Latched on her leg opening up about her ordeal. I started punching its forehead. It still wouldnt let go. How she use ad a trick she learned on a field trip to save her life. Kicking it off in style. One of the biggest pop stars in the world harry styles takes over our plaza for our first summer concert of the season. The crowd is massive, today, tuesday, may 9, 2017. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today on a Tuesday Morning. Were going to need more adjectives to describe that crowd, massive, huge, spectacular. Harry styles has a new album coming out. Its his first solo album. Maybe a little jitters about the reception. Things are going to be fine. We have six city blocks of crowd for him. We will get out there in a moment. First to our top story. The possible expansion of the u. S. Military effort against the taliban in afghanistan. This is a plan that calls for several thousand more troops there. Thats just one of the things were going to talk about with former secretary of state condolezza rice. Lets us begin with two reports from the white house. We start with hallie jackson. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning. A Senior Administration official says President Trump has not yet made a decision on the options he has been presented. After years of scaling back the number of troops in afghanistan, whats being talked about now would be a shift. A military official tells nbc news the consideration is for as many as three to 5,000 more troops to make headway in americas longest war. This morning, a possible change of course in afghanistan. U. S. Military and foreign advisers are proposing a plan to put several thousand more troops on the ground, to try to take out the taliban. Once again gaining strength in the country. President trump has yet to authorize what would be a major shift in strategy that comes after what the Washington Post calls a sweeping policy review based on the president s desire to start winning again. What i do is i authorize my military. Thats why theyve been so successful lately. Reporter it comes weeks after the u. S. Dropped the socalled mother of all bombs in afghanistan, the largest nonnuclear bomb deployed where dozens of isis militants were killed. Sean spicer was asked about the principals on afghanistan this week. I think he wants to make sure that we do what we can to win. Thats why he charged the generals and other military advisors and National Security team to come up with a plan that can get us there. Reporter the u. S. Scaled back operations in afghanistan under the obamaed administratio. Donald trump weighed in on the topic tweeting, we should leave afghanistan immediately, no more wasted lives. If we have to go back in, we go in hard and quick. Military Officials Say the pentagon rather than the white house would be authorized to set troop numbers. A white house official says theres no time line, not publically, on when the president might make a decision on how to move forward in the country. Hallie jackson starting us off from the white house. President trump is slamming investigation into russias meddling in the election. Now labelling it a taxpayer funded charade. This after former acting attorney general sally yates testified on capitol hill on monday. Nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander has more on this. Good morning. Reporter good morning. This was a dramatic day of testimony. Sally yates in effect explaining that there was an urgent danger, which is why just six days after President Trump took office she alerted his administration about Michael Flynn, that he was putting white house at risk by concealing his discussions about sanctions with russias ambassador. This morning, the trump teams possible ties to russia again under scrutiny. To state the obvious, you dont want your National Security adviser compromised with the russians. Reporter former acting attorney general sally yates, an Obama Administration holdover on the capitol hill hot seat. For first time, yates detailing how she warned President Trumps white House Counsel during two meetings and a phone call in late january about then National Security adviser Michael Flynns conversations with the Russian Ambassador. The first thing we did was to explain to mr. Mccann that the underlying conduct that general flynn engaged in was problematic in and of itself. Reporter yates alerting the white house that flynn had not only misled the vicepresident and other officials but that the russians knew. That created a compromise situation, a situation where the National Security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. Reporter late monday, President Trump unleashing a minitweet storm making no mention of flynn. Arguing that yates testimony revealed nothing new. Insisting the russian collusion story is a total hoax. Even changing his twitter page to punctuate the point. Nbc news has learned that president obama delivered his own personal warning to then president elect trump against hiring flynn during that Oval Office Meeting less than 48 hours after the election. According to three former Obama Administration officials. At the time, flynn was already a key adviser to mr. Trump. He had been fired as head of the Defense Intelligence agency in 2014. The White House Monday suggesting that history prompted president owe be obamas advice mr. Trump dismissed. Its true the president president obama made it known that he wasnt a fan of general flynns, which is frankly shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone. Reporter President Trump has defended his decision to hire Michael Flynn by blaming the Obama Administration saying they gave flynn the highest security clearance. It was renewed in 2016. He was never granted the broader security clearance he would have needed to serve as National Security adviser. Still unanswered, why 18 days passed between that warning from sally yates and President Trump ultimately firing Michael Flynn. Peter, thank you very much. Condolezza rice was secretary of state under president george w. Bush. Shes a professor at stanford university. Shes written a new book called democracy, stories from the long road to freedom. Secretary rice, great to see you. Nice to see you. Theres a story on the front page of the Washington Post. I want your reaction. Senior advisers to President Trump are proposing a shift in u. S. Military strategy in afghanistan, sending more troops there to fight an emboldened taliban. If you were secretary of state right now, would you urge the president to go along with that . I would certainly urge the president to look at how we can turn the tide in afghanistan. I know we have been there a very, very long time. Obviously, the goal is to have a government thats stable but cant be assaulted by the taliban. But theyre going to have to look at all options. I would certainly, as secretary of state, look at the options. If you send 3,000 or so more troops there, do you worry about a collision course with russia . Because as you know, its been reported that the russians are sending arms to the taliban. So are u. S. Troops on the ground there going to be fighting Russian Armed taliban troops on the ground there . One of the first conversations needs to be with Vladimir Putin and to say do you want to get into afghanistan after what happened before in afghanistan . Theres no reason for the russians to be arming the taliban. That conversation needs to take place. Im sure that when secretary tillerson meets with the foreign minister, that will come up. The president is going to have to look at a wide variety of things, not just troops. What is the trstrategy for increasing troop strength. Im sure you are familiar with the controversy over the general Michael Flynn, the former National Security adviser and the testimony we heard on the hill yesterday. Let me ask you, you once held that position, National Security adviser. If the attorney general of the university had come to you at the white house and said, your National Security adviser is potentially compromised, that he lied about his contact with the russians and the russians know it, would you fire him right then 57and there . Thats not my decision to make. I dont do speculation. I dont know what that conversation sounded like. I dont know what the president heard or didnt hear. I do know that eventually general flynn was gone. They have now a terrific National Security adviser in h. R. Mcmaster and a great National Security team. Thats what matters. You said that russian interference in our election was kind of a High Water Mark in efforts that they had been taking on for decades. Can President Trump right now trust president putin . Well, i dont know that any president can trust president putin. What you can trust putin to do is to carry out his interests as he sees them. That means making russia a real factor in international politics. Sometimes that means overrunning ukraine or threatening the baltic states, then thats what he will do. Or supporting president as d assad. Or for that matter, arming the taliban if thats whats happening. In these circumstances, you are always best to say, what are the russians trying to do . There are areas of potential cooperation. I think north korea is an area of potential cooperation, because the russians cant look kindly on a north Korean Leader with a long range missile if it can reach it seems a contradiction. How do you not be able to trust a guy because he is interfering in your election and turn for help from that same person . Its not help. Its a matter of understanding what russian interests are, expecting theyre going to follow them and when it comes to not having north korea able to reach in territory of rush ssia thats in their interest. You mentioned north korea. Do you support the idea of a preemptive strike if it comes to that . I support the president keeping that on the table. No american president is going to allow a reckless leader in north korea to acquire Nuclear Weapon capable of reaching the united states. Its not going to happen. I hope that diplomacy will work. I hope the chinese will put the pressure on the north korean regime only they can put on the regime. But the president has to keep all of his options on the table. That i support. Caught my eye in the beginning of your book, you pose a question. You say, is democracy in retreat . I kind of wonder just by asking the question, are you sounding a little pessimistic . If i had to answer my own question, i would say no, its not in retreat. Its just a really long, hard process. All democracies are imperfect at their start. They get a little bit better along the way. Its almost as if climbing a high stair, you get to a landing, you consolidate for a while, you take your breath and you keep moving on. Second rice, thank you for being with us. Do you miss washington . Would you go back . No. Im a very happy professor at stanford. You sure . Im sure. Thank you. Just asking. Asking for a friend. Thank you very much. Pleasure to be with you. N now to the overnight chaos at a florida airport. Pushing and shoving. This happened at Fort LauderdaleHollywood International. Good morning. This was an intense scene, multiple Spirit AirlinesFlights Canceled, fights in the airport terminal. Not only with airport employees but then the police got involved. Spirit blames it all on a labor dispute with its own pilots. Another day, another incident involving an airline. This time not on a plane but inside a passenger terminal. Overnight, cell phone video posted online capturing the wild scene at the Spirit Airlines ticketing desk after some nine flights were canceled. The terminal at Fort LauderdaleHollywood International erupting. Emotions boiling over, fights breaking out. The cancellations left hundreds of travellers stranded. Lines were two to three hours. I cried. Im not going to lie, i cried. The cancellations come during an ongoing labor dispute. The airline blamed the Flight Cancellations on a work slowdown from its own pilots union. Spirit, which filed a lawsuit against the pilots monday, said the backlog was caused by a lack of crews. The airline saying, we are shocked and saddened to see what took place. These pilots support their quest for a new contract ahead of getting customers to their destinations and the safety of their fill lellow team members. Passengers firmly planted on the ground. The question this morning is whether this will continue today. In fact, right now flight aware shows 28 more spirit Flights Canceled today at the moment, spirit is the airline with the most cancellations worldwide. It could be a rough day. Back to you. Getting ugly out there. Tom costello, thank you. Big developments this morning in a story we have been following for more than a year. Police say the gunman who terrorized phoenix, arizona, last year with a series of random shootings is behind bars. 23yearold aaron sauseta was in Police Custody on an unrelated murder charge. He now faces 26 additional felony counts. Police allege that he was responsible for a dozen separate shootings which led to nine deaths. Officials say there appears to be no connection between the suspect and his victims. There are new developments this morning in the horrifying murders of two engaged doctors. It happened in their luxury boston condominium. The suspect who was shot by police has now been arraigned at his hospital bed. This investigation is far from over. Morgan radford is in boston with the latest. Good morning. Reporter new details this morning shedding light on a possible motive. In fact, senior Law Enforcement officials telling nbc news that the couple slain here in this luxury penthouse condo behind me may have actually been targeted by the suspect. Although they do not believe that the suspect and the victims had a personal relationship. A plea of not guilty. Reporter a look at the accused killer in the double murder mystery. You are being held without bail. Reporter he lies motionless in a boston hospital bed. His eyes closed for most of his arraignme arraignment, charged with two counts of murder. Law enforcement Officials Say the 30yearold excon killed the two doctors friday night, tieing up their hands, slitting their throats and scrawling a message about retribution on a wall in their luxury condo. No evidence whatsoever at this stage to conclude that this defendant had a personal relationship with the doctors. Reporter this morning, investigators scrambling to connect the dots. Revealing new details about the crime scene, where they found a knife and a black backpack. In that black bag was jewelry. Reporter while the District Attorney says its too early to speculate whether robbery was the possible motive, the murders have left neighbors stunned. Trying to figure out how he allegedly gained access to the exclusive penthouse, which requires a key system to use the elevator. I have to get buzzed in if i knew the door guy. Reporter investigators are looking into his past. Court documents show he was homeless, recently serving nine months for two bank robberies. An incident report from his 2016 conviction shows he once worked security for the building right next to the crime scene. The gruesome details and mysterious motive adding to the heartbreak. Police initially believe that he had a gun when they arrived to the scene. Yesterday, in a late breaking press conference prosecutors say he was not. He was shot in the arm, leg and stomach. Is waking up for a second day in a row in the hospital still being held without bail. Morgan radford in boston, thank you. I want to show you a bizarre incident during a speech in australia. The ceo of Qantas Airways had been on stage when this happened. Its been six months to announce ive been here to announce [ bleep ] heck. I dont know what that was about. I might take a break for a second and clean up a little bit. I will come back. That took place this morning during a business breakfast with about 500 people in attendance. The man behind the pie attack was arrested. Led away by security. He didnt give any indication why he did it. After cleaning up, joyce returned to the stage and joked he needed the number of a good dry cleaner. Maybe better security. Thats a little bit scary someone to get that close to you. Let us shift gears. The weather. I see rainy shots behind you. Severe stuff. Yesterday in colorado, just outside of denver, this is southeast of denver, folks had to take shelter. So much hail coming down. Some of