across the south. we saw deaths in mississippi, in arkansas, louisiana and texas. some strong winds and funnel clouds spotted there. in fact, january is already above average for tornado activity, richard. as we all know, there is still a week to go. back to you. >> as a former georgia yan, we do not expect to see that in a january month. of course, so much will be happening in the next day or two. nbc will be touching base with you. thank you so much for the latest on that. now we will move back to our pulse questions of the day and politics. our first question for you, log on and there you can participate by selecting your response. and a reminder you can vote as often as you like throughout today's show. you can use whatever digital device you like. we will start at the white house where a number of president trump's aids have been sworn, including his son-in-law.