. oh! that was just one of several tornados to hit the virginia area. at least one person is dead and there could be more ahead today. >> judge kavanaugh is one of the finest people that i've ever known. he's an outstanding intellect, an outstanding judge. at the same time, we want to go through a process, we want to make sure everything is perfect, everything is just right. >> the president delivering reassuring comments as the buildup to monday's hearings for judge kavanaugh and his accuser are set to begin. the stars were out for the night of nights. and plenty of glam to go around.

and a big reveal from business mogul elon musk. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm phillip mena. >> i'm francis rivera. a dramatic showdown has b brett woman accusing him of assault. chuck grassley said to provide ample transparency, we will hold a public hearing monday to give these recent allegations a full airing. kavanaugh denies the allegations. some republicans say the testimony could determine kavanaugh's fate. >> iafterwards that, you know, that he should go on and fill that seat. i may not. a lot will depend on that hearing. >> i'd have a hard time putting somebody on the koth that i thought tried to rape som nbc'se

from washington. >> reporter: president trump is standing by judge brett kavanaugh. >> judge kavanaugh is one of the finest people that i've ever known. >> kavanaugh faces an allegation of sexually assaulting a teenaged girl more than three decades ago at a high school party. he denies the accusation and according to the white house says he was never at the party in question. >> he's an outstanding intellect, outstanding judge, respected by everybody. never had even a little blemish on his record. >> reporter: the accuser, 51-year-old christine blasey ford says a stumbling kavanaugh was drunk when he pinned her to a bid aed and groped me. her lawyer on "today" says ford

is she consider this an attempted rape? >> she does. she clearly considers this an attempted rape. >> reporter: kavanaugh says he's also willing to testify, adding this is a completely false allegation. i have never done anything like the accuser describes to her or anyone. i had no idea who was making this accusation until yesterday >> i think this woman, whoever she is, is mixed up. >> reporter: senator orrin hatch says kavanaugh told him he was never at the party. the alleged third person in the room, mark judge, has called the accusations nuts. still, he may have undercut that message by writing a 1997 memoir about their days at prep school filled with heavy parties and drinking. several top republicans say

think won't they won't be satisfied until they hear from kwanah and foavanaugh a public hearing. >> if judge kavanaugh has lied about what happened, that would be disqualifying. >> reporter: as for the president, he wants a thursdoro process. after huddling on the hill, top r republicans say there will be a hearing monday. ford and kavanaugh will be invited. kavanaugh's red eye ady to test early as today. a stunning twist in the russia probe. president trump has ordered a secret cache of documents to be released without any redactions. he has ordered text messages relating to the investigation from former top the officials in both agencies and ordered the

release of documents into the investigation of carter page. tracy potts has more. >> reporter: 20 pages, what did the government tell a judge to get that surveillance approved? 20 pages unredacted, nothing blocked out is what the president wants released. also text message between james comey, the former deputy director and other officials with the fbi, including a couple of agents that the president says were out to get him. now this came somewhat by surprise. the president's request to release though information still unknown. will it be challenged here on capitol hill. some lawmakers are already calling it political. >> i think it's first and foremost a waiy of donald trumpa he's conferred with his lawyers, what information would be useful to you. >> this is really full

transparency for the american people. this will be all the information i think the american people will need to see. >> reporter: the justice department and office of the director of national intelligence both say what happens here is when the president makes this request, it sparks a review to see if releasing this information could threaten national security. and so they will start that process. no comment from the fbi. >> we'll know the outcome soon enough. the raging remnants of florence continue to wreak havoc now triggering a tornado outbreak. at least one person is dead after a building collapsed in chesterfield. damage has been reported across the area, including overturned vehicles and toppled trees. the national weather service says now tropical cyclone fortuna florence isn't done yet. tom costello has the latest.

>> reporter: it happened just at afternoon rush hour began. a massive tornado moving across the ground in the greater richmond area. >> oh! >> reporter: tearing the roof off this business, sending dangerous debris flying through the air. at the university of richmond, students tweeted they were sheltering in the kitchen as a tornado came close to the stadium. at the airport, rain and ominous low clouds as the remnants of hurricane florence sent bands of heavy rain and tornados out of the carolinas and into virginia. >> this is a dangerous day. >> we actually went and hid in the closet. as we were in there, of course, we heard trees snapping and falling and debris flying and whatnot. we knew something was coming through. and of course when we came out we saw the damage. >> reporter: at least one fatality in chesterfield, virginia as florence tears up the east coast. tom costello, nbc news, washington. >> florence is leaving behind a trail of misery as floodwaters continue to drown out parts of north carolina.

many areas are virly cut off as swollen rivers and creeks overtake the roads and it has been blamed for 32 deaths across three states. >> reporter: it's been several days since florence made landfall. all of that rain is spilling into these neighborhoods. the rain is over, but the disaster is not. rivers are rising after the rainiest hurricane on record. this tour boat operator in preg and her family, desperately clinging to a tree after the raging floodwaters swept them away. >> oh, my gosh! >> reporter: the small town of lumberton was ravaged by hurricane matthew two years ago. now it's inundated. julie lamm and her twins escaped

her home. >> we thought ery but it's wors. >> reporter: rescuers are frantically searching for people and pets. this good samaritan saved six dogs trapped in a kennel. the lumber river swelling to near record levels and staying there until later this week. the largest, the cape fear river in fayetteville. water up to 10 feet had choked off wilmington, no way in or out. gas lines stretched for hours, so did the trail of destruction. >> we're from the south side of lumberton. it's not over. >> no. it's just the beginning. >> reporter: some of those rivers are expected to crest today or tomorrow. but they're also predicted to stay at flood stage until saturday. francis? >> thanks for the report. julie chen is apparently

leaving "the talk." she will announce her departure today from the cbs talk show after nine seasons. she was absent monday a s out last week's season premiere. after her husband was fired at women accusing him doubled from six to 12 with new accusations in a new yorker article. she says she was taking time off to be with family. usa today reports chen is expected to remain as a host on "big brother" through its finale. the stars were aligned at the emmy awards. instead of the red carpet, the bastions of tv walked a gold one. celebrities were dressed to the nines. and some took the time to make a statement. >> inside microsoft theater, it kicked off with a musical number poking fun at hollywood's ongoing diversity problem. colin jost and michael che were

the hosts. >> and the big winners included henry winkler, aka, the fonz, after more than 40 year and five nominations later, he is finally taking home the trovephy. bill hader won best actor. >> and rachel brosnahan won. and another show that wracked was "game of thrones," took home seven of them. and peter dinklage's win. >> regina cain was nominated for "seven seconds". and darren criss. >> and glen weiss. >> you wonder why i don't like

to call you my girlfriend? because i want to call you my wife. >> that's a pretty boss move there. proposing to his girlfriend with the whole world watching. no pressure, right? fortunately, she said yes. he got himself an emmy and a fiance. >> she got a nice big rock. >> winners, both of them. >> you talked a whole bunch about the florence problems. we have some developing overnight. in the southern tier of new york we had one home with water surrounding it. water on top of highway 79. we're not completely done. we'll see tropical downpours throughout the northeast. even baltimore as the thunderstorm rolled through. during the day today, we'll watch this heavy rain in the northeast. have the umbrella r thisfo corr.

and look how hot it's going to be. st. louis, 94 degrees. looks like the september heat's going to stay with us for much of this week. >> all right, bill. that's the way it's going to be. the brewer's christian yell itch has done it again. that means you hit a single, a double, a triple and a home run in the same game. the last one was august 29th making him the first player ever to record a cycle twice against the same time in the same season. new signs of thawing tensions on the korean peninsula. plus, some of hollywood's biggest stars reveal that we're saying their names all wrong. >> what? and your sister-in-law's... tennis partner's...

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trump administration is cutting the number of refugees the u.s. will admit. it will accept no more than 30,000 refugees next fiscal year after this year's record low of 45,000. immigration hardliners have pushed for a clamp down claiming national security threats. however, some say it conflicts with american values. a summit with kim jong un and moon jae-in is under way as the two countries look to promote peace on the craykorean peninsula. the two leaders embraced as thousands held flowers and waved flags. moon will be being looking to settle some lofty goals. just ahead, over the moon. who spacex will send on its first lunar expedition. you're watching "early today."

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chrissy teigen,entn nd says ac chrissy tie-gen. her mom says that's true.

it's tie-gen. and you told me this. that ariana grande is grand-y. and somebody said rihanna's not rihanna. >> her name's stacy. >> a really relatable moment with jimmy fallon. the truth is finally out. chrissy teigen pronounced this fun tag thfact that her name is pronounced ty-gen. ariana grande-y is the way she pronounces it. and this is philip me-na. >> they've had a long time to correct the record. >> and those names have been famous for a very long time. >> i'm wondering why that would happen after all these years,

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it erupted for the fourth time this year, leaving the hikers who caught a glimpse of the breathless. it is one of the most active in the world. >> who knew. in france you can go see the eiffel tower and a volcano. >> i got distracted looking at it. >> at nighttime, too, they're gorgeous. today if you're doing any traveling, afternoon storms in the northern plains. hot, dallas, still warm and humid down along the gulf coast. that's not going to change anytime soon. we're still waiting for the first big cold front to come down and cool us off. minneapolis gets an a little bit with a storm. the summer's holding on. >> leave those pools open for a while. >> take advantage of t. when we come back, a man is killed in a shark attack off of cape cod. here's the harrowing attack of the attempts to save his life. and your sister-in-law's...

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meet the first man spacex is sending to space. ceo aeelon musk announced that yusaku maezawa will be aboard the flight. musk says maezawa and some companions will travel 240,000 miles and spend a week in space in the year 2023. the entrepreneur reportedly put down a large deposit to cover his trip and help develop the program for the future. a lot of training, a lot of education. >> you can't just be an astronaut. meanwhile, the spacex founder is being sued for claiming aphile.

the $75,000 lawsuit was filed in u.s. district court in l.a., two months after musk referred to him as a pedo guy. this after musk sent a tube to help rescue the children and it was called a p.r. stunt. he said i bleepin' hope he sues me. a popular beach was shut down and a lot of people on edge after a man was killed while boogie boarding despite a frantic effort to save him. >> reporter: from the air and sea, officials on the lookout for sharks off of cape cod. after the deadly attack. this shis 26-year-old arthur ma

daiic iy >> he swam to his friend who was bitten on the leg and pulled him some 30 yards to floor. the engineering student who friends say was planning to propose to his girlfriend was declared dead saturday at a local hospital. september is prime shark season here on the cape. officials urge the public to stay in shallow water. swim or paddle in groups, and don't swim near seals, because they attract sharks. the beaches in well fleet now but some can't avoid the pull. andy opted to fish instead of surf. >> my family didn't want me going out. >> reporter: choosing safety at the ocean's edge. >> that's tragic. >> beauty of nature but also the

threat of nature. ad lib live picture - y, not

transamerica and good tuesday morning to you. take a live look at the bay bridge. starting our tuesday on a good foot. thanks so much for starting your morning with us. i'm marcus washington. >> and i'm laura garcia. is it left? >> let's go with the left, shake it up today. >> nice weather we're hoping for today. >> yes, going to be nice and cool today. nice little breeze kicking up, as we take a live look it's a c and we'r00, a cool start and we headed into the 70s today. normally we're up to 80 degrees. here's a look at our microclima a reaching the mid-70s inland. we'll talk more about this coming up and mike, no major crashes so fa