fabrication. we didn't win because of russia. we won because of you. that i can tell you. >> ramping up, the president defiant against collusion allegations that have plagued his administration while new velations on the russia probe rocked the white house this morning. sky high blaze, one of the world's tallest residential towers catches fire for the second time. suicide texting sentence, the latest details on a young woman convicted after urging her boyfriend to commit suicide. plus why this 25-year-old just became the most expensive soccer player of all time. willie nelson swears he's not dead.

and this little guy shows us how to gallop our way into the weekend. "early today" starts right now. good morning on this friday, i'm phillip mena. phyllis is off today. donald trump was on the trail and talking russia once more. this time blasting the entire investigation. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of american politics. that's all it is. >> mr. trump's stance comes as the "wall street journal" releases a report claiming the russia investigation is ramping up with grand jury convening on the probe. and it's causing consternation in the trump white house as the president himself says the special counsel should investigate others like his former presidential rival.

>> what the prosecutor should be looking at are hillary clinton's 33,000 deleted e-mails. most people know there were no russians in our campaign. there never were. we didn't win because of russia. we won because of you. that i can tell you. >> the convening of a grand jury is yet another revelation on a story that has dogged the white house for months and could lead to even more questions. nbc correspondent hallie jackson has more. >> reporter: the special counsel investigating russian election interference is entering a new phase of its inquiry assembling a grand jury in washington, d.c. as first reported by "the wall street journal." it's a signal robert mueller's investigation, which has dogged the administration and infuriated the president, will stretch on for months. if not longer. nbc news has not independently confirmed the report, but the grand jury would be empowered to hear testimony and get records from people or businesses.

>> the fact that special counsel robert mueller felt compelled to kbanl -- impanel a special group of grand jurors focusing only on the trump/russia investigation is nothing else. >> reporter: we have no reason to believe president trump is under investigation. a former senior intelligence official with knowledge of the discussions has told nbc news mueller is looking at whether the president may have obstructed justice. president trump's new white house lawyer brought in specifically to deal with the russia investigations says he wasn't aware mueller started using a new grand jury calling those matters typically secret, adding the white house favors anything that accelerates the conclusion of mueller's work fairly and is committed to fully cooperating. mueller recently added even more former prosecutors to his team, as he assembles high-powered experts on everything from foreign bribery to public

corruption. >> the team mueller assembled is a strong team of seasoned veteran prosecutors. this is the varsity. >> reporter: the president lashed out at mueller's investigation. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> reporter: lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are introducing bills to help protect mueller and his investigation. >> some people can say flexing our muscle, but it's really just doing exactly what the founding fathers wanted us to do. to have three strong coequal branches. >> reporter: congress is running its own parallel investigations into russian interference. today we have learned one senate committee is planning to interview donald trump jr. and former trump campaign chair paul manafort at some point over the august recess here in washington with the potential for a public hearing this fall. phillip, back to you. >> hall lee, thank you. it's not just the russia investigation vexing the white house this morning, but president trump's own words

after transcripts of his private phone calls with world leaders became public showing an exacerbated president focused on political optics feuding with allies on the world stage. nbc's peter alexander has that report and some of the most revealing comments. >> reporter: the president's private calls unfiltered. one week after taking office. admitting to the mexican president he's politically cornered. i have to have mexico pay for the wall, i have to. i have been talking about it for a two-year period. >> who is going to pay for the wall? who? >> reporter: in transcripts of the call obtained by "the washington post," the president pressures him to stop saying mexico won't foot the bill. you can't say that to the press. trump concedes the money would come from elsewhere. it will come out in the wash and that's okay. on an epidemic of an illegal drug smug geld ingled into the

won new hampshire because new hampshire is a drug-infested den. another contentious call the next day with australia's prime minister. the two leaders clashing over an agreement that the u.s. admit refugees now detained in australia. this is going to kill me as i'm the world's greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. before ending the call, trump clearly exasperated, i have had it. this is the most unpleasant call all day. putin was a pleasant call. this is ridiculous. the white house did not confirm the ah they not advertise -- authenticity of the transcripts, but he railed against leaks. >> we're going to find the leakers. they are going to pay a big price for leaking. >> these people should be fired. they should be out of government. they are disloyal to our government, and i hope that's what's going to happen. >> peter alexander reporting for us. democratic co-chairman mark warner says congress will investigate this leak over the next several days while the australian prime minister described his relationship with trump as warm, despite the leaked calls. let's go now to ron allen for more on the fallout from the

phone calls, especially from one state in particular. >> new hampshire. good morning, that state is new hampshire. president trump in a call with mexico's president discussing drugs from south of the border and talking about trump's border wall called new hampshire a drug-infested den. trump saying that's the reason he won the state. trump lost new hampshire last november, though he did win the primary there a year earlier. reaction to the drug den remark in new hampshire has been withering. here's senator jeanne shaheen. >> what he said was an outrage to say that about new hampshire. any state in the united states of america. it's an insult to all of those people who have been dealing with this epidemic for years. >> even the state's republican governor in a statement said the president is wrong and his remarks disappointing. here's what a few staters had to say. >> i think it's crazy he would call it that. we do have an epidemic going on,

but new hampshire is more than a drug-infested den. >> he needs to come to new hampshire and spend some time getting to know the locals here, maybe actually sit down and talk and host a town hall. >> just to be clear, the deadly opioid epidemic has hit new hampshire hard. but now new hampshire is demanding a presidential apology. no response yet from the white house. >> he's not really known for giving many of those. the case is coming down on the woman who convinced her boyfriend to commit suicide via text. michelle carter is out on appeal and may not have to serve her full sentence. >> reporter: michelle carter wiping away tears, sentenced after being convicted of

voluntary manslaughter, accused of convincing her boyfriend, conrad roy, to kill himself. she's free until her appeal can be heard. her victim's family outraged. so you wanted to see her walk out of here in handcuffs? >> why not? this girl still gets to go to prom, to disneyland, so i don't think there is any justice. >> reporter: his father pleading with the judge for a harsher sentence. >> michelle connor exploited my son's weaknesses and used him as a pawn. >> her attorney saying adolescents are more culpable. tonight is the night, she wrote. it's now or never. when roy texted, i'm freaking out again, i'm overthinking,

carter responded, i thought you wanted to do this. the time is right and you're ready. you just need to do it. that night he sat outside this k-mart parking lot outside boston and filled his father's truck with carbon monoxide. at one point roy got scared and left the truck, but carter told him to get back in, a choice a judge said was manslaughter, saying she had to be held accountable. >> i have not found that miss connor's age, mental facilities are an excuse. >> michelle connor's life shattered. for now she remains free as her case goes through the appeals process which could take months, if not years. phillip? a group of angry customers were seen trashing a chick fill a after a disagreement over cold

nuggets. a teen boy demanded a refund, and when he didn't get it, these two women came in to argue with the employees. what started with yelling and cursing quickly escalated to the customers breaking things and putting condiments all over the flor. chick-fil-a apologized and said they are working with police over the situation. we're looking at severe weather and also heat for much of the northwest. unfortunately, 9 million people facing some sort of triple heat advisory. even though there is a ridge of high pressure that might come in that will create a bit of a marine layer coming in, i think we'll see hot weather. temperatures again hot for the weekend. that severe weather threat will be impacting places like ittsburgh for

think we'll be seeing hot weather straight through the weekend. there is a spot of some cooler air as you look towards chicago where highs will be right at 70, and phillip, that's a sign of what's to come later on as we head toward next week for areas in the east. >> hopefully chicago has better weather ahead, because concert goers in chicago were disappointed after lollapalooza had to be evacuated as severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for the city. as we mentioned, it should clear up today so folks will have a chance to catch bands like the killers and blink 182. a look at how the senator is

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janssen wants to help you explore cost support options for stelara®. this year's kennedy center hon rh honorees include gloria estefan and lionel richie and ll cool j who will be honored in december. a fire engulfing one of the world's tallest buildings. what is the latest on the sky high blaze? >> phillip, 40 floors of the 86-story tower is now an inferno after fire broke out in the early morning. with flames engulfing one side of the building and sending chunks of burning debris falling

below. the building hthat has 700 apartments was safely evacuated and authorities say nobody was injured. but this is the second time in as many years that the morn 1100-foot tall building has caught on fire. it's not clear what the cause of the fire was, but authorities there previously acknowledged that 30,000 buildings are not safe because of clouting on the outside, so a big check will happen there. phillip? >> astounding nobody was hurt. could record jobs keep everything on track? find out, next. walgreens makes it easy when summer needs a little help. your summer base camp is just around the corner

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their computers. and today is international beer day. a celebration for lovers of all things beer in pubs, breweries and backyards all over the world. it was a record week on wall street with the dow climbing ever higher to new records. now all eyes are on today's jobs report in a major investment in the u.s. from japan. good morning. >> it has been a wild week, as you said, and wall street will focus today on the u.s. labor market. the jobs report is out before the opening bell and analysts expect another strong month of hiring with employers' forecasts to add about 180,000 jobs to the economy. also key to watch is whether wages are growing and a tight jobs market paving the way for them to announce plans for a new balanced sheet. meanwhile, toyota and mazda plan to build a u.s. plant that

could create 4,000 jobs. the location is unclear but it could be operational by 2021. they will create three and a half thousand cars a year, one which will also be the new corrolla. alexa can now play music from amazon's library. they range from meditation to falling asleep to getting pumped. users will also be able to ask for specific genres, so if you like working out from beethoven to taylor swift, you can say, play me something classical. >> i could do something from ice cube, it is a friday. straight ahead, the town pushing to be the nation's first marijuana mecca. plus, the first one to jump

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♪ i woke up still not dead again today ♪ the internet said i have passed away. >> rumors were swirling about the death of willie nelson on thursday, but management confirmed the 84-year-old country music legend is alive and well. rumors had been circulating for years so much so that nelson wrote a song about it. a humongous wall of dust rolled into western china as the region got smothered by a thick sandstorm. residents were shrouded in darkness and the poor visibility led authorities to issue their second highest severe weather alert. over here in the states a downpour caused severe flash flooding in los angeles county. the rushing water trapped cars and rivers of mud and some drivers had to be rescued by helicopter.

a group of hikers at zion national park were caught off guard by a flash flood, and they formed a human chain to make sure everybody got out of there safely. for our weekend forecast, here's meteorologist bonnie schneider. >> it's nice we're going to see changes for the weekend. you can see it in the midwest and chicago. temperatures will be warm with high 80s in little rock and towards charlotte. the heat will definitely start to subside, it will just take a couple of days to get there. in the meantime we'll look for storms right along the frontal boundary. >> thank you, bonnie. a marijuana mecca may be taking root in the mojave desert. a company just bought the small town of nipta. it cost $5 million to buy the

little town, and now they plan to spend another $2 million to create a marijuana tourist destination. it will feature cannabis-infused water, edible marijuana and artists in residents program. they are starting a whole thing over there. brazilian soccer star is on the move after he maid a world record $220 million euros, that's about $260 million to trigger a transfer. with that buyout the 25-year-old will sign a five-year contract with the french club. the new contract will pay him $36 million per season in salary and bonuses. the deal makes it the most expensive transfer in soccer history and the highest paid player ever. he's going from barcelona where he makes a lot of money, and now he'll be living in paris to make more money in paris. 25 years old and such a legend. >> i can't imagine it. especially at that age.

>> good for him. we start with breaking news in

the south bay. welcome to "today in the bay" on this friday morning. we start with breaking news. take a look at this photo. overnight flames happening in campbell. almost a dozen cars, we understand, were burnt. neighbors say it started about 2:30 this morning in a carport. some neighbors believe it actually started with an abandoned car. we'll get the details to see if it has spread, as this investigation continues. we've got a reporter on the scene gathering information right now to bring you the very latest. good morning to you. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> and i'm scott mcgrew in for sam. we'll get to that fire but first a check of your traffic with mike. >> good morning to you both. because it's late, it's dark out there and that fire you saw that picture, visible for quite a distance. as you said wot