you're going to find much stronger numbers for the president than if you look on other side of the map. >> another big takeaway, you've been tweeting about this, people love pot or as the kids call it weed. >> it's weed, abby. >> the legalization movement, people have been following more than ukraine or health care, and we found that only 8% see marijuana as a more harmful substance. sugar actually they say is more harmful so we're getting a real good sense of how the opinion is shift when it comes to legalizing marijuana across the country and a look at economic benefit. when you look at the colorado that made 2 million in january

off recreational pot taxes. is this just another example of politicians being behind public opinion? >> public opinion is moving this, and not only that, don't forget the other missing data point in colorado is that it's one month but the crime rate actually went down in colorado in that first month of this year, recreational use. anybody that's looking to try to make that connection either positive or negative, got to deal with that, yet another piece of evidence that as far as society is concerned, doesn't appear to be harming colorado society at all yet. now i think you've got to wait for time to see how it works, and that's what a lot of sociologists would argue, but that is what -- hey, the country is not just accepting of it. seems to be rather intrigued by it. i chock it up to think about who a majority of all consumers -- even our -- even among older generation now, and the older generation, the younger senior set, say 65 to 75, well, those

are boomers. those are baby boomers, so they all smoked weed, too. you used to see this generational divide. >> speak for yourself, chuck, speak for yourself. >> but the baby boomers were experimental pot users and they look at their lives, so you're not seeing that same -- i think that that's why there's more interest in the story. >> right. >> people have a personal connection to it and also why i think you're seeing a greater acceptance because, yes, there's still a generational divide on this between folks over 50 and folks under 50 but it's not as great as it once was, and i think part of that is the experience of the boomer set themselves with the recreational use. >> i also feel like there's just a sense of we've got bigger fish to fry at this point. >> another way of looking at it. >> another issue that is developing that i've been writing about over at msnbc.com is, you know, last week we saw one of president obama's nominees being quashed by red

state democrats nervous about the potential attack ads that could be run against them. now we see another nominee put up for surgeon general, and he's being attacked by the nra and republican senators, including senator rand paul, for his advocacy around gun violence and basically tying gun violence to public health which is something that's not controversial within the public health community. >> right. >> but the nra is going to score this vote on his confirmation, again putting red state democrats in a very tough position. do you think they will hang tough this time, or do you think we could see the doctor go down? >> i don't know. i think the nra carries a lot of currency in red states obviously. i think it would make sense to think about this much the same way we think about alcohol. the surgeon general has a lot of involvement, even a surgeon general's warning on alcohol packages, and that's not because the surgeon general is trying to prohibit alcohol. it's recognizing that alcohol, like guns, is a legal product that a lot of people are going to use that has public health implications and we try to

figure out how do we manage the combination of widespread use while containing actually often very similar public health problems, both closely related to violent crime, so if people would think about it that way, then you could say the surgeon general is going to involve himself in this and it's not about taking away your guns, but in practice we've seen special rules in a sense for guns compared to other kinds of products. seen states passing these laws that proverdict insurers from asking questions about guns in the home. given that a gun is a legal product, i don't see why that should mean a homeowner's insurer shouldn't say this increases claims risk so we want to charge you for you. there's an assurance that homeowners -- >> the gun issue is not rational. it becomes very cultural and personal. that's how the nra has effectively been able to defeat some of these things. you can have a logical public health and talk about the insurance which josh brought up about insurance companies and whether they wanted to deal with

owning a gun and where that fits on actuary tables and things like that, it doesn't matter. you don't get to have rational statistical arguments on guns in our political arena. >> right. >> and i think to chuck's point. that's part of what the nra's agenda is not to have their agenda cabined by science but rather to get a jump on when science through government policy may restrict some of what they consider their gun rights. thank you both for joining us. we'll actually have more on this story as the nomination process continues, and we have more coverage on our website. check that out, msnbc.com. and we're still waiting on new video from inside the president's meeting with ukraine's prime minister. as we told you, we'll bring that to you live when it comes up. next, how the meeting went and what comes afterwards.

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vice president biden is also in attendance, and we are waiting on video from that meeting. it comes as the senate foreign relations committee is set to take a vote in just a couple of hours on some of the harshest sanctions against russia since the cold war. introduced by committee chairman senator bob menendez the bill would impose economic penalties on russian officials complicit in ukrainian corruption as well as anybody responsible for moscow's military takeover of crimea. stopped short of going after russian banks. that nbc/"wall street journal" poll fund russia is viewed more as an adversary than ally and a group of seven world leaders overseas issued a warning to halt all actions to annex crimea saying the plan would have no legal standing and would raise the possibility of second-stage sanctions. as we await those remarks we have a senior fellow from the council of for relations and

former director of european affairs for the national council. charlie, what's the most important thing to come out of this meeting? >> i would say the main thing is the symbolism, that president obama has reached out to the interim prime minister. he's saying we think you're legitimate. we support you. we're going to give you assistance and we're going to help you put pressure on the russians to get out of ciman peninsula. it's a tall order because it looks like putin is there to stay, but right now we see the u.s. working with the g-7 and with european allies to put as much pressure as possible on putin before his grab and annexation of crimea becomes a fait accompli. >> charlie, when you look at a lot of the coverage and the analysis of this standoff, some of it seems to miss a pretty key point which is this region of crime ark, it being a warm water port and it being a strategic piece of importance for russia versus the fact that for the u.s., other than some sort of

cold war memory, it is not in our backyard. it is not on the same strategic interest. doesn't that go a long way towards explaining the standoff right now? >> well, listen, the good news is that nobody is talking about war. neither the united states nor nato is contemplating the idea of inserting forces into ukraine or trying to push the russians out, and that's because it is far away. the russians were already there. they have had a naval base there for a long time, and at lea-- a lease on that base until at least 2042. russia is breaking the rules. russia is essentially tearing up the charter that says we respect the sovereign territorial integrity of other states that. forces us to say where's russia heading? what are its intentions? do we need to rethink the nature of our relationship with them? if russia does annex the crimea, i think the answer is yes, we'll probably see tougher economic sanctions, and we just don't

know whether we're going back to something resembling the cold war, i don't think so, but clearly this is the most significant crisis in europe since the lapse of the soviet union over 20 years ago. >> charlie, when you talk about the significance of the situation because of this incursion into crimea, it makes -- i want to go back into some of the reasons you were just discussing about why this is so important for putin. fred kaplan is really strong on these issues and talked about putin would incur almost any risk to losing ukraine. no consequences would keep putin to do whatever it takes to hang on to ukraine. so go further into why this real estate is so important to him. is it the cultural piece, the military piece were you just talking about? is it about making sure to quash any revolt in the soviet space at all? >> well, you know, i think that when you step back from the day-to-day events, what's happened here is a serious blow to putin, and that's because as president he has tried to -- to

try to build up the eurasian union, to reconstitute a bloc with russia at the center and ukraine as the junior partner. what happened over the last few months is that ukrainians took to the street, and they said no thank you, been there, done that and don't want to go back to being in the sphere of the russian influence. that's a tactical problem for putin, he backed yanukovych who was chased out of his country like a criminal and he wanted to rebuild this union with ukraine staunchly as an ally. that's over, so i think what's happened here is that putin has lashed out in anger. he has gone to the ciman peninsula which has great historic as well as military and cultural importance to russia and is able to save his national face at home, at least i got the ciman peninsula and i'm reattaching it to the motherland, but part of what

we're seeing here is ukraine's departure from russia's sphere of influence in a way that's a real historic setback for the russian federation. >> charlie, take that even a step further because one of the things i've been thinking about are sort of the longer term implications for putin and russia and russia's relationship with the rest of the world. the "new york times" is reporting on the relationship between putin and german chancellor angela merkel. they used to have, by all accounts a very strong and cordial and very productive relationship. that seems to be frayed now, so this move into crimea is not without consequences. it seems to be really isolating russia in the world in a lot of ways. >> no question about that. i think right now russia is finding itself helped in. they are not even getting support from the chinese, and that's because this whole idea of self-determination and ethnic minority makes the chinese very uncomfortable because of their large population of uighurs in

the province. right now sanctions are pretty much sanctions light. they are focused on particular individuals with dirty hands in crimea or in ukraine, those who have exercises corruption or stolen assets, but it's possible that two, three, four weeks from now we could be talking about restricting the access of russian banks to the global financial system, energy sanctions, trade sanctions. we're heading down a road here in which i think putin is going to find himself not regretful, because ultimately this is about nationalism, but paying a cost. in fact, the russian stock market and the russian ruble already plummeting. that's not making putin happy. >> yeah. thanks so much for breaking this down for us, charlie. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> up next, more on the president's remarks expected any second. up next, the president's pick for a top civil rights post, and now his surgeon general nominee

is under fire for what he did as a doctor. we'll look in on that, new nomination battle brewing in the nation's capital next. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge.

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adegbile, president obama's pick to lead civil rights, voted down because of his defense of a notorious cop killer in 2007. seven democrats broke ranks to vote against that nomination and now the president's nominee for surgeon general dr. vivek hallegere is facing a difficult nomination because he pushed measures to reduce gun violence in his advocacy group dock force for heck. the national rifle association has penned a letter to senate leadership strongly opposing the doctor's confirmation, despite the fact that the american medical association and the american academy of pediatric treat gun violence as a public health care and he also testified that gun control would not be his primary focus. >> i do not intend to use the surgeon general's office as a bully pulpit for gun control.

that is not going to be my priority. as we spoke about, my priority and focus is going to be on obesity prevention. there are a number of public health challenges that are facing our nation. my concerns with regard to issues like gun violence have to do with my experience as a physician. >> so let's take this issue to the table, and i do think it's a troubling trend here, as i said, the linking of public health to gun violence is not up for debate. it's really sort of a statement of fact. >> right. >> and not controversial at all within the public health community. the nra has not only decided to pen this letter, but they have also decided to score the vote on his confirmation which puts a lot of pressure on red state dems. let's remember we had a number of red state democrats, four of them last year, breaking with the rest of the democratic caucus to vote against background checks in the senate, and that was not in an election year, right, so a lot of these

democrats, the same ones potentially who voted down adegbile will be under a ton of pressure from the nra to march in lock stating the truth about the violence -- that gun violence is a real public health crisis. >> and just stating what is basic dogma within that community. if you didn't talk about guns as a public health issue, then you'd be out of step with the basic sort of knowledge in that community. this points to two things for me, as sort of gun mccarthyism where we're seeing, where anybody who says anything about the harmfulness of guns must be attacked and shamed. you think about that sort of guns and ammo editor fired and thrown to the wolves. >> right. >> and the sort of senatorial overreach we see. the nominations used to be about, do you have the call fks -- qualifications, and now it's, do we believe with everything you ever felt? think about scalia getting 98

votes and ginsburg getting 96 votes, and she says now i wouldn't be able to get through a senate nomination hearing, because i was once alallied wit the aclu. and how do you get to be a leader in your field without engaging with all the different organizations in your field and exposing yourself to this sort of situation? >> here's what i say. in today's world, you're right, if you're up for any sort of position in the administration, it's political. all cards are on the table. and republicans see obama in a very weak position, his poll numbers are down. they see that they've been successful in blocking nominations in the past. and this is something -- >> blood in the water. >> -- very passionate about. what chuck todd was saying. he's been an advocate, sending out letters. he's been lifting the ban of affordable care act so physicians can ask their patients if they own a gun. this isn't something i would want to be asked. i'm with conservatives on that. i wouldn't want to be asked that question. i understand their concerns. that being said, i think we're

making it very, very difficult -- and the question you have to ask, ari, is this person qualified? is this person best suited to do this job? and i think the way i would answer it, yes, we should be making it so people are wanting to serve, that people are wanting to run service. >> i'd love to jump in and say, yeah, that's the question. has the person done things to rise to the level of disqualifications? there is a vigorous debate in this country, and whether that has morphed into -- and everybody should look at msnbc.com for the article, someone supremely qualified referencing things that are factual, scientific, empirical things, this is a climate-denier kind of issue, when they're saying someone from a medical view says, hey, guns are dangerous, and when people use them to injure or kill, that has public health consequences, that that is now a subject for disqualification. i think krystal's people nails that.

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we are back and the ukrainian prime minister is speaking following his meeting with president obama. let's go ahead and listen in. >> -- show me. okay. it was a frank, open discussion. how to fix this dramatic crisis

that is going on in ukraine. mainly, it was about the military incursion that happened on the ukrainian territory. and we still believe that the right chances to pull back russian military with the political and diplomatic -- >> and we're now interrupting. we have new tape, newly released, of president obama and the ukrainian prime minister. let's listen. >> prime minister yatsenyuk to the oval office, to the white house. i think all of us have seen the courage of the ukrainian people in standing up on behalf of democracy and on, you know, the desire that i believe is universal for people to be able to determine their own destiny. and we saw in the maidan how

ordinary people from all parts of the country had said, "we want a change," and the prime minister was part of that process, showed tremendous courage, and upheld the principles of nonviolence throughout the course of events over the last several months. obviously, the prime minister comes here during a very difficult time for his country. in the aftermath of president yanukovych leaving the country, the parliament acted in a responsible fashion to fill the void, created an inclusive process in which all parties had input, including the party of former president yanukovych.

they have set forward a process to stabilize the country, take a very deliberate step to assure economic stability and negotiate with the international monetary fund, and to schedule early elections so that the ukrainian people, in fact, can choose their direction for the future. and the prime minister has managed that process with great skill and great restraint, and we're very much appreciative of the work that he has done. the most pressing challenge that ukraine faces at the moment, however, is the threat to its territorial integrity and its sovereignty. we have been very clear that we consider the russian incursion into crimea, outside of its bases, to be a violation of international law, of international agreements of which russia is a signatore, and

a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of ukraine. and we have been very firm in saying that we will stand with ukraine and the ukrainian people in ensuring that that territorial integrity and sovereignty is maintained. i think we all recognize there are historic ties between russia and ukraine, and i think the prime minister would be the first one to acknowledge that. and i think the prime minister and the current government in kiev has recognized and has communicated directly to the russian federation their desire to try to manage through this process diplomatically. but what the prime minister, i think, has rightly insisted on is that they cannot have a country outside of ukraine dictate to them how they should ra