It was the stumble that took the spotlight yesterday. Now gary johnson is responding to the question that left him stumped on morning joe. Plus new overnight north korea claims it has successfully conducted its fifth nuclear test. Well get a live report on the seismic reaction in asia this morning. And Donald Trumps campaign is standing by his embrace of slat mir putin but other republican leaders, not so much. Good morning, everyone. It is friday, september 9th. Im alex witt. We are following a developing story overnight. North korea claims they have conducted another nuclear test. The countrys state media says it is the fifth and largest detonation so far. Saying, it was meant to counter what it calls u. S. Hostility. The test comes in the wake of president obamas trip to asia, and on the 68th anniversary of north koreas creation. Neighboring south korea detected a seismic event resembling an earthquake near a nuclear site in the northeastern part of their communist neighbor. The test was met with condemnation, including from north koreas longtime ally, china. The white house says the president spoke with south koreas president via phone on air force one overnight. Lets get to lucy kafanov from london with a good day to you. What more are we hearing about this latest test by north korea . Good morning, alex. A north Korean State Television screens this morning we saw a triumphant announcement claiming to have successfully tested a Nuclear Warhead. There is, of course, no way for us to verify this. But the based on the seismic reaction, the 5. 3 magnitude pseudo quake, basically, it does indicate that this is certainly the most biggest, the most powerful test so far. And it raises fears, of course, that kim jonguns regime has made significant nuclear advances. What pyongyang has long been after is basically to make a Nuclear Warhead that is small enough to fit onto a long range missile that could one day strike the u. S. That is the great fear. They say theyve done it this morning. Of course we cannot confirm that. But certainly, a tremendous cause for concern. The diplomatic fallout has also been tremendous. International condemnation, not just from the United States, but south korea and japan, but also russia, and significantly china. North koreas only major ally. China did get on board those International Sanctions the last time north korea did one of these Nuclear Tests back in january, a less powerful one. And the timing of the explosion is significant, also. 68th anniversary of the north koreas founding as a state. Obama just left the region. It certainly does send a message and also raises concerns because there are already so many sanctions against this country, what more leverage does the International Community have to prevent north korea from acting out, from doing more . We simply dont know. But this is something that experts are saying we do need to take seriously indeed. Oh, absolutely. Okay, lucy kafanov, thank you so much. In the wake of the conventions, Hillary Clinton has seen wide margins in swing state polls begin to erode. Lets start with the new quinnipiac poll. In florida, Hillary Clinton and donald trump dead even, 4747 there. Clinton and trump are completely flipflopped when it comes to support among men and women voters there. Then in pennsylvania, state where clinton has looked dominant, she is suffering from a fivepoint swing in trumps favor. And yet, still leads 4843. In ohio, the numbers have also swung five points in trumps favor, and he now leads by one point though that is inside the margin of error. So when you add Third Party Candidates to the mix, trumps lead gross to 4, and then look at third place libertarian gary johnson surging six points to 14 . One North Carolina poll a Suffolk University poll shows trump in the lead by three. But the quinnipiac poll in the tar heel state shows clinton hanging on to a fourpoint lead with gary johnson polling at 15 . Now all of those polls were taken of course before yesterday morning and that is when gary johnson was on morning joe, and took this question from mike barnicle. What would you do if you were elected about aleppo . About . Aleppo. And what is aleppo . Youre kidding . No. Aleppo is in syria. Its the its the epicenter of the refugee crisis okay, got it. Got it. Did you have a brain freeze moment . Or was it was it that the the phrase aleppo threw you . What . No excuse. I was thinking in terms of akron up, aleppo. Thats no excuse whatsoever. But the dynamics in play in syria are is that youve got the assad regime up against the free syrian army, which we support, that are allied with the islamists, isis, and you cant make this stuff up. Johnson also released a statement after that appearance on the view. He said he began his day by quote setting aside any doubt im human adding i blanked, it happens, and it will happen again during the course of this campaign. Can i name every city in syria . No. Should i have identified aleppo . Yes. Do i understand its significance . Yes. As governor there were many things i didnt know off the top of my head but i succeeded by surrounding myself with the right people, getting to the bottom of important issues and making principled decisions. I worked. That is what a president must do. Donald trump continued to defense his claim that he opposed the war in iraq before it began. The republican nominee detailed a time line of his beliefs. I opposed going in, and i did oppose it. Despite the media saying oh, yes, no. I opposed going in. I was opposed to the war from the beginning. Long after my interview with howard stern. But three months before the iraq war started i said in an interview with neil cavuto that perhaps we shouldnt be doing it yet. Then in august of 2004, fairly early in the conflict, extremely early in the conflict, right at the beginning, i made a detailed statement in an interview to esquire magazine. Heres what esquire magazine said. This is a quote. Absolute quote. Look at the war in iraq, and the mess that were in. Had i been in congress at the time of the invasion, i would have cast a vote in opposition. Well yesterday, esquire magazine republished that august 2004 article adding this editors note. Quote during the 2016 president ial election donald trump has repeatedly claimed to have been against the iraq war from the beginning, and he has cited this story as proof. The iraq war began in march 2003, more than a year before this story ran, thus nullifying trumps time line. Donald trumps renewed praise for russian president Vladimir Putin came under criticism yesterday as Hillary Clinton laid down a challenge for republicans to rebuke or stand with his comments. If he says great things about me, im going to say great things about me. He is really very much of a leader. You can say oh, isnt that a terrible thing. The man has very strong control over a country. Now its a very different system and i dont happen to like the system. But certainly in that system, hes been a leader. Far more than our president has been a leader. What would Ronald Reagan say about a republican nominee who attacks americas generals, and heaps praise on russias president . Every Republican Holding or seeking office in this country should be asked if they agree with donald trump. Now in washington, House Speaker paul ryan found a way to disagree with both trump and clinton while trumps running mate mike pence stood by the nominee. I read the little snippet. Let me say this about Vladimir Putin. Vladimir putin is an aggressor that does not share interests. Vladimir putin is violating the sovereignty of neighboring countries, it certainly appears that he is conducting in statesponsored Cyber Attacks on what appears to be our political system. That is not acting in our interests. And that is an adversarial stance and he is acting like an adversary. Are you concerned, though, of donald trump praising Vladimir Putin . I made my points about putin clear right there. Ill just leave it at that. Im not going to sit up here and do the tit for tat on what donald said last night and the night before and hillary versus donald. That is not my job and im not going to be the Election Year pundit. Are you still comfortable voting for him to be commander in chief . Ill leave it at at. I think its inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than barack obama has been in this country. And thats going to change the day that donald trump becomes president of the United States of america. Last night donald trump did an interview that aired on rt, thats the english language news channel sponsored by the russian government. Trump spoke with his friend and host larry king about what u. S. Experts believe was the russianled hacking of trumps opponents. Putin recently said that the hacking of the Democratic National committees emails was a public service. Do you agree . I dont have any opinion on it. I dont know anything about it. I dont know who hacked. Im not sure who i mean you tell me who hacked. U. S. Intelligence and Law Enforcement agencies reportedly are investigating whether russia launched a covert operation to disrupt the 2016 election. What do you make of that . It i dont know. I mean, ive been hearing about it. Ive been reading about it. I think its probably unlikely. I think maybe maybe the democrats are putting that out. Who knows. But i think that its its pretty unlikely. But, you know, who knows. I hope that if they are doing something i hope that somebodys going to be able to find out so they can they can end it. Because that would not be appropriate at all. After questions over trump doing russian sponsored tv the Trump Campaign issued a pstatement, quote, mr. Trump recorded a short interview with larry king for his podcast as a favor to mr. King. What larry king does with the interview content is up to him. We have nothing to do with it. Hillary clinton is assembling a group of former Top National Security officials today. The working session with bipartisan leaders includes former cia director David Petraeus, Michael Chertoff who led the department of Homeland Security under president george w. Bush. Former Arizona Governor and obama Homeland Security secretary janet politano, and former nato supreme allied commander james stavridis. Yesterday clinton hit trump for his approach to Foreign Policy while trump took on clintons world view. When asked how he would stop the spread of global terrorism, trumps answer was simply take the oil. United states of america does not invade other countries to plunlder and pillage. We dont send our brave men and women around the world to steal oil. And thats not even getting into the absurdity of what it would involve. Massive infrastructure, large numbers of troops, many years on the ground. Of course trump hasnt thought through any of that. Hillary clinton is trigger happy. Totally trigger happy. Shes raced to invade, intervene, and topple regimes. She believes in globalism, not americanism. Donald trump became well known for questioning the birth place of president obama. In an interview on hardball with Chris Matthews last night, former new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani said trump no longer believes president obama was born outside of the United States. Donald trump believes now that he was born in the United States. But that issue was raised whens he going to say it . That issue was raised originally by Hillary Clintons when is he going to say that this president is legitimate . This is a fundamental question, mr. 345ier. Is the president of the United States legitimate or not . Do you believe it . If you believe it why dont your candidate state it . I believe it, he believes it we all believe it he does. Are you speaking for him now . Are you speaking for donald trump tonight on Live Television . Are you saying for him, im saying hes about to buckle and say finally, that barack obama is a legitimate president of the United States. He is the one who got him to finally produce the birth certificate. Giulianis comments come one day after trumps running mate mike pence told reporters about his campaign claim that he believes president obama was born in the u. S. Trump himself has only said that he doesnt talk about it anymore. But last night Hillary Clinton refused to let trump off the hook so easily. We are facing a candidate with a long history of Racial Discrimination in his business. Who traffics in toxic conspiracy theories like the lie that president obama is not a true american. If he doesnt even respect all if he doesnt even respect all americans, how can he serve all usin60,000 points from my chase ink card i bought all the framework. Wire. And plants needed to give my shop. A face. No one will forget. See what the power of points can do for your siness. Learn more at che. Com ink welcome back. Television ad wars are getting under way in the Florida Senate race between Patrick Murphy and marco rubio. Murphy hit a new spot hitting rubios attendance record in the senate. Marco. Polo. Marco. Polo. Marco marco. But its not a game. When our senator doesnt show up, im Patrick Murphy. Solving problems means showing up. Showing independence, and working to the. Its why i work to protect Womens Health care and work with both parties to stop cuts to medicare. Im Patrick Murphy and i approve this message, because florida needs a fulltime senator. Marco. Mar marco . A Public Policy polling survey released wednesday shows 40 of likely florida voters support marco rubio while 37 are for Patrick Murphy. The lead does fall within the margin of error. Federal prosecutors wont retry former governor Bob Mcdonnell over his corruption case. They wont retry mcdonnells wife maureen. The former governor was found guilt if i in 2014 for accepting 175,000 in money and gifts from a virginia businessman promoting a dietary supplement. The Supreme Court ruled the move did not necessarily violate federal bribery laws. Lets get a check on the weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. Weve got a weekend coming up. Is it going to be a good one . Its going to be a changeable weekend. Feel like summer for a lot of us to start the weekend and then a little more like fall towards the end of it. Start where the worst weather is in the country. Talked about the threat yesterday with the heavy rain. From kansas to missouri. A lot of thunderstorm activity there. Very careful that i70 drive on kansas city all the way to st. Louis is not fun. We can expect another maybe one to two inches in this area today and then into tomorrow morning. And then that cold front will finally cool this area off and give you some relief. But before that happens along that cold front we could see some severe storms. Slight risk, des moines, omaha, kansas city, wichita, columbia and springfield mostly the wind damage the threat out of this. Maybe some small hail but definitely flash flooding concerns. The ground is saturated in this area and doesnt look like its going to improve any time soon. As far as saturday goes that cold front pushes into areas like columbus, cleveland, buffalo, cincinnati, lexington, bowling green, isolated severe storms for you saturday afternoon. Damaging winds are possible and one inch hail. So heres the forecast as we go throughout today. Notice how hot, 97 today in washington. Thats one of the hottest days of the entire summer today. And its going to be very warm all the way through the southeast. New york city and boston very hot. And you may get some relief late today with a stray shower or thunderstorm. Still very humid and oppressive. Same goes for oklahoma city. Then by the time we get to saturdays forecast, thats when we watch the cooler air beginning to win out. Notice chicago only in the 70s. St. Louis only 77. What a beautiful saturday its going to be for you. Oklahoma city included. Little rock. Were still in the heat on the east coast. Alex it looks like we have to wait until sunday for the cooler weather to arrive for the areas of the east. And even florida is a little bit hot and sticky. So again, this weekend, changeable weather. Its going to start very hot and very humid, and then everyones going to be reminded that fall is right around the corner by the end. Okay so dont put the bathing suits away just yet. Hey, if you can get out by the pool the problem is a lot of the pools are already closed. Thanks bill karins. Pstill ahead it was a super bo rematch in denver last night. Plus, wells fargo hit with an historic punishment and thousands of employees fired over phony accounts. Wow. Were back in a moment. You work at ge . Yeah, i do. You guys are working on some pretty big stuff over there, right . Like a new language for crazybig, worldchanging machines. Well, not me specifically. I work on the industrial side. So i build the worldchanging machines. I get it. You cant talk becau