The government is asking for access to information. Will apple relent under mounting pressure, or will it be up to a judge to decide . Fighting for life. The mother of the 14yearold girl shot by an uber driver in michigan is speaking out. It was a miracle. This morning, how that young girl proved she was alive even as the hopes of doctors were fading. And 75 million lawsuit. Erin andrews gets her day in court after a stalker records her behind closed doors. Was the hotel negligent for letting it today . Happen. Opening statements get underway today, tuesday, february 23rd, 2016. Announcer from nbc news, this i itoday with matt lalar and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning. Welcome to today. Tuesday morning. Im savannah guthrie. This morning. The battle between apple and the government got more interesting. Remarkable twist yesterday when the foundin father of the Silicon Valley speak out. Bill gates. Came out on the side of the government against apple. Weve seen titans line up on different sides. Our top story is politics. Todays nevada gop caucus and, of course, next weeks super tuesday contest are looming large for both parties. Lets start with nbc National Correspondent peter alexander. Good morning. Savannah, good morning to you from here on the vegas strip. Donald trump is in the drivers seat in the e ce and, yet, his rivals have barely touched him. Today will pit trump against the son of the city, marco rubio, who spent his childhood here and has more family here than in miami. Ted cruz isooking to sneak in reporter its starting to sound like its vegas act. Trump, the inevitable. We have a big lead and dont want to blow it. We have to go all the way. Reporter venting his anger against a protester. Were not allowed to punch back any more. I love the o o days. You knowowhat they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this . Theyd be carried out on a stretcher, folks. Id like to punch him in the face. Reporter trump is polling ahead of his rivals in 10 of the next 14 states. On track of the delegates. If we nominate someone that half the Republican Party hates, were going to be fighting against each other all the way to november. Well never win that way. Reporter with jeb bush out, marco rubio is trying to lead the establishments large. Charge. Ted cruz is cleaning up the mess within his campaign, with his top aide showing rubio blow off i made clear in the campaign that we will conduct the campaign with the highest standards of integriri. Rubio outraged. For them to take a video and transcribe words on it thats not what i said, its disturbing. Every day, something comes out of the Cruz Campaign thats not true. Reporter later, trump teed off on cruz. This guy is sick. Theres something wrong g th thisisuy. Reporter despite speculation that a rubiokasich ticket could prove formidable, aides say, na chancement chance. Kasich described how he first won Public Office 40 years ago. We gogoan army of people who and many women who left their kitchens to go out and go door to door, and to put yard signs up for me, all the way back when, you know, things were different. Reporter the Clinton Campaign pouncing. Its 2016. Wants it to be. Kasich later apologized for what he called an inartful comment. This morning, were getting a snapshot of where things stand. A roll shows Trump Holding on to the lead nationally, 36 . Ted cruz in n cond. Marco rubio creeping up in the last week. Whats noticeable in the numbers, rubio gained this last week with two key republican groups heavily represented in nevada. White evangelicals and voters who identify as conservative. Savannah and willie . Peter, thank you. On the democratic side, bern sanders says he has no plans to leave the race, even with Hillary Clinton taking the lead in democratic delegates. Clinton has 52 to sanders 51. Clinton maintains a lead on the party leadership. A survey of super delegates finds 449 backs clinton and only 19 supports sanders. Sanders told supporters monday he sees a path to victory. Yes. We are in the campaign till the end. We h he gone much faster, much further than any or many people would have believed possible. Theyve got the resources to stay in. Next up for democrats, the South Carolina primary on saturday, where clinton holds a big lead in the polls. Lets bring in chuck todd, moderator of meet the press. Chuck, we want to do something a little different. We want to run through the scenarios that Establishment Republicans are running through right now. How you would stop trump, who is in a commanding position. There are a couple scenarios people talk about. The first one, you mentioned, has cruz losing to trump in texas. Explain. Well, savannah, the cleanest way to stop trump is to hurry up d get this to a one on one between marco rubio and trump. Whats theheastest way for that on super tueay, for ted cruz to lose his home state of texas. Its a neck and neck race. This gives donald trump potential advantage because he can beat his rivals in their home states. If youre marco rubio, the fastest way to get to a one on one, cruz loses texas and, suddenly, everybody coalesces and a possibility of a one on one is there. Chuck, we hear it every four years. A brokered convention. This is going to the convention and d dnt happened for mo than 60 years. Cod this be the year, and what does that look like . Its possible. On super tuesday, of the 12 contests, essentially, Everybody Wins a few contests. Rubio wins tennessee and florida. Cruz wins texas. John kasich wins ohio. Donald trump wins his fair share. Its three or four didnt candidates who win regional states or their home states and march 16th. Well know the day after the second super tuesday in march if there is onlnla 100 delegate lead for trump, were going to a a brokered convention. Theres one other scenario, and thats a late entrant to the race. This would be if trump is blowing through march and then the panic really sets in, and then its all about simply denying him a majority of delegates, doioi whatever it takes. Ere is still a filing deadline to make in the california primary. Maybe a mittomney. This is a scenario someone outlined to me a couple days ago. Mitt romney would file late, you may get favorite sons and daughters to file late, simply to try to beat trump, deny him delegates and crcrte another way for a brokered convention. I have to tell you, its the most farfetched. Romney said he wont get in but maybe itll change. Before we let you go, lets look we laid out the challenges Bernie Sanders has. 20 of the delegates up for grabs on super tuesday. Hillary clinton has a good sized lead in a lot of the states. She does. The only way this starts to be to get tough for her again is if, number one, Bernie Sanders comes within Single Digits on saturday in South Carolina. And then from there, hes got to beat her in a big state. Texas, tennessee, virginia, georgia. Those are four of the biggest states on super tuesday. Can he beat her in one of the four . If he does, i think maybe he has a chance to sort of reset this race. Right now, it doesnt look possssle. Chuck todd, thaha you so much. Chuck, thanks a lot. There is a new wrinkle in the fight between apple and the fbi over a cell phone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Bill gates is weighing in and you might be surprised by what hes saying. Nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams has more on that. Pete, good morning. Good morning, willie. Surprising because up until now, the other tech giants, including facebooks mark zuckerberg, the founder of twitter and founder bill gates says apple should do what the fbi is asking. I think the people want the government to act on their behalf if the safeguards are there. Reporter bill gates, the founder of microsoft, says Technology Companies should be forced to cooperate with Law Enforcement in terror investigations. He disagrees with apples ceo tim cook, that forcing apple to help the fbi open the iphone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook will set a dangerous precedent. Historically, the government has gone to phone companies and banks and lots of compmpies to gather informamaon. Reporter washington lawyerer ted olson, representing apple, says the government never demanded this much. Privacy and liberty is important to the citizens of this country and to the people that buy apple products. Are we going to allow terrorists to take that right away from us . Without fighting back and asking the court to look intotohese issues . York times, new yorks Police Commissioner bill bratton also goes after apple. He asks, how is not solving a murder or not finding the messagagthat might stop the next terrorist attack protectinin anyone . A new poll shows 51 say apple should help the fbi unlock the phone. 38 side with apple. For gates, he says he welcomes the controversy. People feel like the government not being blind and being able to try and stop bad things before they happen, its a good debate to be having. Apple customers who support the company stand against the fbi plan demonstrations today in mo]e than 30 cities. Theyll carry banners that say, dont break our iphones. Fascinating debate. The other side, you have a former nsa and cia chief taking up for apple. You cant predict where this shakes out. Pete, thanks so much. Complicated questions. We turn to the tragic shooting spree in kalamazoo, michigan. Last night. Were hearing from the family of a teenagererlinging to life thisis hour, as police trtrto figure out a motive in the attacks that appear to be random. Ron mott has the latest on this. Good morning to you. Good morning, savannah. 14yeaeold girl is one of two survivors of the shootings. Shes being treated behind me at bronson methodist hospital, as the community is struggling what drives someone to target unsuspecting people like her. She is alive, and she is fighting for her life. Reporter late monday, tears and hope from the parents of abigail kopf, the youngest victim in the kalamazoo shooting spree. Abigail is strong, and she is a vibrant, beautiful young ladad and didntteserve this. Reporter the 14yearold was shot at a Cracker Barrel parking lot, along with four women who are killed. At the hospital, abigail was pronounced dead. While doctors prepared for organ donation, she squeez mothers hand. It was a miracle on its own. Reporter doctors say the other survivor has a bullet expected to recover. Nbc news learned the girlfriend of tyler smith, killed alongside with his father in a car dealership, survived by hiding under a blanket in the backseat of a car. The suspect, uber driver, jason dalton, admitted involvement in the rampage that killed six people. He made a statement. From his responses, theres lilile remorse. Reporter no answero the questions why. I prefer to remain silent. Reporter authorities allege dalton was picking up uber passengers between shootings. We didnt have any red flags. Prior to that day, his record looked good. Reporter dalton had bebe on the jojoone month, undergone a background check by the company and had a high rating before his arrest. Hundreds came together at a vigil monday night to pray for the survivors and remember the victims. Due back in court in a few weeks on march 10th. Savannah, willie, back to you. Ron mott, thank you. By the way, coming up in the next half hour, well focus on how Companies Like uber screen potential employees. Questions a lot of people have in the wake of this. In other news this morning, bill cosbys wife has answered questions under oath in a civil suit tied to her husbands alleged Sexual Assault of seven women. Lawyers say she answered questions for two and a half hours at a massachusetts hotel. The seven women accuse her husband of defaming them by denying their allegations of Sexual Assault. The plaintiffs lawywy spoke after mondays deposition. He said he believes the jury will restore their good names and reputations. At the end of the day, a jury is going to determine who has more credibility. Is it the seven women that we represent, or is it bill cosby . Camille cosby will answer questions at a second deposition next month. All claims of sexual misconduct. There is a threat of Severe Weather in the south today and al is watching that. Right. Not just today but into the overnight hours which can be potentially very dangeroro. Were watching the storms already firing up from houston to galveston, corpus christi, pushing to the east. We have a tornado threat from new orleans to houston, 21 Million People at risk, large hail, tornadoes likely. Overnight, tonigig into tomorrow morning, weve got a severe risk, a strong risk, from mobile to crestview. Tallahassee involved, as well. Damaging winds. Wind gusts of 60 Miles Per Hour. This will push to the east early today, the storms in texas. Then they go to louisiana, new orleans under the gun. We move to this evening. The storms move to mississippi. Damaging winds and really significant, longtracked tornadoes overnight. Wednesday, it tracks into georgia, the carolinas. Were looking for a tornado threat in the eastern carolinas, over the next couple days, anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain. Guys, the real threat here, especially overnight, we cant stress this enough, the danger of the tornadoes, especially longtrack ones. Theres a winter side to the storm, as well. Well check back in a second, al. Thank you very much. News frorooverseas. The syriananovernment saying it accepted a halt to combat operations in line with the u. S. Russian plan for a partial truce. Syria would coordinate with russia to decide which groups and areas would be included in the ceasefire. Isis is not included in the deal. Secretety of state john kerry will appear before the Senate ForeignRelations Committee over enforcement of the truce. The ongoing battle over the u. S. Supreme court and efforts to fill the seat of the vacancy left by the death of antonin scalia. Statements that then senator joe biden 24 years ago. June of 1992, biden said the senate should not consider a nominee during an election year. He was speaking hypothetically. The senate wasnt considering a nominee at the time. Biden responded. As my record shows, i presided over the consideration of justice kennedy, reagan nominee, who was confirmed in a president ial election year. We have dramatic video out of australia. A construction crane was on fire in melbourne. That led to this. The arm of the crane crashing to the ground. Thankfully, no o o was injured in the accidenen Officials Say the fire may have started in the motor of the crane. Huge waves are causing big problems in hawaii. A historic swell hit the north shore of oahu u th waves jumping on to roadwawa and soaking cars. Transportation o oicials were forced to clososthe highway. Locals said the surf was the biggest theyve seen in a decade. A few daring surfers jumped in for a ride. Al is back with more on the weather. Quick look at the national forecast. The south. Beautiful weather alonthe west coast. We have snow out of the rockies. Itll make its way east later on. Well get to your local forecast in the next 3000econds. Forecast dense fog g start off our workweek. While e e fog lessened during the day, the clouds did not. Tonight those across the area with northern siouxland maybe seeing some minor accumulation through Tuesday Morning although we an inch. Well also have to deal with some areas of fog tonight into early tuesday. By wednesday, yet another quick moving system will give us another small chance of a light mix by the afternoon hours into the early overnight. Skies should brighten better by thursday although sse cooler air will move in by then as well with highs only in the 30s by then. Well warm up some into snowy sidef the storm will come up in ten minutes. Al, thank you very much. Opening statements begin today in Sports Reporter erin andrews lawsuit. Was ththhotel where she was videotaped by a stalker negligent . Increased scrutiny over the vetting process in Companies Like uber in the wake of the deadly rampage in kalamazoo, michigan. First, this is today on nbc. 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