that's a terrible picture. six hours of republicans talking is on tap tomorrow in south carolina just in case that's what you needed. "first look" is up next. it's friday, september 18th. right now on "first look," after a record-setting gop debate the candidates, they are trying to capitalize on any momentum they may have gained with voters. pope francis sends a serious message to cuba ahead of his historic u.s. visit. a terrifying ordeal for elementary school children as their bus skids off a road and into a pond. plus a 104-mile-per-hour line drive strikes a major league pitcher. a president caught on the stadium kiss cam. and a bear having one heck of a time on a hammock. "first look" starts right now. that bear video is just the greatest. all right happy friday to you, everybody. good morning. thanks for joining us today. so fresh off their spirited debate most of the gop presidential candidates will be battling for your support today.

donald trump held a town hall event in new hampshire last night. he touted a poll from "time" magazine about who won the debate. >> "time" magazine, they did votes as to who won the debate last night. right? so "time" magazine, 114,000 votes, as of 6:00 p.m., trump, 56, carly fiorina, 19, rubio, 7, ben carson, 4. the rest not doing too good. >> this morning trump is facing backlash for a question that came up later at this same event. >> okay, this man, i like this guy. >> -- amen, okay? we have a problem in this country, it's called muslims. we know our current president is one. you know he's not even an american. >> we need this question? this first question? >> but anyway, we have training

camps rolling where they want to kill us. that's my question. when can we get rid -- >> we're going to be looking at a lot of different things. you know, a lot of people are saying that. a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. we're going to be looking at that and plenty of other things. >> well, hillary clinton was quick to respond to trump's comments or lack thereof. tweeting donald trump not denouncing false statements about potus and hateful rhetoric about muslims is disturbing and just plain wrong. cut it out. hillary clinton was also in new hampshire yesterday. she held three different events around the state. last night, clinton's democratic rival bernie sanders sat down with msnbc's rachel maddow. he talked about wanting to be president. >> yes, i'm running to win. i want to win. and i think i could be a great president. but no president, not bernie sanders or anybody else, can take on wall street, corporate america, the corporate media, the koch brothers, all of the big money interests, unless there is a mobilized force of millions and millions of people who stand together and say, you

know what? hey, government has got to work for all of us, not just the wealthiest people in this country. that's what i believe from the bottom of my heart. >> also on msnbc, jeff sonnenfeld from the yale school of management. now his name came up during the gop debate when trump tried to slam carly fiorina's history at hewlett-packard. fiorina called sonnenfeld a kleinite who h-- clinton-ite wh had it out for her. >> she's hard working, very smart as we saw last night, very articulate person. maybe she would be a good person to be a great press aid for some reasonable candidate. but she shouldn't be coming from this incredibly disastrous career in the business world without any exoneration, contrition, redemption and suddenly to be the leader of the free world. there seems to be like there should be some steps in between to prove yourself. >> jeb bush took his campaign to las vegas on thursday. maybe the donald is getting deeper under his skin, because at this rally bush promised to

be everything trump says he is not. >> i hope i will be so brilliant and so eloquent and so high energy that you sign up for the caucuses in february and get ten other people to do the same. >> trump meanwhile could be meeting with russian president vladimir putin sometime soon. one of trump's advisers tells buzzfeed there is a better than likely chance the donald will meet with putin when he comes to new york city for the united nations. this morning, confirmed to nbc news, a friend of accused charleston church gunman dillon rough has been arrested by the fbi. his name is joseph mink jr. we don't know the exact charges just yet. but the 21-year-old was reportedly under investigation for lying to investigators, and failing to report a crime. after the murders, mink told authorities he and the shooter had been friends in middle school and that they recently made contact. nine people were killed back in june at the emmanuel ame church in charleston.

prosecutors say the attacks were unquestionably rooted in racial hate. more than 20 students at a southwestern virginia high school were suspended thursday for wearing clothes with the confederate flag. they were protesting rules that prohibit students from displaying the flag on clothing, and on cars while on school property. students say the policy is a violation of their first amendment right to free speech. but montgomery county public school officials say the ban was put in place to ease racial tensions after several racially motivated fights back in 2001 and 2002. officials say they need to, quote, maintain an orderly and safe environment for all students. just four days until pope francis arrives right here in the u.s. but before he gets here, he'll stop in cuba, starting tomorrow. the pope delivered a televised message there last night, saying jesus, quote, loves you very much. here at home, the white house will allow 15,000 people to attend wednesday's arrival ceremony. for pope francis on the south lawn before he meets one-on-one

with president obama in the oval office. and over at the basilica of the ee mack lot conception on the grounds of the catholic university of america in d.c., construction crews, they are hard at work transforming the spot where the pope will celebrate his first mass in the u.s. before 25,000 people. they're painting curbs, trimming trees, even adding a cell phone tower for better service. the pope will also meet with president obama and address congress before leaving for new york and philadelphia. it was a nightmare for students on their way home from school near tampa on thursday. a school bus carrying 27 elementary school students careened into a shallow pond and overturned. people who witnessed the crash rushed to help rescue the kids and fortunately there were no reports of serious injuries. authorities say it's still unclear, though, what caused the bus to run off the road. but one student did tell nbc affiliate wfla it looked like the driver could not get the brakes to work. all right, six minutes past the hour. time to get down to business on this friday. let's bring in cnbc's landon dowdy, good morning.

>> happy friday. wall street is still digesting the fed's decision to hold off on raising interest rates. the fed noting while the u.s. is improving, developments in global markets, specifically in china, could pose a risk to the economy. however, fed chair janet yellen says there's still a chance for rate hikes this year. and several apple customers are reporting their devices crashed when they tried to upgrade to the new ios 9 software. they're saying the upgrade failed after several minutes. tech analysts say that's likely because too many people tried to download the update at the same time. others say their older devices froze. and walmart is hiring 60,000 extra workers for the holidays, the same as last year. the retailer will have more employees in stores and more registers open during peak hours. walmart says more than half of last year's holiday workers stayed on. betty, back over to you. >> hard to believe the holiday's already around the corner. my goodness time flies. all right, thank you. have a good weekend. if you didn't stay up for last night's kansas city/denver game you missed an incredible ending.

and there was plenty of emotion at the start. let's take it from there. hometown fan k.c. welcoming back eric barry after he won his fight with cancer. jamal charles gets the chiefs on the board with this long scamper to the end zone. now to the third, broncos qb peyton manning throws for the first down. now may not seem like a big play but that toss puts manning over 70,000 total yards thrown during his career. that's almost 40 miles. to put that in perspective for you we crunched the numbers, the distance from the front lawn of the white house all the way to downtown baltimore. manning is behind brett favre for the all-time record. but that could change later this season. so stay tuned for that. back to the field now, 40 seconds left in the game, broncos down by a touchdown until manning slings one to emmanuel sanders to tie it. so the chiefs will have some time left to try to get ahead. take a listen. >> the right -- oh, it's down.

the ball is out. it is picked up by the broncos. it is in the end zone for an unbelievable touchdown! >> stone cold stunner. broncos score two touchdowns in the final 40 seconds to win it 31-24 and improve to 2-0. what a game. all right now to baseball in milwaukee. things started off on the wrong foot, michael carter williams throws out the ceremonial first pitch. he completely misses the catcher and whacks the cameraman. here it is again. watch out. things get worse from there. jimmy nelson, oh, my goodness, hit in the head by a line drive. the ball came at 104 miles per hour. nelson was able to get up on his own power. that was good news but he's spending the night at the hospital. he later tweeted i'm feeling good and was very lucky it wasn't worse. blessed and thankful. indeed. finally in atlanta, former

president jimmy carter and his wife ross alynn were caught on the stadium's kiss cam. give her a big smooch. there you go to the delight of the crowd. the 39th president gave his bride of 69 years a nice kiss and even signed a few baseballs for some lucky fans. all right so honoring three american heroes, plus a massive computer outage grounds hundreds of flights. and if you love cheeseburgers, today is your day. the juicy details are straight ahead as "first look" continues. this bale of hay cannot be controlled.

when a wildfire raged through elkhorn ranch, the sudden loss of pasture became a serious problem for a family business. faced with horses that needed feeding and a texas drought that sent hay prices soaring, the owners had to act fast. thankfully, mary miller banks with chase for business. and with greater financial clarity and a relationship built for the unexpected, she could control her cash flow, and keep the ranch running. chase for business. so you can own it. chase for business. lease the 2015 rc 350 for $429 a month for 36 months. see your lexus dealer. so, i tried depend last weekend. it really made the difference

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it was a little bit of a walk to get to the bus stop. i had to wait in line to use the computer. took a lot of juggling to keep it all together. what's possible when you have high-speed internet at home? the library never closes. it makes it so much better to do homework when you're at home. internet essentials from comcast. helping to bridge the digital divide. a good friday to you. we're starting off with some severe weather rolling through chicago overnight. now approaching areas of northern indiana. by far the worst weather in the country is located in illinois and indiana. this line of thunderstorms, lightning with the two and isolated flash flooding overnight. as we go through the day today i don't think we're going to see anything too horrible weatherwise. we are going to be watching a couple more areas with chances for severe weather. maybe isolated tornadoes. there's a look at the south bend radar and also kanka ki has the

storms to roll on through and wake everyone up in the early morning hours. here's the area of concern for today, about 6 million people from kansas city, almost to st. louis, back down there towards the joplin and springfield areas, isolated tornado or two is possible. most likely wind damage and hail. so your weekend forecast, still very warm in the eastern half of the country. that's how we're going to end our summer season. looks very mild up and down the east coast. very little chances of any rain. cooler weather does arrive in the middle of the country and even on sunday looks really nice across the nation. not many chances of people having any of their weekend plans rained out. all the soccer moms will have a good saturday and football friday will be great for everyone. >> sunshine and good news for you on a friday. >> not like me. this morning the people of chile, they are recovering from a mammoth 8.3 magnitude earthqua earthquake. it rocked the central coast on wednesday. the quake triggered a tsunami that flooded some coastal towns. over 1 million people were evacuated. at least 12 people are confirmed

dead. hundreds are in emergency shelters. a 5.4 magnitude aftershock was also reported. massive delays in the u.s. at airports, in fact, yesterday. a computer system outage grounded american airlines flights in chicago, miami, and dallas for several hours. all told 291 flights were delayed and 6 were canceled. understandably the passengers were not happy. it's all crazy, and hectic. i don't know what's going on, and it's a little frustrating. i'm getting aggravated. >> a quarter past 2:00 in the afternoon the company sent out this tweet saying their connectivity issues had been resolved. at the white house, president obama honored the three american men who thwarted a terrorist plot on board a train in france back in august. >> because of their teamwork, it's fair to say that a lot of people were saved. deep from outer space there are new images of pluto. that have been released by nasa. they were taken by the new horizon spacecraft.

and it gives us an extraordinary view of pluto's icy mountains, and flat ice plains. and as if anyone needed an excuse, today happens to be national cheeseburger day. restaurants across the country are marking the occasion with special prices and great deals on the delicious american staple. a quick google search for the best deals will surely deliver for all of you cheeseburger lovers out there. happy eating. hillary clinton gives the president a deadline. painting with donald trump. and setting the record straight. scrambled politics is next. just might be the one.

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now here's your friday edition of scrambled politics. democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton has a warning for the white house. at a campaign event clinton said she will announce her own opinion of the controversial keystone xl pipeline if the president does not make a decision soon. >> i have been waiting for the administration to make a decision. i thought i owed them that. i can't wait too much longer. and i am putting the white house on notice, i'm going to tell you what i think soon. because i can't wait. i thought they would have it decided way -- you know, way by now. and they haven't. >> clinton has been asked about the controversial pipeline on many occasions but has refused to speak publicly about the project. there's a new online tool for anyone out there who has ever dreamed of creating art using donald trump's face. this new site paint with donald frum dotcom lets you create

images using different faces of the donald. just take a look at this for example. it's a portrait of none other than donald trump himself. and according to tonight show jimmy fallon most who watched the debate complained it's too long. he's got an answer for anyone who tuned out. >> don't worry if you didn't watch the whole thing. here's a summary of the entire debate in tonight's edition of the gist. >> if i'm elected president. >> i will take care of rich people and we must make sure that we have medical marijuana and toilet paper. each and every day. >> oh, i'm not so sure about that summary but that is your morning dish of scrambled politics. let's bring in political correspondent for the hill. good morning. >> happy friday, betty. thanks for having me. >> happy friday to you. let's get down to this, because this is pretty serious. is donald trump going to take a hit with voters for not denouncing a supporter who

called president obama a muslim who was born abroad? >> this is the same old rhetoric that we've seen from donald trump for years. and i think that he really has to come out and say exactly where he stands on this particular issue. i think that it really puts him off of his political talking points to say the least in terms of talking about the economy, doing that off the cuff rhetoric. this is a big problem for him. >> oh, indeed. let's just look back to 2008. senator john mccain faced a similar question and he was quick to push back against the accusations. take a listen to that. >> i can't trust obama. i have read about him, and he's -- he's not -- he's a -- he's an arab. he is not -- >> no. no. >> no? >> no ma'am. no ma'am. he's a decent family man citizen that i just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. and that's what this campaign is

all about. he's not. thank you. >> all right. so that was very different, kevin, from trump's response. >> yes. >> so is trump's lack of a response, really, does that show that he's trying to keep this rhetoric going? >> you know, i think that the clip that you just played is just an example of why so many people think that senator john mccain is a true profile in courage. and i think that there really is a clear contrast in the type of rhetoric that mr. trump uses, as well as senator mccain, and at the end of the day it's going to be up to voters to decide what they want in terms of a republican candidate. >> well, hillary clinton has already decided. she's quick to respond, saying it was downright disturbing. this is what she says. donald trump not denouncing false statements about potus and hateful rhetoric about muslims is disturbing and just plain wrong. cut it out. does this show that hillary clinton is willing to stand up and respond when trump wasn't? >> well, betty, i think hillary clinton is willing to talk about anything other than e-mail servers these days.

and so i do think that she's trying to take donald trump more seriously, and also it's a strategy we've seen from the democrats. quite frankly, more recently in the last couple of months, by trying to lump all of the republicans together, under donald trump, this type of rhetoric hurts the republican party, because it moves them away from talking about issues like the economy, and like hillary clinton's foreign policy record. >> well we're going to keep you from talking any more. >> i know. >> just because your poor voice sounds so sad. >> i don't have a voice. i don't know where it went. >> goodness, all right. get well. enjoy the weekend. thank you, kevin. just ahead we take a look back at a week full of political punches and unbelievable stunts. stay with us. favorite time toge. i do notice that sometimes i eat better than her. i get my healthy bowl of beneful, and she eats a cheese stick and a cracker. that's what she ate last night. cheese stick and a cracker. can you believe what some people put in their bodies? (vo) beneful originals is a healthy blend...

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from the great debate to some great moments from jimmy fallon here's a look at the week that was. >> me interviewing me, that's what i call a great idea. >> donald trump is an entertainer. >> victoria's secret model took a nasty fall. >> your new miss america is, miss georgia! >> fire crews, they are calling it unprecedented. the powerful valley fire is rapidly spreading. only took about 8 seconds right there. boom and there they go. costa rica where it looks like a sea turtle invasion. a life size hot wheels in action. it reveals the automaker wants to create what's essentially a flying car. as the adrenaline junkie bikes down the almost vertical wall, and then slams into the water below. >> we are a dumping ground for the rest of the world. we are. a dumping ground. ♪ i just called to say

james loves you ♪ >> 40 years ago i smoebed marijuana. and i admit it. my mom's not happy that i just did. >> 980 feet above the ground, when he got a leg cramp. pulled the helmet off an opponent and then hit him in the head with the helmet. >> eveready, it's very high energy, donald. >> you want to win? here's what you got to do. first, yell. i yell all the time. >> former president jimmy carter and his wife rosalyn were caught on the stadium's kiss cam. oh, look at that. and colorado an adorable baby bear was spotted playing with a hammock. come on, you can do it. he eventually climbed inside that hammock. it took a little while. after a few swings. that might be my favorite video of the week. the bear tried to get in the hammock. i'm betty nguyen and this is "first look" on msnbc.

don't forget to like us on facebook at fab.com/firstlookmsnbc. and of course "way too early" starts right now. now one of the cool things about having a debate in the reagan library is the former president's air force plane. it's a very impressive plane. wait a second. hold on. can we zoom in on seat 34-b. what? top secret presidential candidate bobby jindal, is that you? get out of there, man. get out of there. you had your time. he's got like a resting smug face, doesn't he? you can freeze frame almost any image and he has that look on his face. >> donald trump would be dangerous as president. he said he wouldn't want, quote, such a hothead with his finger on the nuclear codes. >> you know who he reminds me of?

okay. look, for everybody out there who's saying larry, are you really comparing trump to bus linney? >> yes, that's exactly what i just did. >> late night having a little fun with the gop debate. meanwhile donald trump returns to the campaign trail, and is once again coming under fire, but this time it's for something he didn't say. and overheard on amtrak, an official with the draft biden campaign makes a private telephone conversation public. apparently filling the beams on the veep's 2016 plans. and a young hero emerges. find out what happened when this school bus packed with kids crashed into a florida pond. it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west. and this is "way too early."