Throughout the rundown, and i want to start with nbcs political reporter glenn murray and Peter Alexander who covered the last Romney Campaign. Gentlemen, good morning. Mark, start with you. We know the call will happen. Do we know if mitt will announce . Well, what we do know is hes holding a Conference Call with some of his closest supporters and advisers from his past president ial campaign run. And the hunch is and jose this is not a certainty. The hunch is hell continue to pursue the president ial bid hes been hinting at for weeks now and but we dont know for certain. What we do know is this jose that the ground underneath mitt romneys feet has actually started to shift in the last few days. Just yesterday we learned one of his top iowa strategists david kochel is said to be jeb bushs president ial campaign manager, if bush decides to make his expected 2016 president ial bid. And we also can tell you my colleague chuck todd has reported one of the people invited to be on this romney Conference Call today is already planning to work for jeb bush. And so if mitt romney wants to run, he has to make his intention known now. I wouldnt be surprised if he makes this intention, it comes in the form of creating an Exploratory Committee or a Political ActionCommittee Just to give donors and advisers a clear understanding of where his intentions are. So, mark who else is on that phone call . Well so right now what we do know is that these are the people who have been around mitt romney, who have worked for him in the past. Top advisers people in the key states, like iowa and new hampshire. Pretty much mitt romneys big universe of supporters but as chuck was able to report, at least one person who ended up getting the email from this email invitation to be on the Conference Call for mitt romney world is already planning to be on the jeb bush train. Peter does this look look the Romney Campaign you covered in 2012 . I think the Romney Campaign the governor himself certainly realizes now is the time they need to come forward and signal in some form to supporters those who still stuck around with him, they are moving forward on this. There is hypoterrible they announce a pact or something to that effect. Recognize this is three weeks today since he told donors he was considering it. He met with jeb bush just about a week ago, and as you speak to romney advisers a couple ive spoken to today are those donors and in his inner circle believe that he in his mind thinks hes gathered enough information to make the decision that he needs about a third run. The email he sent out to these individuals referred to this as an update. Inside the mind of mitt romney they say he really believes there is no better candidate out there in the field right now for president , and in some way a lot of this due to his mormon faith believe he has an obligation a sense of duty to the country to add his name to this chorus one more time. Their hopes inflated by some good poll numbers and early states places like iowa and new hampshire, and beyond that as youve heard governor romney speaking consistently about income and equality and poverty, a better focus hell focus on topics the Romney Campaign governor romney and his family believe are prime issues in this life which is community service. Helping the poor. Doing things to that effect. Many things that came from his leadership role in the mormon church. And, mark romney has essentially been in quasi campaign mode. Does he have a schedule . Is timing on this issue whether he goes in or doesnt important jrchlt timing is important for him to make his intentions very clear. This is similar to what jeb bush had to do a couple months ago. Jeb bush floated whether he would flun 2016. A lot of people didnt take it all that seriously. The way jeb bush made it serious was by saying, look, i am going to explore a president ial bid. As soon as he started doing that things with social media, the entire political world, particularly republican donors started taking it seriously. In some way peter mentioned three weeks ago when mitt romney ended up saying he was now thinking about it but people are looking for a stronger indication from mitt romney to be able to get those people online. Now, jose i mentioned to you, defections from mitt romney world to jeb bush world. Dom realize this is the natural consequence of somebody going from the Republican Partys president ial nominee in 2012 to somebody who essentially on even footing with some of the other president s candidate. A person can win on even footing but you wont have the same big group of donors. Its going to be a little smaller. Look like for him more 2008 than the fall and summer of 2012. Mark and peter, thank you so much for being with me. Of course much more on mitt romney with the moderator of meet the press chuck todd in a couple of minutes. And following several new developments from the middle east in jordan and japan, an extremely tense situation. The fate of a japanese and jordanian hostage remains unclear nearly 24 hours after a deadline set by the isis terror group. Also developing in egypt. An isis offshoot claiming responsibility for four simultaneous attacks that killed at least 32 people on the Sinai Peninsula and word one of the five taliban detainees exchanged for Bohr Bergdahl try beau berg damedahl tried to rekwect with the taliban. Reporter it look its like the hostages their lives still in the balance, these two nations, gentlemanjapan and jordan a world apart but both united in this crisis. Another crisis has come and gone and no word from the kidnappers of isis. No sign that a deal has been done. The two sets of families have pleaded with their governments and with isis. The two governments say theyre working together and around the clock to free the jordanian pilot and the japanese journalist, but at the minute no sign that any deal is being done, and i have to say jose i think hope is raezeally fading for these hostages. Jordan initially said it would be okay with a deal to free a suicide bomber a failed suicide bomb the woman that isis wanted from jail and then it backtracked on that. It said that it wanted first of all proof that its pilot, the jordanian, was still alive, and last night a jordanian minister said that that woman isis wants was in fact still in jordan. Theres really no sign they are prepared to go through with this very complicated threeway deal. Bill the whole issue was proof of life for both the jordanian an the japanese hostage, and that as far as we know simply hasnt happened. Reporter thats right. I mean the family of the pilot, who are wr prominent in this knt, theyknt country, they say they have had word he a alive and putting a lot of pressure on the jordanian government. Jord sn part of the u. S. Led coalition against isis. Its Bombing Campaign is pretty unpopular here. So the government here is under pressure. The government in japan is under pressure as well. The Prime Minister three years ago said he wanted japan to play a greater role in the world. Well, three years on hes had one hostage in the middle east decapitated and another one who is whose life is being threatened. So theres pressure on both governments. Isis not only holds the hostages, it appears to hold if you like, all the cards. Nbcs bill neely in jordan. Thank you. Now to the pentagon and jim miklaszewski. Good morning. Reporter good morning, jose. Start with reporting involving taliban detainees freed in exchange for soldier Bowe Bergdahl . An update . Reporter right. U. S. Officials tell us at least one of those five taliban Prisoners Released in exchange for Army SergeantBowe Bergdahl at least attempted to reach out to his old taliban members. Now, according to officials those five taliban members are being held essentially in semiconfinement in a villa in doha qatar. So one of those, two months ago, got on the telephone, made several phone calls to a relative in afghanistan who is either a member of the taliban or has close ties to the taliban. U. S. Security intelligence monitored those phone calls, and according to officials, there was nothing in the phone calls themselves that posed any kind of imminent threat to u. S. Personnel or forces there in afghanistan, but nevertheless the very fact that this prisoner who was released by the u. S. Is now attempting apparently to at least reconnect to the taliban. The u. S. Is going to tripe to talk to ga toorqatar to get them to cut off any of those phone calls but thats meaningless, really because relatives and friends can visit those five prisoners there in semiconfinement in doha and quite frankly, that confinement ends in june. And according to officials here at that time those five prisoners would apparently be free and if so willing to return to afghanistan, return to taliban, and return to the fight. Now, all of this couldnt have come at a worst time for the white house, and the obama administration, because theres so much attention now to the swap potential prisoner swap between jordan and isis and new questions raised about whether those five prisoners should have been released to get return of Bowe Bergdahl in the first place. As one official said look this couldnt be worse timing jose. Nbcs jim mccla shechsky atkiklaszewskimiklaszewski. Thank you. A story that broke yesterday. Everyone pulled from the rubble after a deadly gas explosion tore through a Childrens Hospital in mexico city. Incredible video of the moment that explosion erupted. Take a look. [ explosion ] at least three people were killed. More than seven injured in that massive blast. Joining inging me now live from mexico city, good morning, give us an update on exactly what happened and where you are. Reporter good morning, jose. As you can see, behind me is whats left from the building that used to be this child hospital. Yesterday morning the explosion was around 7 09. Inside the hospital at that precise moment was 110 people. 72 of them are injured. 3 of them unfortunately, were killed. 2 of those were babies. 1 was a nurse. 22 of the injured people are considered in critical situation. Authorities now are just trying to remove as fast as they can all that you can see so they can rebuild this hospital that is needed for this community. Also they are ever waiting to fine the company for as much as 2. 5 million, because of the explosion, jose. Directly in mexico city thank you for being with me this morning. Reporter thank you. Just Getting Started on this friday edition of the rundown. After the break, meet the press Moderator Chuck Todd here with his take on mitt romneys big 11 00 a. M. Conference call plus a story that has a lot of people talking. A huge name in the hiphop world under arrest on suspicion of murder. Suge knight. Well tell what you hes accused of coming up on msnbc. I take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. Because it gives me. Zero heartburn prilosec otc. The number 1 doctorrecommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. One pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. Huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know you that former pro Football Player ickey woods will celebrate almost anything . Unhuh. Number 44. Whoooo fortyfour, thats me get some cold cuts. Get some cold cuts. Get some cold cuts whooo gimme some geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. Whoo fortyfour ladies, thats me whoo. Gonna get some cold cuts today ring ring progresso i cant believe im eating bacon and rich creamy cheese before my sisters wedding well its only 100 calories, so youll be ready for that dress uhhuh. You dont love the dress . I love my sister. 40 flavors. 100 calories or less. And were keeping a close eye on the developing news out of mitt romneys camp. Twotime president ial candidate expected to hold a Conference Call at about 11 00 a. M. Eastern time. The topic, the president last night in philly made romney the topic of conversation with this jab weve got a former president ial candidate on the other side who suddenly is just deeply concerned about poverty. Thats great. Lets go. Come on. Lets do something about it. Romney quick to respond on twitter writing, mr. Obama, wonder why my concern about poverty . The Record Number of poor in your term and your record of failure to remedy. Feeling deja vu anyone . Lets bring the moderator of meet the press, chuck todd. Nice to see you. Romney is back in and certainly. Right. Back in, at least consideration this 11 00 call. How long does he have to make this call one way or the other . Look a sense of urgency right now. Theres a few things that have happened over the last week. He lost one of his chief strategists for iowa for the last two cycles signed up with jeb bush. There are a number of donors who are picking bush over romney. In fact people that were invited to this Conference Call who the romney folks thought were part of sort of the romney, say, inner circle. Second ring of the inner circle are already with bush and the romney people dont know it yet. So the fact of the matter is the ground under romney is crumbling, if he doesnt make a decision to if he really is going to run he cant dawdle. Theres a sense of urgency. It hes going to run today he needs to form a pact announce something that hes doing that or if hes not if he basically, if this is a doesnt announce anything new, sort of look im still thinking about it i think the decisions going to be made for him and a bunch of people will end up signing on with jeb bush. Meanwhile, the obama romney back and forth sounds a lot like 2012. We have those Election Results ready to go and there it is. Ouch. Im not even not going to put up the latino vote. I dont want to say 71 for one candidate versus the other one. Is this exactly what the gop fears . Look, i think there are plenty of people in the republican sort of the leadership of the party who sit there and say, you know what . Romney was not a good candidate. Could have made a good president but was not a nimble candidate. What has changed . Why will we think hell be more nimble this time . And that the worst thing, i cant tell you how many things ive heard this week when you hear out of well this time hell run more comfortably. More as the real mitt romney. Really . Is takes you three tries to do that . Thats something i think that you know every week hes in the race jose theyll be an announcement of somebody who was with him who is flipping to bush or who was with him, flipping to walker. So look i think this could be a toretureous experience for him over the next six months. The good news for romney his name i. D. Is up and there are rub republicans who have buyers remorse, independence buyers remorse thinking romney had a Foreign Policy argument to make. Maybe this time people will listen to him, but ill tell you, in the insider game its really tough to see how romney wins sort of the inside part of this president s primary season. Talk possible. New nbc news wall street journal poll four in ten americans would encourage their child to play another sport other than football due to the number of concussions. The number is half when it comes to democrats. Anything gleaned from these numbers . Talking about football and the nfl looks like theyve been under siege. Roger goodell, crisis mode when it comes to ray rice. This week the whole deflategate issue, all that business. The threat to the future of the nfl is the health and 15i679y yy y safety of the game. Roger goodell has a Big Press Conference today. Announce 15i679y thing ysafety things. Its future of nfl is in the hands of moms and minivans. If you have kids steering their kids away from playing youth football eventually thats going to trickle up and cause problems for the nfl. They need to get their arms around this. Announce no tackle football before the age of 12. Mandatory, do the safety things they do for the nfl and make it mandatory mandatory, do things to make parents feel comfortable again about this, because thats how you protect the future of the game. Again, we sort of were all focused and sort of the the scandal of the moment in the nfl. This is the real longterm challenge for Roger Goodell and the nfl, is getting their arms around this. Chuck, quick. Whos going win . Im with the seahawks. Not rooting for either team. Im rooting for katy perry, fireworks. Cant finish the game. As a fan, i dont know who i want to win. Who i would put the mortgage payment on . Give me the better defense every day of the week so i put the mullah on thee mullah on the seahawks. We disagree. Mitt romneys 2012 running mate. Paul ryan on the show. Probably the guy who holds the depresident obama getting anything bipartisan through on the house of representatives on trade. Bob gates, former secretary of defense. A lot of things to talk about him. Isis, russia and talk concussions, former player and head of the nfl players association. So a pretty fun show. If its super bowl sunday my friend, its meet the press. If if you have time on or off air about the immigration issues on the house . Ive heard hes involved in some of that. Is that true or not . Love to know. He is. Paul ryan on policy is at the center of every major i think, issue at this point. Tax reform immigration. Trade. You name it, paul ryans in the middle of it. Meet the press on sunday. Chuck, thanks. Wont miss it. You bet. And mitt of course always able to start a conversation. Exactly whats going on on our Facebook Page. A lot of feedback around his third potential run. Many of the commons says no patricia, no a zebra cant change its stripes. Some support. From luis if mitt runs this time hell win. The conversation is just taking off. You can weigh in on our Facebook Page or on jdbmsnbc