this weekend, it means they have a little bit more of their own country back to themselves under their own control. godspeed. "first look" is up next. it's tuesday, october 6th. right now on "first look," see the utter despair. the death toll rises, and residents of the carolinas desperately try to get out from under historic flooding. there are new details surrounding u.s. involvement in the deadly airstrikes on a doctors without borders hospital in afghanistan. an unexpected emergency as the captain of a packed american airlines red eye becomes incapacitated. plus a monday night controversy on the gridiron. the 2016 political front-runners are gaining more attention. and an angry mob rips the shirts right off the backs of their bosses. "first look" starts right now. good morning, everybody, thanks so much for waking up with us today i'm betty nguyen. so it is not over yesterday. amid full-scale evacuations the

white house sew fishly naming the situation in south carolina quote major disaster. the state is desperately working to get back on its feet. the latest numbers 12 weather related deaths, 10 of them in south carolina. president obama signed a disaster declaration to provide federal fundsnds in the recover effort. now, among the heartbreaking stories, a pastor defied a order waving into waist high water to retrieve a floating casket with the family of the deceased right there. he toldnbc if that was my momma or my dad identify walk through hell or high water. today it happened to be high water. nbc's dave wagner has our report. >> reporter: from bad to worse in columbia, south carolina. after two feet of rain, dam breaches, flooding already hard-hit areas. >> we've got to get people downstream evacuated. if this dam goes, 50,000 people are going to be washed away.

>> reporter: not everyone is heeding the warnings. >> we don't want to have to come out and rescue and much worse we don't want to have you added to this number of fatalities. >> reporter: with no other place to go shelters are filled with families. water is not safe to drink. and bottled water is in my demand. >> we got very little water pressure. and what water we do get we have to boil it. >> reporter: in downtown columbia, fire trucks are pumping clean water into a hospital. travel is tricky and treacherous. 550 roads and bridges are washed out. >> the roads are still unsafe. a lot of them have been undermined by the flooding. >> reporter: when the water recedes it's clear the suffering in south carolina won't end any time soon. and neither will the memory of this historic storm. dave wagner, nbc news, columbia, south carolina. this morning the pentagon is changing its story. there is new information on the events that led to that deadly u.s. airstrike on a hospital in

afghanistan. still, though, there are some serious questions that need answers. nbc's edward lawrence is live in washington. edward, what's the military saying this time? >> well, betty the story is changing, and why is going to be the big question on capitol hill today. the top u.s. commander in afghanistan will be under intense scrutiny in front of the senate armed services committee later on this morning. the u.s. top general in the region now says afghan troops on the ground ordered the airstrike. this differed from initial reports that u.s. troops were taking fire. >> an airstrike was in call to eliminate the taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck. >> reporter: 22 people died including doctors and patients when the u.s. bombs destroyed the hospital in kunduz, afghanistan. it was run by the organization doctors without borders. >> we've directed our forces in the area to make sure that all civilians who need medical care know that our medical facilities are available to treat them. >> reporter: afghan officials

say taliban fighters were shooting from the hospital. something doctors without borders says sim possible. >> this hospital is a fenced hospital like all other hospitals, guarded by guards. the only people inside the hospital are patients, caretakers, and staff. >> reporter: the white house says three investigations are in process. >> the expectation is that details won't be whitewashed. they'll be a full accounting of what exactly transpired. >> reporter: the president wants changes to make sure this never happens again. and the city where this happened was the first major city taken back by the taliban since 2001. betty? >> all right. edward, thank you so much for that. we'll keep watch on this story. overnight nbc news has confirmed the name of the commercial pilot who died in midair yesterday. 57-year-old captain michael johnson died of a heart attack while flying. that's according to his wife. the father of eight had double bypass surgery in 2006 and had a physical every six months. but from that horror, to some heroism. this morning we're hearing how

the co-pilot stepped up to ensure the safety of 147 passengers. nbc's stephanie gosk reports. >> reporter: passengers on the american airlines red eye from phoenix to boston say the plane unexpectedly began to descend. >> all of a sudden they were just like, we're emergency landing in syracuse. and that was it. >> reporter: what they didn't know was that the pilot of flight 550, with 147 passengers on board, was sick and could no longer fly. the co-pilot had taken the controls. >> medical emergency. captain is incapacitated. request handling for runway 1-0 landing. >> when we landed we didn't know the magnitude of what was going on. alls we saw is the fire trucks, the ems. >> reporter: hours later on a new flight to boston, with a new crew, weary passengers were told the pilot died. in a statement american airlines said we are incredibly saddened by this event. and we are focused on caring for our pilot's family and

colleagues. on the ground in boston, passengers commended the crew for staying calm. >> they knew exactly what they were doing, and they put you all at ease. >> reporter: pilots rarely get sick or die in flight. but aboard flight 550 the co-pilot was ready and landed the plane safely. stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york. on "dancing with the stars" alec scar tatty dedicated his performance to the victims of the umpqua community massacre. that tragedy hit particularly close to home for him. he's from roseburg, oregon. >> this is where i went to college. i mean i would have had classes that day. it's honestly the strangest emotions i've ever felt. because even the train made more sense than this does. it's just a disarming feeling because you can't do anything about it. >> skarlatos is helping to raise funds with uccstrong.com.

white house officials tell nbc news that president obama will visit roseburg on friday. he'll have closed-door meetings with families of the victims. and the 2016 race for the white house democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton is taking aim at congressional republicans. the clinton campaign has released its first national political ad overnight, and in it you can hear house majority leader kevin mccarthy's recent comments linking the house benghazi committee to clinton's sagging poll numbers. >> the republicans finally admit it. >> everybody thought hillary clinton was unbeatable, right? but we put together a benghazi special committee. what are her numbers today? >> well, a spokesperson for speaker john boehner has released a statement saying in part, this is a classic clinton attempt to distract from her record of putting classified information at risk, and jeopardizing our national security. for all of the talk about his money, it turns out gop front-runner donald trump is spending it. according to msnbc trump

campaign officials say he's only spent about $2 million so far. that is much less than fellow candidates ben carson or ted cruz. they have each spent $5.5 million just through july. meanwhile we have learned trump has played a small prank on fellow gop candidate marco rubio. listen to this. it turns out trump's team sent a case of bottled water, trump bumper stickers and some towels to rubio's d.c. campaign office. a spokesperson for trump characterized it as a lighthe t lighthearted prank. republican senator john mccain was on the late show with stephen colbert last night and at one point he joked about his previous run for the presidency. >> you're five-time senator -- five-term senator from arizona. >> yes. >> you were the 2008 republican candidate for president of the united states. >> you had to bring that up? >> well, listen that's one of the things -- >> hey, after i lost i slept like a baby. >> yeah? >> sleep two hours, wake up and

cry. sleep two hours, wake up and cry. >> yep, just like a baby. and just in time for halloween. oh, my goodness. take a look at these political pumpkins. an artist in illinois got creative and painted portraits on each of the pumpkins. he's painted hillary clinton, bernie sanders and donald trump with lots of wild and crazy hair. the so trawled trump-kins have been viewed almost a million times online. all right time to get down to business. cnbc's landon dowdy. i don't have hair like that just yet but it's still early this morning. >> you still have time, betty. fedex is raising surcharges for the second time this year. the move effective november 2nd was quietly announced last month. while gas and fuel prices have dropped fedex says the increase is in response to heavier packages and rising residential deliveries. disney is raising the price of its annual season pass which

led to disney land any day of the year to $1049. it adds perks such as parking and discounts in the parks this comes as attendance is surging and tourists are spending more. and the news is here, can you finally get an egg mcmuffin morning, noon and night. mcdonald's is launching its all-day breakfast menu nationwide today as part of an effort to boost sagging sales. analysts believe all-day breakfast could hike sales by 4% and betty i think i'm going to be adding to that. we can now finally catch breakfast. >> this just makes me so hungry. as if i needed another reason. i'm pregnant here, people. okay. thank you. in sports now controversy in seattle. monday night football seahawks/lions. lions down by three, less than two minutes in the game, detroit's matt staffer connects with calvin johnson, mega tron running and lunging for the end zone but johnson has the football punched out of his hands. now the ball bounces in the end zone and is knocked out of bounds by seahawks k.j. rice.

the refs, they called it a touchback giving saturdayhawks the ball. but after the game, it was revealed that wright batting the ball was illegal. batting the ball. the lions should have gotten the ball back. final score, seahawks 13-lions 10. a lot of people upset this morning. insider trading in fantasy football? that's the question. lots of them in fact this morning about whether an employee used insider information when he won $350,000 on competing fan site fan duel. this after he accidentally posted stats on which nfl players were picked most for draft lineups. both companies issued statements defending their business's integrity after a "new york times" report and both stated they have strong policies to ensure employees don't misuse proprietary information. the washington nationals have fired manager matt williams after disappointing season. just last year williams was voted national league manager of the year and now he is out. also on the chopping block,

miami dolphins head coach joe philbin was fired after three seasons and a onen three start. all right, coming up on 12 minutes past the hour. a popular breakfast cereal favored by babies everywhere is being recalled. we have that important news. plus air france executives ambushed by furious employees who tear the shirts right from their backs. details next as "first look" rolls on for this tuesday. beyond natural grain free pet food is committed to truth on the label. when we say real meat is the first ingredient, it is always number one.

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and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. welcome back to "first look" on this tuesday. the culprit for all the horrible flooding is still on the weather map. it's been a five-day trip. it started here and really developed over areas of tennessee. and then made it only to just off the southeast coast in five days. a very, very low-moving disaster in south carolina. a few showers last night popped up. they are dissipated. the rain is finally over with. and the rainfall totals from the five days are really staggering. charleston, 17.3 inches of rain. that was a third of your yearly rainfall in five days. and this area actually had

rainfall deficit going into this. i mean it just shows you this much rain, no river basins can handle this. 15 inches in myrtle beach. a third of your annual rainfall. and in columbia about a quarter of your annual rainfall. columbia the worst of that was that it came so quickly saturday night into sunday morning. today's forecast, really night throughout much of the country. beautiful fall weather. a lot of people think the leaves are late this year, great lakes, northern new england, it was dry, it was warm in september. now they're starting to turn quickly. >> all right. thanks for a nice fall foliage. thank you. tragic news from the caribbean. the body of a crew member from a missing cargo ship was found wearing a survival suit yesterday. also found, a badly damaged lifeboat with no signs of life on board. the el faroe went missing on thursday after colliding with hurricane joaquin near the bahamas. the coast guard now believes it sunk to the bottom of the ocean. >> we just change our search planning efforts. we are still looking for survivors or any signs of life,

any signs of that vessel. >> you heard it right there. the search still continues for the remaining crew members, including 28 americans. livid. air france employees, they stormed the airline's headquarters in paris yesterday. two company executives barely left the scene with their clothes on. employees were protesting a proposal to cut nearly 3,000 jobs. general mills is recalling 1.8 million boxes of cheerios and honey nut cheerios. the cereal is supposed to be gluten free. but wheat flour was inadvertently added in the california facility. so if your cheerios and honey nut cheerios boxes have use by dates of july 12, 2016 through july 25th, 2016, it might be affected. check those cereal boxes. and on "the tonight show" jimmy played phone booth with hugh jackman and shaquille o'neal. each wrong paens adds a person to the booth. oh, goodness, shaq racked up quite an entourage with jeopardy host alec trebek, megan boone

and elan hall. it was a tight squeeze. >> about to close the door. >> pressing against my chest -- >> that is his belly button >> he has an outty. very good. >> i'm trying to keep my hands away from -- no, no, alex, everything is fine. >> alex trebek with jokes, all right. "scrambled politics" is next. real madrid have about 450 million fans. we're trying to give them all the feeling of being at the stadium. the microsoft cloud gives us the scalability to communicate exactly the content that people want to see. it will help people connect to their passion of living real madrid. if legalzoom has your back.s, over the last 10 years we've helped one million

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20 minutes past the hour. here's your first look at this morning's dish of "scrambled politics." following a mass shooting at a community college in oregon senate minority leader harry reid is pushing for tougher gun regulations and a background check bill. he put some of the blame on inaction on republicans. >> i'm starting to reach out to senators and talking about what can be done to advance the cause of background checks. while republicans are in charge for the next year or so. one thing is clear, past background checks need republicans to stop acting as puppets for the nra. >> at a campaign event in new hampshire, carly fiorina made it sound like she is ready to hit the debate stage with at least one particular democrat. >> whether you're a democrat or a republican or independent, whether you've made up your mind about which candidate you want to support or not, the truth is most of you in your heart of hearts really want to see me debate hillary clinton. i know. >> and an interview with

politico mitt romney's wife ann explains that she and her husband thought it was a good idea to skip the 2016 white house race. >> we thought about it for 20 seconds, put our toe in and quickly withdrew. we, together, just came to the conclusion that it just wasn't the timing wasn't right, didn't feel right. it -- we knew what it meant. we understood the process. >> listen to this story. the city of north pole, alaska, has someone special running for city council. and that would be santa claus himself. yes, the 68-year-old man legally changed his name to santa claus in 2005. he has served as president of the north pole chamber of commerce, faces only one other opponent. an election will take place later today. we'll see if santa wins this one. that's your morning dish of "scrambled politics." 22 minutes past the hour. let's bring in msnbc lawyer jane tims. good morning. >> good morning. >> front of nbcnews.come is this

article that says marco rubio the new favorite to win. how exactly is rubio going to trump trump? >> you know, he's sort of the opposite of trump. where trump is saying the american dream is dead but i'm going to bring it back, marco rubio is very optimistic. he's quit cal of the status quo as not in the white house party but he sort of has this inspiring personal story. you listen to him talk about his family, an immigrant family and having two young kids. he sounds like he is really a very genuine guy. that is very different than trump's reality show we've been watching. >> and he's doing all right in the polls, right? >> he's the middle of the pack. that's where you want to be right now. if you're too far in front you have too far to fall. you're too much in the limelight. of course marco rubio is going to have to answer for his past, his time with florida governing, you know, in the legislator, that's going to be important to see if he can keep rising. >> i want to shift gears now to something that is happening today and it's really important. introducing legislation today that really could change when it

comes to the family leave act here. and how many days that people get for that. you know, having a birth or someone in your family having hospitalized for one reason or the other. but washington, d.c. could be at the forefront of that with the largest-ever, according to this legislation. why is this so important to d.c.? and so important to the obama administration? >> it's the key priority for obama. he's been pushing this since day one. this is one of those things that he says going to help the middle class. people who get pushed out of the workforce because they can't afford child care which is so expensive in this country. and you know, wages are stagnating. women are highly educated but they are having trouble staying in the workforce. >> yeah and if it does pass it's going to post a little bit closer in d.c. -- >> for working moms. >> the situation in europe where people get extended periods of time off. all right, jane, thanks so much for your time. just ahead former president jimmy carter tries to settle a family feud. we have those details next.

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former president jimmy carter will help resolve a legal battle over martin luther king juni junior's traveling bible and nobel peace prize. his daughter wants to sell the two artifacts to a private buyer while his sons would like the items to be surrendered. carter says quote, i think we will be able to resolve these disputes once and for all. icon grace lee boggs died monday night. she dedicated her time to social justice and the black power movement. boggs and her husband founded detroit summer, a nonprofit that allows children to help revitalize detroit neighborhoods. a memorial will be held later

this month. grace lee boggs was 100 years old. i'm betty. this is "first look" on msnbc. "way too early" starts right now. but here's a look at the skating rink that is up and open outside of rockefeller center. it shows us we're getting close to that time of the year. south carolina has gone through a storm of historic proportions. it has gone through a storm that has never happened before. this is not over. just because the rain stops does not mean that we are out of the woods. cars, buildings, entire neighborhoods under water after that historic rainfall in south carolina. the flooding is so bad that some areas can only be reached by air. we're live in the hardest-hit areas. and the deadly mistake? the pentagon now changing its story about the u.s. airstrike that killed almost two dozen in an afghan hospital. and the stunt man donald trump pranks senator marco rubio by sending a quote care package to his d.c. campaign office with

a special note inside. it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west. and this is "way too early." good morning, it's tuesday, october 6th. i'm jonathan capehart. we begin in south carolina where 11 counties have now been declared federal disaster areas. after five straight days of rain, the death toll from that historic flooding is at at least 11, 13 when you count north carolina. more than 500 roads and bridges are closed. hundreds have been forced from their homes. and clean water has been cut off to tens of thousands. and because of rising rivers and weakened dams the flood threat continues. >> we've got to get people downstream evacuated. because if this dam goes, the 50,000 people go