trump on trial the company he built faces charges involving tax evasion and more with a star witness, former cfo allen weisselberg. russia claims ukraine is planning a dirty bomb to use this their own country the u.s. rejects that talk as russians seem to be pulling out from the first major city they seized polls out just 15 days before the midterm elections we'll tell you what's on voters'

minds and which way they're leaning. we have an important recall to tell you about before you heatup that breakfast sausage. and the philadelphia phillies set to take on the houston astros who swept the yanks early this morning and a sneak peak at the new season of "succession" as monday, october 24th "early today" starts right now. >> thanks for starting your week with us. i'm frances rivera. >> and i'm phillip mena. after a sprawling years' long investigation, the criminal trial will begin today for the trump organization while the former president isn't facing charges, his namesake company is accused of a 15-year-long tax scheme. the manhattan district attorney says the business compensated top executives off the books to help them avoid paying taxes jury selection gets under way this morning and the trial is expected to last about a month at the center of it all is star witness former chief financial officer allen weisselberg. the long-time trump confident

agreed to testify as part of his plea agreement mr. trump has blasted the investigation saying it's part of a politically motivated witch hunt we're just over two weeks until election day, and voters are already fired up our new poll shows americans are more engaged than they've ever been, and one party is gaining an edge. brie jackson joins us from d.c. to breck it all down brie, good morning we could see record turnout for these midterms >> that's right. good morning, francis. according to our latest nbc news poll, voters say this election is more important to them than any past midterm the poll shows sonet% of registered voters say they are highly interested in the election that's the largest percentage ever recorded at this point in the vote, suggesting turnout in november could be sky-high but when it comes to enthusiasm, republicans have the edge. and their advantage has climbed in recent weeks. what's driving this record

enthusiasm as president clinton's former strategist james carville once said, "it's the economy, stupid." voters rank cost of living as their top concern followed by jobs and threats to democracy. the poll shows voters are deeply pessimistic about the economy is just one in five predicting it will get better over the next year both sides of the aisle pointing at each other for record inflation. >> under president biden, who has been a great president, we have cut in half unemployment. republicans say inflation. they don't have a solution to inflation because they don't have even one vote in favor of reducing the cost of living for america's working families >> the fact of the matter is his policies have made our economy worse. we've brought in over $4 trillion into the federal government's conference last year we spent nearly 7. that is literally what causes inflation. >> with control of the house and senate on the line, expect to hear more of that same messaging