as his rivals give him the reality tv treatment. plus, a new york state of mind. hillary clinton and bernie sanders battle for the boroughs with clinton at one point losing her cool. we'll show you how went that down. severe weather continues to slam the south. the big question this morning -- when will it end? it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west. this is "way too early." good morning, everyone. it is friday, april 1st. no kidding. i'm alex witt. we begin with the severe weather that's showing no signs of letting up. 26 million people are at risk again today. tornadoes hit mississippi, alabama and louisiana yesterday after tearing through the plains a day earlier. this funnel cloud was captured on a cell phone camera in new

hope, mississippi. significant damage also reported in alabama last night. there was damage to homes along with downed trees and power lines. and take a look at this video from central arkansas. the quarter sized hail was enough to send some high school students running for cover there. let's bring in msnbc meteorologist bill karins. that's huge. that's going to hurt. these storms on the move. what's happening? >> this will be day three. then we'll be done and then we'll talk more about winter weather. the one in new hope t one we showed you -- down the guy's street, that one right there. that got wide in a hurry too. that one right through the town, no injuries though, no fatalities with that. another one in mississippi, you can see that in the distance in the background there. just to the right. and scary scenes but thankfully no horrific damage. 212 reports of severe weather, hail and wind damage as far north as the great lakes all the way down to the gulf coast. now, this morning, things have

quieted down a little bit. our tornado watch was just lifted so we're no longer under the threat of severe weather or tornadoes. but still a lot of torrential rain out there. so while in is the end of this round, the next round will come a little later today. that's the one where we'll see the storms possibly from maryland, delaware, all the way through the carolinas. 26 million people at risk. wind damage is the greatest threat, alex, but it's possible for an isolated tornado or two. i have to brief you on the cold and the snow coming. i'll get to that later in the show. >> lots ahead with weather. thank you. let's go to damage control in politics and donald trump handling the fallout from his claim that women should be punished who have abortions if the probe -- if the abortion is outlawed. he told "the new york times" if you misspoke, it ends up being a big story. that doesn't happen with other people. and he suggested his comments were being taken out of context. >> you had to hear the whole

thing. this was a long, convoluted question, a long discussion and they cut it out and frankly it was really convoluted. if in fact abortion was outlawed the person performing the abortion -- the doctor or whoever it may be, that's really doing the act, or is responsible for the act, is -- so not the woman. that's the way i always felt. i have the same stance as ronald reagan. i have had it from the beginning. this was a very long, convoluted discussion which frankly they don't run on television because it was too long. >> well, another new wisconsin poll shows donald trump trailing ted cruz in the state's primary this tuesday. the fox business poll puts cruz at 42%, trump at 32%, john kasich at 19%. but was days to go, trump was off the trail and in washington for a surprise meeting at the republican national committee headquarters.

with all of the republican candidates backing away from their pledge to support each other as a nominee, some in south carolina are questioning whether trump violated their unity pledge. potentially releasing trump's 50 bound delegates causing party chairman matt moore to respond, to be clear no one is seeking to unbind any of south carolina's national delegates. and national chairman reince priebus is convinced that the candidates will support each other, saying he would not permit them to use the data tools if he believed otherwise. well, donald trump also met with some of his foreign policy advisers yesterday, gathering at his soon to open hotel in the district. in the interview last night, trump said he will be revealing a group today and he addressed the comments he made to chris matthews about not ruling the use of nuclear weapons in europe. >> the last person to press that button would be me. i'm the one who didn't want to go into iraq from the beginning. the last person who wants to play the nuclear card is me. believe me. >> i understand they're not taking the cards off for the

table for isis or islamic terror, but when chris expanded to europe what about that? >> europe is a big place. i'm not going to take cards off the table. the last person to use nuclear would be donald trump. that's the way i feel. i think it is a horrible thing. the thought of it is horrible. but i don't want to take anything off the table. we have to negotiate, there will be times maybe when we're going to be in a very deep, very difficult, very horrible negotiation. the last person -- i'm not going to take it off the table. >> yesterday the president opened his nuclear summit hosting 50 world leaders talking about scaling down nuclear armament. earlier in the day the white house weighed in on trump's openness of japan and south korea getting a nuclear arsenal as well as paying more for u.s. security. >> frankly, it would be catastrophic were the united states to shift its position and indicate that we support somemow the proliferation of nuclear

weapons to additional countries. the fact of the matter, japan and the republic of korea benefit from our very rock solid security assurances. it also flies in the face of decades of bipartisan national security doctrine. a super pac backing john kasich is out with a new attack ad targeting ted cruz. the ad is called nose, and borrows a nickname made popular by donald trump. >> many just call him lyin' ted. lied about ben carson to steal a win in iowa. lies about being the best for the gop when polls show he can't even beat hillary clinton. his tv ad about john kasich -- lie. stations had to pull it off the air. if ted cruz's mouth is moving, he's lying. >> kind of creepy or is is that just me? kasich tried to pitch himself directly to both cruz and trump supporters. >> i would conclude by saying that the folks here in pennsylvania that a vote for

senator cruz is a vote for trump. ted cruz knows he's out of runway. you know, he'll have a good showing in wisconsin. but he's not going to show well anywhere else. i mean, he's not going to come to pennsylvania and do well. he's not going to go to new york or new jersey or rhode island. we are starting to get to a part of the map that starts to work to my benefit. for those people who have been fervent trump supporters, their frustration, their expressions do not fall on deaf ears for me. while the person that you have favored continues to move in an unmoored, untethered fashion, i understand that at times he's the vessel for your frustration. and i want to offer myself up as a new vessel. >> senator bernie sanders spoke to thousands on the trail beginning his day in pittsburgh where he rallied about 8,500 people. pennsylvania is one of five

states that will vote on april 26th. the senator will then travel to new york where he addressed an audience of being 18,000 and 19,000 in the south bronx. lines stretched around the park where the event took place hours before sanders took the stage. before he addressed the main audience, he spoke briefly to the overflow crowd of thousands on a nearby baseball field. hillary clinton was forced to confront hecklers during her speech in new york yesterday. and then respond to an activist on the rope line afterwards. students at suny purchase interrupted her remarks by if she wins, we lose. after the speech a green peace activist caught up with her while shaking hands. >> from the time we started doing polls back in the great depression, when asked do you think things will be better? they have always said yes. >> she wins, we lose! >> oh, i know the bernie people came to say that. we're very sorry, you're leaving. >> i'm with bern, i'm with bern,

i'm with bern! i'm with bern! >> you know -- wait. can i just say this? as they're leaving i want to say i have earned nine million votes in this election. already. i have 1 million more votes than donald trump. and i have 2.5 million more votes than bernie sanders! >> will you act on your word and reject -- >> this is not money from fossil fuel. i'm so sick of the sanders campaign lying about this. i'm sick of it! >> the sanders campaign issued a statement, claiming that clinton has received contributions from oil and gas and coal industry l lobbyi

lobbyists. and they responded by saying that sanders has received more than 50,000 dollars but that would be a drop in the bucket compared to the money that sanders took in in the past month. after raising $43.5 million in february. they surpassed that total in march, raising more than $44 million. it's received 6.5 million contributions from 2 million donors. 97% of the cash has come from online donations. meanwhile, during that same speech in new york yesterday, clinton criticized senator sanders for the way he responded to donald trump's recent comments about abortion. >> last night, senator sanders agreed that donald trump's comments were shameful, but then he said they were a distraction from and i quote, a serious discussion about the serious issues facing america. to me this is a serious issue. and it is a very serious discussion.

look, i know -- i know senator sanders supports a woman's right to choose, but i know that planned parenthood and naral supports me because i have led and fought on this issue. this is a fundamental constitutional right and we cannot think it is anything other but really serious. >> look, i have a 100% pro-choice voting record. there will be no president who will defend more strongly a woman's right to choose who will take on republican governors who are trying to restrict that right. you know, it's a campaign and, you know, secretary clinton will say what she will say. the difficulty of dealing with donald trump is that every day there's another absurd statement coming out. it's hard to deal with every crazy statement that donald trump makes but there's nobody

who will defend a woman's right to choose more than bernie sanders will. well, another story this morning, a state trooper is dead after being shot at a greyhound bus station in richmond, virginia. according to police trooper chad dermyer was taking part in a training mission yesterday when he approached a man at the entrance to the bus station. the man reportedly pulled a gun and shot the officer multiple times. two nearby officers returned fire. the gunman died after being taken to the hospital. two other women were also injured in the incident. police have not identified the gunman but officials tell nbc news he appears to have been mentally disturbed. up next, a look at what's ped when the new job -- expected when the new jobs report is out today. and we'll talk about the new wage discrimination lawsuit against soccer. and bill karins on the severe weather that is heading east. that and much more on "way too early."

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the obama administration is reportedly preparing to ease some financial restrictions to give iran limited access to u.s. dollars. according to the "wall street journal," they're determining how to issue licenses for specific iranian institutions. several are critical of the idea, arguing that iran would be getting more than it deserves from last year's business deal. and let's turn to business. it's job reports friday. what should we expect later this morning, hadley? >> a lot of excitement ahead of the release of the u.s. jobs report we're expecting in a couple of hours from now. if you look at the economic forecast here, dow jones is estimating that the medium forecast will be about 213,000 jobs. while that seems like a pretty strong number it does come in below february's 242,000 jobs and probably will be not be enough for the fed to be convinced to raise rates later in april.

now the bigger story that we're following here in london, you know how well electric cars play with the european audience. the big question is whether or not a car for the masses, $35,000 tesla model will do as well. elon musk thinks so. a lot of excitement around the car. >> that's awesome. sign me up. it's time now for sports. we begin a lawsuit launched by the superstars from the u.s. women's soccer team who are fighting for equal pay and say they receive four times less than the men when they say they generate millions more in revenue. >> reporter: four of the five women behind the action spoke out on the "today" show. >> coming off a world cup win and the pay disparity between the men and women is just too large. >> reporter: the complaint alleges making the roster for the u.s. world cup team pays a female player $30,000. while men make more than twice

that. the bonus structure gives the men's team the chance to earn even more. in 2015, they took home $9 million. losing before the quarterfinals. the women earned $2 million, more than four times less and they took home the title. in response to the filing, u.s. soccer tells nbc news our efforts to be advocates for women's soccer are unwavering. we are committed and engaged in negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement that addresses compensation. >> we believe the time is right, because we believe it's a responsibility for women's sports and specifically for women's soccer. >> well, the women's national team has more major wins including four olympic gold medals and a recent world cup title. turning to action on the nba court, lebron james reached the historic mark against the nets last night with his sixth point of the game at the end of the

first quarter. james moves past dominique wilkins for 12th on the nba all time scoring list. he put up 24 points leading the cavs past the nets for the victory. and college basketball officials are now apologizing for a clerical error that sounds more like a cruel april fool's day prank. ncaa vice president dan gabbet apologized for accidentally giving the university of south carolina men's basketball team the impression they had been invited to this year's ncaa tournament. how does that happen? i guess he explained -- >> wait, they're both usc. >> i know, that's not the real usc. they mistakenly received a text informing the team of the tourney invite earlier this month, except it was meant for another team. the invite was rescinded shortly after. that was not cool. >> it was meant for usc, your usc. not the gamecocks of south carolina who we just offended across the board. >> one-point loss, i can't relive it, go, give me weather.

>> let's talk about our friends in south carolina because they're the ones to deal with severe storms from charleston, columbia, all the way through the carolinas. that's the area of greatest concern. we have a flash flood warning in montgomery, alabama. we just cleared out much of mississippi but the heavy rain shifts into north florida and areas of georgia. another two to four inches on top of the heavy rain that we have already received and that rain will extend up into the carolinas. some areas it's needed and welcome. other areas it's not. let's go to the weekend forecast. when you talk about severe weather, then we'll talk about winter in the next five to six days and that should be it. i think i said that before. so as far as saturday's forecast goes this is the beginning of the cold outbreak coming down through the great lakes. temperatures are doing to plummet, winds are going to howl. watch out, new york city, philadelphia area, southern new england, sunday early in the morning a lot of you will get woken up by winds that are going to be 50 to 60 mile per hour gusts. very high winds. we're under a high wind watch

for sunday morning, and then on saturday and sunday, possibly monday and tuesday, enough to be shoveling and plowing in some portions of new york. so it's going -- alex, both of our long range computer models agree from buffalo to scranton to boston, the white stuff. >> this should be it. >> this is it, i promise. i promise. this is it. >> gotcha. all right. still ahead, one of the most elaborate april fool's gags ever. and on the beat, another day in the life of a police officer. really? that's kind of cool. "way too early" is back in a moment. ok team, what if 30,000 people download the new app? we're good. okay... what if a million people download the new app? we're good. five million? good. we scale on demand. hybrid infrastructure, boom. ok. what if 30 million people download the app? we're not good. we're total heroes.

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welcome back to "way too early." okay, check this out. it's harbor cruise ship creating quite the spectacle. trying to dock. oh, no. oh, no, you don't. oh, look at the lady in the red sweater, move her out of the way. what? yeah. that happened. crashing right into the dock there. it did cause some damage to the bow of the vessel, jolted a few passengers on board. in fact, seven people reportedly suffered minor injuries. fire officials are saying yeah it was an apparent mechanical malfunction. well, it did not stop in time. it is april fool's day and nba star andre iguodala he's taking an early lead in the race

for the best race. he teamed up to convince his teammate he had been cut from the team. so they conspired to play a fake news report. this is good. take look. >> this is andre checking in. time to get ealy. >> we're going to say he has been cut by the team. we's had a few injuries. we don't know if that's old age or getting hurt. we're going to prank him. >> are you ready? are you ready for the news? >> not really. i'm not ready. i'm going to brace myself again. but proceed, go ahead. >> two sources close to the warriors say that festus ezeli will be released from his contract. no more festus. >> check your phone. so the guys are texting him now. >> what? teammates are texting me saying a pleasure working with you. what does that mean? [ laughter ] >> april fool's day. april fool's day.

>> whoa whoa whoa. [ laughter ] >> that wasn't nice at all. finally, a cop's job is to protect and to serve, but one california officer is apparently taking an oath to entertain. so call him the hopscotch cop. >> okay. now i have to jump over all that. ready? okay? if i touch the line, or if i fall over -- okay? now it's your turn. so you have to go over one. then over three. nice. okay. feet touched the line. i'll let you go because this is your first time. i'll give it to you.

>> you've got to love that. hide and seek is next. that does it for me and "way too early." coming up on "morning joe," new polls on the 2016 race as donald trump does damage control. we'll have the new pro trump super pac ad aimed at improving his profile against women. wisconsin is next on the primary calendar, but hillary clinton and bernie sanders really love new york. they took their shots at each other. that and much more coming up on "morning joe." it's not a quick fix. it's my decision to make beauty last. roc retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it the better it works. retinol correxion from roc. in one week, and the longer i use it, the better it works. (music plays) hi i'm kristie and i'm jess. and we are the bug chicks. we are a nano-business. windows 10 really helps us get the word out about how awesome bugs are. kids learn to be brave and curious and all kids speak the language of bug. "hey cortana, find my katydid video" oh! this is so good. (laughs)

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>> now, i kind of think that if you're going to get paid $250,000 for a speech, it must be a brilliant speech. [ cheers and applause ] it must be an earth-shattering speech. written in shakespearean prose. [ cheers and applause ] [ crowd chanting "bernie ] and if that speech is so