appreciate the statements of concern, but obviously you never want to see that. governor mark dayton of minnesota hitting his head on the lectern and falling at the end of his state of the state. we'll keep you posted as we learn more about that story. that does it for us tonight and "first look" is up next. this morning a powerful nor'easter is slamming states along the atlantic with heavy rain and strong winds. it's the same system that devastated the southeast leaving 20 dead over the weekend. and president trump's cabinet continues to take shape. secretary of state nominee rex tillerson withstood a major hurdle and mike pompeo secured his spot as cia director. plus -- >> i know that josh earnest was voted the most popular press secretary by the press corps, so after reading, checking my twitter feed, i shot josh an e-mail last night to let him know he can rest easy that his title is secure for at least the next few days. >> pretty funny during his press

briefing. sean spicer trying for a reset and refusing to walk back the widely disputed claim about the large crowd size. hey there, good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, january 24. i'm alex witt alongside louis burgdorf. this morning the deadly storm that devastated the south over the weekend is hitting the northeast. from new jersey to new england, this nor'easter is causing quite a mess with heavy rain, coastal flooding and high winds. and in some area, wind gusts have topped 60 miles an hour. in philadelphia, one man was killed after strong winds knocked a sign off a wall at a car dealership. in jersey city, the wind sent this window washer scaffolding -- look at that, just sailing. fortunately, no workers on the scaffolding when that happened.

meanwhile, the death toll from the weekend's storms has risen to 20. the governor of mississippi says he has sent a letter to president trump asking for help. the county commissioner in georgia also telling nbc news he is begging fema for boots on the ground. now states out west are also dealing with severe weather this morning according to the ap. at least four people are dead in california after the most recent round of storms. governor jerry brown declared a state of emergency for several counties facing an estimated tens of millions of dollars in damage after flooding, erosion and mudslides. and let's get to the latest news on the trump administration. there could be a new secretary of state as early as next week as the senate foreign relations committee has narrowly approved rex tillerson's nomination. the former exxon ceo and chairman won an 11-10 partyline vote after swinging support of marco rubio. the florida senator's early skepticism and sharp questioning of tillerson during the

confirmation hearing cast doubt on whether the republican party would remain unified on that nomination. now, yesterday rubio said president trump deserved deference and it would be against the national interest to have tillerson's confirmation unnecessarily delayed or embroil in conversation. the washington post says ahead of the vote, rubio received an onslaught of past donors in support of tillerson but denied on due pressure from the white house on his decision. >> you ask about the administration, i got to say, guys, and i'm being incredibly professional in my interaction with them and responsive and respectful, i mean, they did what i would do if i were president and wanted to get my nominee through. you try to provide information and nudge people in the right direction, but it was all very respectful. i have to be fair about that. >> you can see kasie hunt reporting there. just off camera while rubio spoke, someone was holding a model of a human spine. it may have been the work of the

environmental advocacy group green peace which tweeted marco rubio voted to confirm rex tiller son as secretary of state, so we brought him the spine he must have left at home, alec. mike pompeo this morning was elected as secretaon cia direct2 vote. meanwhile, nicki hailey's nomination as ambassador to the nations could possibly be confirmed by the full senate in a few hours. the energy and natural resources committee postponed a meeting scheduled for today in which a plan to vote on two cabinet nominees, rick perry energy and ryan zinke as interior. and the senate democrats

appealed for a second round of questioning to betsy devos after five minutes each last week. but the chairman said no, devos spent more questions answering questions of either of president obama's education nominees. louis? i came out to read a statement and did it. we're here today, i'm going to stay here as long as you want. i want to make sure we have a healthy relationship. i believe that we have to be honest with the american people. i think sometimes we can disagree with the facts. there are certain things that we may not fully understand when we come out, but our intention is never to lie to you, jonathan. our job is to make sure that -- you're in the same boat, there are times when you guys tweet something out or write a story and publish a correction. that doesn't mean that you were intentionally trying to deceive readers or the american people, does it? i think we should be awarded the same up opportunity.

there are times when we believe something to be true or we get something from an agency or we act in haste because the information available wasn't complete, but a desire to communicate with the american people to make sure that you have the most complete story at the time, and so we do it. >> he went on to take question after question from a diverse group of media outlets, but spicer also maintained his claim that donald trump got the biggest viewer ship of the inauguration on record in person and around the world. >> at the time, the information that i was provided by the inaugural committee came from an outside agency that we reported on. and i think knowing that we know now, we can tell that the numbers are different. but we were trying to provide numbers that we had been provided. the most watched inaugural, when you look at just the one network alone got 16.9 million people online. another couple of the networks, there were tens of millions of people who watched it online. nevermind the audience that was here, 31 million people watched it on television, combine that with the tens of millions of

people that watched it online on a device, it's unquestionable. i don't -- and i don't see any numbers that dispute that. >> and the president tweeted this photo with a caption, inauguration day. also yesterday the paperwork was filed from one of the president's first acts in office declaring his inauguration day as the national day of patriotic devotion, quote, in order to strengthen our bonds to each other and to our country and to renew the duties of government to the people. louis, donald trump is making good on one of his campaign promises announcing the u.s. is formally backing out of the 12-nation transpacific partnership, the tpp, as he takes steps to be the first to revamp u.s. trade policy. he officially signed the executive action yesterday. the move at this point was largely considered symbolic because the deal had to be cleared by congress which was not expected to happen. trump's action received mixed reviews from congressional leaders be democrats taking credit from keeping tpp from

taking effect. chuck schumer released a one-line statement that simply read, tpp was dead long before president trump took office. we await real action on trade. meanwhile, nancy pelosi said, quote, president trump will notice that thanks to largely democratic and steadfast opposition to enacting a job-killing trade deal, the transpacific partnership never became law in the united states. and john mccain slammed the president's decision calling this a serious mistake that will have lasting consequences for america's economy. and the white house press secretary reiterated that the president's decision was part of his america first policy. >> when you enter into these multi-national agreements, you're allowing any country, no matter the size, any one of those 12 including us, to have the same stature as the united states in the agreement. so we're basically on par with

some very small companies who are getting access to an amazing market, the united states, and in return we're negotiating at the lowest common denominator. and i think when you look at big multinational agreements, multilateral agreements, they are not always in the best interest of the united states. >> the administration now sets its sights on a taller task renegotiating nafta with mexico and canada. a white house spokesman said meetings with the mexican president and justin trudeau should take place in the coming weeks. they mexican president is hoping to preserve tariff-free nafta trade. and throughout his campaign president trump dismissed the war under president bush a mistake and full of opportunities in the operation. sean spicer looked to clarify comments president trump made once more while speaking to the cia on saturday about taking oil

from the country. >> the old expression to the victor belong the spoils, you remember, they always used to say, keep the oil. i wasn't a fan of iraq. i don't want to go to iraq. but i will tell you, when we were in, we got out wrong. and i always said, in addition to that, keep the oil. now i said it for economic reasons, but if you think about it, mike, if we kept the oil, you probably wouldn't have isis because that's where they made their money in the first place. so we should have kept the oil but okay. maybe we'll have another chance. but the fact is, they should have kept the oil. >> i think what the president is very clear about in foreign policy is too often the united states is going in with a lot of money, a lot of manpower, and in this cases, losing both loss of life. and we want to make sure that our interests are protected. so if we're going into a country for a cause, i think he wants to make sure that americans are getting something out of it for the commitment and sacrifice that we're making. >> can you unequivocally state

that this administration will not send more troops into iraq as the president has put in to take the oil? >> i'm not going to talk about what we may or may not do. the president is very clear he has a telegraph forward on taking options off the table. that's not a good negotiating table, that's not how he works. there's a reason he's been successful at negotiating because he does it in a way to not telegraph what he's going to take on or off the table. a senior counselor to the president has walked back her statement on sunday that president obama will not release tax returns because, quote, people don't care. kellyanne conway said on taxes, answers are the same from campaign. potus is under audit and will not release until that is completed, #nonews. this is a lawsuit filed in federal court yesterday seeking to force president trump to release his tax returns. the suit claims president trump is violating the emoluments clause of the constitution by hanging on to a stake in his businesses claiming the cause

bars government fishes from receiving certain types of gifts from foreign powers or governments. trump responded in the oval office yesterday. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> has the president reacted to the lawsuit today? >> in a statement yesterday, a spokesperson for the trump organization said the president transferred the businesses to his sons saying records will be updated when required by law. the trump organization put out a tweet with a photo of eric and donald trump jr. saying, quote, a new era has begun. still ahead, breaking developments in the u.k.'s plans to exit the european union. a new wrinkle just this morning. and two republican senators pitch a health care plan that doesn't completely repeal obamacare. plus, a state of emergency room continues in areas of the south after this weekend's deadly storms. bill karins will have a check on that plus the latest on the nor'easter moving up the coast. so we'll be right back.

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welcome back, everyone. let's get to bill karins who has been so busy. there's not a part of the country you're not keeping an eye on it seems. >> yeah, we have a new snowstorm heading to the central plains, we are still cleaning up in the south where the death toll is up to 20 from the tornadoes this weekend. we had pictures out of jersey city, when the winds start howling and the rigs are not tied down well, unfortunately, this can happen. in philadelphia, there was a sign that came down that did kill a gentleman. we had one fatality yesterday from the storms. that's 21 people that have been killed by the storm now turning into a big nor'easter. the worst of it this morning is moving further to central and northern new england. the blue is snow. the pink is either sleet or freezing rain. this is a messy storm this morning through central new england and areas through pennsylvania, through southern maine and also through new

hampshire. the green and the yellows are all rain. so from boston to the cape, just a big windy, rainy storm. the winds are coming down a little bit on long island after being up there near 40 and 50. 47 in boston. so they are still howling out here on the cape. we have some reports of downed trees and minor power outages. so the winds come down during the day, that's less of a problem. where the hef jeaviest snow continues is near binghamton, syracuse, new york, utica. if you're heading north from albany, new york, to glenn falls, that's the heaviest snow. the reddish snow is an additional eight inches to what you have already received. you can see the mountains here up through areas of northern new england. i also mentioned another storm we'll be dealing with out in the central plains, too. i'll get to that in a second, but the timing on this, here's 8:00 a.m. the nasty weather for the morning commute, boston north pike, lighter amounts of rain and drizzle near philadelphia and new york.

as we go throughout the noon hour, that's when we start to see the heavier stuff going up into central portions of maine. we could see a pretty good ice storm. i mentioned the northern plains, sioux falls, rochester, minnesota, these areas will be hardest hit. this is a foot of snow likely here in northern nebraska and southern portions of south dakota. so yes, alex, we have been dealing with one storm after another. but i'm happy to report, once we are done with this storm in the middle of the country we get a break pretty much coast to coast for four to five days. >> what about the storm from the east coast, that's heading east so -- >> that was this one. >> okay, good. susan collins and bill cassi cassidy are proposing a health care plan to keep the affordable care act or provide basic insurance or also allow people to opt-out. the proposal would repeal federal mandate that is require individuals and business owners

to buy insurance. it would also encourage greater use of health savings accounts. senator collins says the bill is still a work in progress but it would protect families while also giving up surers time to transition. chuck schumer argues the measure would reduce care and drive up medical costs for consumers. and now to a developing story within the last hour, britain's supreme court rule with the government must get approval to leave the eu. in the 8-3 ruling, although the state normally has the power to alter treaties, it cannot do so if it affects people's rights, which the court says leaving the eu would do. the government says they could start under the royal prerogative of all past monarchs. the ruling doesn't overturn the brexit referendum but only decides how it will be enforced, even though parliament could vote against executing article 50. lucy cavanaugh will join us live from london with a lot more in a

bit. meantime, still ahead, patriots quarterback tom brady opens up about his friendship with the president. he's not the only athlete talking about trump. louis has all the details next in sports. lo at you, saving money on your medicare part d prescriptions. at walgreens we make it easy for you to seize the day by helping you get more out of life and medicare part d. now with zero-dollar copays on select plans... ...and rewards points on all prescriptions, walgreens has you covered. so drop by and seize the savings! walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. watry...duo fusiong heartburn relief? duo fusion goes to work in seconds and lasts up to 12 hours. tums only lasts up to 3. for longer lasting relief...in one chewable tablet try duo fusion from the makers of zantac shis it dna or olay? us 20-something skin. new olay total effects fights seven signs of aging to help

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belichick. good luck, bob. your friend called to congratulate us. he feels good, good luck. that was president trump singling out patriots owner bob craft from the crowd of guests at last week's pre-inauguration dinner. he also received a congratulatory call from tom brady who declined to talk about it in a press conference the next day. during a radio interview yesterday morning, brady had a bit more to say about his relationship with the president. >> i have called him, yes, in the past. sometimes he calls me. sometimes i call him. i don't want to get into it, but if you know someone and you're, you know, it doesn't mean you agree with everything that they say or do, right? you have a lot of friends in your life. i think there are thing that is are based in your own dealings with someone that is a personal dealing, not a public dealing, or, you know, that's all you can -- because you have personal

experiences. >> brady could have an opportunity to see the president at the white house if the patriots beat the falcons in the super bowl, but he did pass on the last invitation to meet president obama. we'll have to wait and see on that one. brady isn't the only credit card talking trump. the former browns qb johnny man ze manziel tweeted writing, quote, yo potus even i know to stay away from the notification section on twitter. it will drive you crazy. let the country hate. let's go to tennis and the australian open. to melbourne where venus williams is the oldest woman to reach the semifinals at the australian open after a straight set win yesterday. it's been 14 years since williams was last in this position. and on the men's side, value varenka advances after a win

against number 12 wilfred songa. roger federer just wrapped up a straight set victory in this morning's set. and we'll go to the nba, russell westbrook recording his second triple-double in salt lake city against the jazz. he's tied with the great larry bird for fifth on the all-time list with 59 trouble-doubles. on top of that, westbrook played hero last night hitting a go-ahead jumper with less than two seconds to play lifting okc to a 97-95 win against utah. all right, now to miami where the heat's dionne waiters halts the warriors' win streak at seven games with the go-ahead three-pointer before the buzzer. pretty incredible. the heat beat golden state 105-102. what a shot there. and on the college court,

north carolina, nc state, duke got the 84-82 win last night. that's the first time the blue devils have been beaten by them on their home court. >> the blue devils are not used to that. thank you. donald trump's hotel seems to be a hot spot and now the democrats are taking a look at that. and scary moments for minnesota's governor as he collapses at the podium during his state of the state address. we'll have more next. i am ready. because today there's harvoni. a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. harvoni is proven to cure up to 99% of patients... ...who've had no prior treatment. it transformed treatment as the first cure that's... ...one pill, once a day for 12 weeks.

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welcome back, everyone. i'm alex witt alongside louis burgdorf. the deadly weather that spawned tornadoes over the weekend is now bearing down over the northeast. the nor'easter is bringing heavy rains, winds and snow and coastal flooding from new jersey to new england. meanwhile, the death toll from the tornadoes in the south has risen to 20 with leaders in mississippi and georgia requesting help from the government. and four people are dped after the latest round of storms in california. a state of emergency room is being announced for 50 county there is. and the governor of minnesota collapsed during his state of the state address. the 69-year-old started to slur his speech before falling into

the podium as lawmakers rushed to his aid. a scary moment there. the governor's office released a statement saying he quickly recovered and walked out of the state capital on his own. >> wow, we wish the governor well, that's for sure. new developments on the trump cabinet, former congressman mike pom pay poe was sworn in after being confirm in the 66-32 vote with 16 democrats voting in favor of his nomination. meanwhile, rex tillerson's vote has made it out of committee with a full senate vote expected as early as next week. and we are learning more about the lawsuit filed over the president over his business interests. a watchdog group claimants president trump is violating a constitutional ban on accepting gifts from foreign governments. pete williams has more. >> reporter: the first lawsuit of its kind against the wealthiest president in modern times over a clause in the constitution that bans public officials from receiving any present or payment, what the framers call emolument from any

king, prince or foreign state. a liberal ethics watchdog group says melania trump is knee deep in violences. >> we have never had a president whose had such vast financial interests that are so eng tangled with foreign governments and that are as secret as donald trump's. >> reporter: the suit lists a dozen trump locations worldwide that will violate that ban or soon. among them, each time a foreign diplomat pays to stay or puts on an event in the president's washington hotel. services granted by the government of dubai for the trump international golf club opening next month. and permits sought from china for the trump organization to build luxury hotels there. melania trump bru mr. trump brushed off the lawsuit. he said he'll give the u.s. treasury profits from any foreign payments at the hotel which his lawyers say don't count anyway. >> paying for a hotel room is not a gift or a present and it has nothing to do with an office. >> mr. trump has said he'll have his two sons run the business

but the suit says that won't solve the problem. to win the ethics group must also show it's directly harmed by any constitutional violation, the legal experts say its claim of harm is having to spend time and money suing mr. trump is not enough. >> this is a pretty out-of-the-box suit. it is hard to be successful on this subject. >> the lawsuit does not seek monetary damages but instead wants the court to have trump's businesses stop taking payments from congressional governments. and many are voicing their conflict of interest with president trump. elijah coming, gerald connolly and andre carson said the hotel lost more than 1 million lost in the first two months since operating. the federal agency overseas the hotel and the old post office

building. and the document specifically states that the building cannot be held by an elected official. the trump team argued that the president cannot violate those terms because he's already attended before entering office. the congress wants to know if his election victory is now giving the hotel and thus the president a financial boost. and president trump signed the executive order on tpp but also signed two more controversial orders dealing with the federal workforce and abortion funding. the president posed a freeze on hiring for the federal government so no empty positions will be filled and no new positions will be created. during the signing ceremony, he stressed that the freeze does not affect the military. meanwhile, president trump backed the policy to ban u.s. foreign aid to be given to health providers overseas who discuss abortion as a family planning option. u.s. law prohibits the use of tax dollars for abortion services anywhere including the countries where the policy and

procedure is legal. this was implemented byron nald reagan. the president also met with the bipartisan group of congressional leaders. the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell got in kind of a small jab at the president saying, quote, i enjoyed the president and senator schumer talking about all the people they knew in new york. >> how do you feel, mr. president? >> we have a fantastic relationship with everybody at the table. totally just a beautiful, beautiful relationship. >> but according to two sources, trump spent much of the beginning of the event rehashing what happened in the campaign, including that between 3 to 5 million illegals cost him a victory in the popular vote. that claim has been widely debudg debunct, but trump continued to

make it. and a meeting in kazakhstan with both syrian officials and rebel fighters blamed each other for the wall while hurling insults at one another. the talks are the face-to-face meetings between the two sides in a six-year-long civil war. the united states was invited as observers but didn't send delegation. the russian defense ministry is coordinating joint air strikes against isis in syria. the defense department dismissed the report as rubbish. although the press secretary sean spicer kept the door open to future coordinated attacks. >> i think that the president has been very clear that he's going to work with any country that shares our interest in defeating isis, not just on the national security front but on the economic front. i think if there's a way to combat isis with any country, whether russia or anyone else and we have a shared national interest in it? sure, we'll take it. >> according to "the washington post," russia's ambassador invited national security adviser michael flynn. and the u.s. intelligence official tells nbc news there

never was an investigation into phone calls made by mike flynn to the russian ambassador. the calls in question were briefly examined after being picked up as part of a routine surveillance of the ambassador. no evidence of any wrongdoing was found. a former u.s. counter intelligence official tells nbc news that it's not uncommon for u.s. officials to draw the scrutiny of fbi counter intelligence agents. meanwhile, the actual number of calls between flynn and the russian ambassador appears to be in question. reuters is citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. reports that flynn held five calls with the ambassador on december 29th. the day then president obama retaliated for russia's interference in the u.s. presidential election. reuters also cites two sources that say the timing of the calls raises the question of whether flynn sought to smooth over any russian anger over u.s. sanctions. the white house press secretary sean spicer yesterday maintained that only two calls took place and described the nature of those calls. >> there's been one call, i

talked to general flynn about this again last night, one call talked about four subjects, one was the loss of life that occurred in the plane crash that took their military choir, two was christmas and holiday greetings, three was to talk about a conference in syria on isis, and four was to set up to talk about after the inauguration setting up a call between president putin and president trump. the second call came, i think it's now three days ago, that was to say once he gets into office, can we set up that call? >> and the standards set by president obama's nominees is likely to come up today as the senate budget committee hears testimony from congressman nick mulvaney on his nomination of office as budget director. they acknowledged that he failed to pay $15,000 in taxes for his household nanny. something chuck schumer is pulling on.

>> mulvaney, it just came out, that he didn't pay a household employee taxes on an employee for four years. >> do you think he may not be confirmed? >> on the very same basis, republicans said tom daschle was not to be confirmed for the same thing. >> cnn reports that mulvaney voted three times in favor of legislation to make anyone with a seriously delinquent tax debt ineligible to be appointed or continue serving as an employee of the government. the spokesperson for mulvaney said yesterday he made a mistake and made it as he sought to help care for new born triplets just home from the neonatal icu. mulvaney said in the disclosure form he since paid federal taxes and is waiting on the south carolina tax bill.

and louis, president trump picked the new chair of the body overseeing the airwaves. the senior republican on the federal communications commission is the newly designated chairman. he's an outspoken opponent of nominations adopted by democrats in the years, and he wants to fire up the weed whacker and remove the rules holding back investment and job creation. he met with dow chemical, ford, lockheed, u.s. steel and more, where he aimed to takie drastic changes to rules with regulations. >> we think we can cut this by 75% to have better protections. but when you want to expand your plans or when mark wants to come and build a massive plant, or wendell wants to do something special, you'll have your awe

prooi prooufls really fast, approvals really fast. we'll turn to uncertainty over the president's policies that is weighing in on the markets. the dow, nasdaq and s&p turned positive for a brief time yesterday when the president made those regulation comments you just heard. but it didn't last long with all of them closing in the red. cnbc's carolin roth is joining us from cnbc. the investors are hanging on to every word that the president says. >> yes, definitely. and what we're seeing in global markets right now is a sense of unease over donald trump and his administration's protection policies. we knew he was going to be tough on trade, but i think there's a little bit of a surprise of the fact that some of the first policies focused so heavily on protectionism. for example, ripping up the transpacific trade agreement, the tpp, but also renegotiating nafta. that's why we're seeing the unease in the asian trading session and the weakness in the u.s. markets yesterday.

that said, european markets this morning are on the front foot and trading slightly higher. i also want to talk about yahoo!. yahoo! we said yesterday has a $4.8 billion deal with verizon communications will close a quarter later than expected. the reason both sides are still grappling with the massive fallout from the massive data breaches announced last year. >> carolin roth live from london, thank you so much. still ahead, former president obama and his wife spent their first post-white house weekend in california, but they didn't stay long. we've got the picture to prove it. plus, the latest on the severe weather hitting much of the nation from the nor'easter moving into new england to a snowstorm expected for the central plains. bill karins is here to break it all down. and we continue to follow developing news from britain where the government just lost a significant court battle over brexit. we'll take you live to london.

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a sudden huge gust of wind, full whiteout, and then once it cleared there was a big pile of slough on the road that i managed to slow down enough to hit and then bam, avalanche. >> i knew he was going to stay calm, but we needed to conserve our oxygen, slow breathing, got warm under the blanket, took our wet socks off. >> my brother called me and said, i was worried because you were laughing so much. we kept making jokes about it. so we were depleting our oxygen because it was like, how did this happen? this is ridiculous! >> those guys are lucky, the two friends describing how they survived being buried in an avalanche in northern california yesterday. thankfully, the men had cell phone service and called 911. fire and rescue had them out within an hour. that is just part of the complete weather story. again, you couldn't believe this with everything going on. >> did you hear about the avalanche rescues in italy, alex? >> the puppies? that's the best. >> i know. this is five days after the avalanche. this was the earthquake

triggering in avalanche. the hotel was buried, already confirming seven people are dead, 12 still missing. but when they were digging through the rubble, they found three puppies still alive. >> that is so great. their puppy mom and dad got out, so maybe they were barking and barking and trying to -- >> let them know where they were. i don't know. maybe they will find someone else alive, too. we'll talk about the issues going on, in new england a storm system we are dealing with yesterday, we're still dealing with it. there's a lot of ice out there with a big sleet storm across parts of interior new england from central new york. now we have snow mixing in with it, so you'll drive through a lot of messy stuff on the new york state freeway today or heading northward. not fun either heading into western massachusetts on the pike. areas of drizzling and light rain on and off during the day. philly and d.c. are pretty much done. as far as the winds are going to go, right now the heaviest winds are 50 to 60 miles per hour mostly off the coast. that's pretty good to come down on the jersey shore, they have come down in new york.

hopefully the airports won't be as bad today as yesterday. we'll take you through the timing of it. this is at 8:00 a.m., we're dealing with heavy rain over boston. ice still lingering over interior sections of the northeast, especially maine. you're going to get a good ice storm out of this. notice the rain on and off in new york. then we'll clear it out throughout the day. we didn't get the heaviest snowfall with this because we didn't have the cold temperatures with it, alex. if you're in the middle of the country, you're getting the next storm coming in throughout the day today and tonight. so again, it's been one storm after another. but after this, we get a big break. it doesn't look like any other snowstorm, maybe seven to ten days coast to coast. >> that's fantastic. hey, you know, given the soggy palm springs weekend they experienced now where former president obama and michelle obama had, they are making good on going someplace warm. last night in the british virgin islands he took a picture with his staff. privileged to oversee the

accommodations of the former president and first lady this evening. and the first full day in office since thursday, he has seemingly become more popular than ever. in one week the 44th president picked up more than 3 million twitter followers rising from 80.7 million on thursday to more than 83 million today. at that point, i don't know if you can even notice it, but obama now ranks fourth in terms of twitter followers behind katy perry, justin bieber and taylor swift. the managing editor expects the president to pass taylor swift by the end of the week. president trump's currently got 21.72 followers behind courtney cay dashkardashian and right in front of nasa. doctors tweeting former president george h.w. bush and his wife barbara give us an update on their conditions. we are back in a moment.

>> they really, truly, are therapy for each other. when she's not there, he's looking for her. when she can't be down there, she's -- hurry up, let's get this done, let's go, because she wants to go down there. so additionally as the doctor mentioned, they kind of get after each other if somebody is being a non-compliant patient. then the other one says, no, no, you need to do that. they just take care of each other. and it is very obvious how much they need each other. i love you. but i love him. i love him, too. so do i. they also know you should get your annual check-up. it could save your life. it's a new year. schedule your check-up today to learn your four health numbers and start the year off right. cigna. together, all the way.

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welcome back. an update now on the health of former george h.w. bush and mrs. bush after both were hospitalized last week. the former president has been moved out of the intensive care unit and onto a regular floor while mrs. bush has been discharged entirely. the former president's doctor says he's recovering well from pneumonia but still being treated for his breathing and a fair amount of coughing. this picture was tweeted out of mrs. bush treated for bronchitis at her husband's bedside yesterday thanking everyone for prayers and good wishes. they also heard from their doctors. >> down in the icu, even when -- even when he still had the breathing tube in, he gave us the thumbs-up. which is, again, a testament to his fortitude. because i sure would want to be knocked out if i have a tube down my throat. so remarkably great attitude.

>> yeah, he asked me today when he gets to go home. i was telling him he gets to get out of the icu today. he said, oh, i don't think i need to be here, can i just go home? >> i believe the statement was prior to the intensive care unit stay, i think mrs. commented to me, you need to get us out of here and tuned up because we have to host that super bowl. >> the doctor says if the president continues to improve at the current pace, he could be released from the hospital on friday or over the weekend, maybe in time for the super bowl. now for the developing story across the pond where in a landmark ruling the britain supreme court says they must get parliament approval to trigger article 50 leaving the eu. lucy cavanaugh is joining us now live from london. so this ruling was clear, lucy, what does this mean for brexit going forward? >> hey, alex. it's a setback for the government but one they were prepared for and quite frankly it's not going to change much when it comes to brexit. just to be clear, this ruling was about the legal process of

how britain will leave the european union. the prime minister began this on her own. the parliament does have to weigh in, but it won't stop brexit from happening. take a look at the government's response this morning. >> the court has been very clear throughout the hearing of this case that it has not been deciding whether the united kingdom should or should not leave the european union. the people of the united kingdom have already made that decision. and now enacting that decision will be a political matter and not a legal matter. >> so what exactly will parliament have to do? they have to vote on whether or not to trigger something called article 50 of the lisbon treaty. this kicks off a two-year process of negotiations in the

divorce from europe. teresa may wants to do this by march and said they are sticking to the timetable. they have to submit a bill to parliament. and look, the expectation is that it will pass. remember, there was a public vote on whether or not to leave the eu. that makes it hard for lawmakers to go against the tide. most of her conservative party now supports leaving. the opposition party said it won't block article 50. and so it might slow things down a bit, they will certainly have more public discussion of the brexit process, but it is not by any means derailed. and stay tuned for more on this on teresa may meets donald trump at the white house. thank you. when we come back, we'll look at the stories happening in the day ahead. for partners in health, time is life. we have 18,000 people around the world. the microsoft cloud helps our entire staff stay connected and work together in real time to help those that need it.

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step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business. before we toss it across the studio to "morning joe," we'll check on the stories you'll be hearing about in the day ahead. several of president trump's cabinet nominees will learn if they move forward in the approval processes. several committees will vote on elaine chao, transportation secretary, wilbur ross for commerce, jeff sessions for

attorney general, ben carson for hud secretary and nicki hailey for u.n. ambassador. and the oscars award show willvoted the most popular pres secretary by the press corps. so after checking my twitter feed i shot josh an e-mail last night letting him know he can rest easy that his title is secure for at least the next few days. >> good morning, it is tuesday january 24th. welcome to "morning joe." with us on the set veteran columnist mike barnicle, mark halperin, how is the baby? so cute. >> nice. got a good personality. >> i like him. in washington pulitzer prize winning columnist, "washington