cynthia mcfadden, nbc fuse, new york. >> and that is our broadcast on this wednesday night. thank you for being here with us. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. a historic trial ends with an e acquittal, a deeply divide senate has cleared president trump on two impeachment charges. the president is calling it a victory and will address the public later today. plus, senator mitt romney, the lone republican who voted to convict and remove trump from office weighs in on his decision to break from his party. results from the iowa democratic caucus are unclear. pete buttigieg and bernie sanders are separated by a razor thin margin. yet another historic day yesterday. >> incredible.

on two different fronts. >> good morning, everybody, thursday, february 6th. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. we begin with the u.s. senate voting to acquit the president on the two articles of impeachment against him. it wasn't the bipartisan acquittal that he was hoping for. abuse of power, republican mitt romney crossed party line with y vote to convict. the first time in american history a senator has voted to remove a president of his own party. article ii, obstruction of congress was a straight party line vote, meaning three key democrats from swing states trump won also voted to convict. doug jones currently in a tough reelection battle in alabama, and joe manchin of west virginia and kyrsten sinema of arizona. >> the white house released the following statement, the sham impeachment attempt concocted by democrats ended in the full vindication and exoneration of president donald j. trump. asen we have said all along, hes not guilty. the senate voted to reject the

baseless, and one failed republican presidential candidate voted for the manufactured impeachment articles. house speaker nancy pelosi said this, president trump was impeached with the support of the majority of the american people, a first in our nation's history and now he is the first president in history to face a bipartisan vote to convict him in the senate. the t president will boast thate has been acquitted, there can be no acquittal without a trial, and there is a no trial without witnesses, documents and evidence. but suppressing the evidence ane and rejecting the fair process, the republican senate made themselves a willing accomplice to the president's cover up. the president says he will address the public from the white house at noon. mitt romney of utah the only republican who did not vote to acquit the president on both articles explained his decision on h the is that the floor yesterday. you got to t watch this. >> as a senator juror, i swore an oath before god to exercise

impartial justice. i am profoundly religious. my faith is at the heart of who i am. i take an oath before god as enormously consequential. i knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president, the leader of my own party would be the most difficult decision i have ever faced. i was not wrong. i acknowledge that my verdict will not remove the president from office. the results of this senate court will in fact be appealed to a higher court, the judgment of the american people. voters will make the final decision just as the president's lawyers have implored. my vote will likely be in the minority in the senate but irrespective of these things,

with my vote, i will tell my childrenll and their children tt i did my duty to the best of my ability, believing that my country expected it of me. i will only be one name among many, no more, no less, to future generations of americans who look at the record of this trial. they will note merely that i was among the senators who determined that what the president did was wrong, grievously wrong. we are all footnotes at best in the annuals of history but in the most powerful nation on earth, the nation conceived in liberty and justice, that distinction is enough for any citizen. >> so in an interview before breaking ranks with republican senator, romney discussed his decision and how it might impact his own political career. >> do you believe that donald trump is unfit to serve as president and should be removed from office. >> i do believe he should be

removed from office and that's the vote i'll take in a while. >> you say this is the toughest decision you have had to make in your public life. give us a sense, and you have talking about getting up at four in the morning, how tough a decision this is, and finally if this means the end of your political career? >> well, a friend of mine once said the worst thing that happened to them politically already happened, and the worst thing that happened to me politically was losing the presidency in 2012. i've got broad enough shoulders to be able to weather personal changes in my career, political or otherwise. o but what i don't have is the capacity to ignore my conscience. i don't have the capacity to say that what was wrong was not wrong. what the president did was grievously wrong. and by the way, i say that at a time when i applaud what's happening with the economy. i agree with him 80% of the o time. i don't dislike the president. we get along fine. i have known him for years and

years, well before politics, before either one of us was in politics but i believe he made a very serious miscalculation of judgment, one that strikes at the very core of our c constitution, and in a setting like that, not to acknowledge that would place a greater burden on my conscience, than even on his. >> in an earlier interview with the "new york times," romney said quote i recognize there's going to be enormous consequences, reaching this conclusion, describing what might be in store for him. romney said i don't want to be the skunk at the party, and i don't want the disdain. he told the atlantic, do what ia right, let the consequences fall and i don't know what the consequences will be. results from iowa's democratic caucus are trickling in, and this morning with 97% of precincts reporting, pete buttigieg and bernie sanders are in a near tie.

sanders is ahead in the raw vote totals for both stages of the caucus, but buttigieg is ahead by less than a quarter of a point in the percentage that determines how many national delegates each candidate receives. senator elizabethdi warren remas in third place, followed by former vice president joe biden in fourth place. >> and joe biden tooken on two his 2020 rivals while on the campaign trail in new hampshire. the former vice president slammed senator bernie sanders and former mayor pete buttigieg over their ability to beat president trump in a general election come november. >> we not only have to beat trump to get everything passed we're talking about, all the progressive proposals that are being made. we need a nominee who can help democrats up and down the ticket. help them win in the ballot. bring back the united states senate. i've done that in 2018. i did that, and went out in 24 states for 65 candidates. but if senator sanders is the nominee for the party, every democrat in america, up and down the ballot, blue states, red

states, purple states, easy districts and competitive ones, every democrat will have to carry the label senator sanders has chosen for himself. he calls him -- and i don't criticize him, he calls him a democratic socialist. we have seen what donald trump is going to do with that. >> i have great respect for mayor pete and his service to this nation, but i do believe it's a risk to be just straight with you, thr is party to nomine someone who has never held an office higher than mayor of a city of hundred hundred thousand people in indiana. a leader who can unite the party and unite the country. >> joining us from washington deputy news editor for the "washington examiner" david market, seems like former joe biden fighting for his life, considering the fact he came in fourth place as we're seeing tha iowa results still come in, david. talk about some of the

criticisms we're hearing from the vice president with regard specifically to bernie sanders and mayor pete buttigieg attacking the former mayor because basically he's saying he doesn't have enough experience to take on the job of president of the united states, and bernie sanders of course calling him a democratic socialist. >> it's not joe biden's style to be an attack dog. he built his senate career in delawareca over 36 years, kind being a nice guy. he was that way also as two term for vice president under barack obama, but he's in the fight of his political life. he sees this thing slipping away to bernie sanders, pete et buttigieg, perhaps others. he's doing what any candidate does when they're cornered. he's getting personal about it, and we'll find out soon enough whether or not that works. >> really quickly, david, how many rounds can joe biden afford to go, finishing in 4th place. if he finishes in new hampshire, third or fourth, is that pretty much the end for him? does he lose his title of being

the front runner? >> he certainly would not be a front runner anymore. his campaign says it is banking essentially on the south carolina primary, all the way aa the end of the month, february 29th, for a lot of reasons, biden is ahead there. problem for biden also is he's running low on money. the last campaign finance report was not favorable to him. it's quite expensive to run these presidential races. you can burn through $8 million really kwukquickly in that amoua time. >> that report indicates big donors may be sitting on their hands at this point considering where biden is finishing and if he continues to finish there it's going to bees harder and harder. >> paging michael bloomberg. >> what have you been hearing from some republicans with regards to where the senator stood yesterday? >> clearly they are not pleased with senator romney's decision and vote. the question is how far are they going to go with retribution.

if there's to be any. and i think they're taking their cue from president trump who has a news conference scheduled, some kind of speech around noon today. if he singles out romney, and say i want him removed from his committee assignments, i want him punished it way or that, we'll see what other republicans do. i o expect they want to get thi over. they do not want to discuss impeachment anymore. i don't think they're going to go after romney all that thard >> certainly not politically but on media as we saw yesterday from donald trump jr., calling him or referring to him as a coward, or suggesting he was a coward. >> i think republican senators are in a different camp than the trump family and their reactions. >> for sure. >> david mark, thank you, we're going to be talking to you in a little bit. still ahead, we're going to talk about what house democrats plan to do next now that president trump has been p acquitted. ha plus, what house speaker nancy pelosi is telling her democratic colleagues about her

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welcome back, everyone, house judiciary chairman, jerry nadler, democrats would likely subpoena former national security adviser john bolton in an effort to continue investigating president trump's conduct towards ukraine despite the senate acquittal. in his forthcoming book, bolton reportedly details how trump told him he was leveraging military aid to ukraine in exchange for investigations into his political rivals, an allegation that was at the heart of the house impeachment charges. adam schiff told rachel maddow fo decision was made. >> is it your understanding that bolton will be subpoenaed by the judiciary committee or your committee in the house. can you tell us anything about that? >> there has been absolutely no

decision made about whether to subpoena john bolton or not to subpoena john bolton. i can tell you that after the senate voted not to hear witnesses, after they voted to be the first impeachment trial in history without witnesses, we did approach john bolton's counsel, asked if mr. bolton would be willing to submit an affidavit under oath, describing what he observed in terms of the president's ukraine misconduct, and he refused. so for whatever reason, he apparently was willing to testify before the senate. but apart from that, seems intent on saving it for his book. >> all right. let's jump off there. joining us onset, msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos. you heard there from adam schiff basically that john bolton refused to submit this affidavit under oath. not necessarily surprising considering the release of that statement when he said he would actually testify. it was after the house investigation but before the senate impeachment trial.

so many people kind of came to the conclusion that it didn't necessarily admit that he was willing to testify in front of the house, only willing to testify in front of the senate. what are the next steps here if in fact democrats decide to pursue more investigations with regards to ukraine. >> it is no surprise that john bolton refused to submit an affidavit, candidly if i were his lawyer, i would advise him to do the same thing! why? >> because an affidavit is something that -- first of all, who would even draft it up. how would you decide what he's going to say, and why volunteer that. wait to be subpoenaed. john bolton doesn't really want to testify. you see the issues. if he really wanted to testify he would have volunteered for the house, which would have subpoenaed him. the senate was likely never going to subpoena him, so he took no risk in volunteering to appear if subpoenaed. so the affidavit shows his true colors. >> the political posturing saying i'll do it, i'll do it, knowing the senate was unlikely

to call witnesses. >> heavy strategic posturing, knowing he would be able to hold on to his story until the release of his book, and essentially promote it saying look i'll testify if i'm subpoenaed, knowing that the senate would not subpoena him. the house not only would have but likely will now, so you ask about the next steps for john bolton, the house can continue on, and try to subpoena john bolton. and that will be an interesting litmus test to see how he responds to a house subpoena. if he opposes that, how sincere was his offer to testify to the senate in the first place. >> or if he takes it to the courts. >> and he will almost certainly. >> president trump has been acquitted by probably the most high profile legal challenge that he was facing if not the most realistic but high patrol fi -- profile. he is not out of the woods. >> in a sense, this was the most high profile legal challenge, but maybe not the greatest threat to the trump presidency.

there are subpoenas everywhere for his financial records. the house can continue to investigate his activity in ukraine before possibly even before he took the presidency or before 2017 or something like that. they can and as adam schiff suggested, they may still continue to investigate and so president trump's legal challenges have only just begun on this front. >> danny cevallos, always a pleasure, thank you my friend. >> thank you. >> thanks, danny. new reporting about the trump administration's decision to freeze in new york over sanctuary policies. we'll tell you about that when we come back. you about that whn we come back the lexus es. eagerly prepared for the unexpected. lease the 2020 es 350 for $389 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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prevagen. healthier brain. better life. welcome back, so the department of homeland security has announced that residents of new york state will be temporarily blocked from enrolling and reenrolling in a global entry and similar programs like tsa precheck that allow u.s. citizens to fast track through security to airports and borders. in a letter, dhs stated that new yorkers could no longer enroll in the trusted traveler programs because of a new state law that prech prevents federal immigration agencies from gaining access to the state's department of motor vehicle database without a court order, escalating a conflict over a law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's license.

chad wolf explained why immigration agencies needed access to those records. >> access to dmv data and that's important for a number of different reasons. i.c.e. uses that as they build cases in investigating criminal networks, they're using that personal data they get from the database to look up an individual's date of birth, their photo, they're using that as they build that case. they can no longer do that because of what new york did. >> the move comes a day after president trump in his state of the union address blasted cities for providing what he called sanctuary for undocumented immigrants and i think across the board, this new policy is going to affect a lot of individuals, especially people that are traveling a lot. >> kwhung when you think of, li just foreigners coming to the u.s. when you think about how busy airports like jfk, laguardia, newark are, three of the busiest airports. >> you sat in the security line for two, three hours, and you take domestic flights back and forth. it's going to cause a lot of major problems here. >> let's bring in nbc

meteorologist bill karins. walk us through it. >> a big storm, dangerous storm, overnight, we have had tornadoes, no reports of any injuries, or any fatality, that's the good news with this. we know of significant damage in a few areas of mississippi, especially, that's where most of the storms were, we have had 13 tornado reports in mississippi alone throughout the overnight hours. vaughan, mississippi was one of those areas hit. enterprise, the roof of a gym that was significantly damaged at a school. you could see some of these homes here, you know, the structural damage on these. again, these are early preliminary reports, this is some of the first new video that we have gotten in. these people's lives have been turned upside down. no reports of any injuries thankfully. let's get into the forecast part of this. and there's a couple of different impacts here. we have a new tornado watch that's up until noon today for areas of southern portions of alabama. panhandle of florida, a sliver of georgia, overnight, a little bit of snow and ice moving up here through areas of southern new york, areas of upstate new

york, and as far as the severe weather threat goes today. we're going to continue it right through the morning hours, into the afternoon, eventually all the way in through the carolinas and even areas of central florida, 36 million people at risk, we could see a few additional tornadoes and significant wind damage with some of those storms would be a problem. the winter side of the system, 57 million people under winter weather advisories or warnings. we are seeing the worst of it in the next 24 hours heading for areas of western new york, and northern portions of new england. we could get a significant snowstorm in areas of northern new england. burlington, vermont, expecting 15 inches of snow out of this. it's really going to -- you have to go pretty far to the north, central new england is going to be mostly rain and ice. the big cities, boston, hartford, new york, southwards, just a rain event. you can see pittsburgh, also a possibility of another 2 to 4 inches. airport problems today, everywhere on the east coast, windy conditions in florida, right up the eastern sea board, significant delays, cancellations, tomorrow morning won't be much better either, and

you guys walked into work too. it's one of those days. >> it's raining. >> the cold rain. >> the cold rain. >> let me ask you quickly, a bit early, do you have a sense of what weather might be tuesday for the new hampshire primary because i'm curious to get a sense of voter turnout that's high. it's obviously an issue on the mind of democratic. >> historically weather affects voters. >> as of right now, it's actually looking decent, and it's not looking that cold. we've still got a couple of days for that to change. bill karins, thank you so much. we're going to turn to new polling on where the democrats stand in new hampshire's primaries. what former vice president and 2020 candidate joe biden is saying about the iowa democratic caucus results that have him in 4th place. we're back in a moment. h place. we're back in a moment tthe bad news? ouyour patience might not.ay. depend® fit-flex underwear offers your best comfort and protection guaranteed. because, perfect or not, life's better when you're in it. be there with depend®. looking to repair dry, damaged hair

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welcome back, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin, alongside yasmin vossoughian. we begin this half hour are the u.s. senate closing on another divisive chapter in our country's history by voting to acquit president trump on both articles of impeachment presented against him. article ii, obstruction of congress was a straight line vote. article i, abuse of power, senator mitt romney was the only republican who voted to convict, the first time a senator has voted to remove a president of his own party from office. nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt has more. >> reporter: senator mitt romney, once the republican nominee, stood against president trump. >> mr. romney, mr. romney,

guilty. >> voting with democrats in favor of convicting the president of abuse of power. >> my faith is at the heart of who i am. i take an oath before god as enormously consequential. i knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision i have ever faced. i was not wrong. >> reporter: romney, who did vote to acquit the president on the second article of impeachment. >> not guilty. >> became the first senator ever to vote to convict a president of their own party in an impeachment trial. >> what the president did was grievously wrong and i had to volt, if i was -- vote if i was going to live with my own conscience. >> reporter: a final turn away from the rocky relationship of his president who endorsed romney's 2020 bid. ahead of mr. trump's election in 2016, romney denounced him,

igniting a fire storm. >> donald trump is a phoney, a fraud. >> he was begging for my endorsement. >> reporter: the two appeared to make amends when romney was in the running to be trump's secretary of state, a job romney didn't get. two years later, winning a senate seat, voting his conscience over his party. >> with my vote, i will tell my children and their children that i did my duty to the best of my ability, believing that my country expected it of me. >> reporter: republican majority leader mitch mcconnell said he was surprised and disappointed by romney's vote, and the president's son demanded romney be expelled from the republican party. that's unlikely to happen here in the senate, but romney in his speech did acknowledge that his vote could have consequences. ayman. >> our thanks to nbc's kasie hunt for that report. the "wall street journal" reports as of late yesterday morning, the white house predicted that all republican senators would vote to acquit the president and were quote caught off guard by senator mitt romney's decision to break from

party lines. in retaliation, trump tweeted a mocking video about romney claiming that the utah senator was quote posing as a republican. >> mitt romney had us fooled. >> being in donald trump's magnificent hotel, and having his endorsement is a delight. >> posing as a republican he tried to infiltrate trump's administration as secretary of state. now his cover is blown. exposed by news reports as a democrat's secret asset. >> barack obama will be reelected president of the united states. >> plan b, plan c, plan drr, i' out, gone. you look at the romney map, what's plan e. >> a gloomy atmosphere as supporters left the convention center in boston, following romney's concession speech. >> that was a race, i have to say, folks that should have been run. >> i wouldn't call anything encouraging for hillary clinton at the moment, to be honest with you my friend. >> hillary clinton has called donald trump to concede the

race. >> wow, so romney's decision was even met with criticism by republican national committee chair ronna mcdaniel who is his niece. she wrote in part this, this is not the first time i disagree with mitt, and will not be the last. the bottom line is president trump did nothing wrong and the republican party is more united than ever with him. i along with the gop stand with president trump. the republican party of utah said it is pleased to see the president acquitted adding quote this, we appreciate the service rendered to our state by utah's two senators, as a party we strongly disagree with the vote cast by senator romney. switching gears to the other side, results from the iowa democratic caucus are astill trickling in, with 97% of precincts reporting, pete buttigieg and bernie sanders are in a near tie. sanders is ahead in the raw vote totals for both stages of the caucus, but buttigieg somehow is ahead by less than a quarter of a point in the percentage that determines how many national

delegates each candidate receives. senator elizabeth warren remains in third place, followed by former vice president joe biden in fourth. according to the web site propublica, the glitch in the smartphone app used to count votes wasn't the only problem on monday night. a security firm found the app lacked key safeguards and was vulnerable to hacking. while there's no evidence that the app was hacked, the security firm found the app was so insecure that vote totals, passwords and other sensitive information could have been intercepted or changed. former vice president joe biden calls his performance in iowa's caucuses a gut punch but told voters he will bounce back in new hampshire. >> i'm here to say that every single solitary vote is going to matter in this primary. you know, 24 hours later, they're still trying to figure out what happened in iowa. at this rate, new hampshire will be the first in the country to

get to the vote. >> i am not going to sugar coat it, we took a gut punch in iowa, the whole process took a gut punch, but look, this isn't the first time in my life i have been knocked down. unlike donald trump and many of you here, i have never been given anything in my life other than great parents and great values. i'm counting on new hampshire, we're going to come back. i have said from the moment i announced that i believe as the mayor said, we're in a battle for the soul of this nation, and i really do. >> at a town hall in new hampshire yesterday, senator bernie sanders was asked about the iowa caucus results, he answered by touting his success in the popular vote and thanked his volunteers in the state. >> as some of you may know, they are still counting votes in iowa. i assume that one of these years that vote count will be completed. but as of 70% of the count, we

are winning the popular vote, and we thank the people of iowa and they have -- in iowa, they have a complicated system, and there's a realignment vote. we'll win in that one as well. and i think we're going to have an equal number of delegates from iowa going to the national convention, so i want to thank all of our volunteers in iowa who have worked so very very hard. >> and senator bernie sanders continues to lead in new hampshire, according to two new tracking polls, according to the latest boston globe wbz tv suffolk university poll, sanders sits at 25%, up 1 point since yesterday. mayor pete buttigieg follows with 19%, up 4 points. former vice president joe biden falls three points to 12%. senator elizabeth warren has 11%. >> joining us now once again from washington, deputy news editor for the "washington examiner" david mark. good to have you back with us. i know you have been following the numbers out of iowa, how does former vice president joe

biden move on from his quote gut punch that he got in iowa? >> he has got a big challenge. the vice president there was talking about doing well in new hampshire. he really has to finish in the top three or so. if the comes in fourth place again as it looks like he's going to in iowa, that is not where you want to be for a former vice president of the united states. yes, his campaign says they have fallback races in nevada coming up on february 22nd, and particularly south carolina at the end of the month on february 29th, but those are still several weeks away, and that means two, three weeks of negative news stories about biden not performing well, not raising money, so i think the stakes are extremely high for him in new hampshire coming up on tuesday. >> i was going to say, i wonder if voters in south carolina which is supposed to be his fire wall will see he's not the front runner and start to reconsider his vote, if he can't win in

early states, i have to think about what's the best second option. >> let's also talk about someone else who possibly has a challenge in front of him, former mayor pete buttigieg right now at the top of the pack in iowa but a razor thin margin over bernie sanders. he's got a lot to prove going forward especially in new hampshire, daif david and that' really because he has to prove this was not a one off in iowa, and he can take this momentum go with it to new hampshire, go to nevada, and on to south carolina as well. does he have a clear path forward from your perspective? >> well give credit where credit is due. buttigieg had an impressive performance in iowa whether he comes out first or not in -- depending how you count it. this is a guy who is virtually unknown on the national scene less than a year ago. he doesn't have that national profile. that is important. he does have to do well in new hampshire. that's a state that's kind of taylor made for him. it's mostly a whiter population

where he's really got his big challenges is in nevada and then specifically south carolina on february 29th where buttigieg has had real problems winning over african-american support, which is a corner stone of the democratic nomination. so something's going to have to change for him. he's going to have to be able to pick up those pockets of support he currently does not have. >> i think it's one thing all democrats agree on is you have to have a broad coalition if you're going to win in november. all of them at this point lack one pocket or the other. david mark live in d.c., always a pleasure. thanks, daifvid. >> thank you. still ahead, a ratings bust for the state of the union. >> and why nancy pelosi tore up her copy of the president's address following the conclusion of the speech. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. joe" is back in a moment. i'm alphonso, and there's more to me than hiv.

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considerably smaller audience than it did a year ago. "the new york times" reports. according to the times, roughly 37 million americans tuned in for the president's speech, making it the smallest live tv audience for a presidential address to congress since barack obama's farewell state of the union address back in 2016. i think that's the reason why the president isn't necessarily tweeting about the ratings of the state of the union. >> normally he would have jumped all over that. >> he does like his ratings. >> the paper notes that viewership on tuesday night was down 20% from trump's state of the union last year and was even lower than the audience for his speeches in 2017 and 2018. >> so according to new reporting by "the washington post," house speaker nancy pelosi privately told democrats yesterday that the president, president trump's state of the union address was a pack of lies. pelosi tore up her copy of trump's address once he finished speaking tuesday night. you see it on your screen just as he was concluding. the post reports that a visibly irritated pelosi told her

colleagues in a closed door meeting, she was looking for one page i could spare that didn't have a lie on it and couldn't find one. democratic officials in the room tell the post that trump disrespected the chamber he was in, to give a speech that had no connection with reality. she added it was a pack of lies about a quarter through it i thought he's selling a bill of goods like a snake oil salesman. we cannot let this stand. her fury resonated with members who gave her a standing ovation in a private caucus meeting. >> as it was happening in realtime i couldn't help but wonder does the president know what's happening behind him at this moment that speaker pelosi was ripping up those pages. >> he certainly found out about it after he left the chamber. let's get a check of your weather with bill karins. >> a huge storm impacting much of the country. here's a look at tornado reports, all of them in mississippi, red symbols, icons,

that's where the tornadoes were reported near jackson and meridian. numero numerous reports there. no reports of any fatalities or injuries. overnight, we saw some snow and ice move in through areas of central new england and northern new england. there's numerous roads, sidewalks, a coating of ice on everything. take a little extra caution, time there, i know we have some school delays out of that region. we're just about done with the snow in chicago, only picked up an inch or two there, and kro you'ryou're finished in st. louis. we could see some areas picking up 5, 6 inches by the time the storm is done. the saturated soil, you know, the runoff is just extreme when it's saturated soil. that's why we're worried about the rivers. we have a tornado watch for areas of georgia and areas of alabama. until we get through about, it looks like noon today, maybe 1:00 in areas, that's where the time change is.

36 million people at risk. a few tornadoes are possible here, areas of greatest concern, central georgia and then into the carolinas later on this afternoon. that severe weather threat ends just south of richmond, and as far as the snow goes, it's going to snow hard later tonight and this time tomorrow morning. heavy snow from buffalo to syracuse, rochester, northern new england, we could see a possibility of a foot of snow in some of the ski countries. >> going to get a wallop it seems. a foot of snow. >> killington and sunday river, they haven't had a lot of snow in a lot of ski resorts and this will be the biggest of the season. >> they will be enjoying the weekend, then, to say the least. >> they will. >> thank you, bill. trade tensions appearing to cool off as china cuts tariffs on u.s. imports in half. >> and nike doing its part to cut climate change at the 2020 tokyo olympics, driving your business day straight ahead. drir business day straight ahead. freshens for 1200 hours.

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following breaking business news on the u.s. trade war with china as beijing takes new steps towards a truce with the united states. cnbc's reporter joining us live from london with more. what do you know? >> reporter: good morning. overnight we learned china delivered investors an early valentine's gift starting february 14th. china will have tariffs on hundreds of u.s. goods. the tariffs put in place as part of pa tit for tat trade war last year and investors like what they see.

markets rallying in response to this surprise announcement. and saw a trade deaf in the united states fall, first time since 2013 last year. this as the trump administration's trade war impo weighed on exports. and a little piece of news for you new yorkers out there who do a lot of traveling. homeland security has suspended the enrollment of new yorkers in the global entry system. this is due to the state's new green light law supporting undocumented immigrants. this law, you may be familiar, allows them to apply for new york driver's licenses protecting information from immigrant enforcement agencies. not an option for the new yorkers anymore. >> talk about the story with regards to the olympics. nike going green at the 2020 olympics. tell us how. >> yeah. this is part of nike's big sustainability push they announced earlier, just last

year. this as part of this push, they're going to deck out the olympic athletes in uniforms made of recycled shoe parts. they are -- they're going to be creating these garments with recycled parts, and in tandem launching a consumer collection called move to zero which is also going to be made up of almost entirely recycled material. so really putting their money where their mouth is and trying to attract the millennial consumers much more eco frien y friendly. >> an important step nonetheless for the battle against climate change. live from london, thank you so much. up next a look at axios' "one big thing" and coming up on "morning joe," mitt romney breaking with republicans to move to convict the president. too close to call. latest numbers from iowa show pete buttigieg with a razor thin edge over bernie sanders but

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welcome back. joining us from washington with a look at axios a.m. national political reporter for axios jonathan swan. good morning. >> good morning. >> talk to us about axios' "one big thing" today? >> president trump's acquittal ended the impeachment trial but democrats and republicans house and senate tell us they plan to re-ignite the ukraine battle with waves of subpoenas, additional investigations and other document requests. so on the house side, jamie raskin and the chair of the judiciary committee jerry nadler, indicated they plan to subpoena john bolton and discussion among democrats subpoenaing everyone from lev parnas, the rudy giuliani associate. >> wow. >> to current senior white house officials. on the senate side, president

trump has been putting enormous pressure behind the scenes and a little publicly, mostly behind the scenes, on lindsey graham, the senate judiciary chairman and lindsey graham went on maria bartiromo's fox show saying he owes it to people, to the public, to investigate the bidens and their dealings with ukraine, and also you saw senators ron johnson and i believe it was chuck grassley -- yes, chuck grassley and ron johnson put out a letter indicating they want to investigate the business active tis of hunter biden. so we haven't seen the last of this even though president trump has been acquitted. >> all right. speaking of impeachment aftershocks one of the biggest from yesterday, mitt romney. axios obtained a hand-signed letter by mitt romney he wrote to his colleagues explaining his vote. walk us through what it says. more importantly, why did he need to do that if already giving that speech on the senate

floor? >> the letter was excerpts from his speech that focused on the conscious components. he hands -- we obtained the letter, he hand-signed it mitt and addressed it personally to each of his republican colleagues and left it in the boxes in the senate cloakroom. so it gives an insight into how torn he was over this decision and feeling a need to justify it to his colleagues. i don't think people yet fully understand how much romney's political life will change after this vote. look, mitch mcconnell had said no retribution, we don't put people in dog houses. that's fine in the senate but president trump and more importantly his eldest son, the tip of the spear, donald trump jr. signaled to the base how they want romney treated. expelled from the senate gop conference. obviously, that's not going to

happen, but it's a signal to the base and president trump they already cut an ad putting romney -- >> yeah. >> so this is just going to get heavier and heavier. >> assets and -- >> absolutely. the theme they're pushing is "traitor." >> can't help bwonder who will come to senator romney's defense especially the gop? >> i wouldn't spend too much time scouring. i don't know that you're going to find a ton of it. >> all right. jonathan swan, live from washington, d.c. always a pleasure. of course, reading axios in a little bit. you, too, can sign up for the newsletter at signup axios.com. >> "morning joe" starts right now. what i don't have is the capacity to ignore my

conscience. i don't have the capacity to say that what was wrong was not wrong. what the president nedid was grievously wrong. >> it was and yet the president got away with it. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday february 6th. along with joe, willie and me we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. republican strategist and msnbc political analyst susan del percio. chief national correspondent for the "new york times" magazine, mark leibovich is whip us and former white house press secretary to president obama. >> oh, wow. >> gibb-ee. the gibb star. gibby, gibby, gibby, gibby is here this morning. >> that's great. >> good to see you. >> that's great. >> willie -- very few people knew when he was running around the country campaigning for