♪ it's 6:00 on the east coast. welcome to "morning joe." live from washington where it's shaping up to be another very big news day. we're following developments in a number of major stories. in just a moment we're going to get grand new details of the crash in the passenger plane in the alps. the questions continue to mount almost as fast as we get answers. why did a 27-year-old man with

no criminal record or terrorist ties commit mass murder? what significant clue did investigators find among the copilot's items? and what will airlining do now? the very security measures put in place to keep us safe after 9/11 now coming back to haunt the people on that germanwings flight. plus the situation in yemen is simply spiraling out of control. why taking sides is sometimes difficult than ever. and we have the details on the u.s. national guardsmen arrested for trying to pilot -- plot attacks on behalf of isis. we'll also go live to the scene of that major building collapse and seven-alarm fire in new york city where 19 people were injured and 1 person is unaccounted for this morning. and we'll tell you about the serious allegations facing the u.s. drug enforcement agency involving sex parties, prostitutes, and drug cartels. believe it or not, that is just the headline.

it gets worse. it gets worse than that. with us onset an incredible cast of characters this morning. columnist for bloomberg view al hunt abc news and npr senior analyst cokie roberts. nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing and pulitzer prize winning columnist, eugene robinson. thank you for coming in on this busy morning. >> good morning. >> let's start in the french alps. so much has happened even since yesterday when it was breaking before our eyes here with this incredible press conference from the prosecutor in france. the families of the passengers on germanwings flight 9525 are now coming to grips with what happened. we now know that the crash which killed all 150 people onboard was a deliberate act and questions are focused on not what happened but why, why did andres a lubitz, the 27-year-old man do what he did? loved ones arrived at the crash

site thursday hours after hearing the horrifying news about how the relatives were killed. the search for victims and debris now on fout day looking for jewelry, clothing anything that can help identify people. the information we learned yesterday first on "morning joe" about the plane's final minutes is still inconceivable. the dusseldorf bound plane was cruising at altitude when the pilot can be heard leaving the cockpit. the pilot tries to get back in. first knocking and then banging on the locked door. the co-pilot ignores him. he sets the autopilot to descend to lowest possible setting, 100 feet. for eight minutes he can be heard breathing normally as he silently let's the plane plummet plummet, ignoring alarms and failing to answer desperate calls from controllers, other planes, and from inside the cabin. passengers spent their final minutes alive screaming before the plane smashed into the mountains.

nbc's chief global correspondent bill neely joins us live from seyne-les-alps, france, with the latest. bill? >> reporter: good morning, mika. i think everyone here is still reeling from the chronology you just read. simply stunning. of course, it hasn't stopped the search efforts here and the police helicopters have been going back and forth above us nonstop, bringing investigators to the crash site whereas you say they're looking for jewelry, clothing, and they're bringing back body parts to about 30 forensic experts who are based in tents over there trying to get a better picture of how this happened. also, the family of andreas lubitz are due to be questioned by police here very shortly, trying, again, to get some idea of why on earth their son, because the father and mother are here why on earth he decided to do what he did. and indeed a lot of the focus

now is on his background. and in particular what happened six years ago. in 2009 he was training with luft hanhansa at the flight school in arizona, designated for not suitable for flying. he was suspended from that school. it was a year and a half before he could go back to training. he retook some of his courses but he was designated still with a special code on his pilot's license which he eventually got. and i understand that he went for more than the usual numbers of medical checks. now, of course the ceo of lufthansa said he was 100% fit and no problem at all. i think lufthansa have a lot of questions to answer about lubitz. one other development to bring you. the police at his apartment brought out a number of things including his computer. they now say that they have made

a significant find. it's a clue something that they have sent for testing. they make the point that it's not a suicide note but it is something specific so i think all the focus is probably in terms of the investigation in germany, here the focus remain on the crash site and the search for the second black box, the data recorder. remember all the evidence you've spoken about is from the cockpit voice recorder. there may be still more clues in the flight data recorder although we have a pretty good idea of how this young man took the plane down from 38,000 feet and smashed it into the side of the mountain just over there. back to you, mika. >> bill neely, thank you. so we now know the identity of the co-pilot but why he decided to crash germanwings flight 9525 remains a mystery. we go to katie in germany. >> reporter: andreas lubitz was

27 a german who spoke fluent english, friends say had dreams of flying. he began training with lufthansa in 2008. he was certified as a co-pilot in september 2013 but accumulated only 630 flight hours until officials say he deliberately crashed flight 9525 into the side of a mountain, killing everyone onboard. no one saw it coming. he had no criminal record no known terrorist connections. >> he passed all tests because nobody gets into the cockpit without passing the tests. >> reporter: lufthansa said lubitz took a break from flight school in 2009. it hasn't said why. but the ceo of their subsidiary germanwings, told nbc news he was readmitted a few months later after passing technical, medical, and psychological tests. investigators searched his parents' home, removing items including what appeared to be a computer and escorting out

unidentified person. boxes of potential evidence were taken from lubitz' dusseldorf apartment. those who knew him were stunned. knowing andreas, he said this is inconceivable to me. lufthansa stood by its training and testing proceeddureprocedures. >> you are confident in your pilots. >> i wish you understood german. my firm con foye dense in the selection of all pilots and the training of all pilots and qualification of all pilots and the work of all pilots has not been touched by this single tragedy. >> let's bring in our experts who have been with us from the start of this story. former faa chief of staff michael goldfarb and former ntsb investigators greg f,p hife. he seems very young in the

number of ways. >> absolutely. i think one of the questions will be the hiring practices even though the ceo has a lot of confidence in his staff, when you have 600-hour first officer he wouldn't be able to fly here in the united states with 600 hours. you need a minimum now of 1500 hours as a co-pilot on an airliner. so while his age and his flight experience is under question the bigger picture now on the bigger issue is this depression. was he clinically treated? was he on medication? did he have a lapse? did he fail to take medication if it was being controlled? and how was he passing his medicals without any other screening? typically here in the united states with the faa if there is a medical condition that a pilot must report then they have to provide periodic reports. i do because i had an issue with cancer. so i have to provide the faa with medical records so that

they can monitor and make sure that i am safe to fly. >> chris jansing? >> michael, are there any restrictions that you know of of the kind of medications that a pilot can take and if for example, he was diagnosed with a clinical depression could he be on antidepressants and still fly? i'm just trying to figure out what the medical background might be and what they might be looking at. >> right. basically up to five years ago you were not allowed, at least in the united states to take any antidepressants. they used to refer to prozac pilots. that comes out of the mythology of pilots who used to come out of the military highly seasoned, highly trained, and then occupy civil and commercial spots. we don't have that environment anymore but the rules are antiquated. so certainly antidepressants are allowed. the whole concept of self reporting, what pilot outside of the physical side what pilot is going to come back to his or her supervisor and say, i'm having

some mental problems i'm having some real issues. they're fearful for their jobs. the airlines need to hold harmless pilots and do a much better job on the psychological side which pretty much is nonexistent after that first check of proficiency. >> gene robinson? >> yeah just for you, also michael. a question they talked about psychological testing yesterday, that perhaps lufthansa or germanwings does. do you know anything about that testing and what -- what they consists of? >> no. no gene. i don't know the specifics of it. but i'll tell you, it's not -- it doesn't keep pace with the kind of threat we're facing. so we have -- after 9/11 we had to protect the cockpit from the cabin and now we're finding we have to rethink that and protect the cabin from the cockpit. and we have to redefine the nature of terrorism. i know mika you've been on this thing that has been terrorist right from the start and most people would say he killed 150 people.

mass murderered. a think of timothy mcveigh. that fits most definitions of terrorism. but it has to change so the threat response changes as well. >> i hear you when you think i've been on this thing about terrorism. i just was confused that it was ruled out, that's all i'm saying. i was confused that terrorism and criminality seemed to be pushed aside and accident was the focus here. >> it still is. no linked to maybe organized terrorism. it still is being pushed aside. >> i was kind of on that thing. >> you were? >> if you kill 149 people in that way in a public way, making a statement like that is that not terrorism? >> in some way. and is there some influence? we don't know. don't want to jump the gun. you guys are fair to pull me back on that. greg, let me ask you about the cockpit door because that's a real kind of source of now confusion in terms of how we move forward on that and how exactly maybe even planes need to be staffed.

>> well, we built those doors, we fortified the doors in response to. nefb. and as michael said we were trying to protect the cockpit from the bad guys sitting in the back. now under a certain circumstance, you know the pilots can control in a variety of different ways access into the cockpit. but we've come to this new evolution and i'm listening to the terrorism thing and when you look at where the evolution of terrorism is and what's hatched, especially in the last several weeks where they're trying to get homegrown terrorists here even in the united states to do the dirty work are we creating now or is there some underground faction that they've decided, well, we can't break down the door because they fortified them. what other creative way can we get the job done? and i think the security aspects are going to really have to be scrutinized. the fact that we put two people here in the united states into the cockpit when one flight crew

member leaves that's a good policy because you now have somebody. but the problem is is that if i'm intent on doing some harm and i have a flight attendant sitting there, i may be able to get up disable, or render them incapacitated and still accomplish the mission. it may be difficult but i think that you know that part of the security aspect is going to have to be looked at and scrutinized. >> what would you do? >> what's the option? >> what is the way to make us safe? >> i think the only way is to have multiple people in the cockpit. that is -- years ago we used to have flight engineers on aircraft, that was that third pilot that was a systems operator on the airplane. a lot of the asian carriers still have even in a two-person crew, they have a flight engineer that rides in the jump seat. they're either the radio operator or systems operator, so they have that third person. they're a qualified crew member.

flight attendants have been trained and they're quite capable of at least providing a level of intervention but we may have to go back and revisit, do we need that third qualified crew member in the cockpit in the event that somebody tries to do something nefarious like this first officer, you have at least a qualified person that could try to take intervening action around prevent something from happening even if one of the pilots is out of the cockpit. >> what i found so interesting as we round out this block here al, was how forthcoming the prosecutor in france was. i mean we were sitting here for 48 hours with very little answers which is why we were pushing scenarios and it was hard not to. but it was as if it was like a waterfall of information. and in some ways al i wonder what the dynamics were between countries and, cokie, how important that was for families. >> oh, incredibly important for families. you know families want the

truth. and i gather the crash site itself is horrendous. tiny pieces of plane. so to get the truth is very very important. >> al? >> i think another question that has to be asked that lufthansa and maybe u.s. airlines how much pressure are airlines under, profit squeeze, are they cutting corners, do they not apply the same standards that were applied before in order to cut costs? i don't know the answer. maybe greg or michael could address that. but i think that's an important question, too. >> who said yeah? go. >> yeah. well, it was me. >> michael, yes. >> first of all, the changes last night of putting the second person, fright attendant in the cockpit, that was primarily for medical reasons. if a heart attack occurred, that was the primary purpose. you'll notice this morning airlines are scurrying to implement that. that's cosmetic. it by and large. that's not, you know where the nature of the threat is. i mean several things have to

happen redesign of the cockpit door. it's a fail safe on the inside for the pilot. there has to be a final override that the code that can get in that door. so the thinking changes and then the design of the cockpit door will change as well. >> greg. >> i don't think that -- i don't think that that's necessarily the case michael. first off, that second person in the cockpit came as a result of 9/11 as another level of intervention that if somebody did get into the cockpit they could run a blocking scheme if you will. it wasn't primarily medical. we don't have pilots that are dying in cockpits all the time that we needed that second person. the other thing is if we put another level of security on that door somebody is going to find out about it. we've created a situation where we've talked about things that were secure for 15 years with the keypad. we've been talking about it now for three days on tv. a lot of airline pilots and a lot of flight attendants are

very upset that we're giving away things that they learned from a security standpoint. so if we try to put another level of intervention where, if i -- as a crew member can try and protect the cockpit and then the bad guy gets the super secret code to get back into the cockpit, then it's just -- it's just multiple layers of nothing. >> we're going to need to continue from. michael and greg thank you for now. we'll have much more ahead on this story all morning. also ahead, with the middle east unraveling u.s. intelligence is more critical than ever. the cia's former director joans s joins us with his take. and ayman mohyeldin will join us. generations in the making. but first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> mika, it's cruel right now. it is snowing in northern jersey. it is snowing in western massachusetts as you walk outside. pitt is 33 with snow. probably even getting out there on the lawn.

big cities with the cold chilly rain for you from boston to new york down to philadelphia. we'll have airport delays early today. that will clear out this afternoon into this evening. heavy rain on cape cod. showers for charlotte. we have thunderstorms rolling through florida so be prepared. ft. myers, the storms have cleared through your area. west palm beach, miami also some storms in your forecast. the weather pattern right now, and this is the weather pattern we've been in a lot for the last year and a half a very extreme pattern. we have this horrible drought in the west with the big ridge, dip in the jet stream in the east. all the cold air is flowing down from the north. today, 30 in chicago. cold air goes into new england this weekend while we bake in the heat in the west. record highs in 24 spots yesterday. we're going to do it again today. the forecast as we go through the weekend, it looks dry. a lot of areas are dry. but these temperatures are incredible. almost 100 in phoenix. downtown l.a. near 90 the next two days. if you're going to have one decent day and start to warm it

up in the east sunday into monday. that's the pick of your day. i guess we can start thinking about getting out there and taking care of those lawns now that we started meting a lot of your snow. washington, d.c., chill this weekend. you should be dry after the rainy friday morning. more "morning joe" when we come right back. know your financial plan won't keep you up at night. know you have insights from professional investment strategists to help set your mind at ease. know that planning for retirement can be the least of your worries. with the guidance of a pnc investments financial advisor, know you can get help staying on track for the future you've always wanted. in one year 5.6 million hospital workers

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the sanctions and periodically threatening to bomb is now our -- i don't want to say ally. let's go with battle buddy. which brings us to tonight's segment, whose side are we on again? >> breaking news out of the yemen, saudi arabia launching air strikes against houthi rebels there. >> the u.s. is in the game here clearly providing they say logistical intelligent support to the saudi led coalition.

>> so we're fighting with iran against isis and then with saudi arabia against iran. [ bleep ]. we did it. it took decades of destabilizing conflict was befinally figured out how to fight a proxy war against ourselves. >> jon stuart trying his best to explain the mess involving the u.s. in the middle east. it is kind of a confuseing mess. am i okay to be confused al and cokie? >> totally. you need a scorecard. >> saudi arabia is against iran. egypt and turkey are likely to come in. syria with iran and we're in the middle of these somewhat important negotiations. >> it's like a battle of stalin grad. we want everyone to lose. >> on wednesday the u.s. bombed isis targets in iraq essentially fighting alongside iran while just 1200 miles south

in yemen the u.s. helped saudi arabia launch air strikes against iran-backed rebels all in a single day. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel reports. >> reporter: saudi arabia has long been known forgetting washington to fight its battles. not this time. these saudi fighter jets are on their way to attack rebel positions in yemen, targeting weapons depots, a command center, and aircraft used by the rebels who have been trying to overthrow the government. the rebels called houthis now control large parts of yemen. they're backed by iran. to fight them saudi arabia says it's bombing with 100 jets imposing a no-fly zone and mobilizing 150,000 ground troops. no invasion yet, but that's clearly an option. the saudi coalition of ten muslim nations includes jordan and egypt which reportedly sent warships to defend the yemeni coast and offered to send ground

forces. thousands of yemenis protested the saudi air strikes. so did iranian officials, in switzerland for nuclear talks. >> we believe the situation in yemen is a very dangerous situation and we advise against any escalation. >> reporter: the war in yemen has now become a battle between iran and saudi arabia two old and well armed rivals and neither side appears willing to back down. >> meanwhile, in iraq the u.s. and iran have a common enemy in isis but they're shared interest in defeating the terror group is far more complicated than meets the eye. iranian-backed militias say they have pulled out of the fight in tikrit after american warplanes began bombing isis targets there. the shiite militias say they are protesting u.s. involvement in that offensive, insisting they could have retaken the city without western help. but american officials say it was the u.s. who persuaded iraq to rein in the militias in

exchange for air support. an estimated 10,000 fighters roughly one-third of the government aligned forces there, are now on the sidelines of the battle. some militias ss say they might return their weapons for american planes. for weeks, isis fighters have been able to repel the defensive despite being significantly outnumbered. it would be amusing if it wasn't so sad. nbc news foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin joins us live from the studio in new york to help us understand. >> our viewers probably wondering why is yemen is important. this map sets this scene. you get a sense of the geography of the region. arabian peninsula, persian gulf one of the most strategically important places in the world because of oil and energy resources. this is why it is of major concern to the united states. this ak sis point right here one of the major waterways a leads so much of the oil tankers that come through the persian

gulf and suez kanellcanal that has now this longrd whoer between it and yemen controlled by those houthi rebels. in addition to some of those, when you look at the region, this is the coalition of countries that are now involved in this fight against the houthi rebels. it is obviously being led by saudi arabia and other members of the gulf cooperation counsel. it has power houses like egypt. you get a sense of how many countries are involved in this and why it could explode very quickly. the iranian government which has been in the past allegedly behind supporting the rebels the houthi rebels with both money, weapon and perhaps even training, they've already come out and condemned this saying this coalition would only further some of those terrorist attacks that we've been seeing. these are some of the u.s. interests in the region. particularly with yemen. in the past the u.s. has had a robust counter terrorism operation there. yemen is home to al qaeda in the

arabian peninsula. last week we saw a attack by isis for the first time an indication that isis is growing in that failed state with no central government. that power vacuum is allowing extremist groups to rise. also the support that the houthi rebels get from iran that also means that iran has once again exerted its influence in yet another arab country. mika? >> all right. gene has a question. gene? >> so, ayman, is there a potentially good outcome from this or an acceptable outcome to this? is it that yemen becomes some sort of saudi protectorette occupied by this coalition of forces and, thus isn't such a hotbed of terrorism and isn't taken over by the iranian backed houthis? what is the possible good outcome here? >> well, the perhaps the short term is to stop the violence to stop the hostilities on both sides. one of the message, i've been speaking to gulf diplomats. one of the major points they're sending with this operation is

the houthi rebels need to stop some of their advances in trying to stop -- trying to over take cities like aden in the south of the country. why that's important is because they simply can't afford to see yemen fall into the hands of the houthis. there's got to be a political process to bring these two major sides or factions to the negotiating table. the central government and the houthi rebels. with the united central government, they could then try to take on al qaeda and some of the other extremists which everybody agrees is a danger both to yemen and saudi arabia gene. >> all right. nbc's ayman mohyeldin, thank you very very much. illinois national guardsman and his cousin have been arrested for trying to plot attacks on behalf of isis. ed edmonds was arrested at chicago's midway airport on route to cairo to fight for the islamic state. the other, jonas it edmunds planned an act of terror in northern illinois.

according to federal officials an undercover fbi friended hassan on facebook who claimed to be saving up for the trip. the cousins met with an fbi employee and were subsequently arrested. coming up, much more on the intentional crash of the airliner in the alps. tom costello is following new developments in the investigation and he joins us onset next on "morning joe." ♪

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nbc news confirmed reports the secret service will face new rules when operating an official vehicle. the strict policy change first reported by "the washington post" prohibits staffers from driving government vehicles within ten hours of drinking alcohol. wow. it comes in the wake of the agency's latest embarrassing incident on march 4th when two senior agents who had been drinking at a retirement party drove through a barrier during an active bomb investigation. director joseph clancy recently indicated some agents are turning to alcohol to deal with the stress of their jobs. i think we're missing the point here. i think you're not supposed to be drunk when you're driving. >> no matter whether you're

agent or not. >> right. >> i feel really reassured the secret service now says you can't be drunk and running into the white house with cars. >> we are also missing the point of that whole incident which is that they were not breathized. >> thank you. >> you know. >> is there a new policy perhaps that when something like this happens you do administer a brittizebrit ize breathalyzer. now it gets worse. to some serious allegations facing the u.s. dreg enforcement agency. according to a report from the department of justice dea agents posted in colombia engaged in sex parties with prostitutes, supplied by local drug cartels. in addition, the report also noted, quote, most of the parties occurred in government leased quarters where agents' laptop, blackberry devices were present and at least three of the special agents were given money, expensive gifts, and weapons by cartel members.

after the investigation seven agents were issued suspensions. >> good. >> ranging from two to ten days. i think we also need some new policies. no parties with drug cartels, prostitute, sex, and open blackberries. should we get those policies in place within ten hours of being on duty? i'm sorry. it's funny but it's not. everything today is so sad, it borders on funny because it's so ridiculous. >> bizarre. >> ridiculous. >> it is ridiculous. back to our top story this morning now, which has been literally the last 24 hours have been riveting and absolutely distressing. we now know the copilot who crashed germanwings flight 9525 into the french alps had a history of depression. now german media is report that andreas lube bits had a note on his personnel file saying he should get regular medical checks. airlines around world are changing their safety procedures

following the deadly plane crash in the french alps. joining us onset is nbc's tom costello. tom, the immediate changes put in place? >> how many people should be required to be on the flight deck at any one time in the cockpit. the european carriers and nations are now very quickly, i would add, starting to come in line with what the u.s. policy is, and in the meantime a lot of focus on the cockpit door. the airbus promotional video shows re-enforced cockpit is nearly inpenetrable. but whoever is inside the cockpit can override the code and keep everyone else out. a post 9/11 security measure that may bb useded against a captain and the passengers. >> we created barriers to prevent bad guys from getting into the cockpit and unfortunately now this type of event shows that the bad guys already in the cockpit and we can't get to him or her to stop them. >> reporter: in u.s. the faa

requires two people to remain on the flight deck at all times. if a pilot leaves to use the lavatory, a flight attendant normally remains in the cockpit. >> if the flying pilot then has a medical problem or anything like that, you have somebody else in the flight deck that can assist them but can also get the door open for the other pilot to return. >> reporter: most of the nations and airlines including lufthansa did not have the two-person rule. lufthansa joined a growing number of airlines who are adopting the rule immediately, including air berlin air canada. flights ending a mass murder are rare but they have happened. the ntsb concluded suicidal pilots crashed egypt air flight 980 and silk air 195 killing everyone onboard and it's among the leading theories of the disappearance of melee shah flight 370 last year. noticing a pilot has a psychological issue can be difficult. once hired their yearly

physicals rarely include a psychological work-up. >> a lot of pilots are afraid to actually admit they have a psychological problem because they know the faa will deal with that and they may be grounded for periods of time. >> the nations' airline pilots insist they are checked regularly maybe not by a doctor but a peer review situation because fellow pilots are keeping an eye on each other. crew members are allowed and expected to speak up if they see something that isn't normal. in addition, managers and union bosses and that kind of thing. and we should point out despite the fact i've with had these high-profile incidents around the world there has not been a single case of a u.s. airline pilot doing this committing suicide and mass murder. i think a lot of focus is going to be getting the european rules and regs in line with what the americans have done post nefb.9/11. a lot of questions are going to be focusing on this 27-year-old with so few hours in the cockpit, a first officer on the flight and in the meantime

he's obviously exhibiting some sort of psychological issue that they needed to deal with at the time and because maybe medical privacy issues nobody was. >> i do think there are challenges here that are easy to judge in retrospect in terms of trying -- because obviously a mental health issue, which we all have been touched in some way by them. >> you don't want to stigmatize. >> you don't want to stigmatize but people who are suffering often hide very well their suffering. >> yes. >> it's hard to -- that question of peer review though. i was thinking about that yesterday when we learned of this, i wondered how -- you sit next to the guy, closer than you and i are right now, for hours at a time and you're observed very very closely. and obviously if you're having a problem, i have a real vested interest in you not being there, right? so how did that happen? >> well, how did this happen? >> right. >> keep in mind that most flight

crews, right, the pilot and first officer, very often they've never met before or very few times. >> this guy hasn't flown that much. >> this captain may not have flown much with this first officer and may not know what's going on in his personal life. that can work for you and against you because if you really don't know each other you don't worry about speaking up when the guy next to you is acting a little silly, noernd on the other hand, you don't know his personal history. >> are there periodic exams, psychologically -- >> at the very very beginning, yes, of when you're hired as a pilot. true in germany and here. when you're hired as a pilot you go through extensive, rigorous testing, psychological testing, and then of course your academic testing and training. once you are a pilot, then you are -- depending on how old you are in the united states every six months to aeria, you have to go through a physical. no psychological component to

that. i spoke to a flight surgeon who said yes, ideally it would be a good idea, however, in ten minutes, 12 minutes, i can't get a psychological work-up on somebody. that's not possible. >> everything sounded normal. tom costello thanks once again. we'll continue this conversation. up next, the massive explosion that cut through one neighborhood in new york city. we'll have a live report from the scene straight ahead on "morning joe." ♪ the new, twenty-fifteen ford focus believes in "more." more to see. more to feel. ♪ more to make things really really... interesting. ♪ the new focus.

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you can see people running to the aid of victims, a victim laying in the debris and a woman crying for help from the fire escape above the gaping hole left from the blast. joining us now from the scene of that explosion and fire nbc news. correspondent rehema ellis. >> reporter: firefighters and police have been out here all night following that powerful explosion that leveled one building and left two others collapsed. 19 people were injured. four of them critically. officials say among the injured, four firefighters and one ems member. people say they felt this explosion for blocks away. >> we thought it was a bomb or something and then my manager actually lyly thought a car run into the restaurant. >> i saw the whole storefront is on the street. >> we did hear one of the buildings collapse. it was a pretty loud sound obviously. walked outside to see no building being there at all. >> reporter: i talked to one

witness who said he was still shaking more than an hour after the explosion occurred. and gas company says it was at this site earlier in the day reviewing a construction project. that did not pass inspection. an hour after the gas company workers left the building exploded. authorities are now investigating whether a gas leak had anything to do with this explosion. we should also tell you this morning that there are reports that the family of a 23-year-old man say that he was dining in the restaurant on the ground floor of this building and that he is now missing. authorities are investigating that. i want my cameraman, mike to zoom past me a little bit as i step out of the scene. i want you to see if you can take a closer look at the debris down the street from here. that is the exact site of the explosion. authorities say there are about 200 firefighters who are still on the scene because there are pockets of fire that they still have to put out. as i step back into the scene here they say that it could be hours and indeed it might even be days before they can

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all right. we're going the get to sports in a second but you just read that the germans have canceled a press conference on the latest

on the crash. we'll get to that at the top of the 7:00 and look into why. sports now, half of the elite eight has been decided after the first teams in the ncaa tournament sweet 16 faced off last night. take a look. >> now between miles davis. >> mcconnell three. good! wow. mcconnell. >> the arizona wildcats outscore the xavier musketeers. >> beautiful back door pass. >> oh, what a move! >> extra pick. pick and roll. but he goes the other way. yes. >> they will take on the winner between kentucky and west virginia. >> take a look at that kentucky. oh the lob from marcus lee. the team that shoots over 50% for -- oh. >> no! >> no it counts. it counts!

>> oh, my goodness. jackson. oh. you couldn't have script it any better than that. >> he comes up with this pickpocket will be chased the other way. gets it to go! wisconsin trailed by four with 6:30 to go. they go on to win it and make it to the elite eight for a second consecutive season. >> arizona, kentucky wisconsin and notre dame all advancing to the elite eight. and second set of sweet 16 teams tipoff tonight starting with 11 seed ucla against two seed con gag sa and nc state and louisville and duke against utah and, last, three seed oklahoma against seven seed michigan state. you have a night story about the late dean smith. >> we just saw north carolina lose but dean smith, long time coach, left in his will $200 for every player over 36 years with

a note saying have a great dinner. >> that's really beautiful. >> love it. >> lovely story. coming up at the top of the hour we have so much to cover here. a key discovery during the search for answers in the germanwings plane crash. what did officials find? and will it help explain why the co-pilot decided to bring down the plane with 149 people onboard? plus a tangled web of war in the middle east. and the u.s. finds itself on both sides of a proxy war fighting alongside iran in iraq but against iran in yemen. what exactly is the united states trying to accomplish and is this the best way to go about it? we'll then turn yes, cokie, to politics finally. and what might be a big obstacle for presidential contender scott walker. nbc's chuck todd and politico's mike allen joins us here in washington. we'll tell you all about the serious allegations facing the u.s. drug enforcement agency involving sex parties, prostitutes, and drug cartels. no joke. we'll be right back.

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oh, the silent treatment. real mature. so you wanna get out of here? go national. go like a pro. it is the top of the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." live in washington this morning. following developments in a number of major stories. cokie roberts, chris jansing,

eugene robinson are the still here. joining us now, political correspondent at "the washington post," ann gearin', formally served as the ap chief diplomatic correspondent. we'll be talking to you about yemen and hillary clinton. we begin though in the french alps where the families of passengers on germanwings flight 9525 are now coming to grips with what happened. we now know that the crash which killed all 150 people onboard was a deliberate act and questions are now focused on not what happened but why. why did andreas lubitz 27-year-old co-pilot with no criminal record or known terrorist ties do what we did? loved ones arrived near the crash site thursday just hours after hearing the horrifying news about how their relatives were killed. the search for victims and debris now in its fourth day. crews are looking for jewelry, clothing anything that could help identify people. the information we learned yesterday first on "morning joe" about the plane's final minutes

is still hard to believe. the dusseldorf bound plane was cruising at its cruising altitude when the pilot can be heard leaving the cockpit. the pilot then tries to get back in first knocking and then banging on the locked door. but the co-pilot ignores him. he sets the autopilot to descend to its lowest possible setting, 100 feet and for eight minutes he can be heard breathing normally as he silently let's the plane plummet, ignoring alarms and failing to answer desperate calls from controllers, other planes and from the cabin. passengers spent their final minutes ialive screaming before the plane smashed into the mountains. joining us from tampa, florida, kormer commercial pilot and nbc news aviation analyst john cox and here in washington former faa chief of staff michael goldfarb. thanks to you both for joining us. john i'll start with crew this time. what are the key questions about

the co-pilot that you still have this morning. >> first and foremost they will go back through his records to see the screening process which for lufthansa and germanwings is very, very extensive. are there any key indicators in the screening process that needs to be revised. this investigation has transitioned from being an aircraft accident investigation to a criminal investigation. and so the normal police protocols are now going to take precedent. the aircraft accident investigators are going to finish their work up doing the routine normal things, collecting all the information about the flight, the maintains, crew training those things. but the joined arms are going to now take the lead and they're going to look at every aspect of this individual this rogue pilot in as much detail as they can to try to come to some understanding about why they would commit such a heinous act. >> yeah. you know yesterday just about 24 hours ago you said on our

show that you were almost speechless as to what you were hearing out of that press conference, that unbelievable press conference in france from the prosecutor. with the information that has come in now a day later, are you still as shocked and is anything i guess, maybe along the lines of what you've seen before? >> you know i acknowledge, i guess on an intellectual level that this has happened before. it's very rare. it's such an affront, it's so absolutely wrong for a professional pilot to even consider something like this. and after 4 1/2 decades in the industry, i know the serious way that all professional aviators look at safety and passenger safety in particular and to have someone do this it is so far from that it is very hard to accept it. i acknowledge that it occurred. i acknowledge that it has occurred previously in a very

few cases, but i still am really -- i find it very difficult to understand it. how could somebody do that as a professional pilot, i'm still struggling with that and probably will for a very long time. >> chris jansing. >> and michael, given that obviously to figure out exactly what happened here the criminal investigation takes precedence. there is also already activity being seen with airlines many european airlines that never had that two person in a cockpit rule, within hours of the press conference yesterday were changing their own policies. i'm wondering from an airline perspective and, frankly, i've been surprised by the number of people who have said to me this has made them extremely nervous. we all know that flying is still extraordinarily safe safer probably than it's ever been. but this has made people say, what do airlines need to look at what do pilots need to look at, where do we go from here to learn from this? >> right. i think that -- last segment you

might have over spoke when i said it was a cosmetic change. it's always helpful to have another set of eyes and ears in the cockpit but it doesn't match the threat and the threat has changed. from an al qaeda. 9/11 type attack much more to a lone wolf single agent kind of situation. and the infrastructure, the training policy rules, testing, doesn't necessarily fit this individual's profile and how one could prevent it but you bringle the question on safety. and i know people are nervous right now and statistics show it's a slippery slope. but the statistics are important in terms of what change we can affectuate. if you flew today and flew every day, 365 days a year it would sake 63,000 years to before you would be involved in a fatal crash. i know john thinks it's incredibly safe. think about that. and so the regulators look at that and maybe the cost benefit and that's why changing an already incredibly safe system is so difficult.

but none the less over the last year, i think there's going to be a fairly you know qualitative shift in looking at the kinds of pilots we're bringing on, do they have the experience that john cox has, where do they come from, is there pressure on low-budget carrier, shortage of pilots not cut corners, we have to you know bridge the training or what that might be. and especially in other parts of the world where the infrastructure hasn't kept up with the demand for air light federal government. >> john cox and michael goldfarb, thank you very very much. we'll be continuing this conversation on the show. okay. on wednesday the u.s. bombed isis targets in iraq essentially fighting alongside iran while just 1200 miles south in yemen the u.s. helped saudi arabia launch air strikes against iranian backed rebels. all in a single day. n nbc news chief correspondent richard engel reports. >> reporter: saudi arabia has

long been known for getting washington to fight its battles. not this time. these saudi fighter jets are on their way to attack rebel positions in yemen, targeting weapons depots, a command center, and aircraft used by the rebels who have been trying to overthrow the government. the rebels called houthis now control large parts of yemen. they're backed by iran. to fight them saudi arabia says it's bombing with 100 jets imposing a no-fly zone and mobilizing 150,000 ground troops. no invasion yet, but that's clearly an option. the saudi coalition of ten muslim nations includes jordan and egypt, which reportedly sent warships to defend the yemeni coast and offered to send ground forces. thousands of yemenis protested the saudi air strikes, so did iranian officials in switzerland for nuclear talks. >> we believe the situation in yemen is a very dangerous

situation and we advise against any escalation. >> reporter: the war in yemen has now become a battle between iran and saudi arabia two old and well armed rivals. and neither side appears willing to back down. >> all right. first of all, gene robinson there's got to be a method to the madness here is there not? have you lost the plot too, like me? >> i have completely lost it. there seems to be -- if there's method to the madness it's so mackiavalian he would have given up. ann, you understand this whole thing, right? are we, as jon stuart said have we managed to figure out how to fight a proxy war against ourselves? is that what we're going? >> we're on both sides of a couple of different fights here if by we we mean the united states. and there are so many cross currents, it's absolutely confusing to everybody.

but the two main things to try to keep in mind about what's going on in yemen are that that country is now exactly what -- several things that we don't want it to be right? it's a vacuum. it's a potential haven for extremism and terrorism. it is strategically important enough to be fought over by the two most important powers in the middle east, iran and saudi arabia. we are nominally on the side of saudi arabia here because they are a traditional friend and partner militarily intelligencewise and elsewhere in the middle east and we did provide intelligence help to them to get this operation going. that said -- >> probably our planes too. >> originally yeah. they buy them. but, yeah, they're american and saudi pilots are trained in the united states. several other real militaries in the middle east jordan and

egypt, probably bahrain and maybe others are also either already participating or willing to participate. we have ties to each of those and we have allegiances to all of those, which is going to be very very complicated going forward. >> oil prices have already gone up as a result of this. and part of the -- yes. just $6 but that's the beginning. >> right. >> and you know a whole lot of our economic recovery has been because oil prices have been so low. >> this is all the stuff we have to worry about. >> the one thing that potentially makes sense about this and it seems unintentional perhaps, but iran could end up being really overstretched here because if they're going to have to help the houthis against this coalition and they're in the middle of iraq and having to put forces in there to bolster the government there and, you know, everything they're doing in syria, that's an awful lot for a government -- >> and the deal is supposed to

be done next week. >> exactly. exactly. >> we've already seen -- >> puts pressure on them. >> we haven't seen iran step up in a national way to try to back the houthis. they are backed by iran militia backed by iran but not -- it's not like the iranians are sending ground forces there. they seem to be indicating that they're not going to. one of the things that's important to iran right now is getting the nuclear deal done. >> right. >> and you have the u.s. foreign minister and the iranian foreign minister meeting today. >> to keep score here. iran, with are with them in iraq against them in yemen, with them and against them in syria, have i got it right? >> that's essentially right. the question is and we're making ann answer all of these questions. if you talk to folks at the white house in the simplest form, probably two things they will make the argument. one is that we all have an interest in a more stable

region, but beyond that they're reallying looking at how do we keep isis from growing, how do we keep al qaeda from -- that's the main motivation in all of these places. and if that's the end game if the end game is not, as the white house has argued to stabilize a particular government but to create a condition where isis and al qaeda and the arabian peninsula can't thrive are we do that any anyway anyway way? >> the biggest attack trying to stop access -- isis happening in the united states senate this week when rand paul tried to cut foreign assistance that is the best way you stop isis. >> okay. there you go. cokie bringing us to politics. i have no politics for you. >> good. >> are you ready? new hampshire gop presidential primary is nearly a year away but a new poll shows jeb bush leading the likely republican field. 19% of the granite states republican voters say bush would be their first choice.

coming in second wisconsin governor scott walker at 14%. the polls real headline maker is donald trump who comes in fourth finishing ahead of ted cruz chris christie, and marco rubio. okay. a lot of different things you could say, cokie, but actually what does this say about christie, rubio? those guys are still -- >> i'm still dealing with the puckered up picture of donald trump. >> he's giving you a kiss. >> oh, dear god. >> i'll take it. no, you know what it's fascinating what's happening here. i'm watching scott walker closely. i think that he's going to emerge -- he's more of a force to be reckoned with. >> i think it's going to be hard for him to have staying power. >> really if. >> i think new hampshire is the place jeb bush has to win. so yes, we're many many months out but the truth is that that's his shot because if hillary clinton is the democratic nominee, the independents in new hampshire are not going to vote the democratic primary and

that's who he needs because republicans are not going to vote for him. >> and, ann, what do you think? >> well, certainly hillary is counting on doing well first in iowa and then in new hampshire. again, we have no serious primary opposition for her, so you already see her running against the of only thing she can run against, which is republican congress and by extension the emerging candidates. she's been very active on twitter over the last week. she's really taken to the forum. she tweeted last night about the new law in indiana, which gay rights supporters say are anti-lbgt rights and actions in the republican congress she sees as detrimental to women. >> as the front-runner at this point, hillary clinton, what is her message in ten seconds or

less? why is that funny? >> i can answer that. it's i'm on your side and they're not. that in every -- every single policy issue that she has taken on, her message is i will fight for you, i'm an your side and they're not. >> okay. congressman aaron schock in the news. he bid farewell to capitol hill in a five-minute speech on the house floor. he called his resignation the beginning of a new can't chapter and likened himself to abraham lincoln. >> oh. >> i thought about that first thing. >> the resemblance alone. >> no. >> here's what he said. i also know that every person faces adversity in life. abraham lincoln held this seat in congress. it was a seat. >> for one term. >> that's true. >> few faced as many defeats in his personal business and public life as he did, said schock. schock said he leaves congress with sadness and humility. >> but fortunately with his shirt on. >> i did talk to him about that, which is his closest submission

cokie, to any wrong doing since suspending scandal erupted over a month ago. resignation takes effect on tuesday. it's funny. i feel for him. >> sure you feel for anybody. but talk about a self-inflicted wound. >> that's why i feel for him. i think that's the worst kind. >> well, you know, exhibition that he felt strongly had to be exhibit, it was really just -- >> he's a member -- >> i have no reason to do this except that i feel very kind of humanly sympathetic toward him. i think the younger generation which we would put aaron in, i think there are a lot of other things going on him as well, obviously, are very -- if you look at how they communicate and share their stories, it's all out there on instagram. >> maybe we should stop that. >> i agree. >> and a member of congress could be a leader in this. >> i agree. i agree with you. >> and not going to behave in this way. >> you're adopting the american

way, which i fully support that we like second acts that we like to give people a second chance. having said that i think there are a lot of people out there who would like their members of congress to represent them with some level of dignity. >> a nice to come back to congress. >> you've taken on my role of scold on the show. thank you. >> i've been scolding for a much longer time than you have. >> fantastic. thank you, cokie. you make me look soft and sweet. >> and young. >> oh, come on. come on now. now to some -- okay. i'm going to have a hard time keeping a straight face because these are deadly serious allegations but this is stunning. this is beyond stupid. right. okay. this is the u.s. drug enforcement agency we're talking about. according to a report from the department of justice, dea agents posted in colombia engaged in sex parties with prostitutes supplied by local drug cartels. >> but in some cases they claim

they didn't know that those parties were being paid for by the drug cartels. >> thank you, chris. >> just giving you both sides of the story. >> perfectly fine to have them as long as somebody else is paying for it. >> that's called deniability, right? >> yep. >> somebody was paying for it. while they were having these sex parties, something i wasn't expecting -- >> what's a sex party? >> i'll leave that to your imagination. >> i honestly don't understand. >> and so when these prostitutes were hired to come and entertain these gentlemen, they allowed colombian police worldwide known for their trustworthiness apparently to guard their weapons. >> the whole thing is just mind boggling. >> you can't make it up. >> obviously it tells you -- >> absolutely. also, listen when you think of something like this you know people are going to get fired across the board. so let's now report on what has happened since this stunning revelation that we just talked

about. all right. so after the investigation, seven agents were issued suspensions. >> yeah. >> two to ten days. >> two to ten days. >> makes the secret service look good. i mean really. >> wow. anne thank you. >> i think there is a relationship here about the delay. this took place from 2005 to 2008. do you know when the office of professional responsibility found out about them? two years later, in 2010. >> so why are we just finding out now? >> well, the report was just -- just came out. >> why didn't the secret service get a breathalyzer? still ahead on "morning joe," i'm sorry, still ahead on "morning joe" -- i'm not sorry. there are more questions than answers this morning about the co-pilot on germanwings flight 9525. what was his motive? did warning signs go ignores? we'll have the latest on the investigation into andreas lubitz and why officials may have found a key piece of evidence and what will be the first thing hillary clinton does

after she launches her expected campaign for 2016? we have the new politico report that answers that question. stay with us. just stay calm and move as quietly as possible. no sudden movements. google search: bodega beach house.

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22 past the hour. nbc news learned the families of the co-pilot and some of the victim on the plane that he intentionally brought down have started arriving a the a crash site. keir simmons joins us live from seyne-les-alps, france. keir, i understand they're helping identify their relatives. >> reporter: that's right. that's what we've been told this morning, mika that they have been actually given a dna samples in order to help with the identification process. at the same time the fbi, we hear has launched their own

independent investigation because of three american on board and co-pilot had some training in the u.s. the crucial question of course is what motivated the co-pilot to do this? andreas lubitz was suffering from a personal life crisis. according to several german newspapers, on the mountain in france the remains of the 149 people he allegedly killed kored by he'll row tarp a painstaking search for clues and to identify the victims. >> everything that can help us to do identification, personal possession julie, clothes. >> reporter: among the relatives traveling to the scene were the co-pilot's family who were pulled aside and told he had caused the crash. an immediate consequence here some european airlines following america's lead from now on ensuring two people are always in the cockpit. lubitz locked the a-320's cockpit door using controls like those seen in this airbus video.

disabling the door's keypad preventing his fellow pilot from re-entering. the black box reveals he programmed the plane's deadly descent descent. it recorded the screams of passengers in the final minutes. they were innocent people this relative said. if lubitz was ill, the company should have been aware. the families were brought to the bottom of the mountain. >> this may be as close as they can get to their loved ones' final resting place. >> reporter: stars and stripes for the three americans killed. the third victim robert oliver named last night. among the european airlines that are now adopting that two-person in the cockpit at all times rule virgin air, low-cost british carrier easy jet, other airlines from norway iceland. canadian transportation minister says airlines there will immediately voluntarily adopt

that rule. but, mika, of course the tragedy is is that it is too late for the people who died in the mountains behind me here. >> nbc's keir simmons on the scene. thank you. and now to germany and the investigations unfolding there into the co-pilots background. officials have searched his apartment and his parents' home just forth of frankfurt. nbc's katie has the latest. >> reporter: he's being called a mass murderer. 27-year-old andreas lubitz deliberately crashing flight 9525 into the side of a mountain. but so far no obvious motive only eight minutes of steady breathing while the captain furiously banged on the door and passengers screamed for their lives. now investigators are trying to piece together the puzzle carrying boxes of evidence including computers from his apartment in dusseldorf and his childhood home in montabauer while interviewing those closest

to him but in montabauer few clues from neighbors who called him polite and fun. >> i cannot imagine that he done it, this attention does not fit in this picture. i have -- from him. >> reporter: still german newspapers report he might have stuffed from depression. friends say lubitz always had dreams of the sky. he started training with lufthuft han is a in 2008. in 2013 he got his commercial pilots license but accumulated 630 flight hours until, officials say, he put this airbus in an eight-minute controlled dive that ended with the plane slamming into the french alps. despite this the ceo of lufthansa subsidiary germanwings told me there were no red flags. were there any reports that there was something wrong with him? >> we don't have any of those reports. >> that was katie reporting.

coming up it is not a family affair for republican senator rand paul. why ron paul supporters are defecting from the likely 2016 candidate. and there is no end in sight for the unrest in yemen. how the crisis could send oil prices soaring. keep it right here on "morning joe." the volkswagen jetta is really fun-to-drive. go for it. okay. wow... woohoo! i'm dreaming... pinch me. no, not while you're driving. and, right now, you can get a one-thousand-dollar volkswagen credit bonus on jetta models. seriously, pinch me. it's not a dream. ow! it's the volkswagen stop dreaming, start driving event. stop dreaming, and test-drive one today. hurry in and you can get 0% apr plus a $1000 volkswagen credit bonus on 2015 jetta and passat models.

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joining us now we have nbc news political director and moderator of "meet the press" chuck todd. we were just asking you about your run down for sunday. good luck with that. >> there's only a proxy war going on in middle east. a hot proxy war at that. not just the normal cold proxy war. >> let's start there. how do we even describe this with the motivations are ultimately? >> i think it is -- how -- hot proxy war between the iranians and saudis. in the middle of this the u.s. is supposed to negotiate some sort of nukeclear deal and make iran stronger in the region in that's the hard -- that's the question that this administration hasn't answered. how do you do a deal doesn't make iran stronger in the

region? they're already flexing their muscle. they're already getting more involved. i think that's the -- as much as i buy their argument your better off doing a deal with them than totally ignoring them. okay. but you are going to make them stronger. >> ultimately. >> the administration would probably answer that at least partly by saying they may be stronger in some ways but we will know more about it. it will be on paper. we will have greater inspection of their nuclear facilities and so for theth, plus we're drawing them out of the shadows and to the negotiating table. >> if they go through with it. >> right. >> on paper, right. >> some question right now. >> apparently paper? >> in talking to some of the other countries involved in the negotiations they're feeling pretty good about it at the moment, that they are going to get a decent deal and bringing them out of the shadows they think make it -- adds to stability. >> the problem is the saudis

are in the same position as the israelis. we focus on the israelis all the time about basically they'll hate any deal. the saudis are going to hate any deal. >> that's true. >> they're going to -- by the way, all the gulf states will hate any deal. >> let's move to politics. look who is here. mike allen, he just came. >> happy friday. >> surprise friday. >> he just shows up. >> there he is. >> we have questions for you about the dea. no, just kidding. >> i have answers. >> no, please i don't want to hear anymore. >> i'm not old enough for this. >> there's some polling on hillary clinton's e-mail controversy i think is interesting. cbs news polling. was it appropriate to use her personal e-mail address. not appropriate, 62%. appropriate, 25%. then, anne, when you get to does your story i'm pact your opinion of hillary clinton, no effect 65%. worse, 39%. are you surprised? >> not at all.

that is what she does. that's what her campaign is banking on is that this actually will not have affect on the way voters about. it does up the ick factor in the short term and those numbers acknowledge that. >> mike allen, you have new information this morning on her launch plan or what happens after that. tell us about it. >> a story out this morning on politico with some behind the scenes on how she's planning to roll out -- chuck reported and others, she's been doing so much to try to mitigate the inevitability idea. she's not raising money for the general election. only for the primary. so with her campaign launch she's going to try to do the same thing. so low key events. good luck, right? she's going to -- after she launches probably with an e-mail on social media, she'll do some events in states that include iowa new hampshire, and -- but

rather than big speeches or big rallies, she's going to try to do voter round-tables. the listening tour that worked so well for her. >> it did. >> i was there on the farm when she said she was going to run. and as somebody who had worked for years and years in new york and upstate new york i was skeptical and then you saw the way she could work a crowd. you saw the skills that some people haven't seen recently when she's been on a very different kind of stage. >> protected. >> can she go bag to that is the question? it's a real problem. >> she was really good at it. >> she was very good. >> she would walk into a room and people would just blown away. and you know remember it was not that long after bill clinton's problems and most of the people there were dying to say why didn't you kill him and she managed to just completely dissipate that because she knew every pothole in the state. i mean she really knew her

stuff. blew people away. >> she had a different bar. that was a bar that benefited her. there were a lot of people skeptical, she knows new york she knows buffalo. so you come in and people come wow, she really did her homework, she did this. she doesn't have that sort of low bar of expectations running for president. and i tell you, if she doesn't do an announcement speech you know, the thing that -- she never announced for president last time. >> right. >> she never -- an announcement speech for me is -- >> let's chat. >> an announcement speech for me is a single most important thing the candidate does because it is the one time your organizing principle for why you want to be president. >> it's your message. >> it's your message. it's one time you get to control it all. for a longer period of time than at any other moment in your campaign. if she wastes this moment and just does a, hey, i'm in again, let's talk that's a good new york senate bad, bad president bad. >> one chance to control it all.

what we've got right now are her people controlling the other situations like the e-mail press conference and whatever. >> putting out fires. >> yes. which, of course leaves everybody with a bad taste because you can't get to her. you know and that one opportunity control it all is that announcement. >> that's right. >> that could be an incredible moment. and that's going to be the moment where everybody in the echo chamber you know has to turn a little bit because there will be -- there will be undoubtedly massive excitement, especially among women across america. she has such support and such excitement still outside the echo chamber and you know as journalists and analysts we are frustrated by the server. it is a good question. >> can you imagine announcement speech at seneca falls where she makes her case at why, why it's time for a woman president, but why she should be the next president. >> yes. >> you know read barack obama's announcement speech. at the end of the day that was his organizing principle and sort of was his -- it was his blueprint. >> it lasted.

>> throughout the campaign and for parts of his presidency. she shouldn't -- they should make the announcement so soon. >> she's a woman. >> i know. that's the message. >> as we all know the great big overarching theme is not what traditionally has been her strength, small, smaller rooms, smaller audiences, getting right down in the weeds of policy. she's really really good at that. you see her doing that on twitter. she's going right for individual things. that great big why you should vote for me is what everybody is waiting to hear? >> iowa she can do that. she can go from coffee shop to coffee shop and tell people. >> mike jump in and give me the rand paul. >> chuck todd playbook they would know they say they're going to announce in the second or third week in april they would know where. they haven't even decided there. there's an inclinician, do new

hampshire or go to iowa. >> everyone is thinking too much. she needs to decide. what's the story on rand paul? >> a snapshot of where the republican party is at rand paul is having trouble because he's too moderate. ben talked to former ron paul supporters in key early states and found that rand paul is losing some of them because they think he's a sellout and he's been too moderate that he's gone along to get along, moderated his father's positions, his own positions from the past. so this liberty movement that is a key part of his backing is now skeptical of rand paul. >> you know what this is? this is the difference between the house and the senate. ron paul could be just straight down the line because he represented one district in texas. this is a whole state. >> yeah. >> and he was a marginal figure. his son has become a central figure. >> all right. mike allen, thank you very much. chuck todd what do you have coming up on "meet the pros"? >> waiting on something before i

can announce it. >> really? very exciting. >> i'm always in that mode. couple of those coming up but we're going to do a lot on the proxy war. yes, there is a certain plane crash that we will -- it's actually we shouldn't be -- it's a mass murder. this is not a plane crash. not fair to the airline industry. this is a mass murder. there's a guy named joe scarborough that's going to show up on the show. >> a lot to say. >> there's my lead. >> up next what is the top threat facing the united states? former cia director james wools si answers that question. a hint? he says it's not isis.

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we're just getting new information, cokie, reading it right off her phone about the co-pilot who crashed the germanwings flight 9525. >> the german prosecutor issued a statements which the associated press is reporting that the first thing they say is the co-pilot quote, hid his illness from employers. we have no idea what that means. they found no evidence of a religious or political motivation and no suicide note. >> no suicide note. >> diagnosed with depression and had dropped out of flight school at one point and then gone back in. something that might have disqualified him. >> or maybe found that he was -- so they're saying that he was receiving medical treatment but we don't know what for. it might have been that he was taking medication or something for mental illness or something else but we're getting more -- they clearly have more information. >> right. >> and we'll be getting that information and bringing it to you as soon as possible. joining us now former director of the cia james

woolsey, chairman of the foundation for defensive democracies and what a day to have you in sir. thank you very much. first of all, how would you characterize iran's role in the world right now? >> sort of like germany in 1934 or '35. >> wow. >> i think they are doing everything they can to spread their empire. they are controlling the capitals of four neighboring states through proxies or otherwise. and they are working hard on i think, a nuclear weapon. and i think if we have a deal of the sort that we've described they'll have one within a year or so. >> chris jansing, that's quite a statement. >> that is a statement right out of the box. and for a lot of people what's more relatable is what the white house says, which is that this is a fight against terror this is a fight against isis this is a fight against al qaeda, but you actually wrote about that earlier. >> it's isis too. isis is awful. what they're trying to do is

establish a caliphate, expand like an oil slick so they control more and more of the middle east and scare everybody into submission as they do so. but iran has us in its sites as well as israel. but run very serious problem is the existence of the phenomenon of the electromagnetic pulses. these come out of the sun from time to time and have been hitting the earth for billions of years and it doesn't matter. but if you create one by a nuclear detonation in orbit, let's say you orbit a satellite. simple satellite, simple nuclear weapon, nothing comp my indicate it, and detonate it over an area you can take out the electric grid. and the possibility of the iranians, once they have a nuclear weapon, north koreans could do it today. detonating one in orbit above the united states could be devastating. we got 18 critical infrastructures in the country. the other 17 all depend on

electricity. so it's not just your lights that go, it's food it's water, it's law enforcement, it's hospitals, it's everything that run on electricity. >> so is it your view that everybody is just being naive about this? >> well, it was highly classified until a few years ago. and there are -- there has come to be some return of attention because several members of congress congressman franks congresswoman clark, others have picked it up and started forming a caucus for electromagnetic pulse and getting into it. but i've talked to several senior members of the executive branch about this and you get a deer in the headlights look. they really don't want to be bothered. and i think congress and several governors and a number of state legislators and one or two utilities are interested in trying to do something to build resilience. you can do it. >> i mean on the whole general question of iran building an empire. >> oh, iran. >> do you -- is it your view that the united states is just

being naive? >> well, i think it's so obvious what they're doing that you don't have -- i mean -- >> it sounds as though you don't think the deal that apparently is emerging here would slow them one bit from getting a weapon. >> no. we gave up on that when a year or so ago we agreed to let them enrich uranium, because once you have an enrichment program you're very very far along. people think that if you enriched to 20% for medical purposes, you're only a small fraction of the way toward having a bomb. that's not true. you're about 80% to 90% of the work has been done to get you material for a nuclear weapon. and once they're enriching, given -- they're clever folks. they hide things. they build new facilityies inside mountains and so forth. they will have a nuclear weapon within a very few years, i think, max. >> okay. on that note james woolsey,

thank you very much for coming onboard this morning. very good to see you. >> sorry. i deliver bad news. that's what i do. >> really. we have breaking political news right now. harry reid will not seek re-election. what do you think, cokie? >> i'm surprised, because he had been saying he would, and i don't -- i wonder if it's his health has affected him. >> right. according to the "new york times" only so far, harry reid will not seek re-election. big news. >> in session until 3:00 this morning. that might have decided. coming up cokie, she's special this morning. i love it. new details emerging just moments ago about the copilot of germanwings flight 9525. what investigators did find at his home and what they didn't find and what he may have hidden from his employer. all that when we return on "morning joe."

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we've just learned new information about the copilot who crashed germanwings flight 9525. officials say they found no evidence of a religious or political motivation from andreas lubitz and in addition no suicide note found. officials say lubitz was receiving medical treatment for an illness, and that evidence suggests he may have had that illness from his employer may

have hidden that illness from his employer, this comes from reports lubitz had a history of depression. live to france with new developments on this. plus new developments our the meefrt and the breaking news that harry reid will notre re-election re-election. his announcement how much full fullment the job has given him but says to mitch mcconnell don't be too elated he'll still be working for the people. harry reid not seeking re-election. that's the breaking news in the past few minutes. more "morning joe" in just a moment. my cut hurt. >>mine hurt more. >>mine stopped hurting faster! neosporin plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria neosporin plus pain relief

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welcome to "morning joe." live in washington where it's shapeing up to be another very big news day. we're following developments in a number of major stories. in just a moment we'll get brand new details on the crash of that passenger plane in the alps but questions continue to mount almost as fas as we guest answers. why did a 27-year-old man with no criminal record or terrorist ties commit mass murder? what clues did investigators find among the copilot's items and what will airlines do now about the security of cockpit doors? the very security measures put

in place to keep us safe after 9/11, now coming back to haunt the people on that germanwings flight. plus the situation in yemen is simply spiraling out of control. why taking sides is sometimes difficult than ever. with us on-set an incredible cast of characters this morning. columnist for bloomberg view al hunt political common taiter cokie roberts good to have you. chris jansing and pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of the "wall street journal," eugene washington. thank you all for coming in on this busy morning. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> all breaking before our eyes here, an incredible press conference from the prosecutor in france. the families of the passengers on germanwings flight 9525 are now coming to grips with what happened. we now know that the crash, which killed all 150 people onboard was a deliberate act and questions are focused now on not

what happened but why. why did andreas lubitz the 27-year-old copilot, no criminal record or known terrorist ties do what he did? loved ones arrives hours after hearing the horrifying news how their relatives were killed. crew looking for jewelry, clothing, anything that could help identify people. the information we learned yesterday first on "morning joe" about the plane's final minutes is still inconceivable. the dusseldorf-bound plane at cruising altitude when the pilot can be heard leaving the cockpit. the pile then tries to get back in. first knocking and then banging on the locked door but the copilot ignores him. he sets the autopilot to descend to its lowest possible setting. 100 feet. for 8 minutes he can be heard breathing normally as he silently let's the plane plummet ignoring alarms and failing to

answer desperate calls from controllers, other planes and from inside the cabin. passengers spent their final minutes alive screaming before the plane smashed into the mountains. nbc's chief global correspondent bill neely joins us live from the alps near the crash site with the latest. bill? >> reporter: good morning, mika. i think everyone here is still reeling from the chronology that you've just read. it is simply stunning but of course, it hasn't stopped the search efforts here and the police helicopters have been going back and forth above us nonstop, bringing investigators to the crash site where, as you say, they're looking for jewelry, clothing and, of course bringing back body parts to about 30 forensic experts who are based in tents over there, trying to get a better picture of how this happened. also, the family of andreas lubitz the 27-year-old copilot, are due to be questioned by

police here very shortly, trying again to get some idea of why on earth their son, because the father and mother are here why on earth he decided to do what he did. and, indeed a lot of the focus now is on his background. and in particular what happened six years ago. in 2009 he was training with lufthansa, indeed at the flight school in phoenix, arizona, when he had a severe depression. he was designated as not suitable for flying. he was suspended from that school and it was a year and a half before he could go back to training. he retook some of his courses, but he was designated still with a special code on his pilot's license, which he eventually got, and i understand that he went for more than the usual numbers of medical checks. now, of course the ceo of lufthansa said he was 100% fit and there was no problem at all. i think lufthansa has a lot of

questions to answer about andreas lubitz. one other development, just to bring you. the police at his apartment brought out a number of things including his computer. they now say that they have made a significant find. it's a clue something that they have sent for testing. they make the point that it's not a suicide note, but it is something specific. i think all the focus is probably, in terms of the investigation in germany, here the focus remains on the crash site and especially the search for that second black box, that data recorder. remember, all the evidence mika you've spoken about was from the cockpit voice recorder. there may be still more clues in the flight data recorder although we have a pretty good idea of how this young man took the plane down from 38,000 feet and smashed it into the side of the mountain just over there. back to you, mika. >> let's bring in our experts with us since the start of the

story, former faa chief of staff michael goldfarb and greg feith. it's easy to judge, obviously, but what do you make of the age and what we know so far about this copilot? he seems very young. in a number of ways. >> i think -- absolutely. i think one of the questions will be the hiring practices, even though the ceo has a lot of confidence in his staff. when you have 600-hour first officer, he wouldn't be able to fly here in the united states with 600 hours. you need a minimum now of 1,500 hours as copilot on an airliner. so while his age and his flight experience is under question the bigger picture now on the bigger issue is this depression. was he clinically treated? was he on medication? did he have a lapse? did he fail to take medication if it was being controlled? and how was he passing his medicals without any other screening? typically here in the united

states with the faa, if there is a medical condition that a pilot must report then they have to provide periodic reports. i do because i had an issue with cancer. so vie toi have to provide the faa with medical records to monitor and make sure that i am safe to fly. >> hmm. chris jansing? >> any restrictions that you know of of the kind of medications that a pilot can take and if for example, he was diagnosed with a clinical depression, could he be on antidepressants and still fly? i'm just trying to figure out what the medical background might be and what they might be looking at. >> right. and so chris, basically up to five years ago were you not allowed, at leasted in the united states to take any antidepressants. refer to prozac pilots. that comes out of the mythology of pilots who used to come out of the military highly seasoned highly trained and then occupy civil and commercial spots. we don't have that environment

any more but the rules are antiquated. certainly antidepressants are now allowed but the concept of self-reporting. what pilot outside of the physical side what pilot is going to come back to his or her supervisor and say i'm having some meant many problem, some real issues? they're fearful for their jobs. airlines need to hold harmless pilots and do a much better job on the psychological side which pretty much is non-existent after that first check of proficiency. >> gene robinson? >> also michael, a question. they talked about psychological testing yesterday, that perhaps lufthansa or germanwings does. do you know anything about that testing and what that consists of? >> no, gene i don't know the specifics of it but i'll tell you, it's not -- it doesn't keep pace with the kind of threat we're facing. we thought after 9/11 we had to protect the cockpit from the

cabin and now are finding perhaps we have to rethink that and protect the cabin from the cockpit. and we have to redefine the nature of terrorism. i know mika you've been on this thing terrorist right from the start and most people would say, he killed 150 people? mass murderer? and think of timothy mcveigh nap fits most definitions of terrorism but the official one has to change so that the threat response changes as well. >> you know i hear you when you think i've been on this thing about terrorism. i just was confused that it was ruled out. that's all i'm saying. i was confused that terrorism and criminality was, seemed to be pushed aside, and an accident was the focus here. >> it still is. 2340 no link to maybe organized terrorism. it still is maybe pushed aside. >> i was on that thing, actually. if you kill 149 people in that way, in a public way making a statement like that, is that not terrorism? >> in some way and some influence. we don't know don't want to jump the gun and you guy, fair

to pull me back on that. greg, let me ask you about the cockpit door. that's a real kind of a source of now confusion in terms of how we move forward on that, and how exactly maybe even planes need to be staffed? >> well we built those doors, we fortified the doors, in response to 9/11 and as michael said, we were trying to protect the cockpit from the bad guys sitting in the back. now under a certain circumstance, you know the pilots can control in a variety of different ways access into the cockpit. but we've come to this new evolution, and i'm listening to the terrorism thing, and when you look at where the evolution of terrorism is and what's happened especially in the last several weeks where they're trying to get home-grown terrorist here even in the united states, to do the dirty work. >> yeah. >> are we creating now, or is there some underground faction that they've decided well we

can't break down the door because they for the fidetified them what other way can we get the job done? the fact we put two people here in the united states into the cockpit when one flight crew member leaves that's a good policy, because you now have somebody, but the problem is that if i'm intent on doing some harm and i have a flight attendant sitting there i may be able to get up disable or render them incapacitated and still accomplish the mission. it may be difficult, but i think that you know that part of the security aspect is going to have to be looked at and xruten nscrutinized. >> so what would you do? what is the way to make us safe? >> i think the only way is to have multiple people in the cockpit. that is, years ago we used to have flight engineers on aircraft, that third pilot that was a systems operator on the

airplane. a lot of the asian carriers still have even in a two-person crew they have a flight engineer that rides in the jump seat. they're either the radio operator or a systems operator. so they have that third person. they're a qualified crew member. flight attendants are trained and are quite capable are at least providing a level of intervention, but we may have to go back and revisit, do we need that third qualified crew member in the cockpit, in the event that somebody tries to do something nefarious like this first officer. you have at least a qualified person that could try to take intervening action and prevent something from happening, even if one of the pilots is out of the cockpit. >> so what i found so interesting as we round out this block here al, was how forthcoming the prosecutor in france was. i mean, we were sitting here for 48 hours with very little answers which is why we were pushing scenarios, and it was hard not to, but it was as if it was like a waterfall of

information. and in some way, al i wonder what the dynamics were between countries and, cokie, how important that was for families? >> oh incredibly important for families. you know families want the truth. >> they just want to know. >> and then i gather the crash site itself is horrendous. >> horrendous. >> tiny pieces of plane, and so to get the truth is very very important. >> al? >> i think another question that has to be asked, of lufthansa, maybe u.s. airlines how much pressure airlines are under and what kind of profit squeeze? are they cutting corners? do they not apply the same standards that were applied before, in order to cut costs? i don't know the answer. maybe greg or michael could address that but i think that's an important question too. >> yes. go. >> well, to me? >> michael, yes. >> first of all, the changes last night of putting the second person a flight attendant in the cockpit, having two people there was primarily for medical

reasons. so if the heart attack occurred the primary purpose. while it will help and notice this morning airlines are scurrying to implement that. that's cosmetic by and large. that's not where the nature of the threat is. i mean several things have to happen as a redesign in the cockpit door. it's a fail safe on the inside for the pilot. there has to be a final override that the of a code that can get in the that door. so the thinking changes and then the design of the cockpit door will change as well. >> greg? >> i don't think that -- i don't think that that's necessarily the case michael. first off, that second person in the cockpit came as a result of 9/11, as another level of intervention that if somebody did get into the cockpit they could run a blocking scheme if you will. it wasn't primarily medical. we don't have pilots that are dying in cockpits all the time that we needed that second person. the other thing is if we put another level of security on that door, somebody's going to find out about it.

we've created a situation we've talk and things secure 15 years with a keypad. talking about it three days now on tv. a lot of airline pilots and a lot of flight attendants are very upset we're giving away things that they learned from a security standpoint. so if we try to put another level of intervention where if i -- as a crew member -- can try and protect the cockpit and then the bad guy gets the super secret code to get back into the cockpit, then it's just multiple layers of nothing. >> still ahead on "morning joe," on the brink of civil war. why the crisis in yemen could have serious consequences for the united states. ayman mullohyeldin joins us. and a closer look at who is flying our planes? and talking to a top psychologist our airlines can make sure people in the cockpit are fit to fly. first, bill karins with a check

on the forecast. bill? the weekend interesting to say the least temperaturewise. flying out of philadelphia and laguardia 30-minute delays. rain plaguing us. thankfully a cold front kicks through pushing it all out going throughout the afternoon. again, this weekend looks mostly dry in areas of the east the exception, boston tomorrow unfortunately could get one to two inches of snow. the big picture. extreme weather pattern this weekend. much colder in areas of the east. warmer as we go throughout areas of the west and we've been stuck in this. we've had a persistent ridge of high pressure sitting here and it continues to grow and just gets bigger and the drought worse. at the same time we continue to be much colder than average in the east. high temperatures in the west off the charts. 24 record highs yesterday. today near 91 in fresno. palm springs at 99 degrees. not supposed to be this warm. these are record heat and even montana up around 77 degrees today in billings. 23 above average. as far as the forecast goes

focusing on the east, we are going to see rainy, chilly skies today. cold in chicago. then as we go through the weekend, slowly it warms up. again, no big storms this weekend, no tornadoes, nothing like that. just these temperatures. they just won't break. the same weather pattern, it seems, forever. we leave you with a shot of new york city still watching the low clouds low visibility why we have delays at laguardia. the weekend forecast improves each and every day. we'll be right back.

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the iran we're currently crippling with sanctions and periodically threatening to bomb is now our, i don't want to say ally. let's go with -- battle buddy? which brings us to tonight's segment, whose side are we on anyway? >> and air strikes against houthi rebels. >> the u.s. is in the game clearly providing logistical support to this saudi-led coalition. >> brrrrrrrrr. so we're fighting with iran against isis and then with saudi arabia against iran to -- holy [ bleep ]! we did it. it pooktook decades of destabilizing but we finally figured out how to fight a proxy war against ourselves. >> jon stewart trying his best to explain the mess involving the u.s. and the middle east.

is kind of a confusing mess. right? am i okay to be confused? al and cokie? >> totally. you need a scorecard. >> saudi arabia is against iran now egypt and turkey come in and syria -- with iran and we're in the middle of these somewhat important negotiations with iran. >> it's like the battle of stalin stalingrad, we want everyone to lose. >> except we supply weapons. and essentially fighting alongside iran 1,1200 miles south of yemen helping launch air strikes against iranian-backed rebels, all in a single day. stay with me. richard engel reports. >> reporter: saudi arabia has long been known for getting washington to fight its battles. not this time. these saudi fighter jets are on their way to attack rebel positions in yemen, targeting weapons depots a command center and aircraft used by the rebel whose have been trying to

overthrow the government. the rebels called houthis now control large parts of yemen. they're backed by iran. to fight them saudi arabia says it's bombing with 100 yet, improsing a no-fly zone and mobilizing 150,000 ground troops. no invasion yet, but that's clearly an option. the saudi coalition of ten muslim nations include jordan and egypt, which reportedly sent war ships to defend the yemeni coast and offered to send ground forces. thousands of yemenis protested the saudi air strikes. so did iranian officials. in switzerland for nuclear talks. >> we believe the situation in yemen is a very dangerous situation, and we advise against any escalation. >> reporter: the war in yemen has now become a battle between iran and saudi arabia two old and well-armed rivals and neither side appears willing to back down.

>> meanwhile, in iraq the u.s. and iran have a common enemy in isis but their shared interest in defeating the terror group is far nor complicated than meets the eye. iranian-backed militias pulled out of the fight in tikrit after american airplanes began bombing targets there. the shia militia are protesting u.s. involvement in that offensive insisting they could have retaken the city without western help but american officials say it was the u.s. who persuaded iraq to rein in the militias in exchange for air support, an estimated 10,000 fighters roughly one-third of the government-aligned forces there are now on the sidelines of the ballots. some militias say they might return their weapons against american planes. for weeks isis fighters have been able to repel the iraqi counteroffensive, despite being significantly outnumbered. it would be amusing if it wasn't so sad. nbc news foreign correspondent

ayman mohyeldin joins us live from the studio in new york to help us understand what's going on here. take us through it. >> reporter: our viewers probably wonders why is yemen so important? this map sets the scene. a sense of the geography and region. the arabian peninsula and persian gulf one of the most strategically important places in the world because of the oil and energy resources. saudi arabia right here. why it's a major concern to the united states. this access points here one of the major waterways that leads much of the oil tankers through the suess canal and western europe that is a major concern for the united states but also for saudi arabia that now has a long border between it and yemen controlled by those houthi rebels. in addition to some of those, when you look at the region this is the coalition of countries that are now involved in this fight against the houthi rebels. it is obviously led by saudi arabia and other members of the gulf cooperation council harks

powharks -- it has power houses and you get a sense how many countries are involved and why it could explode quickly. the iranian government which in the past allegedly behind supporting the rebels the houthi rebels with both money, weapons and perhaps even training, they've already come out and condemned this saying that this coalition would only further some of those terrorist attacks we've been seeing. these are some of the u.s. interests in the region. particularly with yemen. in the past the huz a robust counterterrorist operation there. yemen is home to al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. an indication isis is fwroegrowing in that failed state with no central government. allowing extremist groups to rise. the support from houthi rebels from iran iran exerted its influence in yet another arab country. mika? >> all right. gene has a question. gene? >> so ayman, is there a

potentially good outcome from this? or an acceptable outcome. >> yeah. >> to this? is it that yemen becomes some sort of saudi protectorette occupied by this coalition of forces and thus isn't such a hot bed of terrorism and isn't taken over by the iranian backed houthis? what is the possible good outcome here? >> reporter: well perhaps short term to stop the violence and hostilities on both sides. one of the messages, i've spoken to gulf diplomats, one of the major points sending with this operation, is that the houthi rebels need to stop their advances in trying to overtake cities lie aden in the south of the country. why that's important is because they simply can't afford to see yemen fall into the hands of the houthis. there's got to be a political process to bring these two major warring side or these two factions to the negotiating table. the central government and houthi rebels. with a united central government they could then try to take on

al qaeda and extremists elements which is a danger to yemen and both saudi arabia, gene everybody agrees. coming up the crash of germanwings flight 9525 is leading airlines around the world to make immediate changes in the cockpit. will these changes be enough to prevent another tragedy? tom costello joins us, when we come back. you can call me shallow... but, i have a wandering eye. i mean, come on. national gives me the control to choose any car in the aisle i want. i could choose you... or i could choose her if i like her more. and i do. oh, the silent treatment. real mature. so you wanna get out of here? go national. go like a pro.

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- electronics don't live forever. but even if they're dead, they've got more to give. recycle them. their parts can be reused to make new devices. so your trash could be someone else's treasure. the more you know. all right. at 30 past the hour here we go new details emerging regarding andreas lubitz. the copilot who crashed

germanwings flight 9525. german state prosecutors say they found evidence that the copilot hid a medical condition from his employers. they did not say what that condition was. the evidence found in searches of his home in germany included torn up sick notes that said he was unable to work. officials say lubitz was receiving medical treatment for that unspecified illness, and that evidence against suggests he may have hid that illness from this employer. officials have not found evidence of a political or religious motivation to deliberately crash the plane and said no suicide note was found. joining us on the set, nbc's tom costello along with clinical psychologist dr. ruth witherscreen. bring us up to date. this is pretty stunning. >> kind of dovetails potentially into other things we've heard from the german media. reporting out there he may have been depressed, not confirmed by nbc news and the also reporting that he may have broken up

recently with his girlfriend but i think the question this morning is what could have possibly, possibly, set him off? >> reporter: the investigation into copilot andreas lubitz' moat ishs motives and mental state will probably take months. there were no signs lubitz was unstable. >> we choose our cockpit personnel very carefully, because it's part of our dna that we have qualified personnel personnel. we look for psychologically healthy co-workers. >> reporter: unfortunately, this is not the first time a pilot has committed suicide and mass murder. in 2013 mozambiquian airlines flight 470. in 1999 off massachusetts. in 1997 185 in indonesia. >> hi everyone. >> reporter: and a suicide flight remains the latest theory

off malaysian airlines flight 370. applicants undergo rigorous background checks including a full psychological workup. former fbi agent and security vice president ken maxwell. >> includes a mental evaluation and can't be any evidence as a result of this exam incidents of psychosis on bipolar disorder or a serious personality disorder. >> reporter: lufthansa insists its psychological evaluations are also vigorous but in germany and the u.s. once the pilot has the job the yearly physical does not include a mental evaluation. in 2012 a jetblue pilot suffered a mental breakdown on a flight from laugs vegas to new york. the copilot locked him out of the cockpit and made an emergency landing. identifying a psychological issue in anyone can be very difficult. >> the idea nowadays a full psychological workup would

somehow clue you in to which pilots are going to do things like this, it's fiction. >> while pilots don't go through that psychological evaluation every time in for a yearly medical checkup, there is an argument the pilots have been making, pilots' unions we discussed two years ago. a peer review process. 3r50u crew members are supposed could keep an eye on each other. they notice something that doesn't look right, they're supposed to report that, self-reporting, nobody wants to be in a pockk cockpit with somebody not stable. >> clinical psychologist with us, dr. witherscreen. what are the two points important to make given the very little but significant information we've heard so far? >> first of all, the stigma that goes along with seeking mental health care and the barriers to taking time off for any pilot,

particularly a young pilot, who's still trying to establish himself. >> we don't know what the illness was, but it looks, given his background history of depression, correct? >> we think. german media reported that. >> that there may be that and then the stigma does play into it. maybe you would hide it because you don't want to lose your job? >> exactly. right. so from a preventative standpoint whatever airlines and regulating agencies like the faa can do to destigmatize the use of psychotherapiy seeking that out, having maybe supports epa employee assistance programs available at all times and taking away the punitive consequences of doing so. you know the stakes are too high to make it a punishment, if someone seeks help. >> but can a pilot function well if he or she, sorry if it's an ignorant question can a pilot

function well if he or she is on medicine to help him or her deal with a psychological issue? >> we're talking about two different things here and certainly medications can be important and critical and, yes. pilots can and the faa has changed regulations in the recent years to allow -- there are still requiring a year a year's lost work so a pilot may have a huge disincentive to reveal or to take the medication. but psychotherapy is not going to introduce the kinds of side effects that are concerns for the -- >> but an airline. >> -- awareness. >> an airline can't arguably have someone in psychotherapy manning an aircraft? >> not manning, but if the person feels per in addition to have a regular ongoing psycho-therapeutic relationship, that is something seen as positive. the relationship and trust with

the psychotherapist, there's certainly been times in my practice where i've encouraged a surgeon or someone who is in a public safety kind of position to not work. >> disclose yeah. >> and have given them a letter to their supervisor and so forth and worked to make sure that they -- >> but handing that fler couldletter in could be the real challenge. >> what i'm struggling to understand here is any potential difference between a suicidal impulse and a homicidal impulse? because the alleged act here was both. would those be two different conditions, potentially? two different pathologists? >> my first thought, having been in the air force, in air transportation, and now being a psychologist who frequently treats pilots and other people in high-stress positions, and just -- people in the district

people in washington, d.c. capitol hill attorneys. so forth. was sleep deprivation. sleep deprivation is probably the number one risk factor for pilot safety and then sleep deprivation can lead to a psychotic state, by in and of itself. you don't have to have a history of mental health issues to have -- >> that's an incredibly important point to make. really, really interesting. tom costello thank you, all morning long of course. dr. ruth witterscreen good to have you on the show. and why oil prices are dropping, still ahead what that means for u.s. markets. later, three deserving finalists packing their bags for the first "know your value" event in philadelphia. first they go orlando. we'll show you about that. the pitches that got them one step closer to a $10,000 bonus. keep it right here on "morning joe."

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check your google. i'm told it's national joe day by joe the stage manager. okay. joe. that's why joe's on vacation. that's it. business before the bell c nbc's chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera. michelle what is moving the markets today? >> well right now we're talking about the potential for maybe a fifth day of selling within the markets. haven't seen it in a long time. last four days strong selling in futures. this morning suggests weak again. people are get ing creasingly nervous about the potential for fed rate hikes coming later this year and what that will mean for the markets. the other big story we're watching, the front page pointing out the new cfo for google from morgan stanley ruth poorat $70 million in a year.

not a base salary. signing bonus, restricted stock, et cetera et cetera. a huge amount of money. maybe the folks in washington will start bashing the tech companies instead of the banks. >> there you go. >> oil prices are pulling back. remember, rose yesterday because of the bombings in yemen done by saudi arabia. even though the saudi arabia air strikes continue in yemen, there's less concern about a disruption to oil supplies the strait people were concerned about, oil can move in different areas. yemen itself is not a big provider. we've seen oil prices come back from the rise we saw yesterday. >> thoughts on where oil's going and why? i mean -- >> clearly, there's a, a risk here that uncertainty in the middle east throws the market off. it throws the market off even when you don't have a situation quite as dire as this one. but saudi arabia is the producer, not yemen. saudi arabia has shown absolutely no indication that it

intends to cut production. >> michelle? >> we're back to when you talk about the core question of price, it's still the u.s. producing a heck of a lot more oil than it ever did before because of shale, because of new technology, and saudi arabia while still a huge producer they're not cutting production anytime soon. so the amount of supply out of the markets is still very, very high, and like it was said yemen only produces about 150,000 barrels a day which is meaningless. >> quintanilla -- michelle caruso-cabrera. good to have you on. we're going to explain involving the "know your value" tour. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] the average kid texts 20 words per minute. ♪ ♪ and zero words per manwich.

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49 past. the man who led senate democrats is calling it quits. the senate minority leader post add video on youtube saying injuries sustained while exercising has nothing to do with his retirement. the 75-year-old lawmakers spent three decades in congress. we'll follow that. the first of five "know your value" events is a view weeks away. the finalists for the grow your value bonus competition have officially been chosen. the final three for philadelphia. >> the competition was all over the map.

♪ everybody has a name oh yeah ♪ >> hi. mime name is katherine smart. >> my name is nicole kobert i am an exhausted mom of two sons. >> i'm patricia and end entering the contest. ♪ doctors ♪ >> my name is leah. >> reporter: from stay at home moms. >> i recently quit my job to be a stay at home mom to this little lady. >> reporter: to executives up the ladder. >> i want to run my own lobbying headquarters in philadelphia. >> reporter: women who want to do know their value and compete for the $10,000 bonus. from all of those incredible stories we could only pick three for the first round in philadelphia. the first pick -- denise from lancaster, texas. >> when i would like to do if i'm able to win the $10,000 bonus is to help veterans keep jobs once they find them. >> reporter: ashton schweitzer from pennsylvania.

>> own by own boutique in pennsylvania. the store has been open now almost three years and i opened at age 22. >> reporter: and joanna schwartz from philadelphia. >> i created an organization called toolbox for teachers that teaches mindfulness based -- >> oh my goodness. mika. you chose everything for me. >> make a decision make you one of the final three. are you ready? >> no! are you serious? >> yes. >> i'm not going to cry because i'm super skies edexcited. we get emotional. >> that's right. >> this is going to be the biggest thing that ever happened to me in my life and i thank you for the opportunity. >> where's ashley. i'm mika. >> hi! i'm ashton. welcome home. >> we're going to make awe finalist. >> oh, no!

you guys were tricking me the whole time. >> you're in. you're in. >> i'm so excited! >> you're going to go to orlando, take a couple days off. >> that's fine. >> the human performance institute there, nutrition, health, purpose, mindfulness. your message. you're going to really take that pitch that you, you sent to me and you're going to refine it and work from the inside out. >> oh my gosh. thank you so much. >> reporter: i love your video. we decided to make you one of the finalists. one of the final three. can you do it? >> ah -- yeah. you're being serious? >> dead serious. >> you're serious? >> i'm here. >> you're here. >> in philadelphia. >> i'm here and you're video i've been taken by it. for days. it is so genuine and you really have everything there to work with, and when you said i need to work on my confidence.

honestly, yes, you do. >> i do. i was trying to be really honest with you. >> you put it out there and have something want to build. >> yes. >> and you just have to bring yourself to it completely. >> all right. you ready? >> for sure. >> are you sure? >> yeah. >> okay. >> you're going to be fine. >> so denise ashton and joanna, congratulations. >> all three women will orlando, florida, given the tools they need to pitch again live onstage in philadelphia on april 10th. it's not too late to enterthe next competition. sent your video submissions for a chance to be selected as a finalist for washington chicago, boston and orlando. go to msnbc.com/knowyourvalue for information. buy tickets there as well if you want to go. there's still time for the yum come upcoming event even in philadelphia but closing up fast. women advocating for themselves. that's the purpose of the competition.

force them to get in there under the lights and just say it. >> and very different kinds of personalities. i love that. and the last one, like this. >> she doesn't believe. doesn't believe me. >> just looking at you. >> i swear. it's true. >> giving them that confidence. it's in there. right? >> it's totally in there. we all have it and struggle with this universally which is why there's so many different women who have entered this competition. you'll see them onstage across the country. it's going to be a lot of fun. up next what, if anything did we learn today? in my world, wall isn't a street. return on investment 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. start investing with as little as fifty dollars.

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time now to talk about what we learned today. wikipedia says it's my father's birthday tomorrow. happy birthday dad. >> happy birthday. >> oh, gosh. i love you! even though sometimes you're a little tough on me. but, anyhow he's perfect. i think he's 87 tomorrow. is that possible? just back from brussels and i can't even get him on the show. maybe monday birthday boy. chris what did you learn today? >> even the smartest people in the world are con founded by the what's going on in the middle east. i want your dad to come in and explain. >> he tells me he's not a middle east expert. uh-huh. what did you learn? >> even though we know better can be still afraid when we get on airplanes. >> for sure. hard not to think about it every time. eugene? what did you learn today? >> just when you thought things

can't get worse in the middle east they can get worse in the meefrt and we could end up in a proxy war against ourselves. >> and be for iran in one country, against in another and foreign against in the same country all at the same time. >> all at the same time. before lunch. >> what a way to end the week. thank you all for joining us here in washington. have a wonderful weekend. "the rundown" is up next. straight ahead on msnbc. and good morning. i'm jose diaz-balart. we begin "the rundown" with breaking flus. another sterning development this morning in the crash of that germanwings flight in the french alps. moments ago german prosecutors said they have evidence the copilot who deliberately crashed that plane appears to have hidden evidence of a illness from his employers on the day he piloted the airbus 320 into the side of a mountain. they also said they found no suicide note nor any climb of responsibility from andreas

lubitz. right now european investigators furiously working to uncover why the copilot deliberately crash add jet into the french alps taking the lives of all 150 people onboard. german authorities are searching his apartment along with the home of his parents, amid reports he was facing a personal crisis. prosecutors say lubitz intentionally locked the pilot out of the cockpit, and crashed the plane into the french alps. the 27-year-old spent time training as a pilot here in the united states, and now the fbi is getting involved. meanwhile -- family members of those onboard the flight are now giving dna samples to help identify the remains of their loved ones. some of those family members visited the memorial near the