streets and in the u.s. senate. and because of the upcoming mid-term elections. senate and house combined, there are 535 elected seats in congress. no two states or districts are alike, but on election night during the kavanaugh battle especially, these members may truly take on a deeper meaning. that is our broadcast on a monday night as we start off the new week. thank you so very much and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. york. ♪ this morning president trump is taking on several former top intelligence officials. the white house has threatened to take away security clearances for some of the president's critics. plus, a federal judge agrees to delay former trump campaign chairman paul manafort's criminal trial for another week. and president trump ramps up pressure on iran, but iran's foreign minister is hitting back, saying his country is unimpressed by the president's words. good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, july 24th. i'm eamon mohyeldin alongside louis bergdorf.

there is fall-out this morning after the white house announced that president trump is considering taking away the security clearances of several former intelligence officials. the list includes former cia director and nbc news senior national security and intelligence analyst john brennan. the white house also accused five others of politicizing their high-level security access. >> not only is the president looking to take away brennan's security clearance, he is also looking into the clearances of comey, clapper, haden, rice and mccabe. the president is exploring the mechanism to remove security clearance because they politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances, making baseless accusations of improper contact with russia or being influenced by russia against the president is extremely inappropriate. the fact that people with security clearances are making baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy with

inaccurate evidence. >> former intelligence officials typically keep their security clearances and there's a public policy for that? it allows them to speak out about sensitive matters with successors or appear in congress. there are are operatives known to only a small number of people at an agency including the director. we are hearing from some of the former intelligence officials being targeted by president trump. former cia director john brennan is declining to comment right now, but his fomrmer deputy chif of staff says brennan has not made a penny off his security clearance and has not failed to speak out against the failings of trump. he tweeted yesterday, i just texted former fbi director james comey asking whether he even has a security clearance to revoke. nope, he responded. there's nothing for the president to revoke. com comey says he was read out when

he left government as per normal practice. he goes on to say comey recently declined a temporary clearance from the inspector general to read the classified annex to the ig's recent report. he didn't want to see classified material lest the president accuse him of leaking it. a spokesman for former fbi director andrew mccabe tweeted, mccabe's security clearance weise activated according to what we were told was fbi policy when he was terminated. you would think the white house would check with the fbi before trying to throw shiny objects to the press corps. former cia director michael haden tells nbc news, quote, i don't go back for classified briefings although they occasionally ask me in to offer a view on something. won't have any impact on what i say or write. but, he added, the move could create a chill that would be bad for policy development. here is how former director of national intelligence james clapper responded to the news. >> well, the security clearance

has nothing to do with how i or any others feel about the president, and i don't get the briefings. i'm not -- i don't have access to any classified information. it is, frankly, more of a courtesy of former senior officials, the intelligence committee are extended the courtesy of the security clearance. haven't had occasion to use it and it would not -- has no bearing whatsoever on, you know, my regard or lack thereof for president trump or what he's doing. i think this is just a very, very petty -- a petty thing to do. that's about all i'll say about it. >> all right. so former national security advisor susan rice, whose security clearance is also under review, did not have an immediate comment. the administration's hasty idea to pull security clearances seemed to originate last week in this segment on "fox news."

take a listen. >> john brennan is a combatant who works for a cable news channel and threatened the president on twitter. why would you have a top secret security clearance? >> this is alarming, and if john brennan still has top secret clearance, can he research donald trump? can he research his family? >> and yesterday senator rand paul saw the president in washington and immediately tweeted, just got out of the white house meeting with donald trump. i restated to him what i have said in public. john brennan and other partisans should have their security clearances revoked. he continued, public officials should not use their security clearances to leverage speaking fees or network talking head fees. paul later added that he wants the ban to be more universal in comments he made once again on "fox news." >> i told the president in private what i have been saying in public, that i think there's a great danger to having talking heads on tv who are ex-cia

agents and still have classified clearance. there's a real danger they might inadvertently reveal classified information. but i would make it more universal. i don't think that ex-cia agents of any stripe who are now talking heads should continue to get classified information. i think it is wrong. >> democrats reacted with strong words about the white house's proposal. senator of hawaii tweeted, this is what totalitarianism looks like, while virginia's mark warner likened the move to totalitarian regimes. >> i think it is a feeble attempt by the white house to change the conversation. they don't want to talk about what went on with the meeting between trump and putin, a two-hour session that we've heard so far the russian version but we have very little facts here in this country. that deeply concerns me and i know most of my other colleagues in both political parties, what did trump promise to vladimir putin. it seems kind of strange in our

country like ours. we don't penalize people for exercising their first amendment rights. maybe she they do in other couns but not in america. >> elijah cummingss responded, quote, president trump allowed his national security adviser michael flynn to keep his security clearance for weeks after the justice department warned that he was under investigation for lying about his secret conversations with the russians. he allowed his son-in-law jared kushner to keep his security clearance after repeatedly concealing his foreign contacts, and he also allowed his staff secretary rob porter to keep his security clearance after the white house received four fbi reports detailing allegations of domestic abuse. president trump should get his own staff security clearances in order rather than gauging in crass political retribution against former officials. lots to break down here. joining us from the white house, white house reporter for the associated press, jill coven. great to have you with us early.

let's talk a little bit about what this lates escalation means and why are we seeing this happen between president trump and this former intelligence community officials? was there a specific triggering point? >> reporter: you know, it is interesting. in this administration you often hear from sources before the president announces something that he has been throwing around an idea and weighing it. this is not something that we've heard anything about until we heard rand paul raise this with "fox news" last week. so far it seems like he is the impetus for this idea, but keep in mind that the president has been seething at the intelligence community. this is a president who has been under attack and under siege ever since he stood beside vladimir putin in helsinki and really undermined the intelligence community, suggesting at that time that he didn't believe their assessment that russia was to blame for the 2016 election meddling. the president has really been using the intelligence community as sort of a punching bag. you know, he accuses them as being part of this deep state

conspiracy against him. he's, you know, deeply concerned about the fact that their intelligence findings in his mind undermine the legitimacy of his presidency. so we shouldn't be surprised the president is finding a new tool to go after people like brennan, comey and mccabe. he has been furious at them for years. >> the running theme is that they're all critics of the president. you think of leon panetta, he was not mentioned among the list or anybody even as far back as george tenet. does trump has the power to pull security clearances of his critics? would this be unprecedented for a president to do something like this? >> you know, i spent a good chunk of yesterday speaking to experts in security clearance law, and there does seem to be a little bit of question about whether the president has the full authority to do this just because it has never been done before. no one i spoke to had any recollection of a president unilaterally himself trying to pull somebody's political -- somebody's security clearance, much less in an act of political

retribution. these folks and former intelligence he officials, you have people on both sides of the aisle raising alarms about the idea of politicizing this tool. security clearance is intended to give people who are the most trusted in our government, the heads of intelligence agencies, the heads of national security agencies, the information they need. the idea that the president would be targeting this process is something that was very alarming to a number of people. >> yeah, indeed. i think yesterday a lot of people in washington were concerned about what it means politically. great to have you with us. we will touch base with you in a little bit. former ambassador to russia michael mcfaul is set to meet with trump officials on what he calls the harassment of former officials like him by moscow. mcfaul says that he will go to the white house to meet with fiona hill. she is the national security council senior director for europe and russia. along with other administration officials. mcfaul tells nbc he is not

scheduled to meet with president trump. the white house says that the ambassador requested a meeting with the nsc and it was accepted out of courtesy. the meetings come after the white house said last week that the president was mulling a proposal from russian president vladimir putin raised during their summit that would allow russians to interrogate u.s. officials in exchange for allowing special counsel robert mueller to interrogate russian hackers accused of interfering in the 2016 election. mcfaul, an outspoken individual of putin, is one of the individuals wanted by moscow for questioning. mcfaul tells nbc news he wants to engage with the trump administration to get them to send a message to russia that under no circumstances should they use laws to indict u.s. government officials and abuse the entinterpol system to haras them. the trial of manafort has been delayed. the judge granted immunity to

five potential witnesses prosecutors may call to testify. prosecutors wanted to withhold their name until the trial in case they didn't testify but the judge ordered the names be made public now. all five appear to work in various financial institutions that have been linked to manafort either in court filings or published reports. none have been charged with a crime and it is unclear if they would be. the president's former campaign chair is accused of hiding at least $30 million he made while representing ukraine and its former pro-russian president. still ahead, a progress report on the trump administration's efforts to reunite families and children separated at the border. we are learning that hundreds of parents may have already been deported. plus, the senate confirms trump's pick for veterans affairs despite opposition from democrats. we will have all of those stories and a check on weather when we come right back. ♪

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♪ keep it comin' love. if you keep on eating, we'll keep it comin'. all you can eat riblets and tenders at applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. we carry flowers that signifyn why we want to end the disease. and we walk so that one day, there will be a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor. join the fight at alz.org/walk. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. we are learning that hundreds of . prevagen. healthier brain. better life. you shouldn't be rushed into booking a hotel. with expedia's add-on advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. add-on advantage. only when you book with expedia.

welcome back, everyone. robert wilke has officially been confirmed as next secretary of veterans affairs as he is prepared to take on president trump's bid to overhaul the agency. the senate confirmed him yesterday in an 86-9 vote. he is the first va secretary to fail to receive unanimous senate confirmation. in a statement the president applauded the decision. he is expected to be sworn into office quickly and white house officials said he could join the president today at the veterans of foreign wars national convention in kansas city. wilke is the third pick for va secretary in 18 months, being tapped for the job after the former va secretary was fired due to ethics questions. dr. ronnie jackson withdrew after workplace misconduct allegations. hundreds of parents

separated from their children may have lost their right to reunification according to the trump administration. as many as 463 migrant parents who were separated from their children at the u.s./mexico border may not be eligible to be reunited with their children because they've been deported according to justice department court filings yesterday. the filings reported that 879 migrant children have been successfully reunited with their parents so far. that's up 364 since last thursday. the administration has until this thursday to reunify the remaining children that were taken from their parents as part of president trump's zero tolerance policy. georgia voters are headed to the polls today in a heated republican run-off for governor. the contentious race pits two established georgia republicans against one another. cag ex l thought to be the presumed front-runner fell short of the threshold to clirchl tnc

nomination in may. he has gained attention for his ads showing him with a shotgun. both gop candidates tried to align themselves with president trump, but only kemp received an endorsement in the form of a tweet last week. today's outcome is expected to be a litmus test of the power of a trump endorsement. now, the winner will face off against democratic nominee stacey abrams, who would become the state's first black female governor if he elected in november? it will get interesting there. let's turn to scary news out of greece. the death toll is rising after a wildfire tore through a resort town near athens, greece. according to fire officials at least 49 people have died and more than 150 are injured. the flames sent hundreds of people racing to evacuate. officials deployed water-dropping planes and helicopters as well.

coast guard and other vessels rescued almost 700 people who had to flee to the beaches, but just obviously a tragic and scary situation there, bill. >> those flames, how fast they were moving and the winds like that. that was scary stuff. it was only last year we had the horrible fire that killed all of those people in california so we know it can happen here too. let's get into today's concerns. two, same as yesterday. flash flooding, heavy rain in the east, all of the high humidity. in the west, the record highs and dangerous heat there. overnight we had numerous flash flood warning in areas of pennsylvania. nothing too tragic or too dangerous, no reports of a lot of damage. this was yesterday during the daylight hours heading to the evening. you can see it was a water rescue that took place here in -- yeah, therer with numerous high water areas in areas of pennsylvania, a lot of the small creeks and streams couldn't take it anymore. it's been too much rain in too little of a time. now we take you into what happened overnight. more heavy rain in the same

areas. look at the heavy rain in eastern north carolina moving up into southern portions of virginia. it is drenched from richmond to norfolk, and that, my friends, is heading over the top of washington, d.c. for the morning rush hour. you have already had there in d.c. about six inches of rain, half a foot in the last three days. that's why we have 34 million people in flood watches. southern tier of new york through central pennsylvania, eastern pennsylvania including philadelphia, baltimore, washington, d.c., all the way through raleigh to charlotte and eastern north carolina. here are the rainfall totals. another two to five inches of rain in eastern north carolina. washington, d.c. could get another four inches in the next 48 hours including areas of the poconos and the catskills and that's where the greatest flo flooding concerns continue throughout the day today. we will look at the excessive heat. >> i was going to say between the heat and the rain, you can feel how muggy it is here in the city.

>> it is gross in the east, yeah. it is as humid as it gets and it is not going away until the weekend. >> thank you for that. one mlb pitcher's marv less return to the mound after over a year after he needed life-saving surgery. one thing to catch a home run ball, but it is another to entirely do it while holding a baby. father of the year nominees coming straight ahead. we will show you the impressive skills this one father demonstrated next in sports. oc. we're the most isolated population on the planet. ♪ hawaii is the first state in the u.s. to have 100% renewable energy goal. we're a very small electric utility. but, if we don't make this move we're going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaii's economy. ♪ verizon provided us a solution

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sta welcome back. time now for sports. and a lesson on oversharing on social media. 12-time olympic medalist ryan lochte regrets this one. he has been suspended until next july after the u.s. anti-doping agency looked into an image posted in may, this one of him receiving iv infusion of a legal substance deemed above the legal limit. he was banned 10 months following his rio 2016 gas station incident. he will miss the next meets. he still plans to go for the 2020 olympics but just can't seem to get out of his own way. turning to major league baseball where in cincinnati the cardinals' starting pitcher daniel ponce de leon tossed seven innings of no-hit. and his debut last night. what is more stunning is this time last year he was recovering

from brain surgery needed after taking a line drive to a temple during an aaa game in may of last year. as for last night's matchup, the reds rallied in the ninth to beat the cards 2-1. pretty incredible stuff from him and such a great story. to kansas city. nifty fielding by salvador perez who after a sharply hit grounder deflects off his glove. nabs the runner at first base. that is baseball right there. let's go to the catch of the night, maybe of the year. we head to the city of brotherly love. in the bottom of the night, the phillies down two. franco knocks one out of the park, cutting the lead to one. but check out the catch that this fan made while holding his baby. just a remarkable play there. the phillies would go on to lose, but that dad has a memory he will never forget and a souvenir for the ages, just baby in one hand, catching in the other.

>> and seems to be catching a bit of a backhand twist on his part. if you look at the baby's face, that's priceless. i don't think he's as impressed as the father is right there. he'll appreciate it -- or she will appreciate it one day, exactly. thanks for that. still ahead, tensions escalate between the united states and iran. president trump is stepping up the pressure, but iran's foreign minister says he's unimpressed. plus we've learned that federal prosecutors have at least 12 audio recordings made by trump's former lawyer michael cohen. what this means for the fractured relationship between trump and his former fixer. we'll be right back. glycerides with a healthy diet... and exercise. and maybe even, unproven fish oil supplements. not all omega-3s are clinically proven or the same. discover prescription omega-3 vascepa. the one that's this pure... and fda approved. look. vascepa looks different... because it is different. it's pure epa. vascepa, along with diet, is clinically proven to lower very high triglycerides by 33% in adults,

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welcome back, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis bergdorf. let's start with the morning's top stories for you. we begin on the heels of the president's bombastic tweet. the trump administration is doubling down on rhetoric aimed at iran without providing much in the way of specific policies. >> mr. president, provoke iran. >> none at all. none at all. >> the president's responding to iran and he's not going to allow them to continue to make threats against america. if anybody is inciting anything, look no further than to iran. >> reporter: what would it take to have direct negotiations between president rouhani? >> i'm not going to get into specifics and certainly not negotiate with the press. that would be a determination the president would make. >> reporter: when the president

pulled out of the jcoa he did not reveal an alternate plan to address iran's nuclear ambitions? he seemed to bank on economic sanctions being enough to get them back to the table. is that still his plan b? >> look, as we said, the preside president's number one goal is to the make sure iran doesn't get nuclear weapon. when we have specifics we will let you know. >> reporter: does president trump plan on ordering to move carriers or additional military resources to the region should iran continue to pose the threat he alluded to in his speech? i also have a follow up. >> i don't have specific announcements. >> meanwhile, iran is reacting to president trump's most recent twitter threat of total destruction, taking to social media, the same platform trump is using and the same format trump used hours earlier. iranian foreign minister tweeted, quote, color us unimpressed. the world even harsher bluster a few months ago. and the iranians have heard

them, albeit more civilize tds ones, for 40 years. we've been around for millennia and seen more. be cautious. let's bring in cal perry. good to have you with us. another country in the twitter crosshairs of president trump. it seems that's his growing mo, is to have some kind of confrontation. what are the next steps you think we will see from both sides as this kind of escalates. >> reporter: listen, until the tweets from president trump this had been framed certainly by the iranians as economic warfare. when you look at sort of the comments that president rouhani gave that set off president trump, one of them was about the strait of hormuz, a geographical comment, it was we can pinch the world's oil supply if the u.s. continues to make world powers live in this strange space, which a number thought they would be doing business with iran, we had the signing of basically what amounted to a peace and economics treaty, and

now the u.s. in these comments where we saw a doubling down from mike pompeo is talking in essence about regime change. so that's what has really escalated this. the question now is, and we will hear from president rouhani today, of course, what is the reaction of iran to the doubling down? do they double down on their part? >> yes, obviously some are saying it is the same tactic the president deployed against north korea. iran is more geo politically significant. it has a lot of relationships with foreign powers, european powers, china, russia, the european union. they don't want to go along with the american reimposition of sanctions against iran. what is their reaction been like given all of this latest tension? >> reporter: well, the reaction is exactly as you say, which is, look, north korea was a hermit kingdom, is a hermit kingdom, ice rated from the world. iran is the opposite of that. iran is doing business with germany, france, the united

kingdom and european union and wants to continue to do that. it is a country you would think would ally itself with the united states but, in fact, this sort of new world trump order is the united states along with saudi arabia and israel have formed this very strong coalition. they're trying to influence world events, not just isolated places like yemen and syria and lebanon, but they're trying to sort of redraw the map. this is what has the iranians very concerned. >> yeah, i think this is a point where we cue rudy guilliani to make an appearance an iranian opposition group to talk about regime change. the white house is taking on top-level security officials who have been critical of president trump. the list includes james brennan and others accused of politicizing their access. hallie jackson has more on the potential white house plan to p

pull security clearances. >> reporter: it is an unprecedented threat aimed at critics of the commander in chief, the white house considering stripping security clearances of six former officials. >> they politicized and in some cases mon tiesed their security clearances. >> reporter: they have worked for democrats and republicans and have been tough on president trump publicly. >> isn't the president doing what he said he doesn't want them doing? >> no, he is not making baseless accusations of improper contact with a foreign government and accusing the president of the united states of treason us activity. >> reporter: that may be a reference to john brennan who called last week's meeting with vladimir putin nothing short of treason us. >> i equate it to the betrayal of one's nation, basically aiding and abetting, giving comfort to an enemy. >> reporter: now he's on list that includes former fbi officials james comb canny and andrew mccabe, neither of whom currently have security clearances because they were fired.

michael hayden, former cia director, says the new threat won't have an effect on what i say or write. former obama national security adviser susan rice, silent for now. >> i think this is just a very, very petty -- a petty thing to do. >> reporter: former intelligence leaders typically keep their clearances so they can talk about sensitive matters with their successors. >> a security clearance is very valuable for former officials in the private sector. so to lose one could amount to a financial penalty. >> reporter: but the president himself is not usually personally involved in decisions to revoke that clearance. to critics, it is not just nixonian but political punishment. >> it concerns me greatly if this white house is again breaking precedence in trying to attack former members of the intelligence community because they simply expressed their views and first amendment rights. >> reporter: john brennan, by the way, is declining to comment on this. the press secretary is not commenting on something else making headlines here in washington, the trial of former trump campaign chair paul

manafort. jury selection had been set to start tomorrow, but that has now been pushed back, delayed by about a week to give defense attorneys more time to review new evidence. ayman, back to you. >> thanks to nbc's hallie jackson for that report. let's go to the cohen tapes. nbc has learned that 12 audio recordings seized in the raid on michael cohen's office and hotel room have been handed over to federal prosecutors. we know at least one contains the voice of donald trump discussing a pay-off to playboy model karen mcdougal shortly before the election. south korean client privilege had been granted but was waived by cohen and the president's legal teams. meanwhile, there's new reporting on the president's fractured relationship with his fixer. according to "vanity fair" emily jane fox, others in the president's inner circle have been working to erode their relationship. one person familiar with cohen's thinking tells fox, quote, it is

not the recording that is valuable, it is the back story. another person close to cohen said, quote, when michael says that he wants the truth out there and that the truth is not the president's friend, he is not talking about marginal issues. he's talking about core issues at the heart of the mueller probe. cohen himself reportedly told friends, quote, if they think for a second that the efforts to discredit me aren't known to me, they are sadly mistaken. did they just think i was going to roll over and die? >> let's break all of this down. with us once again, white house reporter for the "associated press" jill covin. good to have you back with us. let's hone in on the relationship between michael cohen and trump. what are you hearing has been the fall-out inside the white house from this relationship? >> reporter: well, obviously the relationship right now between the president and michael cohen is not good. we know these are two individuals that worked together for a very long time. michael cohen has long been frustrated by the fact that he wasn't brought to washington, he

wasn't given a white house job, and their relationship has grown more and more tense over the years at this point. but i think what you're seeing here, you know, we don't know what's in the content of 11 of those 12 files, the audio files that now have been turned over. but i think you need to look at this as sort of a one-upsmanship being played as they try to figure out what is most beneficial to them. in this case, trump's attorneys decided to waive privilege. they feel having the information out there is strategic to them. i think we will see it play out over the next weeks and months. >> let's switch gears because i feel like every couple of weeks when we are talking we are asking what can congress do, could they do something else. could trump's threat of pulling security clearances of former top intelligence officials push lawmakers to be do something? >> reporter: i think it is

undeniable this threat to revoke the security privilege is something that's an unprecedented idea that the president is throwing around, using this tool politically. this has obviously been an extraordinary period over the last two weeks for the president and the alarms in the democratic party are louder than ever. that said, i'm not sure how much else the democrats can do. we see them coming out every day delivering statements, you know. we see them on television. you see them in the halls of congress, lambasting the president. but at this point at least when it comes especially to the security clearance issue, there's not much that they can do. the president from, you know, attorneys i have spoken to say that this is something that the president seems to be able to do unilaterally. so, you know, at least on this particular issue i don't see what they can do. >> live in washington, d.c. for us, jill colvin, great to have you on as always. republicans in the white

house cede over the bid for penalties against zte.

welcome back, everyone. congress has backed down from its threat to reinstate harsh penalties on chinese telecom giant zte. they agreed to a final version of the must-pass act without a key provision that would have imposed zte's export ban. it crippled the company before they were lifted by president trump this month. zte shares spiked. >> no country in the world spies on us more than china does. no country in the world steals intellectual property from us more than china does, and they use their telecommunication companies to do it. it makes no sense to me but we

got played again. >> so the defense bill won't reinstate sanctions. it does prohibit government agencies and contractors from buying the technology from zte. the measure is expected to pass. let's get a check on the weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, some lingering rain in the mid atlantic and flooding as well. >> yeah, it is downpours once again this morning, all surrounding washington, d.c. at this hour. earlier i showed you pictures of pennsylvania. this is flooding that happened in colorado yesterday. we have a chance of some thunderstorms in colorado, also in wyoming where we could get some -- hopefully no scenes like this, but we could get the possibility of some isolated severe storms. look at that car dangling. let's get to the problems in the mid atlantic. here's washington, d.c., here is baltimore. all of the yellow and reds are downpours and occasional thunderstorms and there's a ton of rain heading from the south right now. it is on the west side of the

beltway right now. d.c. is actually in the hole right now but it will fill in quickly. philadelphia, you're doing okay. much of the heavy rain is towards your west. so this is a map that shows us the risk of flash flooding for today. so the blue -- light blue is marginal, dark blue is slight risk, the red is moderate risk of flooding, that means the chances are great. from baltimore to d.c., hagerstown, down to charlottesville, virginia, areas of greatest risk. out west, some of the hottest temperatures will be in southern california. phoenix, 116. even l.a. will be 9 2 today. it will be 95 in portland. have you been to fresno, ayman, fresno, california? >> i can't say i have though. >> it is hot as you would expect. they've had 18 days in a row of 100-degree temperatures. they never had more than 21 in a row. they're going to break it this week. >> wow. i don't know if that's aed good

recogood -- a good record to have. >> no, but they're living through it. >> still ahead, google's parent company tops earnings. plus, chick-fil-a looks to utilize its popularity to get into the business of milk. other stories driving your business day. without starting f. it brings your business up to speed, doing more with systems you have in place. it can bring all your apps to life and run them within your data center. it is... the ibm cloud private. the cloud that's built for all your apps. ai ready. secure to the core. the ibm cloud is the cloud for smarter business.

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alphabet's shares soared to all-time highs on monday on record earnings, despite the eu fine for antitrust. joining us from london, us live from london with more. good morning. >> reporter: the really, really, really big fine. not necessarily gbad news, quarter after kwar sequarter se be bringing in more money. they're throwing way more spending towards newer pror eer including cloud services. data services, hiring people for the cloud business. since bringing in about $1 billion every three months a lot of analysts says money well spent. other u.s. firms, forking out cash, nike. 7,000 employees. men and women after a pay review

found historically underpaid and the company changing its bonus scheme and the ceo apologized not long ago calling ex-lucienary culture a lot of complaints had gone unanswered. >> good news for nike employee there's. another good story. chick felle will become the first fast food to offer meal kits. what more can you tell us? bill karins is excited about his delivery of waffle fries to the studio. >> unfortunately won't be happening on cnbc. 150 outlets in the atlanta area pap long way to get to bill from there. they'll be reasonably priced. this is a competitive space now. we've seen quite a few start-ups struggle because of huge marketing costs, logistic costs. advantage at chick-fil-a, they'll be selling fresh food from existing locations including drive-throughs. if you look at the menu, quite

chicken focused. chicken parmesan and many other selections. >> who doesn't like chick-fil-a. >> quickly, to be honest, not so much the meal plans but to get a chicken biscuit in the morning. if they can deliver that, we'll all be very happy. >> three meal as day. you know? >> thanks, bill. coming up, axios's jim vandehei has a look at "one big thing." and the former heads of the intel community, to revoke clearances the result that could have. and if the president is

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welcome back, everyone. joining us from washington, d.c. with a look at axios a.m., co-founder and ceo of axios jim vandehei. great to have you with us up and early. what is axios's "one big thing" for us? >> looking how the chances of the democrats winning back the house seems on the rise. two of the leading political handicappers, larry salbatoe an others putting more republican seats in play moving seats into democrats' favor meaning a playing field of 60-plus seats in play, almost all held by republicans. that is the number one ingredient that you need for there to be a wave. a lot of seats that are winnable by the party out of power. you now have that. >> so a lot of seats that are in play. always curious to get a sense, is it because there is a growing sense of anti-trump-ism or

anti-gop-ness if you use that or what the democrats are putting forward as a plan. >> there's a combination. energy at the democratic grass roots level almost fully inspired by trump and the desire to win back power. the number one ingredient and trade politics complicating life in a lot of districts. particularly in the midwest. not super profound but definitely a huge topic of debate. the reason that republicans -- we talked to republicans, they're very, very, very worried about november -- it's not just there's so many seats in play. they're looking at democrats out of power out-raising republicans in power. almost unheard it in politics. you have power and ar a republican you should be crushing democrats in terms of fund-raising. people typically in vest in the party with influence. then look at turnout in the off-ye election. almost every one to date,

democrats are outperforming performance in previous elections. which to me is a number one indicator momentum is real and sustained. if you carry that through to election day, that's why republicans that you talk to in leadership are very, very concerned that they're going to lose the majority. >> jim, in the postmortem 2016 election a lot of analysis what facebook did. took a lot of heat in the presidents of fake news. how is the social media technology giant planning to change their policies at all come the midterms? >> right. virus are probably familiar what happened last week. mike zuckerberg given an interview, advocate of free speech and mused out loud, i don't even think i would kick off somebody -- wouldn't kick off from our platform, somebody who denies the holocaust. huge backlash and a discussion, should there be censorship whatsoever on facebook? the truth is, mark zuckerberg

doesn't want to. he built his wealth, fame and platform based on unfettered free speech. once you allow unfettered spree speech you get what we're getting now. conspiracy theirories, fake new dangerous rhetoric and facebook is scrambling to fix it. there are several options facebook to choose but mark zuckerberg doesn't want to choose any of them. >> not compelled to do anything at this point least. see you in a little bit, jim. you'll be on "morning joe" in a moment, reading "axios a.m." as well. go to signup.axios.com. that does it for us. "morning joe" starts right now. these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence. >> do you accept that president obama was born in the united states -- >> no, i don't know.

i really don't know. >> these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence. >> that was sarah sanders yesterday accusing longtime public servants, get this, of exploiting their security clearances to criticize the president and make money. it's another hair on fire headline that generates clicks and has donald trump and his white house trying to pull attention away from the fact that america's commander in chief has significant exposure in the mueller probe and also a way from the flailing foreign policy. like the birther conspiracy bri i -- before it, another dull idea wrapped in camouflage. we thought it's a public service to all of you who might have been distracted by the shiny penny they threw out on the streets that we be clear what the l