>> 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 hours of testimony.

clinton previously testified for more than five hours before congressional inquiries into benghazi in 2013, where at times, she struck a confrontational tone. >> the fact is, we had four dead americans, was it because of a protest? or was it because of guys out for a walk who decided to kill some americans. what difference at this point does it make? it is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again. >> clinton is expected to again focus on the mission of america's diplomats, but she faces new information as the state department has provided the committee with thousands of e-mails from chris stevens, the american ambassador who died in the attack, including 900 more just yesterday. "the washington post" reports that clinton's democratic allies are focused on discrediting the 17-month investigation, while the super pac supporting her launched its first ad yesterday, seizing on house republicans' recent comments -- recent

comments about the committee. >> republicans are playing politics over benghazi. >> everybody thought hillary clinton was unbeatable. right? but we put together a benghazi special committee. a select committee. what are her numbers today? >> republicans can play political games. but hillary clinton will always stand strong. >> a new monmouth university poll finds a majority of registered voters, 54%, say that the panel is more interested in going after clinton than learning the facts. this while a plurality in the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll feel the committee is too unfair and partisan. 36% to 29% who believe it is impartial. paul ryan seems poised to become the next speaker of the house of representatives. yesterday, a supermajority of the conservative house freedom caucus backed ryan and his requests to take over the speaker's job. ryan didn't receive the 80% of the vote needed to get the full endorsement of the nearly 40-member faction.

their previous candidate little-known florida congressman daniel webster says he's still in the race. ryan reacted last night, saying he's grateful for the support. and called it a positive step forward. ryan is expected to receive the endorsement of the other two caucuses. the tuesday group and republican study group, by his deadline tomorrow. speaker john boehner has set the republican caucus vote for his successor for this wednesday, october 28th, with a vote on the house floor the day after, one week from today. turning now to vice president joe biden, who yesterday, in the rose garden, flanked by his wife jill, and president obama, ended months of speculation and bowed out of the 2016 race for the white house. >> as my family and i have worked through the grieving process, 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. i know from previous experience that there is no timetable for this process. the process doesn't respect or much care about things like filing deadlines, or debates in primaries and caucuses. but i also know that i could do this if -- i couldn't do this if the family wasn't ready. the good news is, the family has reached that point. beau is our inspiration. unfortunately, i believe we're out of time. the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination. >> soon after biden's announcement, reaction from across the political spectrum began pouring in. hillary clinton tweeting 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. bernie sanders also thanked biden for his service, and wished him well. and while biden called for democrats to run on the obama legacy, the vermont senator had this to say last night on msnbc. >> 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 is 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. you know, i think we need to stand up to wall street in a way that -- that the president and the vice president have not. >> donald trump sent out a tweet saying he thinks biden made the right decision, and that he'd rather run against hillary clinton because, quote, her

record is so bad. and here's jeb bush yesterday on the campaign trail. >> i was actually -- i'm kind of surprised. i thought he was going to run. i guess this will be the end of his public service, maybe. when he finishes his term as vice president. i thought he would have been a pretty competitive candidate in the democratic nomination. >> now south carolina would have been essential to a biden run. and former chairman of the state democratic party and biden confidant was slightly less nuanced in his assessment of the vice president's chances. he told the huffington post, quote, he would have kicked her ass. he would have kicked her ass. write that down. end quote. recent polling does little to support that theory. and it also shows clinton has the most to gain from biden's exit. our latest -- "wall street journal" poll has clinton leading sanders by 20 points when biden is included in the race, and 25 points when he's

not in president obama's expected to veto a sweeping defense spending bill later today, because of how the measure was funded. the white house is opposed to any increase in military spending if it doesn't also come with an increase in domestic spending. this bill circumvents the spending gaps by adding $38 billion to a separate war fighting account. the obama administration called it a quote, funding gimmick, while congressional republicans call the veto threat irresponsible. we're learning new details about the meeting between syrian president bashar al assad, and russian president vladimir putin. the two met on tuesday to discuss joint military operations in syria to preserve assad's government. now, despite russia's military intervention, "the new york times" describes the two men as having a chilly personal relationship. here's nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel. >> reporter: russia seems to want to show the world it's a super power once more. releasing new footage today of

what it claims are more than 40 airstrikes over syria in the past 24 hours. a lifeline for assad. but russia may be trying to broker an end to the conflict. putin saying military operations will lay the base for a long-term political settlement. but after a quarter million dead, can any political solution include assad? u.s. officials tell nbc news that putin may be propping up assad, only to transition him out later. >> that was nbc's richard engel reporting. tomorrow, secretary of state john kerry will meet with russia's foreign minister, and other leaders to discuss a political solution to the syria crisis. right now, secretary kerry is in berlin, where he'll meet with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu about escalating violence in the region. it comes amid a wave of near daily attacks between israelis and palestinians over the last month at least ten israelis and

47 palestinians have been killed. meanwhile, netanyahu has sparked controversy for suggesting that a top palestinian religious leader during world war ii persuaded hitler to carry out the holocaust. experts and survivors called netanyahu's comments historically inaccurate. german chancellor angela merkel responded to netanyahu's claim during a joint news conference yesterday, making it clear that germany alone is responsible for the holocaust. back here in the u.s., we're learning more about the tragic road rage shooting that claimed the life of a toddler on a freeway in new mexico. albuquerque police now say 32-year-old tony torres has been arrested and confessed to shooting 4-year-old lily garcia. according to police she was sitting beside her brother in the back seat of her father's pickup truck on the way home from school, when her father was involved in some kind of road rage incident. shots were fired into the car as they drove down i-40. the fbi, which has also launched

its own investigation into the shooting, said there is no indication that the gunman, or the child's father, knew each other. let's turn now to business, more bad news for yahoo! a major move from youtube. and subway is now breaking out the ruler to make sure your foot long sub is actually a foot long. cnbc's steve sedgwick joins us live from london. steve, let's start with yahoo! the company's stock took a nosedive yesterday. why is that? >> yeah, big concerns of marissa mayer's plans, jonathan, are not coming up. they've got this big stake in ali baba which is worth over $22 billion. they've got other investments and $5.5 billion in cash to get to a value of $30.4 billion. the market value is now at $29.5 billion. so you can see people are less than happy with the things that marissa mayer is doing at the moment and have less confidence in her going forward. google has announced what could be a netflix killer called youtube red. it's an ad-free subscription video service. it will cost $9.99 for desk top

and android per calendar month. $12.99 on i-os. it will have exclusive content you can't get else where. and the subway story. when is a foot not a foot? there was a lawsuit in 2013, there was a video that went viral saying instead of being twelve inches a sub was eleven inches and now subway are saying we didn't do anything wrong necessarily, but they're putting tape measures that go to twelve inches, and possibly not eleven inches for their sub into some of their stores as well and changing their communications activity, as well, in order to say to people can actually get their twelve inches, rather than eleven inches on their foot long subs. back to you. >> cnbc's steve sedgwick. thank you very much. still ahead on "way too early," 2015 shapes up to be the hottest year on record. plus -- >> look at the size of that champagne bottle!

>> the mets bring out the bubbly to celebrate their march to the world series. highlights from the history-making game when "way too early" comes right back. it takes a lot of work... to run this business. but i really love it. i'm on the move all day long... and sometimes, i just don't eat the way i should. so i drink boost® to get the nutrition that i'm missing. boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones

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if your pill isn't giving you the control you need... ...ask your doctor about... ...non-insulin victoza®. it's covered by most health plans. here's the payoff pitch to fowler, on the way. and it's in there, strike three called! the mets win the pennant! the new york mets have won the national league pennant! put it in the box! >> the new york mets with an 8-3 victory completing their four-game sweep of the chicago cubs, and punching their ticket to the world series. new york just out to another early lead last night. lucas duda hit a three-run homer in the first inning, and then a two-run double in the second. quickly quieting hopes of a chicago comeback. the cubs were unable to reduce on offense against the mets' stellar pitching all series

long. chicago was held to the lowest-ever team batting average in an nlcs. meanwhile, mets postseason sensation daniel murphy went four for five in the game. his final at-bat, came in the eighth inning with a man on first. >> one more. in the air. deep right center field. that ball is gone! >> the two-run shot means murphy has now homered in six consecutive playoff games. an all-time postseason record. the historic feat easily earns him honors for series mvp. we'll see if he can carry that momentum into the fall classic. now to toronto. the second team contending for a world series championship has yet to be decided as the blue jays stay alive against kansas city with a 7-1 win in game five of the alcs. toronto's estrada allowed just

one earned run. troy tulowitzki has three rbis and the jays cut the royals' series down -- the series lead down to one game. game six is tomorrow night in kansas city. now, to the nba and news of a long-awaited payday. trysten thompson's holdout is over. he has agreed to re-sign with the cavaliers for a five-year, $85 million deal. it will make thompson the sixth highest paid power forward in the league. and finally, texan star defensive end j.j. watts lets us in on a warm-up routine in which he shows sof some impersonations of hollywood stars. take a look. >> my name is -- motivational speaker. it's shark week! let me tell you what's going to

happen. we're going to go off -- take the world by the horns. did we recently become best friends? yep. don't touch my drum set. don't touch it! i -- i'm completely lost in my workout right now. well you're gonna end up living in a van down by the river! warming up. what am i doing? >> that was j.j. watt. let's turn to weather. and for that we head up to 30 rock and meteorologist bill karins. -- >> down by the river part. that was all right. he did this one that one i mean it was okay. >> yeah -- >> -- wasn't 30 seconds worthy. but i mean it was okay. >> look i just -- i didn't cut the tape bill. just do the weather. >> i will. i got new pieces of video in texas has had some bad flooding

same with new mexico. lubbock, texas, has reported some significant flash flooding in the region. this video just coming in. we've also had water rescues in odessa. it's kind of widespread in western texas. slow moving thunderstorms that moved through all last night and driving in that region of the country this morning you can see that water level up about one or two feet there in that parking lot. we still have a couple of flash flood warnings just outside of san angelo. this line of storms is slowly going to make its way toward wichita falls and san angelo this morning, also up around abilene, texas. we're under a tornado watch, too. thankfully we haven't had any tornadoes. still an isolated chance this morning. that should be dropped shortly. and this flash flood watch goes from oklahoma city to waco all the way back in to new mexico. we're going to expect upwards, two to five inches widespread. isolated cases of ten inches of rain. that's a lot of water. remember we had that 20 inch rainfall in south carolina with the historic epic flood. this would be about half of that. and the difference is we're going to spread this out over three days. that's why we're not calling for epic river flooding and flash flooding.

we will have isolated cases and a lot of pictures. dallas to waco area, this is a bull's-eye of seven inches. the orange is up to five inches of rain. there's also some great weather out there today. record high possible in st. louis. 84 today. 78 in d.c. this is the last of the really warm days for areas like boston, prove since, hartford, new york and philly as cooler air moves in tomorrow. who knows the next time it will be near 80 in d.c. >> that's fine by me, bill. thanks very much. 2015 is on track to become the warmest year in recorded history according to federal scientists. it was the hottest september on record by a margin of 0.2 degrees. now while that might not sound like much, it's the greatest rise above average of any other month in recorded history. it's the fifth straight month this year that's hit a record high. scientists say greenhouse gases are one reason behind the rise. but another major contributor is this year's massive el nino. still ahead, a blast from the past. movie buffs make the most of

"back to the future" day. despite getting the whole cubs making the world series things wrong. a look at the best moments from the real october 21st, 2015. when "way too early" comes right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ the beautiful sound of customers making the most of their united flight. power, wi-fi, and streaming entertainment. that's... seize the journey friendly. ♪ it takes a lot of work... but i really love it.s. i'm on the move all day long... and sometimes, i just don't eat the way i should. so i drink boost® to get the nutrition that i'm missing.

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well, it quickly became clear yesterday that russia's ambassador to the uk has never

seen the second film in the harold and kumar series. he tweeted out a photo that was supposed to show a quote terrorist rejoicing. it was a scene from the movie harold and kumar escape from guantanamo bay. the american actor who played him in the movie and fun fact once worked in the white house told his followers he couldn't stop laughing at the mistake, and highlighted the absurdity of the whole situation by tweeting a photo of the soviet boxer ivan drago from rocky 4 back to the ambassador. now to jimmy kim s&l broadcasting for brooklyn all week and he's featured natives like jay-z and bernie sanders. but he also got some locals to take their shot at the biggest movie of the year. >> we asked these guys to revoice the star wars trailer using instead of the actors, using their voices with their brooklyn accents and here's how that came out. >> hey, what's up?

how's everything? everything all right? >> whoo! >> hey, wait up! >> why don't you keep up you [ bleep ] >> hey, how you doing? >> how you doin'? >> watch out. >> hey, whoa! >> what's wrong with you? >> oh. >> move over! >> hey. come on that's right. you think you're tough? you're a tough guy? >> hey, the force is calling. >> take a message. >> i'm not your [ bleep ] secretary. >> star wars, fugeddaboutit. >> speaking of epic franchises it was a very eventful "back to the future" day. jimmy kimmel celebrated with a little help from michael j. fox and christopher lloyd who reprised their roles as marty mcfly and doc brown who stopped by the set in none other than the delorean. though the 2015 imagined in the beloved 1989 film features flying cores, hover boards,

self-lacing sneakers and the chicago cubs in the world series, at least we've got the shoes now. >> they lace up all on their own? >> yeah, see? >> wow. awesome. >> nike says the limited supply of the self--lacing sneaks will be auctioned off next year with proceeds going to the michael j. fox foundation. and lastly we learned that a certain back to the future villain was inspired by donald trump. the film's screen writer told the daily beast that both he and the film's director had trump in mind when they created the biff tannin character back in 1989. and that does it for me and "way too early." a packed edition of "morning joe" straight ahead. hillary clinton heads in today's hearings on benghazi with the wind at her back. a great debate performance improving poll numbers, no

challenge from joe biden and what could be a make or break moment on capitol hill. and it seems paul ryan's bid for house speaker is all but guaranteed with the conservative freedom caucus voting to support the wisconsin congressman. does that mean the republican leadership crisis is over? that and much more coming up next on "morning joe." life's all about learning.... asking questions.... having new experiences. are you ready? the key to a happy satisfying life is to always be curious. jibo, how are you doing? i'm great! every moment is our moment. are you enjoying this? it's been such a whirlwind. i want to get to know people and understand their ideas about everything. so you can too.

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here's the playoff pitch on the way and it's in there. strike three. the mets win the pennant. the new york mets have won the national league pennant. >> oh wow. welcome to morning joe. it's thursday, october 22nd. did you see that, joe? you stayed up late to watch, right? >> i sure did. in between watching back to the future on back to the future day with my children, we were flipping over. it was really just unbelievable what the new york mets were able to accomplish