Transcripts For MSNBCW First Look 20170519 : vimarsana.com
MSNBCW First Look May 19, 2017
President trump is trying to set the record straight about the expanding investigations into special counsel with not transitioning his investigation into a criminal approach. Yesterday morning he tweeted, fighting back against, quote, the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. Later wrote, with all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton Campaign and obama administration, there was never a special counsel appointed. In a joint News Conference with colombias president , trump spoke about the appointment of Robert Mueller to lead that investigation. Was this the right move or is this part of a witch hunt . Well, i respect the move but the entire thing has been a witch hunt. There is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but i can always speak for myself and the russians. Zero. I think it divides the country. I think we have a very divided country because of that and many other things. So, i can tell you that we want to bring this great country of ours together. Believe me, there is no collusion. Russia is fine. But whether its russia or anybody else, my total priority, believe me, is the United States of america. There was no collusion and everybody, even my enemies, have said, there is no collusion. Also in the president s News Conference yesterday, he flat out rejected the premise outlined in the reported memo from former fbi director jim comey. Take a listen to that. Did you urge former fbi director james comey in any way, shape or form to close or back down on the investigation into Michael Flynn . Also, as you look back no, no. Next question. The answer being no, if you didnt get that. The new report alleges shortly after taking office, President Trump called comey two times to press hiout an announcement that he was not personally under investigation. The New York Times reports comey was unsettled by trumps calls and tried to get the president to follow protocol instead of making direct contact, comey believed them to be in violation of Justice Department guidelines which allows conversations with the white house about active investigations, quote, only when it is important for the performance of the president s duties and important for a law perspective. The president describes all the contacts in a detailed memo he gave to his aides. Last week when President Trump said he was thinking about russia when he fired russia, the president placed more recommendation on the may 3rd testimony. Director comey was unpopular with most people. I actually thought when i made that decision, and i also got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the Deputy Attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, but when i made that decision, i actually thought that it would be a bipartisan decision. Because you look at all of the people on the democratic side, not only the republican side, that were saying such terrible things about director comey. Then he had the very poor performance on wednesday. That was a poor, poor performance. So poor, in fact, that i believe, and youd have to ask him because i dont like to speak for other people, but i believe thats why the Deputy Attorney general went out and wrote his very, very strong letter. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein will brief all house members this morning about the controversial firing of fbi director james comey. Yesterday he spoke to the senators and his explanation of the timeline didnt set well with at least one democrat. He knew that comey was going to be removed prior to him writing his memos. Do you believe that the Deputy Attorney general knew before he wrote that memo that james comey was going to be fired . Yes. What was it he said he knew . He knew the day before. The Washington Post sourcing through senators reports behind closed doors, things, in fact, grew heat. Democrats pressed rosenstein on thscope of muellers investigation, why session was involved in the firing and why sessions is playing a role in choosing comeys replacement. Then theres the approach of the investigation going forward. Some lawmakers interpreted rosensteins brief as saying the investigation had crossed from a counterintelligence probe to criminal. There was mixed opinion on whether thats the case and whether that would be best for all the investigations going on simultaneously. The nature of the investigation changed from counterterror to criminal investigation . If so, what are the repercussions . Well, i assume this has been a counterintelligence investigation primarily, but as Deputy Attorney general rosenstein said, this is going to be up to director mueller under the appointment as special counsel. As someone who is on the Intel Committee and, perhaps, open to more much more information than many other members, dont want to comment. I think the shot to the body is now considered a criminal investigation. And congress ability to conduct investigations of all things, ruc russia has been severely limited, probely in an appropriate fashion. When theres a criminal investigation ongoing, it inhibits your ability to do oversight. You call witnesses and they say, i cant give you any information because im under investigation or theres an investigation ongoing. Government witnesses do the same thing. Now, Robert Mueller began his job as special counsel amid flurry of headlines about the ousted Michael Flynn and they are pushing back on when knew what about flynns work for foreign governments. Peter alexander reports. Reporter despite his shorteneder as natural security adviser, Michael Flynn casting a long shadow over the trump white house. The New York Times reporting flynn informed the trump Transitions Team chief lawyer weeks before inauguration tt he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for turkey during the campaign. The white house says the story is flat wrong, despite the warning mr. Trump named flynn to lead his National Security team, granting him access to the nations deepest secrets before firing him three weeks later. Chairing the Transition Team Vice President elect mike pence to this day maintains he was unaware of flynns ties to turkey. Let me say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. Reporter an Administration Aide telling nbc news if mcgahan knew and didnt tell pence its malpractice or intentional and neither is okay. The trump family had a blind spot when it came to flynn, who was rewarded for his loyalty to the president. Four Law Enforcement officials tell nbc news flynn and manafort are key figures in the russia investigation with multiple grand jury subpoenas and records requests issued in connection with the two men during the last six months. In the crosshairs of multiple investigations, flynns lawyers yet to honor a Senate Intelligence Committee Subpoena for documents related to russias interference in the 2016 campaign. Well figure out on general flynn what the next step, if any is. Reporter still President Trump remains an unflinching defender of flynn, with lester last week hes in my opinion a very good person. Reporter according to yahoo news, late last month flynn told loyists, i just got a message from the president to stay strong. This morning two u. S. Officials tell nbc news Michael Flynn took action during the trump transition that would directly benefit turkey, pushing to delay a decision to arm a group turkey opposed in the fight against isis. Mr. Trump would ultimately support that policy, signing off on it only after flynn left. Ayman . Peter alex an sder. A source close to the administration is expressing concern about a potential pattern in the white house of keeping Vice President mike pence in the dark about former National Security adviser Michael Flynns wrongdoings, calling it unacptable and either malpractice or intentional. Now, the aide called the report of another undisclosed discretion by flynn stunning and says pence and his team were not made aware of any investigation receipting to flynns work as paid lobbyists for turkey. Nancy pelosi calling on democrats to show restraint when it comes to talk of impeachment. She urged her caucus to, quote, curb their enthusiasm until the facts are known. But that didnt stop the democratic leader from taking the president to task herself. What can i say . The place is unruly, undisciplined, unreliable, and unsafe. They need some adult supervision. Didnt he Say Something yesterday, the president , like nobody has been subjected to more criticism. Really . Youre telling me that . He doesnt have thick skin. Get some thick skin, okay . Pelosi said democrats need to wait for the investigation to determine if the president s actions were, quote, grounds for impeachment or grounds for disappointment. She did, however, disagree with the notion that democrats are overplaying their hand by calling for impeachment. Turning to the tragic events that unfolded in times square yesterday. One person is dead, 22 more injured. Initially many feared a potential terror attack similar to one in nice, france, but authorities were quick to rule out thursdays deadly crash as terror. Though they are looking into whether it was, in fact, deliberate. The driver, 26yearold Richard Rojas told police he smoked drugs and heard voices to hurt people, after speeding along three blocks before crashing. Sources tell nbc he had a dishonorable discharge from the navy and a history of dwis. One person Alyssa Elsman who was visiting new york with her 13yearold sister, who was hit but survived. Another check of weather after another day of tornadoes. First to iran as elections are getting under way as the president prepares for his first foreign trip. Well break down what results could mean for the bitter stalemate between the United States and iran. Later from humble roots as a street art is to the most expensive painting ever sold at auction by an american. The jawdropping price tag paid for a basquiat painting. See if you can see who is playing andy warhol. No, i think its okay. Gee, ignorant art. Yeah, stupid, ridiculous, crummy art. That sounds good. Thats new. Ten bucks. Youre going to be hanging out in here. So if you need anything, text me. Do you play . Use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. You got next . Chase. Helping you master whats now and whats next. For great skin, you dont have. Just go to bed. New aveeno®. Positively radiant® overnight facial. Get the benefits of a spa facial. Overnight. Aveeno®. Naturally beautiful results® but weve got the get tdigital tools to help. Now with xfinitys my account, you can figure things out easily, so you wont even have to call us. Change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. Add that premium channel, and watch the show everyones talking about, tonight. And the bill you need to pay . Do it in seconds. Because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. Go to xfinity. Com myaccount welcome back. Voters in iran are headed to the polls in the 12th president ial election. The election has come down to a twoman race with incumbent Hassan Rouhani facing off against cleric ebrahim raisi. Polls show rouhani ahead but only slightly. Lets bring ali from tehran. Big issues. What are the two big issues dividing these two candidates . Reporter well, ayman, there are two burning issues. One is the economy and one is ideology. Theyre both very important forrite ran yan people. Now, for the first people since 1997, two clerics have been pitted against each other in the president ial election. And they represent two very different ideals. Now, president rouhani, who was voted in four years ago, has appealed to the irans more reformist, more modern type voters, saying that he wants to open up iran and outreach to the west. His signature nuclear deal is something he still goes on about, saying this has made iran a country that has moved iran away from war and the threat of war from the west and pleading with the people to give him more time to fix the economy. He said hes sown the seeds of a better economy, a Better Future in iran and he needs another four years to deliver on that. Now, theres been a lot of discontent in iran over the last few years. A lot of working class iranians and even middle class iranians dont feel theyve had any tangible results from the nuclear deal. The economy here still remains very stagnant. Jobs havent appeared. And thats made a lot of discontent amongst people here. Now, more affluent, middle class people say thats not rouhanis fault. Its President Trumps fault for way on the nuclear deal and making things more difficult. Thats not a narrative that resonates with working class iranians. They want immediate effects and they dont think mr. Rouhani has delivered on those things. The other big divide here is an idealogical divide. You go to polling stations or rallies of mr. Rouhani and mr. Raisi, they look like two different irans. Mr. Raisis rallies, they are quefshtive, religious people who believe in following the line of the revolution. He has said irans economy needs to look inwards and not rely on foreign investment. While mr. Rouhanis supporters want a much more liberal iran. We have to see who will prevail in the ballot box. Ali live from tehran, iran. You know you covered iran extensively. Ali laid out whats at stake rnally but this is a vote people around the world will be watching. They say rouhani is moderate but thats a relative term. Relevant in moderate is somewhat conservative, everybody running for president is somewhat quefshtive quefs conservative in iran. When you saw when you secretary tillerson come into office he said were going to draw a hard line on iran. Now we have to sort of look at how it is theyre going to respond with the nuclear deal going forward. So far theyve struck they stuck by the nuclear deal. And thats why rouhanis election could be so important moving forward. Looking at syria, no matter who is the president of iran, their stance on syria will remain the same. Considering that word moderate, like i said, in that its so relative. Its important to see exactly what will happen moving forward. Also looking at President Trump going overseas and immediating with saudi arabia. Its a big issue as well, yemen in play. Lets get a check of the weather with bill karins. Yesterday we went into the day with the high risk of tornadoes. Usually on highrisk days, youre usually guaranteed destruction and sometimes, unfortunately, injuries and fatalities. Yesterday we had a lot of tornadoes but none were in populated areas. We havent didnt have any injuries or fatalities and we didnt even have a lot of destruction. We did have minor wind damage. Trees down on homes but no towns or communities dealing with widespread destruction. Some flooding, a lot of hail and also some pretty cool lightning shots from all the storms in the midwest yesterday. So, lets theres some Lightning Pictures there. Lets get into how well deal with today. Thats pretty cool. Look at that. Time lapse. As far as tornado outbreak went, we had about 19 tornado reports. No longer are we under any tornado threat. Thats good. New thunderstorms popping up in western texas, abilene. Severe threat today, less than yesterday. Today were up to enhanced risk. Indianapolis, st. Louis, kansas city, springfield, much of missouri back through ft. Smith, tulsa, oklahoma city, including the dallas ft. Worth area. A lot more Population Centers today that are at risk. The tornado threat is a little lower. There will be a few. If tornadoes happen in the area between wichita falls, abilene and ft. Worth, thats the area of greatest concern. Then into saturday, we watched the storm moving east, indianapolis, paducah, memphis, 10 Million People at risk of thunderstorms. Keep an eye to the sky through ohio valley back through Mississippi River valley. Todays forecast, were still hot. One more day, the end of our mini may heat wave. Boston, are you cooler. Boston was one of the hottest spots in the country yesterday at 95 degrees. It doesnt happen that often. We will cool it off as we go into the weekend. Theres today. Look what happens on saturday. Only 69 in new york down to 73 in d. C. Holding onto the heat in the southeast. Thunderstorms as we said saturday into sunday into the ohio valley. Kind of a back to normal type weather map. We didnt get a chance to mention the snow in colorado. Boulder picked up 18 inches of snow in the last two days. A lot to track there. Thanks. Well get pictures. The late artist Jeanmichel Basquiat set a record with 1898 untitled, a picture selling for 110. 5 million. The winning bidder is a chineseborn billionaire entrepreneur living in japan who bid by phone. Thought it was you, yasmin. The sale topped the previous american record set by his close friend, andy warhol. His painting silver car crash sold for 105 million back in 2013. Wow. Incredible. 19,000 to 100 odd million. Back with sports. Ot a quick fix. Its my decision to make beauty last. Roc® retinol, started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. 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Remember here at ally, nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. Whos with me . Were like a sports team here at ally. If a sports team had over 7. Im in. 7,000 players. Our plays are a little unorthodox. But to beat the big boys, you need smarter ways to save people money. We know what you want from a Financial Company and well stop at. Nothing to make sure you get it. One, two. And we mean nothing. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. And the stanley cup playoffs in nashville where ducks even up the western conference final at two games apiece with the win in overtime. Anaheim let the lead slip away. Predators forsberg scoring the final goal in regulation. Nationals ten game home winning playoff would come to an end in the extra period. Corey perry with a shot off a defensemans stick. Series moves to anaheim for game five tonight. Nba playoff teams had the night off as kcavaliers and celtics tonight in boston. The league did release a snapshot of the best players in the court with the allnba first team. Houstons james harden was the only Unanimous First Team choice with lebron and Russell Westbrook falling a vote shy of that honor. Kawhi leonard and Anthony Davis round out the list. Kevin pillar was not on the field playing blue jays, who is suspended two games using a homophobic slur in the seventh inning of wednesday nights matchup. Pillar tweeted an apology using the inappropriate language adding he is, quote, completely and utterly embarrassed. More of what seems like retributions for actions in that wednesday games is Jose Bautista blu plunked by a pitch in the first inning. Bautista would go on 2 for 4 in the jays 90 win. Adding fuel to Josh Donaldson fired off this tweet following the blowout win. I guess hes amused. Finally arlington, texas, a lesson staying alert during a major league game, even sitting in the upper deck. A fan learns the hard way after taking a foul ball hit by rangers slugger joey gallo off the head. Ouch. Thats going to leave a mark. Looks like it hurts. But was that was he trying to catch it . It looks like he had his hands up and totally missed it. Looks like he had way to point that out. Went right through the hand there. Looks like he had his hands up but he missed it. A look at the live report ahead of the president s big trip overseas. What joe biden said about his partys nominee last night anwhat happens in las vegas, you know the rest of that. Back after this. Boost. Its about moving forward, not back. Its looking up, not down. Its being in motion. In body, in spirit, in the now. Boost® high protein its intelligent nutrition with 15 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. For when you need a little extra. Boost® the number one high protein complete nutritional drink. Be up for it mobility is very important to me. Thats why i use e trade mobile. Its on all my mobile devices, so it suits my mobile lifestyle. And it keeps my investments fully mobile. Even when im on the move. Sign up at etrade. Com and get up to six hundred dollars. New neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair wrinkles . Your time is up with the proven power of retinol. Reduces wrinkles in just one week. Neutrogena® she pretty much lives in her favorite princess dress. But once a week i let her play sheriff so i can wash. I use tide to get out those week old stains and downy to get it fresh and soft. You are free to go. Tide and downy together. Welcome back. Im Yasmin Vossoughian along with Ayman Mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. Late last night charges were filed against the man accused of ramming his car in times uare, Richard Rojas. He tested negative for alcohol but positive for drugs. He also has hi dishonorable discharge from the navy in 2016. Former Vice President joe biden was talking politics in las vegas last night. Needless to say, it did not stay in vegas. According to fusion, biden said he he, quote, neither thought Hillary Clinton was a great candidate adding, quote, i thought i was a great candidate. However he did say he thought she would have been a great president. If asked if he would run in 2020, the former Vice President said, could i . Yes. Would i . Probably not. Back to our top story. Deepening investigation into the russias role in 2016 election. For more we go to nbcs justice correspondent Pete Williams. Its day two on the job for the outside special counsel, Robert Mueller. Hes already hiring staff, ready to dive into an investigation thats been going on for months. Senator said the Deputy Attorney general told them that Robert Mueller will take over an investigation entering a new phase. I think the biggest legal change seems to be that mr. Mueller is going to proceed forward with the idea of a criminal investigation versus a counterintelligence investigation. Reporter meaning what started purely as an investigation of russias influence on the campaign is now using all the Legal Resources available, subpoenas, interviews, grand juries to see if anyone here was helping. Mueller takes it on with strong bipartisan support. He is someone whos widely respected for his professionalism. Hell conduct a fair and thorough investigation, that i have no doubt. Reporter hes already hired two people. James quarles. Former u. S. Senator John Danforth brought on 18 years ago to investigate the federal governments role in the deadly and long standoff in waco, texas. His aadvice, say up front what mueller will look at to manage expectations. Job one is the immediate clarification of exactly what his mission is, what is he going to investigate, what is he not going to investigate. Reporter it will be an adjustment for Robert Mueller, no longer in charge of an agency he ran like the tough marine he once was. A former fbi counterterror official says hes not surprised mueller would quit a private law firm to do this. He once told me, he said, never leave government service. He said, youre not going to enjoy anything as much as you enjoy serving your country. Reporter like any other federal employee, Robert Mueller could be fired if the president were to order it. Theres no way to tell how long this will take before comey was fired, those involved were saying it would last several more months. Now its up to mueller to say when its done and to report to the Deputy Attorney general on his findings, even to file charges if mueller concludes that crimes were committed. Yasmin . Our thanks to Pete Williams reporting from washington. To the fallout involving ousted National Security adviser Michael Flynn. The white house is trying to douse the New York Times story that he told don flynn about the investigation. The paper reported he first told mcgahan on january 4th but a white house spokesman dismissed the story as flat out wrong. The story stands by mike pence who ran the Transition Team back in january saying he found out about flynn and the payments from turkey in march when the news first broke. They are concerned of a pattern in the white house about keeping the Vice President in dark about Michael Flynns wrongdoings calling it unacceptable and either malpractice or intentional. Jared kushner and ivanka trump made it clear that president elect trump would approve of a request from flynn to become National Security adviser after his loyalty during the campaign. The Trump Administration saying it never happened. Jason chaffetz is stepping down. He says hes resigning effective june 30th. Chaffetz has been at the center of several highprofile issues on capitol hill, including Hillary Clintons email investigation. Just recently he subpoenaed james comeys memos about his interactions with President Trump. In a letter to constituents, chaffetz said its time to turn his page for his family and give others a chance to serve. There is some speculation his republican colleague trey gowdy could take over his chairman while chaffetz could pop up on tv to talk politics. President trump says hes very close to choose the next fbi secretary and jamd Joe Lieberman as a finalist. He set a selfimposed deadline as today for picking the replacement, New York Times report members of his staff have urged him to take time. Three Senior Administration officials tell the paper trump is unlikely to make a selecon before he leavesoday for a nineday foreign trip. The president may be miscalculating how much support lieberman may have against democrats. Claire mccaskill says the job should not go to a former politician but others are on board. I think its a mistake to nominate anyone who has run for office. I spent a lot of time in Law Enforcement. This is a time where we need a Law Enforcement professional thats never campaigned for a president ial candidate, never campaigned for office, never worn a party label to head the fbi. Joe lieberman is an absolutely wonderful human being. He is my dear friend, okay . And maybe it should have someone that has no political connections whatsoever. Someone comes out of the professional ranks, maybe thats where they should go. Let me be clear, if they dont, if Joe Lieberman is the man, ill vote for him. Renting are lining up behind the former Vice President ial nominee with Susan Collins lieberman a person of, quote, unquestionable integrity. Lindsey graham saying the pick would do both the country and the fbi a good service. Special counsel takes over the Justice Departments russia investigation, President Trumps Campaign Says it saw a spike in donations from supporters on the day Robert Mueller was named. Reporting in an email that despite, quote, weeks of unrelenting and unprecedented political attacks against a sitting president , the combined total for may 17th for the campaign and its joint Fundraising Committee with the Republican National committee exceeded 314,000. The most since election day. This as democrats say their effort to retake the house is seeking new energy. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it raised 20 million in online contributions so far in 2017 alone, surpassing the total from all of 2015. Since january, 2. 2 Million People joined the email list with 156,000 new donors and an 18 average donation. Meanwhile in montana, rob quist, democratic candidate in next weeks special Congressional Election says hes raised more than 5 million. Thats off jon ossoff raised 8. 3 million in that states special election last month. Lets turn to business. Markets got a bit of a bump yesterday after a video thats been circulating among conservative media made its way to the trading floor. Portraying james comey as saying he was never pressured to end his fbi probe. Thinking that was good news for the president and his progrowth strategy, traders were encouraged leading to a quick spike in the dow and the dollar. Lets bring in cnbc villa marks live from london. All isnt what it seems there. What are we going to see today . Well, we had that bump yesterday. Weve now seen the dollar weakening slightly against the euro and pound. Doing well against the yen right now. Futures pointing to a slightly stronger open for s p and dow later today. In terms of Economic Uncertainty, Big Questions around President Trumps election and the months following, that Economic Policy shows this is the most tumultuous period in quite a while. Eclipsed only from economists from stanford and northwestern by both 9 11 and the near fiscal cliff we saw back in 2011. Its been more tumultuous in Economic Uncertainty since the 1987 crash. One other thing involving Trump Administration and business is nafta. The trade agreement involving northern american countries. We heard during the campaign President Trump threatening to withdrawal from the deal, saying it was the worst deal in history. Hes rode that back slightly under pressure from Justin Trudeau and mexican authorities. However, they have just notified his administration has just notified congress in a 90day letter from lighthize they are looking to renegotiate nafta in the comin days. Life from london, thanks so much. During his testimony to Senate Banking committee yesterday, treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said the Trump Administration did not support breaking up big banks, a Point Elizabeth warren said conflicted with previous statements that the administration was considering a 21st century version of the glass steagall act. The legislation that once prohibited commercial banks from participating in Investment Banking. Take a look at her sound here. We during the campaign, and i had the opportunity to work with the president on this specifically came out and said, we do support a 21st Century Glass steagall, but we never said before that we supported a full separation of banks and im sorry. Aspects we would have let me stop you right there, mr. Secretary. Youre not letting me finish. No, im not. There are aspects of glass steagall that you support, but not breaking up the banks and separating commercial banking from Investment Banking . What do you think glass steagall was, if thats not right at the heart of it . This is like something straight out of george orweil. Ive never said were in favor of breaking up the banks and separating. If we had okay. Let me try it one more time. Were going to run out of time. Tell me what 21st Century Glass steagall means if it doesnt mean part those two functions . Its an sis question or an impossible question. Its actually a complicated question. Ill bet. Still ahead, what looks like a bipartisan push to pass something other than legislation. Were following more Severe Weather today. With 24 Million People at risk and the possibility of even more tornadoes. Bill karins has the update next. Wake up skin. Neutrogena® hydro boost hydrating tint. The first water Gel Foundation with hyaluronic acid it plumps, quenches. Delivers a natural, flawless look. This is what makeups been missing. Neutrogena® introducing new depend real fit briefs. Now more breathable than ever. In situations like this, theres no time for distractions. Its not enough to think im ready. I need to know im ready. No matter what lies ahead. Get a free sample at depend. Com how to win at business. Step one point decisively with the arm of your glasses. Abracadabra. The stage is yours. Step two choose la quinta. The only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free nightinstantly and win at business. Oh, its actually. Sfx short balloon squeal its ver. Sfx balloon squeals ok can we. Sfx balloon squeals goodbye oof, that milk in your coffee was messing with you, wasnt it . Try lactaid, its real milk, without that annoying lactose. Good right . Yeah. Lactaid. The milk that doesnt mess with you. Weve all been there before big events. Saving seats at any large event can can often be a problemstarter but a graduation in west tennessee turned into an allout brawl. Graduates of Arlington High School march into Bellevue Baptist church, family members were throwing punches and pulling hair a few row as way. In the video several people attempt to break up the fist fight as two women throw punches and pull hair. At one point a woman is knocked to the ground, unfortunately. A spokesperson says security removed the adults from the ceremony and the graduation continued. Not a good lesson for those graduating students to see their parents behave like that. Not a good thing to happen on a day like that. Welcome back. Lets get a check of the weather with meteorologist bill karins. Thats like parents fighting at Little League games, what are you doing . Fighting to save seats. Lets get to the foreca. Wead about 20 tornado reports yesterday. Thankfully we didnt have any hit any towns, we didnt have any hit any buildings. We got lucky there. Now were dealing with the storms that have been dying off. The lone last threat is in the st. Louis area. Severe thunderstorm watches up for you. Strong thunderstorms coming over the top of you in half an hour from now. If youre heading out in st. Louis, keep that in mind. Chicago also some rain will be spreading your way. Severe threat into saturday, tomorrow it looks like areas from little rock to paducah to indianapolis will be the problem. Not so much tornadoes. More damaging winds. Well have some storms over the weekend. How about the heat over the last couple of days in the east. Its been very warm. Yesterday was the warmest may temperature in boston in 38 years. So, pretty significant stuff. All responsible for the bermuda high here and that subtropical air pumping up the coast. This will continue for one more day today from new york city south wards. D. C. , 92. Norfolk will be 92. New york will be 89. If we snuck up to 90, that would officially be a heat wave. Boston, youre about 10 degrees cooler today. Look what happens over the weekend. Cold front kicks down through the cooler canadian air will come in from the north. High temperatures will be 62 in boston. 69, new york. D. C. Down to 72. So, you know, well see a roller coaster ride up and down here. We did have one picture of a tornado we wanted to show you from oklahoma yesterday. This is why we didnt have a lot of damage. They were located like this. Out in the open fields away from any Population Centers. Thats why we didnt have any significant injuries or deaths, guys. That was fantastic. Really good news. Bill, i have one more from you from capitol hill. Responding to an awkward photo of himself with senators Chuck Schumer and tom cotton outside the senate jim. Senator ben sass said on twitter, holy mowly, it looks like senator schumer and i are smoking reefer outside. Its the internet, someone made the brilliant photoshop of the original. Senator sass added, quote, i thought we wer off the record. Nothing like capitol hill humor to get your friday morning going. I love it. Amidst whats all going on. Still ahead, the u. S. Strikes proassad forces. President erdogan looking on as Security Forces get mixed up with protesters right here in washington, d. C. , the nations capital. Well be right back. Wrinkles . Your time is up new neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair with the proven power of retinol. Reduces wrinkles in just one week. Neutrogena® welcome back. Everyone. We have breaking news i want to tell you about. Into a rape claim against wikileaks founder julian assange. Assange has been holed up in Embassy Since 2012 in order to escape extradition from sweden. British police say hes still wanted in britain for jumping bail and will still be arrested if he leaves the embassy. New video showing turkeys president erdogan showing clash with protesters outside the Turkish Embassy on tuesday. You can see president erdogan sitting in his car and talking to a body guard who says something to another man who runs towards the protesters. Seconds later the fight begins and erdogan gets out of the car, looks on and enters into the embassy. The turkish eassy said they were responding, quote n selfdefense. Turkeys staterunews agency said police did not heed turkeys demands to intercede and Security Forces moved in to disperse them. Two members of the Turkish Security detail were detained and subsequently released due to immunity laws. The white house has yet to comment on the incident. In a letter to erdogan, Dianne Feinstein and john mccain demanded his Security Team be held accountable. Added the violent response from your security detail is reflective of your governments treatment of the press, ethnic minority groups and political opponents. Senator mccain was more pointed yesterday on morning joe. We should show their ambassador the hell out of the United States of america. These are not average people that did this beating. This is erdogans security detail. Somebody told them to go out there and beat up on these peaceful demonstrators, and i think it should have repercussions including identifying these people and bringing charges against them. Overseas the United States launched an air strike against pro assad forces in syria. The strike appears to be the first publicly known direct confrontation between the United States and fighters loyal to the assad regime. It happened in the city of al tun. The strike occurred after pro Regime Forces made advances well inside a well established deconfliction zone and posed a threat to u. S. Forces. Defense secretary jim mattis says the strike should not be viewed as an increased american role in the war, only defending our troops. So far no casualties have been announced. Meanwhile in a few hours, President Trump will embark on his First Official forei trip, a nineday, fivecity excursn. First travels to saudi arabia and israel and then to the vatican before heading to brussels for a nato meeting and ending a trip at the g7 summit. Joining us from london, nbc news chief global correspondent bill neely. This trip coming am mist so much going on at the white house. What are you hearing. Reporter theyre hoping it will reboot the presidency. Theres always a danger in any president trying to solve domestic problems by some kind of foreign solution, either a foreign war or a foreign trip, not least one like this to the worlds most volatile region to try to solve its most intractable problem, that between israelis and palestinians. I hate to use the analogy, but Richard Nixon in 1974 tried to reboot his presidency just two months before he resigned with the first ever trip by an american president to israel. He also went to egypt and to syria and that didnt work out too well. Lets leave nixon aside for a moment. This trip is full of risks in every respect. Lets go to israel, the second stop on the trip and look at some of the criticism President Trump is facing on scheduling. For example, hes due to visit the Holocaust Memorial at yad vash shem but only scheduled 15 minutes for that visit. That is an obligatoriry stop for any foreign leader. Its a place, deeply spiritual place. I think many in israel are questioning whether 15 minutes is really an appropriate time at that venue. There are glitches. Theres already been cancellations. He was going to give a speech in the middle of the desert. Thats been changed. Every step he makes will be scrutinized. You see him there with president benjamin netanyahu. People will be timing the amount of time with netanyahu and mahmoud abbas. Everything will be scrutinized so carefully. This is full of elephant traps, and thats just israel, before that saudi arabia, after that meeting the pope, g7 and nato. All right, nbcs bill neely live in london. A trip the world is going to be watching closely. Coming up next on morning joe, wrapping up a trying week on u. S. Politics. The latest on President Trump slamming what he calls a witch hunt against it. Morning joe just moments away. What . We gotta go. Where . San francisco. When . Friday. We gotta go. [ tires screech ] any airline. Any hotel. Any time. Go whereouant, when you want with no blackout dates. [ muffled music coming from club. Blue monday by new order. Cheers. ] [ music and cheers get louder ] the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. Its travel, better connected. The travel rewards credit card from bank of america. Whats the story behind Green Mountain coffee and fair trade . Lets take a flight to colombia. This is boris calvo. Boris grows mindblowing coffee. And because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm and invest in his community to make even better coffee. All for a smoother tasting cup. Green mountain coffee. Whenand now with victoza®etes, theres a moment of truth. A better moment of proof. Victoza lowers my a1c and blood sugar better than the leading branded pill, which didnt get me to my goal. Victoza® works with your body to lower blood sugar in three ways in the stomach, the liver, and the pancreas. And while it isnt for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. Noninsulin victoza® comes in a pen and is taken once a day. announcer victoza® is not recommended as the first medication to treat diabetes and is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not take victoza® if you have a personal or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza® or any of its ingredients. Stop taking victoza® and call your doctor right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck or if you develop any allergic symptoms including itching, rash, or difficulty breathing. Serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis. So, stop taking victoza® and call your doctor right away if you have severe pain in your stomach area. Tell your doctor your medical history. Taking victoza® with a n may uslow blood sugar. The most cmon side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. Side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. Nows the time for a better moment of proof. Ask your doctor about victoza®. Welcome back. Before we toss it over to morning joe, lets get a check on the stories youll be hearing about in the day ahead. We begin with Nbcs Kelly Odonnell at the white house. Good morning. Reporter good morning, luis. After days of head snapping news developments, today something different, he and the first lady will get their passports out and begin the first foreign trip of the trump presidency, heading to saudi arabia, israel, italy and belgium. Before the president takes off, there could still be more developments. He said hes getting close to choosing a new fbi director. One name weve been hearing is Joe Lieberman, former senator of connecticut, who was a democrat and ultimately became an independent. Some consider him a frontrunner and is a popular choice among senior advisers because they think he would be appealing to democrats, having been the democratic Vice President ial nominee in 2000. Democratic sources im talking to say they shouldnt assume that because Many Democrats what someone with a Law Enforcement background for the fbi, not a politician. Yet again, no easy choice for President Trump trying to fill a high profile vacancy, one of his own creating by firing james comey. But for today, looking forward to a foreign trip and trying to change the subject. Thanks to Kelly Odonnell for that report. Statue of confederate general robert lee is set to be taken down in new orleans. Im Yasmin Vossoughian alongside Ayman Mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. Have a great weekend. Did you ever urge former fbi director james comey to close or back down the investigation into Michael Flynn . No, no. Next question. That was quite a press conference, by the way. Were going to get like a fourminute chunk of him. Im going to straighten my tie first and then well get a fourminute chunk of him contradicting himself. Check mark on the tie. This white house, they cant keep up. Is willie up in new york . Yes. Llie, how are you doing . Its like home alone 2, the one where hes left in new york alone. Thats the one