February 29th, 2016. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on a monday morning. February 29th. You dont say that very often. Every four years, actually. Exactly right. Did you watch the show lastt night . I stayed up all the way to best costume design. Proud of myself. Thats about 9 40, Something Like that. I know. Way to go. Chris rock seemed to have the time of his life. Seemed to enjoy that. Took the controversy right on. There were surprises. Al and natalie spent the weekend out in los angeles. Theyre still up. Good morning to you. What a night it was. We havent gone to bed yesterday. It was so much fun. I got to see chris rock at the comedy store, andnd he did a preview of the oscar performance. It was spot on. He was amazing. It was, as you mentioned, a big night for leo, spotlight, mad max. Chris rock resesed to the lack of diversity among the knockkneeknockcome nominees. Reporter leonardo finally won best actor for the revenant. Et us not take this planet for granted. Granted. Reporter inarritu got backtoback wins as best director. Spotlight went for best picture andest screenplay. This oscar amplifies the voice. Reporter brie larson won best actress for room. M. Thank you for going to the theater and seeing her film. Was best supporting actor. Sylvester stallone losing out to mark rylance in bridge of spies. Thank you so my fellow nominees. I dont know how they separate my acting from your acting and the Wonderful Films youre in. Reporter chris rock took on the controversy immediately and often. Im here at the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the white peoples choice awards. Reporter alternating between punch lines and poignancy for his opening monologue. Is hollywood racist . Damn right. We want opportunity. We want the black actors to get the same opportunities. Reporter numerous skits throughomt the show also tackled the lack of diversity, with rock getting help from tracy morgan, in a skit recasting this years filmlm with black actors. Im the danish girl. These danishs is good, girl. Features cameos from minions, droids. Actually, i dont look like him. He happens to look rather like me. Reporter toys. To infinity and beyond. Reporter even the vice president. Im the least qualified man here tonight. Reporter who introduced a powerful performance by lady gaga. Dont know reporter highlighting victims of sexual assault. [ applause ] as you see, it was an emotional moment. A standing ovation there for lady gaga. Overall, mad max fury road grabbed the most awards with six. Vikander won best supporting actress for the danish girl. The big short won best adapted screenplay. Well talk more about this later in the morning. Thanks for the recap. We appreciate it. Well also be talking about all the parties, as well. Race for the white house, important week tomorrow. Super tuesday battles looming large for Hillary Clinton and donald aiming to build their leads. Well talk to donald trump live as he finds himself in another controversy, this time over race. Lets begin our coverage with peter alexander. Good morning. Good morning. Even for this campaign, this was a stunning development. The republican parties prohibitive favorite to win the nomination, donald trump, refusingd to condemn former clueKlu Klux Klan grand wizard, david duke. Trump claiming to be clueless about duke and the white supremist group. Reporter donald trump again under fire. This time for not what he said but what he didnt say. Donald trump refused to criticize the Klu Klux Klan. Saying the plan is irrep reporter voting against trump is against your heritage. I dont know anything about david duke. Would you say, you condemn them and you dont want their support . Well, i have to look at the group. I dont know what group youre talking about. Im talking about david duke and the Klu Klux Klan here but i dont know. Honestly, i dont know david duke. Reporter after the interview, trump said he did disavow duke. And trump has known who duke is for years. Explaining his decision not to run as a Reform Party Candidate in 2000, trump then told the New York Times, the reform party includes a klansman, mr. Duke. This is not the company i wish to keep. Still, the uproar unified even fierce democratic rivals. Hillary clinton retweeting as a hatemonger. Trump is also fending off questions after retweeting a mussolini quote. You want to be associated with a fascist . No. I want to be associated with interesting quotes. Reporter the website gawker revealing it made up the quote, baiting the billionaire. Little marco rubio, a total, total weather weight total featherweight. Hes always calling me little marco. Hes 62. I dont understand why his hands are the size of someone whohos 52. His hands are like this. You know what they say about men with small hands you cant trust them. That was just a sampling. If you were hoping for a campaign of ideas, this was clearly a disappointing weekend, including attacks over whoet their pants and who sweats too clearly, rubios decision to dive head first into the ugly back and forth shows that even hihi team now believes that their stay above the fray approach wasnt working. Peter alexander, thank you. Donald trump joins us now on the phone. Mr. Trump, good morning. Good morning. Let me just start off where peter just ended up. Im sure youve heard marco rubios latest shot at you. Follows shots youve takent him. Fair to say, both childish. Who has big hands, small hands, big ears, who sweats, who is a loser, who chokes. Can you blame people sitting across the country and around the world for saying, wait a minute, these guys are running for the most imporornt and powerful job in the world . Well, i never started this, matt. Im way ahead in the polls. Im not sure people would agree with that. Sure. But im way ahead in the polls. Rubio came out and started doing it because hes desperate. Hes 20 points behind in floridid hes a noshow i florida. Elect him dogcatcher. Frankly, he got desperate and he started doing personal attacks. When somebody does a personal attack, you hit them back. I hit him back hard. Dont the voters deserve to hear answers to their questions as opposed to childish attacks . I do. When you have a person running that gets personal, i believe in answering back. I answered back and i will continue to answer back. You know, it hasnt h hped him in the polls because his polls have gone down sce hes doing it. He did it because hes desperate. Hes losing florida, losing all over the place. I dont blame him for doing it. His other approach was not working, so i dont blame him. But it is politics, matt. Its s sething that happens. Was desperate. Hes down in the polls, hes a nervous wreck. I watched how i watched his meltdown against chris christie. And he wanted to go different approach. I think weve cleared that up. Lets talk about another issue that has bubbled up. You were asked about david duke, former grand wizard of the kkk. You said three times in the interview, i dont know who david duke is, and you refused to disavow or distance yourself from him. People are skrarcratched their heads over that. You disavowed david duke two days prior. Why were you presenting you didnt know who the person was . Why not disavow david duke, disavow the kkk . K . Whats going on . First of all, he talked about david duke and other groups. You said three times, i dont know who david duke is. Excuse me no, no. I know who he is, but i never met david duke. When you talk about it, i never met david duke. Fused to run on the reform partys platform because duke was a member of it. Im saying to myself, how many times do i have to continue to disavow people . The question was asked about davidduke and various groups. I said, would you do me a favor and tell me the groups . He was unable to tell me that. He says, im just talking about david duke and the Klu Klux Klan here. You said, hohostly, i dont knoww david dudu. Immitting in a house in florida with a bad ear piece they gave me. You can hardly hear what he was saying. What i heard was various groups. I dont mind disavowing anybody. I disavowed david duke and disavowed him the day before at a major n ns conferenen, which is surprising because he was at the major News Conference. Cnn was at the major News Conference and they heard me easily disavow david duke. Now i have a lousy ear piece provided by them. Frankly, he talked about groups. I have no problem with disavowing groups but id like to know who they are. Itd be unfair to disavow a group if they shouldnt be disavowed. If you look on facebook right after that, i also disavowed david duke. When we looked at it, the question, i disavowed david duke. All weekend long on facebook and twitter and, obviously, its never enough. Ridiculous. There is a piece in the New York Times yesterday after the republican establishments efforts over the past couple months to derail your campaign. Governors got together and met and talked about writing a letter to the american people, disavowing your brand and your candidacy. In your opinion, right now on the eve of super tuesdada has the republican establishment lost its opportunity to stop u . Well, i think im doing very well. A reuters poll came out. Im 44 and 45 and others are at 11 . Id love to win texas. Its the only place im a little down to a sitting senator that i think i have a chance of winning texas. I think ill win f frida in twowo weeks because rubio is a noshow. Hes done a terrible job for florida. Hes defrauded florida. He never shows up for votes. I think ill win florida. You said yesterday even though im doing very well you said yesterday you feel in a sense if the repububcan tablishment gets together and has somee organized way to try to defeat you, that theyre violating their pledge to you. If tts the case, whats your next step . What would you do . If they violate the pledge, which possibly theyve already done, as you understand, i will do something that would make them unhappy. Follower we had the endorsement yesterday of senator jeff sessions, one of senate. We attended an event that was so 35,000 people. I dont know if you covered everybody covered it, but i dont know if you talked about 35,000 people in a big football stadium. Right. He said hes never seen anything like that and hes been in politics 30 years. Hes never seen an event like that, with that kind of people. We have tremendous support. Frankly, the Republican Party were opening up to the Republican Party. When i won in south carolina, we got far more votes than the democrats got. If you look at our votes verse the democrats, we got more votes. More votes than we got four years ago. Were opening up the party. Democrats are calling in. Lets choose that its a far bigger party. Ive done a Great Service for the Republican Party. Lets choose that as a good place to stop, mr. Trump. Hopefully well get to talk to you after super tuesday. Thank you for your time this morning. Thank you. Thank you very much. Lets bring in Nicolle Wallace and steve kornacki. Good morning to you. Lets talk about what mr. Trump has he put it to bed . Your conversation with him is extraordinary, in that it was the first time i heard him blame the ear piece for whatd you sasa old campaign trick. Press your ear and pretend you cant hear. What is right about what he says is that the Republican Party is trying to take steps toward him. Then he refuses to disavow david duke. Cuddles up to putin. He says things that make it necessary for us to run ten steps back. The article in the New York Times talking about efforts over the last couple months by the gop establishment, what was the headline to you . I think its the failure. Theres been concern for a few months among republicans that trump could do this. He could pull away. I think theres a question, could they have done anything in the first place to stop him . There was a failure in the time to get behind any other candidate. It says a lot abobo the other candidates running. Exactly. The failure was in theage age analysis that there were three lanes and each contest was separate. It was wrong. Its not like basketball where you have different brackets. The fight should have been taken to the front runner. Its the failed strategy, that they had to first destroy one another. There was a democratic primary on saturday night. Hillary clinton won bigger than a lot of people expected. She put up astonishing numbers, specifically with carolina. She did better with black voters on saturday night than barack obama did against her in the same state eight years ago. Close to 90 of the black vote. Shorten the campaign with that victory . I suspect so, yes. Steve, thank you very much. Nicolle, thank you. Weather. Super tuesday, weather will be a factor. Tonight, we have a chance e storms from Oklahoma City to Wichita Falls. Strong wind gusts and pingpong size hail. Tuesday, a bigger area from pennsylvania down into louisiana. This also involves the super tuesday states. Arkansas, tennessee, alabama, georgia and virginia. 22 Million People at risk. Damaging wind gusts and we cannot rule out tornadoes. Were really going to be watching this closely. Our little stretch of springlike warmth was nice while it lasted but sadly the east coast and now were heading back towarrs a more wintry papaern. A cold front momod thorough earlier on this morning giving us a little line of showers along with gusty winds. Temperatures have been muh colder than what they were yesterday with highs in the low to mid 40s for most towns. We will drop below freezing tonight with the winds beginning to subside some. Monday looks to be on the mild side due to a warm front moving in, and High Pressure to the south. This warm front is actually associated with an area of moisture that looks to bring siouxlananits nenet snowfall. This low pressure will move through monday night, maybe starting out a little mix before coming up in the next half hour, we have Winter Weather to talk about. Mr. Lauer . Al, thank you very much. Coming up, a big day at erin andrews 75 million civil trial. The Sports Reporter and her convicted stalker both expected to testify. Were there live. Plus, would you fall for it . One of us did. On rossen reports, the new trick hackers are using to get in your first, this is today on nbc. Just ahead, a clueless appearance. Oscars most awkward we wonerere. And here. And here. Here. And here. Uh, here. Also in here. Back there. Behind here. Even next to these guys, here. In the nations largest, indedendent study, rootmemeics just named vezon Number One Network for the fifth time in a row, here. So when the other guys claim theyre the best, remember theres only one, number one. And now well pay up to 650 to switch to the best network. This one right here. Twenty more years of this job . Yikes. My kids say go for it, mom. Be that woman who does what she loves. Knows what she wants. Yeah, moms gonna go for it except. I dont have a clue where to start. Hey we hear you. Thats why aararcreated life reimagined. Its designed to help you find ur true passion with personal advice from experts, if you dont think this is right for me when you think aarp, then you dont know aarp. Get to know us at aarp. Org possibilities only kraft natural cheese has a touch of philadelphia cream cheese, so whatever you make, is creamier than ever. Choose your match new revlonolorstay 2in1 compact. 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Will be breezy and cool again as clouds increase and temperatures fall from the 40s to the 30s this afternoon behind a cold front moving through this morning. Behind said cold front, another disturbance will move in this evening which will give the viewing area a quick round of 13 inches of snow tonight with the highest of those amounts north of sioux city. Besides a will be dry and much coole good to be alive right about now good, good, good to be alive right about now 7 30, monday morning, leap day, february 29th, 2016. What are we going to do with the extra day . The oscar red carpet has been rolled up for another year. The stands are coming down at the dolby theater. Al and natalie were there up late and up early now. The first hour was fun to watch. I dont know what happened after that. The 88th awards ended with a surprise with spotlight taking inhe acting categories, lee Leonardo Dicaprio got his first oscar after several nominations. I thank you all for this amazing award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted. Thank you so much. Brie larson won best actress for room. Well have more later on. A day before super tuesday, donald trump finds himself at the sen thecenter of a new controversy. Hes criticized for not disavowingngavid duke during an interview that aired sunday. This morning, trump had this to say. Take a look. Im sitting in a house in florida with a very bad ear piece that they gave me, and you could hardly hear what he was saying. What i heard was various groups. I dont mind disavowing anybody, and i disavowed david duke and disavowed him the day before at a major News Conference. Trump also said he does expect to do very well at the polls tomorrow. To the pentagon is facing murder chchges in the deaths o