To win the masters, falls down a flight of stairs on the eve of his opening round. Can he recover in time to play this afternoon . And along for the ride. Here we go. Jimmy fallon gives carson a personal tour of his thrilling new universal orlando attraction. Go we are taking a race through new york with the tonight show host and helping him celebrate the big grand opening today, thursday, april 6th, 2017. From nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today on a thursday morning. Is there anyone more perfect we could have sent to go check out the new jimmy fallon ride than carson . Thrill seeker. Likes to get dizzy. It has everything. Yeah. You know, it looks like im downstairs at 30 rockefeller. Thats because theyve done a great job of making this place look like our headquarters there in new york, but, of course, were in orlando for the opening of Jimmy Fallons ride, and it is an incredible ride, as you saw. Were going to talk to jimmy today. He had a lot of input into this ride. Three years in the making. Weve got a big morning for you. It was fun. Too much fun, right . Its our top story. More tornadoes, more flooding rains battering the south. Dangerous storms now taking aim at millions more farther up the east coast. Al will have his forecast in just a moment. Lets start with nbcs carrie sanders. He is in westin, georgia, this morning. Hi. Good morning to you. 50,000 people are waking up across the south without electricity this morning. A result of the tornados. In all nine that touch down across the south. In addition to that, there is a real mess at the atlanta airport. Busiest airport in the nation. Because of the tornadoes and tornado threats, more than 1,600 flights were canceled, which means a lot of people spent the night on the floor sleeping, and now its going to be a real backup trying to get out as new flights arrive. Meantime, here in rural georgia, lets take a look above from the drone flying over what was ground zero of one of the tornadoes. This was the chicken farm. A total loss. This morning in the southeast, a twisted path of destruction. Powerful storms reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble. At least nine tornadoes reported through wednesday night. We didnt get a chance to get scared. It happened in a split second. Reporter 61 Million People at risk overnight across 13 states. Much of the damage is around here in stewart county, georgia. Nearby which house were you in . 8yearold racquia blake was with her mom and two brothers when they heard the sound of a tornado barrelling through the neighborhood. When it started raining, we checked out the windows, and everything was like this. What do you think of that . Its horrible. Reporter up the road this is where my brother lived. Reporter shes thankful her brother was not home when the storm tore through his trailer. She was taking cover with her family in a house close by. The roof was out the house, and the whole inside of the roof was shaken. They all made it out unharmed. A couple hundred miles away, the ominous clouds forcing the masters to cancel its annual par three Golf Tournament for the first time in 56 years. The state thats seen the most tornadoes. 85 twisters in georgia. Guys, back to you. Thank you. Al standing over here. It just seems like its a particularly active period right now. Weve got more going on. We have more severe thunderstorms making their way from florida all the way on up into the Midatlantic States where we now have a tornado watch from richmond, norfolk, on into raleigh, north carolina. Were going to be watching this very closely over the next several hours. Right now we have an enhanced risk from salsburiy, maryland, all the way down to wilmington. 15 Million People at risk for isolated tornadoes. The highest threat is going to be early this afternoon as the system pushes in. Look for more strong storms. Moving into the northeast as well with heavy rain. Rain up to one inch per hour. Thats why we have flood watches up for 47 Million People in the northeast and new england. Heavy rain saturated ground and melting snow all leading to that. Plus, weve got wind advisories from chicago where they could have wind gusts of 60 Miles Per Hour all the way down into the southeast. Roanoke. 69 Million People at risk for high winds, so, guys, not only do we have the heavy rains, the risk of tornadoes, but with these winds air travel and road travel is going to be a real big problem most of the day today. Thank you. Well check back in in a moment. It is shaping up to be an eventful and busy day on multiple fronts for the. In the wake of that horrific President Trump declaring that that action crossed many, many lines. Meanwhile, on capitol hill it looks like House Republicans are set to leave for a twoweek break without a deal on health care. While their Senate Counterparts are poised to go nuclear so to speak today to approve Supreme Court nominee neil gorsuch. All of this as mr. Trump heads to florida for a twoday meeting with chinas president. The north korean threat, of course, set to be a major focus of those talks as well as trade. Were covering it all this morning. Well start with nbcs chief white house halle jackson. Good morning. Good morning to you. The president is right now in the midst of his most serious Foreign Policy test yet, and shes handling syria with a shift. He is clearly horrified by whats happening there, but not so clear about what he is going to do next as he leaves the door open to possible military action. His team is talking tougher on russia as back in washington a National Security shakeup is raising new questions about his wild west wing. Reporter this morning new questions about what President Trump will do next after condemning the apparent chemical weapons attack in syria. That attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me. My attitude towards syria and assad has changed very much. Reporter after tweeting in 2013 stay out of syria, the president is nowak knowledging bashrshir al assads actions ha him reconsidering. The Obama Administration had a great opportunity to solve this crisis a long time ago when he said the red line in the sand. Now the president says the syrian leader crossed a line with him. When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, babies, little babies, with a chemical gas that crosses many, many lines. Beyond a red line. Many, many lines. Still, no specifics about how the u. S. Might respond. Im not saying im doing anything one way or the other, but im certainly not going to be telling you where. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson calling out the kremlin for backing assad. We think its time that the russians really need to think carefully about their continued support of the assad regime. Reporter and in front of the u. N. Security council, an emotional moment for nikki haley showing Graphic Photos of the youngest victims. How many more children have to die before russia cares . Reporter all this in the wake of a white house shakeup. President trumps controversial chief strategist steve bannon ousted from the powerful National Security council. The New York Times reporting he resisted. Even threatening to quit if it happened. Bannon, now tells nbc news, the times story is total nonsense. Vice president pence insisting its not a demotion. This is just a Natural Evolution to insure the National Security council is organized in a way that best serves the president. Reporter it comes as President Trump targets someone who played a key National Security role in the Obama Administration. Susan rice. Accusing her with no evidence of committing a crime by requesting the names of people connected to the trump team be unmasked, but experts say thats actually a routine part of a National Security advisors job. The president yet again making an unsubstantiated surveillance claim telling the New York Times its one of the big stories of our time. A spokesman for rice tells nbc, im not going to dignify the president s ludicrous charge with a comment. The president says he will explain his claim at the right time, but didnt say when that time would be. He heads down here to maralago later on today. Meanwhile, back home in washington sources inside the administration indicate the divide inside his west wing is seeming to sharpen between the new yorkbased advisors who want to mold policy and a campaign originals who want to make sure the president keeps his promises. Matt, savannah. Halle jackson in position for that critical meeting today. Thank you. As we mentioned, President Trump is kicking off a highly anticipated summit with the chinese president today at maralago. It comes at a delicate time in the u. S. China relationship. Gabe gutierrez has more on that. Gabe, good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning. The u. S. And china make up 40 of the global economy, so the stakes could not be higher. Especially with the looming threat of north korea. This morning Chinese State media is stressing cooperation, but President Trump faces many challenges after his tough talk on china during his campaign. Reporter this morning President Trump set for arguably the biggest meeting of his young presidency. Facetoface for the first time with chinese president xi. Their high stakes maralago summit as the growing threat of north korea looms half a world away. We have a big problem. We have somebody that is not doing the right thing, and thats going to be my responsibility. Reporter this weeks latest north Korean Missile test ramping up the urgency as the president seeks to lean on china for help against an increasingly erratic kim juong un. A senior white house official telling nbc news all options are on the table. Also on the agenda, trade. With china as north koreas dominant trade partner, President Trump hopes theyll use it as leverage against the rogue nation even as the president himself as repeatedly slammed china for its trade practices. We cant continue to allow china to rape our country. They have no respect for us. They think were a bunch of dummies. Reporter complicating the tough talk on china, the vast dealings trump businesses have there. While he has denied any conflict of interest because his sons now run the family business, his ties and other branded clothing have been made in china, along with ivankas line. Dozens of shipments of her clothing have arrived here in china since the election. Three in the last month according to customs records. Trumps company also doing business with Chinese Governmentowned banks. One renting the 20th floor of trump tower for 2 million a year. Another, a lender on a nearly 1 billion mortgage on a trump skyscraper in manhattan. In just five days after trumps election win, the Chinese Government approved a trump trademark that he had been battling to secure for ten years. Two months later more than two dozen other trump trademarks were approved. President trump has often said business is about leverage. The concern here is that countries like china will have leverage over him, over ivanka trump, over Jared Kushner because theres so much money at stake in their deals. Reporter some breaking news. Congressman devin nunes saying he is stepping aside as the cochair of the House Intelligence Committees investigation into alleged russia ties during the election. President trump set to come here in a few hours. Matt. Gabe, thank you very much. Lets talk about all this with the former director of the National Counterterrorism center and our political analyst. Nicole wallace. So much to discuss. Lets start with syria because that News Conference yesterday was incredibly consequential in terms of what the president said, what he seemed to signal about his own change of heart, and suddenly it seemed e seems the administration is sailing, well, perhaps military options and increased military action is on the table for us. What would that look like . What can we do . This is something you guysistra thought about. What are the options . Its incredibly hard. Its even harder because it is such a stark reversal from whats been said. I think in many ways that gave some emboldening to russia and syria, and the russian president makes deep u. S. Involvement very hard. We already doubled the number of troops there, but having a no fly zone with a russian presence is extremely difficult. I think we can get more aggressive, more people on the ground, potentially some safe havens, but more than that its going to be really tough without russian to follow, you cant call donald trump cant call president putin and say, hey, were about to do this because putin and assad are working together, so the element of surprise is gone, and the risk of actually attacking an area where russian and syrian troops are intertwined is huge. Matt, thats exactly right. What we really have is not just assad, but we have a syrianrussianiranian alliance, and because of that, that makes our geopolitical consequences of any involvement very difficult. This is a red line, and the president is now going to face the same challenge obama did. You draw it. Youve got to enforce it, and the choices are bad. Nicole, wasnt it somewhat stark that Rex Tillerson blasted russia, and nikki haley, our u. N. Ambassador blasted russia, and at that press conference we saw on syria yesterday with President Trump, he didnt mention russia once. This adds ammunition to the critics of his who say he has blurred lines and a weird world view when it comes to russia. Michael is talking about military options. Before you get to military options, you exhaust the sort of power of the bully pulpit. He hasnt started to use the bully pulpit to talk about russia having the blood of these children on their hands. He has never said that, and he now has a u. N. Ambassador who has made it perfectly clear that thats her world view by holding up those pictures we just saw. He has a secretary of state that says very little, but even this very quiet secretary of state has taken a tougher line on russia. Before you sit down and examine your military options, you exhaust the power of the american presidencys bully pulpit to condemn in the harshest terms what russia is doing. Now were into the situation about syria. Lets turn to north korea, which most Foreign Policy experts say is even worse. This is where the rubber meets i mean, President Trump has said north korea has to be influenced by china. Well get china to get them in line. If not, what are the options . The good news here is the president has been a little bit more consistent on being tough on china on a number of fronts. The challenge, of course, is weve had two administrations, bush and obama, both try to be tough on china to get china to leverage north korea with few results. What trump is now facing is highly enriched Uranium Program with more and more Nuclear Weapons and long range missiles. Thats tough. The options, when you have an irrationale leader with Nuclear Weapons are few and far between. Yeah, there was an article in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago that talked about the major options we have at our disposal. Every one of them came with a horrific consequence in terms of retaliation from the north koreans. Exactly. We have two of our closest allies japan and south korea that are very much in the crosshairs. We also have south korean government that has collapsed. Our key ally in this fight is not present, and our hope for an ally, china, has proven very intransigent. You could dismiss it as gossip. Okay, steve bannon, the architect of the president s victory, now shoved out of the National Security council. These competing factions in the west wing as we understand it,ing have a real substantive affect in terms have which world view is going to sway President Trump. Right. Let me give you good news and bad news. The good news is it looks like the generals we have talked a lot about the generals around donald trump. Theyre sort of the people that allow worried citizens to sleep better at night. He has general mattis at the defense department. He has general mcmaster now heading the nsc. Its a good tisign that steve bannon is no longer on the National Security council. It is a terrible sign in terms of people who are worried that this west wing has become a fight club. That he put out a Public Statement yesterday saying, no, i wasnt demoted. I cannot imagine a political appointee in the Obama Administration or in the Bush Administration having done Something Like that. There are, like, five subjects we didnt even get to today. Thats what were dealing with. Stay after school, both of you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Lets talk now