Major payday. While his female costar got less than 1,000. And overnight, facebook makes a huge change affecting billions of users. What youll see more and less of on your news feed. Good morning, america. Great to have paula here. We hope all of you are well at home. We want to get right to that growing firestorm ignited by vulgar comments by President Trump about allowing immigrants from africa and haiti into america. Abc news policy is not to repeat the profanity which, of course, trump critics have called racist and unamerican. We will talk more about that later. First, our chief White House Correspondent jon karl is tracking all the latest fallout from washington. Good morning, jon. Reporter good morning, george. Just as the president seemed to be making progress on a bipartisan immigration deal, he blew it all up with a vulgar remark that struck many as blatantly racist. The president s vulgar slur came during an Oval Office Meeting with congressional leaders trying to hammer out an immigration deal. Multiple sources tell abc news the president grew angry when he was told the developing deal would include protections for immigrants from african countries and haiti. Why are we having people from blank countries coming here, the president demanded. Referring to haiti and african countries with a profane slur adding, why do we need more haitians . The president suggested the u. S. Should bring in more immigrants from countries like norway. At first the white house didnt deny the president said those words, and now the president is tweeting, quote, never said anything derogatory about haitians other than haiti is obviously a very poor and troubled country. I have a wonderful relationship with haitians. But news of the president s crude assault drew bipartisan condemnation. This remark by the president of the United States smacks of blatant racism. His comments do not represent america. Listen, this does not help at all. Its a distraction. Reporter republican congresswoman mia love, the first haitianamerican elected to congress, called on the president to apologize, saying his comments are, quote, unkind, divisive, elitist and fly in the face of values. Jeb bush tweets, i hope todays comments were discuss a crass and flippant mistake and do not reflect racism. On the very first day of his campaign, he insulted mexicans. Theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime, theyre rapists. And some, i assume, are good people. Reporter in august he responded to violence at the neonazi rally in charlottesville by saying there were fine people both among the protesters and the white supremacists. You also had people that were very fine people on both sides. Reporter the president s latest outburst came after he brought democrats and republicans together for a constructive meeting at the white house on tuesday, urging a deal to provide legal status to the socalled d. R. E. A. M. Ers, undocumented immigrants brought to the u. S. As children. This should be a bipartisan bill. This should be a bill of love. Truly it should be a bill of love. And we can do that. Reporter before yesterdays outburst it appeared that a deal was imminent. Now thats in doubt. There were Seven Members of congress at yesterdays meeting. The only one to comment was the lone democrat, dick durbin. The president started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. And now the president is up and tweeting and saying, quote, the u. S. Would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly. And now another tweet where he seems to be denying what he said, saying the language used by me at the daca meeting was tough but what was really tough was the outlandish proposal made. Unclear if thats a full denial, george. Weve asked for clarification. People ive talked to on capitol hill much more pessimistic. Stand by. Well bring in cecilia vega our senior White House Correspondent and matt dowd, our political analyst. We should say, we reached out to everyone in that meeting yesterday. No one agreed to come on the show. But, cecilia, first things first, weve seen the bipartisan reaction here in the United States. Democrats and republicans condemning the president. Alarm overseas. Reporter and this is what the world woke up to, george. Just, you know, the south african Ruling National Congress called this extremely offensive. Take a look at what the former president of haiti said. He said, quote, totally unacceptable. Uncalled for. Moreover, it shows a lack of respect and ignorance never seen before in the recent history of the u. S. By any president. Enough is enough. But george, we got to go back to what is being said here at home. Blatantly racist, vulgar, unamerican. That is the resounding response to this from both parties right now. Yeah, both parties right now and i have to say as we said were not reporting the word right now. I think thats probably a mistake. I dont think its right to censor the president or sugarcoat the racist sentiment revealed by how he used that word in the meeting. And matt, i want to bring that to you right now. This has alarmed so many overseas right now and here in the United States. Youre seeing the kind of reaction we saw in the charlottesville comments by the president. Well, it should alarm everybody. George, everybody in this conversation today, most of the people at the studio today and almost everybody on the other side of this camera is a son or daughter of an immigrant. Im the greatgreatgrandson of patrick dowd, an immigrant who came here with no money who, those same words were used about his country. They were used about greeks. They were used about latinos. They were used about asians. The same thing. This is a pointed remark and the only thing i can think of, only one other guy like donald trump who came from queens, and its archie bunker. And the only difference between the two of them is donald trump is president , has more money, but probably less class than archy bunker. Jon karl, meantime, at this moment there are some in the white house, they havent denied that the president used the word and some even arguing that this may help him. Yeah, privately absolutely no denial whatsoever that the president said exactly this and i got to tell you, george, its striking, a lack of concern by those that we have spoken to at the white house about this. They think its just much ado about nothing. And this is the way normal people talk. Its just hes not politically correct. Obviously, thats not the reaction youre seeing in the real world. Of course, cecilia, this is not the first time weve heard comments like the this from the president. Reporter no, day one, mexicans are rapists. Lets not forget this is a president who was among the staunchest supporters of the idea that president obama was not born in this country. The list goes on and on. Pocahontas. My africanamerican. He has called himself the least racist person. But jon hits the nail on the head. This is a conversation that was had behind closed doors in private company. I think a lot of people would be embarrassed if Something Like this came out for the world to see. For the most part here, the sources were all talking to seem completely unfazed by this. And perhaps, are a little happy that the media, they would say is hyperventilating over a controversy like this one. Matt, unlike with charlottesville, it appears we are not likely to get a clarification from the president. Where does it go next . Well, thats a good question. I mean as i have a said before, george, donald trump is like wile e. Coyote. Every time you think hell have success, he blows himself up in the middle of this. I would suggest to donald trump the next time he goes back to his home in new york, he take the boat ride over to the statue of liberty and read the words on the statue of liberty which says, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretch wretched refuse of your shores. Donald trump ought to read those words and take them to heart. On another subject the president making a lot of news late night tweet saying hes canceled his trip to great britain. Reporter yeah, he was supposed to be going next month. This is extraordinary. Hes saying hes not going because he is upset that the new u. S. Embassy in london was too expensive. More than 1 billion. And that the United States did not get enough money selling the old one. So he said he was being invited to cut the ribbon and he will not do that. Okay, jon karl. Thanks very much. Thanks, cecilia and matt. Paula . Thanks, george. White a remarkable time in politics right now. We do want to move to that winter storm thats on the move. It caused those devastating mudslides in california. It is wreaking havoc on the midwest and now its roaring east with snow, heavy rain and strong winds. And ginger, the dangerous weather spans from texas to maine. Yes, and schools already closed this morning from memphis area up through indianapolis thanks to that pink on the radar or due to that, not thanks to it but look at this. The stretching wind advisories to the flood watches and warnings from connecticut and massachusetts back to texas and alabama. Overnight, weather whiteout. Howling winds at 40 Miles Per Hour. Plus, snow and freezing rain. The cold sucks, thats for sure. Reporter this car in missouri losing traction on the interstate swerving across i29 with a fresh two to four inches of snow, doing a full 180 before coming to rest on the shoulder. Its real slippery out there. Reporter vehicles forced off the roads like this car in north dakota. Accidents in chippewa county, wisconsin, and for those still on the streets, a sea of white. Their only view as visibility dropped to near zero. Some needing an extra assist to get going. So what makes this tough is its not just snow from parts of midmichigan say back through ft. Wayne and into mississippi, but its snow plus ice. When that freezing rain comes down and hits the subfreezing air or surfaces and it freezes on contact, and thats when you get that accumulating ice. And thats what were concerned about even going into tonight. New york city, heavy rain and thunderstorms. Raleigh could hear thunder overnight tonight. The ice then moves east and if you have any travel plans from parts of eastern pennsylvania through interior new england, especially the higher elevations, very icy conditions on your saturday if youre driving around, guys. All right, ginger, we should Pay Attention to any warnings. Thank you very much. Michael. Out west, rescue crews are still trying to find the missing in those mudslides. Take a look. Our local station kabc capturing startling before and after images of a neighborhood in montecito, california, and our Senior National correspondent matt gutman is there. And matt, almost the entire city is facing a mandatory Evacuation Order this morning . Reporter thats right, michael. That Evacuation Order affects about 10,000 people here. One of the reasons for that is there are hazards everywhere. We found this one just this morning. I want you to listen for a second. Thats a ruptured gas pipe. Its been spewing gas for four days. What this mudslide has done is reshape the landscape here. Check out those cars embedded in those lit rate much of montecito is unhin habitable. Theres no water, gas, electricity. This is an affluent community and they have been sinking neck deep into pools so what they want to do is clear all the residents out so they can continue to look for the five people still missing here. Matt, so many hidden dangers out there. What can you tell us about the continued search and rescue efforts . Reporter well, technically it is still a search and rescue effort. But really it has become one of recovery. Nobody has been plucked from the debris here since tuesday. I want to give you a sense of the power of these mudslides, obliterating these cars, balling them into husks of metal. When you look at these homes, all thats left of that one is a chimney. You can understand why people are told they wont be able to come back here for two weeks and it could take months to dig out. Michael. All right, thank you, matt. Made those cars look like nothing. So much devastation. We want to turn now to the political scandal thats making national headlines. The governor of missouri who is considered to be a rising star in the republican party, hes under investigation over an extramarital affair and allegations that he threatened his mistress. Abcs david wright is here with the story and, david, the governor has admitted to this affair. But hes denying any criminal wrongdoing. Reporter thats right. Good morning, paula. The city of st. Louis is now vowing to thoroughly investigate these allegations which the local prosecutor calls very troubling. The young governor insists he did nothing illegal. But thats not necessarily the relevant benchmark. Missouri governor Eric Greitens, a former navy s. E. A. L. And a rising republican star, finds himself in the middle of a sex scandal. But most importantly im a very proud husband and father. Reporter accused of infidelity and blackmail, the married father of two now admits he cheated on his wife prior to announcing his run for governor. That admission comes after audio was released this week of a woman describing a sexual encounter she said she had with the politician in 2015. In the audio, recorded secretly by her now exhusband, she claims greitens tied her up and blindfolded her. Quote, i saw a flash through the blindfold and he said, youre never going to mention my name, otherwise, there will be pictures of me everywhere. Governor greitens admits the affair but denies ever taking the picture or trying to blackmail anyone. Adding, any allegation of violence is completely false. It never happened. Its a human tragedy here, all of this stuff, and it makes me sad and sick to hear about these kind of things. Reporter greitens is so ambitious that even before he became americas second youngest governor, he had already set his sights higher, buying the internet domain Eric Greitens for president. Com. The choice in this election could not be more clear. Reporter he became a republican just in time to ride the trump train into the governors mansion. Hes passionate about physical fitness and ran on family values. Playing up his image as a family man. But this sex scandal now overshadows all that. Violence, blackmail, all of that stuff, you know, thats a soap opera. We dont need any more soap operas in this Missouri Legislature or missouri government. Reporter already, the sex scandal has cost greitens some political donations and a whole lot of political capital. Many of the National Republicans who have been helping him get this far are now backing away. He was a real rising star. He was. Okay. Thanks, david. Now we are going to go to a major announcement from facebook. If you didnt notice, they overhauled your news feed overnight. Theyre trying to enhance connections with family and friends and our chief business and Technology CorrespondentRebecca Jarvis is here. Billions of users will be affected by these changes. What is facebook actually trying to do . Its happening right now. So facebook is going old school. They are going back to their roots. It is flashback friday but flashback friday 24 7 because they want you to see your friends and family in your feed. So theyre focusing on the baby pictures, the puppy pics, the posts about your major life events. And theyre pushing aside some of that content that we spend more time passively scrolling through in the feed, like articles and viral videos from businesses and brands, michael. Trying to condense everything to make it more interesting. And more personal to people. Why are they doing this now . Well, facebook has reached and faced a lot of criticism recently around what theyre doing, around what consuming facebook does to us as people. And theyve been making these changes. And mark zuckerberg, the founder and ceo of facebook, even talked about this early in the year saying we need to be better for society. And we need to think about how were doing things in society. They believe based on their research that interacting with your friends and family and having these personal interactions on facebook can actually be good for your health. Good for your health. Good for your health, facebook. But were not talking about what could happen. These things are already happening though. They are in process so people waking up this morning we looked at a number of our facebook feeds. Youre going to see more of that personalized content. The stuff like friends and family, baby pictures and see more of that right away but its also something that will be a work in progress over time. Still throws me off to see my mom on facebook and my friends are like your mom commented to me on facebook. Im like, mom, stop. Stop. I like that. I dont. Thank you. Want to go to ginger right now. Its like spring today here in new york but the cold is coming. I was going to say you see gloveless folks out in times square. But you see this image from arkansas where schools are closed up to michigan and you know the cold is coming. Yes, the slips and the turns coming on the highways there all from this. So near 60 degrees in new york city, 65 d. C. , columbia, south carolina, 72 but watch that bitter cold settle in by sunday morning. These are actual air temperatures. Your local weather, 30 seconds away. Good friday morning. Im lisa argen. Waking up to a lot of fog out there. Its dense in spots. It will lift by later on this morning. Then we have a sunny day today, mild through the weekend. Tomorrow into sunday, temperatures climb even more, and then well be looking at some wet weather returning next week. A high today of 60 in oakland, san mateo 61, palo alto, 62 in napa. The accuweather sevenday forecast, more sunshine over the weekend, and then by the holiday, coming up here that abc news exclusive. Tonya hardings mother now tells her side of the story. What shes saying about her daughters claims of abuse and how shes portrayed in i, tonya. And fighting the flu. How fast could the virus spread in your childs classroom and what your kids can do to lower the risk of getting sick. Sroom and what your kids can do to lower the risk of getting sick. We rbut we are not victims. Ack. We are survivors. We are survivors. We are survivors. And now we take brilinta. For people whove been hospitalized for a heart attack. We take brilinta with a baby aspirin. No more than one hundred