Transcripts For WRC Today 20170302 : vimarsana.com

President joe bidens son bo now dating his younger brother. This morning what the couple and the biden family are saying about that relationship. And triple threat. Superstar Jennifer Lopez live in our studio today thursday, march 2, 2017. This is today liver fr from studio 1a. Good morning and welcome to today on in thursday morning. Were looking forward to having Jennifer Lopez with us later, but we have a lot of news to get to. A lot happening overnight. The top story, the Trump Administration facing a new controversy over russia. Nbc news confirming that Jeff Sessions met with the Russian Ambassador to the u. S. Twice last year and that is raising some questions now about whether sessions misled lawmakers during his we start with Peter Alexander at the white house for us this morning. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. What a busy night. White house officials this morning are dismissing this as another partisan attack by democrats. But it is a serious issue that could have significant implications. Among the questions this morning, did attorney general Jeff Sessions commit persjury when he testified that he didnt have any contacts with russians last year. With lawmakers calling for an independent investigation into russian interference in the election and possible contacts between candidate Trumps Campaign and the russians, this morning bombshell revelation, the Washington Post first reporting attorney general Jeff Sessions had two conversations with russians ambassador to the u. S. Last year. But didnt mention it during his recent confirmation hearing. If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump Campaign communicated with of this campaign, what will you do . Im not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two and i did not have communications with the russians. Reporter in past the post reports sessions spoke to ambassador in july and september last year. Overnight sessions spokesperson acknowledged he met ambassador but it was as a senator, notsur. He later said i never met with russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false. Still the post reports sessions was the only lawmaker among 20 members of the Senate Armed Services committee including john mccain who met with ambassador last year. Overnight, reaction was swift. Some democrats calling on the attorney general to recuse himself from are any investigation into russias interference with the election. Others including nancy pelosi saying sessions should resign immediately. Late wednesday, republican Lindsey Graham was pressed on the issue on cnn. If there is something there that the foobi believes is criminal in nature, then for sure you need a special prosecutor. If that day ever comes, ill be the first one to say it needs to be somebody other than jeff. Reporter the new accusations come less than a month after Michael Flynn was forced to resign after revelations he spoke to the stapsame ambassado mr. Trump took office. How many people have to say that there is nothing there before you realize there is nothing there . Reporter also overnight according to a New York Times report citing more than a half dozen former and current u. S. Officials, during the Obama Administration last days, some white house officials scrambled to spread information about rush shank e election and about possible contacts with mr. Trumps associates and russians. The times reports those former u. S. Officials had two goals, to ensure there is no such meddling in future elections and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for governments investigators. So on far this morning nothing from President Trump at least not twitter about his new attorney general. Overnight president george w. Bushs chief ethics lawyer tweeted misleading the senate in sworn testimony about ones own contacts with the russians is a good way to go to jail. Matt and savannah, back to you. Peter, thank you. Lets bring in pete williams. To good morning to you. Lets talk about the answer he gave under oath during the confirmation hearing. Its either the truth, a lie or an omission or misleading depending on who you talk to. How is his explanation going over . Reporter at the Justice Department they say he had only one private meeting with the Russian Ambassador last capacity as a senator, not somebody involved in the campaign. And the other encounter came with a group of ambassadors that approached him after he gave a speech at the Republican Convention in july. That was not a oneonone meeting. But what theyre saying is that his answer to franken wasnt misleading because he was thinking about trump surrogates giving Campaign Information to the russian government and he said he didnt know of any. And the other issue will this morning is people are saying programs the attorney general should appoint a special prosecutor to look into all of this. If he is now at the minimum a potential witness in his own investigation, is that not a textbook case of when an attorney general needs to appoint a special prosecutor . And of course what theyre asking is for him to recuse himself from the investigation, to step down from the investigation. And during the past week hes been asked twice by reporters whether from any involvement with the investigation are. And both times he said he would if and when he thought it would be appropriate. So clearly he has some decisions to make here about whether to recuse or appoint a special prosecutor or not to do either one. All right. Pete williams, thanks. And Mark Halperin joining us with the political fallout. We talked about the legal issues. Is the political pressure now so high that sessions will really feel the heat and feel that he has to step aside and get a special prosecutor . Certainly feel it for democrats. The question is are there republicans who will say mr. Attorney general, our former senate colleague, you need to not oversee this investigation. As suggested, is this a textbook case where i dont think anyone thinks that the attorney genea the appearance ever conflict. You could have career lawyers deal witht. Will capitol hill go. The imebolalibo symbolism of gi statements that were off base, meaning the pressure lb greater for a larger investigation. And it go to the overwhelming idea that there is some kind of unusual contact or connection between the Trump Administration and russia. This story does nothing to help that. This is the latest example and of course its the attorney general of the United States, the man Whose Organization is supposed to be investigating it. Why does it matter to real people . Because there has to be some understanding of what happened in the last election. Some confidence that wasnt inappropriate contact with russia. I think the white house should and perhaps will welcome an investigation that makes this into the open. The succecces attorney general this off as these are innocent meetings. Maybe they are. But they clearly raise is it reasonable to assume that someone like Jeff Sessions in meeting with that Russian Ambassador can compartmentize these two roles . If you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, pete said one was a chance encount ter. Second meeting, Jeff Sessions spent most of last year be a United States senator. He was primarily doing the job ever a 12340r. Its possible that is how he thought about it. But he knew he had these meetings. And the fact that it came out not by disclosing it at the hearing or subsequently but threw a media reportic people have to wonder who else knew about these meetings that he had. Did the white house which has gone out of its way to say there were no improper meetings between campaign officials, did they know about it before yesterday. We dont know that right now. The post reported that they reached out to all the senators who with your on the Armed Services Committee Last year and of the 20 who responded, none had metyour on the Armed Services Committee Last year and of the 20 who respondedno ambassador. There seems to be a lot of contacts. This is a concrete one that we now know happened. People will want to ask questions today. Mark halperin, thanks so much. Trading begins today on the heels of the dows best day in months, topping 21,000 for the first time ever. Will the good times keep rolling as they say and how much credit should President Trump had been taking for all this . The dow has claimed 2700 points since he was elected back in november passing the historic milestones of 20,000 and 21,000 along the way. Alley vi velshi is at the new y Stock Exchange. Theyre calling it the trumpd effect. How much credit does he deserve . Ill get in trouble on twitter, but thats exactly what it is. I remember a younger day when we saw 10,000 for the first time in just between the time donald trump has become president and now is a big deal. The dow is up 15 from election day until now. And yesterday about 24 hours ago, we were looking at a market that opened almost 200 point higher and soon 300 points higher. Today well have a more muted effect which means that it really was about Donald Trumps speech in which he reit rated some everis policies. This is a trump rally. If you talk to folks and they get excited because they start to see the hone go up in their 401 k , but i also think there are a lot of nervous because what goes up off only comes down. And i have spoken to a lot of experts who value the market and they say the valuation is very high. Its frothy. The market could be too high. Ive spoken to others who say that if donald trump gets the things he congress, tax reform, regulation repeal, infrastructure building, its going to create such value in companies that this will all make sense. The bottom line to remember is that the market can turn on a dime. The minute they get word that donald trump may not be able to get tax rates as low as hed like on you get one of these things done, you might see a pull back on markets like this. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Another big anybody happening at the Stock Exchange this morning. Snapchats Parent Company goes public. One of the most anticipated ipos of the year. Stephanie bull has more on all of it. Good morning. Reporter this morning evan speegle is hoping to be the Mark Zuckerberg after snapchat goes public with a market value of 23. 6 billion. Not as high as facebooks 104 billion back in 2012, but enough to cement him as a titan effect. Columnists dont want to like him. Hes successful, hand zchl, he has a beautiful fiance. But you say wow, this guy is a visionary. Rurt the f reporter the fiance . Model a. Model. He will turned down an offer to sell to facebook back in 2013. Since then, they have rolled out features modeled after snapchat. They should be very flattered because Mark Zuckerberg is thinking how do i kill snapchat. Reporter tough to kilt tl t little app that could. Launched less than fivear million daily users who love adding funny filters to their photos and video. The majority of them 18 to 34 why woulds using the app more than 18 times a day. Average time, 30 minutes. Is. You have to be useful or entertaining. And snap schat is both those things. Reporter when it was first launched, snapchat was best known for being a sexting tool. The reason . Whatever you say disappears in 24 hours. If you want something more permanent, obviously you put it on like twitter or facebook. This is an easy 24 hour thing. Reporter now its mainstream. In fact during the political season, more 18 to 24yearolds watched the president ial debate on snapchat than they did on tv. You know this company and that is why investors are clamoring to get in this deal. Its pricing at 17. This will break maybe in the and we know that the founders will be instant billionaires. Everybody gets excited by Something Like this. This is todays big thing. What is coming up on the horizon . If todays deal goes as well as expected, you have other big names on the more rye stochb. Airbnb, uber, spotify, those deals could get moved up. Stephanie ruhle, thank you. Good segue to matt al. I cant get these people straight. Will. What are the odds. I know we both have beards. Were both bald. But there is a little difference. Anyway,s thank you very much. We have had some really Severe Weather over the last several days. The good news is its getting out of here. This is the last of it as we see from yesterday. Look at this, this is in central tennessee. Massive tornado. Lucky t w thankfully no deaths. As it pushed through, it caused big problems. Right now we got wind to worry about. In fact our todays top weather story, 74 Million People under some sort of wind advisory. High wind warning of northeast new england, Midatlantic States wind gusts reaching up to 60 Miles Per Hour. And the wind gusts will Start Building as date wears on. Upper 30mileperhour wind gusts, maybe even into the 40s. And the other side of this will be continues will start dropping. Right now were wat 48 new york on city, but as the day wears on, temperatures continue to drop and as we go into tomorrow morning, we will be at or below freezing. And to add insult to injury, we have a quick children late tonight into tomorrow. Light snow from the great lakes into the northeast. Late tonight into tomorrow. Light snow from the great lakes into the northeast. Well get to your local forecast coming up. Sgl good thursday morning. Temperatures feeling colder because of all the wind. Feels like 39 in the district, 34 gaithersburg. Wind advisory is up for most of the area surrounding the district northern virginia, all of maryland until 10 00 a. M. Winds could be gusting close to 50 Miles Per Hour. Through the afternoon, 53 for a high temperature. Sunny, tlg be windy today, tomorrow chance of snow shower, cool weekend. And that is your latest weather. Al, thank you very much. Coming up, beau bidens widow now in a relationship with his younger brother. This morning what the former Vice President is saying about that. And a creates tifr weapondi weapon in the fight against drunk driving. Suit that shows what you its like to be intorks indicatoxic the wheel. The wheel. Coming up, beau bidens widow the wheel. Still heed, what you will see in the live action version of beauty and the beast. And Jennifer Lopez live in studio. If you have a question for her, tweet us using j. Lo today. How about adding a third . 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Get your good going. Hes got the cash. Hes got a condo. Hes got a car. Hes got a career. But that still doesnt mean he gets you. Time to shine. Orbit. 7 26 is your time on this thursday march 2, 2017. Xwm to you. Im eun yang. And im Aaron Gilchrist. In the news right now, if you see this young boy, please call Prince Georges County police. Hes 8 and hes missing. His aunt says that he was last seen at a mosque that he usually goes to at a school. Tha