who wants to pay for your fine if you get busted? this is "way too early." hey, everybody, i'm thomas robertson, thursday, july 17th. this is "way too early," the show that experimented with marijuana, but did not inhale. that's the steamer that gets the wrinkles out of our clothes here at 30 rock. i don't know what that noise is. the irs targeting conservative groups, the senior official at the justice department confirms that the doj's problem include looking into year's worth of e-mails that disappeared. it's part of the prepared speech and remarks that the deputy attorney general james cole will make at the house oversight committee today. e-mails from 2009 to 2011, they

were lost when lois lerner's hard drive crashed. she was in charge of the tax exempt unit that allegedly singled out conservative groups for audits and scrutiny. chris christie, once the early prompt runner as a 20 16 presidential candidate is headed to iowa, but first he addressed the cdc at the alpha conference and struck on the economy and common core education standards, and when asked about the differences between the parties, he shied away from attacking one person in particular. >> the fact is that the difference between republicans and democrats are that democrats believe that the government are the people who should be doing those things that mrs. clinton mentioned and republicans believe the private sector is the place better to do that. that's the fundamental core disagreement. running a government for five years now, i agree with my party. even more. than i did before.

>> do you see her as a big spending democratic liberal who wants to grow government? >> no, i think you said that. >> right. >> senator will not decide whether he would run for president until early next year says he truly has not made a decision. >> so, as we let you go, you're running? >> ha-ha! yeah, it's such a great question. you know, let me give you a different answer. because, you know, you were obnoxious enough to ask again. you should beware of people, in my opinion, who are over anxious to make that decision before they need to. that would, seem to indicate to me, ambition before wisdom, and they i don't think that's what you want from the person in the oval office. i'm going to be deliberative about this. i got a lot of people in my ear all the time, you know, you got

to do this. well, i had people in my ear in 2010 telling me to do it. what they learned is i do what i want to do and what i think is best. everyone will ask, and, by the way, it's nice to be asked. you know? because if you really stink, they don't ask. you know? if you're really awful, no one's asking. >> good point, right? brand new polls this morning show governor chris christie would have a long way to go if he runs for president. an nbc poll finds a third of republican voters in iowa have an unfavorable view of him and many in new hampshire said the same thing. he's in the single digits when asked who they prefer for candidates in 2016. the top answer is undecided, the response for one in five voters. jeb bush and rand paul are tied there. undecided was the top vote in new hampshire, followed by rand paul and chris christie.

there is a clearer picture on the democratic side in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, democrats picked hillary clinton over joe biden. they had the support of three-fourths of voters in noemplz compared to 18% for biden, and 80% of iowa democrats and 94% of democrats in new hampshire have a favorable view of hillary clinton. vice president joe biden is known for candor, and yesterday in speaking to a young liberal crowd, he acknowledged hope and change he and president obama talked about in 2008 had yet come to fruition. >> look, folks, this is within our power to change. everybody says because we tried in 2008, and it did not happen, it's not possible. wrong. we've gone through these periods before. we've gone through these periods. >> more and more people say immigration is the nation's most pressing issue, the highest in a decade. they say it's a bigger problem

than the government, the economy, and even unemployment. plans to address the influx shows little sign of traction as senate and house go on divergent paths and even pelosi change her view on how quickly to deport minors. last week she said the law was not a deal breaker, but now deprives them of due process. a five-hour humanitarian truce started this morning allowing palestinians in gaza to rest up and supply repairs they need from the damage over the past week of damage, but the brief pause appears to be temporary. a senior israeli military official says it's likely that the country puts boots on the ground to end the rocket attacks. before the truce, they stopped a plot by a dozen militants trying to sneak into israel with tunnels. the conflict saw the death of

220 palestinians, mostly civilians, including four children. the four boys, cousins between the ages of 9 and 11 were playing on the beach when the strike hit, killing one immediately, then a second strike launch kill the other three. they called the attack calling it, quote, a tragic outcome. we shift gears, and a series of corporate earnings lifted wall street to new heights as all three markets closed in the green and dow hitting a new intraday record and s&p nearly reached a record high. amazing numbers here. we are live in london here. steve, good morning. >> more record highs, and this time, the earnings and m&a and time warner moving up on the news that 21st century fox could be in the bidding for the company. one company not going up, though, is blackberry. shares had a run of 50%, but fell on the back of the story we talked about yesterday, the fact

that apple and ibm are getting together to make more business software-friendly apps to go on apple devices, senning the shares of blackberry down to 9%. elsewhere, visa will make it easier for us to do transactions online called visa checkout. the days of putting in 16 digits of the password and security code of the back and expiration number could be over as well. they are going to paypal and amazon to make is easier to buy products on line using a password and user name. >> easier to consumconsume. appreciate it. hillary clinton is known for charging large fees for giving speeches. a public university paid her $275,000 for a speech in october last year. thousands of members and students listened to her speak for an hour, and the contract reveals the lengths of controlling the setting from the

type of tell prompter to the sets, sceneries, and approval of the moderator and pays a stenographer $1,000. no state funded money paid for the speech, but came from ticket sales and endowments. others protested the speaking fee. at unlb say clinton should donate all or some of the contract back to the university. now, this brings us to the twitter question this morning. when we look at the numbers and get more of the specifics, are hillary clinton speaking fees too much for a public university to pay out or do you get what you pay for? there's only one hrc, and that's what you're getting. produce answers using hashtag way too early, and we'll give you the answers later on in the show. jennifer, a shoutout for you.

defending plans to take a family vacation to italy although the pending railroad strike is three days away. unions and the transportation authority were talking through the night in attempt to reach a deal. 300,000 commuters ride the system each day connecting long island and new york city. deblasio says he leaves in ten days and there's plans in place and will be in constant contact with the commission. the colbert report makes fun. >> are you sending in the pinkertons to give him a test of the daddy warbucks. >> the long island railroad is under the jurisdiction of cuomo. working hard -- >> not my problem. not my problem. bring me the bowl, bring me the bowl that i may wash my hands. >> hopeful they get to a

resolution. >> it's the longest trip for a new york city mayor in recent memory. still ahead, a big night for sports, most memorable moments from last night's aawards, a touching speech from michael sam. plus -- >> the looming crisis is clear. we can no longer stand around and say it's not a problem. chris christie hollywood with the effort to fix new jersey's broken pension system but gets the smackdown from the rock, those stories align when "way too early" comes right back on a thursday edition.

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time for sports. we begin with the 22nd espi awards, seahawks got the award for best breakthrough athlete, ending on sherman and the best play went to auburn university's chris davis for his 109-yard missed field goal return giving the tigers a 34-28 upset victory over rival alabama in the iron bowl. that match also won the best game. kevin durant took home a pair of awards, and ended lebron's two year reign in both categoriecat. there was a lot of fun with the

attendees including lance stevenson who signed a three-year deal with the hornets later in the day. >> so many incredible moments in sports this year, but my all-time favorite, maybe not just of this year, but of all time happened in this year's nba eastern conference finals. let's run the tape. >> you only blow on the ear of somebody you truly and deeply respect and i promised myself and one other person i would do this if i got the chance. for the first time ever, fire up the lance cam for me, please. are we ready? ♪ >> turn your face. >> i don't think a lot of people

would turn drake away. she wouldn't. one of the most memorable moments was an emotional speech from the recipient of michael sam for coming out and first openly open player for being drafted in the nfl >> he was not just courageous, but brilliant too. in fact, he put all the wisdom in the world in three short sentences. i'm sorry. stay where you are -- i'm sorry. start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. those are words to live by whether you're black or white, young or old, straight or gay. to anyone out there especially young people, feeling like they don't fit in and would never be accepted, please know this,

great things -- i'm sorry -- great things can happen if you have the courage to be yourself. thank you, and god bless. >> sam brought his boyfriend on the red carpet and thanked him as well, but maybe one of the biggest perks of the attending the show, they got a luxury gifts at $23,000. there was a shower head with a built-in speaker and breathalyzer. kind of odd. there was membership vouchers. again, 23 grand. not bad for a night's worth of work. fox released a statement after tuesday night's all-star broadcast that failed to mention the late hall of famer tony gwen, and we are deeply saddened by the loss of gwynn. the baseball family lost a number of people this year including hall of famer ralph,

frank kanman, tim, and don zipper and did not want to slight anyone by singling out one individual. okay. shifting attention to the weather and checking in with nbc meteorologist -- >> tried to slither their way out. almost slither. >> almost? but then they raise up everybody else that, you know, they failed to mention as well. >> gwynn was bigger than anyone on the list. i think the world series will make up for it. >> place your bets now. >> exactly. dallas, texas area, you get the attention this morning for good and bad reasons. you have a horrible drought, three-year drought in some cases, you need the rain, but you are getting it all at once, i-35 closed in both directions now north of the denton area getting 4 to 5 inches of rain in the last couple hours. these were the downpours we were afraid of. there's flash flood warnings, hardly any rain in the dallas area so it's to the north of you

at this time, but it will sink to the south, and wichita falls picking up an inch of rain, which is great, they have historic drought, driest three-year period ever seen, and now we are getting the rainfall we need. there's more on the way. the green on the map shows light rain from oklahoma city down near towards austin. it's the thunderstorms that could give us the torrential rain in a short period of time. by the time it's done, the bull eye's is from dallas to little rock to shreveport and oklahoma city from today, tonight, and even tomorrow. we could have damaging wind and large hail is possible this afternoon. the rest of the country, thomas, you probably felt it this morning, but from kansas city to denver and chicago, atlanta, raleigh, up the east coast, it's a beautiful morning, low humidity, and that continues today. enjoy it. >> great on the way in, i loved it. very odd for july. >> yes. >> at the top of the hour on "morning joe" backlash hillary

clinton gets for speaking at public universities. they have a lot to say about this. jennifer's waiting with her opinion, especially since we gave out a shoutout to her college there, and when we come back here, we huddle around the water cooler that we might rename the water something else. an offer too sweet to refuse? you won't believe what journalism institution wants to pay your fines. more about that after this. (vo) you know that dream... where you're the hero? hey... you guys mind warming this fella up for me? i'm gonna go back down, i saw some recyclables. make it happen with verizon xlte. find a car service. we've doubled our 4g lte bandwidth in cities coast to coast. thanks! sure. we've got a spike in temperature. so save the day... don't worry, i got this... oh yeah, i see your spaceship's broken. with xlte on largest, most reliable network.

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>> we have an update on the rock, and what is this about? >> he smells what chris christie is cooking, and he does not like it very much. >> this summer, from the makers of -- >> together, we've begun to clean up the mess of the past, pensions, health benefits, and debt. >> when you thought it was over -- >> we're in danger of having these costs overwhelm our budget. >> it's back. >> the only way to fix this -- >> that's the hollywood style video governor chris christie posted to his youtubing te acco this week. dwyane johnson was pulled and

reposted with the rock gone, thomas. the office tells the star ledger that johnson's attorney requested the video be taken down. i guess he did not like being in the video. >> can't steal the image. >> creative video. folks in washington, d.c. wake up to new laws. the first time anyone is caught a within ounce or less of pot rather than being arrest, you are slapped with a $25 fine like a traffic offense. no one will offer to pay your speeding ticket. that's right, the washington city paper offers to pay the finds for the first five people who send them a picture of the citation. they want to know what happened and your name. although they promise not to publish it if you prefer to remain anonymous. i don't know, seems risky. now, have you had a moment, thomas -- >> always. >> where you were so surprised over overcome with joy all you could do is cry? >> yes. >> i have these all the time. i don't know what's wrong with me. look at this 8-year-old girl's reaction when the parents

surprised her with a new puppy. >> ready? >> oh! >> what is that? >> it's a dog! >> that's your dog. >> it is? >> happy birthday. >> that is the saddest tears of joy i've ever seen, thomas. that's inkred pble. >> i love this. >> this got us thinking of another video gone viral. let's call it the disney surprise gone wrong. >> there's a clue in your bag. look in your bag, gavin. nope. what is it? >> monsters -- disney world?

we're going to disney world! >> i don't want to. >> the family disney is not for everyone. you do what you can for your kids -- >> he wants universal studios. >> come on now. >> that was funny. i liked that. earlier in the show, we told you about the university of buffalo paying $275,000 for a speech given at the school last year. the school was quick to point out no state or tuition funds were used in the payment, the size of it is turning heads. tell the amount of money she made for the hour long university event is enough to pay for 46 years of classes at the same institution. now to your responses over the twitter question about is it too much or right on the mark? speaking fees, we have some of the best twitter responses. what did we get? >> good morning. we have a lot of great responses

today. our viewers say, don't invite her if you can't afford her, get what you pay for, free market, only one hrc. >> only one. >> another viewer says people have. getting paid this much for years, republicans and democrats, why is it a problem now? finally, another says it is too much. >> yeah, i think it's going to turn a lot of people's heads. >> i think so too. >> you have to wonder there's only one hillary clinton. >> only one hrc. >> thank you. there's only one joe, and as you see, mika punched me twice. joe wanted to hug me. you know r it's a clot of event. much more coming this morning. ♪ toaster strudel! best morning ever! [ hans ] warm, flaky, gooey. toaster strudel!

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to help you heal. it kills germs so you heal four days faster. neosporin. use with band-aid brand bandages. it is thursday, july 17th. look at that beautiful summer shot of new york city. with us on set pulitzer prize winning columnist and editor of "the washington post" and msnbc