♪ ♪ >> it's all fake news. it's phoney stuff. it didn't happen. >> even after the big press conference, big questions remain on ethics and russia. the senate took the first steps with a major vote towards ending obamacare. >> most likely would be on the same day or same week, and could be the same day, could be the same hour. what you are doing in selfies could lead to new ways of stealing your identity. >> record-breaking storm systems could lead to flooding, but some are making the best of it. and thank you notes from the first lady. >> thank you inauguration day,

or as i like to call it, let's move! >> "early today" starts right now. good thursday morning, everybody. i am ayman mohyeldin. >> i am francis rivera. we begin with the explosive day in new york and a combative trump holding a news conference that ran the gamut, and he made headlines on a new cabinet nominee to the border wall, obamacare and his business dealings, but it was unsubstantiated allegations russia may hold over trump held the room. clapper says he spoke with trump offering his profoundest dismay at the leaks that have been a appearing in the press. president-elect trump affirmed

his appreciation for all the men and women serving in the intelligence community. nbc's hallie jackson has more of the blockbuster of a press conference. >> months in the making but it was not washington front and center, instead, moscow, russia, dominating. >> as far as hacking, i think it was russia, but i think we also get hacked by other countries, and other people. >> the president-elect outlining personal, lewd, unverified allegations against him. a senior intelligence official says trump was never briefed about it, backing up his argument. >> it's all fake news and it's phoney stuff and didn't happen. >> during the campaign, nobody

on his team had contact with the kremlin, but his political stance toward russia has been problematic, even in his own party. >> in putin likes donald trump, i consider that an asset and not a liability. >> does russia have any liability over you and if not will you release your tax returns to proof it. >> i tweeted out i have no dealings with russia. >> are you releasing your tax returns. >> while trump did scold putin -- >> he shouldn't be doing it and won't be doing it. >> his toughest talk saved for u.s. intelligence agencies. >> i think it was disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake. >> and at the podium, plenty of paperwork that trump's team says he is doing to avoid conflicts of interest, how?

giving up his foundation, and ivanka trump stepping away ahead of her move to washington, and creating a trust but not a blond trust, and hiring an ethics adviser to sign off on any deals that could trigger conflict of interests concerns, and any foreign profits, his business would not do any foreign deals. >> i was offered $2 billion to do a deal in dubai, a number of deals, and i turned it down. >> trump says these steps are sufficient. he is right, and as government he is exempt from conflict of interest laws. despite trump's business land, the government in office

now calls holy inadequate. >> that every president in the past four decades has met. >> at the end of the day there's no question who is in charge. >> i hope at the end of eight years i will come back and say, oh, you did a good job, and otherwise if they do a bad job, i will say, you're fired. >> now to the duelling confirmation hearings on the hill, and with exxonmobil chief, rex tillerson, repeatedly asked to answer about his past dealings with russia. >> what are you going to say to vladimir putin -- >> we must be clear-eyed about our relationship with russia. russia today poses a danger. >> now the head of the foreign relations committee is giving his sign off saying i believe

mr. tillerson has a great opportunity to be secretary of state. and marco rubio came out swinging regarding putin. >> do you believe that vladimir putin and his cronies are responsible for ordering the murder of countless dissidents, journalists and political opponents? >> i do not have sufficient information to make that claim. >> none of this is classified, these people are dead. >> jeff sessions faced his second day of questioning in his bid to serve as the next attorney general, and cory booker and mr. richmond testified against him, calling sessions unfit for office. >> i want an attorney general who is committed to supporting law enforcement and securing law and order but that is not

enough. >> we need somebody that is going to stand out, speak up and speak out for the people that need help. >> to have a senator, a house member, and a living civil rights legend testify at the end of all of this is the equivalent of being made to go to the back of the bus. >> still, sessions' nomination will likely pass through committee for a full vote in the senate. at approximately 1:25 a.m. this morning the senate took its first step to unwind the affordable care act. >> on this vote, 51-48, and the current resolution is agreed to. >> the vote was part of a budget mechanism that will allow the republicans to repeal the signature legislation, and democrats did their best to try and upend the entire vote through bursts of protests.

>> no, for the millionth -- >> that is not allowed during a vote. >> the republicans have no plan. no plan! >> the full process of repaelg the health care act will take weeks if not months. the west coast is recovering after getting slammed after floodwaters trap many in their homes, and many roads will be closed indefinitely through the water and mudslides. further north more than a foot of snow has been dumped on parts of oregon. >> bill karins on the extremely active storms out west, and it seems like they are getting hit after hit, bill. >> and now the storms are moving toward the middle of the country, and we are getting the big clash, and we are having the

cold air bumping into the warm air, and we have a little freezing rain and sleet breaking out near illinois, and this is for late thursday night into the weekend, and st. louis, and wichita, and an ice storm is expected. the areas of greatest turn, central missouri, and northern portions of oklahoma and kansas, power outages possible and maybe possible this weekend. here's a closer look at your forecast. so here it is, the cold air pouring down from the north and at the same time it's warm to the south, and it's going to be an unusually warm day up into northern new england today with early-morning rain. the ice storm looks like it will last until sunday for some areas, guys, and one of the first ice storms for the winter season. >> thank you. just ahead, wait until you find out what many blue states are doing right now to keep donald trump off the ballot in

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(burke) and we covered it, february third, twenty-sixteen. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ ♪ ♪ >> thank you, barack, by proving you're not a lame duck, but my very own silver fox. >> yeah. >> thank you, mrs. obama, for being a strong, smart, independent woman, an activist, a style icon, and a great dancer and showing us all what it would look like if beyonce married a nerdier jay-z.

>> mom jeans and all. >> the jeans are gone? >> yeah, the jeans are gone. >> in her last late-night appearance as first lady, and nothing more fitting. >> they will be missed, just for what they interjected into late-night humor. the irs's delay to crack down will delay refunds. the irs says scammers and organized crime seupbd cuts have been filing fake forms. the irs said the delays could last a few weeks. president-elect trump has not been sworn in yet but many states are taking steps that could keep him if being elected, and hawaii is trying to push through a law that would prevent

anybody from being on the ballot unless they release their tax reforms. an ap poll taken last year shows two-thirds of registered voters that said it's somewhat important or very important for a presidential candidate to release their tax returns. and an alert to selfie takers, stop flashing peace signs. it's identity for identity thieves to detect and capture your fingerprints usually when you see a selfie, and stolen prints can be used to allow access to your phone, computer and online banking accounts. and they match fingers to faces via sites like instagram and

facebook. >> fascinating that technology is that good, and so -- that wouldn't be a peace sign if you flip it around. >> it could be, and i don't know what the official ruling would be on peace signs. what about a thumb's up? >> there you go. drug companies are, quote, getting away with murder. plus, michael jackson's daughter is outraged over how her famous father somebodying portrayed in a new movie. you are watching "early today." per roll

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fast-forwarding today, a minnesota judge overseeing prince's estate will hold a hearing to decide who qualifies as an heir. the things got heated for the miami heat when their charter slid on an icy milwaukee runway. the team fortunately says that everybody is okay. lester holt sits down with president obama aboard air force one in an nbc primetime special "barack obama:the reality of hope." >> don't want to miss that one. donald trump's first press conference in six months sends shock waves, and we'll tell you about that.

and then we have these stories and much more from london. good morning. >> good morning, ayman. let's start with the shock waves from the pharma yesterday, and donald trump says they are getting away with murder and he will tackle pricing, and that wiped off 25% worth of value off the stocks, and this year will be just as turbulent for these names as last year. and they are putting ads in between stories on instagram. if you want to jump between stories now, you will have to watch a dreaded ad. it's great for instagram, of course, because it brings in all the advertising dollars but is it going to be a turn-off for the 150 million users? finally, great news if you like to tweet, chat, e-mail in the air, jetblue, the u.s. airline offering free wi-fi, and delta

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start your used car search at carfax.com raging reactions this morning from the family of michael jackson after the trailer release of the comedy series, "urban myth," because you have a white actor briefly shown playing the role of the king of pop. his daughter, paris jackson, is expressing her frustration about the casting choice for her father on twitter, and writing i am so incredibly offended by it as i am sure many are and it makes me want to vomit. >> fines told the associated press last year he doesn't believe his portrayal encourages any stereotyping, and the same backlash when emma stone got -- >> yeah, playing in "aloha."

natalie portman, in an interview with marie claire, and kutcher was paid three times more than her in the comedy "no strings attached." she said she was not as angry as she should have been but finds it crazy, and kutcher says so proud of natalie and those closing the gender gap. >> if you think about where all of this came out when jennifer lawrence came out was the sony hack, when that all came out and everybody was seeing how big of a difference there was in salaries. >> yeah. this is "early today." so we don't have to wad to get clean. mmm, cushiony...and we can use less.

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new appeal process. overnight the republican-controlled senate takes the first major step in ditching obamacare. strong words, donald trump comes out firing during his first news conference as president-elect. and price hike. this morning, an owner of a philadelphia deli was attacked over a chaes steak. good morning. this is "nbc 10 news today." i'm tracy davidson. >> and i'm katy zachary, just as expected, you walk out that door and you're going to be confronted with warmer temperatures. >> it's spring. >> right. meteorologist bill henley is here with the "first alert" forecast. it feels like spring. >> it does. and i've got showers to show

you, too. temperatures are much warmer. 52 degrees. i'm tracking a few showers moving into the lehigh valley, berks county and the suburbs. then a chance of a shower in the morning. very light weather, just rain. temperatures are too warm for anything else. 45 right now in the lehigh valley. the showers will be moving through with calm conditions and temperatures will be climbing into the 60s. 65 for philadelphia. close to 60 in the suburbs. a few morning showers. mostly cloudy and 66 degrees. the farther south you are in new jersey the better the chance you'll see sunshine today. delaware up to 65 degrees this afternoon. we'll go through the forecast hour by hour when i come back and we'll show you when the showers will pop up and when we'll reach the 50s. bill, we're watching the vine street expressway in the cameras around broad street.

we're dealing with that construction between broad street and the schuylkill expressway. both directions at least for a half an hour until 5:00. diverting all of the traffic off the broad street off-ramp. for now take the local vine as your alternate. there's a crash at horsham and 295 looking great. route 30 here. 295 on the bottom looks great there. just wet watching on and off the ramps as well. or andover, in new jersey, 42 freeway. walt whitman bridge, average speeds in the 50s. >> jessica, thanks. we're following breaking news overnight from washington, d.c. where the senate passed a resolution clearing the first major hurdle if the republican effort to repeal obamacare. matt delucia is live in our digital operations center. >> there were several votes, and then just