her corner. and at first, ted cruz joked off trump's birther questions, but now it seems the texas senator is starting to wipe off that grin. the big question is whether trump will keep pressing the issue. plus, a scandal brewing in michigan over the city's water, after an internal e-mail claim that residents who claimed of lead were basically being ignored. it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west. this is "way too early." good morning, it's thursday, january the 7th, i'm louis burgdorf. there was no powerbowl winner last night which means you still have to go to work today. this morning north korea is facing broad diplomatic condemnation after claiming to have tested a hydrogen bomb. the united states says it will immediately start work on new

sanctions against the country. u.s. officials say it will still take a few days to fully analyze north korea's claim but the white house says the initial data is consistent -- is not consistent with a hydrogen bomb. but the nuclear testing came as no surprise. >> north korea continues to be one of the most isolated nations in the world. and their isolation has only deepened as they have sought to engage in increasingly provocative acts. i can tell you that the united states government was not surprised. >> president obama spoke with leaders in japan and south korea over the phone yesterday to reaffirm the united states' commitment to the security of its asian allies. south korea is reportedly resuming propaganda broadcasts following the nuclear testing. now, meanwhile, japan sent several fighter jets to collect radiation measurements yesterday following north korea's nuclear test. a senior military official tells nbc news that the u.s. also launched drones to test the air

yesterday. let's bring in nbc news foreign correspondent kelly cobiella. she's live in london. kelly, how are other countries respondering -- responding to north korea's claim this morning? >> well, across the board universal condemnation, louis, as you would expect, as well as a good deal of skepticism, including from north korea's two friends in the world, russia and china. a good deal of skepticism that this was, in fact, a successful test of a hydrogen bomb, as the north koreans claim. the blast, of course, caused this very strong manmade earthquake registering 5.1. but that's about the same magnitude as the last nuclear test in north korea in 2013, when they claimed to have exploded an atomic bomb. this test coming a few days before kim jong-un's birthday, the date believed to be his birthday, anyway, and it may be just as much about china as the united states. relations between those two countries have been frosty ever since kim jong-un took over in

2011. the young leader still hasn't met with the chinese president despite the fact that china is its closest ally. china, one of the nine nuclear nations, and one of five known to have the hydrogen bomb. louis? >> we'll keep following this story. kelly cobiella from london, thanks so much. now several republican presidential candidates used the news to hammer front-runner donald trump, and an answer he gave during a debate. >> go back and rewind the tape about what donald trump said about the nuclear triad, and you tell me if he's qualified right now to be president of the united states. is he a smart guy? yeah. will he be able to learn about this? i don't know, maybe, if he takes the time to do it. but he sure as heck better if he's going to be president. because we all want a president that has a steady hand as it relates to something as serious as that. >> in the last debate, there was a discussion of the nuclear triad. that means that we have missiles, by air, by land, and by sea. >> as paul revere told us. >> exactly. but the thing is, he seemed to

be unaware that we even had that. but then a week later it's even scarier. mr. trump says, of course we've got a nuclear triad and our biggest problem is we've been unwilling to use it enough. >> and ted cruz used the news to target hillary clinton. >> when we look at north korea, it's like looking at a crystal ball. this is where iran ends up if we continue on this same misguided path. last night's nuclear test underscores why, if i'm elected president, on the very first day in office, i will rip to shreds this catastrophic iranian nuclear deal. because if hillary clinton is elected president, we will see a nuclear test from iran. but sadly the test may not be underground. the test may be in the skies of a populated city. whether tel aviv, or new york, or los angeles, and we should not be risking that. >> cruz is also battling back questions of his eligibility to serve as president. the controversy he returned to

the spotlight in interviews with donald trump, who said cruz's birth on canadian soil was a quote big problem for the senator from texas. after initially laughing off the issue, cruz responded on the trail in iowa yesterday. >> as a legal matter the question is quite straightforward and settled law that the child of a u.s. citizen born abroad is a natural-born citizen. people will continue to make political noise about it. but as a legal matter it's quite straightforward. i would note that it has occurred many times in history. john mccain was born in panama. but he was a natural-born citizen because his parents were u.s. citizens. george romney, mitt's dad, was born in mexico when his parents were mormon missionaries but he was a natural-born citizen because his parents were citizens. and actually barry goldwater was born in arizona, before arizona was a state. and yet he was a natural-born citizen because his parents were citizens. there are serious issues facing the american people, serious issues to be decided in this election, and that's where our

focus is going to stay. >> cruz renounced his canadian citizenship back in 2014, something his aides claimed was unnecessary to do and in an interview yesterday trump suggested cruz should go even further. >> i hope he's right. i want to win this thing fair and square. i don't want to win on this point. what the democrats are saying, though, is he had a passport. >> he says he didn't have a passport. >> he had a canadian passport. >> his aides say he didn't have a passport. >> well, i have heard -- >> he may have been eligible. >> i think that's wonderful if he didn't and i never understood how he did. but everybody tells me he had a joint passport. i'd go and seek a declaratory judgment if i was ted. you go to federal court to ask for what's called a declaratory judgment. you go in seeking the decision of the court. without a court case. you go right in. you go before a judge, you do it quickly. it can go quickly. declaratory judgment. it's very good. i've used it on numerous occasions. >> the supreme court has never really ruled on what is a natural-born citizen -- >> that's the problem.

there's this doubt. people have doubt. he should ask for a declaratory judgment because that would clear it all up. and i'm doing this for the good of ted. i'm not doing this for me. because i like him. and he likes mean >> the controversy around ted cruz's mat use as a natural-born citizen returned attention to how some questioned the background of president obama, donald trump and the white house addressed that yesterday. >> your critics are saying that you're doing to ted cruz what you tried to do to president obama where he was born, his birth certificate -- >> who knows about obama. >> his mother was a u.s. citizen born in kansas. was he a natural-born citizen? >> who knows. who cares right now. we're talking about something else, okay. i mean i have my own theory on obama. some day i'll -- i'll write a book. i'll do another book, it will be very successful. >> it would be quite ironic if, after seven or eight years of drama around the president's birth certificate, if republican primary voters were to choose senator cruz as their nominee,

somebody who actually wasn't born in the united states, and only 18 months ago renounced his canadian citizenship. >> meanwhile, senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts still hasn't endorsed a candidate for president, but yesterday she voiced strong support for her colleague bernie sanders, a day after sanders delivered a fiery speech on wall street reform in new york city, warren took to twitter where she said, quote, i'm glad bernie sanders is out there fighting to hold big banks accountable, make our economy safer and stop the gop from rigging the system. a couple of hours later, however, she broadened it, saying she's glad all the democratic candidates are fighting for wall street reform. that comes as the two leading candidates continue to trade blows on the issue. here's what sanders had to say about the former secretary of state yesterday on "morning joe." >> the one thing hillary clinton or many other senators have shown the courage that is necessary to stand up to wall street power, the answer is no. and the reason that i'm running for president, as you know, i know hillary for 25 years, we're

friends, but i think in this critical moment in american history, when you have a wall street situation, when you have an american middle class, when you have massive levels of income wealth inequality, when you've got climate change, we need a president who now has the courage to stand up to the billionaire class and wall street -- >> does hillary clinton have the courage -- >> well i'm running for president because i think not, all right? because i think at this particular moment, somebody has got to tell wall street and corporate america that their greed, their greed, is destroying our economy and the lives of millions of people. they cannot have it all. look, here's the fact. the middle class of this country, despite huge increases in productivity, is disappearing. 47 million people are living in poverty. and you have massive levels of income and wealth inequality. almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1%. these guys we have a corrupt campaign finance system. billionaires are buying election. we need leadership to say enough

is enough. you guys can't have it all. period. we knew that joe biden agonized over the question of whether or not to run once more for president. the vice president has always worn his heart on his sleeve, last night in an interview with nbc affiliate wvit he indicated he's still not fully at peace with his final decision. >> on the democratic side, it's what i expected. there's real robust debate between hillary and bernie, as there would have been if i had gotten in the race. there's been no personal attacks that i'm aware of, of any consequence. there is -- it's not a bunch of serendipity out there. >> any regrets to not throwing your hat in the ring? >> sure. i regret it every day. but it was the right decision for my family and for me, and i plan on staying deeply involved and it's -- we've got two good candidates. >> quick note, martin o'malley is also still a democratic candidate for president. now let's go to capitol hill where congress began its new session with a throwback move,

voting to once again repeal obamacare. by "the new york times" count that's the 62nd time the house has passed the repeal. but it's the first time it's made it way all the way to the president's desk. the president has promised a veto. it would be just the eighth during his tenure. now the chief justice of alabama's supreme court has once again ordered his state's probate judges not to issue same-sex marriage licenses. a u.s. supreme court ruling last year effectively legalized gay marriage nationwide. justice roy moore insists it doesn't apply to his state. moore wrote in a defiant new order that alabama's probate judges have, quote, ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to state law and state constitutional amendment. but many legal experts see it as an exercise in futility as u.s. attorneys in birmingham and mobile echoed the notion in a statement saying, quote, this issue has been decided by the highest court in the land, and alabama must follow that law.

now the texas grand jury that decided against an indictment in the death of sandra bland last month has decided to charge the state trooper in the case with a misdemeanor. officials say trooper brian encinia told investigators that he moved bland from her vehicle to conduct a safer traffic investigation. but according to the special prosecutor in the case, the grand jury found his statement to be false. and issued an indictment for perjury. bland was pulled over in july for failing to signal a lane change. police dash cam video shows the traffic stop escalated quickly when bland first refused the trooper's demand to put out her cigarette and refused his demands to get out of the car. >> i'm giving you a lawful order. i'm going to drag you out of here -- >> you're going to drag me out of my own car? >> get out of the car! i will light you up! get out! n.o.w.! >> wow. >> get out of the car. >> for failure to signal. you're doing all this for failure -- >> get over there! >> right, yeah, let's take this to court. >> go ahead. >> for failure to signal.

yeah, for a failure to signal. >> the traffic stop ended with bland being arrested, and accusations of assault against the trooper, after three days in jail, unable to raise money for bail, the state says she hanged herself. her family has filed a wrongful death suit against the trooper, and the county, and two jail employees. the trooper has been on administrative leave since the 28-year-old's death, because he's now being indicted the state of texas says it now plans to terminate him. encinia faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted. let's go to flint, michigan. it's in a state of emergency and under federal investigation after high levels of lead were found in the water supply. a newly obtained e-mail from last year, written by the governor's then chief of staff suggests that the residents complaining about the taste and smell in the water were being, quote, blown off by state officials. in 2014, flint switched its water source from detroit to the flint river, which is high in salt content and caused the corrosion of the pipes, and the release of lead into the city's

water supply. a pediatrician then discovered that lead levels in children had doubled, or even tripled since the city swriched its water source. she says that just in a few years children could face cognition, and behavioral, problems. the u.s. attorney's office is investigating the contamination. now still ahead on "way too early," china stocks crash and u.s. stocks appear to be headed down for another day. we'll bring you the speed -- bring you up to speed on the markets plus giving marco rubio a hard time over his boots. first the cruz campaign, and now other candidates are starting to pile on. and the latest on the devastating flooding in southern california, bill karins joins us with a check on your weather when "way too early" comes right back.

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was shuttered within a half hour of opening this morning after shares plunged more than 7% triggering an automatic circuit breaker mechanism for the second time this week as authorities there accelerated the devaluation of the chinese yuan cnbc's nancy hulgrave joins us live from london with more. nancy, not a great start to the new year for china. >> that's right, louis, and not a great start to the new year for all of the entire global markets here. but as you just touched on, a lot of the fear, the negative sentiment, has really been sparked from china, as you suggested, with trading there halted for the second day that's in this new year. and that was less than 30 minutes of trade. well that nervous sentiment is spilling over to the european market. we've seen sharp losses across the board here. and, it seemed to spill over into wall street. when you look at u.s. futures we're talking about an inplied open for the dow jones industrial average down more than 400 points. so could be another ugly day for traders there. and they're also taking a cue from the dramatic drop in oil

prices, as well. we've seen brent crude now touch a 12-year low. so there seems to be no end in sight to this dramatic drop-off. we've been watching for quite some time now in crude prices. that's the picture on the macro front. we'll also be looking at some individual stocks, macy's. macy's has been hit by the poor weather like many of the retailers in the united states and here in europe, as well. but now macy's has unveiled a restructuring plan and that includes plans to cut thousands of jobs at the moment in after-hours trade macy's stock getting a bump. back to you for now. >> nancy hulgrave live from london. thanks so much. hopefully we'll get some more good news from there, soon. we begin with a new class of baseball royalty as a pair of former players are selected into the hall of fame. ken griffey jr. was elected with the highest voting percentage ever just three ballots shy of a unanimous selection griffey was a 13-time all-star outfielder retiring with 630 homers, 6 on the baseball's all-time list and

joining junior in cooperstown will be the former mets great mike piazza, the twelve-time all-star who totes a .308 lifetime batting average goes down as perhaps the best offensive catcher ever to play the game now let's go to the nfl where another head coach it being shown the door. the buccaneers fired lovie smith last night after two seasons in tampa bay while the team's 6-10 finish this year was a mark improvement from last season's 2-14 record it wasn't enough to save his job. the number one overall draft pick jameis winston will begin his nfl career with two head coaches, and as many seasons. and finally, in sochi, russia, russian president vladimir putin strapped on his hockey gear for a training session at the sight of the 2014 olympic games yesterday. check out putin in his rigorous warm-up routine there limbering up before heading out onto the ice. look at that. the russian leaders -- >> what was he supposed to do, i mean -- >> -- he reported --

>> you don't want him to stretch? >> now -- reportedly -- >> no one -- stop -- >> what a shocker there. now let's get a check on your weather will bill. san diego, a lot of flooding there. >> they had tornado warnings in san diego last night. there were pictures on on getter that people in their bathtubs, you know, in san diego, because they had tornadoes nearby. it's such a random thing. doesn't happen very often. there were two confirmed tornados, one did a little bit of minor damage to a garage and that was it. and of course the other story, just too much rain, too fast. a lot of the runoff caused some flash flooding and a lot of roads were washed out. we did have some vehicles that did get damage done. overall no injuries no death anything like that but there has been some issues. flood watch continues this morning but we're almost done. the last batch of heavy rain is moving through right now. we even got some good snow going on, too. colder air has moved in, and so the hills outside of l.a. the mountains i should say, will have snow cover tops on them by the end of today so one more wet morning here in southern

california, then the storm moves out, and this storm will bring some snow to the rockies some great powder areas like toost and telluride, even areas near aspen will do okay, too, especially in the mountains near flagstaff. some of this light snow tomorrow comes to the northern plains. the story in the east, it's a nice, calm, quiet, cool morning. a beautiful afternoon temperatures in the 40s for middle of january is not bad. 50s in the southeast. but the story is going to be this weekend louis. a big cold blast of air to the middle of the country. we're warm in the east but watch out. this is going to be some cold stuff, the football game in minneapolis, windchill will be negative 20 for that outdoor football game. >> you think we're going to have any snow any time soon? >> in the east, in new england? not in the next week. >> all right. thanks bill. >> maybe two weeks. >> coming up next on "way too early," a touching moment from last night's people's choice award came in the form of a song from vin diesel. when "way too early" comes right back.

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welcome back to "way too early." now to last night's people's choice awards. vin diesel the star of fast and furious franchise had one of the more emotional moments of the night when he accepted the award for favorite movie paying tribute to his late friend and co-star paul walker. >> you all thought that this was your favorite film. so i think of dom and brian and i start to think of paul.

and i thank you so much, and the only thing i could say now iis -- ♪ it's been a long day without my friend ♪ ♪ and i'll tell you all about it when i see you again ♪ >> touching moment there. now, this let's go to politics for a second. the stylish boots marco rubio was caught sporting earlier this week in new hampshire continue to spark jokes from his republican rivals will rand paul weighed in before his appearance on the view yesterday while jeb bush got in on the fun during a campaign stop. >> hey, guys, i'll be on the view in a few minutes. i'm here in whoopi goldberg's office trying to choose some shoes. we've seen rubio has those cute new boots and i don't want to be outdone. >> governor, you changed your shoes. >> i did. >> for new hampshire snow? >> the heels are low heels, just

for the record. >> and carly fiorina tweeted out this picture of her high heels yesterday, along with the caption, yeah, marco rubio, but can you rock these? just too good. now that does it for me and "way too early." coming up next on "morning joe," the crowded lane among gop establishment candidates gives donald trump a 14-point lead in a new poll. meanwhile ted cruz is forced to defend his eligibility to be president. we'll take a closer look at the new birther debate. and later this morning, presidential candidate carly fiorina, florida governor rick scott, and new -- former new york city mayor rudy juliangiul that and much more coming up next on "morning joe." ♪ if you're looking to save money on your medicare part d prescriptions, walgreens says, carpe med diem. seize the day to get more out of life and medicare part d. just switch to walgreens for savings

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it is 6:00 on the east coast. what are you looking at, willie? you're already up to something. >> the story. >> no, no, you don't want to know. >> it's the death