Headlined by clinton independent counsel ken starr and famed attorney Allen Dershowitz. Well talk live to another member of the president s team. Mystery virus. New concerns this morning about an unknown illness prompting new screening at u. S. Airports on people coming to the country from china. What the cdc is saying about the deadly disease. All that plus controversial video. Eminem facing backlash after his latest release depicting himself as the las vegas shooter. Scary collapse. A member of the wiggles falls down after having a medical episode during a benefit concert for australia fire relief. How hes doing this morning. And take down, an mma fighter using his training to stop an alleged thief at a drugstore. Today, saturday, january 18th, 2020. Announcer from nbc news this is today with peter alexander, Kristen Welker and dylan dreyer live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And welcome to today and thank you for joining us on this saturday morning. Good to be with you. And what about that mma fighter . If youre the thief i think youre thinking you picked the wrong drugstore. Well have the latest on that story and of course the big storm this morning. Absolutely. Unbelievable video. But to our big story, the massive storm making for a weekend mess for more than 100 Million People. A nightmare on the highways and at the airports with snow and bitterly cold temperatures settling in across most of the country. Nbcs ron mott with the latest. Hows it looking there . Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. While the snow is finally out of here were just a bit above freezing right now so well deal with a bit of rain for the rest of the morning. You can still see some ice clinging to the trees. This is Michigan Avenue here. Just in minnesota alone authorities there say they worked more than 170 traffic accidents since this time yesterday. A travel nightmare unfolding across the country on the roads. A stranded driver barely escapes an out of control pickup in iowa. Fortunately no serious injuries there. White out conditions and zero visibility around fargo, north dakota, sent trucks jackknifing off the road friday. A fire truck rolled onto its side in lee summit, missouri. Fierce winds adding to the misery of having to push out a minnesota snowdrift. Ice encrusted vehicles in kansas, ice causing problems in nebraska, too. Just getting over the bridge was, you know, a hassle. I saw cars spinning out. Reporter more trouble in the air. Chicagos ohare shutdown for hours. This delta plane slid off an icy taxi way in kansas city, missouri, no injuries. But 90 Flights Canceled, more than 1,700 Flights Canceled nationwide. That means a lot of titans fans have to hit the road if they want to make it to the championship game. Snow coming in so fast in the sierra nevadas it may have setoff the avalanche that killed one skier and severely injured another in california. Winter weather advisories up for millions of people in the northeast today. And arctic air as much as 20 degrees below normal settling in across the middle of the country. Theres going to be a lot more coming. Reporter all right, so the snow was really the first punch and a powerful one two combination. Its about to get a whole lot colder here. Parts of this region are going to see high temperatures in the Single Digits tomorrow and monday with below zero wind chills even further south than that. Ron mott in the middle of a wintery mix. Thank you for that from chicago. Not looking pleasant there. Junessa webb is in the studio with the latest on the storms path. We have this massive storm system thats been coast to coast. The Higher Elevations from the upper midwest to the cleveland area dealing with that widespread snow. On the beck edge of this storm system, though, were seeing a fluctuation of our temperatures so that icing from indianapolis to columbus as well. Man, a look at these alerts. They stretch from Northern New England to the upper midwest with still blizzard warnings in place across the dakotas with 112 Million People impacted. The Important Note here is the timing. This will change over to the rain for the ohio valley. Its across the northeast, major hub like new york city, the boston area, the exact timing 2 to 6 00. This could be potentially our first snowfall for manhattan. Behind the front is cooler air and still that lake enhanced snow. For the poconos up to 6 to 8 inches, lesser accumulation from michigan all the way to washington, d. C. So if youre traveling today on roadways, onair lines were seeing chicago, cleveland, new york, heavy delays throughout your afternoon. Potentially widespread from baltimore to charlotte as well you could see minor delays as well. Lets turn now to our other big story, the impeachment of donald trump. Overnight House Democrats turned over new evidence on Rudy Giuliani indicted associate lev parnas, this as the president s defense team was unveiled featuring clinton independent counsel ken starr and famed lawyer Allen Dershowitz. In a moment well speak to former Florida Attorney general pam bondi who was also part of the president s defense team. But lets begin this morning with Nbcs Kelly Odonnell live in palm beach traveling with the president. Good morning, kelly. Reporter good morning, kristen. The president chose a legal team that mixes government and personal lawyers, old friends and famous figures who have often provided commentary on cable tv. And this new release of Text Messages and documents is linked to trump ally activities in ukraine and possibly could become trial evidence. Overnight adding fuel to the impeachment fire. New evidence from House Democrats reveals messages between an aide to the Top Republican on the Intelligence Committee and Rudy Giuliani associate lev parnas. At issue military aid to ukraine and setting up interviews with former ukrainian prosecutors. The newly released documents also appear to show possible surveillance of marie yovanovitch, the former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine. Also in the document dump, pictures of parnas with the president , his children and his closest advisers. All part of a new trove of materials sent with the articles of impeachment to the senate. Before the trial begins, a weekend get away in florida. But the cloud of impeachment hovers even over celebrations. This is an exciting day in the white house. Friday footballs College Champs brought him a jersey. While the president wore his troubles on his sleeve. A lot of president s, some good, some not so good. But youve got a good one now. Even though theyre trying to impeach the son of a [ bleep ]. Can you believe them . Reporter tuesday the president will put his newest legal team on the field including a head turning flashback to the clinton impeachment. Ken starr who then served as independent counsel, quite a change of heart after this 1999 donald trump interview. I think ken starr is a lunatic. I really think that ken starr is a disaster. Reporter adding starr puzzles some democrats. Thats their choice but its a weird choice. Reporter next harvards Allen Dershowitz who insisted friday he will only play a small part. I am not a fullfledged member of his legal team in the sense that i have a limited role. I will appear one day in the senate. Reporter there to make a constitutional argument against impeachment and removal. Abuse of power even if proved is not an impeachable offense. Reporter starr and dershowitz bring fame and unwanted baggage. Both previously defended convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And dershowitz was seen last year by an epstein accuser who claimed dershowitz defamed her and was a participant in sex trafficking. Dershowitz denies those allegations. The president s Senate Defense will be led by white House CounselPat Cipollone and personal attorney jay sekulow with additional lawyers and advisers including former Florida Attorney general pam bondi and another former independent counsel robert ray. And with the inclusion of ken starr on the team a buzz worthy comment from monica lunesky who of course was investigated and threatened with prosecution by starr back in the 90s. She tweeted this is definitely are you kidding me kind of a day with an expletive added. Former Florida Attorney general pam bondi will be part of the president s defense team at the impeachment trial. Pam, good morning. Good morning. Well ask you about the new documents, that new evidence in a moment. But first take us inside the president s defense strategy, how youre preparing for tuesday, whats happening behind the scenes right now. Well, i can tell you, you know, Pat Cipollone, its been a joy to work with him side by side. Hes one of the brightest lawyers ive ever met, jay sekulow. This team has been ready to go, the white House Counsel working with jay. Weve been ready. We were ready last month, were ready now and well be ready next week. Because impeaching a president is one of the most monument s things you can do in this country. And the way this got started our Founding Fathers have never, ever anticipated this would happen the way it did. No one could that it would happen without a full vote of the house of representatives, the way it started in the house and so on. Pam, we do want to ask you about this new evidence kelly just reported on overnight. So now we have multiple pictures of President Trump with lev parnas, his family members with lev parnas, his top associates, youre even in one of the photos. It also includes an electronic calendar entry of a breakfast meeting with President Trump just days before parnas was arrested. So does the president still maintain he does not know who lev parnas is . Well, i havent spoken to the president this morning, but i can tell you as a former Florida Attorney general in a state with almost 22 Million People we took pictures constantly, constantly with thousands of people. And clearly lev parnas liked to take pictures with a lot of people. I remember him being at a republican a. G. Event. He showed up at events pretty much everywhere where republicans were, elected republicans, prominent republicans. And i dont know what that matters, what theyre planning on doing with it, but, you know, were going to stick to the facts and stick to the law in this case. And this is just Something Else the democrats continue to do. They just drop things at the last minute. They keep dropping pictures. And what does this have to do this is all about one phone call President Trump had with president zelensky, the transcript was released. And they have not charged ive got to be really clear. They have not charged the president with any crime, not one. And to be clear they say its more than just a single phone call. They say its part of a larger Pressure Campaign. Let me ask you about some of the key figures on the president s defense team, Allan Dershowitz also ken starr who spearheaded the impeachment back in 1999. This is what donald trump said about starr then. I think ken starr is a lunatic. I really think ken starr is a disaster. So why would the president pick someone to be on his defense team he thinkicizes is lunatic and disaster . Well, clearly he does not think so now. Ken starr knows what hes doing. He has experience in this field. Professor dershowitz is a constitutional expert. And, you know, i think weve got a great team, a great mix of people. And again, led by Pat Cipollone who knows this case inside and out and jay sekulow and the rest of our team. And we are ready to go. In the house yeah, go ahead, kristen. We do want to get all this in and were running out of time. Democrats, you know, are demanding witnesses testify as a part of the senate trial. The president says he did nothing wrong, so why is he blocking these witnesses from testifying . Why wouldnt he welcome that . Im glad you asked that question. In the house what happened in the house . I mean, it was as a career prosecutor the president did not have the right to counsel, he did not have the right to present witnesses. Why not have them now . He could not cross examine witnesses. They could have called these witnesses in the house had they chose, meaning schiff and nadler. They did not choose to be clear the white house blocked a lot of these individuals including john bolton from testifying, right . Hold on, let me tell you they both had look at charlie cupperman, and what did he say lets litigate this. Im not saying im going to testify, im not saying i am. Let the courts decide. Thats our longstanding system of justice. Any lawyer knows that. So when he did that, what did they do . They withdrew the subpoena. I mean the game playing has just been going on and on. And now that were at the senate this is the time all these witnesses should have been heard in the house of representatives. But let me keep going on that. If they want to call a witness, if they want to force a witness to be called, you know, thats going to be discussed but you have a separation of powers. Think about this with executive power if you want to try to call someone with National Security issues at risk, that could jeopardize any future president pam, let me ask you the broader question, though. Dont the American People deserve to know all of the facts . They did and they did in the house of representatives when they held secret hearings and they werent secret. They held secret hearings republicans were in the room obviously. Some republicans. They wouldnt let members of congress in. They werent allowed to talk. Look at what happened in the house. How could you call that fair when in the constitutional part they got to call this is the president being accused yet they called three witnesses and only let the president call one. And now one of their witnesses has even come back and said the way nancy pelosi was holding the articles of impeachment just wasnt fair. She called him a clear and present danger and yet refused to send them over to the senate. So weve never seen anything like this in our history and we want to get this resolved in a fair way. The process begins on tuesday and america will be watching. We thank you for joining us and sharing your views. Turning now to virginia where a state of emergency remains in effect this weekend ahead of a gun rights rally planned for monday. On friday more men connected to an alleged Violent Extremist Group were arrested with Officials Saying the men had malicious plans for that rally. Nbcs jeff bennett has more. Reporter tensions are running high in virginia after the arrests friday of four more suspected neo nazis connected to what authorities call a white supremacist group. Earlier this week the fbi arrested three other members of that same group which calls itself the base who Officials Say obtained weapons and discussed tending a progun rally in virginia next week. Governor Ralph Northam declaring a statement of emergency. We have received credible intelligence from our Law Enforcement agencies that there are groups with malicious plans. Reporter the Virginia Supreme Court now upholding the governors decision to temporarily ban firearms on capitol grounds. One of the organizers of mondays rally pushing back. Weve done this since 2003, every year always peaceful, not one incident. Reporter President Trump weighed in tweeting your Second Amendment is under very serious attack in the great commonwealth of virginia. Protesters are expected to voice their opposition to tougher gun laws being proposed in the state including requiring background checks on all firearms purchases, limiting handgun purchases to one per month and letting localities ban guns from certain events and government buildings. Ahead of the rally northam says he fears a repeat of the deadly protests in charlottesville three years ago. Civil rights activist Heather Heyer killed while peacefully protesting neonazis. Heathers mother things the governor made the right move. I really think id rather see him take stricter measures than not enough. We dont need another charlottesville. So good to be here. We have this storm system and everybodys thinking about and it will continue to make its way across the midwest and northeast. Well to the south rainy conditions and another storm system temperatures at least for the first half of the morning. Look right now in san jose, 39 degrees. Napa, 37. A very cool 39 in santa cruz. As we head into the afternoon, well get a mix of sun and clouds and temperatures will be in the mid and upper 50s. Oakland, 55. San francisco, 54. Santa rosa, 58 and your bay area skies will be mainly cloudy across the coastline. Expect dry conditions through the weekend. And thats your latest forecast. A busy one for you. Thank you for that. And still to come scandal just two weeks before the grammies. The head of the recording were back on a saturday morning now with the weekly download, our look back at the week that was. A dangerous scene in the skies was just one of