a day bringing great anticipation and clashes between white nationalists and counter protesters. plus an emotional gathering in charlottesville to remember heather heyer who died one year ago. >> you have heard the tape -- >> i he heard the tape -- >> -- since publication of this book? >> absolutely. >> so you know it exists? >> once i heard it for myself, it confirmed what i feared the most, donald trump is a con, and has been masquerading as someone who is open to engaging with divorce communities. but when he talks that way the way he did on this tape, it confirmed that he is truly a racist.

>> omarosa speaks out exclusively to nbc's chuck todd about her time in the white house. we've got much more ahead. >> new information surrounding the man who stole an airliner from the busy sea-tac airport and how to prevent such an occurrence. >> flying directly into the sun. >> and tiger woods roars back during exciting sunday at the pga championship. "early today" starts right now. >> good monday morning. i'm phillip mena. >> great being with you. i'm frances rivera. dpalktly one year after demonstrations in charlottesville, virginia turned deadly, a small group of nationalists showed up for a planned protest in the nation's capital. the presence was over shadowed by tlongz of protesters. >> security was tight and protests were largely peaceful and there was only one arrest. coming as a relief to law enforcement who had been gearing up for this day for months. >> our plan and law enforcement's plan today was to

ensure separation. and i think that's why we were able to come out of this thing today with no injuries and nobody being killed. >> nbc's jeff bennett wraps up the day. >> reporter: two separate demonstrations, both in the shadow of the white house. >> back up. back up. >> reporter: some of the same groups, white supremacists and counter protesters gathered for a sequel. >> we're in 2018. we're not in the jim crow era. white people are becoming a minority in the united states and europe, and we face real discrimination. >> reporter: organizers of the white nationalist rally expected up to 400 demonstrators. in the end, only a couple dozen showed up. outnumbered by counter protesters who held their own rallies throughout the city. what did you think when you saw only 2 dozen or so of these

white supremacists get off the train? >> d.c. is heaven, that's what i know. >> we're supporting one another and then they didn't get what they wanted. >> reporter: unite the right leader jason kessler pushing for what he called white civil rights. >> it's okay to be white. white lives matter, too. >> reporter: law enforcement on high alert all day. a coordinated effort to prevent a repeat of the bloody brawling that erupted a year ago in charlottesville. president trump widely condemned last year for failing to denounce white supremacists in his initial response to charlottesville. this time preemptively tweeting, i condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. white house aide ivanka trump adding her voice. there is no place for white supremacy, racism and neo-naziism in our great country. those tweets an apparent effort to make amends for the president's own rhetoric which at times has found support among avowed racists. now law enforcement officials tell us they kept watch around the white house overnight, even as washington, d.c.'s mayor says

there were no arrests related to the rallies. phillip? >> all right, jeff, thank you. >> meantime protesters also converged in the city of charlottesville, the site where last year's violence unfolded. there were some standoffs there between protesters and law enforcement leading to four arrests, but no reported injuries. the day also focused on healing and remembrance for the 32-year-old heather heyer as she was killed and several dozens injured when a white nationalist plowed his car into a crowd of counter protesters. heger hire heather heyer's mother was also there. >> my daughter had a mission and it's my job to complete the mission. >> the mission urged to keep up her daughter's fight against racial inequities. >> explosive revelations from a former white house aide about her time in the white house. omarosa manigault newman revealed she made a secret tape when she was fired by john kelly. >> it is raising questions this

morning. nbc's kelly o'donnell has details on the fallout. >> hi. >> reporter: only only marosa m newman is recasting herself from defender to speaking out. >> he is a racist. >> reporter: after she secretly taped white house chief of staff john kelly inside the highly secure situation room. >> this is a white house where everybody lies. the president lies to the american people. sarah stands in front of the people and lies. you have to have your own back. >> for 15 years. >> omarosa is a nice person. >> reporter: her fame and career were intertwined with donald trump. now she expresses regret. >> it is hindsight, but i will say this to you. i was complicit with this white house deceiving this nation. >> reporter: manigault newman writes she learned about a tape where mr. trump used the "n" word during production of the

apprentice, but that she had not heard it herself. she told "meet the press" she did, but only after her book was completed. >> i heard his voice as clear as you and i are sitting here e. >> you have heard the tape? >> i have heard the tape. >> since publication of the book? >> reporter: she brought another tape of her own to "meet the press," a hidden recording she made when the chief of staff fired her last december. >> is the president aware of th this? >> let's not go down that road, this is a nonnegotiable execution. >> yes, i have to protect myself and i have no regret about it. >> reporter: kellyanne conway painted her colleague as an opportunists. >> she's trying to sell books and settle scores. you have to be anti-trump for those to be successful. >> reporter: the white house hit back hard, reacting to manigault newman's appearance on "meet the press." press secretary sarah sanders said to sneak a recording device into the situation room shows a blatant disregard for national security. she went on to say that to brag

about it on national tv further proves a lack of character. frances? >> all right, kelly o'donnell, thank you. you can catch more from omarosa manigault newman coming up on the today show. >> lingering questions this morning after horizon air employee was able to steal and crash an empty passenger plane from the seattle tacoma airport. officials believe 29-year-old richard russell took the 76-seat passenger plane on a bizarre joy ride before slamming into a nearby island over an hour later and is presumed to be dead. fbi seattle says they have located human remains and are now awaiting the results from the medical examiner's office. nbc's dan scheneman has the latest. >> reporter: investigators scoured the tiny sparsely populated island where richard russell's flight came to an end. >> you need to call. >> reporter: friday night, a pair of fighter planes were launched after russell, an airport baggage handler, managed to steal a passenger plane parked in a maintenance area at

seattle sea-tac airport. he navigated the plane across the tarmac and onto a runway. the flight lasted 75 minutes before he died in a fiery crash. russell had the same broad security access thousands of ramp workers and mechanics have. it is a potential security gap at the nation's airports. >> we are for ttunate in the see it wasn't a terrorist, somebody who was folk used on causing mass destruction. >> reporter: friends and family of russell were left stunned. they describe russell, nicknamed bebo, as a man with a great many of friends and. >> he was a warm compassionate man. >> he did everything in life with a certain amount of passion that i think everyone was envious of. >> reporter: family, friends, investigators all searching for answers. dan scheneman, nbc news. >> heavy rain left roads crumbling in northwest china. the massive sink hole was formed after nearly 6 inches of rain in one day. after it swallowed up two parked

cars, good samaritans rushed to prevent it from taking a third. this white car teetered on the edge of the sink hole over 300 square feet wide. dozens of bystanders attached a rope to the front of the vehicle and helped real it back to safety. the heavy rainfall unleashed dangerous floods and caused as many as three streets to cave in. >> let's say good morning to bill karins. >> wonder who is happier, the insurance company or owner of the car? >> maybe both. >> the rain is back in the forecast in the north east. it was a soggy saturday. hit and miss on sunday. now the rain is really popping back up in the interior sections of pennsylvania near harrisburg of all places where three weeks ago they had flooding. raleigh is just about cleared out. it's heading to washington, greenville, newburgh areas. thunderstorms will be widespread this afternoon. if there are any concerns it will be the poconos, cat skills or interior sections of

pennsylvania. then this drifts to the north on tuesday so it's going to linger over the n ex a cloudy sky, keeping us cooler in the northeast. highs only in the 70s and 80s. we'll dry out in the northeast as we go throughout the week. hopefully after today the flooding won't be bad. >> it was bad as we saw over the weekend. bill, thank you. >> a fan made an impressive catch. the reaction was priceless. during the top of the 9th schmidt knocked a home run into the bleachers. right place, right time. he catches the ball. got a close up of his immediate disbelief. grabbing his chest in shock. he tipped his hat. he refused throwing it back,

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a drop of dawn and grease is gone. leading the news, a frantic rescue efforts after a deadly blast in syria's province. at least 42 people were killed including 12 children as explosives went off at dawn. it happened in a residential area near the turkish border. volunteers are digging through the rubble rescuing several children and others buried by the powerful blast. the volunteer group known as the white helmets said a total of ten people had been pulled out alive so far and dozens more were wounded. >> a blast of slightly cooler weather is providing southern california firefighters with help as they continue battling the raging holy fire. of the blaze believe to have been set by an arsonist with a grudge against the neighborhood has burned through 2200 acres of brush. they should continue to make better progress over the next few days.

they report northern california's ranch fire, the largest part of the record-breaking mendocino complex fire, is currently 62% contained. >> right now a nasa spacecraft is rocketing toward the history books. the agency watch launching an extraordinary merrill lynch to touch the sun, the blast off from cape canaveral is decades in the making. the probe is named after the scientist whose theories they will test. nbc's tom costello has more on this rocket. >> reporter: cutting through the silence of space nasa's parker solar probe is lightning fast, traveling at 430,000 miles per hour. and built to withstand temperatures of 2,500 degrees fahrenheit, the mission to literally touch the face of the sun. >> we want to understand all that's happening here so that we can protect our infrastructure, we can one day travel the stars. >> reporter: to do that, the prone will orbit the sun at a distance of 4 million miles.

for scientists it's a unique opportunity to study the is sun's corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun that is a million degrees hotter than the sun itself. the scientist who made that discovery in 1958 is professor eugene parker from the university of chicago. the parker probe is named after him. what is it like to have a major nasa mission named after you? >> it's a bit of a thrill, i have to admit. >> reporter: dr. parker is 91 now. the theory he hopes to confirm that magnetic solar winds get hotter the further they extend from the sun. >> one needs now to get out there and see in detail, okay, what kind of waves is it, where do they come from on the sun. >> reporter: those magnetic explosions on the surface of the sun occasionally blast the earth, disrupting power grids and communications. >> why is that churning beautiful bubbling boiling you see on the surface back there actually heating up the plasma and then sometimes shoot ing it

out towards us. >> reporter: the sun is the only star we can actually study up close. for dr. parker whose solar wind discovery was the first dismissed by critics, vindication in a probe that now bears his name. >> that's the fun of doing serious science. >> reporter: serious science indeed. tom costello, nbc news, chicago. (music) maybe i'm a division 1 athlete. or a father of two. maybe i run marathons. or a startup. or nothing at all. maybe what i do doesn't matter. maybe all that matters...is what i do next. peloton. stop fearing your alarm clock... with new*! zzzquil pure zzzs. a drug-free blend of botanicals with melatonin ...that supports your natural sleep cycle... ...so you can seize the morning. new! zzzquil pure zzzs.

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>> the jaws like shark thriller swam at the box office this weekend. taking in over $44 million, this marks the biggest domestic opening for warner brothers this year, the biggest opening of all time for life action shark flick. mission impossible fallout starring tom cruise with 20 million and disney's winnie the pooh christopher robin takes third with 12.4 million. >> the meg, i hadn't really -- i didn't see it coming just like that -- >> puts jaws to shame when you think about that massive behemoth. >> after 40 years they have it figured out. it looks real. >> they have the same kind of jaws music. >> i guess we have to check it out. on the fourth and final stop of the pga tour, brooks koepka hoisted the wannamaker trophy making him the 5th player to win the u.s. open and pga championship in the same year. he finished at 16 under after he sunk a par putt on the 18th hole to clinch the title.

despite his big win, the internet was more concerned with this guy right here. the fist pump, tiger woods givetion the crowd exactly what they paid for after an impressive showing on the green, a costly miss on the 14th hole. ah i'm sure woods would finish second place at 14 under. despite that error, though, woods remained very positive about his game. >> i was in contention last two major championships and i would never have foreseen that a year ago. just so thankful to be here. >> now to the champ of major league eating, joey chestnut crossed the finish line with a major upset, wisconsin's first-ever cheese eating contest. he was up against the world's several competitive eaters. he had six minutes to gobble down as many pounds of curds as they could. mighty joey chestnut came in third. >> if i get lazy ooh i'm going

to lose. >> the winner took down 5 pounds 2 ounces of cheese curds in six minutes and won the grand prize of $4,000. >> usually eating cheese curds is being lazy. but for him he got lazy because he didn't eelt enough of them. >> i don't think i've ever had a cheese curd. something to do. >> especially not that many. just ahead, here comes the tide. we'll show you the daring rescue after a bride gets trapped in flood waters on her wedding day. that's why pantene, the world's #1 conditioner brand, has conditioners for every hair type. from air-light foam for fine hair, to nourishing 3 minute miracle for thick and curly. and the moisture-infusing gold series collection. giving more women great hair days - every day. pantene. world's number one... conditioner brand. what does help for heart ♪ the beat goes on. it looks like emily cooking dinner for ten.

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see how they say rain on your wedding day is good luck. how about flooding? that usually doesn't end well. luckily for this bride there is a happy ending. this celebration came to a halt when the wedding party got caught. the police department quickly came to rescue helping the whole crew through the sun roof to safety. >> like you were saying earlier, after the fact makes for good wedding photos. >> that's quite a story. >> there you go. >> we're going to have more rain. we talked about rain in the northeast. we'll have rain developing in the middle of the country. could deal with flooding problems in the days ahead. isolated 5 to 6 inch amounts. especially from oklahoma city and potential for an inch of rain. watch out for storms at airports, delays in san antonio of course in the northeast with rain and thunderstorms today. >> bill, thank you. still ahead, a new movie shatters asian stereo types. still looking for mcfry.

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a new movie a shattering a hollywood stereotype according to a recent study. less than 5% of roles go to asian actors, which is why expectations are sky high for the new movie, crazy rich asians which hits theaters next week. nbc's jo ling kent has the story. >> reporter: for the first time in 25 years, an all-asian cast is taking center stage in a major contemporary hollywood film, crazy rich asians. >> what about us taking an adventure east? >> like -- >> reporter: he's on the best selling novel of the same name. it is about a middle class woman meeting her boyfriend's super

rich family. >> like the asian bachelor. >> reporter: sharing the big screen legends like michelle. >> it will never be enough. >> reporter: new coming henry golding and tv's constance wu. >> you should have told me you were like prince william of asia. >> that's ridiculous. much more like harry. >> reporter: is this a moment in hollywood for changing the tide for asian actors? >> it is changing because we are making it change, not because anyone is letting us in. >> reporter: with hollywood's diversity issues in the spotlight, director john m. chu feels a sense of obligation. >> we knew the importance of this project was to get it on the big screen. >> reporter: his mission, shattering stereotypes and showcasing the stories of asians of different backgrounds. when a young asian american looks up and says, wow, maybe i can identify with her a little bit, what does that mean to you? >> it kind of makes me cry right now because you don't see that growing up. you don't feel like you can be the hero of your own story, you know? >> reporter: but the movie has ignited criticism, too,

suggestions that it doesn't represent all asians and golding, who is half malaysian, being singled out on social media for not being asian enough. >> i grew up in asia. i was born in asia. i think it was healthy type of conversation, but, you know, i'm asian through and through. >> reporter: the film's ultimate goal, to prompt more movies starring asians. >> we would like to crack that door even more, to help others, other story tellers so we don't have to depend on one story with one set of characters to say everything about asians. >> reporter: a glitzy new comedy that goes more than skin deep. jo ling kent, abc newnbc news, . >> i want to check it out instead of breaking barriers finally. christopher lawrence, thomas wilson, sound familiar to you? after 83 years, back to the future hit theaters, those four stars had a chance to meet in boston. they spoke on several panels. they discussed the possibility of making a fourth installment

of the popular franchise. for now they let social media know they enjoy their time being back together again. >> we live in a world of reboot. love to see it. >> here's to hoping. >> thank for

breaking news overnight. hundreds injured when a pier collapses at a popular resort during a concert. we'll have the latest. counterprotests vastly overwhelmed white nationalists as many remember a fe lost one year ago in charlottesville. they met on "the apprentice," now omarosa manigault is talking about it. >> john kelly said this is the end, we want you to leave, but what's interesting is, they take me into the situation room, the doors are