impeachment, a call from top gop house members to oust the man overseeing special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. >> the latest in the tale of the tape surround president trump. his former personal attorney and one time play boy play mate. >> our own lester holt goes in-depth with one of the nfl's most prolific players over of the anthem controversy. >> we've seen extremes from coast to coast. >> and the crazy lengths some will go to set a world record. "early today" starts right now. >> good thursday morning. i'm frances rivera. >> and i'm phillip mena.

deputy attorney general rod rosenstein under fire this morning. a group of republicans in the house have launched an effort to impeach him. accusing rosenstein of impeding congressional oversight for special counsel robert mueller's investigation into russian election meddling. house freedom caucus chairman mark meadows, ohio congressman jim jordan, and nine co-sponsors have introduced articles of impeachment claiming rosenstein has withheld documents and misled congress. >> for nine months we've asked for documents and that's all we want are the documents. and what we found is not only have subpoenas been ignored, but information has been hidden. the efforts have been stone walled. >> conservative lawmakers have accused the justice department of trying to smear president trump through the russia investigation. meanwhile democrats are blasting the impeachment efforts against rosenstein. california congressman adam schiff tweeting that it shows the extraordinary lengths republicans will go to protect president trump. >> michael cohen's secret tape

sparking a very public firestorm on capitol hill this morning. the release of the recording from before the election has only furthered the rift between president trump and his long time lawyer. on the tape then candidate trump appears to discuss a payoff to silence a former play boy model who claimed to have an affair with him. as nbc's hallie jackson reports, the question now is does that tape spell new legal jeopardy for the president? >> reporter: outside and inside, shouts drawing smirks in the oval office with reporters pushing the president to talk about that tape between him and his former attorney. >> did michael cohen betray you? >> thank you very much. >> reporter: no response repeatedly on twitter president trump more talkative asking what kind of lawyer would tape a client? so sad. it's new fallout from a recently revealed recording in which the president and michael cohen appear to casually discuss hush money payment to keep a play boy model quiet about an alleged

affair one the president denies. >> we'll have to pay cash. >> no, no, i've got -- no, no. >> reporter: the president seems to know what cohen is talking about. those claims by model karen mcdougal of a relationship. it is that exchange raising questions about whether the president broke any laws. >> this deal wasn't consummated so is there any criminal activity will? >> no, it's about truth. >> reporter: so why is this tape significant? the president could face a legal liability if he was trying to influence the election by covering up the story. the president's attorney rudy giuliani insists president trump was not trying to cover his tracks, but former u.s. attorney chuck rosenberg says prosecutors would need more context to figure out if the president violated campaign finance laws. it makes no difference whether the hush money was actually paid out or not. >> if two people agree to do something that the law for bids, if they conspire, and then either one of them takes a step in that direction, that's a crime. whether or not a payment was

made actually won't matter for conspiracy law. >> reporter: cnn has said one of its journalists was actually banned from an open event for asking those tough questions while acting as a representative of the rest of the media. the white house correspondents association is calling that kind of retaliation wrong headed, inappropriate, and weak. it sets a dangerous precedent, phillip. >> hallie jackson at the white house. hallie, thank you. >> president trump easing tensions over trade with some of our closest allies. alongside the head of the european commission, mr. trump announced both sides will hold off on any further tariffs while the u.s. and the european union work on reducing trade barriers. however, the threat of a trade war with china is still looming large over american manufacturers. nbc's tom costello has a look at how it all could hit your wallet. >> reporter: they make door hinges for the jeep wrangler on this michigan assembly line, a small company with 50 employees that gets its parts from china.

but president trump's tariffs on china has lucerne international considering layoffs. >> if it gets to the point where we can't afford these tariff us, we can't pass them along, it literally puts us out of business. >> reporter: ford, gm and chrysler warned that rising costs for steel and aluminum because of tariffs are cutting into their profits. just as president trump threatened additional tariffs on imported automobiles and parts. >> there are no 100% u.s.-built vehicles. the average vehicle in the united states has 60% u.s. content. so that means 40% comes from somewhere else. >> reporter: usually canada or mexico. potentially driving up the cost for every new car. experian calculates a jeep cherokee could jump to $2700. a toyota rav4 built overseas up to $9400 more. >> tariffs aren't taxes on a foreign company. tariffs are taxes on u.s.

companies that either consume or manufacture goods. >> reporter: importantly, most international auto makers build cars here in the u.s. moving parts across international borders which puts the auto makers, employees and customers at risk. tom costello, nbc news, bethesda, maryland. >> it was another career milestone for future hall of famer albert. he hit his 631st career home run last night passing the great ken griffey, jr. on the all time home runs list. it was his 17th year. 11-3 over the white sox. he sits in 5th place for all time in home runs between willie maze, barry bonds, huge nachmes there. >> states up and down the east coast continue to get slammed by torrential rain. in fairfax, virginia, violent flash floods swallowed roads and nearly covered cars. rescuers in hershey,

pennsylvania going door to door taking residents out by inflatable boats. and flood waters causing hershey park to remain closed for a third day this week. in florida, many beaches are at risk for treacherous rip kurnlts. >> on the west coast 35 million people from washington state to arizona are battling a sweltering heat wave. temperatures reached record highs in california's death valley hitting a scorching 127 degrees. the heat is fueling the massive wildfires that are ripping through the regions and burning through hundreds of thousands of acres. a fire near yosemite has forced rangers to evacuate the park and shut it down. the national weather service says some relief may be in sight with temperatures expected to be moderate by friday. >> let's see what some means and moderate. >> exactly. >> meteorologist bill karins, what does it mean? >> it's not going to be perfect but not as extreme. the heavy rainfall that really drenched areas of pennsylvania yesterday, washington, d.c., baltimore, really bad flash flooding is quickly on the move racing now through central and northern new england. things are rapidly improving new

york city south wafrd. that the' good. during the day there will be hit and miss showers in new england but not the concentrated rains that will give us a lot of problems. in the west we mentioned the 35 million people at risk. we have the excessive heat warnings in effect for much of southern california, desert areas. phoenix and tucson are no longer in the excessive heat warnings. the heat wave continues in southern california. it is getting hot again in texas. how hot will it be today? 118 in palm springs. we cooled you down 3 degrees in the last threesunshine, begin t. the heat returning to texas all the way to houston with high humidity also. we continue with all these extremes, but into the weekend we settle a little bit. >> sounds good. finally can maybe get outside because you cannot go outside when it's like that, miserable, bill, thank you.

house lawmakers plan to introduce a bill prohibiting federal agents having sex with people in custody. >> president trump travels to due buick kwa wh due buick, iowa. he'll reopen steel production line. >> ufc fighter connor mcgregor will be back in a brooklyn courtroom on criminal mischief. plea is underway for an involvement in a melee back in april. you got it from your pare. and they got it from theirs. it's your skin, and it can protect you from millions of things. so we're here to help you protect your skin. walgreens pharmacists and beauty consultants are specially trained to know what works for the health of your unique skin. walgreens. trusted since 1901. now all walgreens brand sun care products are buy one get one half off. your hair is so soft!s brand sun care products did you use head and shoulders two in one?

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happy anniversary dinner, darlin'. can this much love be cleaned by a little bit of dawn ultra? oh yeah one bottle has the grease cleaning power of three bottles of this other liquid. a drop of dawn and grease is gone. talk about arriving in style. pittsburgh steeler star wide receiver antonio brown making a grand entrance for his 9th training camp. this is not the first time he flexed for cameras. in 2016 he showed up in a steelers themed rolls royce. last year he pulled up in a 1931 rolls royce phantom convertible. he had a chauffeur with him. awesome. new face of madden is looking to

continue leading the league in receiving yards and overall being the best wide receiver in the league. >> what's he going to do next year, come in in a parachute? >> he has flare for days. >> nfl players head to camp this week. national anthem protests are once again front and center. jerry jones telling his players they will not be staying in the locker room for the anthem. >> our policy is you stand for the anthem, toe the line. >> that is despite an off season agreement allowing players to remain in the locker room rather than face fines for kneeling on the field. the policy has been temporarily suspended and ongoing negotiations. >> president trump has long been outgoing about the issue even suggesting players who kneel should be fired. jones said the president's stance is troublesome for the league. >> his interest in what we're doing is problematic from my chair, and i would say in general the owner's chair. everybody would like for it to go away.

>> but many players believe there is room for activism in football. philadelphia eagles safety malcolm jenkins spoke exclusivitily with nbc news's lester holt about the issues as well as the nfl in general. >> malcolm jenkins will go the distance. >> reporter: malcolm jenkins knows a good opening. so when colin kaepernick took that infamous knee during the anthem, jenkins saw an opportunity to talk. >> i think that motivated a ton of us or at least opened our eyes to see the potential that we have as athletes to cross all of these different boundaries and bring people to the table. >> reporter: rather than take a knee, jenkins raised a fist and that extended a hand to law enforcement. initiating heart to heart conversations about police brutality. >> i'm not afraid of a tough conversation, but want to get an understanding of what are their challenges and how do they view this issue. >> reporter: he immersed himself in criminal justice issues,

becoming a powerful voice for reform. >> it's been proven that mass incarceration and dealing within the criminal justice system doesn't make our communities safer. >> reporter: with the new season approaching the nfl has put on hold the policy that would have required protesting players remain in the locker room for the national anthem. a policy that disappointed jenkins. >> they went back to talking about the flag, the anthem and having respect when for a year and a half they've been hand in hand with us seeing what they've been doing in the community. >> reporter: do you think it's the role of athletes to stand for social issues? >> who better? that's what i ask people. who better to do it? we're trained to work collectively with the team for people from all types of backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds, racial. we know how to deal with conflict and we work to win for everybody's sake. >> reporter: to critics of the anthem protests who call it unamerican? >> i think at the end of the day

protests and fighting back is the american way. that is the most american thing you can do, is use your voice. >> reporter: but is all this good for football? >> that's not my concern. i mean, we can talk about social issues and still have a great game. we talk about domestic violence for a whole year. we talk about breast cancer for a whole month. every year we wear pink on the field, no issues with that. we start talking about black issues and issues of race, now all of a sudden we just want football. we don't want the extra stuff. we just want to watch the game. >> can't have it both ways. >> no, you can't. >> some players have taken a knee. others like yourself held up a clinched fist. has that run its course? >> i think it's starting to shift. i don't think it is as important. the purpose of all of the demonstrations was to create dialogue. it's more about the work now. >> reporter: in addition to his social activism, jenkins spent part of his off season running

camp for kids including this football camp at his old high school. >> i want to make sure that they don't see me too, like, far off, that they can see themselves in me. >> reporter: as athletes, and if they wish, involved citizens. >> i hope what i do off the field long -- lives way longer than what i do on the field. >> great player, even better advocate. that was lester holt reporting. >> when we come back, today a looming deadline that will reunite separate families. what actually happened? you're watching "early today." ride with this crew. do the wave with these guys. and hang with this little one. that's because move free ultra is clinically proven to keep my joints moving better than glucosamine chondroitin. which means i'm free to rock on with this gang. move free ultra. movement keeps us connected. starttake an extra 20% off! friends & family sale

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a bulgarian made a splash and reclaimed his place in the guinness book of world records. he swam with both hands and feet tied up. that was voluntary. he wasn't going down without a fight. he spent nearly three hours in the water and swam two miles and bagged the victory. >> so fascinating to come up with exactly how these categories and what to do. >> what's the closest to death i can get and get recognition? wow. >> right there. today marks the court appointed deadline for the trump administration to reunite separated migrant families. with the clock ticking some critics described the process as, quote, incredibly chaotic. despite the concern the administration said on tuesday it would reconnect roughly 1600 parents deemed, quote, eligible

with their children by the end of the day. nbc's tracie potts joins us with the latest on that. good morning. >> reporter: hi, frances, good morning. let's talk about what eligible means to the government. this it means they know where the families are, they've done a background check, cleared them, and they're ready to reunite them with the kids. government says it can get it done for all of the 1600 plus families by today's deadline. the judge calls that a remarkable achievement. but one democrat who represents texas, the area where a lot of these families landed, he's skeptical. >> the government, the trump administration, blew past the first deadline. as of tuesday, the government has only reunited about 879 children. it's inconceivable that they'll be able to reunify the remaining children by the deadline. >> reporter: now, there are some issues here. almost half, in fact, just over half of those eligible parents

also have final deportation orders. so as soon as they get their kids back, they may be sent back over the border. the aclu is asking for a week so they can consult legally with those families inasmuch as some of them may want to seek asylum here. the other thing is what about those who are ineligible? in other words, the ones that the government's lost track of? we know that nearly 500 were deported without their kids. the government says some of them waived their right. others according to the aclu had no idea what they were signing off on. had as little as three minutes without any consultation to make that decision. and so they are asking a judge to get involved with that, too, trying to get those families back together. >> well, some gray areas there need to be cleared up. tracie, thank you. >> just ahead, mattel takes a major hit after the demise of toys r us. how facebook ceo mark zuckerberg lost more than $16 billion yet. how was your day? 77

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in today's health stories, facebook lost nearly $130 billion in market revenue in just two hours. that's its steep est decline ever. according to its second quarter earnings report, the company missed proi jections on both revenue and global daily active users. shares fell by as much as 24% in after hours trading following facebook's chief financial officer warning that sales growth would continue to slow through the rest of the year. traders are now bracing for a ripple effect decline in tech stocks when markets open today. co-founder and ceo mark zuckerberg's net worth also took a major hit with a loss of $16.8 billion. if the loss holds through today,

zuckerberg could lose his 3rd place spot in the bloomberg billionaire's index instead slipping to 6th. >> ex-gymnastics doctor larry nassar was a semi-automaticed in prison six months after serving time. he is asking for resen telgsing with a different judge with a chance of relocating. reports say nassar was physically attacked hours after being put with other prisoners. nassar is being held at the u.s. pin tensionery in tucson, arizona since pleading guilty to sexual assault and child pornography. the judge touched on the possibility of nassar suffering the same fate as his victims. >> more bad news for the toy business. barl bee maker mattel said it is cutting more than 2200 jobs. mattel's revenue fell for the fourth straight kwr with the company falling short of wall street estimates. a spokesperson said the closure of toys r us deeply affected sales. mattel said the job cuts are part of a cost cutting effort and will most affect office workers.

the cuts amount to 22% of its global nonmanufacturing work force. >> as you head out to the movies you'll be seeing stars quite a bit. check out usa today's list of most in demand actors. tom hanks in 10th place preceded by chris pratt and johnny depp, seventh woody harrelson. break out star tiffany haddish is in 6th place. margot robbie in 4th. octavia spencer coming in third. the wrestler turned actor duane johnson gets runner up and the guy hollywood can't seem to get enough of, james franco. that's a bit surprising . >> i thought it would be switched. duane johnsson the rock has been number one in past. >> we'll see if it switches. >> the internet's favorite mom will be a mom again. remember the giraffe who skyrocketed to fame last year? one year after giving birth to baby boy, april is pregnant with

her 5th calf. there is no word yet on sex but you can count on another live stream on spring. and the mom pregnant at the same time. >> jeffrey the giraffe ofad lib

welcome to thursday morning. let's take a peek outside. beautiful. can you make it out? golden gate bridge. you kind of can, right? we'll check the fog near the coastline and the heat coming today. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm scott mcgrew. marcus washington has the day off. let's start with kari, kind of foggy. >> still all clear for the south bay, and it starts out warmer with low 60s as you head out the door. let's go to campbell and check out the temperatures for the rest of the day, at least for early afternoon, we're going to reach into the low 80s and it will be a little cooler in