Infected by zika with their male partners here in the United States. The growing outbreak to be addressed at a hearing on capitol hill this morning. And too accommodating . A dramatic opening to the trial of aaron andrews. Why did they let her man who was her stalker book the room next to hers . This is anger, this is a red flag. You dont go back. Why the hotel claims it did nothing wrong today, wednesday, february 24th, 2016. Announcer 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 wednesday morning. Its willy again for matt. Day through of the flu for mr. Lawyer. Lauer. Feel better, my friend. Were talking politics this morning. Donald trump with a massive win a commanding win. Lets get right to these results. It was a landslide for trump who dominated every key voting block giving him even more momentum heading into super tuesday next week. The race for second place, another nail biter. Senator marco rubio edging out senator ted cruz with a few more votes to be counted mirroring the results of saturdays primary in South Carolina. Were going to be talking to both donald trump and senator rubio a moment from now. Lets start with breaking news overnight, the weather. Powerful storm systems spawning tornadoes from louisiana to florida. More is expected to be. Lets go to nbcs jacob rascon. Good morning. Reporter good morning. Behind me is whats left of sugar hill mobile home park. More than 150 of these homes now just piles of debris. Two people died here alone. More than 30 were hospitalized. Seven of those critical. The rubble. A desperate search for survivors. Hope nearly lost. Some 150 mobile homes ripped to shreds. Trucks twisted like toys. A neighborhood wiped off the map. Louisiana governor John Bell Edwards stunned. This was probably the worst area that that tornado could have hit. Its just the destructive power of this tornado is awesome. Reporter ever seen anything like it . I have not. Reporter dozens were injured, many of them pulled from the rubble barely alive. We are asking for calm for this area. We are asking for prayers. We need that. This Community Needs that. Reporter some 19 Million People were at risk during round one of the massive winter storm. From golf ball sized hail in texas to blinding rain in more than a dozen twisters in several states. All the way to pensacola, florida, where this neighborhood took a direct hit. We just held on to each other i mean, it was very, very scary, very. Reporter there were overturned semi trucks, a gutted golds jim and thomas hower watched a tornado blow past him. Whew. Reporter back in convent, louisiana, nobody is giving up yet. In the air and on the ground wondering if this is survivable. Some of these mobile homes were washed away from where they were originally. Seven people are still fighting for their lives this morning and the search will resume for the three people missing later this morning. Savannah . All right, jacob rascon, now al is here with what you can expect. The storms have covered a wide swath of territory. Yeah. This is what we were worried about. You cant see them to verify them. You have to go by radar. This is the second time this storm and Severe Weather. It is all fueled by el nino, the much stronger subtropical jet making for a stronger storm. Live radar scans. You can see from georgia and South Carolina all the way down to florida weve got tornado watches in effect. For today we are under the gun for central north carolina. Tornadoes very likely here. Possible wind gusts up to 70 Miles Per Hour. This is going to be pushing to the east so this morning the southeast is under it. Theyre going to see the heavy thunderstorms. Then later this morning the midatlantic gets into the act. Were going to see the winds and the rain as well. The highest threats from the coastal areas of the midatlantic and northeast. Rainfall amounts anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of rain. We have flood watches for 12 Million People at risk from georgia all the way into new england, guys. In a little bit were going to talk about the winter side of this. We have blizzard warnings in effect. Going to be a tough day on the travel as well. Al, thank you. Stories, donald trump storming to victory in the nevada caucusesen enon the heels of his win. Super tuesday, all important, just six days away now. Were going to talk to mr. Trump live in a moment. Lets begin this mornings 2016 coverage with nbcs national correspond debt peter alexander. Good morning. Reporter good morning. Donald trump delivering another decisive victory fueled by another good turnout. Voters said they want another political outsider who tells it like it is. Just as striking as what happened overnight, after the numbers came in, the cruz, rubio campaigns blasted each other and not a single one hitting trump. We love nevada. Thank you. Reporter here in vegas donald trump hit another jackpot. The billionaire cashing in his Third Straight win. If you listen to the win too much. Now were winning, winning, winning the country. Reporter boasting victories in key demographics. We won with young, we won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated. Reporter duelling to be the trump second place runner the only campaign that has beaten donald trump and the only campaign that can beat donald trump is this campaign. Reporter across nevada the wild west lived up to its name. The caucuses came under criticism before the voting was complete with complaints on social media. One man calling it a disaster, another reporting yelling and screaming and in multiple sites caucus voters wearing pro trump swag that Party Officials say is allowed. The trump cruz feud is intensifying. They poubsed on cruz for his decision to fire a top aide. Some of the people i deal with. He is like a little baby, soft, sweet little baby. Reporter cruz sarcastically praising him. Rubios trying to blunt trumps trajectory. We cant just elect someone thats angry, we have to elect someone that will make a difference and someone that will win. Reporter but for the establishment time is running out. Beginning march 15th gop contests become winner take all which is a strong second is more of the same. Its going to be an amazing two months. We might not even need the two months, folks, to be honest, all right . Reporter now the republican race for the nomination accelerates. Next up, super tuesday. 11 states voting, most of them southern, including ted cruzs home of texas. The freshman no longer downplaying it. Simply trying to stay alive. Telling voters it will be the campaign. Peter, thank you so much. Marco rubio is here with us from michigan. Good morning to you, sir. Good morning. There have now been these four republican contests. Donald trump has won three of them. Weve seen the race the field of candidates narrow and yet this dynamic seems to be the same. Youve got you and ted cruz and some of the other candidates fighting each other and trump sailing to victory. A lot of republicans asking this morning why not take on trump directly . Whats your answer to that . Yeah. I think you need to take everything weve applied to the lessons of every other campaign before and throw them out the window. This is an unusual year and unusual campaign. Nevada is different. Heres the bottom line fact, the vast and overwhelming majority of republicans do not want donald trump to be our nominee. Thats evidenced by the fact that your own poll last night me and donald trump id beat him by 16 points. What we have now is a dynamic where as long as there are four people voting dividing up the nontrump vote youll get results like last night. The sooner we can get the race narrowed down in point of fact, the candidates have dropped out. Some candidates have dropped out and actually what weve seen is donald trump grow his numbers. I know youre saying nevada is an outlier but he got 46 of the vote last night. Yeah. Mitt romney got over 50 in the last caucus in nevada with the same number of candidates in the race so as i said, its a state thats always delivered Something Like that or along those linings. Look. I love nevada. We did well. We picked up delegates but we move on. One candidate has dropped out between saturday and today and thats governor bush. I think youll see more of that happening over the next few days and weeks. If that happens, i think were only going to get stronger. Youve already seen a growing number of people joining our effort. Were the only one in this race that can unite the republican were going to win this election in november. Senator rubio, im channelling a lot of republicans who like you but are growing increasingly frustrated that youre not going after donald trump but you seem focused on ted cruz. Their concern is by the time you get rid of ted cruz it will be too late. Why not go at donald trump right now . Well, first of all, i havent heard that and i talk to people all day. I go to rallies all the time. I dont have any voters begging me to attack anyone. Second, i understand, thats a media wish. That makes for good television. Im not in the race to attack anyone. Forgive the interruption. Im happy to show differences. Im responding to ted kruds. If im attacked im going to respond and set the record straight. In the case of ted cruz hes repeatedly made things up on me. Weve had to clear the air. Debate, donald trump said george w. Bush is responsible for 9 11. I corrected him in a very firm way in front of the entire nation. So when instances like that arise, i will not hesitate to point out our differences or things that i disagree with. But im not i didnt run for office to tear up other republicans. Im going to tell people who i am and why im running. Im going to give them a choice. If they elect me theyre going to have someone unify this party, grows this party, governs responsibly and deals with our challenges. I will be a president for all americans, even the people who dont agree with us. I will try to bring this country together as best i can. Senator marco rubio, always good to get your time. Thank you. Thanks, senator. Thank you. Now we have donald trump on the phone. He, of course, won the nevada caucuses last night. Good morning. Congratulations on your win, sir. Thank you very much. You came kind of close to declaring victory to the whole nomination last night. You said its going to be an amazing two months, it might not even take two months. Is this nomination yours to lose at this point . I dont know. I cant answer that question. I can only say were doing really well. We have tremendous numbers out of the states were going to this week if you look at georgia, if you look at texas where we have a good shot. If you look at some of them down the line, i think we have amazing numbers. I think were going to do very well in ohio, tennessee, arkansas. Were looking at just really great numbers so i hope we do well. Mr. Trump, we just talked to senator rubio. Hes being criticized for not going after you more directly. It strikes me hes the one guy you havent gone after. Youve gone after many of them in the field. When its time and when you decide it is time to go after senator rubio, what will be your line of criticism of him . Well, i wouldnt want to tell you. I wouldnt want to go that far but so far hes been very nice. Ive been very nice to him. We havent been in that mode. Probably it will happen. If it doesnt happen, that will be a wonderful thing. There is a possibility that that will happen. The things that hes done as a United States senator, what are your impressions . Well, hes somewhat inexperienced. Hes young. And, you know, nice guy. Very nice guy but well be talking about it at the right time if it comes up. So far it really hasnt come up. Ive been accusing senator cruz of doing some pretty bad things, namely lying. He talks ive never seen anybody like this. Ive dealt with much, much tougher people over my lifetime, but i have never dealt with anybody that will lie like he lies, and thats a pretty bad statement. Why go after cruz if rubios the one who seems to be doing better in the polls and getting closer to you, granted, not close if you look at nevadas results last night. Well, that actually only happened last night. Really cruz was second and it looks like rubios looking like hes going to be second based on last night. Why do you think senator rubio hasnt gone after you . Many republicans think somebody has to take you on. It has to become a oneonone race. He hasnt done that. Why do you think . Do you think he fears taking you on . Maybe because 14 people went after me and 14 people officially gone so i dont know, i seem to have a very good track record when they do go after me. But he hes been very nice and i think ive been respectful to him and well see what happens. But that can always change. Its changed on a number of occasions. Other people have been that way and we go at it and so far ive got a very unblemished track record. Maybe he looks at that. Im not sure. Youll have to ask him that question. We just heard you in a tease a few minutes ago calling ted cruz a little baby. You talked also this week about wanting to punch a protestor misbehaving at one of youre vents. You said when you become the nominee and president , youll change your tone and temperament. Im watching howell youre doing and im watching how your life has gone with the tone and temperament. Why would you change that if its working so well . Well, i have to tell you, maybe i shouldnt be changing that protester was out of line, he was hitting people. He was screaming during the speech and everybody wanted to hear what i had to say. He was screaming horribly. The cops were so gentle when they took him out. When they took him out big smile on his face, waiving to the people like he was having a good time. In the old days he would have been taken out on the stretcher. Today were not allowed to touch him but thats disgraceful. That style, mr. Trump, has worked well for you in your life. Why change it when you become president . Well, i think i might tone it down a little bit. We had a total of 17 people and now were down to 6 and, you know, i may i may very well change it, but right now it seems to be working pretty well. All right. Donald trump, thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. While Republican Voters caucused across nevada, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were taking part in a town hall in South Carolina ahead much saturdays democratic primary there. Nbcs Kristen Welker is in good morning. Reporter willie, good morning for you. Senator sanders is trying to blunt secretary clintons record. One of the heated moments came when clinton was again asked for transcripts on those speeches she gave to wall street. Why is there one standard for me and not for everybody else . Reporter tough questions tuesday night. Hillary clinton again asked about releasing transcripts of her paid Goldman Sachs speeches. If people are going to ask for things, everybody should been a level playing field. Reporter clinton vowing to release her transcripts following suit. An issue giving sanders an opening. I am very happy to release all of my paid speeches to wall street. Here it is, chris, there aint none. Reporter clinton also on defense on a ruling by a judge that her top aide should be questioned about her private emp mail server. It is not something that is going to have any lasting effect and i am not at all worried reporter for his part sanders challenged about controversial comments he made in 1974 saying he wanted to abolish the cia. Cia plays an important role, but have they done things which they should not have done on behalf of the United States government . Absolutely. Reporter both candidates used the night to court critical africanamerican voters. Clinton asked about beyonces super bowl halftime show which angered some Police Departments by paying tribute to the black lives matter movement. We have to figure out how were going to lift up the good practices, reform policing, provide more support. Reporter sanders slammed the Birther Movement against the president including donald trump. My dad, as i mentioned, came from poland. Guess what, nobody has asked nor my birth certificate. Maybe its the color of my skin, i dont know. Reporter and clinton brushing off a question about i dont believe i ever have, i dont believe i ever will. Just say no. Just say no. Is that a question youd like another shot at answering . Ill just say no. Reporter now both candidates also expressed their support for president obamas plan to close guantanamo. As for today, clinton will campaign in South Carolina while sanders will host a News Conference here and then stump in super tuesday states where he may have a stronger shot at winning. Willie, savannah . Kristen welker, thanks so much. Now in washington there are new developments in the ongoing battle over the u. S. Supreme court. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said his party will not support a vote on any Supreme Court nominee. Mcconnell acknowledged the president s right to nominate a replacement but he said the senate has rights. Al is back now with the rest of the forecast. Thats right. Coming up after your forecast in the next 30 seconds. Fruit. Nuts. Silky smooth dark chocolate. A look at the winter side of this storm coming up in the next 15 minutes. Thank you very much. Just ahead this morning, the emotional start to erin andrews 75 million lawsuit after she was secretly recorded behind closed doors. And more signs the zika virus is spreading in the u. S. What they all have in coming up, carsons after your local news. Chobani simply 100. Its the only light greek yogurt with zero preservatives. To love this life is to live it. Naturally. The citi double cash card comes in very handy with cash back twice on purchases. Earn once when you buy, and again as you pay. 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