Lindseys out, whos in . The u. S. Skiers set to shine in sochi today, wednesday, january 8th, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today. With matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, welcome to today on a wednesday morning, 7 00 a. M. On the west coast. Im matt lauer. And im Natalie Morales along with al roker and willie geist. Thats right. Savannah is on assignment this morning. A stunning update to a story we have been following for several years now. We will fill you in on that in a little while. It will. Meanwhile, did you notice something on the shot as we swept in from outside. Yeah. No trees. Goodbye, old friend. The Rockefeller Christmas tree gone overnight. I saw some guys during the blistering cold yesterday starting to dismantle it. Feel sorry for them. Yeah, the tree, hijacked the car and somewhere down in florida. Exactly. Obviously the cold is our top story again today. The death toll from the weather has climbed to 21 people, 13 in illinois and indiana. More than 11,000 flights have also been canceled nationwide in the past four days. And record lows have been set in at least 50 major cities, including a wide section of the south. Lets start this morning with nbcs dylan dreyer braving the cold once again in minneapolis. Dylan, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. We are here at minnehaha falls, but it is no joke. Look at how they are completely frozen over. Naturally just shut off. Its about 9 degrees below zero here in minneapolis, a little bit warmer than yesterday. But it is still seriously cold from the midwest to the northeast and even down into the south. Its one more brutal morning. Its crazy. Reporter arctic temperatures taking their toll everywhere you look. Its a big sheet of ice out there. Everybodys slipping and sliding. Reporter for drivers, black ice is a big issue. Watch as a minnesota motorist loses control of her suv and plunges off a bridge. Luckily, her injuries were not serious. Once you hit black ice, youre gone. Reporter dangerous highway conditions are posing problems for truckers from indiana to upstate new york. I wish i could see the front of my hood. Any time you get the wind across the road with this fine snow, cuts your Visibility Like that. Its still a nightmare for many air travelers with thousands of cancellations nationwide. Wait and hope i get out of here. Reporter this polar air shattered records in Southern States not accustomed to the cold in georgia and florida, folks brought out their heavy jackets and scarves. Mother nature, thats the only one you can blame. This photograph captures mother natures grip on the city of chicago. Heres hell, michigan, also frozen over. No matter the temperature, work goes on. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor polar vortex can stop this mail carrier in buffalo. Ive never delivered in a storm like this. Reporter were all waiting to catch a break from mother nature. Now, it is going to take a serious spring thaw to get these falls flowing again. But in the meantime, hey, we could get above freezing by the time we get to friday. Natalie . Thanks for highlighting the mail carrier working outside in these conditions. Meanwhile, blinding snow and strong winds have led officials to shut down major highways in western new york and more snow is expected today. We have nbcs katy tur on the banks of lake oswego. Good morning, natalie, were out here on lake ontario and we have good news and bad news. The waves on the sea wall are freezing. You can see how they have frozen over as they have gone over the wall. The good news is it is 12 degrees and the wind chill is negative 5. Winds coming at 20 miles an hour. That is a lot better than yesterday. The bad news is it is up to the north of us in watertown and adams. They are in the heavy bands of lakeeffect snow. Dumping 2 inches is hour there for the past day and a half. You can imagine how much snow they are getting. It will continue throughout the day. They are not able to measure how much snow they are getting because it is too windy. They cannot tell how much accumulation is actually on the ground. We tried to make it up there, unfortunately, we were not able to. The roads are impassible. We hit a whiteout and we were forced to turn around. I have to say, a lot better than it was yesterday. It is a gorgeous day in oswego. Al. Katy, you stop by thes oswe sub shop and get the al roker sub. Really . Yes. Lets see what we have. The wind chill warning and advisory map stretched from the dakotas to new england and florida. It is a lot smaller. The wind chills are finally starting to die down. Cleveland was 15 degrees warmer than yesterday. Tulsa, 33. You move in new york city, we are at 12. That is 7 degrees warmer than it was. It is colder today, in boston, as it was this time yesterday. The good news is the polar vortex is finally retreating. It will head north and drag all the cold air with it. For today, the highs in cleveland, 32. 41 in cincinnati. New york city up to 34. Atlanta, 47. For friday, it is warming up more. 50 in atlanta. Chicago, 34. Cleveland, 39. 43 in new york city. By saturday, we get more of a dip in the jet stream. We have a warmer flow of air. New york city up to 56. 64 in d. C. Are atlanta, 63. Chicago, 36. Cincinnati, a warmer 41 degrees. Guys, coming up, we will explain the polar vortex. It is not something we made up to hype this. We will explain what that means in a little bit. We believe you. The white house is sounding back off the book. We have Andrea Mitchell in a new book. Good morning. Former defense secretary bob gates sounds off the president former security team. In published reports authenticated from nbc news from people who have read the book. I asked secretary robert gates to continue as secretary of defense. And im pleased hes accepted. President obamas decision to keep george bushs defense secretary, a republican has blown back on the white house. In bob gates new memoir duty, the former cia and pentagon chief calls the Obama White House the most centralized and controlling since the nixon years. While gates credits president obamas decisions on afghanistan, he said the president didnt believe in his own strategy. Recalling after one meeting, i thought the president doesnt trust his commander, cant stand karzai, doesnt believe in his own strategy and doesnt consider the war to be his. For him, its all about getting out. A far cry from what gates told matt in 2009 on today. I think were all on the same page. Gates is particularly tough on Vice President biden writing i think hes been wrong on nearly every major Foreign Policy and National Security issue over the past four decades. And gates blasts tom donilon and his team. For aggressive and suspicious and condescending decisions. While gates praises former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, he said he was dismayed to hear she told the president she opposed the surge in 2007 because she was running against mr. Obama. In turn, gates says the president opposed for political reasons. I think some of his comments about obama and about secretary clinton will persist, theyll come back, theyll be used by republicans. But gates gave no hint of his resentment when he left the cabinet two years ago and president obama awarded him the medal of freedom, the nations highest civilian honor. Im deeply honored and moved. Stunned by the criticism, the white house has issued a statement saying the president deeply appreciates bob Gates Service and welcomes differences of view but disagrees with the assessment, especially of biden whom the white house hailed as one of the leading statesmen of his time. All right, Andrea Mitchell, thank you. David axelrod is a former Senior Adviser to president obama. Hes now an msnbc senior political analyst. Hi, david, good morning. Hey, matt. How are you . Im good. Thank you. On the positive side, robert gates says president obamas decision to okay the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden was one of the most courageous decisions hed seen in the white house. But as we just heard, other comments in the book are pretty critical. While you were witnessing secretary gates, did you get a sense he was a guy who was stewing over what he was witnessing . That he was disgruntled in any way . Absolutely not. In fact, i was surprised when i saw the stories yesterday because i always felt they had a good working relationship. He always indicated he had a good working relationship with the president. And the stories themselves are confusing, matt. Because in it, not only did he praise himself for the bin laden raid, he thought he made the right decisions on afghanistan. He was a clear and decisive decision maker. So his big complaint is that he thinks he wasnt sufficiently personally in his heart committed enough to his own strategy. I dont think thats true. That quote on the strategy, he talks about being in a meeting. And he says as i sat there, i thought the president doesnt trust his commander. Doesnt believe in his own strategy and doesnt consider it his war. For him, its all about getting out. You say thats not a Fair Assessment . Well, first, i wasnt in that meeting, but i will tell you this, when we arrived at the white house, there was no afghanistan strategy, it was a mess. And what the president did was focus the mission, limit the mission, focus on al qaeda and dismantling al qaeda, which is why we went to afghanistan in the first place and developing a plan to unwind the war and bring our troops home. He was assiduous about trying to keep the military on that plan. I dont know what transpired at that meeting, but he was very committed to the mission and very appreciative to the great work our young men and women did in executing that mission. I think this story about the iraq surge back in 2007 under damning. Now, im paraphrasing here, but to suggest in this book that both secretary clinton or Hillary Clinton and barack obama oppose that surge purely for political and not strategic reasons, i think is going to upset a lot of people. He says this in the book. To hear the two of them making these admissions and in front of me was as surprising as it was dismaying. I think a lot of americans will be dismayed by that, too, david. Well, they may well be if they accept this. But barack obama opposed the war in iraq from 2002 forward from its inception. He was against it before, it was authorized by the United States senate. And he certainly wasnt going to double down on a strategy that he didnt believe in. I know because i was involved with him at that time. There was never a political discussion about this because his position on it was absolutely clear. And even in the book, based on the quotes that were in the newspapers, secretary gates said he made some vague suggestion that perhaps that was his position. I want to go back. That was not his position. I want to go back to the credibility on these issues. A guy that served both republicans and democrats, a loyal defense secretary, sacrificed for his country. Could you look me in the eye and tell me you thought he would be a guy that would make things up just to sell a book . Look, im not suggesting he made things up to sell a book. But i think the language that he used for example, on that iraq story was vague and it was subjective. And it was there was no declaration on the president s part he made that decision on a political basis. And it wouldnt have been. As i said, he was opposed to the war in iraq from the beginning for all the reasons that bob gates suggests in his book that he opposed the war in iraq because he thought it was a deflection from afghanistan where al qaeda was situated and where we needed to focus our efforts. Im not going to go to his motives. Im not going to impugn him in any way. But im telling you, from my experience, and i was rather close to the president when he was in the United States senate. Right. That was absolutely not the case. All right. David axelrod, important perspective this morning, thank you very much. We want to mention that former defense secretary gates will be here monday on today for his first live interview on this new memoir. Well, meanwhile, willie has the story of a tragic accident out in colorado. This is a sad story, guys. A freestyle skier has been killed in an avalanche. Close could to the colorado resort founded by his grandfather. Its the fifth avalanche related death in the past two weeks. We are devastated because we have lost one of our children. And it could have been any one of our children. The community in vail, colorado is coping with a heartbreaking loss this morning. The death of 24yearold tony seibert killed in an avalanche on tuesday while skiing with Three Friends in the back country regions of the mountains. Tony was a typical kid that grew up in vail. Seibert is a grandson of peter seibert. Is that an avalanche . Reporter two weeks ago, vails back country was the scene of this avalanche. Skiers triggered a wave of snow that swallowed edwin lamair, the 22yearold, burying everything but his head and left arm. He was rescued by his younger brother jack. We were lucky they were able to find me and my head was above before it got dark. Tributes to seibert were posted on social media. Despite the dangers of skiing in areas at risk for avalanches, friends and family say seibert and the others were experienced skiers most at home on the slopes. They love the mountain. They love the life. They love the freedom this lifestyle provides them. Meanwhile, the fight over Unemployment Benefits is on to the next round. The senate voted narrowly on tuesday to move forward on a temporary extension of Unemployment Benefits to over 1 million jobless americans. Six republican senators joined with all democrats present in the 6037 vote. Now the bill cannot be filibustered and formal debate will begin on the legislation. Five people have been arrested in the connection of a murder of miss venezuela monica spear. Spear and her husband were killed on a stretch of highway in venezuela. Their 5yearold daughter surviv survived, but shot in the leg. People turned out in north korea today to watch the basketball game organized by dennis rodman. Rodman called it a Birthday Gift for kim jongun. Before the game, he sang happy birthday to the north korean leader. Features a group of former nba players. Rodman sees the game as a way, he says, to bridge the gap between north korea and the United States. You heard of water pipes bursting in the house when it gets too cold . How about 30,000 feet in the air . That happened on tuesday night on the American Airlines flight. Water from the lavatory burst and soaking passengers. The plane was forced to make an Emergency Landing in arkansas. Florida state seminole football fans celebrating the big win on monday night in the bcs. Hopefully they are not wearing this tshirt. It was on sale on florida sta states web site. It reads, tigers, 34, noles, 31. Giving auburn the victory. Oh, my. The shirt was sold for a brief period on tuesday before they pulled it. If you have one of those, you have a collectors item. That is an ebay sale. A shirt from the parallel universe. I think auburn fans are buying that tshirt. Mr. Roker . Lets look at what is going on for our friends out west and we have a system making its way in to the pacific northwest. Seattle, a little on the wet side as the sun comes up. Showers, rainy, cool, temperatures up into the low 50s as the day progresses. Out west, chillier. They will be looking at light snow in boise, idaho. Salt lake with snow. 63. Warmer in los angeles. 73. It is warmer in los angeles than phoenix. Denver is partly cloudy skies and 76 degrees. The cold air is finally starting to relinquish its grip. Icy conditions making their way from oklahoma on into arkansas. Look for wet weather throughout eastern texas. A gorgeous day through the chilly side. Atlanta today, the high is about 43 degrees. We wil good morning. Happy wednesday. Taking a live look at San Francisco, as al referred to as friscoing they dont like that here. We are going to end up in the 60s. A good looking day shaping up for most of the day bear. It will be colder than yesterday fluz degrees. Youll need your jacket, not just today, for tomorrow as well. Tomorrow morning, showers on the radar. Ill detail that in a few moments. Ts your l weather. All right. Al, thanks very much. Lets go to the orange room and check on carson. Good morning, guys. Was i the only one that woke up today thinking its going to be a little warmer . You were. The cold spells over. Not so much. The cold still dominates the news, social media. Weve been collecting and many of your creative ways of hanging in the cold. Did you see this one . Did you see this one, guys . The trampoline. Right on the trampoline. And there you go. Very cool. There you have it. Jenna bailey wrote in, used food coloring and gave us this frozen rainbow. Heres tonya noticed the fedex guy making deliveries wearing shorts. Thats crazy. You can keep those coming at todaycold. Coming up today, more of our favorites. And Michelle Kosinski, a live shot of michelle somewhere in the world where normally its very cold. Apparently not this morning because shes skinny dipping. Shell have advice for the ice later on. My goodness. Very cool place. Maybe its closed. Youll have to wait and see. Michelle, thank you very much. Coming up, with lindsey vonn not competing, who are the members of team usa . And kraft announces a possible velveeta shortage. A real crisis or cheesy pr stunt . A real crisis or cheesy pr stunt . Bu in touch with the ground im on the hunt, im after you smell like i sound, im lost in a crowd and im hungry like the wolf straddle the line, in discord and rhyme [ female announcer ] only yoplait light and yoplait greek 100 are endorsed by Weight Watchers. It is so good when youre on the hunt for something delicious. Find yoplait original and light yogurt cups on sale now at your local safeway store. Coming up, savannahs going to reveal a very special assignment this morning. 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