they believe this is the work of a serial bomber who is now emboldened using a trip wire on this last bombing. the reward for information standing at $100,000. that's our broadcast for this monday as we start off a new week. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. despite denying it just last week, president trump shakes up his legal team. we'll tell you who is in and who is concerned that they're on the way out. and what about bob mueller? the president keeps up his attacks, but republicans on the hill insist the special counsel investigation will go on. and severe weather, tornados, hail and damaging winds continue to threaten the south while the northeast prepares for yet another blast of winter weather. good morning, everyone. it's tuesday, march 20th. i'm ayman mow what deal along side louis burgdorf.

president trump is shaking up his legal team. the "new york times" reports that trump has recently allowed close associates whether he should dismiss dislawyer, ty cobb. cobb has pushed for a strategy of fully cooperating with the special counsel investigation. a according to a person who spoke with trump late monday, the president reassured cobb that he had to plans to fire him in part to prevent a narrative that his team was in disarray after the times began making inquiries. meanwhile, trump's lead attorney, john dowd, has reportedly considered leaving because he feels he has no control over the president's behavior, this according to two people briefed on the mart. in response to the report, jay tells nbc news that dowd and cobb are fully engaged and continue to represent the president and his office. but the president has already made one change to his legal deal with a move that reflect aes shift to a more

confrontational stance against moouler. as a contributor, joseph digenova has pushed the theory that the fbi and justice department have been working together to intentionally frame president trump. >> make no mistake about it, a group of fbi and doj people were trying to frame donald trump of a falsely-created crime. they conspired to exonerate improperly and politically hillary clinton and also if she lost, to frame the incoming president of the united states with a false claim. they have undermined the confidence of the american people in federal law enforcement. it is disgraceful and it all stems from their animus towards

president trump. >> digenova is a former u.s. attorney who served as special counsel in the 1990s and was later hired by the new york senate to investigate eliot spitzer. it was just last week that the president was talking to bill clinton's impeachment attorney to help dooem deal with the inquiry. trump responded to the article via twitter calling on reports that he was going to at autoed lawyer to his team false. yesterday, following his attacks over the weekend, trump called the investigation a, quote, a total witch-hunt with massive conflicts of interest. when asked about the need for legislation, second ranking senate republican john brennen told reporters, i don't think that's going to happen, so i just think it's not necessary. and obviously legislation requires a presidential signature and i don't see the necessity of picking that fight right now. cornen also called trump's

rhetoric on mueller unhelpful and said if trump fired him the consequences would be so overwhelming. here is senator orrin hatch. >> i feel confident that he won't be fired. i don't think the president is going to do that. and mueller is an honest man. he's a decent guy. but, you know, there are some differences of opinion between the administration and mr. mueller he, but mueller is a very, very tough guy. >> why are you so confident that he won't do this? >> because i think it would be the stupidest thing anybody could do. and more americans now believe that national policy is being manipulated or directed by a deep state. that's according to the latest monmouth university poll. six in ten americans believe that unelected or appointed government officials have too much influence in determining federal policy. 26% say the right balance of power does exist between elected and unelected officials. while this deep state thinking

is growing more prevalent, only 13% of americans are familiar with that term. 24% are somewhat familiar and 63% said they are not familiar. however, when monmouth described the term as, quote, a group of unelected government and military foishlgsz v officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy, nearly three in four americans said they believe that the deep state actually exists. only one in five said it does not. after months of talking about not taking action, president trump has formally unveiled a plan to undertake opioid adekz. he unveiled it yesterday in new hampshire. the president's speech focused on punishment, advocating for a get tough approach including his previously discussed death penalty pore drfor drug dealers. >> this has been something that i've been in favor of. spending a lot of money on great

commercials showing how bad it is. so that kids seeing those commercials during the right shows, on television or wherever, the internet, when they see these commercials say i don't want any part of it. that's the least expensive thing we can do where you you scare them from ending up like the people in the commercials. 90% of heroine in america comes from our southern border where eventually the democrats will agree with us and will build a wall to keep the damn drugs the out. we can have all the blue ribbon committees we want, but if we don't get tough on the drug dealers, we're wasting our time. just remember that. we're wasting our time. and that toughness includes the death penalty. >> so the president also touched on the need for greater access to to treatment. he wants to give access to life

saving drugs and he wants to provide schools with free supplies of the nasal spray narcan, one of those medications. joining us now, eugene scott. good to have you with us this morning. what's been the reaction to this plan that the president unveiled yesterday? it's not the first time we've heard him propose controversial measures like the death penalty for drug dealers, but how much support realistically is there for this? and are there potentially a lot of legal challenges to it? >> well, there is significant support among his base. you may have noticed while watching his speech that he got a bit of a standing ovation from those who gathered. but there are real concerns from those outside of trump's base about the legality of all of this. i mean, when you think about the eighth amendment to the constitution, it addresses cruel and unusual punishment. and there are also genuine concerns about who could be disproportionately impacted by this. we have data that shows that people of color and people from low income communities are much

more likely to be placed on death row than people outside of those demographics and they're repeatedly concerns about just how often people are put on death row with evidence -- before evidence can prove that perhaps they should not be there. trump has not communicated very clearly how he would go about deciding who gets on death row and why and how, but it just raises concerns because this is a president who has celebrated and championed death row in the past when you think about the central park five after -- or should i say before evidence has shown that that was not the best solution for the problem, which in that case did not even exist. >> and we know the president has been sometimes inspired or been in awe of the philippines president who launched this controversial killing spree of drug dealers in his own country, widely condemned there. let's switch gears and talk about the shake-up of the president's legal team. what did you make of the addition of joedigenov?

>> it will be interesting to see how digenova works and collaborate wes these other lawyers who perhaps have a more traditional approach to this investigation. if you listen to some of the comments the new lawyer made just on fox news in the media, he sounds very much like trump. so it's not a surprise that trump would like him. he's gone on to say things like russia did not interfere, the greater interference was the justice department or fbi in this. the team that he has assembled don't appear to be consistently on the same page, but his latest hire seems to be someone who reinforces what trump already feels about this investigation. and that could be a problem when you're trying to assemble a team to address an issue. >> so speaking of the mueller probe, there's been some kind of interesting dynamic unfolding here. on the one hand, you have a lot of republicans who say they are very confident that the president won't fire robert mueller.

they are not necessarily interested in passing legislation to protect the special counsel's role in all of this. but what would the consequences be if trump did fire mueller? we hear people say, like lindsey graham, say this would be the beginning of the end of the trump presidency. but what actions do you think republican lawmakers would actually take in the event that the president does fire bob mueller? >> they likely take a loss in the upcoming midterms. more than six in ten americans are confident in how mueller is handling this investigation. and those numbers are rising just from january. there's a genuine concern that the president may be perhaps trying to obstruct this investigation from the american public and the optics of making a move like firing him, even from many conservatives, would suggest that he is not as innocent as he claims he is. >> and it's important to note that decision would ultimately come down to rod rosenstein.

all right. we'll touch base with you in a little bit. stick around. the supreme court has refused to take up a challenge to the newly redrawn pennsylvania election map. the 2011 map was ruled to be unconstitutionally areaerry mannedered in order to benefit their party. the map in question reported in a 13-5 congressional district advantage for republicans and had districts drawn in strange and awkward shapes, including one dubbed, quote, goofy kicking donald duck. yesterday's map, a panel of judges dismissed a lawsuit challenging that new map. the recent string of explosions in austin, texas, is clearly the work of a serial bomber. four explosions have hit texas.

three happened after people picked up packages left at their homes. the police chief said over the weekend that the bombings are, quote, meant to send a message. he did not elaborate, but added that it is possible they are racially motivated. the fbi sent 350 special agents to austin to assist in that investigation in addition to extra bomb squads. local and federal authorities have a $100,000 reward out for information leading to an arrest and conviction and texas governor greg abbott is offering a $15,000 reward. scary stuff there, ayman. >> very disturbing, indeed. still ahead, a major setback for self-driving cars. and back to the case that started it all, i'm talking about the "me too" movement. why we may be hearing from more

victims of harvey weinstein. plus, major storms overnight and it may not be over. > stay with us. dear foremothers, your society was led by a woman, who governed thousands... commanded armies... yielded to no one. when i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from.

my name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. now with 5 times more detail than other dna tests. order your kit at ancestrydna.com now with 5 times more detail than other dna tests. 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, everyone. the weinstein company has filed for bankrupt in the wake of sexual whats assault violation. the company announced it would nullify all nondisclosure agreements writing, quote, since october, it has been reported that harvey weinstein used nondisclosure agreements to silence his accusers. effective immediately, those agreements end. can company calls it an important step in the fight for justice. this sparked the worldwide "me too" movement bringing down

minute in politics, media and other industries. uber's halting self-driving car test in all locations after a 49-year-old woman was killed and struck by one of its vehicles in tempe, arizona. officials say there was a vehicle operator in the driver's seat of the suv but no passengers on board at the time of that accident. cameras on the suv captured video footage of the accident from both inside and outside the vehicle. the national transportation safety board announced a four-person team has been sent to investigation that crash. uber responded on twitter saying in part, quote, our hearts go out to the victim's family. we're fully cooperating with the tempe police and local authorities as they investigate this incident. this is the first peb death by an autonomous vehicle on a public road. let's get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins.

bill, you've got some fphotos o serious damage in the south. >> we know there are injuries. at least one tornado hit jacksonville state university. at least the students were on spring break. a lot of damage through coleman county, alabama. there was baseball sized hail that was widespread. there's some of the wind damage there to the dollar general store. you'll see a lot of pictures like this. baseball sized chunks were coming down. look at that car. look at the dents in that thing. this was the scene. widespread large hail, incredible. it just chipped the paint right off those vehicles. imagine some of the car dealerships. not pretty. so the severe weather threat is ending. tornado watches have been dropped. we're going to deal with some storms and strong winds. the northern edge of this storm system is where we're starting to get the winds. a little bit of that this

morning just south of indianapolis. a little bit of a mix near columbus. for today, we will get thunderstorms reforming this afternoon. watch out, orlando, tampa, gainesville, jacksonville, large hail, damaging winds. the possibility of a tornado or two. 65 million people are at risk of this winter storm. light snow tonight in the ohio valley. tomorrow is the winter storm and the nor'easter. you'll get hit by both storms in southern pennsylvania, moirld maryland. baltimore, 4 to 8 inches. this is on the grass. roads will be less than that. new york at 4 to 8. boston at 4 to 8. people in this region, my forecast totals are lower than what you'll probably see from the national weather service. they're saying 12 to 16 inches for new york city and 10 to 14 for boston. we'll figure it all out in the next 48 hours. >> yeah. and i saw that note that you said yet with the question on

the accumulation. >> even my 4 to 8, it will get cold enough for it to stick on the roads, even around the big cities tomorrow afternoon. >> bill, thanks a lot for that. stick around for us. still ahead, new information on the trump campaign consultants accused of exploiting the data of millions of facebook users. we're going to explain what was revealed in this hidden camera investigation teaching the firm's head. we're back in a moment.

( ♪ ) your heart doesn't only belong to you. child: bye, grandpa! 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.

at chicago on friday. the spurs on sunday. >> oh, what a slam dunk. >> using the davis screen. >> the shot? no. it was a pass it look like to davis. >> russell flicks it ahead. >> oh! love verner. >> mills kicks it out. aldridge pull up jumper. punch it in. >> seemed clear for cleveland. >> it should be james. he's done everything else. >> crossing over. put this one on ice. >> wow. just some highlights from last night in the nba, but notably missing from the cleveland/milwaukee paim game was the cavaliers head coach. he announced in in a statement released by the team that he is stepping away from the sidelines to focus on his health saying he has had chest games and other troubling symptoms. he has reportedly said he plans to return in about a week. meanwhile, the golden state

warriors have already lost kevin durant, steph curry and clklay thompson all due to injury. last night, draymond green suffered a contusion and he did not return and he told reporters after the game that the injury is, quote, not that serious and he doesn't expect to miss any time. meanwhile, the ncaa tournament has experienced its own madness. yesterday, 11 seeded buffalo upset florida state crushing them by a 21 point margin as they advanced to the sweet 16. the program's first appearance. meanwhile, the uconn huskies showcased their talents defeating the bobcats all by it not by a 100 point margin, but uconn wins this one, 71-46. enter their 25th consecutive sweet 16 appearance. congratulations to them.

sticking with the uconn basketball after the firing of men's coach kevin ollie, the university has set its sights on rhode island coach dan hurley. a uconn official and hurley met yesterday to discuss the position. however, according to espn, hurley has discussed pittsburgh's vacancy, but he is not close to a decision yet. hurley has a record of 112-82 with the rams taking them to the tournament in the past two seasons, most recently being ousted by duke last saturday in the second round. finally, with purdue advancing to the sweet 16 and looking to make a run for the title, one of the program's key players, isaac haas is on the sideline wes a serious elbow injury with the university of sports medicine program has reportedly called upon mechanical engineers on campus to build a brace that will meet the approval of the ncaa and get the 7'2" center

back on the court. purdue head coach matt painter doesn't expect haas to return this season, but i guess, ayman, it is worth a shot. his replacement is pretty good, to too, harms. he is 7'3". >> when you're this late in the season, you're making a run for the final four, you have to do anything you can possibly do. thanks for that, louis. still ahead, richard haass will be here to help set the state for the saudi crown prince's visit to the white house today.

it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, more than a thousand workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less,

because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get. or a c-anything-o. but i've got an idea sir. get domo. it'll connect us to everything that's going on in the company. get it for jean who's always cold. for the sales team, it and the warehouse crew. give us the data we need. in one place, anywhere we need it. help us do our jobs better. with domo we can run this place together. well that's that's your job i guess. ♪

welcome back, everybody. it's the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories for you. fallout continues to grow over the stunning revelations involving the company tied to the trump campaign and its alleged practice of collecting data from tens of millions of facebook profiles in the lead up to the 2016 elections. nbc news's uk partner it and channel 4 news has released new video of a meeting involving the head of cambridge analytica and its reporters posing as a potential client. the reporters, trying to find out how the company operated, claimed to be interested in change the outcome of the sri lankan elections. they're discussing the idea of hypothetically entraumaipping a

opposition leader. >> equally effective can be just to go and speak to the incumbents and to offer them a deal that's too good to be true and make sure that that is video recorded. make that's tactics are very corruptive. >> wow. a spokesperson for cambridge analytica denied they used any of the tactics. a source familiar with the hiring of cambridge tells nbc news that the primary figures involved in the hiring of the firm were jared kushner and brad parskow. parskow, who has been tapped to lead trump's 2020 re-election campaign has denied that the firm was useful to the campaign and said that the trump campaign

instead used data from the republican national committee. but in may of last year, forbes magazine published a number of never before seen quotes from its november 2016 interview with jared occur ner on the trump campaign's data operation. kushner told foeshgs that we found that facebook and digital targeting the most effective ways of reaching the audiences. after the primary, we started ramping up because we knew doing a national campaign is different than doing a primary campaign. that was when we formalized the system because we had to ramp up for digital fund-raising. we brought in cambridge analytica. gene, good to have you back with us. given how we're learning they used facebook data, do you see congressional hearings on this in the future? is there an appetite or even a proposed regulation directed as regulating facebook on capitol hill? >> there is certainly an appetite.

we've seen representatives call for more investigations and having people involved in cambridge come before congress to answer questions. there's even a desire to have mark zuckerberg, from facebook, come in and talk about how much he knew regarding what cambridge was with doing and its impact on the election. and so we don't know yet what more could come of this in terms of legislation, but there certainly are questions that people on both sides of the aisle want answered, especially as we move forward into midterms and future elections. >> i know that congress is dealing with another shutdown deadline in a matter of weeks. what's your outlook for the spending bill? what is likely to get left out if at all it passes? >> well, i think i have a better idea of what will get left in and there's certainly support for increased military spending and more support for domestic programs. but i think what's really interesting, with this type of a bill moving forward, is that democrat votes really do matter and i think there definitely

will be some concessions and at least conversations republicans will have to have with people on the left side of the aisle before finalizing the spending bill. >> yeah. the republicans have a very slim majority there on capitol hill. eugene scott live for us in the washington, d.c. this morning. thank you. thank you. and president trump is holding saudi arabia's crown prince at the white house today. it's salman's second visit to washington coming amid a major crackdown being waged by the crown pins which some view as a power grab and others view as a positive stop to reform its ultra conservative views towards women. the visit comes ahead of the may deadline for president trump to recertify the iran nuclear deal, something you highway vowed not to do. in an interview that aired sunday, ben salman said if iran unveiled a nuclear bill, we

would follow as soon as possible. joining us now here on set, president of the counsel on foreign relations and author of the book "a world in disarray." we appreciate you taking the extra ten minutes earlier to on come for this show. >> gave up my beauty sleep. >> on one hand, you have a saudi leader saying all of the things people in the west wanted to hear for a long time, reforming education, cracking down on corruption, but there's an uneasiness about the way he's going about doing this. so there is a pause for a moment. sha something resinating with this administration, do you think? >> not a whole lot. this administration and the crown prince are very much of a peace when it comes to iran. they're both obviously highly opposed to this iranian government and its foreign policy. and i think their sympathy to the kind of -- what they call vision 2030, this idea of reforming, saudi arabia, this revolution, quote/unquote from the top down, there's some

foreign policy differences. we can talk about it, whether it's qatar or other issues, but by and large, they're more on the same page. >> is he actually making genuine reforms or is this simply an attempt to appease the west? >> i think that's too cynical. look, he's consolidated power to a remarkable degree. it's very un-saudi. usually you have a balancing action among factions of the family. he has consolidated power in a way we haven't seen since saudi arabia was born as a modern state. so i think that. but having, for example, women drive, is a big deal, socially, symbolically, also economically because it frees up all sorts of people to do more useful things in this society. and, again, he understands that some day saudi arabia needs more than an oil-based economy. so i think it's real. >> what are the biggest challenges he's going to the face internally? we often think of saudi arabia as being, sometimes, the birthplace of this extremist version of islam.

externally, what challenges can he possibly face? >> you put your finger on one. you'll have conservative elements in saudi society who won't like what he's doing pup may have factions of the family who feel cut out. they may literally or figuratively be gunning for him. also simply pulling off this massive change to make saudi arabia a real economy than simply a oil-based economy. 2030 is wildly ambitious. >> stick around because i want to read something about yemen and get your take on it. the measure being put forth by senators bernie sanders, mike lee and chris murphy would force the immediate withdraw of u.s. forces from yemen pending congressional approval. notably, the senator majority have been actively working against the measure. however, in order to force a vote over objection, they're using a mechanism known as a privileged resolution.

the u.s. has been providing military support to saudi arabia in their war on yemen, a war which has led them to proclaim yemen is suffering from a humanitarian catastrophe. let's talk about this. the u.s. is involved in yemen in two way he, directly with its own special ops and at the same time it's providing fuel, intelligence, logistical support to the saudis and the emiraties in that war. a lot of people are saying this has become a quagmire that the u.s. is involved in. >> it is. the saudis began this thinking it could be quick and easy. as history almost always shows, war is never easy particularly in places like yemen and the saudis find themselves trapped. and is there any chance the u.s. is going to withdraw its support? >> i is simply don't see it. the real question from the u.s. is not only that. it's what can we do diplomatically to find the

saudis help the way out on the terms they can live with. is this administration willing to do anything to entice iran? that's where the one dimensionlty of our anti-iranian policy has kicked in. and i'm not -- i would sincerely doubt you can win this struggle simply by amping up the pressure. that's the problem with u.s. and saudi policy. >> all right. richard haas, we'll talk to you on "morning joe." stick around. still ahead, more on the fallout over revolutions from cambridge analytica. mrus, the new title being bestowed on former beatles drummer ringo starr. bill karins is back for the latest on winter weather heading for the east coast.

♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream.

it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ♪ otezla. show more of you. a heart transplant... that's a whole different ballgame. i was in shock. i am very proud of the development of drugs that can prevent the rejection and prevent the recurrence

of the original disease. i never felt i was going to die. we know so much about transplantation. and we're living longer. you cannot help but be inspired by the opportunities that a transplant would offer. my donor's mom says "you were meant to carry his story". at&t gives you more for your thing. your getting serious thing. that moving out of the friend zone, moving in together and getting two of everything thing. those fur babies preparing you for real babies thing. that one for me, one for you, us together for the rest of forever thing. buy one iphone 8, get one iphone 8 on us. more for your thing. that's our thing. welcome back. let's get a check on your

weather forecast with nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> march storms are never easy. you have the high sun angle, temperatures that are borderline. this system has a lot of cold air to work with. we'll have some sleet in the beginning of the storm in many areas and then we'll go over to all snow. here is the snowfall footprint total through the entire storm. it goes all the way back to louisville, indianapolis, and able to way up to maine. the areas of the purple to the red, that's 6 to 12. so the heart of it is southern new england, new york in, philadelphia, baltimore, d.c., back to pittsburgh and some of the highest totals where we could see getting near 20 inches, it will be the higher elevations of west virginia, maryland, and southern pennsylvania once you get up in the mountains there of the appalachians. that's where they could be dealing with power outages. by the time we're all said and done, it will wrap up late wednesday night so when you wake up thursday morning, i still have d.c. in the beltway of 3 to

6. haguerstown, 8 to 12. isolated. philadelphia, you have the best chance of getting the highest totals. new york city, i have you at 4 to 8 inches. i know the national weather service, boston has 10 inches for you, 11 for hartford. 14 for new york in. it wouldn't surprise me if those totals come down later today. the other story we haven't talked much about is southern california is going to get up to 5 inches of rain in the next two days. this is the biggest storm they've had this winter. remember all those fires, the horrible mudslide and the deaths. that area is going to get nailed again. already evacuations in places for those areas. it will be ugly in southern california. so two big storms on both coasts. bill, going back to the snow, you said two to three

inches earlier in the week. now it's 8 to 12. >> no, no, i said 2 to 3 in new york and now it's 4 to 8. so small increments. >> bill, thanks so much. riggo star is set to by knighted today at buckingham palace for services to the music industry. starr is a member of the rock and roll hall of fame twice over. he's the second member of the fab four to be knighted, the other being sir paul mccartmy. citi still still ahead, at& court regarding its deal with time warner. king about joining her daughter's yoga class. she was thinking about her joints. but now that she's taking osteo bi-flex, she's noticing a real difference in her joint comfort. with continued use, it supports increased flexibility over time. karen: "she's single."

it also supports wonderfully high levels of humiliation in her daughter. karen: "she's a little bit shy." in just 7 days, your joint comfort can be your kid's discomfort. osteo bi-flex. you were made to move. so move.

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. facebook continues to confront the uproar over reports that analytics firm cambridge analytica collected and exploited data from over 50 million of its users without their consent. the stock dragged dow down who it. jomana, this could be one of the largest, most damaging crises that facebook has faced so far. how are they planning to weather this major trust issue? >> morning, lewis. so far, they said they're going to conduct an internal investigation, but to be honest, that wasn't enough to allay market fears.

the stock was down almost 7% yesterday, wiping off $37 billion off its market cap and $6 billion off mark zuckerberg's own personal wells. there is a consensus there will be more retaliation in the sector, as well. there are concerns is there going be more and more backlash against other tech companies. definitely something to keep an eye on in the future. switching to the telecom sector at the u.s. anti-trust trial against at&t's takeover of time warner has started. it will be an eight-week trial and it's starting off with controversy because the department of justice are hoping to obtain some internal memos from at&t as to some of the communication that has gone on about the proposed takeover. and at&t, of course, has been pushing back. the trial will last for eight weeks and the u.s. department of justice is saying it should be blocked because it essentially will lead to higher prices as far as consumers are concerned. and jomana, more bad news

for the retail injury. first toys r us and now claires, the teen accessory store will be filing for bankruptcy. retailer claire's maintains it's not going to go anywhere. what more can you tell us? >> so claire's accessories which is known for its low budget jewelry, like what i'm wearing here has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and they've settled for more than $9.1 billion worth of debt. that is because they have a very lucrative ear piercing business and over the years they were founded in the late 70s having pierced 3.5 million alone in 2017 and that is something that amazon can't compete with. >> that's a lot of ears. >> you go back to that facebook

story. thanks so much. >> i mean, lewis, first it was toy, r us, what's next? your favorite spencers? >>. >> a look at this one big thing and coming up, trump's legal team shakeup. the president is reportedly looking at overhauling his line yaup of lawyers as the robert mueller investigation intensifies. washington post will have the latest on the po tenness-- pote moves. an action packed morning joe live from washington, d.c. is just moments away. clap have you smelled this

new litter? no. nobody has! it's unscented! (vo) new tidy cats free & clean unscented. powerful odor control with activated charcoal. free of dyes. free of fragrances. tidy cats free & clean. when no scents makes sense. you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. i'm trying to manage my a1c, and then i learn type 2 diabetes puts me at greater risk for heart attack or stroke. can one medicine help treat both blood sugar and cardiovascular risk?

i asked my doctor. he told me about non-insulin victoza®. victoza® is not only proven to lower a1c and blood sugar, but for people with type 2 diabetes treating their cardiovascular disease, victoza® is also approved to lower the risk of major cv events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. and while not for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. (announcer) victoza® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take victoza® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza® or any of its ingredients. stop taking victoza® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck or symptoms of a serious allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, difficulty breathing, or swallowing. serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis. so stop taking victoza® and call your doctor right away if you have severe pain in your stomach area. tell your doctor your medical history. gallbladder problems have happened in some people. tell your doctor right away if you get symptoms. taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin

may cause low blood sugar. common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, indigestion, and constipation. side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. change the course of your treatment. ask your doctor about victoza®. joining us now from washington, d.c. with a look at axios, mike allen, good to have you with us. what's the one big thing heading into this morning?

>> on the first day of spring, one big thing, why the president is shaking up his legal team. the probe by the special counsel is turning out to be messier and longer than the white house thought, so the president is adding joe digeneva, going back to the bush clinton era. he's putting him around the table and what does this show? this shows that the president is continuing to respond to queues from tv. he's best known from cable tv and has been arguing for the president very aggressively. and so the result of this is another tough guy around the table. that makes you think that some of that rattling of the special counsel that we saw over the weekend, some of the shot from the white house to the special counsel won't be the end. >> and we've heard a little bit earlier about the president

possibly losing confidence in his legal team. what are we hearing about a possible shakeup on that front? >> yeah, so this is a big addition. this shows that the white house knows that this is going to go for a while, that their talking point about how there's nothing here, there's nothing to see here, that that won't last. and we're hearing that the president is less confident as he talks to people inside. he's talking to people who tell him that some of his team may not be at the top of their game and the important thing to know here is that the president who's been in litigation most of his adult life is very acutely sensitive to his legal team just like he obsesses about his press coverage, so this is a client who is not going to give the reigns to his team and we have the washington post reporting this morning that the president is making decisions about what he's going to say independent of his team, certainly a lawyer's nightmare. >> let's talk about facebook and

this whole cambridge analytica scandal. why is that turning out to be one of the most damaging scandals in facebook's history? it's lost almost $40 billion in a single day. >> yaw, ever since the election facebook has been in the spin cycle getting hit left and right. but axios is reporting that this is the most damaging episode for them and it's not just because it's the first time that it's really hit their share prices and there's not even a new shocking revelation about facebook here. we knew that facebook was vulnerable. we now facebook data could be used from outsiders but this has called into question about trust in facebook. facebook needs us to spend time there and if we're not trusting it, if we're not willing to give it as much data, facebook suddenly becomes less valuable and that's what you're seeing the market saying. so the problem with russia investigation is that it's just opened a ban dora's box of

questions about facebook, how it works, how it operated. >> so given all of those concerns has been -- has facebook's response been somewhat appropriate? are you getting a sense from washington, d.c. that legislators want to try to do something about this issue given facebook's, you know, involvement in cambridge analytica now? >> yeah, as your viewers know, there was already appetite left and right to regulate the big tech companies, reign in the big tech companies, that really has added to this and both in london and in washington we're hearing legislators saying that they don't want just spokes people, just lawyers for these platforms. they specifically want the facebook founder and ceo mark zuckerburg both in london and here for him to appear. facebook hasn't wanted that image of the top executives raising their right hand as if

they were tobacco company exec tyti exectives, but it looks like they'll have to have the face here. >> robert mueller, there's been some questions that the president may put pressure on rosen stein. what dou you make to the reactin of that charge that he may be putting pressure on rod rose stein to have him fired? >> it would be the stupidest thing the president could do, that's a widely held view, i can tell you both inside and outside the white house. if firing the fbi director james comey, which wasn't the appointment of the essential counsel, if that wasn't as steve bannon said was the dumbest mistake in political history,

the president doesn't want to top it. >> we'll be reading axios am j usa will it l b-- little bit. >> correct myself it's actually tuesday. >> there was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate hillary clinton and if she didn't win the election to then frame donald trump with a falsely created crime. >> that is president trump's new attorney back in january. amplifying claims of a secret society at the fbi. that appearance was in effect, a televised audition for joining the president's legal team. welcome to morning joe. it is tuesday. march 20th. with us here in washington, we have