or 20 inches of rain this year to get out of the record drought. let's hope it doesn't all come in one day. thanks for being with us. good evening, lawrence. we fell short when it came to holding some accountable for their mistakes. a heavy toll in the northeast and a pineapple express in the west. good morning, everybody. thank you for joining us today on this friday. i'm betty nguyen. another woman has come forward

to accuse bill cosby of drugging her. this time it is beverly johnson. kate snow reports. >> reporter: beverly johnson was a groundbreaking figure, a supermodel in the 1970s, now joining more than two dozen women who publicly accused bill cosby. >> she was a supermodel, the first black woman to appear on the cover of vogue. she does not have anything to gain by coming out and making an accusation and, in fact, she probably has a lot to lose. >> reporter: johnson said she thought she was auditioning for a part on the cosby show when she went to his brown stone in the mid-'80s. she said, i knew by the second sip of the drink cosby had given me that i was drugged and drugged good. she said she expectwas yanked de stairs and shoved into a cab. an attorney for cosby had no comment for latest allegations. johnson said when she heard other women come forward, she

still struggled with whether to tell her story. a voice in my head kept whispering, black men have enough enemies out there already, they certainly don't need someone like you, an african-american with a familiar face and famous name fanning the flames. she said she thought of trayvon martin. >> she wanted to combat the kind of skepticism about black males identity on the one hand while holding the horrible secret in another. >> reporter: johnson writes, i reached the conclusion that the current attack on african-american men has absolutely nothing to do at all with bill cosby. he brought this on himself. her story comes one day after a defamation lawsuit against cosby. his attorney responded to that suit saying we are very confident we will prevail in this proceeding. but the court of public opinion is already judging him. kate snow, nbc news, new york. >> shortly after the vanity fair article was published, johnson thanked her fans on twitter and said, quote, let's make this a

platform for other people abused to step forward and be heard. cosby denied previous accusations and has never been charged with a crime. there is more reaction to that scathing torture report. in a very rare move, the cia director goes front and center to face the media and defended the agency for 45 minutes. here is nbc's andrea mitchell. >> reporter: the cia is fighting back, going public in an unprecedented live press conference from the agency's secretive headquarters in langly, virginia. john brennan invoking 9/11. >> this agency did a lot of things right during this difficult time to keep this country strong and secure. >> reporter: while acknowledging some of the tactics since abandoned were abhorrent, he challenged the report's conclusion that harsh interrogations did not help find osama bin laden. >> do you think the bin laden case can be attributed in some part to enhanced interrogation

techniques or torture? >> the detainees who were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided information that was useful and was used in the ultimate operation to go against bin laden. >> reporter: brennan says it is impossible to know whether the cia could have gotten key intelligence without the harsh techniques. >> it is an unknowable fact. >> reporter: dianne feinstein, live tweeted in part, study shows it is knowable. cia had info before torture, #readthereport. while president obama calls what happened torture -- >> and as i've said before, it constituted torture in my mind. >> reporter: -- his cia director would only call the brutality eits, enhanced interrogation techniques. water boarding, near drowning, slamming people against the wall. >> we are not contemplating at all getting back into the

detention program, using any of the eits. >> reporter: morale is a problem here after the report. the cia director acknowledged concern and dismay among the workforce, but says they remain focused on their mission. obama is standing solidly by his cia director, one of his closest advisers. >> the president wakes up every morning pleased to know that john brennan and the men and women of cia are hard at work. >> and that was nbc's andrea mitchell reporting. the sony hackers are at it again, silencing stars on the big screen. it was an interview free premiere for the interview in hollywood. seth rogan and james franco were there, but tv and print reporters were not invited. at sony pictures, more damage control, specifically the racially tinged leaked e-mail as reported by buzzfeed. it was between co-chairman amy pascual and scott rudin. in it, speculation about president obama's taste in movies. both now apologizing. a powerful storm called the pineapple express hit california

with heavy rain and hurricane force winds. it is one of the strongest storms to hit california in years. in the san francisco area, alone, hundreds of thousands of people lost power. many were still without power late thursday. the flooding was so bad in santa rosa, that this resident took to kayaking down the road. that's one way to do it. south of that, in santa cruz, two kids were hurt when an 80 foot tree fell on to a playground. none of the injuries was serious. bill karins is just ahead with a look at today's weather and what is in store for the weekend, so you don't want to miss that. in the meantime, all eyes are on capitol hill. the trillion dollar budget now moves to the senate. nbc's tracie potts is live in washington for us this morning. tracie, the house had a tough time getting the spending bill through. >> they did. and it was mainly because of democrats. they missed the midnight deadline and gave themselves two more days to get it done. half of congress left washington overnight after a nasty budget

fight. >> this is exactly the way i don't want to do business. >> on this vote, the ayes are 219. the nays are 206. >> reporter: the house is done, until next year. lawmakers left with no spending plan for the country. it is up to the senate now. they could vote as early as today. >> this is a bill we should vote for! this bill needs to pass! >> reporter: but the $1.1 trillion budget almost didn't get this far. most republicans like it. >> first of all, it continues to prioritize the right type of budgeting and reduce spending. >> reporter: but some democrats are angry because the plan allows wealthy campaign donors to give ten times more. >> seriously? >> reporter: and it brings back wall street bailouts. >> what in the world are my republican colleagues thinking. >> if you think the american public is going to stand for a bailout of the biggest banks in america one more time, you're wrong. >> reporter: the white house chief of staff came to capitol hill himself to get democrats on one page. it didn't work.

>> i'm a no vote. >> here we are in the house, being blackmailed. >> reporter: in the end -- >> the house stands adjourned. >> reporter: -- they barely moved forward a budget plan that no one here seems quite satisfied with. so here is the timeline now. the deadline for the government to run out of cash is tomorrow, midnight saturday. now, if they actually vote in the senate today as is possible, then that will be fine. if not, that vote may actually get moved over into monday, and that will be a problem if the government runs out of money on saturday night. >> time is ticking. thank you very much, tracie. now some sports action. thursday night football, cards versus the rams, arizona loses their second starting quarterback drew stanton, going down on a sack in the third quarter. he was carted off with a right knee injury. chandler kicked four field goals, enough to put the cards over the rams 12-6. oregon's marcus mariota was the big winner at last night's college football awards show.

the heisman finalist took home the national quarterback award, the award for nation's most outstanding player and player of the year. mariota is the first player from oregon to win each of the three awards. it is a miracle this peruvian soccer player survived getting struck by lightning during a match. did you see that smoke? so the match came to a halt when joel contreras was struck on a pitch. he said the lightning bolt grazed his face, went through his chest and exploded on his right ankle. doctors feared the worst for the 21-year-old defender. luckily he's in stable condition. ugly christmas sweaters are back, but now you can sport some of your favorite players on those sweaters created by the cleveland based company fresh brewed teas. they're the only ones selling official nfl licensed ugly

christmas sweatshirts and you can get one for about 50 bucks. in a promo to raise awareness for toys for tots, shaq showed off his holiday easy bake oven skills, sort of. >> you want to take four pieces of white bread, right here, one, two -- oh, didn't miss it like a free throw. christmas time, i'll add a little bit of christmas music. ♪ ♪ i'm leaving today >> should be done. she fell to the bottom. >> yeah, shaq is no chef, unfortunately. let's get down to business with cnbc's landon dowdy. >> millennials might save christmas. young people aged 18 to 29 are twice as likely as their older counterparts to spend more money this holiday season than last year. and get them while they're hot.

christ krispy kreme customers can get a dozen free doughnuts today only on 12/12. go to the day of the doughnuts.com and print out the coupon and show it on your mobile device. if you're a fan of guacamole, stock up. avocados may be hard to come by in the next couple of months. california's drought takes the blame as the state produces 95% of avocados. back to you. >> that business report has me hungry. thank you. bill karins with your weekend weather, that's next. and the incredible scene as police came face to face with the wanted dad involved in a massive amber alert. that's next.

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look at this. 140-mile-per-hour winds created some big waves at lake tahoe in nevada. the high winds damaged homes and schools, but it did not as you can see stop the surfers. some of the waves were six to seven feet high. bill karins is here. they just love it. doesn't matter where it is. >> all you need is a strong enough wind and you can get

waves. that's crazy. the winds are like 130 at one point, 140. this storm was as advertised. we ended up with 11th rainiest day ever in san francisco. and in san jose, california, it was the third rainiest day they have ever recorded. so, again, this was a historical storm for the area. they needed the wet weather and rain, but not the damage and the power outages that came with it, of course. here is some of the rainfall totals, san francisco, 3 1/2 inches. it is still raining in a few areas near merced and fresno. further to the south, the rain is now shifting. we are going to see some troublesome weather today. not like the storm is completely over with. l.a., you got heavy rain nearing you, coming down from santa barbara. this will be right over los angeles as we go through your morning rush hour. of course, you know driving in the rain and rush hour in l.a. is never fun. we could end up picking up one to two inches of additional rainfall. i'm not going to have horrible problems with that. we will have some issue and will still be windy. i guess the big story heading into the weekend, now that we're done with our storms is the

warmth. we have 60s today in colorado. and some of that warmth is coming across the country, no signs of any snowstorms or cold outbreaks. >> is it still december? >> all the way to christmas. >> santa came early. i like it warm. from the south, in the news this morning, an amber alert search ended with a dramatic standoff on an overpass in san diego. deputies say when daniel perez got out of his vehicle, he appeared to have considered tossing one of his sons off the bridge. he was then shot with a beanbag. police were able to get all four boys to safety, but their mother was found dead in the trufrpg of a car, not far from the family home on wednesday. all eyes on capitol hill tomorrow. the reverend al sharpton and his group national action network organized a march there. the families of brown, garner and others killed by police will lead the demonstration.

on thursday, though, the steps at capitol hill was the setting for this powerful scene. a group of predominantly black congressional staffers and lawmakers staged a walkout over the grand jury decisions. a federal judge ordered police in st. louis and surrounding areas to give protesters a reasonable amount of time before using tear gas. sam adam and paul revere's time capsule? joe biden's oh, so cool memorable holiday card. and a hip-hop plot to overflow thr cuba.

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coming up on 20 minutes past the hour, time for your friday edition of scramble politics. it is a bold move that could open a door for legal pot sales in every state. the justice department is now allowing native american tribes to grow and sell pot on reservations, even in states where it is illegal to do so. all 326 federally recognized reservations who want to get in on the action can do so as long as they abide by government guidelines. in the associated press, u.s. co-opted cuba's hip-hop scene to spark change. a u.s. agency tried for about two years to infiltrate the cuban hip-hop scene. the idea was to use the music as a way to create a network of young people looking for change. the operation was unsuccessful. in massachusetts, crews have removed a time capsule from the state house building. they believe it was originally placed there in 1795 by paul

reve revere, sam adams and others. can you imagine what's inside? well, the time capsule will be x-rayed and opened next week. the university of hawaii really wants the barack obama presidential library in the aloha state. check out some of the awesome renderings for the proposed buildings. pretty fancy, huh? proposals came from three other universities. according to pope francis, all dogs do go to heaven. the pope had just comforted a young boy who lost his dog when he said, paradise is open to all of god's creatures. happy holidays from vice president biden's family. this year's biden family card features everybody whitewater rafting with the veep in the center of it all. as the washington post puts it, the card seems to say, listen up, america, hold on tight, we have a bumpy ride, but i've got this. and that's your morning dish of scramble politics. joining me now is kevin cirilli. you've got this, right?

>> happy friday. thank you for having me. >> the house passed a trillion dollar budget but not before nearly missing the deadline to avoid a government shutdown. we have been here before. i thought we were promised after the midterms that threats of a government shutdown were not going to happen again. >> i don't think there is going to be a government shutdown, but you're right, there is a lot of political fireworks last night at the last minute about this $1.1 trillion budget battle, you know that ended up passing very narrowly through the house. but there was -- you had people on the far right of the tea party opposing it because of immigration reforms that it would fund that the president wants that money to use for immigration. you had people on the left opposing it because of a wall street provision that they say would walk back regulations, the thing got through. now it heads to the senate. i think it will pass. >> well, democratic house leader nancy pelosi was against this budget. >> very against it. >> with the white house and other democrats backing it, she stopped short of blocking it.

why? >> well, it wasn't just nancy pelosi. it was also senator elizabeth warren. there is this provision included in this budget that addresses the 2010 dodd frank wall street reform act, pretty much what it would do is allow banks, it would tweak and allow big banks to engage in derivative trading which sounds really wonky, bull all it means is it is a riskier form of financial trading. progressives hate this. they think it is a horrible deal and republicans say it will help boost economic growth. so an interesting battle that really bubbled over last night at the 11th hour. i think nancy pelosi and progressives like elizabeth warren, however, are only going to continue to shout louder on this issue, especially in a republican controlled congress. >> nancy pelosi could have done more to block this. but she didn't. she could have whipped had her party. is she finding herself outnumbered in her party and does this question her power as house leader? >> that's a great question. i don't think it shows that

she's outnumbered. i think what it shows is president obama preferred a longer term budget deal to keep the government open. remind you, last night, like at 9:00 at night, we were up on capitol hill hearing that there might have only been a three-month cr that would have kept the government funded just through next february and we would have this huge fight over the government staying open in just a couple of months. i think the administration wanted a longer term deal and found that their leverage was weakening because republicans are set to take over congress in just a few weeks. >> a tangled web, isn't it? thank you so much. we appreciate it, kevin. have a good weekend. >> you too, thanks, betty. chris rock takes on moses at the box office. what is your favorite christmas movie? we have the list next. i make a lot of purchases for my business.

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all right, 28 minutes past the hour. for entertainment news on your friday at the box office, exodus god and kings is expected to take the top spot earning $26 million. chris rock's top five is expected to pull in close to $7 million. mark wahlberg's pardon may be put on hold. a group wants the assault charges the actor wants pardoned to remain on his record. you can see what wahlberg has to say this morning on the "today" show. twitter is still calculating this year's list, but the social media site announced the most mentioned christmas movies from 2013, macaulay culkin's home alone takes the number one spot. followed by love actually. bing crosby's white christmas. polar express. and number five is the surprise entry, i would have never

thought that diehard would be in the list of christmas movies. >> classic. >> really? you think so? all right. >> christmas story better than all of them, by the way. >> i'm betty nguyen. this is "first look" on msnbc. "way too early" with thomas roberts starts right now. the hackers, they claim they have downloaded almost 100 terabytes of data. reams and reams of it. >> it is kind of the wikileaks of hollywood now, isn't it? >> a little bit like that, yes. the difference is that they were clearly out to damage sony and it will hurt the company in ways we haven't seen yet. >> the wikileaks of hollywood. the movie, the premieres, but without a red carpet fanfare event. it has hollywood thinking twice before hitting send on their e-mails. the house cobbles together a bipartisan majority to save the government from closing. now the senate must act.

and right now southern california is getting pounded by the same storm that did this to the northern part of the state. just look at these images. major flooding, power outages and now the threat of tornadoes? this is "way too early." hey, everybody. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. it is friday, december 12th. welcome to "way too early," the show that does not have its own e-mail account and for very good reason. have you heard about this e-mail story? no? okay, franco. pay attention. i'll tell you about it right now. we begin in hollywood this morning where sony execs are apologizing over a series of racially insensitive e-mails about president obama. this e-mail exchange between sony pictures co-chair amy pascual and producer scott rudin was posted online following the sony hack and data breach. this involves a whole bunch of other e-mails that came before it.