the secretary of homeland security called it a, quote, difficult situation. question is, why won't he call it a crisis? and democrats press forward with key agenda items like immigration and voting rights but with a slim majority in the senate and the filibuster getting in their way, the question remains, what are they going to do about it? it's "way too early" for this. good morning! and welcome to "way too early," the show that's really wondering if we could just spring forward to friday? i am kasie hunt on this thursday, march 18th. we'll start with the news. the suspect arrested in the murder spree at three spas in the atlanta area has been charged. 21-year-old robert long faces eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault. police say he killed four people inside one spa, three people inside another and one person inside a third spa. officials say he was arrested while on the way to florida, possibly to carry out more attacks. six of the eight victims were asian women, leading to speculation that the spree may have been part of a rise in anti-asian hate since the coronavirus pandemic. yesterday, officials offered another possible motive. >> the suspect did take responsibility for the shootings. he said that early on, once we had begun the interviews with him. he claims that these -- and as the chief said, this is still early -- but he does claim that it was not racially motivated. he, apparently, has an issue, what he carries a sex addiction, and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places and it's a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate. >> officials believe the suspect may have frequented those spas in the past. atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms was asked during the news conference if the establishments were the types of places someone could go for sexual encounters. >> so, we don't know additional information about what his motives were, but we certainly will not begin to blame victims. and as far as we know in atlanta, these are legally operating businesses that have not been on our radar, not on the radar of apd. >> the senior counsel for the anti-defamation league told the "atlanta journal-constitution" that if the suspect targeted the women because of a sex addiction, that is still considered a hate crime. and in addition to the six asian female victims, officials say two of those killed were white. we're told a man who was also injured in the attack is in stable condition. long is currently being held without bond and is expected to appear in cherokee county court for arraignment later this morning. meanwhile, a spokesperson for the cherokee county sheriff's office in georgia is facing backlash for saying that the shooting suspect was having a bad day. >> when i spoke with investigators, they interviewed him this morning and they got that impression that, yes, he understood the gravity of it, and he was pretty much fed up, had been kind of end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. >> remorseful? >> i'm not going to go to -- i don't know if he was remorseful or not. >> captain jay baker, who made those comments, is also facing criticism after it was revealed last year he promoted shirts on facebook with the slogan "covid-19: imported virus from china." baker did not immediately respond to requests for comment. all right, to politics now. senate majority leader chuck schumer announced democrats' plans to pass a comprehensive voting reform bill called the for the people act. >> we will put the bill on the floor. we will see if our republican friends join us. if they don't join us, our caucus will come together and decide the appropriate action to take. everything is on the table. failure is not an option. >> everything is on the table. the package includes protections against gerrymandering, improved election security and makes it easier to register to vote. the house passed its version of the bill earlier this month with every republican voting against it. and senator raphael warnock of georgia used his first floor speech to slam restrictive voting laws pushed by republicans in the wake of his senate runoff win. >> we are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we've ever seen since the jim crow era. this is jim crow in new clothes. within 24 hours, elected georgia's first african-american jewish senator, and hours later, the capitol was assaulted. it is a contradiction to say we must protect minority rights in the senate while refusing to protect minority rights in the society. colleagues, those senate rules should overrule the integrity of our democracy, and we must find a way to pass voting rights, whether we get rid of the filibuster or not. >> senator warnock received a standing ovation and cheers through the chamber. you can hear it now, when he finished his speech. the senator is going to join "morning joe," just ahead. and that fight over the senate filibuster is raging in the house as well. majority whip congressman jim clyburn rejected defense of the filibuster, calling out moderate democrats for protecting it. in an interview with politico, clyburn said, quote, we've got 50 democrats, warnock and ossoff are two. since when did sinema and manchin become more important than them? they all got us to 50. so, this notion that we've got to do what manchin says, warnock is up in two years for re-election. joining us now, with politico, co-author of "the playbook," eugene daniels. msnbc contributor. good to see you. i was listening to what chuck schumer said yesterday, and that language saying all options are on the table suggests that this may be where they decide to take a stand, where they may go ahead and change the rules on voting rights and these questions about how we conduct elections because it has really become, as we heard in very emotional terms from senator warnock, the central issue right now. >> it really, really is. and for a party that has been bolstered and supported and saved by the black and brown votes in this country, they know that this is huge because a lot of those restrictive bills, those more than 250 bills throughout the statehouses in this country, are aimed at some of the communities that are black and brown, some of the things that they did during the 2020 election to make sure more people had the right to vote. and it's clear that it's a priority for the majority leader. however, everything can't be on the table if you have to reach 60 votes, right? and right now, joe manchin does not seem to be budging on that. and even talks of having a talking filibuster in which they have to stand up and do so, that doesn't mean that the 60-vote threshold goes anywhere. and so, joe biden came out in support of this talking filibuster. manchin even talked about making it more painful for people to do a filibuster, which also led us to believe that he was talking about the talking filibuster. but again, that doesn't get rid of the 60-vote threshold. and right now, there doesn't seem to be ten republicans that can jump aboard -- excuse me, nine republicans, if you have a vote from the vice president, to jump on board with senate democrats here. >> yeah, no, you're right about that number ten. the vice president only comes into play when there's actually a tie, which is what gives democrats that edge. no, you're fine. so, i take your point, absolutely. and it's pretty clear, there's likely not even one republican, let alone a big group of them that would go ahead with this. but how does schumer, if this is what it comes to, and the pressure from the left is snreetsing, schumer's facing potentially a primary for his own seat in new york from alexandria ocasio-cortez. how does he move manchin and sinema over the course of the next couple months? i mean, i think you're right to underscore that manchin has been very definitive in saying he refuses to budge on the 60-vote threshold. >> yeah. i think -- my sense is, the thing that chuck schumer can do here, and they don't seem to have plans yet to do this, but if he brought voting rights, things that are very popular in this country, some of the gun control measures that are going to be passing the house, and forced senate republicans to filibuster, forced them to obstruct, because right now, moderate democrats do not have -- other than history, we know that mitch mcconnell and republicans have done in the past in the senate to block certain things that democrats want to get done and to obstruct and to filibuster, but there isn't any evidence at this point that moderate democrats can point to, to say that we've tried everything. and i think people like manchin, people like kyrsten sinema, they want to see that they've tried everything. so, if chuck schumer can bring these things to the floor and have months of republicans knocking down everything, a lot of things that are popular in this country, they have more evidence to go to the american people and say, look, the filibuster just isn't working, right? and that is a way to get rid of it. but one of the other things that's really important is that you have to get the white house on board with that. and right now, that is -- he softened his stance, the president, but whether or not, again, getting to that 51 is a little bit more difficult. it's hard to see how that happens. and manchin and sinema, after being so adamant, so adamant, it's hard to see how they now change their vote on that. >> right. well, and of course, some of this is going to depend on what republicans do, but i wonder if the white house, sinema and manchin, won't all go together if we actually end up in this place. politico's eugene daniels, thank you very much for getting up early with us. always great to have you here. coming up, the head of homeland security in the hot seat over the situation at the southern border. plus, a new warning from intelligence officials that domestic extremists will almost certainly turn to violence this year. we're going to dig into that new report. we'll have those stories and a check on some severe weather in the south and the east coast when we come right back. e come . did you know that 70% of the soils on your clothes are invisible? 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[music: "i swear"] jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day... and forgot where she was. you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ welcome back. get those brackets in. march madness tips off today with the first four games of the men's tournament. it marks the start of an attempt to get through 67 games uninterrupted as the ncaa has placed players, coaches, and staff under what the "ap" calls a virtual lock and key, confined between team hotels and training and competition facilities in indianapolis for the next three weeks. none of the 68 teams notified the ncaa they'd have to withdraw by tuesday night's deadline, and the organization's vice president says only seven of the 6,900 coronavirus tests analyzed so far have come back with positive results. he says players from the university of virginia, the only team not yet in indianapolis because of an outbreak last week, will need to clear three tests after arriving tomorrow afternoon to be approved to play saturday night. meanwhile, the first four games feature one team in an unfamiliar spot. michigan state facing ucla tonight in a matchup of number 11 seeds in the east region. the last time a tournament was held in 2019, the spartans reached the final four, the most recent of eight trips to the big dance under coach tom izzo. they're going to need to win an extra game this time before reaching the final field of 64. all right, a second civil lawsuit against houston texans quarterback deshaun watson was filed yesterday, following one from a separate plaintiff filed the day before. each allege inappropriate conduct by batson during massages last year. in a statement posted to twitter tuesday night, watson says he never treated any woman with anything other than the most utmost respect and looks forward to clearing his name. he also rejected a baseless six-figure settlement demand made by the accuser's lawyer. both plaintiffs are being represented by the same attorney who posted on social media last night that four additional suits alleging assault are coming. the texans and the nfl said yesterday they're aware of the matter, and watson's future on the field has been one of the biggest story lines of the nfl offseason after he requested a trade from the texans. but the team has so far indicated no interest in trading the three-time pro bowl quarterback. and an illinois appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling that says a woman struck in the face by a foul ball at wrigley field in 2018 can proceed with her lawsuit filed against major league baseball. in the suit, she claims she was hit because the stadium hadn't extended netting that protects fans down the third base line where she was sitting. according to "ap," professional sports teams have largely been protected from lawsuits because on the back of the ticket, it states that the assumption of risk is spelled out. but they say it was in fine print and not appreciated by the plaintiff. time for the weather. let's go to meteorologist bill karins for a check on the forecast. bill, there's some pretty severe weather facing a lot of americans this morning. >> yeah, good morning, kasie. i mean, we were fortunate yesterday. 23 tornadoes reported, so that's officially a tornado outbreak, any time you get 10 or 12 in one day, we call it an outbreak. and we had some big tornadoes, too, especially areas of alabama, mississippi. everywhere you see the red dot here is where we had these. alabama was some of the worst of it. numerous farms were hit. yesterday we had the strong tornadoes we thought, but most of them -- not all -- most of them were in very rural areas and where not much was hit. you can see here in billingsley, alabama, that chicken coup and some farm equipment was hit hard. you can notice that truck. one of the doors was almost tore off, so that was a very strong storm. let's go to the maps. we're not done yet. this was a two-day severe weather outbreak, so we still have to get through today. looks like we'll be focusing on the carolinas. we have a tornado watch, areas for the panhandle of florida up into southern portions of alabama and georgia. that goes until 7:00 a.m. then during the day today, these storms will spread through the carolinas. if we're going to get tornadoes or bad weather today, watch out savannah, charleston, myrtle beach, wilmington up to the new bern greenville area. 20% of people at risk of the severe storms. wind damage is the greatest concern. and be prepared for travel delays in the northeast, especially at the airports. kasie, we're expecting about 2 inches of rain today in areas of new york city. d.c.'s going to get soaked, too. it's been a while since we've had a rainy day, but it's going to pour all afternoon and evening. >> all right. i guess a day for staying inside today. bill karins, thank you very much for that. we will see you tomorrow. and still ahead here, new york lawmakers take another step forward with the impeachment 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