robert mueller speaking on american life, civil liberties and the rule of law. and that brings an end to our thursday night broadcast. thank you so very much for being here with us good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. ♪ >> this morning nbc news has confirmed that michael cohen is willing to inform special counsel robert mueller that donald trump as a candidate knew in advance about the infamous trump tower meeting in june 2016. plus, new reporting that bob mueller's team is examining president trump's tweets as part of the investigation into obstruction of justice. a fast-moving wildfire in northern california turns deadly. at least person was killed by a car fire, and the blaze is threatening a city of 92,000 people. good morning, everyone. it is friday, july 27th.

i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian. nbc news learned that michael cohen has a story to tell about president trump and the 2016 meeting between russians and his top campaign aides at trump tower. a knowledgeable source says the president's former attorney is willing to tell special counsel robert mueller that donald trump jr. told his father of the meeting in advance, contradicting clals from both after "the new york times" broke the story one year ago. >> a lot of people want the to know this about your father. did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing, there was nothing to tell. i mean i wouldn't even have remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. >> did you at the time that they had the meeting? >> no, i didn't know anything about the meeting. you know, it must have been a very unimportant meeting because i never heard about it. >> no one told you a word? >> no, nobody told me. i didn't know.

it was a very -- sounded like a very unimportant meeting. >> so cohen's claims were first reported by cnn actually, whose sources said cohen does not have evidence to back up his story. they also report a source familiar with cohen's testimony to the house intel committee says that cohen did not testify that trump had advance knowledge, nor does this claim appear in either of the committee's reports. cohen's lawyers declined comment but said, quote, i have to wonder why the trump people would put it out. it was not from us. president trump's lawyer, rudy guilliani had this to say. >> i expected something like this from cohen. he has been lying all week, for two -- he has been lying for years. i don't see how he has any credibility. if you had a trial, which you won't have a trial here, but you would say, which lie do you want to on pick, the second lie or maybe a new lie? there's nobody that knows him that hasn't warned me if his back is up against the wall he will lie like crazy because he

has lied all of his life. >> michael cohen's relationship with president trump stretches back nearly two decades. with this week's developments nbc news sought to clarify cohen's position towards the investigation of the president, which cohen had described as a witch-hunt in the past. asked by kristin welker if cohen would cooperate with prosecutors or flip against his former boss, his lawyer, lanny davis said, i klein to endorse the word flip but will only say he's committed to telling the truth. a reminder in april president trump tweeted about cohen saying, most people will flip if the government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories. sorry, i don't see michael doing that. trump said this in june. >> are you worried that michael cohen might flip. >> look, i did nothing wrong. you have to understand -- >> yeah -- >> this stuff would have come out a long time ago. i did nothing wrong. i don't do anything wrong. >> is estelle your friend? >> i always liked michael,

though i haven't spoken with michael in a long time. >> in fact with chris cuomo last night rudy guilliani said he was with president trump when he heard about the tapes from michael cohen. he was upset to see that he did, quote, unquote, flip or release the tapes to say the least. talking to us nbc's danny savalas. okay. >> what does this mean? >> yes, big revelation last night. what does it mean for president trump? >> if we look at the trump tower meeting as a potential crime, there are a couple of different crimes. they don't jump out right away, but any kind of participation or thing of value received from a foreign government during a campaign is a violation of election law. it may also be a violation of the honest services that our politicians are supposed to give us. it could be a number of different things. as trump becomes closer and closer to that meeting, there are potential charges of conspiracy or anything that involves his participation could tie him to a crime if the trump

tower meeting originally was a crime. >> assuming that the part of the story we head from cnn is true that he doesn't have any evidence to back it up -- >> yeah. >> michael cohen doesn't have any evidence to back it up and it comes as rudy guilliani, potentially he said, he said, an account that changed over time, how significant is it that michael cohen is prepared to tell robert mueller about the meeting? does it have any significance? >> it is curious. i saw rudy guilliani go into which one are you going to believe, but he knows the person you get to cooperate as a cooperating witness is usually a criminal themselves. they always have horrible credibility problems and it always raises the specter -- >> he knows by saying by putting it out there that his client, president trump is more credible. >> rudy believes trump is more

credible, his client is donald trump. but guilliani as a prosecutor prosecuted many corrupt individuals, many famafia peopl and to do that you need a criminal to catch a criminal. so it seems odd he would get on and say michael cohen is not a credible witness, when i'm sure in his prosecutions he put people on the stand to testify, people who were doing worse than cohen. so credibility is always an issue when it comes to cooperating witnesses. >> what about the fact in the chris cuomo interview as well they talk about there were other people in the room when president trump learned of this meeting with the russians at trump tower? >> those are all potential witnesses. >> yeah. >> if that's what you're asking. we're seeing this over the last week, whether it be the tapes where someone comes in the room and -- >> that would get cohen to

identify the individuals? >> that's right. the more you identify the individuals, you hear them on the tapes or they're mentioned, all of these people become additional potential witnesses and the government salivates because they know they can approach them, tell them how serious the situation is and say, you have two choices. you can either cooperate or you can go it alone against the full might of the government. >> i want to quickly ask you this. we are getting reporting mueller is looking into trump's tweets within the russian investigation. what's the precedent for that? >> the precedent i can tell you personally, having seen so many cases where your client doesn't mention that they've been on social media -- and this is criminal cases -- and then the government or the fbi or even the local police walk in with a printout of all of the incriminating things that they've said or taken photographs of online. since the advent of social media, law enforcement has been all over it. one of the first places they go is social media to get an idea of what a defendant is up to.

and i should add -- >> could you use that as evidence? >> absolutely. the thing about twitter, maybe more so than facebook, more so than other social media, is that twitter is sometimes a stream of consciousness. it is a glimpse into what we're actually thinking. with no president has this been more true than president trump because from all indications most of his tweets are unfiltered. there's no committee looking through them. they are his thoughts. as long as you clear the hurdle of what we call authentication, as long as you can prove that he is the human who put that out there, if you clear authentication then it is admissible as a statement against the president or whomever else. >> great to talk to you. we will talk to you in a little bit. north korea has returned what are believed to be the remains of 55 service members killed during the korean war. the turnover happened on friday, on the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting between the two countries. the remains still need to be authenticated. it is part of the agreement signed by president trump and kim jong-un during last month's

singapore summit. trump asserted back in june north korea had already returned 200 remains, although secretary of state mike pompeo later told a senate hearing that that was not true. late last night trump tweeted his thanks to the north korean dictator. let's talk about the immigration crisis going on in the country with the government's court appointed deadline passed, just over half of the 2,551 children originally separated from their parents were reunited yesterday. according to court filings, as of thursday morning the u.s. government reunited 1,442 migrant children between the ages of five and 17 with their parents who were in i.c.e. custody. however, 71 1 kids are still considered ineligible for reunification and the administration has not committed to a timeline for reuniting them with their parents. 431 of those kids have parents who have been deported and according to court filings and

government officials as well. when asked, an official with the department of health and human services said the administration would not commit to reuniting kids with parents outside of i.c.e.'s custody. it would wait and see, quote, what the judge's vision is for the process we should take. going to capitol hill, a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation aimed at protecting the united states' involvement in the nato alliance. it comes amid president trump's ongoing attacks against nato and fears he may unilaterally pull the united states out of the trans atlantic alliance. senators tim kaine, cory gardner, jack reid and john mccain's bill would prohibit the president from withdrawing from nato without the approval of two-thirds of the senate. that is the same threshold required to actually enter into a treaty. it comes as the house yesterday overwhelmingly approved the annual defense authorization bill which included language reaffirming the united states' commitment to nato. big news from facebook yesterday posting the largest

one-day loss in market value by a single company in wall street history yesterday. it was the company's worst day ever since becoming public after a sobering quarterly report slowing down revenue estimates and user decline sent investors heading for the his. shares closed down 19%, knocking $119 billion off the company's market value. that's a lot of money. mark zuckerberg personally lost an estimated $16 billion as a rule, falling three spots to number six on the list of the world's richest people. he's still pretty rich. no company in the history of the stock market has ever lost 100 billion in market value in a single day, but two came close, intel and microsoft back in 2000 on the edge of the dot-com bubble burst. >> i think the world will be watching the markets to see how and if facebook recovers. still ahead, a democrat senator claims russian hackers tried to gain access to her

office computer. plus, the latest on a deadly wildfire threatening a city in northern california. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. ♪

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it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. welcome back, everybody. it is a state of emergency in northern california as firefighters battle the so-called car fire. the fast-moving wildfire has killed at least one person and destroyed more than a dozen structures so far. residents in redding, california, a city of 92,000 people, are making emergency evacuations as the fire is approaching them. right now more than 2,000 firefighters are working to contain the flames. a deputy chief for cal fire says the blaze is, quote, taking everything down in its path. >> yeah, disturbing images out of california. let's switch gears and bring in bill karins. bill, a lot of people would want to know, first as you give a big

picture of the forecast, whether or not mother nature is helping the firefighters in california? >> no, that exploded and it will be a big story. when we get to daylight and show you the number of homes that have burned, the number will go up dramatically. we have confirmation of 15 that burned. i have seen video on facebook and twitter of numerous houses in neighborhoods on fire and they can't give us estimates on how many have been burned because they're trying to get people to safety. they say the fire has been that unpredictable and moved that fast overnight. yeah, hopefully it won't be more deadly than it is. we know of the one firefighter, the bull dozer operator that perished. that will be a breaking story throughout the day today. i will give you updates as i get them in. portions of the city of redding have been evacuated. it is another urban, fast-moving wildfire. we will give you the information when we find it out. so the other story today, you know, compared to the fire and what is happening overnight in california, you know, minor, but we have a chance of some severe weather and thunderstorms today

on this front. it will head through the east. this is at 5:00 p.m. if you are in the washington, d.c. area, the baltimore, philadelphia, harrisburg, once again, in new york city, this is the area of concern for the strong thunderstorms. not everyone is going to get hit. it will only last about a half hour to 45 minutes, but we could get strong, gusty winds with it when it comes through, enough to knock out power and knock down trees. again, that's about 5:00 to 8:00 is the target for the i-95 corridor. 30 million people are at risk of the severe storm. it goes from albany, new york to key, new hampshire, hard forward, new york city, with all of the major cities, that's why 30 million people are at risk. that's one of the stories later this afternoon, but we will continue to give you updates on the carr fire. they're saying one of the shelters at the colleges is almost full and a developing situation. >> certainly thinking about the residents dealing with that right now. thank you, bill. let's turn to president trump, who is vowing to impose sanctions on turkey over the detainment of an american sit deny. trump tweeting this yesterday. the united states will impose

large sanctions on turkey for their long-time detainment of pastor andrew brunson, a great christian, family man and wonderful human being. he is suffering greatly. this innocent man of faith should be released immediately. >> to president erdogan and the turkish government, release pastor brunson now or be prepared to face the consequences. if turkey does not take immediate action to free this innocent man of faith and send him home to america, the united states will impose significant sanctions on turkey. >> so last week trump tweeted that it was a, quote, total disgrace that turkey continues to detain brunson. turkey, a nato ally, has detained the pastor since 2016 on terrorism charges, alleging he aided in a failed coup attempt. he says erdogan's regime has

detained more related to that atact. the pastor from north carolina who spent the last 23 years living in turkey was released from prison on wednesday and is under house arrest. he faces the same charges and 35 years in prison. erdogan previously implied brunson's release would be granted only when the u.s. extradites a turkish cleric, a political rival to erdogan who he accuses of masterminding the coup attempt. he called the threat unacceptable. no one can give orders to turkey and threaten our country. >> claire ma caccaskill is the t linked to phishing attempts. around the time of the hack attempt president trump was in missouri chastising mccaskill and asking the crowd to vote her out of office. we first learned of russia's

midterm hacking attempts last week during a security forum in aspen. >> earlier this year we discovered a fake microsoft domain had been established as the landing page for phishing attacks and saw meta data that suggested those attacks were being directed at three candidates standing for election in the midterm elections. i can tell you they are people because of their positions might have been interesting targets from an espionage standpoint as well as an election disruption standpoint. >> the missouri senator has been highly critical of russia and is a top democrat facing tough election chances this year. she issued a statement saying that the cyberattack was unsuccessful and, quote, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with with this. i will not be intimidated. still ahead, while the yankees add another big name in a massive trade, they lost the judge, but for how long? details next in sports.

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go ahead, rizz, go ahead. in the air! >> go ahead! >> oh, yes! homer! >> ah, matinee special many they love it. there we go in the bullpen. they just love it when a lefty hits a home run. just dips down and puts it out. the shot earned chicago the dramatic 7-6 victory over the diamondbacks. meanwhile, the cubs are primed to pad their starting rotation, reportedly set for a deal to add the arm of texas lefty cole hamels to their bullpen. exact details about what the rangers receive in return, we'll find out later. to new york, they have acquired toronto lefty in exchange for will bill mckenny. happ has a good record against the red sox. while the yankees strength in the starting rotation with that move, they may have a bigger problem. star slugger aaron judge made an

early exit from last night's game against the orioles after he was hit on the wrist by a 93 miles per hour fastball. he turns into it. right at the bottom of his right wrist. the yankees announced judge sustained a chip fracture. here is the good news. right now they're saying three weeks. let's hope so. turning to the nfl where quarterback carson wentz made his return to the field at eagles' training camp yesterday. after being sidelined during last year's playoffs following a season-ending knee injury. wentz who was just married, was asked about rehab over the summer. >> it was a great balance this summer, just being back in north dakota, doing things with the foundation but finding ways to keep workouts in. even on the honeymoon, finding ways to get rehab in and things like that. it was an amazing summer, i'll say that. >> where are you as far as rehab? >> i got some workouts in.

in the fitness center. >> all right. there was no good answer. >> tmi, tmi. >> exactly. >> he turned like bright red. >> i like how he clarified that. >> in the fitness center. >> go on your honeymoon. >> i think it was inappropriate they were prying into his honeymoon workouts. thanks. appreciate it, bill. still ahead, several come to rod rosenstein's defense after 11 members of the party introduce articles of impeachment. >> plus, conservative congressman jim jordan announces his plan to run for house speaker, sparking a possible leadership battle. we will talk about those stories and more coming up. it's single-origin kenyan coffee from the nyeri highlands, 6,000 feet above sea level. but how do you really know that the beans journeyed to the port of mombasa and across the pacific? that you can trust they're 100% authentic? ibm blockchain.

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♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the mornings top stories. a number of top republicans coming to the defense of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein after some gop members in the house introduced a measure to impeach him. rosenstein's boss, attorney general jeff sessions, was among those speaking out yesterday, defending his second in command. >> my deputy, rod rosenstein, is highly capable. i have the highest confidence in him. you probably know not only did he go to the wharton school of business but graduated from harvard right here in this area. so what i would like congress to do is to focus on some of the

legal challenges that are out there. >> do i support impeachment of rod rosenstein? no, i do not. i do not for a number of reasons. first, it takes -- i don't think we should be cavalier with this process or with this term, number one. number two, i don't think that this rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. that's a really high standard. number three, we -- since i got involved, we have been getting a lot of compliance from doj on the document request. we do not have full compliance and we have to get full compliance, but we've been making tremendous progress to that point. >> so meanwhile the chair of the house freedom caucus, mark meadows, who is leading that effort to impeach rosenstein, was asked yesterday by msnbc's garrick ma garrick hake if he's laying the foundation for president trump to remove the deputy ag? >> no, i think at this point i haven't discussed it with the

president, so i can tell you at this point who the president hires and fires is certainly not going to be influenced by something that this member of congress does. >> all right. meanwhile, republican congressman and -- jim jordan i should say, has launched his bed to run for house speaker. for more on that i want to bring in nbc news national political reporter in washington, d.c., heidi przybyla. what do you make of this? >> that's right. he made the announcement, writing, quote, president trump has taken bold action on behalf of the american people. congress has not held up its end of the deal, but we can change that. it's time to do what we said. jordan, a trump ally, becomes the first gop lawmaker to formally declare he will run to replace retiring house speaker paul ryan. the ohio congressman will likely face off against ryan-endorsed house majority leader kevin mccarthy, who has not yet

announced his candidacy. nbc news asked him for comment on jordan's bid and mccarthy responded, quote, i'm spending my time keeping the majority. meanwhile, house freedom caucus mark meadows told reporters he supports jordan's run. so, guys, a scandal that in any other situation might have felled a member of congress, this guy is now running for speaker. >> so what kind of support are you hearing from washington in general for jim jordan's run? >> reporter: he's got real strong support among a very small handful of lawmakers. look, this is a dream come true for the democrats because this is what they say a sign of leadership in the trump era, someone who is facing very, very serious charges here by multiple members of this wrestling team, and his response to that is that they are all liars, number one, and, two, that this is the deep state. that he is a victim of the deep state.

those are both echos of arguments we have heard from president trump when he has faced his own scandals. but at the same time jim jordan is really the culmination of a movement that's taken place since john bainoehner was in ofe to go after and scalp the establishment. jim jordan called john boehner a terrorist and they've been successful in grinding the establishment agenda to a halt here. >> to that point, heidi, does it mean jim jordan runs on the trump coattails inside the republican party? where does it leave someone like m mccarthy who we believe is going to run for that position? >> he will absolutely run on trump's coattails. he is trying to tightly align himself with the president. but at the same time kevin mccarthy has been someone referred to as the trump whisperer. somebody who was willing to go

to the white house and deliver the president his favorite colored gum balls or candies or whatever they were to try to curry favor with this president. so it is a good question to see which side the president himself comes down on, if he does. >> we're actually hearing that was actual willy star bursts, not gum balls. >> reporter: starbursts, my apologies. >> facts matter, my friend. heidi przybyla for us. good to talk to you. we will see you on "morning joe" in a bit. >> thanks, heidi. president trump was silent on a development yesterday that seemed sure to grab his attention as the man known as the financial gate keeper of the presume business empire has reportedly been ordered before a federal grand jury. the "wall street journal" reports allen weisselberg was subpoenaed by the southern district of new york in the michael cohen investigation. now, sources familiar with the probe told the journal that weisselberg is considered a witness. last year weisselberg arranged for the trump organization to pay cohen after he made $130,000

payment to stephanie clifford, also known as stormy daniels, to keep quiet about an alleged affair. now, one of the president's closest and oldest business associates, weisselberg has worked with the trump family since the 1980s and was even featured on ""the apprentice" just days before trump was inaugurated he turned over his business operations to his two grown sons under weisselberg's guidance. neither he nor the trump organization responded to "the journal's" request for comment. special bob mueller is reported examining president trump's tweet as part of the probe into obstruction of justice. three people briefed on the matter telling "the new york times" mueller is looking at tweets and negative statements from the president about a.j. jeff sessions and james comey. according to the times mueller wants to question the president about the tweets. his interest in them is the latest addition to a range of presidential actions mueller is

investigating as a possible obstruction case, including private interactions with mr. comey, mr. sessions and other senior administration officials about the russia inquiry, misleading white house statements, public attacks and possible pardon offers to potential witnesses as well. the paper goes on to say trump's lawyers argue none of what mueller has honed in on constitutes obstruction, but privately some of the lawyers expressed concern that mr. mueller will stitch together several episodes, encounters and pieces of evidence like the tweets to build a case that the president embarked on a broad effort to interfere with the investigation. speaking with the times, trump's lawyer rudy guilliani dismissing mueller's interests in the tweets as part of a desperate quest to sink the president, saying, quote, if you're going to obstruct justice you do it quietly and secretly, not in public. joining us one against onset, nbc legal analyst danny cevallos. good to have you back with us.

if we assume it is trump's team that's the source of the cohen revelation, which is hard to pinpoint, is there an argument to be made as to why that is beneficial for them to leak that information? is it legal to leak? >> no. well, the first question, is it beneficial. it is not beneficial to trump at all to leak the information about cohen, potentially talking to the special counsel. none of this stuff is helpful. none of the stuff that rudy guilliani said about if you would obstruct justice, you wouldn't do it in public, that's the old ineffective argument of, would i be so dumb as to rob this bank, as your only defense. >> in daylight. >> in daylight, right. defense attorneys everywhere will tell you about a client who comes in and says, do you think i would be so crazy as to do a, b, c and d? >> yes. >> well, that's not a defense because they're saying, the government is saying they have evidence of a, b, c and d. so if that's true, if there was a leak, it is hard to say if it

benefits the trump team or what their motives are behind that information being out. >> where does this leave don trump jr. if what cohen says or alleges is true? could he be facing perjury or obstruction of justice? >> yes, potentially that, but also this gets donald trump jr. closer to potential charges relating to violations of election law, violations of campaign finance law. >> yeah. >> while collusion itself is a word that doesn't appear in the criminal codes other than antitrust law, being involved with a foreign government to the detriment of the united states could implicate a number of different criminal laws. now that cohen is willing to connect up the trump sr. with the meeting, that potentially implicates the president. that's why mueller is looking at all of these different tweets, to get an idea into trump's state of mind. if he can authenticate these tweets, it is not going to be hard for any jury in america to conclude that these were

trump's -- evidence of his state of mind, his intent and motives. >> it is more about setting up the timeline? >> exactly. it is helpful for a timeline. social media in its short history has been helpful to law enforcement in setting up timeline and other kinds of evidence. >> is michael cohen's credibility on the line? can he cut a deal with mueller given the fact that he is still a criminal or thug with all of these revelations? >> yes, his credibility is on a line, and, no, it doesn't matter to a prosecutor. rudy guilliani is not candid when i says michael cohen's credibility renders him useless as a witness. he knows credibility of cooperating witnesses is often in question because they're often criminals. you need to use a criminal often to catch a criminal because criminals hang out together and they know what each other does. in the complaint, the defense attorney is like cooperating

witnesses because they're often criminals have a tremendous motivation to fabric so we have to rely on the u.s. attorneys to vet their story. >> again, it seems it is guilliani in a big pr push. >> and they made a point they want to fight it it in the battle of public opinion. great to have you with us. >> the trump administration making its latest move to dismantle the obama regulations. plus, bill karins is back with a look at your weekend forecast when we return. stay with us.

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welcome back. the trump administration plans to freeze fuel economy standards set in motion by president obama for cars and light trucks. the administration is expected to layout its plan as early as next week. according to the new acting head of the epa, andrew wheeler, wheeler told "usa today" obama jumped the gun when he increased fuel efficiency requirements before leaving office and the

issue needs further review. in 2012 automakers and federal regulators agreed to increase vehicle efficiency to an average of 34.5 miles per gallon with that number rising yearly until it hits 54.5 miles per gallon mark by the end of 2025. let's switch gears, get a check on the weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, what have you got? >> i want to show you some of the pictures. overnight the carr fire really exploded. it busted through the fire lines. all of the fire personnel, over 1,000 of them, had to be pulled back for their own safety. it jumped the sacramento river and has been burning in northwest portions of the city of redding where there are evacuations, not the downtown but on the northwest side of town. this is a video taken from the roof top of mercy medical center in the west side, and it looks fake. it looks like someone -- it is an incredible wall of fire and cloud -- and smoke. this is looking to the north and

to the west, and this was right around sunset last night. so this fire just very serious. we know officially there have been injuries for firefighters and civilians, they have been brought to the hospital. we know one firefighter that perished in the fire, a bull dozer operator. when the pictures come in at daylight it probably will be worse because we know numerous structures have been on fire and the police and fire just going door to door trying to get people out and get them to safety as fast as possible. and today they're still under an excessive heat warning in redding where the fire is located right now. look how hot it is going to be today, 111 degrees. they got this out-of-control fire and it is 111 degrees with windy conditions at times. it is almost impossible to fight. whatever direction that fire wants to go in, it is going to head. as far as areas to the east, we have a threat of severe weather, 30-plus million people, albany, new york, to d.c., it is late afternoon, in and out and

then it will be gone. and our friends in kansas. the weekend looks quiet but we will keep eyes out to the west. it was only last year we had had the devastating fire kill so many in the middle of the night. hopefully we are avoiding that situation right now. it is all hands on deck getting people evacuated and animals, too. shelters for animals are being opened. >> bill, quickly, how does the weather need to shift or change in order to benefit the people out there so the fire calms down? >> redding is not going to get a lot of marine influence to knock down the temperatures. the wet season doesn't really arrive until maybe october, typically november. this is usually when we get to the heart and the peak of the fire season out west, and this is just a reminder of how quickly -- i mean this fire was only 10% contained and now it is down to 5% or less. yeah. >> fighting against the odds. thanks for that, bill. >> thanks, bill. still ahead, shares of facebook looking to regain ground this morning after a historically bad day for the company's stock yesterday, dragging other parts of the market down with it. >> details on whether the worst is over and what it will take

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? >> welcome back, everybody. "business style ". facebook's disaster sending shares tumbling 19%. a startling day. creating the largest single day loss for a company in wall street history. a total of 119 billion dollars -- a lot of people watching the market to see if

they could bounce back. joining us live from london, we have a report. how did facebook's performance so far affect the rest of the market and what do we expect to happen today? >> reporter: huge declines. as you say, down 19%. biggest drop ever for a company in terms of market capitalization wiping out more than $19 billion. and knocked off $15 billion off of mark zuckerberg's wealth. he felt that as well. amazon and netflix still up 50% and 80 ps % respectively. missed on earnings, user growth and gave a negative outlook on guidance and called down the nasdaq. the tech composite, worst day in over a month. looks like today will be a little better. numbers came out strong in after hours posting a profit more than 12 time what's it was a year

ago, but today the focus is on the usddp prints expected to be strong. larry kudlow expecting it to come in between 4% and 4.5% and president trump is expecting a terrific gdp number later. see how that goes. >> we'll be watching. thank you. good seeing you. coming up, axios's jonathan swan has a look at "one big thing." and the president's potential fixer dropping a bombshell over that 2016 meeting with the russians. much more on michael cohen's preparedness and willingness to tell that president trump knew of that meeting in advance. and latest reporting. a very busy "morning joe" just moments away. people would stare. psoriasis does that. it was tough getting out there on stage. i wanted to be clear.

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start winning today. 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. welcome back, everyone. joining us, national reporter for axios, jonathan swan.

great to have with us. what's the "one big thing" for us? >> launched a tracking poll carrying through to november. tracking key voter segments and their views of donald trump. the first set of numbers have come in show trump, concerning signs of weakness. particularly one of the most -- the findings that will most trouble trump's political team is weakness among suburban white women. down 55-44. people forget, but in the 2016 election, trump won that segment, white women, by about 10 percentage points according to exit polls. that's a significant reversal. >> i want to talk specifically about the never hillary independence here, jonathan. how critical of these votes for republicans come midterms? >> we've given that label to swing voters who voted for barack obama and then donald trump. and, again, trump is under water

with that group. narrowly. 51-47, but, again, that's a concerning sign of vulnerability for him. look, in this electric, talk about midterm, not that many persuadable voters. it's a big turnout game. search trying to rev up their base, but, you know, this is the group of people who still keep somewhat of an open mind. if they voted for barack obama and then donald trump, they can be swung back the other way. so it's a sign of concern. >> talk about a group close to yasmin's party, millennials. >> not very close, actually. be honest. >> talk about millennial as moment. obviously, a lot of issues campaigning on when you think of like the parkland shooters trying to drive voter registration, key issues. talk to us what they're focusing on when it comes to these midterm elections? >> trump is, again, under water. no surprise. this is a republican problem. not as much a donald trump problem.

63-35 down with millennials, 18 to 34 years old. the polling we've done showing they're more likely to mention education and the environment as issues they care about rather than health care and immigration. trump hasn't done anything on education and the environment in the direction that would motivate these voters. so it's not like there's a set of policies or announcements coming down to pike to move these numbers. >> axios is looking for numbers for the democratic wave in the midterms. specifically a republican weakness. what is it showing? >> we've got some really great analysis this morning coming from dave wasserman at the political report, and one of the stock points that jumps out from his reporting is the growing concerns republicans have among fund-raising. so of the 42 seats that republicans are defending in 20 of those seats, democrats have

outraised republicans between april and june. >> wow. >> that's a huge deal. >> yeah. >> because incumbents should be crushing their opponents in fund-raising. >> jonathan swan live from washington, d.c. thank you as always. of course, we'll read "axios a.m." in a little while. sign up for the newsletter going to signup.axios.com. that does it for us on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, july 27th. i'm willie geist alongside me nbc news capitol hill correspondent host of "k.r. d.c." on msnbc. >> where's the rock. >> thank you, john heilemann. and national affairs analyst for nbc news john heilemann and next to him -- >> my seat looks really low. >> pop yourself up a little. >> come on up. >> i got to do this. >> the world is finally starting to understand that you are actually -- you're a little person. >> no, no, no. i'm a healthy 5'10".

is this a little better? >> now you look like you're in a high chair. >> where's my mapo. >> if you could lower your chair. and michael schmidt, senior reporter of "vanity fair," and with us from washington, national political reporter heidi przybyla and white house bureau chief and political analyst for msnbc and "nbc news at sunrise," phillip rucker. joe and mika are off. they'll be back monday. and reported on michael cone extensively, wired into that world better than anybody, donny deutsch knows michael well. >> it's like the michael cohen friends, family and tormentoring table. >> michael cohen reportedly has a story to tell. nbc news confirmed cohen is willing to inform robert mueller that donald trump as a candidate knew about that