With ben affleck. Her really candid comments about her ex. Did bens alleged affair with the nanny truly end their marriage . And countdown to the oscars. Your backstage pass to the glitz, glamour and huge surprises. Right now the red carpet is covered in plastic, but that will soon change. The big reveals from the producers, presenters going animated, excitement bubbling over as hollywood gears up for the biggest night of the year. Hey, good morning on a weekend with two big stories brewing. First were counting down to the oscars which will air right here on abc. Check out this timelapsed video of the red carpet being rolled out. Coming up, what the producers are revealing only to us. Hainesy will be covering that. Once, lets say it twice. The oscars will be right here on abc over and over. Before they hand out the shiny statues in hollywood shgs, theyll award delegates in South Carolina. They head to the polls this morning in what Hillary Clinton hopes will be a decisive win. Meanwhile, the bombshell endorsement reverberating through the republican universe this morning. Chris christie joining forces with donald trump. This alliance raising all kinds of questions. Will it give trump unstoppable momentum heading into super tuesday, and what does it mean for a supposedly surging marco rubio . We start our coverage this morning with abcs mary bruce right in washington. Hi, mary. Reporter hi, paula. Good morning. This is a potential game changer in this roller coaster campaign, donald trump getting his first major endorsement from a card carrying member of the republican establishment just as he heads into super tuesday. His former rival showed up unannounced and dropped a bombshell on Donald Trumps campaign. We need a first class have it in donald trump. Reporter new jersey governor Kristie Macosko krieger this morning is lending his credibility to trumps runaway campaign. One person that hillary and bill clinton do not want to see on that stage come next september is donald trump. Reporter they werent always so friendly. Well do it. Im going to get it done because i make deals and i get deals and reporter united christie and trump are taking aim at a common enemy, marco rubio. Desperate people in campaigns who do desperate things flailing punches in the last days of a losing campaign. Reporter after rubio let trump have it at the last debate. If he hadnt inherited 200 million, you know where donald trump would be right now . Selling watches no, no, no. Reporter then mocked trump for his spelling mistakes on twitter. He meant to say lightweight, but he felled it leight. Great honer. I think he meant to say great honor. I dont know how he got that wrong because the e and o are nowhere near each other on the keyboard. Getting bizarrely permanently. He asked for a full length mirror. I dont know why because the podium goes up to here. He wanted a full length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants werent wet. You had to see him you had to see him backstage. He was putting on makeup with a trowel. Reporter and trump doing his best impression of rubio drinking water. Its rubio. Reporter but rubio seems to be rather unimpressed with trumps big endorsement saying trump probably called christie because he needed a life line after that bruising debate. And at least on twitter there are signs of opposition growing against the frontrunner. The nevertrump has been trending for the last ten hours. Dan. All part of the elevated discourse of american politics this morning. Mary bruce, thank you. For more on this, lets bring in abc news political analyst matt dowd who is in austin, texas, this morning. Matt, how big a deal is this Chris Christie endorsement . Does it actually matter . Usually matter and especially in president ial contexts, but i think in this case it is not going to add support to donald trump, i think what it does in the aftermath of the debate, it solidifies his support going into super tuesday. So in that way since hes leading most of the polls in nearly every state, his support solidifies and not bleeding off to marco rubio or somebody else is actually a help that Chris Christie could provide. So, whats in it for christie here . Why would he do this . Well, i mean obviously thats the question. Im a person that assumes the Good Intention in the course of this, that theres no some nefarious thing that somebodys finagled some endorsements a certain way. I think a couple of thing, first is Chris Christie and donald trump have had a personal relationship. One is governor of new jersey. One does a lot of development in new jersey so theyve had a personal relationship and, two, i think Chris Christie has come to the conclusion that donald trump in his mind the gop nominee. So why not get on board now at a critical moment for donald trump going into super tuesday and who knows what that might get him in the course of the campaign if donald trump was to win the white house, so i think thats the equation he did. Meanwhile, marco rubio really tearing into donald trump. Do you think this helps or hurts him . Well, as you listen to this, its like a 10yearold insult contest between the two of them. In the course of this right now, i actually think i think marco rubio can criticize donald trump and attack him on substantive things. I think when he tries to outtrump trump, thats a problem for marco rubio. Keep in mind for a year marco rubio has run on the nonattacking aspirational optimistic candidate and now in the course of 48 hours, hes tried to become some version of trump. I dont think thats necessarily a benefit to him going into super tuesday. A big turnaround. Matthew dowd, we love having your analysis. Thank you. Paul la, over to you. Things much calmer in the democratic ring. And todays South Carolina primary, Hillary Clintons predicted to easily best Bernie Sanders. Into their big super tuesday showdown, and abcs david wright is going to give us that side of the story from columbia, South Carolina. Good morning, david. Reporter good morning, paula. The polls are open here in the palmetto state, and even at this hour, a slight crowd is gathering. Democrats only today. The republicans had their South Carolina primary last week, and as you say, Hillary Clinton has a huge advantage here. How are you . Reporter at her last few Campaign Stops here Hillary Clinton was already looking ahead to the general election. I dont know who theyre going to end up nominating. Itll be entertaining, thats for sure. Reporter ignoring the fact that just outside the orangeburg fish fry, her democratic rival was waiting for her to finish. Feeling great. Reporter africanamericans make up more than half the democratic electorate here. Wake up, South Carolina. Reporter so Bernie Sanders has a new radio ad featuring director spike lee. And when bernie gets in the white house, he will do the carolina ads feature morgan freeman. Just like shes always stood with us. Reporter recent polls show clinton crushing sanders 21 among black voters giving her a huge boost here but still trying to win over young voters. At one Campaign Stop yesterday, clinton ran into a Bachelor Party and stopped to pose for a photo with all the groomsmen. I love having men at my feet. Here. Reporter win or lose today, theres one man she wont have Bernie Sanders insists he plans to stay in the race all the way imagining the day when youre on that stage with donald trump, what do you say to him . How do you whats your why would i tell you . Hes probably watching your show. Reporter the polls are open today till 7 00 p. M. Clinton ahead by double digits here. The Sanders Campaign mostly looking forward to tuesday and theyre hoping that some big paula. All right, david. And the conversation continues tomorrow on this week and super tuesday just a couple of days. The abc News Division will be out in full force, george whole political 10 00 eastern plus full coverage on Good Morning America as well as world news tonight. And we do want to move on to the new zika virus alert. The cdc has just confirmed another round of pregnant women here in the u. S. Contracted zika while traveling. Our chief health and medical editor dr. Richard besser is here to explain. Rich, good morning to you. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. First and foremost in this new report, we have nine new cases u. S. What were those findings . Yeah, so theyre keeping a registry of all pregnant women who have been infected so we can learn more. What they found was two women had miscarriages, two women had abortions and in one of those cases, the ultrasound showed severe brain damage. One baby born with microcephaly. Two healthy babies and two still pregnant. Gives more evidence zika could be causing this. All the women had symptoms. It doesnt tell us whether if you dont have symptoms and get infected theres a problem and doesnt tell us whether the first trimester is the riskiest but its pointing in that direction. All these women traveled to countries. We still dont know how they transmitted it but traveled to countries where zika was transmitted. The cdc also issued a report to those considering traveling to yes. The same travel recommendations theyve been really should not go to the olympics. If you have to go or youre insisting on going, make sure you do everything you can to prevent mosquito bites. If your male partner goes, then for the rest of the pregnancy you have to prevent sexual transmission, and any woman who is trying to get pregnant should talk to her doctor before going to the olympics. Got to heed those warnings. Rich, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Dan. Thanks, guys. We move to the new details about the gunman who went on that killing thee at a lawn mower factory where he worked. Were learning more about a possible motive this morning and about the hero cop who put an end to the carnage. Abcs eva pilgrim is on the scene there in hesston, kansas, eva, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, dan. We are learning more about what triggered that series of shootings that ended here in this rural kansas town and how that gunman, a convicted felon, was able to get his hands on those guns. Almost 30 minutes of pure terror ending with the gunman marching into a kansas lawn mower factory. An offduty paramedic was one of the first inside. It was chaos. I mean there were people screaming and yelling. There was, you know, people laying on the ground. Reporter the shooter, 38yearold cedric ford, an employee at the factory excel industries. Investigators now revealing from the first shot ford fired inside his workplace, it took just two minutes for cops to arrive. Hesston police chief Doug Schroeder racing inside to confront ford in a oneonone gun battle. Shooting is because that officer stopped the shooter. Reporter ford and three of his coworkers are dead identified on friday as renee benjamin, Brian Sadowsky and josh higbee. At least 14 people wounded. Now we are learning that just 90 minutes before the rampage, ford was served at work with a restraining order to stay away from his exgirlfriend who alleges he is in desperate need of medical and psychological help. Another former girlfriend now behind bars accused of giving the ak47 and glock pistol used in the shooting spree to ford. In Court Documents federal agents say when the couple broke up, 28yearold sara hopkins had Police Escort her to pick up the weapons from the home they shared. The officer saying she knew the convicted felon could not lawfully possess them. Then in august admitting she returned both guns because ford had threatened her. Just one month later ford posting this video to his and posting pictures with the gun saying, just doing my thing. Now, hopkins has not yet entered a plea. If convicted, she could face up to ten years in federal prison. Dan and paula. Eva, thank you. To Ron Claiborne tracking all of the other stories that are now, good morning, ron. And dan. Good morning, everyone. We begin overseas with a deadly car bombing that rocked syria just hours after a ceasefire brought relative calm to that wartorn nation. Lets go straight to abcs Alex Marquardt in the syrian capital of damascus. Alex. Reporter good morning, ron. This is the quietest syria has been in years. This is an area on the edge of damascus that has been pounded by rebels with mortars and rockets with hundreds killed but this neighborhood as you can see like much of the rest of syria today is calm. Now, isis and al qaeda are not part of this agreement so the fight will continue against them. Could last but could waif the way for new pea talks next month. Ron. Alex, thanks. Back in the u. S. A health scare for rock music legend yoko ono. The 83yearold was rushed to a new york City Hospital friday afternoon after calling 911. It was initially reported that ono was suffering from a stroke or strokelike symptoms, but a spokesman for ono now says she was only suffering from dehydration and will likely be discharged from the hospital later today. Good news there. The irs also saying that the number of taxpayer accounts that were hacked last year is actually more than double what they initially reported. The agency now estimating that 700,000 accounts were hacked giving cyberthieves access to Social Security numbers, birth dates and other data that could be used to file false tax returns. And a former guantanamo detainee is back in somalia and calling for jihad. Ibrahim al qosi and driver. He released an audiotape promoting an uprising sentenced to 14 years detention but released from gitmo in 2012 for cooperating with authorities. And take a look at this. A frightening scene on a busy texas highway friday morning. An outofcontrol dump truck that you see right there plowing right through that intersection in austin, texas, causing a multicar accident. Amazingly, nobody was seriously hurt. What . Deliver a load of gravel when that happened. And finally, music filled the white house as president obama joined in song with some of musics hottest stars. Listen. Hey hey ho ho hey hey ho ho hey hey ho ho and the president as you hear there leading a singalong with usher in the tribute to the late great ray charles in the east room of the white house. The president said initially he would not sing but broke that promise for better or worse. You think so . Yes. Hes got a great voice. Of celebrations of black history month. You thought it was a pretty good voice, huh . When he sang amazing grace, it sounded beautiful. I. I like how even in this context when hes singing, he does it with a really serious face, im president even though im singing ray charles. Thank you, ron. Lets check the weather now. Meteorologist indra petersons. How much do you love this . A melting snowman out towards minnesota. I think it says it all. Temperatures are way above were west of the of of new york city, 22. A lot of sunshine and kind of a breeze out there, though, 45 by 4 00 in the afternoon but feeling cooler with that wind. Look at that tomorrow. 60 degrees mainly sunny and noticeably warmer. And still mild 59. Could be thunderstorms by wednesday. Were all talking about how cold it is right now. Im going to give you guys a hall pass. Tomorrows warm but ill let you stay on the couch and watch i think a melting no, cute. Actually paula was saying the same thing. Indra was like youre going to love this picture. A dying snowman. Yeah, hilarious. You are never happy. Im done. Now were going to the warmer coast. The countdown to oscar sunday, hollywoods biggest night is almost here, and abcs Kayna Whitworth is in l. A. With some behindthescenes secrets about the big show. Good morning, kayna. Reporter hey, sara. Good morning to you, so the theme this year of the oscars is we all dream in gold and you know thats how the stars will be sleeping, but not everybody gets to take home an oscar, the real star of the show. Counting down the hours to the biggest night in hollywood, crews busy making the finishing touches. Hoping to wow the eyes of several hundred Million People around the globe, the oscars will be broadcast in 225 countries and many sending their own media representatives. The movies take you to another world, to another sphere of emotion. Reporter right now the red carpet is covered in plastic, but that will soon change, and it will be no easy task because wide. You can see its coming up a little bit right there. This will all be clean so youll have more than 16,000 square feet of glamour. The official champagne of the oscars, piperheidsieck, have 1500 bottles to pop, expecting to pour 9,000 glasses. Fans will be treated to an epic animated open with musical score from legendary composer danny elfman. The producers elected to start after the opening montage with this kind of crazy animated thing. Reporter our lara spencer sat down with oscar producers david hill and reginald hudlin. When we sat down there were two things that happened pretty much instantly. We agreed that chris rock should be the host, and we agreed to bring the orchestra back into the theater. Reporter the duo enlisting the biggest names to go along with an even bigger production and they got everyone from a sitting Vice President joe biden to the most animated presenters. We were lucky enough to get short animation because who better to present best short animation than the minions. Short and animated. And buzz and woody are presenting best animation. Reporter the producers say its going to be hard to step away from the show because they shook up the format as well, so stay tuned for all the surprises. So, keep an eye out when youre watching for all kinds of razzledazzle details, if you will. For example, the champagne that the celebs will be drinking has all of these really cool details in these bottles like you can see 88 and the word oscars in this gold inl