with the bureau investigators at fbi headquarters. she was questioned for more than three hours saturday over her use of a private e-mail server to conduct official business during her time as secretary of state. it's widely believed that clinton would be one of the last people to be interviewed during the open fbi investigation. so with her interview being done, could this be wrapping up? nbc's kelly o'donnell joins me now on the phone. and kelly has traveled to fbi headquarters to get in place in advance of director comey's statement. kelly, right now we can only speculate about what this means, but why would director comey kind of send out a cryptic briefing update at 11:00 a.m. if it didn't have to do with the three-and-a-half hour meeting with hillary clinton? >> well, i don't want to presume to know what's in the mind of the fbi director. but i can tell you i'm at the j. edgar hoover fbi building in downtown washington.

and everything you just described, the way this message went out to the media, giving everyone plenty of time to assemble, giving us guidance that he would make a statement but we should not expect him to answer questions, given the timing and the environment we are in politically, it would certainly suggest that this could relate to the e-mail investigation. honestly, we do not know yet. james comey is someone who is very by the book, he is respected by people in both parties. he has served in government for a long time, but also outside government. and he has been sort of in the firing line on very politically charged issues that relate to the conduct of government officials in his history. so he is someone who is steeled to the political pressure. of course, thomas, this also comes after there was so much criticism of the meeting that former president bill clinton had with the current attorney general, loretta lynch, that airport sort of chance meeting as it's been described.

it's been talked about as if it were pleasantries and so forth, but it did cast a shadow one that hillary clinton acknowledges and her husband and the attorney general would not do that again. and even more i think heart felt from loretta lynch, described it as being being painful that that meeting cast a shadow in the department of justice. so one question will be if the interview on saturday, and i was outside secretary clinton's house much of the day waiting for her to come and go. three-and-a-half hours in an investigative sense is not considered a very long time for questions. and it would suggest that she was perhaps really the end note of the investigative phase. again, we're just speculating here, just trying to give some context for what we expect to happen in an hour. but the facts will be revealed by the fbi director, and we'll wait for that. the other timing that's so interesting, thomas, we know that hillary clinton will travel on air force one today with the

president on their first campaign joint appearance of this political season. and so to have an announcement related to her investigation, if that is what it is, just hours before they appear together is kind of extraordinary in the cluster of news in washington that if she would be cleared, for example, that certainly frees up the president to be seen with her. if it's something else, i guess we'll judge that as it comes. thomas? >> so real fast, and just bear with me as we go over potential scenarios. as you point out, president obama traveling on air force one to north carolina later today to be the campaigner in chief for hillary clinton, the highest profile political surrogate for the presumptive democratic nominee. but scenarios, if this does have to do anything with the open investigation with hillary clinton and the private e-mail server. could this be, one, the director says we did have the interview

with secretary clinton, this remains open until further notice. two, could it be, yes, she was the last interview to be had, so we've conducted what the puzzle pieces are, and we'll be handing this over to the doj. or is there something else that could be playing out with the scenario? >> reporter: well, i think all of those are possible scenarios. and part of this may be that since the clinton campaign put out a statement, it may simply be that the fbi director wants from his position to also comment on the status of this matter, which has gone on for more than a year. perhaps he can give us a time line. there have been some legal experts we have talked to who expected it could take additional time, because with the addition of whatever comments in the interview secretary clinton has added to this, do they need to still go back and do any kind of comparison to others who have been interviewed or sort of document evidence or other aspects of the investigation. we don't know. so it could be a progress report, it could be an announcement of an intention to

notify the attorney general of findings in this matter. and i suppose there's a possibility it could be wholly unrelated. >> correct. >> however, i would think that perhaps some of our fbi sources might have been able to give us an indication about that. we just don't know. >> okay. and kelly, one other point. clinton agreeing, and she had said on the campaign trail that she was willing to take meetings and the interview with the fbi. was this negotiated to be a one and done for secretary clinton, or could comey say we're interested in speaking with the secretary at another point three-and-a-half hours just wasn't enough? >> reporter: well, both would be possible. but i think when you consider that she has one of the finest lawyers in washington, a long-time attorney for the clintons, who has strong weapons with department of justice, and they have been negotiating the terms of her appearance. it was voluntary. it was not a deposition where sworn testimony was given.

but at the same time, it should be noted there is legal jeopardy if you are interviewed by the fbi and you don't do so truthfully. that's a violation of law. so you don't need an oath to do this. and it was cast as a voluntary interview, which suggests no subpoena was involved. there was cooperation. typically, with cooperation, the terms would be decided for both parties that would be mutually agreeable. meaning one time to ask all the questions needed of secretary clinton. that would be my best presumption of what her counsel would have sought and received. if something came out of the interview that was a new avenue for them to pursue, perhaps that changes things. but they also could have taken additional time on saturday. and you have to imagine, with the number of investigators who were participating, people would different specialties and knowledge of aspects of the investigation, questioning her, that they had perhaps prepared sufficiently to have all of the things they needed to know on

the table. we just don't know. but i think the greatest presumption is that this would have been a negotiation for one appearance, ask everything you need to and then moving on. that would be most beneficial to secretary clinton and her campaign. >> 53 minutes to go until we expect to hear from james comey. our kelly o'donnell in place at fbi headquarters. thanks so much. again, an e-mail going out explaining that fbi director comey would speak to reporters coming up at 11:00 a.m. >> reporter: thank you, appreciate it. >> there would not be questions fielded by reporters on-scene there. and also just to give you the context of that three-and-a-half hour appearance by secretary clinton with fbi investigators, according to nbc news reporting, the secretary was not under oath. but if -- like anybody else being interviewed by the fbi, they would be subject to the false statement act if they were to mislead or somehow knowingly lie during that appearance.

nbc's kristen welker is in north carolina, ahead of today's first obama/clinton rally. this is certainly unusual for modern sitting presidents to be out on the campaign trail. reagan was last for bush 41. we know that president obama is a great surrogate for clinton. let's talk about the jeopardy here if comey's statement has anything to do with the fbi investigation. and then president obama showing up on the campaign trail for her. >> reporter: right. well, on the one hand, as kelly just rightfully said, thomas, if he does come out and essentially says case closed, this would undoubtedly be hugely significant for the clinton campaign. if he comes out and says anything else or if it's a statement unrelated to her e-mails, we'll have to judge that based on what he says. thomas, i think here's the bottom line. there is no single issue that has overshadowed the clinton campaign as much as this e-mail

controversy. it comes up almost on a weekly basis. it continues to feed into voters' distrust of secretary clinton. of course, her untrustworthy numbers at 55%. that's a real problem. it's a real liability in a general election. so they more than anyone want this issue to be wiped off the table. so that's one. in terms of president obama being out on the campaign trail, thomas, the timing is significant, because it does come on the heels of that weekend interview she had with the fbi. they're trying to turn the page. clearly, this appearance by james comey aside. and they think that president obama is the strongest character witness for secretary clinton. you're going to hear him talk about the fact that they were once former rivals and then they turned into the closest of confidant confidantes. his decision to choose her as secretary of state. what it was like to work with her. why he is going to argue he thinks she is uniquely suited for the office of the presidency. they also think that given he is a sitting president, he is

uniquely suited to make those arguments. he is also proven himself to be a very effective attack dog against donald trump. he, of course, doesn't typically mention donald trump's name, thomas. but you can get he's going to be drawing some very sharp distinctions here with secretary clinton and donald trump. but there's no doubt that the timing of this is significant. it comes as we're also getting a new nbc news survey monkey online poll. secretary clinton still has a lead, leads by five points, down a little bit from last week when the survey was conducted. so the stakes are very high right now. people are paying attention, and we're about to head into the conventions, which is what makes this joint appearance so significant. >> and also, countries kristen north carolina, explain why it is a state in play. >> reporter: yep. well, first of all, president obama won north carolina back in 2008. it was a big battle ground state back then. he lost it in 2012.

donald trump almost certainly needs to win north carolina in order to have a real shot at winning the presidency. so the democrats think if they can take this state back that that would almost ensure that secretary clinton would go to the white house if she were, of course, to win other big battleground states like pennsylvania, like ohio, where she has been campaigning vigorously, as well. north carolina is a state that has been coming increasingly diverse. they think president obama helps rally african-american voters here, american voters and also suburban voters who are going to be so critical. so north carolina, a very important state in this general election. and i think it's just underscored which by the fact that is where the president and secretary clinton are making their first joint appearance. thomas, you can't overstate the optics of today. these two getting off of air force one together at the same time, and then rallying voters at this huge arena here in charlotte. >> folks i've been talking to, insiders politically, saying

this could be the real moment to see how these two pair up to energize the base, not only in north carolina, but florida, virginia, georgia. those all-important southern states. kristen welker in charlotte for us. great to see you. thank you. also happening right now, donald trump on defense. the candidate not apologizing after finding himself in hot water over a deleted tweet that saw as anti semitic. a six-pointed star of david, calling hillary clinton corrupt. the anti defamation league says it is the latest in a pattern that is perplexing, troubling and wrong. trump is so far mum, other than a paper statement hitting hillary clinton, and tweets calling the media dishonest. the presumptive gop nominally will try to put the controversy behind him today. he will also be in north carolina in it raleigh, with what could be a general election ticket. msnbc's kasie hunt covering the trump campaign, and kasie, this is a big rally today, potential running mate, his appearance with senator bob corker.

but the twitter controversy remains an active issue for his campaign to talk about. >> reporter: it is an active issue, thomas. and i think obviously this has been part of a pattern with the trump campaign, where something along these lines has happened and they have not apologized. and that's, again, what has happened here. you had the tweet and paper statement as you mentioned, blaming hillary and saying that the star in question is a sheriff's badge. now, here's what we know about how the twitter feed of donald trump can work. one of his top social media advisers, typically tweets during business hours. and he had a tweet out also in the wake of this, saying, quote, for the msm to suggest i am anti-semite is awful. i proudly celebrate holidays with my wife's amazingly jewish family for the past 16 years. now, the graphic itself came from social media.

and the account that tweeted it also had a history of tweeting other racist imagery. but, of course, the trump campaign is explaining this by saying essentially they homed through an anti hillary clinton twitter feed and found this image. this still doesn't explain the changes made to that image. again, shows hillary clinton, that pile of money and what appears to be a star of david. once that was criticized, it was replaced with an image that had a circle instead. although you could still see some of the points of that star. so what the campaign still has not explained what exactly is wrong with the image they felt the need to take it down and replace it. of course, this is something that the hillary clinton campaign jumped on yesterday, releasing a statement criticizing donald trump over this, that came a day after the anti defamation league condemned this and called on donald trump to condemn racist and

anti-semites supporting him online. this is a story that has stretched out over a couple days and does represent a distraction for the trump campaign, thomas. >> we also know it was tweeted out by the social media director, saying the sheriff's badge, which is available under microsoft shames, fits with the theme of corrupt hillary, and that's why it was selected. but if we look at what is offered on microsoft shapes, there is an option for, quote, a sheriff's badge. it's not present. rather, there is a shape that is noticed there that is a six-point star of david. so kasie hunt on the scene there for us in advance of the rally for donald trump. kasie, thank you very much. we appreciate it. much ahead and more on donald trump's search for a potential vice president. so bob corker is in that top tier. that's going to be the person, the man showing up with trump today. we have not been able to confirm whether he's being vetted or not. but would a controversial conservative running mate help him one over the skeptical republican voters? plus, president obama and

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all right. the presidential race wasting no time getting back into full swing after the july 4th holiday. donald trump defending himself over a controversial tweet, both trump and hillary prepping for big rallies happening in a critical swing state today. that being north carolina. i want to bring in molly ball, politics writer for "the atlantic" and ben ginsburg, former national counsel to both mitt romney's presidential campaign. good to see you both. ben, let me start with you. when we get back to the issue

about this trump tweet and saying that they co opted the imagery and sent it from someone who had images about hillary being corrupt and blah, blah, blah, what's worse? trump sent the tweet knowing it could be viewed as anti semitic or he had no idea that it could create this kind of controversy? >> well, i'm not sure i like those options. look, at best, it was a really bad mistake, which you kind of have to own and then apologize and move on. even if nobody recognized that it had this symbolism to them, then that's sort of a comment about the professionalism of the team and not being sensitive enough to realize it. so you have to own it and just move on. >> well, they would like to move on, and they do have this big rally coming up later today in north carolina. donald trump appearing with senator bob corker. and molly, the two big rallies, north carolina the epicenter today for politics. how much risk is there for

hillary clinton to attach herself to closely to president obama or is there really any negative down side for her, because his favorables are so high currently? >> he is pretty popular right now, certainly more popular than she is. there is always risk in seeming to run for the first -- the third term of the current president, just because a lot of people want change. and if you look at the number of people in this country, according to the polls, who want change, think the country is on the wrong track, for her to be seen as a continuation of the status quo obviously holds risks for her. however, she clearly believes the up side is bigger than the down side. again, obama more popular than he has been in several years, more popular than she is, and very popular with the democratic base. so given that the unity rally with bernie sanders is not available to her at the moment, she can recreate the unity rally from 2008 by appearing alongside the last opponent she faced. >> so that was a good laugh for

a tuesday morning, talking about that. molly, let's talk about the other optics. senator bob corker. going with trump today. when he's being accused, trump, that is, of the anti semitic tweet and also some longer issues, perplexing issues as the anti defamation league has said, about many of the statements he's had to say. now those folks, like mike pence or joannie ernst therefore either to explain away or apologize for him. is corker a good person to be able to do that for trump? >> well, on the one hand, bob corker is someone who has a lot of credibility as a senator, as a politician. he has not always been willing to defend everything that trump does. he has been somewhat critical of trump for some of the controversies. i believe the judge curiel controversy caused corker to back off of trump after

previously been supportive. corker not always popular, viewed as more of a deal-maker, a bit of a moderate, but has foreign policy credentials, something that is sort of an up side for him, especially if we're talking vp. the question as you put it, for a lot of these republican politicians, is how far they're willing to go in defending trump. and so i think that that's caused a lot of them to have to sort of do this hot coals dance every time another of these controversies comes up. >> ben, you have been through this before, obviously, with paul ryan. and you know the optics that go into a selection and also the background necessary that go into picking that selection. top tier candidates that nbc news has been able to vet for a donald trump include bob corker, chris christie, mike pence, newt gingrich and now joannie ernst. ones that we can say have been vetted would be chris christie, mike pence and newt gingrich. we do not have confirmation about joannie ernst or bob corker. but out of those selections, who

do you think best rounds out the experience trump needs as republicans look for that political experience on the ticket? >> well, look, having been through vice presidential vets, which you actually want is to be certain you pick someone who the nation will see as competent to step into the role, and who is compatible with the nominee. so any of those meet that criteria. and the recent polling, it appears that voters want someone o is knowledgeable about the way government works and washington works. any of those would be fine. what the appearance with bob corker is, is an important step in checking out the compatibility and the chemistry of the ticket. and for both hillary clinton and for donald trump, the people who you see campaigning with them in the next few weeks will be the ones who are at the top of the list. >> yeah, these are like public casting calls, like elizabeth warren with hillary clinton and corker in north carolina today. and look for that type of

energy. that type of synergy between the two to electrify the folks that are interested in their message. molly, ben against berg. molly, thank you for the laugh earlier. >> thank you. we have a lot to talk about when it comes to a weekend wave of terror. it was deadly overseas with terror attacks across the globe, isis claiming responsibility for the attacks in iraq and in bangladesh. what this means in the fight against the terror group after the break. you focus on making great burgers, or building the best houses in town. or becoming the next highly-unlikely dotcom superstar. and us, we'll be right there with you, helping with the questions you need answered to get your brand new business started. we're legalzoom and we've already partnered with over a million new business owners to do just that. check us out today to see how you can become one of them. legalzoom. legal help is here.

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measure of the success we're having in taking their territory away from, taking the foreign fighters away, taking the resources away. >> all right. so we go to istanbul, turkey, and nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel. let's talk about that investigation. have turkish officials linked to what happened to the other deadly attacks we have seen since? >> reporter: they have linked it to isis, pointed specifically to members of a russian-speaking cell who left the isis capital of raqqah in syria, and came here about a month before the attacks got together, rented a safe house in the old city of istanbul. and plotted their attack from there, and then executed it. this is very different from the lone wolf attack you saw in orlando, where you had someone who got a high-powered weapon, was able to carry out an attack at that bar. basically on his own accord,

because he was inspired. this was a team of -- a commando style attack. a pack of wo wolves, if you had and is they were much more professional, much more trained and this was essentially a commanded attack. to your point that you're mentioning earlier, this has been a terrible weekend with violence in saudi arabia, three bombings there. the death toll continued to rise from the devastating truck bombing in baghdad. but really, it has been a month of violence. it has been a ramadan of terrorism by design. isis called for attacks during ramadan. ramadan is over now in turkey. but it doesn't end until tomorrow for most of the muslim world. and isis called on its supporter to carry out attacks during ramadan, and unfortunately, many took up that call. >> and so richard, let me ask you about last year's terror attacks in paris. this morning we're learning that

a parliamentarian investigation found that multiple intelligence failures happened. explain what's being done to address that. how they're trying to learn and improve. >> reporter: frankly, i think very little is being done to address it. france is trying to consolidate its own intelligence agencies. we're seeing in france right now something like the 9/11 commission, because the problem with france, which was exposed by the paris attack, was that many different intelligence agencies operate independently, don't share intelligence. we have heard all of this before. but the problem in europe is that even if france were to get its act together and its own internal intelligence agencies cooped better, then there is the problem of europe. and the european intelligence agencies still don't share adequately intelligence, don't pass on tips, don't pass on watch lists and if you pass one country's border and go to

another right now, the trail can effectively stop or be delayed. so yes, france is trying to deal with it and get its intelligence house together. but the problem is much wider than that. >> richard engel reporting there in istanbul, turkey. thank you very much. and, you know, just within the last ten days, we have seen the summer recess out of congress. well, today they're getting back to work, and wrapping up some of their last-minute business on that agenda is a bill that would prohibit gun sales to would-be terrorists. no fly, no buy. so house republicans would be able to push through a bill that democrats are calling just an empty gesture. stay with us. at the beginning of the 21st century, the earth needed to find a new way to keep up with the data from over 30 billion connected devices. just 30 billion? a bold group of researchers and computer scientists in silicon valley, had a breakthrough they called... the machine. it changed computing forever. and it's been part of every new technology for the last 250 years.

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any potential legislation about guns and terrorism. want to get a preview now from capitol hill. nbc's luke russert joins us right now. luke, give us a briefing about what is happening as we know the clock is ticking, even though lawmakers just got back from vacation, there is another long summer recess coming up in ten days. so what can effectively get done? >> reporter: optics, votes that can play to both sides' bases, thomas. remember, before they left for break, this is this protest on the house floor that the democrats moved forward, which is essentially shut down the house representatives, and they said, look, give us a vote on two very well-pulled gun control measures. one, if you're on the terrorist watch list, you can't get on an airplane, you shouldn't be able to buy a weapon. another one, close the gun show loophole. there should be universal background checks, especially at gun shows and sales that go across the internet. republicans have said no to those, because the nra does not like those. the house republicans are going to move forward on their own

amendment which says, look, we agree if you're on the terrorist watch list, you should not be able to buy a whip. however, the government has a 72-hour window to have prove that. democrats say the burden of proof is too difficult. ryan says he's going to move forward on the cornyn amendment which saw a vote in the senate. he's going to have a meeting tonight with civil rights icon representative john lewis of georgia. the idea is that lewis is going to make the case to speaker ryan and say, look, give us a vote on our amendments that we would like to see. that's all we're somethiasking here. the question is whether or not ryan will relent. there is some consternation on the republican side, thomas. if ryan were to allow the votes to go forward, he would be rewarding the behavior which was a protest which republicans are upset about, because they said that was unconsciousable, and in the history of the house, never had anything been done before and tons and tons of rules were

broken. we'll see if the standoff continues this week. both sides feel they have good optics for their basis. >> luke russert, thank you. i want to bring in congressman bill keating. a democrat from massachusetts, ranking member of the house terrorism subcommittee and member of the homeland security committee. good to have you with me. i want to talk about the bill you introduced after the attack in orlando last month. so explain to folks what it does, and is also how specifically you're trying to get support in the days ahead. >> well, people really scratched their heads when they determined that the terrorists in orlando was under fbi investigation, and yet the fbi was not alerted when he was trying to purchase a gun legally. what the terror gap legislation is that i'm proposing would alert the fbi that that person was attempting to purchase a weapon, even though they were no longer on the watch list. >> but omar mateen at that point was not under an active

investigation. >> that's precisely the point. they would be alerted, had they been under that investigation before that this person was trying to purchase the weapons. then there would be -- >> shouldn't american -- sir, shouldn't an american who was not under active fbi investigation, so obviously there is a presumption of innocence. this is what other americans fear is a problem with getting on a terror watch list or being presumed guilty that would automatically make them unavailable to second amendment rights. so with omar mateen not under active investigation -- >> the terror gap -- >> -- he would have access to purchase weapons legally. >> the terror gap legislation that i'm proposing only alerts the fbi to that effect. they still have to move forward with the evidence they have. but wouldn't you think it's common sense that after you've had that investigation and close that investigation in part because the time constraints of

that investigation are limited under law, so that you would like to know later on if that person purchased a gun, because that's valuable information to have. >> but we had that information that he legally -- where those guns came from. but gun right advocates, they would push back on you about what they're trying to do in saying that there is a presumption of guilt for law-abiding americans that would like access to second amendment rights. and how would you combat that? >> my legislation merely -- i was a former prosecutor i'm aware of the constraints, we're minters of justice. what this merely does is give information that's valuable to know. and that information could be a catalyst to saying, you know what, let's look a little deeper with what's going on with this person, and be able to act, should they be moving down a course of terrorism. so all it does is provide the information. does not stop them from any of

their constitutional rights. >> so you think that the -- the approach there and the reasoning would be legally is that this would be a trigger effect to potentially red flag the fbi that someone that had been under active investigation has now legally purchased some type of weapon or weapons that could make them a person of interest again. >> well, we investigated the boston marathon bombing in depth after a year. and we found a lot of red flags that were frankly missed in that bombing that may have prevented that from occurring. one of the things we found out when they do have investigation noose people's activities, sometimes, because of the constraints of time that are under law, the case gets closed prematurely or gets closed and cut off from ever seeing the other information that ensues later. so this is very similar. this simply says that if someone that was under investigation for terrorist activities later on tries to purchase a weapon at a

point when that investigation, the active investigation is closed, that they're aware of that. they can choose not to act on it or they can consider it valuable information that could save lives. >> congressman bill keating, we'll be watching what happens between the time you get back to work and the time before the next recess and if there is any movement on gun reform. thank you, sir. >> thank you. still ahead, new details about a wisconsin college student found dead in rome. what we're learning today about the homeless man arrested in connection to his murder. stay with us. (vo) my name's nick and i make dog chow in denver, colorado. one of my fondest memories of khloe is the day we got her. i knew right there she was gonna be a great dog. khloe's a big influence on the family. she loved lincoln from the start. she's his little protector. i trust dog chow to keep khloe healthy because i see the high quality ingredients that go into it. the standards that we follow are top notch. i trust dog chow enough to feed it to my dog every single day.

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beginning. what are authorities saying about this suspect? >> reporter: thomas, authorities here have named the man arrested, the homeless man arrested. he is a 40-year-old man from rome. they charged him with aggravated murder for futile motives. without going into details as to what motives could the homeless man have to push a 19-year-old student who literally arrived in rome into the tiber river. there are more details coming up on local media. rome's biggest selling newspaper has claimed to have spoken to his girlfriend who said she was there that night and saw solomon chasing a group of people she believed robbed him earlier, and while he was chasing them, while on a bridge here on the tiber, he just bumped into a -- crashed into the man lying on the pavement right this. and that's where they started

pushing and shoving each other, and that's when she says solomon fell into the river. and, of course, this is just an article that appeared on local media. we still need to independently verify that. if that is confirmed by the authorities, that would kind of fit the description of how evidence unfolded by investigators. because they said after solomon was reported missing on friday, the day after he arrived here in rome, 1,500 doctors $1500 was charged to his credit card. >> so sad for this wisconsin boy's family. we'll learn new details. thanks so much. from chicago, though, it was quite a deadly weekend. we talk about a lot of violence there. and this is despite the increased police presence they have had on the street. so what's behind the continuing spike in violence in chicago? and what's being done to stop it? we're going to take a look after this. can a toothpaste do everything well?

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welcome back, everybody. we are awaiting for the director of the fbi, james comey, to give a briefing to reporters at 11:00. it was just after 9:00 a.m. this morning that reporters were e-mailed about a statement that was going to be made by the director. now, many are wondering if this has anything to do with the three-and-a-half-hour meeting that secretary clinton had with fbi investigators over the weekend. but we will see. and those specifically coming up in nine minutes. we have got gotten any more guidance, other than he will be making a statement and not fielding questions. so on a different story we've been following in just a few moments, we're going to be getting the final numbers about gun violence in chicago during the holiday weekend. in the last few years, the fourth of july has been extremely violent there in 2014, 14 people killed, 82 wounded. last year, the numbers went down to ten dead.

ron, have we gotten any forecast of what these numbers are expected to look like? >> reporter: yeah, hey, thomas. fourth of july weekend here in chicago is always a weekend of worry, because of those numbers you pointed out. we're just seeing the numbers from the weekend. 64 -- at least 64 wounded here, 4 fatalities. and by almost any measure, those are alarming numbers. compared to the past couple years, that's an improvement. it's progress. i spoke to the new police superintendent last night about the weekend. they're very happy about the first three quarters of the weekend, probably very concerned about the last 15 hours or so. because after a relative quiet and peace here in the city of chicago, things exploded in terms of violence yesterday on the fourth of july. at least half of those 64 people wounded were shot in the 15-hour period from the fourth of july until the early morning hours of today. now, i can tell you on friday, police kicked off the weekend with a roundup of people they believe are in gangs and driving a lot of this violence.

88 people were arrested, 55 of them convicted felons. 16 of them serving some sort of probation or parole. and the police superintendent says they are the ones largely driving this violence. now, of course, over the weekend we saw a number of shootings, swent four days and nights going around the city in some of the hot spots we'll this violence on the west side and here on the south side. i spoke to one gentleman here, a former gang member, who spent 25 years in prison. he's alarmed, as everybody is, about the violence here. he says what these new gang members are confronting is something far different from what he and his colleagues faced back in the day. take a listen. >> because the reality of it is, they don't really want to die. they just want to be a part of something. it's fun and games. you ever heard the term, ain't no fun when the robber got the gun? it's fun and games while they're shooting at other people, but when they shoot back, now they're terrified. >> reporter: now, to put the

shootings in perspective here, over the weekend, chicago reported its 2,000th shooting victim. they did not hit that number until the previous fall. a lot of work to be done, but people are thankful that the death toll remained fairly low for chicago over the weekend. back to you. >> ron, thank you very much. so we're going to shift gears and leave you on a high note when we come back. because you still have 12 hours to get out and buy yourself a mega millions ticket for tonight's big drawing. up next, we'll tell you about the huge jackpot that is up for grabs tonight. jen, what are you frowning for? you're going to buy a ticket. you're going to buy a ticket. if we win, we're running away together. back in a moment.

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stands for the mega millions this evening. we're in chicago. blake, we have seen this before. so has ticket purchasing reached a fever pitch yet? >> reporter: you know what, thomas, we have seen this before. but normally it's powerball we're talking about with the huge jackpots, because the tickets cost $2. the jackpot rises more quickly. today, though it is mega millions. $447 million. that would be the third largest jackpot ever. that's because there hasn't been a winner in 27 weeks. your odds of winning tonight when that drawing happens at 11:00 p.m. eastern, 1 in 259 million. that is actually slightly better odds than we normally see with powerball here at the 7-eleven in chicago bracing for a busy afternoon as people rush to buy tiets. i already have two. i'll buy you a nice dinner, thomas. wherever you want to go. >> that is it? just dinner? >> fine tgi fridays.

>> i need more than that, blake. yeah. >> only the best for you. >> i want a second home. stuff like that. you're going to be a millionaire. but i am going to try to see -- >> send me your wish list. >> blake, good to see you. that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. thank you for your time. my colleague, tamron hall picks it up now. >> i'm tamron hall live from msnbc headquarters in new york. we begin with breaking news. fbi director, james comey, set to hold a news conference. we have limited information on this event. but we do know it's expected to start within the next few minutes. nbc's kelly o'donnell is live on the phone from the fbi headquarters in washington, d.c. kelly, are you able to get any more information on what we could hear today? >> reporter: i can tell you we were just given the two-minute warning at the fbi headquarters.

director combing coming in, he will not take questions. that is the extent of what we have at this point. obviously, it comes just a couple days after hillary clinton submitted to a voluntary interview with investigators after a year-long investigation into her use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state. and the handling of classified information. director comey has a long history in the department and has the respect of both the republicans and democrats. this also comes after the very controversial meeting between former president bill clinton and attorney general loretta lynch. lynch has said she will accept the recommendation from department of justice and at the same time, that is not a recusal, because she will, in fact, be briefed about the findings of this investigation. but the expectation is she will go along with whatever the career prosecutors and investigators have determined after completing their investigation. we don't know if there's any