you have to wonder how his parents took it. leave it to colbert to put that kind of spin on it. a major shakeup in the sports world. some say was a long-time coming. good morning. i'm brian shactman. this is "way too early." thanks for being up with us tuesday, april 30g9. we have a lot to cover including not so friendly fire within the republican party. he reveals details of a closed door conversation. they are not supposed to talk about it. we will show you what he had to say. don't adjust your tv screen. this isn't a club from public access from the '80s. last night was the first and only south carolina debate between mark sanford and elizabeth colbert bush. a bit of a colbert open. first, our top story here live at 5:30 a.m. at 30 rock in new york city. we begin with that historic moment for the world of sports. in an exclusive interview with sports illustrated, nba center,

jason collins, who most recently played with the washington wizards, has become the first active male athlete in a major prosport to announce he is gae. he writes, i'm a 34-year-old nba center, i'm black, and i'm gay. i didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major american team sport but since i am, i i'm happy 'm happ the conversation. i wish i wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand to say shlgs i'm different. if i had my way, somebody else would have done this but i am raising my hand. >> his career spans 12 seasons and will become a free agent this summer. a white house official says president obama has reached out to express his support. joining us on the phone, the founder of edge of sports, dave zion. founder of "game over." before we get your general

input, i want to read this tweet from you. a lot of people are calling this a jackie robinson moment for gay athletes. you had a little bit of a different take tweeting, huge difference between jackie robinson and jason collins robinson comes in advance of civil rights. collins, more of a reflection of struggle. i guess, my point is, are we as a collective making too big of a deal of him as a symbol? >> let me be very clear. absolutely not. i was just responding to a question like compare and contrast. jackie robinson appearing in 1947 in major league baseball eight years before the montgomery busboy cotts and the start of the civil rights movement. this is different. jason collins appearing in 2014, appearing loud and proud as an active gay athlete. 2013. sorry. it is a little early. coming out in 2013 really on a wave of what's been some

mammouth changes over the last several years. that's a very different dynamic in terms of this kind of presence. we are not making too big of a deal out of it. oftentimes in the sports media world, we confuse hype with substance. look at tebow, tim, as an example of that. this is one of the cases where the substance is greater than the hype. this is truly a historic moment in the world of sports. >> let me get to twitter, because it blew up on this. jason colin saw his online following go from 4,000 to more than 81,000. bill clinton took to twitter saying he was proud to call collins a friend. his daughter, chelsea, was a dormmate of jason's. first lady, michelle obama, said it was a huge step forward. kobe bryant said, don't suffocated who you are because of the ignorance of others.

robbie rogers who came out as gay earlier said, i feel a movement coming. are we going to see a lot of people follow suit? there was talk about four people coming out in the nfl on the same day? what is your sense? is this the next step? now, we are going to see a lot follow? >> i have been covering this story for years. there have been so many false starts of me hearing rumors about certain players who are about to come out but then didn't, because they were concerned about just frankly the weight of expectation of what it would mean for them whether they came out, the attention. this is a huge, huge deal i think it is going to lead to more players doing the same. >> we appreciate you getting up early with us and for the insight as well. >> my privilege, thank you. we want to update the bombing investigation in boston where the search for evidence spans from cia headquarters to russia to u mass dorm rooms. it is part of the investigation

into how and why the alleged terrorists carried out this attack. pete williams reports, the surviving suspect may be looking for ways to avoid the death penalty as federal officials continue to build their case. >> reporter: in rhode island, an fbi team conducted a search where tamerlan tsarnaev's widow, catherine, has been living since the bombing. she says she was shocked by the attack. law enforcement officials say they took a sample of her dna to compare to female dna found on a piece of the pressure cooker from one of the bombs. it could have come from employees at the stores where the parts were bought. they confirm reports it was a russian wiretap of tamerlan tsarnaev's mother that prompted the russians to ask the fbi for more information about him two years ago. some members of congress say the russian intelligence service should have been more explicit. >> if they gave the fbi the information they had regarding the mother and the son and their

views on the mother's radicalization and the son's radicalization, it would have dramatically changed the investigation. >> reporter: u.s. officials say they doubt it would have made a difference. it was clear two years ago that the russians thought tsarnaev's mother was becoming an extremeist that spoke about jihad generally. they are looking into whether tamerlan met with two men they considered radicals, william plotnikof killed last july, the other, mahmoud nidal, was killed in anoth russian operation last may. they found nothing in local landfills but are still searching garbage containers in the belief that someone may have carried items out of dzhokhar tsarnaev's dorm room a few days after the bombing. it is not clear whether whoever may have done so knew that evidence could be destroyed or did something just to help a

friend. >> that was nbc's pete williams reporting an experienced defense lawyer is joining the team to help the 19-year-old reach a plea deal to avoid capital punishment. u.s. officials are trying to determine if and to what extent the syrian government used chemical weaponsgainst their own people. chuck hagel says there is much the pentagon still needs to pin down, calls on capitol hill for american intervention, continue to grow. a new poll shows 45% of the american public supports sending u.s. troops to the war-torn country if, indeed, syria deployed chemical weapons. this as violence spirals out of control in the country. the country's prime minister narrowly escaped a bombing on monday believed to be an assassination attempt. back here at home after more than a week of frustrating delays, air traffic controllers are coming off their furloughs over the course of the next 24 hours. the senate and house passed legislation over the weekend allowing the faa to use

infrastructure money to offset the cost of furloughs brought on by the sequester. that was after tens of thousands of flights experienced light to heavy delays, on-time arrivals dropped by nearly 10% across the country. according to an airline industry group, airlines lost about $6 million a day from the cost of the delays. the faa expects all systems to be completely back to normal by sunday evening. president obama had planned to sign the relief into law immediately. a spelling error has delayed it until today. you have to get those copies correct. new polling out that points to a major drop in support for a number of senators who voted against expanded background checks for gun sales. according to public policy polling, jeff flake of arizona has a minus 19 approval rating. that makes him the least popular sitting senator eclipsing who? any guessing out there, kentucky

senator, mitch mcconnell. senator, lisa murkowski, once among the country's most popular is down 16 points from february. her counterpart, mark begich dropped six points. rob portman's approval dropped 18 points in ohio over the last six months. in nevada, republican, dean heller has seen a smaller drop, shedding significant support among the state's key independent voters. kelly ayotte's numbers go from a net positive to now a negative. a majority of voters support expanded background checks in each of the five states ranging from 60% in alaska to 75% in the state of new hampshire. meanwhile, quinnipiac polling shows that pennsylvania voters gave pat toomey hi highest marks ever senator ted cruz who threatened to filibuster the gun

bill is openly mocking members of his party. he broke tradition by publicly discussing what went on behind closed doors when fellow republicans criticized him forgiving democrats ammunition to portray the gop as obstructionists. cruz hit back. we have had probably five or six lunches with a bunch of republican senators standing up and looking at rand and mike and me and yelling at us at the top of their lungs, really upset. they said, look, why did you do this? as a result of what you did, when i go home, my constituents are yelling at me that i have to stand on principle. there are a lot of people that don't like to be held accountable. here was their argument. they said, listen, before you did this, the politics of it were great. the dems were the bad guys. the republicans were the good guys. now, we all look like a bunch of squishes.

well, there is an alternative. you could just not be a bunch of squishes. >> cruz and senator rand paul, whom he mentioned, traded jabs with senator john mccain back in march after the arizona republican called them, quote, whacko birds before later apologizing. whacko birds. there is just one week left before that congressional race in south carolina. last night, democrat, elizabeth colbert-bush and former republican governor, mark sanford, had what will likely be their one and only debate. they battle over federal spending to health care and gun control. sanford went after colbert-bush for her tie to big-time d.c. fund-raisers and tried to connect her to nancy pelosi. it didn't take long for colbert-bush, to bring up mark sanford's personal past. >> when we are talking about getting our fiscal house in order, we need to look at everything from cutting spending

to what are our costs. during the time when we are having all this fiscal spending, fiscal cutting and back to the days where everybody had a furlough in the state, everybody was losing their jobs and we were pulling our belts in, when we talk about fiscal spending and we talk about protecting the taxpayers, it doesn't mean you take that money we saved and leave the country for a personal purpose. >> she went there. >> i couldn't hear what she said. >> governor sanford, when you were in congress, you voted for the defense of marriage act and to impeach president clinton for an extra mayor ta affair. would you vote those ways again? >> well, i would reverse the question to you. i would say this. do you think that president

clinton should be condemned for the rest of his life based on a mistake that he made in his life? >> that was the response. i'm trying to figure out if that was a good one or not. he knew it was coming. he was prepared for it. wall street coming off yet another record day as the s&p closed at a new high and the nasdaq ended at its best level in over 12 years. for more, let's check in with karen cho live in london. good morning. good morning. some positive numbers on the stock market. good news story out of the u.n. treasury. they are anticipating to pay down debt for the first quarter since 2007. is hasn't happened in about six years. the numbers being forecast, treasuries hoping to repay $35 billion instead of the borrowing it had anticipated of $103 billion. the factors at play that have made such a significance

difference is that nominal spending has remained unchanged since 2010. tax revenues have picked up with the economy and a payroll tax is also adding about $10 billion a month to revenues. brian, don't expect this to remain the case. treasury does intend to keep on borrowing in the third quarter to the tune of $223 billion. >> that's pretty big news either way. karen tso, thank you as always. we want to know why you are awake. way too early@msnbc.com. we will read the bess receipt sponss later in the show. a marathon baseball game just ended an hour ago, the angels and the a's playing into the 19th inning. 600 pitches in this one. we will show you who came out ahead next in sports. a little bit later, a story made for came tv comedians. jon stewart tackled the odd details surrounding the license case. that clip and more when "way too

early" comes back. as the camera looked away, her scream filled the stadium. they wrestled a man to the ground. in his right hand, feist-inch knife. a single stab wound high on her back near her spine. (cat purring)

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and the rain all morning long. it was beautiful. >> even with the unzip look. you were can you ever than me. >> we should clarify what we are talking about. >> with the jacket, and not anything else. >> good morning, everyone. rain yesterday in the jersey shore along with other areas. today, showers still in the forecast. still, kind of a cool, raw day. if the sun breaks out in your location just like yesterday, it will warm up in a hurry. we're a little warmer too. it is 57 in d.c., still cool in hartford. the forecast in the northeast looks better than down around d.c. more sun, a little bit warmer. the cold air is plunging down through the northern plains. it is unbelievable as we are going to go into may talking about a snowstorm in the front range. colorado, wyoming, and then out into the plains. a possibility of 6-10 inches in the denver area as we go through your wednesday night into your thursday morning. much of the country very warm in the midwest. it is going to look like winter

again, we are going to talk about snow tomorrow into thursday. >> i know. baseball that literally just ended 45 minutes ago. pick it up in the bottom of the ninth between the a's and angels, yonis hits the pitch off the wall. ten innings later, two outs and the bottom of the 19th, brandon moss ends the madness, a walk-off home run to right field. oakland wins 10-8. the game clocked in at six hours and 32 minutes. the longest ever played in oakland. the game was so long, four players left with injuries and albert pujols had a couple of home runs. another marathon between the mets and marlins, deep in extras, tied 3-3 on the bottom. first and third, miami's nick green, hits a sac fly to left, bringing the runner home. the game lasted five hours and 31 minutes. marlins win, 4-3. neither game had many fans left in the stands turning to nba playoff basketball, thunder going for

the sweep against the rockets. less than ten seconds to go. rockets by two. kevin durant had to give it up for reggie jackson, the basketball playing one. he turns it over. gentleman can son drives to the hoop, cannot get it. sernlg ibaka with a putback attempt. no good. the rockets hang on to beat the thunder 105-103. okc leads three games to one remember 7-year-old jack hoffmann, this play is the cutest thing. he has brain cancer. taking his hat off and running for a touchdown at a nebraska spring football game. yesterday, he visited the white house and melt president obama who gave him a football marked with the presidential seal and his autograph and family was there as well. great story. coming up at the top of the hour, "morning joe." new polling shows a handful of senators taking a pretty big hit in the poll following their votes against expanded background checks and when we come back here, lewis and the

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time for the cooler, digging deep in the archives, too. a little reporting. >> we're going to go way back today. the white house correspondence dinner happened this weekend. and i was there. and it's always a good time for the press corps and the

president to share some laughs. but sarah palin is trying to spoil the fun, chiming in on twitter this weekend. palin called the dinner, quote, pathetic, and i'll let you guys read the rest of the profanity-laced tweet. i can't even say it on tv. palin has never been to a white house correspondence dinner, but she did attend the msnbc show a few years ago. her attitude was different back then. >> were there any celebrities you got to meet tonight? >> well, i love seth myers. i didn't get to hear him, but i assume he did very well. so got to meet him. >> are you going to be able to say hi to chris matthews and some of the more liberal people sf. >> i'll say hi to them all right. i'll art say a few more words than just hello to chris matthews. >> i was shocked, actually, you know, i wasn't really star struck on the red carpet. but when i saw sarah palin at the msnbc party, i was like, what is she doing here?

but she seemed to be having a really good time. i don't get the tweet. one of my favorite interviews this weekend was my chat with the daily show's john oliver. i asked him what it was like to work for their boss jon stewart. >> does he call you up afterwards and and say, come on, you're better than that. >> come on, kid, get your head in the game. he's a very nice guy. but no, i wish we had a little "friday night lights" in it. >> can't lose! >> if you had it -- had the opportunity every night to do a signoff, what would it be? >> which you may have soon. >> i'd just say good-bye, that's it. it doesn't have the romance of poetry of good night, good luck, it would be just good night, that's it. i've finished talking. >> he's filling in on the hiatus, right? >> yeah, he is. he's great. they're both funny guys. all right, they're telling me we've got to go.

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