i should tell you that, but in another e-mail it says from costello to michael cohen. spoke to rudy giuliani and told him i was on your team. he asked me to tell you that he knows how tough this is on you and your family and he will make sure to tell the president. he said thank you for opening this back channel of communication and asked me to keep in touch. again, costello says this was all part of this effort to rebuild this relationship between cohen and the president. now remember, at this time they were part of a joint defense agreement. so there was an interest in keeping happiness in the family, but a source with the knowledge of cohen's thinking differs and said that this outreach was just a ploy to keep michael cohen in the tent, in the fold and to keep saying what he was saying to protect the president, and remember, it wasn't until june of 2018. these e-mails were in april. so it wasn't until june of 2018 that the joint defense agreement dissolved and on july 2nd, that was when michael cohen declared his independence from donald trump. >> all was not well i

obviously, costello denies this.elf spoke with dana bash last night and he said, you know, this was about reassuring michael that the president wasn't angry at him and it wasn't long after the raid and giuliani told dana that the president felt bad for him. >> all right. gloria borger, caroline polisi, jenner rogers, the hits keep coming today. thank you all for helping to walk us through it. >>> canada now joining other nations around the globe to ground boeing's max 8. so why is the u.s. now the lone holdout when it comes to grounding this fleet? >>> plus, actress lori loughlin turning herself in today in connection to one of the biggest college cheating scandals in history. but is this case a symptom of a much bigger problem or issue? we'll discuss. what makes this simple salad the best simple salad ever? great tasting, heart-healthy california walnuts. so simple, so good. get the recipes at walnuts.org. to care for newborns is born. johnson's cottontouch™ wash and lotion, made with real cotton, and enhances your

but then there's this robert costello e-mail in june. now, the relationship is already starting to fall apart. remember, i think it was july that michael cohen says i'm done with these people and he changes his legal team completely. but robert costello sends him this cryptic e-mail that says hey, i'm going to talk to my friend who can talk to his client. you hung up abruptly on me. anything -- this is a good moment. you know, the sort of suggestion of i'm going to talk to my friend rudy who's going to talk to his friend donald trump. are you sure you don't want me to pass anything on? that in and of itself is not a smoking gun. but it is smoke. and i read that in the context of all these other e-mails to say if i'm an investigator i'm really going to do a lot of investigating to see what more is there. and i think that's what we're hearing from the news stories. >> hey, frank, i'm sitting home listening to all this, or perhaps even sitting in this chair listening to all this, wondering how we should think about all these talks about par

costello in a good light. so i think, you know, this investigation has to go forward, but this is a very troubling development, no question about it that so let me, though, just understand. if michael cohen brings it up first, maybe that's what things will show. who knows. he brings it up first. he asks about pardons or pardons in general or something like that, and then the emails proceed the way they did, could it still be perceived as an obstruction of justice if it's offered, put out there, dangled? >> it certainly could if the expectation was that in return for even discussing a pardon, you need to be uncooperative with the special prosecutor and you need to basically stay with the code of omerta. don't talk, like manafort. >> which i think is an important point to make which in a sense doesn't matter what came first. it matter as what the president's team was saying and when and how they were saying it. >> exactly. >> you said it comes too soon to decide on impeachment. if you find that the president dan

. >> we'll talk to the head of the faa, but first tom costello jos us from reagan national with the very latest on this. hey, tom, goodin mo >> reporter: good morning. if you're flying today be prepared for cancellations, and it's not just because of the max 8 and max 9. weave a massive snowstorm really messing things up.

the timing of costello showing up in all this also key.cohen's homes and office. giuliani had only been on trump's legal team a few days at this point. cohen was trying to figure out if he should stick to a joint defense agreement with the president or if he should, as he eventually did, flip. at the same time, costello was e-mailing trump -- cohen. same time costello was e-mailing cohen, trump was tweeting how he always liked and respected cohen and didn't see michael flipping. now, it's true, the word, "pardon," isn't in the e-mails. costello says it's utter nonsense to read that into his words and he says cohen asked him to go to the president about this. but wait, why would cohen not ask his own lawyer to do that, and why would michael cohen, the president's lawyer, not call the president directly? unclear. what is clear, people on the president's side were worried about what cohen was going to do. they wanted him to remember his close relationship, one that is now gone thanks to what cohen calls his decision to tell the truth. so, pro

costello said in an interview that he, ecohen asked if there was a pardon on the table. who's making the offer first, even though they're clearly sniffb each other out? >> i think there's been a lot of a attention to this question. even if michael cohen made the first move responding by dangling it out, it's still not okay. the bar with these people keeps getting lower and lower. maybe rudy giuliani will be the skd one of donald trump's personal lawyers to be indicted. because we have a lot of dus cushion about whether the president can be indicte indicted there's no question rudy giuliani can be indicted. >> in this whole kaungz about pardons for the president, even the perspective inducement is so much more powerful than the retroactive granting thereof. like, sorry, buddy. donald trump screwed over so men a other counter part as but the idea in the future you might get it is an important thing to keep in the mund of everything. >> because he doesn't want them flipping. it's bribery 1 with 01. it's very obvious what the intention was and are mains with these people by

it's like costello is saying, "i've written a parody of the weird al song, 'i love rocky road.'t's called 'i love rock and roll.' ( laughter ) it's tongue-in-cheek." ( cheers and applause ) thank you. weird al fans. big weird al fans here tonight. costello said he was simply trying to offer comfort to "a client whose state of mind was highly disturbed and had suggested to us that he was suicidal." how could you tell? whenever i see him, i want to add a hotline number underneath. stay strong, mike. and cohen wasn't the only one giving secret testimony. congress also heard from former acting attorney general and lex luthor pretending to be clark kent, matt whitaker. ( cheers and applause ) delayed reaction. whitaker gave closed door testimony to the house judiciary committee, and as soon as the door opened, we learned everything he said from committee chair and fun grandpa who teaches you naughty limericks, jerry nadler. last month, it was reported that trump asked whitaker to put an ally in charge of the cohen investigation. rumor has it trump wanted to appoint his closest ally:

here's tom costello. >> reporter: tonight, nbc news has confirmed the fbi has joined the investigation looking at how boeing 737 max was certified for flight. the worldwide max fleet remains grounded following two fatal crashes in five months. and now more information about the final moments on the indonesianli in the air for just 12 minutes, the lion air pilots tried desperately to pull up the nose of their 737 max 8 but the anti-stall system called mcas pushed the nose down more than 20 times. three people who heard the plane's black box recordings tell reuters the crew didn't understand the problem and even looked through a handbook for answers. the crew discussed air speed and altitude but not the plane's trim, meant to keep the plane level, the real problem. in the final seconds of the fatal dive, the captain remained quiet. the first officer asked god for a miracle. nbc news has not reviewed the recordings or the transcripts. >> it would have been a very -- frightening for the pilots for sure that really didn't know -- they would be asking each other, what is it doing now? >> rep

nbc's tom costello rreports. >> reporter: theep urgent questn facing investigators and airline safety teams, are there similarities of the ethiopian airlines crash and the crash of a lion air crash last year? both planes went down just after takeoff. the crews struggled to maintain control. the ethiopian plane transmitting erratic vertical speed readings. lion air went down in the java sea 2 minutes into flight. a preliminary investigation found the on board sensors may have fed bad data indicating the plane was going to stall. the computers then mistakenly pushed the nose of the plane down to pick up speed. the pilots struggled to pull the nose up not realizing they were fighting a new automated anti-stall system that boeing never told pilots about but boeing says the pilots should have known how to disengage the system. >> so what i do immediately turn over the switches and cut the motor out. and as you can see it stopped the trim. >> reporter: now investigators in africa will examine the plane's black boxes for any sign the ethiopian crew faced the same issues. if so, more countrie

a live report from nairobi next and our tom costello. stay with us here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. . fidelity wealth management. if you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture now might not be the best time to ask yourself are my bones strong? life is full of make-or-break moments. that's why it's so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones from fracture with 1 shot every 6 months. do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®. serious allergic reactions, like low blood pressure; trouble breathing; throat tightness; face, lip, or tongue swelling; rash; itching; or hives have happened. tell your doctor about dental problems as severe jaw bone problems may happen or new or unusual pain in your hip groin, or thigh, as unusual thigh bone fractures have occurred. speak to your doctor before stopping prolia® as spine and other bone fractures have occurred. prolia® can cause

nbc's tom costello was there. >> three, two, one, zero, ignition, liftoff. >> reporter: it was 2:49 a.m. when the falcon 9 rocket powered through the night sky cutting a spectacular path to the space station. >> live view of the falcon 9 rocket as it ascends through the atmosphere. >> reporter: yet again spacex demonstrating remarkable engineering precision. >> as you hear from the cheering here at spacex headquarters, we did have a successful mid-engine cutoff. >> reporter: success at every stage, including the reusable first stage guided to earth for a perfect landing on a ship 300 miles out to sea. this unmanned mission a critical test of the spacex dragon crew vehicle that nasa hopes will carry astronauts to the space station this year. along for the ride a mannequin named ripley, wired with sensors to gauge the g-forces and stress a real astronaut might experience. spacex's ceo elon musk's vision, first the space station, then the moon, and mars. >> i believe in the future of space. i think it is important we have space exploration, be out there among the stars. >> reporter: dragon

>> tom costello, thank you. >>> in new york today a florida man pleaded guilty to mailing a series of pipe bombs to prominent critics of president trump as well as cnn. cesar sayoc was arrested in october after the explosive packages caused a panic shortly before the midterm elections. sayoc faces up to life in prison. >>> now to an alarming new turn in the opioid epidemic after soaring overdoses from prescription pain meds, then heroin, now it's a synthetic opioid, fentanyl, on a rapid rise. the cdc reporting deaths from fentanyl have soared over 1,000% since 2011, taking 18,000 lives in african-americans suffering the most dramatic increase. our jacob soboroff is on the front lines in baltimore. >> reporter: it's only 11:00. we're on our way to our third overdose call in the last hour. >> what's your name, ma'am? >> reporter: a young woman in this park has been revived with naloxone, the overdose antidote. >> yes, i co! i don't want to go! >> reporter: dr. algandi said this is the third overdose he's treated this morning. >> i've been doing this for a while now. maybe 80% of the pat

tom costello, nbc news, at the kennedy space center. >>> there is outrage tonight over the aggressive tactics used by a drug company to sell more opioids, even making a rap music video with an executive in a fentanyl costume. he testified today at a criminal trial in boston. we get more from nbc's anne thompson. >> reporter: designed to drive sales of the spray version of the powerful opioid fentanyl -- ♪ it's therapeutic >> reporter: this parody video is part of a federal racketeering trial. ♪ shout-out to what you created ♪ >> reporter: the founder of the drugmaker insys and four executives accused of paying bribes and kickbacks to doctors, and urging them to up the doses, a process called hitration. ♪ hitration is not a problem ♪ ♪ i got new patients and i got a lot of them ♪ >> reporter: today the executive inside the dancing bottle, former vice president of sales alec burlakoff, testifying against his one-time colleagues. telling the court he followed directions to recruit and bribe doctors. burlakoff pleaded guilty to racketeering. lawyers for the executives deny all wrongdoing.

i'm tom costello, nbc news in washington, back to you. >> thank you, tom. >>> could be the first major mob hit in decades. a man thought to be a leader of the gambino crime family found shot to death outside his home in the new york city area. police responded to a call on staten island of an assault in progress and arriving on scene they found thecalli with severa gunshots. calli later died at the hospital. investigators say he was one of the ranking members of the gambino crime family. he was reportedly having dinner with his family and stepped outside to shoot with someone when the shoot happened. >>> now the worldwide outage. a senior facebook employee tells us the database was overloaded and went on to say the social media site racing to set up new machines as others were going down and the problem is mostly resolved. you probably got that error message yesterday. instagram and what's app were also affected. this was the longest outage facebook ever experienced. >>> federal prosecutors are apparently facebook struck with large tech companies and they subpoenaed records of at least

that was tom costello reporting. federal database allowing pilots to report concerns or complaints shows that max 8 pilots in the u.s. have filed several complaints about that plane. >>> new video showing the rescue efforts under in nigeria after a three-story school building collapsed while classes were in session. just about 10:00 in the morning their time. this happened this morning. at least 100 children are feared to be buried in that rubble. so far, two children have been rescued. building collapse is not uncommon in that area because the construction there often goes without regulations. >>> turning now to decision 2020, this morning all eyes are on former vice president joe biden and the intentions for the election. if he joins the already crowded democratic field polls show he would be the front-runner. he was spoking to members of the firefighters union yesterday and we got a look at what could be to come. >> save a little longer. i may need it in a few weeks. be careful what you wish for. >> a little tease

nbc's tom costello has more. >> reporter: from ethiopian flight 302's black boxes, new clues into what caused the crash. "the wall street journal" reports the plane's mcas anti-stall software appears to have triggered, forcing the nose of the 737 max down just minutes into flight. a preliminary finding, but the same scenario is suspected in the lion air crash last october where indonesian investigators believe an angle of attack sensor sent bad data to mcas, indicating the plane could stall. the system then pushed the nose down as pilots struggled to pull it back up. 346 people died in both crashes. former british accident investigator tony cable. >> as an accident investigator, it's a complete nightmare. that's what you're aiming all the time to avoid, which is why you try to get to the bottom of an accident or incident as rapidly as possible. >> reporter: in seattle this week, boeing has been demonstrating its software fix to airline pilots. >> we're going to do everything that we can do to ensure that accidents like these never happen again. >> reporter: the new software upgrade rel

our tom costello has the latest. >> reporter: it's one of the most sophisticated, best selling planes in the world, but tonight, the faa is under intense pressure as passengers, pilots and airlines ask whether the boeing 737 max 8 is safe after two brand new planes crashed in five mo on the ground in ethiopia, the charred remains of et flight 302. the 737 max 8 headed s after taking off from dis ababa. moments after the pilot declared an emergency. data transmitted by the plane showed very erratic vertical speed as the crew struggled to control the plane, eerily similar to the crash of lion air flight 610 last october off indonesia. that plane also a boeing max 8. now 22 airlines and a handful of countries including ethiopian . sky news reporter john sparks is at the scene. >> the big question here is has the same thing happened or is it just a statistical anomaly that we have here? two of the same aircraft crashing in a short period of time. >> reporter: investigators in ethiopia have recovered the plane's black boxes. they'll look for indications the pilots struggled with the trim o

with more, here's tom costello. alk about taking a wrong turn. the morning flight from london to dusseldorf didn't just land in the wrong city, it landed in the wrong country. >> i remember looking out the window thinking, this is unusual. but i was tired. and i didn't think anything of it. >> reporter: ba-3271, supposed to fly from london straight over the english channel and on to germany. instead the plane took off to the north, flew over most of england, before crossing into scotland and landing in edinburgh. the problem, a ground staffer typed the wrong airport code into the flight plan and no one noticed. the pilots assumed they were supposed to go to edinburgh. on the ground passengers were surprised. after a few hours they were on their way to dusseldorf with british airways apologizing for the wrong turn. tom costello, nbc news, washington. >> hope their luggage made it. >>> when we come back, apple's big announcement and how it may change the way you watch tv. >>> back now with a new salvo in the tv wars. apple unveiling its long-awaite

here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: in paris, investigators are analyzing ethiopian flight 302's badly damaged flight recorders, looking for clues into sunday's crash. already satellite data confirms the ethiopian crew struggled to control the plane with erratic speed readings, much like the indonesian lion air crew struggled last october. the final radio conversation between the panicked ethiopian captain and air traffic controllers reported by "the new york times." break, break, request back to home, the captain radioed. request vector for landing. nbc news reported last night that investigators in ethiopia 00 are looking closely at the position of the jackscrew that moves the horizontal stabilizer. that could indicate whether the nose of the plane was being forced down, much like the indonesian plane. >> and eventually that's what you'd be looking at right there. >> reporter: retired air canada captain aaron murphy demonstrated how easy it is to switch off a malfunctioning or runaway trim meant to keep the plane flying level. but max pilots complain boeing never told them of a

tom costello, thank you. >>> another deadly incident under investigation tonight. police say a charter bus driver has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after his bus overturned in heavy fog, killing two people and injuring dozens of others on i-95 south of richmond, virginia. >>> tonight that massive petrochemical fire outside of houston continues to rage out of control, and with growing concerns from the community about potential health effects, authorities now say they have no idea when the fire will end. nbc's gabe gutierrez is there. >> reporter: tonight it's no longer clear how long this inferno will burn. authorities had initially thought wednesday. now no timetable. the blaze intensified overnight as firefighters say they were running low on water pressure. as the sun rose, it continued to flare up, billowing into the sky. internio which owns the facility, says eight storage tanks are still burning. three others have burned out, and two empty ones collapsed. >> of course itc is very sorry that this unfortunate event. this isn't an event we wanted or

but as tom costello reports, airlines are under orders to ensure no plane ever goesti no answer as to what happened to malaysia airlines flight 370, disappearing on an overnight flight from kuala lumpur to beijing. radar and satellite pings suggest the 777 made a big u-turn then flew into the southern indian ocean where it went down. while pieces of the plane have washed ashore, no sign of the plane itself. the official search called off after two years. another search by an american firm also turned up nothing. now the victims' families want the search to resume. >> we are trying our best to keep mh-370 alive in the minds of everybody here. >> reporter: but a the system is operational. it's tracking aircraft globally? >> reporter: at the aridium air and command center in virginia they track 10,000 planes at any moment using 66 orbiting satellites. >> this is air france flight 852. >> reporter: five years ago malaysia airlines wasn't paying for satellite tracking. soon new international rules will require it. by mid-2020, every aircraft over any ocean, pole to pole, must be gps tracke

>> tom costello, thank you. >>> still ahead tonight, including the exploding controversy over jussie smollett. prosecutor now defending that shocking turn. >>> also the game-changing move by the nfl after the blown call that clouded the super bowl. >>> and the son of an american hero accepts the medal of honor for his father, whose heroic actions saved lives. >>> next tonight, the growing controversy after prosecutors in chicago dropped all charges against actor jussie smollett even though police say he lied about being the victim of a hate crime. miguel almaguer has the latest. >> reporter: facing no criminal charges, jussie smollett's case is sealed. his record will be expunged. but today chicago p.d. releasing this new police report after our freedom of information request. in it, investigators detailed the connection between the "empire" actor and the osundairo brothers who police say he hired to orchestrate the bogus hate crime. prepared to unload even more evidence, cpd says it was barred from doing so by a judge. >> it's our lowest level felony. >> reporter: today kim foxx, th

tom costello has details. >> reporter: at wow ticket counters, long lines this morning. but empty thisfternoon. every wow flight canceled. >> nobody received any kind of e-mail communication. so we are just stranded here. nothing is happening. >> reporter: the icelandic budget airlines' 11 planes grounded in north america and rope, leaving passengers stranded, scrambling to find other airlines, and hoping for a refund. e >>ve in boston, massachusetts. we've got to work together. so -- don't really think thas going to happen. >> reporter: wow started flying in 2012, offering bargain-busting $99 fares to iceland and europe fronto, boston, detroit, new york, and a baltimore. overght as the airline abruptly went bust, angry passengers vented on twitter.e weranded in dublin and can't get home to montreal. any chance you can accommodate a family of four out of chicago? our dream honeymoon trip to iceland gets postponed again.an ite risky flying a low-budget foreign airline. wow was just the latest in a os string of lowcarriers going under. >> it came as a real surprise. >> rep

with more on that, here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: with the world's 737 max fleet grounded, a federal grand ju is investigating the development of the faa g max and h certified it. understaffed and underfunded, the faa has delegated much of that process to boeing itself under a plan approved by congress. there is always a risk of delegating some of your direct certification authority over the aircraft design. rebut you need the manufacs expertise. they know their product better than anyone. >> reporter: online the faa says the goal of the program is to identify bt practices and develop strategies to streamline certification and oversight. i asked the acting faa chief la week about the interaction with boeing. did yourlose relationship with boeing and with the airlines in any way lead you to delay the decision to ground these plas? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: meanwhile french investators analyzing the black boxes from the ethiopian crash said today clear similaritiesere noted between the ethiopian and donesian planes before they crashed. bad sensors on the plane or a softwa

nbc's tom costello is there for us. >> reporter: this afternoon, an emergency landin involving a 737 max. a plane without passengers being ferried to california had to return to orlando after an engine problem. >> we just lost our right engine. we need to declare an emergency. >> reporter: everyone on board safe. under faa rules, a grounded max can be ferried across-country if it's flying without passengers. meanwhile, in seattle, boeing has bee putting 737 max pilots through simulators, recreating the mcas software failure suspected of forcing down the nose of lion air flight 610. "the new york times" reports the pilots in the simulators had just 40 seconds to override the malfunctioning system to avert disaster. >> and they knew whato expect. the lion air pilots did not. now boeing is prepared to show 200 airline execs and pilots the urgent software fix not yet approved by the faa. >> i don't see that the airplane will probably be returned to service for at least several weeks. >> reporter: tonight, the faa and boeing confirm that on teanuary 21st, boeing presa preliminary software

i know you have reached out to costello, who is the author of these e-mails. what is he saying?ell, his explanation of them is pretty simple. he says that michael cohen had some concern about his relationship with the white house. and again, remember, this is, at the time when there was still a joint defense agreement and he was a little concerned, because, you know, there had been some stories printed about the president, how he felt about michael and michael, how he felt about the president. so he said, look, this was simply just right to smooth out this relationship. and as you can see from these quotes, it's like, you are very, very loved. he said it was reassurance more than anything else. now, sympathizers of michael cohen will say this is nothing more than an effort to dangle a pardon in front of michael cohen without using the word "pardon." and to reassure him that if he remained on the president's team, which is, as you know, he separated from in the summer of 2018, but if he remained on the president's team, he would have nothing worry about. >> all right, thank you f

rena costello was fred west‘s first wife, charmaine‘s mother.marcle with another victim, anne mcfall discovered nearby. to stand there and think that somebody has actually come up here and disposed of two sets of remains, it was chilling. were you close with your brother? well, yeah, we were always close, but, i mean, we didn't live in one another's pockets. it was particularly hard for the west family, wasn‘t it, who still lived at much marcle? you‘ve still got doug west living in the village, and we spoke on several occasions. i‘d known doug from some years before as well. i think you had to feel somewhat sorry that they were being put into this predicament, this situation, that an element of their family had been carrying out such horrendous crimes. as far as i knew, that he wasjust the same as us, a happy family man. you see it on plays and television, and it goes on and on, and you think, well, that could never happen in real life. but it has. by the middle ofjune, the body count had reached 12, and fred and rose west were being held in cus

the plane will remain grounded, they think, for months. >> tom costello tonight, thank you with the update. >>> overseas this eveng as u.s.-backed forces close in on isis holdouts in syria, we're learning new details about a deadly bombing that killed several americans at a syrian restaurant. nbc'matt bradley is there. >> reporter: tonight after days of intense firefights, u.s.-backed forces in syria have taken back control of the last scrap of land held by isis. battle-weary soldiers leading the front lines. president trump declaring victory is imminent. >> everything red is isis. t whenk it over, it was a mess. now on the bottom that's the exact same. there is no red. in fact, there's actually a tiny spot which will be gone by tonight. >> reporter: it comes as there are new developments regarding e this suilast at a restaurant here in january that killed four americans. army chief warrant officer jonathan farmer, navy at communns specialist shannon kent, defense contracton scott wuertzd translator di kataher. the u.s. previously announced five isis suspects were detained and today this f

what happened ryan costello? >> i don't know.t i would predict that he heard from the base of the republican party, which has been reported is 1,010% behind president trump. if you ask a pro trump republican power what about what president obama did? do you know what a republican voter is going to say. i don't care, i want you to stand behind the president. that's what a republican voter is going to say seven or eight out of ten voters. that's the world we're living in right now, frustrating as it may be for some who feel that the president doesn't have the constitutional authority to declare this emergency declaration. >> beto o'rourke, day two. he's having this event right now in iowa. we took our view squers and listeners there. what do you make of the o'rourke candidacy so far? he's drawing crowds, getting a fair amount of attention on cable and network news? is he the real deal? >> i don't know. i mean, this is a long process. i'm glad that we have so many candidates who have stepped up and, you know, who put their names and

our tom costello has details on the fix. >> reporter: today, as more 737 maxes rolled off the assembly line, boeing was giving hundreds of airline pilots and execs a look at the urgent upgrade to fix the software spected in two fatal crashes. >> we're wor customers ngd regulators around thehit wo to restore faith in o industry -- >> reporter: here's what the pilots will see, a simple indicators warning the outside sensors angle of attack.ane's if the mcas system pushes the nose down, like the indonesian i planwill stop if the pilots override it. lboeing says max pilots crn the new system in 30 minutes. meanwhile, the acting faa chief today defendeon the certificati process, which allows bowing to certify much of its own work. c >> otification processes are extensive, well established, and have csistently produced safe aircraft designs for decades. r orter: the faa still needs to approve boeing's software upgrade and its plan to retrain pilots using ipads, not simulators that could come within a week but it could take much longer to actually get the plane back in the air. lester? >> tom

back with me now, former republican congressman ryan costello from pennsylvania.open with pennsylvania again because this is one of the states people say you have to look at if you're going to be a democrat and succeed, is pennsylvania a place hickenlooper could win? if not, who can? >> he would be a good candidate in pennsylvania. i happen to think whoever wins pennsylvania, is going to be the next president. i think ohio and florida are really trending republican, and there are a couple of states that are now trending democrat and if you win pennsylvania, you probably also won michigan and wisconsin. the problem with the governor is the problem that i think a number of democrats are going to have, is that base is sizzling right now. and you have a biden lane, a berry sanders lane, and there's probably another lane for a candidate but it's difficult for me to think a more centrist, pragmatic governing type elected official -- >> you think biden could be successful, amy klobuchar? >> it would be tough for klobuchar if biden is in the race. >> sherrod brown? >> i t

seems like costello is saying because you asked me to call and ask for one so i did, so then i wrote you that. are we ever going to know what happened here, whether cohen lied to congress? >> i'm not sure and i'm not sure this e-mail advances the ball. it's funny michael cohen is holding this up as the thing that's going to exonerate him from any questions here. this could have really had implications for michael cohen. we know this matter has now been referred to the justice department. it's not totally unheard of if the southern district of new york feels that michael cohen lied in his congressional testimony, they could charge him with additional crimes. in fact, this e-mail, look, it's vague enough that it's hard to look at it on its face and say, aha, this is the smoking gun one way or another, but it raises eyebrows and it's funny to me that michael cohen would put that out there as something that actually proves his point. >> i mean, and again, why one would lie to congress again about something like that when, you know, everyone expected him to ask for a pardon, at least when

here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: boeing is on notice. the faa said that it expects to order mandatory desig changes to the 7837 max 8 by the end of april. the critical question, is there any connection between the max 8 crash in ethiopia, and the lion air max 8 crashn indonesia last october? in a letter to boeing employees, the ceo writes, we are confident andhe safetf e 737 max the work of the men and women who desig and build it. but the faa chairman sai the worldwide fleet should be grounded. lown in thehose u.s. >> aircraft ought to voluntarily ground the aircraft. >> reporter: and the faa says, if we identify an issue that affects safety, the faa will take immediate and appropriate action. meanwhile, one of the world's biggest flie efgest flight atte wants transparent action. >> we're calrang for appearance here so crews have can confidencehe flying on planes. >> reporter: the pressure is on to find out why two brand-new planes flew out of the sky. boeing says it's a software patch and an upgrade they've been working on with the faa

costello what might have been had he lived. i think stephen decatur, knowing he had a very outsized role in society, and recognized -- very few were at that time -- off and down the east coast, national figure. i think he may have had his eyes on some sites beyond being a retired naval officer, as wonderful as that is. [laughter] admiral harvey: and there could be nothing better than that, but he may have had his eyes on something. this was a convenient place to do it at he had the wherewithal to make it happen. ann: he and susan decatur built this home in 18, moved in in 19? it was still the early days. but his friends were president. a couple of days before his death, he went to a wonderful dinner for the president's daughter, who was engaged, maria monroe. this was a guy who had taken that sea experience, the leadership and adventurism that he enjoyed, and turned it into a very, very potent presence in this city. admiral, could you talk a little bit about how he returned to this house? what those last days of his life, which

tom costello reports. >> reporter: from miami to dallas, chicago to l.a., the 737 max groundings have got american and ssthwest airli scrambling, canceling some flights, finding replacement planes for others. 20,000 passengers effected. >> our first reaction was, what are we goi to do now, because we knew we going to miss our connection >>flights. eporter: meanwhile, this morning the "new york times" has the final radio conversation between the panicked captain of ethiopian flight 302 and air-traffic controllers. brake, brake. request back to home the captain radioed. request vector for landing. the pilots were struggling to control thelane and the faa says there are striking similarities with the lion air max 8 crash in indonesia last october. satellite data shows the lion air plane experiencedrric vertical speed readings after taking off, up and down over seven minutes, climbing at 1,500 feet per minute then descending at 1,500 feet per minute. data from the ethiopian plane i similar, up and down, then up d again over a very volatile two minutes. investigators are looking at whether

our coverage of this story p continues at 6:30 with nbc's tom costello and the information investigator will be looking for in those black boxes to answer questions to any possible link between the ethiopian and lion air crashes. >>> the president delivered his budget proposal today so the white house held its first on camera media briefing in 42 days. the last official briefing took place on january 28th. a lot has happened since then. reporters have not been able to press on answers for things such as state of the union, to the president's former attorney, michael cohen. and tod theress secretary took questions for 15 minutes. blayne alexander joins us to break it down. >> reporter: the very firstc touring the white house briefing was the proposed budget. something that democrats are zoni in on aumber of things to push back against but top ofl thatt is the billion dollar request for the border wall. hot off the press and straight to capitol hill, president trp's new 2020 budget proposal, reviving an old fight over border wa spending. >> federal resources and front line defenders are o