but is the company prepared? it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west. this is "way too early." ♪ good morning. it's wednesday, april 13th. i'm jonathan capehart. donald trump got his first newspaper endorsement yesterday. the new york observer which is owned by trump's son-in-law jared kushner backed the billionaire business man in an editorial yesterday with less than a week until new york's primary. trump took his campaign to rome, new york, where he rallied 5,000 people after which he and his family sat down for an interview to talk about how he behaves away from the cameras. >> do you talk to your wife and children the same way that you speak at the gop debates?

>> the same way? i think i'm much nicer to them. i love the debates, i had fun with them. i think i have done well with them. i have been on the center stage every single debate and i have enjoyed it. but i will tell you i speak to my wife and children much, much differently and it has been an interesting process. they're always saying, be nicer on the debates. they're coming at me from all the different angles how can i be nice. but melania would say, be nicer in the debates. i said i can't do that. i have to win first. >> you still talk about kind of changing your tone from time to time. maybe even soon. do you think that's actually going to happen? because a lot of people are saying look, you have been talking about that for a while. maybe you're not capable of changing. >> i'm capable of doing it. it's easier to do it than the way i behave right now. i have two more people i have to take out. >> why not do it?

>> when i take them out, i will be so presidential you won't believe it. then of course i'll start on hillary and be less presidential. but assuming i win, i will be very, very -- the country will be very proud of me. three new polls show donald trump running away with the new york primary. the quinnipiac university poll shows trump with a 25-point lead at 55%. the new york one baruch college poll has him hitting 60% and the new sienna college research poll puts him at 50%. 23 points higher than john kasich who's at 27% in this poll. further down the primary calendar, trump is at 50% in connecticut's april 26th primary. kasich at 26%. and cruz at 17%. in an new nbc/marist poll, trump has a 20 point lead over cruz.

and kasich at 24%. in first interview since spending the presidential bid, marco rubio weighed in on the gop race and stopped just short of making an endorsement. >> there are three candidates in the race. who would you consider the most conservative and who would you conservative -- well, let's start there. >> well, i have been pretty clear i want the republican nominee to be a conservative and in my view at this moment of the candidates still actively campaigning the only one that fits that criteria is ted cruz. >> stop us if you heard this before. paul ryan doesn't want one of the most political -- powerful political offices in the land. he tried to put to rest's not angling for president if there's a contested convention. >> if no candidate has a majority in the first ballot, i believe that you should only choose from a person who is actually participating in the primary. count me out. >> earlier today you talk about you'd encourage the rules

committee to make it so that nobody who didn't run couldn't be on the ballot. does that mean we can see walker or jeb bush -- >> i believe that the members of the rules committee who yet to be selected. it's compromised of delegates. i think they should have a rule you should run for president to get the nomination. you should be running -- who ran for president. i chose not to run for president. this is why -- this is why i say i will not be the nominee for the party. we should select among the people who actually ran for the job. >> you can see more of peter alexander's interview on the "today" show this morning. facebook ceo mark zuckerman took a subtle swipe at the front-runner during his annual developer's conference yesterday. while he didn't mention trump by name, it was clear who he was talking about. >> we've gone from a world of isolated communities to one global community and we are all better off for it. but now as i look around and as

i travel around the world, i'm starting to see people and nations turning inward. against this idea of a connected world and a global community. i hear fearful voices calling for building walls and distancing people they label as others. instead of building walls, we can help people build bridges. and instead of dividing people, we can help bring people together. >> no response from trump on the specific date, but he does call out zuckerberg saying that the ceo's call to increase visas for foreign professionals who you would quote decimate women and minorities. to the democrats where a trio of new polls shows hillary clinton maintaining the sturdy double digit lead ahead of next week's primary. a poll released from quinnipiac university has her up 13 points. a new york baruch poll has her

up 13 as well and a new sienna poll has her up ten. a familiar breakdown is a familiar story. sanders leads clinton by nearly 20 points among new york voters, ages 18 to 24 and clinton dominates among the older demographics. secretary clinton has a commanding lead among the black voters leading sanders by a whopping 37 points. okay. meanwhile, the democratic front-runner now finds herself at the center of a controversy involving a racially charged joke made by new york city mayor bill de blasio at the inner circle event over the weekend. now, during a skit involving the mayor, clinton and hamilton star leslie oden jr., de blasio made a reference to colored people time. and the stereotype that black people are often late.

here is part of the skit from mayor de blasio on last night's msnbc. >> i have to say, thanks for the endorsement, bill. it took you long enough. >> oh, snap. >> sorry, hillary. i was running on cp time. >> oh, i don't like jokes like that, bill. let's not -- >> cautious politician time. >> all right. >> why not just apologize? why not say we shouldn't have done the joke? >> it was a satire. i was mocking myself. i'm sorry -- look, i take full responsibility. someone else wrote the script, but i approved it. i think sometimes there's a place for satire in this world and that's what this was. >> if you had to do it over again, would you do it? >> i was comfortable with it. it was meant to be a joke on the

way we speak. it was obviously not meant to offend anyone. it was part of a show that was filled with satire, making fun of elected officials, making fun of our normal political discourse. yeah, you have to put it in the context of the evening. >> clinton responded in an interview with cosmopolitan released yesterday saying quote, well, look, it was mayor de blasio's skit, he's addressed it and i will defer to him because it's something that he's already talked about. this comes as the sanders campaign is calling into question clinton's credibility after her clag on monday that the home state of vermont is responsible for gun violence in new york. in a press release sent out yesterday, titled clinton's credibility gap, the sanders campaign pushed back against that claim. saying, quote, clinton's credibility was questioned after she blamed vermont for gun violence in new york. the charge backfired when "the washington post" called her assertion significantly misleading.

"the washington post" awarded three pinocchios to her assertion that the highest per capita number of gun crimes in new york come from vermont. the post called the data point misleading because of vermont's small population and said the number of crime guns in new york from vermont is so small that it could even be attributed to one or two bad actors. still, clinton's spokesman said let's be clear this is a character attack. this is exactly what bernie sanders pledged to his supporters that he wouldn't do. breaking news this morning, senator jeff merkley of oregon has become the first and only u.s. senator to endorse his colleague, bernie sanders, for president. he endorsed him in a "new york times" on ed writing it is time to recommit ourselves to the vision of a country that measures our nation's success not at the boardroom table that had -- but at kitchen tables across america.

bernie sanders stands for that america, so i stand with bernie sanders for president. senator merkley will join joe and mika on "morning joe" this morning. hillary clinton meanwhile has received the endorsements of 40 sitting u.s. senators according to 538. after weeks of backlash, north carolina governor mccrory is walking back parts of a controversial new law that many call discriminatory to lgbt people. the governor has clarified some of the legislation he signed three weeks ago. >> i have come to the conclusion that there's a great deal of misinformation, misinterpretation, confusion, passion and frankly selective outrage and hypocrisy, especially against the great state of north carolina. >> mccrory said he's using the executive order to expand government equal employment policies to include sexual orientation and gender. critics point out however that the law will largely be left

intact including the provision that restricts transgendered people from using restrooms that align with their gender identity. in a new york interview, vice president joe biden takes on sexual assault in america. this fall, the white house founded the it's on us campaign to change the culture in the u.s. but the vice president also faced questions over what specifically should be done on college cam pulses. >> let's take carbon where i went to school. 47% of the women in my graduating class who interacted with single sex organizations reported by the time they graduated they had been sexually assaulted. does that indicate a specific and localized crisis? >> there's a real problem at harvard and the administration needs to visinvestigate it and rid of those fraternities on the campus that are engaged in it. president obama hinted that his successor could represent a historic victory for women's

rights on a day set aside to lobby for equal pay for women. speaking at the dedication of a new national monument to women's equality yesterday, the president says he looks forward to a day when children are astonished that a woman had never been president. >> i want young girls and boys to come here, 10, 20, 100 years from now, to know that women fought for equality. i want them to be astonished that there was a time when women earned less than men for doing the same work. i want them to be astonished there was ever a time when women were vastly outnumbered in the boardroom or in congress. that there was ever a time when a woman had never sat in the oval office. >> his comments come after vice president joe biden said in an interview that he would like to see a woman in the white house. union leaders have announced that verizon employees from massachusetts to virginia will strike today. close to 40,000 verizon

employees will walk off their jobs at 6:00 a.m. in protest for better wages, health care costs and the protection of well paying jobs from outsourcing. unions made no indication of how long the strike would last, but verizon said it's hired and trained thousands of non-union replacements for as long as necessary to serve its customers. that strike in about 15 minutes. still ahead on "way too early" -- new information and a new surveillance video leading up to the killing of former new orleans saints star will smith. we're hearing from a key witness for the first time. plus, music superstar bono headlines the senate panel and tells the lawmakers, don't laugh at his idea to fight violent extremism. those stories and a check on the weather when "way too early" comes back.

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♪ eye of the tiger ime. tv anncr: good afternoon everyone. morning rituals are special. when you share what you love... ...with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. they're grrreat! i drive to the hoop. i drive a racecar. i have a driver. his name is carl. but that's not what we all have in common. we talked to our doctors about treatment with xarelto®. xarelto® is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots. xarelto® is also proven to reduce the risk of stroke in people with afib, not caused by a heart valve problem. for people with afib currently well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. you know, taking warfarin, i had to deal with that blood testing routine. i couldn't have a healthy salad whenever i wanted. i found another way. yeah, treatment with xarelto®. hey, safety first. like all blood thinners, don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of a blood clot or stroke. while taking, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer for bleeding to stop.

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will smith. police say they found a loaded gun inside smith's car while new surveillance video appears to shed light on the moments before the deadly confrontation. nbc's gabe gutierrez has the story. >> reporter: this surveillance video from a restaurant blocks away from the shooting appears to shed new light on former nfl star will smith's final moments. police have said that smith was driving a mercedes suv and the man now charged with his murder cardell hayes was driving a hummer. in this new video a hummer matching that description suddenly stops and is bumped by the mercedes suv. the hummer pulls over, but the suv speeds away. seconds later the hummer follows. video from another business shows both vehicles driving by. just down that block, police have said a hummer rear-ended smith's suv and investigators say smith and hayes exchanged words. leading to the gunfire. the defense says hays was not the initial aggressor. this cell phone video shows a witness describing how the

argument escalated. >> i guess this guy was like get out of on the -- i have a gun and he goes i have one too and he grabs it and shoots him dead. >> reporter: police found two loaded guns one inside hayes' vehicle and another inside smith's in addition to the weapon they previously confiscated the night of the shooting. smith's father is devastated. >> did he kill my child? yes, he did. am i going to forgive him? yes but i'll never forget it. >> reporter: pierre thomas is speaking out for the first time. i witnessed a close friend i thought of as one of my big protesters in the nfl shot to death over a fender bender. >> that was gabe gutierrez reporting. turning to major league baseball in boston the orioles improved to 8-0.

remaining the league's only undefeated team. baltimore brought out the bats against newly signed ace, price. hardy hit two homers and trumbo had a 2-1 shot of his own and the orioles beat boston 9-5. to new york, while the mets defense is still shaking off the rust, mustering only one run in the loss to the marlins, noah sender guard is in top form. he exited after seven innings with the game tied. but they couldn't answer the run scoring rally in the eight, falling 2-1. to los angeles. the dodgers puig with some nifty run. the slugger sends a base hit into left field and races for second base. slightly overshooting the bag with his slide but puig uses his quick hands and sharp reflexes

to safely record a double. now for some action on the nba court in san antonio the spurs kawhi leonard had all 26 points helping them to notch an overtime victory against the thunder. the spurs finished the regular season by matching an nba record with 40 wins at home. bill? that was a check -- >> kawhi leonard, we got it. >> you're right. >> syndergaard. >> he's got the hair too. >> puig. >> like we're giving him a "b," "b" plus? >> "c." >> don't make we come up here. >> hope they don't start grading me. this picture kind of summed it up. this was from two nights ago. this is a bigger picture of the hail and you may have seen all the cars smashed. some went through roofs, the siding of housing.

we got some more yesterday too. big storms erupted to the north of san antonio. once again, it wasn't tornadoes, but large hail. so this isn't quite as big as the huge one from two nights ago, this was last night north of san antonio. that's tennis to baseball sized. that would do damage there also. those complex of storms have pushed off the coast for the most part. houston, you're done. we have some storms in southern portions of louisiana, now worried about winds and not worried about hail. the worst weather by far over the next two days will be along the gulf coast. the moisture trying to return. that will give us some hefty rainfall amounts over the next couple of days. the other story, jonathan, the warmth is on its way. denver, 73 today. by the time we get to the weekend all of the warm air will head to the east. jonathan you're in the 70s all weekend long in d.c. should be great. >> oh, thanks, bill. >> no pr still ahead, donald trump dishes on his own use of twitter and reveals who's really pressing the keys and hitting send. that's next on "way too early." .

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early." u2 lead singer and humanitarian bono testified yesterday to fight for aid in the global refugee crisis. when it comes to taking on isis, he proposed unconventional way to take on the unconventional

enemy. >> don't laugh, but i think comedy should be deployed because if you look at national socialism and daesh and isil, this is the same thing. we have seen this before. we have seen this before. very vain, they have all the signs -- really it's show business. you speak violence. speak their language. but you laugh at them when they're goose stepping down the street and it takes away their power. so i'm suggesting that the senate send in amy schumer and chris rock and sacha baron cohen. thank you. we all know that donald trump is a prolific tweeter. last night, he said he would tweet less if elected president. but what inquiring minds want know, does he compose his own tweets? >> it's a modern method of communication and when i have 16 or 17 million people when you add it up, it gives me a big

advantage. >> do you write all your own tweets and when -- >> i would say yes. i would say yes other than if we release some information, i have some people, dan and other people that will do it. but -- >> do you actually sit there and type or do you say something and somebody else types -- >> during the day i'll shout it out to one of the lady, meredith, some of the people that work for me. i'll shout it out. but after 7:00 or so i'll do it by myself. computers have transformed election analysis, but every now and go they go on the fritz. jimmy fallon had some fun with our colleague steve kornacki after the computer stopped working for him. >> this made me laugh. an analyst for msnbc tried to draw a map of america to help explain the election to the viewers but looks like he drew something else. take a look at this. >> let me see if i can get this here. look at the states that are going to come, didn't actually work there. >> it's good, a blank slate.

>> you know what i'm going to do? i'm going to draw a map of the united states here. this is my crude version of a map of the united states. how's this for a finale? >> hey, put the kids to sleep. >> kudos to steve for keeping his composure and finishing the demonstration. that does it for me and "way too early." coming up on "morning joe" -- new numbers on the battle for new york. plus, the delegate drama playing out on the republican side. and joining the conversation this morning, senator jeff merkley who just announced he's backing bernie sanders as well as clinton supporter senator tim kaine. "morning joe" is just moments away. ♪ ♪ (laughing)

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