good morning. the day after. the president looking to move on as thelong-awaited mueller >> game over, folk now it's back to w >>emrats say it's 400 pages of damning t'idence. >> is certainly not game overwe severe ather outbreak. dangerous storms in the south turning deadly overnight. flooding facing nearly a hundred million people today froid flora to maine. the impact on your holiday d plans straight ahead. the spark? paris officials believe the o that devastating t notre dame was an

electrical shorts rics inside tt church just saved overnight. those stories plus a twist in the college admissions scandal. did lori loughlin's husband lie about his own college experience? surprising drop. why the number of americans goinh has hit an lo all-time w. and the earth all stars. >> this might be y favorite song. >> the music video sensation bringing home stars for a worthy cause. "today," friday, april9th, 2019. >> announcer: from nbc news this is "today" with savannah guthrie and hoda kotb. >> nice to have you with us on a friday. h craig'se while hoda is home

with the baby. >> and a good friday. the weather could impact your plans. let's get to tt in amoment. but first the top story on this friday morning. wide-ranging reactions to the release of that mueller report. >> tt's right. it's finally here. it's public. washington and theest of the nationtill processing everyt.en evidce of collusion or conspiracy between the trump team and russia was not found. the repivt does g democrats some ammunition on obstruction. now we understand why mooul der not make prosecutorial decision on that. we have complete covere of what it all means. we start with peter alexander. pet good to you. >> reporter: good mornin to you. overnight nancy pelosi in a letter to democratic lawmakers vowed after fully reviewing the mueller report in her words, congress will not be silent. effectively previewing the further action tr democracy. it comes as the president and

his allies toutio vindicat but that 448-page document is filled with evidence of repeated lying by administration al offici the president orde aides to lie for him, and his efforts to shut down or stifl president trump arriving in orida following the release of the mueller redact while mueller stopped short ofs accu the president of criminal wrong doing, there is an unflattering portrait. >> the facts are damning. whether they should result in e president or people around him, they are damning. >> reporter: mueller reveals the president's reaction in the oval office when he first learned about the appointment of a oecial counsel. writing based notes from an official that he slumped in his

chair and said, oh, m god. this is terrible. this is the end of my presidency the most damning details on sabotage often through white house aides. but mueller names ten current and former officls or associates who defied the president's orders. among them white house counsel don mcgahn who resisted the president's order to remove mueller. deciding he would rather resign than participate in another saturday night massacre. according to the report, president trump also asked his former campaign manager corey lewandowski to tell then-attorney general jeff sessions to publicly announcega the inveson was unfair to the president. lewandowski neve ifre we had conferthat tt cleart obstruction of justice, we would so state. president trump writiack on twitter. i had the right to end the whole

witch hunt if i wanted. i could have fired everyone including mueller if i wanted. i chose not to. th report also outlines a sweeping and systemic plan laying out numerous contacts between trump campaign associates and russiansan befor after the election. but mueller found insufficient eviden any american coordinated with 2016. a conclusion emphasized byrn atto general barr. democrats argue that attorney general barr mischaracterized the mueller report effectively framing it in the president's favor. and this morning president rump's personal lawyers are trying to move on from the russia investigation strongly indicating they will not release that long promised counterreport suggesting at this point it's not needed. hank you.alexander, all right. let's try and break down some

more of the top takeaways from this report. for that w to justice correspondent pete williams who was among the first to see it and read it to us live on television yesterday. pete, thank you so much for being with us. let's talk about this conclusion confusion, if you will, sir. a lot of folks h wonderi could it be after two years that robert mueller was unable to findome sort of connection, some sort of obstruction connection? >> or at least conclude that it the report says that mueller's team felt the evidence was strong enough they couldn't let him off theoo h and say conclusively he didn't commit a crime. but because a long standing justice policy says they can't be indicted, they reached d the showed he committed a crime. so they walked up to that door and stopped. by the way, the report rejects the claims by mr. trump's

lawyers that a president can't even commit obstruction of justice because as the head of the executive branchri he had t aside the fact it's a do. 400-page report everyone is trying to read on air,ll mue just explained i'm not even going to decide whether this could be indicted because i can't under the rules. i' just a prosecutor and the rules say you can't indict a sitting president. but it seemed to me the general william barr said something a little different in that news conference before r decided not to make that judgment. >> right. the attorney general said in that news conference and impliee this in letter that he sent t march tha mueller told himly in ear march that he wasn't going to reach this conclusion e evidence was ambiguous. that it pointed in both directions. and that that's the reason the report failedea to rch a conclusion about obstruction. what barr said is that thend

g was not based on the policy about not indicting a president. so we'll probably have to wt for robert mueller to testify before congress to get that answer. mr. barr yesterday said he woulo have n obstruction to him testifying. >> let's dig into what happens next. we have kristen welker here and the former acting solicitor general. good mor to both of you. >> good morning. >> let's start right there. because what exactly is the significance of robert mueer saying i couldn't even get to the point of deciding whether or not all this conduct which he lays out amounts to the crime of obstruction. because the rules forbid me from doing so? >> it's huge, savannah. basically it's not just -- it sounds technically gal, but it's simple to break it down. dthere are two groun rules that mueller says on pages one and two of his report and barr didn't tell us about either of them. that's why i think there was so much confusion yesterday. one is, if i got so much

evidence against the president that he i guilty assin, i'm not going to tell you. and number two he says? i have no evidence against the pr pident. if theresident is totally in the clear, i am going to tell you. d mueller then writes this 400-page report to tell you i don't have enough evidence to clear the president. that tells you mork about the trump presidency than anything else. what the mueller report does is tees it u forcongress. we hear pelosi saying that's's what sheoing to do. then there's a footnote in the .pinion in which mueller says, even apartrom impeachment, we could go after the president afte leaves office. a sitting't president ce indicted but an ex-president can gojail. >> i was told a long time ago everything interesting is in tho foottes. and it's fair game if the

prosec to prosecute him once he leaves office. that sten, we just heard bob barr would be find with robert mueller testifying. likely it happens and would they be okay with mueller testifying? >> i put that question to one o kellyanne conway. she ultimately got to the point of saying, look. m wouldn't stop that f happening. are they going to be cheerleading for that every day? i wouldn't expect that. but, look. this is about transparency and it's about having democrats i think be able to take that next step. you have the democratic base saying, look, now we need t impeach. and in talking to officials overnight, they're saying we're not going to take thattepyet. the next step really has to be talking to mueller and making sure that we see the full unredacted report. >> democrats have to determine for themselves how far they want to go with ts and wheth they

want to continue to investigate. do you read the report as mueller saying explicitly or implicitly that this is a matter for congress because he is forbade by these rules from doing anything in the justice department? >> it's definitely implicit. i think mueller was following the path of his predecessors. the independent prosecutor for monica lewinsky ken starr. they didn't say impeach or not. they laid out the evidence. even when the evidence was so damning with nixon and the evidence yesterday was quite damning against the president. >> what do owe know how much voters actually ca th? how closely are they following all of this?s how much ill of this going to impact their votes in a year and a half? es and that is going to be the million-dollar on. and that's what we're going to find out on election day. i think if you are the president and his allies and his lndal

team ahis is why they're not releasing the counterreport, they want to turn the page. and they want to keep the focus on theto bot line, that extraordinary news conference yesterday from the attorney general where he came out and t basically set narrative for the ministration. quickly on that, was that the attorney general although appointed by the preside s isposed to be an independent legal officer. as a defense attorney, it's not all. trickle information out toec prot my clients. as the attorney generalhe of t united states? absolutely. he didn't look like the attorney general of the united states. he looked like the attorney general for donald trump. >> all right. we will see how this all plays out. thank you for being

another big story this morning, the eweather. outh dealing with damaging overnight. as we head into the holiday weekend, tons of millis are facing more rough weather today. we'll get to dylan's forecstt in ju moment. but we start with gabe gutierrez standing by in atlanta. what's the scene? >> reporter: good morning. there have been tornado warnings issued this morning. we are still getting hit by rain. mute a soggy morning c across the south. there have been reports of at le >> we hear tornado sirens here going off. >> reporter: overnight, the dangerous storm system sliced through the south topplg trees in alabama aft >> this is a new circulation that's popping up here. >> reporf the hardest hit area, a city called morton. >> there was a loud noise and the house started shaking. it was horrible. i thought i was going to die.

>> reporter: michelle selinas still in disbelief. >> when i looked through the window, i saw the trees everywhere. it destroyed my car, part of my housba it's really i'm just shocked. >> reporter: despitehe destruction, no lives were lost there. northeast of mortoorrential rain flooding towns. and just outside of jackson the state capital, powerful winds flipping cars. in arkansas, flash floodingown i-30. rescued.ers had to be all part of a fast-moving line of storms that had already louisiana, oklahoma, and texas. in austin, a he security camera capturing the moment lightning split a tree in half sending parts inside the home. >> the lights flickered in the house. i came out and saw the tree had n half from the lightning. >> reporter: the national

weather service said there have been reported of ten possibles tornadoe over the last 24 hours. tens of thousands of people e without power. we're still getting rain here in atlanta and air travel delays are expected up the east coast as we head into this holiday weekend. >> if there are delays at hartsfield-jackson, t likely delays all over the try. thank yo >> good point. dylan's in for al. she's tracking the storm threat and the holiday weekend. what you got? >> the heavy rain is moving through atlanta right now. just south of atla tornado watches in effect for another couple of hours. r heavyn is continuing to slowly move to the east. and within these storms we could see gusty winds, small hail possibo this afternoon, that threat is going to increase even more. especially acrossirginia into north and south carolina. it's been about three years since we've had a forect lik this for the carolinas. for winds in excess of 70 miles per hour, longrack tornadoes meaning once they develop, they

could stay on the ground for an extended period of time. we're not looking at a huge risk of hail but torrential downpours are a possibility. that could lead to flash flooding. so this storm is slowly going to move east. a lot of these storms across the carolinas not really ming in until thmp. in the northeast, storms not moving in until late tonight. stormsnew england, those not moving in until early tomorrow morning. then this storm system will clear out as we g into late morning across new england. then we're seeing sunshine saturday afternoon. as for the, rain i'd say a widespread inch to two inches. we could see some areas picking up 3 to 4 i thinks because o the tropical downpour nature of these showers. and we have 48 million people impacted. >> we've got a lot more to get on this friday morning including the latest on the fire at notre dame cathedral. investigators in paris now think they have pinpointed the most likely cause. nbc's kelly cobiella has the

latest developments. good morning. >> r goomorning to you, craig. fore teams are finally able to get access inside the cathedra to really search for that evidence. they've spoken to some 40 construction crews and staff at this poiy pinpoint the exact source of at blaze. d- but it's safe enough e's g inside to rescue the remaining artwork. the fire that nearly brought down the entire building likely caused by an electrical short circuit. investators are stillooking for the exact cause of the blaze. the ar850-ye-old structure is unstable wallsupported by wooden planks. >> we look here, for stance, we've got this free standing gable wall. there will have been some heat effect on the inside face of it which will have likely had an effect on the stability of the

stonework itself. >> reporter: architects like francis maude who helped rebuild windsor castle after a devastating fire there could help guide the reconstruction oe notre da at windsor 100 rooms were damaged or destroyed, several roofs collapsed but the castle was saved i five years at a cost of $55 million. >> we had a set of problems, a set of challenges to restore ceiling and roof structure which perhaps is going to be comparable to some of the challenges that will face the people looking to restore notre dame and the roof there. >> reporter: this morning more than a billion dollars has been pledged to rebuild notre dame. the firefighters who saved it from total ruin honored as national heroes thursday in a day-long tribute. some experts have suggested it uld take 15 years to rebuild notre dame cathedral. president macron wants it done in five. what else happens in five years? paris is hosting the 2024

olympics. >> oh, that's right. key ko there in london. thank you. l's bring dylan back in for the rest of the forecast. >> yes. the trouble spots will be up and down the east coast. middle of the country, look at. that lots of sunshine, temperatures in the 60s and 70s. not too bad. west coast looking good except for washington. we will see a lot of clouds and scattered showers up that way. that's a look at the weather across the country. we'll get to your local forecast in the next 30 seconds. at your overall financial strategy.bo you still thinki opening your own shop? every day. i think there are some ways toelp keep you on track. and closer to home. i'm all ears. how did edward jones grow to a trillion dollars in assets under care? how did edwthanks.es grow by thinking about your goals as much as you do. well, no rain out there this morning. not tou say we cn't see an

isolated shower a between now noon, but all of this moisture is slowly o moving way. after about 1:00 or 2:00, that's when we can expect some storms and multiple rounds of storms. now, we do have a flash flood watch that starts at noon and goes to the overnight. because these storms lead tohe overnight. 1 to 3 inches of rain possible. flooding the main concern but also damaging winds later on this afternoon and evening. >> and that's your latest forecast. comingup, the new deals now being cut in that college admissions scandal. and the new questions facing lori loughlin's husband over his own college experience. and then fake it until you make it. inside the world of social media click farms and how they're impacting what you see online. but first this is "today" on nbc. when was the last time you fe...

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-[ sighs ] louise dustmann -- [ ding ] -brahms' "lullaby," or "wiegenlied." -when will it end? [ ding ] 7:26 is your time now n this friday, april 19th, 2019. good morning to you. i'm eun we are in weather alert mode. let's get right to meteorologist lauryn ricketts. >> good morning. oa few pieces sunshine out there right now. also a few isolated showers before noon. but the big system com in into the afternoon. first one between 2:00 and 6:00. second one between 8:00 and 3:00 a.m. that's going to behe main one. 1 to 3 inches expected. it is going to be windy. we are going to have o worry about isolated tornadoes and flooding. really the main threat is flooding. olated showers but you're walking out to mainly cloudy conditions. all of this is headed our way later on this afternoon and through the overnight is when you're going to want to stay

individual lent aboutwehe her. >> thank you. developing this morning, police responding t this crash last night. the suvr crossed the cente of the road and slammed into a utility pole. and a quick heads up, a span of rock creek park and potomac parkway will be closed to both cars and pedestrians starting tonight and lasting through monday morning. the closure is part of the kennedy center expansion project. we'll take a break now and check your traffic when we comeayback. st with us. with this one little

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it is 7:30 now on it 7:30 now on thisg. friday mo rockefeller center all decked out for eas r weekend. >> you can see the little leaves on the trees, flowers are popping up. i love springtime. >> same here. let's get a check of the headlines. the mueller report. it is up to congress to decide what to do with the findings of the mueller report. while the special counsel refused to charge the president on of justice. nancy pelosi vowed congress will silent previewing further action to protect democracy.

saying game over, folks. back to work. new news in the battle against teen smoki for a new bid raise the federal minimge to buy tobacco from 18o 21. the mcconnell bil as it's called will be introduced in may. it will cover all tobacco products including vaping devices. mcconnell v saiding devices pose the most serious threat. 12 states have enacted laws that set 21 as the minimum age. a new survey revealing the percentage of americans report belonging to a church, synagogue, or mosque is at an all-time low.us that number j 50% last year. that's down from 70% only 20 years ago. he biggest declines recorded among democrats and hispanics. as for the reason why, they blamed the link between religion and politics. also this morning, there are several new twists tied to that

massiv college admissions scandal we've been following. miguel almaguer joins us with th latest on that. good morning. >> reporter: hey, guys. good morning. nbc news has confirmed more parents have struck deals with prosecutors this time to help them indict additional people. this as lori loughlin and her husband face new scrutiny after an interview with him surfaced suggeso,ng he, toay have faked a new plot twist in this scandal. in an interview with this fashion blog from2016, mossimo said he lied to his parents about attending usc instead using his tuition money to start a t-shirt business. that was howrt was sg my company. i used all that cash, he told the blog. the article said he not only convinced hise ad thats a

student by falsifying report cards, mossimo got him to fork over fees with fake tuition bills. >> he has a really cr he wasn't actually ever -- i don't know if i'm supposed to say that. nevenrolled in college. he faked his way through and started his whole business with tuition money that his parentoi >> what? >> reporter: olivia had no comment and her parents didn't respond to our request. if convicted on all charges, they face a maximum of 40 years behind bars. and recent courtin fil suggests m. to assist prosecutors in that goal, two of the3 1 parents who've agreed to plead guilty have now struck a cooperation agreement. califo real estate investor bruce isakson and his wife

devina charged with paying 600 grand gribes toet their girls into college including their daughter lauren whodl alle posed as a soccer sr to gain admission into ucla even though she never played competitively. in their deal, if they provide prosecutors with informa leading to further indictments wi. so you mentioned the two parents are now helping investigators. is there word that more could do the same? >>. >> repor prosecutors haven't publicly commented on that dos happen at times with defendants who show a willingness to be cooperative. the isaksons confirm with prosecutors saying our duty was as good parents to set a good example for our children. instead wee harmed and embarrassed them by our ui mid actions. >> all right.

thanks, miguel. that's the news for now. let's go to dylan for the weather which is a story now.t >> i. temperatures will also be a big story because we haven't seen a lot of warmth especially across the northeast. and it isve going to be abo average today. philly should get up to about 75 degrees. nashville, though, where the rain is now moving through,ng we're goi to see a high of about 55.o is chilly with 50. lookt out wesapid city 75 degrees. that will shift eastward on saturday. minneapolis looks beautiful. 73 degrees with some sunshine. memphis 68 degrees and cooler temperatures back where the clou will hang around througapp. boston should get uprdo 69 on satu. again, starting off with rain. then on sunday, for easter itself, 66 in new york city. a little chillyn raleigh with a high of 68. but that's not too bad. cheyenne, wyoming drops to 50 degrees on easter sunday.

we do have to keep an eye out for the severe storms today especially into this afternoon across virginia north and south carolina. damaging winds and tornadoes a possibility. that a look t the weather across the country. now here's a peek out your window. ome o the timeline on showers moving into our area between now and ,d showers. the storms,as dting winds, and lots of rain coming between 2 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. on tu saay. th. especially if you're traveling closer to central virginia and north and south carolinas. so again, few isolated showers d between now a noon. all of this headed our way. stay alert. there's going to be a lot of travel trouble out there. >> and that'ses your lat forecast. >> i love i'm surrounded by spring here. >> we're trying to have spring colors. >> i like that. p coming here, mystery, romance, and intrigue. the granddaughter of world war ii's most highly decorated spy shares here known but remarkable story.

and then the highlights ona wh we haven't shown you yet from our once i a lifetime trip to the holy land. plus adam levine, justin bieber, aany more, the cause behindn epic music video featuring some of industry's biggest names. ut first, the web of lies? an eye-opening look of all the kes and shares on social media and what actually makes some videoso waviral. until you see what we were giving away stuff is nice. like that canoe you never use. or that heuffed toy you won atair. but not your identity or your savings. you dont to give those away. which is why aarp fraud watch network offers tips and tools so you can prmiect yourself and your fa from scams. so let aarp help protect you from fraud. and keep what matters most. take on today and every day with aarp. and keep what matters most. ♪

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and this this morning on in-depth today, more of our web of lies series. trying to answer the question how fake is the internet? >> according to one report, more than half of the world's web traffic isn't even human. so prettyfake. gadi schwartz joins us with how social media could be faking all of us out. good morning. >> reporter: , i give you an inside look at the fake reviews like sites ndke facebook a yelp. but there could be thousand more fakes on others. fake likes, fake friends,ake followers, even fake views. and this is what's behind it. rooms of phones operated bypl actual peo cashing in on all those clicks and the whole operation known as a click farm. this morning i'm about to show you what that looks like and how they can boost some social media accounts. from instagrs account with thousands of likes and ffollowers, toebook posts that go viral overnight. ever wonder if it's actually

legit and what could be behind those crazy spikes? enteor theld of click farms. undercover operations where actual people t are paid monitor hundreds of phones clicking on posts, following, accountsiking photos, and watching videos all to drive up fake traffic. >> this is really easy. i mean, this is unskilledlabor. you could train a monkey to do this. and the cost, you're paying people pennies on theo dollar t perform these tasks. >> reporter: how easys it? we decided to cre oe ourwn click farm. with the help of cybersecurity expert jim stickily and 50 cell phones creating instagram accounts for each one rdy to click on whatever we wanted. and that's where i come in. let's say i wanted to get a bunch of views ofs thi video watering plants that i made specifically for this reason. we're going to watch them oall ese phones. >> yes. and here we can wad ho views we get.

> reporter: let's get some views. i get clicking. that is rich content. letting the sameideo play out over and over. within minutes -- oh, 11 views -- the views start coming in. while we're here, we may as well get followers too. i follow that account from every phone easily hitting 50 followers. >> nothing to see here. >> reporter: then passing 50 views. hod i am just one guy with one wall. w big of an operation can these get. >> waybigger. the average person working one of these click farms, it'll be one person for 200 phones. and a click farm might have hundreds if not thousands of employees clicking these things all day long. >> reporter: we're not done yet. if i want more views -- buy instagram views. turns out o t tm online. a google search shows me tons of fights to get insts cheap. this has five stars. i'm going to click here. 10,000 for 24 buc they take credit card. just a few seconds later -- and

we've got 63 views. the numbers keep climbing. skyrockets well over 10,000. all right. so we only bought ,000 views but the latest number is 16,481. it looks likehis video is going viral, but remember, this is all fake. instagram isn't the only one. u can buy friends and followers and views and likes on almost any social media platform out there. instagram, facebook, twitter, and youtube telling nbc news this type of activity is not allod and they're continuing to develop systems toprevent, detect, and remove accounts that violate their policies. what's the harm in this? is it fraud? >> it's absolutely fraud. think of it as a consumer, you're being misledif omething goes viral and you go to look at it but it's not real. >> so gadi, i mean, i guess there's an ego boost for getting a lot of likes and followers, but why do people do this? are they monetizing it in some way? >> reporter: yeah there's aouple reasons. one, people trying to be

influencers will do this so they can take some of those numbers to companiesoo saying l how many people see my content and try to get them to pay to promote their products. if you asknfluencers about them, some will tell you it's a way to get the algorithms to notice you. those companies will rank your posts higher and more real people will actually see them. but there's no evidence that that actually works. d as you heard, some of the companies haven't responded. we also reached out to tiktok about this. >> gadi, how can you tell the fake activityrom the real activity or can you? >> reporter: our expert told you if you see accounts with a sudden spike orwe follo from one day to the next, that is a major red flag. also if you see accounts with huge followings but very few likes or views, that's a giveaway as well. >> that just seems like a heck a lot of work -- >> it does seem really labor -- go one by one. >> gadi, thank you. just ahead, what hilaria baldwin is saying about being

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7:56 is your time now on this friday,pril 19th, 2019. good morning to you. i'm eun yang. we are in weather alert mode ahead of a lot of rain. let's head to storm team 4 meteorologist lauryn ricketts for the forecast. >> good morning. heavy rain ng at with these storms that are impacting the area after 2:00 p.m. not to say we couldn't see an isolated shower before then, but a lot of this slow-moving system nd going to get in here after 2:00 a hang around until 3:00 a.m. on saturday. rain and flooding main concey t isolated tornado. isolated showers possible between now and noon. but here comes all that moisture that is headed our way. we do have a flash flood watch for pretty much everybody. there could be locally higher amounts of rain. waves of rain headed towards our area this afternoon.

>> all right, lauryn, thank you. we'll take a break back.and come

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i'm melissa mollet with your first 4 traffic. still havehis closure in capital heights. one eastbound lane is blocked. westbound lanes are open after four p iple were killed an overnight crash there. terrible accident. cheverly northbound left side is blocked by an accident. beltway, nice light volume. if you're headed out today for the holiday weekend, go early. it's going to be really bad conditions later. 27 at montrose road northbound/southbod lig volume. >> thank you. l n update forn' you in 25 miss. for now back to the ".

coming up, new battles. president trump moving forward after the pubcelease of the mueller report. >> game over, folks.it now it's time to get back to work. >> but democrats are vowing to take action. >> the facts that are now established by this report are damning. >> so what have we learned from the over 400-page report and what happens next? plus, watching her step. fitness guru hilaria baldwin opens up about how she handles being a stepmother to husband alec baldwin's oldest daughter. the new conversation she is sparking over the challenges of a blended family. and what on earth? ♪ we love the earth

♪ it is our planet ♪ >> the new music video with the -studded lineup called the ♪ have you ever been to earth "today,"friday, april 19th,. 2019 >> from the windy city to the big apple. >> from richmond, new jersey. >> toda our mom's birthday. >> happy friday from montana. >> penns >> we're watching t "today" show this morning from sarasota memorial hospital. >> we're celebrating birthdays. >> from tulsa, oklahoma. >> celebrating our 50th birthday. >> on our honeymoon from las vegas! >> morning, everybody. welcome back to "today." it's a friday morning. glad to haveou with us. holiday weekend ahead. we're happy to get your messages on #my today plaza.

>> look at that go frida crowd. see what i did there? >> i like it. >> i be the way, myoday plaza, that's the hashtag. twitter, instagram, use that hashtag and we would love to put u on the air. it's like you're here at the plaza. >> akrtually. not at all. let's get to your news at 8:00. the president says it's over. democrats say there's plenty in the mueller report that demands follow-up action by congress. peter alexander joins us with the latest on all of it. >> reporter: good morning. new this morning, top democrats say they will subpoena the full unredacted mueller report today. in a letter to democratic lawmakers, house speaker nancy pelosi vowed after fully reviewing the report in her words, congress will not b silepreviewing the possibility of further action. we've heard frem thedent touting vindication saying game over. but this morning he's back on twitter really frustrated nting about some of the reports' findings.

this document is filled with evidence of repeated lying by administration officials and the president ordering aides to lie for him. the most damagindetails on obstruction of justice and the president's repeated efforts to sabotage the inquiry includingo orders tave mueller remod t on at least ten occasions, officials or associates refuse. they defied the president's demand.ng layiut numerous contacts between trump campaign associates and russians before and after the election. but mueller found insufficient evidence to indict the president. a lot that many people will bee brng down still over the course of this weekend. back to you. >> they will. thank you. some stormy dangerous weathea h holiday weekend. the south has already seen some heavy rain and tornado as well. dylan is here with what we can

expe. >> good mog again, everyone. we do have the r heavyn through atlanta. flights this morning could be in jeopardy just because of that heavy rain. east of atlaae have tornado warnings. these are some really strong storms with very gusty winds. and also the possibility of some spinup tornadoes as we go through the day today. so travel impacts today, again, it'sec esplly atlanta this morning. orlando later on this morning. we do have the threat of winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour and also torrential downpours that couldead to flash flooding. and we can't rule out long track tornadoes. i don't k we'll have an issue until late in the y. but tomorrow morning, we could start off with delays at the airports especially up in the boston, early in newyork, early in philadelphia. then we will see improving conditions as the day goes on. for easter sunday, we are going to clear q things outte a bit. most of the eastern half of the country looks nice and sunny. temperatures in the 60snd 70s so you can get your springtime

pictures outside on sunday. we are looking at spotty showers through pittsbuh and into parts of the appalachians. also some rain and mountain snow in the rockies. warm down soh. easter sunday out west looks nice with highs in the 60s and 70s. >> thank you. three professional mountain climbers including one american are missing and presumed dead following an avalanche in the canadian rock ws. theyere members of the global athlete team. they were clm national park. a team flew over the mountains and spotted a sign of avalanche. investigators in paris now believe that the most likely cause of amonday's fire notre dame cathedral was an electrical circuit. they were finally aed in to search for clues. it was also deemed safe efough more of the art treures to be removed. on thursday, ceremonies were also held to honor the

firefighters who saved that cathedral and so many o its precious artifac. near the cathedral to use for religious services during reconstruction. all right. hoda's off with her family so i get to do the boost this morning. it's a good one. a disabled veteran out fishing when the battery onc his electri wheelchair died. and that is when the fire department came to the rescue. three firefighters pushed the man home nearly a mile. most of it uphill. the er firefighter drove truck to protect them from traffic. their good deed is winning a of praise on social media. muchl more ahead on this frid the all-star lineup featured in a new song all about the earth. >> plus candid new comments from hilaria baldwin on how she handles being a stepmother. what she wants youboo know a

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navigating the challenges of a blended family and how she dlrself h a step mom. sheinelle's got that story. >> hilaria baldwin is a mom of four and step mom to one. she says there's plenty of love to go around for all. >> when we agree parents, we have to accept the good andt bad. >> reporter: hilaria baldwin's social media can feel like a family scrapbook. >> what are you -- oh. >> reporter: she doesn't hetate to share. but now the 35-year-old mother of four and host of the popular mom brain podcast is speaking out taking internet trolls to task in a lengthy instagram post. hilaria, a proud mom who often dotes on her children online brtles at the posts claiming she doesn't love 23-year-old

stepdaughter ireland as much as she loves heriological children with alec baldwin writing on instagram, i love my epdaughter as much as i love this biological children. i've been a mommy lioness when i see comments that claim otherwise. hilaria said it was up to ireland if the relationship progressed at all. writing, when i met ireland i said if she's not okay with our relatiship, i cannot go further. family is first and she needed to be okay with me. she partly credits her good relationship with ireland today to letting it develop naturally. writes, having a stepch delica. especially one who is grown. i never tried to step in as her mommy. no sr to opening up about her family life -- >> how are you feeling? >> reporter: hilaria visited l r showt week to talk about her recent scarriage and revealed that overall parenting is just plain hard. >> we have toze reali that it's

not just all diars and blants and hair bows. it's we have to open our hearts and realize that there's going to be hard moments too. >> reporter: in her instagram post, hilaria gives props to ireland's mom actress kim basinger a admitted that ireland is sometimes left out of social media posts because she doesn't want to step on kim's toes writing, she has a good mother who i have tremendous respect for. and i put myself in kim's shoes. if my childran ever had a , i'd me be numb on she adds of ireland, this will never take away how much i love the best her in my life, an things that ever happened to me. i think this struck a chord. because so many people have blended families. >>'r you in a blended family. >> i am and i turned out okay. the relationship can e okay. it's like she said. she's not trying to be the ther. she's very clear about that. and so especially because she's grown. stepdaughter is grown. >> also the age difference. if your stepmother or stepfather

to someone so close in ag -- >> it's a different dynamic. >> yes. >> you turned out better than okay. that's my only dispute, sheinelle. >> thank you, savannah. let's get a check of the weather. >> yes. and -- getting up now. >> are you okay? >> we're going to look at -- >> are you 100? >> it's n c an easyir to get out of. we've got strong storms, a lot of heavy rain up and down the east coast. storms already through atlanta. this will slowly move east. watching is through virginia io north and south carolina. large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. although winds and tornadoes will be the biggest threats.s rockieill see a lot of warm temperatures today. we'll get highs in the 60s and 70s. lots of sunshine too. the only trouble spot besides the east coast will be the pacific northwest. that's a look at the weather across the country. now here's a peek out your window. >> well, we have a chance of isolated showers between now and noon. but the main system getting in here ase go into the afternoon and evening. after about 2:00.

let me time it out for you. isolated showers out there right now. and again, we'll continue with that chance until about noon. then some heavier rain moves in after 2:00. a look at this. this is all heavy rain, gue. we'r worried about flooding. hit a lull through the middle part of the evening. anm rolling through late this evenin'r we watching storms into the overnight. >> and that's youratest forecast. >> thank you so much. sheinelle's got pop start and look who joins us. >> willie g. >> i thought i'd pop in for pop start. just running ut to the store. >> let's do a little pop star first up, earth. lil dick posted this all star collaboration. it had the internet buzzing wonderin on earth it might be. now we have an answer. ♪ hey i'm a zebra ♪ no one know what is i do but i look pretty cool in my white on black ♪ ♪ pretty hop. i'm a kangaroo ♪

♪ hop up and down with you ♪ i'm a koala and i sleep a though time ♪ ♪ earth it is our planet ♪ we love the earth ♪ we love the earth ♪ it is our home ♪ we love the earth ♪ it is our planet ♪ it is our planet ♪ we love the earth ♪ it is our home >> any words, leo? >> this might be my favorite song ever. >> it's awome. wow. thanks, leo. >> yeah. a lot of people. it looks like it's something for kids, but i have to tell you some of the song is a little raunchy. >> the caron song about the earth? >> and it's getting a lot of attention. >> i like it. >> the wholeoal of the project is to raise awareness about climate change ahead of earth day. you notice leleonardo dicaprio

there. lil dickey is planning to donate some money. up next, squille o'neal. the aught up with basketball icon now business legend. >> i did. shaquille o'neal. this is a basketball fan dream t to go to georgia near h t home ak about his hall of fame career his second act as a nolific businessma and pitchman. but the shighlight? prised a group of kids on playground. imagine you're playing pickup with the buddies and shaquille o'neal gets out of the truck and plays with you. >> whoa. it's shaquille o'neal. >> let's play a game. i never miss, you know that, right? you know who willie is? post up, big dog. >> hall of famer shaquille o'neal is one of the most dominant athletes in the htory of sports.w no eight years since he played

his last nba game, the big man is proving to be an unstoppable businessman too. >> hey, shaq! w about some help up here? >> nope. i'm retired. >> shaq had been told in college get endorsement deals thel just way michael and magic did. >> so i'm sitting there and i'm never g like, damn, i'm going to have a commercial ever. and this dumb dog comes on tv. remember him? he was everywhere. so i'm like, but the commercials re always funny. this dude got cups, hats. damn napkins. so then i said to myself, i ev got to shaq it up. i got to make people laugh. >> it was mom who gave shaq his famous sparkle. >> when my mom talks, it's gold. it's scriptture. and she washe one w taught me the concept of what have you

today? >> back on the playground, i wasn't exactly michael or lebron, but i h didave my moments. >> nice form. ooh. >> shaq, though, proved to be a ugh matchup. >> no way i lose to a anchorman. >> he satd no way i lose a to anchorman. he was right. he didn't lose to an anchorman. he is everything you think he is. he'sma incredibly srt with his business, but he's so charming and so funny. we walked up on these kids and their jaws dropped. he brought them in for a huddle, gave them a pep talk about life and basketball and played with them for like a half hour. >> they'll never forget that. >> yeah. it was incredible. a great conversation with shaquille o'neal this sunday. >> can we subscribe to the sunday sit-down? >> on apple podcast? >> ihink you're already subscribed. >> whenever you get your podcasts. >> i sat down with her mom a few

days ago. >> shaq's mom. >> not your mom. >> you should do llie's mom too. >> very demanding. yes. >> could you cook it up for me? >> you don't want to get involved in that. finally, jason momoa ikn n for his beard. jason said good-bye to his facial hair and those characters yesterday in a video posted to his youtube page. go.e we >> i think 2012 was the last time i shaved. good-bye, drogo. good-bye, arthur curry. >> oh, wow. >> hello. >> yeah. >> a clean shaven aquaman. it still works either way. the actor posted t video to bring awareness to the benefits of using aluminum instead of plastic products. it's all for a good cause. thank you to that. all ahea of earth day on monday.

that's your pop start. >> thanks for that. you got to daly click for that? >> i do. we've been following the country road."old town it was deemed not country enough so it was removed. then billy ray cyrus got involved. it was a whole drama that fans and supporters couldn't get enough of. even though it's been sittin on 100 list, we found the onlyrs pe who is thoroughly unimpressed with t ♪ >> oh, my gosh. >> that's 7-month-old malia. she was expecting to hear baby shark until dad decided to change it up with "old town road." the mom sai they had to go back to playing baby shark so she would smile. >> thank you, sheinelle. now to a remarkable story from world war ii that's getting

me well-deserved attention the new book "code name lise" hails the work of the most decorated spy of the war. this i not atory that i had ever heard of. >> i hadn't heard it either. i got to tell you, this is a great book. and i don't have a lote of tim to read books. this is a great book. odette was brilliant an beautiful, traits sse u to fight against the nazis. few people have heard her story. but that's about to change. i headed to new york city's spy scape museum to sit down with the author and odte's granddaughter. >> repor she's not well known, but she should be. she was the most highly decoratedld worar ii spy. now her little-known story is brought to vivid le in a new book. how did your grandmother have that courage? >> i think it was instilled in her from an early age. her granddaughter said you must

do your duty. and that was throughout her life. >> reporter: at the time in nazi-occupied france, female spies were raising less suspicion than their male counterparts. fluent in both english and french, sansom was who they needed. >> they were to blow up the german bridges and ammo dumps and barges and all of those things. >> repor odette was a courier, the secd deadliest job for the lies. 42% would be killed. explain to me how dangerous it was on a day-to-day basis. they couldn't stay i the same place. they had multiple identities. whenever they moved, they were shoulder to shoulder with german officers and gestapo, right? the book details the spy ring's

operations i france but also the romance that develops between odette and her organizer peter churchil >> the cover is as a couple. so they're arm in arm and one thing leads to another and they fall in love. >> reporter: and pretty soon they weren't acting like a couple. >> exactly. >> reporter: both the espionage and romance come to an end when the couple was betrayed and arrested by the nazis. in an effort to get the names and locations of other spies, the gestapo interrogated and tortured odette including r ripping out her toenails. there are scenes in this book i had a difficult time reading and she was not my grandmother. >> reading larry's bo her time in the bunker was really explained. and i also felt such love for her knowing thatou she got thr that. knowing that we were cooking chicken soup togbu the only one condem to death of all heres comrad and she'sy the onlone

that >> reporter: did she ever talk about it? >> the only thing she talked about was the fact her comrades e trained. the women she bonded with. the women sheea became ry good friends with. they didn't make it back. >> reporter: gave the germans any information and for years odette endured the rest of the war inra nsbrook where up to 100,000 women were killed. near death herself when the war ended, shed returne home to almost ammediate praisend celebrity. a movie made about her heroism. >> we need volunteers who know andove france. >> reporter: as well as medals becoming the most highly spy.rated ally man or woman. >> she won them all. france's highest honor. she cleans up. >> reporter: as her granddaughter, how proud does that make you feel? >> extraordinarily proud. and honored to carry my middle

name is iodette and honored to carry that name. >> reporter: she briefly married peter but the wartime romance wouldn't last. nor would the celebrity. now her story is being revived as anspiration not just for odette's family, but for all of us. did you ever think to yourself, oh, my god. if i was in that situation, i don't know h would iave done it myself? >> she was so brave and it just really showed howor hfic humanity can be. and i think it really just shows that with whatever situation, if you just put your heart into it, you can find strength. >> wow. >> tt's incredible the story that none of us knew. >> i know. while you read it, try to put yourself in that place. d you think, god. the people that did that, the honor and duty that they felt to go and put their lives at risk, she left three daughters behind in england when she went and worked as a spy in

nazi-controlled france. >> steph, thank you. like savannah said, i hope someone bought the movie rights. find out more about the book on today.com/shop. still to come, highlights from our trip to the holy land. 8:26 is your time now on this friday, april 19th, go2019. morning, everyone. i'm eun yang. we are in weather alert mode ahead of a whole lot of rain. let's get right to storm team 4 meteorologist lauryn ricketts forhe t forecast. how much rain we talking? >> 1 to 4 inches. i think there will be higher local amounts as the storms continues. they're going to keep rolling across the same areas. lot of moisture headed our way. now, isolated showers between nd noon. but the real system getse in h after about 2:00. heavy rain flooding a major concern. secondary to that, winds. we will hit a little bit of a , but expect thisoo go int the overnight. >> all right. thank you.

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i'm melissa mollet with a look at yoir 4 traffic. in capital heights because of the overnight crash, we are still shut down.e onastbound lane and westbound lanes are all open. so that is good news. one eastbound lane is also open. cheverly northbod bw parkway, a crash. inner loop, outer loop no

complaints this morning. and 66 at prob. get the latest news and weather any time in the nbc washington app. ♪ ♪ protect your pets from fleas and ticksli with frontne plus for dogs and frontline plus for cats. its two killer iredients work fast and keep working all month long preventing new flea infestations on your pet. frontline plus. the number 1 name in flea and tick protection.

♪ >> and we are back. 8:30 on a friday morning, the 19th of april 2019. good friday. happen to have allol these fks kicking off their hol by the way, do you know what >> just came in with the breaking news. what is that? >> it's sheinelle'shd birtay.

>> one, two, three! ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday dear sheinelle ♪ ♪ happy birthday to you >> thank you, guys. >> i love it. >> thank you. i embrace 41. >> is that your rer tv age? >> i am 41. >> you wear it well.'t >> demember last year the big 4-0? >> we have a crowdi' moment. looking for bun bun. i knew i'd find a bunun out here. so you're bun bun or this is bun bun. >> this isun bun. my name is jude. >> you're jude. and this is your first time on the v? >> yes. >> so what do you want to do with yourig moment? everything. >> you can tap dance.

you could spin in a circle. anybody you want to say hi to? >> i want to say hi to my family in nashville, tennessee, new orleans, and yeah. >> awesome.il you have famy all over. well, happy easter. i'm sure bun bun will be sell kbrating. >> yes. >> thanks for being here. bun bun. >> that's so cool. as we all know, it's einelle's birthday. it's also good friday. it's the start of passover. today we're going to wrap up our frontiers of faith series with a close look at our trip to jerusalem exploring some of t world's holiest sites. a little windy out here. >> also ahead, spring spruceup.u so yan enjoy outdoor spaces. furniture to controlling mosquitoes. >> always good to see george oliphant. >> and then we are cooking with a rising sta on the food scene.l he'l share some experiences and gave us a taste of the dishes

thatade him so popular. >> kwame is a cool dude. has a great spot in d.c. by the way, mother's day right around the corner. going to be here before we know and we're looking for some deserving moms to celebrate. we want to toast moms here on the plaza. we're hosting a special brunch right here on the plaza friday, may 1th. you can nominate your mom or mom that you know by going to our website "today".com and tell why that mom is so special. >> all right. dylan, we know it's windy. >> it is. thanks for showing us. >> what else do you know about the weather? >> it is actually going to bee pretty nicor most of the country as we he easter and passover weekend. we do have to start offith rain across new england early tomorrow morning. that will clear out. back through the appalachians, we'll see clouds and spotty showers. but you'll get dry times too. we are looking at warmer temperatures in texas. highs near 90. close to 80 degrees through the middle of the country. then on easter sunday itself, we are looking at a pop-up shower tohr back tgh pennsylvania

into western new york. but for the most part, it does lo dry up and down the east coast. lots of sunshine down through florida. warm through texas. afternoon storms cou start to develop through the middle of the country and on the west coast, lots of sun. highs in the 60s and 70s. looks nice out there too. now here's a peek out your window. to have we're going multiple r heading through our area after lunchtime. until then, a chance of isolated as we cloud up. we could have some lulls in precipitation, but we're talking 1 to 3 inches of rain, locally higher amounts. gusts up a to 50 milesn hour. until then, a few isolated showers. but a lot of this heavy rain happening through the afternoon and into the ening. again, that threat not ending until the overnight on saturday morning. >> you've got a beautiful picture here on miss pat. does she say? >> say yes to the morning.

every day. >> yhere arell from? >> seattleboro, massachutts. >> that's a wonderful thing to sayrnn the mog. thank you very much. >> we like that. and now to our frontiers of faith series. we're wrapping it up as we head into easter weekend and passover with l ak at some of our favorite moments from the holy land. this is the center of the spiritual universe for so many different things this is a veryet famous stre >> yes. it's the stree jesus went along onis h way to cavalry. >> reporter: so this is the famous j garden wheus prayed? >> yes. i think we should take something atck with you. >> reporter: is thlegal? >> it's legal for you. >> reporter: wow. i'll treasure it. that's amazing. there's the dome right in front of us. and the holy temple. you can really see theity

walls from this vantage point. this is the holiest site in the jewish faith. >> it's aery emotional spot here, no doubt. that's really the main prayer hall of the muslim population. >> welco >> reporter: it adds tohe t s like this e moment when you approaching the temple. >> when you take a shovel and dig, you look under the ground, whatever pull out is going to match the pages of the bible. >> reporter: my first find. wow. father, we're walking in the jordan river. and this is such a special and meaningful place christians and for jews. when you he your feetn the

river jordan as e donow, what do you think about? >> it's a reminder of to whom we belong and of our own baptism. >> reporter: so this whole area was close edcaor des. >> yeah. >> reporter: it was too dangerous. >> my vision is that this land will be blooming again. >> reporter: hopefully it'll be beautiful again. >> people come from all over the world to pray and search for meaning and for spirituality in this city together. >> everybody's welcome to pray here. >> and hopefully to pray above all for peace. >> this has of my most onfavorite series we've d at this show. >> well, me too. i feel so lucky to get to be part of it. i can't sayut enough abo our photographers, our producer who put this together, the crews. i mean, s it was justh a journey. you know, we shot i guess it's you or five stories tha

saw all this week. we did it in two days and it was pouring for a lot of it. there's our senior producer tom maserelli. i really loved the people. you know? the place was incredible. i loved the people i met, you know, from our franciscan friar who took me around to our producer who brought me into the mosque. i just -- ihought it wasn incredible experience. >> was there one highlight? i know there are so many memorable experiences. >> there were so many but i love that father luke whos now my email buddy, he me that bouquet of then garde of busemine. and then to be in it and then to take home on olive branch that could have been perhaps one of the trees he prahand.

>> thank you for sharing it with so many of ugs. >> i'm grateful for the thanks for being interested. >> we went to the holy land this week. up next, we're going to go outside gettiny for spring and summer. the simple t things you can improve your outdoor space. but first this is "today" on nbc.

and we're back with today home as we head into the holiday weekend with warmer temperatures approaching, time to outside. time to spruce up your space for the spring and summer months. >> exactly. time to talk to george, guys. latest trends, diy tipsda to george oliphant host of "george to the rescue" is here. good morning. >> well, the weather is beautiful and it's a beautifulin weekend com ahead of us. so it's time to get out there, spring has sprung. but one thing we hate with the outside is esmosquito >> yes. >> so i got a couple things off the bat. th

i got kids. you got kids. the kids never shut the door.up magnets, s easy to install. >> magnets? >> some of my neighbors had one of these. their kids are always running in and out. it's the best way to keep the bugs out when it's hard to keep the door shut. becausr dog, whatever it is. >> so what about outdoors? >> outdoors, so the other reason we get a lot of mosquitoes is the larvae in standing water. birdbaths. it's great to have birdbaths, but what can we do? these biscuits set off this non-toxic bacteria that kills larvae but it's fine for imals, humans, whatever. >> i've never seen that. expensive? >> no. not at all. $9 for a 26 pack right here. don't eat them. ou know, they are only to kill larvae. but great way to keep

mosquitoes from beginning in the yard. >> thi g our hands dirty with yard work.he >> t major lopping with these badhe boys , that's used more in the fall. in the spring, you don't want to take off me than 10%. this is just kind of encouraging the trees to grow and blossom. you just want to find dead stuff like we got this stuff over here to remove the little stuff down on the bottom. >> right. this is the time of year to do that? >> exactly. you want to cut a an angle. there's a thing here you can see it here. it's the branch collar. and you don want to interfere with tha to cut right along it and leave that intact. then you'll have a healthy growth. >> dylan, you're up. >> now that we've got the hard stuff out of the way, let's get to the pretty flowers. we have elan here and she is getting going on this wagon. >> this is great way to bring a garden -- if you don't have room for a garden or a place for the kids. you get a red wagon like this,

fill itith dirt and flowers. my friend elin here is showingo us h easy it is. once you get the plants out of the containers, you can do this with vegetable gardens and flowers. >> this is perfect for the kids. i think she likes getting her hands dirty too. >> and it encourages them to get outside, enjoy the beautiful weather. >> i love it. that was one of my favorite n things to do w i had a done a bird feeder before. >> i put one of these together the other day. it is just the screws, these p littlestic pieces and we all have it assembled from stage one to stage three. put with this, basically the roof on. literally with a hand screw, you can do this. >> you don't need tools for this. we probably missed

>> the nice thing is that you invite birds into your yard. bat hous are cool too. >> i used to have a bat house growing up. >> i knew you would. >> all right. we're in too outd space and we want to make our outdoors look good. besides cool fluffy pillows, what should wefo look elemen.ant stuff that can deal what's nice now as far as the outdoor furniture game, you have tdoor/indoor mugs. you want furniture that can deal with the sun and rain. cushions that can deal with, you know, all the different things that mother nature is going to throw at them. and then d quickly, they don't fade. >> i like to use outdoor stuff inside because i d is nice to w. >> i knoow that is. >> thanks. >> cheers. >> new episodes of "george to

thesc re" air this weekend on nbc. check out your local listings. >> for more spruce up advice, today.com. up next, one of the hottest young chefs on th food scene. you don't want to miss this. first up, this want to miss it. first up, this is "today" o nbc. n stronger is blasting our tumors... witht risking her bones. it's training her good cells... to fight the bad guys. stronger is less pain... new hope...

more fight. it's doing everything in your power. and everything in ours. stronger, is changing even faster than theyo. because we don't just want your kids to grow up. we want them to growp stronger.

8:48 now. b we arek with "today" food and the rising star in the culinary world. his names ame. he's a james beard award nominee. and he shares his remarkable urney and heritage in the n mem war "notes from a young black chef." >> hi. n mye is kwame and i'm the executive chef here at kit and ki in washington, d.c. a >> reporter: just 29 years old, he already has three restaurants under his names >> thi is one of the most

onic pieces in the restaurant. you'll see quotes from some of the chefs i've worked for. peis piece means a lot to me. it's sd who i am in this industry. o reporter: kaend aending the culinary institutef america was a dream. >> my mother shaped my desire to become a shuf just by watching her. she had a catering company that she operated in the bronx. here w magic happens. >> reporte to keep him out of trouble, his mother sent him to live with his grandfather in nigeria. the world of food already in his dna from his mother's louisiana roots. he learned about his family's african traditions. >> i went from eating mcdonald's every day as a kid to eating, you know, pounded yam and okra stew. >> reporter: but trouble crept back io his life when he returned. when college didn't work out, he landed a job as a chef.

>> it was the first time i was cooking for actual customers. >> reporter: his foo was a hit returning home. he shoeld candy on new york city subways. >> i went from selling candy toe going to t best cooking school . the culinary institute of americd and i wante to get that formal training. >> reporter: he soon learned the disparities of black chef pursuing fine dining. >> being a minority within the industry isifficult. there wet spoken. there were some things that were. >> reporter: then came the call of the lifetime. from "top chef." >> as a chef and as a pers , i got to share my story with the world. >> rep wen on to work with t best both new york city high-end restaurants. being industry has afforded me so many opportunities to cook for amazing people. one of the best wa teing at white house under the obama administration. >> reporter: at 26 years old, he took all this experience and opened his first fine dining

restaurant in washington, d.c. it didn't succeed, but with determination and resilience, he came back. >> it means friends and family. isaring ds and also food that's reflective of my culture. >> we are so happy you're here this morning. thank u so much. >> thank yong >> we're goi to make something this morning that really is sort of a nod to a lot of the cultures we talked about there in the piece, right? >> yeah.lu absoly. so we have about four pillars of cuisine at my restaurant. those are ahe backgrounds of my family. >> and allre in this dish. >> this dish is nigerian. this is really a spice blend. you'll see all the seasons that go into it. cayenne, ginger, paprika, garlic, and magi cube. it's a secret ingredient. so we're going to season this with salt aggressive. >> aggressively.

>> you want to get both sides. >> do you season it right before you throw it on or let it sit for awhile. >> i like to do it right before i thron it if you put salt on meet beforehand, it sweats and you d you want your pan to be hot. >> so you're going to char it on both sides. and it's going to come out looking like this. >> roughly how long? >> i would say about five t ten minutes. >> per side. >> you can do it on the grill outside too. >> i like the grill marks. ladies, what's the word? >> are you kidding me? it melts in your mouth. how do you get it so tender? >> i'm going to get there. don't give it all away. we'reoi g to add some miripau. this is nigeria based. it's usually a seasoning blend of onions and celery and carrots. just throw it all in there., ginger garlic, tomatoes, and

onions. i'm going to cover it with chicken stock i've made in adnce. >> you make your own? >> yeah. you've got to. then i'm going to wrap it in plastic wrapnd and foul a put it in the oven at 300 degrees for three hours. so the i is a west african condiment. ginger, garlic, crayfish powder. i like to add a little honey for sweetness. >> that smells amazing. we have about . >> then it's going to come out looking like this. t we're goi put a weight on it and press it. cut it into cubes, season it again, char it and it'll come out look k like this. >> that's why it's so good. >> what kind of meat was that again? rib. >> it melts in your mouth. does. >> you've got a cauliflowe over there that looks next level. >> we put a little ramesco sauce

underneath andickled items as well. >> that is fantastic. chef kwame, thank you so much. it's a solid r you'd like those recipes, today.com/food. e back in aoment with a full mouth. but first this is "today" on nbc. book today.com/sp. nbc. book today.com/sp. first, thohi we're really close. super close. but we don't live together anymore. we still do everything together, like stream show hon netflix. weave a system to watch it all at the same time. get ready, so we'll pick up 1,3 go. i think i was fastest? that was the same time! and since we're on fios, there's pretty much no lag for any of us. nobody misses anything. nobody misses anything unless they fall asleep. like ingel. the besternet is even better with a year of netflix on us.

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that's it for us. remember great stories at today.coallday. up next, josh turner in the artist lounge after your local news. 8:56 is your time now on this friday, april 19th, 2019. good morning to you. i'm eun weyang. are in weather alert mode ahead of a lot of rain coming our way. let's check in with storm team 4 teorologist lauren ricketts. >> good morning. the national weather service has extended that to include a larger area.

1 to 4 inches through the early afternoon. ertil lunch tooinl, just isolated shows. look at this. hengy rain spreadi across our area. it's going to be waves ofrain. this is going to continue into the late evening and even into thovernight. not ending until about 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. we've got somero showersd for your easter weekend. >> all right. thank you. we'll take a break now and check your traffic when we come back. stay. with this one little nexgard chew comes the confidence you're doihat's right to protect your dog from fleas and ticks for a full month. and it's the onl fda approved to pe vent infections that came disease. nexgard. what one little chew can do.

nexgard. ucsten to your mom, kneheads. hand em over.bed. hand what over? video games, whatever you gotu let's go. n watch videos of people playnig video games in the m. is that evything? i can see who's online. i'm gonna sweep the sofa fort. well, look what i found. take control of your wifi with xfinity xfi. be careful out there! now that's simple, easy, awesome. switch to xfinity internet for $34.99 a month for 12 months and get the speed, coverage and control you need with xfinity xfi.

right now outer loop before river road, crash blocking two lanes. ot lrwise volume isht this morning on the beltway. not the n inbound 66 at nu ey. seeing a lot of slowdowns there. and capital eastbound sheriff road there.un one eastbolane still blocked. >> thank you. get the latest news and weather get the latest news and weather any time in the nbc washington my lord?t. hey good knigh where a? ♪ ♪ climbing up on solsbury hill ♪ grab your things, salutations. coffee that is a cup above t.is always worth the ques nespresso. tis all i desire.

did thou bring enough for the whole kingdom? george: nespresso,hat else? m it is. >> thanks for ng >> you are going to talk about that faith series we have enjoyed this week. we will shend expenditupend mor about that. >> i said i don't have to worry about the time. get to commercial, i can go rogu >> we should note the obvious. als a holiday, so that means roker is not here. >> he rubbed it in. he sent us a text this morning