so our thanks for all and on the other side of this brief interruption, we will begin our next broadcast, a broadcast of "the 11th hour." >> i'm not -- >> right and i guess my point is that you've had the intelligence community look at russia's involvement in the election. you've had the house and the senate both do the same so what i'm trying to ascertain is at what point -- how many people have to say there's nothing there before you realize there's nothing there? >> breaking overnight, attorney general jeff sessions is coming under fire over new questions about his contact with the russian ambassador before the election. and now top democrats are demanding he resign. >> plus, winter storms, dozens of tornados leave a trail of

destruction all across the country. >> and the dow jones hits a record setting high closing above 21,000 for the first time ever. all eyes are watching to see how the markets get started today. >> good morning, everyone. it is thursday, march 2nd. well, this morning bomb shell revelations about attorney general jeff sessions undisclosed contact with a high ranking russian official last year. the washington post was first to report that sessions met twice last year with russia's ambassador to the united states including a meeting in sessions' senate office in september. this weeks after u.s. officials were briefed on russia's attempts to interfere in the presidential election. a spokeswoman acknowledged the meeting as well as another brief meeting at an event during the republican convention last july.

in a statement last night the attorney general said, i have never met with any russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. i have no idea what this allegation is about. it is false. sessions became the first u.s. senator to endorse trump last february advising the campaign on immigration and other matters. while testifying under oath at his confirmation hearing on january 10, sessions had this exchange with democrat senator al franken about reports on russian ties to the trump campaign. >> these documents also allegedly say, quote, there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between trump's surrogates and intermediaries for the russian government. >> if it's true it's obviously extremely serious and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you

do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i did not have communications with the russians. and i'm unable to comment on it. >> well, a spokeswoman says there was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer. quote, he was asked about communications between the campaign and russia, not about as a senator and a member of the armed services committee. joining us from washington, our investigative reporter and here on set with us, kyle perry. good morning to both of you. we'll reach out to you first there. what is your latest reporting on this? >> good morning. well, this is obviously the story that is rocking washington, and as you just mentioned, this distinction that the sessions folks are making that he was meeting in his capacity as a member of the senate armed service committee

is not holding water with democrats. you've got democrats including nancy pelosi calling for sessions to resign as attorney general and most others calling for him to at least recuse himself from this federal investigation counterintelligence investigation into whether the russians colluded with any members of the trump campaign over that hacking and leaking campaign and through the election. and you know, the post broke the story last night, there was an important story by the new york times that shed new light on what the u.s. government knows and has learned about contacts between trump associates and russian officials. and some -- nbc news has not confirmed all the details in that story but it describes an effort to scrub the signals intelligence, the communications intercepts after the election looking for evidence of contacts between russians and trump associates and finding some of that evidence and then it describes an effort to spread that around the government so that the incoming trump

administration couldn't make it go away. it's like something out of a spy novel. it's incredible. and these two stories may be related in a sense because we still don't know yet how these meetings between sessions and the russian ambassador, how that information emerged but we do know that the fbi is monitoring the activities of the russian ambassador, monitoring his communications, so did he communicate about that sessions meetings back to moscow? was that overheard on communications intercepts, we don't know yet but these are questions being asked today. >> let me ask you about the implications of this. all of these revelations that are coming out, implications for this investigation going forward. >> a lot of this is the coverup is worse than the crime. we have sessions saying these meetings never happened. seven days after his testimony and answer to senator franken then sessions answered a questionnaire asking have you been in kacontact with anyone i

the russian government about the election and a one word response, no. these are questions they're going to have to answer and they've put out the four things they'll be looking at even though the larger document is classified, the four things they'll be looking at first, what russian cyber activity was taking place in this country. two, did the russian active measures between links between russia and individuals associated with it? that's where sessions will come in here. as they look at this, what was the relationship between sessions and the ambassador? what did they meet about? we know the meetings now took place. what was discussed? >> and my question to you, ken, from the standpoint of the u.s. ambassador, when he's meeting with jeff sessions he's a senator, yes, but he had come on board with the trump campaign as of february. these two meetings were taking place after the fact. so from his perspective does he come to this meeting thinking,

i'm meeting with the senator or i'm meeting with a top surrogate here or an advisor with the trump campaign? >> of course it's hard to know the answer to that, but the post polled all members of the senate armed services committee and those 19 that they were able to reach, none of them had said they had ever met with the russian ambassador, to raising the question of why a senator from the armed services committee would want to meet with the russian ambassador. the sessions folks put out a list of other meetings he had taken with ambassadors, but sessions was one of the most prominent trump surrogates. so it's hard to imagine that was not on the mind of the ambassad ambassador. >> thank you. just hours of the washington post report broke and published online, high profile democrats wasted no time accusing the attorney general of lying under oath and demanding his resignation. nancy pelosi writing in a statement, sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our

country and must resign. there must be an independent outside commission to investigate the trump political personnel and financial connections to the russians. house oversight ranking member i lee jha comings added it is inconceivable even after michael flynn was fired for concealing his conversations with the russians that attorney general would keep his own conversation secret for several more weeks. elizabeth warren was slapped on the wrist after she read a letter from coretta scott king opposing his appointment back in the 1980s. she said sessions should have never been confirmed in the first place. i think he needs to resign, we need it now. intel committee ranking member didn't go that far but said it is essential that sessions recuse himself in any role of the investigation of the trump campaign ties to the russians. the party remains split over the need for an independent

prosecutor. >> i don't know if there's anything between the trump campaign and the russians. i'm not going to base my decision based on newspaper articles. if there is something there, and it goes up the chain of investigation, it is clear to me that jeff sessions, who is my dear friend, cannot make this decision about trump. so there may be nothing there, but if there's something there that the fbi believes is criminal in nature, then for sure you need a special prosecutor. if that that day ever comes i'll be the first one to say it needs to be someone other than jeff. >> joining us now, daniel great to have you with us. the political reality of all of this, what is this going to mean for both democrats and republicans? >> i find it telling that only unnamed white house officials were defending sessions last night and it seems like he is out on his own and when i was at a congressional press dinner

last night when that news broke from the washington post, you could see democrats just scramble to look at their phones and they were almost gleeful that this gives them a big reason to hit sessions over and to demand a special investigation because they think sessions will just not be impartial. >> daniel, when we look back at michael flynn and the reasons for which he was ousted from the administration, are there parallels here with jeff sessions? >> there are some parallels but it doesn't seem like jeff sessions was lying to mike pence and other white house officials about this, but that may come out later, and i think it's notable that sessions has more good will on capitol hill since he's served so long, and it's almost expected that democrats would call for his resignation, but michael flynn had almost no allies on the hill, and so -- and his basically his crime was

a little more serious than jeff sessions in this case. >> all right. thank you very much for that. >> thank you. and later on, senator al franken joins the table. all right. well, the storm system that brought some deadly weather to the midwest, that's now moving its way across the south and out to sea leaving behind a path of destruction. in the bowling green area of kentucky, a number of homes were heavily damaged and in some cases completely knocked over as you see there. those storms raced through that area yesterday morning. in north carolina a similar story as strong winds ripped the roof off of this car dealership. look at that. further north in maryland, a mess at one office building just outside of baltimore. debris liettered the ground there. illinois governor toured the damage where an ef-3 ravaged one

community. bill karins will have much more on this in just a few minutes. none of the intelligence collected has so far proven actionable or vital. the mission collected laptops, hard drives and cell phones. but the new york times reports that while the intel offers insight into evolving al qaeda tactics and attacks that could be carried out in the future, it is unclear if the intelligence advances the military's current knowledge. those contradict what the president said in his speech to congress on tuesday. >> i just spoke to our great general just now who reconfirmed that -- and i quote, ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemy. >> navy seal died in the raid.

the mission has more than a few critics including john mccain and lindsay graham. >> there's a thing called fog of war. but those who serve and sacrifice, that doesn't affect their courage and what they 'done for our nation by putting themselves in harm's way. >> the outcome of the mission doesn't make you a hero. the fact that you're willing to go in and fight these bastards over there makes you a hero. here's what i would encourage the president to be careful of. remember when we were told just a few dead enders in iraq? remember when you were told, you know, isil is the jv team? don't go down that road. i don't know if this was a game changer in the war on terrorism in terms of ryan it doesn't matter one bit. he's a hero. don't oversell. we'll see if this changed the course of the war, but whether it did or not, ryan's a hero. >> still ahead, a 22-year-old

dreamer gets arrested after speaking out about immigration issues. plus, more on that severe weather outbreak that hit several parts of the country yesterday. bill karins will join us to explain what to expect today. that's coming up next. it's just a date. i can stay. i'm good.

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a 22-year-old woman identified herself as a dreamer has been arrested after speaking at a news conference held by immigration advocacy groups in mississippi. she talked about seeing her father and brother arrested by ice agents last month and then she left in a friend's car. they were pulled over by immigration officers just a short time later and vargas was taken into custody. according to her attorney vargas had received protection under

the program but it had expired. under the program children brought to the u.s. illegally by their parents are again temporary legal status. they must renew every two years. in a statement ice says her case will go before an immigration judge who could grant relief. the attorney for vargas says she does not have a criminal record. houston police have made an arrest in the shocking road incident that ended in the death of an 8-year-old girl. she was shot and killed after the car she was in was hit by another speeding vehicle. one of the drivers then got out and started shooting striking the 8-year-old girl. they've arrested a man but are not releasing his name because charges are pending. severe weather across the country. some of the most dramatic video came from tennessee. this is from cool springs and two ef-1 tornados were confirmed in the state. you can look at the devastation

nearby with heavy damage with boats crushed. let's bring in bill karins. we've had two days of severe weather. what can we expect? >> quieter weather but it's been a rough start to our severe weather season and it's been so warm through february. a couple outbreaks in february and a couple in january too. three more fatalities from this two-day outbreak and the storm system is now gone so the threat is over with, but in the wake of this storm some strong winds are still out there. the blue is the advisories, all the state of massachusetts and the hudson valley there of new york. of course we will have clear skies. there's not going to be any rain or snow with this but we will have airport delays that are significant with these cross winds like this. 35 in philadelphia right now. wind gusts not bad in d.c. hartford just had a gust up to 35. so the winds will be in that

general 20, 30, occasionally gusting to 40 to 50 and as we go throughout the afternoon, still in the 30 to 40-mile-per-hour range and we don't have leaves on the trees so we won't see a lot of trees coming down but because the soil is pretty muddy right now with all the rain and pretty loose, we will get some trees falling, so scattered to minor power outages are a po possibilities. the only area still holding on to winter is the northern portion of the country. get ready for a very cold friday, saturday. areas of the great lakes and new england a big shock to the system. we could be dealing with temperatures in the northeast in the teens in some cases and being that it's been near 70, don't put away the hat and the gloves and the winter coat yet. >> i can't keep up with the weather changes. >> someone said can we just not have all four seasons in one week, please? >> well, still ahead, we talk

about having court side seats, very sought after. it seemed like bill belichick was trying to enjoy a night off when he got quite the greeting from lebron james. sports is coming up next. let's take a trip to la plata, colombia. this is boris calvo. that's pepe. boris doesn't just grow good coffee, boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and becae we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even better coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. that's blanca. yup, pepe and blanca got together. things happen. all this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee. packed with goodness. we were in a german dance group. i wore lederhosen. so i just started poking around on ancestry. then, i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. it turns out i'm scottish. so, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt.

hey, ready foyeah. big meeting? >>uh, hello!? a meeting? it's a big one. too bad. we are double booked: diarrhea and abdominal pain. why don't you start without me? oh. yeah. if you're living with frequent, unpredictable diarrhea and abdominal pain, you may have irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea, or ibs-d. a condition that can be really frustrating. talk to your doctor about viberzi, a different way to treat ibs-d. viberzi is a prescription medication you take every day that helps proactively manage both diarrhea and abdominal pain at the same time. so you stay ahead of your symptoms. viberzi can cause new or worsening abdominal pain. do not take viberzi if you have or may have had: pancreas or severe liver problems, problems with alcohol abuse, long-lasting or severe constipation, or a blockage of your bowel or gallbladder. if you are taking viberzi, you should not take medicines that cause constipation. the most common side effects of viberzi include constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain. stay ahead of ibs-d... with viberzi.

gave us the power to turn this enemy into an ly? microsoft and its partners are using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and sequence their dna to fight disease. there are over 100 million pieces of dna in every sample. with the microsoft cloud, we can analyze the data faster than ever before. if we can detect new viruses before they spread, we may someday prevent outbreaks before they begin. welcome back. time now for sports and kevin durant will miss with a knee injury. golden state announced yesterday

that durant has a sprained mcl and a bone bruise on his left leg, however the team is optimistic that he will return to the court before the end of the regular season. the warriors have a 3.5 game lead atop the western conference and they play the regular season matchup on april 12th. >> now to some of last night's action on the court. lebron james gets acquainted with patriots head coach bill belichick sitting court side last night at the t.d. garden as the celtics hosted cleveland. he bounds into the coach after losing his footing in the fourth quarter. i guess court side seats aren't all they're cracked up to be. thomas led all scores with 31 points but 28 from lebron and another 28 from kyrie irving puts the game in the hands of newly acquired williams. >> perfect. bradley, still working on him.

forces it up and off, thompson keeps it alive. james will fire to an open williams. a three, rebound boston. >> it rims out there. williams misses that potential game winner. the celtics win it 103-99. and wizards guard john wall grabs the rebound and fires a rocket of a pass right off the face of a teammate. ouch. that one hurts. the wizards beat the raptors 105-96. wham. i don't know how you recover from that and finally in college hoops you won't believe this. a miraculous finish. north western on the inbound against michigan with just under two seconds on the clock. >> long inbound. harden with the couch to finish! >> what a pass. what an upset the wild cats beat the buzzer after a layup with

that full court pass. the win might have just punched north western a ticket to the big dance for the first time in that school's history. pretty unbelievable. >> i would have never guessed it from the reaction taking place. they didn't look too excited. >> this was my reaction at the other event. >> took it right in the face. i couldn't believe that. all right. still ahead we'll have more on the breaking news overnight concerning attorney general jeff sessions' contact with the russian ambassador, this ahead of the election. plus, a top u.s. general says a russian air strike has hit american allies in syria. a live report coming up next. the more... powerful you'll think they are. it's time to see what power really looks like. new neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair with accelerated retinol sa. clinically proven to reduce wrinkles in just one week. wrinkles? your time is up! rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots. rapid tone repair.

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welcome back, everyone. it is the bottom of the hour so we're starting out with the morning's top stories. >> residents are cleaning out after several days of severe weather. this is from tennessee. this is what's left of a roof ripped off a car dealership in north carolina and in kentucky a number of homes damaged and in some cases destroyed. at least 31 tornados over the last two days and 500 reports of wind damage including in the mid-atlantic. >> the wife of the pulse club nightclub shooter has been granted bail as she waits on charges of aiding and abetting her husband. the judge ordered she be released on $500,000 bail tomorrow, which gives the government one more day to appeal. >> and the ratings are in for

president trump's first address to congress. almost 48 million people watched the president's tuesday night speech. you'll be happy to know that he outperformed president bush's first speech to congress by 8 million viewers but president obama had 4 million more viewers of his address. as attorney jeff sessions acknowledged two meetings with the russian ambassador to the united states this last year during the presidential campaign. joining us now from washington, intelligence and national security reporter for the nbc investigative unit. once again, let's explain here the significance of this latest development. what's your reporting? >> that's right. the significance is there's this investigation into whether the trump campaign colluded with that russian effort to hack into the u.s. election. and jeff sessions during his confirmation hearing was asked by senator al franken, did trump associates -- are you aware that trump associates met with russians and he answered no and

he said he didn't meet with russians and now it emerges that he has. his explanation is he took that meeting as a senator as a member of the armed services committee, not as a trump surrogate. but democrats are not having that and they are -- some are calling for his resignation. others are saying he should recuse himself from the investigation. >> i'm curious. how many other senators in comparable positions would have these kinds of meetings with the russian ambassador to the united states? >> well, that's an interesting question. the woashington post which brok this story polled members of the armed services committee and the 19 senators said none of them other than sessions had met with the russian ambassador. sessions says he meets with other ambassadors and released a list of such meetings, so the picture is mixed there, but clearly, particularly since russia is an adversary of the u.s. and there's these allegations swirling about hacking and leaking senators were not rushing to meet with

the russian ambassador in the fall. >> one meeting was on the sidelines there at the democratic convention and one meeting was in his office. >> one was private, one was not. >> all right. thank you for that. >> let's talk a little bit more about this with chyloperi. and you just heard ken talking about these details coming out. it's not unexpected anymore in d.c. to see these things become so political. we're hearing a lot from democrats, some saying he should resign. not so much from the republicans. >> that will increase throughout the day. there's a lot of tweets. elizabeth warren calls this a farce. that's her big line here. what a farce. let's go to a democrat again as the democrats sort of slowly drum beating this talking about a potential resignation because this all comes in the wake of what happened to michael flynn. we have a tweet from eric swalwell now and he tweeted that

he boldly lied and sessions must recuse himself, because he's been tainted. now, if only we had a piece of video of sessions talking about the importance of testifying under oath -- >> i have feeling that we may have -- >> 1999 in the wake of the bill clinton scandal. >> i'm concerned about a president under oath being alleged to have committed perjury. i hope that he can rebut that and prove that did not happen. if he can show he did not commit obstruction of justice and that he can complete his term, but there are serious allegations that that occurred, and in america in supreme court and the american people believe no one is above the law. >> seems to be one of those tapes that runs until it breaks. >> it's very interesting to see how this is going to play out because as you just showed with that video the issue is always about con ssistency.

is there any wiggle room in the way he was answering the questions particularly with al franken that he did not have contact with russian officials about the elections. are they going to try to get out of it? >> we've seen that play book, look, i met with him as a senator, not as attorney general. but the problem is that al franken asked that question in such a way that it boxed him in. he said was there any contact at all. a lot of people asking did franken know something? >> he should have said i had these meetings. >> maybe we'll find out if franken knew something at 8:20 a.m. later on this morning we'll let you all know that senator al franken who questioned jeff sessions on his ties to the trump campaign and if i can correct myself obviously he met with the republican convention not the democrats in philadelphia. the obama white house spent its final hours archiving information on its investigation

into the russian campaign in the election. they preserved their findings for fear that intelligence could be covered up or destroyed by the incoming trump administration. citing more than a half dozen current and former anonymous officials it says officials asked specific questions at intelligence briefings to archive answers. processed raw intelligence as much as it could into analysis across the government and even to some european allies, this to ensure a wide leadership and that they spread some reports and other sensitive materials beyond the executive branch to congress. the report also says that the opposite happened with the most sensitive intelligence including the names of sources and the identities of foreigners who were regularly monitored alleging that officials tightened the already small number of people who could access that information. white house press secretary sean spicer responded the only new piece of information that has

come to light is political appointees in the obama administration have sought to create a false narrative to make an excuse for their own defeat in the election. speaking of russia, the head of the u.s. coalition in iraq says that a russian air strike hit u.s. syrian backed forces fighting isis in syria. lieutenant general said while they were out of immediate danger they were close enough to see their partners get hit. obviously, matt, the russians and americans not necessarily coordinating in syria, but how did this happen? well, they are coordinating on some level. they do have a hot line and that kind of averted a lot of danger and disaster that came out of a friendly fire situation. some very troubling news about these two countries inching toward each other on the battlefields of syria. lieutenant general who's the commander of the u.s. led

coalition in iraq and syria said yesterday that russian jets had attacked u.s. backed syrian forces, fighting isis in northern syria. lieutenant general said american military advisors a few miles away witnessed the attacks and reported them to the russians through a hot line meant to prevent accidental attacks. the russians stopped the strikes. town send also said they were likely a mistake but moscow still denied the american reports. >> all right. thank you very that, matt. and president trump is reportedly taking increasing control of his administration's messaging. the new york times reports the president has privately expressed frustration with the white house press office amid leaks and reports of infighting. there's a distrustful atmosphere in the press office where there is a di veed between trump loyalists. the chief executive told the

times the president has experienced a lot of angst about his negative press coverage but that he's feeling energized following tuesday's address to congress. earlier this week president trump admitted his messaging has room for improvement. >> i think in terms of effort which means something that i give myself an a plus, okay, effort, but that's -- results are more important. in terms of messaging i would give myself a c or a c plus. >> in that same interview the president said of the probe in his own press shop quote, i would have handled it differently. let's go to the issue of health care. president trump is calling on both parties to fix the affordable care act but right now he's having a hard time uniting his own party on the issue. daniel, another good morning to you. so republican senators, they held this closed door strategy session on health care yesterday. we caught up with them on the way out. let's take a watch on this.

>> the president did mention tax credits as a possibility. >> he did, but the principals he focused on are exactly the right principles. >> you're not ready to say tax credits quite yet? >> in 2015 virtually every republican in both houses of congress voted to repeal most of obamacare. i think we should start with that 2015 repeal language. >> what did you think about what the president said on obamacare last night. >> he doesn't like it. neither do i. >> are you willing to support tax credits to help people buy health insurance? >> well, i have a obamacare replacement plan that involves tax credits. >> okay. so yes? >> yeah. my position now for three years -- >> it seems like the only thing republicans agree on is the repeal, but let's talk about the divide over tax credits. what do you know on that? >> i think it's an issue of whether republicans want to embrace some tenants of democratic social policy like

tax credits or do they just want to do a strict repeal and kind of cobble together a replacement plan? i think the trump administration is probably learning lessons that the obama administration learned, you know, that were tough lessons which means unless you lay down a marker as to exactly what you want in a health care bill, you will just see months of squabbling between house and republican -- house and senate staffers and officials in congress as to what language should look like. you already saw a report yesterday that they have a replacement, you know, draft language, but it's under lock and key. only senators and congressmen from a few committees can actually see it because they don't want it leaked. >> so picking up on the word squabbling there, the president met with the senate majority leader and the house itself has already voted to repeal obamacare what, some 60 times so

looking between these two bodies of congress which leader has the biggest challenge in terms of getting all their members on the same page? >> i think it is mitch mcconnell because most of the house is very conservative because of redistricting and just the general nature of the country becoming more divided where you have blue states and red states. in the senate, you have a lot of senators from moderate states on the republican side. and they are worried that if they just pass whatever the house republicans, you know, kind of shove down their throats that's going to hurt them in midterms and down the road. and it seems like senate republicans are more cautious along with some white house aides like steve bannon and jared kushner because they know the political riss if they totally rip obamacare without an immediate replacement bill.

>> a lot more to come on this. thank you for that. still ahead, new fallout from sunday's oscars mishap. that's a story we're not going to like. >> plus, the queen of media wondering if she too has what it takes to become commander in chief. the new remarks from none other than oprah, next. ♪ ♪

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given the popularity you have, we haven't broken the glass ceiling yet for women that you could run for president and be elected. >> i -- i actually never thought that that was -- i never considered the question even a possibility. i just thought, oh. oh. >> because it's clear that you

don't need government experience to be elected president of the united states. >> that's what i thought? i thought i don't have the experience, i don't know enough and now i'm thinking oh. >> all right. >> oprah apparently rethinking if she has what it takes to be president which you know, she might. >> anything is possible. let's bring in bill karins. where do things stand with the outbreak of severe weather. >> we're about done with the damage. we may get some high winds but as far as the tornados, our wind damage from thunderstorms, that's ended. yesterday we woke up in the morning to kentucky and tennessee with the worst of it and it swept to the mid-atlantic coastal areas and a lot of wind damage yesterday. this was actually some of the tornados from kentucky and this is as we go into the mid-atlantic region. in maryland wind gusts as high as 70 to 80 miles per hour. it didn't hurt anyone, but still that's going to have a price tag on it. so as far as today 80 million people under high wind warning

or advisories. it's going to be dry out there. the other thing we're starting to notice is how early spring is moving in because of the warm winter and we got the release of when we think the leaves will be on the trees. one week early in the south. and also every year of course on the mall with the cherry blossoms it's always a big deal. average first day the april 1st. the new prediction march 14th to 17th so a very early season for getting out there on the mall. that's only two weeks away. >> i cannot believe the cherry blossoms are two weeks away. let's turn to sunday night's oscar flub. price waterhouse cooper responsible for the best picture mixup, will never miss for the oscars again. the academy also says its relationship with the firm itself remains under review. the company says they're now providing security to protect the accountants after personal information was posted online.

>> wow. >> you knew that wasn't going to end well. >> no it's not going to end well for those guys. several major stories from the business world this morning. >> snapchat's ipo and can you say 21,000? we have another record milestone for wall street. those stories moving the markets next. what are you doing? getting your quarter back. fountains don't earn interest, david. you know i work at ally. i was being romantic. you know what i find romantic? a robust annual percentage yield that's what i find romantic. this is literally throwing your money away. i think it's over there. that way? yeah, a little further up. what year was that quarter? what year is that one? '98 that's the one. you got it! nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. ally. do it right. let's get out of that water.

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john, to me, has one quality that is really special. he will fight for his friends. when i ran for president, most

of you missed it. john was with me. the bottom line is, folks, that the people that he served with in jail will tell you the same thing in prison that i will tell you. he is loyal to his friends, he loves his country, and if he has to stand up to his party for his country, so be it. he would die for this country. i love him to death. [ applause ] >> senators john mccain and lindsay graham sharing an emotional moment last night. let's turn to business where the dow hit another all-time high reaching 21,000 for the first time ever. it seems just like yesterday we were celebrating the dow hitting 20,000. is there more of this to come? >> yeah, guess lounhow long it ? 24 days. regardless of what's drivering it, just running through some of these numbers from yesterday.

the s&p 500, nasdaq hitting record highs, small and mid sized companies also outperforming the highest volume day on record ever. financials hitting the highest level since 2007. tech sector at levels not seen since april of 2000. again, that's pretech sector bubble highs, so the u.s. two-year yield hitting the highest level in more than two years and the ten-year rising to just shy of 250. now, snap is ipoing today. this comes at a crucial time given what's going on on the markets. they're pricing the ipo above $17 per share. a market cap of $24 billion. are members going to remain loyal though? that's what the skeptics are asking. >> thanks so much. yesterday on the show we talked about the ceo of uber

apologizing for losing his cool with a driver. miguel has more on the company's latest controversy. >> there it is. >> reporter: the controversial uber ceo was in an uber when the confrontation began. >> i lost $97 because of you. >> he was in an uber black, his company's high end car service when the driver criticized the uber founder for slashing prices and the income of drivers. >> you dropped the prices -- >> on black. >> you did. >> the heated exchange ends when he leaves the car. >> you know what? some people don't like to take responsibility for their -- >> the dash cam went public and the ceo apologized. to say that i am ashamed is an extreme understatement. it's clear this video is a reflection of me. i must fundamentally change as a

leader and grow up. problems like this will certainly sink a company's leadership. he's taking responsibility. he's showing he needs to address a problem, so it isn't just blaming himself. he's saying i'm going to develop a plan. >> for uber another high profile problem. the company is investigating a sexual harassment claim made in a blog post by a former engineer. in january, some 200,000 deleted their accounts in protest after the company failed to participate in a taxi strike during the president's refugee ban. now another bump in the road for a ride sharing service under fire. nbc news, los angeles. >> they're naming that discussion. >> we'll finish it. still ahead, a look at the stories happening in the day ahead. >> and coming up, al franken had the question to jeff sessions that is going to be played over

and over for days to come. >> also house majority leader stops by as pressure mounts for sessions to recuse himself from any probes into russia's role in the election. "morni "morning joe" is just moments away. but a cadillac is no trophy. what you see is our future and it will inspire every car that follows. ♪ ♪ it's beautiful. was it a hard place to get to? (laughs) it wasn't too bad.

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so we'll bring you a story about the stories you'll be hearing about in the days ahead. >> and a president's pick for housing and urban development secretary may become official today. the senate expected to vote on ben carson's nomination. he is expected to get the simple majority needed to pass. >> that's a wrap for us on this thursday. "morning joe" starts right now. >> i want to say one thing to the american people. i want you to listen to me. i'm going to say this again. >> i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. >> i did not have communications with the russians. >> just wondering why we would line up the bytes like that.

does anyone get it? maybe? no? >> did attorney general jeff sessions commit perjury. that's the serious question this morning. the washington post is out with major revelations about undisclosed contacts that sessions had with a high ranking russian official last year. we are speaking to a man whose question may end jeff sessions career as attorney general if you can imagine. senator al franken will join us first thing on "morning joe." he asked a question. a follow-up in writing and this doesn't look good. at the same time "the new york times" went up with a piece entitled "obama officials race to preserve russian trail." in a few moments we will speak live with one of the times reporters who broke that story. good morning, everybody. it is thursday, march 2nd. it doesn't stop, does it, halpern?