top of the hour on this monday. >> so dramatic. >> april 4th. 9:00 a.m. on the east coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. >> a shot of mission control here? 20 seconds. >> now we've got four seconds. >> four seconds. >> okay. top of the hour. with each passing hour, the global outcry grows louder. more and more leaders publicly condemning alleged atrocities committed by russian forces. a short time ago, the european union's top diplomat said new images of dead civilians show the true face of russia's brutal war of aggression against the ukrainian people. we should warn you these images are hard to watch. we have pictures taken in a city of bucha after russian forces pulled out of the area around the capital of kyiv. they show the bodied of murdered civilians in the streets, some with their hands tied behind

their backs. ukrainian officials say there's evidence of russian soldiers raping, torturing, and executing civilians. we'll hear directly from ukraine's prosecutor general in just a moment. the mayor of bucha says nearly 300 people were buried in mass graves. he also said children are among the dead. this morning the kremlin is rejecting the allegations claiming the images were fake and called on leaders to not judge. >> too late. bucha, a town of about 37,000 people before the war. russian forces terrorized the people living there for more than a month. one woman told "the new york times", quote, they shot everyone they saw. and not just in bucha. human rights watch said it documented russian troops

committing laws of war violations against civilians in occupied areas, chernihiv, kharkiv, and kyiv regions of ukraine. these include a kis of repeated rape, two cases of summary execution, one of six men, the other of one man, and other cases of unlawful violence and threats against civilians. soldiers were imply kated in looting civilian property, including food, clothing, and firewood. the report said those who carried out the abuses are responsible for war crimes. here is ukraine's foreign minister. >> without an exaggeration by what we've seen in bucha and vicinity, we can conclude that russia is worse than isis in the scale and the ruthlessness of the crimes committed. >> debra haines with sky news has more from bucha. again, it's the reality we're showing you. the images are very disturbing.

>> reporter: the broken body of a woman, evidence that the terror that swept through this town and others north of the capital before russian forces suddenly pulled back. the brother of kyiv's mayor documented what he saw. >> this is not a special operation, not military. these are civilians. they've been shot in the head with tied hands behind their back. this is genocide to the ukrainian population. >> reporter: ukraine says hundreds of bodies have been found, some hastily buried. it's accused russia of being worse than islamic state, but moscow has denied responsibility. what about the horrors left behind? can you talk about that? the mass graves. is that true? you see evidence of civilians being killed in bucha and irpin. >> yes. i think it's new cases for the international criminal court, and i think there will be a lot of evidence, and we will see new

processes in bucha, kharkiv, mariupol. it will be a lot of protests against the criminal, military criminal who did it in our country. >> reporter: the defense minister was referring to the trials putz on for nazi criminals after the second world war. as he spoke on a visit to a nearby air base. troops rewarded for helping retake this place, hostomel. it was a key russian target on day one of the invasion and a major battlefield ever since. until a couple of days ago, when russian troops withdrew but no one thinks it's over yet. >> debra haines with sky news reporting there. let's bring in nbc's gabe gutierrez in lviv, ukraine. gabe, good morning to you. my gosh, the images we're seeing, the reports we're getting out of bucha and other places in the country show a russian military in retreat but committing atrocities while they fall back.

>> reporter: yeah, that's right, willie. what's so significant about these images is these are some of the atrocities that we have been hearing about for quite a while in places like mariupol. but there were so few journalists in that area or no journalists in that area that we didn't have firsthand accounts of pictures coming out of there except for the associated press journalists there were there in the early days of the siege that we relied on accounts from the refugees. while those were disturbing, now we're seeing these pictures emerging from the northern cities in and around kyiv. i just spoke with an adviser to bucha's mayor, and she described just an absolute atrocity that was carried out as you've been reporting. i spoke with another member of the ukrainian parliament who lives near kyiv, and she was so devastated by these images that e first started seeing over the

weekend that, you know, you might remember, willie, this weekend there was a potential hope of a breakthrough between russia and ukraine, that there might be some sort of face-to-face meeting between president putin and president zelenskyy. a member of parliament told me after seeing these images it would almost be betraying the victims of this massacre. so we are starting to learn the full scope of this. just a short time ago, we understand president zelenskyy paid a visit to bucha. and local authorities are saying the death toll is rising, that hundreds of people were killed there, many of them bury in mass graves. those pictures we saw of civilians with some with their hands tied behind their backs, one man on a bicycle that we saw. the residents we have spoken with from that area say this was a clear violation of international law and there was no doubt that russians were firing on civilians. and what has enraged in of them and the international community

is that russia is now claiming that this was somehow staged and they are calling for meetings of the u.n. security council this week. but, you know, from covering this war here for the last several weeks, this really seems one of those turning points in the war with these awful images that we're seeing from those suburbs of kyiv, willie. >> as you say, the fear and the strong likelihood we've been hearing from experts all morning is bucha just the beginning. there are likely more as we get more journalists and eyes out in the country. gabe gutierrez in lviv, thanks so much. >> willie, if there are going to be war crime trials in the future, we've seen a lot of intercepted radio traffic, heard a lot of intercepted radio traffic that western outlets and outlets in ukraine have had. there of course is one that sticks in my mind where you have radio traffic where russians are about to retreat out of a town,

a small town, and then they send the message to get the russian troops out that they've been ordered to destroy the town and to kill the civilians in the town. and then they're asked to repeat the order and they specifically say that they have been ordered to kill civilians in the town. so i think people were suggesting earlier today this wasn't just soldiers aktsing on their own. they were ordered to do this from above. >> this is systematic, not rogue. as gabe said, they're rejecting accusations related to what you saw in bucha. sergey lavrov argued the videos we've been watching with our eyes are fake. russia calling for a special u.n. security council meeting today to address the issue, but the russians say the uk has blocked that request. here's a statement from the defense ministry in moscow

saying among other things during the time the town was under russian control not a single local resident suffered violent action. the statement concludes by stating the photos and video footage from bucha are a hoax, a staged provocation by the kyiv regime for the western media. to be clear, they're saying this is a false flag operation, that this was staged by ukraine, and there's evidence that's true. >> in response to new evidence of russian atrocities, the european union says it's urgently discussing a new round of sanctions gen moscow. according to the "financial times," eu ambassadors will discuss the new measures on wednesday, but it's unclear what they might entail. some of the sanctions under discussion include a ban on russian ships using eu ports and more export restrictions and embargoes on russian oil and gas. and just this morning, a spokesman for the british prime minister said europe should be moving at, quote, maximum speed

to cut its reliance on moscow. the problem is right now europe gets 40% of it gas and 25% of its oil from russia. also this morning, we are learning more about russia's military maneuvers on the battlefield. two hours ago the governor of ukraine's northeastern summi region announce russian troops no longer occupy any settlements in that region. at the same time, ukraine's deputy defense minister reports russians have been pushed out of the area around kyiv. but the consensus appears to be russia is regrouping as it shifts its focus away from kyiv and launches new attacks in the east and the south of the country. >> i understand people don't want to be overly optimistic about this situation because ukrainians are such underdogs. you look at the maps, we talked to clint watts this morning, the reports out of ukraine, this is

a strategic repositioning. i get a big kick from the hot takes. you'll see a hot take every three or four days, we are stumbling into vladimir putin's trap. this is what he wanted. really? he wants his military exposed to such a degree that even baltic states are going, you know what, we're not so scared of russian troops anymore? this was a colossal miscalculation from the very beginning, and this continued spin that somehow this is part of a -- >> master plan. >> -- part of a master plan, a dr. evil master plan really is laughable. we are experiencing obviously a news cycle of just absolutely horrific imagery, evidence of war crimes, sickening war crimes that we also saw in chechnya that we also saw in aleppo, but make no mistake, when the history of this war is written we'll have war crimes that are going to be discussed. but militarily, this was an

extraordinarily significant weekend because, mika, this weekend we get confirmation that the russians really were in retreat. make no mistake of it, their key objective was kyiv, killing the nazi president of ukraine they said, replacing zelenskyy with a dupe of vladimir putin's that would follow blindly, a puppet regime, and that has been scuttled. this is a military nightmare for vladimir putin and russia. >> when history looks at this, as well, the question will be in the future will so much of europe depend on russia for oil? >> nope. >> and i wonder how many other countries will follow lithuania's lead in basically just saying we're not going to do it and, you know, taking the hit for it. the dependence on russian oil is really keeping this going

because if they could all ban against russia and not depend on their oil, russia might be, might be responding differently. >> right. much faster than anybody would have expected a month ago. the big challenge obviously, willie, is with germany, and the germans went all in. their calculation has long been that they can have peace with russia if there's enough of an economic component that keeps the two tied together. that was a bet angela merkel made with vladimir putin. history has proven her the colossally wrong about that. and now the germans are doing everything they can to move into a future without russian gas and oil. that's going to ache a little time. >> that's the thing. it takes some time. they can't do what the united states has done or lithuania has done because so much of their economy is based on russian oil, so many jobs would go away. they're willing to make a commitment to ukraine but not go over the line of hurting their

own economy so significantly. >> we'll be hearing from ukraine's top prosecutor about the war crimes being committed, especially in bucha this morning. but we want to turn now to another important story in the u.s. six people are dead, 12 others wounded after gunfire broke out early sunday morning in sacramento. joining us now nbc news correspondent guad venegas with more. guad, what's the latest? >> reporter: good morning. this is an area with restaurants and bars. you can imagine this happened right when these bars were closing. this is why there were crowds walking around these streets when the gunfire went off. police are asking the public for help. anything that could help them identify any of the suspects. an urgent manhunt is under way after deadly mass shooting in sacramento. >> i've got another one hit. another gunshot. >> reporter: this video from social media appears to show

bystanders racing away as chaos erupted in the streets. authorities say officers heard gunshots ringing around 2:00 a.m. early sunday morning. police in the area hearing the gunshots and quickly arriving to a horrific scene. >> there they encountered a large crowd and multiple gunshot victims. officers began to give medical aid, including cpr, to the victims that they found. >> reporter: 18 people struck by gunfire, at least six of them now dead from the injuries. >> all we heard was just gunshots. >> reporter: sacramento police have recovered hundreds of pieces of evidence including a stolen hand gunn from the scene. authorities say they're investigating social media videos that appear to show a fight break out before the gunfire. yet it's unclear if the fight is related to the shooting. >> we know that a large fight took place just prior to the shootings, and we have confirmed

that there are multiple shooters. >> reporter: near the site of the shooting, friends and family members waiting for hours to get information. pamela harris says her son, sergio, is one of the six killed, and today she wants answers. >> this wasn't no one shot. i mean, that was a massacre. >> reporter: what do you know about what happened to him? >> all i know is my son is dead. he has two young daughters that love him dearly, and he loved them. they're not going to see their father anymore. >> reporter: sunday's tragedy stunning the sacramento community. >> i'm devastated for the victims, for those still fighting for their lives, for their families, and for my city. >> reporter: and these social media videos recorded at the moment that the gunfire just kept going and going. this area was closed off yesterday, and we were able to see just multiple gun casings all across this street. those have been picked up. and this area has now been opened up to the public as the

investigation here in sacramento continues. mika? >> nbc's guad venegas, thank you for that report. coming up, we're going back to ukraine to talk about the reports of genocide. ukraine's prosecutor general will be here. plus we've got rough economic news here at home. with u.s. households set to pay an extra $5,000 this year thanks to inflation. we'll take you live to the white house as president biden gears up to host a special guest today and get the ball rolling on his supreme court nominee. "morning joe" rolls on in just a moment.

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bucha massacre is the most outrageous atrocity of the 21st century. and by saying we all refer to bucha but we should not forget about other towns and villages in the kyiv region, which also became the crime scene for russian army. >> that was ukraine's foreign minister making it clear that russian atrocities aren't confined to bucha. the images we're about to show you are extremely disturbing. this is footage from irpin, another suburb of kyiv, shot by a news team from mexico. it appears to show bodies of civilians outside of homes, others partially buried in fields. the mayor of irpin said last week that up to 300 civilians were killed during the russian occupation. we also have video in that we just received showing ukrainian president zelenskyy visiting the

town of bucha. when asked about the ongoing negotiations, he said it's very hard to hold talks with russia when he see what is they've done. zelenskyy also said ukraine won't rest until it has identified those responsible for the atrocities. again, russia saying that these are fake pictures and fake bodies. joining us now, ukraine's prosecutor general, irina. if you could please tell us, we understand the atrocities are not confined to bucha. what else can you report? what other cities and atrocities can you report to us? >> good morning, dear friends. first i want to ask your citizens for your support during our very hard days.

these cases are absolutely different. for one case, we have e fks on our civilians. in other case, for example, a case about russian aggression, we have now 214 suspects, top leaders and top politicians from russian federation. we have evidence from different regions of our country about war crimes, about using prohibited weapons, about bombing civilians, about killing -- and you see now it's in kyiv region -- about just murders of our civilians -- women, kids, elderly people. when it was february of this

year, it was very terrible situation when russian troops attacked and elderly people were murdered. these facts we have unfortunately in big quantity. >> at some point, this war will be over, and when it is over, let me ask you, what should vladimir putin, what should foreign minister lavrov, what short of justice should russian generals and commanders and soldiers face? >> of course those who are responsible for this, and this is not only individuals who killed our citizens. it is russian authorities who gave them these orders. that's why we have in ukraine

four main things. one is our criminal investigation. other one it is coordination and support investigation of international criminal court. and i trust the prosecutor of that court can investigate and war crimes and the crimes against humanity and other possibilities. i don't want to say now. but maybe we can qualify such crimes as a genocide. the third approach, it is joint investigation team. for now, we have joint investigation team. and our next approach is starting proceedings in other jurisdictions. now ten european countries started their own criminal cases about war crimes in ukraine. >> we want to give you the

official opportunity to respond to what russia is claiming sergey lavrov, the foreign minister himself, that the images out of bucha are made up, that the bodies are fake and that this is a crime scene planted by the ukrainian government to engender sympathy from the world. what do you say to that? >> i even can't imagine that ministry of foreign affairs -- actually, it's very strange when such high levels can make such answers. that's why of course for us very important not only speak about this, for us very important to demonstrate our evidence and concrete evidence of these war crimes. >> ukraine's prosecutor general, thank you very much for joining us this morning. up next, economists project

that inflation could cost you over $5,000 this year. cnbc's andrew ross sorkin is here to talk about that. plus, the stock market is set to open up in just a few minutes. investors are watching twitter after elon musk just bought a big stake in the company. and in washington, former president obama returning to the white house this week for the very first time since he left office. >> by the way, we also have kornacki. he's in a race. he's range this morning. more so than usual. and donny deutsch. >> the "a" list. >> we got the "a" list. donny will be talking to us about who's up, who's down and why. >> kornacki and deutsch. can't get better. >> murder rer's row. >> first, why barack obama is going to the white house and what we can expect. keep it here on "morning joe."

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serious? >> people wondered what that 15 stands for. we've been doing this for 15 years, the three of us. >> like a reunion. i know. i think we're the longest running three -- >> i know that mika said the 15 was my i.q. >> oh, nice. >> this is huge. he's back. >> ross sorkin. >> this time it's personal. >> congratulations. >> look at you. >> this is pretty great. >> it's exciting for us. >> very exciting for me. the old days when we would do this and i would come on in the morning, was it 15 years ago? maybe 14 for me. >> 2008. >> a precocious fifth-grader. he was. >> i just had my bar mitzvah and -- >> i'm working on it. he was like chaz in "the

royal tannenbaums." preternatural ability to read the markets. here he is. he's grown up. >> nice to see you guys. 15 years later? >> it's been great. >> great to see you in person. word association. we have so much to get to. ceo, the rich get richer, like ceos. they're paid. >> $14.2 million is the median pay now for ceos. it's up about 11%. that's been a function of two things. one is you could argue inflation. but the craziest b part about that story, if you get underneath the numbers, is during the pandemic, a number of ceos went to their boards and said, you know what, got to readjust for us here because they all thought the world was coming to an end. they said readjust downward. effectively they were able to inflate, if you, will the pay even more because they were able

to take the numbers down back in 2020. that's what you're saying now. >> 15 years, haven't we been talking about this for 15 years? >> we've been talking about it. by the way, don't you think it's changing now? >> is it? >> i don't know if ceo pay is changing, but i know we'll probably talk about unions. i think there's a whole different conversation that's emerged even in the last year or two around worker pay. and i assume that will connect back to the ceo pay issue. i think you're starting to see that. today howard schulz's first day on the job at starbucks. >> when did he come back? >> he came back in part because the other ceo he put in place stepped down and partially because starbucks, i hate to see it, needs a refresh. there's a huge problem there. this is a company that is now being unionized across the country. there is an effort to unionize at a company we all thought was considered perhaps one of the more progressive companies in the world. they were giving away education, all sorts of health care, and

this is a company that's saying it's still not enough. here's howard schulz coming in. by the way, his first move was to say no more share buybacks, which politically in washington has become a lighten rod itself. >> right. >> i think he can say to the employees, we're going to invest in you and in these stores, and that's what this is about. at least it takes that issue after the table temporarily. >> let's talk about twitter and elon musk. >> biggest story of the morning. >> why would elon musk put the target on his back and have republicans and democrats hate him? >> so, elon musk announces -- not announces -- discloses this morning he's taking a 9.2% stake in twitter. this is technically what's called a passive stake at the moment. but i don't think elon musk does anything in a passive way. i think this is the beginning of something bigger. the question is what is he doing and why? over the past couple weeks he puts polls out on twitter saying do you think that twitter should

be open sourced? do you think it should be more free speech? he has i would say a libertarian streak, more laissez-faire approach. he would like to do social media the way frankly this new trump truth effort would be. by the way, that stock for trump's -- that's falling today because here is maybe trying to do the same thing. the thing is you're absolutely right. he'll put his target on his back. i think it's similar to what happened with jeff bezos in the context of amazon when he bought "the washington post." all of a sudden trump went after him and said hey, you're the puppet master. by the way, elon musk called him the puppet master for "the washington post" and for amazon. if you are a republican, a democrat, and you're on the other side of elon musk, do you say, you know what, i'm not going to provide fund big the defense department to spacex, his other business, or tax celts to tesla? if you're a share holdener tesla this morning, is this a good

thing for you? i don't know. >> elon musk has been threatening to create his own social platform. almost $3 billion into twitter. >> this is pocket change for him. >> of course. >> by the way, he's got about $270 billion personally, the richest man in the world still. >> how did that happen? >> so he could go off and buy the whole thing. market cap in terms of total value of twitter, about $30 billion. >> so what's he up to? >> i think he wants to either buy out the whole company or potentially influence the business to be a more public square -- i think he doesn't like the idea of shutting down different individuals on the platform. he wants to create this sort of different environment and probably realized, by the way, looking at what trump is trying to do with this truth social media platform, it's hard to create something of that size and scale. why not just get involved in this, buy it outright, or

influence it that way? >> we'll get a lot more of andrew ross sorkin all week. >> exciting. >> almost demands it. >> really good to see you. >> i'm so happy for you guys. this is so much fun. >> we're back tomorrow. >> see you tomorrow. still ahead, some of the other stories the papers across the country are covering including former president trump endorsing sarah palin for congress. plus, chris rock may have gotten slapped by will smith at the oscars, but what was the impact on his brand as he embarks on a big tour? we'll dig into that with donny deutsch straight ahead.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's 9:43 in the morning in new york city, 6:43 on the west coast. time for a check of the morning papers. first to texas, where "the dallas morning news" reports southwest airlines now is getting its schedule back on track this morning after technical issues delayed or canceled hundreds of flights over the weekend, impacting travellers across the country. in alaska, the "anchorage daily news" reports former alaska governor and vice presidential nominee sarah palin has received an endorsement from former president donald trump in support-her recently announced campaign for congress. >> and "the los angeles times" reports the city has agreed to spend up to $3 billion to build thousands of new beds and housing units for some of its 41,000 residents who are homeless. let's go to the white house now. white house correspondent for politico and co-author of "the playbook," eugene daniels is there. we're happy to announce he's

also a "morning joe" senior contributor. eugene, tell us what you have for us on president biden's supreme court nominee today. >> reporter: first, congrats to you guys. what a day. very exciting. a fourth hour. today is the -- the committee starts to look at a vote for ketanji brown jackson. as we move forward this week with what the white house and congressional democrats, senate democrats feel is going to be a confirmation toward the end of the week. so it will start in just a little bit, actually in about 15 minutes, there will be some debate. i was talking to an aid for the judiciary committee yesterday and they were lamenting about how there isn't a rule governing how much time they could talk. the committee will have a long day. they're expecting a lot of the same attacks, largely debunked, that we've seen over and over from the republicans. i was talking to a white house official yesterday, and they say that they are going to allow a

lot of the pushback for those kinds of things to come from the committee, both on twitter and in public at the committee, but here they'll be talking more about her accomplishments. i was told this is a time to be affirmative because there has been such a focus on those attacks on the child pornography record that she has. so they're excited. they see it coming. and there's almost nothing that gets the senate moving quicker than a recess on the horizon. so i'm told thursday is where we could probably expect a vote on the senate floor. >> all right. we'll be watching that. eugene, former president barack obama returning to the white house today for the first time since he left. tomorrow he's coming. tell us why. >> reporter: the obama folks have been cognizant of making sure that president obama doesn't steal the spotlight away from president biden the last year and change, so it's a big

deal he's coming here tomorrow. it will be focused on the health care act. i'm told it's a two-parter. one, president obama will talk about the importance of obamacare. it's obviously gotten even more popular as the administration left office, so that's one thing. but then the meat of it, i'm told, the bulk of what we're going to see tomorrow is talking about actually the biden administration's going to take to shore up obamacare, right. they're looking at ways to make sure that it's cheaper for folks, cost-cutting for families is a focus, and one of the things that every kind of has had their eyes on for a while is what's called the family glitch, so looking to see if the administration is going to make an announcement on that aspect of it. but it will be a big day. one of the frustrating things about covering the biden white house sometimes is the obama officials are here too so it makes it difficult to look for folks. everyone here is excited he'll be here tomorrow. >> "morning joe" senior contributor eugene daniels reporting for us at the white

house. thank you very much. still ahead, what do president biden, former president trump, disney, and pop-tarts all have in common? their brands have seen major movement over the last week. donny deutsch will break it all down. plus, we'll look ahead to tonight's men's final between north carolina and kansas. on the women's side, south carolina dominates uconn. steve kornacki joinings us from the big easy to break it all down. ♪("i've been everywhere" by johnny cash) ♪ ♪i've traveled every road in this here land!♪ ♪i've been everywhere, man.♪ ♪i've been everywhere, man.♪ ♪of travel i've had my share, man.♪ ♪i've been everywhere.♪ ♪♪

that oddly satisfying feeling when you don't do it yourself.

52 past the hour. this morning, we're kicking off a new segment we're call brandup, brand down. a closer look at whose brand is looking good and who's not looking so great. joining us now, the host of the podcast, "on brand with donny deutsch," donny deutsch. >> donny! >> congratulations on mj 4.

>> thank you so much. let's start with the big one. joe biden -- >> biden brand is down. the reason -- here's why. the numbers, the nbc poll says they're at 45, 55% underwater. because the messaging is right. if you look at the economy, where it's 3.6% employment, when you look at what east done with ukraine, with the coalition, the good news is not sticking to him. it doesn't stick, so there's something wrong with the message. his job is up, but the brand is done. trump brand down, no surprise. all you need to know, look at the gridiron speech that chris sununu, who basically is a 70% approval rating, governor of a purple state, coming out and saying he's effing crazy, and he said, i'm not saying he belongs in a mental institution, but if he ever went in, he's not coming out. that kind of thing, plus what's going on in georgia, kemp, 9% ahead perdue, who is the trump reflection, all you need to know

is his brand. not only is it a purple state, it's the most important primary state. >> a lot will say he cost them that state. that's why the democrats hold the senate. let's move to the world of entertainment. chris rock, a few days after the oscars. >> everybody is talking about will smith. nobody is giving him the props. the way he has handled it. from that moment on, not flinching on the slap, not escalating it, ever since then taking the high road, as much as will smith's brand is crashing down, and it will continue to crash, chris rock's brand has never been more robust. >> and jim carrey was the first one to come out and condemn -- >> i remember seeing that standing ovation and i was cringing, saying, what a bunch of lemmings. but the thing he did out, he said he's probably retiring, how many guys in their prime, he said, i've done enough, i've had enough, i am enough. i'm walking away. give props to jim carrey. >> what about disney? >> that's an example of how not to get involved in politics.

young people want companies to take stances. they were very laid out on "don't say gay," a lot of their constituencies they they don't come out. now on the flip side, they had a content that said, we'll make 50% of all disney characters going forward either lbgtq or women. >> and part of their problem from the beginning, getting involved is a problem that a lot oaf people have as far as balancing things. you have pressure internally from employees, especially younger employees, versus your consumers on the outside. >> they're a mass, mass company. and they'll have to answer to every political issue coming forward. they're in a bad place. >> and you talk about mlb, where willie, with the all-star game last year. they actually canceled the all-star game before they read the bill. and you had stacey abrams, other georgia politicians say, don't move the all-star game.

mlb moved too quickly, made a horrible mistake. >> then you step out on that ledge, and as donny said, now you have to answer for everything, look at the contradictions, what about china and what about everything else. let me ask you about another company, tesla. sales up 73%. >> through the roof. the year before that, they doubled. the big three is going backwards. they've beat just subaru and volvo, they're about to mass mercedes, bmw. you cannot like elon musk, but you cannot give tesla anything but huge props. >> speaking about not liking somebody, you and fans have never liked coach k. yet, the rest of the country looks at this guy. >> 45 years, but there's never been a due player that's had any blemishes on them. forget about the winning and the five titles and the 17 final fours. he has been in the public eye and has never had any one negative connotation with any of his players, with his program, hard to do that in 45 years. >> what about pop-tarts, finally. we were talking about pop-tarts

before. >> sure! >> this class action lawsuit that you and i were a part of. >> come on! >> i don't like being lied to, donny. >> don't fret! >> huge brand up for pop-tarts. there was a class action suit that actually brought, saying that they were lying about nutritional value because they had strawberries in. the judge threw it out and said, a reasonable consumer is unlikely to purchase a toaster pastry coated in frosting, the nutritional value of strawberries. >> make him go away. >> we're also suing the wwe, because we just learned that wrestling is fake. >> can you go to steve kornacki. we're just talking about coach k. steve is down in new orleans at final four. huge game tonight, steve, what does it look like? >> what a -- you've got a blue blood final four we were all talking about. i think there was a little bit of hope among maybe neutral fans, if they're already down here, that you would get that dramatic coach k. trying to go out on top, like john wooden

had, like al maguire had, we aren't getting that, but we are getting carolina and kansas. and a bit of history. i didn't bring the board with me, but i did bring this to show you what it looks like. and you can see here, this is what carolina is trying to do, is the fourth time in history that an eighth seed has made the national title game. 85, that was villanova. that was the mother of all upsets. villanova barely made the tournament. they took down patrick ewing in georgetown. shot 78% in the second half of that game. they're the only eight seed that actually did complete the deal and win the national title game. look down here, kansas, a one-seed. but this carolina team tonight, getting a lot more respect coming into the game than villanova did all of those years ago. they've proven some things in this tournament. taken down baylor, taken down duke on saturday night. caleb love coming through with that clutch three-pointer. this looks like a very different carolina team than we saw in the earlier part of the year.

one that's really matured during this tournament. the line in this game, if you're interested in that kind of thing, is kansas by four points. i expect even if kansas wins this thing, i think we have a great matchup here. you can probably forget about the seeds. they're blue bloods. they've both been here, the programs have before. i think we've got a great matchup even if the coach k. story line isn't part of it tonight. >> nbc's steve kornacki, you're the best. thank you very much. >> and he does analog, too. it's not just the touch screen. he can do it any way you need him to do it. congratulations also this morning that wins the women's national championship. they were wire-to-wire. don bailey is the head coach. >> do you have a favorite for tonight. >> my head is with kansas, but my heart is carolina. >> you wonder what seven teams were better than unc when they put that bracket together. >> they lost nine games this year. how did thaw lose nine games?

>> he's a monster. >> unbelievable. >> i'm just going to finish my email to rashida that four hours is not enough for joe and willie. >> we need another hour. >> i need another hour, willie. >> that does it for us this morning. that does it for us this morning. jose diaz-balart picks up msnbc's breaking news coverage right now. >> and good morning, 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. we begin this busy monday with what the ukrainian president calls new evidence of genocide in russia's invasion of ukraine. this morning, we're learning new details about the massacre reported in bucha, just outside of kyiv. images appear to show mass graves, bodies of civilians lined along the streets and other signs of torture, as russian forces withdraw from the region. and further east, the red cross says this morning that humanitarian aid workers were not able to reach the bes