killing at least 73 people so far. the death toll expected to rise dramatically. >> woke us right up out of a sound sleep. the room was shaking and swaying. almost like someone was underneath your bed like pushing up the mattress and it was kind of shaking that way and then the room felt like it was the entire building was swaying back and forth. good day erin, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. hillary and bill clinton under intense fire from donald trump. amidst reports that clinton foundation owners had access when hillary clinton was skait. fueling the outcry of a associated press report and half of the freem outside the president who met or spoke when she was sec toir were donors to the foundation. the associated press was working on only a partial calendar list. the list is that the ap was cherry picking from those

calendars. everything was above board. >> but every everything was set up to the highest possible standard to prevent any conflict of interest. hillary clinton and her family had a foundation. it is charitable, they don't receive a salary from it. hillary clinton doesn't have a conflict of interest with charitable work. that's all it is. >> donald trump holding a rally in battleground florida next hour where we expect he will continue to the barrage of attacks on his opponent and her family foundation. s. >> it is now abundantly clear that the clintons set up a business to profit from public office. justice is supposed to be blind. it's never supposed to be for sale. hillary clinton thinks she's above the law. come november, the american people will show her that she is not. >> join me now is kasey hunt in

california where hillary clinton is doing political fundraising today and nbc's jacob rascon in tampa where donald trump will be holding a rally an hour from now. welcome both. first, kasey. she's been off the trail now for days, raising as much as $32 million according to an counting in the washington post today and doing it among the rich and famous on both coasts. not responding to this at same time as the ap after a three-year litigation request, finally got those calendars. i mean part of the story here is how reluctant the clinton world has been to release e-mails. to release calendars and how as the stuff is now coming out, it's coming out so close to election day. >> that's right, andrea. and i think you've really seen them in some ways they were slow to bring this massive dfls out over the course of the past couple of days. you'll remember this started in some ways with robby mook over

the weekend on some of the sunday show's. in some ways struggling to answer questions about the clinton foundation. and of course, turning it back on donald trump focussing on their tax returns, but you haven't seen the kind of coordinate the pushback that we've come to expect on issues where they are prepared until really the last 24 hours or so. and now of course you have them questioning first of all the context of the ap report. they're arguing that it doesn't present the fulz picture of people who did have time to meet with her as skait. and you're also getting this back and forth with brian fallon saying that donald trump himself gaifr to the foundation. and of course, that clip has surfaced of donald trump talking about how, yes, he gave money to, everybody, and yes, he always got what he wanted, in some ways suggesting that trump is doing exactly what he is accusing some of these other folks of doing, but this has really been recent, and you're right, it seems as though the

clinton foundation maybe timed this to happen before the labor day, before most americans are back to work, back to school after summer vacations, but it's turned into something that the trump campaign's have been able to seize on and they've done that effectively the last day or so. >> one of the reasons, jacob, could be that stephen bannon, the new ceo if you will of team trump is one of the motivators, one of the persons behind clinton cash, the book a year ago, which had made a lot of rows on this subject. some of it didn't pan out. some proved to be true. so this is righting in his wheel house. >> reporter: this ap story could not fit more perfectly into the argument that trump was trying to create for the past year. talking about the rigged system in washington and then trying to build up this nickname for hillary clinton, crooked hillary clinton. the interesting thing of course about trump's argument on that note is that as kasey talked

about, that trump himself gave to the foundation and said he got what he wanted. he has admitted essentially that he knows how the system works because he was part of that rigged system. and now he says, he is uniquely qualified now to turn around and to break up that rigged system. but you've heard him now focussed on hillary clinton since last week when he brought in new leadership and he was asked last night in fact on "hannity" about his new focus. now this is really between me and hillary clinton, suggesting that he's going to at least attempt in a different way to not step in other things that would distract from what he wants his main focus to be and what his campaign wants his main focus to be which is hillary clinton. he hit it very hard yesterday and the day before. we expect him to do the same before in tampa. >> thanks so much. and beautiful california. and for more, let's bring in brian fallon. brian, thank you very much for being with us. all of this was coming out

because the ap finally got those calendars. and your response to the ap story that as much as 50% of the visitors, the non-government visitors are callers to hillary clinton when she was skait were from people who had donated to the clinton foundation. >> yes, well andrea, i think in the last 24 hours or so, since this report surfaced, it's been pretty widely debunked as asking relied on pretty flawed methodology. they did cherry pick a certain set of data, they only are looking at two out of the four years she was skait. and then they took all the meetings she took with government officials here in the u.s. and foreign leaders abroad, some 1,700 meetings and subtracted them out in order to get a high percentage number to try to sought that she had too many meetings with people that had some affiliation with the clinton foundation. but even if you look at their arbitrarily selected group of people that she met with at the ap looks at, these are people

that any skait would have met with. for instance, melinda gates who with her husband bill gates ran with her husband. melinda gates is somebody that any secretary of state should meet with, the gates foundation, having covered the state department, the international reach of the gates foundation is doing work on confronting global health crisis. the idea that meeting with melinda gates suggests something untour is false and showed the flawed nature of this report by the ap yesterday. >> but at the same time, it is accurate to take the non-government visitors and take a look at how many were donors. yes, you could say melinda gates obviously leading philanthropist, someone whose done world health work would be meeting with the secretary of state, but there are a lot of others. there are people like the ukrainian businessman, who was at a dinner at the clinton --

the state department dinner or dinner at clinton home. there are other people where it does look like that fire wall that she promised, the senate foreign relations committee would not be crossed. was crossed. the gate keepers were people who were close aids. people who -- one of them worked part-time for tanaio while he was in turn getting access for some of his clients. >> i just disagree, rarnd. look, mohamed is one of the other people named in the ap report. he is a nobel prize winning economist. he has been awarded the congressional gold medal unanimously by republicans and democrats alike. he was awarded the presidential medal of freedom by president obama. his work is in microlending to entrepreneurs across the developing world. this is exactly the type that she should be meeting with. victor is also somebody that top diplomats here in the united states have met with for years before and after hillary clinton's tenure.

let's get to the heart of this. what is at issue is a reprehensible attack on a charity, the clinton foundation, that just shows the double standard that hillary clinton is being subjected to here. you did not see similar questions raised or attacks launched against george h.w. bush who launched the points of life foundation after his presidency. not attacks waged on bob dole who ran for president in 1976 while his life was running the international red cross. and rightfully show because these are charitable organizations doing important work. the idea they'd be drag sbad a political back and forth and used as weapons is completely absurd and beyond the pail. if you look in recent months and years, it's been widely praised by democrats and republicans alike for years you have the likes of john mccain, candi rice, jeb bush, carly fiorina and praises and supporting the work of the clinton foundation. donald trump donated $100,000 while hillary clinton was

secretary of state. last night his campaign manager said that they did good work. let's look at what the work is -- >> is it time to disband it? >> more than half the people in the world receiving aids drugs, received them from the clinton foundation. sop no, the clinton foundation will not be completely shuddering it's work even if clinton wince the presidency and for good reason. they want to continue this work. and you know what, if any american voter is troubled by the idea that clintons to want continue working the aids crisis on the side, then don't vote for her, but i think most voters are pretty reasonable on that point. >> should the clinton global initiative be shut down, which is corporate contributors and obviously there's a lot of crossover between campaign contributors and corporate contributors there. >> andrea, they've said that cgi will have it's last conference this coming fall, and after this year they won't have anymore cgi

conferences. let's look at what cgi does. they do not donate funds to anybody. they bring people together. they bring governmental leaders, nonprofit leaders and people in private sector space together in order tone courage private business people to invest in charitable work. it is the power of convening to get things done and get things accomplished. the cgi conference itself does not dispense funds. so there's absolutely no allegation here that has any merit in terms of the clintons at all benefitting or personally enriching themselves from the foundation. neither hillary clinton while she was at the foundation nor president clinton has ever drawn a salary benefitting from the work of foundation. by contrast, andrea, just two blocks from 30 rock, there is a building, a property, one of the crowned jewels of donald trump's business holdings that pays him millions a dollars a year, and he owes money o than to the tune of hundreds of millions it of dollars to the state-owned bank of china and goldman sachs. tell me how he's going to stand

up to goldman sachs and the state-owned bank of china when he receives fund from a property that he owes money to them too. he, donald trump, should sell off his building at 1296 avenue, he should commit to that today, and until he does, he should stop raising questions about a charity that does not hillary or bill clinton at all benefits from. >> and one final question, while i have you here, is hillary clinton, there were reports that shint going to get her intelligence briefing. her first official intelligence briefing this saturday, correct? >> i'm not going to confirm that will as i sit here right now. i can say that post the conventions, both have been offered intelligence briefings. we have said that we plan to take them up on that. i'm not going to confirm a particular meeting. this is something i think in general we will not approach with great fanfare and a former member of the committee is well-versed in these matters. we'll approach this fairly quietly, but yes, i expect she'll go through the process as every nominee does. >> and at some point very soon.

>> i'll leave that for others. >> thank you. thanks very much, brian. >> thanks andrea. thanks for giving me the opportunity to clear up some of this. >> absolutely. and breaking news, terrible news from kabul where there are reports of gunfire around the american university. the commander of kabul police telling nbc news, we have been notified of a complex attack at the american university, we're on our way. joining me now is news producer, joining me on the phone from kabul, cal perry watching the latest from new york. first to you, we know first of all this is a famous institution. it is a co-ed institution. one that laura bush promoted and helping to advance. what do we snow happening in kabul right now? >> andrea, it is an ongoing situation. what we do know is that there was a massive explosion either inside or at the gate of the

university. followed by gunfire inside the complex. develop of the people who managed to escape heard the explosion and described the situation as chaotic. and -- [ inaudible ] -- followed by a barrage of gunfire. but it is an ongoing situation in the kabul -- special forces are surrounded the compound. >> and, cal perry, obviously we don't know who is responsible for this or what is going on, but this has always been a very high profile target. especially while called the american university. and it's co-ed, i've been there and interviewed students there, and many of these young women telling me they went there against the protests of their fathers, triable leaders, brothers, they were very brave in having attended a co-ed

university. >> some of the video we're showing now shows this 5,000 square foot building that's a women's center. that's been recently built on this campus. and the taliban has targeted women who go for education. this university has 1,700 students in it but also students that go for night classes. these are well-educated folks with good folks. it's a very high profile target. and we've seen attacks recently, august 7, we saw an australian professor and an american professor kidnapped from this university. so this has been a considerable target for previous years because of it's high profile nature, because it's for the education of women. it's for the future of afghanistan. and this is the kind of coverage, of course, that the taliban is trying to go for. the question right now is whether or not a gunman or gunmen were able to penetrate that campus. we know this explosion probably breached that front gate, and we're seeing tweets from members of the student body who say they are trapped and these

classrooms. what needs to be determined now by the special forces you're seeing all on your screen right now is whether or not anyone has actually ben traited that campus. hopefully it's a lockdown situation, but we're going to need to wait to find out. >> cal perry, thank you both very much. we'll of course stay on top of this story throughout the hour. and breaking news overnight, at least 73 are dead, dozens missing after that massive earthquake rocking central italy. we'll be live to the scene next right here on "andrea mitchell reports," please stay with us. i. the decision to ride on and save money. he decided to save money by switching his motorcycle insurance to geico. there's no shame in saving money. ride on, ride proud. geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. what makes wendy's baconator different?

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and that breaking news in central italy. rescue crews searching for survivors after a massive 6.2 earthquake decimating three small towns. at least 73 people are dead. more victims are still trapped

in the rubble. you're just hearing one rescuer asking an injured woman if she could breathe and telling her to stay calm. nbc news chief global correspondent bill neily now joining me. oh my god, just looking at the scene behind you. we all know those beautiful hill towns, tell me what you're finding there. >> reporter: and this is one of the most beautiful in italy, well, what you can see behind me was a three-story building, but what you'll also see is hardly any sign of humanity. not just human beings, but anything that looks like a bed, a table, it's just buried under these huge slabs of concrete that came down at 20 to 4:00 in the morning here when everyone, 2,700 people, at least, in this town, were sleeping. there could hardly have been a worse time. there weren't people out on the streets.

one of three towns badly hit by this earthquake, but this one is what you might call almost literally the dead center of the earthquake. as you say, 73 people now confirmed dead. most of them here in the area in the last half an hour, i've seen -- well, one body being brought into an area where there are 14 other 15 bodies laid out under blankets and sheets. this town is broken, physically, it's broken spiritually as well because there are lots of people walking around here in tears of deep, deep emotion. we've got rescue workers, i think, some of the rescue work is finished for the daddy. there are men comes towards me, absolutely weary from 12 hours of digging in the rubble. sometimes with their bare hands. one of the first people to arrive was a priest who arrived at dawn, and at a horrific description of people screaming in the rubble and him going

around giving the last rights to children. so this was one of italy's -- man over there just shaking his head in disbelief. this was one of the italy's tourist centers, and now it is at the center of the worst earthquake to hit italy in a decade. andrea. >> and bill, help situate us, how far are you? how many miles or kilometers from rome. what region exactly are you in? >> reporter: so this is the central belt of italy. it's about, you know, 18 miles east of rome, but on the roads here, these are mountainous areas. it takes a long time. that's why there are helicopters in the air right now because many of the roads are inaccessible. it is also these three towns are also on a fault line. these towns are caught between a two cities where there've been two earthquakes in the last 20

years. devastating earthquakes. one in particular killed more than 300 people. so people here have been used to the threat of earthquakes, but historically, they haven't been hit, and this time, badly until today. as i said, 20 to 4:00 in the morning, it could hardly have happened a the a worse time. the pope who was due to have a set of prayers today postponed them and prayed instead for the people of this town. he called in the mayor who said there is almost nothing left of the town and there are lots of dead children in this town. so the pope specifically picked out those comments and prayed for the town today. about 100 yards up the road from where i'm standing, andrea, is the main drag, the main street, which is utterly devastated. there isn't a single building there which hasn't been hit. you can see beds, perliously hanging out of rooms. it's miraculous more didn't die.

just up the road, they are digging in one area where they think there are people dead. so this death toll will rise. >> just extraordinary devastation, bill, thank you. thanks very much for that report. and back to politics, donald trump expected to address supporters in tampa next hour. dr. ben carsons is a strong trump supporter, former rival, former republican presidential candidate, dr. carson, good to see you, thank you very much for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> here we go with donald trump now three, four times in the last week making what he's describing as an outreach to african americans. i wanted to play a few of his comments when he was in akron and fredericksburg and north carolina in the last week. >> the one thing every item in hillary clinton's agenda has in common, is that it takes jobs and opportunities away from

african american workers. what do you have to lose? you're living in poverty. your schools are no good. you have no jobs. 58% of your youth is unemployed. what the hell do you have to lose? i'll bring jobs back. we'll bring spirit back. we'll get rid of the crime. you'll be able to walk double the street without getting shot. right now, you walk down the street, you get shot. >> dr. carson, first of all the washington post today gave donald trump four pinocios for not telling the truth that 558% of black american youth are unemployed. is he overstating the case? >> well first of all, a very large percentage of black american youth are unemployed. and it really depends on what your source is, what number you come up with. but what we need to do is look

beyond the numbers. and see what the actual situation is. and over the last few decades, we've had a tremendous problem in inner cities. and what donald trump is talking about at this stage is how do we strengthen the fabric of the inner cities because it's an sbre gal part of making america great again. if we have big pockets where people are having a lot of difficulty, the whole country is weakened by that. we're all in the same boat and part of the vote goes down, the rests will go down eventually too. >> if he wants to appeal to african americans, why doesn't he go where there are more african americans? so far he's been saying these things in white communities. >> well, he will be going to a number of african american communities are. i'm actually going with him to one in the near future. and talking directly, but i think it's a wise thing to actually begin to manifest some interest in the community before you go in here because you might

meet a very hostile situation. you want people to actually be curious and be open to what you have to say. and that's, that's just the good strategy. but there's no question that he will be in the communities. he will be talking to african american leaders around the country and different cities to find out what they believe is important. and what they think has worked. because so often, the political elites already seem to have the answers, the only problem is, it never works. and people wind up in the same or worse situations. and we need to do something about that. as far as i'm concerned, it's not a democrat or republican issue, this is a matter of the united states of america and whether we're going to have a country is that works for everybody. >> i want top ask you about health care, the medical records of these candidates. why shouldn't both of these candidates release a lot more information and certainly donald

trump has released the least amount of information of any candidate, any nominee running for president. that's one page, you know, less than one page, three paragraphs of his medical report from last december. >> i think it's certainly is the right of the american people to know about the health of the candidates. particularly if they're elderly. and both of the candidates are elderly. and you know, it's a tough job. it's not an eight-hour job a day, it's 24/7 with an enormous a. stress. and we need to be assured that we're putting someone in office who's going to be able to handle that. yes, they both should provide that information. >> and what do you think of rudy giuliani and donald trump and other supporters suggesting that hillary clinton has all sorts of problems, a spokeswoman for donald trump said it was something called disfaze ya, she had brain damage to my colleague

kristen welker on mtp daily last week. these armchair diagnoses when her doctor says she is perfectly fit. >> and, i would look forward to the doctor with her permission, releasing those records for people to be able to examine. there'd be probably less temptation for people to be speculating. and that's what they're doing. they're speculating. and people have done that for years. this is not a new thing that's going on quite frankly, but i don't think it's the right way to do it. the right way to do it is for them both to release their records. and let them be examined by people who know how to interpret the information. and then the story is over. >> thank you very much, dr. ben carson. thanks for helping us today. good to see you. >> always a pleasure. and coming up, nickmixed messaging, how does it contrast with her outreach to the middle class? that's ahead on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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and now an update on that breaking news we are following out of kabul where there are reports of gunfire and an explosion around the american university. u.s. military and defense officials at the pentagon and in kabul tell msnbc news that as of now, the attack is still ongoing. state department has just tweeted reports of attack on american university in kabul, exercise caution. avoid unnecessary movement in the area and monitor news for updates. we will of course continue to monitor the situation here and bring you the latest. back to the presidential campaign now, now hillary clinton earlier this month promising to help middle class americans get ahead. >> there is too much inequality, too little upward mobility, it is just too hard to get ahead today. a lot of people feel, no one is on their side and no one has their back. if i am fortunate enough to be your president, i will have your back every single day that i

serve. >> and the washington post reporting today that hillary clinton just the night before and in fact the same night as she gave that speech was raising campaign funds from people paying as much as $50,000 a person. joining me now for our daily fix, chris alyssa, founder of the washington post fix blog, welcome both. and as you've seen on the trail, hillary clinton today in silicon valley in san diego and also yesterday in hollywood, beverly hills over the weekend, cape cod, in province town in particular, martha's vineyard and nantucket raising huge amounts of money. $32 million the last couple of weeks. >> yeah, this week is a particularly stark example. she has only one public campaign appearance tomorrow. and six or seven days, depending on how you count it, of straight

fundraising surrounding that. and you know, she is trying to make up what the campaign sees as a deficit. they don't have as much in the bank at this point as they had expected to. and to be able to continue to fund very expensive television advertising, advertising through the fall. >> but she's got so much more money in the bank than donald trump does. chris alyssa, the financial advantage and in terms of ads on the air, why this sad long rush for dollars? and why we should point out there is no coverage, not as barack obama in '08 and president obama, white house, he has a print pool and say that's not ideal, but at least some recordkeeping of what is said in these events. there's none by donald trump or hillary clinton at hers. which is a new low in terms of access. >> let me get to that, i think that's the really important point. why does she need it?

you always need more money in politics or at least that's the idea. in presidential races, you get to pint of diminishing returns, there's only so much air time you can buy. could she go on television in idaho? i suppose she could if she had enough money, it's not going to make a difference. to your other pint, andrea, barack obama did allow print pool coverage meaning a reporter could go in and listen to at least a portion of his remarks in some of the q & a that he was asked. whing you see the fact that hillary clinton does not do that in addition to the fact that this is the 263 since she's had press conference, you and ann know all too well. you aren't getting a real sense of who -- how she reacts to questions, unwanted kwis, how she thinks on her feet for someone who objectively is a favorite to be the next president of the united states. >> i mean, we have to go to social media to try to piece together what happens. we see this picture of photo booth with justin timberlake and jessica biel, her hosts in

beverly hills, and hollywood hills i should say. but ann gagarin, we don't know, we know from the washington post reporting that aretha franklin was at one of the michigan events entertaining. singing "natural woman." cher we know because she was on with lawrence last night on the last word was in provincetown, but there's very little details that we have of what's going on there. >> your mention of social media is interesting, one of the attendees at provincetown event put a whole thing on facebook of cher, cher's remarks. which was interesting are and part of hillary's as well. some of it not fit for family newspaper, but others of it, you know, clearly well-received by the crowd there and in provincetown, but the reporters who were there to cover it were in a van many, many, many yards away and not able to actually hear or see what was happening. >> and let me just report also

following up with what i discussed with brianfall season that confirm that hillary clinton will be getting her intelligence briefing on saturday. is we understand that will be at an fbi office in westchester county, new york, not far from her home. it's her first intelligence briefing as a nominee. and what i've been told is that this will be exactly parallel to what donald trump received and if donald trump asked questions on a particular subject, then those answers would go to both trump and to hillary clinton that the practice is the protocol will be that they will be actually identical briefings based on what questions and answers are asked and received. thank you both very much. chris alyssa and ann garin. coming up more out of afghanistan. we'll talk to a student who escaped from the american university as it was under attack in kabul. that's next right here.

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and back to the breaking news that we are following out of kabul an ongoing attack at the american university there. u.s. military and defense officials at the pentagon and in kabul telling nbc news the attack is still going on. joining me now by phone, a person at the university when the explosion happened. he's now at home. he helped students get out of the building. tell me, what did you see? what was going on there and how did you get out? >> well, i'm -- i wasn't in a class when the explosion happened. so we had very hard, you know, the explosion which i think was gunfight and very hard to break all the glasses, everything. students got scattered, everybody was going around here and there.

everybody decided to be inside the classes. so at the same time when the next small explosion happened, the bullets started to come. and then we decided to get out of the university because the gates for the students, the emergency gates, so couple of instructors and the students, we decided to get out of the building at the same time bullets were coming. and so, people were running around here and there, the huge fire was over there also. so, they got out of there and couple of our classmen, friends who got injured. helped them out of the university also. and it was a bad explosion. and still some bullets -- bullets are exchanging. >> now you heard what you think was an explosion, what you describinged as a suicide bomb of some sort, and then bullets. was this -- was this incoming

fire? was it an exchange of fire from defenders of the university? could you tell where it was coming from? >> yes, the same time after the explosion, a lot of bullets were exchanging. and couple of my classmen, we helped to get them out. that showed that there was, you know, like people or never know how these bullets got to the students, but after the explosion, bullet exchange. a lot. >> did you see whether or not any of your fellow students or the faculty, any teachers were hit, were any of them wounded? can you describe any victims? >> yeah, five -- one of the students from the university, i helped them to pick them out. but i think that's the situation, but which is is the four to five students who got seriously injured.

>> and were these men and women students? >> yeah, two of the woman. one of them had injury on her nose. i don't think that was a bullet, but was -- i don't know how, but her face was full of blood. and yeah, couple of men students were bullets. >> well, shab, thank you very much for helping us understand better what is happening. i know this is still going on, and please take care of yourself as this continues there. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. and this just in, senior u.s. intelligence official telling nbc news that initial reports indicate the attackers at the american university in kabul got inside the compound. obviously this was a heavily guarded compound. officials say that security forces are engaging the attackers. there is no word yet about casualties as you just heard that there were some injuries. according to our eyewitness. we'll bring you more details as we get them and we'll be right back.

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and he says by 2020 he's going to have 95% of the african american support. why are you laughing? >> well, that's donald trump. look, he has a heart for every american. >> a candid moment with mike pence, the running mate reflecting on donald trump's unwavering self-confidence. in 1959, when trump was just a teenager in a new york military academy, he told his fellow cadets, i'm going to be famous one day. and he's right about that. just one of the anecdotes from the new book "trump revealed." joining me, the book's co-authors. together again. you did this once before at the -- with the mitt romney book at boston globe, and you guys have done this biography of donald trump. what insight can you offer, cracking the code as to what

created this unique human being, unique american? >> mitt romney was a man of many contradictions as well. ran severely conservative he said, but for donald trump, he has been pivoting all of his life. and one of the foundational stories is when he was sued for racial bias by his father and fought as much as he could, eventually settled that case. to this day, he told us that he's still upset about that case. and he's also a man who switched his party affiliations seven times and positions many times. he has been pivoting an awful lot and pivots from the primary to the general. he doesn't to want pivot, but that's what he's trying to do anyway. he needs to reach out to a broader electorate than he's done so far. >> now mark, he has tweeted in the last couple of days in response to the book, the washington post quickly put together a hit job book on me, compromised of copies of some of their inaccurate stories. don't buy, boring. >> well, we're grateful to him

for the publicity. put it on the cover and we asked our publishing to send him a nice fruit basket, but seriously, donald trump was well aware of the depth of research that went into this book. he sat together with us for more than 20 hours of interview -- >> during the campaign. >> during the campaign. he seemed to have endless time. he regularly allotted an hour or so to meet with us and spent well more than that. and he kept saying, i'm having fun. i'm learning things about my life from you. he's strikingly incurious about his early life and his ancestry and so we were able to tell him things about his own background that were fascinating to him. and so, that's all in the book along with this sense of him, someone who grew up in this cold and distant family and who has oddly been kind of starved for love i think through much of his life. and this big personality, is this tremendous ego, this need for the crowds affection, i think stems in part from that kind of background. >> but, also, a lack of sort of

self-knowledge does seem to come through. >> well, you know, he has been a person who looks at his father, his father was so successful, fred trump, developer, his father told me in life love what you do or you'll be a nothing. donald trump spent his life thinking i can't be a nothing, my father told me not to be a nothing and something even bigger. you look to your father or your mother and you see what they've accomplished, but he's had this on his shoulder for his entire life. and we visited him, his desk was covered with magazine stories about himself and one portrait, of his father. every day he sees his father looking at himself in the magazine covers that show donald trump. >> what about his brothmother? >> his mother was an immigrant from scotland. his mother was a scottish immigrant. and she didn't come here with much. and she met fred trump and they were married. and the mother is label the more of a quiet figure in the book because she was a traditional wife. she raised the children at home. fred trump was the outsized

personality, donald said his mother had the regal baring, loved to watch rarl ceremonies on britain in the television. he says he viewed some of the showmanship that she loved in his own personality. >> thank you so much. it's a fascinating book. and we look forward to having you back and martin and mark, we'll talk more about donald trump and what you've learned to guide us through this campaign. and back to our breaking news about that terrible attack at the american university in kabul. senior u.s. intelligence officials telling nbc news initial reports indicate the attackers did get inside the secure compound. security forces are engaging the attackers. now barry mccaffrey who is now of course an nbc news military analyst. general mccaffrey, we know that kabul has had political and military problems galore in recent months and the challenges for the american military and their afghan allies. this is in the heart of kabul in a highly secure zone, but also a prime target given it's name and

it's co-ed status in kabul. >> yeah. yeah. no question. you know, it's one of the few private universities anywhere in that region, couple thousand students. actually started in 2006. but andrea, i think the major point is there is no safe place in kabul. not u.s. embassy, not afghan government security officials, they just abducted two of their professors last month out of american university in kabul. so afghanistan's coming apart. it's hard to imagine a good outcome in the longer run to this story of the afghan nation. >> and what are the options now? because the military advice to the president, you know, has varied over these months and years. we know how reluctant he is to add forces, but we recently have added some forces to help the afghan security forces.

even as their government is very unstable. >> well, no question. the government is divided. it's not even responding to it's own constitution. who heard of a president and co-ceo from the two principle candidates. look going forward, andrea, in my estimation, we're just trying to hold it together until the next president can sort out what to actually do. around 10,000 nato forces there, way insufficient number -- we've got a couple of hundred special ops people right now way out on a limb, trying to hold the afghan police and army together in the fighting and helm on province. so you know, i think the next presidency's going pull the plug or try and get a sensible longer term strategy which may well involve 30, 40,000 troops. but there's no political will in the united states, really, to support this kind of an option. so hard to know what the next president will do.

>> and especially with our reliance on nato and on our allies at the very moment when at least one of the candidates is criticizing, slamming the nato alliance. well, general mccaffrey, thank you very much. obviously have more coming up. thanks for being with us and more ahead, right here on "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. ♪ hey, is this our turn? honey...our turn? yeah, we go left right here. (woman vo) great adventures are still out there. we'll find them in our subaru outback. (avo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. get zero percent on select subaru models during the subaru a lot to love event, now through august thirty-first. craso come dive into disheser like the new alaska bairdi crab dinner with sweet crab from the icy waters of alaska. or try crab lover's dream with tender snow and king crab legs.

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like robots. did you build that robot? that's not a robot, that's my coworker earl. he builds jet engines with his human hands. what about that robot? that is a vending machine, ricky. john, give him a dollar. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports," we continue monitoring the latest from italy where at least 73 people have been killed after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake last night. remember, follow the show online, facebook, and twitter and stephanie is here with the latest out of kabul, afghanistan. >> thanks andrea. so much to cover on stephanie rule, we're following multiple breaking news stories that the hour. first, reports of an attack near the american university in kabul, afghanistan. the commander of kabul police tells nbc news quote, we've been

notified and on our way. also the devastating 6.2 magnitude earthquake that took place in italy last night. more than 70 people killed. we've got reports on the ground and at this hour, donald trump expected to speak in tampa, florida, at a rally. we're going get to all of that in a moment, but first, i want to go back to what we were covering at the top. our own matt bradly is monitoring that attack in kabul, what do we know right now? >> that's right, stephanie. nbc news is hearing from senior u.s. intelligence officials that attackers have indeed penetrated the walls of this heavily-guarded university compound and they are now inside. and this is what we referred to as a complex attack. multiple gunmen, using multi. means of attack including bombs and small arms. the skufrt's security are engaging the attackers, but we have no word yet on casualtyings. ofg, local afghan forces are also engaging the attackers,