History. Massive storm. The heaviest rain in years set to drench california. This morning, fears of major flooding in los angeles and san diego. And farther up the coast, the first big test of the repairs to that damaged dam. All systems go. Elon musks spacex team preparing for a key launch. A mission after a mix of spectacular successes and failures that could be a major step towards sending humans to mars. On the launch pad with exclusive behindthescen behindthescenes. And marks manifesto. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg outlines running his company. Why it is fueling rumors that his eye is really set on running the country. Today friday, february 17th, 2017. From nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today. A friday morning. Happy to have Hallie Jackson back in, while savannah is on maternity leave. Were coming off yet another boring day in washington. Nothing to talk about. Ready to hop on a train back down to d. C. We have a lot to talk about. It is our top story. Theres some fresh turmoil at the white house overnight. A former navy officer has rejected the president s offer to be his National Security adviser. But a lot of the talk is focused on the fireworks from mr. Trumps first solo News Conference. Our Political Team standing by. Weve got it all covered. Lets start at the white house, with nbcs Peter Alexander. Peter, good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning to you. For anybody that followed President Trumps campaign, that News Conference felt familiar, vintage trump. Basically the verbal equivalent of a tweet storm. And the morning, the president s team is hunting for a National Security adviser, as president tweets Keith Kellogg temporarily in that post is very much in play as well as three others. This morning the white house is again looking for a National Security adviser after the president s pick to replace Michael Flynn, vice admiral Robert Harward, declined the president s offer. It comes after a freewheeling, at times, jawdropping, 77minute News Conference. Theres never been a presidency thats done so much in such a short period of time. Reporter after announcing his second pick for labor secretary, alexander acosta, he defiantly dismissed the flood of controversies and crises engulfing his white house. This administration is running like a finetuned machine. Reporter while defending his decision to fire Michael Flynn for misleading the Vice President the thing is, he didnt tell our Vice President properly. Reporter mr. Trump aired a laundry list of grievances. The tone is such hatred. Im really not a bad person, by the way. Reporter blaming leaks. The leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake. Reporter blaming the media. Tomorrow, they will say, donald trump rants and raves at the press. Im not ranting and raving. Im just telling you. Youre dishonest people. Reporter and blaming his predecessor. I inherited a mess. Its a mess. Reporter in fact, by comparison, president obama ip hearted a far bigger mess in 2009, facing the deepest recession since the great depression. The Unemployment Rate then, nearly 8 . Upon President Trumps arrival, 4. 8 . Another fact check on this false claim about the president s electoral victory. I guess it was the Biggest Electoral College win since ronald reagan. You said you had the biggest electoral margin since ronald reagan, with 304, 306. Electoral votes. In fact, president obama got 365 in 2008. Im talking about republican. President obama, 332, and george h. W. Bush 426 when he won as president. Why should Americans Trust you. When youre misremitting information. I was given that information. I was just given. We had a very big margin. Why should Americans Trust you when you accuse the information they receive of being fake when youre providing information thats not accurate . I was given that information. Ive seen that information around. But it was a very substantial victory. Do you agree with that . Youre the president. Reporter more than three months after his upset victory, the president still appears obsessed with his past opponent. Does anybody really think that Hillary Clinton would be tougher on russia than donald trump . Nobody mentions that hillary received the questions to the debates. Can you imagine if i received the questions . It would be the electric chair. Reporter President Trump raising eyebrows again and again, reprimanding a reporter who asked about the administrations plans to combat antisemitism. Quiet, quiet, quiet. He lied about he was going to get up and ask a very straight, simple question. You know, welcome to the world of the media. Reporter an americas drug epidemic. Drugs are becoming cheaper than candy bars. Reporter and when questioned about his agenda for inner cities and whether he would meet with the congressional black caucus. Well, i would. Ill tell you what. Do you want to set up the meeting . Do you want to set up the meeting . Are they friends of yours. Set up the meeting. Reporter the white house later thought better of it and reached out to the congressional black caucus. No word if a meeting has been set up. Aides tell me yesterday morning the president , over the objections of some of his top advisers, singlehandedly called for that News Conference, even announced it himself, putting the defense of his presidency in the hands of the person he trusts the most, himself. And early this morning, this tweet from the president , praising his own performance. He writes, thank you for all of the nice statements on the press conference yesterday. Rush limbaugh said one of the greatest ever. Fake media not happy. President trump is headed to flin for the weekend. Matt . Peter alexander at the white house. Thank you, peter. During the News Conference, President Trump tried to distance himself from concerns of his campaigns contacts with russia. But this morning, new questions are coming up about former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Nbcs Kristen Welker has that part of the story. Hi, kristen. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. Thats right. Russia is back in the spotlight this morning, with a new report about former National Security adviser Michael Flynn and what he told the fbi. It was yet another flashpoint in yesterdays extraordinary News Conference. This morning, new scrutiny of ousted National Security adviser, Michael Flynn. The Washington Post citing current and former u. S. Officials reporting in an fbi interview flynn denied discussing sanctions with russias ambassador. A senior Law Enforcement official tells nbc news the agents felt his answers were ambiguous but did not conclude that he was lying to them. At this point, agents are not contemplating charges. In his marathon press conference, President Trump repeatedly coming under fire for flynn. Did you direct Michael Flynn to discus sanctions with the Russian Ambassador prior to to your inauguration . No, i didnt. No, i didnt. No, i didnt. Reporter would you have fired him if the information hadnt leaked out . I fired him because of what he said to mike pence. I didnt direct him. But i wouldnt direct him, thats his job. Reporter the president deflecting broader questions about russia. Its all fake news. All fake news. Reporter and pushing back on reports members of his Campaign Staff had contact with russian intelligence. Youre not aware of contacts during the course of the election . How many times do i have to answer this question . Can you just answer it . I know you have to get up and ask a question, so important. Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with russia, to the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with does. Reporter the president didnt say whether he would react to a recent naval provocation after a russian spy ship was spotted just 30 miles off of the east coast. The greatest thing i could do is shoot that ship thats 30 miles offshore right out of the water. Everyone in this country is going to say, its so great. Thats not great. Thats not great. Reporter the president also defending his business practices. I own nothing in russia. I have no loans in russia. I dont have any deals in russia. Reporter for now, its impossible to know if that statement is true. The president never released his tax returns. At a 2008 real estate conference, mr. Trumps son, donald trump jr. , said russians make up a pretty disproportionate about of a lot of our assets. E turbo news also quoted him as saying we see a lot of money pouring in from russia. During a 2013 interview about bringing the Miss Universe pageant to russia, mr. Trump says he has a relationship with russian president vladimir putin. I do have a relationship. And i can tell you that hes very interested in what were doing here today. I spoke to putin twice. He called me on the election. I told you this. And he called me on the inauguration. Reporter while russia was a major focus of thursdays News Conference, the president also set his sights on leaks. Were going to find the leakers. They will pay a big price for leaking. Reporter the president still, to some extent, blaming flynns ouster on the intelligence leaks. Yesterday he said he has directed the Justice Department to look into the leaks while he also launches his own independent ve view. Hallie . Matt . Kristen, thank you very much. Lets bring in ari melber. He has todays factcheck. As we just heard, there was a lot of talk about russia at the press conference. One particular comment from the president caught your eye. What did he say . Whats the fact . Thats right. As we look at the press conference, a lot of different claims. The president repeatedly turned the conversation back to Hillary Clinton. I think for russia, Hillary Clinton gave them 20 of our uranium. That claim, we can tell you, is false. Clinton did not give away any american uranium. Russias Energy Agency bought a company that produces uranium. And that was during the period that she was secretary of state. Another subject, the leaks. Leaks versus fake news thing. One comment about leaks caught your attention. Give me the fact and the fiction. Theres different types of leaks. The president slamming disclosures of his private calls with heads of state. I called, as you know, mexico. It was a very confidential, classified call. But i called mexico. In calling mexico, i figured i spoke to the president of mexico, had a good call. All of a sudden, its out there for the world to see. Its supposed to be secret. How does the press get this information that is classified . How do they do it . You know why . Because its an inlegal process, and the press should be ashamed of themselves. We can tell you it is true that this is a crime. Federal employees who leak that material to the public can get up to ten years in prison. It is not illegal for the press to cover these kind of stories once theyre out. More broadly, experts say the president does have a point. Leaks of secret diplomacy can complicate and even undermine u. S. Foreign policy planning. While a lot of the leaks have basically shown us that can be interesting, accurate information, they also could be criminal and damaging to u. S. Foreign policy. Thank you. Were joined by steve kornacki, mark halperin. Lots to talk about, gentlemen. We want to get to the News Conference and dissect that. Lets back it. Theres some key, issuerelated topics to discuss. We dont have a National Security adviser. Bob harward rejecting that offer. What does it say about the state of the administration that somebody with broad bipartisan appeal wouldnt come work for the white house and where do they go from here . Anyone who works in National Security would see that as a dream job. The president and his team had the good sense to look for someone that qualified. There was worry when the president was running if he won hed had trouble recruiting people. He did some good recruiting early on. Yesterdays press conference, some of the other chaos, despite what the president says, is going to discourage people from taking jobs, particularly in National Security. Thats causing alarm on capitol hill. We have some other news, steve, after the ninth Circuit Court of appeals upheld the freeze on the president s travel ban, he said, see you in court, meaning the Supreme Court. Yesterday we learn, no. A new executive order is coming this tuesday, that will be written in a way to avoid some of the hurdles. Would you agree this is a bit of pragmatism on the part of the white house . And the white house is looking into the administration saying, we want to have something tangible to show for the first few weeks, the first few months. If you get an executive order that meets the courts requirements, you have something tangible. If you go to the Supreme Court and you lose there, youve taken three steps back. Theres political wins and losses and this president and white house are acutely attuned to that. But theres also the substance. He needs to get things done, particularly on the core promises like immigration. Lets talk about the press conference. The first photograph in the New York Times lead story sums it up well. I want to get your reaction. President trump, peter alulded to this, smaring from some crises, moves his surrogates aside on thursday and assigned the rescue to the monthold presidency, to the only spokesman he trusts, himself. What do you think . That is a lead we saw wrip multiple times during the president ial campaign. Every time there was turmoil or crisis, donald trump said, they cant handle it, i can. And the one big difference than the campaign and now. He views the campaign as the ultimate vindication. Because he won in the end. But what mark was talking about. When youre president , when you have to fill out an administration, you need big people for key roles likes harward for National Security adviser, they can say no to you. Its not just about winning the election. Its about getting something done as president. Thats a complication. This was 77 minutes. It was perhapsed planned around that time from the reporting were getting. Take us behind the scenes in that session, when President Trump came to his advisers and said, i want to talk to the media. Was from there a strategy . Let trump be trump, has worked for him his whole life, including getting to the white house. Some people in the white house now are saying let trump be trump does not work in every instance. He wanted to go out and be his own spokesperson because he looks around him and says, i can fix problems myself. Hes done it his whole career. This is a different set of circumstances, though. Is he listening to those people who say, maybe we shouldnt let trump be trump . Hes not. This like all president s, he thinks he knows best, and there are some people around him who are giving advice, and he is largely ignoring it. He ignored it yesterday because he believes that when things go bad, he can fix it better than anyone who works for him. President obama had the same attitude which is, i got here. I did this. I know what works best. The tension point will come if it backfires. And the biggest thing about the press conference was, he was himself, no one on capitol hill that i talked to liked the way he performed. Really quickly. If you were listening to that press conference in moscow or beijing or pyongyang or tehran, what do you take away from that . Ive never seen an american president talk like this before. And im not sure what the message is. Which is not good. Uncertainty is not good. People around him are saying go back to talking about jobs, the economy, and security, not picking fights with people in the media, not picking fights about the past. Not making factual errors that overwhelm any message on jobs, and the economy and security. He started on that. He did. Steve, mark, thank you both. Have a great weekend. Another major story this morning, the potentially historic storm moving into california. Miguel almaguer is there for us. Reporter good morning. The signs are up warning rez dekts a flood is certainly on the horizon here. As a matter of fact, you look down this neighborhood, youll see these massive k rails hoping to prevent debris flow. Its all coming from this massive mountain um here which a few months ago was burning after a wildfire. Now theyre concerned about mudslides. 24 Million People across california are under a flashflood watch. 35 million are worried about high winds across the area. We know the area will be impa impacted from los angel