so how do you spend your st. patrick's day. we asked for your tweets. robert says he saws to the gas station at 7:00 a.m., buys with change and passes out by noon. >> i buys beer with change? i like that. i live in florida, i spend time with eye irish pal, paddy o'furniture. get it? "way too early" is over. "morning joe" starts right now. thanks, gang. ♪ ♪ yea ♪ >> the fbi could have been called to help that and interpol could have been called in. there has been no terroriconnec

out there. so far nothing is picked up by the intelligence community from day one. >> search teams may have just 20 days to find flight 370 when the black boxes are expected to die out and shutting down the best hopes of locating the missing plane and the 239 people on board. more than two dozen countries are combing the oceans and land for debris, some 3,000 miles away from the plane's last known location. the hunt covers a huge portion of central asia. and some of the most remote areas of the sea. now investigators are turning their attention to the pilots. plus russian flags are waving in crimea this morning as the region votes to break away from ukraine. white house calls the referendum a sham with 95% voting to succeed and no other real options on the ballot. the standoff ova peninsula the size of maryland is pitting

moscow against the west with all too familiar echoes of the cold war. good morning, rch. it is monday, march 17th. welcome to "morning joe." a busy day. on set is "way too early" host thomas roberts. good morning. former treasury official steve rattner who actually has some great theories on the plane with your aviation experience. retired nbc news aviation correspondent bob hagger. great to have you here on the set and your insight today. also from washington, columnist and associate editor for "the washington post" david ignatius joins us as well so let's get right into it. the missing for flight 370 has entered unprecedented stage on this tenth day of search efforts. all there is ambiguity and makes no sense and official are take ago closer look at the pilots on the plane. nbc's tom costello reports. >> reporter: the search in the waters off malaysia and thailand

may only be a formality suggesting that 370 flight flu up to seven hours after last point known of contact in the strait of malaca. if it went south, it likely headed deep into the vastest of the indian ocean not covered by radar. if it went north it could be from burma to bangladesh and kazakhstan. india and pakistan satisfy their radars did not pick up the plane so far. >> crossing 11 countries. as well as deep in remote oceans. >> reporter: malaysian police have visited the homes of pilots shah and hamid. they had not requested to fly together to the trip to beijing and captain shrks ah's home has been searched.

>> we have dismantled it and assembled it and getting experts to look at it now. >> reporter: one friend of captain shah is quoted as saying he is not a terrorist. the indian navy is pulling back, meanwhile, suspended its search. >> approximately three nautical miles out moving starboard. >> reporter: the uss kidd is searching. >> just to give you some context as to the size of that area, if you superimposed a picture of the united states in this area between india and malaysia, it almost would be like looking for one person somewhere between new york and california. >> reporter: veteran investigators now say it's possible the plane and its passengers may never be found. >> it may be that somewhere down the road, a month from now, a year from now debris watches up

on the beach someplace that would identify the airplane but we will never be able to track it back to find the actual debris site if it's in deep ocean. >> let's start with bob hager. nobody does reporting on this better. i want to start with the pilot and the flight simulator in his home. is that what pilots do in their spare time? >> i don't know if it's schedule-scale. i don't know. >> why did they remove? >> reporter: they want to see what he has been playing with. has he made any try runs of a trajectory such as this plane took so that is a key thing. >> reporter: events throughout the weekend talk about this plane and what happened to it. did it land? why didn't people text from the plane? >> there's so many questions. this is just unprecedented! you never imagine in this day and age with radar all over the place and so forth, a lot of planes went missing back in the '50s and '60s when there was not sophisticated radar around but in this day and age, it's just

very, very unusual. you know, we may never know. all of my years of reporting i never used to say that, we may never, because it was tempting. >> you're saying it now? >> they always solved these things after a couple of years but in these years, ten days have gone by. >> sully sullenberger has been the go to guy and calls this one of the most remarkable aviation mysteries ever if they can't find it. thomas? >> bob, mika brings up there were no phone calls or texts that have registered anywhere. the sophistication of radar is at its best right now. the black boxes as i understand it only have two-thirds of battery power left to give off the pings. >> the audio one, the cockpit voice recorder which would tell you what went on in the cockpit, that records over itself every two hours. if the action all occurred at about the time they are losing communication, then it flies on

and on and on and it's not recorded any more. even if you find it, you don't have that end of it. >> steve rattner, what is the biggest question you think of? you fly. i know i was pounding you saturday night at a party saying, why do planes have transponders you can just flip off? but i guess clearly there are safety issues there? >> you have to be able to turn your equipment off if something goes wrong with it so that is not unusual. >> what comes to mind? is there a theory? is there anything? >> look. what do we know? we know this was not an equipment malfunction. the plane turned direction and went off on a course and so forth. we know that somebody with experience was at the controls. this was not being flown by some amateur. they knew how to turn off the transponders and turn off a system which emits the pings to the satellites. they had some idea where they were going. what happened after that is the mystery and why particularly if the plane turned south which is

what the malaysians now think it did makes no sense. only thing out there is open ocean. that is where the mystery really takes us to. >> i can't believe bob hager is saying is might never be found. you have to tell me there is something, some way to do it. >> the twa crash in the 1990s off long island took four years really to come to some conclusive findings on it but they found it. this one, boy, i don't know. >> david ignatius, i know we will be talking about the other huge story of the day, ukraine. but just wondering about the international impact and sort of connections and lack thereof on this story, malaysia not working as well with other countries or so other countries say. what comes to mind there? how often do you think about terrorism being a factor when you think about this story? >> first, this story has demonstrated just how difficult it is for the countries that sound the south china sea,

malaysia, vietnam, china itself, to talk in useful ways. they have been furious at each other since this mystery began, increasingly sharp statements from china at a time when these surrounding countries really worry about more aggressive chinese policies in the region. in terms of terrorism, until that plane is found, the speculation that somebody took over control of the plane will persist. so, in a sense, one reason that people need to resolve this, find the plane and find evidence what happened is to address this deep fear. this would be a very sophisticated terrorist operation in which key transponders and other signals are turned off. so i think that's one of the drivers for pushing this, search to recover something that can tell us, tell us something about the terrorism issue. >> steve rattner, and a final question for bob. >> i think two things. first, it is very sophisticated. but it actually looks a little bit like what happened in 9/11. in 9/11, three of the four

planes did turn off the transponders. they were sophisticated and knew what they were doing. this one didn't end as well but the similarities, i think, are there. i agree with bob. i think there's -- i would not -- i would bet money against them ever finding this plane at this point. it is really going to be hard. >> the ten day period of time that these black boxes might work are one sign of hope but we are running out of time. what about rolls-royce and their ability to track -- any other ways we could potentially track this plane there is hope in the future of locating it? >> yeah. beyond the -- after the pings run out and they have about a 30-day life ordinarily. then it's just a matter of some wreckage washing up on a shore and somebody finding it by accident if they don't spot anything from the air. then that would give you some clue at least what area of the globe it was in. >> they are looking at such a wide swath of mileage. >> we are really running out of tichlt the ping from the black boxes carry only about 15 miles.

you will not find the plane off the ping of those black boxes. you need wreckage and something like that. >> i think the easier part as this is a complete mystery but now they have the flight simulator they are reconstructing that and looking at the backlog of history on it and the mystery might be solved by figuring out the people who were on board. >> i would just say that is an area of concentration. the two pilots, you know, are things to zero in on but you hope you get a suicide/murder plan and something like that about it might not be the simulator but something else. >> even if it was a suicide/murder plan the question is why did that plane fly seven more hours? >> yeah. why didn't he nose it over and take it in? >> right. >> bob hager, we will have you throughout the show and covering the story. but a major breaking story with global impact happening right now as well so we would switch you out with richard haass.

as far as russia is concerned the country is poised to get bigger this morning. voters in the region of crimea which is a part of ukraine for nearly 25 years opted yesterday to leave that country and join the russian federation. outcome was never no ndoubt. exit poll suggested ruffle 95% supported succession. crimea's current status was not an option on the ballot for ukraine so i'm not sure what the outcome would have been, otherwise. the white house rejected the referendum. the thousands of troops in the area and warning moscow of the additional costs of the role in the crisis. pro-russian celebrations lasted well into the night but now moscow must decide how to move forward. the government of vladimir putin who spoke with president obama by phone yesterday has to contend with crimea's economic and energy needs. putin must address the ukraine in military forces. still stationed on the embattled peninsula. further north scuffles broke out

between pro russian demonstrators and ukrainian police. they have built military forces in several regions along the border. prior to the vote at least 80 russian troops seized a natural gas terminal near crimea using military helicopters and armored vehicles. the pro-russian leadership claimed self-defense for taking over the facility. here is senator mccain on sunday. >> russia is a gas station masquerading as a country. its corruption, it's a nation that is really only dependent upon oil and gas for their economy. and so economic sanctions are important. get some military assistance so ukrainians can defend them themselves. look at moldova and georgia who are occupied by russian troops as we speak path toward

membership and nato. is there a myriad of steps that we can take and it will be very interesting to see to what degree our european friends will join us who are dependent on russian energy supplies. >> joining us now at the table is the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass and david ignatius in washington two of the top minds on issues like this. what is russia's end game at this point? >> we don't know if the russians know their end game. for all we know putin is making this up as he goes along and seeing the various actions to steps he takes. two steps to watch. how do the russians move to incorporate crimea into the russian federation and how the world reacts to that. the second academic is what, if anything, are the russians going to do beyond crimea and eastern ukraine. we have multiple theaters if you

will to watch. >> david, as it per taints to crime crimea and ukraine is russian reigniting the cold war? >> we don't know yet whether this is a fundamental russian move back toward confrontation with the west. we will find out today when the european union meets to decide on sanctions against russia for what it's done and authorizing the crimea referendum and how serious europe will be an as an ally. if they freeze the assets while they are their money in europe to a lesser extent in the united states that will be punishing for russia. we will see what russia itself wants to do. the crimians said they want to be a part of russia. its legal status is in a kind of a limbo and could continue that way for weeks and even months while discussions continue with

the u.s., with the ukrainian government in kiev while russia tries to get as much as it wants to protect itself. all the while you could have russian troops on the border of ukraine and pro-russian demonstrators in cities like karkeiv in the east of ukraine and ever present threat of russian military intervention. you heard john mccain say we should be ready to provide military assistance to some sort of ukraine. those are the questions i'll be looking at this week. >> thomas roberts, what year is this? i feel like we are falling back in time. richard doesn't agree. >> we left last week we know there were strategican russian military on the borders while the vote was about to take place. kiev worked ahead of time to discredit the crimean

parliament. >> they had no other options. >> it was led by vladimir putin you can see -- >> it is complicated. >> well, sure it's complicated and going to get a lot more complicated. you have potentially days, weeks, or months before the russians act politically on this and several steps have to happen under the russian political system. what is interesting how much of life is about implementation. it's one thing to say you want crimea to come in and you have to make it a function of the economy and the energy situation. you've got to think about, you know, how all this plays out. for the russians it's knots simply an abstraction or political thing. the idea there would not be one gunshot fired you have to be an optimist. some national from ukraine will use force and then what? this is in no ways, if you will,

settled. i still think much bigger thing as david and john mccain referred to what do you do if this gets beyond that? whatever special rights or considerations the russians have in ukraine and no way does that legisla legitimate mize what they did. nothing like that in the rest of ukraine and where i think for the united states and europe this goes for being a crisis of one scale to something that is equ equ different. >> our president some evidence he hasn't shown enough leadership in this. what is your take? >> the sanctions will be economic almost entirely. there will be things like visa bans which prevent russians and ukrainians from traveling. i believe there will be asset freezes of some key russian officials close to putin whose

as sets at risk. there were was word over the weekend people were moving their assets out of banks in europe and the u.s. we head into the real heart of the confrontation. what secretary of state kerry has been saying in almost daily phone calls to his russian counterpart lavrov and what president obama reiterated yesterday in talking to putin the u.s. seeks what is called an exit or off-ramp from the crisis. what that would mean is essentially discussions about the future legal status of crimea. some kind of quasi autonomous state. does the russians have any interest in that? so far they haven't shown any but those discussions are continuing. i think the view in washington is over the longer run, putin has a very weak position.

russia may ab 19th terms of power in decisive military force to grab crimea but the 21st century power in how it's connected to the global economy and it's banking system. it has the 21st century vulnerablity. >> that makes sense listening to david to someone who cares and not crazy and unself-aware and lost a true sense of relate. i'm dead serious here. when we are talking about vladimir putin is he going to give a damn about any sanctions and what is the off-ramp some when does the off-ramp end? putin's mindset, first of all, take it. >> he cares about putin and he cares putin and the cares about his political position and would like to grow the russian federation. not so much about ukraine. this is about in his case compensating for the fact that yanukovych lost power and you

had to do something to reinforce his position at home. why the economics matter so much. if they weaken his political base at home for putin the stakes have gone up dramatically. to steve, it's not russian vulnerability when we eneleded the european sanction. one of the conversations in washington is how much a boomerang effect. yes, the russians are integrated in the world but we are even more integrated. what impact does this have on the u.s. and european economies and how might the chinese and others who part ascess in the united states how might they react if they see the first sign of a political crisis the united states moves to freeze the assets of foreigners and might they withdraw some of their assets from the united states? >> i think a couple of points on that, richard. first, we have seen sanctions can sometimes work as they seem to have done in iran most recently but they take a long time. they are highly problematic. they often don't work for an extended period of time. secondly, as you said, we are dependent -- well, the west, on

russia as they are on us. a lot of russian gas passes through the ukraine and goes to europe. they are the potential repercussions as you said with other countries saying, well, if they did this to russia, what about to us? from where i'm sitting it seems to me president obama's exit ramp is a difficult exit ramp. i don't see the russians picking up and leaving crimea. maybe a chance kerry can negotiate a face-saving deal for us. the biggest challenge for us and biggest opportunity is draw the line where it is now and keep the russians from going any further. >> john kerry did make headway over the weekend stabilizing the conversation and no better person to have there. having said that, i would agree with you. coming up on "morning joe," u.s. senator chris murphy just back from a trip to ukraine this weekend. and dr. zbigniew brzezinski and dr. nancy sniderman is back from

syria and she did incredibly moving reporting on the children suffering there. you don't want to miss what she has to share. town and country's jay fielden is here with the magazine's new issue. that is always fun. up next, mike allen has today's top stories in the political playbook. first, dylan dryer, inside finally. >> what is up with the short draw you have been drawing? it's like the guys are making you outside in the snow. great to have you. >> nice to be here. we are still talking about more snow, believe it or not. a major snowstorm hitting d.c. right now. 7 to 9 inches already on the ground. this stretches down to florida we could see severe storms later on today. a closer look at the snow. the heaviest of it is moving through washington, d.c. right now. this is the fifth time this winter that federal offices have been shut down in d.c. because

of weather. we are going to see some improvements over the next xuver hours and from heavy snow to lighter snow showers and most what we are getting out of this system is already on the ground. we are looking at major improvements from the d.c. area. a snowstorm today and up to 61 degrees by friday. it will be a distant memory as soon as we get through this morning. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ you do your swipe from anywhere thing, we'll be here at lifelock doing our thing: watching out for your identity, data breach or not. get lifelock protection and live life free.

gundyes!n group is a go. not just a start up. an upstart. gotta get going. gotta be good. good? good. growth is the goal. how do we do that? i talked to ups. they'll help us out. new technology. smart advice. we focus on the business and they take care of the logistics. ups? good going. we get good. that's great. great. great. great. great. great. great. great. great. (all) great! i love logistics. that's why joe was over the weekend, in new hampshire. did you see that picture? >> i did. the granite state. >> it was amazing. "v" for victory. from our parade of papers. the dallas morning news.

new information is emerging about the drunk driving suspect who allegedly plowed his car into crowds at the south by southwest festival in austin, texas, i got a great t-shirt from that place. this is an incredible story. horrible, horrible. police are now saying a 21-year-old rashad owens accelerated as he approached the crowds and did not use his brakes. owens remains in jail and has been charged with one count of capital murder. a total of 23 people were injured. and two were killed. amazing story out of austin. our best wishes to the people who are recovering. >> unbelievable. what happened? >> a band went to perform for some of the people who are recovering so nice images there. "wall street journal" dropped by 30%. a new study says the people of people getting colonoscopies

have tripled since 2005. doctors recommend at-risk adults get a colonoscopy beginning at 50 years of age. >> don't forget. the helicopter rescue of a dog stranded on a cliff in california. a black lab was saved after falling off a cliff along the coast of a beach in northern california. oreo fell 40 feet down a 90-foot cliff and was trapped on a two-foot wide ledge. that's really nice. he was unable to move. police air-lifted the dog to safety and reunited him had business owner. >> can you imagine how frantic you would be if you were the owner of that pet and seeing your dog fall? >> houston chronicle. the world war ii vet star has died. mcduffie is the young sailor we

recall who kissed a nurse in times square and that shot taken in 1945. the moment was made famous by a "life" magazine photographer. mcduffie was only 18 at the time. his identity was not confirmed until 2005. the navy vet was 86 years old. let's go to politico. with us now the chief white house correspondent for politico is mike allen and joining us also is senior political analyst and also a fantastic professional shopper. that, you are. >> a side life. >> i spoke to your wife. it's not her. it's you. >> i shop? >> mark halpern is joining us as we well. >> the green is picking up in your tie. >> i don't know if it's going to read on camera. >> he has more of a style eye than you give him credit for. >> we give him no credit. >> until he gave me a present and i look at him lovingly every day. yes. good shopping, mark.

senator rand paul won his second consecutive straw poll of the republicans contenders. he took home 15% of vote in the leadership conference in new hampshire over the weekend. new jersey governor chris christie came in second with 13%. and rick santorum, scott walker, and ben carson were tied in third each with 11%. mike allen, tell us more about what happened there. i know joe also went up there. he had a panel and had a great time. my twitter exploded talking about his speech and some of the things he was doing there. >> they seemed to love him up there. mika, this northeast republican leadership conference is sort of cpac for yankees so a little more sedate. the big story out of this poll was a second big win in a row for rand paul. mika, what we are hearing again and again, people who see rand paul campaigning and watching him, other republicans, his rivals say he seems to have a

real plan. wednesday, we're going to see senator rand paul at uc berkeley, believe it or not. "the new york times," cspan network tv say they are covering that. rand paul reaching out to new voters. second here we are seeing chris christie still staying strong among these republican activists. just tons of buzz about joe's appearance up there. neil labest, of the institute of politics where joe appeared friday night said he had to close it for fire requirements after 220 people. he was in that great theater where you have been. he wanted to keep trge. in new hampshire, people don't tend to get excited. they expect the politicians to come to you but neil labest told me he never had so many

activists up there posing for pictures and trying to get books auto graphed. the next day, great coverage and everybody from newsmax to the atlantic saying that he is getting some traction. >> a fun news max piece. mark halpern, mike allen makes a great point about new hampshire. they have seen a lot of candidates come and go so they are not easily impressed. it's not like going to another state that doesn't get a presidential visit that often. >> if you look at the people who create buzz this weekend, chris christie doing well in the straw poll. >> what do you make that have? >> i think republicans, as i said for a while, want somebody aggressive. they are looking for someone who can take on hillary clinton because until and unless she decides not to run it's a won word job description who can beat her. i think what republican activists want now is aggressiveness. governor romney never came off super aggressive and super motivated to win and drive hard. i think that's why you see the

people are doing well now are people who look aggressive. people like bobby jindal who is trying to be aggressive. >> it's not in their nature. richard? >> rand paul isn't that aggressive and comes on top of the poll again and going out to california. how much crossover support do you think he has with younger democrats because of his message about small government? >> not necessarily democrats but younger voters who are unaligned, you know, just like with his father and more so because he is younger, on college campuses there is nothing in the republican party that matches that. one of the things that rand paul has and this is so key if you're thinking of running for president, he knows what his strengths are and he knows how to consolidate them. he knows when he goes to college campuses he'll be do well. it's scheduling but that message he is smartly consolidating what he already has and looking to reach out to people in the establishment. his skills make him formidable. if he runs he's a player in

there and he can't say that about too many other people. >> i see you have green hue to your tie. you have gone all out. of course, you have. and richard haass, that's lovely. pastel. mike allen also green. st. paddy's day. >> mike o'allen. >> and david ignatius, what happened? >> this is a green sort of sweater. i tried. >> deep green. whatever. thanks a lot, david. it's really good to have you on the show. god knows my dad will wear a brown suit today just to bother me. mike allen, thank you. florida gators survived kentucky to win a number one seed in this year's ncaa tournament. a complete preview of march madness is next.

with at&t's new pricing for families you get 4 lines on at&t's network... including unlimited talk unlimited text ...and 10 gigs of data to share. 10 gigs? 10 gigs. all for $160 dollars a month. you know, i think our family really needed this. it's really gonna bring us closer together. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. introducing our best-ever family pricing for instance, a family of four gets 10 gigs of data with unlimited talk and text for 160 dollars a month. only from at&t. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow.

go national. go like a pro. salegets up to 795 highwayeal's the passamiles per tank.sel salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? avo: during the salesperson #2: first ever exactly. volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. and get a $1000 dollar fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models.

how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪

richard haass is doing his now. march madness is upon us. the ncaa selection committee has spoken and the florida gators are the number one overall seed. rounding out the other top three seeds, virginia in the east and

arizona wildcats in the west and undefeated wichita shockers. >> wichita state. >> thank you, mark. an emotional afternoon for the virginia team. earlier in the day they defeated duke to win their first acc title in nearly 40 years on. on the way home from the game the team stopped in a restaurant to catch the tournament's announcement. >> the final ncaa brackets. we reveal the east region. the fourth overall number one seed is virginia. >> they are psyched up there. snubs and surprises to talk about this year. smu left out of the tournament coached by larry brown south methodist mustangs. it would have been their first ncaa selection in 21 years. the louisville cardinals dropping to a four seed and some thought they would be seeded number one.

nc state punched their ticket with a big win over syracuse on friday. they were just as surprised as the rest of us so congrats to them. florida locked up the overall number one seed in the tournament. yesterday, the gators beat their s.e.c. rivals the kentucky wildcats to win their first s.e.c. title since they won back-to-back championships in '06 and '07. game close in the final minutes. kentucky drained it to make it a one-point game but in the final seconds kentucky loses the ball. i should remind everybody out there $1 billion on the line for one lucky person who can fill out the perfect bracket. will it be richard haass? we see in a moment. a publicity stunt. the odds of picking a perfect bracket is 1 in 9.2 quintillion.

that is a 1, a 9, and 2 and 17 zeros. >> i'm feeling the pressure. >> you only have one story left to fill this out. hold on. final video comes to you from the st. joe, vcu game. >> there is philip martelli, the coach, and on the left is his grandson who imitates his dad and even has his own grease board. >> he even has a pocket square and a really good impression of his grandpa going on. it's all about the look. he has the concerned hand on the face with the arm resting. >> baby! that's great! >> he's a cute kid for sure and making his granddad proud there. >> making me cry. >> you are crying. >> have you ever lost a contact and you don't think it's out? >> it's a sad moment. >> is it in your eye? >> whatever.

i'll put glasses on now. >> is it in your eye? >> i think it is. i don't know. >> it's deep inside of you. >> oh, god. >> horrible. >> all right. >> yeah. >> sorry. is that too much information? >> no. never is. >> all hosts talk about their contacts. >> it's way back there. up next, after ten days of search and rescue, there is speculation, more speculation than ever before about the whereabouts of flight 370. we are going to take a look at some other mysterious flight disappearances when we return. don't go away. we will be right back with much more "morning joe."

so i tried depend last weekend. so i it made the difference between hearing about my daughter's gym meet, and being there. yeah! nailed it! i got back to doing what i love. that's my daughter. hi sweetie! gotta dial it back a little bit on the rock climbing. one weekend can make all the difference. unlike the bargain brand, depend gives you the confidence of new fit-flex® protection. it's a smooth and comfortable fit with more lycra strands. it's our best protection. take your weekend on with a free sample at depend.com

this is when we usually do must read's but do something different today. newsmax has a huge piece on

joe's event in new hampshire and the great reception he got there with some great pictures. it was off the hook how many people showed up and apparently it was one of the best received segments there. steve rattner has some perspective on what might have happened to flight 370 so we are taking his brand of using charts and in a darcht way today to look at the theories and also try and track -- the thought they may never find this plane just doesn't compute, does it all for you? >> in fact, about an average of one plane a near-year-has been lost since 1948 and never found and nothing quite of this scale and certainly nothing in recent history but it does happen. >> what are we looking at here? >> a couple of thing. i know you're a slightly nervous flyer. >> me? you've flown with me. how am i?

>> a slightly nervous flyer. we will show you that flights are getting safer. you go back to the '80s and '70s we were losing about 2,500 people sometimes a year worldwide in flights. that's down to 500 moment. even as the number of people flying has gotten up to close to 3 billion. so in a worldwide basis, 500 people die a year what happens. 3 billion people nearly fly a year. you move on there from there to the next question on where does this happens. this relates to flight 370. there are what pilots call three phases of flights. takeoff, cruising and landing. cruising is where this accident seems to have begun is only a very small percentage of flights. planes do not fall out of the sky. there was something like seven planes over the last 12 years that actually crashed during a cruise flight. landing is the most dangerous as you might imagine, and takeoff

is third. >> this makes it even more mysterious. i've heard this before when i was like digging my fingernails into your arm or joe's arm when we are bumping around in mid air heading to some location to cover a primary, because i get sick to my stomach when we hit turbulence. the worst things come to my mind and you guys tell me planes don't fall out of the sky. >> what it does it points not to mechanical -- >> the point is even the idea the plane went up to 45,000 feet and depressure add send very unlikely because the planes are to take amounts of abuse. four or five signaling devices on these planes. the famous black box which we have talked a little bit about which lasts for 30 days. but only a signal range of 15 miles so you have to be really close to it to find it. life rafts have signaling devices on them but there

weren't any found in this case. and then you have the transponders we talked about that were switched off in this case that emit a discrete code that allow the brown radar to find it. even when they are switched off you have primary radar which is the ability to see a plane even without a transponder. the civilian radar had trouble doing that and military and malaysian radar did see it but didn't do anything about it. have you these pings we are talking about the planes put out about every hour. it's like a text messaging service for planes. the data part was turned out but the little pings kept going seven more hours. >> one an hour, right? >> one an hour when it's sort of stand-by mode. >> the wide swath of where this is it's incredibly difficult. possibly causes? what are we looking at? >> there is really three possible causes. let's look at the search area because this is really the question -- well, we are looking

at possible causes, i guess, first. there are three possible causes. one is equipment malfunction. i think we can rule that out. somewhere between crew intervention and hijacking is i think where you'll find the problem. either a passenger like a 9/11 who is equipped to fly this plane or the crew who somehow took it over. as i said earlier the question is why did they take over this plane and fly it for seven more hours? we think to the south in the direction of nowhere until they finally ran out of fuel. and so you end up with this vast search area that we can take a quick look at perhaps which starts with where the plane took off. this little black dot down here. >> why do you think it went south? >> because it really had two choices. this satellite ownver here has e ability to see the distance from the plane. it's like a radius but it doesn't know the direction. the reason they think it went south is because up in the north, you pass over a lot of countries like china, like india, like pakistan that have

sophisticated radar that could have seen this plane so it basically went south over the cuban ocean where there is basically nothing. >> we are not sure of anything but i think the -- by the way, the malaysians have done about as bad as you can do in providing information of ensuring its accuracy and making us feel like they know what they are doing. >> that lends itself to conspiracy theories about what really could have happened potentially. people talking about some cases this plane landing somewhere and wild conspiracies online. >> the conspiracies are amazing and also probably takes out of the picture the idea there is just a bomb that blew up, some kind of sabotage like that. it does seem to be a human invention in the cockpit by one or more unknown persons. >> steve, thank you. what is next for

u.s./russian relations now that cry me has has decided to become a part of rusch. with centurylink as your trusted it partner, you'll experience reliable uptime for the network and services you depend on. multi-layered security solutions keep your information safe, and secure. and responsive dedicated support meets your needs, and eases your mind. centurylink. your link to what's next.

save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.d everybody knows that. well, did you know pinocchio was a bad motivational speaker? i look around this room and i see nothing but untapped potential. you have potential. you have...oh boy. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. [ 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. ♪

. coming up at the top of the hour we bring back in the great bob hager for his take on the case of malaysia flight 370. as steve rattner just put it, we

don't know anything for sure right now. we will be looking at theories and possibilities. we will be right back. [ male announcer ] this is jim. a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke. for years, jim's medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but now, with once-a-day xarelto jim's on the move. jim's doctor recommended xarelto. like warfarin, xarelto is proven effective to reduce afib-related stroke risk. but xarelto is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem that doesn't require routine blood monitoring. so jim's not tied to that monitoring routine. [ gps ] proceed to the designated route. not today. [ male announcer ] for patients currently well managed on warfarin there is limited information on how xarelto and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. xarelto is just one pill a day taken with the evening meal.

plus, with no known dietary restrictions, jim can eat the healthy foods he likes. do not stop taking xarelto, rivaroxaban, without talking to the doctor who prescribes it as this may increase the risk of having a stroke. get help right away if you develop any symptoms like bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. you may have a higher risk of bleeding if you take xarelto with aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. talk to your doctor before taking xarelto if you have abnormal bleeding. xarelto can cause bleeding, which can be serious and rarely may lead to death. you are likely to bruise more easily on xarelto and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. tell your doctors you are taking xarelto before any planned medical or dental procedures. before starting xarelto, tell your doctor about any conditions such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. xarelto is not for patients with artificial heart valves. jim changed his routine. ask your doctor about xarelto. once-a-day xarelto means no regular blood monitoring -- no known dietary restrictions.

for more information and savings options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com.

♪ a live look at new york city on this monday morning. welcome back to "morning joe." it's the top of the hour. thomas roberts, steve rattner, and david ignatius are all still with us along with the retired nbc news aviation correspondent bob hager. thank you for coming in. we have learned new details just in the last hour about the

missing jet in asia. malaysia airlines now says it was the co-pilot who spoke the last words to ground controllers before the flight went missing. his words, "all right good night." came after one of the jet liners data communication switches had already been switched off. nbc's tom costello reporters. >> reporter: the search in the waters off malaysia and thailand may only be a formality suggesting that 370 flight flew up to seven hours after last point known of contact in the strait of malacca. two wide arks arcs show the potential of travel. if it went south, it likely headed deep into the vastest of the indian ocean not covered by radar. if it went north it could be from burma to bangladesh and kazakhstan so uzbekistan. india and pakistan satisfy their radars did not pick up the plane so far. >> crossing 11 countries.

as well as deep in remote oceans. >> reporter: malaysian police have visited the homes of pilots captain shah and first officer hamid. they had not requested to fly together to the trip to beijing and they have removed the simulator from captain shah's home searching for anything. >> we have dismantled it and assembled it and getting experts to look at it now. >> reporter: one friend of captain shah's is quoted as saying he is not a terrorist. the indian navy is pulling back, meanwhile, suspended its search. >> approximately three nautical miles out moving starboard. >> reporter: the uss kidd is still searching. >> just to give you some context as to the size of that area, if you superimposed a picture of the united states in this area

between india and malaysia, it almost would be like looking for one person somewhere between new york and california. >> reporter: veteran investigators now say it's possible the plane and its passengers may never be found. >> it may be that somewhere down the road, a month from now, a year from now debris watches up on the beach someplace that would identify the airplane but we will never be able to track it back to find the actual debris site if it's in deep ocean. >> the communication between air traffic controllers and the pilots give you anything? >> the last voice they here is the co-pilot but it's not nothing that -- >> to switch it off? >> we are grasping at little straws here until we get some more hard evidence. >> i agree with that caveat because we have gotten so much

misinformation. if it is true that the transponder was cut off before that last communication and the last communication is that co-pilot's voice is interesting communication. >> we still don't know if they are both in it together. that is the investigation right now i think is the background of the pilots. >> the agony for the families has to be so intense, bob. as we look at the 239 people on board and the families have to be looking for any shred of hope. >> and the theories flashing around in the media. >> it worries me sometimes you hear the plane might still be on the ground somewhere and that just doesn't seem possible to me. so long as you say the plane might be on the ground somewhere, of course, it gives a family a straw to grasp. >> i'll ask. bob hager, is there any chance, no chance at all? >> no. i think if they find that plane on the ground it's going to be in little pieces in the

himalayans or the bottom of the sea somewhere in the bottom of the indian ocean. >> what is the except we never know and never have any idea what these final moments for these passengers were, never? it's possible? >> that could be. that could be. i used to always avoid saying that in investigations because so many went on for years and they finally come to some fairly conclusive does she. >> why in this day and age, steve rattner. you talk to me a lot about the technical its of flying and how advanced it is to make me feel safe but i have to tell you to not be able to find a plane of that size with all those people in it, with all of these abilities to communicate and find things and google earth and whatever, i know i sound incredibly -- well, isn't it stunning to you? >> it's somewhat stunning but put it in perspective. 3 billion people a year fly, 500 people a year out of 3 billion die, one plane a year is lost and never found out of hundreds,

thousands, millions of flights that occur every day. look. it is painful for the families. i agree with bob and i think holding out this false hope is unfair to the families. >> they do know it was flying a lot longer than we first thought? >> oh, my gosh, yes. i think from the pings. >> a horrible question for you but, obviously, they knew they were going the wrong way? >> if they are alive and functioning, yeah, they did, absolutely. something is wrong. >> there is a reasonable chance that plane was basically flying without any pilots in control of it that it was just on autopilot for seven hours flying into the middle of nothingness. >> wow. okay. we are going to continue to cover this story. bob hager, thank you so much for coming down. i would also like to know more about tracking of the pilots and how they do that over time, especially when you have pilots like these who have served so many hours in flight, do we sort of lose track of how they are doing and their psychological -- >> well, psychological maybe but i think the airlines keep fairly close track of their flying

skills. psychologically, that's much more difficult. >> would it be odd for that captain, you know, to -- who was putting up videos of having the flight simulator in his house is that a red alert or is that pretty typically for people have the love of flying have something so sophisticated? >> i wouldn't get caught up in the flight simulator. there are a lot of pilots who play around with flight simulators in their spare hours. he had been flying with that airline for 30 years and maybe something snapped in his head but i wouldn't bet on that. >> egyptian co-pilot took an egyptian plane down in the 1990s and never found anything in his background at all that he was suicidal but clearly from the physical evidence, the cockpit flight recorder he took that plane in but they never found anything in his background. >> we are going back to this story but massive breaking news over the weekend pertaining to ukraine. as far as russia is concerned

the country is poised to get bigger. voters in the region of crimea opted yesterday to leave ukraine and join the russian federation. it's not like they had a lot of options on the ballot, though. nbc's richard engel is there and filed this report. >> reporter: russia took crimea by force. today's vote was just about the paper work. the russian troops here don't show their faces or wear insignia on their uniforms but they are everywhere. the russian armored vehicles outside polling stations showed how moscow wanted this vote to go. respected international election monitors weren't allowed to come. one thing is transparent about this vote is the ballot box and so far all of the votes we have seen have been for joining up with russia. russia has popular support here. how did you vote? >> i voted for russia because

crimea has always been russian. >> reporter: for the prime minister it's a done deal. if i want to come back here i need a russian visa? >> yes, you should do it. >> reporter: because ukrainian visa wents visa won't be enough. >> yes. crimea is russia. >> reporter: this activist who poos moscow politics showed us the billboard outside hf his apartment building where someone put up this poster warning neighbors a traitor is living among you. activists like you have been beaten here and intimidated certainly. do you think you lost? did russia win? crimea lost and so did ukraine, but i'll continue to fight against putin's regimen, he said. celebrations are under way. a welcome to russia party for

crimea. joining us is former national security for president carter, dr. zbigniew brzezinski. thank you, dad, for coming in. senator party murphy who just got back from ukraine is also joining us and david ignatius is also with us. a great panel to talk about this along with thomas and steve rattner and david haas. dad, i'll remember the trip we took to ukraine many years ago. a beautiful country. beautiful people. tom donland who held your job in this administration calls this one of the most important leadership moments for the united states. how are we doing some and what can we do at this point? same question for david too. >> first of all, we have to have some sense of what is happening and in my judgment, what is happening is that putin has decided to push as hard as he can to achieve his objective, in

effect, the restoration of the soviet union under a new name. iran is the central prize in that effort. he thought he had it in. he thought he it with yanukovych in charge and thought ukraine would become part of it and would facilitate this new entity but it turned out the other way. people of ukraine rebelled and the government was overthrown and the government is stabilizing itself. putin in his first instinctive reaction decided to punish ukraine to shake it up and see to break its will so he took crimea. now we will see whether he goes on further or not. that, in turn, means that the game will be played in part with ukraine itself. if it stabilizes, if we help it assertively and we convey to putin it will not be indifferent if he tries to invade ukraine,

things may still work out okay. if not, i think the road to an empire from moscow will be opened by force with dangerous international consequences. >> david ignatius? >> well, i think, dr. brzezinski, your dad is setting up the right problem for us to think about. i put it in simple terms. is putin playing a strong hand here so that he is going to prevail over time or is he really at a weaker position than it appears? and just to argue the latter view, he may have accomplished the opposite of what he wanted. his neighbors are now afraid of him and turning toward nato. russia will be increasingly isolated economically and he appears to have lost most of ukraine, a key strategic neighbor and might have gotten

crimea but kiev, the capital of ukraine, seems to be moving westward. it may for all of the tough appearance of putin's tactics will be something that doesn't serve him in the long run. >> richard haass, take it to my dad. i'm just wondering about the mindset of vladimir putin and how much really credit we should be able to give him at this point to negotiate in a way that is even slightly above board. >> that is one of the interesting parts of this p.m. imagine you were still at the white house. one of the hard things it seems to me here is putting yourself inside putin's shoes. you seem to be thinking that he is already decided to, if you will, try to re-create the glory and scale of the russian empire but isn't it quite possible that he hasn't really decided anything yet and that he is improvising and each stage you're seeing what he feels he has to do to straighten his position at home and he is testing american and european resolve here? and doesn't that, in turn, make it much more difficult for the

administration to know how hard to react to individual steps he takes? >> i think he is improvising to some extent. i think the sues ur of crimea was an improization and a brutal one with the soldiers being the executive of his will. i think his objective is re-create the soviet union under a new name. he is announcing it. conjoeling states like kazakhstan and uzbekistan to join them. if he sees that we are passicifs and i think he'll try overtly to destabilize ukraine and that, in turn, will rest on the question will the ukrainians react and will they defend their country or fall apart?

here also how we act is going to be critical to the reactions of the ukrainians who are supportive. i think they will stand fast. if we are not, it will make it much easier for putin to destabilize ukraine altogether. >> thomas roberts, sanctions begin today but often they take a lot longer to really have an impact. >> we have senator chris murphy with us just back from a delegation to ukraine. you talked about the voting in crimea and called it phony. what is your take after having your visit to ukraine, how the government there is trying to reorganize and what this means going forward? >> well, i agree with david ignatius, which is what has essentially happened is the resolve inside ukraine to join the european union turn away from russia has hardened the course of the last several weeks. remember, crimea is important to russia but only 2 million of the 45 million population of ukraine

and ultimately putin has put himself in a pretty weak situation in the strategic sense because crimea's routes, gas and water lines all run through ukraine and if the end result is the other 43 million join the european union this is a huge loss for putin, not a win. the referendum was a sham. the ukrainian media was shut down and journalists and activists were intimidated. i think he is makiing this up a we go along opinion i think in the end he'll think he need to move further than crimea to get the end result here. >> you are a member of the democratic party and you'll be talking to the white house about your trip, senator. two questions. one now having been to ukraine, how would you respond or react to the criticisms of the administration and various actions around the world that

may have encouraged this. having listened to the question about sanctions and what we should and shouldn't be do what would you advise the white house what they should do about the situation there? >> i think the criticism of the administration is ridiculous. i agree that putin, for a long time, has had these extra territorial envisions. he vieded georgia under a republican president and ukraine under a democratic president. the fact is we are in a position now where the vast majority of ukraine has turned away from russia and toward the eu because of the strong administration. this is a test now and this has to be not only about major economic support for ukraine so solidify their government and tough real sanctions and not just against individuals but against russian banks and petrochemical kals and some acknowledgment there is support we can give the ukrainian military. i'm not suggesting arming them but they could use communications equipment that may help them at least forestall

a greater movement into their country other than crimea. >> david ignatius? >> i wanted to ask dr. brzezinski about something i remember he told me six years ago when we were talking about these iciossues. if ukraine moved toward europe, it would pull russia gradual toward it and that was the strategic key event that was remaining in the story of the end of the soviet union. do you still think that is possible? >> i think that is possible. after putin. but only if we make sure that putin doesn't swallow ukraine. it's nice to say ukraine going to europe and joining europe. in fact, a very, very long road and there will not be joining it for a long time. in the meantime, there's a real danger, which we cannot ignore of the russians attempting to detach sections of ukraine piece-by-piece. everything depends on the degree

of cohesion within ukraine, its determination to resist, if need be, by force. suppose the same thoughts that have seized crimea are sent into ukraine with our masks? are they going to finally shoot at them? if not, ukraine can be destabilized and something we have to warn by warning the russians this would have serious consequences and not hesitating to give arms to ukraine if they need them and to use them. otherwise how will they defend themselves? they are vulnerable economically and militarily. >> there's so many russian interests inside ukraine. >> yes. groups of russians that might simply become tools in the event of destabilizing the country and that is a reality we have to face. one more point. i think the president should really speak to the country. he has spoken several times to putin. but he needs to speak to the country and outline what the issues are in a nonbelligerent

fashion and say to the russians we want to cut a deal with you and we should both help ukraine and not make it an enemy of you but you ought to explain to the country what the stakes are because, otherwise, his policy is going to look uncertain and mittiving. >> i just had a panic attack because i interrupted you, dad. we will end now then on the stakes because i think that is a perfect way to go here. richard haass and dr. brzezinski and david ignatius answering the same question. consolidate it as much as you can. what is at stake if our efforts are not successful to get putin to back down and stay in his lane. >> there is one country hasn't been mentioned in this country. germany. the other big variable here is how robust the germans are and hoe robust the europeans are at resisting this. we are not talking about the cold war. i think russia has limited ambitions but talking about in

some ways the stability of europe. the united states is focused so much on the middle east in recent years and talked about a pivot so asia. we are seeing the return of strategic europe. at stake here is the future of russia and russian behavior and the stability of what was one of the central arenas of the cold war. >> dad? >> we have to ask ourselves what will happen if things work out well and i think the prospect then is eventually russia will follow the path it takes if it takes it successfully. if it works out badly, i think we are back to kind of a cold war in central europe. i think they are vulnerable the people muscle douand unless we closely with our friends in europe in defense of the independence of these countries who could have a very unpleasant period ahead of us. >> david ignatius? >> i would say simply the question is can the united states follow through on the

commitments that it's made? can it make sure that putin and russia pay a cost what they have done in crimea. now there needs to be follow through. on dr. brzezinski's points about the neighbors. many of these countries are nato allies and it's important there be a nato presence and planes be flying in and out and awax reconnaissance planes be overhead and that all of the basic architecture be visible to russia as a deterrent for moving any further. >> our thanks to senator chris murphy dr murphy and dr. brzezinski. i know bad weather in washington, david, so thank you for coming in. joe was over new hampshire over the weekend and looking to chart a new course for the republican party. we have the highlights. we know who spoke the final words from the cockpit before flight 370 lost contact. how it impacts the search for the missing plane.

you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ameriprise ask a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. is really what makes it slike two deals in one.he $1,000 fuel reward card salesperson #2: actually, getting a great car with 42 highway miles per gallon makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event get a great deal on a jetta tdi.

it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. volkswagen has the most tdi clean diesel models of any brand. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models.

all right. joe scarborough was up in new hampshire this past weekend speaking about his latest book, "the right path." newsmax has a great piece up this morning. i love newmax, did the great reception he got and everything that happened there, what he said, what others said. pac packed house. here is a note from new hampshire. ♪ >> reporter: ronald reagan believed in his heart and he could tell people with his words, conservatism. that didn't help the 47%. that helped all americans. it was just as relevant to an 18-year-old latino in south

central l.a. as it is a 65-year-old hedgefund broker in greenwich, connecticut. >> reporter: joe scarborough went to new hampshire this weekend to promote the ideas in his book i, "the right path" but talk quickly turned to 2016. joe what was asked to headline two events in the granite state to talk about how republicans can win the white house again. >> we are not going to start winning national elections again until we get somebody that can get both ted cruz's vote and colin powell's vote. >> a packed house in the new hampshire institute of politics in manchester. >> people get upset when i say we need colin powell to vote for us. they say, but wait a second. he voted democratic the last two elections! we want the people that used to vote republican that are now

voting democratic to come back home. >> reporter: then it was to neighboring nasua where he shared his view of remaster politics with first in the nation primary veterans at the northeast republicans meeting. >> we don't want another clinton in the white house for eight years. i heard a "praise god." so let's just try this and all of the people said, amen! and we have lost our way over the past several years. you win by knocking on doors. it's not enough that you get people voting for republicans that come from my household because we never voted for a democrat in the national election any way. you got to bring people back home. >> i think new hampshire has proven that it gives everyone a fair shot, you know? even a guy that works at msnbc if he wanted to. >> oh! >> we are pretty open-minded.

>> let me say right now, i really don't think we can get al sharpton up here, but i will ask. ♪ >> it was a great event. the book is really a great sort of map for the republican party to help the party figure out how to win again, which joe was up there trying to do and they all kept saying, are you going to run? are you going to run? i wish i had gone and say, no, i won't let him, because i love my job. >> fun speculation. >> it was good. >> oh, now. coming up, we have colonel marriage mcsally and former executive for ntsb greg feith in the search for the missing flight 370.

so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 a month? yup. all 5 of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line, anytime, for $15 a month. low dues, great terms. let's close! new at&t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business.

[ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay. you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car, and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

33 past the hour. as the search for malaysia flight 370 enters its tenth day, the possibility that the jet will never be found continues to grow. but it's actually not the first

flight to seemingly vanish into thin air. >> reporter: it's 2009. air france airbus a-330 disappears over the atlantic headed from rio de janeiro to par paris. no distress calls from the pilots. it takes search crews five days to locate the tail of the plane and another two years to find the bulk of the wreckage. the final verdict? a deadly stall caused by ice crystals blocking the plane's sensors. in 1996 one of the most disputed air disasters in recent memory. twa flight 800 exploded in mid air shortly after it took off from new york city killing all 230 people on board. several witnesses reported seeing a streak of light and a fireball leading to theories that the plane was downed by a missile or a bomb. >> i believe that the twa flight 800 exploded as a result of an

explosion instructexterior from of the aircraft. >> no one will find that it was a flight 800 a tragedy. >> reporter: it took four years to conclude the explosion was caused by an electrical short-circuit that ignited by the plane's fuel tank. the legend began in 1945, five navy planes known as flight 19, and 14 crew members were lost between bermuda, puerto rico, and miami. a rescue plane conducting a search was also lost. flight 19's instructor reported problems with his compass. many assumed the planes lost their bearings and ran out of fuel and the crew members ejected into the ocean and never to be found. the navy's official report list the cause as reasons unknown. but perhaps the most infamous missing plane mystery of all time, amelia earhart.

she was trying to travel around the world but her plane vanished in the central pacific ocean in 1937. despite extensive efforts, the u.s. navy was unable to locate the wreckage. in 2012, more than 75 years after going missing, possible evidence of her plane's wreckage was found near an island in the western pacific along with human remains and women's makeup. the discovery has yet to be confirmed. and the incident remains one of the greatest midysteries in american history. joining us is retired colonel marriage mcsally who flew combat missions and ran search and rescue missions in the middle east. and former air senior safety with the national transportation safety board greg feith. i'd like to ask both of you the same question to start us off. the ambiguity is driving the laymen crazy because we can't imagine how this could completely disappeared. are either of you not surprised

or surprised we have no sight of this plane? martha, we start with you. >> i'm not surprised. if you don't find the wreckage right where you last lost contact and you start looking in the area and looking at the radar coverage and the data that you have and discover that it's not on its normal flight and now we are seeing it deliberately was flown off course. what you have to do is draw a ring around the range of the aircraft and how far it could fly and you have to start piecing together radar data and satellite data and civilian and military radar from multiple countries that don't have initial cooperation and not necessarily a lot of trust and try to figure out where this thing went. add into it, you've got a vast ocean area and you're trying to now narrow down where the airplane is not. it is not surprising that it's taking this long given the

unique circumstances that we have in this situation. >> greg feith, what stands out as a possible indication of what happened, the most clear signal? >> well, mika, it's evident that, you know, early on when the flight track changed, as soon as that airplane diverted from its track towards beijing, there was something more than just some sort of mechanical problem. there was enough data for us to know that that airplane was intentionally turned and it went on a different flight track and now affiliate radar coverage has lost that aircraft as a primary satellite off pings we know that aircraft was operational. with the latest information from a lot of the countries on that northern track who have said there is no evidence of any kind of aircraft on our radar and on our satellite information, we're going to focus on the southerly track. that southerly track has no

radar coverage and very limited satellite coverage because that is not a volatile area so there isn't going to be a lot of surveillance, if you will, of that particular area. >> mark halpern? >> focus on the last couple of days on some of the communication systems that were shut down. how much expertise would be required to do that? could someone learn how to do that on the internet or is that going to be only done by a pilot, co-pilot, or someone with real training? >> shutting down -- >> if somebody was interested -- >> the transpoppnder. >> colonel mcsally first and then greg. >> you could figure that without much skill shutting down the transponders. shutting off the acarses would take further research for sure. >> exactly. the transponder is a just a control head that is on the center pedestal. it has basically a standby and

off position. that is real easy to turn off. the acars on this airplane you can never turn off that box itself because this box is continuously energized and why we have the ping after we lost the data. it's the data part that was disabled. and it takes a series of key strokes on an information system and a key pad to actually take the data system down. somebody would have to have a high level of knowledge of how to do that because that is not something that a lot of pilots would know, even under normal operations. >> steve rattner? >> so as a pilot, i agree with that, but even if you managed to figure that out, you still have to fly this airplane which is, obviously, a very complex piece of machinery and i'm sort of puzzled about this and would love to get your reaction to this. i can't seem to think of a reason why if that plane turned south it would fly to seven hours except that you didn't

have a pilot functioning at the controls and it somehow ended up on autopilot. a struggle, incapacitation of the pilots, who knows what. i can't think of another reason why it would have flown seven hours toward antarctica. >> sure. there is a lot of speculation still and we don't have very good information on motive. but clearly there was a deliberate turn of the aircraft and then, you know, at the risk of being the master of the obvious, either it was flying on autopilot or somebody was deliberately hijacking the aircraft in order to commit suicide or to use it for other purposes and things just went wrong. so, i mean, those are really the only options at this point and if we don't find the wreckage and you don't find motive by investigating everybody on board, this may remain a mystery. >> greg, the co-pilot is confirmed as the one in the final words that we hear where he says, "all right. good night." coming after one of the data

communication systems had already within switched off. what does that indicate to you? if there had been something on board where this co-pilot knew of some type of problem on board, wouldn't this have been his opportunity to signal to the ground that there was a problem in the sky? >> absolutely. given the fact that he was the last one to make any kind of communication and according to information that's come out of malaysia as far as the sequencing of when the acars went down and the transponders were off, you would expect on that last communication, he would have indicated some sort of problem. even if he was under duress, if somebody got into the cockpit and had some sort of weapon to his head, i would really believe that he would try to get off some sort of message to these folks that they are -- that this flight was under duress. >> you're saying --

>> saying "all right. good night." he could have easily done that. >> colonel martha mcsally, thank you. greg feith, thank you as well. coming up,ever horn with a roundup of the granite state politics over the weekend as rand paul, the gop front-runner for 2016. keep it right here on "morning joe."

take a closer look at your fidelity green line and you'll see just how much it has to offer, especially if you're thinking of moving an old 401(k) to a fidelity ira. it gives you a wide range of investment options... and the free help you need to make sure your investments fit your goals -- and what you're really investing for. tap into the full power of your fidelity green line. call today and we'll make it easy to move that old 401(k) to a fidelity rollover ira. ido more with less with buless energy. hp is helping ups do just that. soon, the world's most intelligent servers, designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance,

using forty percent less energy. multiply that across over a thousand locations, and they'll provide the same benefit to the environment as over 60,000 trees. that's a trend we can all get behind.

♪ welcome back to "morning joe." we are less than eight months away from election day and there is real concern that democrats could lose control of the senate. in fact, yesterday, there was

bipartisan agreement between two of the nation's top political advisers that democrats are in serious trouble. >> the 14 seats in play on the democratic side and a couple of seats in play potentially on the republican side, i think it's highly likely that the republicans pick up a majority. >> i think if democrats are going to survive that wave, the president is going to have to get a lot more involved in raising money for the party committees and for the national party if the democrats are going to have any hope of keeping the senate. if he doesn't get, as i said, more involved in raising money and getting voters excited, we know, as you said, that obamacare is going to bring republicans out. what issues can the president try to put on the table to get democrats excited. but if he doesn't get more involved in raising money and making this a choice as dan fiver said, you lose the senate and if you lose the senate, turn out the lights, because the party is over.

>> a real predicament for the democrats. one of the states in flay is new hampshire where former senator scott brown is setting his sights on capitol hill once again. he announced his explore tory committee on friday at the northeast republican leadership conference. with us is chairwoman jennifer horn. good to have you on the show this morning. >> good morning. it's my pleasure. thank you so much for having me. >> how do you think the granite state would react to scott brown? would they see him as a carpetbagger? >> you just said that some folks are expressing concern about republicans tag the senate. we are actually very excited about the fact that republicans have an opportunity to take the senate this year. up here in new hampshire, what voters are looking for is somebody who is going to be an independent voice that fights for the people of new hampshire, that stands up and is a strong voice for the fiscally conservative policies that are so important for us in the live

for you die state. i think senator brown has tough questions to answer like everybody else in that race. is there no question that there is a tremendous amount of excitement and energy buzzing around his campaign right now. >> i heard there was great excitement and enthusiasm at your event over the weekend. what are some of the primary message that came out of it and ideas for republicans? what is it going to take to win new hampshire? >> sure. well, listen. the first step is that as republicans, we have to stand together. what was so exciting about this event is that we had two days worth of speakers and panelists who represented the full spectrum of republican principles, the full spectrum of the republican party. what they all agreed on and everyone in the room agreed on it's so important that we inthis year. it's competitorive that republicans win back the senate. it's imperative that we win back our majority in the house here in new hampshire. and the only way we are going to do that is if we expand our base

and stand together behind the candidates that get nominated. >> thomas? >> jennifer, when we talk about scott brown and moving across state lines coming into new hampshire, talk about the bench that you have there in new hampshire. how come there isn't a rising republican a rising republican star on the republican side there already and not seeing someone, like a scott brown, moving into the state to try to take over that role? >> sure. we have a great bench here in new hampshire, you look at our congressional races, you look at how things are shaping up in our gubernatorial races. we have an awful lot of seats to fill. we have a different situation here than most states. we have a house of representative with 400 seats in it. we have a deep bench. we have great, strong, enthusiastic, energized republicans here. as far as senator brown goes, we have three other candidates in that race. and i think senator brown has been as warmly received as he has because he does have a history here. he does have roots in new hampshire. he's had a home here for

decades. his family -- he was born here. his family is from here. many of our activists, when senator brown first ran, crossed over to massachusetts to help out that campaign and to help him get elected. so, i'm not worried about -- i'm not worried about our base. as i said earlier, senator brown has some hard work ahead of him. he has some tough questions to answer. but we're very confident, comfortable here we'll be able to win that senate seat and others. >> i know all of the questions were dealing with that, is why should new hampshire be first in the nation for the presidential primary? and what was the answer that you all came up with? >> sure. well, look, we take our position in that process very seriously here. we understand the tremendous weight and responsibility that comes with it. but we're a state where our voters are extremely well informed. we have an unusually high participation rate, both on election day and in the process leading up to it.

we think it's really important that candidates, especially presidential candidates, be forced to talk to voters face to face, one-on-one, answer tough questions, not just from you folks in the media, but more importantly from the voters, from the citizens they're supposed to represent. so when these candidates have to spend a couple years going house to house, fair to fair, hot dog stand to hot dog stand talking to real people, answering the questions that come from their hearts, that come from their concerns, we think that's really good for the process. i think the last thing we want in this country are presidential campaigns that are nothing more than national media campaigns. that doesn't serve the process well. it certainly doesn't serve the people well. >> i heard it was a very successful weekend. jennifer, thank you so much for coming on the show today. >> thank you so much for the opportunity. i hope we get to do it again. >> all right. take care. coming up, dr. nancy snyderman with an underreported

story of how the violence in syria is hurting the country's children. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. peoi go to angie's listt for all kinds of reasons. to gauge whether or not the projects will be done in a timely fashion and within budget. angie's list members can tell you

which provider is the best in town. you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare. now that we're expecting, i like the fact i can go onto angie's list and look for pediatricians. the service providers that i've found on angie's list actually have blown me away. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. great. this is the last thing i need.) seriously? let's take this puppy over to midas and get you some of the good 'ol midas touch. hey you know what? i'll drive! i really didn't think this through. brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling) a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again.

thit's not the "limit yoursh hard earned cash back" card . it's not the "confused by rotating categories" card. it's the no-category-gaming, no-look-passing, clear-the-lane-i'm- going-up-strong, backboard-breaking, cash back card. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every single day. i'll ask again... what's in your wallet?

up next, 25 countries are now searching for the missing malaysian flight as investigators turn their attention toward one of the plane's pilots. the vote is in. majority of crimeans want to join russia, which john mccain calls as a gas station masquerading as a country. details next on "morning joe."

...return on investment wall isn't a street... isn't the only return i'm looking forward to... for some, every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. i'm bethand i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store.

anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love. ink from chase. so you can. no two people have the same financial goals. pnc investments works with you to understand yours and helps plan for your retirement. talk to a pnc investments financial advisor today. ♪ you get 4 lines onw at&t's network...ilies including unlimited talk

unlimited text ...and 10 gigs of data to share. 10 gigs? 10 gigs. all for $160 dollars a month. you know, i think our family really needed this. it's really gonna bring us closer together. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. introducing our best-ever family pricing for instance, a family of four gets 10 gigs of data with unlimited talk and text for 160 dollars a month. only from at&t. ♪ search teams may have just

20 days to flight 370, that's when the jet's black boxes are expected to die out. shutting down the best hopes of locating them. more than two dozen countries are combing the oceans and land for debris some 3,000 miles away from the plane's last known location. some of the most remote areas of the sea. now investigators are turning their attention to the pilots. plus, russian flags are waving in crimea this morning as the region votes to break away from ukraine. no other real options on the ballot. the standoff over a peninsula the size of maryland is pitting moscow against the west with all too familiar echoes of the cold war. good morning, everyone. it is monday, march 17th.

welcome to "morning joe." a busy day. on set we have the host of "way too early" be, thomas roberts, former treasury official and former "morning joe" -- has some great theories on the plane with your aviation experience. retired nbc news aviation correspondent bob hager, great to have you on the set and your insight today. also from washington, columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius joins us as well. shall we get right into it? the search for missing flight 370 has entered an unprecedent the stage on the tenth day of search efforts, all there is ambiguity and officials are taking a closer look at the pilots on the plane. nbc's tom costello reports. >> reporter: the search off the waters of malaysian and thailand may only be a for malty with data suggesting it flew up to seven hours after last known

contact in strait of malacca. two arcs show the potential direction of travel. if it we want south it likely went into the vastness of the indian ocean not covered by radar. if it went north it could be ka stack stan to uzbekistan. india and pakistan say their radars did not pick up the plane. >> we're looking at large chunks of land. we're crossing 11 countries as well as deep and remote oceans. >> reporter: police have voted the homes of the pilots. there's little evidence they colluded to divert the plane since they did not request to fly together for the flight to beijing. investigators removed the flight simulator from captain shah's home. >> we have dismantled it and assembled it at our office and getting experts to look at it

now. >> reporter: win friend of captain shah's is quoted saying he's not a terrorist. indian ocean is suspending its search. >> moving port to starboard. >> reporter: "uss kidd" continues searching a massive body of water from bay of bengal to malaysia. >> the size of the area, if you superimposed a picture of the united states in the picture between india and malaysia, it would almost be like looking for one person somewhere between new york and california. >> reporter: veteran investigators now say it's possible the plane and its passengers may never be found. >> it may be that somewhere down the road, a month from now, three months from now, a year from now, debris may wash up on the beach that will be identifying the airplane, but we will never be able to track it back to find the actual debris site, if it's in deep ocean.

>> let's start with bob hager. nobody does reporting on this better. i want to start with the pilot and the flight simulator in his home. first of all, is that what pilots do in their spare time? >> it's pretty unusual to have a full scale -- i don't know if it's full scale. i'm not sure. >> why did they remove it, do you think? >> they to want see what he's been playing with. did he make any dry runs of this t trajectory. that's the key thing. >> anyone you talk to, talk about this plane. why didn't people text from the plane. >> there are so many questions. in is just unprecedented. you never imagine in this day and age with radar all over the place and so forth, a lot of planes went missing back in the '50s and '60s when there wasn't as sophisticated radar around. in this day and age, it's very, very unusual. you know, we may never know. all my years reporting i used to never say that, we may never

know -- >> but you're saying it now. >> they always solve sthees things after a couple years and so forth, but in this case, man, ten days gone by with no sign of -- >> ten days. sully sullenberger who has become the go-to guy calls this potentially one of the most remarkable aviation mysteries ever if they can't find it. thomas? >> bob, as you talk about -- mika brings up, there were no phone calls or texts that have registered anywhere. sophistication of radar it-s at its best right now. the black boxes, i understand, it have two-thirds battery power left. >> one of the problem with the black boxes is that the audio on the cockpit voice recorder which would tell you key stuff about what we want on in the cockpit, that records over itself every two hours, so if the action all occurred at about the time they're losing communication, then it flies on and on and on and it's not recorded anymore, so even if you find, it you don't have that evidence. >> steve rattner, is there

anything that comes to mind? i know i was pounding you saturday night at a party saying, why do planes have tran responders you can just flip off? i guess clearly there are safety issues there. >> it's normal equipment, you need to be able to turn equipment off if something goes wrong with it, so that's not unusual. >> what comes to mind? a theory, anything? >> what do we know? we know this was not an equipment malfunction. we would know that by now. the plane clearly turned direction. it went off on a course and so forth. we know that somebody with experience was at the controls. this was not being flown by an amateur. they knew how to turn off the transponders and turn off the acars, they had yn idea of where they were going. what happened after that is a mystery. if it turns south, which malaysians think it did, it doesn't make sense. there's nothing out there except open ocean. that's where the mystery takes

us to. >> i dant believe bob hager is saying it might never be found. there's some way to do it. >> well, you know, twa plane crash in the 1990s off long island, and that took four years, really, to come to some conclusive findings on it. but they found it. this one, boy, i don't know. >> my god, david ignatius, i know we'll be talking about the other huge story of the day, ukraine, but just wondering about the international impact and sort of connections and lack tl thereof, or malaysia not working well with other countries. what comes to mind and how often does terrorism come to mind when you think about this story? >> this story displays how difficult it is for the countries that surrounds the south china see, malaysia, china, to talk in useful ways. they've been furious with each other since this mystery began,

increasingly sharp statements from china at a time when these surrounding countries really worry about more aggressive chinese policies in the region. in terms of terrorism, until that plane is found, the speculation that somebody took over control of the plane will persist. in a sense one reason people need to resolve this, find the plane, find evidence of what happened is to address this deep fear. this would be a very sophisticated terrorist operation in which key transponders, other key signals are turned off. i think that's one of the drivers for pushing searchers to recover something that can tell us something about the terrorism issue. >> steve rattner, and then final question for bob. >> two things. first, it is very sophisticated. it looks a little like 9/11. in 9/11 three of the four planes turned off transponders. they knew what they were doing. this clearly didn't end as as well but similarities are there.

i agree with bob. i think there is -- i would bet money against them finding this plane. it's going to be hard. >> my god. the ten-day period of time these black boxes might work is one sign of hope but we're running out of time. what about rolls-royce and their ability to track -- are there any other ways we could potentially track this plane so that there's hope in the future of locating it? >> yeah. beyond the -- after the pings run out, and they have about a 30-day life ordinarily, then it's just a matter of some wreckage washing up on a shore somewhere, someone finding it by accident, if they don't spot anything from the air, and that would give you some clue what area of the globe it's in. >> they're looking at such a wide swath of mileage. >> we're running out of time. >> remember the pings from those black boxes only carry about 15 miles. you're not going to find this plane from the ping off the black boxes. you need wreckage, something else. >> do you think the easier part, as this is a complete mystery,

but now that they have the flight simulator, they're reconstructing that, looking at backlog of history that's on it, the mystery might be solved by figuring out the people on board -- >> yeah, that's an area of concentration. the two pilots, are immediate things to zero in on. you hope you get some evidence of a plan, a suicide/murder plan, something like that. might not be the simulator but something else. >> go ahead, real quick. >> even if it was a suicide/murder plan, the question is why did that plane fly for seven more hours. >> why didn't he nose it over and take it? >> right into the ocean. why seven more hours? >> we have a major breaking story with really global impact happening right now as well, so we're going to switch you with richard haass. as far as russia is concerned, the country is poised to get a little bigger. voters in the region of crimea, which has been a part of ukraine for 25 years, opted yesterday to leave that country and join the russian federation.

the outcome was never in doubt. an exit poll suggests roughly 95% suspected secession. crimea's current status as part of ukraine wasn't even an option on the ballot so i don't know what the outcome would have been otherwise. the white house rejected the referendum. thousands of russian troops in the area and warning moscow of additional costs. pro-russian celebrations lasted well into the night. now moscow must decide how to move forward. the government of vladimir putin, who spoke with president obama by phone yesterday, will now have to contend with crimea's economic and energy needs. putin must also address the ukraine in military forces, still stationed on the embattled peninsula. further north, scuffles broke out between pro-russian demonstrators. kem lynn built military forces in several regions along the border. prior to the vote, at least 80 russian troops seized a natural

gas terminal near crimea using military helicopters and armored vehicles. the pro-russian leadership claimed self-defense for taking over the facility. senator john mccain on sunday. >> russia a gas station masquerading as a country. it's corruption, a nation that is really only dependent upon oil and gas for their economy. and so economic sanctions are important. get some military assistance to ukrainians at least so they can defend themselves. resume the missile defense system in poland and czech republic. look at moldova and georgia, boat of whom were occupied by russian troops as we speak, a path toward membership in nato. there's a myriad of steps that we can take. and it will be very interesting to see to what degree our european friends will join us, who are dependent on russian energy supplies.

>> joining us at the table, president of the council on foreign relations, richard haas and david ignatius. what is russia's end game at this point? do we know exactly what that is? >> the short answer is. we don't know know if russians know the end game. as far as we know, putin is making this up as he goes, seeing verse reactiarious react. see how quick russians do to incorporate crimea into the russian federation. that's one dynamic and how the world reacts to that. the second dynamic, of greater consideration, is what if anything are russians going to do beyond crimea? we have multiple theaters to watch. >> david ignatius, is russia reinvigorating the cold war? >> we don't know yet whether this is a fundamental russian

move back toward confrontation with the west. we'll find out today when the european union meets to decide on sanctions against russia for what it's done in authorizing the crimean referendum, how serious europe will be as an ally. if european move to freeze russian assets while russian oligarchs move in. as richard said, we'll see what russia itself wants to do. the crimea have voted in the referendum and said they want to be part of russia. until russia officially annexes crimea, the legal stat success in limbo. it could remain that way for weeks and months while discussions continue with u.s., with russian government in crimea, all the while, again as richard suggested, you could have russian troops on the border of ukraine and

pro-russian demonstrators in cities like donetsk in the east of ukraine and the ever-present threat of russian military intervention. you heard john mccain say we should be ready to provide military assistance of some sort to ukraine. that obviously steps up the level of confrontation enormously. those are the questions i'll be looking at. >> thomas roberts, what year is this? i feel like we're falling back in time. richard doesn't agree. go ahead. >> as we left last week, we know there was strategic russian troops positioned along the border doing their military exercises while the vote was about to take place. kiev worked ahead of time to discredit the crimean parliament to say this vote was really worthy of nothing. then we get the percentage, about over 93% of the people that voted -- >> well, they had no other options. >> kiev said, basically the parliament that was put in place there, which basically was led by vladimir putin --

>> it is complicated. >> well, sure it's complicated. it will get a lot more complicated. you have potentially days, weeks or months until russians act politically. several steps that have to happen under the russian political system. it's interesting about how much of life is about implementation. have you to think about the economy, the energy situation. have you to think about, you know, how all this plays out. for the russians it's not simply an abstraction political thing. have you to think about physical resistance. the idea not one gunshot would be fired, you would have to be a real optimist. some point some ukrainian nationalists is going to use force to resist what the russians are doing. then what? this is in no way settled. i think the much bigger thing, as john mccain, as david referred to, what do you do beyond this? whatever special rights and considerations does russia have in ukraine, there's nothing like

that -- in crimea, rather, there's nothing like that in the rest of the ukraine. for united states and europe, this goes from being a crisis on one scale to something qualitatively different. coming up on "morning joe" -- dr. nancy snyderman just back from syria with amazing and heartbreaking reporting on the impact that country's civil war is having on the children. also ahead, "town & country" jay fielden is here. we check in with politico's mike allen, but first a check on the forecast. >> it is snowing once again in the nation's capital. this is the fifth time that federal offices have been shut down because of snow this winter. but we are seeing improvements. the heaviest of the snow is winding down right now. from here on out, it should be light to moderate snow showers. but most of the accumulating snow, that's 7 to 9 inches, is already on the ground. and it's not going to last all that long. in fact, it's going to melt away this week. we have an awesome forecast for d.c. once we get through today.

by the time we get to friday, sun is back. temperatures up to 61 degrees and time for that cherry blossom festival, just covered in snow right now. we also have the threat of severe storms down through florida. we could end up with damaging wind gusts and an isolated snow possible, but it's more the heavy rain and wind. temperatures across the country looking all right. back through denver, 73 for a high today. tomorrow it many koom cools back down into the 40s so it's short lived. that warm-up tries to spread into the eastern plains and midwest. you're watching "morning joe." weekdays are for rising to the challenge.

they're the days to take care of business. when possibilities become reality. with centurylink as your trusted partner, our visionary cloud infrastructure and global broadband network free you to focus on what matters. with custom communications solutions and responsive, dedicated support, we constantly evolve to meet your needs. every day of the week. centurylink® your link to what's next. salegets up to 795 highwayeal's the passamiles per tank.sel salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? avo: during the salesperson #2: first ever exactly. volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. and get a $1000 dollar fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card

and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. i love this body and what it's capable of.n beings no matter what size. but, this version feels really good. my body, like my life, is a work in progress. but i'm getting there with weight watchers. the new simple start plan made it so easy for me to start losing weight right away. and before i knew it, i was back on track to being the me that i want to be. join for free. try meetings, do it online or both. hurry, offer ends march 22nd weight watchers because it works

the dal morning news -- new information is emerging about the drunk driving suspect who allegedly plowed his car into crowds at south by southwest festival in texas. this is a horrible story. police say a 21-year-old, rashad owens, accelerated as he froe approached the crowds and department use his brakes. owens remains in jail and has been charged with one count of capital murder, a total of 23 people were injured and two were killed. thomas? >> amazing story. >> it is. what happened? >> our best wishes to the people recovering. a band went to perform for some people recovering. nice images from there. "the wall street journal" and colon cancer rate story

proving those rates are on the decline. they dropped by 30% as more adults over 50 are getting screened now. a new study from american cancer society says the rate of people getting colonoscopies has tripled since 2005. colon cancer is the third leading cancer leading to deaths and doctors recommend people get colonoscopies at 50 years of age. the san francisco kron keshlgs dramatic video details the helicopter rescue of a dog stranded on a cliff in california. a black lab was saved after falling off a cliff along the coast of the beach in northern california. oreo fell 40 feet down a 90-feet cliff and was trapped on a two-foot wide ledge. that's really nice. he was unable to move. police air lifted the dog to safety and reunited him with his owner. i guess that's good. >> can you imagine how frantic you would be if you were the owner of that pet and seeing the

dog foul down that rocky cliff. >> and the dog was smart to stay there. >> the houston chronicle, one of the most iconic photos from the end of world war has died. glenn mcduffy is the young sailor who kissed a nurse in times square, that shot taken back in 1945. the moment was made famous by a "life" magazine photographer. mcduffy was only 18 years old at the time. his identity was not confirmed until 2005. the navy vet was 86 years old. let's go to politico, chief white house correspondent, mike allen, with the morning "playbook" and joining us "time" magazine senior political analyst and also a fantastic professional shopper. that you are. >> it's a side light. >> i spoke to your shopper. it's not her, it's you. you are the shopper in the family. >> i shop. >> mike is joining us as well. >> there's green in your tie. >> he's so much -- i don't know if it will read on camera.

>> he's got much more of a style eye than you give him credit for. >> since we give him no credit -- >> no, we give him no credit until he gave me a present and now i look at him lovingly every day. good shopping. rand paul won his second straw poll. the kentucky republican took home 15% of the pole of the new hampshire, and chris christie came in second, and rick santorum, scott walker and ben carson were tied each with 11%. mike allen, tell us more about what happened there. i know joe went up there. he did a panel and had a great time. my twitter exploded talking about his speech and some things he did. >> reporter: they seemed to love him up there. this northeast republican leadership conference is cpac.

this is a second big win in a row for rand paul. what ware hearing again and again, people ho see rand paul campaigning, watching him, other republicans, his rivals say he seems to have a real plan. wednesday we're going to see senator paul out at uc-berkeley, believe it or not. "the new york times," c-span, network tv saying they're going to cover that. rand paul reaching out to new voters. second, we're seeing chris christie still staying strong. >> i think that's interesting. >> among republican activists. as you suggested, tons of buzz about joe's appearance up there. neil lavesque of new hampshire institute of politics who had to close it for fire requirements after 220 people. he wanted it in that gray theea

theater, he wanted to keep it there. so he limited it. as you know, in new hampshire people don't tend to get excited. they expect politicians to come to you but neil levesque said he had never had so many people up there, posing for pictures, trying to get books autographed. the next day, great coverage from newsmax to the atlantic saying the idea is getting some traction. >> politico's mike allen, thank you. up next, dr. nancy snyderman with a look at devastating impacts civil war is taking on syria's children. keep it right here on newt gingrich. ♪ [ 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. ♪ to keep a germ-free office. from gloves to wipes, to cleaners, everything... [ sneezes ] except germ-free coworkers. thousands of products added online every day... [ click ] even protective suits. staples. make more happen. [ click ] even protective suits. so ally bank has a that won't trap me in a rate. that's correct. cause i'm really nervous about getting trapped. why's that? uh, mark? go get help! i have my reasons. look, you don't have to feel trapped with our raise your rate cd. if our rate on this cd goes up, yours can too. oh that sounds nice. don't feel trapped with the ally raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. improving everything from booking to baggage claim.

we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we'll raise it yet again.

because moms have been stressed, moms have had poor prenatal care. the lucky ones get a little jaundiced and need to get fed and water. the little girl, two days old, a little oxygen, lucky for her she's 5 pounds. any problem to keep her in icu? >> she needs oxygen. >> one of the things that happens when you're born prematurely, you can't keep the oxygen concentration in your body high enough. if you can't keep it up, your

brain doesn't work as well, your eyes don't work as as well, your heart has to work harder. it becomes a complex series of event simplo event. >> that was part of the special new nbc series "forgotten: syria's children of war." chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman is just back from syria. i've been following your reports. i was telling nancy earlier that when i first loged on to nbcnews.com i saw nancy's face in the corner and her face said it all. you have changed. >> yeah. >> you have been changed by this experience. tell us what you saw. >> you know, i've seen a lot of bad things around the world but there's always an ending to it. a typhoon, it's over. this is a raging war, now four years into it, there's no end in sight. while you can argue that the men and some women are fighting, the women and children are absolutely suffering.

there are still people crossing the borders every day into lebanon, into jordan, into turkey. and they are truly suffering. this is a country that had immunization rate for children like measles, polio, of 90%. in the last count 2012 the immunization rate had dropped to 54%. i suspect it's well into the 40s now. we're seeing illness we haven't seen in decades. women aren't getting prenatal victims which means they don't get folic acid which means nouriel tube defects like spina bifida, babies born without brains, brains on the outside of the body, the most horrific birth defects i have seen in my entire career. >> i saw a stand-up you did and you were walking in the mud, and walked into the home of a woman who had given birth 24 hours earlier had chosen to come home and was lying on a wet blanket

in the mud with about 12 other family members in a tent. >> i didn't believe her husband, i must tell you. this was a woman who had gave birth and came home three hours after giving birth. to take care of her children. that was the husband doing the interpreting. any woman who has given birth, you know you're not ready to dp home and take care of the four other children three hours later. the doctors wanted to keep her. her husband wanted her home. she ended up in a field, which was really a squatter's camp, the mud was a good four or five inches thick. it was freezing cold, 37 degrees outside, driving kid. the lucky kids had boots. not so lucky ones were in flip-flops, shivering and this mom was lying in the corner of a tent that was leaking. interestingly, the people who own the property are charging these people $400 a year. doesn't sound like a lot of money but if you have no money, it's an astronomical amount. >> i was stunned, as you talk about birth defects, the amount you've seen in your career.

you run this parallel track of being a doctor and medical correspondent so you have a fascinatin fascinating, unique look at the world for us. people see you reporting and they see the heartbreak and they need to do thing for their families and they can't afford the type of hep -- >> you delve into foreign policy all the time. it's interesting as an american looking back inside to say, wow, what an absolute lack of foreign policy early in this conflict. now i don't know what you do because the freedom fighters, whoever they are, are a mix of pakistanis, afghans, kurds. it's a mismash of people. you can hear gunfire pretty constantly from across the border. we put up on nbcnews.com the nonprofits we vetted who we believe are doing great work on the ground. this was tied into a big unicef paper, looking at the issue for the children, now three years

in. unicef's save the children, the world food program and several others are doing yoeman's work. the conflict has to stop. unless this conflict stops, i think syria will end up to be the next afghanistan. it's going to be this phenomenal void where it's dangerous and women and children can't be reached and the diseases will continue to fly off the map. >> nancy, my wife has been to a lot of those refugee camps. she works on the issues from the outside. it sounds to me this is worse than afghanistan in a lot of ways in terms of these kinds -- don't the local -- whatever side of this fight you're on, granted we may have messed up foreign policy, don't the local people care at all about what's happening to their own people? >> they care terribly. it's very interesting. your wife can attest to this. depending on who you talk to, they may have men back at home who belong to one side or the other but they don't care because on that day they are cold, hungry and they're just trying to put shelter over their kids' heads. you know, i always -- i've

always believed, in whichever refugee camp i've ever been in, you can tell so much by someone's plight by what they have on their feet. i saw a woman at the hospital with very nice shoes and i said to our young producer, i bet she has just come across the border. she had just come across the border the day before. there's just this trickle of ongoing, ongoing misery. what do people want? they just want to go home. the lebanese have been phenomenally wonderful to them but at some point it seems to me there's going to be an economic stumbling block. lebanon's still struggling with this economy. suddenly you have a syrian person who worked for $6 a day versus the $20 a day the local lebanese was. the time for relatives to go home is going to become a sore point. i don't know when that is. certainly the whole foreign

policy aspect is hovering above. the humanitarian crisis is probably the big nest our lifetime. >> thank you so much for bringing these stories to the forefront. >> thank you for having me on. >> you can see more of the series "forgotten: syria's children of war" online at nbcnews.com. i urge you if you haven't seen sthees pieces, sit down, take a moment and watch them. dr. nancy snyderman, thank you so much. still ahead here on "morning joe," how to travel with children, an interview with wes anderson. and a piece on the french president, francois hollande's mistre mistress. jay fielden is here with a packed issue of "town arou& country."

it's a growing trend in business: do more with less with less energy. hp is helping ups do just that. soon, the world's most intelligent servers, designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance,

using forty percent less energy. multiply that across over a thousand locations, and they'll provide the same benefit to the environment as over 60,000 trees. that's a trend we can all get behind. hey, i notice your car yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. you shoulda taken it to midas. they tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. high-five! arg! brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling) you get 4 lines onw at&t's network...ilies including unlimited talk unlimited text ...and 10 gigs of data to share. 10 gigs? 10 gigs. all for $160 dollars a month. you know, i think our family really needed this. it's really gonna bring us closer together. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. introducing our best-ever family pricing for instance, a family of four gets 10 gigs of data with unlimited talk and text for 160 dollars a month.

only from at&t. ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you outlive your money? uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. well, knowing gives you confidence. start building your confident retirement today.

why do you want to be a boy? >> who doesn't, sir? so my life began, junior lobby boy under training under strict command. many of the hotel's most valued and distinguished guests came for him. >> i love you. >> i love you. >> she was dynamite in the sack, by the way. >> she was 84. >> i've had older. >> distinguished. that's a scene from "the grand budapest hotel," new film by wes anderson. an interview with wes is in the latest issue of "town & country" magazine. >> that's great. >> joining us is editor of "town & country." first, that's a beautiful cover. let's talk about this interview with wes anderson. getting into his mind about "the grand budapest hotel". >> the issue is about travel and we wanted to see it through a refracted lens and i'm a big fan

of wes's. we knew this movie was coming out and it took place in a fictional hotel preworld war ii in eastern europe. >> it's quite an odd fantasy, this whole -- >> all fantasies are odd, right? >> i know, but how does it fit into how you want to talk about the art of travel because this is a very artistic vision. >> travel, as it turns out for him s a great inspiration. he is a traveler. he has a hotel in new york. the pictures are of his studio in paris, which is not a typical director's studio, as you can tell by the wallpaper. we got into a q&a with one of our correspondents, michael lindsey hogg, who is himself a director, and they got into wes's way around the world. he prefers the mode of train travel to planes, for instance, and, you know, he's a wide-ranging, imaginative guy looking for the color that comes into the film it is from places he's been in india, africa, all

over the world. >> very romantic way of thinking. the great way of talking about where wes's main home is, that gets us in france, where we can talk about -- >> oh, yeah. >> that's what i find one of the more interesting articles. >> yes. >> is the look at mistresses in france. >> or maybe they are. >> i think what's happen, as we all know now, francois hollande was made an interesting moped trip, chauffered, by the way, to see his girlfriend fromle elysee palace, where his other girlfriend was living and was caught doing this. what this means culturally in france is the reason for this. many, many presidents in france, as we all know, have been connected with -- >> yes. >> and most of them didn't have to fess up to it unless they themselves decided to do it. here's a moment when he's caught doing this.

so, to me and the writer, the question was, why? >> the helmet on and everything. >> it's great. >> the answer to why is there's a magazine there called "closer," funded by, if you can believe this, berlusconi. they practice a kind of fleet street journalism like a murdoch paper and they weren't going to back down once they got this story that everybody was talking about so they ended up publishing it, which is the first time that's happened probably since napoleon iii started having a mistress. >> especially coming from berlusconi -- >> right. the ironies are rich and plentiful. >> much more mundane daily life, heidi mitchell goes globally with three young children and comes up with awesome tips, including the ipad 1, which i want you to explain in detail. >> heidi is a travel journal. she used to be a travel editor

at "town & country," not only the great piece on greece, so we have a lot of expertise in this issue. heidi writes about this controversial topic of do you take your kids or not when you go on far-flung trips. have i three myself. my wife and i get in a lot of arguments about this. should a 9-year-old be able to go to paris or as far away as california? is that worth it? are we going to get tortured? heidi is of the mind you should take them, it's an education, exposed to language, culture, weird ideas, interesting ideas, and feels like once her kids have done this for ten years she can see the fruits of that and that they're worldly children that understand the world a lot better than the other kids who just go to school and hang out with their friends. she also gives us a helpful list of tips, which is, i think, the ipad is important, obviously, for long plane trips to china and things like that. but i think benadryl is also another helper.

>> really? >> yes. >> little helper, been atrnadry >> wait? to give to the kids? >> i'll let you interpret it. you could take it. >> or for the husband. >> just a thimble. >> they have a piece on thomas roberts, arm candy. >> oh! no. i wasn't supposed to be in "town & country" this issue. >> i just assumed, arm candy. >> i'll answer your calls, don't worry. give me one benadryl and i'm all yours. >> you're my arm candy thursday night. >> that's true. a date with me and patrick. >> it's going to be fun. we have a huge event. it's going to be amazing. would you like to share? >> the nldj event, amy robach -- >> invite me. >> you should come. it will be fantastic. >> it's going to be great. i have the best arm candy,

though. the new issue of "town & country" is on stands. thank you for joining us. sara eisen has business coming up next on "morning joe." salesperson #1: so again, throwing in the $1,000 fuel reward card

is really what makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #2: actually, getting a great car with 42 highway miles per gallon makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event get a great deal on a jetta tdi. it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. volkswagen has the most tdi clean diesel models of any brand. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models.

peace of mind is important when so we provide it services you bucan rely on. with centurylink as your trusted it partner, you'll experience reliable uptime for the network and services you depend on. multi-layered security solutions keep your information safe, and secure. and responsive dedicated support meets your needs, and eases your mind. centurylink. your link to what's next.

you all need to see this. this is not a teaser for

"sharknado 2," this is real life experience for a diver, spear in hand. he has to really warn this shark several times with his spear because it got to aggressive. >> apparently if you bump them -- >> you want to punch them in the snout. he was fortunately able to fend off the shark. with a short spear. he says, the shark was acting in his natural environment. i have no ill will toward him and will get back in the water. he's not squared of going back in for more. >> yikes. >> pretty amazing video. would not have shown that if something worse had happened. >> of course not. business before the bell now with cnbc sara eisen. we left off with three red arrows down. >> left with a brutal week but points to a higher start ahead of the bell. last week, as you mentioned, worst week of stock since back

in early january. though things look to open higher there is nervousness. investors looking for the west, the crimean voter so it will be important to watch things like u.s. treasuries, gold, japanese yen, the traditional safe haven. if we see money go into them, things could go the other way. another story i wanted to point out, turns out that u.s. ceos for these big companies may not be getting paid what they used to. only a 1% raise in 2013 to $8.64 million, because the s&p shot up 82% last year. the reason experts are saying behind this is, ceos increasingly aren't getting paid necessarily just on the stock. there are other metrics coming into play like earnings and cash flow. those haven't been as hot lately. >> what's this i hear in my ear?

a tiney, tiny violin being played -- >> played by leprechaun? >> what did we learn today? (vo) you are a business pro. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome.

and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow. go national. go like a pro. i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members

count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ it's time now to talk about

what we learned today. whoa, a little close with the camera. back up. back up. jerry in graphics made this for joe. it's nice. except i would change this word here from joe to no, he will not run. but that's a good picture. what do you think, thomas? >> it is a good picture. >> i learned savannah guthrie got married over the weekend and she's four months' pregnant. that's so nice! >> that's so nice. >> what did you learn? >> i learned that he's a stealthy clothes horse and if you ask for certain music, you'll get it. >> you'll learn things here, nuance, on the set of "morning joe." one day you'll learn nuance. i'm nuanced. wow. steve rattner? >> i learned that mika's nuanced. no, i learned things about the syrian refugee problem. nancy snyderman took us to

another level. >> nbcnews.com. watch the pieces. mark, what did you learn? >> new hampshire republicans are hungry for new leadership. >> you stop it. >> scott brown. >> no scott brown. if it's way too early, it's time for "morning joe" but now we're going to "the daily rundown" with kristin welker. have a great day. ten days of searching and still no sign of that missing malaysian airlines plane. dozens of countries are working together to search across thousands of miles. we'll have the very latest on what is now a criminal investigation. secession russian style. crimea votes overwhelming to join putin's russia. we may see the first on-camera reaction from president obama this morning. and as the chicago river shines green on the eve of a big red primary in illinois, we head to the land of lincoln to see what's pushed it