Frightening moment. Minnesotas governor begins to slur his words during a speech. And suddenly collapses. People quickly rush in to help. This morning the latest on his condition. All eyes on will willland. This years Oscar Nominations are set to be revealed. Live today, tuesday, january 24th, 2017. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Welcome to day two of natalies you are my inside source on oscars. Youll hear la la land and manchester by the sea. The punishing noreaster causing major problems upanddown the east coast. Were going to get to als forecast in a moment. But, first, nbcs blake mccoy is on long island. How is it looking there, blake . Reporter good morning. A sleepless night here for many with the wind howling and the rain pelting down. You can see giant sand berms have been built here on long island and into new jersey to protect against flooding. With high tide now near, this is the moment where everyone holds their breath and hopes the precautions hold. This morning a noreaster slamming into the northeast. Dumping heavy rain and high winds up to 45 miles per hour. Overnight neighborhoods reduced to rivers and roads barely passable. Umbrellas . Useless. 23 million americane in pa th storm. In pennsylvania, flying debris killed a 59yearold philadelphia man. Police say a sign flew off an auto dealership and pinned him to a car. In new jersey, winds so strong they almost blew people over. Getting blown forward. I was getting scared. Reporter this window washing rig tossed around like a toy. Powerful wind gusts slamming into a building. On new yorks long island trees toppled on to cars and knocked down power lines. Susan emmerson came home to find a tree on her roof. And the building inspector came and said you cant be here. Reporter now she has to find somewhere else to go. Getting there could be tough. Im frustrated. Reporter Power Outages crippling Amtrak Service in new jersey late monday. Parts of the train tracks flooded. Reporter this morning the trains are faring much better so far. There are thousands of Power Outages being reported this morning from new jersey to connecticut anmassachusett which could impact travel as people head out the door. Blake, thank you very much. Mr. Roker, how long will it last . Another 12 to 18 hours out of this. And then things finally start to calm down. In the meantime, we have 18 Million People under Winter Weather advisories from pennsylvania to new england. And the moisture from this stretches all the way from bermuda and beyond to the northeast, new england. A ton of moisture available. You can see snow in the upper elevations. Upstate new york and parts of new england. The rain ending down near in the northeast. The winds are still howling. Look at the wind gusts now. Islip 33, boston 46 miles per hour. Nantucket 15. And the system gets closer. Those will increase. Rain, snow, and wind for most of new england along new jersey and new york city coastline. Things will start to get better in the next several hours, but for our friends to the north, and massachusetts all the way to providence, rhode island until 10 00. Anywhere from 1 to 2 inches of rain. We have ice to worry about. Icing from new jersey up to a quarter of an inch. And devastating amounts in new england up to a half an inch of ice. And snowfall through wednesday were talking 8 to 6 inches of snow from Northern New England to Central New York state. Good news, once we get through this, things calm down into the weekend. Thats good news. Al, thank you very much. Lets turn to politics. President trump welcomed congressional leaders to the white house last night and stirred up controversy immediately by repeating a widely debunked claim about the push election. This as lawmakers begin the process of confirming trumps cabinet nominees. In a moment, former defense secretary and cia director robert gates weighs on mr. Trumps opening days in office. First, to reports from the white house beginning with nbcs peter reporter hey, matt. Good morning. It was President Trumps First Official meeting with congressional leaders here after what aids view as a strong opening day. More than two months after winning the election, mr. Trump is dwelling on having lost the popular vote. And again repeated a bogus claim. President trump opening his new house to congressional leaders, both republicans and democrats. Happy hour for food and drink served. During the bipartisan reception, sources tell nbc news the president revisited the campaign claiming without evidence that between 3 and 5 million undocumented voted in the election causing him to lose the popular vote to hillary clinton. According to the washington post, the number of documented cas cases in voter fraud including a woman in iowa that voted twice law makers in the state dining. Ceos in the roosevelt. Leaders in the oval office. Theyre happy with the meeting they had. What do you think . After campaigning on more than 20 promises. Many my first day in office im going to ask every republican congressman to send a bill to immediately repeal and replace obamacare. On day one, well begin working on an inpenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall. A more modest opening day. Just three executive orders. Instituting a hiring freeze for federal workers, not including the military. Reinstating a policy to ban from providing or promoting abortions. Most notably, pulling out of the pacific trade deal. A obama project intended to check china. Great thing for the american worker. Reporter the move triggering a political role reversal. Praised by Bernie Sanders but blasted by john mccain after sean spicers combative weekend debut making inaccurate claims about inauguration crowd size, spicer tried to smooth things over. Also raising eye brows spicers refusal to say the Unemployment Rate almost a year after this trumps claim. The numbers probably 2829, as high as 35. 42 . Spicers take . I think for too often in washington we get our heads wrapped around a number and a statistic. Reporter for the record, the current Unemployment Rate right now is 4. 7 , as of december. Back here at the white house theres a noticeable change in the way that. Trump is going to conduct business. President obama would typically le leave the west wing by 6 30 for dinner with his family. Mr. Trump is here this morning. Kellyanne conway said his schedule will include many working dinners, including dinners with members of the media, matt, that he repeatedly targeted. Peter, thank you very much. As we mentioned the president s new team is starting to take shape and last night his director of the cia was sworn in. And secretary of state Rex Tillerson moved closer to his own confirmation. Hallie jackson has that part of the story. Good mornin pr ooin a busy day not just hill the president s pick for transportation secretary is said to get a full senate vote later today. As more of his nominees now get the green light, more scrutiny on some of the topics theyre said to oversee like Foreign Policy, intelligence, and National Security. A cabinet coming together. Cia head mike pompeo successfully sworn in. Rex tillerson clearing his Biggest Senate hurdle. All but sirn to be named secretary of state next week. New leadership for the trump administrations intelligence and Foreign Policy teams. Both of those topics in the spotlight. Natch National Security advisor mike flynn getting attention for his interactions with russias ambassador to the u. S. On december 29th. The same day that the Obama Administration announced sanctions against moscow for interfering in the election. Sean spicer describes those discussions as routine. Saying flynn made another c three days ago. One call talked about four subjects. Reporter a u. S. Intelligence official tells nbc news overnight there was never an investigation of flynn and the calls were briefly scrutinized after being picked up as part of routine monitoring of the ambassador adding the matter has been concluded. The backdrop to all of this . Broader questions about the investigation into russias meddling with the u. S. Election. One former intelligence official briefed on the matter said that inquiry is looking whether certain former campaign aids had improper contacts with the russians. The Senate Intelligence committee looking into any possible connections. At the white house, the press secretary down playing any feud between the president and leaders of the intelligence community. Pointing to the response President Trump got during his visit to the cia saturday. They were excited. They were clapping. They were cheering. Reporter that cheering audible for staffers in attendance. Not from Senior Agency leadership staying silent during parts of the president s remarks. John brennan not in attendance calling the president ial appearance a despicable display. Almost overshadowed . These remarks. Probably wouldnt have isis. Thats where they made their money in the first place. We should have kept the oil but okay. Maybe well have soot chance. We want to make sure our interests are protected. If were going in to a country for a cause can you state this administration will not send more troops into iraq to, as the president put it, take the oil . Im not going to talk about what we may or may not do. Reporter and press Secretary Sean Spicer will hold his second briefing here today at the podium behind me as the president starts his day with that auto meeting. It includes a one on one with Top Senate Republican mitch mcconnell. Matt, you know the topic of Supreme Court picks will be on the agenda. Thank you very much. Robert gates served as secretary of defense under president s obama and george w. Bush and the cias director under president george h. W. Bush. And author of the book a passion for leadership. Rex tillerson was approved last night. The vote was 1110. Despite some senators serious concerns about his ties to russia. This is the guy you suggested to then president elect donald trump. Are you worried as he gets confirmed and moves forward in his job there will always be lingering doubts about him any time he deals with russia or putin . I dont think so. I think that once rex is confirmed and in office that his actions will prove hes basically totally focussed on looking out for best interest of the United States. Frankly, i was disappointed it was a party line vote. I had hoped that a few dmo lets stay on russia for a second. Youre aware of the things donald trump tweeted and said about russia and Vladimir Putin calling him a great leader. Calling him an asset. Saying he wants a closer relationship with him. You four months ago said trumps expressions of admiration for putin and his authoritarian regime are naive and responsible. Youre the guy who once famously said i looked in Vladimir Putins eyes and i saw the eyes of a stonecold killer. When you met wh then president elect trump a couple of months ago, did you personally say those things to him . Did you warn him about putin . I did. I told him about that story, about looking into putins eyes. I also told him that i thought that the challenge for his administration was going to be to thread the needle between figuring out how to push back against putins aggressions and meddling in interventions and thugery. And at the same time figure out a way to stop what i regard as a dangerous downward spiral in the relationship. You have to do both things. You know the fbi and cia and other intelligence agencies are investigating possible improper contact between three of mr. Trumps former campaign associates. The New York Times goes as far as saying looking at intercepted communication and financial data. Youve got an experienced gut. You were this nations top spy. Does it make you kweesy . I dont know anything about the investigation. What i have some confidence in based on experience is i have no doubt that the russians tried to intervene in our election. That they tried to discredit and delegitimize the election. Theyre trying to do it in europe now in elections there. This is a part of the way the russians do business. Let me move on to the cia. When President Trump went to the cia a couple of days ago and stood in front of the wall of stars, which represent the this country in the intelligence community. He chose the opportunity to fight with the media and did selfpromoting. Did you feel he was disrespectful to the agency and those people who gave their lives . Well, i think there was sort of seems to be sort of a stream of consciousness that goes on. First of all, i thought it was an important gesture of respect to go there in the first place. Even before mike pompeo was confirmed and basically say to the people at the agency he respected them and willing to work with them. Is there still a rift . Well, i think that to the degree there is and, you know, theres always youre in Contact First of all, theres tension between cia and president s. Because cia says things president s dont like. And so, you know, i think mike po pompeo, i talked to him several times. I think hell be successful in mending this. More importantly, fin President Trump made a comment at langley saying we might get another chance to steal iraqs oil. He said if we kept the oil maybe well have another chance. As the former head of the defense department. I want your reaction. I have no clue what hes talking about. If the u. S. Military were to go in now and try to steal iraqs oil, wouldnt it be an International Crime . I think thats not going to happen. Let me ask you about another comment. During the inaugural address he said a new vision will govern or land. From this day forward, its going to be only america first. Youre a student of history. Historically speaking, how do you think it sounds to our allies . I think it reenforces their impression already that the United States is pulling back from engagement around the world. And i think its leading alo election under the Obama Administration, and i think it just reinforces their view that they may be need to recalibrate their relationships with other countries, including russia and china. If they think the United States is basically pulling back from the leadership role weve had over the last seven decades, other countries are going to fill that. In your book, you write this about important qualities for a leader. You said they have to have the right temperament. They have to keep their ego in check, and treat people with dignity and respect. Having written that, are you confident that donald trump will be an effective leader . I think that you have sort of two parallel universes, if you will. You have the public commentary, tweeting and so on and so forth that is a little mind boggling sometimes. But then many people talk about private and having serious and thoughtful conversations. That was the case when i met with him in december. So i think when i look at the team that hes putting around him in National Security, tillerson and mattis and kelley and so on and i hear about the meetings in price priva priva i like how you bring the two sides of the personality together. The problem is the first impacts the second in terms of perceptions around the world. Former defense secretary robert gates and cia director. Its great to have you here. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Lets swing over al. Hello youre right there. Sorry. I didnt mean to sneak around the former cia director. [ laughter ] he knew you there were all along, al thats whats going on around the country. Heres whats happening in your neck of the woods. Good morning everybody. Im storm 4 meteorologist chuck bell. A lot of clouds outside this morning. Theyre racing across. Theyre leaving the occasional rain drop or two. A couple of wet snow flakes in higher elevations. Not expecting a lot of rain today. It is colder outside, too. Temperatures now in the mid to upper 30s but windchills back in the upper 20s to around 30s. Get your warm coat and be ready for a chilly day today. Milder tomorrow. Another chance for a sprinkle early thursday well, done. Thank you. The c of his state of the state address. Well tell you how hes doing this morning. Scary moment there. New evidence in a murder case made famous by a miniseries. Does it prove a former green beret convicted of killing his own family innocent . First, this is today on nbc. New year, time to get rid of stuff. Simplify, declutter, unplug, purge, or even quit cold turkey. I raise turkeys without growthpromoting antibiotics, hormones, or steroids. If youre looking for little ways to simplify life, feeling good about what your family eats is a Pretty Simple place to start. My name is tammy plumlee, and i raise honest, simple turkey for shady brook farms. Just ahead Michael Jacksons daughter paris speaks out in her most revealing interview ever. What shes saying about her father. Up close with an alligator . Do you really . Well show you more of that after your local news. Hi, im. I switched to sprint because all networks are great. Were talking within a 1 difference in reliability of each other. With sprints unlimited plan and my amazing iphone 7 ive got all the data i need to learn the things i want to do. Donde esta El Restaurante . Fourth video today. Good thing i dont have to worry about overages. And now, find out how to get a free iphone se from sprint. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. Your date with destiny has arrived. Lets do this new cinna