Its monday, february 26th. Im Ayman Mohyeldin alongside louis burgdorf. Students at Margie StonemanDouglas High School expected to return to class as early as wednesday following the deadly shooting that took place there less than two weeks ago. An orientation was held yesterday where students and parents returned to the school for the First Time Since the attack that killed 17 students and staff members. The fbi and local authorities now facing more criticism in the wake of that attack. According to the New York Times, less than six weeks before the shooting, a woman who knew the gunman said on the fbis tip line, i know hes going to explode. Mean wile, the brawl ard county Sheriffs Office is investigating why three of its deputies apparently remained outside the school during the shooting. The news came days after another deputy, scott peterson, resigned following reports that he, too, had not gone inside the school to confront the shooter. The Broward County sheriff scott
kelly. Good morning, ayman. There was a notable change at the white house this week and it has to do with the nations most coveted secrets. It involves employees whose Background Checks have not been completed or who have not yet this hr permanent Security Clearance and it happens to include one of the president s the closest advisers. Rarely heard in public. My name is Jared Kushner. I am Senior Adviser to president donald j. Trump. Jared has done an outstanding job. I think hes been treated very unfairly. The more inside of insiders. The 37yearold Jared Kushner, husband of ivanka trump, does not have permanent high level Security Clearance. Theres nothing normal about a Senior Adviser having an interim clearance for more than
a year. Rod rosenstein took an unusual step of calling the white House Counsel, don mcgahn, in early february to deliver a warning. Kushners Background Check had hit a serious, but unspecified snag. Some people described this conversation as a status update. Others said it was a houston, we have a problem moment. Friday, Chief Of Staff john kelly put in place new policy, tightening access to secrets for staffers without permanent clearance. President trump was asked if he would waive the rules for his soninlaw. I will let general kelly make that decision. And hes going to do whats right for the country. I have no doubt hell make the right decision. Kushner has been interviewed by the Special Counsel and says he had no improper contacts with russia. As a campaign official, he attended the june 2016 trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer and others. Democrats have raised concerns that kushners vast foreign
business interests pose a conflict. If general kelly wants to keep his job, hes probably going to the make the president happy and allow Jared Kushner to have this clearance. Aides to kushner would not comment on his Security Clees clearance. The white house Chief Of Staff put out a statement saying he has full confidence in kushner and he could do his work, things like work on Midwest Peace and the relationship with mexico. But the white house has not explained if or how he could carry out those responsibilities without the highest level permanent Security Clearance. Ayman. At the white house for us, kelly odonnell. Thank you for that. And on friday, President Trump spoke at this years conservative Political Action conference, better known as cpac. He spoke for about an hour and 14 minutes in a free wheeling speech that harkened back to his days on the 2015 campaign trail. Here are a few of the things he had to say. By the way, you dont mind if
i go off script a little bit because, you know, its sort of boring. Its sort of boring. Got this beautiful speech, everything is wonderful, but a little boring. I had a couple of characters saying he doesnt really want the wall. He just used that for campaigning. I said, can you believe it . Every time i hear that, the wall gets 10 feet higher. You know that. So the cpac summit was also the source of some controversy as critics of the Trump Administration were taken to task. Veteran Conservative Writer and advocate sharon had to be escorted out for her comments. Listen to this. Im going to twist this around a bit and say im disappointed in people on our side. Okay. For being hypocrites about sexual harassers and abusers of women in our party who are sitting in the white house who
brag about their extra marital affairs, who brag about mistreating women, and because he happens to have an r after his name, we look the other way, we dont complain. This is a party that was ready to endorse the Republican Party, endorsed roy moore for the senate in the state of alabama, even though he was a credibly accused child molester. You cannot claim that you stand for women and put up with that. So just hours after President Trump spoke on friday, the Communications Director for the group behind cpac, ian walters, made a controversial statement about the election of Michael Steele ago republican chairman in 2009. Take a listen. We had just elected the first avenue can american president and that was a big deal. And a little bit of cynicism, what do we do . This is a terrible thing. We elected mike steele to be the
rnc chair because hes a black guy. That was the wrong thing to do. Walters later called steele to apologize. And the following day, the american chair of the Conservative Union appeared on steeles siriux xm radio show. You have been rather critical of some of the more conservative aspects of the trump phenomenon and this trump agenda. Right. I think what ian was getting to, the heart of that was there are people who are critics of some of the things you did as you were chairman. What the hell does my race have to do with any of that at the end of the day . What does the color of my skin have to do with anything you just said . You mean to tell me as a black conservative, put it in that context, i cant be critical of the president . You can be, back seat as you know, there are a lot of people i can take race out of it. Yeah. But hes injecting race into it. I would agree with you. So, again those words that tumbled out of his mouth, i believed were unfortunate words. They were stupid. Its not unfortunate. Call it what it is. Dont take the worst out of what he said. You know him. I know, but this is where you need to have some grace. Wait a minute, what the hell do i have to be graceful for . Youve not been very graceful to the republicans and the conservatives in this hall and in this room for a very long period of time. Coming up, mona chapel and david steele are going to weigh in on this movement. Joining us now, steve, lots to faulk about here. Lets discuss what we were just talking about at cpac. Whats been the reaction, particularly among conservatives to what was said about Michael Steele at cpac, the subsequent response,lty of heads this morning, probably scratching their heads and wondering whats
going on. Diversity is important for all political organizations. In 2009, republicans were excited to have a black chairman of the rnc, Michael Steele. But what this comment implied was this was diversity for diversity sake and that steele didnt do a very good job. Of course thats going to upset steele and its going to stomp on the message that the Republican Party as a diversion organization. But i think its important to keep innen context here that this person who spoke was the spokesperson for the american Conservative Union. Thats not a wing of the Republican Party. This is the organization that throws the Cpac Gathering Every year. But between gatherings, its not an essential part of the Republican Party. So i think we need to keep in context just how big of a deal this is. I think a lot of people would look at that comment and say this was a racist comment to refer to it. Hes saying he was elected because he was a black guy. Right. It certainly doesnt sound good. Its a matter where you have to
be delicate and this is certainly it sounded offensive. It was a personal slight against Michael Steele. And it definitely steps on the message that the party would like to communicate. Lets switch gears and talk about Jared Kushner and the issue of permanent Security Clearances and the lack thereof. It doesnt look like hes going to get one anytime soon. How big of a political liability is this potentially for the president . When you could have somebody as influential as Jared Kushner who deals with very important portfolios like the middle east peace process, if hes not getting the intelligence reports about the palestinians, the israelis, how is he going to provide the president with his best advice and counsel when he doesnt have a Security Clearance . Rob porter was allegedly beat both of his exwives and the white house allegedly knew about it. With Jared Kushner, we dont know what exactly is holding up the Security Clearance review. It could be he helped manage a
multibillion Dollar Company with international connections. If its something worse than that, if he allegedly has some deeper issue, some scandal lurking, i think that is when it could be a real liability to the white house. Yeah. We can only guess what that conversation between rod rose. En stein and don mcgahn was like when he told him hes not going to get that clearance anytime soon. Stick around. Still ahead, bizarre but legal, thats what some experts are calling a newly reported arrangement that has the rnc Forki Forking Thousands of dollars a month to the trump campaign. And later, Florida Governor rick scott breaks with President Trump on one of his most controversial thoughts on School Safety. Unusual, but legal. The payments began in september according to Financial Disclosure forms. This was just after the rnc came under pressure to stop paying President Trump at his r and his eldest sons legal bills related to Special CounselRobert Muellers investigation in the russian interference in the 2016 election. The payments include more than 37,000 a month for office space rental and trump tower in new york. Party officials have confirmed and thousands of dollars per month for a staff that includes Vice President mike pences nephew, john pence. This is not the first time the rnc has paid trump for use of one of his properties. Party committee spent 1. 3 million in the first eight months of 20 17. Dianne feinstein has failed to win the backing of her state party. The 84yearold feinstein, seeking her sixth term in
office, received just 37 of the votes from Party Delegates with her challenger, state senator Kevin De Leon getting 54 . Below fell below the 60 endorsement threshold. While feinstein remains well ahead in endorsements and campaigning, theres a more growing Liberal Movement within the party. Lets get a check off your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. Youre tracking some rain in the southern part the of the country, but hopefully the northeast rain will dissipate. The whole country needs a break. Over the weekend, we had our tornados on saturday. Unfortunately we ended our streak with no fatalities. We just got done with the longest stretch in our country with no tornado fatalities. In kentucky and tennessee, about five people died in total this weekend from the flooding and from the tornados. I think we have some pictures of the tennessee damage. Ef1. So it wasnt like a huge really
intense, but you can see it just shattered that home that was sitting there that was significant roof damage below. So its warm like spring and with it comes Severe Weather season. Its its like we just forgot about winter all of a sudden. So a little rain activity, light rain for you in atlanta for your morning commute. Its going to stay mostly south of d. C. Down towards richmond. For todays forecast, theres the Rainy Weather in the southeast. Feast, were hoping to get you some sunshine for the first time in days. Where we head to horrible flooding over the weekend, try weather for you in arkansas. Here comes the next storm in the middle of the week. This will be a Soaking Rain Event as we go wednesday into thursday. Theres that heavy rain in the yellow. A little bit of snow on the back side of this. Then this whole mess redevelops into a strong almost noreaster type storm. You start thinking big snowstorm. Too warm. Mostly a rain event for the city. Possible snow in the mountains of new england. We have to watch this for coastal flooding. Thats going to be a pretty good storm on friday, guys, but well talk about that as the week approaches. Lots to track out there. Thanks for that, bill. Still ahead, the final report from pyeongchang as the 2018 olympics draw to a close. As students get set to return to class this week, their schools hockey team gives them a big lift. Thats next in sports. A doctor. Became diagnosed with hodgkins lymphoma. I had to put my trust in somebody. We recommended chemotherapy, and then a stem cell transplant. When his disease progressed, i thought that he would be a good candidate for immune therapy to unleash his Immune System against the cancer. Im back to working hard. Ive honestly have never felt this great. The evolution of cancer care is here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Appointments Available now. At ally, were doing Digital Financial services right. But if thats not enough, we have more than 8000 allys looking out for one thing you. Call in the next ten minutes. And if thats not enough, well look after your every dollar. Put down the phone. And if thats not enough, well look after your every cent. Grab your wallet. Beeping SoundComputer Voice access denied. And if thats still not enough to help you save. Oh the new one well bring out the dogs. Mush dogs barking the old ones just fine well do anything, seriously anything, to help our customers. Thanks. Ally. Do it right. Welcome back. Time now for sports. Starting with the Closing Ceremony of the 2018 winter olympics, host country south korea used the world stage to promote an optimistic and peaceful future. It included kpop stars dancing among the 900 cast and crew along with a show forming the mascot of pyeongchang games. But even though the ceremony preached peace and unity, north and south korean athletes wore different uniforms while matching into the stadium together, a departure from the countrys opening ceremony. And with the flame extinguished, norway came away with the model most medals with 39, tied with germany in 14 gold medals. For a story of resilience here,
the Hockey Players at marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in the aftermath of the shooting that left 17 classmates and teachers dead weighed heavily in their hearts as they made a run to the state title. Starting the day as the lowest seeded team in the tournament, Stoneman Douglas whose players dyed yellow hair in on honor of their fallen classmates were resilient, eventually winning the state championship. This wasnt for us. This was for the 17 victims. We played for them. So passionate, so emotional, its all for them. The players almost didnt hit the ice because of the shooting, but they played for their school. A heart broken school. What an incredible story. So happy to see that school get some good news in the wake of everything that has happened there. Still ahead, President Trump is scheduled to meet with governors from across the country this morning. What we expect to hear from him as the the debate over guns and School Safety ramps up. Plus, Jared Kushners Security Clearance hits another staff. What white house john kelly may be doing about it. Well be right back. But you started a new life in a brand new wor