are you for taking steps to receive us or are you for taking nra blood money? >> students from florida and across the country mobilizing to bring change to the nation's gun laws and a new poll shows americans think congress is failing. special counsel's interest in jared kushner now extends beyond russia. businesses beyond china under the microscope. breaking news.

the drug store chain rite aid is being sold off. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. good to see you. good to have you back from vacation. >> a couple days off. >> it is tuesday, february 20th. we start with the latest on gun rights. six days after the school massacre in parkland, florida, the nation's youth on seizing the microphone demanding changes to the gun laws. more than 100 teens i staging a high-in on presidents' day to toughen gun regulations. >> students will board buses to speak to state lawmakers tomorrow. students in florida yesterday were promising to take their message to washington. >> this is simply a matter of are you with us or are you against us? are you for taking steps to save us or are you for taking nra

blood money? we are not letting the united states be run by that terrorist organization. my friends and i, my community and i have stahave stared down barrel of an ar-15 the way you have not. we have seen this weapon of war mow down our friends. how dare you say we don't know what we're talking about. you have no idea what you are talking about. >> there is support for the students view that washington is falling short. the abc news poll found 87% of americans believe congress is not doing enough to prevent mass shootings. 62% say the same of the president. more momentum is growing to improve the background check system. the president speaking with senator john cornyn about the bill he introduced with john murphy. >> it ensures the states comply with the federal law.

with consequences if they don't. the white house says the president supports efforts to improve the background check system, but this bill does nothing to expand that system. >> both noting, the president did not push for the bill when it was first introduced. the white house scheduled a listening session for the president tomorrow. he meets with high school students and teachers. it is unclear if students from parkland will attend. stoneman douglas high school plans to reopen gradually. staff members return friday morning. a voluntary campus orientation for students and parents set for sunday. the goal is to resume on a modified schedule on tuesday. the support services will be able to students and staff during the reopening process. >> funerals for five of the victims are set for today. they are students peter wang

ankara loughran and carmen schentrup along with chris hixon and aaron feis. and suspected ru eed russia accounts are flooding twitter. the tweets starting one hour after news broke of the high school shooting. before then, the same accounts focused on the mueller investigation. experts say these automated messages are meant to widen the divide on gun violence. elsewhere, special counsel robert mueller's investigation moving further into the trump inner circle. mueller's interest in jared kushner is beyond contact was russia. the probe is the first son-in-law's to secure financing for the real estate company. we have the latest from washington. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine.

cnn learned the special counsel robert mueller is learning about jared kushner's business dealings during the presidential transition. we are told by people familiar with the investigation, mueller's lawyers are asking about the businesses with chinese and qatari investors. the discussions revolved around this building in manhattan. at 666 fifth avenue which kushner's company owns. the financing on the building is in debt by over $1 billion. it is not clear what is behind the mueller interest in the financing. we are told the special counsel hasn't asked the kushner companies for information. he has not asked for interviews with other executives from the kushner companies. a spokesman for the special counsel has declined to comment. we have a statement from jared

kushner's attorney. responding to the story. he had this to say. another anonymous source now with questionable motives. in all the of mr. kushner's cooperation with all inquiries, there has not been a single question asked nor document sought on the 666 building or kushner company deals. nor any reason to question the regular business transactions. his attorney seems to think the story was based on one source. we spoke to several sources who said the line of questioning has been under way by the special counsel team for several months. dave, christine. >> shimon, thank you. the president's weekend twitter barrage on russia extended into the holiday. he dropped another tweet on presidents' day. light on facts. obama was president up to and

beyond the 2016 election. so why didn't he do something about russian meddling? >> here are facts. obama officials insist they took steps to stop interference and the confrontation with obama and putin. the obama administration hit moscow with sanctions in december of 2016. an obama aide says for him to speak out more vocally against russian meddling would have seemed political. especially candidate trump claimed the election was rigged. >> they seized property and imposed sanctions. >> could have done more. >> there were those who said they should have done more. they clearly did not do nothing. >> some say he is doing nothing. >> it is called a hoax. the u.s. navy building a presence in the black sea to counter a move from russia. this marks the first time since

last customsummer two navy war have been in the black sea. on sunday, russia announced naval deployment in the area for exercises. the commander of the sixth fleet says the decision to assign two ships to the black sea is proactive. the joint military drills once the 2018 winter olympics come to a close in pyeongchang. a spokesperson for the south korean military will announce the schedule for the exercises. north korea has objected to the military drills. the thaw with the north and south at the olympics had some wonders if it would be put off. ing ethics -- ethics concerns with trump junior which fuels questions about the links with the president and family business in

india. >> one dinner was promoted by front page ads in the two biggest newspapers. the other sit down is where an invitation says 65% of the trump tower apartments have already been sold. president trump has endorsed mitt romney. the president tweeting about romney. he will make a great senator and worthy successor to orrin hatch. the endorse mment is the latest chapter in the relationship between the two. trump was a critic of the 2016 campaign of romney. romney responded with a tweet of his own. saying he hopes to get the support of the people of utah. focusing it back to the people. elsewhere, president trump may feel like he has entered the lion's den with some of the

journalists he has been criticizing for a year. plus, he is set to attend the gridiron club next month. they dine and perform comic musical members. the west wing says no decision has been made about attending this year's white house correspondents dinner. the president skipped that event last year. president trump is quick to. in a survey, he ranks low in the 2016 political science presidential greatness survey released on monday. president trump came in dead last. we should note, 57% of the respondents were democrats. only 13% were republicans. factor that in. still, president trump ranked 40th out of 44 republicans. -- >> the seven greatest presidents

are lincoln, washington, roosevelt and theodore roosevelt and jefferson and truman and eisenhow eisenhower. >> hard to argue. congressional lines for pennsylvania are out and they could play a big role in which party controls the house of representatives next year. st years' paign was a success for choicehotels.com badda book. badda boom. this year, we're taking it up a notch. so in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, "wow, maybe i'll glow too if i book direct at choicehotels.com". who glows? just say, badda book. badda boom. nobody glows. he gets it. always the lowest price, guaranteed. book now at choicehotels.com

of de pere, wisconsin. his life is... pretty comfortable. rick blomquist thought he had comfort all figured out. but then, he laid on a serta and realized his life was only just sorta comfortable. i've been living a lie. the new serta icomfort hybrid mattress. not just sorta comfortable, serta comfortable. purchase an icomfort mattress and get a free boxspring or up to $500 off an adjustable set.

rite aid plans to merge in a $24 billion deal as the increase of amazon and walmart is forcing pharmacies to combine. the wall street journal reports that the albertsons is buying the rest of the rite aid creating pharmacies across 38 states. scale matters. this deal is the best way to take on the online retailers.

amazon is expanding into groceries and possibly in pharmacy. however, the merger is not a done deal yet. it still needs government approval. the pennsylvania supreme court imposing a congressional map to give democrats a boost ahead of the mid-term elections. the boundaries were unlawfully drawn to maximize gop gains. the biggest changes in philadelphia suburbs where three republican seats were democratic targets. republicans in the state legislature will challenge the new maps in court. the u.s. supreme court considering other cases from wisconsin and maryland addressing limits on partisan gerrymandering. fergie apologizing for the national anthem at the all-star game. ♪ o'er the ramparts ♪ we watched

♪ were so gallantly streaming >> the singer goes on from there. issuing a statement an sayisayi wanted to try something different. fergie went on to say i love this country and tried my best. critics slammed her sultry performance. saying her sexy delivery wasn't a typical song for a patriotic song. >> some saying it was the worst of all time. >> the look on my mom's face was hysterical. >> i can imagine. kentucky fried chicken forced to close hundreds of locations in the uk after running out of? wait for it. chicken. about 800 of the 900 kfc locations in britain had to close at least for the day. some were able to reopen. company officials say the

shortage was due to the delivery partner dhl. they were delayed because of operational issues. kfc says it is too early to say how long it will take to restore normal service. they still had mashed potatoes. >> the fried chicken story is making me hungry. can an american woman find the podium in figure skating for the first time in 12 years? coy wire is live in pyeongchang next. is sh and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free.

oh hi sweetie, i just want to show you something. xfinity mobile: find my phone. [ phone rings ] look at you. this tech stuff is easy. [ whirring sound ] you want a cookie? it's a drone! i know. find your phone easily with the xfinity voice remote. one more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. a brother and sister ice dancers become the first u.s.

double medal winners. it's wednesday. tuesday? can i have that -- that was my preliminary run at the event sdplchevent. >> coy wire is in pyeongchang. >> i hope you didn't jinx me. >> we'll cover that later in the morning. alex and maia shibutani or the shib sibs started to skate when maia was 4 and alex was 7. they have two medals in pyeongchang. taking the bronze in the ice dance while you were sleeping likely. the pair said they were so happy with their performance that bronze felt like gold. their mom had the idea of pairing them up when they were young. in this case, mom was right. the comeback.

lindsey vonn. missing the last games with an injury. we waited eight years to see the legend compete in the olympics. the 33-year-old said after the debut in the super g, she failed to medal. she was trolled on twitter because she would not visit the white house if she were invited as medalist. now all eyes on her in the downhill. the best event later tonight. she is not only racing competition, but battling father time. listen. >> i think it's stubbornness. i never want to wave the white flag. i always want to continue to try and work hard and to be physically as strong as before takes a lot more work and maintenance. i have to get up earlier and warm my knee up. my knee takes tender loving care. >> also later. the crown jewel, if you will, of the winter olympics.

women's figure skating on the east coast. at 20 years old bradie tennell hasn't had all skating to the rise. she he had to fight through str fractures. bradie tennell is graceful and tough. >> last few years, i had back injuries. this year helped my season not being injuries. with the injuries in the past and how i feel now, i'm coming into my own. i'm so excited to see where the sport takes me. >> medal count. norway with 28 overall medals. germany in second with 20. canada has 19. netherlands in fourth with 13 and united states with 12 medals. dave and christine, on lindsey

vonn f s vonn, if she wins a medal. she would be the oldest woman ever to win alpine medal. >> we have been disappointing. are you surprised by the medal performance of the u.s.? >> actually i just talked to a silver medalist nick goepper who won in slopestyle. he was saying they realize what is going on. they said this is disappointing. he held up a silver medal. he said i'm doing my part. we'll see if americans can catch up in the medal count. >> hopefully a late push. thank you, coy. a late push by motivated teenagers. can they dent the power of the nra? the florida shooting survivors are taking the messages of gun violence to the wall halls of l

hill. can they change the laws?

are you for taking steps to save us or are you for taking nra blood money? >> students from florida and across the country mobilizing to bring change to the nation's gun laws and a new poll shows americans think congress is failing. special counsel's interest in jared kushner now extends beyond russia. businesses beyond china under the microscope. a big move by facebook to m. welcome back to "early start." i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. nice to see you. six days after the parkland, florida massacre, the nation's youth are seizing the microphone demanding changes to the gun laws. more than 100 staging a lie-in

outside the white house on presidents' day. >> about 100 students will board buses from parkland to the florida state capital. last night, students in florida were rallying and promising to take their message to washington. >> this is simply a matter of are you with us or are you against us? are you for taking steps to save us or are you for taking nra blood money? we are not letting the united states be run by that terrorist organization. my friends and i, my community and i have stared down the barrel of an ar-15 the way you have not. we have seen this weapon of war mow down people we know and love the way you do not. how dare you say we don't know what we're talking about. you have no idea what you are talking about. >> these kids not old enough to buy a beer or rent a car. there is support for the students view that washington is

falling short. the abc news poll found 87% of americans believe congress is not doing enough to prevent mass shootings. 62% say the same of the president. more momentum is growing to improve the background check system. the president speaking with senator john cornyn about the bill he introduced with chris murphy. >> it ensures the states comply with the federal law. with consequences if they don't. the white house says the president supports efforts to improve the background check system, but this bill does nothing to expand that system. just enforces current federal law. >> both noting, the president did not push for the bill when it was first introduced. the white house scheduled a listening session for the president tomorrow. he meets with high school students and teachers. it is unclear if students from parkland will attend. stoneman douglas high school plans to reopen gradually.

staff members return friday morning. a voluntary campus orientation for students and parents set for sunday. the goal is to resume on a modified schedule on tuesday. the support services will be available to students and staff during the reopening process. >> funerals for five of the victims are set for today. they are students peter wang and cara loughran and carmen schentrup along with with chris hixon and aaron feis. and suspected russian bot accounts are flooding twitter. with hundreds of posts on various sides of the gun violence issues. the tweets starting one hour after the high school shooting. before then, the same accounts focused on the mueller investigation. experts say these automated

messages are meant to widen the divide on gun violence. elsewhere, special counsel robert mueller's investigation moving further into the trump inner circle. cnn learned that mueller's interest in jared kushner has extended beyond his contact was russia. the probe is the first son-in-law's to secure financing for the real estate company. from foreign investors during the transition. cnn's shimon propekitz has the latest. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine. cnn learned the special counsel robert mueller is learning about jared kushner's business we are told by people familiar with the investigation that lawyers are asking about kushner's business dealings during the presidential transition. we are told by people familiar with the investigation, mueller's lawyers are asking about the businesses with chinese and qatari investors. the discussions revolved around

this building in manhattan. at 666 fifth avenue which kushner's company owns. the financing on the building is in debt by over $1 billion. it is not clear what is behind the mueller interest in the financing. we are told the special counsel hasn't asked the kushner companies for information. he has not asked for interviews with other executives from the kushner companies. a spokesman for the special counsel has declined to comment. we have a statement from jared kushner's attorney. responding to the story. he had this to say. another anonymous source now with questionable motives. now contradicts the facts. in all the of mr. kushner's cooperation with all inquiries, there has not been a single question asked nor document sought on the 666 building or kushner company deals. nor any reason to question the regular business transactions.

it's important to note that while his attorney seems to think the story was based on one anonymous source. we spoke to several sources who said the line of questioning has been under way by the special counsel team for several months. dave, christine. >> shimon, thank you. the president's weekend twitter barrage on russia extended into the holiday. he dropped another tweet on presidents' day. heavy on frustration and light on facts. obama was president up to and beyond the 2016 election. so why didn't he do something about russian meddling? >> here are facts. obama officials insist they took steps to stop interference and the confrontation with obama and putin at the september g-20 summ summit. the obama administration hit moscow with sanctions in december of 2016. an obama aide says for him to speak out more vocally against

russian meddling would have seemed political. especially candidate trump claimed the election was rigged. >> they seized property and imposed sanctions. and at the time, there were those who said it wasn't strong enough. >> could have done more. >> there were those who said they should have done more. democrat adam schiff said they should have done more. is an old post card in the mail the russian facebook? they will send verification codes he to buy the ad on facebook. sending codes in the mail won't solve everything, but the best way to combat foreign interference. facebook faced a lot of interference over the meddling in the election. facebook unveiled this plan a

day after robert mueller indicted 13 russians for election interference. >> tech giants using snail mail. ethical concerns over the trump junior's visit to india over trump branded apartments. that fuels questions with the family business and the president. >> one dinner had front page ads in the two biggest newspapers. the other sit down is in the city of calcutta where an invitation seen by cnn says 60% of the trump tower apartments have already sold. president trump has endorsed mitt romney. the president tweeting about romney. he will make a great senator and worthy successor to orrin hatch. the endorsement is the latest chapter in the relationship between the two.

romney was a critic of the president's behavior in the 2016 campaign. romney responded with a tweet of his own. >> he may feel like he is in the lion's den. sitting in the same room. the president will attend the dinner next month in washington. it is an invite only dinner. old school. the west wing says no decision has been made about attending this year's white house correspondents dinner. the president skipped that dinner last year. >> do you perform? >> no. i sing in the shower only. >> i don't know if wolf does it. white tie. soft shoe. president trump quick to out togreatness. in a new survey, he ranks low on the political science association presidential greatness survey. president trump came in dead

last. we should note, 57% of the respondents were democrats. only 13% were republicans. still, president trump ranked 40th out of 44 republicans. >> we learned that political science leans to the left. the seven greatest presidents are lincoln, washington, roosevelt and theodore roosevelt and jefferson and truman and eisenhower. >> we always like presidents more long after they're gone. obama got more popular in recent years. look at president george w. bush. ahead, new congressional lines for pennsylvania are out. they could play a big role in which party controls the house of representatives next year.

the pennsylvania supreme court imposing new congressional map that appears to give democrats a big boost ahead of the mid term election. the rule that republicans unlawfully redrew districts to maximize games. the biggest change in the philadelphia suburbs. republicans in the state legislature will challenge the new maps in court. u.s. supreme court considering other cases from wisconsin and maryland. addressing limits on partisan gerrymandering. kentucky fried chicken forced to close locations in the uk after running out of chicken. 800 of the 900 kfc locations in britain had to close for the day. some reopened for business. the shortage was due to problems with the new delivery partner dhl. the deliveries were incomplete because of operational issues. kfc says it is too early to say how long it will take to restore

service. fergie apologized for the rendition of the national and th -- anthem at the nba all-star game on sunday. ♪ that our flag was still there o say ♪ >> the singer said she wanted to try something different, but did not strike the intended target. she said i love this country and tried my best. critics slammed her performance saying her sexy delivery was not typical for a patriotic song. >> it was long. two and a half minutes. >> it was about 25 seconds longer than the pink national anthem at the super bowl. it introduced a new rendition of

roseanne barr's rendition. i played it for my kids. they were amused for hours. a record winter heat wave east of the mississippi and cold in the west. we have pedram javaheri with the forecast. >> good morning, dave and christine. how about this set up here where we have the extremes across the country. record cold back to the west. warmth on the eastern side of the country. we will take it for now. look at this trend. 60 plus records could be set today. 20 or so records set on the western side of the country for cold. we are talking upper 70s in nashville and cincinnati. low 70s in st. louis. chicago at 56 degrees. 20 degrees above normal for this time of year. it lasts a couple of days. you see a trend back to the cooler set up by thursday, friday and saturday. really the big story from this, besides the warmth, is the

moisture available to the atmosphere. high pressure is parked off to the east here and really beginning to surge in a lot of moisture. flood threat is high for the next couple days. when you highlight how much rain is expected in eexpected? 4 to 6 inches in st. louis and chicago. >> thank you, pedram. "black panther" roaring into the top of the box office. cnn money stream is next. you won't see these folks at the post office they have businesses to run they have passions to pursue how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters ship packages all the amazing services of the post office right on your computer get a 4 week trial plus $100 in extras

including postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again

go to stamps.com/tv and never go to of de pere, wisconsin. his life is... pretty comfortable. rick blomquist thought he had comfort all figured out. but then, he laid on a serta and realized his life was only just sorta comfortable. i've been living a lie. the new serta icomfort hybrid mattress. not just sorta comfortable, serta comfortable. purchase an icomfort mattress and get a free boxspring or up to $500 off an adjustable set.

we use so why do we pay touters thave a phone connected. when we're already paying for internet? shouldn't it all just be one thing? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you can get 5 lines of talk and text included at no extra cost. so all you pay for is data. choose by the gig or unlimited. and now, get a $200 prepaid card when you buy an iphone. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfnitymobile.com.

journalists and professio l professionals in turkey sentenced to life in prison. connected with the religious movement over the plot of the failed coup attempt in 2015. cnn's arwa damon spoke to the daughter of one of those jailed. she is live in istanbul. arwa. >> reporter: good morning, christine. we spoke to a woman. her father and her uncle are among those six who received what many are describing a harsh sentence. her father and other defendants had nothing to do with the movement that you mentioned. turkey is behind the failed coup attempt. she says her father is acclaimed

novelist and editor in chief of the liberal newspaper that fell out of favor with the turkish government. turkey is accusing all of the members being part of the movement and from turkey's perspective, they are well within legal rights to bring down this type of sentencing upon them because that is what according to the turkish judicial system claims hmerits. the daughter was not entirely surprised, but it is an incredibly bitter moment. they still hope to reverse this through appeals process. you can imagine the alarm bells it is raising with the press freedoms and freedom of speech in turkey. worth noting that turkey, no matter who its head, christine,

has been at the top of the lists when it comes to number of journalists behind bars. as we speak, there are about 150 journalists in turkey behind bars in various stages of the judicial process. >> 150. wow. arwa damon, thank you. live from istanbul. trouble for the prime minister benjamin netanyahu. police arrested seven people, including some members of netanyahu's inner circle in the corruption probe. it is the fourth investigation involving the israeli leader or those close to him. cnn's oren liebermann has more. >> reporter: dave, this case comes less than one week after police said they have enough evidence to indict netanyahu in two separate investigations. known as case 1,000 and case 2,000. what is this one all about? the suspicion around the government communications and israeli firm known as bezik.

the suspicion was the ministry of communications illegally advanced the interests to benefit its owners and part owners in exchange, netanyahu would get favorable media coverage. netanyahu was the minister of communications during the time investigated. one of the close friends is part owner of the company and owner of the media company there. who has been arrested? of the seven so far that includes netanyahu's former family spokesperson and the owner of bezik and the owner's son of communications servings under netanyahu. the breach of trust and fraud and bribery and more. all of this increases pressure on the prime minister as netanyahu himself or others in the inner circle have been implicated in four cases. dave, netanyahu insists he is innocent. he says this is a witch hunt fueled by media pressure.

>> sounds familiar. oren, thank you. let's get a check on money stream. a short trading week. market closed yesterday for presidents' day. last year was the best in stocks. there have been wild swings in the month. dow rose six straight sessions. s&p up 4.3%. the nasdaq had its best week since 2011. will the rally endure? u.s. futures are lower right now and global markets mixed. banks like state street and bb&t have argued that smaller banks should not face the same scrutiny as wall street. the new bill will raise the threshold for oversight from $50 billion to $250 billion. shielding two dozen mid sized

banks. it is expected to hit the senate floor in february. all hail the king. "black panther" roaring to a record-breaking box office. bringing in $235 million over presidents' day weekend. $235 million. the fifth highest opening of all time. the weekend is a watershed moment for hollywood. it is marvel's first film with the african-american director and primarily black cast. rotten tomatoes has it 90%. everyone we talked to said 100%. >> ryan kuegler. 31 years old. a bright future. "early start" continues right now with the latest on gun legislation here in this country. >> are you for taking steps to save us or are you for taking

nra blood money? >> students from florida and elsewhere mobilizing to bring change to the nation's gun laws. in a new poll, americans think congress is failing. the special counsel's interests in jared kushner now extends beyond russia and his business efforts with other investors, including china is now under the microscope. and business news. the rest of the drug store chain rite aid is sold off. who is buying it and why it matters in the fast evolving retail landscape. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. it is tuesday, february 20th. six days after the school massacre in parkland, florida. the nation's youth demanding changes to the gun laws. more than 100 teens and supporters staging a lie-in right outside the white house on presidents' day. an effort to pressure