in colorado right now. a massive manhunt with hundreds of schools closed as investigators search for this woman who is apparently inf infatuated with columbine and the deadly shooting that happened there nearly 20 years ago. the fbi calling her a credible threat to communities in and around denver. we've got our team covering this and the other stories we're bringing you. joe frier just south of denver in little ton. who is this woman and are investigators any closer to finding her? >> hallie, her name is sol pais. she is a student at miami beach high school. earlier this week, she flew from florida to denver. after landing, she was able to buy a shotgun and some ammunition. she was then last seen monday somewhere in the foothills here in jefferson county. but it's unclear where she is

right now. authorities say that she did make a credible threat. that she is extremely dangerous. but they have not offered details on the nature of that threat. they did make it clear, though, there was no threat made towards a specific school. now, the fbi started to learn about all of this yesterday. started to inform local police departments, sheriff offices and school districts. dozens of schools made the decision to have what they call lockouts different than lockdowns where the threat is inside the school and lockout is the threat is outside the school. business went on as usual inside. overnight after school districts discussed this closer, they decided out of an abundance of caution to cancel. and more than half a million students in the denver area are not going to school today. all this comes just days before the 20th anniversary of the columbine tragedy, april 20th, this saturday marks that date. the superintendent says over the past couple weeks threats

against columbine have ramped up. they say any time columbine is in the news, they tend to see an increase in threats. i spoke just a few weeks ago with some of the parents who lost their kids in columbine as well as survivors who say they really want this week, especially later this week, to focus on remembering the victims, the 12 students and the teacher who died that day. hallie. >> it is certainly stunning turn of events in colorado, joe. do you get, letser are be clear here. schools were closed precauti precautionary. do you know when we'll get the next updates from officials and what might be going on? >> we hope to get an update from the fbi who is really leading this investigation very soon. obviously, the school districts will have to take this day by day right now based on the information they're receiving whether they need to cancel classes more after this. but right now as far as we know the last time she was seen was

monday. >> joe fryer in littleton, colorado. thank you. we'll check back in with you throughout the morning. i want to bring in jeff schrader who is part of this ongoing investigation and who is working in the sheriff's office when the columbine shooting happened 20 years ago. sheri sheriff, thank you for being with us. >> i'm happy to. thank you for having me. >> the fbi has taken over a lot of this. what can you tell us about the search for this woman. are you any closer to finding her? >> we are doing everything we can. there are a lot of people behind the scenes and boots on the ground out in the field that are doing the job that law enforcement does. cooperating with one another and doing, again, everything that we can to follow up the leads that are coming in. >> have you gotten a lot of leads, sheriff? >> we'll have an investigative briefing here in about an hour. there have been, when i left late last night i noticed there were several that had come in and they were following those.

those have not produced anything at this point. but there are some points of interest where we're going to start our searches today. >> have you identified family members of this student and have you talked with people close to her back in florida perhaps or wherever she may be? >> well, members of the fbi have and that family has been very cooperative. >> joe fryer, our reporter on the ground, half a million kids home from school today. more about the decision process and the conversations between law enforcement and the school districts to make this pretty extraordinary decision to shut these schools down. >> yeah. we have a very strong working relationship with jefferson county public schools and the school administration, in particular. the school safety staff. there is, obviously, a lot of consultation. we do get a number of threats

each april that come up and, obviously, with columbine having its 20-year anniversary, perhaps heightened some of those sensitivities. and in terms of the decisi decisionmaking process, once it of some of the comments that this person have made coupled with buying a gun and coupled with this being the columbine week and her fascination with it, that heightened sensitivity and once information went out to a number of schools. school superintendents were on a phone call late last night and they came to the conclusion that it would be best for their school districts if they closed schools today. had they been open, we would have been providing additional security at each of the schools and we're committed to that through this week as the families of those who lost and those who were injured

participate in the remembrance ceremonies that are going on. >> i know it's early to say, sheriff, but do you anticipate schools being closed as a precaution again tomorrow, perhaps? >> i have no idea about that. ultimately, that is a school district decision. there are a number of telephone briefings that are scheduled throughout the day. i am sure there will be a decision point later today where they will make that determination and we'll learn what we learn during the course of the day. >> you mention the remembrance ceremonies that are happening since it is now almost 20 years to what i know to be a horrific day back in 1999. can you talk about how the community is doing today and what this has done to the people in and around littleton and denver? >> i know that any time any of these situations come up, that it has an effect on those who

are most directly impacted. the families who lost loved ones and those who were injured. i know that it touches them deep. it touches the entirety of the community. i am sure it does and other communities where tragedies have happened, as well. but, again, we are committed to making sure that the remembrance ceremonies for the sake of those families and the sake of the students who were injured and the entirety of the columbine community that that is, that that goes off and it's done safely. >> sheriff shrader, i appreciate you joining us. we'll look for more updates in the next hour. thanks for coming on the show. >> thank you. we'll be monitoring the latest from colorado and talking about what is happening here in washington. the countdown to the release of the mueller report and this morning an inside look at the rebuttal and the strategy by the

president's legal team. we learned yielding their own 30-plus document intended to counter robert mueller's findings. those are expected around 24 hours from now. we know that mueller handed over nearly 400 pages of material. we know mueller's team wrote summaries of each section of the report, which they say were intended to be made public. we know disagreement inside the special counsel's office which led to no decision on obstruction that is according to three officials and members of the team said they think the evidence of obstruction against the president is stronger than what the attorney general suggested. let's get to julia angsly and former assistant director of the fbi joining us and former u.s. attorney, as well. wanda summers and white house correspondent for the pbs news hour and msnbc contributor. julia, let me start with you. talk a little bit here on when and how this gets released and where this goes next.

>> well, hallie, we know tomorrow morning is the day that congress and the public will see the redacted version of the mueller report. we don't know anything more in terms of timing. i think you'll probably see reporters get here before the sun is even up tomorrow just to be sure that we are in place. at this point, what we are expecting is, you know, redacted version. on four categories. whether those be a classified information, grand jury material, ongoing investigations or peripheral third parties. and we expect those to be color coded. i think the journalists will be going through to see why each piece of this is redacted. by policy, the attorney general does have to make some of these redactions. but it's a question of how broad he decides to take each of these authorities. so, some people have said that, you know, if nine out of ten lines are redacted, you can say that barr went too broadly. but it's clear that there will be both camps dug in here and the democrats will not be happy when they see redactions and

they're already prepared to subpoena the attorney general over that. and, of course, people who have been following what the special counsel office has been saying and people who spoke to nbc news about this, we're curious on the obstruction question and we don't expect much of that material to fall into one of those four categories, especially on the classified and grand jury side. >> julia ainsley outside the department of justice. greg bauer, let me go over to you. a lot of folks honing in on the obstruction spepieces of this report. jay sekulow and rudy giuliani. can you talk through what you will be looking for tomorrow. >> well, three things really, really. good morning from reno. the first is the redactions issue that has been mentioned. it will be very interesting to see how much of the report is redacted as julia mentioned. if it's a lot, you know, whole paragraphs and pages, that's going to raise some serious

concerns, particularly with democrats on capitol hill. the second big issue is this obstruction issue. it is still not clear to anyone, really, what happened with respect to the apparent handoff of the obstruction of justice decision from the mueller team to the attorney general. that is not likely to be fully explained in the report. that's likely to be explained perhaps in a hearing involving mr. mueller and mr. barr later down the road. and then the third issue that i think many people are looking for is whether there is anything in the report that contradicts what the attorney general has already said. i've been observing from the beginning that the worst thing the attorney general could do between his initial statement and the release of the report is to say something that the report contradicts. so many people will be looking for that, as well, i think. >> also the white house and the president's legal team piece of this. and our team spoke with members of the legal team over the last 24 hours. we talked about the break down

level anxiety inside the west wing among the president's legal team. they are considering releasing the so-called counterreport. it is 30 some pages long. we have been hearing for weeks and depend if they release it based on whatever is in mueller's report. there does seem to be a level of anxiety inside the white house. here is kellyanne conway trying to down play that. >> people will cherry pick and try to find something in there and that will never equal collusion or indictment or criminal conspiracy. >> well, the president and the people around him have been saying over and over, he is exonerated and it doesn't matter what is in this report. we'll learn more details. but at the end of the day, the president is not going to be arrested. but the issue is, we don't know what robert mueller said whether there is a category that here are the things the president did wrong and here is what the president did right. i'll look specifically for how he acted as a campaign official and as a candidate because the question is whether or not even if nothing that they did was criminal, did they do things

that robert mueller found to be problematic in terms of their, look, a president shouldn't have private meetings with the fbi director and you shouldn't be pressuri pressuring someone who recused themselves from this investigation. that's what i'm looking for. >> democrats in congress are looking some of the same things, the same pieces about the president's behaviors and the way he acted. yet, there is a new poll that just came out that asks now that the mueller investigation is over, should congress move on to other issues or are there still concerns related to that investigation congress should dig in to? 54% of respondents said congress has to move on. >> one thing i have found interesting is that i have been on the campaign with candidates running for president. so far voters and the democratic voters are not talking about this issue often. they talk to me about health care. they talk about education and the environment. this hasn't come up. now, my question is and what i'm looking for is whether or not that changes on thursday when we

see some of this report, the nonredact eed versions of it an will democrats speak out more forcely. and elizabeth warren was asked about this and she had a strong response. the american people, two years spent on this. $20 million and they should see it and incumbent on the trump administration. if they have a case for one section of this to be made public, they should make that case and redact things that are simply inconvenient for them. >> greg, also the question of the people who have been on the special counsel team and moved on to other jobs. where are they now? they're landing places on how these government investigators will influence for years to come the issues that this russia investigation thrust into the spotlight. foreign lobbying, overseas money laundering, election interference, just to name a few. what do you make of that, greg? >> well, right. this investigation has brought to the forefront some issues that a lot of us in washington think about all the time.

in terms of types of crimes and types of investigations. but that aren't normally the subject of ordinary news coverage. so, as the one thing this investigation has done. with respect to the investigators and the lawyers moving on, this had to end at some time. all those individuals came to the mueller team from other jobs and it's inevitable they would go back at some point and we're seeing that happen now. >> greg brower, thank you for coming on. julia, our thanks to you, as well. up next, 2020 candidates coast to coast and so are our road warriors live from multiple events including pete buttigieg interrupted in iowa overnight by hecklers. we're there live, we're taking you. the latest innovation from xfinity

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>> coffee after church gets a little rowdy sometimes, right. okay. >> that, of course, was pete buttigieg handling hecklers who followed him to his new stop, by the way, today in iowa. >> speaking of things. hello, again. the good news is, the condition

of my soul is in the hand of god but the iowa caucuses are up to you. >> right now, the millennial mayor is still in the state. you're looking live. he is about to kick off his second day there. you're also looking at beto o'rourke his meet and greet in virginia happening now and in just a matter of minutes amy klobuchar in nashville. vaughn is covering o'rourke in virginia and joining me here in washington michael steele, former rnc chair and christina reynolds vp of communications. so, josh, let me start with you. buttigieg hasn't had to handle hecklers like this on the national stage. something a lot of politicians who do have more years in the pr political world had to grapple with. how is he managing the protest piece of this specifically? >> that's the whole part of this

that is so interesting, hallie. hecklers are part of politics. it happened to donald trump and happened to president obama, it happens and you have to deal with it. but the difference here, hallie, is that we haven't really seen how a candidate responds to hecklers that are not dealing only with their policy positions, their position on abortion rights or other issues, but going after some really core, pivotal part of their personal identity. that poses a different kind of challenge for a candidate and for pete buttigieg who is being judged on his sexual orientation by these hecklers a test for him on how he approaches this in the coming days. >> to the right of our screen, looking at people dressed up and i assume protesters and i think from this event you're at now here in iowa. >> that's right. those hecklers, some of them are the same ones thatt showed up at his events yesterday. they are back here today outside of this event staging kind of the protest performance and they

are making it clear they plan to trail him as he campaigns in other places in iowa. >> christina, i remember the protesters and this is something candidates have to handle. >> listen these are not just hecklers but peddlers of hate. published the addresses of abortion providers. and people attacking him on dispicable grounds and he's handling it very well. i'm sure the caucus goers in iowa would really like to hear what he stands for and what he's doing and not have to deal with this. but it sounds like he's handling it as well as someone can and i hope he doesn't have to deal with it much longer. >> no, i think he's doing very well with it. but i think the truth for him is something that he appreciates is that iowa is just the tip of this particular spear for him. and as he goes around the country and begins to go up that particular political ladder in terms of popularity and support, et cetera as a presidential

candidate, you're going to see more of that. there will come an inflection point where for him personally it becomes a lot. and how he handles it in that moment is the test. >> you also have beto o'rourke another contender who is out in virginia where is we'll find vaughn hillyard. >> good morning, hallie. first stop on this wednesday morning. five stops across virginia yesterday. the first 2020 candidates to visit the super tuesday state. i want to introduce you to one gentleman here. because the conversation we're having is what kind of message is beto o'rourke doing? michael, you were telling me you were here and on the issue of criminal justice reform, what is it from beto o'rourke that has caught your ear? >> what has caught my ear first and foremost being able to give voting opportunity for those,

what i call returning citizens. quick example. i got a piece of paper that said my debt to society was paid, however every year 730,000 people are released from prison. that's voting power that is being ignored and, more importantly, a right. >> so, what did you hear from beto o'rourke? >> i heard that he will be, he will be trying to change those things and allow people to have a voice coming out of prison. >> this is similar to what i heard from michael, hallie is what i heard from a lot of folks. a very diverse crowd not only in terms of age, but race. beto o'rourke has gone out of his way to acknowledge he is a white male and last night he talked about making an effort down in north carolina on monday and making an effort to reach

the democratic electorate, hallie. >> vaughn right in the thick of it. good thing the mic was turned up. let's talk about other 2020 headlines that are important, i think. bernie sanders, boy, getting under president trump's skin. i did a piece this morning and president trump overnight tweeted, i believe he is predicting the pundits sitting in the oval office and crazy bernie sanders in his words and may god rest their soul. now you have pete buttigieg to also do a fox news town hall. that has been the part that upset the president the most. >> what upset him is that it went as well as it did for sanders. >> you think it went well for sanders. >> it went extremely well for sanders and probably put a wrinkle in the planning of a number of the candidates and when they get that offer to go to fox before they would have been like, no. now they'll have to think twice because what you saw was bernie sanders transform that audience in a way that was powerful.

and it struck a nerve with the president. >> should he be worried? >> worried about more candidates going on fox? >> either that or bernie sanders going after members of his? >> the bernie sanders and donald trump voter are not that far apart. should be worried. >> you have kamala harris to talk about her making news here. "time" came out with the 100 most influential people and one christine blasey ford and through her courage, christine blasey ford forced the country to wrereckon with the issue tha has been ignored and kept in the dark. this me too cultural ground, is that the right move for her or is it risky? >> not the only candidate to stake out some ground there. and i think it's important. women voters were a huge part of the electorate in the midterms. we expect them to be a big part. they were in battleground races

and they were 54% of the electorate. that's more than half. we expect to see that again and it will certainly be a huge part of the democratic primary. and so speaking to those women and saying, i hear you, i understand that this is an issue that we haven't spoken to enough is a smart move. >> christina and michael, thank you. new details about how long it may take for notre dame to reopen to the public and this timeline might surprise you. we have a live report from the cathedral in paris, next. reporting on what the fight with house democrats and those many, many subpoenas. does this map show the peninsula trail?

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we are watching protests expected today all across paris with activists known as the yellow vests demonstrating against government handouts to help the notre dame cathedral. the marches are happening while the president calling for national unity and the historic church will be rebuilt in the next five years after the fire tore through that building. chris jansing is in paris for us. chris, you just had a chance to

talk with the u.s. ambassador to france. what did you hear? >> yeah, one of the things that she's talking about is how long it might take to rebuild and that is why you see a group of journalists. i'm at one of the main fire stations and they're hoping to talk to the spokesperson and we've already gotten information for you. let me get you up to speed here. number one, the bishop, the person in charge of notre dame says he believes it will take up to six years to rebuild the cathedral. that is longer than what we heard yesterday from president macron. they describe it as a race against time. the three large holes in the roof. they plan to build what they describe either an umbrella or a bubble. it's something that hasn't been designed yet. they're really concerned about those rose windows and more damage to the vault. first thing they're going to do is dry things out. it is going to take at least,

according to the fire officials here, the estimate at least two years to even come up with a plan for how they're going to do the restoration. what that renovation would look like. would a new cathedral look like the old cathedral? they just don't know yet. so, when i asked the u.s. ambassador to france about that, she said it is impossible to tell until they finish the assessment. the folks in here are working on that. i also asked her about what she describes as a dueluge of offer from americans to get involved and help in some way from individuals, experts and corporations. here's what else she told me. >> in terms of specifics, i think we have to wait to see what is really needed and we're seeing so many things coming in now whether it's money, services and so much going on. i think it's going to take some time to calm down and see where the french want to go with all their efforts. >> does that run through your

efforts if u.s. companies want to offer money and help and expertise. >> it depends. everybody finds a different way that they want to give. and, you know, so many rules and regulations, obviously, even for giving money away that everybody really to look into the best way to do it for themselves and, of course, the friends of notre dame, the american friends and all sorts of friends of nonprofits. so, i think that people are already involved. >> as you probably heard, hallie, the commitments for donations is over $1 bill over euros. how will they use them? what we heard exactly is not a question. time is of the essence. they are very concerned of getting the initial work on that cathedral done. >> chris jansing live for us in paris, thank you for your great reporting. turning back to washington now. our team here is learning how

the president and his team fight all those subpoenas from house democrats and democrats want his finances and taxes and certain meetings as president, security clearances, much, much more. but rudy giuliani tells us this morning those requests have no legitimate legislative or oversight purpose. they are abusive. congressional subpoenas should not be used for purely searching for information to use for political attacks. as "washington post" notes a legal fight that could test the power of congressional subpoenas altogether. nbc news kelly o'donnell joins us now and also joined. kelly, to you, what else are we hearing from the president's team on how they plan to fight back? >> well, an organized and vigorous defense of the president and making the argument that the founding fathers had considered all of these sort of circumstances and believe that a president must be given the free lane to do the

work of the office and to fight each of the instances where democrats through the power of the gavel in control of the house are going to try to use their legal authority to challenge the president. we've seen that in the personal and business tax return battle that is already under way where the house ways and means committee wants access to the irs to six years of the president's returns. we've seen it in other ways where these committees believe very strongly that they have an oversight responsibility. not just an opportunity, but in many senses, an obligation they feel to go after the president in areas where they believe there is a legitimate oversight. but the president's lawyers are saying it's not legitimate. it's political. expect this to be contested at each level. some of it may end up in the courts, some of it may be more of a bureaucratic back and forth. a tug of war. but fight, they plan to fight and try to deter democrats from getting access to some of the things they want and they believe, according to legal

sources for the president, that this is a case of trying to get these things not for oversight, but for political purposes. and that's where they're going to try to use that for their own political base on the president's side to drive support against these investigations. hallie. >> great point. kelly o'donnell. thank you. i'll see you at the white house later today. this is resistance but very different resistance than you normally hear about. the president's team putting up a fight against house democrats and as "the post" points out a real test of the subpoena power. >> it could be. we heard house democrats using that subpoena power and pursuing these documents as far as they possibly can. >> they say it's not purely political. they argue this is for legislative purposes. that is the argument ways and means is making on his tax return. >> kelly o'donnell is right, this is something they feel is an obligation and they see as something fully nonpartisan. but as hallie made clear from

the president's legal team and from the president himself, they do not want to back down pursuing the president's financial records and his taxes. something that the president does not seem to be at all interested in getting out there. >> this comes out of two things. the president sees this as harassment and democrats see this as oversight. two fundamentally different ways to look at this. when you talk about what sources have been telling me is they see this as an xwriissue of executi privilege. they will do whatever they can to legally work with congress and they don't want to go any farther than that. on the political side you have the president saying not only do i not need to release my tax returns and i'm under audit and all these other reasons. the american public knew i didn't release my tax returns and they knew who i was and they elected me anyways. there is a legal fight and a political fight. >> these new numbers out from polling this morning showing his approval rating is at 40%.

lower than what it was in march. pretty stable around some of those numbers. as peter baker points out, donald trump is the only president in the history of gallup polling never to earn the support for a single day. >> we have to remember the president hasn't really tried to do that. a lot of think pieces on the idea that presidents try or unify the country and say the president has been throwing at his base since the moment he was elected and the trump campaign is seeing numbers and this is all we need to be re-elected. >> that is a good point. stick around. we have much more coming up in the show, including the trump administration dropping the hammer in a couple ways with two separate crackdowns. one on asylum seekers and the other just announced moments ago on cuba. we will take you to that briefing from secretary of state and explain both, next.

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hi, what's this social security alert? it's a free alert if we find your social security number on the dark web. good, cuz i'm a little worried about my information getting out. why's that? [bird speaking] my social is 8- 7- 5 dash okay, i see. [bird laughing] somebody thinks it's hilarious. free social security alerts from discover. going down right now two serious crackdown from the trump administration. first, overnight, the attorney general reversing long-standing u.s. policy on people looking for asylum in this country. bill barr now says some migrants may go to jail rather than be released on bond while their claims are processed. that includes those who already established a, quote, credible fear of persecution or torture in their home country. that's a big shift. here's another one. just a few minutes ago an

announcement from mike pompeo a choke hold on cuba. here he is at the state department. >> the reason i'm announcing the trump administration will no longer suspend title three effective may 2nd. the right thing o bring an acti will be implemented in full. i have already informed congress of my decision. >> with us now, eliot williams a former deputy assistant attorney. i want to talk about both these things. but, eliot, let me start with you on the asylum ruling from the attorney general and why is it so significant? >> look, it's one big thing and that is to tee up a challenge to the supreme court on the rights of immigrants at the border. so, the attorney general oversees a big chunk of the immigration system. and can just sort of cherry pick cases as he's done here. and pull them out and just make law. and what they want to do is

invite a challenge from immigration advocates. jeff sessions did something similar with the rights of domestic violence individuals to get asylum. and it's the same thing happening here. they know, i think they have a favorable supreme court that is likely to rule with them on this issue. but it really gets back to the right of indefinitely detain asylum seekers at the border. they might win. >> and asylum seekers who are coming here to look for a better life. you will have advocates for these folks fighting back as hard as the trump administration is pushing. >> we already heard late tuesday from the aclu and they said this plan is not unconstitutional but to elliot's point, this comes at a moment where president trump expressed frustration with the asylum system and argued that some of the laws in place have made it difficult for him to safe guard the country. really interesting to see politically speaking how democrats respond, as well as these outside groups and how many law suits this could potentially spawn. >> this comes after a long

assault on the idea of asylums. i think this administration wants a change. >> led by the president himself. >> he wants to change the idea of an asylum. you shouldn't be able to seek asylum if you did not go to a port of entry. then talking about this idea that they want to have people sent back to mexico to wait for asylums. i was at the table when vice president pence and former homeland security neilsen was talking about people seeking asylum in their own countries. they want everybody from honduras and other countries to be able to go to an office and stay there. so, in other words, don't even come to america to seek asylum. they're just looking at different processes and a lot of my sources say the president fundamentally wants to change immigration laws through the courts and as elliot points out, maybe they'll do it if it gets to the supreme court. >> it's a tool at their disposal and clever to use this mechanism to take a case and literally cherry picking it and make a decision on. what is fascinating is that

there isn't detention space at the border to begin with. what they want to do is detain tens of thousands of people. maybe this is a way of engineering the building of more detention space or getting more people. >> you also have a policy and the migration policy institute talking with our team about this issue. the actual impact, right, the practical impact of this may not be sort of intense as the trump administration wants it to be given the functional limitations of this space. >> right. they just want more people locked up or detained at the border. sorry, you were saying. >> no. >> but i think despite the fact that there isn't the space there, it's just creating more chaos, which will lead to more litigation and more people being scared of immigrants at the border. a sinister approach to immigration. loaded way to put it, but they are trying to instill chaos. >> it's interesting to have them talk about wanting to detain people indefinitely when the president is still floating this

idea of allowing people who are detained to go into sanctuaries. >> he's entertaining it. i don't think anyone else thinks there is a chance. let bhme talk about cuba. mike pompeo making this big announcement, this crackdown, essentially, on cuba as it relates to what they're doing and back channel and get them to stop supporting maduro quite so much. here's what he had to say on how it affects cuban human rights. >> a chance at justice for cuban americans who have long sought relief for fidal castro and seizing property without compensation. today we are holding the cuban government accountable for seize seizing american assets. we're helping those when it is robbed for their rightful property and advancing human rights in democracy on behalf of the cuban people. >> also potentially going to affect trade in the big way and concerns being raised about that. >> my world is lawyer stuff and it's going to affect lawsuits.

so, the state department at one point found that this provision could invite 200,000 lawsuits either in the united states or the world trade organization. you're going to clutter up the court over something that is a means of sticking it to the obama administration on cuba policy. the problem is that we had an embargo and tough talk for all of this time and inviting american corporations into court to get sued, which is ultimately what this is going to do is not going to fix our strategy with respect to cuba. you would look at lawsuits against canada and against spain and against all kinds of people that hold assets in the united states. because that's, you know, that's ultimately where the money is. >> you are seeing some of the countries and canada, spain, the eu. cuba is on that list. i love that cuba is on that graphic. of course, cuba doesn't like it. this is part of the trump administration. i think you used the phrase sticking it to the obama administration. it is certainly a reversal of what we saw under president obama that you covered the president since the beginning,

he has been doing it all along. >> he has been doing this all along and the idea that they want to appear tough on cuba and i'll say this from a political point of view because that is in some ways how i look at this. as someone from with issues wita administration who are looking at president trump and wondering is this someone we're going to support in 2020. this is going to be popular in an important state, which is is the miami-dade cubans. >> when they get pseudo, that's when you'll see the trump administration starting to rethink this policy. >> i love it. thank you. you're coming out ready to roll. thank you so much. we'll kick you off now. but we appreciate it. stick around. we want want to hear more of what sources have to say. but we want to talk about the crisis affecting those who put their lives on the line to protect us and whether the government is doing enough to protect them when they get home. we're talking about veteran suicide. a staggering number 20 veterans

die by suicide every single day. that's 1.5 times higher than the rest of the population. just last week three veterans took their own lives at va facilities including in a waiting room in texas. they did not get the help they need want. you have been following this important story and reporting object some new information for nbc news from the pentagon. what have you learned? >> we spoke with robin thomas who is a mom who lives in florida. her son took his own life in 2016. he joined the army when he was just pretty new out of high school. he immediately did two deployments, two tough deployments, one to iraq and one to afghanistan. when we spoke with her the other day, she talked about how he came back changed. and the boy who was a fighter, he came into the world remature ask he suddenly stopped fighting she spent the next couple years working with him and trying everything she could do with the

va to get him the help he needed. he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, but be this was 2012. it was a time when post-traumatic stress wasn't something we knew as much about as we do now. the va, she say, could not help her. and despite the fact her son attempted suicide once in early 2016, he made a home made shotgun, placed it to his chest and fired and survived. he was hospitalized. she begged them not to let him go, but they did. they let him out of the hospital. let's hear about it in her own words. >> it just seems like terry slipped through the cracks at every step. i want people that are in the position that we were in to understand the process so that maybe they could intervene. i wish that we could have intervened. >> robin, the thing that i was really struck by interviewing her the other day was she was taking this terrible tragedy.

she's trying to help others. she works with other families and veteran service organizations to teach them how to navigate the va, to teach them to be informed consumers about post-traumatic stress, how to deal with your loved ones when coming back from war and going through this and that hopefully she can help orr families before they see the same kind of tragedy. >> reporting on that for us from the pentagon, thank you very much for that. we have to know that if you or someone you know is in crisis, call the national suicide prevention lifeline. the number is on the screen. you can also visit this website at speakingofsuicide.com/resources. we want the to turn back to breaking news. the woman the fbi is serarch issing for in colorado. what she appeared to post on social immediamedia. brandy, you have been tiging into what this 18-year-old high school student has been posting, what you found. what did you learn? >> she's been posting sort of

old blogs. so she's been blogging and what we found are really almost rem any sent of what we found after comb scary stuff about being depressed and angry. and she often mentions something she's planning something. she talks about the day. she has drawings of the columbine killers in her diary. she also references just guns and buying a shotgun ask just scary stuff. >> how did you find this? was this an effort where you went back and combed facebook, her social media. this stuff wasn't at the top of the google searches, if you will. >> this hasn't been reported on much because it was harder to find. she wasn't like most people 18 years old. we didn't find her on instagram or facebook. with found her via her handle. and she used that handle in a couple old deleted social media accounts. we made that link.

and then when we found her online presence, she used that handle across platforms. so we saw her on an art social media place where they draw pictures. so she was an artist. and we found her blog. and we found her on a gun form. >> what had she been posting there. >> she had been posting since january of this year and was asking other people on the form where she could procure a gun in colorado. >> we're going to see some of that coming up when you join us at the top of the next hour with your reporting. scary stuff. we're continuing to stay on top of that. we're going to have next hour the new accuser coming forward in a high profile case against multibillionaire investor and sex offender jeffrey epstein. d sex offender jeffrey epstein alright, i brought in

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good morning. i'm hallie jackson. but first, arm ed and dangerous. the fbi in colorado expected to talk with reporters later this hour about that massive search going on right now for this woman who they say is infatuated with the columbine high school shooting. and nbc has some brnd new reporting on the suspects digital presence. we'll bring you that and the 2020 mad dash. top democratic contenders making their case to voters right now on everything from taxes to health care. as hecklers again target pete buttigieg following his sharp

rise in the polls. road warriors are out in full force. we're keeping a close eye in paris after the destructive fire at notre dame. demonstrations happening as the president of france unveils an ambitious time line to rebuild the structure. we start with the breaking news out of colorado. because right now the fbi is getting ready to answer questions on that massive manhunt for a woman who they say is infatuated with the columbine school shooting. we think we're going to hear from the fbi officials looking at the clock in just about 25 minutes from now. authorities say 18-year-old is is a credible threat to the denver community. she was last seen monday. i talked with the sheriff about the investigation just a couple minutes ago. listen. >> when i left late last night, i