Good morning. Its monday, july 24th. Well, President Trump spent much of his weekend putting his message out on twitter sending 19 tweets from his personal account alone and among them ten he sent before 8 30 on saturday morning was this one. While all agree the u. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is leaks against us. Fake news. The president s lawyers had denied any discussion says of pardons as nonsense after the Washington Post reported trump had asked advisors about pardoning powers. Now, a member of trumps outside legal team, continued to make that argument yesterday, but his new Communications DirectorAnthony Scaramucci said the president had actually discussed the issue with him. We have not and continue to not have conversations with the president of the United States regarding pardons. Pardons have not been discussed, and pardons are not on the table. Im in the oval office of the president last week. Were talking about that. He says he brought that up. He said he doesnt have to be pardoned. Theres nobody around him that has to be pardoned. He was just making the statement about the power of pardon. Why is he tweeting about pardons . Well, i think, unfortunately, he may have had a conversation in the oval office or somewhere about it, and then people rush out to leak that information to people. Its very unprofessional and very harmful. I think that the gist of that leak basically i mean, or that tweet, i should say, is that he is not going to pardon anybody. He just doesnt line the fact that he has a twominute conversation in the oval office or in his study that people are running out and leaking that. President trump continues to suggest there is unfair scrutiny of him from special counsel robert mueller. Even his own attorney general tweeting out on saturday. So many people are asking why isnt the attorney general or special counsel looking at the many Hillary Clinton or comey crimes . 33,000 emails deleted. This after one of President Trumps lawyers praised mueller saying weve been helpful to him, and he has been straight with us. He is an honest guy. He has done a good job. Another member of the Trump Legal Team said that while they will look at potential conflicts, wherever they may find them, including the acting fbi director and special counsel, and see what is worth raising. The president is talking about in due time if there is, in fact, a conflict that the legal team deems as significant enough that it needs to be raised, as any lawyer would do, we would raise the problem with the special counsel. He said that mueller has an he already said that mueller has a conflict. Has that been raised with the attorney general . Weve not raised it with the Deputy Attorney general yet. Some of the president s advisors were more blent, including kellyanne conway. Why doesnt the president just want mueller to prove that trump is right . That russia was a hoax . Why doesnt he want mueller to go ahead and confirm that for him . Well, isnt mr. Mueller and his band of democratic donors doing that . Meanwhile, new developments reported in muellers investigation. Reuters reported that investigators are working to turn former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort into a cooperating witness by examining his financial and real estate records and his work in ukrainian politics. Spokesman for manafort told reuters there is no truth to the story. This as the top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee adam schiff it is Money Laundering could be an important part of the probe. The president is clearly worried about bob mueller will be looking into allegations, for example, that the russians may have laundered money through the trump organization. That is really something in my opinion. He needs to look at because what concerns me the most is anything that could be held over the president s head that could influence u. S. Policy. That would be among the most powerful form of compromise. It is go he needs to look at, and something the president is very concerned about, but clearly within the scope of bob muellers investigation. House and Senate Leaders have reached an agreement on a bill that toughens sanctions against russia, putting the white house in a difficult spot. The legislation would punish moscow for meddling in the u. S. s 2016 elections and for russias military aggression in ukraine and syria. The bill also includes economic penalties against iran in north korea. Now, yesterday morning President Trumps new white house Communications DirectorAnthony Scaramucci and incoming press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders gave different responses on whether the president supports the sanctions bill or not. Take a listen. The administration is supportive of being tough on russia, particularly in putting the sanctions in place. The original piece of legislation was poorly written, but we were able to work with the house and senate, and the administration is happy with the ability to do that and make those changes that were necessary, and we support where the legislation is now. Is President Trump going to sign the russian sanctions bill . We got to ask President Trump that. You know, its my second or third day on the job, but my guess is that he is going to make that decision shortly. Somebody said to me yesterday and i wont tell you who, that if the russians actually hack this situation and spilled out those emails, you would have never seen it. You would have never had any evidence of them, meaning theyre super confident in their deception skills and being thatting. I dont know who this anonymous person is that said if the russians had done it, we wouldnt have been able to detect it. It is the unanimous how about it was the president , jake . Joining us now from washington is politicos author of the political playbook. As we were just saying there, this bill really puts the president in a difficult position. He has obviously made a push for relations with russia, but the sanctions package is going to punish russia, and so obviously he has to make a choice between allowing the sanctions bill to go forward and looking like he is tough on russia or not and looking like he is soft on russia. Yes. It looks like the white house made a decision this weekend that he is going to sign the sanctions bill into law. They were in a really picky spot because they did not want to look like they were soft on russia, and so there was a lot of other sanctions targeting iran and north korea in it is package that they wanted to put into place. Scaramucci, after he said he didnt know if the president was going to sign it or not, he actually texted the New York Times and said my bad. You go with what sarah said. He is clearly getting up to speed on what exactly the president s policies are on this important subject. On the house side, theyre expected to vote on the sanctions bill as early as tomorrow possibly. As you are saying, the president is leaning towards approving the sanctions bill, but if he were to veto it, what would it mean for him to do so . First of all, it would get the veto would be overturned by congress. They would vote to say that what the president did is wrong. We need to punish russia for their interference in the 2016 elections. That has a bipartisan component because both republicans and democrats think that russia really has not been held accountable for what they did last year. They dont really care what trump has to say. If he is disputing whether russia carried out this interference, and so it would create a big firestorm if trump said i dont care what you say. Im going to veto these sanctions. It looks like he is in this corner where he knows he is not going to get a win on this, and so theyre basically, it you know, taking it to they want to get other wins on more important subjects that are, like, tax reform and supreme court. Its going to complicate issues with russia to see how the russians respond to a new round of sanctions. Daniel lipman live in washington d. C. For us. Thank you. Well, speaking of russia, the contents of kislyaks kwfrgs are back in the news. The Washington Post reported friday that at one point kislyak informed moscow that he and then senator Sessions Discussed Campaign related matters. Now, the conversations were reportedly intercepted by u. S. Spy agencies and a former official told the paper that the intelligence indicates that sessions and kislyak had substantive discussions on matters including trumps positions on russia related issues and prospects for u. S. Russia relations in a trump administration. Sessions has denied ever having such conversations. I never had meetings with russian operatives or russian intermediaries about the trump campaign. Let me state this clearly, colleagues. I have never met with or had any conversation with any russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Now, analysts warn its possible that kislyak embellished or even made up some of those claims, but some told the paper the Russian Ambassador was known for accurately describing his d. C. Interactions. Since the early days of the campaign, sessions and the president s relationship has frayed. In particular, over the attorney generals decision to recuse himself from the russia case. Through a spokes pern sessions stood by his june testimony and refused to comment on the reliability of what Anonymous Sources describe in a wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept that the Washington Post has not seen. Now, the president tweeted in response. A new intelligence leak from the amazon Washington Post. This time against attorney general jeff sessions. These illegal leaks, like comeys, must stop. Theres one more thing worth looking back to. What james comey alluded to during his testimony after he was fired as fbi director. He told the Senate Committee he knew it would be a matter of time before sessions would recuse himself from the russia investigation. Take a listen. Our judgment as i recall was that he was very close to and inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons. We also were aware of facts that i cant discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a russiarelated investigation problematic. Turning from politics, charges are expected to be filed against a florida man in connection to nine undocumented immigrants found dead in the back of a tractortrailer in texas. Dozens more in very bad shape. Officials are calling it a horrific human smuggling operation. Authorities say the truck was discovered in a wall mart parking lot in san antonio, texas, early yesterday morning. They say at one point there may have been more than 100 people packed into the back of that truck where there was no signs of water or air conditioning. 30 of the survivors were taken to area hospitals with some suffering from heat stroke and dehydration. Others are believed to have fled or have been picked up. The driver, 60yearold James Matthew bradley jr. , is expected to face state and federal charges. The u. S. Department of Homeland Security has been called in to assist in the investigation. This morning the taliban is claiming responsibility for another deadly attack in the capital of afghanistan. The car bomb exploded in western kabul early this morning killing at least 38 people and injuring more than 60. Afghan Officials Say most of the victims were civilians and government employees. The countrys chief executive condemned the attack and vowed to hold those accountable responsible. Senate republicans prepare to move ahead with a health care vote. Plus, more than a dozen hikers left stranded after a flash flooding in arizona. A rescue effort has been ongoing all night to rescue them. We have those stories and a check on weather when we come back. vo a lifetime of your dogs nutritional needs. All in one. Purina one. Healthy energy, all in one. Strong muscles, all in one. Highly digestible, and a taste he loves, all in one. Purina one smartblend is expertly blended. With 100 nutrition, 0 fillers, always real meat 1. Lifelong smart nutrition. Its all in one. Purina one. And its also a story mail aabout people and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you backpack, check. Thats the family taking care of business. 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See how much you can save when you choose by the gig or unlimited. Call or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Xfinity mobile. Its a new kind of network, designed to save you money. Welcome back. President trump is expected to deliver a statement on health care later this afternoon. According to a release from the white house, the president will meet with victims of obama care and then give his statement a 3 15 p. M. Eastern. The president tweeted last night if republicans dont repeal and replace the zas russ obama care, the repercussions will be far greater than any of them understand. Earlier this weekend he also tweeted out the republican senators must step up to the plate, and after seven years vote to repeal and replace. Next tax reform and infrastructure. Win. Obama care is dead and the democrats are obstruction itses. No ideas or votes. Only obstruction. It is solely up to the 52 republican senators. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are going ahead with their plan to begin debate on repealing obama care this week, but on friday the gop es reconciliati hit a roadblock. Several provisions in the Health Care Bill would require a full 60 votes for approval. At this point the republicans may hold a vote as early as tuesday, but its unclear what they may be voting on. We dont know whether were going to be voting on the house bill, the first version of the senate bill, the second version of the senate bill, a new version of the senate bill or a 2015 bill that would have repealed the Affordable Care act now and then said that somehow well figure out a replacement over the next two years. I dont think thats a good approach to face a legislation that affects millions of people and onesixth of our economy. Senator stone, if republicans block the bill this week, either dont vote to begin the debate or begin the debate and then go against whatever is on the floor, is that the end of repeal and replace . Its not, but it is a vote, i think, for the status quo. What will happen and if and when that were to occur, is well go back to the drawing board, and well get a bill up. We are going to vote to repeal and replace obama care. The question is not a question of if. Its a question of when. To a scary story here. Rescue workers in arizona are in the process of saving a group of heekers trapped after heavy rains caused flash flooding. Eight of the hikers have already been airlifted to safety, including a 4yearold boy. This video captures that dramatic rescue. He became trapped by the raging waters late yesterday afternoon and nine more people are currently waiting out the flooding while rescuers try to hike to their locations. Officials say they are safe and on stable ground there and expect the operation to go throughout the night. Lets get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. Bill, it looks like a wet morning for the northeast. Yeah. Soaking in the northeast. They may even have had a tornado overnight in mare mile an hour. Stevensville maryland is one of them and bay city. We have a picture from the bay city area. Again, it looks like it was a weaker lowend tornado, but enough to do a lot of roof damage. Power is out to a lot of this region, and there are reports of a house fire from one of them and boats that were tossed out of the chesapeake on to the shore. Well get you more pictures as we get the day break here, but it may have been a maryland tornado overnight. The heavy rain associated with that is still to the east. Still a Flash Flood Warning south of philadelphia. Thats improving, though. Now all the heavy rain is starting to move through the new york city area and the jersey shore. Its raining hard out on long island, and then we have embedded areas of heavier rain from scranton over to albany and into areas of northern portions of new england. Its a soggy day. Slow morning drive. Then well have to deal with airport delays too. Heres the timing of everything. Its 6 00 a. M. This morning. Lets fast forward to the lunch hour. Now how quickly this is in and out. New york city is almost completely done. Maybe a slour or two. D. C. Youre done. Steadier rain in hartford and province and up through areas of portsmouth and rutland, vermont. Then by 5 00 p. M. Theres hit and miss scattered showers on the back side of this this after