it's all about. >> what is up? i'm scott evans and this is mr. president, did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no. >> then why did michael cohen make it if there was no truth to the allegation? >> youl have to ask michael cohen.an mi michael is my attorney, and you'll have to ask mike zbll nearly a yr after those comments, congress will ask michael cohen that exact question. the president's former lawyer and fixer promising explosive evidence that mr. trump knew about the alleged hush money payments. and half a world away, the stage is set for a high-stakes diplomatic showdown as president trump f preparesor his second historic summit with north korea's kim jong-un. no more meddling. how the u.s. army took down an

infamous russianroll farm ahead of the midterms. the perfect way to walk a le in millennials shoes. the avocado toast sneakers setting the internet on fire this morning. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm milissa rehberger. >> and'm phillip mena. a political double-header playing out on oppositends of the world. president trump is in vietnam for hisond summit with kim former lawyer is and fixer, michael cohen, is back in the hot seat on capitol hill. we have team coverage this morning. our bill neel covering all the action in hanoi while susanf mcginnis islowing the fireworks in d.c. we'll get to bill in just a minute, butin first just hours cohen will testify in front of congress for the second day in a w. and this time, the cameras will be rolling. cohen is reportedly bringing a mmmbshell before the house oversight tee. a signed check from the trump organization connected to hush money allegations. cohen is expected to say the check was part of his reimbursement for the $130,000 he paid to porn star stormy

daniels to stay silent about her alleged affair with mr. trump in he weeks leading up to election. federal prosecutors in manhattan argue that the payment broke campaign finance laws. we begin now w shan in d.c. susan, good morning. we're getting our first look as well at cohen's opening statements. >> reporter: we are, phillip. good morning. yeah, cohen wil evidently bring a dump truck of information about his years of wk with nald trump. here's a quick look at part of his opening statement. cohen wil i say, am ashamed because i know what mr. trump is. he is a racist. he is a con man. he is a cheat. now, after testifying behind closed doors at a hearing on tuesday, cohen emerged, thanked the press, and raised expectations about today. >> i really appreciate the opportunity that was given to me to clear the recor and t tell the truth, and i look forward to tomorr a to beinge to, in my voice, to tell the american pendle my story, i'm going to let the american people decide exactly who's telling the

truth. so i want to thank you all again for sticking around. have aoodnight. >> reporter: now, cohen evidently is fully prepared to ain implicate president trump in felonies including those hush money payments towo the women who claim to have had affairs with president trump. remember, stormy niels and karen mcdougal. both trump and cohen addressed that issuearlier. >> sir, did you direct mic cel cohen tmit any violations of law? >> no. no. >> he directed me to make t payments. he directed me to become involved in thesett s. >> reporter: so lots of anticipation about testimony today. ecohen's alsoected to apologize to the committee for lying the last time he and phillip, lying, of course, is what is sending cohen to prison in may. >> he is wellre of that. susan, one of the president's allies in the house is now under fire for his comments about ehen. what donow about that? >> reporter: yeah, this is republican congressman matt gaetz of florida. he is now apologizing for a tweet he put up that seemed to

threaten cohen with information that he has about him. he says to cohen, do your wife and father-in-law know about your maybe tonight would be a good time for that. i wonder if she'll main faithful when you're in prison. she's about to learn a lot. that's gaetzn twitter saying those things with no evidence. after aro backlash that, he started apologizing. he said it was not my attempt to threaten. he said, i'm deleting t tweet. xi have chosen words that better show my intent. im sorry. the rhetoric today very high. the testimony by cohen starting at 10:00 o.m. inn session. >> we will be watching. susan, thank you. > and another reminder of our live coverage of michael cohen's testimonss before cong like susan said, starts this morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern, right here on nbc. now we turn to vietnam where it's already late afternoon, and the president has enjoyed an eventful day so far, meeting with the vietnamese president and prime minister before an intimateinner with north korean leader kim jong-un. that is set to take place in

just a few hours. let's go now to nbc's bill neely, who is following for us there. what's happening so fa >> reporter: good morning, milissa. i'm about 200 yards from the metro poll hotel whereas you say in almost three hours time, president trump and kim jong-un will shake hands once again, and then they will have, according to the white house, about a 20-minute conversation before what's being described as social dinner attended by secretary of state mike pompeo and, on kim jong bn's side, his former spy chief, general kim yong-chol, who has been povolved in this process of nuclear wea talks with the united states for the best part of 20 years. then tomorrow, what the white house describes as a series of back and forth meetings. in other words, the summit. as you say, both leaders, in fact, have been out this morning meeting vietnamese people. i mean the president meeting tht

presidf vietnam and concluding a trade deal for 110 boeing planes to two vietnamese airlines. he was also up this morning earlyg tweetnd in rather defensive mode, tweeting, why didn't the democrats do more about north korea? why are they criticizing me?ls and talking about the opportunities for my friend, kim jong-un. a great opportunity, he says, if north korea would denuclldrize, it w thrive. we will know very soon, he said. i don't think it is likely, actually, that we will know very soon whether north korea will denuclearize or even promise to do so. remember, just before he came here, president trump was saying as long as north korea doesn't test, i'll behappy. so he has lowered the bar here and extended the time line, if you li, and that's a long way

between the original u.s goal, which was dplecomple, verifiabl irreversible denuclearization. that was often accompanied by theord "immediate." so tomorrow will be the big summit, and we will see whether it is more substance this time than pure symbol. guys, back to you. >> bill, thank you. a legislative blow in the battle over the border wall. last nightoted late to block the president's national emergency declaration. 13 replicans crossed the aisle siding with the democrats to approve the resolution and send it t the senate. now majority leader mitch mcconnell will have to bring the measure to a vote within the next 18 days. nbc'sem dan sch has more. >> reporter: the yaysre 245. >> reporter: the latest salvo in the ongoing battle over the border. >> joint resolution is passed. >> reporter: front and center in the house tuesday as lawmakers approved an unprecedented and pointed rebuke of president trump's two weera old decon of emergency along the southern

border. democrats calling the president's move an tu unconsonal overreach. >> that constitution is about the separationow ofs that is being usurped by the executive branch. we in the legislative branch cannot let thathappen. >> there is no crisis at the border. li>> reporter: house repns pushing back. >> it is the statutes that allow this president to do this. >> when i came back from the border and i came back from seeing the real issue that makes this a national emergency, ing, that'sn traffi en i realized something had to be done. >> reporter: next, the bill heads to the senate, where it could pass as well. only four gop votes are needed to send it to the oval. offi the president repeatedly vowing to veto. >> will i veto it? 100%. >> reporter: a potential first veto of his presidency. but definitely not the last challenge facing his plans for the border. as lawsuits by 16 states and

several advocacy groups againstw the declaratik their way through the courts. dan scheneman, nbc news. no a stunning report of migrant children allegedly being sexually abused while. in u custody. federal records revealed more than 4,500 allegationsf sexual abuse and sexual misconduct were reported to the office of refugee resettlement. the allegations date back to 2015, falling understand the obama administration. during that same time, there were 1,300 more reports of sexual abuse to theen depar of justice. the majority of the alleged assaults were carried out by other minors in custod but 180 involved staff inside migrant shelters. e reports were a strong point of contention during a hearing on the trump administration's policy of family separations at the border. chicago's mayoral race is heading to a historic runoff. dhe victor will become the first black woman to l the nation's third largest city. cook county board president toni

prek winkle seen here on the left. andme f federal prosecutor lori light foot will face off in a runoff election set f april. if ms. light foot wins she would become the first openly gay mayor of chicago. ead in ne people are york after a deadly long islanda way collision. authorities evacuated hundreds of passengers, and the governor is calling on law enforcement and the national transportation safety board to investigate.tl sh after 7:00 p.m., a vehicle trying to beat the trains tried to bypass security gates when two trains traveling in opposite directions slammed right into it, k tling thehree people inside and causing a partial derailment that injured at least seven people were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening.injuri the nightmare is over for 183 passengers whoere stranded onboard an amtrakor train marathon 36 hours. those passengers finally set foot on solid groundhe after train pulled into the town of

eugene, oregon. it had gotten stuck after hitting a tree that had fallen on tracks. the trip started in seattle heading south through the pacific northwest and came to a grinding halt sunday wvening. peope forced to ration food and water. train officials say passengers were kept onboard because there was, quote, no viable way to safely transport passengers or crews via alternate transportation. >> what an ordeal. t's go to bill with the forecast. >> good morning. more snow. this time we're actually watching it treough the of the great lakes from minneapolis through wisconsin. we've had a coating out there. a lot of areas are going to have one or two inches, just enough to makeuiou do a shovel or brushing off of the car early in the morning. this is heading intoas a of new york state and eventually into new england. as we go through 6:00 a.m. and mostly from detroit to cadillac, then as we go throughout this afternoon, western portions of new york will still be arriving at albany and hartford as we gohrough is evening. western new york, central

portions of new england, about two to four inchesan for people, just enough to do a little shoving and plowing and cause some hedelays. 's a closer look at your day ahead. cold in , still very the central plains. some of that cold air spilled down through wichita. kansas city is going to have aa chilly too. warm air trying to make its way up through kentucky. we'll talk about those crazy almost spring-like temperatures. we're goetzing >> thank you. a> in today's quick hits, an explosive infer a plastic storage facility in suburban detroit. firefighters fought to put out the flames and fumes everyone working in that area to evacuate. smoke could be seen for miles. even weather radar picked it up. n developments in the at&t/time warner case. a federal appeals judge ruled tuesday that the merger can stand. surprising commute for drivers i russia as two

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gives ably clear... ...results written in words. over 99% accurate. solute clarity, when you need it most. move over, selena. there is a new queen in town. ariana grande has dethroned celine gomez as the most followed woman on instagram. last week the singer became the first artist since the beatles to have songs in the top three spots olbthe brd hot 100 charts. now she's raked up 146.4 million followers, surpassing gomez's 146.3 million. this makes grande the second most followed person on instagram behind cristiano ronaldo, who has 156 million. >> i'm convinced john lennon would have had more. leading the news this morning, the u.s. militar launched an internet strike during the 2018 midterms, blking internet access t an infamous russian troll farm. it was an operation personally signed off on by president trump.

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five, four, three, two, one. ♪ >> yeah, the iconic singer janet jackson, she's launching her alrst ever las vegas residency. it'sd metamorphosis. she took to instagram to make the announcement d shared it will be a celebration of her journey and the 30th anniversary of rhythm wtion. the s is set to begin on may 17th. 's going to run for a total of 15 shows at park mgm. >> sold out already. >> right? who would not want to check out janet jackson. have you ever loved a food so much you wish you could wear it. a footwear brand h release a shoo-in spired by avocado toast of all things. the shadow 6,000 avocado toast sneaker has a brown base, avocado green top, and even a smattering of red pepperlake specks on the lining. they are still available online

for $130. just in time for your next brunch. >> 130 bucks. that's still cheaper than some brunch in manhattan. >> that's true. the trail blazers, they a going to play the celtics tonight in boston. but on tuesday, some of the blazers found themselves in a sticky situation. they got stuck in an elevator at boston college. players were chronicling the whole thin it was a bonding experience. they put it on social media. a few players even rationed a granola bar claiming to be in survival mode. after about half an hour, the elevator doors finally opened, but they weren't quite lined up right with t floor. those players with their long legs had to take a large step up to get out. >> good thing they're tall. >> i thi >>. still ahead, a look at why vietnam has taken center stage for president trump's summit with north korea's kim jong-un. you're watching "early today."

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good morning, everyone. i'm eun yang. >> i'm aaron gilchrt. a fiery crash shuts down a road all while cameras are rolling. >> what we learned about efforts to rescue the people inside the car athe time. chuck? >> good morning, everybody. the final two days of february, nice at. qu of as we go into the mon march,hances for sno cw

>> announcer: news 4 today starts now. good morng, everybody, i'm aaron gilchrist. >> i'm eun yang. today may wind up being t most consequential of the trump presidency. overnight the president met with the leader of vietnam, but that

was only a prelude to his meeting with the north korean leader kim jong-un. it will take place this morning. the two lead lers talk about the country's nucleeapons program. at the same time right here in washington, president trump's former attory michael cohen will testify against him. he's allegedly planning on telling the congress the president ordered him to commit a crime. this morning we're covering both events for you. we want to begin with melissa mollet with a check on the roads in your first 4 traffic but s let'srt with storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell. what can we expect for weather, chuck? > nice and quiet weather. we are keeping a very close eye on some snow chance one coming up on friday morning, just two days from now and another one coming up next monday morning as a significant change in the weather pattern is going to make march start off a lot colder than february will right now this morning, temperatures are in the 20s and 30s. most of the shenandoah valley down to the mid 20s this morning.