with the storm that is ravaging the south heading north, chris christie canceled his town meeting in new jersey tomorrow, and a new jersey newspaper is now calling for christie to quit the republican governors association. >> chris christie is coming off am successful trip to illinois. >> he raised big money for the republican governors association. >> it was great. >> it was pretty good. >> that hardly means that he's in good shape. >> there were calls back in jersey for him to give that gig up and get back to actually being something of a governor. >> the people of new jersey have given me the opportunity to serve. >> it would be better for the rga if he just stayed home.

>> my job is to be governor of the state of new jersey. >> when he gets control of his governor's office -- >> he's trying to go back to talking about what he thinks are going to be the big themes of 2016 and beyond. >> and christie's mind, he clearly still is a presidential candidate. >> i am not preoccupied with that number. >> his poll numbers as far as running against hillary have jumped off the gw bridge. >> you guys worry about the bridge, i'm going to worry about the contract. >> christie's focus is on showing he's still in the game politically nationally. >> no one is going to stop me from doing my job. with a possibly huge snowstorm bearing down on new jersey and new york tomorrow, chris christie canceled his town meeting in new jersey tomorrow. governor who spent yesterday in chicago was greeted with an

editorial in his state's biggest newspaper this morning telling him to quit the job of running the republican governors association and return to the job of running the executive branch of government in new jersey. the "star ledger" editorial said he has a job to do in trenton that he is neglecting. few have noticed that new jersey faces a fiscal crisis. our credit rating is dropping. our structural deficit is rated as the worst in the nation by researchers at george mason university and now the chairman of the state senate budget committee is warning of giant revenue short falls and with funds devoted to transit and open space purchases, both bankrupt, christie has proposed no fix. keep in mind that the bulk of christie's senior staff ensnared in if the bridgegate scandal as well. so who is minding the store? it is undeniable that the rga job is a major distraction,

especially when heat on top of the scandals. so give it up, governor. time to focus on the job you were hired to do. governor christie is already scheduled to travel for the republican governors association meetings in massachusetts and connecticut. chris christie's national favorability rating dropping, with 46% now viewing chris christie unfavorably. the marist mcclatchy poll shows running against hillary clinton, he runs behind hillary clinton by 21 points. the only one to poll worse is sar hah palin who said this about chris christie yesterday. >> you know, i just don't know all the information out there. but it's hard to be the ceo of an organization and not know what the closest people to you are up to.

it's tough not to know. i know when i was mayor and manager of this city and governor of the state, certainly you know what your top aides are up to. you blow it if you ever try to hide anything. you know? whatever is hidden eventually light shines upon it. so oh man, you know, i just hope that the truth is being told. >> joining me now is sam stein and msnbc political analyst and reporter with the huffington post and brian murphy, professor and former political reporter in new jersey. brian worked for david wildstein in 2002 in new jersey at politicsnj.com. with friends like sarah palin, there is a hardy defense, huh? >> oh, god. the bus, it's moving so fast over chris christie. you know? she didn't do him any favors with that statement, but if you step back and you ask the question, is it likely that he

knew or should he have known? she probably has a point, which is that -- and it gets to the big problem here for chris christie is that either way he's sort of damned. either h edidn't know and didn't have good control over his staff members and they were running wild underneath him without him having any knowledge or he did know. either way, either explanation is a bad one. and i guess we'll find out which one is true. but either way, it hurts him politically. >> yeah, his best defense is i'm completely unfit to be president because i delegate, as i he said, enormous authority to my staff and my cabinet, and he went on to say, brian, they have humiliated and embarrassed me. we got a stack of subpoenas today, brian, going after more documents and targeting kind of specifically what they're going after. walk us through this latest round of subpoenas. >> the interesting thing about what's going on here is we see the investigation shifting a bit from looking into the bridge

lane closures into looking into the cover-up and the explanation that's provided on the bridge -- >> especially that testimony that bill baroni gave to the new jersey legislature. >> this paper, right. when i look at this, i can see at least -- this is a mark-up that was included in the original document dump. when you look at how this was edited, you can find two people writing on here, neither of whom are bill baroni. both look to me, my historian eyes, i usually look at handwriting that's 200 years old, but these both look like women which, and one of them is written in a very lawyerly way. which to me looks a lot like it came out of trenton. >> what document is that? >> this is the testimony that bill baroni gave to the state assembly back in the fall. it wasn't under oath. if it had been under oath, he probably couldn't have made it. and when they were going to ask him to do this again under oath

the next day, he resigned from his position at the port authority. so this is kind of -- this becomes kind of a smoking gun on putting you in trenton. >> what these subpoenas are all aiming for is who advised him to say what in that testimony that we now know to contain things that aren't true, like the traffic study. >> and, i mean, the most disingenuous thing in the testimony is saying that these are ft. lee-only lanes. which, you know, probably to other people in the country who just think this is about a traffic jam, they don't understand, you can use these lanes anywhere and anyone driving in the area, i've used these lanes. i don't live in ft. lee. but when traffic getting backed up, you can go into ft. lee, use this as a short cut to get on to the bridge. they're calling them only ft. lee lanes. and they're building a case for the permanent closure for these lanes and making a political argument that this is somehow unfair. this is an unfair advantage given to only one town, 4.5% of

the people are using this. it's just a disingenuous argument. the people in the area know that and the people making the argument know it's a disingenuous argument. so the question is, what is the motive? >> sam stein, what these subpoenas show is that the legislative committee is doing a very professional job of trying to dig very precisely at facts and doing it through documents. they're not even asking people for testimony yet. even there's chris christie clinging to the republican governors association job almost as if this isn't happening. and then the biggest newspaper in the state this morning says to him hey, come on, this is absolutely ridiculous. you've got to stay here. >> well, yeah. it's not almost as if this isn't .haing. it's as if this isn't happening. he is acting as if there's no scandal back home, in part because there's not much more he can do. he needs to go on and pretend it's business as usual. the rga is dependent on him to raise huge amounts of money and it does appear he's still doing

that. they've raised $6 million or so in january. in part because the rga has an enormously difficult slate of elections that it has to work with this cycle. and chris christie has two main problems. one is the new jersey problem. that's obviously the biggest one. but the second is that as head of the rga, he's going to be saddled potentially with some very bad losses. you look at rick scott, you look at john kasich. he will have local and state profile complimented or exacerbated on his national profile and he's in a tough position in both those. >> brian, you know a lot of the players around christie world. is there someone who can say to him the time has come. you've got to let go of this republican governors association. >> we'll find out. i mean, it's not clear to me who -- i think we're at this stage where it's hard to tell whose advice --

>> let me ask you this. has there there ever been in the christie structure who in that difficult moment could really be the one who walks in there and says the thing that that governor absolutely does not want to hear, has to hear, and has to ultimately act on? >> i think so. and that person isn't on his staff. that person is one of his long-time fundraisers, someone who helped him become the united states attorney. but i don't -- >> who is that? >> bill paloticci. >> y. he comes out in these stories. >> i'm not sure anyone work on christie's staff can do that. the structure of the governor's office and the structure of the actual power around christie aren't actually -- >> this was what strikes me about it. the image you have, these aren't people who are a strong, brave group willing to march right in

there and tell him the bad news, which also says to me, they are not people who would likely be willing to freelance in ig that the governor had not approved. >> yes. i think that's true. but i think what we're getting at is sort of the problem going forward, too, which is you have an already overstretched staff. a gubernatorial staff to run a state which is now preoccupied in trying to save themselves. they are embroiled in this scandal, in part because the governor has said it's on my staff. and you have to question, who's actually running the show, how are they conducting business? is this affecting the administration of state jobs? you know, that's a big question mark surrounding the governor. >> sam stein and brian murphy, thank you both very much for joining me tonight. coming up, republicans in the all-important presidential swing state of ohio are now threatening voter rights in that state. and the man who killed 17-year-old jordan davis took the witness stand and used the stand your ground defense in his florida murder trial.

tonight, a jury is deciding that case. and you won't believe -- you will not believe what a texas sportscaster had to say about michael sam playing in the nfl. that is in tonight's "rewrite." ♪ [ screaming ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing the bold, all-new nissan rogue with intuitive all-wheel drive. because winter needs a hero. ♪ we've got allstate, right? uh-huh. yes! well, i found this new thing called... [ dennis' voice ] allstate quickfoto claim. [ normal voice ] it's an app. you understand that?

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citizenship means standing up for everyone's right to vote. last year, part of the vote rights act was weekened, but conservative republicans and liberal democrats are working together to strengthen it. >> but in ohio, republicans are not working to make the voting rights stronger. they are passing a new bill that will make it harder to vote. it will put limits on the use of absentee ballots and cut early voting by almost a week which will eliminate the ability of voters to both register and vote early on the same day. state senator frank larose who is the sponsor of that bill told the associated press those changes are necessary because same day registration and voting, quote, perpetuates an election system that is susceptible to voter fraud. an investigation of voter fraud by the republican secretary of state found that out of 5.63 million votes cast in the last

presidential election, there were 135 possible -- just possible -- voter fraud cases referred to law enforcement just for more investigation. that is about 2/100 of 1% of the voters. joining me now are nina turner, ohio state senator and a canada for ohio secretary of state and msnbc's krystal ball. senator turner, so how many convictions do you get in a typical year or in any year in ohio on voter fraud? i'm not impressed by this number of, this is how many referrals we made to law enforcement to investigate. i want to know how many cases they actually brought and got a conviction on, because that conviction tells me how many actual instances of voter fraud we can prove. >> absolutely, lawrence. never let the arithmetic get in the way of a good story.

so far there's only been one conviction right now. >> whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. senator, you said one. that's not possible. because you wouldn't pass a big giant law to interfere with the actions of exactly one person in ohio who's trying to vote fraudulently and then make it difficult for thousands and thousands and thousands other legal voters. no one would do that. it can't be one! >> they're doing it, lawrence. this really gets in the way of thousands of voters having access to the ballot box, not only in this state but across the country. it is wrong. that's what the gop is doing not only in the state of ohio but across the country. >> krystal ball, they have one case. one case and they're going forward to stop that. >> and here's the thing, even if you grant them, which we don't, but even if you were to give them the benefit of doubt and say okay, we believe that you

are actually concerned about the integrity of elections and are not just trying to dis enfranchise voters, if you grant them that -- >> boy, that's hard. i'm trying to do it. it's really hard. >> there's a bipartisan report that just came out that the president talked about in the state of the union that recommended if you're concerned about the election integrity, the thing to do is to expand early voting and to focus on voter registration, modernizing voter registration, making sure there's coordination between the states. but somehow that never comes up in the republicans' list of things they want to do to, quote, protect the ballot. >> and nina turner, of course, ohio so often decides who the president of the united states is going to be. obviously that's what republicans see as being at stake here. they cannot win the presidency. they haven't won the presidency without winning ohio. it seems they have a very strong incentive to try to suppress any

nonrepublican voting pattern in ohio. >> that's it, lawrence. and they know that a disproportionate ll i, the early and in-person vote in urban areas tends to be utilized. but that is not a reason to impact the integrity of elections. they want to talk about the integrity of elections, making sure that people's votes are not suppressed, making sure that people feel like their voices can be heard in the democracy, that is important. and, you know, we have laws on the books right now that are working in terms of capturing anybody that may be trying to impersonate somebody when they work into the polling place. but, they are working by a creed, if we can't beat them, cheat them. that is happening not only with these laws that they are trying to pass, but also in how they redrew the lines in ohio as well. people should be outraged an't this. we are not making this up, and there was a state rep, representative huffman in committee who talked about if some folks only want to get rides from church to go vote,

why should we have our system help them. that was a code for souls to the polls which everybody knows disproportionately african-americans use that. so it's wrong what they're doing all the way around. >> it's so transparent. >> it's totally transparent. not only is it wrong, it's pathetic. it's essentially an acknowledgment that republicans can't win by appealing to voters. >> yeah, there is that. >> they have to keep voters from going to the polls. so the further that they go down this path, the more reinforcing that pattern is. if you don't want people to vote at all, they are never going to vote for you. >> senator nina turner, thank you very much for joining us. and krystal ball, thank you for join joining us. up next, the state of a man who has invoked the stand your ground defense in the killing of a 17-year-old boy. that case is now in the hands of a florida jury. that's next. and a texas sportscaster enters the debate over whether michael

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>> in "the spotlight" today, the jury began to consider the case of michael dunn. he didn't like how loud the music was in the car that jordan davis was sitting in in a convenience store parking lot. he told the teenage boys in that car to turn down the music and according to leeland brunson, one of the other passengers in that car, here's what happened next. >> did anyone turned down the music when he asked you to turn down the music? >> yes. >> who turned it shutdown? >> tevan. >> did jordan davis say anything when he turned down the music? >> yes. >> what was that? >> he said no, turn the music back up. >> did you ever here jordan davis threaten the driver? >> no. >> did jordan say anything back when the driver said are you talking to me? >> yes. >> what did he say? >> yeah, i'm talking to you. >> and what did you see the

driver of the other car do when jordan davis said yeah, i'm talking to you. >> he reached into his glove compartment. >> did you see what the driver got out of his glove compartment? >> yes. >> what was that? >> a gun. >> and what did the driver with the gun when he grabbed it from the glove compartment. >> he cocked it back. >> and show the jury what you mean when you say he cocked it back. >> he showed it and cocked it back. >> pulled the slide back? >> yes. >> and for the record, judge, the witness made a demonstration to that effect. >> so reflected. >> what did the driver do with the gun after he grabbed it and pulled the slide back. >> he aimed it out of his window. >> and where did he aim it? >> towards jordan's window? >> and what did the driver do with the gun when he aimed it at jordan's door. >> he started firing. >> michael dunn fled the scene after the shooting and was apprehended by police about 175 miles from the scene the next

day. in his defense, michael dunn told a story that wasn't corroborated by any other witness or any other evidence in the case. he claimed that jordan davis got out of the car even though the medical examiner's findings indicate jordan davis was shot in the backseat of the car and he claims that jordan davis had a shotgun, even though police found no other weapon in this case other than the gun that killed jordan davis. >> after the continued threat of you're dead, bitch, now the door opens and this young man gets out, and as his head clears the window frame, he says this [ bleep ] is going down now. >> and at anytime, do you see that man try to get rid of what you thought was a shotgun? >> well, when the door opened and he said this [ bleep ] is going down now, that shotgun is not sticking up in im.

>> okay. but you didn't see his body movement try to get rid of it or get out? >> no, i just saw him get out and the shotgun is not sticking up in im. >> now, in your mind did you think he was going to get out to yell at you some more? >> no. this is the point where my death is imminent. he's coming to kill me. he's coming to beat me. i'm not real sure what his intentions are. actually, he made it very clear what his intentions were. >> michael dunn shot at the car 10 times. three of these bullets hit jordan davis. michael dunn is charged with first degree murder for jordan davis' death. he's also charged with three counts of attempted murder for the three other passengers in the car. joining me now are larry hannan, a court reporter for the florida times union. he's been in the courtroom every day of the dunn trial. and mark thompson, host of "make it plain" on sirius xm radio. larry, was there anything that

you could read in jury reaction to the testimony, the direct testimony of the -- from the witnesses, the kids in the car and that -- and the defendant taking the stand himself? >> lawrence, the jurors were really raptly listening to dunn throughout his testimony. it was a struggle to figure out what they thought they were watching. i saw a juror shake her head in disgust. it was after the fiancee left that they basically turned on dunn. she contradicted a lot of what dunn said on the stand. >> the key point being that he in the testimony, it emerges that he never told the girlfriend that jordan davis had a gun. he never said that to her with plenty of opportunities to do so. isn't that the big contradiction? >> correct. she was actually in the gas station buying a bot of wine when the shooting occurred.

he yelled at her to get into the car afterwards. he never told her that, according to her. and they ended up ordering a pizza and then going to sleep. in the drive back the next day, she said once again he never told her that davis had a gun. >> mark thompson, when a person does that and jumps back in the car what do you say? >> they had a gun, my life was in jeopardy. you don't go order a pizza. larry can correct me if i'm wrong, as i heard the defense closed today, he tried to say that the fiancee didn't remember that or got it wrong because she's actually still traumatized from the incident herself. so they're going to say whatever to the jury that they need to, but this is in the words of another -- of a famous politician who often used racial

stereotypes himself, here we go again. this feels the same way as it did a year ago when we were dealing with the trayvon martin case. >> and larry, this does have the stand your ground defense element. and the defense said today to the jury, you know, michael dunn's belief of what was happening doesn't have to actually be true, according to the stand your ground defense. but what must be true is that he did believe that his life was being threatened at that time. >> it has to be reasonable, though, lawrence. that's the argument that prosecutors are making, that he had no reasonable cause to believe his life with us being threatened. the other teenagers in that car staid jordan davis never threatened him. the other witnesses at the gas station that night said that davis just started screaming you can't talk to me like that and fired. and then dunn has said that davis got out, threatening him with a gun. no one else saw jordan davis with a gun or even saw jordan

davis get out of the car. >> and mark, this is one of those things where the stand your ground is being tested. and it seems, though, that -- just as you study it, it's really hard to see what the jury would be able to hang an i quital on here, even on the stand your ground defense. you would have to have another witness who says yes, i at least saw one of the boys get out of the car. >> i would agree with you, lawrence. but, you know, i'm hesitant to put a lot of hope in trials such as these. we saw what happened with the zimmerman trial. there must be some type of conversation in this country about these laws and the impact they have. and we know that disproportionately, where there is an african-american victim and a white victim, wherever there's a stand your ground order, self-defense, we of know how that comes oout. we need to address that in the law, but also culturally.

we need to ask why there's some, not everyone, but there's some who feel that black men, particularly young african-american men are an existential threat just walking down the street, just carrying a bag of skittles. or just listening to loud music. or pulling a wallet out of the back pocket. how does that translate into having a gun? >> larry, how did the jury react, if we can gauge it, to the judge's charge on the stand your ground element of this case? >> they were listening and taking notes but, you know, it was a very long jury instruction. i would not say that they really reacted one way or another to the stand your ground. i think it was 34 pages of instructions. and as is often the case, midway through, the jury is kind of numb, carefully taking notes. but i don't think the phrase stand your ground really was something they noticed that much. >> mark, this may not be a case

where the jury even gets to the stand your ground issue in that if they don't have testimony of, you know, this kid getting out of the car. if they don't have some testimony that they can actually use to construct a dynamic in which there is ground to stand, they may not get to that point. >> you're right. and that evidence does not exist. >> yeah. >> there are no witnesses, no physical evidence that he got out of the car. no physical evidence that he had a gun. of course, the defense tried to make the case that the police didn't do due diligence to look for a gun. to go look in the bushes or what have you. there is evidence that he got out of his car. and if one is truly fearful or afraid, they probably are going to flee more than anything. but he got out of his car and shot into theirs. i think the prosecutor also made the case he probably intended to kill more than one young man that night. it's just another tragic example of the extrajudicial execution of an african-american child.

>> thank you both very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> coming up in "the rewrite." texas is football country. how is texas reacting to the news of what might be what will be surely, the first openly gay nfl player? ♪ [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average.

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ignorant of the laws of the real world that they don't know they're talking about violating the law. and an assistant coach, who will obviously be recommending against drafting michael sam said, there is nothing more

sensitive than the heart beat of the locker room. hmmm. well, here is what else that very sensitive nfl assistant coach said about that very sensitive locker room he hangs out in. if you knowingly bring someone in there with that sexual orientation, how are the other guys going to deal with it? it's going to be a big distraction. what does he mean distraction. are the so-called straight players and the so-called straight assistant coaches just going to stare at the gay guy in the locker room? he's going to be a big distraction? meaning that in that very sensitive locker room, the players will simply not be able to take their eyes off him. it turns out even i have more respect for the average nfl player than that assistant coach does.

i think most nfl players know they've been naked in locker rooms with gay guys before and it was no big deal. here you have an assistant coach who has a strong voice in who gets hired and who gets fired on a football team, saying that his players cannot live with the reality that gay men exist in their world. the nfl is headquartered in gay friendly manhattan, just a couple of blocks from where i'm sitting at this moment. but new york city is not the capital of football in america. the capital of football in america is friday night lights country. the capital of football in america is texas. texas loves football more than anywhere else in the world. and football loves texas back. there are more intense old fashioned crew cut football guys in texas than anywhere else. so you can imagine what the coverage of the michael sam story was like in texas.

you can imagine what the local tv sports guy in dallas who's been talking football on tv there for over 30 years had to say about michael sam. dale hanson, the three-time texas sportscaster of the year. well, no, you can't imagine what the most famous tv sports reporter in texas had to say about michael sam openly, proud gay michael sam. >> yesterday, missouri's all-american defensive end michael sam, the sec's defensive player of the year and expected to be a third to fifth-round pick in the nfl draft tells the world he's gay. the best defensive player in college football's best conference only a third to fifth-round pick. really? that is shocking. and i guess that other thing is, too. michael sam would be the first openly gay player in the nfl,

says he knows there will be problems and they've already started. several nfl officials telling "sports illustrated" it will hurt him on draft day because a gay player wouldn't be welcome in an nfl locker room. it would be uncomfortable because that's a man's world. you beat a woman and drag her down a flight of stairs pulling her hair out by the roots, you're the fourth guy taken in the nfl draft. you kill people while driving drunk, that guy is welcome. players caught in hotel rooms with illegal drugs and prostitutes, we know they're welcome. players accused of rape and pay the woman to go away. you lie to police, trying to cover up a murder, we're comfortable with that. you love another man, well, now you've got too far. it wasn't that long ago when we were being told that black players couldn't play in our games because it would be uncomfortable. and even when they finally could, it took several more years before a black man played quarterback. because we weren't comfortable with that either. so many of the same people who used to make that argument and

the many who still do are the same people who say government should stay out of our lives, but then want government in our bedrooms. i have never understood how they feel comfortable laying claim to both sides of that argument. i'm not always comfortable when a man tells me he's gay. i don't understand his world. but i do understand that he's part of mine. civil rights activists adre lord said it's not our differences that divide us. it's our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences. we've always been able to recognize them. some of us accept them, and i want to believe that there will be a day when we do celebrate them. i don't know if that day is here yet. i guess we're about to find out. but when i listen to michael sam, i do think it's time to celebrate him now. >> it turns out football does have a heart. deep in the heart of texas. and although it's only february, dale hanson is already america's

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tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your doctor if humira can work for you. this is humira at work. 60% of the nation is buried under ice and snow across multiple southern states. snowfall is hitting more than ten inches in some places. over 420,000 homes and businesses are without power because of ice and downed trees, damaging power lines. more than 3,350 flights were canceled nationwide today. the storm has also been blamed for at least 11 deaths. last time it was atlanta. but some of the worst traffic problems in this storm are happening in north carolina. for more on what's to come, we are joined now by nbc

meteorologist bill carons. what should we be looking at? >> a horrible day. this was a storm in south carolina that people will be telling their grand kids about decades from now. we don't get ice storms like this, historic ice storms. in the atlanta area, we had a tree fall in this house. this grandmother was asleep in that bed. that's the room right there. her son said she came into the room, she had the insulation and the sheet rock sitting on top of her. she was just buried, thanksful to be alive. she did survive and is being treated. other areas like charlotte, we had a little mini atlanta situation. everyone went to work, the roads were dry. there was no snow. they all thought as soon as they saw the snowflakes they would all go home at the same time. and we had horrible traffic jams

in the charlotte area. raleigh wasn't much better. and then the picturesque but dangerous part of the storm has been the ice accumulations. and even tourist locations. charleston, south carolina, myrtle beach area, augusta, georgia. at this hour, we have half a million people without power and the temperature is about 30 degrees. that's about half a million people scrambling to find a location with heat to keep their family and kids safe as they go throughout their night tonight and tomorrow morning. that's where we've been. now let me take you to where we're going. we have winter storm warnings all the way to northern a al. it was just snowing hard in birmingham of all places. then we're going to go all the way to friday afternoon into maine. here's how the storm is playing out. we have two pieces of the puzzle coming together. they are going to merge off the east coast, a classic scenario for a big east coast storm. then we'll get our nor'easter forming tonight.

moving up the eastern seaboard for tomorrow. and that is going to leave us with some very impressive snow totals. as of now, we still have freezing rain in birmingham. now the heaviest snow is shifting northwards. not a good time to be on the roads. virginia, overnight in virginia, stay off the roads. even around washington, d.c., stay off the roads. here's my latest snowfall forecast. some of this has already fallen. we'll end up with one to three in atlanta. a lot of sleet today. we avoided a repeat of what we did two weeks ago. but if you're up here in the mountainous areas of virginia and west virginia, up to 12 to 18 inches of snow. and then we get into the high impact part of the storm. the big cities in the east, tomorrow morning, d.c., we could have about eight inches all already on the ground. west of town, a little more than that. new york city, you could be getting two inches of snow an hour between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. airports will be shut down. that's almost guaranteederly in the morning.

already thousands of flights have been cancelled. and then we'll shift it northwards after that. the blue on this map shows you the really heavy snow. this is 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. and that's right along i-95. pretty much from d.c. all the way up there into areas of southern new england. then as we go throughout the day, we get a little bit of a break. what's interesting about this storm, we're going to get a break. then we get slapped as the storm leaves us at about 9:00 p.m. tomorrow night until about midnight. heavy snow returns to the areas. that already thought they were done with it. by the time, we're done, we're just query of this. this is mid february. this is our fifth storm, everyone is over it. and this one will probably be the biggest of them all. >> it is toughing watching the people in the south not accustomed to dealing with this in any way. at least as we see it moving up to that end of the map, people living there, the governments there know how to react to it. >> i think this is going to be the problem tomorrow morning around new york city. we already had three or four storms.

people have driven in them safely, no problems. i think tomorrow morning is different. i think it snows so hard we're going to have a lot more problems than people expect. >> listen to bill, new york. thanks very much for that. >> chris hayes is up next. bonfire of john boehner. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington i'm going to get to the latest christie development, the huge rise in the people who don't believe him right after the incredible development on the right. for whatever reason, strange brain soup, the hard right in the u.s. congress is in the early stage of insurrection against house speaker john boehner. they find what he did yesterday avoiding a fault on national debt unacceptable.