whether he will be on the trip. that is our broadcast for tonight. thank you for being here with us. good night to jim, wherever you are. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. new overnight. president trump arrives in paris to meet with his french counterpart emmanuel macron. will they find common ground despite their differences? plus -- >> the future fbi director, do you consider this endeavor a witch hunt? >> i do not consider director mueller to be on a witch hunt. >> fbi director nominee christopher ray breaks with the president over the russia probe. he has gained bipartisan support. plus, a grim discovery in

pennsylvania. human remains were found in the search for four young men who disappeared last week. good morning. it's thursday, july 13th. amidst fall-out from his son's meeting with a russian lawyer in an effort to gain opposition research on hillary clinton, president trump is today in france. french president emmanuel macron personally invited him to attend bastille day festivities in paris. soon the president and first lady will head to a short ceremony and tour before traveling to a palace for a meeting with macron. trump and macron will also hold a joint news conference. joining us live now from paris, northbound news chief white house correspondent halle jackson. good to have you with us. we've been talking a lot about

this trip anticipation. president trump extremely unpopular at the moment in jurp and in france. nbc news has learned of various protests and marches that are planned during his visit. what's the atmosphere like now on the ground with his arrival? >> i would say we just saw the president come in not long ago, right? this is sort of the beginning, the key up, to what will ultimately be a very short trip. you sort of ran through the highlights there. i think most notably you're going to see that press conference that's set to happen later today. you're going to see dinner actually up just behind me here over at the eiffel tower. the president, the first lady along with president macron and his wife. then tomorrow, of course, is that military parade essentially. that is going to be a mix of not just french troops but u.s. military troops as well. as you talked about, 100 years since the first american troops arrived on french soil. remember what the anniversary is here too. the commemoration of one year since the attack in nice.

that terror attack when somebody drove a truck into crowds of people celebrating bastille day. terrorism, cyber security is set to be at the very top of the agenda for these discussions now between president trump and president macron, and this according to a senior white house official, is at the request of the french president. that is the area where they can find common ground and where we expect to see a lot of the policy discussion. less so, on, for example, climate and trade. areas where they don't always see eye to eye. we're going to be watching for more protests here. you mentioned the president not popular in europe. it's what we saw in hamburg, germany, last week. we're keeping an eye on it here. >> we'll see if the crowds turn up like they did in hamburg. thank you. president trump says there was nothing wrong with his son welcoming a reported offer from the russian government that could help them win the 2016 election. the scrutiny continues for the trump tower meeting which donald trump jr. gathered top campaign aides jared kushner and paul manafort after being promised

official documents and information that would incriminate hillary clinton. part of russia and its government support -- asked if he wishes his son had not taken the meeting. he said "i think many people would have held that meeting." on whether he wished he had known, the president said, "it was a wild time, and we would meet with many people. it was a 20 minute meeting, i guess, from what i'm hearing. many people and many political pros said everybody would do it." many people and many political pros said everybody would do that if you got a call and said, listen, i have information on hillary and the dnc or whatever it was they said. most people are going to take that meeting, i think." the president said he didn't know anything about the meeting until a couple of days ago. the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee wants to bring one of the president's closest aides before congress. congressman adam schiff says white house advisor and presidential son-in-law jared kushner should testify about that meeting as well as paul manafort. donald trump jr. and anyone else who helped organize it. now, this as republican senate

judiciary chairman chuck grassley says his committee agrees to have manafort enter their questions. meanwhile, house speaker paul ryan tried to put the focus on russia. it said he is staying out of the way. >> it is absolutely unacceptable that russia or any other country but russia meddle in our elections. that's period right there. second, we have a special counsel that's doing an investigation over at the justice department. we have an investigation here in the house. we have an investigation in the senate. i think it's very important that these professionals and these committees do their jobs so that we can get to the bottom of all of this. >> mr. speaker, would you accept a meeting with a representative -- >> i'm not going to go into hypotheticals. >> would you accept a meeting with somebody who said i have information from a foreign adversary that will help you beat your campaign opponent? >> look, i'm not going to go into hypotheticals only because i think it's important that we get to the bottom of all of this.

as you all know, i supported bob mueller being appointed special counsel, and i think we need to let him and his team and our investigators here do their jobs and follow these leads wherever they mellet and follow wherever they may go and follow the facts. >> meanwhile, the president gave a pair of what has become increasingly rare interviews. top of mind was russia and accusations of collusion in the 2016 election, and he turned heads in an interview with christian broadcaster paul robertson on cbn when he said putin would have been happier had hilry clinton won. >> he wants what's good for russia, and i want what's good for the united states. if hillary had won, our military would be decimated. that's what putin doesn't like about me, and that's why i say why would he want me? i want a strong military. he doesn't want to see that. we're going to be exploiting energy. he doesn't want that. he would like hillary.

she wants to have windmills. he would much rather have that. i think probably not. >> he also told reuters there was zero coordination. it's the dumbest thing i have ever heard. when pressed on his meeting with vladimir putin, he said the two talks about interference for the first 20 or more minutes of their two-hour talk, the president telling reuters i said did you do it, and he said no, i did not. absolutely not. i then asked him a second time in a totally different way. he said absolutely not. when reuters asked if he believed putin's denial, trump paused before saying, look, something happened, and we have to find out what it is because we can't allow a thing like that to happen to our election process, so something happened, and we have to find out what it is. he later added somebody did say if he did do it, you wouldn't have found out about it, which is a very interesting point. big day on capitol hill after facing tough questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. president trump's nominee for christopher ray is widely

expected to be confirmed with bipartisan support. during the confirmation hearing ray faced question after question about russia and the department's independence. nbc news's justice correspondent pete williams has all the details. >> christopher ray repeatedly pledged to steer the bureau clear of any political influence from the white house. >> reporter: christopher ray entered the senate hearing room with one overriding mission, demonstrate his independence from the president who nominated him after firing fbi director james comey. >> i will never allow the fbi's work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law, and the impartial pursuit of justice. period, full stop. >> reporter: he said no one, including donald trump, asked him to pledge loyalty. something comey says the president asked of him. >> it got very awkward, and i then said you'll always have

honesty from me. >> no one asked me for any kind of loyalty oath during this process, and i sure as heck didn't offer one. >> if the president asked you to do something unlawful or unethical, what do you say? >> first i would try to talk him out of it, and if that failed, i would resign. ray was careful to defend comey's character discounting the president's description. >> you don't think director comey is a nut job, right? >> that never has been my experience. >> yeah. >> but ray also said comey was wrong to publicly criticize hillary clinton's handling of classified emails when announcing last year that she should not be charged with a crime. ray said he would make sure special counsel robert mueller has everything needed to examine russia's election meddling, despite the president's dim view of that investigation. >> i'm asking you as the future

fbi director, do you consider this endeavor a witch hunt? >> i do not consider director mueller to be on a witch hunt. >> reporter: he says he has no reason to doubt russia was cyber hacking the presidential election. >> reporter: many senate democrats say they'll vote to confirm him. despite the strong opposition to how the president created the job opening, it appears christopher ray will be confirmed by early august with bipartisan support. >> in washington d.c., steve williams, thank you for that report. sarah fisher joining us. a lot of fast-moving developments here. we're going to talk about the confirmation in just a moment, but i want to start with donald trump jr. here. is there a sense that everything that's been going on with him is overshadowing the agenda and all that needs to get done before the recess, which, by the way, they've already delayed. >> there's definitely a sense in washington that everything that's going on has paralyzed the white house. these reports that you continuously hear. trump supporters are going to

point to the cease-fire agreement in russia. they'll point to things like sending 87 nomination confirmation hearings to the senate. they'll tell you that there's movement on health care. they're going to say that the white house is doing their job and that they're doing it well. testimony seemed to come, though, as the sigh of relief for a lot of democrats on the hill. >> there's a lot of democratic support here for christopher ray, which is an encouraging sign for them after -- an encouraging sign for everyone in congress after there's been so much deadlock. yes, we're hearing not just support from democrats, but just democrats writ large. ray has the support of people like eric holder. a lot of people think he will get confirmed. it's looking likely that he will get confirmed to be the eighth fbi director to serve a ten-year

term. >> you know, sarah, in hearing lewis earlier recount president trump's conversation with president vladimir putin of russia, you can't help but think the white house is still not saying how they see moscow, right, as a friend or as a foe. let's take a listen to sarah huckabee sanders here and the comments over the last couple of days through the course of really three days or so. take a listen. >> do you view russia as a partner? do you view them as an ally? do you view them as an adversary? >> does the president trust president putin? >> i haven't asked him that question. >> could you please ask him that question? >> yeah. >> do you think of them as friend or foe? >> i haven't had a chance to have that direct conversation. i've been a little preoccupied with other things, major, but i will check on that. >> do you have answer an on that question? >> i do assure i will certainly work to make sure i get that answer to you.

>> it's a little concerning that the white house deputy press secretary is unable to answer questions about the white house's relationship with russia. the president's two interviews have been telling. first he tells the christian broadcasting network that they're both powerful nations, and so it's important that they have a relationship and that they have a good relationship. then you'll hear him tell reuters i pressed russian president vladimir putin very hard on whether or not that they meddled with the election, and he said he did not. he said i asked them again in a different way, and he said he did not. this is sort of an interesting thing juxtaposition. he said it's important that we do have a good relationship, and then he said the intelligence community says they repeedly have a good reason to belief that russia meddled with the election. there are a lot of mixed messages coming out of the white house as to what the status is with that relationship. >> certainly is. thanks so much.

>> thank you. police in pennsylvania have made a grim discovery in the search for four missing young men. human remains have been found on a farm outside of philadelphia. >> they say that one set of remains has been identified as one of those missing men, drew smith, from our nbc affiliate wcau has more from balbury township in pennsylvania. drew, good morning. >> good morning. the d.a. promised major developments in this case, and he delivered on that telling us that they have now identified human remains of a 19-year-old who was found in a 12 1/2 foot grave. workers have been out on this rural farm outside of philadelphia since the beginning of the week searching for these four men who reported missing late last week. the person who owns that property is actually the parents of a young man who has now been arrested on unrelated charges. he is being held on $5 million bail because he is the person of interest in this case.

wcau drew smith. thank you for that. still ahead senate republicans are expected to unveil a new health care bill. president trump says he is waiting pen in hand. >> plus, at least 19 million americans are at risk for severe weather today, including strong winds and flash flooding. we're going to have a check on the forecast coming up next, everybody. keep it here. you're watching msnbc.

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how about the heat today? as we've been talking about it all week, more of the nation's midsection, but now the heat advisory is in effect for philadelphia. from new york all the way down i-95 to washington we're looking at it feeling like it's well over 100 degrees. along the mid-south of the gulf coast, boy, you feel that humidity as well. plenty of gulf moisture coming through. heat indexes all the way to the triple digits for texas and as far north as i mentioned in washington and even into the carolinas it's going to stay pretty warm as we go through the weekend. one other story of note, the remnants of tropical depression number four. this is pushing moisture across much of south florida today. look for downpours from miami to fort myers. >> all right, bonnie schneider, thanks for that update. big news. a pair of wimbledon heavyweights

fall, and an nfl quarterback tries his comedic chops. sports is next. but what if, one day, there was a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor? what if there were millions of them? join us for the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's. register today at alz.org/walk. it's my decision to make it's nbeauty last.ix. roc® retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it, the better it works. retinol correxion® from roc methods, not miracles.™ i needed something more to help control my type 2 diabetes. my a1c wasn't were it needed to be. so i liked when my doctor told me that i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating what's within me with once-weekly trulicity.

trulicity is not insulin. it helps activate my body to do what it's suppose to do, release its own insulin. i take it once a week, and it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen and i may even lose a little weight. trulicity is a once-weekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. trulicity is not insulin. it should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take trulicity if you or a family member has had medullary thyroid cancer, if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to trulicity. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have a lump or swelling in your neck, severe pain in your stomach, or symptoms such as itching, rash, or trouble breathing. serious side effects may include pancreatitis, which can be fatal. taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin, increases your risk for low blood sugar.

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thomas while trailing in the second set. joke chich, a three-time wimbledon champ had problems with his right shoulder during his fourth round victory on tuesday. in a news conference after yesterday's loss, djokovic alluded to the possibility of taking a long break from the game. meanwhile, a huge upset yesterday as world number one andy murray falls to sam youry after five sets. a fast start against the 24th seeded american, and it was hampered by a sore hip as the match went on, dropping all but one of the last 13 games in the final two sets. a lot of disappointment there. finally, the best in sports were honored in last night's 25th espy awards hosted by retired peyton manning who showed off his comedic chops. >> i love that the final five won the most olympic medals of any u.s. women's gymnastics team ev ever. kevin durant told me he wants to

play for them next year. and i got to tell you, i don't think you can start for that team, kevin. russell westbrook, what do you think? >> i like durant and westbrook. some of the biggest honors including the jimmy v award for perseverance accepted by a young charismatic new orleans saints fan jarious, jay robertson who is battling a chronic liver disease. later, legendary dodgers announcer ben scully accepted the icon award. olympic gymnast simone biles took home the award for best female athlete. mr. triple-double himself, mr. westbrook, earning the award for best male athlete. while the award for best team went to the nba champions golden state warriors. it's a lot of fun. great speeches. i love that event. >> can we get back to tennis? there was definitely a lot of highlights. a lot of people are excited about sam being one of the first americans to kind of make it

that far in london. >> i don't think anyone thought that could happen, but -- >> i think i saw that she was at the espy's. house speaker paul ryan is pledging to pass new sanctions on russia despite some reported concerns from the cia. plus, there's a new report that president trump's legal team wants to wall off jared cub n -- kushner from talking about the ssia investigation with his father-in-law. that and aot more to com everybody. noo introducing the easiest way to get gillette blades text "blades" to gillette on demand text to reorder blades with gillette on demand... ...and get $3 off your first order explore your treatment options with specialists who treat only cancer.

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welcome back, everybody. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. police in pennsylvania, they've taken a person of interest into custody following the discovery of human remains in the search for four missing young men. one missing remains has been identified as one of the missing men. police have not yet identified the other remains and not determined a cause of death. house majority whip steve scalise has been released from the icu from a washington d.c. hospital after nearly a week. scalise returned to the icu a week after contracting an infection from the gunshot wound he sustained during a congressional baseball practice last month. now, despite the progress, doctors say the congressman remains in serious condition and is still fighting back infection. in just a few hours senate republicans are expected to release a revised version of their health care bill. senate majority leader mitch

mcconnell says it will be unveiled after they meet at 11:30, but amidst ongoing division, senator rand paul said he won't even vote for the plan saying it does not repeal obama care. meanwhile, the president and first lady, they are in france today. french president emmanuel macron invited the presses. it commemorates the 100th anniversary of the u.s. entering world war i. the president will sit down with the meeting before holding a joint news conference where they are expected to take questions. joining us again live from paris, nbc chief news and white house correspondent halle jackson for us. halle, whether its message style even -- they don't -- they couldn't be more different here. seeing eye to eye on almost no policy front. take us inside really their relationship and where they could possibly find some common ground to work together. >> reporter: let's start there. let's start with the policy front of where they could find common ground because really

that is sort of the point or the top of the agenda as president trump arrives here in paris, and that is security essentially, cyber security, and the fight against terror. it's not just the anniversary as we talked about of the 100th anniversary of troops coming on to french soil at the start of world war i. it's also the anniversary of the terror attack in nice. expect the fight against isis, how to restrict a jihadist militant from coming into europe, from the united states. it's going to be one place where they could potentially find some common ground here. other than that, they are pretty different. you look at policy. you look at climate change. you look at trade. these are sharp divisions that we have seen in stark relief over the last month. not just at the g-7 a couple of weeks ago, but also last week at the g-20 in hamburg to the point where president macron said we have never been more divided as a world. stylistically these two are also very different. remember, macron styled himself after jupiter, the king of the

gods. more alouff, more cerebral. he called on the policy leaders to versailles for this rare gathering. president trump, opposite, right? he likes to think of himself as more of a populist. he likes to get out, feel the energy of his supporters. that's something we saw again and again on the campaign trail and in this administration. macron is a youngest french president. donald trump is the oldest united states president. remember the weird handshake between the two of them the first time they met? we expect to see something warmer this time around. similar to what we saw in germany where the two seem to be on friendlier footing. >> halle jackson for us. thank you. amid reports that the white house seeking to water down a pending bill to impose new sanctions on russia, house speaker paul ryan said he is determined to send a message with it. >> you know me on this issue. i'm a russia hawk. i believe in strong, bold

russian sanctions. right now we have a procedural issue. we're working on our friends to make sure that the constitutional air in this bill is protected. there are some policy issues with respect to making sure that we don't actually inadvertently help russian oil firms. aside from those issues, we we want to get this done and get this fixed and moving as quickly as possible. >> republican leadership does not appear to be on the same page. republican house majority leader kevin mccarthy said cia director mike pompeio informed him that the russian package would affect his ability to do his work and his job. a few elements of it. though mccarthy didn't specify what was being referred to there with those comments, house democrats have introduced the new bill on russia and iran sanctions identical to the version that passed with near unanimous support in the senate. the bill eliminates the need for a senate procedural change and would allow house democrats to force a vote on a resolution of disapproval of any effort to try and ease sanctions on russia.

house minority whip hoyer called it a necessary check on the president and his party. a spokeswoman for speaker ryan called it grandstanding. a new report claims that u.s. intelligence agencies detected russian officials discussing people with ties to donald trump months before he officially declared his candidacy. the "wall street journal" sites current and former u.s. official who's say that investigators, they are re-examining what was picked up in the spring of 2015 in light of donald trump jr.'s meeting with a russian lawyer last year. in some cases the russians in the overheard conversations, they talked about meetings held outside the u.s. involving russian government officials and trump business associates or advisors. russian officials are repeeling monitors by u.s. intelligence, and it would not be unusual for them to discuss people who have business interests in russia, as trump did with the 2013 miss universe pageant. the volume of the mentions of trump associates by the russians did have officials asking each other what's going on. one former official says just to

know late february of 2015 was also when the first reports of the trump candidacy came out. his hiring of staff and delaying the next season of "the apprentice." mcclatchey reports the investigators of the house, and the senate intelligence committee and the justice department, they are examining whether the trump campaign's digital operation helped guide russia to target voters with fake news tarks on hillary clinton during the election. the president's son-in-law jared kushner oversaw digital strategy and the question is whether the campaign pointed russian cyber operatives and -- to specific voting districts in specific states. mcclatchey sites people familiar. one familiar with the doj probe said they doubt the russians would know which areas to target on their own. the theory is not a new one. it has come from several federal experts, and here's hillary clinton earlier this summer. >> the russians, in my opinion, and based on the intel and counter intel people i have

talked to, could not have known how best to weaponize that information unless they had been guided, and here's -- >> guided by americans? >> guided by americans, and guided by people who had polling. >> let's talk more about this. joining us once again reporter for axio. sarah fisher, good to have you back with us. amidst some of the reports that we were just referring there, i know that axis is reporting that the president's outside attorneys are looking to create an internal separation. perhaps even a firewall with jared kushner at this point. talk to us a little bit more about that. let's dig more into the interview that the president gave reuters where he told them most of the phony politicians who are democrats who i watched over the last couple of days. most of those phonies that act holier than thou. if the same thing happened to them, they would have taken that meeting in a heart beat. lots to digest. give us your reaction to that as well. >> well, basically what we're hearing is that donald trump's

lawyers are trying to create a wall between the president and his son-in-law. they're telling me that jared kushner's camp, it's nothing personal, but you're involved in a very serious investigation between your ties and russia. remember, there are three meetings that jared kushner, you know, supposedly had with the russians. one with a banker. one with a diplomat, and then one with a lawyer that we learned about through those donald trump jr. emails that could have potentially involved collusion. there's a very serious look at what jared kushner's ties are to russia, and donald trump's legal team is just trying to protect him. they're saying they don't want his son-in-law to talk to him about anything that has to do with russia, which is an interesting thing. when you think about it, you would expect the spotlight from the legal perspective to be on the president's son, but really as mike allen reported the other day, it's on the president's son-in-law. >> why do you think that is? why do you think that the spotlight is more on the president's son-in-law versus the president's son. is it because, a, he is inside the white house. are you hearing any indication that there's going to be sort of

more transparency coming out of the white house considering all the statements that have come to light in the last couple of days? they may want to get ahead of the story here. >> right. the white house will tell you that they've been absolutely transparent. they praise the transparency of donald trump jr. for releasing the emails. one of the reasons why jared kushner is really under the spotlight here is because he failed to disclose those meetings until it was a little bit late. the other thing is he has very close personal ties to the president. we're hearing that he is a very close personal advisor. especially on matters of foreign affairs. it's important for trump's legal team to protect the president from his son-in-law potentially revealing information that could incriminate him. >> we're talking about the white house's position on russia. we were playing earlier that sarah huckabee sanders. the president trusts vladimir putin. what is your sense as to where the white house stands on the relationship between russia and this white house? >> i mean, i'm so happy you played that clip from hillary

clinton at the read code conference earlier this year. what she was describing about the -- needing assistance from americans to help guide their fake news efforts is something that the intelligence community is looking at really, really closely. they happen to know what direction to shift that attack had they not had the inside help of someone on the campaign. who would be the person on the campaign that would sort of be a part of that? yes, jared kushner was a large part of the digital operation, right? we know that jared kushner was the person that was authorizing digital payments, digital direction to the digital director down in texas. from that perspective, it's pretty -- there's a lot of sort of rumors that there was a very sort of close digital ties throughout the campaign. where does the relationship stand now? as you were saying earlier, it's super confusing. in one interview with reuters, president trump said it's very -- with christian broadcasting network. president trump said it's very important that two leaders of very powerful nations have a

great relationship, and we do. then on the other hand, in an interview with reuters, he said that he pressed vladimir putinin at the g-20 summit about whether or not he used fake news to meddle in the u.s. election and that vladimir putin said no, he didn't. trump said i asked him in a different way, and vladimir putin said again, no, he didn't. this is despite the fact that u.s. intelligence officials for months have been saying that he did. it's confusing, and it appears as if the white house communications team primarily sarah huckabee sanders who, by the way, has only been doing press conferences via audio. there's nothing for the american public to see. she said i don't have knowledge of the relationship. >> live in washington d.c., sarah fisher. thank you for that. after facing enough questions from the senate judiciary committee, president trump's nominee for fbi director christopher ray is widely expected to be confirmed with bipartisan support. ray, who was tapped by trump to replace james comey pledged his independence from political influence during yesterday's hearing. take a listen. >> i will never allow the fbi's

work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law, and the impartial pursuit of justice, period, full stop. my loyalty is to the constitution, to the rule of law, and to the mission of the fbi, and no one asked me for any kind of loyalty oath at any point during this process, and i sure as heck didn't offer one. >> if the president asked you to do something unlawful or unethical, what do you say? >> first, i would try to talk him out of it. if that failed, i would resign. >> during a confirmation hearing ray was also questioned about russia's alleged interference in the 2016 elections, and donald trump jr.'s e-mail setting up a meeting with the russian lawyer. >> if i got a call from somebody saying the russian government wants to help lindsey graham get re-elected, they've got dirt on lindsey graham's opponent, should i take that meeting? >> well, senator, i would think you would want to consult with some good legal advisors before you did that.

>> do you believe that in light of the don jr. e-mail and other allegations that this whole thing about trump campaign and russia is a witch hunt? is that a fair description of what we're all dealing with in america? >> well, senator, i can't speak to the basis for those comments. i can tell you that my experience with director -- >> i'm asking you as the future fbi director, do you consider this endeavor a witch hunt? >> i do not consider director mueller to be on a witch hunt. >> by the end of that hearing a number of senate democrats signalled their support for ray. now, according to nbc news, the hope on both sides of the aisle is to have him confirmed by the time the senate leads for august recess. >> let's turn to business where markets seem to be reacting positively to fed chair janet yellen's first day of testimony in front of congress. especially when she said that the fed is near its neutral rate. cnbc's jim atkins joins us live

with more on both those stories. good morning. >> good morning. let's look at markets, first of all, and yes, indeed, they did react positively to yellen's testimony. in fact, we saw the dow jones industrial average soar to a record high, while the s&p 500 and the nasdaq also finished up. what did they like? they liked the fact that the message overall was moreovish than they had been expecting. is is really with regards to yellen's plan for winding down the fed's $4.5 trillion balance sheet. she basically said this will be a gradual process likely to kick off later this year, and she simultaneously says that interest rate increases will also proceed gradually. let's head to verizon. security firm zd net has said that up to 14 million verizon customers may have had their data exposed last month. verizon is actually challenging these numbers saying, no, it's nothing like that amount. it's closer to six million. the data was names, phone numbers, addresses, and pin numbers.

now, the next step in this process will be to see whether the federal communications commission decides to launch a further investigation as has been requested by a consumer rights group. let's finish up in asia because china data or trade in north korea for the first half is being released, and it shows a 10.5% jump. imports are actually down, but exports from china's north korea rose by a whopping 30%. now, we expect this data to be very closely scrutinized by the trump administration because last week trump did, of course, say that china was so economically involved with north korea, it was hurting its ability to challenge the totalitarian regime. lewis, bough. >> gemma atkin live. thank you so much. still ahead, the world of celebrities turned politicians may be getting a new name added to the list. we'll talk about the thing that kid rock is offering about a possible run for office. an outbreak of dangerous weather leaving some parts of the country under water. where are the storms heading next? stay with us.

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welcome back. a series of dangerous storms that swept across the midwest have left parts of the region under water. this was the scene yesterday in illinois. parts of one highway were shut down. dozens of vehicles were swallowed up by the rising waters. unbelievable stuff there to see. >> let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bonnie schneider. a lot of dangerous conditions out there. >> absolutely. we're looking at some heavy rain working its way across michigan right now and in northern ohio. that's where the thunderstorms are strongest. keep in mind we're seeing the steady rain for a while. we're likely to see torrential downpours. this could accumulate. that's part of the risk for flooding existing today into parts of ohio and pennsylvania. another place we're watching for flooding is florida. actually, the southern part of the state. tropical depressnumber four, at least the remnants are coming closer to the state toy, and that is why we're likely to see really heavy rain accumulate.

especially in southwest florida near fort myers, and expecting that accumulation to build. otherwise, across the state we'll see accumulation of about half an inch going into friday. huge story today. the oppressive heat. 39 million people at risk for heat danger. that's not just in the well. as well as new york down through i-95 through virginia. and it's really oppressive for today and tomorrow. in the northeast, some improvements for the weekend, luis, but overall a hot stretch for the next few days. >> celebrities entering the political realm is nothing new, but the likes of president trump, al franken and arnold schwarzenegger all holding office. but we have one more, senator kid rock, leading to an kid rock

web site. he said he had tons of questions asking whether it was real and he said absolutely yes. kid rock was raised as a potential candidate to challenge the ibt senator wncumbent senat for reelection. >> you have kanye west in 2020. wow. >> still ahead, a group of afghan girls trying to make it into the u.s. for a robotics economy competition amid an ongoing visa saga. award winning design. award winning engine. the volvo xc90. the most awarded luxury suv of the century.

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welcome back. president dasilva was found guilty of corruption and money laundering charges yesterday stemming from charges that he and his wife received over $1 million from a construction company in exchange for lucrative contracts. now, dasilva previously called the charges a, quote, farce and his lawyers reiterated his claim of innocence. he will remain free while an appeal is heard. he remains very popular while overseeing a period of economic growth.

they hosted the world cup and 2016 olympics under his watch. >> and a team of afghan girls will be allowed to travel to the united states to compete in an international robotics competition. they are being allowed in on a parole system which would permit them to stay in the united states for ten days. they're expected to compete in the global challenge. >> coming up next on "morning joe," much more on president trump defending his son's role in speaking with a russian attorney. >> and senator bernie sanders stops by as republicans take another shot at passing a health care bill. "morning joe" live from capitol hill is just moments away. ♪ ♪ isaac hou has mastered gravity defying moves

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so i just want to review in case you run out of time. this is to help all the people at home. what's the conclusion? collusion? no, we don't have that yet.

i see illusion and desolution. so just so we're clear, everyone, conclusion, collusion, no. illusion, del use, yes. >> that was kellyanne yesterday. >> and in the day ahead, president trump continuing his visit to paris with a series of events lined up in the coming hours. in 30 minutes the president is set to hold a luncheon with u.s. military leadership and later this morning he's going to meet with french president macron before the two hold a joint news conference. >> and janet yellen will appear before the senate banks committee this morning following her testimony yesterday. >> and the nominees for this year's emmy awards will be announced this morning. stephen colbert is set to host

the awards on september the 17th. >> i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. >> i will never allow the fbi's work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law and the impartial pursuit of justice period, full stop. my loyalty is to the constitution, to the rule of law and to the mission of the fbi and no one asked me for any kind of loyalty oath at any time during this process and i sure as heck didn't offer one. >> the man poised to take over the fbi says he has no intention of grabbing a private dinner with president trump. christopher wray won praise from both parties as he jumps head first into questioning surrounding russian meddling, collusion and obstruction of justice. there are a nbe