that is our broadcast for us on this wednesday night. thank you so much for being here. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. wash your hands, stay clean, you don't have to necessarily grab every handrail unless you have to. you view this the same as the flu, if somebody sneezes, i try to bail out as much as possible with the sneezing. i had a man come up to me a week ago. i hadn't seen him in long time. i said how you doing. he said, fine, fine, he hugs me, i said are you well. he says no. he said, i have the worst fever and the worst flu, and he's hugging and kissing me, so i said excuse me, i went and started washing my hands. >> with concerns about coronavirus on the rise, president trump announces vice

president mike pence will lead the u.s. response. plus, house speaker nancy pelosi dismisses concerns about losing control of the house if senator bernie sanders were to win the nomination. and a shooting inside one of america's most famous burerewer. an employee shot and killed five people before turning the gun on himself. good thursday morning, everybody. it is february 27th. i'm yasmin vossoughian. ayman has the morning off. we begin with the trump administration's response to the growing fears concerning the spread of the coronavirus. amid criticism for down playing the potential of an outbreak in the united states, president trump says that he's assembling a task force which will be led by vice president mike pence,

take a listen. >> when mike was governor of indiana, they have established great health care. they have a great system there. i'm going to be announcing exactly right now that i'm going to be putting our vice president mike pence in charge and mike will be working with the professionals, doctors and everybody else that's working. the team is brilliant. >> mr. president, as we've been briefed, while the threat to the american public remains low of the spread of the coronavirus, you have directed this team to take all steps necessary to continue to ensure the health and well being of the american people and the people of this country can be confident that under your leadership we will continue to bring the full resources of the federal government in coordination with our state and local partners to see to the health and well being and to the effective response to the coronavirus here in the

united states of america. >> so it is worth noting that while mike pence was governor of indiana the state experienced a severe hiv outbreak, the public health experts said was preventable, a fact that the democratic national committee was quick to point out yesterday. five people familiar with the situation telling "the washington post" that health and human services secretary alex azar was blind sided by the president's decision to put pence in charge. azar reportedly found out just moments before the briefing. the cdc announced yesterday that a new case of the coronavirus has been confirmed in northern california. it is believed to be the first instance of what the agency calls quote community spread meaning the patient didn't have any relevant travel history or exposure to another patient that they know of. so far, there have been at least two other person-to-person transmission says inside the united states, but both involve spouses of people who had traveled to china. let's get into some of this.

joining me from washington, white house reporter for politico, gabby orr. thank you for joining us. >> good morning, yasmin. >> i want to success the potential for a serious coronavirus outbreak here in the united states. how exactly is, and we heard from some of the trump administration last night, and the president himself, how exactly is the white house preparing for that possibility? >> well of course president trump naming vice president mike pence as the person in charge of the administration's lead on coronavirus is a significant development and one that means that they are starting to take this more seriously than they were before, and part of the reason for that is that this administration has received criticism for being fairly slow to respond to the outbreak of coronavirus and how the u.s. itself should be handling this novel disease. it is important to note that president trump and vice president mike pence have been

coordinating with other people across the administration. at the same time, if you watched that press conference yesterday in the white house briefing room, it was difficult to decipher the level of this threat because of how many different officials gave varying answers. president trump on the one hand said that americans shouldn't be warned -- shouldn't be nervous about this evolving into a full on pandemic, at the same time, you had secretary azar and officials from the cdc warning that there will be more cases inside the u.s. and that people should be taking precautions. i do think that the messaging on this from the white house has been less than seamless so far, and that's one thing that they are clearly trying to improve on. >> gabby, this is an administration that has cut some funding to the cdc. they now have a bare bones national security team as well. these are places that would be dealing with a possible full-blown pandemic and the

response efforts to combat any spread here of the coronavirus. how is that contributing to what is happening here on the ground, and what this could potentially become? >> well, it is difficult for the administration to launch a full out defense against this virus, if you don't have a national security council team in place that is aggressively handling this, and right now under the leadership of national security adviser robert o'brien, as you mentioned, you do have a very minimal staff inside the nsc in the white house. i do think that will at some point be a point that the president's critics seize on. look, if this was actually a robust group inside the white house capable of helping not only the message but also coordinating with other agencies like the chc, and hhs, there would have never been any sort of discrepancy between what the president is saying and what his agency officials and cabinet

secretaries are saying about this virus. >> gabby orr, thank you so much. appreciate it as always i'm going to talk to you again in just a little bit. stay close. i want to move now to the 2020 race. house speaker nancy pelosi telling reporters just yesterday that democrats will support their presidential nominee and dismissed concerns that senator bernie sanders at the top of the democratic ticket could hurt congressional democrats down the ballot. take a listen. >> don't you as a leader feel a desire to jump in and do whatever you can to avoid losing the house. >> we're not losing the house. we're going to be united by whoever is the candidate for president. we are taking responsibility for winning the house and we're not assuming anything. we feel very confident. >> wouldn't a nonbernie candidate make your job easier. >> whoever the nominee is, people will embrace enthe enthusiastically. joe biden received a crucial

endorsement from an influential democrat, jim clyburn. representative clyburn endorsed the former vice president this tweeting this, joe biden has stood for the hard working people of south carolina. we know joe but more importantly he knows us. soon after the south carolina congressman appeared with biden at an event where the former vice president appeared to swipe at senator bernie sanders' message. take a listen. >> today people are talking about a revolution. what the country is looking for are results. what they're looking for is security. what they're looking for is to be able to sustain and maintain their dignity. >> all right. joining me now from charleston, south carolina, nbc news political reporter ali vitali. good morning to you, thank you for joining us on this: let's take about the game plan ahead of south carolina just before

voting beginning this weekend. tell us about it. >> reporter: yasmin, good morning. yes voters are voting in the palmetto state. that's crucial for these campaigns. two days later, come tuesday, 14 states are going to the polls as well. a lot of candidates, their strategies getting on display now. for joe biden and tom steyer, south carolina is a place that they're going to be hurricanered do -- hunkered down for the remaining days. they're doing events across the state. this is a place for their ca calculus, it's important they win here. for the other candidates in the field, though, they are also looking ahead to super tuesday, using south carolina as a temporary home base and then jumping out to other states that are soon to vote as well. take elizabeth warren, for example. she's in texas today. bernie sanders, he's in north carolina and virginia. amy klobuchar, same thing, she's in north carolina. pete buttigieg in washington,

d.c., and nthen coming back to south carolina. all of these candidates ping-ponging across the country. this is the point in the race where the calendar and the realities of the calendar come at you fast. all of these candidates need to be in more places at once than they possibly can be. i'm personally feeling like i need to clone myself. this is the reality of the calendar right now. a lot of places start voting. you need to have laid the ground work otherwise you're going to be playing catch up and probably not well. >> let's talk about the warren camp as you have been following them primarily for quite some time. we saw elizabeth warren come out fighting on the debate stage, and it seemed as though she was fighting for her life on that campaign trail. this is a do or die moment. what is the sense you're getting ahead of south carolina specifically from the warren camp? >> reporter: it's a do or die moment at this point in the campaign but not necessarily because of south carolina. the warren campaign has

regularly pushed us forward to super tuesday and the week later, super tuesday 2.0. so many tuesdays in march have states with delegates. if you look at how she spent her time, there was no secret in the democratic primary that joe biden had a fire wall in south carolina. the warren campaign saw that, and spent in iowa and new hampshire specifically. middling finishes there. at the same time they're looking ahead to super tuesday. they've got over a thousand staffers in more than 31 states. that's an infrastructure they need to build on and the crucial thing is the fact that to have an organization like that is so important to be able to compete down the calendar but you need to be able to pay for it which is why the nevada debate was so important. she had a huge influx of cash that they are campaign needed. it's not just a question if she wants to move forward in the calendar, we know that's been the campaign's calculus.

it's a matter of if. >> does an endorsement from jim clyburn help the biden camp from what you are hearing from voters. does it resonate with them? >> of course it does. clyburn had said for a while he wun wasn't going to endorse because he knows he has such a powerful voice in the state. in interviews that i had done with him previously, he had sort of talked about the whole field glowingly, and had really reserved his judgment until the last minute probably because what we have been seeing throughout this campaign which is that bernie sanders sort of have this building air of inevitability around him whether that's fair or not. the question for joe biden is winning in south carolina by a hair is different than winning by a mile, and he does need a big win here to not just solidify himself as still in the race but also to take home the necessary amount of delegates he needs and to make sure bernie sanders doesn't take home as many delegates as he wants to.

>> great talking to you. still ahead, president trump escalates his feud with the media by launching a suit against "the new york times." danny cevallos is here to weigh in on that. mike bloomberg is facing scrutiny for more of his past comments, this time it's something he said about social security. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. you try to stay ahead of the mess. but scrubbing still takes time. now there's new powerwash dish spray. it's the faster way to clean as you go. just spray, wipe and rinse.

it cleans grease five times faster. new dawn powerwash. spray, wipe, rinse. these are our sales... by product, by region. you can actually see taste- trends. since when can we do that? since we started working with bdo. (announcer) people who know, know bdo. ♪ applebee's new irresist-a-bowls

now starting at $7.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. unlike ordinary memory wsupplements-neuriva? has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference.

welcome back, president trump's campaign sued "the new york times" for liable yesterday. alleging that an opinion article published last year made false claims about the president with the quote intentional purpose of damaging his chances for reelection. the campaign says the times quote falsely reported as fact a conspiracy with russia in an op-ed by former executive editor for the newspaper, max frank el, the real trump, russia quid pro quo. a lawsuit that was filed in new york supreme court in manhattan

claims millions of dollars in damages but does not give a specific monetary amount. "the new york times" spokesperson issued a statement saying in part this, the trump campaign has turned to the courts to try to punish an opinion writer for having an opinion they find unacceptable. fortunately, the law protects the rights of americans to express their judgments and conclusions especially about events of public importance. joining me here onset to clear all of this up for us as he always does. danny cevallos, msnbc legal analyst. good to see you danny. >> good morning. >> thanks for joining me. >> thank you. >> let's talk about this. do you think the trump campaign has a legitimate case here. this is an opinion writer after all, not an opinion writer but this is the opinion page of the "new york times." >> you know i love a good lawsuit like anyone else but it is my pure opinion that this lawsuit is not going to be successful, and here's why. it is true that defamation involves a false statement of fact that causes someone harm. >> right.

>> opinions cannot be statements of fact, they're just opinions and therefore they can't be defamatory. the mere fact that a newspaper takes an opinion and puts it on the opinion page and labels it opinion does not necessarily mean that the speaker is not making a statement of fact somewhere in that opinion. so courts will look at the fact -- >> in essence protects that writer. >> it doesn't completely shield them just because they happen to be on the opinion page of a newspaper because you can imagine any number of opinion pieces that contain statements of fact that might be false. a court will look at that fact but it's not dispositive that it appears in the opinion page. but still, beyond just a false statement of fact and an opinion analysis, then you look at the person being harmed, and we have a strange system in america. we have a two-tier system for defamation. a prooifivate person has an ear,

it's called "the new york times" v sullivan standard, and most people in the media are familiar with that case. you have to show that the speaker acted in what's called reckless disregard. they had to have basically put their hands over their eyes and said i'm ignoring the evidence that this is a false statement of fact. and that is a very high burden for a public figure to meet. cons -- consequently, celebrities and politicians find it difficult to maintain that. you can see a lot of nasty things without rising to the level of defamation. >> seems like this could be more of a pr play on the part of the president and his camp. >> there's a growing trend in the age of electronic filing where filings get sent around the globe in an instant to make complaints and other things more like press releases than they traditionally were.

now you see multipage documents with grand visions of a lawsuit but again, it is my opinion that this is not going to be a successful lawsuit. it was a bit of a stumble. >> all right. danny cevallos, thank you. good seeing you danny. still ahead, the latest from the fight over president trump's border wall from mexico as congress and the pentagon argue over funding. yes, we're back to that. we'll be back in a moment. it w. they are both very much hand in hand. so you should really be focusing on both and definitely at the same time. the new sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. by brushing with sensodyne sensitivity & gum at home it's giving you the relief that you need and the control that you need to take care of your oral health. and it creates a healthier environment. there's no question it's something that i would recommend.

[happy ♪irthday music] ♪ don't get mad, put those years to work with e*trade. theso i would understand.ng every aspect of my treatment they cared about my victories. they're my second family. call us at cancer treatment centers of america. hi.aria ramirez? mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs...

maria ramirez. to help more employees achieve their dreams. t-mobile has the first and only, nationwide 5g network. and with it, you can shape the future. we've invested 30 billion dollars and built our new 5g network for businesses like yours. while some 5g signals only go a few blocks, t-mobile 5g goes for miles. no other 5g signal goes farther or is more reliable in business.

tomorrow is in your hands. partner with t-mobile for business today. doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? tomorrow is in your hands. memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. welcome back, everybody, congress has warned the pentagon not to divert billions of dollars for president trump's wall at the u.s./mexican border. telling pentagon officials such a move would undermine its efforts to obtain military funding. chairman of the house services committee called the transfer quote damaging to the pentagon and warned defense secretary mark esper that overturning congressional funding decisions to shift money will have

consequences. to the republican said that the result could mean congress could place greater restrictions of the pentagon's ability to move around money to meet the needs. esper approved the request from the department of homeland security and more cuts could be coming to provide additional money for the wall. let's get a check on your weather today with nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning, bill. good morning, a busy weather day today, a lot of problems in the northeast, especially the rain is over with, we're thankful for that in new york city, philadelphia, baltimore, d.c., your rain is done. pouring from hartford to new haven. boston you're going to have another hour or two of this and then the rain will be over with, the rain will shift into northern new england and the backside of the big storm, we have a lot of snow to deal with, and we're going to have epic lake effect snows as we go throughout this afternoon, tonight, even throughout much of the day tomorrow too. that's going to be the most impressive stuff and we do actually have the problems developing in areas like buffalo

to rochester where we're under a blizzard warning. we haven't had many blizzard warnings this winter. the winds are going to howl and with the lake effect snows kicking it's going to be treacherous. 8 million people under the lake effect snow warnings or blizzard warnings. blizzard warnings in the area shown in purple from buffalo southwards. buffalo is in a winter storm warning, the town is south of there and areas north of syracuse will be the worth of it. we haven't had a big epic lake effect snow event. this should be it, north of syracuse. they're expecting 2 to 3 feet of snow in the next 2 to 3 days. anyone driving in the new york state through ways is going to be hit pretty good. south of buffalo, that's going to be a foot of snow. if you have travel plans in the airlines today, the winds are howling, 40 to 50 miles per hour all throughout the northeast, and that will definitely be causing airport delays, maybe some cancellations and the possibility of some scattered power outages so yeah, it's funny we've had a lot of these

storms, rainy, windy, then it's briefly cold and then this weekend we warm back up. >> it seems as if the difficult is when you have lake effect snow and a warm up a couple of days later, that's when you have major problems, 2 or 3 feet of snow sitting on your roof and you have to deal with it. >> they're used to it but doesn't mean it's fun. barack obama sends a cease and desist letter to republican superpac over a political ad attacking joe biden. we're going to explain what happened there. >> and experts say the stock market is taking hits due to the coronavirus, and president trump is blaming wall street's unrest on something else. we're back in a moment. flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase.

ncan it one up spaghetti night? cleaning power of liquid. it sure can. really? can it one up breakfast in bed? yeah, for sure. thanks, boys. what about that? uhh, yep! it can? yeah, even that! i would very much like to see that. me too. introducing new tide power pods. one up the toughest stains with 50% more cleaning power than liquid detergent. any further questions? uh uh! nope! one up the power of liquid with new tide power pods. 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®. oh no, here comes gthe neighbor probably to brag about how amazing his xfinity customer service is. i'm mike, i'm so busy. good thing xfinity has two-hour appointment windows. they have night and weekend appointments too. he's here. bill? karolyn? nope! no, just a couple of rocks. download the my account app to manage your appointments making today's xfinity customer service simple, easy, awesome. i'll pass.

welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we begin this half hour with a growing fear over the coronavirus in the united states. in a briefing yesterday, the president accurately described the risk to americans as quote low. but again, questioned his own cdc, which claimed the domestic spread of the virus was inevitable. >> in just the course of the last couple of minutes, you have disputed some of what the officials who are working in the administration behind you have said about the risk of coronavirus and its spread. do you trust your health officials to give you good information or do you trust your instincts more. >> they have said it could be worse and i have said it could be worse too. i don't think it's inevitable. i think that we're doing a really good job in terms of maintaining borders, in terms of letting people in, in terms of checking people, and also that's one of the reasons i'm here today getting the word out so

people can know. >> the president also seemed to differ with health officials on the potential time line for a vaccine. watch this part. >> we're rapidly developing a vaccine, and they can speak to you, the professionals can speak to you about that. the vaccine is coming along well, and in speaking to the doctors we think this is something we can develop fairly rapidly a vaccine. >> although this is the fastest we have ever gone from a sequence of a virus to a trial, it still would not be any applicable to the epidemic. >> after a fifth day of losses, the president blamed the stock market's reaction in part on democrats' performance on the debate stage. >> you mentioned the stock market earlier, to go back to that, the dow jones dropped more than 2,000 points this week, are

you suggesting that it was overblown. are financial markets overreacting? >> i think the financial markets are very upset when they look at the democrat candidates standing on that stage making fools out of themselves. if we ever have a president like this. there's always a possibility, it's an election, i think we're going to win by a lot. when they look at the statements made by the people standing behind those podiums, i think that has a huge effect. >> do you think it had to do with the coronavirus. >> i think it did. you can have quite a bit of selloff to what they're seeing. >> trump administration officials are scrambling to contain the panic surrounding the coronavirus outbreak before it spreads nationwide. a source familiar with the government's efforts telling nbc news that the internal tension dates back last month's decision to implement travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines. allies of the president saying

that he wants to make sure his team is initiating the appropriate responses at the right times without creating mass panic. trump has hinged his anger on the center for disease control after they announced an outbreak was all but inevitable. experts claim that trump's decision to downsize the white house national security staff and eliminate jobs addressing global pandemics is likely to hinder the government's response to the virus. the "associated press" reports trump has expressed deep concern about the impact, which could affect his reelection pitch tied to a strong economy. new polling out of texas shows just how much michael bloomberg's bid for the presidency shakes up the democratic field. bernie sanders tied for first at 24% in the state of texas. bloomberg is statistically tied for third with elizabeth warren at 17% and 14% respectively.

pete buttigieg comes in fifth with 10%. amy klobuchar follows with 4%. when bloomberg is taken out of the equation, biden handily wins, the former vice president finishes in first with 31% followed by sanders at 25. warren is in third with 17. buttigieg up to 11 and klobuchar finishes with 7%. and senator bernie sanders went after joe biden in a rally warning that running a conventional campaign such as the former vice president's is not the way to defeat the current president. >> now, to defeat trump, you cannot run a conventional campaign. same old same old is not going to do it. and i say to my good friend joe biden, joe you can't do it when you have voted for terrible trade policies like nafta and pntr with china which cost us millions of jobs.

joe you're not going to bring working people into the political process when you voted for a terrible bankruptcy bill. you're not going to bring people into the political process when you voted and strongly supported the war in iraq. and you're not going to bring people into the political process when you have stood on the floor of the senate time and again talking about the need to cut social security, medicare and veterans programs. >> he went on to say the way to beat trump is a campaign that promises to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, equal pay for women and having more unions to protect workers. and yet another tape has trickled out or michael bloomberg spouting off this time about social security. according to audio obtained by

cnn, the former new york city mayor twice compared the program to a ponzi scheme in a radio program live from city hall. >> social security, it's a ponzi scheme, i don't know if bernie madoff got his scheme from there. social security is far and away, we are giving moneys out with the next guy's money coming in, and at the end of when the music stops there's not going to be enough for everybody. >> bloomberg's comments as mayor are in stark contrast of those of the democratic presidential contender whose web site vows to strengthen entitlement programs. his campaign spokesperson defended the remarks. >> the social security administration itself gives out detailed actuarial tables on when payment will exceed income and the issue needs attention because we're running the

cushion between them down. mike believes we need to boost receipts by raising contributions for those who can best afford it which is what he'll do as president. and president trump has long joked about holding office for longer than the allotted two terms, but now he says he can live with another person becoming the commander in chief. yesterday, conservative commentator eric bowling tweeted his support of the president but also wrote this, if i had to live in an america with one of the dems as president at this point, i believe it would be pete buttigieg. president trump appeared to agree with the assessment writing eric, i can live with that. buttigieg later weighed in on the exchange tweeting what none of us can live with is four more years of your chaos, your cruelty, and your division. this is not the first time the president has made a mention of supporting a buttigieg win. here's the president during a rally back in december. >> who wants to watch buttigieg, buttigieg.

you know, you pronounce, it's an unpronounceable name. that's why they call him mayor pete, right. they call him mayor pete because no one can pronounce his last name. by the way, you know what, i'm not going to say bad things about him. i would love him to win. i thought i knocked off pocahontas, i did it a year too early. >> so far he hasn't been able to figure out what to do with me. i will say this, when i was young -- >> your name is very hard to spell. >> yeah. >> hard. >> and it's great. i don't know if you know the handful of times he discusses me, he has been trying a few different vectors of attack, and none of them have gotten very far but he loves to say my name, which is great. >> joining me once again from washington white house reporter for "politico" gabby orr. it seems like that's a fairly accurate assessment in that the president doesn't necessarily seem to know what to do with

him. what has been the reaction so far to the president's comments about being able to quote live with buttigieg potentially replacing him? >> reporter: well, i think it's still unclear whether or not the president was saying he can live with his supporters accepting a president buttigieg or whether he himself could live under president buttigieg, and i do think that the president has had a little bit of a struggle when it comes to landing a firm attack against pete buttigieg, unlike other characters in the democratic primary field. we know the nicknames that he has for elizabeth warren, for bernie sanders, for michael bloomberg, for joe biden, but with pete buttigieg he has of course mentioned his name at rallies. he once joked that he's the alfred e. newman of the democratic primary field but nothing has stuck in terms of a presidential nickname against candidate buttigieg. >> why do you think that is? he doesn't normally have difficulties like this in

finding ways to attack other people? >> i mean, number one, i think it's because buttigieg has a very minimal record compared to a lot of the other democratic candidates. he, you know, he's a 30-something mayor of a small town in indiana, and it's difficult to try and find something that president trump can use as a wedge against him because of that. on the other hand, pete buttigieg, if you look at him on the debate stage is very well spoken. he's articulate. he is commanding in a way that some of the other candidates have struggled to be, and i think that that's intimidating for this president, and he doesn't really know how to respond to a candidate like that let alone face the possibility of being on a debate stage against him himself. >> can we quickly address some of the texas polls that i was ticking through a little bit earlier and the impact which i think is fascinating of michael bloomberg in some of this polling far and away joe biden beating out all the candidates in texas when bloomberg is

eliminated but you see right here, when bloomberg is in the calculus, joe biden at 24%. >> right. one of the questions in that poll is whether or not -- who would you support if bloomberg was not in this race, and joe biden's number goes from 24% to 31% among democratic primary voters in texas. so it is a really great example of just the broad impact that michael bloomberg's ad spending and his presence in a number of these super tuesday states has had, not only on joe biden but on other candidates as well, elizabeth warren being one of them. her percentage of support jumps from 14% to 17% if michael bloomberg is not factored in as a candidate. this has to be frustrating for those campaign that are really trying to mount a come back on super tuesday. >> you can't help but think if you are inside the biden camp right now, you're thinking of ways to attack the bloomberg camp considering the impact that they have on some of your polling numbers and what you could actually achieve if

bloomberg were not in the race. gabby orr, thank you as always. appreciate it. >> thank you. still ahead, president obama weighs in on the 2020 race demanding a republican super pac using misleading ads that use his voice to attack senator joe biden. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) once-weekly ozempic® is helping many people with type 2 diabetes like james lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7!

(announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh! (announcer) for those also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. it lowers the risk. oh! and i only have to take it once a week. oh! ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) ozempic® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not share needles or pens. don't reuse needles. do not take ozempic® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to ozempic®. stop taking ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, itching, rash, or trouble breathing. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your doctor if you have diabetic retinopathy or vision changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. common side effects are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, and constipation. some side effects can lead to dehydration,

which may worsen kidney problems. once-weekly ozempic® is helping me reach my blood sugar goal. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) you may pay as little as $25 per prescription. ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. you try to stay ahead of the mess. but scrubbing still takes time. now there's new powerwash dish spray. it's the faster way to clean as you go. just spray, wipe and rinse. it cleans grease five times faster. new dawn powerwash. spray, wipe, rinse. you have power over pain, so the whole world looks different. the unbeatable strength of advil. what pain? unlike ordinary memory wsupplements-neuriva? has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference.

cake in the conference room! showing 'em you're ready... to be your own boss. that's the beauty of your smile. crest's three dimensional whitening... ...removes stains,... ...whitens in-between teeth... ...and protects from future stains. crest. healthy, beautiful smiles for life. welcome back, president obama is calling all south carolina television stations to stop running an ad from a super pac supporting president trump that uses obama's words out of context in a misleading attack on former vice president joe biden. the ad which aired multiple times before and during tuesday night's debate borrows words from a 1995 obama audio book to suggest he is criticizing his former vice president. according to "the washington post," the pro-trump group placed a similar amount of anti-biden ads in nevada earlier this month and reported to the federal election commission that it is spending more than a quarter of a million dollars in south carolina to oppose biden.

obama's communications director katie hill telling nbc news the ad is quote designed to suppress turnout among minority voters in south carolina by taking president obama's voice out of context and twisting his words to mislead viewers. meanwhile, a lawyer for the super pac is defending the ad saying that it is quote obama's voice reading the words he wrote in the context he wrote them. it's absolutely accurate and truthful and correct. the former president has since issued a cease and desist later to ensure the ad's removal. and it's tax season and the irs is out with a new warning about scammers who say they want to help you prepare taxes but are really out to get your money. nbc news correspondent vicky nguyen explains what to look out for. >> reporter: tax season is in full swing and so are the scammers, out for your money. >> they're trying to steal your personal information, your social security number, financial data. >> reporter: the irs's jonathan larson says if the irs needs to contact you it will reach out by

mail first, not e-mail, social media or telephone. >> so if you're receiving a telephone call and they're threatening you, if they're requesting immediate payment, that's not the way the irs operates. don't take the bait. >> reporter: if an e-mail looks like it's coming from the irs, don't click links or open attachments, a dangerous software could infect your computer and steal everything that's saved. if you hire someone to do your taxes, check their references. the irs says fake prepares can steal personal information and disappear. what exactly is a ghost tax preparer? >> these are individuals that are being paid to prepare tax returns but they are not signing their name as preparing the return. >> reporter: by the time you realize the irs has no way to track them down. and when your return is complete, review it with your tax preparer to make sure you understand the numbers before signing and sending it off. who's vulnerable. >> everyone if you're online, carrying around a smartphone in your pocket or getting on a computer, you need to be

cautious. >> reporter: especially during tax season when thieves know you might let your guard down dealing with the irs. >> thanks to nbc's vicky nguyen for na important report. -- that important report. let's get a check of your weather once again with nbc meteorologist bill karins. let's get people out the door. we have a lot to talk about. active weather day in the northeast. lots of travel delays. heavy rain in some areas and snow in the others. heavy rain in yellow and green, so the heavy rain is in the capital district now. boston steady rains heading through northern new england. the cold air is starting to wrap in and we're starting to get snow in buffalo north of rochester, going over to snow quickly in areas of upstate new york. it's one of those mornings where it's actually colder in austin, texas, right now. windchill is 28 degrees, than it is in the northern vermont, where it feels like it's 33. so the warm air is right along the eastern sea board but the cold air is sweeping in. green bay feels like negative 2. detroit, 7. this is setting up the stage for our significant lake effect

event. usually the lakes are ice covered by now, at least predominantly and there's almost no ice. all this cold air over the lakes, you're going to see impressive pictures of very heavy snow, especially upstate new york. for today's forecast, windy conditions in d.c. the rain is over with in new york. boston, the rain will be over with in about two hours from now, and much of the country is pretty quiet as we head towards the upcoming weekend. we'll still be dealing with the lake effect snow, higher elevations in north carolina will get a good dose of snow too. much of the country is very quiet, and we're warm in the rockies, temperatures in the 50s as far north as montana. we will have a storm coming into the northwest on saturday that we'll be tracking. chilly in new england on saturday. good day to hit the ski slopes and by sunday it begins to warm up already. d.c. back up into the 50s. 60s in the carolinas and chicago back to 64 and sunny. we're going to show impressive pictures of heavy snow at this time tomorrow, and then the

weekend is quiet and looking nice as we slide into march. >> and spring just a couple of weeks ahead. >> there's flowers all the way into even central new england has had early losses. u.s. stock futures point to further decline after health officials confirmed a new case of the coronavirus in northern california. plus, a federal appeals court ruled tech companies can sensor content on their platforms. the stories driving your business day, coming up next. we can't calculate our total taxes?

do you realize how many otal different taxes we pay? sales tax, different p-o-s systems in all seven countries. and online sales? that's a whole other system... and different regulations. therere'realal eate e crits,s, . and we have no way to integrate all that? no... but bdo does. peopopleho k kno knonow o.

welcome back. stock futures are pointing towards a fifth day of losses as the coronavirus plagued the world with uncertainty. c nbc's villem marx joins us from london today. good morning. are there signs of relief for the market this morning? >> good question. tough one to answer. if it turns out to be a down day

for major markets in the dow, the worst week since the great financial crisis back in october 2008. in terms of news developments in europe overnight, two more confirmed cases in the uk. probably not helping market sentiment. got the german health minister talking about the almost certainty of an outbreak in that country and, of course, cases in switzerland cropping up this morning in the last hour or so. italy might be one area with positive developments. all current patients recovering but warning false rumors about the spread could damage the country's economy. also seeing an impact on companies both here in europe and the u.s. microsoft saying the same thing apple said last week. it expects to see its sales numbers impacted by spread of the virus. particularly purchase of computers and software sales because of supply chain disruptions in china. another u.s. company worth

watching. jetblue. an offer other airlines failed to do so far. other airlines hit canceling flights, offerings extensions, rebookings and jetblue saying because of the person-to-person transfer they're prepared to waive cancellations and change fees in the u.s. >> seems all industries across the border affected by this. talk about yesterday. a federal appeals court ruling that tech platforms can actually sensor as they please. pretty astounding of a development here. what more do you have on this? >> this is a case involving youtube and a nonprofit observation claiming youtube was a public forum, a court tossing that out based on precedent it's

not bound by those rules. it's up to them and obviously striking out the idea deceptive advertising to brag as youtube does about its devotion it free speech and carry out this limitation of access. >> live from london, thank you, villem. up next, a workplace shooting leaves six dead in milwaukee and coming up on "morning joe," assessing the coronaviru coronavirus, and mayorde blasio braces for a potential outbreak. "morning joe" is moments away. (sports announcer) what an unlikely field in this final heat. (burke) not exactly a skinny dipper, but we covered it. at farmers, we know a thing or two

because we've seen a thing or two. so call 1-800 farmers to get a quote. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ they work together doing important stuff. the hitch? like you, your cells get hungry. feed them... with centrum® micronutrients. restoring your awesome... daily. feed your cells with centrum® micronutrients today.

feed your cells with who doesn't love a deal? i do. check out the united explorer card. savin' on this! savin' on this! savin' in here. rewarded! learn more at the explorer card dot com. they grew their first tomatoes right here. and when it snows, the kids go sledding right there. the frels family runs with us on a john deere 1 series tractor. because this is more than just land, it's home. search "john deere 1 series" for more. you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. and you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. make ice. making ice. but you're not mad because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler

so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad get e*trade and start trading commission free today. yesterday in milwaukee. police responded to a shooting around 2:00 in the afternoon and found the gunman, a 51-year-old man, with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound along with five victims employees of the old miller brewery. motive for the attack, unclear. identities of the victims not yet released. president trump called the

gunman a "wicked murderer" and expressed his condolences to the families ahead of his coronavirus news conference yesterday evening. and the house yesterday overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that would make lynching a federal hate crime. the bill known as the emmett till andy lynching act passed on a 410-4 vote. this after lawmakers unsuccessfully failed to pass 200 times dating back to 1900. the senate will approve the house-passed version and send to president trump's desk. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. does everyone understand? great. did everyone use the bathroom? does anyone still need to use the bathroom.