and so i always -- i always pray to make sure that he knows that even though his mother's not there, she loved him more than anything. tensions on the rise inside iran, massive protests have broken out over the do you think of a ukrainian jet last week in the streets of tehran. demonstrators chanted against the supreme leader and the revolutionary guard. house speaker nancy pelosi says she is preparing to send articles of impeachment over to the senate this week as president trump appears to suggest that senators dismiss the trial all together. and the gloves come off between two top democratic presidential candidates, elizabeth warren is accusing bernie sanders of sending his volunteers out to trash her. ♪

good morning, everyone, it is monday, january 13th, i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian. we want to begin with the latest developments concerning iran as the trump administration's justification for the attack that killed iranian general qassem soleimani continues to evolve by the day, defense secretary mark esper says that he saw no specific evidence that iran targeted four u.s. embassies just days after the president had this to say on fox news. >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies and i think that probably baghdad already started, but i think it would have been four embassies, it could have been military bases, it could have been a lot of other things, too, but it was eminent. and then all of a sudden he was gone. >> the president didn't say -- he didn't cite a specific piece of evidence, what he said is he probably -- >> are you saying there wasn't one? >> i didn't see one with regard to four embassies, what i'm

saying is i share the president's view that probably my expectation was they were going to go after our embassies. >> so demonstrators in iran shouted anti-government slowing ans and took to the streets yesterday to protest the iranian government's eventual admission that it shot down a ukrainian passenger jet which killed all 176 people on board. at first senior iranian officials denied allegations of a missile strike against the passenger plane framing it as western propaganda but on saturday iran's revolutionary guard said they failed to close the air space as they waited for the u.s. to retaliate. yesterday marked the second day of protests. "the new york times" reports, quote, the unrest spread outside of tehran, the capital, to at least a dozen cities, security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and eventually live ammunition to disburse demonstrators. a day earlier hundreds gathered at universities in tehran to

protest the government's changing narrative which prompted president trump to tweet in support of the protesters in both english and in farsi, saying in part this, we are following your protests closely and are inspired by your courage. the president also warned the iranian government to, quote, allow human rights groups to monitor and report facts from the ground and that, quote, the world is watching. joining us now from qatar, nbc news correspondent cal perry. cal, good to have you with us this morning. bring us up to speed on the protests and what you may be gathering from being in the region about what direction they're going in. are they growing? what is the ultimate end goal here do you think? >> reporter: certainly seems to be growing, bigger the second day than they were the first. it's also worth mentioning of course that the president of the united states, donald trump, in his first month in office tried to ban iranians from coming to the u.s. and in his last month tried to threaten that he was going to bomb cultural sites. let's be clear, those tweets are not going to matter to folks in iran who are taking their lives

into their hands. it was last month when we saw hundreds, maybe thousands of protesters killed by government forces, they were protesting the economy, they were protesting gas prices. these protests seem to stem, as you said, from the do you think of that ukrainian airliner. 82 iranians were on that airplane, these protests seem to be student led but it's what they're chanting, what they're saying. letting to khamenei, iran is our enemy, no the united states. stark in its message, it will be interesting to see as we watch social media videos surface how the iranians deal with the protesters. yesterday we saw video of them fire into the air using tear gas. ever been in the region hopes it doesn't turn vie plant. >> that's what i wanted to expand on a bit as to what you're hearing with regards to how government officials there, if, in fact, they are cracking don on these protesters as we've seen in the past in that country. >> reporter: well, it's

interesting. you were the one who made the point yesterday that these are student-led protesters, fairly affluent folks, this is not the middle class we saw protesting last month. i think that's really key in you how the government is going to deal with this. the other option the government has is they could start pushing forward to find blame on who actually was responsible for shooting down that airliner. we had this remarkable press conference from the revolutionary guard which is never transparent and was very transparent when they said somebody had less than ten seconds to decide whether or not to fire that surface to air missile. the government could go forward with some kind of trials, trying to blame somebody, whether that satisfies the protesters is another situation. it's a situation that stems from so much more. sanctions that have crippled the country, the a assassination of general soleimani, discontent with the government. it's important we sort of make it clear you can protest the americans and their presence in the region and protest the iranian regime. those things do not necessarily become mutually exclusive.

that's what you're seeing from protesters on the ground in tehran. >> nbc's cal perry. >> thank you, cal. >> interestingly enough, we were talking when these protests started several months ago about the economic ones and then we saw the millions of people pouring out into the streets supporting qassem soleimani and now this round of wave. the point a lot of people can be making is all of those people are iran, iran is not a monolithic country. >> much of what i'm hearing is the people in the streets mourning the general are very much the same people that are also in the streets protesting the do you think of this plane. we are going to wait and see what happens in iran as we're seeing these protests spread. yesterday we saw the protests in tehran, now i'm hearing protests are going to a place that is a very religious working class city. that could seem like a kind of turn in the direction of these protests and what could become of them. house speaker nancy pelosi is expected to meet with democratic lawmakers tomorrow as she prepares to send the articles of impeachment over to the senate. in a letter to her democratic

colleagues on friday pelosi suggested the house could appoint managers who will act as prosecutors in the upcoming senate trial. she also said the impeachment articles may be sent to the senate this week but gave no specific indication about what day. she wrote on friday, i'm proud of the courage and patriotism exhibited by our house democratic caucus as we support and defend the constitution. i have asked jerry nadler to be prepared to bring to the floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the senate. i will be consulting with you at our tuesday house democratic caucus meeting on how we proceed further. in an interview yesterday pelosi suggested president trump is impeached for life, no matter how the upcoming senate trial plays out. she also defended her decision to delay sending over articles of impeachment. watch this. >> we have confidence in our case, that it is impeachable and this president is impeached for life, regardless of any

gamesmanship on the part of mitch mcconnell. we feel very proud of the courage of our members to vote to impeach the president. there is nothing the senate can do that can ever erase that. ten months from now we will have an election, if we don't have him removed sooner, but, again, he will be impeached forever. >> any second thoughts about holding on for three weeks? >> no. no. no. we feel it was a very positive result in terms of additional emails and unredacted information that has come forward, that bolton has said that he would testify if subpoenaed by the senate, other information that has come forward. and more importantly, raising the profile of the fact that we need to have witnesses and documentation, and if we don't, that is a cover up. >> in an interview that aired friday night president trump

told fox news that he would seek to use executive privilege to block impeachment testimony by john bomten, as well as mick mulvaney, mike pompeo and rick perry. >> why not call bolton? why not allow him to testify? >> i would have no problem other than one thing, you can't be in the white house as president in the future, i'm talking about future, many future presidents, and have a security adviser, anybody having to do with security and legal and other things -- >> you're going to invoke executive privilege? >> i think you have to for the sake of the office. i would love everybody to testify. i like mick to testify, i like mike pompeo to testify, i like rick perry to testify. i want everybody, but there are things that you can't do from the standpoint of executive privilege. you have to maintain that. so we'll see where it all goes, but especially a national security adviser, you can't have him explaining all of your

statements about national security concerning russia, china, north korea, everything. you just can't do that. >> meanwhile, house speaker nancy pelosi yesterday said she would not rule out subpoenaing bolton. >> we haven't eliminated the possibility of ever subpoenaing and going forward with bolton, but he has said in this two-week period as another piece of progress that we made that he would -- he would respond to a subpoena from the united states senate. >> if the senate does not subpoena john bolton and other witnesses, will the house move to subpoena him? >> it is not excluded. it is not excluded. but we will see what they do. but we do think that there is enough evidence to remove the president from office. >> and president trump appeared to suggest yesterday that senators should dismiss the impeachment case against him. he tweeted this, many believe that by the senate giving credence to a trial based on the no evidence, no crime, read the

transcripts, no pressure impeachment hoax rather than an outright dismissal it gives the witch-hunt credibility i do not believe it has. senator susan collins of maine said on friday she has been working with a, quote, fairly strong group of republican senators to make sure witnesses can be called. according to the bangor daily news collins told reporters, i'm hopeful we can reach an agreement on how to proceed with the trial that will allow the opportunity for the house and president's counsel if they choose to do so. the senator echoed those comments in a statement to nbc news saying in part this, it is important that both sides be treated fairly. still ahead, we are three weeks a away from the iowa caucuses and digging into new polling showing bernie sanders heading in the hawkeye states. u.s. intelligence officials are warning that russia's election interference in 2020 could be more brazen than in

2016 and joe biden might be one of the targets. no he is stories and a check on your weather when we come back. your weather when we come back sometimes your small screen is your big screen.

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now to the latest in the democratic presidential primary race. senators bernie sanders and elizabeth warren lead the democratic field in iowa with both statistically tied for first place. according to the latest cnn des moines register media come poll sanders has 20% of likely democratic caucus support, up 5 points since november. warren sits at 17% up 1 point, both are within the poll's number four-point marger of error. former mayor pete buttigieg follows closely behind with 16%, down 9 points, former vice president joe biden has 15, unchanged since november, senator amy klobuchar is at 6% and andrew yang sits at 5% of support. 11% of iowa's likely democratic

caucusgoers said they are unsure of their first choice, up six points since november. >> a majority of iowa's democratic caucusesgoers said they have not fully decided who they will support. 45% of likely democratic caucusgoers say they could change their mind about who they will support by next month, 40% said their pick pretty much locked in. senator elizabeth warren she is at 16% she is the most popular, second choice among iowa's caucusgoers, followed by pete buttigieg at 15th, former vice president joe biden and senator bernie sanders sit at 12% each. sanders supporters say they view his physical health as a weakness. joining us from washington political reporter from the washington examiner emily larson. good morning to you. thanks for joining us so early this morning.

appreciate it. let's talk about the iowa caucuses nearing just a couple weeks away at this point. can't necessarily believe it but it is necessarily happening. >> can't believe it. only a couple weeks into 2020. >> it has only taken two years to get here. they launched a long time ago. talk to us about some of your reaction with regards to the polling we just ticked through. >> i think this polling shows that this race is still extremely fluid even with just about three weeks out. each of the top four candidates have led the des moines register poll at some point during the cycle and as you mentioned with so many voters who say that they could be persuaded to change their minds or -- and even the 11% who are still undecided, that means that a lot could change by the time we see this poll and what voters decide on caucus night. another important factor is voters who vote for somebody else in the caucus, who is not in that top tier or does not meet a 15% threshold, which is

what is required in order to earn delegates for -- in the caucus, in a precinct. so after you have a candidate that doesn't meet that 15% threshold, then people will go and vote for a second choice. so that's something to keep an eye on, too. the aspects that i found interesting is that bernie sanders has the strongest support of people who say they are settled on the candidate. so his base is pretty robust. as we go into impeachment here it's possible that he is not as affected negatively by that as somebody like elizabeth warren who might have to work a little bit harder going back and forth as much as she can during this time. >> i feel that bernie sanders supporters have been as strongly devoted to him as they've ever been throughout 2016 and in this election cycle as well. >> there has been no wavering at all it seems. >> a core group of supporters there. let's turn back to the impeachment articles, emily, a

significant development with what is on deck this week as speaker pelosi prepares to submit the articles to the senate. walk us through what we can expect to play out this week. >> we're hearing as soon as wednesday could be the soonest that a trial could start. >> wow. >> no exact confirmation on that yet, but that's obviously the soonest. i mean, pelosi said she was going to talk to her caucus and things will get moving after that. but things that we're looking for in the meantime, who are going to be the house impeachment managers who are going to be people from trump's team representing him and of course the most important thing as we go through the first motions of a senate impeachment trial are what are the rules going to be. there is still as you mention before the break that susan collins has said she's talking with a small group of senators, republican senators, who would still like to see some witnesses brought up. that might be a little bit more challenging now that president trump has said over the weekend that he agrees with mcconnell to

have a brief trial and so any movement on that is what is probably going to most affect the trial. >> all right. emily larson, thank you so much. we will talk to you again in just a little bit. still ahead, an update on the status of the deadly wildfires burning across australia. the country may get some much needed relief in the form of rain this week. we're back in a moment. m of rain this week we're back in a moment

this week australia might

finally see much needed relief as parts of the central and northern coasts are expecting rain today followed by thunderstorms on thursday. the wildfires have claimed at least 25 lives. around 2,000 homes have been destroyed and more than 14 million acres have been burned. the world wildlife fund in australia estimates as many as 1.25 animals have been killed due to the fires. to give some context to the wildlife devastation koalas may now be listed as an endangered species in some areas of the country according to australia's environment minister, all this have as a result of the fires that have been burning for almost eight weeks or so. >> 1.25 billion. >> animals. incredible. let's get a check on your weather with janessa webb. >> good morning. it was a deadly and fatal weekend for many across the south and southeast. we lost 11 lives due to this massive storm system that took over much of the two-thirds of the country. now, things are a lot quieter this morning, you can see a few

bands of rain making their way from charlotte to the mid-atlantic and that's going to continue to be the case at least until wednesday afternoon. rainfall totals won't be too significant, but still a nuisance rain for atlanta to greenville, knoxville as well up to 2 to 3 inches. as this storm system starts to pull away we could see some isolated thunderstorms associated with it, but this is a stationary front so some warmer air in place. that will continue into wednesday before that entire system really pushes offshore. so really quiet start as people are picking up the pieces after, man, just a rough weekend. i know you both have noticed the warmer temperatures. it was really nice to see people in their shorts and t-shirts across areas of the northeast this weekend, we have above normal highs, and look at today, still for columbus we are at 50 degrees. we are going to continue to see temperatures that are about 15 to 20 degrees above average.

so that's going to spark up some more severe weather. i always like to look at the weekend on monday so we're watching for another potential system for friday. >> i've been saying over the weekend i felt guilty the fact that the weather was so nice. there's something that feels odd about the weather being so nice in the middle of january and 60 degrees. >> you kind of just are like walking softly. >> you know it's going to change. >> as it did overnight, as i walked out the door this morning. things had already changed. thank you, janessa. still ahead, senator bernie sanders is escalating his attacks on some of his top 2020 democratic rivals, how he's taking on elizabeth warren and joe biden ahead of the iowa caucus. conservative attorney george conway and neal katyal weigh in on how nancy pelosi should play her impeachment cards. nancy pe her impeachment cards.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

welcome back, everyone, i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian. we begin this half hour with the very latest on iran as the trump administration's justification for the attack that killed iranian general qassem soleimani continues to evolve. nbc news correspondent hans nichols has the latest. >> reporter: the secretary of defense appearing to contradict the commander in chief that a specific threat from iran involved four u.s. embassies in the middle east. >> i didn't see one with regard to four embassies. >> reporter: but esper was careful not to directly undercut president trump. >> what the president said was

he believed that it probably and could have been attacks against additional embassies. >> reporter: after justifying the strike that killed qassem soleimani at a thursday campaign rally by saying that multiple embassies were threatened. >> not just the embassy in baghdad. >> reporter: the president got more specific in a fox news interview friday night. >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies and i think that probably baghdad already started. >> reporter: esper part of an administration effort to defend the strike as democratic and republican lawmakers question the evidence that the trump administration has shared with congress. >> he is funneling the intelligence. >> reporter: the congressional concern on iran coming as house speaker nancy pelosi prepares to send the articles of impeachment to the senate this week. >> we have confidence in our case. >> reporter: with president trump appearing to adopt a new approach, agreeing with pelosi that impeachment will now be a stain on his legacy, tweeting, why should i have the stigma of impeachment attached to my name

when i did nothing wrong? and on sunday the president also appeared to be urging the senate to dismiss the articles of impeachment before any impeachment trial was actually held because he doesn't want to give what he calls the democratic witch-hunt any credibility. now, that puts him in line with senator mitch mcconnell who wants to change the senate rules to reject the articles before the house even sends them over. >> our thanks to hans nichols at the white house for that report. our conservative lawyer george conway and former acting solicitor general and you president obama neal katyal are out with an op-ed in the "washington post" entitled "how pelosi should play her impeachment cards." they write in part this, house speaker nancy pelosi has announced that she plans to transmit the articles of impeachment to the senate, but that does not mean she has lost in the seeming standoff with the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell over whether to call witnesses at the senate trial.

holding the first article back and letting the second go forward would be a powerful and precise response to mcconnell's unprecedented attempts to avoid commit to go a real trial. it makes practical sense but also highlights what's at stake here. trump would be forced to undergo two impeachment trials instead of just one, but that's a fair price for him to a for his attempts to hide evidence from the american people. >> more now on iran in the timeline of the internal conversations at the white house before and after u.s. drone strikes that killed iran's top general. "the new york times" reports secretary of state mike pompeo initially cited the need to forestall an imminent attack that president trump has amplified to say four american embassies were targeted but administration officials say they did not actually know when and where such an attack might occur. according to the "times" there was no single definitive piece of intelligence. officials said the cia officer spoke of the mosaic effect, that is, multiple scraps of information that came together

indicating that qassem soleimani was organizing proxy forces around the region to attack american embassies and bases. several officials said they did not have enough concrete information to describe such a threat as imminent, despite pompeo's assertion, but they did see a warning pattern. >> an analysis of the president's national security team, the "washington post" reports the attack on soleimani also reflects trump's growing comfort in his job and the presence of a new group of top national security advisers who are more hawkish on iran, more willing to provide him with aggressive options and less inclined to check his instincts. according to the post president trump initially floated the possibility of killing soleimani in the spring of 2017 when the iranian-backed rebels fired a missile at saudi arabia's capital just before trump's arrival. defense secretary jim mattis resisted any action. the paper reports former white house officials who supported the killing of soleimani this month viewed mattis' absence as

one of the reasons the strike proceeded, surmising that mattis either wouldn't have supported such a strike or wouldn't have presented the option to the president. >> so on friday the trump administration nounsed another set of economic sanctions against iran in response to iran's missile attacks against military bases housing u.s. troops in iraq. secretary of state mike pompeo and treasury secretary steve mnuchin specified that the sanctions are issued against individuals involved in iran's, quote, construction, manufacturing and textile mining sectors including its largest steel and iron manufacturers. now, the trump administration also singled out eight iranian officials could be targeted by sanctions for, quote, destabilizing activities. soon after president trump issued his own statement reiterating the call for sanctions saying in part, these punishing economic sanctions will remain until the iranian regime changes its behavior. let's talk about polling with regards to the killing of general soleimani. over half of americans disapproving of the president's handling of the situation in iran, according to a new abc

news poll. 56% said they disapproved of trump's actions, 43 said they approved. broken down by party that includes the approval of 87% of republicans, however, 57% of independents and 90% of democrats said they disapprove of trump's handling of iran. meanwhile, 52%, just over half of americans, said they believe the drone strike that killed iran's top general, soleimani, made the u.s. less safe. 25% said the strike made the country more safe and 22 said it had no effect at all. and senator elizabeth warren is calling out his progressive 2020 viral senator bernie sanders for reportedly smearing her campaign. according to talking points obtained by "politico" sanders's campaign has begun attacking warren as a candidate of the upper crust who could not expand the democratic base in the general election. here is how the two senators responded to that news over the weekend. >> i was disappointed to hear that bernie is sending his

volunteers out to trash me. bernie knows me and has known me for a long time. democrats want to win in 2020. we all saw the impact of the factionalism in 2016 and we can't have a repeat of that. >> to be fair. >> we have over 500 people on our campaign, people do certain things, i'm sure that in elizabeth's campaign people do certain things as well, but you have heard me for months, i have never said a negative word about elizabeth warren who is a friend of mine, we have differences on issues, that's what a campaign is about, but no one is going to be attacking elizabeth. >> warren is backing off of that report and has since -- excuse me -- banking off of that report, rather. she has sent out a fundraiser email to her supporters asking for donations. >> sanders' campaign also attacked former vice president

joe biden over the weekend accusing to rewrite history over his vote for the invasion of iraq in 2003. on friday former secretary of state john kerry pushed back against sanders during an iowa stop, saying biden was not, quote, in favor of going to war. >> i think he knows full well there is a lot of other people do that there was a difference in people who felt they needed to give a president the leverage to be able to get saddam hussein back to the table without having to go to war and that that vote was unfortunately structured in a way that it was sort of either/or, but that didn't mean you were in favor when the administration made the decision of actually going to warthen. >> so sanders' campaign adviser released a statement saying this, biden made explicitly clear that he was voting for war, calling the decision, quote, the worst foreign policy blunder in modern american history. >> i did make a bad judgment

trusting the president saying he was only doing this to get inspectors in and get the u.n. to agree to put inspectors in. from the moment shock and awe started, from that moment, i was opposed to the effort and i was outspoken. >> biden and his surrogates have also asserted that it was never biden's intention to grant permission for the united states to conduct a war indefinitely. joining us now from washington, d.c. once again political reporter for the washington examiner emily larson. great to have you back with us to keep this conversation going. i know that you recently wrote about sanders' attack on biden's iraq war record, something that will certainly come up more as this race continues. is this something that seems to be resonating with voters, particularly given the backdrop of everything happening with iran these days? >> certainly foreign policy is on the forefront of voters' minds, a lot more than it was a couple weeks ago with everything that's happening with iran policy right now. so this is -- these attacks from

the sanders campaign on joe biden serve to do a couple things, first, they bring attention to that vote and also -- so just for the fact that joe biden voted in favor of the iraq war is something that can be troubling to some voters, sort of put him as part of this old guard democratic establishment that isn't quite in tune with what the new wave of progressive base and other voters are interested in. secondly, one of the big things he is doing is showing that joe biden is not being completely truthful about his record. as you just played in that clip there biden has claimed that he opposed the effort from the moment the shock and awe campaign began in march 2003, but, in fact, several months later he was still making floor speeches in favor of the effort and so that also serves to

highlight some not being completely up front there. one interesting thing is that joe biden -- among joe biden supporters, the top choice for their second pick is bernie sanders. so there is also a factor at play here where if sanders can syphon off a few of those voters that will definitely help him in such a close race in the iowa caucus. >> emily, let's turn back to the operation that killed iranian general qassem soleimani. lawmakers they are up in arms over the details in which the president shared on fox news, especially with regards to the potential attack on four separate embassies, versus what they were actually told in that intelligence briefing behind closed doors, which i believe took place on wednesday, that classified briefing. how is the administration responding to this? >> well, the administration is basically responding by down playing what trump is saying and in some senses resorting to his phrasing and how he said it i

think at one point president trump said i believe it was four embassies, he was not completely set on the details and he was sort of throwing a bunch of ideas out there. so what his administration officials have been saying in interviews over the weekend that, oh, well, this is his interpretation of it, they are not saying it was completely false. they are saying that it isn't completely exactly what they were expecting to happen, but the reaction so far here is sort of to deflect and redirect attention back to what they think they want to do going forward. so that's the biggest thing here. certainly congressional democrats and democrats as a whole are very concerned about what was the actual imminent threat, what qualifies as an imminent threat. if trump is not even articulating it was it even an imminent threat. that's all up to interpretation

and a big constitutional issue to be sure. >> emily larson in washington, d.c. >> you're good. >> thanks so much. >> thanks, emily. still ahead, much more on the 2020 primary including the extent of joe biden's massive lead amongst black voters. and the candidate russia may be trying to sabotage this time around. new reporting from nbc news on mike bloomberg's plan to spend a billion dollars in the general election even if he is not the democratic nominee going forward. first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment

welcome back. a top target of russian election interference in the 2020 election appears to be joe biden. according to bloomberg news, u.s. interference and law enforcement are looking into whether the new object of russian disinformation efforts is the former vice president. according to two officials with the matter, u.s. intelligence is trying to determine in part

whether russia is working to promote the controversy of hunter biden's business dealings in ukraine. a spokesman for the biden campaign told bloomberg news, quote, vladimir putin has interfered in our elections before and it's no surprise he's doing so again to prop up president trump. this news comes as senior u.s. officials are warning that russian election interference in 2020 could be much worse than 2016 or 2018 midterm interference. house speaker nancy pelosi weighed in yesterday. >> how worried are you about russian interference in 2020? are we doing all we can to prevent it? >> no, and the president of the united states is in complete denial about russia's role. as i have said in terms of this president all roads lead to putin. he has -- he's said he's not going to accept the assessment of our own intelligence that they were very much involved in 2016 election, that 24/7 now they are still engaged.

he's trying to blame it on ukraine and this silliness that has been debunked again and again, but he and his folks still keep advancing it. and sometimes i wonder about a mitch mcconnell, too, what's he -- why is he an accomplice to all of that? he has resisted the sources going -- in a manner commensurate with the threat for state -- agencies, whichever they are in a state, could be the secretary of state or whatever, to protect our infrastructure, our critical infrastructure of elections. he says you shouldn't even call that critical infrastructure. so it's all of a piece with them. >> former new york city mayor michael bloomberg is not ruling out spend ago billion dollars, that's correct, billion with a "b" of his own money on the 2020 presidential race even if he

doesn't win the democratic nomination. bloomberg told the "new york times" that he would use his political operation to help senators bernie sanders or elizabeth warren win in november if either is the party nominee. nbc news reported last week that bloomberg's massive campaign of some 500 staffers will work through the general election and will shift their efforts towards helping elect whomever the party selects to face president trump. let's take a look at the latest "washington post" i'm sis poll, joe biden far away the front runner among black registered voters, 29 points over the next candidate. the former vice president sits in first place with 48%, bernie sanders coming in second way behind with 20%, elizabeth warren third with black voters coming in at 9, the other five hand dats are statistically tied within the four-point margin of error. andrew yang at three, pete buttigieg and tom steyer both at 2. >> let's turn away from politics and bring in janessa webb with a

quick check of your weather. >> a tough weekend for millions across the country. this storm system started in the gulf of alaska and swept over the south and southeast, a big time tornado outbreak for the south over the weekend. let's show you this video in south carolina. thank goodness we didn't see any fatalities, but 11 fatalities across the south as that storm made its way through. this is north central high school. thank goodness the kids were off for the weekend. this is potentially an ef-1 to ef-2 tornado. national weather service survey team will go out today to assess the damage of that school. now, behind the front it will be a lot cooler, but still daytime highs are above average. look at upper midwest, on your skid today the feel like temperature in the negative digit territory as a front makes its way through, but if you are in the northeast we're still about 5 to 15 degrees above average. so look at this, we always like

to see this orange and the darker reds for january. this is unusual temperatures and it's going to stay in place into midweek. so above average highs across new orleans into the planes, look at highs today, a high of 59 for nashville, 11 degrees above average, this heat it's not backing off for your tuesday. you can see the darker pinks. charleston, west virginia, about 30 degrees above average. we should not be talking about the 70s in mid-january for charlotte into areas of north carolina. just a fact here, this week is normally the coldest air of the season and it's just really not backing off. as you can see from richmond to atlanta, hotlanta, thursday afternoon a high of 68 degrees. you know, the weather it will continue to change as the fronts make its way through. unfortunately going into the weekend we are going to see a shift in the weather pattern and this will be our next storm

system, you can see a lot of snow for the pacific northwest, it enters by wednesday and that is headed our way. so you're liking the warmer temperatures right now, but surely that's going to change. >> not sticking around. thank you so much, janessa. still ahead, gayle king is denying reports she's booked a tell all interview with prince harry and meghan markle. >> one thing we do know there is a big royal summit set for today to discuss the duke and duchess's role in all of this going forward. uke and duchess's role in all of this going forward. w?w?uhi?só'ñó

the associated press reports the white house is considering expanding the travel ban to additional countries amid renewed election year focus on immigration. according to six people familiar with the deliberations, a document outlining the plans has been circulating the white house, but the countries that would be affected if it does move forward are blacked out according to two of the people. they also say the measure has been timed to coincide with the third anniversary of trump's january 2017 executive order. it is unclear how many countries would be excluded in the expansion, but two sources tell the ap that seven countries, a majority of them muslim, would be added to the list. the most recent iteration of the ban includes restrictions on five majority muslim nations, they include iran, libya, somalia, libya and yemen, as well as venezuela and north korea. during an interview with fox news on friday president trump suggested that saudi arabia was

paying the u.s. for troop deployments. >> we're sending more to saudi arabia and saudi arabia is paying us for it. you know, we're doing something that nobody has ever done. i said to saudi arabia, we have a very good relationship with saudi arabia, i said, listen, you are a very rich country, you want more troops, i'm going to send them to you but you have to pay us. they're paying us. they've already deposited $1 billion in the bank. we are going to help them, but these rich countries have to pay for it. >> so defense secretary mark esper was asked about those very comments just yesterday and this was his response. >> and the billion dollars into the u.s. bank account? >> what the president is referring to is burden sharing. when we talk to nato we talk about contributing more to their gdp the defense commitment and the president's actions have resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars more being contributed by our nato allies. >>est that not a transaction like he described. >> it includes host nation

support, four military cells, providing troops on the grow under and it provides helping to offset our operation maintenance costs which the saudis are committed to doing just as they did offset costs during the 1990 and '91 gulf war. senior members of the uk royal family are set to set to discuss the future of prince harry and meghan markle after their surprising announcement that they plan to step back as senior members of the family and become financially independent. queen elizabeth, prince charles and prince harry about meet at their estate. me go fan os in canada with the couple's son is likely to call into the meeting. buckingham palace told the associated press a range of pockets will be discussed as the queen is determined to resolve the situation within days, not weeks. among the details that still need to be worked out is who will pay for the couple's security as well as the money making activities they will be allowed to do and the tax consequences of moving to another country. all right. still ahead, president trump tweets in support of protesters

in iran in both english and farsi. the question now is whether his engagement will help or hurt their cause. plus the battle over impeachment with mitch mcconnell now backing a rule that would allow the senate to reject the articles before the house even sends them over. back in a moment with a whole lot more. ver. back in a moment with a whole lot more these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again!

tensions on the rise in iran. mass i protests have broken out over the downing of a jet last unique. house speaker nancy pelosi says she's preparing to send articles of impeachment over to the senate this week as president trump appears to suggest that senators dismiss the trial all together. and the gloves come off between two top democratic presidential candidates. elizabeth warren is accusing bernie sanders of sending his volunteers out to trash her. good morning, everyone, it is monday, january