i think that's it. he should do the dig any fied thing and resign his office. if this story is true. >> breaking overnight, the white house in turmoil after a new report claims that the president altered his own son's statement on tinfamous 2016 russian meeting. taking command. former general john kelly is in and controversial communications director anthony scaramucci is out. nation on the brink. the u.s. hits strongman nicolas maduro as venezuela reaches a breaking points. >> plus, amazing water rescue you have to see. >> trail blazing legends returns

"early today" starts right now. >> great to be with you on a tuesday. we begin with breaking news. that could bring more legal scrutiny on the white house this morning. after "the washington post" reported it was president trump himself who dictated his son's misleading statement on that controversial meeting with the russian lawyer in 2016. it's a whirlwind story that could have massive implications for trump's presidency. ron allen. >> good morning. what's most important about this story is that it raises the question whether president trump himself tried to mislead the public and investigators about that meeting and whether the president is involved in a cover up. remember the meeting happened during the height of the campaign. when confronted about it, a statement released by donald trump jr. said it was a short introductory meeting. i asked jared kushner and paul manafort to stop by.

we primarily discussed the program about adoption of russian children. according to "the washington post," president trump personally dictated that statement a claim not independently confirmed by nbc news. back in july the president's lawyer said mr. trump had nothing to do with it. >> let me say this. the president, i do want to be clear, the president was not involved in the drafting of the statement. >> now, you'll recall, the administration's statement about the meeting changed when e-mails emerged when donald trump jr. accepted the meeting because russians had incriminating information about hillary clinton. white house lawyers are pushing back hard at the story, saying apart from being of no consequence the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate and not pertinent. another trump lawyer calling it fake news. but all of this is fueling allegations of a cover up. here is a former ethics chief for president bush and how he

sees it. >> it's one of the most incompetent coverups in political history. i think that's it. he should do the dignified thing and resign his office if this story is true. all this perhaps more for the special prosecutor on the russian investigation to look into it. >> thank you, ron. >> this morning, while the trump team looks to save face in the midst of another revelation, retired general john kelly is taking command and cleaning house, discharging top white house staffer, anthony scaramucci, just hours after being sworn in as trump's new chief of staff. it's a clear sign mr. kelly want all roads to go through him as he looks to instill discipline. so the question is, will trump give kelly the authority he needs to make it all happen? nbc's hallie jackson has the story. >> reporter: the retired general reorganizing his ranks with new chief of staff john kelly pushing out controversial

communications director anthony scaramucci, according to sources familiar with the move. it comes not long after scaramucci, originally praised by the president, targeted white house staff with a profanity-laced rants in the new yorker, one so vulgar it's not repeatable here. >> the president felt anthony comments were inappropriate for a person in that position. and he didn't want to burden general kelly, also with that line of succession. >> reporter: the white house publicly said scaramucci wanted kelly to have a clean slate. there's a clear message there's a new sheriff in town. >> we just sworn in general kelly. he'll do a spectacular job. >> reporter: empowered. >> general kelly will go down in terms of position of chief of staff one of the great ever. >> reporter: for the west wing a

new era with a new manager but ultimately the same boss, one who is insisting there's no white house chaos after himself creating some. president trump hiring scaramucci in the first place over the objections of some advisers which set off a domino effect. press secretary sean spicer leaving, followed by former chief of staff reince priebus. while the warring factions in the white house appear to be giving kelly some running room, the battles internally are giving him a mission. >> general kelly will bring some discipline. >> protocol, pecking order, order, discipline. >> reporter: andy card served as chief of staff under president bush. i think demonstrates candidly and forcefully to everyone that the chief of staff means business in terms ever trying to bring discipline to the white house to help the president. >> this administration has seen a lot of turmoil before already now looking for its third

communications director, on its second chief of staff, on its seconds national security adviser as well, not typical for an administration just six months old. there may be a difference. kelly's authority. sources tell nbc news, sources familiar with all of this that steve bannon, jared kushner, they do plan to defer more to kelly which is not something we always saw with the last chief of staff. back to you. the u.s. has put new sanctions on nicolas maduro. freezing the venezuelan's president's assets and prohibiting any americans from dealing with him. this comes a day after a government-supported election spurred deadly violence. u.s. officials called the election a sham and said that maduro is now a dictator. maduro responded aggressively saying the threats and sanctions of the empire don't intimidate me for a moment. i don't listen to orders from

the empire not now or ever. bring on more sanctions. south carolina police are calling one 20-year-old woman james bond. she was robbed at gun point. forced into her car by three male suspects. at that point, jordan made the decision to flick. off her seat belt and dive out of her car at 35 miles per hour. luckily she escaped with only minor injuries. >> bruises and scratches. i mean, but, no sprans. no broken bones. i mean, that's the best i could have asked for jumping out after a moving vehicle. at 35 miles per hour. i'm so lucky that i wasn't hurt worse. >> police say they arrested three suspects in the recent carjacking and kidnapping incidents. a federal judge found former

arizona sheriff joe arpaio guilty. he willfully disobeyed a court order. he continued this tactic which racially profiled latinos. the 85-year-old faces up to six months in jail. a man and his dog are lucky to be alive at a dramatic water rescue. his car became stuck in a creek bed. the waters were so strong fire crews had to use a ladder to reach him. the dog can be seen there in the driver's side window before being pulled out. they were able to get the man and his pooch back to land in 12 minutes. the olympics are coming back to the united states. los angeles has reached a deal to host the 2028 summer olympics. it paves the way for tparis to

host in 2024. los angeles has hosted the olympics twice before. as you can imagine, l.a., they're all scrambling to see how they can improve and the progress before then. now, time to look at take rous heat that's hitting the northeast. our bill karins is with us. >> this is a category it's not only fascinating but where it could get dangerous. you don't all the time need the air-conditioning. but you need. 15 million people with heat advisories or heat warnings. the strong ridge is in place. temperatures today should be record high in medford, salem, eureka. by the time we get to thursday, portland has a chance at their

all-time record high temperature. that's a and in some cases even as warm as 105 or 116 in redding. >> bill, thank you the passing of one of hollywood's most romantic men. details ahead. before we hit the beach, i've gotta hit the loo. we can't stay here! why? terrible toilet paper! i'll never get clean! way ahead of you, big daddy. aww. charmin ultra strong. it's washcloth-like texture helps clean better. it's four times stronger and you can use less. beautiful view. thanks to charmin. and you, honeybear.

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bud. let's call it start nipping it in the -- in the bud. >> slow down a little bit. >> you brought up a good point the president said he doesn't drink. that's probably we'll closest we'll ever see him to downing a few too many. . the lack of a response from the commander in chief comes as he's set to sign a legislative package aimed at putin himself. nbc's andrea mitchell has the latest. good morning, andrea. >> reporter: with his domestic troubleses, the president dealing with two foreign crises. vladimir putin and north korea. locked up, u.s. embassy trucks under the away outside moscow, a

day before they were supposed to be packed and gone. major escalation as putin aordes sweeping cuts. on state tv putin retaliating after congress voted almost unanimously to sanction russia. in estonia the vice president saying that the president will go along with it. >> regrettably last week russia took the drastic step of limiting the united states' diplomatic presence in their nation. >> reporter: what happened with the russia reset? >> it's an honor to be with you. >> neither side really knows where this relationship is going. it's a little bit like a couple of fighters, punched dunk, somewhere near the 15th round. still slugging it out. >> reporter: as for the other big foreign crisis, north

korea's large of a long-range missile that could reach most of the u.s. >> north korea will be handle. we handled everything. >> reporter: secretary of state is trying to do it alone. only 2 of 24 assistant secretariries slot filled. as veteran diplomats leave in drove, a maz exodus because of trump policies and drastic budget cuts. secretary tillerson did meet with the president. but the state department will have to come up with solutions on how to cut so many embassy employees from the staff in moscow, all before putin's deadline of september 1st. >> lot of work still ahead. from hollywood to broadway, the entertainment word is mourning the loss of sam shepard. critically acclaimed both on and off screen.

he was nominated for an oscar for his role in the right stuff. his family said he died at home in kentucky from complications of als. sam shepard was 73 years old. just ahead, we'll tell you where the best public schools in nation are. plus investors around the globe are reacting to the latest white house version of survivor. you're watching "early today." tomorrow is not a given. but entresto is a medicine that helps make more tomorrows possible. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow... ♪ i love ya, tomorrow in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto helped more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine. women who are pregnant must not take entresto. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor

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annual ranking of the states with the best public schools. quality and safety. leading the list for the second here, massachusetts. washington, d.c., new mexico and louisiana at the bottom. how is wall street reacting to president trump's intrigue at the white house. good morning. good morning. wall street is poised to start the day in positive territory. asian markets gaining overnight the latest upheaval in the white house. the u.s. dollar is more headline sensitive is trading at a near 14-month low today. lyft carried more passengers through the first six months this year than all of last year.

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welcome back to early today. some of the numbers from july, july was exceptionally hot. salt lake city was 6 degrees warmer than average. in the month of july. that's almost unheard of to be much more warmer than average in one single month. today, 99 degrees. the peak of the heat wave, wednesday and thursday. seattle, approaching 100 on thursday. it will be tough for a lot of people who aren't used to -- maybe one day here and there. this is like three, four days. >> they have to remember this streak when they have a streak of rain and clouds, too. now to a story of a true american hero who risked his life during the vietnam war to save ten members of his platoon.

>> he's the first recipient of the medal of honor. peter alexander has his story. >> reporter: nearly 50 years later for jim mccloughan the memories of that raging battle in vietnam are still vivid. >> there's two vietnamese regular soldiers with ak-47s staring right at me. and i'm thinking i'm a dead man. >> reporter: the 23-year-old army medic defying danger over two days repeatedly running back in the kill zone to rescue comrades. his commander urging him to helicopter out. >> i had blood all over me. and i said no i'm not getting out. and he said, why not? and i looked at him, and i'll quote this, i said to him, you're going to need me. >> reporter: mccloughan braved

enemy fire not once, but nine times. single-handedly saving the lives of ten members of the charlie company. >> i'd rather be there and dead than in a hospital some place and find out x number of men were killed in this battle. >> reporter: finally, that sacrifice was honored. >> private mccloughan carries one immortal title and that title is hero. >> reporter: this is not the jim mccloughan award. whose award is this? >> this award goes to the 89 men that went into that battle whether they came out or they didn't come out. >> reporter: one man mccloughan credits with helping keeping him alive his father. >> my father thought whatever job you're assigned to don't do it halfway. >> reporter: a selflessness that saved lives. peter alexander, nbc news, the white house. >> just an amazing display of humility and valor. thanks for watching early

today. isle phillipmena.

live look outside -- fremont ==scott/2shot== good morning- and thanks for joining us. i )m scott mcgrew in for sam brock. ==laura/2shot== and i )m laura garcia cannon. =4shot= ad lib toss to weather ==kari//cu== ==mike//traffic h set== ck traffic maps tracking a crash on "hwy 101"