Does trump have the support he needs . Miraculous renovation. Jesus tomb after a restoration. This morning we have an exclusive look inside one of the holiest sites in the world. And chuck barris, the host the gong show dead at 87. Modernday talent shows, being remembered for a creative and sometimes controversial life today, wednesday, march 22, 2017. From nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a. Wum to today on a wednesday morning. I mean this in the best possible way. Youre too young to remember. Oh, but i know about his greatest invention, the gong of the gong show. How many times do you wish we had a gong on this show . He was an original. Were going to talk more about his life and career coming up. But talk about changing pace. Lets start with todays top story. That failed north Korean Missile launch. This is the third since President Trump took office. The u. S. Command monitoring the isolated regime closely, responding with a show of force. Nbcs chief Foreign Affairs correspondent, has the latest, andrea mitchell. U. S. Pacific command and south corian Officials Say the launch was a did yud, blowing u within seconds. The question now, did covert u. S. Action cause that failure . Overnight, a north Korean Missile exploding. The failed attempt on the east coast, the latest in a series of escalating actions from the rogue nation. Actions u. S. Officials fear go beyond the normal. Just last weekend, north korea tested a new highthrust rocket engine and fired off four ba ballistic missiles. Monday, a government spokesman calling its Nuclear Force the treasured justice and most reliable war deterrents to defend the socialist mother land. The comments coming days after second of state rx tillerson returned from the region. Mr. Secretary, north korea is threatening preemptive action. Can you say whether thats a dangerous escalation . No comment. He talked tough, warning of a possible preemptive military strike if they continue escalating its program. Let me be very clear. The policy of strategic patience has ended. Kim jong uns response, a fiery new propaganda video, portraying his troops supposedly blowing up the Aircraft Carrier now on military exercises. And shooting an american bomber out of the sky. A topsecret u. S. Cyber program sabotaged previous north korean launches. Unclear today, was todays failed launch an accident or evidence that the u. S. Has again found a way to slow down north koreas progress to developing that longrange missile that could reach the west coast of the u. S. Andrea mitchell, thanks very much. Now to the white house where a former Trump Campaign chairman is in the headlines this morning over alleged secret ties to a rugs billionaire and Vladimir Putin himself as trump makes a final push to repeal and replace obama care. Our Political Team is standing by. Lets start with National CorrespondentPeter Alexander at the white house. Good morning. Matt good morning. The breaking news, the Associated Press reporting President Trumps paul man afort secretly worked for russia about a decade ago and even proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti russian opposition. The report appears to contradict assertions by the Trump Administration and maniafort himself he never worked for russian interests. I spoke to press secretary sean spicer. He told me, quote, it would be inappropriate to comment on a person who is not a white house official. Manafort saying his work did not involve representing russia political interests. A problem attic headline when the president can least afford it as his push to get a win on health care goes down to the wire. This morning, nearly seven years to the day after president obama signed his Signature Health care law, his Vice President trying to save it from extinction, pushing democrats to help defeat President Trumps replacement plan. As mr. Trump tries to seal his biggest yet, pitching republicans last night. The house bill ends the obama care nightmare and gives Health Care Decisions back to the states and back to the American People. Reporter the comments punctuating his courtship, earlier taking his case to the capitol. We had a great meeting and i think were going to get a winner vote. Were going to have a real winner. Reporter a personal appeal earning praise from the Republican House speaker. Ive got to say, editorial, the president just came here and knocked the ball out of the park. Reporter the final countown fueled by lastminute tweaks, including on medicaid funding. Still an nbc News Analysis shows 27 republicans likely to vote no. Republicans can only afford 21 to vote against it. The team still telling him this is a slam dunk and its not. He is being misled, as far as i can tell. On thursday, reality is going to come crashing down. Reporter the negotiator in chief delivering a warning to members of his own party. Vote against the bill and gamble being voted out of office. Still unconvinced, many conservatives with the socalled frooed caucus, demanding lower premiums. Mark meadows to get his colleagues on board or risk losing his job. Meadows, unfazed. Its a temporary job, and ive known that from day one. Reporter the white house calling that exchange a joke, not a threat. But offering a warning of its own. If we go out there and make these pledges to the American People and dont do what we said we have done on these big things, theyre going to look for an alternative. Reporter its an upbill battle on the senate side, as well, with three republicans balking at the bill and democrats looking to capitalize. The house should not walk this plank. They should not ask Senate Republicans to walk this plank. They should drop repeal once and for all. Reporter the president just tweeted big day for health care, working hard. But on this bill, one of his big challenges is to many of its republican opponents, the issue isnt politics, its policy and ideology. They dont think the bill goes far enough to dismantle obama care. Paul ryan, does he gamble and let the house as planned, or does he pull it and start over. All right, Peter Alexander. Let us bring in steve co kornaki. We could be wrong, 27 republicans still not on board with this bill. Only 21 can vote against it. And have it still pass. Whats going on behind oh the scenes. Lets take you through the math and what you need if our a republican. There are some vacancies, 430 total members of the house. You need 216. Thats your magic number for a majority. Look, right away, everything thats black on here, thats a excuse me, a democrat. Youre not going to get a democratic vote. So you have to rely on the 237 republicans. That leaves you a margin for error on this, as you just said, of 21 votes. You can lose 21 of those republicans. Youve got 27 who say no right now. But what are they saying . Are they saying were absolute no, or are they saying were likely no . If you talk to people around republican leadership, their best hope is this. Their best hope is that those likely nos at the end of the day for their own political reasons, they say they want to vote no, but if their vote is needed to pass it, if its a close vote on the floor, they will come around. The risk here, if youre a republican leadership, these things can cascade. If you put this on the floor, if you dont have the vote, people hold back. If it looks like it doesnt pass, suddenly they all rush to vote no. And suddenly youve got a massacre on your hands. So its a big risk if they put this thing on the floor tomorrow, and they are not sure theyre at 216. But the other alternative is isnt great either, pull the bill and start over. Is that a realistic option . It really isnt at this point. If you pull the bill, youve got the wolves circling and they see blood. Then you are showing you are weak. Hard to get them back at that point. Steve, a lot of people following this closely over the next 24 hours. Thank you very much. The deadly storms that swept across parts of the south on tuesday night have taken a toll georgia. It brought lightning, golf ballsize hail. At least one person killed when a tree fell on a suburban atlanta home. Dozens of trees were down throughout that area. More than 100,000 people were left without power, and at least two School Districts announced closings and delays because of storm damage. That brings us to dylan. Some rough times there, for sure. Yeah, nearly 100 reports of damaging winds. Winds Strong Enough to indicate those severe storms were moving through. And you can see over the last 12 hours, they really fired up across eastern tennessee and moved through northern georgia and the carolinas too. Besides leftover rain, improvements. It was all caused by the cold front that moved through, combined with the warmer air and triggered those storms. Now colder air with wind advisories across most of the northeast and especially up into new england. With all the snow melt recently, that could create some unsettled ground, and those winds could create some of those power lines and trees to topple. Something to keep an eye out. This morning, one of those days where the warmest part of the day is right now. Later on this afternoon, it was will continue to drop. Were looking at temps in new york city about 28 degrees by 6 00 this evening with the wind chill of only 16. So bundle up. Thats a look at the weather across the country. Your local forecast is coming up in the next 30 seconds. With no artificial preservatives, flavors or colors wherever you go. Introducing cheese dippers by the laughing cow. Reinvent snacking. Good morning. Im meteorologist kari hall. Were under a microclimate alert. Tracking rain mainly south of San Francisco but weve seen the heavy pockets of rain moving through the south bay as well as the east bay and also the peninsula at times. It will be on and off throughout the morning and even early afternoon but were getting a tough drive coming up 101 through the south county and into san jose. Also, towards the trivalley where the rain continues to come down. Now, to the other drama playing out on capitol hill. President trumps pick for the Supreme Court heading back to the hot seat again after a day of marathon grilling. Nbc News White House correspondent Kristen Welker is covering that for us. Good morning. As judge neil gorsuch prepares for a second day of tough questions, the white house is praising his performance so far. One official telling me the view inside the west wing is that the confirmation hearings are going extremely well. But key to his confirmation may be his ability to distance himself from President Trump. That was on display yesterday, when he was pressed over and over again to weigh in on some of President Trumps recent attacks on the judiciary. For the first time, judge gorsuch went on the record calling those attacks disheartening. Now, the white house tried to argue that he wasnt specifically talking about President Trump. President trump last night during that party dinner even attacked the judiciary again. But it was very clear, he was trying to create some distance. He was also pressed on other thorny topics, like roe v. Wade and gun rights. He kept his cards very close to the vest. Didnt show his hand. Said it would be inappropriate to weigh in on those types of topics. Hes expecting another round of tough questions today, including whether or not some of his past rulings show he favors large corporations over the little guy. Thats something judge gorsuch has consistently denied. There is broad agreement though in the first day, his performance was steady. Savannah and matt, back to you. Another day today before him. Kristen welker, thank you so much. Want to turn to the sad news we mentioned at the top of our show. Legendary Game Show Host and producer chuck barris has passed away at the age of 87. Reporter he was an american original. Chuck barris, best known for creating and hosting the gong show, a spoof of talent shows that dominated the airwaves in the 70s. Ladies and gentlemen, vanessa welsh. If i could save time in a bottle reporter offering amateurs the opportunity to show off their talents to a threejudge celebrity panel, decades before American Idol and americas got talent. Strange subculture we had going out there, and we enjoyed it very much. Reporter he had already had a successful career behind the camera. He produced a string of hit game shows, including the dating game and the newlywed game. At one time, the king of daytime tv provided various networks with 27 hours of television a week. More proof of his eclectic career, he wrote a pop song, a big hit for freddie cannon back in 1962. My hearts flying up like a rock rocketship reporter barris was also an author, whose book was made into a film in 2002 directed by george clooney. He made the wild claim he worked as a cia assassin in the 60s and 70s in the middle of his tv career. Coy about the reality behind the book, he spoke about his connection to the cia here on the today show back in 1984. No, i was never a cia hit man. I never did those things. I once applied for the cia. While i was going through the process, i got a job and went off and did television. But i always wondered what would have happened if id done both. Reporter chuck barris, producer, host, songwriter, author, dead at 87. Let me tell you something, he had such an eclectic career. After he got done working, hed made some money. He moved to the south of france and basically just retired there. Do you guys run into him . The show was there in 1995 for about five days and he was a guest. Found him in a cafe, singing and enjoying the good life. He was a character. The whole cia thing, i have to read that book. I know, yeah. Hell be missed for sure. It was a little before my time. Exactly. All right. Coming up, cia super bowl . The new security video giving a minute by minute look at the brazen theft of tom bradys jersey. Unveiled. An exclusive look at the tomb of jesus christ after the renovation to the site. First, this is today on nbc. Coming up, wheel of misfortune. Contestants came this bclose to winning, being called the games closest win ever. Hes a guy. 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We are in a microclimate weather alert right now as another round of rain coming right on through the bay area. This is a live look at the wet roads right now on highway 101 in san jose. You see the typical backup there. Early this morning, the rain triggered minor flooding in orinda. Thats also by camino pablo road. Crews were keeping the water off the roadway. Lets get an update on the conditions with meteorologist kari hall. We see pockets of heavy rain and towards emeryville we dont see heavy rain at this point. Just kind of the after effects as we get clearing. Still pouring in the south bay and a very slow drive this morning. Getting a look at the radar, we still see theres a lot