it is monday, may 23rd. breaking overnight, the u.s. lifts its arms embargo with vietnam. and retaking the isis controlled city of faluja. and president obama calls it an important milestone. plus the polls tighten between hillary clinton and donald trump. the search for egyptair flight 804 goes undersea. well, good monday morning to you. i'm betty win are nguyen.

president obama announces that the u.s. is lifting the long held arms embargo with vietnam. the president arrived in vietnam overnight for his first day in a three-day visit. trace trace rr how big of a deal is it? >> reporter: it wipes away one of the last elements of the cold war but it does not mean that the u.s. and vietnam are on the same page on everything, namely human rights. despite lingering concerns about human rights, this morning president obama announced the u.s. is lifting its near decades long arms embargo with vietnam. >> this will insure that vietnam has access to the equipment it needs to defend itself. >> reporter: and it eases

vietnam's reliance on russia and they announced new investment in vietnam. new planes from boeing, engines, totaling $16 billion and the white house says new jobs. >> new companies and new jobs being created constantly. so, the united states wants to be a part of that. >> reporter: there are still concerns about human rights abuses in vietnam, which the president says will be addressed. >> we need to work constantly together, expand our dialogue together and by so doing, we can narrow the gap. >> reporter: historic agreements announced today expanding america's reach into one of the fastest growing regions of the world. and the president weighed in on the transpacific partnership, the trade deal that's been weighed down here on capital hill, stalled in action so far. the president says he realizes

it's an election year, but he's still confident it will get done. iraq forces have begun a massive offensive to retake fallujah from isis. an additional 15,000 troops expected. on twitter, the iraqi prime minister says he announces the offensive saying zero hoir for liberation of fa all, lujah has arrived. a one of the first cities to fall under isis control has remained a safe haven for isis ever since. taliban leader mansour has been killed. they launched an air strike targeting the taliban's top commander. the taliban is thrown into its second leadership crisis within

a year. now, this was carried out saturday by multiple unmanned military drones as mansour and another taliban fighter drove in a remote area of the pakistan-afghanistan border. it's bleevlelieved to be the fi drone strike in taliban headquarters. in a new msnbc wall street journal poll, hillary clinton edges trump by just three points nationally. in april, she held an 11 point advantage over the businessman. on "meet the press" she hit him on everything. >> i do not want americans -- and good thinking republicans as well as democrats and independents, to start to believe that this is a normal candidacy. we're going to demonstrate he

has no ideas. there's no evidence he has any ideas about making america great. and we're going to be demonstrating the hollowness of his rhetoric. and the danger of a lot of what he has said. >> so, in a hypothetical match up between bernie sanders and trump reveal as very different result. that same poll has sandarers beating trump by 15 points. and in an interview yesterday, sanders made news why arguing why he would do better than clinton in november. >> we needed a campaignen, an election which does not have two candidates who are really very, very strongly disliked. i don't want to see the american people voting for the lesser of two evils. >> is that how you would describe hillary clinton? the lesser of two evils?

>> no, that's not how i would describe it. that's what the american people are saying. >> here's what sanders said yesterday on his feud with schultz. >> clearly i favor her opponent. his views are much closer to mine than schultz is. and let me also say this, in all due respect to the current chair person, if elected president, she would not be reapointed to be chair of the dnc. meanwhile, shortly after the nra indorsed donald trump, trump could still use campaign donations to pay himself back for his primary run. after a long back and forth on this issue, trump has said he would convert all the funds from his campaign into contributions. however, he has made no steps to do so and the invitation to his first joint rnc fund raising

event specifies that first $2700 raised would go back to repaying trump for his primary campaign. the search for the black boxes of the downed egyptair 804 is is on. the president has deployed a submarine. it's believed to be underwater equipment normally used by the off shore oil industry. waters could reach two miles deep from the surface. that puts the black box and locater beacons just on the edge of the detectable range. the egyptian military released images of the debris. 66 people were on board when that plane crashed. french investigators say the plane sent a signal that smoke was detected in the bathroom moments before it disappeared

from radar but no definitive word on what brought down the aircraft and the egyptian president stresses that all scenarios are possible. they have previously said terrorism is a more likely reason for a crash, compared to a technical issue. time to get down to business with cnbc's landon dowdy. >> good monday morning to you and it's going to cost just a bit more to fill up your car. the average price of regular unled rising a nickel to $2.32 a gallon. it's 35 cents since eight years ago. and possibly in the works today, germany's bear, the maker of chemical prescription drugs and aspirin is offering to buy monsanto for $62 billion. it would create the largest

agriculture products maker. the markets look to break out of the dull drums this week. and the dow although closing higher is down for the past four weeks on speculation that the fed could raise rates next month. all about the fed and the possible rate hike coming. >> people watching very closely for that one. thank you so much. alarming news about how soon zika may be directly effecting americans. and a graduation day surprise that floored the crowd and major crowd trouble to show you. you're watching "first look."

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what a stormy day yesterday. severe storms brought hail, rain, and this massive twister, no injuries or damage reported. the tornados were right where we like them, out over the farmers' fields.

we all about 27 reported yesterday. meanwhile, that was a massive tornado. this was as far north as south dakota. and chelk o check out this large cone tornado. at times it was about 200 yards wide. there it got a little more defined right there. we're talking severe weather this week. we're dealing with bad weather this morning. this line of thunderstorms between oklahoma and north texas. sherman, texas is the next area that could be hit by that line. that's what this complex down to the south and strong storms moving into northwest iowa. so, as far as today goes, we're going to reload, and severe weather from minneapolis to texas. and with the strongest of the storms, once again large hail. yesterday we had three inch

diameter hail. we spread into the central plains and now kansas city, wichita, so slowly the severe weather threat will move across the country this week. the other story is yesterday was in the 50s in washington d.c., betty. 72 with a chance of more rain and storms, but there's hope. tuesday, 81. >> yes. >> that would be the first 80 degree day for d.c. >> i tell you what, they're so sick of rain. all right, thank you, bill. well, mosquitos carrying the zika virus could start effecting people in the u.s. a month ago. he is urging a robust response. >> we need to prepare for that and make sure the local outbreaks don't become sustained. we need to have a forceful preparation right now before that happens. the international olympic

committee will distribute 450,000 condoms. part of the increase is 100,000 female condoms offered for the first time. they have not yet answered if the increase is due in part to zika, the mosquito born virus can also be transmitted sexually. check this out, a sink hole suddenly swallows cars parked on a city street and a tree to go with it. the 16-foot wide hole gaubled up four cars. no injuries reported. and a graduation in oklahoma went from typical to this. [ applause ] graduating senior mika mcdade was born with cerebral palsy, but that didn't stop him from ditching that wheelchair and walking across that stage and

those efforts earn him a well deserved standing ovation from his class mates. congratulations. now to sports, the golden state warriors, midway through the second and draymond green gets adams below the bolt. the thunder stormed on to a run after that. and had a 41-point lead at one point. in the end, the thunder rolled to a 103-35 win. to golf now and sergio garcia. he won the bayern nelson championship. it is his ninth pga tour victory and first since 2012. ♪ and the home of the brave [ applause ]

>> how's that for a randition. 89-year-old holocaust survivor singing the "national anthem", she's been a tigers fan since coming to the united states. she sung that beautifully, didn't she? so, nra pushes back on the gun groups' trump indorsement. (pilot talking to tower on radio) once you get out here... there's just one direction... forward. one time: now. and there's just one sound. you and us... together. telling the world... we're coming for you. plenty fast. but it's not how fast you mow,t? it's how well you mow fast. it's not how fast you mow, it's how well you mow fast. it's not how fast you mow, (both) it's how well you mow fast.

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of scrambled politics. donald trump may not be the only billionaire on the ticket. shark tank star, here's what he said to nbc's chuck todd. >> absolutely. but she'd have to go more to center. i like the fact that senator clinton has thought out proposals. at least we get to see where she stands. >> and here's what he said about the possibility of becoming trump's vp. >> same. i'm an independent and i'm fiercely independent and think for myself and id'd have the sae conversation for donald. he has a chance to win and that's scary for a lot of people. and the hitting the presumptive naumpany for his proposal on banning muslims. and a member back lash after

they indorsed donald trump. it was a push for gop unity, but not all members are eager to fall into line. one member said i have no clue why they did it. another ended his 30-year member.ship saying you can indorse all you want but you don't get to tell your dues paying membership get over it. i didn't leave the nra, the nra left me. and in snl's final episode of the season, hillary clinton and bernie sanders set aside their differences and danced it out, but not before a little push back. >> all right. i think i'm going to head home. don't you work too late now. >> oh, i won't, mrs. clinton. i'm closing up right now, so everybody's got to go. that means you, sir. >> no freakin' way. [ applause ] i'm not going anywhere. i can stay here as long as i

want. >> senator sanders, i'm sorry but the night is over. >> no, no it's not over. it's not over till i say it's over. >> and that is your morning dish of scrambled politics. >> you think they're hinting at something there. >> it's not over. >> never. 22 minutes past the hour. i have with me political analyst and best selling author, always good to see you. we have breaking news overnight. the president announcing that the u.s. is lifting its arms embargo with vietnam. when we talk about how big of a deal this is, you say the reaction is not going to be that bad about this. >> is betty nguyen asking me about vietnam? >> you're the expert. >> i may have to bow to you on this one. clearly there is still human rights problems in vietnam. but bad stuff happening. but i think on the minds of most americans, boy, that war seems

like a long time ago. >> you don't think the wounds are still fresh in the minds of many? >> there are still some but in the era of al qaeda and isis and other things, it has shoved aside -- but keep your eye on china. americans amuch more concerned about china. >> and the president said this was made independently of the whole china situation but somewhere in between you got to think that played a role. >> they're bickering about the islands in the south china sea and i think these weapons are primarily designed, we hope, for defensive purposes. >> i want to get to the campaign. looking like donald trump was bragging about self funding this and we haven't seen him actually do that. is that going to happen? >> you know, it does seem like he would like to be repaid a

little bit. one thing to remember is even if you're a billionaire and we don't know quite how many billions he has, but even they can be cheap. >> his word was he was going to self fund this. >> it sounds like he's laying the predicate for the fund raising to repay the loans he made for the campaign. but keep an eye on that. cheap billionaires. >> you heard it right here, folks. up ahead, we'll have all the highlights from last night's billboard i can draw lightly, just like i would with a real pencil. i've been a forensic artist for over 30 years. i do the composite sketches which are the bad guy sketches. you need good resolution, powerful processor because the computer has to start thinking as fast as my brain does. i do this because i want my artwork to help people.

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shoshow me more like this.e. show me "previously watched." what's recommended for me. x1 makes it easy to find what you love. call or go online and switch to x1. only with xfinity. . so, at last night's billboard music awards, brittany

spears had a medley of hits. and pink stunned as she spun above the crowd on a rope. . and people at home, well they could not help but notice demy lovato's t-shirt suggested her support of the transgender community and the political bathroom debate. and kesha, she was given permission to sing at the awards. she sang a tribute to bob dylan and received a standing ovation. celine dion, she gave a powerful performance before being awarded the billboard icon award and broke down in tears when her son surprised her on stage to give her the award. >> i didn't expect -- i'm sorry, i don't want to cry in front of you. honey, this one's for you. the show must go on. >> that just gave me chills. and madonna was joined by stevie

wonder to sing "purple rain" in an emotional tribute to prince. i'm betty nguyen. this is first look on msnbc. and "way too early" starts right now. ♪ bar tender, i've done it. i've won the nomination. i mean, no i haven't, i keep losing states but mathematically, i've done it. to math. all right. i think i'm going to head home. don't you work too late. >> i'm closing up the bar right now. so, everybody's got to go. that means you, sir. >> no freakin' way. [ applause ] i'm not going anywhere. i can stay here as long as i want. >> senator sanders, i'm sorry, but the night is over. >> no, no, it's not over. it's not over till i say it's

over. >> oh, hello, bernie. i didn't see you sitting behind me. so far behind me you could never catch up. >> new numbers out this morning in the race for president and it's a dead heap between donald trump and hillary clinton, plus new clues into why bernie sanders is sticking around. also, big news from overseas as president obama continues his pivot to asia, this morning visiting vietnam. we're going to break down the next stop in normalizing relations. and targeted and killed, the u.s. takes out the taliban's top leader. president obama calling it a quote milestone for afghan peace. it is 5:30 a.m. on the east coast and this is "way too early." ♪