York. Day 774 of the trump administration, and the president s not going to like this. Hes now facing a brand new investigation, the widest since the launch of the mueller inquiry, and one that could extend well into the 2020 campaign. The democratic head of the house Judiciary Committee, congressman jerry nadler of new york today launched an aggressive investigation into three basic areas. Allegations of obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump and his inner circle. The Judiciary Committee is demanding documents from 81 people and agencies and entities linked to trump and his associates from every aspect of Donald Trumps life. Spanning his business, his campaign, his family and his administration. Those insiders include his sons don junior and eric, Allen Weisselberg, cfo of the trump organization, jared kushner, former Comms Director hope hicks and many others. Trumps campaign, trumps foundation as well as the fbi and the nra. Request was also made for information on that 2016 trump tower meeting to get dirt on Hillary Clinton about trumps intervention on the fbi on behalf of michael flynn, possible russian financing and the hush money payments that Michael Cohen testified about just last wednesday. Its been noted before it will be noted again, this committee, house judiciary has the power to draft articles of impeachment, which is what makes this new inquiry especially significant. Earlier on this network tonight Committee Chairman nadler talked to Rachel Maddow. Weve been having very positive responses from a number of the 81 people today. For two years the American Congress did no oversight of the administration. None. They in fact acted as shields for the administration, for whatever they wanted to do. We have to protect the rule of law. And that means we have to investigate and hold hearings for the American People if the administration is involved in abuses of power or obstruction of justice. Now, chairman nadler says both muellers office and the Southern District of new york are aware that his committee has made these requests. The recipients now have two weeks to comply. The 81 names listed today are just the start. A house Judiciary Committee source is telling nbc news. According to this very source, quote, that was the first phase of document requests. We have more letters coming soon. Well, tonight the White House Press secretary put out this statement about the inquiry. It reads in part. Today chairman nadler opened up a disgraceful and abusive investigation into tired false allegations already investigated by the special counsel and committees in both chambers of congress. Chairman nadler and his fellow democrats have embarked on this fishing expedition because they are tirified their two year false narrative of russian collusion is crumbling. Their intimidation and abuse of american citizens is shameful. Earlier today the president was asked how hell respond to this move. Are you going to cooperate with mr. Nadler . I cooperate all the time with everybody, and you know the beautiful thing, no collusion. Its all a hoax. Its a political hoax. Theres no collusion. As sometimes happens over this past weekend the president s twitter account seemed in its tone and tenor and content to anticipate Something Big was coming. He wrote, quote, i am an innocent man being persecuted by some very bad conflicted and corrupt people in a witch hunt that is illegal. And here is what he told the conservative Political Action conference during saturdays twohour long speech. So they dont have anything with russia, theres no collusion. So now they go and morph into lets inspect every deal hes ever done. Were going to go into his finances. Were going to check his deals. Were going to check these people are sick. More on that event later on in our broadcast. Judiciary is not the only committee ramping up trump investigations. Today the democratic chairs of intel, oversight and Foreign Affairs combined all requested documents and interviews relate today President Trumps communications with one vladimir putin. Theyre interested in trumps oneonone conversations with the russian leader and the president s reported efforts to hide some of those communications. As usual its a lot on a monday night. And with us to talk about it our lead off panel, peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the new york times. Frank figluzi, former fbi assistant for counter intelligence. And cynthia a former federal prosecutor and veteran of the u. S. Justice department. Frank, part of the story line of this story has been mueller is not necessarily the president s greater danger. It could be the Southern District of new york. In effect, the New York Branch of the Justice Department. Though, with that in mind where do you place all of this from the house of representatives as an existential threat to this presidency . So this is an interesting topic because muellers been conducting the inquiry with, number one, a very limited remit. Remember that was the parameters of that involved russia and criminal collusion. Southern district of new york has a couple of a number of cases but theyre conducting it through proper grand jury proceedings, much of it in secrecy. Now were going to see a very public display of all things bad for trump. And my thinking here is that multiple. First, to what degree is trump going to be able to restrain himself from his public lashing hes about to see play out as friends, associates, colleagues get called, even family members get called even subpoenaed to testify . But also the public optics of this is going to be very interesting. To what degree is nadler and Judiciary Committee and the other committees ready to say this is a credible, wellstaffed, wellplanned investigation so that the Public Perception is that this is credible, that this isnt a beating up of a president but rather this is serious oversight. It looks like were for the first time in a very long time about to see what serious oversight looks like. But the complications of coordination with the Southern District, with mueller and the optics to the American People are very essential so that this does not seem like the president willcall it a witch hunt. Peter, you get to cover the guy. And as we tried to say in very clear english at the top of it broadcast, hes just not going to like this. To franks narrative, 81 names of the people, places, agencies, entity, that is strong counter narrative to the witch hunt. Well, look, you know, when we write the history of this time i think well remember today as the day that the house of representatives opened an impeachment inquiry against the president of in all but name. They didnt use the i word. They did everything but that. They threw out so many fishing elements without the kind of public airing theyre about to give it. That its clearly aimed at that one ultimate possible target. It may be democrats dont go forward with impeachment down the road and may decide theres not enough evidence there, and its not politically advantageous, where they cant win enough votes in the senate where they will need at least 20 republican senators to go with them for conviction. This probably opens up probably a yearlong effort to uncover and expose all the various misdeeds that they suspect the president having committed in a very public and very what could be a very painful way for this president and his white house. Now, counselor, do you agree with that point that our wise colleague just made, that this was an opening of an impeachment inquiry, though not in title . And can you tell our viewers how they should process the threat this represents as opposed to mueller and the other stuff we talk about here every night . Well, yes, i would agree thats what it is particularly because weisselberg is on the list and the documents. And recognize that the weisselberg in all of the documented productions is quite limited at this point. Its just what theyve produced before. But if they look and see that theres not enough information, theres just going to be a second round, and theres just going to be more and more and more when it comes to the documents. And that is going to make the president blow a gasket. I dont think theres any question about that. If we think he had a bad week last week with the crazy speech wait until weisselberg is testifying in front of the house. But, yes, i think its a huge threat because not only do they not have the parameters of mueller or the parameters of the Southern District, they dont have the parameters of crimes. What they can view as an abuse of power is whatever they say is an abuse of power is. It can be you spoke to whitaker and wanted to change even though nothing happened. Or you pressured somebody it doesnt have to rise to the level of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. And they can be looking at it as an abuse of power as a list for an impeachment. So its very broad and a huge threat and on every imaginable level. So peter, lets bore down on this a little bit more since you and i were around for the last impeachment. Do the early elements of the clinton saga remind you of what were seeing now . Clinton was accused of violating the law in order to coverup a sexual affair. Thats one of the allegations that has been made against President Trump, that he conspired with Michael Cohen to pay hush payments to two women in order to cover up a sexual indiscretion before the 2016 election. The difference is thats not the only thing on the table here. Theres so many things on the table here as the 81 targets of todays document requests indicate. Theres his business practices. Was there, you know, any obstruction of justice when he fired the fbi director or when he tried to get the Justice Department to investigate his enemies. You know, what was the nature of, you know, his relationship with his own, you know, Law Enforcement structures . There are so many elements that, you know, the house Judiciary Committee wants to look into here. And Allen Weisselberg right there at the heart of all of his business practices. He probably knows so many things that we dont know about that this could be quite interesting. Thats whats different about clinton. In the clinton case there was one sort of basic event they were xaning. People had to decide whether it rose to an impeachable offense. Here its like five different president ial scandals all rolled into one. Were there any names on the list that got your attention . This list is a whos who of nardo els. But three names jumped out at me. The fbi is being asked to produce documents in a number of areas. Look, in some cases they will have the answer key. If they will give it up they will have answers across various investigative lines. Second, youve got to talk to weisselberg. Hes the money man. He knows everything about where the money went and the question is why the money went there. And then lastly this sounds interesting, the nra is on that list. And im interested in that because this takes us beyond trump into perhaps the campaigns of various house and Senate Members and whether foreign money was funneled through the nra to those members. Im going to keep an eye on that one. If we dont take our first commercial break the company gets angry. So if were just going to pause all three of our guests are going to stay with us. And coming up the house investigations infuriating some of the president s closest supporters especially those at his, shall we say, goto network of choice. And will a now deleted social media post be enough to land roger stone in prison while he awaits trial . The 11th hour just Getting Started on a monday night. Etting started on a monday night. [ sighing ] oh my momma she gave me these feathered breaths oh my momma check in from afar with remote access. And have professional monitoring backing you up with xfinity home. Demo in an xfinity store, call, or go online today. The hate trump agenda is now hitting literally psychotic levels of derangement. They have now made it their full time stated mission and purpose to try and batter, bloody, bludgeon this president at all costs. To either impeach or try to make President Trump unelectable in 2020. We the people will now be subject to what will be the biggest most gruesome display of modern day mccarthyism, which is just the widest fishing net expedition all in an effort to destroy the president. One of the president s key media allies earlier this evening reacting to this new house Judiciary Committee investigation. Still with us tonight, peter baker, frank figluzzi, cynthia. From fox news tonight, former u. S. Attorney from the District Of Columbia joe digenova with a message for all those whose names were listed by house judiciary. Everyone should refuse, and when theyre subpoenaed they should all take the fifth because this a perjury trap. This is not a legitimate investigation. It is a fishing expedition. Theyre trying to get people up there to make them look bad so to try to make the president look bad. No one would talk to this committee. Everyone should take the fifth. And if everyone takes the fifth the American People will understand that this is not a legitimate investigation. It is political theater. Counselor, your reaction. Joe digenova is so predictable. He takes the exact opposite when it was the clinton impeachment. I was there in the greenroom. Thats not going to happen. There are some people who should take the fifth like don junior should probably take the fifth. Why . Because adam schiff has already said he thinks he lied. So theres a guy that goes in and has a legitimate problem. You cant just take five for no reason. It has to be reasonable. For instance, theres an interesting question about weisselberg. Should weisselberg take the fifth . He has limited immunity, what is that negotiation going to be . Its not all cut and dry. Its all an individual situation. I will say i find joe digenova, now, you know, hes just spouting bile usually on television. Peter baker, we grabbed on paper at least the president s tweet where tonight he talked about by our reading mccathyism. Either hes from boston or theres a senator mccathy similar to senator joe mccarthy who was from wisconsin. The president was quoting Shawn Hannity tonight and has since corrected the spelling. When someone like me asks you what is it like, what are they saying inside the west wing, are we taking our evidence from this kind of thing . Its good that spelling is not one of the ish os at stake on the house Judiciary Committee for the president. They feel under siege. This one in particular theyve been under siege from the beginning. You know, if you worked there you have felt from the very start this administration that you were at war, you were under attack from the enemies from the outside. Remember the talk of impeachment began within days of his election. He hadnt even sworn in and some of his critics were already raising that prospect. So this is something theyve lived with from the beginning but has now raised to a different level. When the president didnt say he didnt actually lose his midterm elections, now when the house went to democrat sud suddenly the world changed for donald trump. Its not to say he cant get this or that legislation through. Its now he will spend the next two years of his life answering or deflecting or fighting with requests for information like this. Now, the danger for democrats is that it will look like it is a fishing expedition, that it will look like they only care about taking down the president. And i think the democrats understand that challenge, but its one that feeds into the narrative that you heard and you played already from Shawn Hannity, which is that this isnt legitimate. Its just politic, just partisanship. And a lot of people who liked donald trump who think hes doing a good job are going to dismiss it because they think its the deep state out to get him. Frank, a question im forced to ask you way too often. Do you fear another round of attacks on federal institutions . Oh, i think as the president loses control as he did this weekend in the two hour rambling speech he gave, i think were already seeing a strong glimpse of his defense. His defense is going to be attacks on people. His attacks are going to be on mueller, really the most unimpoochable people in washington. Weve heard comey rolled out again. And now were going to see personal attacks on each and every member of each and every Committee Investigating him. And if thats all hes got, if thats his defense, thats someone whos very worried about the facts. Our thanks to starting us off as we begin a new week this monday night. And coming up, as a judge considers sending roger stone to prison, new reporting that a another one time close associate of trump was looking for a pardon. That when we come back. Directly to petmeds. Com. 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Pardon that when we come back i got this Mountain Bike for only 11. Dealdash. Com, the fair and roger stone might well be in hot water tonight for possible violations of that gag order imposed upon him in federal court last month. You may recall federal judge Amy Berman Jackson has asked stones attorneys to explain why the release of a new book from roger stone was never mentioned during testimony. Well, today stones attorneys argued their client should be allowed to publish the book titled, quote, the myth of russian collusion, inside story of how donald trump really won. An update to a book stone originally wrote in 2016 with a new introduction that discusses, wait for it, the mueller investigation. Stones attorneys said in a court filing quote, to best of stones knowledge information and belief not a single word was created after, the day judge jackson imposed stones gag order. Meanwhile prosecutors for Robert Mueller pointed out in a court filing today that a preview of stones book is Available Online including the updated introduction. The web site says the book was published online two days before the gag order on february 19th. Muellers team also pointed out that according to public reporting stones Instagram Account shared an image yesterday that read who framed roger stone. Our partners over at cnbc reported on sunday, quote, stone deleted the only image in that multiimage post that included who framed roger stone language shortly after cnbc emailed his lawyer to ask about it. With us former u. S. Attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. Counselor, do you think in your view he has already violated the gag order . You know, his lawyers are hanging on a very slender thread here. Saying its okay he violated the gag order because it was before it was imposed when they didnt even both door mention to the judge it was going on. Even if it was just that its pretty close. But the fact that mueller points to the online publication which precedes or is actually within the period that the gag order goes into effect i think is very damaging, and at some point judge Berman Jackson is going to have to tell roger stone she means what she says, and he cant continue to take steps that would prejudice a jury pool. I dont think weve had mention of roger rabbit on this broadcast yet, but that whole meme of who framed roger stone if that gets proven and if the judge doesnt like that hes in the hooscal, correct . I think thats one of the options. Theres a pragmatic approach here. And the judge should give him enough rope to hang himself but keep from putting him in jail because he needs to prepare for trial with his lawyer. And although many people might find that to be unsatisfying its the smart long game to let him prepare for trial, to continue to restrict him, perhaps give him one more shot at. He has literally begged and invited this judge to put him in custody and she may very well go ahead and do it. An attorney from michael raised the possibility of a pardon with attorneys for the conversations among those parties are now being probed by congressional investigators. Dismissed the idea of a pardon at thatime but at least one of them, rudy giuliani, left open the possibility that mr. Cohen could be granted one in the future. This is lot like the situation with jim comey, where his supporters said he was entitled to fire jim comey if he wanted to. And the argument for criminality there is sure he can fire him but he cant do it for an improper person. If he does to obstruct justice its a crime. Same issue going on here. Sure, the president can issue pardons if he wishes to. But if hes doing it to obstruct justice its still a crime. So thats whats at the heart of this article from the wall street journal. Earlier tonight on ari melbers newscast it was show and tell. I want to show what one of Michael Cohens attorneys brought on show that we had not seen before. The first check, by the way, which was referenced in mr. Cohens testimony was a 70,000 check, which i have with me today. A copy of it i have with me today. A 70,000 check written on the donald j. Trump revokable trust, which is also an interesting sidelight that the check was written on a revokable trust that was theoretically begun so that the president would have some separation between his life as a politician and his life as a civil servant. Was that provided in evidence at the hearing . No, we didnt have it at the time. So first of all this is just since we all saw the hearing on wednesday. His next hearing behind closed doors is this coming wednesday. Decipher that for a lay audience. What did all that just mean . So the saving grace for this president may be hes involved in so much misconduct if not outright criminality that people cant keep track of it. Because what we just saw was a check that was issued to mr. Cohen based on a promise the president made to cohen while they were in the oval office in the white house that cohen would be reimbursed for his role in Campaign Finance violations. The coverup up checks that were paid to keep the American People from revolting, frankly. To keep trumps base from voting against him in the days following the access hollywood tape. This is i dont know any other way to say it other than were seeing criminal acts committed in the white house. If you were on the feds team, and you had after all this investigation, only that check, could you get a conviction on that . Only that check is very difficult, right, because everything that matters is context, his proof of intent, proof of acts, and proof the act occurred at the time. I think its discouraging to say any one piece of evidence alone is dispositive. We sometimes talk about smoking guns. This is pretty good piece of evidence. Coming up, the gop got a lengthy often bizarre reminder of their argument their candidate is apt to make during the upcoming president ial campaign. Well have that for you. Everything that happened after cleaners . Try mr. Clean magic eraser. Just add water, squeeze, and erase. Its perfect for cleaning stubborn bathroom soap scum. Even hard water stains. For impossible bathroom messes. Try mr. Clean magic eraser. danny s voice of course you donte because you didnt . Your job isnt doing hard work. Its making them do hard work. And getting paid for it. vo snap and sort your expenses to save over 4,600 at tax time. Quickbooks. Backing you. I actually started quite a while ago in cpac, i came here probably made my first real political speech and i enjoyed it so much that i came back for a second one, then a third. Then i said, what the hell, lets run for president , right . This is portion of our broadcast where we warn the folks watching us on the west coast where its 8 00 p. M. Local time if you have little kiddies around, theyre about to hear the president use some foul language. Anyway, thats how President Trump started his free wheeling twohour long speech at the annual gathering of the conservative Political Action committee. He actually started with this. Snarky, left leaning twitter inthudsiests couldnt wait to say that our flag had just experienced a me too moment. The speech was his longest ever. It was to a crowd the president deems friendly. This gives you some idea of how it went. Then that fake cnn and others say, he asked russia to go get the emails, horrible. Id like to watch television, darling. They dont respect us. They think were stupido. I have one of the great inventions in history, its called tivo. And i was in the white house and i was lonely. Lets go to iraq. 7 trillion and we have to fly in with no lights. The attorney general says im going to recuse mel. Were all in love together. The senators there for 20 years, white hair. See i dont have white hair. So i met generals i didnt know. General one, general two, general three. I said what the your name, sir, my name is raisin. What the hell kind of a name, i said raisin like the fruit . This was now greater than the election of andrew jackson. No, people say that. Im not saying it. And all of a sudden theyre trying to take you out with bullshit, okay . There you have it. The speech was also loaded with false claims and outright lies. The Washington Post reports today and we quote, trumps performance at cpac is emblematic of his version of the truth dure his presidency. Unwarranted boasting outright falsehoods. His speech helped push march 3rd to his fourth biggest day for false or misleading claims totaling 104. With us tonight to talk all about it phil rucker, white house chief for the Washington Post. And laura lopez, National Political report for politico. To our guests, welcome to you both. Other than the fact that the president has no white hair, phil, did any one thing there stand out to you . Well, brian, i think its the totality of that speech, the two plus hours. It was a tour de force. You know, what some people saw as crazy and unhinged and perhaps a reason to invoke the 25th amendment some of his supporters saw as authentic and raw. And, you know, the reason why theyve created this cultive personality around donald trump. And that audience of cpac members were clapping and cheering and sitting there as he went from one point to another to another and was there so long he started to get sweaty. Laura, a lot of people saw it as an obvious attempt to change the narrative coming off a very bad week for him. Talk about that, and talk about if you can how cpac has changed just in the course of the trump presidency. Right, as phil mentioned this was an unwieldy two hour speech, and trump gave his voters exactly what they wanted. He gave the red meat to his base. He talked about Hillary Clinton, the electoral college, and also as we heard used profanity in his tirade against the mueller probe. He was very much in a corner. Again, this just highlights the trumps take over of the Republican Party and how republicans were unphased by cohens testimony and that they were excite today hear from the president when he came to cpac. And they were unphased also him coming off of his north korea summit trip and it being a failure and him being unable to reach a deal there. And also at the same time praising the dictator, kim jongun. Phil, the president went further than that. Apparently talks with north korea fell apart because of Michael Cohen. So americans feeling less safe tonight in our Nuclear World can blame Michael Cohen. The president actually tweeted about that, phil. And said there it is may have contributed to the walk. Meaning we got up and walked out. Never done when a president is over sees. President trump told the reporters including me, i was there in hanoi, that he did so because he couldnt meet the economic sanctions demands that north korea had for the united states. But, you know, its not its not Michael Cohens fault or the democratic lawmakers fault that this summit failed. It failed because theres is such a big gulf between the u. S. And north korea on this issue of denuclearization and President Trump has not put in the spade work, the diplomatic work to really lay a foundation for a deal. He thought he could jet halfway around the world and sort of sit facetoface with kim jongun and because of the love letters theyve sent back and forth and because of the personal chemistry that they had developed, they could suddenly create a deal. But International Diplomacy doesnt quite work that way. Laura, were you at all surprised in the coverage of saturdays speech by the president . Yes, our phones all lit up. I was following phil ruckers kind of minute by minute account of what had happened. Our phones all blew up with the fact that our president had used a swearword twice in the public domain. But it was kind of, well, hes at it again. There was a notion that he had said a whole lot of things over two hours. Yes, thats right. I mean, again, i think that what phil said at the top was key, saying that its the totality of all this. It was two hours, which i think was the longest speech hes ever given. But again this was true to form for trump, and really should be no surprise he was using profanity. We know hes been wanting to do that in his conversations with officials in the white house. Phil and laura have agreed to stay with us. We have to sneak in a break. And coming up another democrat announces he would like very much to be the next president of the united states. A look at the two Characteristics National democrats are saying they dont want in the partys next nominee when we come back. S next nominee when we come back. These folks, they dont have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. Com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the Amazing Services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again what ive learned is that this is such an enormous lift we have to make a commitment this we have to use our Capital First andfore mostfighting Climate Change, and im the only candidate committed to that. Thats the former governor of the state of washington. Hes one of the latest democrats to announce plans to run for president. He joins former Governor John Hickenlooper from colorado as the most recent candidates. At least 12 democrats have launched bids for president. And you could fill a bust for those launching a bid for president. Thankfully back with us are phil rucker and laura lopez. So phil, now im told jeff murkily and theres a reason were listing only those democrats not running. What do hickenlooper, hensley and merkle, what underserved markets do they fill . I think more importantly theyre going to be advocates for particular issues. In the case of ensly as you saw in his interview a couple of hours ago on this network with Rachel Maddow he cares hugely on Climate Change. Hickenlooper is running on his economic record and other aspects in colorado. And in the senate. Back in 2016 he was the only u. S. Senator to endorse Bernie Sanders in the democratic primary. What it tells us is that the Democratic Party sees a huge laura, lets get closer to that. I have nbc news wall street journal polling which may not be great news for Bernie Sanders and to a lesser extent, joe biden. Both of those gentlemen would turn0 years old during their theoretical first term in office. This is kind of the bottom of the poll. Another way to put this is, democrats were asked what two would you be the least psyched about and theyre saying, well, somebody whos over 75 and somebody who is a socialist. So you got Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist who would turn 80 in the white house, polling like this is not friendly to him. No. And that polling is exactly why there are so Many Democrats in this field. I mean, its why we see the likes of merkley jumping in and why we may see beto orourke from texas jump in, and why theres Pete Buttigieg from south bend jumped in. Because these democrats see an opening and they feel as though this is a completely wideopen contest. Just to go back to inslee and to hickenlooper, everyone is trying to take different tracks here thinking that it will be the path that can be most successful in the primary, inslee is making Climate Change his number one prior to try to really different himself. Theres also merkley and sanders that are staunch progressives in the ring. And then hicken loop are is going the route of klobuchar from minnesota hoping that moderates will come out and support them and that can be their way to victory. Laura, you just pronounced buttigieg on National Television where very few journalists would boldly go. You have an invitation back on our broadcast whenever you would like as does phil rucker. Our thanks to our guests these last two segments for sorting this all out. We appreciate it. Coming up, there was a warning right before there was terrible destruction. In the south tonight they are mourning 23 souls who were alive and well at the start of the day. More on that when we come back. We lost children, mothers, fathers, neighbors, and friends. To know alabama is to know that we are a tightknit community of people. And today each of us mourns the loss of life of our fellow alabamians. Last thing before we go tonight. Please spare a moment to think about these folks. The full impact of those tornadoes in the southeast yesterday afternoon still being assessed tonight largely because theres so much and it covered such a broad yet scattered area. At least 23 People Killed by the powerful storms that tore through parts of alabama, george georgia and south carolina. Dozens still unaccounted for. Among the hardest hit in lee county, alabama, smith station, where our own tommy lightener spoke with a survivor whose bar was destroyed. Reporter not a lot of your building left standing. You told me you believed this was a sign. If you look up here, theres a cross left. Getting a little bit emotional, i know this is stuff. Tell me the significance of that, david. We hung that up there when we built the place. We all stood around in here and our preacher buddy blessed the place. Its still up there and im lucky to be here. It was terrible. Yesterday it didnt really affect me like it did this morning. Itll be all right. Im lucky. According to the National Weather service, the track of one of yesterdays storms, which was dubbed the monster tornado in this system was 24 miles long. Wind speeds reached an estimated 170 miles per hour. This was the deadliest tornado outbreak in this country since the storm that hit moore, oklahoma, in 2013. That killed 24 people. Forecasters were able to offer ample warning that the atmosphere over that region was setting up in a dangerous way, warning each locality, however, in the path of a storm is a different story, especially a storm that scraped the earth as it went and left a scar two dozen miles long. Of course, now begins the season of these storms. The approach of spring brings great extremes, and by the month of may the combination of warm air from the south, cold air off the rockies, makes the great plains a dangerous and unpredictable place to be. They sure are hurting tonight in the american south. That is our broadcast for this monday night as we start off a new week. Thank you so much for being here with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. House democrats launch a sweeping new investigation into President Trump. The Judiciary Committee is now working to obtain information from 81 individuals and entities with ties to the president. Plus Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell confirm theres enough votes in the senate to block President Trumps Emergency Declaration to build a border wall. And a lawyer for former trump fixer Michael Cohen reveals a new check signed in 2017 by key trump figures that is allegedly linked to the hush money. Payments to stormy daniels