Tropical storm gert forms in the atlantic ocean. This morning, its impact up and down the east coast. All that and the notorious el chapo heads back to court. Tom cruise proves he is in a risky business. And usain bolt wows the crowd with one more emotional lap. Today, monday, august 14th, 2017. 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. So good to have you on a monday morning. We have craig in for matt. Good morning. We have a lot to get to. Including foulout from the clashes with protests and night nationalists in virginia. A suspect accused of ramming his car into a crowd, will be arraigned on murder and other charges. The fbi and federal prosecutors have opened up civil rights investigations into that crash. Vigils across the country to honor the life of Heather Heyer and other victims. Mike pence spoke out, telling nbc news, dangerous fringe groums like White Supremacists and the kkk has no place in america. President trump has not singled out specific groups in his response to this weekends violence. Well talk about that with Jeff Sessions in just a moment. First, we have a team of correspondents standing by with the latest. Well start with tom costello at the scene this morning. Reporter quite quiet here. We have not seen White Supremacists here. But their message on saturday was that this country belongs to whites and the jews should also get out. We had an alteration between a White Nationalist leader and protest protesters. In seattle sunday, chaos and confusco confusi confusion, police deploying flash grenades there to. Across the country, in denver, new york, baltimore and houston. In virginia, a sot m gathering at a site where a woman died on saturday. Alex fields will appear in court, charged with seconddegree murder. Accused of driving his car into a crowd of antihate demonstrators on purpose. Killing 32yearold Heather Heyer. Her mother, devastated. Im very sad. Im very, very sad. But i cant be angry because angry will make me hate. And hate only leads to more hate. Reporter outside of toledo, fields mother said his arrest caught her by surprise. I just knew he was going to a rally. I try to stay out of his political views. Reporter a former High School Teacher says, fields had neonazi leanings. He thought the nazis were great. And hitler was great. The White Supremacy thing, he was into it. Reporter in charlottesville on saturday, who suggested police and counterprotesters were for the violence. That is the antiwhite hate. Reporter within minutes, the crowd rushed the mishg microphone, punching him in the face before Police Escorted him to safety. And virginia is mourning the loss of two state troopers. Governor Terry Mcauliffe blamed their deaths on the White Supremaci supremacists. Get out of the country. Reporter the fbi, the department of justice have launched a civil rights investigation, to determine if alex fields acted in a premedicated way when he allegedly killed 32yearold Heather Heyer. Down the street from me, theres a makeshift memorial to Heather Heyer who died on saturday. Many people wearing tshirts with her picture placed deadcenter on the tshirt itself. Police charged one man with misdemeanor assault for spitting on that nationalist yesterday. Thank you. President trump has come under fire for not explicitly condemning the role of White Supremacists in those deadly protests. And that has many of his administration doing some damage control this morning. Kristen welker has that part of the story for us. Kristen, good morning. Reporter craig, good morning to you. There is mounting pressure on President Trump to publicly denounce the White Supremacist at the root of the violence in virginia. He didnt do it over the weekend. And democrats and republicans are united. He needs to speak out more forcefully. This morning, the white house grappling with the ongoing backlash over the words that President Trump didnt say in the wake of the violent clashes in virginia. Not specifically calling out White Supremacist groups behind it all. He missed an opportunity to be explicit here. Reporter the president s statement on saturday, seemed to suggest that everyone shared some blame. Patriot bigotry and violence on many sides. Reporter the president s failure to condemn the nationalists, significant because during the campaign, some of those groups supported him. And kkk leader said they were protesting in the president s name. Were determined to take our country back. Were going to fulfill the promises of donald trump. The reaction swift and angry, including from republicans. Senator marco rubio urged the president to call them terrorist attacks. And trumps shortlimited communications director. He needs to be har nsh the nature of that. Reporter ivanka trump tweeting, there should be no place in society for racism, White Supremacy. The white house trying to contain the foulout, saying the president s exclusion includes the aaa and all groups. The top advisers clarify. I condemn the groups that exspouse this hatred, i cannot be clearer. Was that terrorism yesterday . What terrorism is, is the use of violence to incite terrorism and fear. Reporter as a candidate, mr. Trump said labels are important. Anyone who cannot name our enemy is not fit to lead this country. Reporter now, the president s saturday silence on white hate groups is creating a deafening problem for the white house. The president was silent on sunday, including on twitter. He has sent out a series of tweets, this morning, including this one. Heading to washington this morning. Much work to do. Focus on trade and military. But still nothing about virginia. Its the one topic people all across the country are waiting for him to revisit. Savannah . Craig . Kristen welker for us from new jersey. Were hearing from the Vice President , mike pence, as he begins a weeklong trip to south and central america. He singled out White Supremacists, neonazis and the kkk, he defended the president for not citing those groups in his statement. Peter alexander is traveling with the Vice President and spoke with him oneonone. Peter, good morning. Reporter savannah, good morning to you. I traveled to colombia with the Vice President. During our interview, he did what many critics say the president should have done. He condemned White Nationalists, White Supremacists and neonazis. I began our conversation asking him why the president didnt call out those groups by name. The president said he condemns hate and violence in all of its forms. We will not tolerate hatred and violence of groups like White Supremacists and kkk and the neonazis. The extremist Fringe Groups have no place in the american debate. We condemn them in the strongest of terms. Why wont the president use those words . I think the American People heard the president idea, condemn in his words, organizations that purvey hate and violence. The American People heard him. To be fair, some americans heard that. Others didnt, including orrin hatch. My brother didnt give his life fighting hilter will for nazi ideas not to g challenged here at home. Was it a mistake for the president not the be more clear . If you were advising him now, would you suggest he do it differently . I think the president yesterday spoke into a national moment. Words that the American People needed to hear. We condemn acts of violence, acts of hatred. He said on many sides. Name those sides. What are the sides . As i said today, we condemn in the strongest terms, the hate and violence advocated by groups like White Supremacists, neonazis and their ilk. Thats one side. Whats the other side . He says many sides. As you look throughout the course of recent years, weve seen protests turn violent. Weve seen fringe groum groups violence against police officers, with tragic results. With respect, only one group yesterday killed one american. And were bringing the full weight of the federal government to investigate that heinous act. I take issue with the fact that many in the immediamedia are sp more time this is orrin hatch and cory gardner, sir. Im reading their quotes. Many in the media spend a lot of time focusing on what the president said and critici criticizing instead of criticizing those who brought that hatred and violence to the streets of charlottesville, virginia. Reporter at the end of the conversation, i asked the Vice President if this was an act of domestic terrorism. He said, it may well have been. The president has directed the department of justice to direct a full investigation into attacks he said were similar to other attacks around the world. Were joined by Jeff Sessions. Good morning to you. Good morning, savannah. Lets talk about the president s words. Theyre worth focusing on on this moment. He said, this was an egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. And he was asked to condemn White Supremacists who were protesting. Why didnt he call them out . Well, he made a very strong statement that directly contradicted the ideology of hatred, violence, bigotry, racism, White Supremacy. Those things must be condemned in this country. Theyre totally unacceptable. You can be sure this department of justice in his administration is going to take the most vigorous action to protect the right of people like Heather Heyer, to protest against racism and bigotry. Were going to protect the right to assemble and march. And were going to prosecute anybody, to the full extent of the law, that violates their ability to do so. You can be sure of that. Attorney general sessions, let me follow up. You say it was a forceful statement. But he adds the violence going on, the hatred and bigotry were on many sides. What are the many sides . We had spasms of violence that are unacceptable in america. He said he wasnt talking about donald trump or barack obama. He said these problems have been going on for a long time. He said what happened in charlottesville is unacceptable. We need to find out what happened, that its wrong. And we need to study it and see what as a nation we can do to be more effective against this kind of extremism and evil, really. I thought it was a it was a good estimate, delivered just a few hours after the event. The next day, yesterday, they explicitly called out the nazis and the kkk. The president did not. That statement that youre referring to, came from the white house. It was it came from the white house. It sure did. It was authorized. Heres a president , as you know, general sessions, hes not afraid to take to twitter to ca chastise, a number of folks, yourself included. Hes not afraid to call out terrorism overseas. He didnt do that, why . The president did do that that wasnt the president. Thats not the same as the president of the United States. Youre interrupting me. I asked you, i was giving you an answer. Go ahead. It was a white house spokesman who made that statement, explicitly condemning these groups by name. Im sure hell talk again about it soon. Today . Will the president of the United States, today, is going to explicitly condemn the altright groups and White Nationalist groups . He will be speaking to the people today. Im not sure what he will say. Thats my understanding. And hes been firm on this from the beginning. He is appalled by this. General sessions, the daily sto stormer, a neonazi publication. They saw it as a tacit sign of support for their sign. This is what they posted shortly after the president s comments in part. And i think we have it here on the careen for you. President trumps comments were good. He didnt attack us. Nothing specific against us. They go on to say we need to study why people are to angry, and implied there were hate on both sides. He said the antifascists are haters. God bless him. Thats from a neonazi publication. Isnt that proof that the president didnt stand up sufficiently to White Supremacy on saturday . Theyre simply attempting to legitimate themselves in any way possible. Theyre find ought were coming after them for any violations of the law. The president has condemned by name and will continue to do so. Im confident that the American People will reject this kind of evil ideology. And we need to take it seriously. It does appear that people are amazingly, naziism remains alive, after all of the evil it has caused in the world. I think we take in seriothis se. We go after it morally, politically, legitimately, in any way possible to reject this ideology that causes division and hatred in america. Its just not part of our heritage. Before we let you go. We havent had a chance to speak to you since the president made several remarks directed at you, his own attorney general. My question to you, has the president apologized for his kind of public scolding of you . Have you spoken to him about it . Especially in light that youre out here defending him . I believe in the president s agenda. I believe in his leadership. He has a right to scold his cabinet members if hes not happy with them. And he has a right to have people in his cabinet that he believes will serve his agenda. Did you deserve that publicly like that . And talking about the issues that face us right now. I appreciate the opportunity to serve in his administration. Has he ever apologized for doing so publicly . Hes not apologized. He is frank about his concerns and expressed them openly. Attorney general, thank you for being with us. We appreciate it. Lets get a first check of the weather. Dylan is in for al today. Good morning, guys. Were looking at the tropics. We have Tropical Storm gert now. The storm has winds up near 45 miles per hour. Its moving to the northnorthwest at 9. It is looking to take a turn and run parallel to the east coast. While the storm will not necessarily be a threat to the United States, were still looking at the chance of dangerous rip currents, especially down along the southeast, as we go into the next couple of days. Electric Light Orchestra ] sailin away on the crest of a wave, its like magic rollin and ridin and slippin and slidin its magic introducing the all new volkswagen tiguan. Higher and higher, baby the new king of the concrete jungle. Good morning, im meteorologist bill henley. A warm day ahead, but clouds will be increasing. 85 this afternoon for philadelphia. Stays dry, and a high of 83 in the suburbs. And new jersey warming with 83 degrees with more clouds. Clouds increasing neoshore this afternoon, too. Low 80s for the lee high valley. And delaware no sign of rain until late tonight. Have a great day. Forecast. Gert. Short for gertrude . Ill find out. Right now, we call her gert. Coming up, the notorious drug kingpin, el chapo, returning to court today. Who will defend him . Well speak to the highprofile attorney who wants to take that case. Ahead of the total solar ellipse, a new rossen report about the special glasses you need to protect your eyes. Could you be buying dangerous knockoffs . How to spot the difference. First this, is today on nbc. Getting a cancer diagnosis is difficult. Getting an appointment to discuss your Treatment Options shouldnt be. Meet with a ctca cancer specialist in philadelphia, in as little as 24 hours. Learn more at cancercenter. Com appointment just ahead, schools announcing a ban on homework. 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Stop and go on scule puright now at least an hour at least.