About details for the first time of her daughters death and the questions she still wrestles with every day. A candid conversation with Cissy Houston today, monday, january 28th, 2013. Announcer 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 monday morning. Im matt lauer. Good morning, everyone. Im Savannah Guthrie. Just a terrible story out of brazil. That country is declaring three days of National Mourning now for the victims of that deadly nightclub fire as the investigation gets under way. Its a huge tragedy. Consider the loss of life. It was apparently started, that fire, by some kind of an onstage stunt. Some kind of pyrotechnic device, many victims under the age of 206789 this morning we have new details on that tragedy, including reports that the bar was well above its legal capacity at the time of the fire. Well get a live report on that, straight ahead. Also ahead, a cia officer se celebrated for helping to bring down one of the worlds most dangerous terrorists. Now he has been sentenced to 30 months in jail for leaking classified information. Is he a hero or did he betray his colleagues . He is with us for an exclusive interview. Also new information in the Jonbenet Ramsey case. Reports that a grand jury actually indicted john and patsy ramsey in connection with the death. Why did the prosecutor decline to try that case . We begin with that tragic nightclub fire in brazil. Mike taibbi has the latest. Mike, good morning. Good morning, savannah. It has been a dead lly combinatn in the past, a nightclub filled with revelers and pyrotechnics and few too ways to escape led to panic. In santa maria, it was packed with its usual saturday nightclub when, at 2 00 in the morning, disaster. A swiftmoving fire filled the Groundfloor Club with thick smoke. Witnesses said Club Security initially blocked several emergency exits, thinking p patrons were leaving without paying and that left only a few ways out. In the ensuing panic, some victims were trampled. Most died of smoke inhalation. Many witnesses told police this fire was triggered by the use of some incindiery device on stage. The band used fireworks and as we heard it was usual for this presentation but the ceiling was too short. Reporter some club goers who did make it out joined firemen and onlookers in their attempt to open new exits using sledge hammers and axes. Victims were carried to ambulances and other vehicles and were quickly moved to the trauma center. Scattered around the hospital. Those waiting outside are desperate. Reporter desperate, too, were those waiting for the worst news, the numbers of the dead rising so quickly. They were moved to a school gymnasium. We had themd laying side by side. Reporter a packed club, too few escape routes and a fire from an onstage fireworks display brought to mind other similarities. But as brazils president , dilma rouseff, con consoled victims here, getting ready to host the olympics. Well above its legal capacity. One witness said the tragedy unfolded in seconds. The fire and the panic spreading equally quickly. Savannah . Mike taibbi, thank you very much. Mike mentioned the warwick, rhode island, tragedy in 2003. 100 people died there. People in the new york area remember one further back, 1974. Unfortunately i lived right up the hill from gullivers nightclub. 200 and so people died in that. The formula seems to be the same, too many people, not enough exits, not a plan of what to do when something goes wrong. And utter chaos and confusion when people are trying to figure out what is going on. Its a terrible story. Here at home a lot of people are talking about that interview with president obama and Hillary Clinton as the secretary of state enters her final week on the job. What does it mean . White house correspondent Peter Alexander has details on that. Good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning to you. The president simply wants to thank Hillary Clinton for being what he called one of the finest secretaries of state weve ever had. The mutual gushing didnt end there. They were side by side, at times finishing each sentences. A joint interview, their first together that even clinton acknowledged in 2008 would have seemed improbable. What a difference five years makes. I consider hillary a friend. I mean, very warm, close i think theres a sense of understanding. Sometimes it doesnt even take words, because we have similar views. Reporter on 60 minutes sunday, bitter rivals turned partners show how far their relationship has evolved. Stamina and thoughtfulness. Friendships involve a sense of trust, being in the fox hole together and that emerged during the course of months when we were making some very tough decisions. Reporter the secretary of state will officially step down friday, dismiss the 2008 Campaign Battle as ancient history. Despite our hardfought primary, we had such agreement on what needed to be done for our country. Made for tough debates, by the way. It did. We could never figure out what we differed on. We worked at that pretty hard. Reporter clinton wearing glasses, instead of contact lenses, says she now empathizes with athletes and those who suffer from concussions. Unleashed speculation, as whether viewers should see it as an endorsement for 2016, especially when reports are that Vice President joe biden is intoxica intoxicated with the idea. You guys in the press are incorigable. I was literally inaugurated four d days ago and youre talking about four years from now. Reporter still she left the door open for a president ial run. I dont think either he or i can make predictions about whats going to happen tomorrow or the next year. Reporter as if to emphasize how quickly their nasty campaign, old feelings had evap rised, they quickly agreed it had a much bigger effect on their spouses than it did them. Making people wonder if theres any expiration on this endorsement. Chuck todd, good morning to you. Good morning. Since we are incorrigible, lets take it one step further. What did we watch last night, an incoming president give a warm farewell to an outgoing secretary of state or did we watch a president pass the baton now . Reporter had Hillary Clinton not taken his invitation, the possibility of a Democratic Party that was split in two, senator Hillary Clinton sort of being the arbiter of any policy proposal the president was going to put out there, it would have been reminiscent, negatively in Democratic Party circles of the jimmy carter, ted kennedy years, which hurt the party for nearly a decade. This really was a thank you. Because getting her to come in and the fact that she was such a team player once she went in, this was really the president doing that. Im with you, matt. I think the picture speaks louder than any words can say and there is this running joke of whether joe biden is still being peeled off the ceiling when he found out about this interview. No major headline coming out of the interview. However, headlines were made about the time we were watching that interview by a Bipartisan Group of senators who put together an immigration reform. This ahead of the president s plan that he will lay out. Its an agreement in principle. The players are just as interesting as the proposal itself. Republicans that are coming to this agreement are john mccain, marco rubio, jeff flake, lindsey graham, the democrats, chuck schumer, dick durbin, michael benn bennet, robert menendez. Probably the most controversial part will be all of these folks here in this country illegally under this proposal, should it pass, would not be asked to leave the country. They would have a path to citizenship, a path to being legal and that, of course, the devil is going to be in the details on this. But that is going to be the test, whether conservative republicans who have been against this for a long time, whether they can sign on to it. Well get a chance to listen to what the president has to say on this, as i mentioned, tomorrow in las vegas. Chuck todd in washington. Thank you very much. You got it. Lets check in with Natalie Morales with the days top stories. Good morning, savannah and matt. Violence raging on the streets of cairo for the fifth straight day this morning. Eamon. Reporter clashes taking place between protesters and police, as you mention ed, for the fifth straight day. All weekend long, intense fighting in the city of alexandria. That led president Mohamed Morsi to issue a stern warning last night in addition to declaring a state of emergency, imposing a curfew on those cities and, more importantly, giving the countrys powerful military the authority to arrest civilians. That has triggered condemnation from the opposition here, refusing an invitation from president morsi to meet later today to try to resolve this crisis politically. Natalie . Thank you very much. Turkish airline jet struck by lightning. The strike caused the plane to catch fire and flames can be seen shooting past the passengers windows as the cabin lig lights flickered on and off. The fire could even be spotted from the ground. The plane landed safely, fortunately. No one on board was hurt. Small plane crash in the d hudson river has ended with a rescue. Both people on board that single engine plane were plucked from the water wearing lifevests. Theyre in stable condition and treated for hypothermia. Incredible stunt at the x games almost had disastrous resu results. Snowmobile spun out of control during a black flip. He managed to fall away from the vehicle, but the snowmobile sped off into the crowd. One boy was thrown out of the path of the snowmobile by his father. He was checked out and is okay apparently. Top honor of the evening went to ben affleck for his cia thriller argo, which won for best ensemble cast in a movie. Daniel day lewis won for best actor in lincoln and Silver Linings playbook. What may or may not have been a wardrobe malfunction. Did her Christian Dior gown tear and reveal the sheer mesh . No. For a moment it was visible as she climbed the stairs to the stage. If we could do that replay one more time, matt and al are wondering. Soma ward shows now. Finally, this one has managed to distinguish itself from the others. You have a pair of pant that is do that. Tear away pants. Thank you, natalie. Mr. Roker . We have a mess in the northeast starting from washington, making its way into boston next 12 hours. Its going to be a real mess. Weve got winter storm real mess. We have winter storm watches, Winter Weather advisories and freezing rain advisories from virginia up into the northeast. We have snow up in new england and upstate new york. Icy conditions through the ohio river valley on down into parts of the northeast. We are looking for about a tenth to a quarter inch of ice in central pennsylvania and new york state. Up to three to six inches of snow in northern new england. But the icy conditions will make for a mess on the roads and making their way into the airports. Well get to your local forecast after these messages. Good morning. Im tom kierein. Storm team 4 radar. We are getting freezing rain. Rain thats falling and freezing on elevated surfaces west and north of washington. Areas in green are zones getting rain in washington, points south and east where its above freezing. Well get icing west of 95 for another two, three hours getting and thats your latest weather. Savannah . Al, thank you. Sarah palin says the door is wide open when it comes to her longterm plans after parting ways from fox news. Does the former Vice President ial candidate already have her next move mapped out . Kelly odonnell takes a look at that for us. Good morning. Sarah palin has people guessing this morning again. Its not about will she or wont she run for office, but what will she do next . After a breakup that seemed unlikely between the conservaticonservformer governor and her conservative home at fox. In the four years and five months since sarah palin jolted the political world, she konked out at an unusual space, at the corner of politics only dead fish go with the flow. Reporter celebrity and pop culture. The only poll i care about is the north pole and that is melting. Shes doing her home tls work. Reporter even husband, todd, is on the current cover of alaska magazine, but her main gig is over. She now wants to be more of an outsider. She wants to pose as someone different than fox. Fox says we have thoroughly enjoyed our association with governor palin and wish her the best. Palin turned to the conservative website to hint at her future saying i know the country need morse truth telling in the media and im willing to do that. So, we shall see. While some Tea Party Candidates palin championed won in 2012, like senator ted cruise and fisher, many say palin and the Tea Party Movement have lost interest. New gop stars are on the rise and more visible. On meet the press, palins successor as vp candidate paul ryan on his 2016 prospects. I think its just premature. Reporter the Republican Party has its own job, trying to retool its brand and broaden its appeal. With a place for palin unclear. Sarah palin had so much star power, its possible that she can be at least part of the conversation, if not a dominant figure in the Republican Party. We know sarah palin has both loyal supporters and very vocal critics. Sources close to her say fox did offer a contract. Obviously they didnt come to terms and she does plan to stay part of the national conversation. With this move she says shes taking her own advice by, quote, jumping out of the comfort zone. Savannah . Kelly odonnell in washington, thank you. Now heres matt. Savannah, thank you. New information is coming to light in the Jonbenet Ramsey case, more than six years after her death. In 1999, the District Attorney announced there wasnt sufficient evidence to file charges against anyone. Evidently a grand jury had a different opinion. Erica hill is here with the story. Good morning to you, matt. A grand jury voted to indict john and patsy ramsey, jonbenets parents. Nbc news spoke to them that they remain anonymous. A little girls body was found in the basement. Reporter john and patsy ramsey pleaded to find their daughters killer. They even offered a reward. Yet from the beginning investigators focused on jonbenets parents. They do remain under an umbrella of suspicion. Reporter the 6yearold beauty queens parents were never charged in connection with their daughters death and strongly deny any suggestion they were somehow involved. I did not kill my daughter, jonbenet. I did not have anything to do with it. Reporter in september 1998, the case was brought to a boulder grand jury. More than a year later on the day they concluded, alex hunter, then boulder d. A. , addressed the public. I and my Prosecution Task force believe we do not have sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of charges. Reporter now more than 13 years later, were learning the grand jury didnt agree. According to the boulder daily camera, which spoke with members of the grand jury on condition of anonymity, they voted to indict both ramseys on charges of child abuse that resulted in the death of jonbenet. We dont see this scenario, grand juries wanted to indict and prosecutors saying no. Reporter confirms the grand jury voted to indict the ramseys. He believes hunters decision not to prosecute was courageous. There just simply was a lack of evidence. Reporter one juror, who spoke with the daily camera told the paper, quote, we didnt know who did what, but we felt the adults in the house may have done something, or they certainly could have prevented or helped her and they didnt. In a 2001 interview, hunter told nbc he had no regrets about his decisions in the case. I have enough people that i respect that have said to me, you know, you made a tough call. You made a call that the public didnt like, but you were true to the law. You were a good prosecutor. And thats plenty for me. In a statement, john ramseys attorney told nbc the dna tests performed after the time of the boulder grand jury not only prove the ramseys to be innocent and the grand jury wrong they also make d. A. Alex hunter a hero who wisely avoided a miscarriage of justice. This is going to open up a whole new round of conversations. Yes. About this 16yearold case. Erica, thank you very much. First cia officer ever sentenced to leaking classified information. Why he considers that to be a badge of honor. Rare possessions of president kennedy in our studio before they hit the auction block. Well coming up, Whitney Houstons mom, cissy, on her daughters delth and their sometimes strange relationships. After your local news. [ ding ] losing your chex mix too easily . 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