this morning we're following new reports about oblgbob muells we learn more about who the special counsel has already met with. plus authorities are searching for a motive after a 15-year-old on opened fire on his classmates inside a kentucky high school. authorities say two students were killed. and the fight over immigration reform ramps up on capitol hill as the white house says it will not accept a compromise put together by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. good morning, it is

wednesday, january 24. it was a day of revelations in the russia probe and suggestions that bob mueller is closely examining jim comey's allegations of obstruction of justice. the "washington post" reporting mueller is seeking to question president trump in coming weeks about the firing of comey and former national security adviser michael flynn. comey was interviewed by the special counsel late last year, a source close to him tells nbc news focusing on memos comey drafted after private meetings with the president. comey testified that trump asked him for loyalty and to let go of the fbi's investigation into 234ri flynn's contact with russians. the president has denied asking for allegiance and tweeted last month that he never asked comey to stop investigating flynn. "times" reported that jeff sessions was questioned by the special counsel's office last week. a person familiar with

discussions told the times oig th appeared to be asking about comey and flynn. take a listen to this. >> i'm not at all concerned. >> did you talk to him? >> no, i didn't. but not at all concerned. and coming up a "morning joe," new reporting from carol lee with even more on what is it happening behind the scenes in the russia probe. new development late last night about andrew mccabe, president trump alleges that he was influenced by his wife's donations. "washington post" reporting that while mccabe served as acting fbi director, president trump summoned him to the oval office and asked who he voted for in the 2016 election. mccabe who is considered to

replace comey said he did not vote according to several anonymous current and former u.s. officials sourced in the report. mccabe who has spent more than two decades at the fbi found the conversation with trump, quote, disturbing and said one former u.s. official -- that was said by one former u.s. official. and one person said it is of interest to bob mueller. both the white house and fbi did decline to comment and we will have more on this on "morning joe." and the white house is pushing back on two reports that pressure to fire mccabe led christopher wray to threaten to resign. here is how president trump and sarah huckabee sanders responded yesterday. >> he didn't at all. >> he did not threaten? >> not even a little bit, nope. he will do a good job. >> do you think there needs to be a staff update at the fbi? >> we have 100% confidence in

director wray and if anybody will make that decision, it will be the director. we'll leave that in his hands to decide whether he feels there need to be changes made. >> and nbc news has learned that dana boente will take over as general counsel. he is stepping down as the u.s. attorney in the eastern district of virginia, briefly served as acting attorney general after sally yates was fired. boente replaces james baker who was reassigned late last year. the fbi also confirmed that wray's chief of staff a holdover from comey's tenure is also leaving. in the shutdown blame game, americans are split between president trump and congressional republicans. correspond to the newest survey monkey poll, 39% said democrats in congress are to blame for the three day shutdown. 38% said drum is responsible but

only 18% blame congressional republicans. but despite the shutdown politics, american eye support for daca remains high. two-thirds say they support the program that allows d.r.e.a.m.ers to remain in this country. up 4 points since december. 31% oppose the program, a 12 point increase from last month. and 92 respect abo% of democrat independents support doaca. also chuck schumer said he is taking funding for the wall off the table. >> i sat down with president trump on friday and offered him quite a bit. he made an offer for a wall. i said if with we do full d.r.e.a.m.ers, we'll give you the deal and he basically agreed. so we were close. then he pulled out and backed off. so now i've taken the wall off the table because they backed out of he shut the government

down. >> schumer said he offered trump 25 build for the wall and border security in exchange for a deal on daca, but deputy pretty secretary said that the offer never existed. trump tweeted crying chuck schumer fully understands especially after his humiliating defeat this if theat if there i, there is no daca. we must have safety and security together requewith a strong mmi. mitch mcconnell promised to kee where the president trump stands on the subject. >> what do you say to the d.r.e.a.m.ers who are worried that you won't keep your word and bring the bill to the floor? >> i sbrend intend to keep my word. the president has been in discussions with a number of people about his approach to

this issue. and we'll see whether later they decide to making an announcement on that subject. wouldn't be up to me to make that announcement, but up to them. >> so president trump tweeted once again nobody knows for sure that the republicans and democrats will be able to reach a deal on daca by february 8, but everyone will be trying, with a big additional focus put on military strength and border security. the dems have just learned that a shutdown is not the answer. at the same time the white house is drawing a firm line against the immigration proposal struck by senators lindsey graham and dick durbin. >> i'd like to leave no doubt where the white house stands on the flake/glam oraham and durbi agreement. it would not secure or border, increase chain migration and retain the visa lottery system. so it is totally unacceptable to the president and should be declared dead on arrival. and vice president mike

pence sparked some controversy when he appeared to play politics overseas in the middle east. first with andrea mitchell and later during his speech to troops before departing from jerusalem, andrea once again caught up with the vladimir putin vice president about that. you in front of israel areally television slammed senator schumer by name for the shutdown. was that appropriate? >> well, the reality is that this was an unnecessary government shutdown and the american people know it. it was important for us to set the record straight. the schumer shutdown failed and the american people know it and i thought it was the right time for me to make -- >> you don't think you were being too political when on a military base overseas you told the troops that it was the democratic minority responsible for the shutdown? >> they were people who were facing a question of whether

they were going to be paid, whether they and their families were going to debt tget the ben they earned. and i wanted them to know that we were fighting for them. >> and tammy duckworth and claire mccaskill both tried to introduce legislation that would have guaranteed military pay and benefits during the shutdown. gop leadership objected. >> and we know senator duckworth know what is it feels like to be on a battle field. joining us now, steve nelson. good to talk to you. so we heard from the white house they won't accept the immigration plan from durbin and lindsey graham. and then chuck schumer saying the offer to fund trump's border wall is now off the table. do you think this will make reaching a deal on immigration a little harder? >> well, these statements it seems fair to read as resetting the starting point for debate. of course chuck schumer and his telling offer to pay the price

for president trump's border wall, bruh whether thut whether permanent li off tly off the ta doubtful because of the trio redistricting measures that president trump bike look to w see, the wall seems the least threatening to democrats. the other ones would have long term permanent effects on immigration. >> it seemed at one point that people had gone on the same page over all this. but we're hearing from president trump in his tweet last night saying if there is no wall, there will be no deal on daca. could we actually see congress move forward without the president? >> certainly we could. senate democrats have complained in a it has been difficult to negotiate with president trump, it is difficult to know exactly what he wants. in addition to requesting money for a border wall, president

trump has been very vocal about wanting new restrictions on chain my glags aigration and al to the visa lottery program. those are tougher sells for democrats. but what the senate actually sends to president trump remains to be seen. it is certainly possible that they could just send something to him without his approval. mitch mcconnell of course says that he will bring up the immigration matter really regardless. he has agreed to do that as part of ending the shutdown. >> let's hope he sticks to it. want to switch gears. republicans on the house judiciary committee have indicate there had are plans to recall jim comey to testify about his handling of the 2016 investigation into hillary clinton. are we going to see comey return to the hill? >> we certainly could see him return. and the reason that republicans would like him to is because

they smell really blood in the water with the text messages that are being released that were sent between senior fbi official peter struck and his mistress in which they disparage mr. trump and make various cryptic remarks. struck was also influential into the investigation into hillary clinton and reportedly played a role writing language that exxon rated her. so it certainly is possible that comey could be summoned backexx. so it certainly is possible that comey could be summoned back certainly something that republicans would like. >> steve, we'll talk to you again at the bottom of the hour about that. a troubling story out of kentucky, two students are dead and 18 others wounded after a 15-year-old opened fire on his classmates inside a high school in southwest kentucky yesterday. as of last night, at least three victims were listed in critical condition.

the shots began to ring out at marshall country high school just before 8:00 a.m. local time when the shooter entered the school's common area. the suspect was taken into custody almost immediately by the first officer on the scene. >> i just see like fire coming from a gun and i turned back around and i just run through the doors and run outside into the weight room. it was just like scary and just -- just scary. >> authorities have not publicly identified the suspect, but they say he will be charged with two counts of murder and several counts of attempted murder. so far no motive has been given for the shooting. all right. federal prosecutors will recommend that the man who attacked senator rand paul should be sentenced to 21 months in prison. it's a bizarre case stemming from a year's long feud reportedly over landscaping

practices. rene bouche, paul's neighbor, admitted to attacking paul last november what you he, quote, had enough. and bouche's attorney adds it was a point of frustration that boiled over. paul suffered several broken ribs during the attack. prosecutors also note that the attack was not preliminarily motivated. still ahead, the white house and republican allies continue to allege bias at the fbi. concerns are being raised over what some have called a secret society within the agency. and later the senate confirms jerome powell as new fed chair those stories and of course your weather when we come back. [ click, keyboard clacking ]

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you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. the nominations for the academy awards were announced yesterday and many of this year's nominees broke the mold. the shape of water walked away with 13 nominations, just one shy of the record for the most

in history. and breaking her own record for nominations for best actress was meryl streep. and for the first time in its 90 year history, a woman was nominated for best sin nain sin. >> i really have to see some movies. congratulations are in order, illinois senator tammy duckworth has announced that she is secretaexpecting her second . only ten members of congress have given birth while in office, but she will be the first to have while serving. the iraq war veteran says that she and her husband had long struggled with infertility and has been vocal about the use of ivf. the senator's first daughter was born while is he served in 2014.

her second child another girl is due in april a few weeks after her 50th birthday. and a check of your weather now with bill karins. rain and snow on the west coast. >> yeah, that will move across the country. of course yesterday at this time we were hearing the details about the earthquake in alaska. and there wasn't really much destruction and there was only a 3 foot tsunami wave that entered near compakodiak. so thankfully it turned out well. we also yesterday had some freezing rain that developed late in the morning, continued throughout the day. massachusetts, new hampshire, areas of maine and maybe you saw this, this bus was going up the hill and it did have kids on it, and it didn't stop until it hit that car right there. how scary was that for those kids and that bus driver.

again, things have gradually improved, but it won't be until this even a that we start to melt a lot of that significant ice. so storm on the west coast, this is very typical. rain lower elevations, snow at the higher elevations. up to this point, the percentage of snow, 14% to 20%. we need the snow and we'll get it. about 12 to 24 inches locally up to 3 feet. and we'll get significant snow in the cascades, too. it will be kind of windy out there. you may need chains through the mountain passes. that is about really the only story on the maps. otherwise it is looking like a nice day out there. and there is the snowfall forecast, the 6 to 12 inches and you can see the spine in the mountains. and i was mentioning the rain in weekend, saturday it looks like it is over the gulf, east coast by the time we get to sunday. but it will be warm but wet. >> warm and rainy. the best. okay. still ahead, king james joins one of the most exclusive clubs

topping kobe bryant in the process, but the black mamba upped the stakes in a major way. we'll explain. and i couldn't wait to get my pie chart. the most shocking result was that i'm 26% native american. i had no idea. just to know this is what i'm made of, this is where my ancestors came from. and i absolutely want to know more about my native american heritage. it's opened up a whole new world for me. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. 7joining her daughter'st tyoga class.ut she was thinking about her joints. but now that she's taking osteo bi-flex, she's noticing a real difference in her joint comfort. with continued use, it supports increased flexibility over time. karen: "she's single." it also supports wonderfully high levels of humiliation in her daughter. karen: "she's a little bit shy."

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the milg stoestone with approxiy one second left in the first quarter. he is now the 7th to amass 30,000 career points. but he is the young he est ever do so beating out kobe bryant. he finished with 28 points on the night, but they lost 114-102. the list of 14 reserves have been released, it will appear on either team james or team curry in the 67th nba all-star game. among the reserves selected include russell westbrook, kevin love, along with draymond green and klay thompson. some this is their first all-star selection.

the teams are scheduled to be released this thursday during a special on tnt. the game set for february 18th in l.a. and while lebron james passed him as the youngest person to reach the 30,000 career points club, kobe bryant is achieving greatness off the court with a new endeavor film. his short animated film titled dear back has received an asked any award nomination for best animated short film. kobe expressed his enthusiasm and gratitude in a tweet thanking disney an mateer. he narrates a poem he wrote when he announced his retirement from the game. very cool. still ahead, we're following the latest on the russia probe after new reporting that bob mueller is seeking to question president trump about the oustings of both jim comey and michael flynn. plus president trump heads to the world economic forum in

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welcome back, everybody. it is the bottom of the hour. let start with the top stories. nbc news has learned special counsel's investigators have interviewed jeff sessions and former fbi director jim comey as part of the ongoing investigation into russia's election meddling. the revelation coming in the reports that current fbi

director christopher wray threatened to resign amid pressure from sessions and president trump. kristen welker has more on this. >> reporter: nbc news has learned james comey the former fbi director who led the russia probe and jeff sessions, the attorney general who was forced to recuse himself, have both been interviewed buyer robert mueller's team. a justice department official says sessions sat for hours of questions gi questions just last week, comey interviewed last year. >> i'm not at all concerned. >> did you talk to him about it? >> no, but i'm not at all concerned. thank you all. >> reporter: it is not clear what the spk aecial counsel ask sessions, but he was instrumental into the firing of james comey. mr. trump telling lester the

probe was at the root of his decision to fire comey. >> i said to myself i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >> reporter: as the investigation gets closer to the president, mr. trump is escalating his battle with the very department that is investigating him. slamming the fbi after revelations they are missing five months worth of text messages between an fbi agent who was removed from the special counsel probe for writing disparaging messages about candidate trump to an attorney who also worked on the mueller team. the president calling if one of the biggest stories in a long time and the white house lashed out at reports that christopher wray threatened to resign to protest pressure he was getting from sessions and others to fire andrew mccabe. >> he didn't at all. he did not. he did not even a little bit. nope. and he will do a good job.

>> our thanks to kri tos to kri. come up, new reporting from carol lee with more on what is happening behind the scenes. and president trump and republican allies continue to allege bias at the fbi. yesterday senator ron johnson released more texts belonging to peter strzok an agent removed from the special counsel staff last summer for disparaging trump in messages with lisa page an fbi lawyer he was romantically involved with. on monday an fbi letter said that its system for retaining text messages had failed to save communications between the two over a five month period between december of 2016 and may of 2017. and at 10:54 p.m., president trump tweeted where are the 50,000 important text messages between fbi lovers lisa page and peter strzok. blaming samsung. he did not elaborate why. that is the second time trump has overstated the number of texts which the justice department says is the overall

number found on servers. regardless the house and senate says they see evidence of an fbi conspiracy against the white house. >> what is missing is important, but also what is there is important. it is manifest bias not just against trump, but against his kids, against police business interests. there is a text where they hope that trump hotel fails. that is a level of bias that you rarely see and you never see from law enforcement officers. >> what this is all about is further evidence of corruption more than bias, but corruption at the highest levels of the fbi. and that secret society? we have an informant that is talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off site. there is so much smoke here, so much suspicion. >> secret meetings off site of the justice department? >> correct. >> and you have an informant saying that? >> yes about that. >> sjoining us now from

washington again, steve nelson on. good to see you once genagain. we're getting these reports bob mueller's team having interviewed jim comey and jeff sessions. talk to me about the significance of all of this. is the russia investigation heating up, are they closing in on an interview possibly with the president? >> it could be that it is heating up, but it also could be that it is winding down. james comey and jeff sessions of course are key players in the entire saga, james comey of course being fired after allegedly being asked to back offer mi off mike flynn, jeff sessions who has allegedly been deceptive about his public remarks about contacts with russia ambassador. and the fact that they have been interviewed suggests that at least robert mueller is reaching some sort of end to this investigation. >> what about president trump, could we see president trump

sitting down with mueller soon? >> certainly possible. that would almost certainly indicate that the probe is almost over. president trump meeting with mueller's team would be a big risk for him. everyone knows how president trump is not one who has a great filter. so that certainly would be an interesting meeting and i would look forward to the reporting on it. >> interesting is a good way to put it. what about the new reports that trump had asked andrew mccabe how he voted in 2016 when he asked him to come into his office and we heard mccabe saying that that conversation was pretty disturbing to him? do you think that could have any impact on the investigation especially if trump were to sit down with mueller? >> this reported comment further illustrative of president trump's suspicion that there is bias against him by the team doing the investigation. there is of course democratic

donors who are on the team, a prominent investigator who attended hillary clinton's intended victory party. and who sent a letter to sally jats ba yates backing her up with her decision earlier not defend one of his orders. so whether this is really damning statement for president trump, i'm not so sure given the other things that he is alleged to have said particularly to comey. but it certainly does felt with the bigger picture. >> as you said, the reporting from a sitdown between mueller and trump could be very interesting, so we'll have to see when and if that happens. president trump is set to depart for the world economic forum in davos where he is expected to push his america first agenda to fellow world leaders. and his decision to slap tariffs and other twrrade restrictions solar panels and washing machines is facing backlash.

canadian prime minister justin trudeau revealed that his country and the remaining 11 members of the tpp had struck a revised trade agreement exactly one year after president trump withdrew theist from the tpp. and leaders in asia say american consumers will pay the price for the president's trade moves. south korea's trade ministry called the tariffs unfair and argued that they violated world trade organization requirements. while china's congress ministry called the, an abuse of trade remedies. companies in both countries say any short term gain could be reduced by decreasing its global competitiveness. south carolina's republican governor says the president's decision threatens to hinder foreign investment in his state. henry mcmaster says he spoke monday with executives from samsung which opened a new $380 million home appliance hub in the state earlier this month. the south korean company has hired hundreds of workers so far

with plans to boost that number to 1,000 jobs by 2020, but the governor says the company is considering its next steps. senator sasse wrote here's something republicans used to understand. tariffs are taxes on families. moms and dads shopping on a budget for a new washing machine will pay for this, not big companies. you don't fixate years of bad energy policy with bad trade policy. speaking yesterday, president trump insisted his decision will not spark a trade war. take a listen. >> there won't be a trade war by the way. it will only be stock increases for the companies that are in this country and that's what happened today. if you look at solar and if you look at the washing machine companies, that is really what happened today. you'll have people getting jobs again and we'll make our own proper dublgts again. it's been a long time. >> so while president trump is optimistic about his tariffs,

goldman sachs is forecasting an 8 to 20% increase in the price of a new washing machine thanks to those new regulations. and president trump's pick to head the federal reserve has been confirmed to become the 16th chairman of the central bank. jerome powell was approved in an 84-13 vote. powell will take over for janet yellen when her term ends february 3. powell who has served as a federal reserve governor since 2012 will inherit an economy on the upswing thanks to an increasing labor market and strong global growth. powell will also oversee a post recession economy with an ploumt rate at a 17 year low, limited wage gains and growing inequality. what can we expect from jerome powell in terms of his policy, how different is he going to be from janet yellen? >> good morning. solt expe so the expectation is that he

won't rock the boat too much and will be seen as more of an extension of the status quo. there has been a little bit of criticism leveled against him because he is the first federal chair since the '70s who isn't an economist even though he does have a lot of experience at public policy and finance. he is inheriting a very strong economy. stock market at record highs, unemployment at multiyear lows. and his main concern really will be to stop the economy from overheating. just one quick point on regulation, he has said that while he supports much regulation, he is also of the view that some aspects of regulation could be loosened or improved. so that is something for the businesses to watch out for. >> and let's switch gears. tesla unveiled a ceo pay deal unlike any. apparently elon musk just has to meet some of the goals that they make. >> exactly. so the board unveiled a very ambitious deal that will make elon musk nearly $60 billion by

2028 or 1% of the company but only if he hits two new targets. the goals include tesla market cap hitting $650 billion, that is ten times more than the current valuation. and also growing annual revenue to $175 billion which is 15 times current revenue. to reach those targets, he would need to sell over 2 million cars. last year they only sold 100,000. but with $60 billion as target, why not try your best. >> those are some lofty goals. all right. thanks so much. i have a feeling elon musk will do anything he can to hit those targets. still ahead, former vice president biden sounds off on russia's election interference. why he says republican leaders share are some of the blame in not stopping moscow's meddling. plus a check of the forecast and a wet middle of the week for some.

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joe biden is defending the obama administration response to the russia meddling not 16 election. he claims the former president was looking for backup from the other side of the aisle but politics got in the way. >> mitch mcconnell wanted no part of having a bipartisan commitment that we would say essentially russia is doing this, stop. bipartisan. so it couldn't be used as a weapon against the democratic nominee of a president trying to use the intelligence community which now at the time people would say no one would do that. but look at what they have done. there is a constant tight rope being walked. so the second big play was we went in and said okay, look, here is all the data, and brennan and company said here's what we know. why don't we put out a bhoo

bipartisan to rush is thsia, ha or there will be a problem. but they would have no part of it. that to me hanging around that body up there for longer than any of you were around doing it meant to me that this would have -- the dye had been cast. it was all about the political play. and so the moment the president tath would come out and say by the way, the russians are doing this and hacking the dnc and so on, would have been turned into the president is trying to make this play. so the bottom line was it was tricky as hell. it's easy now to say, well, maybe we should have said more. but i ask you a rhetorical yes. you can imagine if the president of the united states called a press conference in october with this fellow and bannon and company and said tell you what, russians are trying to interfere in our elections and we have to do something about it. what do you think would have

happened? would things have gotten better or would it further look like we were attempting to delegitimize the electoral process because of our opponent? that was the constant battle. had we known what we knew three weeks later, we may have done something more. >> according to politico, mcconnell's office disputes the former vice president's claim that he was unwilling to call out russia pointing to a letter signed by all four congressional leaders, however it was not a warning to russia, but rather a letter urging state election officials to ramp up security amid reports of cyberattacks. let's get a check of your weather now with bill karins. some rain and snow on the west coast, some of the ski mountains out there finally getting the snow they need. >> yeah, snow season very slow in the west, all the active winter weather has been in the middle of the country and through the northeast. how warm was it yesterday? 62 degrees at newark airport. a record high yesterday.

so that has changed. and the west, this is where all the stormy weather is. i-5 is soaked. northern california is getting the rain. important thing with this storm, it misses southern california. they actually need the rainy weather. of course we saw with the mudslides last time they had a storm, so you can't win, right? as far as the winter weather advisories and warnings, winter storm warning for the mountains. we'll get high gusty winds and a lot of the mountain passes will be difficult to get through. so they will get about 12 to 24 inches. the timing of this, as we go throughout the day, san francisco, sacramento will get rain and then a little further inland by the time we get to tomorrow. eventually the storm makes its way into the middle of the country. rainy weather saturday morning. the gulf up through areas of arkansas through memphis, back to st. louis, indianapolis some rain will develop during the day. ohio valley looks to get soaked saturday afternoon. if you have weekend plans on the east coast, sunday is your better day on the eastern

seaboard because -- excuse me saturday is your better day because sunday the rain moves in and it will be with us on much of the coast. only northern new england gets snow and ice out of that. so warm, but wet throughout much of the eastern half of the country. >> just to be clear, saturday is the better day. >> saturday better day on east coast, not sunday. >> don't want to get hate tweets on sunday. >> yeah. all right. still ahead, the latest on a series of car bomb attacks that have left more than two dozen dead about that plus bill neely speaks with a former north korean spy responsible for a terror attack for the 1988 seoul olympics on why she doubts kim jong-un's current olympic motives. this extravagant? or make a back seat that feels nothing like a back seat? why give it every feature you could want, along with a few you didn't know you needed?

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welcome back, at least 27 people are dead and more that 30 wounded after twin car bombings in libya last night. a spokesman for the benghazi military says the first bomb went off in a residential area as people were leaving a mosque. and the second bomb exploded half an hour later as residents and medics tended the wounded. military personnel and civilians are among those killed. so far there has been no claim of responsibility. the main reason vice president mike pence is attending next month's winter olympics in pyeongchang is because he has grave concerns

that north korea will hijack the messaging around the olympics this according to a senior white house official. adding that north koreans have been quote master manipulators in the past. the official says that pence will insure the games aren't quote turned into two weeks of propaganda. the and the vice president isn't the only one worried as nbc chief global correspondent bill neely reports from seoul, cycle. >> she's a former north korean spy and a mass killer. king hyon-wi put a bomb on a south korean jetliner months before the 1988 seoul olympics. it exploded killing all 115 on board. she was caught and named the man who gave her orders. >> kim jong il, the father of today leader, kim jong un. >> your goal was destroy the plane, destroy the olympics. >> yes, i was a robot, she says, brain-washed, south korea was our enemy. the olympics went ahead.

the u.s. designated north korea a sponsor of terror. the victims remembered here, but never found. many here are convinced north korea's methods today are equally ruthless. using weapons to sow fear. he's using the games to buy time for his nuclear program. she was sentenced to death for the bombing, but pardoned by south korea. she lives in hiding today, fearing kim will kill her. a traitor in his eyes, who completed her mission. but turned on the regime. >> our thanks to bill neely for that disturbing report. president trump has invited french president macron to the white house for an official state visit later this year. it will be the first state visit hosted by the trump administration according to the white house historical association. trump is the first president since calvin coolidge not to

host a foreign leader for a state visit during his first year in office. no official date has been set yet. trump and macron have had a unique relationship. one that is friendly, yet marked by long and awkward handshakes and high-policy disagreements. coming up next on "morning joe," more on special counsel bob mueller's russia probe and the likelihood that he may question president trump in the coming weeks on accusations of collusion between moscow and his campaign. carol lee will have you reporting in minutes and joined by ari melber, clint watts and former chief of staff. and jim hines weighing in and former mexican president fox talks about how why he says

president trump is going about negotiating border security the wrong way. [ keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours.

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hear about in the day ahead. president trump is set to welcome a group of mayors from across the country to the white house today. to discuss this country's infrastructure following that meeting the president will depart for the world economic forum in davos, switzerland. the president will push his america-first agenda, including discussions on investing in the u.s. and his recent tax overhaul. the remaining victims of the u.s. gymnastics team doctor, larry nassar will make their statements today. the judge estimates that nassar's sentencing will begin sometime mid morning today. a young arizona mother injured in last year's las vegas mass shooting is set to leave a neurological rehab today. her brain injury was so critical that doctors did not expect her to live but she has continued to make a remarkable recovery. one they call quote profound and amazing. that does it for us on this wednesday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian, alongside lewis bergdorf,

"morning joe" starts right now. >> i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. >> quote i was going to fire comey, i said to myself you know, this russia thing is a made-up story. this morning, and for the foreseeable future we're going to hear a lot of stories about russia, none of which are made up. we have an nbc news exclusive with significant developments on the growing number of top officials now cooperating with bob mueller's investigation. "the new york times" has reported that attorney general jeff sessions was grill fodor hours last week. and a piece in the "washington post" that says the president asked the acting fbi director how he voted in the 2016