This Morning’s Top Headlines – Feb. 27

to begin this morning with the race for the White House as voters in Michigan head to the polls today to take part in the presidential primaries on the Republican side former president Donald Trump is looking to defeat his rival former un Ambassador Nikki Haley for a fifth straight time Haley has spent the last few days meeting with voters across Michigan polls show the former president does have an advantage in the state in the Democratic primary President Biden is expected to come out on top t

oday but there has been a push by some Michigan Democrats to vote against the president instead voting uncommitted on the ballot Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer says she is confident in the Biden Administration I think in Michigan you can always count on close elections that's true no matter who's on the ballot and that's why I think it's important that they are focused on Michigan and I'm grateful that their agenda has shown um problem solving and the values that we care about so what can we

expect today let's bring in NBC News senior National politics reporter Jonathan Allen John good to have you with us so let's start on the GOP side former president Trump is the favorite to win Michigan that would put him one step closer to winning the Republican nomination for a third straight time so just explain to us what's at stake for both the Trump and Haley campaigns here if Haley loses realistically how long can she stay in this till super Tuesday she seems to be committed to at least g

etting through super Tuesday and perhaps even beyond that um you know it would be a shock uh if she won Michigan at this point um there is not a path for her to win the nomination that doesn't involve Donald Trump uh no longer being on the ballot and yet uh Nikki Haley continues to go forward so um again huge upset if she were to win uh Michigan she's so far been unable to identify a state where she thinks she can actually win it looks like Donald Trump is likely to uh wrap up the nomination in

terms of delegates uh by super Tuesday or if not by uh what's called mini super Tuesday following that John on the Democratic side I mentioned this Push by some in the party to not vote for President Biden this is really over his handling of the Israel Hamas war in an interview yesterday with our Gabe Gutierrez Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer says she expects that some voters will vote against the president let's listen to a little bit of that I think there will be a sizable number of votes f

or uncommitted I think that it is um every person's right to make their statement about what's important to them at the end of the day I am advocating that people cast an affirmative vote for Joe Biden because anything other than that makes it more likely we see a second Trump term and that's bad for all the communities so John Michigan played a pivotal role in determining the winner of the 2020 election what are you watching out for today as voters cast their ballots I think the raw number of t

hat uncommitted vote uh against Biden is going to be uh something to watch because uh it basically will give us at least some idea of what he's at stake uh you know what he has at stake in terms of losing in the general election we've seen Michigan uh certainly the last two elections in 2016 and 2020 uh come in very closely so you know a difference of of tens of thousands of votes uh could make the difference in Michigan and Michigan could end up making the difference uh across the country this

is um not something that uh Joe Biden is ignoring um nor is it something he can for to nor nor is it uh something that is uh Small Potatoes I I really do think that watching that uncommitted number will be uh important for for certainly uh the white house uh for those of us in the media trying to get a sense of what will happen later this year and I'm sure uh folks in the Trump Camp will be watching it as well John a reminder that primary season is a little confusing sometimes not all the delega

tes are going to be awarded today in the Republican race a majority will actually be awarded this weekend at a state party convention real quick what more should we know about that it's a circus in Michigan uh first of all they' got this hybrid primary as you point to uh where part of it's uh part of it's awarded based on the primary result part of it's uh a lot of it's done based on a convention here's the problem in Michigan they have two different people claiming to be the rightful chairman o

f the Republican party of Michigan and they look like they're going to have two separate uh conventions um to try to determine who these delegates are uh basically uh there was one person who was in that role she she was replaced by uh Pete hoer a former Congressman uh but will not give up all of the sort of State party materials there's going to be lawsuits over this um you know it's I'm trying to think of a term that's uh appropriate for morning television and I'll just leave it at that you pa

inted a good picture here sounds like it's like a choose your own convention for the weekend so there we go all right John thanks so much apprciate all right well as Trump continues to hit the campaign Trail his legal team has officially filed paperwork to begin appealing that $464 million judgment handed to him earlier this month here in New York that penalty was the culmination of a months-long trial led by New York attorney general Leticia James she accused the former president of overstating

his company's assets in order to secure favorable loans and insurance policies the $464 million penalty figure includes the prejudgment interest that has acred since the ruling was entered on Friday Mr Trump has also barred from running any business from New York for 3 years NBC News legal analyst Angela sadella joins us on set to break this down Angela good morning thanks for being here so the Trump team wants an appeals court to determine if among other things judge and Goran committed errors

of law walk us through what that means what else was in this filing and really kind of what you make of the legal case the Trump team has here yes good morning well first of all let's be clear that this appeal is very unlikely to be successful all appeals generally have a very small shot and in this case the judge was so thorough in his written opinion to make sure that none of his legal rulings will be appealed or will be reversed now that said I see two main areas first the idea that this law

is primarily a consumer protection statute meaning in the past it's only been used against businesses never applied to an individual in this case given the size of the Judgment also that was against an individual for the first time ever in the history of the statute could be a for appeal the second regards statute of limitations we've heard his team talk about this extensively but in the same way that Ivanka Trump was dismissed from the case due to statute of limitations his team is going to ke

ep on saying that he also should be barred for that same reason let's talk about the money does he have to pay any of it or some of it while he's appealing yeah so he has to put that money up within a 30-day period after that judgment was entered on Friday now look what he can do is get a bond company to put that money up but that said there aren't a lot of B bond companies especially in New York that can put up a judgment of that side so there remains large questions as to how this money can be

put up we've heard Leticia James say that if this money is not put up that she will start seizing properties it is very possible at this point he might have to start selling I mean we've seen here defendants like Alex Jones and also Rudy gilani have to be forced into bankruptcy to pay these huge settlements and before while we have you before we let you go I do want to switch gears here at the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg this now we are talking about the New York falsified business

records case he wants to issue this gag order on the former president what do you make of that is this to protect somebody in particular especially based on what we've seen in the past with gag orders yes so it's been a pretty narrow gag order that he is requested for the jurors for the witnesses and also for the other prosecutors that are not himself but the problem here is that you have to weigh this against the First Amendment and that is massive we always say unprecedent but literally there'

s never been an active presidential candidate who could possibly be gagged from speaking in this way also these are not Anonymous Witnesses this is Michael Cohen as the star witness who has talked extensively who has made excoriating remarks against Trump himself so it is unclear at what level this judge will decide to Institute this gag Gord he has to weigh the Constitution and also the safety all right Angela sadella thank you so much now let's get to the Israel Hamas War where this morning is

New Hope for a ceasefire in Gaza President Biden was asked about the likelihood of a pause during a stop to get ice cream in New York while appearing on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers he said he hopes to have a deal for a ceasefire by next week well I hope by the the beginning of the weekend I mean the end of the weekend at least my my my National Security advisor tells me that we're close we're close it's not done yet and My Hope Is by next Monday we'll have a ceas fire for more we're joine

d by NBC News International correspondent Josh Letterman in London so Josh these new comments from the president come as Qatar is mediating talks between Israel and Hamas this week where do things stand with the negotiations well there is a delegation involving Israeli officials Egyptian officials and as you mentioned katuri officials who are in Doha right now uh trying to hammer this out but as far as the specifics of the deal Joe there are frankly quite a bit of different scenarios that are fl

oating around out there and so Al jazer is reporting citing multiple sources a deal in which some 400 Palestinians would be exchanged for some 40 Israelis so roughly a 10 to1 ratio our own Andrea Mitchell spoke to a person familiar with the talks who said they're more discussing a 3:1 ratio which would be in line with the previous hostage deal uh and there's also a New York Times reporting suggesting a smaller deal in which five Israeli female troops being held by Hamas would be traded for some

15 Palestinians who are convicted of serious terrorism offenses so the details a little bit difficult to pin down right now but one common element here pretty much all of these deals involve some uh cessation of hostilities for the month of Ramadan which begins on March 10th Josh Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that deal or no deal no matter what happens here with what we're talking about his forces are going to go into the southern gazen city of Rafa now that is where nearly

a million and a half Palestinians have sought safety since the War begin does Israel have any type of evacuation plan to get those refugees to safety before a planned assault on the city yeah well this has been a controversy for weeks now with the US demanding a concrete plan uh now Israel says that it does have a plan that was submitted by its military yesterday to the war cabinet according to two Israeli officials who spoke to our raap Sanz they Envision many of these Palestinians moving into

con Yunis which is the largest City in southern Gaza has been the focus of intense Israeli bombardment and so once that's cleared out the idea is many of those uh people in Rafa could go to recently reopened KH Unice uh but all of those uh those people in Rafa are expected to stay in the southern portion of the Gaza Strip Israel not expected to let them go back to their homes uh in the north uh and in the meantime the US says it still has not seen any kind of a concrete plan from the Israelis a

nd Josh I mean the situation on the ground just keeps getting worse in Northern Gaza there's growing concern about famine what's the latest [Music] there yeah well the UN now says that humanitarian Aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip actually dropped by 50% this month compared to last month so you're absolutely right the humanitarian crisis uh is growing very fast but uh countries are trying to step up in creative ways including uh Jordan which has started airdropping humanitarian Aid shipments int

o the Gaza Strip from aircraft uh including 40 tons of supplies for women in the Gaza Strip that they dropped in the last few days Joe the US Airman who set himself on fire in an apparent protest against the Israel Hamas War has died the Airman who was identified by police as 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell called Israel's war in Gaza genocide and filmed himself yelling free Palestine before collapsing to the ground outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC in a statement overnight the Air Force c

onfirmed Bushnell was a cyber defense operation specialist and was serving as a senior Airman as part of an intelligence unit based out of Texas the Air Force says the exact details of his death are still under investigation lawmakers are raising to avoid a partial government shutdown by the end of the week it's a headline we have uttered many times so what's going to happen this time well this morning President Biden is meeting with the top four Congressional leaders at the White House to push

for a deal aimed at averting the shutdown the president is also expected to press lawmakers on passing the stalled $95 billion National Security bill which includes aid for Israel and Ukraine joining us now on this is NBC News Congressional correspondent Julie cirin and our White House correspondent Aaron gilchris good morning to both of you Julie I'll begin with you walk us through the upcoming shutdown deadlines and what's at stake here yeah guys just a couple of days away on Friday you got th

at first tranch of deadlines remember this is because speaker Johnson put in that laded two-step shutdown funding deadlines which makes this so much more complicated so coming up this Friday you see it on your screen you've got a shutdown of the agriculture Department energy Housing and Urban Development Veteran Affairs and transportation that's about a fourth of the government so the shutdown would affect all of those agencies then fast forward to next Friday March 8th if they don't meet that d

eadline then you got the shutdown of the Department of Defense State and other matters there too like Judiciary uh and other federal agencies so certainly this is a big deal and a partial government shutdown would affect millions of people millions of workers and all of these agencies I should add already began putting out their plans in case of a shutdown in case lawmakers can't get to an agreement which the clock is ticket Julie what are we hearing from lawmakers about this I mean are we likel

y to get a deal by March 1 we've been in the situational a lot of times we sure have our viewers know that countdown shutdown clock they've been seeing all year long because of policy differences but in this case it really seems like this is more political there aren't a lot of policy disagreements between Senate and House appropriators who've been working on these year-long bills for the last couple of months but the thing is Speaker Johnson certainly has a lot of pressure from Hardline yesterd

ay we heard from leader Schumer on the senate floor reminder the house isn't even back until tomorrow even though speaker Johnson is going to the White House today I want you to listen to what Schumer said and Johnson on the fub side I hope the house continues to work with us in good faith to make that happen but time is short time is short we have the means and just enough time this week to avoid a shutdown and to make serious Headway on annual Appropriations but as always the task at hand will

require that everyone Rose in the same direction of course that was Republican leader McConnell there on the backside Schumer and McConnell here though different parties clearly on the same page they don't want to shut down but sources tell me that speaker Johnson doesn't want one either the problem is hardliners in his conference do want that year-long stop Gap measure to kick in in April that means 1% Cuts all across the agencies that's something that former speaker McCarthy negotiated with P

resident Biden last spring to raise the debt ceiling so a lot going on here we'll see if they can get there by Friday's deadline but certainly a shutdown will not be good for anybody Aon let's bring you in here from the president's perspective what will his message be to the Congressional leaders on the looming shutdown well the White House has suggested that former president Donald Trump is really the hardliner in Chief here putting his thumb on the scale as efforts to get these measures passed

through Congress uh have been slowed and so today I think what we'll see is President Biden and vice president Harris joining together with the four top Congressional leaders at the White House to have a conversation the White House says the president intends to uh push Congress to try to get something done to move these bills that would fund the government beyond the first deadline on Friday and also the president wants to talk about National Security we know that there's been a measure passed

in the Senate that would provide uh funding for Ukraine for Israel for uh originally for the border and now there's a SE border effort but uh it seems as though the White House feels like these are things that Congress needs to get done it's on Congress to do the work to get these bills passed to get these measures passed and to keep uh working but the White House knows that the president uh is one who feels as though he can bring people around a table and sort of talk through some of the hard

points uh and create some reconciliation to try to get the the ball moving we don't know that that's going to happen in this instance there as Julie noted there are so many other factors at play here uh that it remains to be seen what exactly it is the president will do we've asked about the strategy going into today's meeting uh and and not really gotten a response from the White House about that really just one that says you know it's it's time to get something done and the president's going t

o make that point today before he goes to the border and talks more about National Security next week uh rather this week and then we'll hear the State of the Union next week guys Aaron we also expect the president to bring up that National Security Bill still struggling to get through the house includes aids for Ukraine along with for Israel what more can we expect there yeah this is something that every member of the administration who who makes a public appearance has really taken time to try

to say this is a major issue that the US needs to be concerned about for our own national security purposes and for Global Security really there this this need to uh to pass this this Security Supplemental to get Ukraine weapons uh as it's starting to falter a bit in its effort against Russia uh and also the the national security funding portion that would affect Israel in terms of providing military assistance there but perhaps more importantly uh would create some avenues for humanitarian Aid

to be increased from the US going into the into Gaza to help the Palestinian people so a lot on the president's agenda here and we're going to hope to hear from uh perhaps the white house this afternoon when the press secretary speaks and potentially from these Congressional leaders as they leave the meeting there will be a camera right outside the west wing all right trulie and Aaron thank you both very much a severe storm risk stretching from Missouri to Michigan today let's get to check on y

our Morning News Now weather Andrew lman is with us in studio hey Andrew good morning hey good morning guys good chunk of the Midwest is included in this threat that we could see develop here as we get into the afternoon evening and even overnight hours tonight 41 million people included that you can see some major cities as well St Louis Chicago Detroit Louisville all included in that slight risk for us to see the hail up to golf ball size we could potentially see wind gust up to 60 MPH and not

ruling out uh the potential for a few tornadoes across this region as well again the potential is there for this to occur after dark as well and we know how dangerous nocturnal tornadoes are here's the deal as far as the storm system is concerned it's a big one it's powerful it's going to be moving across this region here over the next day or so we head into tomorrow and you can see the Heavy Rain uh and the snow that will track across the Midwest it shifts out east and we're talking about the

East Coast being impacted by those with those same kind of impacts not the severe weather but the rain in the snow as we get into your Wednesday behind it much colder conditions we've seen kind of a roller coaster ride as far as our temperatures have gone for the middle of the country the Midwest even the Northeast over the next couple of days and we've got a lot of changes coming with regards to that we've also got some uh some good soaking rain for some folks I think the more widespread amount

s quarter of an inch to a half an inch is more likely but you can see some of these spots picking up up to an inch or even two inches of rain by the time we get through your Wednesday and it's not just the East that dealing with our next storm system we've got one out west not quite as many of these winter alerts up but 7 million people included in those mainly focused across portions of the Pacific Northwest that's where the heavy rain is going to be a big issue once again no surprise here we'v

e got wind that will have to deal with as well for Coastal parts of Oregon and Washington and we'll see this working into this region here as we get into your Wednesday eventually Thursday notice the snow that will be draped across those mountain regions we could see anywhere from an inch to 2 Ines per hour that means that travel is going to be really difficult near impossible in some of these regions especially on those Mountain Roads heads up there and we'll pick up likely a good amount of sno

w for some folks four to six feet is the more likely amounts we could see higher than that of course especially in the higher elevations but this will be something that we have to deal with guys as we get into the next couple of days uh and they've of course had no rest there when it comes to difficult weather so we'll have this next system that works on Shore for them and impacts them there um I think up to 12T of snow is going to be possible across parts of the Sierra range Lake Tahoe yosee Mo

unt Whitney all included in that up to Mount Shasta so heads up for folks there and the rain a little difficult too um up to three maybe even five inches of rain so will be impactful for folks in that region through at least Thursday just confirming you said feet 12 feet 12 feet yeah it's it's going to be a difficult one you know we say often times difficult travel but that that'll be near impossible across that region thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the N

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