like donald trump makes women comfortable. >> both sides are giving a much clear picture of just how ugly this general election will be. and he could be the first first gentleman, but what other role does hillary clinton have planned for her husband? this morning the former president weighs in. plus -- >> we won't get a chance for the last clues. and jonathan is in the lead with $14,800. s.e. with $13,200 and chuck trails her by $1,000. now political terms. >> chuck todd, political terms no problem, right? we'll show you how well that ended. 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west. yep, this is "way too early."

good morning. it's tuesday, may 17th. i'm jonathan capehart. we'll get to marco rubio tweeting after dark as well in a minute. but first, after lacing into his opponents for their use of poll driven language and touting the financial benefits of relying on public polling, donald trump's campaign has hired a pollster. a source confirmed the addition of tony fa briz owe who was the chief pollster for bob dole and he worked for governor rick scott. politico reported that he passed up on the chance to work for trump's white house bid and he ended up on the 2012 rick perry campaign. the hiring is a reversal for trump who has maintained since last summer, quote, i don't want a pollster because if a pollster is so good, why aren't they running? adding this to chuck todd in august. >> i don't have pollsters, i

don't want to waste money on pollsters, because i don't want to be unreal. i want to be me. i have to be me. you know, we have enough of that in washington with pollsters telling everybody what to say and everybody being controlled by the special interests and the lobbyists, et cetera. and the donors, i see the donors all over the place. i know they don't give because they happen to be nice people. >> the professionalization of donald trump's polling operation marks another shift from his upstart primary campaign to the general election where he plans to raise bill clinton's infidelities in the debates against hillary clinton. trump tells "the new york times" that his strategy will be a broad attack on clinton's character. quote, just getting nasty with hillary won't work. you have to get people to look hard at her character and to get women to ask themselves if hillary is sincere and authentic. because she has been really ugly in trying to destroy bill's mistresses and she's pandering to women so obviously, when she's only interested in getting power. meanwhile, clinton allies are already on the attack.

priorities usa, the pro clinton super pac that spent $75 million on president obama's re-election in 2012 is already hitting trump in the swing states. they're spending in excess of $6 million on new ads that begin airing this morning in ohio, florida, virginia and nevada, and will continue for the next four weeks. >> you know, you can see blood coming out of her eyes. or wherever. does she have a good body? no. if ivanka weren't my daughter perhaps i'd be dating her. i view a person who's flat chested hard to be a 10. you can tell people to go [ bleep ] themselves. >> does donald trump really speak for you? >> now to the democratic race where hillary clinton and bernie sanders have their eyes on kentucky and oregon today. a combined 134 delegates are at stake in those primaries. clinton needs 140 more delegates

to reach the number needed for the nomination. the former first lady held three campaign rallies in the state yesterday and while she went after bernie sanders' record on the auto bailout she had a steady stream of attacks against donald trump. even imagining a future debate against the presumptive nominee. >> here's the question. so what is your plan to create jobs? his answer is i'm going to create them, they're going to be great. i know how to do it. but i'm not telling you what it is i'm going to do. >> hillary clinton has also attracted attention for recent comments she made about her husband, like these. >> my husband who i'm going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy, because you know he knows how to do it. especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have really been left out.

>> so what does that mean? the clinton campaign says there are no formalized plans for the former president's role, but according to "the new york times," aides say he could focus on hard hit areas of the country like the rust belt. economic adviser to president obama austin goals bee there's a practical puzzle of how a role like his would jibe. the clinton campaign says comments like the ones you heard a moment ago are in line with what the candidate has been saying how the former president's expertise will be put to use. here's what bill clinton had to say last night. >> i'll do whatever i'm asked to do. like this economic business. >> there you have it. puerto rico doesn't hold a democratic primary until june 5th, but bernie sanders is hoping to attract delegates there.

he held several events in san juan throughout the day yesterday. while there, he urged the federal reserve to help reconstruct puerto rico's $70 billion worth of debt. >> if the federal reserve could work overtime to protect the interests of wall street, it can certainly help the $3.5 million citizens in puerto rico improve its economy. >> sanders visited his campaign office where he spoke to about six volunteers and other members of the press. at one point a volunteer told sanders that they need more resources and that people quote don't know him. clinton is well known and he's working to close that gap. and burlington vermont will close, done in by debt. the move comes after a controversial purchase of land in 2010 made while jane sanders, wife of candidate bernie sanders, was president of the campus. she spearheaded the purchase of a $10 million, 32-acre tract to

double the student enrollment by 2020. but four years later the struggling college sold the parcel at a huge loss and it wasn't enough to save the school. the sanders campaign had no comment. and there's a growing sense of desperation among some political insiders, particularly republicans, unhappy with the inevitable choice of donald trump or hillary clinton. but so far, attempts to lure a third party candidate have come up empty. john kasich has rejected the idea and he's not even sure if he'll endorse trump and ben sasse has called for the independent bid from someone, but that someone won't be him. >> i have been interested in that myself, but i obviously think the country should be having a more meaningful conversation than it is having right now. >> you're still -- >> no, i said i'm never open to it. i think it's pretty obvious both from the polling and my experience that every grocery store and gas station fillup

which is that people wish they had better choices. they wish we'd have a big, optimistic conversation about the future of the country and we have the two most unpopular party front-runners in the history of presidential polling. >> i don't want to get in -- i have had a phone call with somebody that wanted me to run -- consider running as a third party candidate. >> are you considering running? >> no, i'm not going to do that. >> why? >> i just think running third party doesn't feel right. i think it's -- it's not constructive. you can have depth to something and people think, that's just politics. no. when i talk about two paths, you know, the path of rebuilding the country or pushing people down into the ditch, that's not some political ploy that somebody calculated for me. that's my -- that's my insides. that's my soul. and so, you know, a third party candidacy would be viewed as kind of a silly thing. i don't think it's appropriate. the supreme has punted on issues -- issuing a major

decision on a religious challenge to the obamacare act. they outlined a possible compromise that would allow employees to receive birth control without violating the moral believes by providing it. the challenge is still alive and as president obama says women are still able to get contraception. however, its highlights the struggle of getting a majority decision without a ninth justice. yesterday, president obama urged republicans to give his nominee, merrick garland, a hearing and a vote, telling buzzfeed that republicans may not want to wait for a possible trump appointment. >> precisely because this election year has been so crazy, precisely because you have a number of republicans who have said that they're concerned about their nominee.

it shows you why you don't want to politicize the supreme court appointment. the republicans are looking at the nominee who isn't qualified to be president much less appoint somebody and i want seems to me they'd be better off going ahead and giving a hearing and a vote to somebody that they themselves in the past have said is well qualified, is fair. >> the president also reiterated that denying his nominee without a hearing could set a dangerous precedent, saying there's nothing stopping democrats from doing the same thing to a republican president. today the national transportation safety board is expected to hold a hearing an vote on the probable cause of the amtrak derailment that left people eight dead near philadelphia last year. a source close to the investigation tells nbc news that the engineer brandon bostian was likely distract by the radio dispatches. he said earlier this year he could barely remember the moments leading up to the incident, that he had a dream-like memory of the

locomotive going around a curve. an engineer on a separate train said his windshield had been hit by something and they theorized that he was distracted by the radio traffic. airport security lines don't appear to be getting any shorter. and cnbc's hadley gamble joins us live from london. just in time for summer travel. >> that's right. we're just days away, jonathan, from the start of the summer travel season. now the tsa says at least 740 million passengers will pass through the departure screening this year. the agency is trying to tackle this. they said they'll hire at least 800 new agents this month alone. but the union itself said they need many, many more, as much as 6,000 agents. and now people are taking to twitter to share their travel

concerns. and now the oracle of omaha's big bet on apple. warren buffett is taking a $1 billion stake in the company. that's good news for the apple company as a whole because they posted disappointing earnings in the first quarter, so apple a stock to watch. >> hadley gamble, thank you. still ahead on "way too early" three up, three sunk. lingering questions over the health of tiger woods making front page news this morning. >> i want to play. trust me, i want to. now, whether i can or do, it's a different story. if i could tell you, i would. but i can't. more dangerous weather set to hit the north. we'll get a check on the forecast when "way too early" comes right back.

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sports. we begin with the nba's game 1 of the western conference final. the warriors get out to the familiar start, hosting the thunder. hosting a double digit lead by the end of the first half. mvp curry added another record to his resume. i keep saying that every time i do the sports about curry. breaking reggie miller's three-point mark at 45. but the second half belonged to oklahoma city, crawling back from the deficit of as many as 14 points at the beginning of the third quarter. russell westbrook put up 24 of his 27 points in the second half. kevin durant added 26 and the thunder ever -- thunder take the surprise 108-102 win on the road against golden state. and in the stanley cup playoffs last night, the lightning and the penguins needed overtime to decide game 2 of the eastern conference finals. >> here's rust. rust to crosby, score! >> sidney crosby nets the game

winner for pittsburgh in o.t., knotting the series at one game apiece. in detroit, the twins were already trailing the tigers 8-0 after the first inning. and by the fourth, tempers boiled over after detroit manager ausmus is ejected for arguing with the umpire when one of his players is called out on strikes. ausmus loudly voiced his opinions and he kicked dirt on home plate. he took his shirt off and covered the base with his shirt. he's mad. as for the game, detroit actually blew that big lead, but managed to come back and beat the twins -- >> you would never put your cashmere sweater -- >> not a chance. that's waste of money. finally, it appears the come back tour for tiger woods is still on hold. the pro voiced uncertainty about his return to competitive play, but set out to prove his viability at the congressional

country club. he looked stiff as he took three tee shot, all of which ended up in the pond. his last one cleared the hazard. but landed on the steep bank and rolled back. into the water. i mean, poor tiger. >> well, yeah, like us golfing. it's been like three or four years since he's been relevant. >> because he was the greatest golfer in the history ever. >> key word, history. >> here's bill karins. >> one of my pet peeves. >> make tiger great again. >> write a blog about it. we had a pictures of a funnel cloud trying to become a tornado. this is in felt, oklahoma. they call that an elephant trunk tornado. as far as that -- that's when it ropes out at the end stage of the tornado as it gets weaker.

we had strong, gusty winds and some large hail. this roof awning at a gas station looked like it was about to go. it was shaking pretty good. but it did hold up. there's the oppressive hail near sherman, texas. storms in texas, it's oklahoma or texas. oklahoma in the clear. but the storms are inching down to the dallas-ft. worth area and we'll watch them over top of you, most likely 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. today, 16 million people at risk. storms are not widespread, they'll be scattered but could be over to houston during the day today. the gloomy may continues for the mid-atlantic. you had one or two nice days here in d.c. now all the summers are headed through roanoke, areas of charlotte about to get wet too and this is over the top of the mid-atlantic today. to make things worse, as we look towards the upcoming weekend we could see a pretty significant rain event, a saturday washout

possible here in the mid-atlantic areas up to about philadelphia, new york city, forecast, it's a close call for you. keep an eye on that. if you have saturday plans in the mid-atlantic region you could get rained out. today's forecast, strong thunderstorms once again late today in areas of texas. southeast is going to be stormy too. and 57 degrees, jonathan, in d.c. with on and off rain. i think d.c. had a nicer march than may so far. >> wow. great, bill, thanks. still ahead, final jeopardy, the category political terms. our own chuck todd is down by a few thousand. is he able to make a come back? the answer next.

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hillary clinton is currently beating bernie sanders in every measurable category, except how many people woo when they you say their name. check it out. bernie sanders. [ cheers and applause ] hillary clinton. [ cheers and applause ] . all right. not as big, but let's add in the super delegates. woo! perfectly legal. it's perfectly legal. check the rules. >> that's stephen colbert there having some fun with the race for the democratic nomination. however, it seems emotions are really starting to boil over.

actor wendell pierce who starred in the hbo hits "the wire" has broken his silence after being arrested for simple battery over the weekend. according to atlanta police, he hit a woman over the head after a political conversation got heated. tmz reports that the woman was a bernie sanders supporter. pierce released a statement saying quote i regret what started as civil political discussion escalated to the level it did, although what has been reported thus far differs from what actually occurred, i have confidence that the judicial process will work as it should. these developments came as nevada democrats were meeting for their state convention in las vegas saturday. things got ugly when bernie sanders supporters accused the state party chair of rigging the process. according to reports, chairs were thrown and threats were made, forcing security to end the convention early. now, how do you hit back at a story you disagree with? well, if you're marco rubio, you make like donald trump and take

to twitter. responding to a "washington post" story about him not wanting to be vice president, he tweeted, funny to read about unnamed people close to me who claim to know my thinking on future plans. they make it up. he took on the use of anonymous sources, writing another genius line claims that i'm a bit at sea in terms of his political -- next step politically. i'm not really. i have only said like 10,000 times i'll be a private citizen in january. rubio continued the mockery by tweeting, a source close to rubio says he was tired after a long day and he has decided to sleep for a few hours before tomorrow's zika debate in senate. a long time friend says rubio is betwixt and between as to whether to do chest or legs tomorrow at the gym. that's just bizarre. last night, nbc's own chuck todd kicked off "jeopardy's"

powers week in d.c. when he saw the final topic, political terms, it appeared he thought the contest was over and he bet everything. let's see how that worked out for him. >> it's a very close game. there's a lot at stake. $50,000 to the charity represented by the winner today. political terms is the category. officials called tribune's sat at rome's senate door and if they didn't like what was going on, shouted this latin word. 30 seconds. good luck. >> chuck, we come to you first. this one caused you some concern. >> yeah. i didn't have it. >> didn't have it. >> let's take a look. did you write anything down? you said -- what is may. >> last minute. >> okay. you lose everything. you drop to zero. >> oh! oh, poor chuck. well you know what, watch "jeopardy" tomorrow because i'm

on. you can see how well i do. what? oh, yes. actually the correct answer in case you're wondering veto. well, anyway, that does it for me and "way too early." coming up on "morning joe," we knew a hillary clinton/donald trump election would be ugly and we're learning how ugly it would get. we're telling you about what both sides are saying about the plan of attack, when "morning joe" comes up, moments away. it's a drone you control with your brain, which controls your thumbs, which control this joystick. no, i'm actually over at the ge booth. we're creating the operating system for industry. it's called predix. it's gonna change the way the world works. ok, i'm telling my brain to tell the drone to get you a copy of my resume. umm, maybe keep your hands on the controller. look out!! ohhhhhhhhhh... you know what, i'm just gonna email it to you. yeah that's probably safer. ok, cool. (pilot talking to tower on radio)

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. yesterday's "new york times" had a 5,000-word story with a front page headline "crossing the line trump's private conduct with women." and the times e-mailed a news alert "donald trump has repeatedly unnerved women in private encounters over 40 years. here is the thing, "new york times," i'm not saying that donald trump objectifying women for 40 years isn't a story, it's been a story for 40 years. the special report? not that special. generally speaking the banner headline on the front