that's the threat. the testimony begins at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. it could go all day and into the night. and yes, you can watch it on msnbc. it's thursday, october 22nd. right now on "first look" preparing with top advisers behind closed doors all week, hillary clinton is facing what might be the most gruelling day of her political career today. testifying before the benghazi committee. with joe biden out of the race, clinton's poll position has already risen to an almost unstoppable status. new developments and an arrest in the road rage case that resulted in the shooting death of a 4-year-old girl. plus firefighters held hostage at the scene of an ohio fire. first lady michelle obama teams up with lebron james. and the new york mets, they are headed to the world series. "first look" starts right now. good morning, everybody. thanks so much for waking up with us today. i'm betty nguyen. here we go. in a matter of hours hillary clinton will appear before the

select house committee on benghazi. whether the public hearing is a grilling or truly a search for answers, or maybe just even a political witch-hunt, the next few hours could be the most significant of her 2016 campaign. nbc's tracie potts is in washington. tracie, what is clinton's strategy today? >> well, her strategy, from her perspective, betty, is to try to set the record straight. she may have eight full hours of testimony to do that. we're hearing this is going to be a very long one. keep in mind that several congressional committees, the review board, have already weighed in on this. but this is the second select committee that was set up just to investigate what happened at benghazi, and the focus today is what happens before that attack. >> tomorrow will be nothing but a fiasco. >> democrats call it a partisan witch-hunt. republicans say this could be the best chance to find out why four americans died in benghazi. >> -- benghazi, tomorrow? >> i am. >> reporter: besides grilling

clinton on her own e-mails still being released, lawmakers are expected to unveil new information today. 8,000 pages of e-mails from ambassador chris stevens. >> so where does the fault lie for the timing of this? it lies at the state department, who only 36 hours ago has released some of ambassador stevens' e-mails. >> reporter: stevens asked for more security before he was killed. he didn't get it. clinton's team says those requests never reached her desk. >> i expect that secretary clinton will push back on the half-truth, and the outright fabrications of these crazy conspiracy theories. >> reporter: the committee wants to know why stevens' requests were denied. were there warning signs? and given the risks, why we were there in the first place. today, clinton's expected to push for more security training and more diplomacy in risky areas. >> republicans can play political games, but hillary clinton will always stand strong. >> reporter: the super pac backing clinton's campaign is

running this ad today in d.c., and four early voting states. now, we took a look at these issues in our nbc/"wall street journal" poll. 44% of americans, almost half, betty, said that they're not satisfied with clinton's answers. more than a third said they think this committee has been unfair. and partisan. but here's what's really interesting about that. in both cases, a significant amount of people just didn't really know what to think. >> hmm. well maybe they'll find out today. we'll all be watching. thank you so much. brian williams heads up msnbc's special live coverage of the benghazi hearing throughout the day. it all begins at 9:00 a.m. eastern. and friday night, rachel maddow will have an exclusive interview with hillary clinton. msnbc is the place for politics. vice president joe biden's decision to stay out of the presidential race is sending shockwaves through the 2016 field. donald trump says biden made the right decision for him and his family. adding he'd rather run again

the top two democrats both had nice things to say about biden on twitter. but on msnbc's all in with chris hayes, bernie sanders was a bit more critical. >> we need a political revolution. we need to mobilize tens of millions of people to begin to stand up and fight back and to reclaim the government which has now owned by big money. do i think that that was the work -- was that the goal of the president and the vice president? not really. i don't think so. so i think we've got to go further. >> for the latest on biden we turn now to nbc's kristen welker. >> i believe we're out of time -- >> reporter: and with those words, vice president joe biden closed the door on his life-long goal of running for president. an extraordinary moment in the rose garden, bowing out but delivering a call to action and taking a swipe at hillary clinton, who had moved away from some of obama's policies. >> this party, our nation will be making a tragic mistake if we

walk away or attempt to undo the obama legacy. >> reporter: biden said the grieving process over his late son beau was pivotal. >> i've said all along what i've said time and again to others. that it may very well be that that process by the time we get through it closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president. that it might close. i've concluded it has closed. >> reporter: but biden said he won't sit on the sidelines. >> but while i will not be a candidate, i will not be silent. >> reporter: clinton called biden after his speech and tweeted the vice president is a good friend and a great man. today and always inspired by his optimism and commitment to change the world for the better. in the rose garden it was clear biden came to this final decision reluctantly, knowing at 72, this was likely his last

chance. kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. one of congressman paul ryan's conditions to run for speaker of the house has been met. almost. yesterday, members of the freedom caucus said they have a super majority to support ryan's bid. but because the vote failed to reach 80%, they will not formally endorse him. ryan had said an endorsement as a condition for running. a source tells nbc news speaker tom boehner convinced ryan to move forward. in a statement ryan said i'm grateful for the support, i believe this is a positive step toward a unified republican team. the vote for speaker is scheduled for next thursday. a person of interest in the road rage incident that killed a 4-year-old girl is now in custody. albuquerque police arrested 32-year-old tony torres yesterday. he's accused of shooting at a pickup truck carrying lily garcia and her family tuesday afternoon. lily was struck in the head and later died in the hospital. the police chief says torres confessed to the shooting late yesterday. more e-mail trouble for the

director of the cia. the website wikileaks is spilling some of the contents from his personal account, days after hackers bragged about stealing it on social media. nbc justice correspondent pete williams has details. >> reporter: through twitter messages, the hackers themselves left behind some of the best clues to their identity. as the e-mails they stole show up elsewhere. example, in a memo drafted in 2007, john brennan, then advising the obama campaign, recommended that the next president tone down the rhetoric on the government of iranian president ahmadinejad and establish a direct dialogue with iran. thanks among documents published on the website wikileaks, stolen from brennan's personal aol e-mail account by crackers, including one who calls himself cracka and compares himself to edward snowden now evading capture in moscow. the hacker tweeted, hey russia, if you're reading this, was wondering if you could help us out with a place to stay. and apparently fearing imminent

arrest he tweeted, what are those flashing lights? the hackers had already revealed some of brennan's e-mails, including names and social security numbers of some former and current television officials and claimed they got into the comcast account of homeland security secretary jeh johnson. >> the one thing i'll say is don't believe everything you read in the newspaper, because a lot of it is inaccurate. >> reporter: the hackers say they used a phony verizon employee code to trick verizon into revealing enough of brennan's account information to reset the password on his aol account and take it over. computer security experts say the cia director of all people should have known better. >> that is pete williams reporting. today president obama is expected to issue a rare veto of the annual defense policy bill. the $612 billion measure authorizes defense spending and meets funding levels that the president requested. but the president argues the measure uses a budget gimmick to skirt defense spending caps. without increasing domestic spending first.

republicans accuse him of playing politics with national security. >> the bill provides our troops with the resources they need to keep america safe. and it meets the funding levels that the president requested. yet the president has vowed to veto it. it's time to put our troops first. it's time to stop playing political games. >> this will be the fifth veto of the obama presidency. a man is in custody in a hostage situation in ohio last night. firefighters were responding to reports of a brushfire, but after arriving on the scene they found a man burning leaves. he was ordered to stop, and that's when he reportedly pulled out a rifle. three of the men were able to escape. but a fire lieutenant and assistant fire chief were both held hostage by the gunman. a man in his 50s. and he made demands for alcohol, and his prescription medication. he later surrendered without incident after about two hours. the new york mets have brought the chicago cubs from a

back to the future prediction back to reality. with strong pitching and a record six home run in six consecutive games by nlcs most valuable player dan null murphy the mets swept the cubbies in wrigley. >> and strike three called! they haven't been to the world series since 2000. and the mets are on their way back. >> yep, this will be the mets' fifth trip to the world series. but they'll have to cool their jets as the blue jays and royals head to game six. toronto cut the royals' lead with a 7-1 mauling. started with the second inning blast to put the jays on the board and it just got better from there. game six will take place in kansas city on friday night. ten minutes past the hour. let's get down to business with london dowdy. >> good morning to you. legos running short of its colorful bricks this holiday season. the toymaker saying for now the

shortage is limited to europe. they've been unable to keep up with the surging demand. and lego was the world's largest toy company in terms of sales. youtube is offering an ad prescription service called youtube red. it will allow you to watch videos offline and gain exclusive access to shows and movies. you also get access to google play music and service will be available october 28th. and off to a racing start on wall street, the stock traded as high as 17% above its ipo price gaining $900 million. much of the success is based on the company's ability to brand itself as a luxury goodmaker rather than a high end carmaker and some buyers in europe and the u.s. wait a year to get their hands on a car. i think i'll have to wait a little longer than that considering the price tag. >> yeah, exactly. and count our pennies. okay, thank you. marijuana use among american adults has doubled. but that is just the beginning. plus billionaire carl icahn is putting congressional members on notice and spending $150 million

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all the bad weather in our country is located in new mexico and texas at this hour. last night, look at the hail covering the roads. this looks like driving in a snowstorm. pretty epic stuff around artesia, new mexico. of course some damage done with flash flooding like this. we continue at this hour. odessa, texas, reports they're dealing with some water rescues because of this torrential rain. we're going to continue to watch this line of storms as it will slowly trek across the state. flash flood warning continues until 6:30 avlt m. local time there in central texas. also a tornado watch. thankfully we haven't had any tornadoes but an isolated tornado or two is possible. we have this flood watch that goes from amarillo to dallas to oklahoma city. we could see two to five inches of rain widespread, and isolated total as high as 10 inches. here's the rainfall forecast over the next three days. this orange is five inches of rain. that's seven inches of rain there from dallas down to waco. almost all the way down to

austin. there's a lot of great weather to be had today. near-record highs, st. louis. warm in the east, betty. but texas is going to struggle over the next couple of days. they've been in a drought. they need the rain. but not this one. >> cool them off a little bit, too. okay, thank you. mexican authorities say they have captured six people in connection with a drug kingpin joaquin el chapo guzman's prison break in july. they include the principal organizer of the escape and guzman's brother-in-law who supervised the construction of the mile long tunnel he used to escape from beneath his jail cell shower. according to a recent report from the nih, adult marijuana usage has doubled in the past decade. it rose from 4% to nearly 10% from 2001 to 2013. plus, 30% of users meet the criteria for addiction. not good. michelle teams up with lebron. we'll tell you about that. jeb bush and supergirl? plus billionaire carl icahn's big political buy.

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kevin brady, both from texas, are expected to run. ahead of hillary clinton's benghazi testimony today, the stop hillary pac released new attack ad video focusing on the victims. and in ohio, lebron james was joined by first lady michelle obama at a reach higher rally. also there, thousands of students and parents from the lebron james family foundation's meals for education. it's part of a scholarship program promoting college education. so does jeb bush have a crush on supergirl? well, when asked his favorite super hero last night, he first said batman, but then, this. >> i saw that there's a supergirl is on tv. i saw it when i was working out this morning. there's an ad promoting supergirl. she looked kind of-she looked pretty hot. i don't know what channel it was on but i'm looking forward to that. >> okay. well, before his appearance on jimmy kimmel live last night, senator bernie sanders tweeted a photo of him with back to the

future's doc brown, aka christopher lloyd. the caption tell me future boy who is president of the united states in 2017? bernie sanders. bernie sanders, from vermont? then later on the show sanders was asked about his religion. >> well, i believe in, and with my spirituality is about, is that we're all in this together. that i think it is not a good thing to believe that as human beings we can turn our backs on the suffering of other people. that we should not -- >> sanders' religion was something kimmel addressed moments before. >> bernie sanders will be america's first jewish president. hillary clinton would be america's first female president. and donald trump would be america's last president of neither sex. >> and that is your morning dish of "scrambled politics." all right, 21 minutes past the hour. time to bring in syndicated columnist bob franken. good morning, bob. >> good morning. and before we get too excited about bernie sanders and "back to the future" i should point out that the chicago cubs

yesterday were swept out of the playoffs. so, so much for the "back to the future" prediction. >> not going to happen. all right. well let's get back to hillary clinton today, because it's a big one for her. will we see a fiery hillary clinton, similar to the last benghazi hearing? or is she going to tone it down a little bit? >> well, i suspect that she's going to try and make sure that committee members know that they shouldn't mess with her. i think that the committee members, particularly the republicans, have a problem. on the one hand they have to try and get in their points. and this allegedly nonpolitical committee hearing. but on the other hand, they can't look like they're browbeating her. i think haet going to be the tougher part is how the republicans react. >> if they do it's going to look like a witch-hunt. >> that's right. >> what does clinton need to do at this hearing today to clear the air and move on with her campaign, which is obviously what she wants to do? >> well, i don't think that the air can be cleared at this. i think this is really just a test of how she stands up under fire. but the fact of the matter is

there's much we don't know, particularly, and nobody likes to talk about this anymore, particularly when it comes to the e-mails. what's in there? the fbi is still investigating this. this could, in fact, come back to be an issue later in the campaign. >> so what you're saying is we're going to hear a little bit today but it just is going to continue to go on and on and on? >> on and on, ad nauseam. >> well let's look at our poll numbers just for a second, though. because hillary clinton might just be the most unstoppable candidate in a noncontested race. especially now that vice president joe biden has decided not to run. >> well, first of all, vice president biden has decided not to run, and i suspect that she's going to benefit from that, because most of the support that biden would get would go to hillary clinton, logically. but, it's a long time before we can start talking about an unstoppable candidacy. a long time before there are any results that we'll know about how the primary elections go. >> not ready to give her that title just yet, are you? >> not yet, no. >> a resounding no to that.

okay, bob franken, thank you so much. we appreciate your insight. just ahead find out what the secret is to a happy marriage. plus details on a deadly gator attack in florida. stay with us. about fighting wri, turn to roc® retinol correxion®. one week, fine lines appear to fade. one month, deep wrinkles look smoother. after one year, skin looks ageless. high performance skincare™ only from roc®. after one year, skin looks ageless. they come into this iworld ugly and messy. ideas are frightening because they threaten what is known. they are the natural born enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary,

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to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. leading the news in the new york daily news he should not have been on the streets. tyrone howard charged with murder in the shooting death of nypd officer randolph holder. a judge deferred his sentence to a court mandated drug treatment program. he has a 16-year rap sheet, and was wanted for previous crimes. his next court appearance is set for later this month. and in the huffington post, disputed nasa study finds 99.9%

chance l.a. will soon face a major earthquake. researchers predict the massive quake will occur between now and april 2018 and it's expected to be 5.0 or greater in magnitude. however other scientists say the odds of a large quake are a little bit lower at 85%. big news from the irs. it will reorganize and recognize same-sex marriages anywhere in the u.s., regardless of whether individual states have legalized them. the new rules will fight any federal tax provision in which marriage is a factor, including filing exemptions, standard deductions and employee benefits. a man was found dead in a florida state park on monday. medical examiners confirm the injuries were from a gator attack. the 12 foot gator was later tracked and killed. this is the first alligator attack in the park in 23 years. well, you can breathe about flowers and gifts because the secret to a happy marriage is thank you.

a new study found that gratitude influences level of commitment in a partner. appreciation for a spouse is more significant than financial well-being and communication style. so be sure to say, thank you. i'm betty nguyen. thank you for watching today. don't forget to like us on facebook. hillary clinton now just hours away from one of the biggest tests of her presidential campaign yet. a battle with the republican-led committee on benghazi. and her allies have already launched a preemptive strike. >> as secretary of state she stood strong for america. traveling almost a million miles. never backing down. but now, republicans are playing politics over benghazi. plus, answers on two of the biggest waiting games in washington. paul ryan's bid for house speaker seems to be all but guaranteed. while joe biden says no to a presidential run. and then this --

>> strike three called! >> and with that, the mets sweep the cubs, winning their first trip to the world series in 15 years. the big question now is, who will meet them there? it's 5:30 on the east coast it 2:30 out west, and this is "way too early." good morning. it's thursday october 22nd. i'm jonathan capehart. in just a few short hours, former secretary of state hillary clinton is scheduled to appear before the house select committee on benghazi in what is a make or break moment in the 2016 race for the white house. clinton has been off the campaign trail huddling with top advisers, past and present, at her washington home, preparing for what is slated to be eight