Updates of the day s news. there s a lot more to what they did that nobody knows about yet, and mueller is going to have a lot to answer for and in ohio s congressional special election the race is tighter after a late addition to voting tallies. officials in franklin county announced yesterday an additional 588 previously uncounted votes had been found in a columbus suburb. the result has given democrat danny o connor a net gain of 190 votes. he and republican troy balder s son are separated down from yesterday. balderson declared victory tuesday night, but o connor is waiting for all votes to be counted. whatever the outcome, these two will go head-to-head again in november when they compete for a full term in congress. the trump administration is hitting russia with new sanctions, punishing vladimir putin s government for the poisoning of a former russian russia has denied any involvement in the uk poisonings. the president, facing political pressure, to unleash the penalties. all of it coming as mr. trump lawyers formally rejected special counsel mueller s request for an interview, pushing for a narrow range of questions in the russia investigation. rudy guilliani telling nbc news there s room to negotiate while calling for the inquiry to end. we do not want to run into the november elections. so back up from that, this should be over with by september 1st. reporter: rudy guilliani tells nbc news that his position remains questioning the president about possible obstruction of justice is off limits. among the questions now, is robert mueller open to more negotiations or will it subpoena the president. david. my thanks to peter alexander for that report. joining us from washington is daniel lippman. i want to ask you first of all here, how are the latest sanctions imposed on russia going to affect president trump s budding relationship with his russian counter part? it is not going to help, but trump seems to have his own personal foreign policy with russia and then his administration has a totally different one that s much tougher. so trump is right in the sense that they have pursued sanctions and other aggressive actions to hold russia accountable, but he has not done that in with his you know, his voice and trying to hold putin to account for his actions, you know, in his press conferences. so it seems like trump continues to buddy up to putin even though his state department says, you know, that they push back on these sanctions. daniel lippman, i want to go to the other story involving robert mueller, the back and forth that the white house and president trump s lawyers have had with bob mueller and his team over the prospects of an interview with president trump. how large does the specter of a subpoena loom at this point? if you talk to people who worked with mueller in the past, they say he s likely to pursue one of those things because he needs to get that interview with trump. and if you you know, if you listen to what he said earlier, rudy guilliani, you know, trump should only just answer the questions truthfully, but that almost could implicate him. so he s caught in a no-win scenario. i think mueller is waiting to find out whether he can basically tell the public that rudy and trump s other lawyers, they re stonewalling, that we have to go to a subpoena. does this time feel any different? this has been going on for about eight months now, this back and forth. does the timing feel different this time around? does it feel like we re getting closer to the end of this debate? it feels like it does feel like a finale, you know. there s a famous play, waiting for godo, that, you know, i think about when talking about this. remember, last year in august they were saying that the investigation would wrap up by thanksgiving. so all of these missed deadlines because they just keep finding more information to charge more people, and so i think mueller has a real decision to make about if he really wants this interview and whether he thinks courts would up hold it. you might he might subpoena, and then before it gets to the supreme court trump might have to give in to an interview. with that samuel beck reference here on this morning. good to talk to you. thank you. we are following breaking news out of indonesia where other strong earthquake has hit the country s lombok island. yes, it hit midday. this quake comes less than a week after a 6.9 quake hit the island. for more, let s go to nbc news chapman bell in london. what is the latest? obviously this new quake compounding damage from the quake that just hit a few days ago. terrible situation for the people there. reporter: it is, louis. as you were saying, sending people fleeing into the streets. take a look at this video, this latest earthquake on lombok causing panic as villagers are seen fleeing. they re jumping out of cars, running for their lives. others, you can hear praying when the earth began to shake once again. one indonesia official describing it as more trauma for the island. buildings still standing from the previous quakes weakened, others collapsing. today s earthquake measuring at magnitude 6.2 by the country s geological agency as they described it as shallow and powerful but causing no concern for tsunami. the u.s. geological survey measuring at 5.9. whatever the magnitude, it will create more difficulty for authorities due to additional damage from the after shock. this is just days after a quake with a magnitude of 7.0 that was later revised to 6.9 hit the island on sunday. the chief of the provisional search and rescue agency saying the death toll from this earthquake now stands at 227. it is likely to climb though, this number. some figures have topped 300 deaths in some reports, but more than 150,000 people have been made homeless since sunday s quake, thousands of homes destroyed or damaged as people seek refuge under tents. louis. chapman, obviously an extremely critical situation. we hope people get the help they need. thank you for your reporting. still ahead, a ruling affecting parents and children separated at the u.s./mexico border under the trump administration zero policy. we will have those details. plus a warning from bill nelson. he says some russians have penetrated voting, but his claims have not been agreed to. those stories and more when we come back. this is a story about mail and packages. and it s also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they re handing us more than mail they re handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce 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 the new united explorer card hooks me up. getting more for getting away. traveling lighter. getting settled. rewarded! learn more at theexplorercard.com i ve been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there s a lot of innovation that goes into making america s #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. are you ready to take your then you need xfinity xfi.? a more powerful way to stay connected. it gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. it s the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. welcome back. in day seven of the trial of paul manafort, an irs agent testified that the former trump campaign chairman had at least $16 million in unreported income from ukraine, which manafort allegedly spent between 2010 and 2014, just a few years before he sought an unpaid role leading the president s campaign. after the conclusion of testimony by manafort s deputy, rick gates, there was a tense moment between special counsel prosecutors and judge t.s. ellis iii when ellis discovered an expert witness had watched the entire proceedings. as the washington post describes it, ellis erupted, saying he typically bars all witnesses, save the case agent, from observing the proceedings and thought he had done so in this case. u.s. attorney said he believed the transcript would back him up, saying ellis had allowed both the case agent and the expert to remain. ellis snapped, quote, i don t care what the transcript said. maybe i made a mistake. don t do it again. well, a federal judge is continuing the freeze on deportations of reunited families. the judge overseeing the reunification of migrant families separated at the u.s./mexico border decided yesterday to keep in place his order temporarily barring the trump administration from deporting parents and children. justice department lawyers argued that continuing the freeze hinders the work of immigrations and custom immigration and custom enforcement. the u.s. district judge halted deportations on july 16th after the aclu asked reunited families be given seven days to determine how they want to proceed with their immigration or asylum claims. a vulnerable red state democrat is siding with president trump in the upcoming fight on the border wall funding. indiana senator donnelly says that trump should get more than the 1.6 billion said aside for the border wall. he tells politico he, quote, does not want under any circumstances a government shutdown, a move the president has threatened should he not receive enough funds to fulfill his campaign promise. while the moderate democrat supported trump s immigration bill and other related legislation, his support puts increased focus on other red state democrats ahead of november midterms. for now the funding fight is put on hold as the gop works on passing less controversial spending bills and keeping the congressional majority. republicans plan to take on trump s border wall after the midterm elections. let s switch gears and get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, a hot day for the entire country, but actually the pacific northwest. yes, it is probably the hottest day of the summer for many people and close to record highs in boise in the next two days could approach their all-time hottest temperature ever recorded. here we are with excessive heat warning from boise to yakima, also portland and areas of northern montana, which by the way there are excessive heat warning from death valley to los angeles. if you talk to anyone from northern california, san francisco, napa north wards rg all are complaining about the air quality because of all of the fires, and this big dome of high pressure is sitting overhead. when you get the heat domes the air is not flowing. all of that smoke is trapped here in the valley areas. it is horrible for anyone with respiratory problems. we need to get this trough off the west coast on shore to change the weather pattern, and it will happen in the next couple of days but not yet. today, interior of washington, 106. redding, near the carr fire, 103. very hot, very dangerous fire conditions continue. it is not this weekend until the northwest drops down but fresno doesn t get this. so central california into the south, not so lucky. if you need the umbrella it is in the southeast, also dallas to new orleans, after overnight storms dry a nice day. very summer like from new york, baltimore to d.c. thank you very much. appreciate it. still ahead, come for the baseball, stay for the theater. an epic response to ejection in the independent league. details next in sports. 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opportunity sales event. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. i do. check out the new united explorer card. saving on this! saving on this! saving in here. rewarded! learn more at theexplorercard.com this is not a screensaver.game. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body s own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn t exist until now. and today can save your life. welcome back. the time now for sports. we begin with college hoops where the ncaa rule book has received a face look following a multi year investigation into corruption in the sporgs. among the biggest changes, elite players may be represented by ncaa certified agents and any underclassman that declare for the nba draft will be eligible to return to school. all right. let s go to major league baseball. we will start with the indians hosting the twins. game tied in the bottom of the ninth. cleveland with runners on the corners. lindor, swings and drives it! deep right field. gone! francisco lender slugs a three-run homer out to deep right field, walking the indians off with a 5-2 win. good night. in milwaukee, the brewers have a bash in first inning against the padres with aguilar, shaw and ames hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs. they beat san diego in this one 8-4 as well. an independent league in fargo, north dakota we ll go to and another colorful response to an ejection. one day after a home team player put a trash can behind home plate in place of the umpire, that same umpire tossed an opposing manager for arguing his call at third base. the manager speaks his mind on the field but doesn t leave without taking third base with him, a little souvenir there. he gave it away to a fan on the sideline. i like the way this one ends better than the other one, david. at least he gives it to a kid. tough week for that umpire. yeah. louis, thank you very much. still ahead, president trump once again touting the red wave, claiming a victory streak for republicans. we will see what critics have to say about that. plus, could the president be warming up to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein? we re following new reporting that suggests their relationship is improving. we ll be right back. let s begin. yes or no? do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet? do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts? what about a dedicated service team of trading specialists? did you say yes? good, then it s time for power e trade. the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. looks like we have a couple seconds left. let s do some card twirling twirling cards e trade. the original place to invest online. with my bladder leakage, the products i ve tried just didn t fit right. they were very saggy. it s getting in the way of our camping trips. but with new sizes, depend fit-flex is made for me. introducing more sizes for better comfort. new depend fit-flex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. i ve been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there s a lot of innovation that goes into making america s #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. the first person to survive alzis out there.ase and the alzheimer s association is going to make it happen by funding scientific breakthroughs, advancing public policy, and providing local support to those living with the disease and their caregivers. but we won t get there without you. join the fight with the alzheimer s association. secretary of state mike pompeo has signed off on a determination that russia violated international law by poisoning sergei skripal and his daughter back in march. the senior state department official says the new sanctions could cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in future exports to russia. a second, more painful round of sanctions, could kick in three months later unless russia provides reliable assurances it won t use chemical weapons in the future and agrees to on-site inspections by the u.n. n, conditions that are unlikely to be met. russia has denied any involvement in the uk poisonings. russian hackers allegedly penetrated some of florida s voter registration systems ahead of the upcoming elections. at a campaign event yesterday, senator bill nelson told the tampa bay times they ve penetrated certain counties in the state and have free rein to move about. he refused to elaborate on similar comments he made earlier in the day, telling the newspaper, that is classified. florida s department of state says it has received zero information supporting the senator the s claims, and governor rick scott who is challenging nelson for the u.s. senate seat said they re not aware of the allegations. marco rubio made a similar reference in orlando back in may. president trump is seemingly changing his tune on his frequent twitter target in deputy attorney general rosenstein. according to sources that spoke with the wall street journal , the two have a budding relationship and in recent months their relationship improved. the two men talked once or twice a week, and mr. trump calls mr. rosenstein on his cellphone to discuss issues such as immigration. mr. rosenstein consistently prepares the president s team ahead of major news and he visits the white house as often as three times a week, meeting with the president or white house chief of staff john kelly. he has regular lunch with white house general counsel don mcgahn. when asked for a quote about his rapport with rosenstein trump said, quote, it is fantastic, we have great relationship. the deputy attorney general is an integral part of the ongoing russia investigation, a source of president trump s ire. there is also a mounting effort by some gop lawmakers to impeach rosenstein. one of the first republican lawmakers to back donald trump in his bid for the white house is now facing a major legal battle after being charged with insider trading. congressman chris collins of new york is vowing to fight the charges and continue his campaign for reelection. nbc news stephanie goss has more. reporter: the u.s. attorney laid out timelines and phone records, proof he says that republican congressman christopher collins of new york is guilty of insider trading and lying to the fbi. congressman collins acted as if the law didn t apply to him. reporter: collins, his son cameron and his son s future father-in-law face 13 krim ncri counts all together. the crimes revolve around the australian pharmaceutical company innate. according to the indictment, on june 22nd of last year, innate s ceo informed his board of directors, including collins, that the company s critical drug trial had failed, news that was not yet public. congressman collins was at a picnic at the white house, and minutes after getting the news, according to prosecutors, collins called his son to tell him, breaking federal law. cameron collins moved quickly to save his money. he sold stock based on that inside information, and he also took that illegal inside information and tipped others. reporter: days later, the stock would plummet. according to the indictment, the insider trading allegedly saved the defendants and others over three-quarters of a million dollars. all three pleaded not guilty today. while the congressman s attorneys pointed out in a statement that their client did not benefit financially. i thank stephanie goss for that report. kansas gubernatorial primary remains in a dead heat over questions that swirl that the man holding the lead may oversee the count. the results do not include provisional ballots or mail-in ballots. there are no automatic recount rules, but if one is requested kobach would be the one to oversee it unless he recuseded himself. he made widespread claims of illegal voting in the 2016 voting, and he says he has no plans to recuse himself. he says counting would take place at the county level. no law requires him to recuse himself, but legal and political experts said he should do so to maintain trust in the election. and the white house says president trump spent yesterday at his new jersey golf club, working the phones and holding a fundraising dinner for house republicans. the president tweeted, as long as i campaign and/or support senate and house candidates within reason, they will win. i love the people and they certainly seem to like the job i m doing. if i find the time in between china, iran, the economy and much more, which i must, we will have a giant red wave. emphasizing his point later, quote, red wave. trump touted his r0rd in special elections. quote, the republicans have won eight out of nine house seats. yet if you listen to the fake news media you would think we are being clobbered. why can t they play it straight? so unfair to the republican party and in particular your favorite president. while the president s tweet ignores losses in virginia, new jersey and at the state and local level, the results in special elections show a significant shift toward the democratic party. joining us from washington is politico s daniel lippman. he is the coauthor of political playbook. let s start with what president trump has said on twitter. he says tuesday night s election was a major win for the gop and himself. what are we hearing from the president s critics about what happened on tuesday? they would take a lot of issue with what he is saying, because if you look at the vote totals it is a much narrower margin than in past elections in that district. so this is supposed to be a district that republicans don t have to worry about. it has been held for two decades by a solid republican congressman. and so the fact that they have to spend millions of dollars to protect this seat, you know, it reminds me of how what happened in 2006 when george w. bush was in office. remember, he had to say he took a thumping in the mid terms, and so i bet people are going to read back trump s tweets and say, you know, if democrats take control of the house in november, i thought you were saying we were going to have a red wave. what happened to that. more than a wave perhaps when you look at how small some of the margins are. let me ask you about what is happening in kansas. i mentioned what is being called by some a conflict of interest, that kobach is the one overseeing the recount there. what are you hearing from those watching this closely about the conflict of interest? i think people are saying he should recuse himself immediately, because for him to be in that position as secretary of state in kansas and be in charge does not seem very ethical, and people already say that he didn t hasn t done a great job in terms of making sure it is easy for people to vote in kansas. that s the job of a secretary of state. and, you know, he took a lot of flack, we should remember, when he was in charge of president trump s voter fraud commission, which really did not find much. and so, you know, he s trying to be governor, but you shouldn t mortgage your integrity and weigh the scales of justice if you have that job as secretary of state too. again, that race seeming to hinge on fewer than 200 votes. daniel lippman with politico. thank you very much. thank you. the governor of virginia has issued a state of emergency in charlottesville and parts of northern virginia due to possible unrest on the one-year anniversary of a white supremacist rally where 32-year-old heather heyer was killed. the unite the right rally, organized by neo-nazi groups to remove a statue of robert e. lee from a downtown park drew strong counterprotests. the rally broke into violence, prompting officials to declare the event illegal. the declaration will be in effect through the weekend and police officials say more than 700 state police will be activated to prevent any incidents like last year. and the republican nominee for the u.s. senate in virginia, corey stewart, is responding to the surfacing of video from his 2017 virginia governor campaign in which he praised the confederacy for rebelling against the union. take a listen. this is the state of george washington, thomas jefferson, james madison and james monroe. it is a state that the founders it is a state of the declaration of independence and the constitution, but it is also the state of robert e. lee and stonewall jackson and j.e.b. stuart. that s right! because at the base of it, virginians, we think for ourselves. yes. and if the established order is wrong, we rebel. amen. we did that in the revolution. we did it in the civil war, and we re doing it today. stewart, who grew up in minnesota and moved to virginia in his late 20s is facing incumbent democrat tim kaine this november. stewart responded to the video telling cnn, unlike wimpy tim kaine, republicans have a warrior spirit. newman s new tell-all, the reported secret recordings she made during her time working with president trump, what they allegedly reveal. plus, bill karins is back with another check on the forecast when we return. proud to call our own. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com oh, look. another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula available. it s clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. one week? that definitely works! rapid wrinkle repair®. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair. neutrogena®. see what s possible. i receive travel rewards. going new places. (oh!) going out for a bite. going anytime. rewarded! learn more at theexplorercard.com your hair is so soft! did you use head and shoulders two in one? i did mom. wanna try it? yes. it intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. manolo? look at my soft hair. i should be in the shot now too. try head and shoulders two in one. (burke) so we know how to cover almost anything.en almost everything even vengeful vermin. not so cute when they re angry. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we ve seen a thing or two. we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum welcome back. reality tv star and former white house staffer omarosa has recorded things in the west wing. she secretly recorded conversations with president trump and leveraged the recordings while shopping her upcoming tell-all book. one person confirmed they heard at least one recording featuring the president. multiple sources familiar with the tapes describe the conversation between trump and manigault as everyday chatter but said it seemed to feature his voice over phone or in person. manigault did not respond with a comment. simon & schuster said, without commenting on the specific contents of unhinged we are confident that omarosa can substantiate life inside the white house. let s get a check on the weather with bill karins. overnight thunderstorms over a lot of people, new york city and connecticut included, those are ended with a few leftover over boston. we had had overnight storms in areas of texas, getting it pretty good in the west portion of texas. dallas area has been dodging but to the north there were hit-and-miss showers. south of little rook a flash flood was issued. this front is triggering the showers and storms, it is sagging to the south. this is at 8:00 p.m. this evening. hit and-hadn t miss showers through mississippi. the northeast should be dry. the cold front will go through during the morning and we get a dryer forecast. i say a little dryer because it has been so humid for so long it continues over the south. this area of yellow is kind of a steamy forecast today. just kind of plain, old summer mugginess. for chicago, typical summer weather, feeling like 4 with the heat index. tulsa, 96. you get the bad humidity from orlando, mobile to houston. you expect it this time of year. it is very hot, but it will be a little more enjoyable than the last couple of days. to friday, we will get a little relief. k4r50e68d looks really nice at 81 to 79. unfortunately for the east coast this weekend, the humidity surges saturday and it looks like a rainy forecast on and off saturday afternoon and all day sunday from the mid atlantic to southern new england. china fires the latest shot in the back-and and forth trade war with the united states. the actions being taken against uber and lyft and the other stories driving your business day. about mail and packages. about mail and it s also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they re handing us more than mail they re handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce 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 with my bladder leakage, the products i ve tried just didn t fit right. they were very saggy. it s getting in the way of our camping trips. but with new sizes, depend fit-flex is made for me. introducing more sizes for better comfort. new depend fit-flex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. cars, motor bikes, coal, vast lien, asphalt, even fiber optic cables. the newest issued by u.s. will take fegt in five weeks of time. the chinese commerce said it must take these to defend the nation s deignuty. now, a separate for new york city companies like uber and lyft voted regulation to limit the total number of cars over the next 12 months while they look at the impact these companies are having on new york city. the tl, will make drivers be paid 15 bucks as a minimum wage. that will be a challenge for some of these companies in terms of their margins. supporters of the move say this will help support congestion and help life difficult for drivers, especially in the outer boroughs. the failing new york times reported $24 million in second-quarter profits yesterday. what more can you tell us. obviously, the president loves to target them and say that failing new york ti new york ti new york times is failing at failing. which is pretty witty. subscriber base keeps growing but now 2.9 million digital only subscribers. that hit 99 million euros in this quarter. on a total revenue of $415 million, so, not a terrible margin. but both print and digital ed advertisers have seen a decline and share closed down more than 6.5%. always great to have you with us. jonathan swann has a look at this morning s one big thing. turning down the counsel s offer and the bid in access to president trump and the timeline they re putting on wrapping up the russia prose. richard blumenthol weighs in. and rashida tlaib joins the conversation to discuss her campaign and the potential of becoming the first muslim woman elected too eed to congress. morning joe just moments away. i ve been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there s a 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(woooo) taking a breather. rewarded! learn more at theexplorercard.com since joining ninehahi, ubmonths ago,o. my priority has been to listen to you. to cities and communities, and to my own employees. i ve seen a lot of good. we ve changed the way people get around. we ve provided new opportunities. but moving forward, it s time to move in a new direction. and i want you to know just how excited i am, to write uber s next chapter, with you. one of our core values as a company, is to always do the right thing. and if there are times when we fall short, we commit to being open, taking responsibility for the problem, and fixing it. this begins with new leadership, and a new culture. and you re going to see improvements to our service. like enhanced background checks, 24/7 customer support, better pickups, and ride quality, for both riders, and drivers. you ve got my word, that we re charting an even better road for uber, and for those that rely on us every day. you might or joints.hing for your heart. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. a look at axios am jonathan swann. what is the one big thing that you re looking at this morning? the president s lawyer rudy giuliani is setting up unbeatable expectations for robert mueller. he s doing this partly as an insurance policy for the base, but we saw now he s saying that he has to wrap up the investigation by september. that s not going to happen. it s going to drive republican rage all the way through to november. he s also denying mueller the two key things he wants to ask obstruction of justice. jonathan, this has been going on for the better part of eight months the back and forth betweb between the counsel and his team and you spoke to rudy giuliani what could lead to the sit-down interview that robert mueller wants. on hannity last night mueller said he wasn t going to talk about what they said back to mueller but rudy told me the day before. i don t know what happened in the interim. just before they sent the response to mueller and i spoke to rudy giuliani and they didn t want trump to answer questions about what he told james comey in terms of investigating michael flynn. rudy giuliani said they were minor details, not important. they saw him in public. the essential questions that mueller would need to ask to ascertain whether the president obstructed justice. there were a handful of tv appearances yesterday and radio appearance, as well. rudy giuliani s co-counsel has a show. what did we learn between that interview yesterday? again, a continuation of a strategy. it s interesting. you know, there s a lot of sort of late-night comedy jokes about giuliani and et cetera, fine. you can sneer all you want. politically, it s been a devi devastatingly effective issue. all they want is for the republican party to entirely coalesce around the president when robert mueller puts out this report. they want to make it entirely partisan and smear robert mueller and throw mud over the investigation. and if you look at the polling and town hall and what republican voters in realtime lines that giuliani and trump are saying you cannot as an objective observer say this is effective. you mentioned polling. walk us through the headlines of the latest poll. we have, it s an amazing graphic, which, in axios am this morning which shows political polarization in terms of presidents since 1953, since eisenhower. and you just see this, it s just incredible the way it drifts apart and now we re at a situation where, i mean, look at this for a statistic. you have near unanimous approval among republicans for this president and three and four democrats want to impeach him. just think about that. unanimous approval. your take on the elections on tuesday. very narrow margins in kansas and ohio, as well. help us understand the level of concern? it is similar to their level of concern beforehand. it is very high. nothing in those results that fundamentally changed what we saw beforehand which is that this is going to be a very difficult task for republicans to keep the house, definitely a path for them to do that. the political report have some polling that shows their own analysis that shows democrats are outperforming by about 8.5 percentage points in each of these special elections and dave wassermann who is, you know, i put on the mountaintop as oracle of wisdom, he said they only need four or five to win the house. jonathan, thank you very much
, u know, paying it forward and trying to help people understand their sacrifice. karen davis, the nurse who survived the entrapment in the mega fire in paradise, california, says she lost everything in the inferno. battling the trauma from the flames, she decided to move to las vegas to be closer to her daughter and rebuild her shattered life. once there, karen continued her career in health care. she also decided to become a member of the henderson, nevada, community emergency response team, aiming to help others in future emergencies. a testament to her inner strength and resiliency. for more information on what you can do in a wildfire and how to combat the growing climate crisis, please go to cnn.com/violentearth. i m liev schreiber. thanks for watching. good night. [crowd shouting] [narrator] previously on secrets & spies. [ken adelman] in 1982, the soviet union had something like 33,000 nuclear weapons. [ronald reagan] they are the focus of evil in the modern world. [applause] [oleg gordievsky] the confrontation between west and east was very serious. there was really significant fear that this was going to lead to something extremely, extremely dangerous. [oleg] [crowd cheering] [narrator] this is the unseen story of the cold war. fought not by politicians. but by secret agents. [jack barsky] there was complete misunderstanding on either side. it s very difficult to determine whom you can trust. [narrator] as the soviet union faces off with the west in the early 1980s. two spies play a dangerous game from the shadows. they seek to win the upper hand while the world stands on the brink of nuclear war. these are their stories in their own words. testimony pieced together from interviews over the years. [oleg] after 11 years of secret work, maybe i develop paranoia. [narrator] .and never-before- heard recordings. [aldrich ames, on recording] [narrator] .that reveal the deadly intrigues at the heart of the battle between east and west. [alexander vassiliev] look, this is a war. a secret war. [dramatic music playing] [dramatic music playing] [ken] 83 had been a horrendous year for u.s.-soviet relations. really one of the worst. various things were done which scared the daylights out of the soviet union. you had the military exercise abel archer. [inaudible] the soviet union was unconvinced that if there was a bolt out of the blue, if there was an unprovoked attack by nato, by the united states, against the soviet union, it would be under the guise of a military exercise. we d also just gotten over the shoot-down of the kal airlines. we had gone through the evil empire speech. and so it was a real time of high, high tension. what we ve been concentrating on in the last ten days is the most important relationship in the world, and it makes an enormous difference to the world community when soviet-american relations deteriorate to the lowest point in 20 years, which they have. [tim naftali] when the competition is a nuclear competition, the uncontrollable risks of misunderstanding could have catastrophic consequences. and that s that was that s really the lesson of 1983. the stakes are uncontrollably high. it will be a miracle if there is not one or two major dangerous confrontations, direct confrontations, between the soviet union and the united states. [narrator] on the world stage, president reagan is determined to defeat what he calls the evil empire. but another battle is playing out in the shadows. [jack] for me, becoming a spy for the kgb was ideology. i am jack barsky. that s not the name i was born with. we stole the identity of a jack barsky who passed away at the young age of 11. i spent ten years as an illegal undercover agent for the kgb in the united states. i was 100% convinced that communism was the right thing. that the world eventually would wind up being one happy communist family. [narrator] in moscow, soviet leader yuri andropov continues running operation ryan. it feeds into his paranoia of a nuclear attack from the west. he has over 100 kgb spies overseas whose job is to win the struggle for global supremacy. but not all of them are loyal to the soviet union. top london agent oleg gordievsky has a dangerous secret. [ken] there is a cat-and-mouse relationship between the intelligence agencies. it was white-hot with the emotions on both sides. [narrator] in america, the cia builds a network of their own, recruiting kgb agents willing to turn traitor. and the new boss of this desk is aldrich ames. known to colleagues as rick. [diana worthen] i liked rick. i enjoyed being around him. i used to work for the central intelligence agency. rick ames was my boss there. i was loving it. [laughs] i really liked working on the soviet target. it always felt like important work to me. plus, watching my boss in action with the meetings he was going out to and what he was bringing back. [narrator] he is newly in love after a failed marriage. [diana] while rick was still married to his first wife, he met rosario. this is rick and rosario at the beach in puerto vallarta. they were in love. in a way, he was very good for her and she was very good for him. [narrator] ames s job is to protect the cia s growing portfolio of soviet agents. [tim] a very important part of the mosaic of information about the soviet menace comes from spies, human agents, each of whom is taking an enormous risk. and those spies are sending their information, ultimately, via aldrich ames. his job is to be sure that the information that these agents provide in the field is in a useful form for policymakers in washington. but he s also in a position to shape how washington uses this material. through this man goes the most important human intelligence that the united states is collecting in the soviet union on the soviet menace. through this one man. so he knows their names, and, of course, he s supposed to keep those names secret so that they don t die. [ominous music playing] [narrator] in london, one soviet double agent is more valuable than all the american assets. [narrator] the british source, oleg gordievsky, is third in command at the kgb london station. [narrator] gordievsky s intelligence revealed that the west s military exercise, able archer, provoked the soviets to seriously dangerous levels. [bianna golodryga] the security was heightened around the perimeters of the nato-u.s. exercises. russia interpreted that as not just another exercise, but perhaps posturing from the united states and nato to actually deploy a nuclear weapon. [helicopter blades beating] [narrator] yuri andropov, the leader of the soviet union, is so paranoid that one misstep could take the world to the brink of nuclear war. this misinterpretation about what the west s intentions were was something to be worried about. [narrator] and president reagan has no idea. [bianna] then the british decided it was time to start telling washington a little bit about who their new spy was, and some of the information that he was feeding them. in particular, that russia was indeed alarmed and russia was fearful. [narrator] but these insights come just as americans watch a nightmare scenario unfold onscreen. [laughing] [man] have a good weekend. [glass shatters] [ken] in late november 1983, abc put on a movie special called the day after. it was a movie of a town in kansas getting blown up by nuclear weapons. it s very powerful. president reagan watched it at, i believe, at camp david, with nancy. and he told us that he was kind of devastated by the whole thing. it was watched by over 100 million americans. and it was the rage. ronald reagan doesn t want to be seen as someone who brought the world close to nuclear brink. so he wants to be the peace-lover president. and he was flopping around wondering what to do about it all. [narrator] shocked by the reality of nuclear war, reagan offers his first olive branch to andropov. i believe that 1984 finds the united states in the strongest position in years to establish a constructive and realistic working relationship with the soviet union. just suppose with me for a moment that an ivan and an anya could find themselves, say, in a waiting room, or sharing a shelter from the rain or a storm with a jim and sally. as they went their separate ways, maybe anya would be saying to ivan, wasn t she nice? she also teaches music. jim would be telling sally what ivan did or didn t like about his boss. they might even have decided they were all going to get together for dinner some evening soon. people want to raise their children in a world without fear and without war. a nuclear conflict could well be mankind s last. reagan s big point was not the day after. the big point was the day before, and let s try the day before to make sure that the day after never happens. if the soviet government wants peace, then there will be peace. let us begin now. thank you. [applause] [narrator] but before any new strategy gets underway. a major tragedy rocks moscow. norman, bad news. i never graduated from med school. what? -but the good news is. xfinity mobile just got even better! now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go. plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. i gotta get this deal. i know. faster wifi and savings? .i don t want to miss that. that s amazing doc. mobile savings are calling. visit xfinitymobile.com to learn more. doc? [reporter] it is after midnight in moscow. the soviet flag, the hammer and sickle, has been lowered to half-staff over the kremlin. yuri andropov, the soviet president, dead at 69. [ominous music playing] [nina khrushcheva] people knew that he had kidney problems. everybody knew he was sick. people were comparing his skin color whether greenish, or whether bluish, or whatever. so it wasn t really a surprise that he was dying. but at the same time, because of tensions with the united states, with the west, there was uncertainty. it turns out that yuri andropov had much more than a bad cold for the past six months. his funeral will be in moscow tuesday, and although a number of prominent american politicians urge president reagan to attend, he will not. [narrator] reagan s olive branch does not extend to a trip to the ussr. instead, he sends vice president george hw bush. andropov s death has left many russians feeling uneasy. they have now lost two presidents in less than a year-and-a-half, and that s bound to unnerve a people who crave security. [ominous music playing] [narrator] during this critical moment, british prime minister margaret thatcher is one step ahead of reagan. [lord robin butler] the intelligence reports from oleg gordievsky were very important because you are, as it were, seeing behind the curtain. margaret thatcher began to feel that there might be an opportunity for her to open a relationship with the soviet union. which would also be a platform on which united states could build. [narrator] thatcher will cross the iron curtain and attend andropov s funeral. her first visit as the leader of the british state. gordievsky s insight into the soviet leadership s mindset is critical. [woman] yes, hello, it s the duty clerk here. we have an amendment to make to the prime minister s travel arrangements for tomorrow. [narrator] gordievsky s briefings advise her to be formal but friendly, and soften her normally tough image. the soviets don t react well to shows of strength. on a human level, i think this briefing was extremely important. it s body language. it s style. it s smiling at the right moments, but not smiling at the wrong moments. it s how you appear. [reporter] [dramatic music playing] [narrator] the funeral provides an opportunity for margaret thatcher to meet the new head of the ussr. [reporter 1] the new leader of the soviet union is 72-year-old konstantin chernenko. [reporter 2] mr. chernenko had moved up to the graveside for the final salute. he s known to have had health problems of his own. moscow rumors have spoken of pneumonia, but say he s recovered. for a brief moment, he seemed to have difficulty raising his hand. now, more than ever, he ll need his strength if he s to consolidate his power. [reporter 3] the prime minister got a few minutes with the new leader and the foreign minister, andrei gromyko, immediately after the ceremony. she behaved in a very dignified way, but also in a. in a charming way. we know from our intelligence source that her behavior made a very favorable impression on the russians at that moment. we were very courteously received, and i very much valued the opportunity of half-an-hour s talk with mr. chernenko this evening. it s in the interest of the peoples on both sides of the political divide to live in peace and security. let s start on that basis and try to build up. [narrator] thatcher seizes the opportunity to put britain at the center of a new kind of relationship. a relationship that could shift the balance in the cold war. [news anchor] the new leader of the soviet union, konstantin ustinovich chernenko, immediately dispelled any suggestion that he might take a softer line with the west. [nina] for most of us, this kind of exhibition of state power was so tiresome. another old guy died, and now we re gonna have another old guy ruling over us. well, good for them. congratulations. it was a dying joke. it was an absolutely ossified system. [narrator] ronald reagan remains remarkably quiet following his ivan and anya speech. he s reluctant to invest in a leader who might not last long. [ken] ronald reagan is dying to negotiate with any soviet, but he says, they keep dying on me. they keep dying on me. he wants to have a real summit, and that chernenko was about 105 years old at that time, and drooling, and had trouble walking into the room by himself. [narrator] chernenko is so frail that there s no guarantee he ll rule for long. both sides of the iron curtain begin to look to the future. gordievsky picks up on rumors of a new young contender. mikhail gorbachev has risen quickly, from secretary of agriculture to the second in command in the politburo, a part of the country s ruling elite. [speaking russian] [in english] if it is self-evident that chernenko cannot survive very long, then the quicker we start having real contact with mikhail gorbachev, the better. [narrator] reagan is unaware about the new rising star of soviet politics. president reagan was very hawkish and had been very vocal about his views on communism and needing to break it down. not necessarily viewing the soviet union as a partner, but as somebody who the united states really needed to one-up in terms of this overriding issue of democracy versus communism. [narrator] but thatcher has moved beyond this and sees a bigger picture, thanks to gordievsky s intel. this is her opportunity to take control and steer the cold war away from its stalemate. [sir malcolm rifkind] a decision was taken to see if we could persuade gorbachev to come to the united kingdom. [narrator] they wait with bated breath to see if their offer will be accepted. [ominous music playing] [narrator] in 1984, the political relationship between east and west is as fractious and dangerous as ever. the spies continue their cat-and-mouse game to gain the upper hand. i lived in the united states with an established identity as an american. but i was actually spying for the kgb. the tensions were very, very high. the russians were trying to spy on us and recruit our people. we were spying on them and trying to recruit their people. oh, that s me. [jim laughs] i worked the soviet target. kgb, mostly. they were interested in me living behind enemy lines as an american. somebody who, if necessary, could do a lot of damage. what i loved most about the job, i think, was the, um. was the kind of the chessboard game with the russians. [jack] our goal was to weaken the enemy and eventually, you know, help the quote, unquote, working class, the suppressed, to rise up and build another communist nation. [narrator] the handling of the kgb double agents is coordinated by the fbi and cia working together. [jim] rick ames was responsible for monitoring every soviet case. all the important agent cases sort of had to pass by his desk and get his seal of approval. for him, it was probably quite an exciting time. is this motorin and martinov? they were both kgb officers. martinov was a joint effort between the bureau and us. sergei motorin was a line pr officer in washington, d.c., who we recruited. hmm! this guy i know very well. this is major general dmitri polyakov. i worked with him quite a while myself. [narrator] cia agent aldrich ames is in a powerful position. he has 20 soviet double agents all under his protection. [diana] we were responsible for these assets. it s a job i really took seriously. their lives were at stake, and they knew that risk when they were. had joined up to sign. [narrator] but ames is beginning to feel frustrated, and his endless daily commute gives him time to think. he d write these studies. everybody would read them and say, oh, that s really great work, rick. and then that would be the end of it, you know? they didn t really send it anywhere. [narrator] ames is feeling undervalued. the white house seems much more reliant on mysterious briefings from london. [starts engine] [ken] the intelligence from the cia was very good on military technologies. it was just not good at the main thing we needed. what is going to happen? you re asking to read the mind of somebody and to understand human motivations. that s tougher than what is happening or what has happened. [narrator] the intel the brits receive from gordievsky gives them just that. and there are frustrations for ames at home too. [diana] he was also having a hard time, in his mind, trying to figure out how to get the divorce from his first wife. and how much that was gonna cost him. [honking horn] [jim] he gave rosario, i think, an exaggerated sense of both how much money he had and his lifestyle. i think he exaggerated that to her. his old car was always breaking down. everybody talked about his old junky cars. why he didn t buy a new one? he probably couldn t afford one. [tim] he is leading a banal, middle-class life. with the important distinction that he has access to some of the top secrets of the united states. he feels that people don t recognize his importance. they have underestimated aldrich ames. [ominous music playing] [narrator] oleg gordievsky has proven so valuable, the british risk a bold move. they revoke the head of the station, arkady guk s diplomatic status. it forces guk out of london and back to moscow. when you do that, you open up the possibility that moscow will start asking about why the british are doing what they re doing. and moscow, which was already conspiratorially minded and paranoiac, might start doubting the loyalty of the people who were gonna benefit from the fact that resident guk had just been sent home. so that was a risk that they took. [narrator] it leaves an enticing opening. [sir david omand] with guk out of the way, mi6 could plan for gordievsky to step up a notch. could he become the actual head of the kgb residency in london? it would give him much better access to intelligence operations being run from london. [alexander] after arkady guk, the number two, it was comrade nikitenko, who was the head of the counterintelligence line in the station. of course there was a rivalry. but espionage is a teamwork, so you need a good member of a team. [sir david] mi6 have to be extremely careful. he s got to show that he s really on top of the job, and that he is the right person to lead the kgb effort in the united kingdom, yet not be so good and so provoking that jealousies and suspicions will come about. [narrator] mi6 might want gordievsky in charge, but their puppeteering can t be discovered. their strategy is a bold gesture with a potential double payoff. impress oleg s kgb bosses while making a strategic political move. [sir malcolm] with gordievsky s help, we invited gorbachev to come to the united kingdom. we waited a rather long time. then, suddenly, we got an answer. saying, i d like to come in the next couple of months, and i d like to bring raisa, my wife, with me. then we had to go into overdrive. [narrator] it s a momentous event with a lot at stake. gordievsky steps up and helps both sides to prepare. gordievsky is shown a copy of the foreign secretary geoffrey howe s brief, so he knows exactly how number 10 is gearing up. [sir malcolm] how do you get across the reality of what your actual position is? sometimes, the best thing you can do with intelligence is share it with your adversary. he s then able to, in his own words, tell gorbachev, this is what you must expect. these are the issues, for example, human rights, that the prime minister is going to raise with you. [narrator] gordievsky shares information on arms control, trade and economics, along with personal notes on thatcher. [baroness meta ramsay] oleg is telling the kgb what the attitude towards gorbachev would be, and what sort of things would go down well with mrs. thatcher, and what wouldn t. oleg was making sure that the right messages went in both directions. [sir david] the reaction of gorbachev reading his briefs was fed back to gordievsky. there were ticks in the margin. passages were underlined. it s very rare in any intelligence operation to have real-time feedback on whether you re actually having the effect that you hope to have. having someone in london who was in on the political line could produce world historically important information. that s why he was an unusually important spy. he was at the right place at the right time. a slow network is no network for business. that s why more choose comcast business. and now, we re introducing ultimate speed for business our fastest plans yet. we re up to 12 times faster than verizon, at&t, and t-mobile. and existing customers could even get up to triple the speeds. at no additional cost. it s ultimate speed for ultimate business. don t miss out on our fastest speed plans yet! switch to comcast business and get started for $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. call today! [dramatic music playing] [reporter] a decade after gromyko and 28 years since bulganin and khrushchev mr. gorbachev arrived to do a little ice-breaking. [camera shutters click] [sir malcolm] i was at chequers when he arrived with raisa, his wife. [camera shutters clicking] [reporter] it was an unusual affair. the man who arrived was good-humored, informal, and with a taste for well-cut suits. gorbachev seemed a new kind of russian. big smile on his face, as if he s meeting an old chum. [reporter] his wife, raisa, showed not every soviet woman was a 23-stone babushka. thatcher s deciding to be very open and very. she wasn t stiff at all. [indistinct chattering] [laughter] the photograph is taken of us all standing on the steps and so forth. now, have you got enough? -[photographer] thank you. -a handshake. madam, could we just turn. could you. [sir malcolm] margaret thatcher, in her usual taking control fashion, said, no, no, i think we have to have one shaking hands. and you ll stand on the end. -all right. -[all laugh] yes, now, i think. [robin] so at this moment, gordievsky s role was very important, actually, in creating a bridge between the british and the russians. [sir malcolm] and then the first thing to happen is lunch. she hogged him to herself for the whole luncheon. he behaved, if i can put it this way, he wouldn t have liked this, but he behaved like a western politician. [dramatic music playing] [thatcher] i like mr. gorbachev. we can do business together. we both believe in our own political systems. he firmly believes in his, i firmly believe in mine. we re never going to change one another. so that is not in doubt. but we should both do everything we can to see that war never starts again. [bianna] a lot of the tension going into these meetings, the agenda that was set, the topics that each side was going to bring up and discuss, was known ahead of time. in large part thanks to the messages that were received and delivered by oleg gordievsky. [narrator] the visit is a success. gorbachev and thatcher find common ground. thatcher immediately flies out to make the case to reagan. [camera shutters click] [susan eisenhower] imagine, in 1983 ronald reagan said that the soviet union was an evil empire. and then margaret thatcher says to mikhail gorbachev this is a man she can do business with. what an extraordinary shift. and, of course, ronald reagan was not only an admirer and a friend of margaret thatcher, but he really respected her viewpoint on this. and she gave him some political cover to begin to look at the changes that were underway in the soviet union and take them more seriously. [narrator] while chernenko is leader, full dialogue with the soviets remains a long way off. her approval of gorbachev legitimizes reagan s desire to approach the soviet leadership himself. and he is intrigued by her very well-informed insights. but the cia wants to know exactly who is keeping the british one step ahead. [bianna] the cia had this we are holier than thou position, and thus have the right to have access to all of the information that we would like. and so they were itching to find out, who is this mystery spy? [narrator] ames and his colleagues scour the list of soviet diplomats in london who had worked in denmark. [narrator] ames now knows the double agent who s been swaying thatcher and reagan s thinking. unbeknownst to oleg, there was a growing list of people in the cia who were aware of him, his background, what he was doing, and his exact identity. [narrator] and if the cia can work out who the mole is, how long until the kgb finds out? the more people who know the name of a source, the more imperiled the source becomes. if his secret is betrayed to the kgb, it s a bullet to the back of the head. the risk for gordievsky is death.