Hey, there, good morning, everyone its wednesday march 29th. Congressman devin nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is adamant that he will continue to lead the congressional investigation of russian meddling, despite questions over his independence and the business of the committee coming to a halt. Yesterday the first republican lawmaker called for nunes to step down from the russia probe. Congressman walter jones of North Carolina said how can you be chairman of a Major Committee and do all these things behind the scenes and keep your credibility . You cant keep your credibility. Jones, a member of the Armed Services committee is also the only Republican House member to support forming an independent commission. Others are saying nunes must at least account for his secrecy and trips to the white house. If hes not willing to tell the democrats and republicans on the committee who he met with and who told him, he has to repair the damage and lost credibility. The house is off track and probably cant get back on track. I think there needs to be a lot of explaining to do. Ive been around for quite a while and never heard of any such thing. Obviously in a Committee Like an Intelligence Committee, youve got to have bipartisanship, otherwise the committee loses credibility. Its turning into a sen pedolike these things have a tendency of doing and another shoe seems to drop every few days. All of the democratic members of the Intelligence Committee called on chairman nunes to recuse himself from the Russian Investigation after Alabama Democrat wrote last night, my decision on this matter was not made lightly. Earlier today congressman nunes was steadfast or sharing sources with members, rejecting the premise of the questions. Are you going to stay as chairman and run this investigation . Well, why would i not . You guys need to go ask them why these things are being said. This investigation continue as you as chairman . Why would it not . Arent i briefing you guys continuously . And keeping you up to speed . But theyre saying it cannot run with you as chair. You got to go talk to them. That sounds like their problem. My colleagues are perfectly fine. They know were doing an investigation and that will continue. So youre not going to tell the committee who your source is . We never talk about sources or methods. I wouldnt expect you to do that either. You guys have so em fach waited with sources. Top Congressional Democrats called the speakers position remains the same. Should devin nunes recuse himself from the russia investigation . Two, do you know the source of his information. No and no. Health care reform was left for dead after fridays crushing defeat. The president , it was said, was ready to move on to tax reform, even infrastructure possibly at the same time. On capitol hill, meetings continue about what went wrong and how to resuscitate the attempt at remodelling obamacare. Jeremy peters of the New York Times writes, the new talk which quietly began this week involve Stephen Bannon and members of the two republican factions that helped sink the bill last week. The hardright Freedom Caucus and the more centrist tuesday group. House republicans to air out what happened. And what might be next. Even amid hard feelings about the Freedom Caucuss role in all of this. Today we broke down many of those dividing lines within our conference. Theres too much at stake to get bogged down in all of that. After this morning, the resolve of our conference to repeal obamacare and replace it has never been stronger. I think were closer today to repealing obamacare than weve ever been defer and surely closer than we were friday. Last night the president said this while hosting a bipartisan room of senators. I know were all going to make a deal on health care. Thats such an easy one. I have no doubt thats going to happen very quickly. I think lit actually. I think its going to happen because weve all been promising, democrat, r all been promising that to the American People. I think a lot of good things are going to happen there. Joining us from capitol hill, Jonathan Swan. Jonathan, good morning to you. Good to have you with us this morning. So President Trumps lieutenants are saying theyre ready to work with democrats and anyone else really after the failure of the health care bill. So do you think that moving on to issues like tax reform and infrastructure is a way for them to do that, follow through on bipartisan collaboration . No. I had lunch yesterday with nancy pelosi and she is in no mood to offer a single concession on health care. She said im paraphrasing, i gave all my concessions seven years ago when she was walking with barack obama. Theres no need for her to. She will deal with donald trump in the way that nancy pelosi always deals which is on her terms. She knows she has an extraordinary amount of leverage. He needs her for votes to help get tax reform done. Shell ask for Infrastructure Spending to be direct Government Spending not as she described it a tax bill described as an infrastructure bill. Its fantasy for republicans to think that she will offer concessions on health care as part of some goodwill process that involves tax reform and infrastructure. I mean, she laughed at that kind of prospect yesterday. Jonathan, really quickly, is there anotherish swlu the Freedom Caucus can also be a roadblock for the trump agenda not just the health care but could they be problematic for him Going Forward . The immediate crisis before them the government funding ends april 28th. The Freedom Caucus could make all sorts of demands. One that leadership is worried sabt that the bill will include a defunding of planned parenthood. Thats the case that will never get through the senate and paul ryan will be put in this awful position where he has to decide, do i have to go to nancy pelosi with my hat in my hand and she will turn the screws. So, thats the next crisis ahead. Jonathan swan with the good morning to you. Thank you very much for that. Pleasure. As promised, President Trump is unraveling obama era climate regulations with his latest executive orders, making it unlikely the country will meet its goals for the latist paris. The order also scraps regulations that make it tougher to mine coal on federal lands, the president touted as Campaign Promise that hes kept. My administration is putting an end to the war on coal. Going to have clean coal, really clean coal. With todays executive action, i am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on american energy, to reverse government intrusion and to cancel jobkilling regulations. He has an open mind about Climate Change, though in the past he has also called it a hoax. Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked yesterday about where the president stands now. Does the president still believe that Climate Change is a hoax . I think youll hear more today about the climate and what he believes. I think he understands he does not believe that as i mentioned at the outset theres a binary choice between job creation, Economic Growth and caring about the environment. Thats what we should be focussing on. Former Vice President al gore weighed in on the executive order calling it a, quote, misguided step away from sustainable carbonfree future for ourselves and generations to come. Well, tensions between the Trump Administration and the press may have reached a new low after White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer got into a Heated Exchange with a reporter over her line of questioning. American urban Radio Network correspondent april ryan questioned spicer over the administrations image during the daily briefing. Spicers response has drawn plenty of criticism, including from hillary clinton. Two and a half months in, you have thissuates story today. You have other things going on, russia, you have wire tapg, you have you know, we dont have that. There are investigations on capitol hill no, no. I get it. Ive said it from the day that i got here until whatever that theres no connection. Youve got russia. If the president puts russian salad dressing on his salad tonight theres a connection. I appreciate your agenda here. The reality is at some point report the facts. The facts are that every Single Person who has been briefed on this subject come away with the same conclusion, republican, democrat. Im sorry that disgusts you. Youre shaking your head. I appreciate it im listening and trying to understand this. At some point the facts are what they are. Hold on. Hold on. It seems like youre hell bent on trying to make sure whatever image you want to tell about this white house stays. Because at the end of the day dont call her that name. I am just reporting youre asking me a question and im going to answer. Im sorry, please stop shaking your head again. Just look at all thats happened in the last few days to women who were simply doing their jobs. April ryan, a respected journalist with unrivalled integrity was doing her job just this afternoon in the White House Press room when she was patronized and cut off trying to ask a question. Too many women, especially women of color, have had a life time of practice taking precisely these kinds of indignities in stride. Switching gears a little bit in overseas. The top American General in mosul, iraq says the u. S. Air strikes earlier this month probably played a role in the death of civilians there. Speaking yesterday, Lieutenant GeneralSteven Townson said the u. S. Is responsible for the deaths which unconfirmed reports put it between 1 and 200 people, it was unintentional accident of war. He indicated that an investigation will look at whether the attack might have set off a larger blasts from explosives set by isis fighters inside the building or nearby. And he repeated the u. S. Does Everything Possible to prevent civilian casualties. Despite this, President Trump last night offered a positive take on the u. S. Operations in iraq. We just had a long call from general mattis. John is very happy to hear that, but he knows better than anybody, were doing very well in iraq. Our soldiers are fighting and fighting like never before and the results are very, very good. The United Nations has confirmed that two of its workers have been found dead in the democratic republican of the the congo. They were kidnapped while investigations violence and human rights abuses in the country. The pair had been missing since at least march 12 and their bodies along with that of their interpreter was found on monday reportedly in a shallow grave. In a statement, u. N. Ambassador nikki haley offered their condolences to their families adding sharps courage and desire should serve as an example for us all. Rebels in the congo decapitated at least 2 Police Officers in the very same region where they went missing. Still ahead, triggering brexit, the uk will officially hand over its divorce notice to the european counsel today. Well get a live report from london. Plus another day of severe across the country. At least 19 million americans are at risk today. Well have a full check on the Weather Forecast when we come right back. Okay, so whats our latest data say . Our customer is a 21yearold female. Heavily into basketball. Wait. Data just changed. Now shes into disc sports. Ah, no shes not. Since when . Since now. Shes into tai chi. She found disc sports too stressful. Hold on. Let me ask you this. Whats she gonna like six months from now . Who do we have on aerial karate . Steve. Steve. Steve. And alexis. Uh, no. Just steve. Just steve. Just steve. Live business, powered by sap. When you run live, you run simple. The valiant taste times of death, but once uh, excuse me, waiter. I ordered the soup. Of course, maam. My apologies. Cmon, caesar. Lets go. Caesar on a caesar salad . Surprising. Excuse me, pardon me. Whats not surprising . How much money matt saved by switching to geico. Could i get my parking validated . Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Welcome back, everyone. Heading overseas, theresa may invokes article 50. The letter is sent to be delivered to the European Council in brussels within the hour. Matt, good morning to you. Walk us through where the process goes from here now that this has officially been invoked. Reporter thanks. As you know this is going to be happening within the next couple of hours. Now already this morning, theresa may, the Prime Minister finished up a Cabinet Meeting at 10 downing street and ministers were seen leaving 10 downing, including david davis, the minister for planning the brexit, a newly created position. So in about two hours, were going to see the uks envoy to brussels hand delivering a letter to donald tusk, the president of the European Council. That will officially trigger article 50. As you mentioned, that sets the clock on a twoyear countdown of negotiations. So if you tune in in about two years, youll be seeing the end result of those negotiations. But in the meantime, were going to be seeing likely protests, as weve already seen here in london, against this referendum last year that voted to see britain leaving the eu. And were going to see market fluctuations. This is all tied to the negotiations. The markets will be watching this very closely to see how these negotiations go and whether or not they favor the uk or europe. Those negotiations are certainly going to be intense at some point. Nbcs matt bradley live in london. Thank you, matt. Lets get a check on your weather with bill karins. Bill, severe storms sweeping through texas last night and some more to come over the next couple days. Yeah. It was an early wakeup call between 2 to 3 00 a. M. 85 Miles Per Hour winds went through the ft. Worth and dallas area. Theyre starting to get the power back on line now. There wasnt a lot of tornadoes. Most were small and in rural areas, no damage done. We did have hail out there especially in areas of oklahoma, north texas had hail. Nothing too crazy. We saw reports golf ball size to tennis ball size. That was pretty isolated and wasnt a lot of reports what you see there is what we had a lot of. So todays threat, now the storms have weakened a little bit, lost a little of their momentum. Still raining pretty hard and there are some flooding problems up there in Oklahoma City and to the south as we go down 35. Severe threat for today. Today and tomorrow will be worse than what we saw yesterday. 20 Million People are at risk. As of now, its still an enhanced risk. We get enough sunshine, this could be upgraded to a moderate risk this afternoon. Ozarks, southern missouri youre the greatest risk of tornadoes today. If you live there or have family or friends in that area, make sure they know the threat today. It goes from st. Louis to houston all the way down to victoria, thats where the threat of damaging winds will be and some large hail. Then unfortunately this same storm, very slow moving has a greater risk of Severe Weather on thursday, already a moderate risk of severe storms, possibility of not just a couple tornadoes but maybe even a strong tornado or two. And there are a lot of wind damage possible from indianapolis all the way down to new orleans. You get the picture, the next two days will be very dangerous. When we consider we could have a strong tornado or two. Those do the most damage and are typically the most deadly. I will stop and give you some little piece of good news, alex. 65 in d. C. 57 in new york. Finally some nice weather returning to areas of the northeast and new england. Thank you very much. Good news. Its about time. Thank you. Its like two days then it pours again. Enjoy it. You had to go there. Great. Still ahead, the president declines an opening day offer and barcelona superstar lionel messi gets banned. He has to say everything soccer. Also a father tries to teach his son a valuable lesson. Sports is next. The command performance sales event is here. Experience exciting offers on our most thrilling models ever. Get up to 2,500 customer cash on select 2017 models for these terms. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Knows how it feels to seees your numbers go up, despite your best efforts. But what if you could turn things around . What if you could love your numbers . Discover oncedaily invokana®. Its the 1 prescribed sglt2 inhibitor that works to lower a1c. Invokana® is a pill used along with diet and exercise to significantly lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. And in most clinical trials, the majority reached an a1c goal of 7 percent or lower. Invokana® works around the clock by sending some sugar out of your body through the process of urination. Its not for lowering systolic Blood Pressure or weight, but it may help with both. Invokana® ca