that is our broadcast on a wednesday night. thank you so very much for being here with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. new york. this morning, confusion over president trump's proposed tariff plan. he was expected to make an announcement today, but amid republican concerns there's new reporting that the president hasn't made a final decision. plus, the president, the porn star and the payoff. trump lawyer michael cohn tried to silence stormy daniels from speaking out about her alleged affair with donald trump. and in the wake of parkland, florida, school shooting, a new bill aimed at gun control and safety. plus, digging out, the nor'easter hit the northeast leaving a mess for millions of americans.

♪ good morning, everyone. it's thursday, march 8th. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian and louis burgdorf. there may be signs that a formal announcement on tariffs by the white house may be delayed. yesterday, sarah huckabee sanders said mr. trump is expected to sign something by the end of the week. it was said innen an interview the president would hold a signing ceremony this arch. but the official public schedule for the president today does not include any public announcement event. a senior administration official tells nbc news that the event now will not take place. that source says that after a day of meetings with senior advisers yesterday, trump has

yet to reach a final decision and wants more time. the officials say that the president is currently considering an announcement that would exempt canada and mexico and potentially other allies, something that sanders hinted during the briefing yesterday. >> there are potential carveouts for mexico and canada based on national security and possibly other countries, as well, based on that process. >> specifically, what would they have to do -- >> again, that would be case by case and country by country basis, but it would be determined whether or not there is a national security exemption. >> as the president mulls that decision on tariffs, more than a hundred republican lawmakers are calling on him to drop the plan. and members of congress signed a letter yesterday urging trump to nix or at least scale back his proposal. the letter released by the house ways and means committee warned the president of the quote unintended negative consequences to the u.s., economy and its

workers. the committee's chairman, congressman kevin brady elaborated on those concerns yesterday on msnbc. watch this. >> the messages we stand with you, mr. president, in taking tough action to keep us safe and economically strong by targeting bad actors in trade. at the same time, we encourage the president to tailor these tariffs in a way so that we can continue to sell more american-made manufactured products, including steel and aluminum around the world so our businesses can continue to use these products to be able to compete. and, of course, we want to keep hiring more workers here in america. >> and republicans are reportedly pinning their last hopes to sway the president to abandon his tariff plan on the second in command at the white house. while vice president vice president has expressed support for the president's plan, he privately has expressed opposition to the across the board tariffs. pence, a lifelong advocate of free markets and free trade has

been quietly delivering messages to the president from republican lawmakers who are concerned about the plan. but he's reportedly made sure to maintain a deliberately neutral position, frustrating gop members who had hoped he would do more to exert influence over president trump. the "new york times" is reporting that the special counsel has learned of two conversations in recent months in which president trump president has asked key witnesses about matters they discussed with robert mueller's investigationers. according to three people familiar with those encounters. sources say the president said donald mcgahn should issue a statement denying a "new york times" article in january that claimed mcgahn said the president once asked him to fire mueller last june.

in another instance, president trump asked reince priebus how his interview had gone with special investigators and whether they had been nice. the white house declined to comment as it does on matters related to the special counsel. >> three weeks after the school shooting in parkland florida, house of representatives passed major gun control legislation for the first time in two decades. the house passed the marjory stoneman douglas high school public safety act by a vote of 67-50 last night after eight hours of emotional debate. the state senate passed a bill on monday. the bill would raise the minimum age to buy all firearms to 21, impose a three-day waiting period for most gurn pure casss, bans bump stocks and possibly allow teachers to carry guns in schools. but it does not ban assault rifles. it provides new mental health programs for schools and creates

a risk prosecute protection order allowing police to confiscate the guns of people who are involuntarily committed under the state's baker act or pose a threat to themselves or others. the bill now heads to governor rick scott who said yesterday he would sign it into law. we have new poll numbers. roughly 4 in 10 americans approve of president trump's job approval ratings. he sits at 39%, down 3 points since january. 54% disapprove, up 4 fepoints. 56% said they disapprove of the president's performance. and 41% said president trump is the worst president since world

war ii. you may have a hard time on believing this one, but the mid the term elections are officially under way after party primaries were held in texas. ultimately, more republicans voted in the lone star state, democrats saw the largest surge in turnout. and more polling yesterday suggests more good news for the minority party. a poll asking voters who they would like to see controlling the white house gives democrats a 10-point lead over republicans. democrats hold an even larger lead. a new monmouth university poll has 50% of registered voters saying they would choose the democrat candidate in their district compared to 41% who picked the republican. back if january, a poll then, the democratic candidate was leading by only two percentage points. so you see that gap is widening. let's talk about this.

joining us now, reporter for "the washington post," eugene scott. thanks for joining us so early. >> good morning. >> let's talk about these poll numbers. what do you make about these poll numbers leading in favor of the democrats? do you think this is a referendum on president trump or do you think there's enthusiasm behind sort of the democrat party's messaging? >> i think there's a bit of both, but the majority of it is a referendum on trump. just like we saw in alabama and in virginia. and you have to remember that this is because when trump gave the state of the union address when he had the white house gathering after passing legislation related to tax reform, the overwhelming majority of republicans stood behind him, cheered and suggested that they were supporting the president's vision of a great america. this is in direct opposition to what most americans actually think is great. so you see voters pushing back against republican lawmakers because they see republican lawmakers siding with trump,

which is not a popular position to take among the american public. so, eugene, if you were sitting across the aisle from the democrats and you're looking at this are from a republican perspective, how concerned are republicans, a been about the president's proposed tariff plan because if it goes forward it could negatively impact them in the fall elections. some republicans are kind of -- they're a little bit reluctant to embrace it head on. what are you hearing? >> there's real concern about the impact that it could have on their workers in their districts. president trump ran on a plan to bring jobs back to the american people. and this tariff could make it more difficult for businesses in the u.s. to compete and make products more expensive for consumers. not only do we see jobs not coming back to these districts, he we see consumers spendsing more money than they say they do not have. if you're a republican in one of

these districts that's running, you would be very concerned because the democrats are going to campaign saying that trump failed to honor his promises. what kind of reaction are you hearing about this information that the president asked key witnesses about what they discussed with mueller? >> i think they're a bit shocked that trump seems not to remember what he told his own staff what to do about this outstanding that seems to be occupying his mind most of the time. trump is concerned about this and what this could be revealing

and what impact they may have on him himself. i think it's worth remembering that a washington post poll suggested a majority of the american people believe trump has tried to interfere with the investigation. asking your white house counsel to write a letter refuting something in the "new york times," that is actually true does not the help with your argument that you were not trying to interfere. attorney general jeff sessions is standing by the justice department's lawsuit filed against california for its sanctuary laws. >> california, we have a problem. i.c.e. agents do incredible work every day. they're not backing down. they're not going to be deterred

and we're not going to stop enforcing the law in alabama or california either, for that matter. >> but just minutes away from the event, california's governor jerry brown unleashed a tirade against sessions and the trump administration. >> this is completely unprecedented for the chief law enforcement agency of the united states to come out here, mike wild accusations, many of which are based on outright lies. >> brown went on to suggest that the lawsuit was filed so sessions could keep his job as attorney general. coming up, what we're learning about a meeting that was set up a back channel between trump's team and the kremlin. plus, the latest on the powerful for easter creating dangerous travel conditions for millions. we'll have a full check on the forecast when we come back.

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welcome back. let's get auto check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. what can you tell us about the aftermath of the nor'easter? i know the aaccumulate ladles didn't add up, but pretty high aloom lagz. there's a spot in north central new jersey that had 28 inches of snow and only 30 miles from new york city which had 3 inches. so it was such a crazy-time gradient. >> and i experienced some thunder snow yesterday around 2:00 p.m. in new york city. lightning, big flashes in the skies. >> it was one of the most epic lightning producing snowstorms that people ever remember, especially along the jersey shore. in all, the storm produced 1500 lightning strikes yet. that's pretty rare, but there's a lot. two people were struck by lightning in a storm yesterday. stable condition.

the snowstorm is still ongoing. it's snowing very hard for our friends in maine and new hampshire, a little bit in vermont. boston, it's still snowing over you. you could get an additional 1 to 3 inches of snow. here is the snow additional forecast. moving into the purple, that's 4 inches. the red is 6 to 8. from areas of augusta, maine, up to bangor, northwards. we're going to see slowly improving weather in massachusetts. many of the areas that got hit hardest yesterday from philadelphia to new york, philadelphia, we are above freezing. once the road crews get out there, the roads will be okay for the morning commute. the problem is there are so many downed trees and power outages and downed power lines, many schools are closed today anyway. it's a much improved day. sunshine 42 in new york. 45 in d.c. the souths has no issues

whatsoever. unfortunately, there is another storm this weekend that will be moving through the southern half of the country. and there's a chance it could move up the coast for another nor'easter come monday. we'll talk about the possibility of that coming up. our friends in d.c. have a snow threat with that one. >> i've been in d.c. when there's a snow threat. it's a good thing. >> this one is a coin flip, but it is at least a chance. heading across the pond where british prime minister theresa may is accusing jeremy corbyn of man splaining. corbin attacked may for meeting with the crown prince of saudi arabia. a nation that has made strides to increase women's rights. may responded sarcastically adding, i think that's what's called man-splaining.

may tweeted at corbin the official explanation of mansplaining. switching gears for a moment, the president's son-in-law met with the mexican president yesterday. there was one notable absence. kushner did not invite the u.s. ambassador to mexico. that is roberto jacobson. jacobson, arguably, the state department's top latin american expert announced last week she was resigning after serving the u.s. government for moren than three decades. kushner's trip was announced less than 24 hours before he departed. he is not believed to have any experience with u.s.-mexican relations. it comes a year after nieto

canceled a trip to the united states. after kushner had his security clearance downgraded, interesting to see how that relationship plays out. still ahead, how one college basketball team refused to let yesterday's nor'easter get in its way. meanwhile, in the nfl, is the richard sherman era over in seattle? details next in sorts. . or... you could just put your phones down and talk to each other. [laughing] nature's bounty lutein blue. because you're better off healthy. we all want restful sleep. that's why nature's bounty melatonin is made to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. so you'll be ready for whatever tomorrow brings. because mom's love is unconditional. even at 6am. nature's bounty melatonin. we're all better off healthy.

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35 for lebron. >> with four, with three, brook lopez to win the game. wow. he's going to go to the line. this is to give the lakers the lead. yes! time-out orlando. >> de-rosen, six to go. oh! >> dynamite! >> and he gets fouled. >> and one. >> that slam from emar derosen. a few years ago, michael sand became the first openly gay player to be drafted by an nfl team. that shattered some standards. apparently not much has changed on some teams.

drug an interview with sirius xm radio and guice said i go in the another room, they'll try to bring up one of my family members or something and tell me, hey, i heard your mom sells herself. how do you feel about that? the nfl launched an investigation in 2016 when eli apple reported a similar line of questioning about an atlanta falcons staffer. it's unbelievable that that is still going on. some other nfl news, tension between jerry jones and roger goodell has died down at least for now. meanwhile, richard sherman may be rehe leased from the seahawks in a couple of days. according to nfl network, sherman has reportedly told his

teammates, he doesn't plan to be in seattle for the 2018 season, saying his good-byes. it would be the end of an era. however, sherman has disputed those claims telling a teammate that, quote, i'm good and that he hasn't been told anything about the organization. and, of course, the east coast was hit yesterday by a nor'easter which affected over 48 million people, including northeastern university's women's basketball team. after practicing at st. joseph university in philadelphia for the colonial athletic association tournament, northeastern's team bus got stuck in the snow. what did the women's team do? they got out of the bus and faced the cold and used their elbow grease to push it out of the snow. they only had to push for about five minutes, not all of eternity. northeastern faces delaware later today. >> who came up with that line? >> definitely not me. >> that might have been a little bit heavy for our morning viewers at 5:00 a.m.

>> that's a creative mind right there, my friends. >> good for them for getting out there and pushing. >> pushing the bus. >> i bet those five minutes in that weather condition probably felt like eternity. >> i bet the coach was, come on, girls, it's a workout. let's do this. an adult film star over her alleged relationship with president trump. plus you, new reports that bob mueller is looking into a meeting between a trump ally and a russian with close tie toes vladimir putin. those stories and more coming up next. models can be simulated...

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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian along with ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. a january 2017 meeting in the seychelles island between erik prince who bank rolled ads and a russian who heads up major investment fund for vladimir putin. earlier this week, it was report that the meeting was set up by george nader, who has tied to the trump aides. nader has testified before a grand jury after several interviews with mueller's team in recent weeks and the post says the meeting was set in in advance of the incoming trump administration and moscow could

discuss future relations between the countries. if true, that would contradict what prince testified to before the house intel committee last year when he said he was not an official or unofficial emissary for trump and called the meeting a chance encounter. an attorney for prince says he stands by his statements. last night, eric smallwell reacted to this news. >> adam schiff and i both asked mr. prince a number of times, who did you meet with over there? did you ever try and establish a russia backchannel? did you ever try to meet with uae and russians to help the trump campaign? and he denied it at every step. if he met with george nader or if he tried to meet and establish a russian back channel, he lied to congress and we feed to bring him and others back in. nbc news has learned that trump attorney mike equal cohn is trying to silence adult movie

star stormy daniels from speaking out about an affair with donald trump. the order barred her from disclosing confidential information related to a nondisclosure agreement signed in october of 2016. daniel webs whose real name is stephanie clifford, filed a lawsuit tuesday alleging a nondisclosure agreement she pressed signed is invalid because mr. trump never signed it. the lawsuit calls a bogus arbitration hearing against her. white house pretty secretary sarah huckabee sanders said yesterday an arbitration case against sanders have been won, but did not offer details. she also said as far as she's aware, mr. trump did not know his lawyer paid daniels $130,000 to ensure her silence. >> did the president approve the

payment made in 2016 by his long time lawyer and adviser michael cohen? >> look, the president has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. this case has already been won in arbitration and anything beyond that i would refer you to the president's outside counsel. >> did he know about the at the time? >> not that i'm aware of. you said there's arbitration that'ses already been won. by whom and when? by the president's personal attorneys and the for details on that, i would refer you to them. >> and a lawyer for stormy daniels responded to sanders' comments last night on msnbc. >> it's absolutely bogus. it's nonsense. any claim by the administration that donald trump won in arbitration is no different than me claiming that i won the super bowl a few weeks ago. >> president trump's attorney previously said rumors of a sexual encounter have been denied by president trump and

miss clifford can. both the senate minority leader and the ranking member of the senate finance committee weighed in on that, the current state of the white house and the president's governing style. take a listen. >> one of the problems here is the white house is getting hollowed out and the number of people capable of doing things, doing real things, whether you agree or disagree is getting smarter and smaller and they seem unable to recruit new people to take these jobs. so the kind of messups we've seen i think we're going to see over and over again. the president's erratic style. i didn't vote for jeff sessions, but i think it's a symbol to everybody what he did to his best friend sessions is don't go work there. and i've heard stories and stories of people trying to be recruited by the white house and no one wants to go. >> what i've said is that i'll have more to say about the president's positions on steel

and aluminum and other issues when he has an actual position that sticks for at least 48 hours. as you know, he has been all over the map on the this question. my sense is that he still really doesn't understand the guts of the problem, which is overcapacity of steel in china. >> all right. let's talk about some of this. reporter for "the washington post" back with us, eugene scott. this is pretty explosive stuff, this new reporting from the "new york times" and your colleagues at the post about these efforts to establish this back channel between the kremlin and the incoming at administration last year. >> it seems it's pretty inconsistent, what's coming from those affiliated with trump about how intentional these meetings were or how coincidental they were. but what is clear is that conversations did happen, topics like oil and commodities and

improving relationships between the u.s. and russia did take place before trump entered the white house and these are part of the ongoing investigations from the mueller probe about inappropriate communications and involvement with those affiliated with the trump campaign and those affiliated with the russian government. >> eugene, let's switch gears for a moment and talk about the stormy daniels lawsuit. the president has in the past, as we all know, weathered several sex scandals without suffering too much political damage. is this one a little bit different, though? there are two central questions here. one, obviously, not whether he had the affair, but whether his campaign actually violated any election laws with this payment that was made by michael cohen to stormy daniels in the amount of $130,000. >> absolutely. there's some real interest in whether some illegalities took place that could be punished by law and the that trump could see

some real consequences for beyond approval and favorbility. this is not that different of a scandal to people who have already been frustrated with the trump campaign in terms of their candidate's past history with women and sex scandals and inappropriate behavior. but now that he he may have used some of this money and where this money came from to cover up something like this could lead the trump white house to face real consequences in the future. >> i imagine this is not the end of this story. >> the lawsuit changes the dynamics of everything a little bit here. >> eugene scott, thank you. >> thank you. and billionaire investor carl icahn is speaking out over the controversy over his sale of shares in a company that could be impacted by president trump's potential tariffs on steel and aluminum. it was revealed last week that during the second half of last month, entities controlled by icahn showed one-third of their

stakes in manitoa which makes cranes for heavy construction. the tariffs could raise costs for that company. in a statement yesterday, icahn said in part, any suggestion that we had prior knowledge of the trump administration's announcement of new tariffs on steel imports is categorically untrue. we reduced our position in manitowoc for legitimate investment reasons having nothing to do with that announcement. after the trades, icahn still owned just under 5% of that company down from his previous stake of 7.5%. let's turn to business and more bad news for snapchat's parent after another round of layoffs. how many employees are going to be laid off on this? i know it's focussing on the

engineers. >> that's right. and it's fairley hefty by snap. the parent company's standards. we're talking about 10% of the engineering team or roughly about 100 people. and it seems to be a response to some problems that are happening fundamentally within the snap. and it's the response to slow growth rates compared to instagram. that is one part of the story. the other part of the story is snap's efforts seem to be dwindling. we've seen poor sales of spectacles, the camera enabled glasses. >> and amazon is also expanding its prime program, rolling out a discounted version to medicaid recipients. prime is usually a luxury thing. that's the way, at least, a lot of people think about it. but i know a lot of medicaid

recipients have trouble getting to the stores, getting the goods that they may need, leaving the house. this might be a positive thing. >> interesting story. and it seems like om zamazon is trying to poach the lower income market segment from walmart. so this all came out in a blog post on wednesday by amazon. amazon announcing that customers on medicaid can now get amazon prime for $5.99 a month. that is less than half the regular $12 a month fee for the subscription service. so what's going on here is very interesting in terms of the demographics and the market share that amazon is trying to poach from walmart. so discounting for shoppers and some form of government aid seems to be the next battleground for these two businesses. >> all right. sri breaking it all down for us, live from london, thanks so much. >> good move from amazon, for sure. still ahead, the ahead of the vi announces major overalls

to the agency after reports suggesting major mismanagement for years. the steps david shulkin plans to take to right those wrongs. and bill karins will be back with us with information on the nor'easter that buried parts of the northeast. stay with us. i grew up in the projects and so home ownership was not an option for us. i am taking the steps to own a home because i want my children to know it's all so that they can have a better life.

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or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. and help make more tomorrows possible. ♪ welcome back, everyone. major report released yesterday by the va's internal watchdog say officials knew for years about mismanagement at the washington va medical center but didn't do anything about it. in addition, the inspector general details the widespread problem going back to at least 2013. the report says investigators did not find evidence that va secretary david shulkin was informed about the issues, although it says poor leadership for years is going back to blame for these issues. there's a series of reforms.

three regional directors who oversaw 23 hospitals across 12 states serving almost 3 million veterans are out and their offices will report directly to a new executive in washington. shulkin has recently been chr criticized for violating rules by improperly accepting wimbledon tickets. yesterday, the white house gave shulkin the full backing. >> some of the people that need the help most in this country are are veterans, that's for sure. bill, we have people waking up this morning for cleanup time. now you're telling us there's another storm ahead. >> a possibility of one. philly had 6 inches. look at a princeton, new jersey, 17.8. northern new jersey, 26.8

inches. good luck trying to forecast those specifics like that. we knew there would be a heavy band and it did extend outside of new york city through southern new york and 35 inches in southern vermont. that's incredible amount of snow. and because it was so wet and so heavy, we have a ton of power out ages. there's a lot of downed trees in connecticut and southern new england. we're continue to go watch the snow come down. it's still snowing hard in boston. you've had about 3 to 6 inches depending on where you are in this city. portland, 3 to 6 inches and you could end up with another 4 to 5 by the time it's said and done. here is the additional snowfall as we go throughout the day today. mountains, around 2 to 4 inches of snow. in areas of maine, especially from portland north to bangor, anywhere around 3 to 6 on top of what you have there on the ground. now let's get into the good stuff with the winds. this has not been that big of of a story. the winds have been in the 28, 26-mile-per-hour range. that's good.

not like the last storm. yasmin, here we are saturday. the this is a southern storm bringing rain weekend. no problems here on saturday. i don't want it to rain on your weekend on saturday in the south, but it will knock down those pollen levels a little bit with the this the rain and help some people. through the carolinas, notice at 1:00 p.m. sunday, blue starts showing up. possibility of wet snow on the north side of this. a lot of accumulations mid march, middle of the day. it will be hard to get snow in virginia. but at least you may see some snow. and then the possibility of this coming closer to the close by the time we get into monday. so there's still some disagreement, louis, on monday. we'll update that as we go througho throughout -- i think tomorrow we'll have a better view of that. >> hopefully we'll dodge a bullet, bill. now, this is a story we've been following very closely.

kenny bookman, the man who got drunk in west virginia and mistakenly ordered a $1,600 uber ride to his home in new jersey, there's an update. the food delivery company eat clean bro is now reimbursing his entire tear. founder jamie g.v he venazio s they will pay the because he chose to get an uber instead of drive impaired. bachman says all the money he has raised will go to mothers against drunk driving. >> i'm very happy he did not choose to drive drunk from virginia all the way back to new jersey. >> i want to know more about get clean bro. >> you mean you don't have the app, bill? >> eat clean bro. >> i need to know more about it. you can eat clean for your

marathon training, bill. >> yeah. bill is running the new york city marathon. >> i'm gone for a few days and all the things -- >> get back out. just to get in the field doesn't mean you guys had to actually show up. >> guys, thanks. still ahead, new details on the former russian spy left in critical condition after being poisoned overseas. we'll go live to london for the latest on the investigation as officials learn what exactly was used in what is being called a targeted attack. i'm on the move all day long... and sometimes, i don't eat the way i should. so, i drink boost to get the nutrition i'm missing. boost high protein nutritional drink has 15 grams of protein to help maintain muscle and 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d. all with a great taste. boost gives me everything i need... to be up for doing what i love. boost high protein be up for it

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welcome back. amid ongoing questions over why president trump won't criticize or condemn russia's vladimir putin, putin is praising president trump in a series of interviews putin says that he has quote, no disappointment at all with trump adding quote, on a personal level. he made a very good impression on me. >> they're on the same page. >> and despite reports of white house chaos, putin says trump is a balanced man and it's quote, possible to negotiate with him to search for a compromise saying it's inefficient, unpredictable and has been eating itself up. he also served up the threat saying those who serve us with poison will eventually swallow it and poison themselves. >> remember that line for another story coming un. >> the latest poll shows that

america voters overwhelmingly disapprove of trump's handling in issues of putin. and more think they should do more. >> so now turning back to the u.k. where british police now say that a nerve agent was used to poison a former russian spy living in the uk in an assassination attempt earlier this week. joining us live from london, keir simmons. good to have you with us. break this investigation down for us. what's the very latest on what is happening. >> reporter: late in the day, the senior minister will answer those kinds of questions from british lawmakers in the british houses of parliament. there is a limited amount we know. here's what we do know. they do say that sergei skripal

and his daughter were targeted by a nerve agent. they're also saying that both of them were specifically targeted. now, this happened on sunday. this poison, so powerful that they are still in a critical condition four days later and the first responder police officer who was there on the scene and saw them initially, he is in the hospital. he is now according to the british government talking, recovering, but he was in very serious condition. the questions are far greater than the answers though, because it looks as if this nerve agent may have been relatively rare and that suggests that it would be possible for british scientists to trace where it came from. now, all of the indications and all of the suggestions is pointing at russia because of course sergei skripal was a former russian spy jailed by the russians for cooperating with british intelligence. that raises so many questions because why would vladimir putin agree to an assassination of a

former spy that might be easily traced back to the russian government. and if that's what happened, is this more indication of the russians trying to spread more chaos within the uk. why did this happen? and who is responsible for it? >> keir said there, a lot more questions than answers in that story. >> coming up next, bob mueller investigates possible obstruction of justice by the president, the new york times reporting that trump has been asking key witnesses in the special counsel probe about their investigations. we'll talk to one of the reporters behind the investigation. >> the latest from the white house, plus senator and from the congress committee, senator blumenthal, both of them joining morning joe which is you moments away. your joint comfort can be your kid's discomfort.

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the ibm cloud. she's noticing a real difference in her joint comfort... karen: "she's single." ...and high levels of humiliation in her daughter. in just 7 days, your joint comfort can be your kid's discomfort. osteo bi-flex. made to move. welcome back. before we toss over to morning joe let's check on the stories we'll be watching. president trump set to meet with

video industry today to discuss whether violence in video games may encourage mass shootings. trump has been pushing the debate over whether violent video games can trigger violent behavior. >> meanwhile, paul manafort is set to appear back in court today. he will be arraigned in virginia regarding additional charges of tax evasion and bank fraud. these charges are separate from those handed up by the special counsel grand jury in washington, d.c. >> and a big day for the most well known jedi in the galaxy. best known for playing leukosuk walker. harrison ford and george lucas will join him for this. >> we haven't seen him in a long time. >> very well deserved. >> all right. that does it for us on this thursday morning. morning joe starts right now.

>> bob mueller continues to talk to witnesses in the russia probe and remarkably, apparently so does the president of the united states. on the same day the washington post reported that investigators are gathering evidence about secret meetings and potential back channels to the kremlin, the new york times reported that president trump asked key witnesses about what they discussed with the special counsel. that of course says something some dumb country lawyers would perhaps not advise their clients to do. welcome to morning joe. >> i got to say, i thought he was a bit condescending. peace did break out. texas bbq versus brooklyn bbq. >> and i think you too would agree that talking to witnesses in the russia probe is a bad idea. >> hey,