president in 2020, you would not a warning from the secretary of state. rex tillerson takes a tough tone on iran saying if the country's nuclear weapons go uncheck the u.s. could face another north korea-like threat. bill o'reilly out at fox news. the white house denies leading misreports. the trump administration tries to clear up confusion. ♪ we could take back the night good morning, it's thursday, april 20th.

i'm alex witt and louis burgdorf joins us. one of the biggest names in cable news is out. the rise of fox news had as much to do with bill o'reilly as it did roger ailes but now both men are going in what's been a tumultuous 12 months for the network. we have more on why he would abdicate the throne he worked so hard to build. >> caution, you are about to enter the no spin zone. >> reporter: the no spin zone is no more. bill o'reilly, the kroefrsal face of fox news for 21 years, was fired bit network he helped put on the map. following in the footsteps of his former boss and mentor, roger ailes, who was also pushed out after an investigation of sexual harassment claims. o'reilly was at the vatican for what he says was a long-planned holiday with his family. even a handshake with pope francis didn't save him. 21st century fox issuing the

following statement. after a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and bill o'reilly have agreed that bill o'reilly will not be returning to the fox news channel. gabriel sherman has reported about fox news for the past several years. >> without question this is a near era. bill o'reilly was the fixture of the network, the public face of the network. >> reporter: the path to o'reilly's oust began two weeks ago with a "new york times" investigation revealing five women, including gusts and employees of his show, had been paid $13 million in settlements involving sexual harassment claims against him over the years. fox hired an outside law firm to investigate. reaction was swift. over 50 of the network's advertisers fled the show. fox news headquarters were picketed and leaflets like these. handed out. but the decision was complicated. >> thanks for watching.

>> his audience is incredibly loyal. during the sexual harassment scandal his ratings have gone up. >> reporter: staff were stunned to hearing of his firing as the network bosses seemed to praise him as they pushed him out the door. bill o'reilly is one of the most accomplished tv personalities in the history of cable news. in fact, his success by any measure is indisputable. >> there's a generational split at fox news. sources say the younger generations want to move fox news into a more modern era where these kind of allegations are not tolerated. >> that was cynthia mcfadden reporting there. ailes and o'reilly denied the claims. oeryly issued a statement in part saying, it's tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims. but that's the unfortunate reality many of us in the public

eye must live with today. now to the latest on where an aircraft carrier was really going. the trump administration denies that it spoke too quickly when it claimed more than a week ago that the "uss carl vinson" was headed toward the korean peninsula when it was actually going in the opposite direction. last tuesday sean spicer said the strike group was, quote, steaming into the area as a show of deterrence while secretary mattis said it was prudent to have the ship in the region, quote, at this time. here's what they said yesterday. >> the statement that was put out was that the carl vinson group was headed to the korean peninsula and is headed to the korean peninsula and there arrive -- it's headed there now. it -- >> but that's not what we ever said. we said it was headed there and it was heading there. >> we're doing -- we said we were going to change the vinson's upcoming schedule. the vinson as i said on the record was operating up and

count western pacific and we were doing exactly what we said. that is, we are shifting her instead of continuing in one direction as she pulled out of singapore, she's going to continue part of her cruise down in that region, but she was on her way up to korea. we don't generally give out ship schedules in advance, but i didn't want to play a game either and say we were not changing a schedule when, in fact, we had. >> "the new york times" reports that south koreans, quote, feel cheated after u.s. carrier miscue."the wall street journal with the headline, duped by trump. one candidate for south korean president, a member of the ruling party told the journal if the warship clachls a lie then, quote, during trump's term south korea will not trust whatever trump said. "the new york times" reports trump campaign advisers' trip to

moscow is what kicked off the investigation into as between the kremlin and the campaign. investigators had known since 2013 a russian spy was trying to recruit carter page but it was a kremlin speech at the height of the campaign that caught their attention, said the paper. reuters reports that in june of 2016, amos cow-based think tank controlled by vladimir putin produced a framework for swinging the presidential election to donald trump. the report cites seven none mouse and current officials pointing to the russian institute for strategic studies reportedly run by retired senior russian officials from putin's office. according to reuters, a june strategy paper recommended the kremlin launch a propaganda campaign on social media on state-backed news outlets to encourage u.s. voters to elect a president who would take a softer line toward russia than the obama administration. then in october, a second

institute document warned hillary clinton was likely to win and argued it was better to end pro-trump propaganda to instead intensify its messaging about voter fraud to undermine the election system's legitimacy and reputation. the document circulated at the top of the russian government though they make no mention of hacked e-mails which officials say was a separate covert operation. putin has denied interfering in the u.s. election. the u.s. military revealed for the second time in as many days two russian bombers flew close to the coast of alaska. the long-range bombers identified by norad were 36 miles off the coast in the area known as alaska identification zone. they stayed in international air space. unlike monday's encounter, no u.s. aircraft were launcheded to meet them. exxonmobil applied to the treasury department for a waiver from u.s. sanctions on russia. it would allow the company to

resume an oil venture begun by former ceo and now secretary of state rex tillerson back in 2012. senator john mccain responded on twitter by asking, are they crazy? >> secretary of state is reviewing comprehensive review on iran. rex tillerson made that announcement yesterday. he admitted the country is in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal struck with the obama administration, but also said iran is still a threat to the u.s. and the rest of the world. and declaring the nuclear deal a failure. >> an unchecked iran has the potential to travel the same path as north korea. and take the world along with it. the united states is keen to avoid a second piece of evidence that strategic patience is a failed approach. this deal represents the same failed approach of the past that brought us to the current imminent threat we face from

north korea. the trump administration has no intention of passing the buck to a future administration on iran. the evidence is clear, iran's provocative actions threaten united states, the region and the world. >> earlier this week tillerson notified congress that despite iran meeting the terms of this nuclear deal, president trump is weighing weather to break that agreement. during his briefing he added iran remains a leading state sponsor of terrorism supporting fighters in syria, iraq, lebanon, yemen and israel. foreign correspondent keir simmons has more on secretary tillerson's comments. keir, good morning to you. >> good morning. secretary of state tillerson arguing iran continues to provoke around the world and saying that that country projects the possibility of following the same path as north korea. it raises questions about the iran/u.s. deal over nuclear

weapons. at the same time, in iran, those tough words from the secretary of state will be seen as fighting talk. it will strengthen the hand of the extremists in iran and weaken the moderates, including president rouhani there, who was elected on the basis that he would bring about change in iran. now, the question is, how will iran react? so far, no comment from that country to the secretary of state's words. they will just be waking up now. but you can expect that they will have some tough response. richard? >> keir, thanks for that. one of the biggest names in chicago won't be joining the trump administration. part owner of the cubs, todd ricket ricketts, is withdrawing his name as deputy commerce secretary after four months spent trying to work through his nomination. at issue, complications from trying to divest his complex financial portfolio. "the wall street journal"

reports ricketts made it through vetting and then submitted an ethics questionnaire to the senate committee. the paper sourced a person familiar with the conversations who said, quote, mr. ricketts had been prepared to divest his own financial portfolio but told by the government of ethics his entire family would have to divest. ricketts' father founded td america trade sxfs a top trump donor. department of homeland security reverses the status of a young man deported to mexico. white house press secretary sean spicer offered a helping hand from an unlikely source. we have that and a check on weather when we come back.

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welcome back. the department of homeland

security acknowledges a young man deported by trump administration had valid u.s. status. 23-year-old juan cortez was the first d.r.e.a.m.er to be deported. his protective status had expired in 2015. yesterday they reversed saying his status was valid until 2018. in an interview at fox news, attorney general jeff sessions defended the administration's deportation policies but a lawyer for montez fought back. >> daca is not being targeted. i don't know why this individual was picked up. everybody in the country illegally is subject to being deported. people come here and stay here a few years. somehow they think they're not subject to being deported. well, they are. >> it is confusing and we need answers. that's the attorney general, the top lawyer for the country giving contradictory remarks.

similarly the president has said he has love in his heart for daca recipients but those statements are a cold comfort to manuel and his mom who are now separated. >> that situation is evolving right now. there's a lot of things that are being looked at in terms of the circumstances around that and i would ask you to stay in contact with the department of homeland security. i don't to want comment right now in the sense there are some circumstances regarding that i think that need to come out or be further looked into. i think getting ahead of that could be an issue. >> montez is suing u.s. customs and border protection for information about this case. according to "usa today," u.s. district judge curiel will overlook at this case, who oversaw an earlier case news let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. i guess severe weather in the

great lakes region but warm south. >> warmth is fueling those storms. we had them yesterday. i really thought we were going to get some huge hail stones yesterday in areas of iowa. we got a lot of rain and wind and smaller hail. about two-inch hail was the biggest in diameter that was reported and that was mostly in the late afternoon into the early evening hours. here are some pictures of some of those storms as they rolled through the region yesterday. you can see a little hail mixed in there. some of that was marble sized there. there were three tornadoes reported. we had minor damages on a couple farms but that was about it. again, we avoided any destruction yesterday. that's good. we have to do it again today. same storm. yesterday iowa, kansas. today heading into the great lakes. there's also showery weather out there if you're leaving soon in areas of southern new england, long island, new york city, grab the umbrella. also philadelphia and even d.c., these showers will roll through as we go through the next two hours and then we'll get a good break through the rest of the day. here's the heavy stuff, green bay was woke up in the middle of the night with pretty good thunderstorms.

they roll across lake michigan. now through all of the northern half of michigan. even detroit will see a brief storm or two earlier today and then more this afternoon. areas of kansas city have seen storms to your south. for today our severe weather threat is really the bull's eye in the ohio valley and then this little spot, oklahoma and north of texas. north texas/oklahoma, this will be large hail late tonight. the area of greatest concern is up around ft. wayne, toledo, detroit, cleveland and down into indianapolis. this is where we could see wind damage with the storms, large hail and maybe even a tornado or to. it's one of those high alert days if you live in any of these regions. then these storms will head towards buff sxloe pittsburgh later. here's how the big map looks. louis mentioned the warmth. 82 today, d.c. then storms possibly late today. 84 in atlanta. 85 in dallas. where we're cooler is behind this storm system in the northern plains. what will happen is this storm will stall, the tail end near oklahoma.

we have a flood threat here. oklahoma, areas of arkansas and missouri. a lot of active weather over the next couple of days. if we get any flooding it would missouri, ozarks. i don't think we're talking tornado outbreak, nothing like that but it's the spring season. we haven't had a lot of flooding. we're segment up the next couple of days a little bit. >> it's keeping you busy, that's for sure. still ahead, russell westbrook makes history again. the patriots celebrate their super bowl win at the white house. sports is next. t back. it's looking up, not down. it's being in motion. in body, in spirit, in the now. boost® high protein it's intelligent nutrition with 15 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for when you need a little extra. boost® the number one high protein complete nutritional drink.

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...sleep with a cold, medicine. welcome back. time now for sports and the nba playoffs. let's start in the western conference where in oak labd the warriors did not need kevin durant who sat out with a strained calf to take down the blazers in game two. an efficient night for golden state. steph curry led the way with 19 points. klay thompson added 16 while mcgee scored 16 off the bench. the warriors with with a 2-0 series lead after the victory there. houston, the thunder's russell westbrook making history again last night notching 51 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds in the highest scoring triple-double in nba postseason history. that's incredible. it was the sixth career playoff triple-double for westbrook. westbrook's 51 isn't enough to top the rockets who return from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter to beat okc

115-111 and take a two game series lead. unbelievable. in the nation's capital the hawks are also winless in their eastern conference series against the wizards after game two. washington's bradley beal and john wall take over at the end of the fourth quart other a way to 109-101 victory. stanley cup hockey with many teams on the brink of elimination a west coast squad is already moving onto the second round perform calgary, the ducks put out flames wrapping up a four-game series shutout with 3-1 win last night. anaheim will face either the oilers or sharks in their conference semifinal. st. louis the wild lived to play another game against the blues defeating st. louis 2-0 in game four last night. minnesota trails in the series three games to one. to the eastern conference quarterfinals in boston where the bruins failed to tie up their series against the senators. now on the brink after a 1-0 shutout in game four, ottawa will get a chance to put boston to bed at their home arena

tomorrow night. in attorney tote capitals scored four goals in the first period, netting one month in the third to defeat the maple leafs 5-4. the series is now split at two games apiece. the customary white house visit for sports dhamp ons has been a hot button issue under the trump administration. the first major sports team visited the capitol yesterday as the president hosted the super bowl champion new england patriots. >> the fourth down conversion by danny amendola. where's danny? way to go, danny. >> only amendola with around two other dozen patriots were absent from the ceremony. amendola in a tweet thanked president trump for the shout outout. the 34 that did show up for this less than nearly 50 who attended in the 2015 -- back in 2015

while president obama was still in office. however, a patriots spokesperson said attendance numbers this year were similar to those who president george w. bush hosted the team back in 2004 and 2005. as far as this widely circulated comparison tweeted out by "the new york times," a spokesperson said the 2017 photo does not include the administrative staff while the 2015 photo did. "the boston globe" received this photo from the patriots showing everyone from the organization who was at the white house ceremony yesterday. one more part of this for you here. white house press secretary sean spicer had a special visitor at his briefing yesterday. take a look at this. >> can i just -- >> need some help? >> i think i got this, but thanks. >> i like you. >> all right, thanks, man. i'll see you in a minute. >> gronk waiting in the wings there. new england tight end rob gronkowski crashing the press

briefing, offering spicer a hand but says that's cool. >> that is cool. >> maybe blocking for him. >> we should let him take over. >> yeah, why not. >> thanks, lewis. a high profile republican makes an unexpected announcement about his future in politics. president trump's approval rating. we have the numbers next. (vo) more "doing chores for mom" per roll bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50% longer than

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welcome back, everyone, alex witt, louis burgdorf is in

studio. we'll start you off with the morning's top stories. the family of odin lloyd, the man nfl star aaron hernandez was convicted of murdering in 2015 says they are moving forward with a wrongful death lawsuit. the statement followed yesterday's news that the former patriot star hanged himself inside his jail cell. hernandez was just acquitted friday in a separate double murder case from 2012. the families of those two victims say they plan to move forward with civil suits. vice president pence is in indonesia, home to the largest muslim population in the world. this is video of the vice president moments ago touring the mosque in the capital city of jakarta. the vice president met with indonesia's president last night, where he praised him for his country's democracy and caused indonesia's modern muslim a inspiration to the world. senate commerce committee with answers about that infamous dragging incident this month. they want to know the company's policies for removing passengers from oversold flights and

whether they were followed in that april 9th incident here. united also says it will testify at an upcoming house hearing on airline consumer issues. the trump administration is offering tough talk over the u.s.'s relations with iran. secretary of state rex tillerson announced yesterday a comprehensive review of 2015 obama-era nuclear deal with iran saying the country is still a global threat. nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell has more. good morning to you. >> good morning, alex. candidate donald trump denounced the iran nuclear deal, said he would rip it up as soon as he was elected and now is saying that they are taking a review of the entire relationship with iran, not just the nuclear deal, but everything else that involves the u.s. and iran. >> reporter: secretary of state rex tillerson denouncing the obama administration's landmark nuclear deal and declaring that iran is a threat to the u.s. and the world. >> an unchecked iran has the potential to travel the same

path as north korea. and take the world along with it. >> reporter: the nuclear deal a long-time target of president trump. >> the iran deal made by the previous administration is one of the worst deals i have ever witnessed. and i've witnessed some beauties. >> reporter: one day after acknowledging that iran is complying with a nuclear agreement and iran showed off its military might. tillerson accused iran of sponsoring terrorism in syria, iraq, lebanon and against israel. testing and developing missiles in defiance of the u.n. and arresting u.s. citizens. the obama white house sanctioned iran for those abuses but with five other world powers decided the nuclear deal was still worth doing. >> to tear up the iran deal, in my view, would mean we would be giving iran a license to go and get a nuclear weapon. >> reporter: tillerson rejected that. >> if you break out of that deal, won't that send a signal

to north korea that u.s. can't be trusted to keep its end of the bargain? >> we buy them off for a short period of time and then someone else has to deal with it later. we just don't see that's a prudent way to be dealing with iran. >> reporter: but contradicts are warning the trump administration's harder line against iran coming only a month before the presidential election there could lead to an even more radical regime being elected. ail next. >> andrea mitchell, thank you. in a surprise announcement republican congressman jason chaffetz saying he will not be running for re-election next year. in a statement on facebook, chaffetz says he's ready to return to the private sector calling the decision a personal one. chaffetz led investigations into former secretary of state hillary clinton over the 2012 benghazi attacks and her use of a private e-mail server. he's also been critical of the trump administration and said this about his decision. >> the chairman of the house

oversight committee is a very powerful position. you've taken president trump to task a bit. does that have any bearing on your decision? >> no, no. look, the contention that is -- the tension that is between the executive branch, the legislative branch, i thrive on that. i like it. you know, we're very contentious with the obama administration. we have been with the trump administration. but, you know, stepping back and saying, hey, there's more to life than being a member of congress, i'm doing what i said i was going to do. serve and then get out. >> so, what about your future. is politics over? >> well, i'm just saying i'm not going to be a candidate for the senate seat that's up in 2018 nor am i going to run for the house again. i may very welcome back into politics at some point. i'm not going to close the door on that. >> then in a separate interview chaffetz left the door open for a run for governor. paul ryan wished him the best on

twitter. on msnbc last night, chaffetz recalled telling the speaker about his decision to not seek another term. >> have you spoken to speaker ryan about it? >> i did. i called him last flight. he said, boy, i didn't see that coming. and then he said, please, don't do that yet. i said, well, i didn't call to ask permission pin just called to inform you that julie and i had made that decision. >> meanwhile, interest in the georgia special election is not subsiding as the parties prepare for an even more intense runoff this summer after coming up short of winning outright, jon ossoff raised $500,000 just on wednesday for his two-month race. facing karen handle in the june runoff and one of her senior advisers predicted it's probably going to be the most expensive house seat in u.s. history by the time it's over. and handle says she hopes president trump will campaign for her in person. democrats in montana are hoping

to bring national energy to next month's special election to fill the at-large house vacated with ryan zinke saying national folks should be coming in here. it's a winnable race. the margins suggest a race with 4-point swings to democrats in the kansas and georgia races the republican won by 15 points in montana last november. and now for some numbers for you. president trump's job approval rating is slightly up from two weeks ago. quinnipiac university finding 40% approve, 56% approve. six-point swing there in the positive directions for president trump. by a margin of two to one, they believe his air strike against syria was right. his handling of north korea, 45% approve. on personality qualities, 58% say he's intelligent.

42% say he cares for average americans. 40% say he has good leadership skills. 37% say he's honest. 35% say he shares their values and 33% say he's level-headed. here's sean spicer giving his appraisal of the first 100 days. >> can you say what the single piece of legislation that you are proudest that you got through congress that was on the president's agenda? >> i think what you've seen out of this white house is a very robust agenda of activity. there's a lot of executive orders that i think the president's been pleased with, not only with what they've done or what they will do or what they've done. i think when you look at immigration in particular, we see a fairly significant drop at the border. i think on jobs, there's been a lot of activity we've been very proud to see american manufacturing and job creation. there's a lot of things that i think the president's done on veterans, on immigration, on regulatory reform. we're now at a dozen congressional review act pieces

of legislation that have been signed that have had, i think, a very positive impact and will have a very positive impact on job creation. obviously, when you look at the confirmation of neil gorsuch to the supreme court, it's another. there's a lot. >> under the darkening cloud of scandal, one of the biggest names in cable news is out. the rise of fox news has had as much to do with bill o'reilly as it did roger ailes but now both men are gone amid sexual harassment claims. "the wall street journal" owned by fox's parent company reported o'reilly was on the way out tuesday night as advertisers fled and then yesterday made it official. announcing, after a careful and thorough review of the allegations, the company and bill o'reilly agreed o'reilly will not return to the fox news channel. after he and 21st century fox settled multiple sexual

harassment claims to the tune of $13 million. o'reilly spent wednesday at the vatican, even meeting the pope. in a statement he was defiant saying it's tremendously disheartening we part on completely unfounded claims. ly always look back on my time at fox with great pride and the success we achieved and with my deepest gratitude to all my dedicated viewers. i wish only the best for fox news channel. roger ailes has denied clamentz against him as well. it's just the latest shakeup. tucker carlson brought in to replace megyn kelly replaces bill o'reilly for now. exxonmobil looks to resume its drilling with rosneft. it was unveiled under then-ceo rex tillerson but blocked two years later when the obama administration hit russia with those sanctions for an exing crimea. now exxon is asking the trump administration for a waiver.

cnbc's v joins us. you have john mccain weighing in on twitter saying, are they crazy, referring to exxonmobil. >>, yeah i think, tricky is an understatement. a lot of critics going after them on this particular topic. remember, when those sanctions came into effect in 2014, the joint venture between rosneft and exxon was allowed to continue as a legal entity. they're now seeking to drill in black sea, part of that $500 billion deal you just mentioned. what they're hoping is they'll get thesis waivers. they've had several smaller waivers for what's known as limited legal activity to deal with corporate structures under the obama administration. a lot of people asking whether under a trump administration with rex tillerson now as secretary of state they'll be given a bit more legal leeway by the u.s. another american company in the news is general motors. they have accused authorities in venezuela of seizing their plant there in the industrial city of valencia, around 28 00 employees

there. they say now a threat. the authorities in venezuela have gone after american companies a lot as their economy has worsened. ford had a $800 million down there. >> thank you so much. while on the topic of venezuela, the unrest continues there. at least two people have been shot dead during a massive anti-government protest including a national guard member. tens of thousands of demonstrators clashed with security forces during the so-called mother of all marches in caracas and 11 other cities protesting leftist president. still ahead for you, tracking more severe weather this morning across the country. over 24 million of you at risk of thunderstorms today. that bring tornados and hail. bill karins up next. when beyonce announced she was pregnant with twins, she canceled her planned performance

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you used the whitestrips i passed the tissue test. oh yeah. would you pass the tissue test? see for yourself with crest whitestrips. they are the way to whiten. let's get straight into it. the big news everyone's talking about. serena williams is expecting a little baby, yo! ya! congratulations, serena. i must admit i was a little disappointed to find out she was pregnant when she won the australian open which is not cool because technically that's a doubles match. cheating. >> that's right, serena williams confirmed she's 21 weeks pregnant by posting a baby bump photo to snapchat. she won her most recent granl grand slam title in australia open. in december williams announced her engagement to alexis.

let's get a quick check of weather with bill karins. >> more storms, severe weather yesterday. first off, we're seeing showers ending here this morning in long island, new york city area. we're around d.c. and philly but this baf of rain may clip throughout region. now it's heading into northwestern portions of maryland. the worst weather in the whole country is in northern michigan. thunderstorms are rolling through with a lot of heavy rain. that looks like it may just barely clip toledo and detroit. later today we're under enhance the risk of severe storms. the worse will be this afternoon ahead of this cold front, 25 million people at risk. indianapolis, ft. wayne, toledo, detroit, columbus, those are the areas in the greatest risk. wind damage in buffalo, western new york later on tonight. here's the timing of it. the storms fire up 4:00 to 7:00,

8:00 p.m. near detroit, toledo, backing through indianapolis, heading towards louisville and cincinnati area. typical late afternoon/early evening thunderstorms and they'll die off through this evening. the rain will go through tonight into friday in the northeast. if you'll have air travel problems, it will most likely be in the airports around d.c. and philly as we go through the afternoon with showers and storms out there. there is good weather to be had. dallas is beautiful at 85. 84 is fantastic. >> good to hear those good numbers. thanks. still ahead, conservative calm. ann coulter is the latest figure on college campuses. new information on the controversial referendum in turkey. it's fueling accusations of voter fraud on a power grab from its president. back in just a bit. hey, i've got the trend analysis. hey. hi. hi. you guys going to the company picnic this weekend? picnics are delightful. oh, wish we could.

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. welcome back. a new series of video clips circulating on social media are helping fuel accusations of voter fraud in turkey. the clips which have not been verified purportedly show ballot stuffing and other polling station violations. turkey's main opposition party has asked for election officials to annul the referendum. yesterday the country's election board rejected the call. demonstrations continued last night. about 2,000 protesters gathered

yelling thief and murderer. a comprehensive review of baem era policy when it came to iran. tillerson yesterday said iran is still a threat to the u.s. and the rest of the world and calling the 2015 nuclear deal a failure. let's turn to ali arouzi for more on those comments. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, alex. iran has so far made no public comments on the latest developments. when america talks tough to iran, it doesn't go down well here. secretary tillerson had strong words. any talk of sanctions or renegotiating especially so close to elections on may 19 is going to infuriate the ruling establishment, especially hardliners who oppose the deal in the first place. none of this bodes well for president rouhani who is seeking a second term in office.

he's invested all his political capital in the nuclear deal. if it's in trouble, he's in trouble. if an ultra conservative hard liner replaces him, it will be almost impossible for the west to negotiate with iran again. the man who holds all the cards is ayatollah khomeini, the supreme leader. he has continued to criticize the lack of benefits it's brought and endures with the message that america wants to only harm iran and can never be trusted. he's warned of consequences if the u.s. violates terms of the deal. he'd rather america pull out of the deal. iran doesn't want to be blamed for the deal coming apart. that's why they're adhering to it for now. if america keeps pressurizing iran, does ayatollah khomeini pull out of the deal, fire up the nuclear program again or try a different strategy of creating

a wedge between the uk, russia, france, china and germany who also negotiated the deal and wanted it to stay in place. the reality of the situation is it will be almost impossible to revoegt this deal but much easier to kill it. >> it is complicated. ali arouzi, thanks for that. the u.s. supreme court taking up the separation of church and state. can states refuse to give money for churches even if it's something that does not involve worship. details from nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: when trinity lutheran church heard about a program to resurface programs using rubber from old tires, it applied for a grant. the constitution says no state money can be given in aid of any church. >> made us feel like the safety of the kids playing on our playground didn't matter as much as the kids playing on other

playgrounds. >> reporter: the just sued saying the state discriminated against religion. >> the church was seeking equal treatment here. >> reporter: 38 other states have laws like missouri. they choose not to subsidize them. >> if trinity lutheran wins this case, it will be a radical change from the way we've always treated religious institutions in this country. a majority on the court seemed to side with the church including newest justice neil gorsuch. stephen breyer asked how refusing to give the grant money ask any different from declining to give churches police and fire protection or including students in community wsh died vaccination programs. ruth bader ginsburg sided with the state saying the

constitution's framers didn't want the money used to maintain church buildings or property. the state will no longer automatically turn down requests for money from churches. even so, the supreme court appears headed for a decision reducing the wall between church and state. >> after recent violent protests on and around their campus, the university of california berkeley has canceled an upcoming speech by conservative author ann coulter because of safety concerns. in a letter to the republican group that invited her, university officials said they were, quote, unable to find a safe and suitable venue for the april 27th speech and said it was not able to ensure the event could be held responsibly. ann coulter saying, they can't stop me. i'm an american. i have constitutional rights. violence flared back in february on the campus when milo man nop

laos was scheduled to speech. the cancellation of his appearance caused president trump tweeted, if uc berkeley shows violence on people with a different point of view, no federal funds? >> we'll have obama senior adviser valerie jarrett, her first interview since leaving the white house. >> plus "the washington post" bob costa, bob holland and kristen welker, "morning joe" live from d.c. is just moments away. oman] oh, why thank you. [burke] and we covered it, november sixth, two-thousand-nine. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two.

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before we toss it over to "morning joe," let's get a check on the stories you'll be hearing about. >> president trump welcomes another foreign lead tore the white house. that's where we find nbc's hallie jackson. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. this morning president trump keeps up his foreign policy focus this week. he's got a meeting with the italian prime minister at the white house, another foreign leader visit. then the two of them will hold a news conference. for president trump it will be a chance for reporters to potentially ask some questions about his foreign policy

decisions, on north korea, for example and on the iranian nuclear deal with his secretary of state taking a much tougher tone on that late yesterday. back to you. >> thanks to hallie jackson for that report. >> that's a wrap for us. i'm alex witt alongside richard lui and louis burgdorf. the obama administration failed to respond adequately to tehran's mall line actions. as of too day we are officially putting iran on notice. thank you. >> iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and is responsible for intensifying multiple conflicts and undermining u.s. interests in countries such as syria, yemen, iraq and lebanon and continuing to support attacks against israel. they continue to support the brut