it is monday, april 18th. right now on "first look," the death toll rises as the devastating images of ecuador's massive 7.8 earthquake are emerging this morning. the candidates campaigning hard ahead of tomorrow's new york primary as george clooney raises what he calls an obscene amount of money for democrats. 26 states challenging president obama's immigration policy head to the supreme court today. plus, a stalled storm threatens millions with snow and heavy rains. and a very funny "saturday night live." "first look" starts right now. well, says good morning to you on this monday. thanks for joining us today. i'm betty nguyen. the death toll is rising in ecuador. it is a race against time as rescuers search for survivors

after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck saturday night. right now at least 272 people are confirmed dead. more than 2,000 are injured. so far there have been more than 200 aftershocks from the massive quake. nbc's miguel almaguer reports from ecuador. >> reporter: 100 miles outside of the nation's capital, the frantic search for survivors is growing even more desperate every hour. a crowd trying to save this driver of this car only to realize later there was nothing they could do. ecuador's largest city is in ruins. bridges have collapsed. roads have crumbled. entire neighborhoods are flattened. this woman cries, "my cousin is in the rubble." anguish and devastation are everywhere. and so is the plea for help. stephanie lives just a few hours from the quake's epicenter. >> please help us. my country needs everyone now. >> reporter: in regions hard hit, power is out.

phones are down. and many are sleeping in the streets. >> msnbc's miguel almaguer reporting. now to decision 2016 and tomorrow's new york primary. hillary clinton is counting on a big night as she edges closer to the number needed for the nomination while bernie sanders looks to continue on his recent string of primary and caucus victories. sanders drew another massive crowd in new york this weekend. just over 28,000 people showed up at brooklyn's prospect park. there are 291 delegates up for grabs for the democrats tomorrow. and the latest polling shows clinton out in front by 10%. for the republicans, donald trump has a 33% lead on ted cruz. there are 95 delegates at stake for the republicans. over the weekend, cruz won all 14 delegates at the wyoming convention. he still trails donald trump, though, by almost 200 delegates. we do have two reports starting with jacob rascon covering the republicans.

>> reporter: on the homestretch in his home state, donald trump ahead by the widest margins of the primary season, campaigning as if the race was neck and neck. 12 campaign stops in 12 days. >> we have to win by big numbers because we have a system that's absolutely rigged. it's rigged. >> reporter: determined not just to win but to mathematically wipe out rival ted cruz. >> when he gets wiped out in new york, which he will, he no longer has a road to the nomination. >> reporter: pivoting confidently past cleveland, the master of name calling -- >> poor jeb. little marco. lyin' ted cruz. >> reporter: death by nickname on the other front-runner. >> crooked hillary. >> reporter: meanwhile, ted cruz betting on a contested convention, shutting out trump delegates again in wyoming, saying this is how elections are won in america. >> thank you and god bless you. >> reporter: but to trump losing wyoming where there was no voter primary is a badge of honor. >> that's not democracy. you know, you're allowed

essentially to pay off these people. >> reporter: trump voters buying his argument. >> it sounds like it's rigged. >> the person with the most delegates should win. >> reporter: or maybe the most merchandise. selling campaign souvenirs since 1992, these vendors say -- >> whatever sells the most per that candidate, that candidate wins every time. >> reporter: the white house. >> the white house. >> reporter: every time. >> every time. >> reporter: their prediction, donald trump. his campaign counting on a knockout before july. jacob rascon, nbc news, poughkeepsie, new york. i'm kristen welker on staten island with secretary clinton. >> we have a big election on tuesday. the democratic primary. >> reporter: she and senator sanders making a final frenzied push ahead of tuesday's primary. >> this is a movement of people who are prepared to think big, not small. >> reporter: this as clinton is coming under fire after attending two california

fund-raisers hosted by george and amal clooney. the top tickets for saturday's event, $100,000, prompting some sanders supporters to throw dollar bills at clinton's car. today the secretary on defense. >> i am raising money to elect other democrats. i'm a democrat. and i want to see us take back the senate. >> reporter: on "meet the press," clooney echoed that sentiment but also agreed with parts of sanders's argument. >> it's ridiculous that we should have this kind of mope in politics. >> reporter: those words giving sanders an opening when asked if clooney is backing the wrong horse. >> well, i think he is, but he is honest enough to say that there is something wrong when few people who are able to contribute unbelievably large sums of money. >> reporter: still, clinton is leading by double digits in new york. sanders's aides acknowledge a loss here would make his tough odds even steeper. but sanders has the money to keep going. his strategy now, trying to win as many delegates as possible and then pivot to more winnable states like oregon and

delegate-rich california. >> kristen welker and jacob rascon reporting there. meanwhile, "saturday night live" took full advantage of it all in the form of a mini-"seinfeld" reunion. >> you've been pretty vague in the past, but how exactly are you going to break up the big banks? >> you mean a big bank break-up? >> yeah, a big bank break-up. >> you break them up! >> how? how? >> once i'm elected president, i'll have a nice shvets in the white house gym. then i'll go to the big banks, i'll sit them down, and yada, yada, yada, they'll be broken up. >> what? no. no. you can't yada, yada at a debate. also, you yada, yadaed over the best part. >> no, i mentioned the shvets. >> yada, yada. let's move on to this, a growing political crisis in brazil just as that country gets ready to host the 2016 summer olympic games.

the lower house voted to start impeachment proceedings presence the bpresident. rousseff is brazil's first female president accused of using accounting tricks to maintain federal spending and shore up support. and last night thousands of pro-impeachment protesters took to the streets to celebrate. now to the fight for immigration. it heads to the supreme court today. the obama administration's plan to protect roughly 4 million people from deportation is faced with a fight from 26 states. texas leading the way. arguing the president does not have the authority to do this. nbc's tracie potts is in washington with details. >> reporter: hey, betty, good morning. good morning, everyone. the courts have been dealing with this for a year and a half now. the president's immigration plan blocked and tied up in legislation since it was first announced. people are already camped outside the u.s. supreme court this morning for today's immigration arguments.

lopez will be with them. >> i do feel responsibility to take it upon myself to stand up for them. >> reporter: she's a dreamer brought here illegally as a child, her mother is undocumented. under president obama's plan, both could stay and work legally. he sa he came to the u.s. alone at age 15. >> we have learned to live with fear, and it's horrible. it's horrible because we have dreams. we know that we can contribute to the community and the country. >> reporter: the president's plan would put up to 4 million immigrants on the back burner for deportation. the administration says it's a delay, not amnesty. but 26 states led by texas argue that congress's job and the plan could cost them millions just to issue driver's licenses. >> suddenly we have this massive new cause that no one voted on. one person in washington made the decision, and actually we think that's fundamentally wrong. >> reporter: the court is now

evenly split, four liberals and four conservatives, but experts think they'll avoid a tie. >> it would not look good on the court, and there are plenty of grounds on which they could decide this case. >> reporter: a decision is expected by june. another key issue the court will deal with, does texas have the legal standing to bring this case. betty? let's get down to business with cnbc's landon doughty. >> good monday morning to you. futures are lower this morning after the dow posted its best week in a month. today we'll get data on home builder sentiments and earnings reports from morgan stanley and pepsi. are small cars running out of gas? consumers pumping the brakes on sedans. compared to last year, sedan sales were down first quarter. and industry experts are seeing a shift as suv and crossover vehicles are becoming more popular among consumers. and the move comes as gas prices drop and better fuel efficiency rises. auto analysts are optimistic suv momentum will continue.

shirley temple's blue diamond ring could be all yours. sotheby's is auctioning off the 9.5-carat ring that belonged to the curly-haired child star tomorrow. betty, back over to you. >> just $35 million, that's all. the list of medical marijuana states is growing. plus, a breathtaking encounter between a paddleborder and a whale. we have a flash flood emergency in the middle of the night outside houston. we have firefighters in boats trying to rescue people. i'll update you on the forecast and the dangerous weather ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc.

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♪ no, you're not ♪ yogonna watch it! ♪tch it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download on the goooooo! ♪ ♪ you'll just have to miss it! ♪ yeah, you'll just have to miss it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download... uh, no thanks. i have x1 from xfinity so... don't fall for directv. xfinity lets you download your shows from anywhere. i used to like that song. welcome back. look at this picture. this is outside of houston. we have a car in the area with our local affiliate that's going to be driving around. at this time it's raining so hard, the water's rising so fast in areas that they just went under a little shelter there. you can see on the radar here, these thunderstorms, this goes over a four-hour loop. i can put my hand where the heaviest rain has been. it hasn't moved.

they're actually redeveloping right over the same spots. they're not moving. and that's when you get life-threatening flooding situations, and that's what's occurring now outside the houston area. these are all flash flood warnings. let's see how long these are going to continue for. they're now creeping down towards the houston area, too. this goes until 5:00 a.m. central time. so that area is of great concern. and the flood watch goes all the way up to dallas, texarkana, and it goes for the next 48 hours. we are expecting up to seven inches of additional rainfall. and the area of greatest concern, corpus christi, victoria to houston, this is where we think this orange color up to about four inches of additional rainfall. that's where the thunderstorms will be. every east of the mississippi is great. our friends in colorado, if we still have those pictures of the snow, it's pretty incredible, betty. we had a foot of snow in denver over the weekend. i mean, the mountains got, like, two feet of snow. >> what a mixed bag. a little bit of everything. >> there's some of the pictures from what happened over the weekend. pretty incredible for april. >> closing in on may soon.

thank you. search teams in southern japan continue to dig through rubble and debris. emergency crews continue looking for survivors after two major earthquakes struck the nation. over 40 people have died in the twin quakes. meanwhile, in central chile, 4 million people are without clean drinking water this morning. heavy rains over the weekend triggered landslides that polluted rivers and caused them to breach their banks. johnny depp's wife, amber heard, has avoided jail time for illegally smuggling two dogs into australia. she pleaded guilty this morning to making a false statement on her immigration card. she brought the couple's yorkshire terriers into the country without a permit. the hollywood a-listers publicly apologized in a video posted by the australian government. >> i'm truly sorry that pistol and boom were not declared. protecting australia is important. >> declare everything when you enter australia. >> all right. take a look at this magical

moment. a whale breaches the waters right alongside a paddleboarder. it was a lucky meet and greet all caught on camera by a woman at a pier. how beautiful. all right. now to sports. at the white house, president obama schooling nba mvp steph curry. are you kidding me? it's called my brother's keeper. the initiative looks at opportunity gaps young boys and men of color face. here's the funny part. the president even offered some shooting tips. >> in a little bit. all right. release. make sure it's on your fingertips. >> maybe i should shoot lefty. >> you can try. >> to the playoffs now. and the hard court. the red-hot san antonio spurs made quick work of the memphis grizz grizzlies, 106-74. in cleveland, 81 of the cavs' 106 final points came courtesy of kyrie irving, kevin love and lebron himself. but the home team struggled in this game one victory over the

pistons, 106-101. to the nhl where the st. louis blues scored two third period goals for a 3-2 win. they take a 2-1 lead over the defending stanley cup champion chicago blackhawks. a cringe-worthy moment. ouch! that every male watching can understand. a bad bunt from seattle hits home plate umpire in the most sensitive place possible. after a few minutes, he recovered, regained his composure, and got back to baseball. yeah, just shake it off. john kasich is eating up the new york primary, literally. as ted cruz cashes in on a trumper tantrum. and bodie mcbow face is a big winner. we'll explain. "scrambled politics" is next.

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using invokana® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. imagine life with a lower a1c. are you loving your numbers? there's only one invokana®. ask your doctor about it by name. here's your monday edition of "scrambled politics." all right. there is no question that this has been a contentious primary season. but one aspect is very clear, and that is who won when it comes to eating. a few days ago john kasich seemingly ate everything in an italian deli. and he was at it again over the weekend. this time at a kosher deli in new york city. he ate a bowl of soup before eating pickle after pickle after pickle. >> i'm going to have another pickle. >> absolutely.

>> three pickles. finger remains in the air. >> he's going to have a tummy ache. after uncharacteristically declining a pastrami sandwich, say what? he finished with some apple strudel. he also told reporters i am working on a secret plan to delay the primary so i can spend more time eating in new york. yeah, good luck with that. and a couple months ago ted cruz coined the term "trumper t tantrum." the cruz campaign says this will let the clothing speak for itself. well, bernie sanders rapper killer mike. who knew? pennsylvania is now the 24th state to legalize medical marijuana. pennsylvania governor tom wolf signed the legislation on sunday, saying that he and lawmakers were responding to a

real human need. officials say it will take around a year and a half to get the program up and running. and in case -- a case of what did you expect, well, boaty mcboatface has won an online poll. the vote is advisory, thank goodness, and the name will be officially decided later. hey, it could be boaty mcboatface because it had more than three times the amount of votes as the next closest contender. also beat out fourth place, and that name was it's bloody cold here. i tell you, people. those jokes just keep coming. that's your morning dish of "scrambled politics." the lesson here is don't let people vote in an open online poll. it's scary. let's bring in msnbc political reporter. good morning. >> good morning. >> i'm not going to change your name. >> i don't know, the internet, why didn't they choose a cat? it should have been something about a cat. that's what everyone loves. >> we're going to move on to donald trump because the internet loves him as well. he told a huge crowd over the

weekend that it's title that he win big in new york, and he keeps saying the system is rigged. it looks like he might win big. so will that only continue to divide this party if those numbers are posted as we expect they might be? >> you know, he's going to keep coming out with these attacks because that's part of the donald trump m.o. to be fighting against something. but what i think is really remarkable is that he needs to win a lot of delegates. not just win here but win really, really big. because the more delegates he gets, the less likely he is to end up in a contested convention which is a much bigger x-factor. >> he's 33 points percent ahead. is that big enough or does he have win much bigger than that? >> it's much less about how much he wins overall and about each congressional district. if he gets a 50% win in every congressional district, that's a great win. if he comes under 49%, other candidates get delegates, and that's how this state works. that's just how the particular rules work. but i think what's huge here is that he's telling people he needs to win this. do you remember back in iowa when january when he said, well, i didn't think i'd have to ask

people to come out and vote for me. i mean, can you just see the progression of donald trump is huge here from a candidate who's telling us what he wants. >> the progression, too, as far as calling the whole system rigged and crooked. let's just take a look now. isn't he also benefiting from the system that he thinks is so wrong? >> absolutely. he has 22% more delegates than he's 1 percentage of the vote. that's huge. he's benefiting from that system as much as the other guys. >> all right, jane. you just hit it right there. it is on record. thank you very much. just ahead, millions sweating it out on this final day to file your taxes. plus, a protester attacks george clooney's caped crusader? what? but it's what george said next that is just awesome.

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today millions of americans face a midnight deadline to file their tax returns or request an extension. but if you live in massachusetts or maine, you are in luck. the deadline to file in those states is pushed to tomorrow in observance of patriots day. it is also the 120th running of the boston marathon. today's event marks three years since the marathon bombings. on friday, george and amal clooney held a glitzy fund-raiser for presidential hopeful hillary clinton and other democrats. bernie sanders protesters, though, demonstrated nearby against the flood of money pouring into politics. clooney tried to talk to a protester who hit him where it hurts. >> he said i was some corporate chill. then he just said, you know, you sucked as batman. well, you kind of got me on that one, and then i walked away. that was basically it. >> how funny is that? >> you know he'd rather be called a corporate chill than to

go -- >> remind me of batman. >> they all have bad movies. >> that was pretty bad. i'm betty nguyen, and this is "first look." msnbc's coverage of the new york primary begins tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern. don't miss it. "way too early" starts right now. it's all rigged. it's a rigged deal. you know, you look at colorado, and i watched the rnc. he's a nice guy, reince. he's a nice guy. but he said, well, we haven't changed. well, i went in in june, in august they changed. and the reason they changed was because they saw i was going to win colorado. so the way we do it is we give it to the bosses. so colorado, their vote was taken away. wyoming, their vote was taken away. >> if donald trump -- if he was winning the majority of votes, he'd likely have the majority of delegates, but that's not actually what's happening. he's winning a plurality of votes, and he has a plurality of delegates.

and under the rules and under the concept of this country, a majority rules on everything. >> donald trump continues to rail against what he calls a rigged system. warning the rnc to change or face a, quote, rough july. plus, bernie sanders campaigns in brooklyn and draws his biggest crowd yet. we'll have the latest on both races ahead of tomorrow's pivotal new york primary. and two countries, three devastating earthquakes. one in ecuador, two in japan. we will bring you updates on the recovery efforts from both. it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west, and this is "way, way, way, way, way too early." ♪ good morning. it's monday, april 18th, tax day. yes, tax day.