Finding love again. The widow of former Vice President joe bidens son beau now dating his younger brother. This morning what the couple and the biden family are saying about that relationship. And triple threat. Music, movie and tv superstar Jennifer Lopez live in our studio today thursday, march 2nd, 2017. Announcer 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. 7 00 on the west coast on a thursday morning. Looking forward to having Jennifer Lopez here. Between now and then a lot of news. A lot of developments this morning. Our top story the Trump Administration facing a controversy over russia. Nbc news confirming that attorney general Jeff Sessions met facetoface with the Russian Ambassador to the u. S. Twice last year, that is raising questions about whether sessions intentionally misled lawmakers during his confirmation hearing. Got all of it covered. We start with Peter Alexander at the white house. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. Already this morning the white house is dismissing this as another partisan attack by democrats, within the last couple hours the attorney general tells nbc news that he did nothing wrong. Still, the question remains did Jeff Sessions commit perjury when he testified under oath they didnt have contacts with russians during the campaign. This morning u. S. Attorney general Jeff Sessions speaking exclusively to nbc news. Amid reports that he met with a Russian Ambassador to the u. S. Before the president ial election. And possibly misled senators who asked about the Trump Campaign ties to moscow. I have not met with any russians at any time to discuss any Political Campaign and those remarks are unbelievable to me and are false. I dont have anything else to say about that. Reporter the Washington Post reporting that sessions one of mr. Trumps earliest surrogates had two conversations with the Russian Ambassador last year. But did not mention it during his recent confirmation hearing. If there is any evidence that any one affiliated with the Trump Campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do . Im not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i didnt have communications with the russians. In fact, the post reports sessions spoke to the am das door in sul and southwest last year. Overnight sessions spokeswoman said he met the ambassador but as a senator not a trump suffer ro gate. Later releasing a statement saying i never met with russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea ha this allegation is about. It is false. Still, the post reports sessions was the only lawmaker among 20 members of the 2016 Senate Armed Services committee it reached including the chairman john mccain who met with kislyak. Overnight the reaction was swift, some democrats calling on the attorney general to recuse himself from any Justice Department investigation in to russias interference with the u. S. Election. Others including House Minority leader nancy pelosi saying sessions should resign immediately. Late wednesday republican Lindsey Graham was pressed on the issue on cnn. If there is something there that the fbi believes is criminal in nature, then for sure you need a special prosecutor. If that day ever comes ill be the first one to say it needs to be somebody other than jeff. Reporter the new accusations come less than a month after former National Security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign after revelations he spoke to the same Russian Ambassador about u. S. Sanctions on russia before mr. Trump took office. The Trump Administration is repeatedly denied all accusations that the campaign coloaded with russian officials. How many people have to say there is nothing there before you realize there is nothing there. Reporter also overnight a report citing a half dozen former and current u. S. Officials during the Obama Administrations last days some white house officials scrambled to spread information about russian efforts to undermine the election, and about possible contacts between mr. Trumps associates and russians. The times reports those former u. S. Officials had two goals, to ensure there is no meddling in future elections and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators. So far this morning nothing from President Trump on twitter about this issue, but also in the last couple hours some Top Republicans including the republican head of the House Oversight committee are call forge Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations in the russian interference in the election. Sections told us at nbc news he will recuse himself quote whenever its appropriate. Peter alexander at the white house, thank you. Let us bring you are pete williams. Good morning to you. Lets talk about what Jeff Sessions said under oath during the confirmation hearing. Depending on who you are listening to this morning what he said was either the truth, a lie, misleading, or it contained omissions. What has been the response to his explanation . Well, the response is that he should recuse himself from this investigation. Not everybody is saying that what they thought he said was untruthful or perjury and of course the way they explain this at the Justice Department is they say he was specifically asked in the context of Campaign Officials or Campaign Surrogates talking to the russians about the election. And so they say when he answered the question from senator franken he wasnt even thinking about his meeting with the Russian Ambassador. He had a written question from senator leahy after that, specifically said did you talk to the russians about the campaign, and sessions said no. So thats their explanation. So, this is one of those situations where potentially, i mean no matter what you think of what he said to the Judiciary Committee he potentially is a witness in an investigation that is currently being conducted by the attorney general Jeff Sessions. Is that why people are saying maybe you just in abundance of caution ought to recuse, this is a conflict of interest or apparent conflict of interest . Is there is one option. Keep doing what he is doing now, recuse himself, that would basically put the oversight of this Russian Investigation into the hands of the Deputy Attorney general, or appoint a special counsel. There are some members of congress saying he ought to do that as well. And as you noted three times now reporters asked him whether he would recuse, and he said the same thing including to us again this morning, ill do that when its appropriate. Pete williams in washington on this. Pete, thanks very much. That brings us to the political fallout here and mark joins us with that. Thats the question we talked about the legal issues. Is the political pressure now so high that sessions is really going to feel the heat and feel that he has to step aside and get a special prosecutor . Certainly feel it from democrats. The question is are there republicans who will look at this and say mr. Attorney general, our former Senate Colleague you need to not oversee this. As was suggested its a text book case i dont think any one thinks that the attorney general could be unconcerned about the appearance of conflict which is part of why he might step aside. I dont think hell go for an independent counsel. You can have career lawyers deal with it but theres big pressure now on capitol hill, what kind of investigation will capitol hill do of all of these russia questions and this is because of how explosive it is, the symbolism of the attorney general giving statements that were at least off base and maybe more than that. Means i think the pressure there is going to be greater for a large congressional investigation. It does just goes to this overwhelming idea that there is some kind of unusual contact or connection between the Trump Administration and russia, this story does nothing to help that. This is the latest example, of course its the attorney general of the united states, the man Whose Organization is supposed to investigate it. Look, why does this matter to real people . There has to be some understanding of what happened in the last election, some confidence there wasnt inappropriate contact with russia, i think the white house should and perhaps will welcome an investigation that makes this into the open. The suspicion is why dont they want an investigation because there is more there they dont want to come out. The attorney general is putting this off as innocent meetings but they raise suspicion. Is it reasonable to assume that someone like Jeff Sessions in meeting with that Russian Ambassador can compartmentalize these two roles that he is an advise tear the Trump Campaign and a u. S. Senator . If you want to give him the benefit of the doubt as pete said one of the meetings was a chance encounter with a large group. The second, Jeff Sessions spent most of last year being a senator. He was a campaign surrogate but primarily doing the job of a senator. Its possible thats how he thought about it. But look, he knew he had these meetings the fact it came out not by his disclosing it at the hearing but through a media report, i think people have to wonder who else knew about these meetings that he had. Did the white house which has gone out of its way to say there were no improper meetings, did they know about it before yesterday . We dont know that. An interesting item in the post which is that they reached out to all of the senators who are on the Armed ServicesCommittee Last year and of the 20 who responded none of them met with the Russian Ambassador. Its another thing of seems to have been a lot of contact and maybe thats still out there between people, so with the president and russia, thats a ledge and this is a concrete one we know happened. Attorney general, Russian Ambassador. People are going to want to ask questions. Thanks so much. Lets go to wall street. Trading is under way on the heels of the dows best day in months. A 300point jump topping 21,000 for the first time ever. So how long will the good times roll . And how much credit should the president be taking . The dow has climbed 2700 points since he was elected in november. Passing the historic milestones of 20 and 21,000 points along the way. Msnbs ali velshi at the new york stock exchange. The white house will take this, take credit for this runup in the markets. Do they deserve it . They get some of it, matt. The number you talked about translates to a 15 gain in the dow since donald trump was elected. Just to give you context, in the average year you go 50 or 75 or even 100 years in this stock market, in the average year over the long term you get about 7 . As a return. So to think 15 in just the time since november 9, thats actually very big deal. This market was already going up even before donald trump was elected and when the market thought Hillary Clinton was going to win. Its going up at a faster clip as a result of Donald Trumps presidency. After everything weve been there over this last decade or so, a lot of people are happy to see 401ks grow but worry. Is this the bubble. What do i not know that could be out there . So the Old Fashioned way of thinking about this is you look at the price of a stock as a multiple of the amount of money it will earn in the following year. And if you use that math there are a lot of people say this stock market and a lot of stocks in it, particularly the financial, the industrial stocks, the infratruck tur stocks, all expected to benefit from Donald Trumps policies are overvalued. But there is another school of thought that says things are just going to be different now under donald trump. Its pro business, there are these so called animal spirits that have been unleashed and profitability is going to be a lot higher. That comes down to personal choice. For the average person you want to be investing for the long time so you want to think about rebalancing. If you gained so up m more, you might want to shave some winnings off and reinvest in Something Else or keep them safer. Markets can turn on a dime and in fact, you look at the market now, its down today after weeks and weeks of being up. So one never know when its going to happen. Thank you very much. Another big thing at the exchange this morning one of the most anticipated ipos in years as snapchats parnt company goes public. Stephanie is here with more on that. Good morning. Good morning. Investors expect snapchat to begin trading in abouten a hour and ready for this, opening between 21 and 23 a share even higher than predicted. We know its going to guarantee one thing, that the snapchats 26yearold founder, instant billionaire. This morning evan spiegel is hoping to be the next mark zuckerberg. The 26yearold ceo and cofounder of senate chat covering Time Magazine and looking to take his place in the ranks of billionaires after Snapchat Bose public with a market value of 23. 6 billion. Not as high as facebooks 104 billion in 20012 but enough to him be a tighten of tech. He is successful, handsome, has the beautiful fiance. In minutes you say wow, this guy is a visionary. That fiance is model miranda kerr. For the visionary, speakle boldly turned down a 3 billion offer to sell snapchat to facebook back in 2013. Since then, facebook owned instagram and whats app have rolled out featured modeled after snapchat. If mimicry is flattery snapchat should be flattered. Mark zuckerberg i think the first thought he wakes up and the last before he falls asleep is how do i kill snapchat. Its tough to kill the app that could. Im on snapchat every day. Snapchat has more than 158 million daily users. Who love adding funny filters to their photos and video. The majority of them, 18 to 34yearolds, using the app more than 18 times a day. Average time, 30 minutes. There are two things you need in the internet. You have to be useful or entertaining. Senate chat is both those. When it was launched snapchat was known for being a sexting tool. The reason whatever you share disappears in 24 hours. If you want something more permanent you put it on like twitter or facebook. And like this is kind of like an easy 24 hour thing. Now its mainstream. In fact, during the political season, more 1824yearolds watched the president ial debates on snapchat than they did on tv. Wow. Instant billionaire. A company that doesnt make money. If they harness the 160 million eye balls its big dough. Thank you. Al is here with a first check of weather. Looking out west weve got some storms making its way in here now though looking good for california though we have a storm affecting parts of the pacific northwest, and as we look ahead toward saturday and sunday, big storm thats going to be pushing all the way down to the south, making its way as far south as los angeles, with heavier mountain snows. In the Sierra Nevada theres so much snow they dont have an instrument that can measure how deep the snow is. Rainfall, though, were talking from 2 to 3 inches of rain over the next several days, and the rest of the country looking at windy, cooler conditions in the northeast, the midatlantic, a few snow flurries late today into tomorrow bringing light snow to the northeast and new england and the great lakes, plenty of sunshine through the plains. Good morning. Im meteorologist kari hall. A lot of sunshine in the forecast today. Highs in San Francisco reaching 61 degrees. It will be the warmest day of the week. Still nice and warm for tomorrow. A few more clouds. Going to see scattered showers in the weekend forecast. Starting on saturday afternoon into sunday. Inland areas will also see the rain. Clearing out early next week. Thank you very much. Coming up beau bidens widow in a relationship with his younger brother. What the former Vice President is saying about that. And a creative weapon in the fight against drunk driving on rossen reports, the suit that shows you firsthand what it is like to be intoxicated behind the wheel. First on thursday morning, this is today on nbc. Its okay to cry, right . No more we dont want anymore [crying] ahhhhhhhhhh everyday price and no extra monthly fees, unlike cable. Speeds up to 45 megs, for 30 a month. Still ahead on trending what youll see in new live action version of the beauty and the beast. Good tees. Jennifer lopez live in studio 1a, if you h