and headliners, in-depth look at man we talk about so much here, robert mueller. i'm become here at 4:00 p.m. that's the broadcast. good night from new york. for the very first time, president trump offers a public comment on the $130,000 payment adult star stormy daniels. now her lawyer is weighing in. president trump goes off script in west virginia literally in a free-wheeling event that was billed as a discussion on tax reform. and china proposes additional tariffs on beijing. all eyes on wall street as tensions over a possible trade war escalate. good morning, everyone. it's friday, april 6th.

we begin with president trump breaking his silence on stormy daniels. it's been three months since "the wall street journal" broke the news that donald trump's lawyer, michael cohen, arranged a $130,000 payment for the porn star's silence about an alleged 2006 affair with donald trump. since then, she has sued the president to get out of the nondisclosure agreement and has told her story on "60 minutes on." the white house has denied that the president had an affair and he has avoided addressing the controversy directly, that is until yesterday when after an appearance in west virginia he decided to take questions on board air force one. watch this. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? then why did michael cohen make it if there was -- >> you'd have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney and you'll have to ask michael. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment.

>> no. >> did you ever set up a fund of money -- >> the president did not answer that last question about setting up a fund. michael cohen's attorney released a statement saying, quote, this is an accurate assessment of the facts. this is exactly what i have been saying all along. michael cohen made the payment to protect the reputation, family and business. it had nothing to do with the election. meanwhile, stormy daniels' lawyer says he's, quote, ecstatic over the president's remarks. >> we waited patiently and lo and behold, christmas has arrived. the president's comments on air force one are serious for him, serious for michael cohen. how can you have an agreement when one party claims that they don't know anything about the agreement? these guys are making it up as they go along. they don't know what to say day in in and day out and our case just got a whole lot better. >> in addition to the argument that there's no agreement, if

the president didn't know about the payment, there's the issue of the president joining a motion last month to move the case to federal court. legal analysts say it is difficult for the president to fight for an enforcement for an agreement that he claims he did not know about. >> so the white house now struggling to explain a stunning claim president trump made, as well, during a trip to to west virginia for an event described by the white house as a roundtable discussion on tax reform. the president was quickly bored by the subject and steering his remarks towards politics, trade, the 2016 election, resurrecting his act ewe on saying of widespread voter fraud after losing the popular vote and alleging without any evidence that a cara van of immigrants are committing vicious sexual assaults now in mexico. >> this is going to be my remarks.

>> a little boring. a little boring. no, i'm reading off the first paragraph. this is boring. come on. in many places, like california, the same person votes mt. you probably heard about that. they always like to say that's a conspiracy theory. not a conspiracy theory, folks. remember my opening remarks at trump tower. everybody said oh, he was so tough. i used the word rape and yesterday it came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels never before seen. >> nbc news has asked the white house for specific statistics to back up the claims about women being raped. neither the white house nor the president provided any evidence to support his claim, nor did

they identify the source of his information. earlier this year, trump disbanded a voter fraud commission after it uncovered millions of illegal votes. >> trump told reporters he would like to see between 2,000 and 4,000 national guard troops deployed for an undefined period of time. this as the pentagon announced a new unit would evaluate how many troops are needed and for how long. three of the border governors who are republicans, greg abbott of texas, susana martinez and doug ducey expressed their support for send troops, while california jerry brown is waiting for more details. kate brown tweeted if if donald trump asks me the to deploy oregon guard troops to the mexico border, i'll say no as commander of oregon's guard.

i'm deeply bothered by trump's plan to militarize our border. china is fighting back. overnight, china's commerce ministry said beijing is prepared to fight the u.s. at any cost as trade disputes escalate. on tuesday, the white house issued a statement from the president reading in part, rather than remedy its misconduct, china has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers in light of china's unfair retaliation. i have instructed the usdr to consider whether 100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate, and, if if so, to identify the products on which to impose such tariffs. trump's latest move comes after china announced it would

introduce tariffs on soybeans and cars among other things. republican senator ben sasse of nebraska released a statement reading hopefully the president is just blowing off steam again, but if he's even half serious, this is nuts. china is guilty of many things, but the president has no actual plan to win right now. he's threatening to light american agriculture on fire. let's take on chinese bad behavior, but with a plan that punishes them instead of us. this is the dumbest possible way to do the this. >> he's not mincing his words whatsoever. neils, great to have you with us. let's talk about the president in west virginia going off -- i guess off script, you could say he was freelancing a little bit. >> when you throw your papers, you're going off script. >> what do you make of trump's new approach here? people in the white house must be scratching their heads. some of his advisers must be

worried when he starts off his statement saying my speech was boring, forget it. >> thank you for having me. the real problem here is that if the theory was supposed to be that this was going to be a tax reform speech where president trumps was flanked by two of the republicans who are running for senate in west virginia and they were going to talk about tax reform and instead they end up on all of these other subjects, whether it's the immigration piece or everything else that he was getting into there, that's kind of where the real problem is is that because now you don't know if you want to be with the president if you're a republican running for office if you don't know what he's going to say. >> that's a good point. >> neils, trump is floating this idea that i just mentioned earlier of increasing tariffs even more so on china by another $100 billion. pretty huge numbers had there. obviously, it's seen as if we are heading straight towards this trade war as we've been

talking about the last couple of days. not a lot of people in the gop. there are some people that are not necessarily on board with what trump is doing with regard to china and what he intends to achieve here. do you think that we could see congress step in? >> the short answer is that they could. i think they probably won't until after whatever sort of review process that the u.s. trade representative has to go through. but i think if these things started to look real, particularly on these agricultural products in the midwest, then i think you could suddenly see congress spurred to action, particularly because there's so many republican lawmakers and voters that would be hit so hard. >> let me ask you quickly about the impact that all this on the political side of the equation. could these tariffs and especially from what i've been reading and hearing is that the chinese have been so smart after going after specific industries

that are red state in nature. could this have an impact on the midterms? >> i think it absolutely could. particularly if this becomes more real, you're going to have a lot of red state democrats who will be perhaps in a better position if they can push back against these tariffs than they otherwise would be. all right. live for us in washington, d.c. this morning, neils, we'll touch base with you in a little bit. stick around. >> thank you. following new reports on allegedly controversial decisions by scott pruitt. the lead agent in charge of pruitt security details was reassigned to a new job within the epa. cbs says the move came roughly two weeks after a meeting with the agent. a 16-year veteran denied the request with by pruitt running late to a meeting to use his vehicle's lights and sirens to cut through traffic and get to that appointment.

meanwhile, the "new york times" are reporting at least five officials at the epa, four of them high ranking, were reassigned, demoted or requested new jobs in the past year after they raised concerns about the spending and management by peruis. the times and sources who work for or with the epa, certain demands for pruitt by security coverage including a bullet proof vehicle and an expanded 20-person protective detail. now, when asked about the "new york times's" report, nbc news was told this is a group of disgruntled employees who have been reassigned or dismissed. straight ahead, more on scott pruitt. plus, former first lady michelle obama shares words of optimism about the future of this country.

woman: i'm a fighter. always have been. when i found out i had age-related macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. my doctor and i came up with a plan. it includes preservision. only preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd backed by 15 years of clinical studies. that's why i fight.

because it's my vision. preservision. we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied. are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me? my bladder leakage was making me feel like i couldn't spend time with my grandson. now depend fit-flex has their fastest absorbing material inside, so it keeps me dry and protected. go to depend.com -

get a coupon and try them for yourself. swho live within five miles of gcustyour business?-54, like these two... and that guy. or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness... namaste. whichever audience you're looking for, we'll find them we're the finders. we work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. anywhere, any way your audience watches. consider them found.

welcome back, everybody. yesterday, former first lady michelle obama spoke about her hopes for the country. >> i think we're at a point in time where we have to figure out who we want to be as a nation. and we've had two spark examples of what we can be. i certainly know what direction i want the country to go in. and i want to.en continue a country based on empathy and compassion and generosity and good will. i want on to be in a nation where we give one another the benefit of the doubt, where we have open arms and we're full of inclusion, but we have to fight

for that vision. it just doesn't happen. and we can't take it for granted. >> california senator pamela harris was on the "ellen show" and she was asked about a presidential bid. >> you're probably not going to answer had me, but i'm going to ask you, anyway. >> you're right. i'm not going to answer. >> on both counts. >> on both counts. >> if you had to but is stuck in an elevator with president trump, mike pence or jeff sessions, who would it be? >> does one of us have to to come out alive? >> now, some conservatives were not amused by that joke and numerous articles later called it vicious saying she might have gone too far. in fact, she only had positive things to say about her talk show appearenance tweeting out, had a great time with ellen

yesterday. >> i thought for sure ellen was going to get the goods on that. oftentimes i feel like they're able to get the school more so than journalists. let's get a check off your weather with bill karins. >> good news if for our friends in philadelphia, baltimore, d.c. we were thinking you had snow to deal with this weekend. you may still see it. one of the things we're watching w apologies to north dakota. it's 4 degrees in in bismarck and the windchill is negative 14. it's april 6. minot, negative zero windchill temperatures today. it's not much better in northern new england. 21 in serious and 24 in burlington. this is light rain and snow

moving through areas of the east. there's nothing too bad out there, but well be watching snow showers in new england on and off throughout the day. you see the blue across pennsylvania. if you look outside and you see snow, that's the case. d.c. is not bad at 70 degrees. there will be rain showers. it's not going to rain all day. southeast looks great. masters attorney beautiful, beautiful friday. this is the problem areas. thunderstorms in texas late today. we'll be watching for a chance of severe storms out of this. those severe storms last into saturday, too. as far as the snow forecast, mountains in colorado. the mid-atlantic region, could get about an inch or so on on the grass in virginia, d.c., philly. it's just not going to be a beautiful april weekend, but you're not going to get snowed

out, either. >> we'll take it. >> yeah, we'll take it. hopefully it will be the last time. still ahead, we'll take you to the home opener in minnesota where a bald eagle sticks his landing on the opposing starting pitcher and sergio garcia goes full tin cup at the masters. ♪ today is a good day to make a plan for your financial goals and your everyday ones too. pnc can help. we'll be with you every step of the way.

let's start today. we'll be with you every step of the way. but one blows themisturizer all out of the water. hydro boost from neutrogena®. with hyaluronic acid to plump skin cells so it bounces back. neutrogena® hello. give me an hour in tanning room 3. cheers! that's confident. but it's not kayak confident. kayak searches hundreds of travel sites to help me plan the best trip. so i'm more than confident. forgot me goggles. kayak. search one and done. and sometimes, i don't eat the way i should. so, i drink boost. boost high protein nutritional drink has 15 grams of protein to help maintain muscle and 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d. look for savings on boost in your sunday paper. pepsoriasis does that. including calcium and vitamin d. it was tough getting out there on stage. i wanted to be clear. i wanted it to last.

so i kept on fighting. i found something that worked. and keeps on working. now? they see me. see me. see if cosentyx could make a difference for you- cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...find clear skin that can last. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting cosentyx, you should be checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. if you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. never give up. see me. see me. clear skin can last. don't hold back... ...ask your dermatologist if cosentyx can help you find clear skin that lasts.

♪ banner yet wave o'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ and the home -- very solemn moment and a patriotic moment and an uncooperative bald eagle. >> and we'll never exactly know what that eagle was trained to do. it was supposed to go back to its handler, not attack the other pitcher. welcome back. time now for sports ahead of yesterday's game in minnesota between the mariners and the twins opening day festivities obviously didn't go as planned. it got lost, couldn't find its handle her so it landed on the seattle mariners starter james paxton. it could have ripped into his shoulder. thankfully, it didn't. the lefty would go on to pitch

five scoreless innings for the mariners. so he was just fine. the twins hang on for the 4-2 victory. opening day in the nation's capital. first, solo shot. he ties the game at two in the fourth inning. in the next frame, that's michael c onfort on o. and in the seventh, jay clears the bases, padding the mets' lead sending the crowd home. they beat the nats, 8-2. in box, the red sox rallied from two runs down in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the home opener against the rays and this game is going to extra innings. in the bottom of the 12th, hanley ramirez -- >> is going to do it. on to the warning track.

bradley scores. >> 3-2 victory against the tampa bay rays and the red sox. they win their sixth straight. turning to the quest for golf's coveted green jacket, to augusta, georgia, where jordan spieth leads the field by two strokes. spieth finished 6 under par. meanwhile, tiger woods finished seven shots off the lead. he's at 1 over 73. after hitting the water on the 12th, it looked like the wheels were coming off the wagon, but he saved it a bit coming in. this is the story of the day, though. you would think with sergio, defending champion, finally gets the coveted green jacket that this would be a walk in the park. no stress at all. unfortunately for him, this was all on the same hole. this was the par 5 and these were approach shots after

approach shots. the shots themselves aren't that bad, but the green, and he had too many spin on the ball. he got a 13 on the par 5 15th hole. five balls land in the water. a little tin cup right there and then he finally ends the hole and any chance he has of being a repeat champion. finally, conor mcgregor turned himself into police following an incident at the u the fc media center. that's mcgregor, runs over, boom, there goes the front window of the bus. that's a dolly. there were several fighters on the bus. ended up having minor injuries due to a broke.en glass. according to the new york police, mcgregor has been charged with three counts of assault, one count of criminal miss chief and another fighter

is facing charges. >> there is an element of typing up fights, but that definitely crossed the line. >> it went way over a line. it could have gone through the glass. >> and we should give a shout out to paxton with the seattle mariners who totally stayed cool. >> you see, if you start hitting it or something, it could rip your cheek off. thanks, bill. still ahead, paul manafort has been in dieted in robert mueller's investigation, but newly reported search warrants is still doing some digging. plus, the poisoned daughter of a formerer russia spy speaks out for the first time. it's easy to think that all

money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. where we're changing withs? contemporary make-overs. then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today. book now at lq.com. why is dark magic so spell-bindingly good? it's 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.

only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol® [seen it. covered it. n. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ from the first moment you met, it was love at first touch. and all you wanted to do was surround them in comfort and protection. that's why only pampers swaddlers is the number one choice of hospitals to wrap your baby in blanket-like softness and premium protection. so that all they feel is love. pampers the number one choice of hospitals, nurses and parents

welcome back, everybody. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. we're learning within the last four weeks, the investigation into the russian meddling in the 2016 election obtained a new search warrant for paul manafort. the warrant is for march 9th and was produced in an affidavit that contains redacted information relating to ongoing

investigations that are not the subject of either of the prosecution's involving manafort. it is unclear whether that means a broader investigation of manafort or of someone else. the new warrant came two weeks after rick gates pleaded guilty and began cooperating with federal prosecutors. although manafort has been served with seven search warrants for his properties, banks, a hard drive, e-mail accounts, five phone lines and a storage locker. meanwhile, new claims about the counsel's special action probe. bob mueller's team recently showed up unannounced at a moment of associate of the trump organization who the report does not name but has been involved if in overseas companies of trump in recent years. and a former trump

administration executive involved in deals in kazakhstan and russia. it is a project cohen worked on with former trump associate felix sader who on wednesday testified behind closed doors at the senate intel committee. now to president trump breaking his silence on the stormy daniels story. here is nbc news national correspondent peter alexander. >> president trump breaking his silence about stormy daniels and the world's most talked about about hush money payment. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> that payment, less than two weeks before the 2016 election, made by his lawyer, michael cohen. so why did cohen pay if the president has denied having an affair with the porn star?

>> you'll have to ask michael. >> president trump insisting he doesn't know where the funds come from. >> this absolutely could she an illegal campaign contribution. it looks like an in-kind donation made to the trump campaign that wasn't reported on fec filings. >> last month, daniels addressed the payment on "60 minutes." >> was it hush money to stay silent? >> yes. the story was coming out again. i was concerned for my family and their safety. >> daniels lawyer responding. >> if you have a party that knows nothing of an agreement, you can't have an agreement. i was not surprised about his lack of discipline because i think he's demonstrated thad consistently over the last two years, but i'm certainly pleased by it. >> we reached out to michael cohen, but did not hear back. some legal experts say the president's comments could end up helping stormy daniels case because they say the hush money

required a signature from daniels and the president who just claimed he knew nothing about it. the contest to fill u.s. retired senator bob corker's seat is heating up. according to the latest poll from middle tennessee state university, 45% of registered tennessee voters said they would choose bredesen if the elections were held tomorrow, 35% said they would choose blackburn. meanwhile, tim pawlenty said he would run for his old job eight years after leaving the office. pawlenty is seen as an early favorite among republicans. scott pruitt is claiming that his landlord did not have business before the epa, but

that reportedly isn't the case. in fact, the daily beast sam stein is citing a review of lobbying disclosure forms and records that pruitt's attorney was representing a major gas company and epa holder. priet claims that heart was no client,s has no client. one of hearts' clients is currently battling the epa in court over paying $100 million in cleanup costs. williams and jensen represented a country that got a pipeline expansion project approved by the epa. but as stein points out, this only scratches the surface of heart's advocacy on behalf of

clients with business before the pruitt-led epa. more on this come up in just a bit here on "morning joe." so spokes people for the white house has declined to offer full support for pruitt in recent days. hogan gidley said yesterday pruitt's conduct is currently under review. but at the same time, multiple administration officials familiar with the president's thinking tell nbc news the president had been consider canning as recently as last week replacing jeff sessions with pruitt. k cnn was the first to report that news. pruitt has told friends and associates that he's interested in becoming attorney general. president trump said he would take a look into the ethics issues but praised his work.

>> i think zot has done a fantastic job. i think he's a fantastic person. they love scott pruitt. they feel very strongly about scott pruitt and they lost scott pruitt. >> joining us from washington from roll call neils. so first came the support from the white house. now illustrate seems there's a bit of uncertainty here. you have hogan gidly who says he can't speak to pruitt's future, but then he heard president trump praising scott pruitt. if you are pruitt, are you nervous about your future? >> given what we've seen from other members of the cabinet who have been unceremoniously let go over twitter, i'm sure if you're pruitt you have to be kwernd that that might happen.

one thing is, it's not clear what could happen in terms of confirming somebody else to be the epa administrator. this may be one of those situationses where pruitt has a better chance of weathering the storm, literally because they couldn't the figure out who else could get through the senate. >> something tells me scott pruitt has probably turned on his twitter notifications on his cell phone from the president's account. let's switch gears quickly. i want to ask you about phil bredesen who is now holding a ten-point lead over congresswoman marsh blackburn for the tennessee senate race. what does that tell us about heading into the mid term? >> of course the republicans should be worried.

what i would think might end up happening, whether or not this poll turns out to be an outlierer is it's certainly going to force more republican money into tennessee. there's probably going to need to be more republican money spent in texas, as well, in support of ted cruise. and every time you've got to spend money in states that should be red, that's less money to go around in places that are more purple. >> it's more about defense than it is about offense, so to speak. >> and you're the gop in a state like texas, that might be a problem. >> neils, great to have you with us. still ahead, facebook's chief operating officer opens up about the company's massive data brief. why cheryl sandburg says it took so long to fix it. plus more on what will hopefully be winter's last stand. fingers crossed.

just another day on the farm. or is it? this farmer's morning starts in outer space. where satellites feed infrared images of his land into a system built with ai. he uses watson to analyze his data with millions of weather forecasts from the cloud, and iot sensors down here, for precise monitoring of irrigation. it's a smart way to help increase yields, all before the rest of us get out of bed. you might or joints.hing 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. at ally, we offer low-cost trades and high-yield savings. but if that's not enough, we offer innovative investing tools to prepare you for the future. looks like you hooked it. and if that's not enough, we'll help your kid prepare for the future. don't hook it kid. and if that's still not enough, we'll help your kid's kid prepare for the future. looks like he hooked it. we'll do anything... takes after his grandad. seriously anything, to help you invest for the future. ally. do it right. seriously anything, to help you invest for the future. 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.

welcome back, everybody. facebook's cheryl sandberg is addressing user information of up to 87 million people. the ceo sat with "today's" savannah guthrie as the company plans to the rebuild public trust. >> what is the reason it took so long? you could have done all of this 2 1/2 years ago. >> you are right that we could have done this 2 1/2 years ago. >> so why didn't you? >> as i explained, we thought that the data had been deleted and we should have checked. you are right about that. >> why didn't you check? >> we thought it had been deleted because these gave us assurans. >> but why go on faith for someone who has violated in spirit if not in the letter of facebook's principals, that's like someone robbed your house and -- >> no, we didn't trust. we had legal assurances that

they deleted. what we didn't do was an audit. >> should heads roll at facebook? is this the right leadership.? you, mark, have you asked yourself those hard questions? >> i think those are hard questions and they're the right questions. i can speak for myself first. i serve at the pleasure of mark and our board and i will be here as long as they think i'm the right person to run this and to lead our response and to make sure that we can rebuild trust with people all over the the world. >> so that full interview with air later this morning on "today" on pbz number. >> let's get a check with your weather with bill karins. >> a little bit of everything this weekends. with we have a little bit of snow coming down from cleveland to erie through pennsylvania. just some snow showers. not going to cause many problems. especially areas of connecticut, western miss mass, southern vermont. that will be the worst of it.

a lot of the major roads will be just fine. zero snow this weekend for philadelphia, new york, baltimore and d.c. richmond to roanoke, charleston, richmond, that will be as we go throughout the day on saturday. so here is the bigger story today. more severe weather. flying in and out of dallas this morning, thunderstorms will start the to form over the top of you late this afternoon. we will expect airport delays and then those thunderstorms will move into areas of louisiana, southern arkansas. we have a chance of tornados in in this region. 15 million people at risk. by saturday morning, we watch those storms right along the east coast from north carolina down through georgia and north florida. how about the fridge i didn't tell -- frigid conditions. there's the storms on saturday. a little bit of snow on the north side of it. it's not looking like a huge ordeal. we have all the rain out in the west. flood concerns into the

weekends. unfortunately on sunday, more snow in the northern plains. >> bill, you're killing us, bud. >> we're going into mid april here, guys. >> unbelievable. >> it's going to turn around soon, guys. >> hopefully on the back end of the summer, we have a long summer going into fall. still ahead, the daughter of a former russian spy speaks out on the poisoning of her and her father. >> we'll go live to london for what she's saying on the understand that spark dollars international backlash against russia. so you're looking for male customers, ages 25-54,

who live within five miles of your business? like these two... and that guy. or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness... namaste. whichever audience you're looking for, we'll find them we're the finders. we work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. anywhere, any way your audience watches. consider them found.

we use our phones the same way these days. so why do we pay to have a phone connected when we're already paying for internet? shouldn't it all just be one thing? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you can get up to 5 lines of talk and text included at no extra cost. so all you pay for is data. see how you could save $400 or more a year. plus, for a limited time, get a $250 prepaid card when you buy any new samsung. xfinity mobile. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. click, call, or visit an xfinity store today.

welcome back, everybody. we're following new developments with the poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter in england last month. yulia scrippal and her father were found poisoned last month. now yulia has released her first statement. >> let's cross over to london. we are joined by nbc news international correspondent cal perry. good to have you with us the this morning. what did she have to say and what are the impacts of what she had to say on relations in britain and russia this monk? >> this is the first time we've heard from her since march 4th. she was in and out of a coma. quote, i woke up over a week ago now. i'm glad to say my strength is growing daily.

i have many people to think. i would especially like the to mention the people of salisbury who came the to our aid when my father and i were incapacitated. one on of them ended up in the hospital. as relations between russia and the united kingdom, they are absolutely horrible and it seems the british has lost control of the headlines partly because the russians have a spectacular information campaign, a state run information campaign that on this story is centering around twitter. i want to show you four tweets about 28 days after the march 4th poisoning. they put out this tweet which plays 28 days later. a month after the attack the russian embassy really trolling here. england saying we're still waiting for word. initially prime minister may laid the blame on russia. recently they've been hitting hard the brits for the violence around london.

the last tweet that you're going to see here is in relation to 55 people being killed here in london. that has been the story, but again, this information campaign, just brutal. >> i got to be honest with you. the russians seem to be good at trolling countries on twitter. the russian embassy in washington, d.c. has taken it to a whole new level with some of their trolling here in the u.s. >> it's not even about controlling the narrative, it's about destroying the narrative. >> good to see you live from london for us. >> thanks, cal. axios is a look at this one big thing and coming up on morning joe, speaking out on stormy. president trump breaking his silence by the payment of his personal attorney to a former porn star to keep quiet on their alleged affair. >> and china look to double down on what's shaping up to be a global trade war. and form ore defense secretary william cohen joins the

conversation. "morning joe" just moments away. whatever you do to stay healthy. you might be missing something. your eyes. that's why there's ocuvite. ocuvite helps replenish nutrients your eyes can lose as you age. it has lutein, zeaxanthin and omega-3. ocuvite. be good to your eyes. we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied. are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me? full-bodied. i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. i bet i'm the first blade maker you've ever met.

there's a lot of innovation that goes into making our thinnest longest lasting blades on the market. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. it's about delivering a more comfortable shave every time. invented in boston, made and sold around the world. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. ♪ today is a good day to make a plan for your financial goals and your everyday ones too. pnc can help. we'll be with you every step of the way. let's start today. we'll be with you every step of the way. another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula to visibly reduce wrinkles. neutrogena®.

capdynamic lightingrs elevated comfort powerfully efficient and one more thing the world comes with it ♪you can go your own way... the 2019 jeep cherokee welcome back, everybody.

axios cofounder, jim, good morning to you. good to see you. talk to us about axios one big thing this morning. >> we're talking about president trump as the blufferer. he bluffs on every single topic. we saw this with the spending bill when he said he'd veto it and he didn't. we saw this with the aluminum and steel tariffs. said there would be no carveouts and then there were and now a lot of people are trying to figure out if he's bluffing in his trade war with china. he said the other day it's not a war. we slap tariffs, they retaliate, now he's saying we're going to retailuate again and this can give you leverage and that's what the president would say if he was here right now. no one knows what i'll do next, but internally people are confused. they don't know what he'll do

next and that's now manifesting itself in the markets where you see all this volatility in the markets because the markets don't know what president trump will do and what he'll set off. >> so i know that you and axios's jonathan swan, you've been speaking to your sources inside the white house about exactly that, his negotiating views. what did they tell you about what the president's tactics may by in all of this? the market is in a little bit of a frenzy. how is all this helping his objective? >> well, what he thinks is he's applying maximum leverage on the chinese and that ultimately they'll buckle and that they will create a deal that is favorable on tariffs for the united states. that may or may not happen. the fear, remember when gary cohen was in office and he was sitting there advising the president, he said the minute you slap those tariffs you're in a trade war and you're going to lose a lot of market value. that's exactly what's happened. and that's what worries a lot of

people on wall street and some people inside the white house that we're now in this territory of unpredictability and you have the market getting pushed down and it really is the president's fault. he chose to do this. he chose to have this war. so it is a war of choice. >> so we've seen the president obviously sort of in the private sector. we saw him on the apprentice with this approach you're talking about. you also talk about this macho man that white house saaides sa they have feared about this. what more can you tell us about what the aides are concerned about the president and his negotiating style. >> he wants to know, am i winning and he hates to be seen as small. whether it was about his hand size or whether or not he could beat up joe biden, he hates to be seen as small. so when they worry about, the stuff that he was saying behind the scenes that he didn't act on last year he's now saying and he's doing and that is the fundamental difference about

this presidency today versus a year ago. there are no restraints and he's going with his gut and maybe his gut will be right. occasionally he gets wins. i think his volatility has probably helped us in our negotiating position with the chinese. it height have helped bring the south koreans to the table to do a trade deal but it just creates uncertainty, especially in our domestic markets and even with his own republicans and his own staff, they look at us and they're like who the hell knows. you never know what he'll do next. >> let's talk about larry cud low. he's been speaking to reporters saying that the president has assured him that he's a free trade guy. what are you hearing about cud low and his reaction to all of this? >> i don't think any of it is a huge surprise to him. he knew what he was signing up f for.

he is pro free trade. the president is not pro free trade. he wanted to get into this trade war. larry cudlow's job is to make sure the healthy market he inherited doesn't tarng and so he has to get on cnbc and other business channels and be able to argue that listen, this is a -- this is going to pass. we're going to get a deal. the markets are hyper ventilating. they are reacting to this and so the words don't help because the actions are hard. >> i saw yesterday as soon as that announcement was when they were considering slapping the $100 billion i saw the markets beginning to react. all right. thank you very much. we'll be reading axios a.m. in just a little while. you too can sign up for the newsletter at axios.com. >> that does it for us this morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> just so you understand, i know so much about trade with china. >> their hold trade thing is

tariff. you can't deal in china without tari tariff. they do it to us, we don't do it. >> if you put a tariff it's the good americans that pay it. >> you're looking at me? >> apart from the higher prices on consumers and people living paycheck to paycheck, apart from that there will be retaliation. so the soybean sales from iowa or how about boeing right here, if you think the chinese had a 45% increase on tariffs they wouldn't start buying air bus? of course they would. we need someone with a steady hand being president of the united states. >> so remember that during the campaign when donald trump threatened a trade war? he's doing it again and it looks like it's playing out just as jeb bush said it would. >> wait a second. what do you know, mika, jeb bush who -- i think of all the candidates we talked to -- >> we talked to them a lot. >> why don't you tell the truth. >> of all