this morning, democrat conor lamb claims victory in pennsylvania's special election, but the race is still too close to call. plus more shakeups inside the trump administration. rex tillerson is out as secretary of state. mike pompeo has been tapped to replace him. the cia could get its first female director and more changes could be on the way. and breaking overnight, one of world's greatest minds in science has died. stephen hawking has passed apge. good morning, everybody. it is wednesday, march 14, i'm

yasmin vossoughian alongside louis burgdorf. we start in pennsylvania with 99% of precincts reporting the special congressional election in the 18th district is way too close to call. we've been waiting on absentee ballots all night. right now conor lamb has a 579 vote edge over republican rick saccone despite the race not being called, lamb declared victory last night while saccone stopped short of any concession. watch this. >> it took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. i've heard conor, the job you're running for is the house of representatives. so if you get down there, do the job. do the job. okay. i will. mission accepted. >> we're still fighting the fight. it is not over yet.

we'll fight all the way to the end. don't give up. we'll keep it up. we're going to win it! >> so under pennsylvania state law, supporters of either candidate can request a recount if they believe there was an error in the initial tally. there is no provision however for automatic recounts in tight congressional elections. rick saccone's team tells nbc news that win or lose this race, saccone will file campaign petitions next week to run in the you new 14th congressional district. coming up this morning, conor lamb will be a guest on "morning joe." joining me now, correspondent for nbc news, steve kornacki, who has literally been up all night following this race. steve, i rolled into the studio, i got some rest, you however my friend did not. and i know that you have been watching these counts come in all night. so what are we waiting for and what do we think the time line is that we will get the final

result? >> i wish i knew the time line because i signed off the air a couple hours ago in this same studio, and we believed at that moment that these outstanding numbers would be in momentarily, we had been led to believe that. we are still waiting. let me take you through what exactly it is we're waiting on. again, the margin right now for lamb in this thing, it is 579 votes. that is his lead. the big chunk of outstanding votes are absentee ballots that were cast here in washington county. so the question you see, it is red, you see saccone won it, it is traditionally republican. so saccone is saying hey, can i eat into that 579. there are only 1195 absentee ballots. so he would really need to put a dent in lamb's number with a big showing in these absentees. problem he has is a couple things. number one, look, he only got 53% on election day.

to eat into a lead like that, you probably need more than 53% when we count the absentees. and we counted them earlier tonight in allegheny county and in west more land county, and the democrat conor lamb actually was improve management an sing . so if the election day was 53% for saccone, he would need more than that. maybe that would make it interesting. that is what we're waiting for. i have to tell you, we have been calling and calling and calling the washington county board of elections out there in pennsylvania all night. best we can tell you is this, number one, they were not planning to stay up tonight and do the absentee ballots. they traditionally do it the next day. that's what they were planning on. they decided hey, everybody is watching, let's stay late and do it. that is great. they are counting apparently these 1195 ballots with one scan machine telling us that is a consequence of not having planned for this.

so one scan machine, all of those ballots. and then they are going through the balance lots organized alpha betticly by town in this county. about ten minutes ago, we checked in, they were in the ss. so still a little bit to go. >> there is a lot of letters after s. so they have some time to go that is for sure. i know you'll be watching this for us. so thank you for that. and by the way please get some sleep. steve kornacki for us. let's go to washington now, gaby is joining us. thanks for joining us. as steve was just taking us through this, it looks like it is going to be a photo finish to the very end in pennsylvania. they are just at the ss. we still have some time to go. 90 mintsz 90 minutes or so at least. what do you think this is saying about republican republican coming the midterms? because a lot of people are looking at this to predict what

will happen come november. >> well, i think in many ways this race was very unique for republicans and democrats. you had a democrat candidate conor lamb really running on the same agenda that president trump ran on in 2016. which is definitely different from what other democrats are going to be doing in primary races where they are going to have to stake off more progressive positions. but republicans will tell you in the coming days despite the outcome that this was unique, that conor lamb was just an ideal candidate for democrats to have in a district that went on heavily for trump in 2016. and that was really so reliably republican in both 2014 and in 2016 that democrats didn't even bother running a candidate. this was a unique race. that being said, this is the first special election that we've had after the republican tax plan passed through congress and republicans really ran hard on it going into tuesday's election. so for rick saccone to not pull out an astounding win in this,

for him not to pull forward based on the middle class tax cuts that republicans promised, i think that the party is going to see a huge change in the elections going forward come november. >> so it is interesting you say that the republicans are saying that this is independent could of kind of a unique race. what can account democrats take away from thiscould kind of a unique race. what can account democrats take away from this? >> conor lamb didn't run as a part of the resistance. he wasn't a progressive candidate. he was more in touch with the blue collar workers and middle class community in pennsylvania. and that is something that obviously president trump really tapped into in 2016. and in a lot of these states that are going to have clomid term races, you will have the same voter base that is really looking for a candidate who can come to washington, who can promise to reach across the aisle, promise to grain the swa drain the swamp, but capable of being either a democrat or

republican.the drain the swamp, but capable of being either a democrat or republican. i think that is what conor lamb showcased. he wasn't criticizing president trump. i don't think there is a single speech in which conor lamb really went after the president. and in fact in the week leading up to yesterday's election, he actually sided with the president on his decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on imports to the u.s. and so that is a lesson that democrats can take away, that it is not a requirement that a candidate run against the president. in fact in some ways they can embrace the trump agenda and still perhaps pull off a victory. >> he definitely ran more as a centrist. gaby, thank you so much. i'll talk to you again at the bottom of the hour. we're piecing together the time line in the firing ever secretary of state rex tillerson. a lot happening in washington today. beginning on friday when tillerson received a call in the middle of the night while on his goodwill tour of africa from john kelly. two sources telling the "washington post" the president

was so eager to fire tillerson that he wanted to do so in a tweet on friday. but kelly persuaded trump to wait until his secretary of state was back in the u.s. but kelly had also warned tillerson to possibly expect a pejorative tweet from trump over the weekend a state department official said. tillerson failed to fully understand that the chief of staff was gently signaling to him that he was about to be fired. tillerson cut his trip short, citing lack of sleep. and a phone call that kept him awake. four hours after tillerson landed in washington, the president trump announced cia director mike pompeo as his replacement and thanked tillerson for his service. state department under secretary steve goldstein told reporters that tillerson had not spoken with the president and learned of his firing by the tweet. goldstein was fired shortly thereafter. trump was conciliatory when he spoke about his differences with tillerson. while tillerson had little to say about his boss.

watch. >> i wish rex tillerson well. rex and i have been talking about this for a long time. we got along actually quite well. but we disagreed on things. when you look at the iran deal, i think it is terrible. i guess he thought it was okay. i wanted to either break it or do something. and he felt a little bit differently. so we were not really thinking the same. i think rex will be much happier now. >> i received a call today from the president of the united states a little after noontime from air force one. and i've also spoken to white house chief of staff kelly. i will be meeting members my front office team to thank them for their service. they have been extraordinarily dedicated to our mission which includes promoting values that i view as being very important.

>> and tillerson will remain in his post until midnight march 31, but is delegating all authorities until then. mike pompeo holds more hawkish views on iran and forged an easy bond with trump while delivering the daily brief. the 54-year-old joined the administration after winning his fourth term in congress from wichita, kansas. he had previously been an executive in the aerospace industry and is a graduate of harvard will you scholaw school point serving five years as an officer in the army. still ahead, how the most recent shakeups could impact foreign policy issues like the iran deal. plus with silence from the white house, lawyer for stormy daniels issues a warning to president trump. those stories and of course a check on your weather when we come back.

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joining me onset a bobby gosh. thanks so much. i want to talk first about rex tillerson's departure, or his firing shall we say. one of the major areas of disagreement between the former secretary of state and the president was the iran nuclear deal. we have a deadline once again come may i believe. early may. mike pompeo very much on board with the president's belief that we should sort ever get rid of the iran nuclear deal all together, maybe come up with something new. where do you think we'll go with this are considering now that pompeo is feezbly goigoing to b the state department? >> it is unlikely that he will get push back. there won't be much daylight between the president and state department on any foreign policy. pochl has pompeo has a longer history of being against the iran deal right from the beginning when he was in congress, he denounced the deal saying we need regime change in iran, this is a terrible deal. and so president trump is not going to get push back from

pompeo. will he get push back from others closer to him from mass at this time, mattis, mcmaster? hard to tell. but pompeo has made it very clear what he thinks. >> and we talked about some reporting that has indicateter next to leave, but mattis also very much against scrapping the iran deal. so he could be that force that keeps the president from all together walking away. >> and that is more burden on mattis' shoulder. the president will also be hearing from foreign leaders. they will have to step up the game. they will all recognize with tillerson gone, that is one less voice speaking for the deal. and hopefully they will understand that they need to step up their pressure on the president. will it work with pompeo whispering to scrap it? probably not. >> let's turn to north korea quickly. what do you think the outlook is for the talks between the

president and kim jung-un especially now that we have a new secretary of state? do you think that will alter some of the landscape of the talks at all? >> well, we have to fast forward. did tillerson have that much impact on the president's policies? if you look at it in a certain way, all tillerson was doing is doing signaling on one side while the president was basically having his own way. that is now gone. and the north koreans will see that there is again no daylight between the president and the secretary of state. both are speaking from the same things. possibly pompeo will be even more of an attack dog. so if the talks actually take place, you are coming in knowing that the americans are going to want to see something -- some real constructive change in behavior, in some real change on the ground before any kind of deal is possible. >> and i'm wondering if overseas they are seeing this as sort of chaos in the white house right now. all the changeover.

>> yeah, but there is another way to look at this. it doesn't mean that it will be good foreign policy now. far from it. but it will mean that there will be consistency. overseas there was a lot of confusion. the president would say one thing and then the secretary of state would say completely the opposite. so now at least they will both be speaking in the same voice. there is some virtue to that. as i said, maybe not good policy, but at least communications consistency from the white house and mike pompeo. >> all right. thank you. let's get a check on your weather now with bill karins. bill, you say there is snow still lingering in the northeast part of new england. and it is digout day for a lot as well. >> yeah, 1 to 2 of snow from northern rhode island, boston right around a foot. out toward the 495 loop, they also saw about 24 to 26 inches of snow with nor'easter number three. at one point 150,000 people were

without power because of this storm too. it was heavy and it was wet and winds were strong enough to knock out some power. so clean up day in eastern mass. we still have winter storm warnings in maine, northern new hampshire, vermont. and now we'll watch lingering snow back in western new york. syracuse is under a winter storm warning and erie, a winter storm warning for you. and you can see the nor'easter is in the maritime, but moisture stretching back through maine, new hampshire, vermont. the ski areas are now getting more snow in the last two to three weeks than they have for almost all the winter combined up to that point. so just an incredible late winter season for skiing and snowmobiling in northern portions of new england. so let's time this out during the day. this is at 7:00 a.m., the blue shows you where we are lingering with the snow showers. and we could see them in pennsylvania. and then tomorrow another batch of snow down through cleveland and erie into the high elevations of pennsylvania. so once again the snowfall totals, 6 inches additional in syracuse and in northern maine, could add another foot.

i saw one stat there, bangor has had 103 inches on the winter. that is 8 feet. picture that. >> unbelievable. lots of cleanup for sure there this morning. thanks, bill. still ahead, breaking overnight, iconic physicist stephen hawking has died at the age of 76. how he is being remembered this morning, that is next. here's the story of green mountain coffee roasters sumatra reserve. let's go to sumatra. the coffee here is amazing. because the volcanic soil is amazing. so we give farmers like win more plants. to grow more delicious coffee. which helps provide for win's family. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee.

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we're getting breaking news. joining me now, political

correspondent steve kornacki. steve, again, you've been watching these numbers. seems like we have an answer. >> we have an apparent winner in the pennsylvania special election for the house district in the 18th. conor lamb, the democrat, nbc news is declaring the apparent winner over rick saccone the republican. now, i can take you through what that wording means. obviously we have been telling you all night since about 11:00 last night we were waiting on washington county, on the absentee vote in washington county. and you had a lead there of about 750 votes for con authori conor lamb, so what was going to happen? we knew it was a republican county. the question was in these absentees, was that going to be a little different. finally we waited all night for these numbers, here are the absentee numbers from washington county for conor lamb, 609. he netted 609 from that pool. and for rick saccone for the

republican, look at this, 547. so that was what we suspected was going to happen. it is a republican county, but we were saying the absentees were favoring lamb throughout the district. we saw it in allegheny. we saw it in westmoreland, we said we think we'll see it in washington, but we have to see to say we saw it. now we see it. he beat out rick saccone in the absentee ballots. so that increases his lead there district wide just a little bit. so we say he is the apparent winner. it is a very close margin here as you can see, that is 641 votes separating them right now. 641. we still have a couple of pieces of business here just keep this in mind. greene county has 200 absentee ballots. they will be counted today. i hope. those 200 absentee balance lot, we have a pattern where these counts lamb is doing a lot better in the absentee than in the election day. so again, you don't really see

saccone making up anything based on everything we've seen in those 200 in green. and then what do we have in military ballots will be counted within the next week. probably about a week from now. how many of those are there? we're not sure. we think dozens. 75 maybe in the district. again, saccone is probably going to win more of those than lamb, but we're talking dozens here, not a lot. and then the final little piece here is provisional ballots. that is in the low hundreds of these. maybe 200, something like that. again, we don't know the exact number. we suspect when you get up here in allegheny county probably going to favor lamb. we're not sure. but what you are seeing as you can see, when you get outside of washington county, so few outstanding votes outside washington county. saccone, you needed to take the lion's share of the lamb -- lion's share of the lamb's lead. you needed to take that out in

the votes for walling. fa washington. failed do that. legally will he try to pursue a recount? we'll see. something absolutely crazy i suppose could map with the few outstanding provisional ballots or whatever, but honestly, this is the thing. this is the thing we were waiting for. we waited all night to see could rick saccone beat that trend we've been seeing. and really get a big number out of washington absentee ballots. he did not do that. so conor lamb is the apparent winner. >> unbelievable. and steve kornacki the apparent winner as well because he gets to go home now. >> we made it. thank you everybody. i promised people when i signed off a couple hours ago, i said please stay up, you want to see the end of this. and i know a lot of people went to sleep, but i know a few people stayed awake. if you stayed awake to wait for this, i hope this is exciting to see the final numbers.

>> i have a feeling they might ask you to stay for "morning joe." just saying. sorry, friend. by the way conor lamb is joining "morning joe" as well. the apparent winner it seems in district 18 in pennsylvania. still ahead, rex tillerson is out as secretary of state. is david shulkin the next to go? and one of the men closest to the president is gone as well. we're looking into why president trump's long time personal aide john mcentee has been fired. 25% of your mouth.

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welcome back, everybody. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the top stories. after months of speculation and even denials, rex tillerson is out as secretary of state. president trump announced his decision yesterday appointing mike pompeo to replace tillerson. and andrea mitchell has more on the shakeup. good morning. >> good morning. rex tim hllerson has said that would not quit, that the president would have to fire him face-to-face. in the end, he was fired on twitter followed up by a phone call from air force one. an emotional rex tillerson thanked everyone but the president, especially his state department aides. >> they have been extra ordinarily dedicated to our mission, which includes promoting values that i view as very important which means treating each other with honesty and integrity, and respect for

one another. >> reporter: unlike tillerson, mike pompeo a former kansas congressman, graduate of west point and harvard law, gets along famously with the president. having more face time than almost anyone. delivering the daily intelligence briefing in person. if confirmed, pompeo would give the state department a fresh start, but would he be willing to challenge the volatile commander in chief, something that got tillerson in trouble? >> i am concerned about mike pompeo's hard line positions on a number of issues such as iran, especially even north korea. and so he needs to as secretary of state also stand up to the president. >> reporter: and facing a may deadline on the iran nuclear deal and the talks with kim jung-un, pompeo will be home alone, tillerson's legacy a hollowed out state department, 38 key ambassadors not a pointed, 16 vacancies as assistant secretaries and all six undersecretaries will be vacant including one fired today. >> i think pocmpeo is someone wo

understands the need to work on the morale of the organization he is leading and i think in that sense it could be a welcome change. >> reporter: the other big change, cia veteran gina haspel who would be the first woman to lead the agency. highly respected there. but as the former head of covert operations, likely facing a controversial confirmation because she carried out bush white house orders to order more detainees in secret prisons. just like tillerson, pompeo will have to share foreign policy duties with the president's son-in-law jared kushner. at least for a while. but unlike tillerson, pompeo is expected to have much better political skills at and a half ska navigating this very political white house. and president trump hinted yesterday there could soon be more turnover in his cabinet. a source familiar with internal deliberations told the associated president that trump is considering replacing david shulkin with energy secretary rick perry.

shulkin has faced investigations into controversies over his travel and department operations. perry has not received a formal offer. this has some see the president's raes actions presi t president's recent actions a as a sign of lack of trust. quote, he's running the white house like the trump organization said one person close to the president. yesterday trump suggested more change is on the way. >> i'm really at point where we're getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that i want. >> amid the latest round of shakeups comes revelation that another one of president trump's closest aides has exited the administration. nbc news learned that john mcentee has been fired and was abruptly escorted off the white house grounds on monday. according to two federal law enforcement officials, and one of those officials says mcentee's security clearance had been in limbo for some time as of november. he was one of the more than 130

white house staffers working with interim security clear answers. meanwhile those two sources also tellclearanswers. meanwhile those two sources also tell nbc nuews that he is under investigation for alleged serious financial crimes. sources close struggled with a gambling addiction and they believe the investigation may be related. nbc news has been unable to reach him for comment though. just hours after the news that mcentee had been fired and was under investigation, the president's re-election campaign announced that he would be joining as a senior adviser. in the wake of mcentee's exit, the top democrat on the house overitem and government reform committee elijah cummings has asked the white house for more information on mcentee's security clearances and subs quep subsequent firing. gaby and bobby are back with us. we have this apparent winner in

district 18 in pennsylvania. talk to us about how washington is going to react to all this now that a democrat conor lamb has won the seat. >> well, i think you saw earlier this week republicans sort of preemptively bashing rick saccone as an imperfect candidate and somebody who in anticipation that he might not pull off a win would give them a little bit of wiggle room in order to be able to spin this in a way that would be positive for that. and that is probably what you are likely going to see in the coming weeks. republicans will say that despite pouring $10 million into this race, that conor lamb was able to position himself as a centrist democrat and really pick up a lot of blue collar voters who backed president trump in the 2016 presidential election. that this was a unique race to pennsylvania. and not something that should be looked to going ahead into the november midterms. that this isn't a forecast of what is to come for republicans. although i think that there is some questions about whether the

tax plan that the republicans passed and that rick saccone ran on is enough to keep some republicans in their seats come november. >> i certainly think that democrats are probably going to be using this race as a blueprints to set themselves up for any sort of victories come november. and if they don't, it wouldn't necessarily be smart of them that is for sure. want for switch gears here to rex tillerson to find out what you know about his exit. >> well, look, if you go back to the previous week before tillerson was fired, there was an off bvious disconnect betwee him and the president. tillerson told reporters that the united states government was a long ways away from negotiating with yeonpyeong and president trump the following day agreed to a face-to-face meeting with kim jung-un. and so you can see that there was never really this chemistry between the secretary of state and president trump. that going forward president trump is really looking for somebody who is going to back him on his diplomatic overyou

are chovertures and that persons mike pompeo. direct aor pochmpeo stood by hi decision to impose the tariffs. he has been a fierce critic of the iranian nuclear deal which is something tillerson urged president trump not to decertify. and he is obviously going to be a counterweight on russia, but really an ally to the president in this role as secretary of state. >> let's talk about the legacy, what kind of legacy do you think tillerson is leaving behind? because if we look at this honestly, there were a lot of open positions left at the state department. he was not in line with a lot of the president's positions as gaby was just talking about. what type of legacy do you think that tillerson is leaving and how are allies abroad looking at this exit of secretary of state? >> he doesn't have a good legacy. i think by common conconsensus, is the poorest secretary of state that has ever been, shorted tenure. abroad, they are looking at this with misty if i mist if i

indication because he seemed to be looking from a different script from the president and it was clear that he had very little influence over the white house. from my personal acquaintances, he seemed to have been loathed within the department. no friends there. and no friends outside. so i think this is a part of his life and career that he would like to forget as quickly as possible. >> do you think it is better to have a secretary of state who agrees with every policy position that the president has, who is on the same sort of line with the president on every policy position, or someone who sort of says, hey, this is not where we should be on this? or can you achieve a happy medium? >> you want a secretary of state who understands what the role is and is able to influence the president and get the president to change his mind when his mind is going off in the wrong direction. there is not a lot to be gained from having a different opinion from the president and

expressing that opinion in public and then having the president cutting you off at the knees. that doesn't help. having an independent mind is a good idea. but speaking a different voice from the president is usually counterproductive. >> we're hearing reports that hr mcmaster could feasibly be the next person to go in washington. especially in the white house. what are you hearing would be the next person to go in the trump white house? because it seems like changes are afoot. >> yeah, my sources say that hr mcmaster is definitely in limbo. if you look at the trend of reporting following rex tillerson for months there was speculation that he was in jeopardy in his position and i think the same has been true for hr mcmaster. president trump has never really gotten along with hr mcmaster in the way that he has with some of his other cabinet members and west wing staffers. and so he is looking for change there. one name that has been floated is john bolton, though he has

received a lot of opposition from republicans concerned about his role in the bush administration and whether he would be the right fit for that job. >> it seems as if these days another day in the trump white house means more changes to come. so we'll see what happens the next 24 hours. thank you both for joining me. a lawyer for stormy daniels has issued a new warning. they had a deadline of noon yesterday to respond to daniels' offer to pay back the $130,000 in hush money she was paid by cohen and in return she'd be allowed to speak freely about her alleged affair with donald trump. yesterday her lawyer tweeted, quote, the president and mr. cohen have purposely ignored our settlement offer, thus doubling down on their efforts to muzzle ms. clifford and preent hvent h from telling the american people what happened. time to buckle up. the white house denies trump had an affair with stormy daniels.

meanwhile the "wall street journal" reports that daniels is seeking a new judge in her lawsuit against the president. her lawyer cites a conflict of interest since the judge assigned to the case is seeking appointment to the federal bench. still ahead, president trump gets an unclose look at the prototypes for his proposed border wall with mexico. the odd comparison he offered for those trying to cross the border during those inspections. and bill karins will have the latest as new england continues to get hammered by the latest nor'easter. deyou were persecuted,, and forced to flee the country of your birth.

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3, 2, 1... not cool. freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting? now that's cool! coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. and no surgery. results and patient experience may vary. some rare side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort and swelling. ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting.com today... for your chance to win a free treatment. welcome back. some breaking news overnight, world renowned physicist stephen hawking has died at the age of 76. hawking was the best known scientist in the world and arguably the best known theoretical scientist, gained prominence in the 1970s for his theories about black holes and the nature of the universe. hawking was diagnosed with a.l.s. when he was just 21 and far outlived the two years that he was given at the time of his diagnosis. although he was british, his

voice is most remembered for its american computerized accent. hawking was the author of many best selling books including a brief history of time. and his life story was recently portrayed in the movie the theory of everything. the outpouring of praise for hawking has been coming there all corners. stephen hawking died at the age of 76. >> what a huge loss. president trump visited prototypes of the southern border wall during his trip to california yesterday. trump inspected eight recently constructed proposals for the wall near the u.s./mexico border in san diego. during his visit, trump told reporters that the wall would stop 99% of illegal entries across the border and referred to people attempting to cross the border illegally incredible climbers. take a listen. >> the round piece that you see up here are or back there, the larger it is, the better it is because it is very hard to get over the top. it's really deterrent from

getting over the top. who would think getting over the top is easy? these are incredible climbers. they can't climb some of these walls. some of them they can. those are the walls we're not using. >> let's switch gears here and get a check on your weather now with bill karins. bill, still some snow lingering around after that nor'easter and you say a lot of people today trying to dig out after a lot of snowfall. >> one spot outside of boston picked up 26 inches of snow. and here we are only a week away from the start of spring. it is still spreading moisture back into maine, new hampshire, vermont, and now we have lake enhancement going on near syracuse, rochester, buffalo. so the new york state through ways are not fun. and if you are driving northwards on 95, you are in the snow. and the other thing that all the nor'easters keep doing, they keep sending cold air on the back side all the way into the south. we have freeze warnings that cover south carolina, much of central georgia, almost all of alabama, northern mississippi. a lot of the bigger cities are

hold management mid to upper 30s. outside the city, it gets a little cooler than that. all the flowers and everything are in full bloom down here. so hopefully we won't lose too much of that. a lot of people are already asking me, hey, i heard we could have a fourth nor'easter coming. my reaction to that is it is possible, but it is five to six days away. so i'll show you what the european computer is saying. the storm will develop out the west and as we head into the weekend, we'll spread snow to the north side, rain to the south. glean green is rain, blue is the possibility of snow. and then the storm tries to redevelop after the east coast and then head off toward the maritimes. as of now, it could bring wet snow to areas like d.c., baltimore and philly. but keep that this mind for your travel plans tuesday of next week. >> bill, is it tough for you to bring bad news every day? >> over the years you kind of get to enjoy it.

>> okay. our producer just said you were fired. still made, everybody, the fallout over the broadcom/qualcomm deal as the markets get hit hard. and u tube looks to crack down on the spread of conspiracy theory on the web. details on those and others grabbing your business day next. i had frequent heartburn, but my doctor recommended... ...prilosec otc 7 years ago, 5 years ago, last week. just 1 pill each morning, 24 hours and zero heartburn. it's been the number 1 doctor recommended brand for 10... ...straight years, and it's still recommended today.

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welcome back. let's turn to business. the dow closed down 171 points and the nasdaq snapped a 7-day winning streak as the president

moved to ban a merger between broad com and qualcomm. we're joined live from london. should investors be worried about future tech deals? what is it about this specific deal that is so important? >> reporter: well, you know, investors reacted negatively to the squashing of this deal but it may not be this specific deal so much as the administration is going to be intervening in this kind of way. the president cited national security for blocking this deal. said that this would potentially provide benefits for china. they'd move into a space being left behind by the u.s. giant and you've got to remember that the u.s. company wasphyting a hostile takeover so this could be seen as a sticking up for a national champion. its criticism for allowing fake stories to spread online and across its platforms. youtube saying they're going to team up with wikipedia that will

in theory debunk the videos. this is what they're talking about debunking using third party sources including wikipedia. >> all right. one more for you. walmart announced it would be announcing home delivery for groceries and same day delivery here in new york city. why is walmart doing it? >> reporter: so they're doing it to try and compete against the likes of target and amazon. it's something they've really resisted for a long time but they now seemingly feel under pressure. they'll be rolling this out to about 800 stores. the way it will work is the quote unquote personal shoppers inside walmart stores will pack up your groceries, then use a third party company to deliver those to the your home. >> seems pretty convenient. thanks so much.

>> anything delivering in new york city works for me. less compensated is the head that wears the crown. actress clair foy that claimed the netflix series the crown was paid less than her on screen husband play matt smith. the show's producers said smith originally earned higher pay due to his four years of the star of dr. who compared to foy who is still relatively unknown but this were unclear as to why foy's pay was not equalized after she won a golden globe, and an emmy nomination for her position. going forward no one gets paid more than the queen. however, that change won't benefit foy who will be replaced by british actress elizabeth coleman. the actor who will play prince phillip has not yet been announced. coming up, another jam packed edition of morning joe. conor lamb just declared the

apparent winner in that congressional race. lamb joins joe and mika this morning. the other big story, president trump replacing rex tillerson with mike pompeo. plus former homeland security secretary jay johnson and the authors of the new book russian roulette and the election of president trump, they'll be here on set. morning joe just moments away. it takes to brew your cup. first, we head to vermont. and go to our coffee shop. and meet dave. hey. why is dark magic so spell-bindingly good, he asks? let me show you. let's go. so we climb. hike. see a bear. woah. reach the top. dave says dark magic is a bold blend of coffee with rich flavors of uganda, sumatra, colombia and other parts of south america. like these mountains, each amazing on their own. but together? magical. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters packed with goodness.

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mika brzezinski. let's get a check on the stories we'll be watching in the day ahead. the alleged gunman in that shooting in florida is set to appear in court. nicolas cruz is set for arraignment on a 34 count indictment including 17 first degree murder charges. prosecutors announced yesterday they intend to seek the death penalty for the former student. >> meanwhile in washington, d.c., the senate judiciary committee is set ho hold a

hearing focusing on the response to the parkland school shooting. the fbi has acknowledged it mishandled trips about nicolas cruz. >> the event is set to last for 17 minutes. one minute for each of the parkland shooting victims. that community is also set to hold an interfaith service with 17 empty chairs for those lives lost. that does it for us on this wednesday morning. morning joe starts right now. >> hope hicks, president trump's longest serving aide stepping down. >> it will be 25% for steel, it will be 10% for aluminum. >> the porn star versus the president, stormy daniels sues donald trump. >> democrat conor lamb with a

slight edge over republican rick saccone. >> rex and i have been talking about this for a long time. we -- we got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things. >> oh, it's not even close to the end. >> angry over hope hicks leaving? new tariffs, announce them immediately. do you want stormy daniels off the front page? >> who doesn't? >> right. so agree to a meeting with the north korean dictator, desperate to get people to stop talking about the special election which should have easily gone to the republicans now being amended on your presidency, fire the secretary of state. right? >> that sums it up willie, doesn't it? >> i love the old movie. >> you know, he won an academy award. >>