A lawyer for President Trumps former National Security adviser, john bolton, hinting he could reveal neverbeforeheard details about ukraine. As the impeachment investigation prepares for the public hearings next week, were live at the white house. All that, plus vaping breakthrough. The cdc announces it may have pinpointed what is causing all those vapingrelated illnesses and dozens of deaths. Health scare. A wheel of fortune taping stopped after pat sajak was rushed to the hospital for an emergency. And rocking around the Christmas Tree. The spruce arriving here at Rockefeller Center this morning for the whole world to enjoy. And you wont believe how it got its start. Today, saturday, november 9th, 2019. From nbc news, this is today, with sheinelle jones, Peter Alexander and dylan dreyer, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Hello and welcome to today. Thanks for joining us on this saturday morning. Its cold outside. With the tree coming to town, a little cheer coming here. Its time. Its one of those thing wheres time is just flying. We have a lot of people on the plaza. Get the kids up and watch this. Youre going to hear the backstory of this tree. It started as a tiny tree. Yeah. Shes all grown up. Lets get right to our top story this morning. It is cold outside. The unseasonable cold, sweeping the country. People waking up this morning to bitterly cold temperatures, well below average. Its about to get worse. Dave price from our station here in new york, wnbc, is in for dylan. Its cold. And we have 31 Million People under freeze watches and warnings this morning. Stretching into texas and all the way up through the five boroughs of new york city. And 700 Million People feeling belowaverage temperatures this morning. Why is that . Lets take a look. We have an amplified jet stream. Thats allowing cold, arctic air to sink on through, providing freezing and subfreezing temperatures for much of the country this morning. Typically, when you see a setup like this, one side of the country is very cold, the other side of the country, warmer than normal. Mid70s as we head out to colorado. And in the 90s in southern california. But for many people waking up to windchills in the 20s this morning, boston at 20. 21 in erie, pennsylvania. 21 in chicago, as well. Now, as we widen the picture, high temperatures today, probably below average by anywhere to 10 to 15 degrees. A chilly day. Now, this is isnt the only blast of cold air were going to get in the shortterm. Sunday night, another blast is going to come on in from the Northern Rockies into monday. Thats going to begin to overspread the area. And look at the departures from norms. 25 to 30 degrees. Cold air invades the northeast through the midweek. Theres a lot to talk about weatherwise. Thats a quick look at the weather. Well send it back to you. Sheinelle . Pete peter . Well get the rest of the fro forecast in a few minutes. Former new york city mayor and businessman Michael Bloomberg filing paperwork to get on the alabama primary. Why alabama . Its the first state with a milimile i filing deadline. Alley batali joins us this morning. Good morning, peter. Four years ago, Michael Bloomberg flirted with running for president. Now, for the first time, hes put his name on a president ial ball ballot. But is this just a tease . Or is he ready to run . This morning, democrats may have a new opponent, new york businessman and former new york city mayor, Michael Bloomberg. Just before the deadline, his aides filed paperwork to be on the alabama ballot. Hes not officially in the race yet, but he wants to keep his options open. His opponents, unfazed. I have no problem with him getting in the race. Reporter bloomberg has been a longtime critic of President Trump. Trump says he wants to run the nation like hes running his business . God help us. Im a new yorker and i know a con when i see one. Reporter since then, hes been using his millions to help democrats win elections. And now, bloomberg wants to ensure President Trump is defeated in 2020. His spokesman telling nbc news, mike is increasingly concerned the current field of candidates is not wellpositioned to do that. Bloomberg reportedly has expressed doubts about fellow modera moderate, joe biden, and whether biden could beat President Trump. Last polls i looked at, im far ahead. Reporter if bloomberg decides to enter the race, he does not plan to compete in the early contests, iowa and New Hampshire. He would be getting a late start. President trump took a shot at bloomberg on friday. Theres nobody i would like to run against than little michael. Blood alcohmberg is betting iowa and New Hampshire wont matter. Strategists are questioning if he can wait that long and succeed. Peter . A lot of new energy on the democratic side. Ali, thank you very much. Now, to the impeachment ip quirery and what could be damaging testimony for the white house. Bolton has information about ukraine that hasnt been revealed yet. Hans nichols at the white house. Good morning. Reporter public hearings. Now, yesterday, the president said he didnt want that. Thats after weeks of arguing that this private testimony should be made public. It all comes ahead of legal uncertainty on who will be compelled to testify. After returning to washington late friday, the president bracing for potentially big bombshells in the impeachment inquiry. Former National Security adviser, john bolton, may be ready to share relevant meetings and conversations on ukraine that have not been discussed publicly, according to his lawyer, making him a possible star witness. His appearance could shed some light on the newlyreleased testimony of his former deputy, fiona hill, who says he referred to rudy giuliani, the president s personal attorney, as a hand grenade in the ukraine discussions. Hill testified that bolton was so concerned about a july 10th conversation between ukrainian officials and gordon sondland, the ambassador to the european union, he left early. Also in the meeting, alexander vindman, looking alarmed, acc d according to hill. In his testimony, there was no doubt that trump had invoked a quid pro quo for the you yukrai to investigate the bidens. To get the white house meeting, they had to deliver the investigation. Meanwhile, the president doubling down. I had a second call with the president , which i believe came before this one. Now, they all want that one. And if they want it, ill give it to him. Reporter insisting his actions were appropriate. Why would you ask the president of ukraine to do something you werent willing to ask your own Justice Department . Were looking for corruption. Were giving hundreds of millions of dollars and looking for corruption. Reporter as the president ignores a cease and desist letter from the initial whistleblowers lawyer. The whistleblower is a disgrace to our country. A disgrace. And the whistleblower, because of that, should be revealed. Hans, with increased security on the president in d. C. This week, he will be watching lsu alabama, the college football. This comes after attending the world series and the mma fight. Is this a strategy to reach voters, if you will . Reporter partly. The white house is looking for ways to get around traditional blocs and reach voters that arent necessarily engaged. If he receives a mixed reaction from the crowd, they know his appearance in a stadium or ballpark, will reverberate beyond the immediate audience. This game has an added benefit because its lsu and alabama. Theres an important Gubernatorial Election in louisiana on saturday. Its being billed, guys, as the game of the century. But peter and i are west coast guys. We know without a pac10 or pac12 team, it cant be the game of the century. Ill take it. I cant respond to that. Makes a good point. Aaron blake is a senior political reporter at the washington post. He joins us now. Aaron, good morning. Nice to see you. Good morning. Lets talk impeachment if we can. This last week was the first time that americans saw the transcripts of the closeddoor dp depositions, for these key witnesses, including a current National Security official, who had no doubt he was on the call. He had no doubt that the president was engaged in a quid pro quo. As we look ahead next week for the first time, were going to have public hearings. What are you looking forward to seeing over the course of next week . What will you be watching for . Well, it will begin with a slog, rather than a bang. On wednesday, we have two successive hearings that will drag this out for a very long time in one day. First, with bill taylor, the top diplomat in ukraine. Then, george kent, a Top State Department employee. I think theyre going to set the stage here and talk about reservations that existed in a Diplomatic Community and in the Top State Department officials, about exactly what was happening here. Specifically when it came to military aid and the withholding of a white house meeting. On friday, youre going to see yovanovitch, the former ukraine ambassador, talk about how she was treated. I think from there, when we really get into the meat of this, is when vindman and hill may testify. These are the people who are in the meeting on july 10th. They can paint a much more vivid picture of this. And beyond that, of course, theres the big question of whether john bolton testifies here. Let me ask you about john bolt bolton, if i can, quickly. There was a titillating clue about what bolton may know. His lawyer writing to lawmakers saying he has knowledge about many relevant meetings and conversations related to ukraine, that lawmakers do not know about. Whats the likelihood that we do hear from john bolton . Well, the problem is, that a court case can really get dragged out. And democrats they say dont want to participate in a draggedout process going through the courts. They want john bolton to come in now. I do think its curious that john boltons lawyer inserted that line in this letter. It suggests to me that hes a motivated witness. Maybe he can be persuaded to testify under the right circumstances. Maybe hes holding out right now because theres a little bit of gamesmanship going on and he wants to make it look like hes not walking in there with an ax to grind against the president. Lets talk 2020 politics if we can. A lot of people talking about the potential entrance of Michael Bloomberg into this race. A longtime aide told me he will make a final decision, quote, soon. For the moment, we wait. But what would be the impact of Bloomberg Joining the democratic field . I think the prevailing theory, especially for bloomberg, is maybe joe biden is a little bit weak. Maybe Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are taking over the party a little too much. Maybe theres a concern about pop populis m. Im not sure having a billionaire from new york city waltz into the race at the end, and talk about how there should be a wealth tax, the strongest signal. That may be something that accrues to Elizabeth Warrens ben g benefit. And bloomberg is skipping the first fostates. Thats a strategy when you cant compete in the states. Thats a questionable theory going forward. It could be a heck of a showdown if it were to happen. Aaron blake, thanks very much. Thank you. Lets turn to what could be a major breakthrough in fighting the vaping epidemic. Researchers may have a clue as to whats causing the 2,000 vapingrelated illnesses and 39 deaths. Molly hunter is here to explain. Reporter sheinelle, good morning. This could answer a lot of questions about how to fight the epidemic. For the first time, the cdc has identified exactly what in ecigarettes is making people so sick. And now President Trump wants to take action. This morning, a breakthrough. Researchers with the cdc tested 29 patients with vaping illnesses from 10 different states. All had vitamin eacetate in their fluids. Its found in cosmetics and some vaping products, especially thc off of the street. Vitamin e acetate, that can trigger inflammation in the lung, which is like a fire starting in the lung thats difficult to extinguish. Reporter 22yearold Elijah Mcclure spent 12 days on a ventilator fighting for his life and is now sharing the products he used. I was using two forms of vaping. Theyre not hard to find if youre looking for one. Reporter he started with nicotine at age 15 and also used offmarket cartridges with cht. Thc the active ingredient in cannabis. If i can help people not to get to that state, i will speak every day, every minute i can. Reporter the most popular e ecig flavors with teens, mint and menthol. On friday, President Trump vowed action. We have to take care of our kids, most importantly. Were going to have an age limit of 21 or so. Reporter now, new evidence this week shows the number of teenagers who vape has doubled in the past two years. Public Health Officials support that 21yearold age limit and banning flavors mint and menthol. But the president is under pressure from the vaping industry, saying that kind of ban will cost jobs. Natalie azar is a medical contributor. Good morning to you. How big a breakthrough is this . Pretty big. Since september, we heard from new york state Health Officials. They at that point linked this vitamin e acetate, and severe lung disease. That was in the product. This is the first time that the Health Officials, the cdc, has demonstrated the vitamin e acetate in the fluid of the lungs of the people who suffered this injury. You know, interesting because we were talking about whether this will make vaping any safer. Right. But the reality is, you have counterfeit products, too. People are wondering, is it that or all products . This builds on an accumulating body of evidence that the concern is most likely related to thccontaining products. Particularly the ones that are found, what we call, informally. On the black market, online, through friends, et cetera. Thats how so many people get it, in reality. It is. As opposed to a thc dispensary or a vaping shop. In a parallel report yesterday, they found those individuals who sustained the severest lung injury were eighttimes more likely to have obtained thc from a counterfeit source. The cdc says, we recommend not smoking any vaping product that contain thc. Its worthwhile or worth noting to double down on the recommendation to use extreme caution in vaping a thc product that is purchased online, via you know, just a casual friend or acquaintance, as opposed to a licensed facility. Looking at the map. 39 deaths. Yeah. Its unbelievable at this point. By the way, its important to note that while this is certainly, this vitamin e acetate, is a compelling explanation or culprit, the cdc continues to investigate the aerosol. They are not ruling out other contaminants that could be causing some of these cases. Thank you for coming in this morning. Lets get another check of weather from dave. All right. We talked about the cold weather in the northeast. Lets focus on other areas of the country. We have Thunder Showers in south florida. Warmer conditions stretching from the rockies to the mid mississippi valley, where temperatures will be 10 to 15 degrees above the norm. As we head out to the west, we are still waiting for rain to come to areas of california. It doesnt look like that is going to happen in the next week or so. In the pacific northwest, were looking at showers beginning to push on through. But not a major organized storm system. And eventually, well see our second dose of bitter cold air work its way from canada, spreading all the way through the upper midwest and the Northern Plains states and eventually winding up in the northeast again. But for folks in the northeast, stretching all the way down to the gulf states, we are waking up this morning to extreme cold temperatures. And before next week ends, we could see several hundred 100 or more records drop. We will take a look at the full weather picture in a little while. Once again, were waking up to some of that dense fog, especially up to the north bay. Look at petaluma. 48 degrees right now, mill valley, 46. San francisco, 51 degrees. Expect to keep the areas of fog at least through the first half of the morning. Todays microclimate highs will be climbing into the mid 70s down to the south bay. 73 for san jose. 78 for concord. Martinez, 74. San francisco, 64. And thats a quick look at your weather. Dave, thank you very much. Still to come, an arrest in connection with the missing stepdaughter of a ufc fighter. And questions this morning about why the suspect was free in the first place. Plus, why this man jumped on to the hood of a moving car. Were back after this. Were back on this saturday morning, with the weekly download. The brutal temperatures and the impeachment inquiry, was a week that began that with an attack on families in mexico. A deadly assault south of the border. Four of my grandchildren are burnt and shot up. Three mothers and six children, ruthlessly gunned down in the desert of northern mexico. One of their vehicles was torched, with babies trapped inside. The attackers believed to be members of a local drug cartel. A shocking hate crime in milwaukee. He is an american citizen and he was attacked, brutally. Barbarically. A naturalized citizen from peru, badly burned after a man threw battery acid in his face. Prosecutors charged Clifton Blackwell for the hate crime. He has not entered a plea. Thats not right. Were going to make sure were going to stand behind every listing, every host. Airbnb announcing big charges, pledging to verify all 7 Million Properties and owners on its platform in the next year. This after a news investigation uncovered deception and fraud.