♪ could it be a wake-up call for republicans? the democrats flip the gop seat in pennsylvania and there's new reporting that the president says conor lamb won because he's like trump. plus, a new race between the trump organization in efforts to keep stormy daniels silent and nowen daniels lawyer says more women are coming forward, as well. and after the axing of rex tillerson, president trump is reportedly eyeing others within his administration. we're taking a look at who could be next on the chopping block. good morning, everyone.

it's thursday, march 15th. i am ayman mow hey dean alongside yasmin vossoughian and louis burgdorf. in a leaked recording from a gop fund-raising dinner in missouri confirmed by nbc news, trump claimed conor lamb supported his agenda. quote, the young man last night that ran, he said, oh, i'm like trump. second amendment, everything. i love the tax cuts, everything. he ran on that basis. he ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. i said, is he a republican? he sounds like a republican to me. but lamb called the republican tax bill a give away to the top 1% supported expanded background checks and criticized the attempt to repeal obamacare. now, republicans and conservative groups spend $13.3 million on tuesday's special election with outside groups behind the republican candidate

vastly outspending the ones that backed lamb with ads that depicted lamb as a liberal. the republican house members in the rnc said lamb was in step with them the whole way. >> mr. lamb was brilliant. he ran as a republican. so it worked for him. he certainly didn't run as a democrat. >> conor lamb ran as a guy who would line himself up with president trump. >> the lessons was run away from nancy pelosi and run with donald trump. >> at the end of the day, he ran as a republican. >> conor lamb ran as a republic. so you had a republican in name versus a republican in truth. >> all right. the speaker of the house is publicly sending a message of calm in the face of a difficult midterm ahead. democrats now must slip another 23 seats to win control of the house and according to the politico report, there are 118 seats less friendly pennsylvania's district.

now, speaking to his caucus in private, house speaker paul ryan called tuesday's results a bit of a wake-up call. but when in front of the cameras, he dismissed the significance and praised president trump's contribution. watch this. >> the if it is truly a wake-up call, as we understand you told your members this morning, isn't it also a wake-up call for the role the president should play, in your opinion, in the upcoming midterms? >> look, you saw the public polling. the public polling wasn't looking so good and the president came in and helped close this race. both of these candidates, the republicans and democrats ran as conservatives, rans as pro gun, pro life, anti-nancy pelosi conservatives and i think that's what we see here. >> not sure he quoted the way he wanted. and president trump will join the speaker today for the president of ireland's dinner.

also last might, the president at a gop fund-raiser trump said, quote, trudeau came to see me. he's a good guy, justin. he said, no, no, we have no trade deficit with you. we have none. donald, please. i said, wrong, justin, you do. i didn't even know. i had no idea. i just said you're wrong. he said nope, we have no trade deaf sigz. i said well, in that case, i feel differently, but i don't believe it. i sent one of their guys out. i said check because i can't believe it. well, sir, you're actually right. we have no deficit, but that doesn't include energy and timber and when you do, we lose $17 billion a year. it's incredible. but as "the washington post" points out, the office of the united states trade representative says the united states has a trade surplus with candidate. can we rerooet read that entire

take. now to the latest in the scandal involving stormy daniels. we've learned that jill a. martin signed legal papers three weeks ago that were intended to keep the former adult star -- film star whose real name is stephanie clifford quiet about an alleged affair with donald trump. according to clifford's lawyer, it's another piece of evidence that proves trump knew about the nondisclosure agreement and the $130,000 hush money from trump's lawyer. now the trump organization released a statement to nbc news saying, quote, the trump organization is not representing anyone and with the exception of one of its california-based attorneys in her individual capacity facilitating the initial filing, the company has had no involvement in the matter. meanwhile, a july 12th hearing has been set for clifford's lawsuit and in dissolving the nondisclosure agreement. >> you are now in the line of work of defending women who have

had sexual relationships with the president that he would like to keep quiet. have more women come to you? >> yes. >> how many? >> i'm not going to answer that. >> dozens? >> not a dozen. >> more than five? >> i'm not going to answer that. >> there's the prospects of massive turnover at the white house in the coming weeks with anonymous white house sources describe to fox news as a, quote, bloodbath that can begin as early as today. . among the first expected to go, national security adviser hr mcmaster, according to multiple reports and those coming from nbc news. unnamed sources tell ""vanity fair" that trump was furious mcmaster was speaking with rice. john bolton is seen as the likely replacement. david shu you lkin is reportedly on the chopping block.

rec perry denied an associated press report that he is in discussions to replace him. fox reports that john kelly could soon be leaving his post as chief of staff. as for attorney general jeff sessions, two republicans in regular contact with the white house say there are talks of putting epa administrator scott pruitt into his position. and there are reports that the president is adamant about getting jared kushner and ivanka trump out of there and back to new york. a friend of the president saying, quote, he thinks they've been getting hit too hard. so in the wake of rex tillerson's firing, there could be contentious hearing for mike pompeo. rand paul has announced his opposition to both nominees while explaining his decision. the senator specifically cited the participation in the cia's torture program under former president george w. bush. >> appointing someone to be the head of cia who is actively

involved with waterboarding someone and was gleefully sort of, you know, just expressing their joy at his suffering, i think, is the wrong kind of message to send the world. >> republican senator john mccain is voicing concern. in a statement he writes in part, ms. haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the cia's interrogation program during the nomination process. in the senate, the gop has a very slim margin, we should say. joining us from washington is daniel lippman. good to see you this morning. thanks for joining us. going with the casual look today. i know it's early, daniel, but come on. >> really making daniel feel good this morning. >> we love daniel. >> hey, how bumpy, daniel, do you think these confirmation hearings could be for pompeo and haspel considering so far what we've heard on the hill? >> i don't expect them to be

that, you know, bad for pompeo and haspel. i think a lot of democrats and republicans, he they view mike pompeo, even though he's a pretty conservative and kind of a hawk, they view him as a real breath of fresh air compared to rex tillerson who everyone thought had done a horrible job as secretary of state. a lot of foreign policy operatives, they want pompeo in th there given that they don't want john bolton as secretary of state or national security adviser and they think pompeo could rebuild the state department's morale which has taken a turn for the worst. daniel, let me ask you about some of the shake-ups that we've been going over. there's mounting speculation that we're going to see a lot more exits from this administration. even the president himself hinted at it when he said earlier he is very close to having the cabinet he wants. what's the over/under on who is next and who are we going to see

on the chopping block? >> so i think trump is finally realizing that he is president and he can pick who is in his cabinet. it's kind of taken more than a year for him to do that. but i think we're expected to see david shu you lkin leave the va. scott pruitt could be picked for dog. and that would mean that jeff sessions would leave. and that would be a very controversial choice because, you know, pruitt would not not seen as a very independent voice at doj. and i cthink trump is trying to get rid of the dead wood. you've been so many scandals from ben carson's dining room set to private jets. >> what about john kelly, do you think that's going to happen? if so, who can be his next chief on of staff? >> so i think mick mulvaney would probably take that job. but i don't know if mulvaney

would want to be chief of staff. we've seen people who are well respected, like reince priebus, and john kelly. once you take that job for a few months, it seems like your reputation goes to taters. it doesn't matter if you are the most qualified person in the world. >> thanks for that, daniel lippman. the president floats a short-term deal for dreamers, but the white house may already be backing away. plus, thousands of students if from across the country walk out of school over gun violences as lawmakers back new gun safety legislation. those stories and a check on your weather. [burke] at farmers, we've seen almost everything

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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. welcome back. students across the country walked out of school at 10:00 a.m. in local time in protest of gun violence. the protest marked exactly one month since the deadly shooting at marjory stoneman high school

in parkland, florida. the walk out lasted for 17 minutes, one minute for each victim. around 31,000 schools participated in the protests, varying in in size with many participants wearing orange, the color representing support for tighter gun laws. in response to yesterday's demonstrations, the nra posted a photo to twitter in a rifle captioned i'll control my own gun, thank you. meanwhile, the house passed a school safety bill with bipartisan support. it would provide $50 million a year for a new federal grant program for schools to conduct training to identify signs of school violence before it occurs and set up anonymous reporting systems for threats. it woulder authorize an additional $25 million for schools to install new locks,

melti metal detectors. and it allows people with concealed carry permits to carry their guns across state lines which could prevent it from passing in the senate. switching gears for a moment, president trump may be changing his position on a potential daca deal. white house officials have told key congressional republican leaders that trump is open to cut ago deal on daca in exchange for border wall funding. that's according to four gop officials briefed on those talks. this would be a significant shift for president trump who just back in january insisted on much broader immigration restrictions in exchange for protecting dreamers. according to one gop official, one idea under consideration would grant the daca program a three-year extension in exchange for three years of border wall funding. two republican officials briefed o on the talks said the so-called three for three proposal had been floated in staff discussions in recent days. however, yesterday the white

house said that it opposes that type of deal and that congress should include wall funding in the upcoming spending bill, regardless of an agreement on daca. politico reports that some republicans worry the latest push from the white house on immigration could hurt their work on the omnibus package. the upcoming bill may be trump's last chance to secure border wall funding before the november midterms. let's get a check on your weather the bill carins. i woke up this morning and i thought, i hope bill karins has more news for us, but there is no sign of spring anywhere to be found. >> not in the east. i was walking in a 23 degree windchill this morning and i said, all right, i've had enough. i'm done. windchills 23 in new york. it's 25 in charleston. atlanta has a windchill of 35. and you know there are kids in march on spring break in florida and they are a windchill of 33 right now in jacksonville,

florida. people aren't happy about that. we have snow in maine, snow showers in upstate new york. this is going to end during the day. because of the cold temperatures in the south and because we're now into the beginning of our growing season, freeze warnings are up from mississippi through alabama through south carolina. so this is like endless talk of winter. temperatures as far as the lows will go, 32 tall has issy, 32 at birmingh birmingham. today's forecast, the difference between the northern half of the country this year, we still get a lot of clouds. high sun angle, you warm up 67 in atlanta and into the 70s in texas. you get into the 80s in texas on friday. the problem is that a cold front comes through and with it we're going to have a chance of some severe weather. we haven't talked a lot about that. it's been a slow start to our severe weather soap. no complaints with that. usually it's not warm enough and that's been the case. very cold friday in the northeast, too. windy, too. highs only in the 30s.

we should be near 50s this time of year. new orleans northward, this is the area to watch for strong storms. this is friday afternoon and evening. little rock, memphis, shreveport, jackson, mississippi, everywhere in between, maybe an isolated tornado or two. doesn't look like a big outbreak. >> i feel like we're being punished for the nice couple of days that we had in february. >> 70 degrees. >> i was like, it's over. >> we really rubbed it in, bill. >> can we bring louis back up, guys? i have a serious question for him. >> this could be interesting. >> louis, was that really your first thought this morning, i really hope bill karins has -- >> yes, it was. >> you woke up and bill karins is in your head. >> what was interesting, with when i woke up i was thinking i wonder what louis is thinking about. >> this is really awkward. still ahead, march madness kicks off in full swing later today. hope you have your brackets filled out. and if you need any help, you've

come to the right place. we're going to show you who one former president picked to win it all. and if you have heart failure, entrusting your heart to entresto may help. entresto is a heart failure medicine that helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital compared to a leading heart failure medicine. don't take entresto if pregnant. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. and help make more tomorrows possible. entresto, for heart failure.

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they the throw it in the corner. tie game with two seconds remaining. >> espn news earlier saw the

entire audience didn't get to hear that. >> durant. second basket. >> fox with two. fox with the drive with one and puts it up and makes it. pending a review, this game is going -- >> wow. buzzer beating nba action, but the sports world is gearing up for the biggest po in college hoops. march madness is upon us with the rest of the fur first games taking place last night. first up, texas southern versus north carolina central for a cans to play with xavier on friday. jefferson leading the way with 25 points. nc central struggled from the field shooting 30% and going zero from 14 from beyond the arc. meanwhile, the syracuse orange rallied from a seven-point deficit in the second half to beat the arizona state sun

devils, 60-56. boosting the orange to victory. the sun devils had a chance to take the lead with seconds left but missed the opportunity. syracuse survives to face tcu on friday. switching gears to news from the nfl. beng equals backup quarterback a.j. mccarron has found a new home agree to go a two-year deal with the buffalo bills. meanwhile, the bron cos and vikings finalize a trade for trevor siemen and denver will receive a 2019 pick and the arizona cardinals are parting ways with matthew after the team was unable to restructure his contract. matthew expressed no hard feelings, though, thanking the organization and the fans for their support over the past five seasons. and the man almost synonymous with the cleveland browns organization is hanging up his cleats after 11 seasons with the franchise, joe thomas has

announced his retirement saying he could to longer physically compete at the level he needs to. thomas cited his knee injury as a factor in that decision. finally, between he creating a netflix series, creating a center and barack obama kept one presidential tradition. that tradition, filling out the ncaa tournament brackets, two of them this year. the former president has michigan state winning the minute's title and uconn winning the program's 12th title. last year, he picked north carolina who went on to win the men's tournament and uconn who lost in the final four. we'll have to see what actually happens and whether he's a basketball jeanie this year or not, guys. >> he's had a considerable time off. >> he's got a lot of time to watch a lot of march madness and study the brackets. still ahead, president trump is reacting to news this morning. plus, larry kudlow as top economic adviser. we're taking a look at how his

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woeelcome back, everybody. it is the bottom of the hour. start with the morning's top stories. >> some republicans are sounding the alarm following yesterday's election upset in pen pep. in fact, nbc news has declared conor lamb the apparent winner in a district that president trump won big the in 2016 and

some are questioning if this points to a democratic wave come move. casey hunt has more details. >> you did it. you did it. >> in a district president trump won by 20 points in 2016 -- >> we followed what i learned in the marines. leave no one behind. >> democrat conor lamb with a stunning upset. what should democrats take away from your victory here in pennsylvania? >> probably just that you've got to work really hard in every single vote really does count. >> it's an embarrassing loss for president trump, who rallied against lamb. >> conor lamb, lamb the sham, right? lamb the sham. >> opposition to the president has motivated democrats and made it harder for republican.s. >> it's a bit of a wake-up call. you can't deny that and if you do, you're lying. >> there are more than 100 republicans in congress whose districts are more competitive than pennsylvania's 18th. a huge warning sign.

>> if you're a republican in a safe seat, you better be ready. >> lamb was also able to win over voters like retired steelworker anthony ross, who had abandon the democratic party. >> and why did you leave? the democratic party, because they forgot the working people. they forgot the people that they butt herred our bread. >> democrats need to flip 23 seats to take back the house. and whether they can depend dids on taking the lessons from pennsylvania to heart. >> what do you think democrats in washington should learn from conor lamb? >> they should come back to the grassroots and go up and down these the streets and come in diners and find out what reality really is. >> republicans are likely to demand a recount, but tier fighting over a district that won't even exist in november because they're redrawing the line he. the race shows just how much republicans have to be nervous about this fall and how much democrats have to hope for. >> thanks for that report. switching gears, former fbi

director andrew mccabe is facing impossible firing days before he's scheduled to retire. the "new york times" is the first the to report ag jeff sessions is reviewing a memo to fire mccabe. this news follows an internal review from the doj inspector general examining mccabe's 2016 decision to allow fbi officials to speak with reporters about investigations the clinton foundation. the inspector general concluded that mccabe was not entirely forthcoming during the review. according to people briefed the on the party, mccabe, who has been criticized by president trump a number of times had previously announced his intention to retire effective this sunday. mccabe has been with the fbi since 1996. and if attorney general sessions fires him before that, it would jeopardize his federal pension. the "new york times" reporting that to decision has been made. there are people inside the justice department expect mccabe to be fired before friday. switching gears back to the

white house for a moment, after days of speculation, president trump has found a successor to gary cohn. the president has tapped cnbc contributor larry kudlow to chair the council. kudlow and the white house confirmed the move yesterday with a formal announcement today. custody you low is an outspoken advocate for free trade and generally opposes tariffs and has recently expressed his disappointment with both cohn's the exit and trump's tariff actions. he worked closely with treasury secretary steve mnuchin on an early draft of the tax plan. speaking on cnbc yesterday, kudlow discussed his decision to take the job and the disagreements he's had with the president. listen. >> my immediate action was, yes, honored to take the job. but i had some problems with the

tariffs, as you know. but he didn't, actually. he called and started explaining his position to me, his thinking on the party. and then we got into the conversation and he started talking about the nac director job. and that's when i realized that that was what this was really going to be about. and he was wonderful. i've known the president a long time. we have mutual admiration. he is the president, so it's a different role. and i will abide by that. there may be agreements, there may be disagreements. we'll talk it through. but as i said, once decisions are made, that's it, time to execute. >> and paul manafort is asking a federal judge to dismiss some of the criminal charges he's facing as part of the special counsel bob mueller's probe. the possessions were filed yesterday seeking a dismissal in the case brought against him in

washington, d.c. manafort is facing charges of money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent on what have of his ukrainian interests. mueller shouldn't be allowed to prosecute since those allegations in the indictment predate the 2016 presidential election for which mueller was appointed to investigate a potential russian meddling. they added attorney deputy general rod rosenstein gave mueller too much authority. back with us from washington, daniel lippman. i'm interested to hear, daniel, what is the reaction to this. i know that he worked in the reagan administration, but aside from that -- >> not a lot of economic -- >> not necessarily the breadth of experience that gary cohn

brought to the table. how is washington reacting to all this? >> kudlow studied a masters in economic, but didn't finish. some say they were watching him on tv, about he more plays that on tv. he would fill his entire cabinet with people we saw on tv. >> by the way, i studied economics in college, as well. >> probably more qualified, then. >> i don't think so. >> let's talk about immigration. i want to ask you about some reports that the president now is trying to attack immigration reform and funding for a border wall on the upcoming spending bill. how heavy of a lift is it for

congressional republicans to try to do both of these simultaneously? do you think we'll see immigration legislation pass before the midterms? >> i don't think so. unless there's a deadline where the supreme court says these the dreamers have to go, trump can do whatever he wants with these dreamers, you're fought going to see much action on this issue. because it's an election year, republicans, they don't want to lose more moderates than they will be losing. so they don't want to go hard right if and billions of dollars in border wall funding, but they have to please trump. but you're seeing the white house backtracking from this proposal. >> all right. so before we let you go, daniel, give us a quick preview of what's ahead in today's play book. so we have this great article that we're including from "the atlantic" talking about how trump said that conor lamb is actually like him, which i don't think most republican candidates would want to be described as for this cycle.

we also have a fun spot of ben carson and jeff sessions at the musical "the whiz" last night in d.c. >> how about that. exciting for those two guys out in d.c. so given all the heat that they're both under, nice to get out. thanks, daniel. at an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council yesterday, ambassador nikki haley took direct aim at moscow and gave britain the full backing regarding the conclusion that russia was behind the attempted assassination of an ex spy. >> we're here today to discuss the use of a chemical weapon by one council member in the territory of another council member. let me make one thing clear from the very beginning. the united states stands in absolute solidarity with great britain. the united states believes that russia is responsible for the

attack on two people in the aye united kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent. russia is a permanent member of the security council. it is entrusted this in the united nations charter with upholding international peace and security. it must account for its actions. if we don't take immediate concrete measures to address the this now, this will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used. this is a defining moment. time and the time again, member states say they oppose the use of chemical weapons under any circumstance. now one member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member. the credit canbility of this the council will not survive if we fail to hold russia accountable. >> so the ambassador's comments came several hours after prime minister theresa may announced a

series of actions against russia, including expelling 23 russian diplomates, defending all high level bilateral talks and freezing some russian state assets in the uk. in a statement, the white house says it supports the prime minister's decisions and that the u.s. agrees that russia is responsible for the, quote, abdomen hornet attack, adding, quote, fits into a pattern of behavior in which russia disregards the international rules, base order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide and attempts to subvert and discredit western democratic institutions and processes. president trump has not publicly commented nor tweeted about the situation since talking to prime minister may on tuesday. the state department issued a statement yesterday that no uncertain term states that crimea is part of ukraine, slamming russia's quote, occupation, attempted annexation and false claimed ewe kraban

territory. meanwhile, putin continues to campaign for president throughout russia. the election in which putin is essentially assured victory begin owes sunday. and in her remarks, ambassador haley heavily criticized russia. it comes as the assad regime's land and air assault on ghouta continues with at least 1223 civilians have now been killed, including 248 children and 166 women. since the bombardment began nearly a month ago, according to the cnn observatory of for human rights, nearly 5,000 citizens have been wounded. meanwhile, a 25-truck food and medical aide convoy is finally set to enter the besieged city today, although the group stressed nothing is certain until the trucks unload. last week, auto u.n. aid convoy was able to enter eastern ghouta. however, most of the medical and food supply is differentined for that area. and back here on at home, two navy service members are dead after a fighter jet crashed

yesterday. their identities are being withheld pending family notification. the jet was taking part in a training flight and witnesses say they saw the plane and it appeared to be in flames while in the air. in a tweet, president trump says, quote, please join me with your thoughts and prayers for both aviators, their families and our incredible u.s. navy. still ahead, senator john mccain's daughter offers an update on her father's battle with cancer and when he may return to capitol hill. and identical twins no more. the ground breaking changes astronaut scott kelly underwent in space making him different from his brother, mark.

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welcome back. megan mccain, daughter of senator john in mccain says she is cautiously operattimistic wi her father returning to the

senate. he was originally expected to return to the senate in january. he was unable to do so in order to continue his chemotherapy treatment in arizona. but a according to his daughter, the 81-year-old has made strides if his recovery. >> do you think he'll be back in the summer? maybe? >> i really hope so. you know, i mean, he's doing really well and i'm not just giving you lip service. but i mean, as everyone knows, he is doing really good, much better than i think people anticipated. i wish i had an exact date. but with all of it, i just don't. i am very, very cautiously optimistic about the summer, yes. >> good to have some optimism for john mccain and his feel. switching goeears here, a n study on the long-term effects

of space travel on the body. this involved the twins. upon returning, scientists found that scott was no longer identical to his brother in that 7% of his genes experienced a, quote, ub expected change, what they call space change thought to result from the stresses of space travel. researchers say the long-term changes were related to scott kelly's immune system, dna repair and bone formation. the astronaut tweeted in part, this could be good news. i no longer have to call mark kelly my identity brother. >> that's incredible. >> fascinating. >> the future may hold that we all go to space to feel a little better and younger and healthier. >> i don't know the that's necessarily the result of it. >> anything with less stress i think is going to make us feel all better. >> small spaces in space would

stress me out, i have to say. >> is space the fountain of youth? is that what we're -- >> it could be. >> these days, it's going to cost you like $90 million to get there. >> chump change for ayman. >> oh, wow. >> let's switch gears and get a check on our weather with our meteorologist and space cadet bill karins. >> all right. space ranger, by the way. today we're going to see that warmest temperatures in the middle of the country. we're struggling on the east coast. we're struggling on the west coast, too. but the west coast, you're finally getting your rain and snow. so today, 75 oklahoma city. philadelphia is ehh with clouds mixing in and rain showers late in the day. this will be the pattern as we go towards this weekends. look at buffalo struggling, only in the low 30s. bangor, maine, apologies. only 20s for highs this weekend and your snowpack is like one to two photo on the ground. philadelphia, you barely get into the mid 40s. the southern half of the country does warm up. it is very cold this morning,

but 74 in atlanta over the wokend. today's forecast concerns, not many. a few snow showers in northern new england. it's quiet and a nice travel day. as far as the weekend forecast goes, this takes you to friday. a cold day in the northeast. we have rain in the middle of the country. saturday, light rain through the mid-atlantic. not too much snow to deal with. still cold in the northeast. by the time we get to sunday, a lot of sunshine for the eastern seaboard and a fies warm-up in the middle of the country. so no big storms coming. there's still questions the about that tuesday storm for next week on the east coast, but it's not a slam dunk. it's kind of a messy storm. i don't think we're going to be calling that a nor'easter. >> we'll wait and see how it playses out. i know this next story that hits close to home for both of us as parents is new toddlers. it's about a retailer that is the at the end of an era. >> details on how toys r us's decision to shut its doors is so sad.

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toy business. toys r us will close or sell all of its u.s. stores and has filed for approval to liquidate its inventory. restructure its billions in debt or find a buyer. we're joined live from london. this is a huge blow to the toy industry. we're talking about 30,000 jobs. they've been around for 70 years. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: well, this is obviously no surprise to

investors. back in september they filed for chapter 11 protection bankruptcy. that was with about 5 billion in debt. yesterday they announced they'd be closing their 100 uk stores. 30,000 job losses, 800 stores so it's obviously bad for those involved in toys r us. but it's also bad for toy manufacture manufacturers. it's even worse news for some of the small retailers who rely on this firm for its kind of sales pipeline. a long running saga, elizabeth holmes, this is from the wall street journal. essentially she's now settled with the security exchange commission for around half a million dollars. she won't be able to hold a directorship for about ten years. this is after she misled investors claiming they had $100 million in revenues and she ran 100,000. >> it's really a sad day for kids all across the country.

they're the ones losing here more than anybody. but i have one more for you here. disney announced a sweeping and immediate restructuring yesterday as the biggest internal move in recent years. what does it mean? it's also supposedly setting up a possible succession raise for ceo. what can you tell us about that? >> the long time chief executive there, he signed on to a contract up until 2021, so there's a few years left in his contract. he's trying to figure out this takeover effort, but in the long run, obviously they'll be looking for a successor. they've got two options now. long time head of strategy, he's been named chairman of disney's new international direct torr consumer businesses, that's like hulu and also a lot f otoys included in that and it's going to be interesting to see which of those comes out on top in the

next few years. >> nice to have you back. >> he's kpietsed to be back. >> he does not look excited to be back with us at the 5:00 a.m. show. >> all right. we have some exciting news to announce. this coming monday right around this time in the show we'll be launching a brand new partnership called one big thing. it's based on mike allen's must read axios a.m. newsletter that breaks down the day's stories. we'll be joined with our national political correspondent, and breaking news of course as well. it is a feature you're only going to see here on morning joe, so be sure to tune in on monday along with the rest of the show from 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. right before the start of "morning joe." >> coming up next, republicans facing a wakeup call following tuesday night's victory by conor lamb and a gop strong hold in pennsylvania. the message leaders are sending to the gop ahead of the midterms

and what democrats can do to capitalize on conor lamb's win. >> and president trump faces pushback over his decision for the secretary of state and cia director. morning joe, everyone, just moments away.

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welcome back, everybody. before we toss it over to morning joe let's get a check on the stories we'll be watching. >> president trump is set to welcome ireland's prime minister to the white house today. the two along with vice president mike pence will attend the annual friends of ireland luncheon hosted by house speaker paul ryan. this evening the president and first lady will attend the sham lo rock bowl. >> jeff sessions will be addressing the international association of chiefs of police. the attorney general will be delivering the keynote address kicking off the annual conference. >> that does it for us on this thursday morning. morning joe starts right now. >> do i look like a president? how handsome am i?

how handsome? somebody said he really does look good. >> i hear he's nice looking. i think i'm better looking than him. i do. i do. >> personally i like rick saccone. i think he's handsome. >> you say you're on the air and they say i'm looking at a picture of you and they say very handsome. so trumpian. >> clearly the most important factor for a president, congressman or white house economic advisor, no word yet on which handsome devil might replace h.r. mcmaster. >> i think it may be willie. willie is a good looking guy. >> larry is a handsome man. >> you must be eye candy to work in the white house. let's face it. and actually, we've had conversations with him when he's talked about people he's trying to hire and he's like, i like the look. i like the look of that person. >> it is. >> in trump tower i'm staring at him, he's thinking a