And falling flat. Outrage over this new pepsi ad featuring Kendall Jenner. Why critics are blasting it as tone deaf. And how pepsi is pushing back today, wednesday, april 5th, 2017. From nbc news, this is today, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in Rockefeller Plaza. And good morning. Welcome to today on a wednesday morning. A lot of people raising eyebrows over that pepsi ad. When you try to mix politics or social issues with a soda ad, its tricky. Its hard to pull it off. And pepsi is answering for that ad this morning. Well have much more coming up. But lets start with the top story. Its a surprising reaction from the white house overnight to yet another north Korean Missile test. That provocation, just one of the National Crises now facing the Trump Administration. We have complete coverage, beginning with Hallie Jackson at the white house. Hallie, good morning to you. Reporter hi, matt. Good morning. If kim jongun is looking to prod a response out of the u. S. , hes not getting one. The secretary of state issuing what amounts to a no comment. And before this late launch, the white house is indicating the clock is running out. This provocation comes a day before President Trump is set to meet with chinas leader. This is sure to be at the top of their agenda. The timing of this latest Ballistic Missile test, no coincidence, north korea launching one day before President Trump is set to meet with chinese president xi jinping for a twoday summit at maralago. South korean Officials Say the missile reached an altitude of 117 miles before crashing into the sea of japan. The launch, triggering a terse statement from Rex Tillerson. North korea launched another intermediate range Ballistic Missile. The United States has spoken enough about north korea. We have no further comment. Its the latest in a series of missile launches from north korea recently. The country also conducting Nuclear Tests and warning its ready to test an intercontinental Ballistic Missile at any time. On the campaign trail, thencandidate trump talking tough on north korea. North korea is more dangerous and defiant than ever. Reporter and now, as president , his administration is taking a hard line on north korean efforts to develop a Nuclear Weapons program, calling on china to rein in kim jongun, the leader of the rogue country. In an interview with the Financial Times published sunday, President Trump says hes ready to act to curb north Koreas Nuclear ambitions with or without chinas help. China will decide to help us with north korea or they wont, the president said. If china is not going to solve north korea, we will. U. N. Ambassador Nikki Haley Says she hopes the summit at maralago will create a good working relationship between president s trump and xi. Thats the goal, to show that theyre willing to act on north korea. Reporter this administration has been pushing china to take a tougher stance on north korea, a white house official says that will be a matter of interest tomorrow and friday at maralago. Hes likely to be asked about it today by reporters during a press conference with the king of jordan. Matt and savannah . Hallie, thank you. Now, to a troubling Foreign Policy incident facing the white house and the world. This morning, President Trump and other World Leaders are condemning a suspected chemical weapons attack in syria that killed dozens of people and children. We should warn you, the images of the aftermath are disturbing. Nbcs correspondent Richard Engel has the story. Good morning. Reporter good morning. They are absolutely disturbing. A u. S. Intelligence official tells nbc news it appears this was a chemical weapons attack. But russia, an ally of the syrian regime, has a different explanation, saying a weapons depot was targeted, releasing toxins into the air. Reporter the images are horrific and hard to tell, showing telltale signs of a chemical weapons attack. No blood, only the dead and injured on the ground, after succumbing to what witnesses describe a poison gas. This boy, using all his strength just to breathe. First responders dousing the victims with water, stripping off their clothes to wash off the invisible contaminant. Medics and volunteers, rushing people to clinics. The gas attacks are continuing every day and no one is doing anything to stop these gas attacks. Reporter they claim Bashar Al AssadsSyrian Army Fired the chemical nerve agent sarin. While condemning the attack, President Trump took a shot at his predecessor, barack obama, saying in a statement, the heinous actions by the Bashar Al Assad regime are a consequence of the past administrations weakness. Trump is referring to 2013 when the u. S. Threatened military action after more than a thousand people were killed in another alleged chemical attack by the assad regime. A year earlier president obama warned against using the weapons. A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemicals moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. Reporter but Vladimir Putin assads ally, swooped in with a deal, offering to help rid syria of chemical weapons, averting any further talk from president obama of war. Other victims of tuesdays attack were taken to a makeshift clinic built in a cave to protect it. A father there kissed his daughter goodbye. In a nearby room, this activist was recording what he was seeing, saying warplanes were still overhead. Then, hospitals are often targeted in this war, a war that respects no conventions. Amazing the actor survived. Syrian army denied it used chemical weapons. Activists say there were five more air strikes in the same rebelheld part of syria this morning. Back to you. Richard engel, thank you. Lets bring in Nbc National Security analyst, jeremy bash. He served as chief of staff at the cia and the Defense Department during the Obama Administration. Good morning to you. Good morning, matt and savannah. President trump said the civilized world has to Pay Attention to what happened in syria. Then, he went to blame on the Obama Administration, not being tough on the red line for chemical weapons used by assad. Is this time for the blame game . What are his real options . And doesnt he need to articught now . Hes the president. The blame game never saved the life of an innocent child. And the question on the table for this National Security council and this commanderinchief is what now . The military options boil down to this. Air strikes from a military aircraft, or Cruise Missile warships off of the coast, would be to punish assad and prevent his warmaking abilities in the conducting of air strikes in the future against civilian populations. It sounds simple. But serious air defenses are dense. Theyre sophisticated. Our pilots would be at a heightened level of risk over syrian skies. And we would have to push russia aside because they are there. And thats not something this white house is willing to do. Quickly, jeremy. Blame game aside. It is worth examining what happened here. The Obama Administration set up that red line. And then said, we dont need to do military options because we got this deal to get the chemical weapons out of syria. Turns out apparently that did not work, all the weapons arent gone because weve seen them used recently. Thats right, savannah. What also has failed is any diplomatic effort to take assad out of power. I talked about the military options. The reality is in a ng lo run only a diplomatic solution will remove assad and bring syria back together again. Let me ask you about north korea before we go. They testfired another missile. It comes as President Trump is about to meet with the leader of china. Kim jongun is saying im not going to be ignored. What options do we have there, jeremy . I thought it was an interesting move to give him the silent treatment, as President Trump sits down with president xi over the next couple days, hes going to try to put the screws to the chinese leadership to say, use your leverage and your economic influence in pyongyang. He also said hed curb Nuclear Ambitions in north korea with or without china. Preemptive military action, that would be dangerous. North korea could send artillery fire into seoul. Theres 10 Million People there. We have 28,500 troops. I would not recommend military action at this point. Thank you very much. The white house is doubling down on its effort to revive the republicans failed health care bill. Also overnight, the battle over President Trumps Supreme Court nominee intensified with Democrats Holding the floor on the senate in opposition to that pick. Kristen welker, good morning. Reporter youre right. The fight over the president Supreme Court nominee is heating up this morning, as democrats dig in. It was a very busy night on the senate floor as some democrats held an allnight talkathon to protest this nomination. It could be in vain. The reality, as republicans have enough votes to override the democrats. This comes as republicans try to salvage the plan to repeal and replace obamacare. There were more meetings on capitol hill overnight, the white house striking a note of optimism. But republicans are more skeptical, stressing theres no deal yet. For the second night in a row, a huddle on the hill. The Vice President and other Top White House officials rallying House Republicans to revive their stalled effort to repeal and replace obamacare. Were making progress. Reporter at the table, moderate and conservative members of the gop. Overnight striking a note of optimism. There was a general agreement that the progress that were making is certainly progress. And theyre good discussions. Reporter President Trump telling nbc news, hes confident they can strike a deal. A point echoed by Vice President mike pence tuesday. The president and i remain confident that working with the congress, we will repeal and replace obamacare. Reporter a possible compromise, allowing states to wave some regulations if they can provide lower costs and premiums. But one republican source says that could alienate more moderate republicans who say the new plan could drive up costs for the sick. With health care up in the air, neil gorsuch is one step closer to confirmation after debate ended late tuesday. But overnight, politico reporting he plagiarized several authors in his book and academic article. In a statement, the white house spokesperson called the accusations a lastsecond smear of judge gorsuch. A showdown, now set for thursday, with republicans in the majority, poised to use the Nuclear Option needed to approve gorsuch. Also in the spotlight, ivanka trump. Now speaking out in a rare interview. I would say not to conflate lack of public denouncement with silence. Reporter responding to critics, saying she should speak out more on issues like gay rights and climate change. Where i disagree with my father, he knows it. And i express myself with total candor. Reporter now, ivanka has her fathers ear in a different capacity, federal employee, serving as special assistant to the president. Ivanka pushing back, when asked about criticism she is complicit in her fathers agenda. If being complicit is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact, im complicit. Reporter the author of the law review article gorsuch is accused of plagiarizing, also knocking down the allegations this morning, writing i have reviewed both passages and do not see an issue here. The white house calling the allegations cherry picked. The final vote on gorsuch is expected friday. Kristen welker, thank you. Theres new twists in the russian investigation. The white house and republican lawmakers dragging former president obamas National Security adviser into the conversation. Now she is firing back exclusively to nbcs andrea mitchell. Andrea, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. Former obama National Security adviser susan rice is at the center of the new political firestorm, fanned by the trump white house, denying to nbc that the Obama Administration used intelligence for political purposes. As critics are charging that the administration is trying to divert attention from the investigation into russian meddling in the election. Susan rice, in an exclusive interview with us, responding to a Bloomberg News report, that the white house is zeroing in on whether she requested the names of Trump Officials, caught up in surveillance be revealed or unmasked for political reasons. Rice insisting any unmasking requests were part of her job. We do it to protect the american people, to do our jobs in the National Security room. Thats the only reason. Did you leak the name of mike flynn . I leaked nothing to nobody. And never have and never would. Reporter the white house continues to fuel the controversy. The more we find out about this, the more we learn that there was clearly something there. Reporter its the latest in a series of charges by the Trump Administration that critics say are designed the distract from the russia investigation, and justify the president s explosive tweet a month ago. Just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower. Shot down immediately by Top Republicans and fbi director james comey. I have no information that supports those tweets. Reporter the second incendiary claim, press Secretary Sean Spicer repeating a nals statement by a fox news pundit, accusing president obama of asking British Intelligence to spy on mr. Trump. He used gchq, the initials for the British Intelligence agency. Reporter the president brushing off questions, referring to fox. You shouldnt be talking to me. You should be talking to fox. Reporter the British Intelligence, and the nsa director, shooting the story down. Did you request that your counterparts should wiretap mr. Trump on behalf of mr. Obama . No, sir, nor would i. Reporter the third charge, dhe vin nunes claiming hes seen intelligence that Trump Officials were swept up in legal surveillance leading president tum to say he felt vindicated. But nunes walked back the charge, saying he did not know if Trump Officials had been surveilled or mentioned by others. The information he used came from officials inside the trump white house. And today, the wall street journal, quoting a republican official familiar with House Intelligence Committee members, is reporting that mike flynn and and one other unidentified trump official were unmasked. Flynn, on a call with the russian ambassador. Another, on a matter unrelated to russia. The journal reporting susan rice was not the official that requested mike flynn be unmasked. Matt and savannah, back to you. Andrea mitchell. Fascinating. A tornado tore through the Southwest Corner of missouri, causing damage in a small down there. This morning, 55 Million People across the south are bracing for more Severe Weather. Nbcs Kerry Sanders is in atlanta for us this morning. Good morning. Reporter good morning, savannah. Yes, an ugly day here in atlanta and lit continue to be so. The weather were already seeing suggests at least one suspected tornado has touched down southwest of atlanta and its predicted we will see tornadoes throughout the day. Atlantas airport, the busiest in the nation, has been in a ground hold for much of this morning, and that will likely continue today, and you can see the lightning and thunder in the background, all this setting up a problem that will continue. This morning the residents of goodman, missouri, are cleaning up after a possible tornado ripped through town. Storm chasers capturing the formation of the system on video, with the twister touching down late tuesday, suffering a direct hit, goodmans fire station, now destroyed. Firefighters worked through the