a new twist in the murder of a colorado mother and her two children. why the husband accused of killing his family is changing his story this morning. >> a deadly alligator attack stuns a south carolina community and raises new questions of safety near swamp lands. >> the pit falls of perjury, president trump sheds new light on why he hasn't agreed to sit down with special counsel robert mueller in the russia investigation. >> an explosive night at the mtv music video awards. the biggest winners and losers at this year's vmas. "early today" starts right now. good tuesday morning. i'm marlie hall. >> and i'm phillip mena. an interview with the special counsel in the russia investigation seems further out of the question for president trump this morning.

in a new interview with reuters, the president said he is worried any statements he makes under oath to robert mueller could be used to bring perjury charges against him. the interview just his latest attack on the mueller probe following a report that a key staffer is cooperating with investigators. nbc's susan mcennis is joining us now from capitol hill with the very latest. susan, good morning. >> reporter: hey, good morning, phillip and marlie. this is a hastily arranged interview soon after the administration learned white house counsel don mcgahn spent 30 hours talking with special prosecutors involved in the russia investigation and also amid increasing attacks by the president agaves mueller in the probe. president trump said he could get involved in the investigation instead choosing not to. he told roit ers i could go in and run it if i want. but i decided to stay out. one federal prosecutor told nbc news a person cannot really be in charge of his own investigation. but the president is definitely getting involved on twitter, upping his attacks, calling

special counsel mueller on monday disgraced and discredited. the investigation once again a rigged witch hunt. also being asked if he will interview with robert mueller, he agrees with his personal attorney rudy giuliani that any statements he makes could be used against him in perjury. this comes after the president removed the security clearance of former cia director john brennan. he would not say if he might remove the security clearance from robert mueller. also, the president refused again to blame russia for interfering in the 2016 election, but he did say that he believes mueller's team is trying right now to impact the upcoming november elections. we'll find out if he has anything more to say on any of these issues when he holds a rally tonight in west virginia. marlie and phillip? >> i have a creeping suspicion he will have something to say about that. susan, thank you. >> now to new shocking revelations from a triple murder that has gripped the nation. according to a newly released arrest affidavit, the colorado man charged with murder in the

deaths of his wife and two daughters told police he saw his wife strangling their daughters after he told her he wanted to separate. 33-year-old christopher watts claims he then went into a rage, ultimately strangling her to death, but prosecutors don't buy that explanation. the affidavit also reveals that watts was having an affair with a work colleague which he denied to police. watts is due in court to be arraigned today. nbc's miguel almaguer has more. >> reporter: officially charged with murdering his pregnant wife and two children, chris watts could now face the death penalty. court documents confirming the remains were dumped on the oil field where he worked. 3-year-old celeste and 4-year-old bella left in a well filled with crude oil for four days. the documents raising the question, were the girls strangled. their mother shanann found nearby in a shallow grave. >> and keep the prayers coming

for our family. >> reporter: to many, watts appeared to be the loving family man, seemingly thrilled when he learned shanann was pregnant with their third child. >> that's awesome. i guess when you want to, it happens. >> reporter: but just weeks later police say he murdered his wife and his little girls at home, then calmly told the world they were missing. >> i want her back so bad. i want those kids back so bad. >> reporter: court documents make it unclear if the children were murdered before their mother arrived home. investigators have offered no motive. >> i can't believe that they're gone. i can't believe chris would do this. >> reporter: a growing memorial for a family that will never come home. miguel almaguer, nbc news, frederick, colorado. >> some possible news of relief for a city rattled by deadly violence in recent weeks. two suspects wanted for questioning in a series of shooting deaths in nashville are now in police custody. police say the two men may have

knowledge of a rash of unsolved murders and armed robberies. all with a mysterious black sedan in common. nbc's gabe gutierrez has the details. >> reporter: police took de mantre and cory into custody. they are wanted for a string of murders that rocked nashville. >> officers in the city are on the look out for two cold blooded killers. >> reporter: investigators had previously released this grainy surveillance photo of a dark sedan and looking to see whether vicious crimes all bhwithin a 14-mile radius are related. august 8, a 39-year-old woman shot in the back while walking her dogs. she survives but is paralyzed. august 12 a new incident now part of the investigation, a man tells police two men car jacked him and at least one was armed with a rifle. august 14th, 31-year-old kendall rice is shot and killed while waiting for a bus. that same night, two people are robbed nearby. then on friday, police say two

friends, jameis and bartly were robbed and shot dead outside the cobra bar. >> he was loved by a lot of people. this affects people very deeply. >> reporter: shannon said he was a talented musician who was celebrating his 33rd birthday. >> everybody is really hurt, it's bad. >> reporter: the first victim's distraught husband is a crew member for the band one republic. the band is now raising funds for her care. >> their life has been changed permanently because of this act of violence. >> our thanks to gabe for that report. >> a south carolina woman is dead after an alligator attacked her while she was walking her dog. investigators say the 45-year-old was near this lagoon on hilton head island when the nearly 8-foot-long gator grabbed her and pulled her under water. nbc's kerry sanders tells us more. >> reporter: a deadly attack close to home when a hilton head woman was killed in her own neighborhood by an alligator.

witnesses tell police 45-year-old cassandra klein was walking her dog near this lagoon when she was pulled under water. >> alligator attempted to attack her dog in an effort to save her dog, the alligator turned on her. >> reporter: the deadly attack occurred in a residential neighborhood sea pines in hilton head island. the alligator said to be almost 8 feet long was later captured and killed. this latest incident comes just two months after a near identical attack involving a woman in florida. witnesses say they saw a 47-year-old walking her dogs near the water in a park right before she went missing. miami zoo's ron miguel says warmer climates and more development in the swamp land makes for a dangerous combination. >> we don't want to blame the victim, but is there something here that set this off? >> the circumstances of walking

a small animal, even a small child along a freshwater body of water is a disaster. >> reporter: it's the second fatality in the state's history. kerry sanders, nbc news. >> in chicago, strong winds are causing dangerous waves on lake michigan. the extreme conditions prompted a warning for beach goers to stay out of the water. unfortunately, three people drowned over the weekend. waves are expected to reach up to 10 feet today according to national weather service. the daunting reminder to play it safe. >> nbc's meteorologist bill karins is here. bill, tell us more. >> good morning. on this tuesday we are going to track storms. we have heavy rain you'll wake up to early this morning going to the great lakes. look at the red on this map. a lot of convection this time of night. thunderstorms with heavy downpours. this batch will move to the north, a bit of a break and redo it this afternoon. roanoke to pittsburgh to buffalo under slight risk. damaging wind, heavy rain, biggest threat tornado threat pretty low with this.

of course if we get storms in this area of the country, we're going to get airport delays today. especially washington, d.c. late today we could at dulles and rebegan have possible delays. cleveland definitely, chicago maybe a few storms early. should get better as the day goes on. tomorrow we'll have to watch the storms early in new york and boston as summer like conditions you have to travel to the far south. temperatures in the 90s in florida and 100 near chicago. we could see san antonio being one of the hottest spots in the country the next couple days. >> it's their turn now. bill, thank you. in today's quick hits, hillary clinton is stepping back into the spotlight to help raise money for the democratic national committee with a series of fund-raisers. she's also planning fund-raisers for women run for congress in

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this argentinian police officer is being hailed as a hero. the mother of a newborn herself, officer celeste ayala breast fed a malnourished infant at a hospital after hearing the infant's cries. her colleague captured her, quote, gesture of love. the viral post even grabbed the attention of the minister of security who then promoted the officer to sergeant. that's a mother's love. >> sure is. pope francis has issued a letter to catholics around the world condemning the decades of sexual abuse the 300 predator priests inflected on over a thousand

children. this marks the first time a pope has addressed the letter to the entire catholic population on the topic of sex abuse. nbc's ann thompson has the details. >> reporter: a remarkable confession from pope francis, admitting the leaders of the catholic church failed their people on priest sex abuse. we showed no care for the little ones. we abandoned them, writing in a letter to the world's 1.2 billion catholics. we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner realizing the magnitude and the damage done to so many lives. sean dockerty said -- >> there is a lot further he needs to go. >> reporter: the catalyst that horrific pennsylvania grand jury report detailing sickening abuse by 300 priests over 70 years, victimizing more than 1,000 children. in pittsburgh, the anger

visible. a school sign bearing washington cardinal donald wuerl's named vandalized. wuerl under fire for the grand jury's finding that he protected predator priests when he was bishop of pittsburgh. wuerl insisting the report is not accurate. anguish emory university theology professor dr. susan reynolds heard at sunday mass after the priest's sermon. >> in that moment a father rose to his feet and simply called out how, how do we reform the church? what do we do? tell us how to begin. >> reporter: reynolds is one of 2800 catholics signing an online letter urging american bishops to submit their resignations on mass to the pope as chile's bishops did. notre dame professor kathleen cummings echoed the call for radical change. >> the bishops created this crisis. people who create the crisis aren't going to be the people who are going to lead you out of it. >> our thanks to ann thompson for that report. >> just ahead, goats run wild on

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>> her first appearance since she gave birth. you know who that is, cardi b opening up the 2018 mtv video music awards with that prank that had some viewers gasping. we thought it was something else, right? the last note did not stop there. tiffany haddish and kevin hart teamed up on stage poking fun at the people in the audience, even throwing a couple jabs at president trump. but all jokes aside, radio music city hall was set on fire by several performances sean mendez, nicki minaj, that was great. ariana grande. of course logic. he sent a very powerful message by bringing out kids who were affected by the recent immigration policies. and then it was j-lo's turn. she lit it up with a medley of songs that reminded everyone that she's still jennie from the block. she became the first latin artist to win the michael jackson video vanguard award. >> it has been an incredible journey of dreaming my wildest

dreams and then kind of watching them come true, which -- >> a-rod in the audience there. she was out of breath because she had just finished that performance. and some other big winners of the night included cardi b and nicki minaj and the guy with all the tats on his face on the right that is post malone. camila cabello took home a big award. the moon man artist the year as well as video of the year. she beat out some pretty heavy competition. and of course the show would not have been complete last night without a tribute to the late aretha franklin. it was a controversial speech given by madonna, though. she reminded fans of the path the queen of soul paved for everyone sitting in the audience including her, some people took umbrage tended to go onore about herself than aretha franklin. >> it was a great show, everyone buzzing about j-lo's performance. >> she brought out jarule. he was into t. >> me, too. any new york city commuter knows

the subway is notorious for service delays and interruptions. but this was a new one even for them. the transit system tweeted out these photos of two very baa-aa-aad boys. >> that's my impersonation. a pair of goats somehow made their way onto the tracks in brooklyn. trains had to be diverted while police spent two hours trying to wrangle them. eventually they were tranquilized it taken to a nearby shelter. transit police said they don't know where the goats came from, but there are slaughter houses in the area. but these kids won't end up on anyone's dinner plate. comedian john stewart later picked up the goats and took them to a farm sanctuary upstate. >> that was only the 37th weirdest thing to happen involving the new york subway system this week. just ahead, they could be hazardous to your health. how one man found out the hard way. when we come back. any object. any surface.

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welcome back. we'll call it cool for august. not exactly can chilly by any means. it will be cooler. below average high temperatures heading down behind our storm system moving through the great lakes. 75 in minneapolis, 81 in louisville. as we go into wednesday we'll see temperatures below average from st. louis to lexington to detroit. about 5 to 10 degrees. a little break for the air conditioner and make a little bit better for your energy bill, too. >> that's a good one for sure. thank you, bill. >> thanks, bill. >> in southern italy, the death toll has reached ten after flash floods and a gorge filled with hikers. three groups had been trekking through the area when heavy rains caused the whitewater to

instantly swell catapulting them out of the gorge. six were transported to a hospital by helicopter. among them, a 10-year-old boy who suffered hypothermia. >> the number of measles cases in europe is now at a record high. the world health organization says 41,000 people contracted the highly infectious disease so far this year. the worst in a decade. at least 37 have died. the w.h.o. says the epidemic is partially fueled by a large number of unvaccinated children which can spread the disease, not just across europe, but to any other areas wherein fekted people may travel. >> renewed scrutiny this morning for former epa chief scott pruitt, head of the environmental protection agency resigned last month after facing backlash over how he spent tax dollars. chief among the complaints, a $43,000 soundproof phone booth he installed in his office. according to a new report from the washington post, pruitt barely even used the booth according to phone logs. he made only one outgoing call to the white house in january and that only lasted five

minutes. >> an art admirer at a portuguese museum may have admired a little too closely. according to a local paper, a 60-year-old man is recovering after falling into an installation by the artist anish kapur. the hole is black giving the ill ustian of a bottomless void. luckily for the museum goer, it's not bottomless, just 8 feet deep. the man ignored warning signs and fell into it. he is expected to be okay. you have to be careful when you go to the museum these days. >> i think he was looking for the port hole. he's looking for the worm hole to another galaxy and just tried to ignore it. that's impressive. the artist, though, is the same one that did the silver beam we saw in chicago. >> oh. >> this is the exact opposite, instead of being reflective, it's completely black and i guess that's why he decided he could try to dive on in. >> right. and a little dangerous. >> now he knows. >> thanks for watching "early today." i'm marlie hall.

>> and i'm phillip mena. be shower to follow us on facebook, twitter and instagram. our handle is nbc "early today." don't go anywhere. the news continues rad lib livee

camera >> good tuesday morning to you. we get started with a live look on emeriville this morning. thanks for joining us. i'm marcus washington. >> let's get straight to the forecast. it looks like a nice start to our day. >> it will be a good day. here are the temperatures outside in fremont this morning. we'll see clouds to start out. upper 50s to low 60s as you head to work this morning. grabbing a hot cup of coffee will be cool. temperatures today will be also cooler around the bay area reaching only in the mid-80s for antioch t,