Verse written on his forehead when he was found hanged in his prison cell. And what a drag. A bizarre scene in california. I dont know whats going on here. A car lodged in the back of a big rig barreling down the highway, the driver desperate for help. Giving the term truck stop a whole new meaning today, thursday april 20, 2017. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everybody, welcome to today on a thursday morning. Weave got willie in for matt again this morning. Ive been playing all my Barry Manilows greatest hits for you. Youve had the spotify on overdrive. Barry manilow on concert. Light rain not getting him out of the shades. A lot of fun coming up. We have a huge crowd out there. Lets get right to our top story. One of the biggest stars in cable news, amiddamaging Sexual Harassment allegations, fox news has cut ties with bill oreilly. Nbcs senior and investigative correspondent Cynthia Mcfadden has been following this. Good morning. Good morning to you. Viewers tuning into fox last night saw a whole new factor. Now new questions about whats next for oreilly as the former king of cable news speaks out. Even as he faces more accusations. Hishgs im bill oreilly reporter this morning the king of cable news is dethroned. Its the end of an era here at the fox news channel. Bill oreilly is leaving this chair and this network after more than 20 years. Reporter the top rated cable show once bearing his name now simply the factor. Bill oreilly saying in part, it is tremendously disheartening we part ways due to completely unfounded claims, but that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today. But the reality is, more than a half dozen women have accused riley of Sexual Harassment. The New York Times reports oreilly and fox news have paid a total of 13 million to five women and more than 50 companies pulled their ads from the oe roadwayly factor. Oreilly repeatedly denied all allegations against him. But its a stunning downfall for the man who anchors the most lucrative broadcast in cable news. Thanks for watching us tonight. Reporte reporter the Oreilly Factor generated 25 million in five years. Five Major Players have left fox news in what has been a devastating year for the cable network. Among them, former ceo roger ailes. He resigned after former anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a Sexual Harassment lawsuit against him. 21st century fox settled with carlson for a reported 20 million. Ailes has denied the allegations. With oreillys ouster, fox may have been trying get ahead of other possible alleged accusers. I know more accusers. Some of them have now told me, well, theres really no point in coming forward now, hes been fired. Others may have lawsuits against him and they may file those lawsuits. We have to break that down reporter oreilly out of the country on a Family Vacation shook hands tuesday with pope francis in the vaticans vip line. A stunning contrast to his firing which came just hours later. Caution, are you about to enter the no spin zone. Reporter this morning the no spin zone is no more. This Morning National geographic and publisher henry holt say they have no plans to sever ties with oreilly who has projects in the works with both. Now, inside fox news wednesday afternoon, staff were stunned to hear of oreillys firing especially as the Network Bosses seemed to praise him even as they pushed him out the door. Cynthia mcfadden, thank you very much. Nbc news gabe sherman broke the story. Good to see you. We got news earlier this month of the settlements paid out to a number of women, Sexual Harassment against bill oreilly. Advertisers fleeing. A pending deal Rupert Murdoch is looking at in great britain. What brought all this to a head so quickly . This was a storm the Murdoch Family wanted to weather but they realized they couldnt. What i learned overnight is yesterday morning the law firm paul weiss presented their case to rupert. They learned the allegations against oreilly are more extensive than originally known and they had to pull the bandaid off and push him out. That was the question, if there was another shoe to drop and your reporting is perhaps there was. There is. The other ticking clock is there is a Board Meeting for the Parent Company of fox news happening today and they wanted to have this resolved before the board of directors come into new york. This was a fastmoving story. Was this a prooreilly camp, people arguing for him to keep his job . I didnt hear a big groundswell for him to keep his job. The current president of fox news tried save oreilly. Rupert murdoch was inclined to keep him but there wasnt a ground swell of employees who wanted to keep him. Hes difficult to work with. Its a tricky situation because fox viewers probably dont support this move. Hes exceedingly popular. Of course. This is going to be in some ways more complicated that be the ouster of roger ailes because of oreillys connection to the audience. In the weeks ahead it will be interesting to see if there is an erosion of ratings. Can you take this back to Gretchen Carlson leaving, greta van succesterenusteren, megyn k. Is this a difficult network philosophically . No, because of thif their protrump coverage. Longterm, yes. Because the network was so closely tied to roger ailes vision. Hes no longer in the picture, oreilly no longer in the picture, megyn kelly. This is going to be a new network. I think its too early to know what it will be. Rupert murdochs younger son would like to move it into a more centrist moderate position. This is more of a family struggle at this point than a television one. We know roger ailes got a big payout out the door. Does oreilly get the same thing . From what im hearing there was a financial settlement. He had 2 1 2 years on his contract. He earns upwards of 25 million a year. He just resigned this. There was a provision. They signed this contract knowing these allegations were out there so there was a clause i understand that allowed them to have an exit but he did receive money. Gabe sherman has been working this story for years and broke the last chapter. Thank you. Well have much more in our next half hour, including a claim from his attorney that he has evidence of a Smear Campaign against oreilly. Now to the white house and a new foe for the Trump Administration to focus on, iran. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson warning it could become the new north korea. We have two reports. Lets start with andrea mitchell. Good morning to you. The new administration, the president facing multiple crises from north korea to aggressive maneuvers by russian jets off the coast of alaska. Now the u. S. Opening a new front with iran. From the Trump Administration a stark warning to iran an unchecked iran has the potential to travel the same path as north korea and take the world along with it. Reporter secretary of state Rex Tillerson blasting the new nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama Administration, calling iran a Global Security threat. The evidence is clear, irans provocative actions threaten the United States, the region and the world. Reporter while the nuclear deal remains in place for now, President Trump has repeatedly vowed to rip it up. The iran deal made by the Previous Administration is one of the worst deals i have ever witnessed. And ive witnessed some beauties after. Reporter after acknowledging iran is complying with the twoyear landmark nuclear deal, tillerson accused iran of sponsoring Nuclear Weapons throughout the middle east, test weapons, arresting u. S. Citizens. The Obama White House sanctioned iran for those abuses but with five other powers decided the nuclear deal was still worth doing. While experts say scrapping the agreement would give iran a permission to obtain a nuclear weapon, tillerson disagrees. If you break out of that deal, wont that send a signal to north korea and other rogue nations that u. S. Cant be trusted to keep its end of the bargain . It is another example of buying off a power who has nuclear ambitions. We buy them off for a short period of time and then someone has to deal with it later. Reporter tillerson hints the u. S. May place north korea back on the list of state sponsors of terror after having been removed from that list by the Bush Administration in 2008. All this as defense secretary james mattis trying to clear up confusion over the location of that aircraft carrier, the uss carl vinson. Both mattis and President Trump said the ship was heading to north korea as a show of force. Even though it was heading toward australia. We are sending an armada, very powerful. Reporter mattis now clarifying. We dont generally give out ship schedules in advance, but i didnt want to play a game either and say we were not changing a schedule when, in fact, we had. Its a confusing signal to adversaries and allies. Now moscow seems to be trying to test this new administration. Twice this week russian jets flew too close to the coast of alaska. Once, in fact, norad scrambled fighter jets to intercept them. Scary. Yeah. Andrea mitchell at the state department, thank you. Meanwhile, President Trump is going to face off again against the u. S. District judge he publicly accused last year of being biased. Nbc News White House correspondent Kristen Welker has more on this story for us. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. The first time President Donald Trump clashed with judge carilo when he was a candidate. This time the judge will preside over an immigration case over a socalled d. R. E. A. M. Er who was so called deported. Putting the judge in mr. Trumps cross hairs again. The judge back in the spotlight in a new legal case involving President Trump. Hes the judge who thencandidate trump thrust into the headlines saying i have a judge who is a hater of donald trump. A hater. Hes a hater. His name is gonzolo curiel. Reporter he became the target of trumps scathing and frequent attacks. The judge was pointed by barack obama. Federal judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself. I belief he happens to be spanish, which is fine. Hes hispanic. Which is fine. And we havent asked for recusal, which we may do, but we have a judge whos very hostile. Should have been thrown out. Reporter mr. Trump arguing the judge was biased because of his, quote, mexican heritage. The judge was born in indiana. Hes mexican. Were building a wall between here and mexico. The answer is, hes giving us very unfair ruling. Reporter this march the judge approved a 25 million settlement between Trump University and students who claim they overpaid for semin s seminars. Mr. Trump never admitted any wrongdoing. As for judge curiels current case, 25yearold montez says he was arrested and deported for no reason. When he tried to reenter the country again, he says he was deported back to mexico. He has daca status which shields undocumented immigrants from being deported if they were brought here by their parents but the department of Homeland Security says he violated it by leaving the country without getting the governments approval. In an interview with nbcs Gadi Schwartz overnight, his attorney. He doesnt understand why he was deported when he had her mission to number this country. Reporter the question now, will President Trump take aim at judge curiel again in a case thats already become a legal flashpoint . How did judge curiel wind up overseeing the case of the first known d. R. E. A. M. Er . It was totally random. So far no reaction from the white house, no court date has been set yet. Kristen welker at the white house for us this morning. Thanks. We are learning more this morning about the apparent prison cell suicide of former nfl star Aaron Hernandez. An investigation is under way as people close to him are raising questions about what exactly happened. Nbc National Correspondent is outside the prison in shirley, massachusetts, for us. Good morning. Husetts, for us. Miguel, good morning. Reporter savannah, good morning. Prison officials believe Aaron Hernandez hanged himself inside his singleunit cell. They say he was not on suicide watch and showed no indications he would want to harm himself. That is why some are asking, was this really a suicide . Aaron hernandez was discovered hanging from a bed sheet tied to a window inside his maximum security cell. This morning multiple news outlets say john 3 16 was scrawled on his head, a biblical verse that references eternal life. Prison officials call the death a suicide. But this morning friends and members of hernandezs legal team are raising questions about that. Its very hard for me to accept the fact that he may have committed suicide. We are keeping an open mind. Not guilty. Reporter just six days ago the former football superstar, already serving a life sentence for the execution of friend odin lloyd in 2013, was acquitted of a double murder in 2012. Wiping away tears as the verdict was read, the victims families did the same. Stoic during the trial, hernandez blew kisses to his daughter and fiancee. His former agent says there is absolutely no chance he took his own life. Guilty of murder in the first degree. Reporter now they say theyll conduct their own investigation into hernandezs death. For the family of those he was accused of killing, there is no justice. They take no joy in whats happened to him and more particularly to his family. Reporter on social media, nfl players past and present share their condolences for a man who once scored a super bowl touchdown and a 40 Million Contract with the patriots. On the day his body was discovered his former teammates were celebrating their most recent super bowl win at the white house. Just a few years ago, Aaron Hernandez seemed to have it all. Fame, money, incredible success. But his life now coming to an end in a prison cell. With state police now launching their own investigation, we now know Aaron Hernandezs pension, his family would like it to go to his daughter. His attorneys say because theyre appealing his conviction, theyre asking his record be wiped clean. Thank you very much. Now back to that wild video we showed you at the top of the show. The incident happened on the 15 freeway northeast of los angeles. A big rig dragging a Nissan Maxima up the freeway path after the car somehow gets wedged inside the truck. The witness recording this video then pulls up alongside him, the driver of the car waves his hand out the window and pleads for help. Wont stop. Hes not stopping. The truck dragged that car for about four miles. Eventually did come to a stop and thats when the witness confronted the truck driver. Why were you driving so far . Snar. The guys under your car. I didnt know it. What do you mean you didnt know it, dude . Hes on your truck. He said, what do you mean you didnt know it, dude . California Highway Patrol confirmed that incident. Its not clear if anybody faces any charges. I have the same question as the witness there. How do you go four miles dragging a car and not notice . You dont look in the side view mirror . Thats strange. Apparently nobody hurt, thank goodness. Mr. Roker, what is shaking . We have a lot of Severe Weather to talk about. Take a look at what happened yesterday just outside of cleveland. I mean, they got dumped on with tons of rain and they actually had to do water rescues from parking lots getting people out of their cars. Look at the burger king. I mean, its underwater. Its a mess out there. And theres more on tap for today for the same area pipts our top weather story as these systems push across the great lakes. Well be looking at more rain, more hef thunderstorms. We have a threat of Severe Weather from cleveland, indianapolis up to detroit. 25 Million People at risk. As it push it is to east, strong storms, wind, hef rain, another round of heavy rain and showers move through cleveland. They be the southern part of this storm brings in more overnight storms with the warm front. Risk of heavy rain through tomorrow into parts of the central plains. Look at the rainfall amounts were talking about. Anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of rain. This system moves to the east by saturday. Oklahoma city to nashville, 3 to 5 inches with flash flooding possible through saturday afternoon. Well get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. Good morning. Im meteorologist kari hall. We have sunshine after some Early Morning rain and temperatures are mild to start. Mostly some mid 50s around the bay area. Lower 50s for the north bay. As we go into this afternoon, expect more sun with a high of 69 in the trivalley. 70 in the south bay, and in the San Francisco area, up to 65 degrees. 71 in the north bay. Over the next couple of days we continue on with su