♪ this morning waging a redibility war. president trump is lashing out against robert mueller, claiming conflicts of interest while his lawyer, rudy guilliani calls former fixer michael cohen a liar. >> plus, president trump is once again threatening to shut down the government or immigration, demanding that democrats back his administration proposals, including a border wall with mexico. and at least six people have been killed in a massive wildfire tearing across northern california. hundreds of homes have been destroyed and thousands of people have been forced to evacuate.

good morning, everyone. it is monday, july 30th. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian and louis bergdorf. president trump spent part of his weekend lashing out and questioning the credibility of robert mueller's ongoing investigation. in a series of tweets yesterday, trump claimed there was no collusion and called mueller's probe a witch-hunt and an illegal school. he went on to right, is robert mueller ever going to release his conflict of interest with respect to president trump, including the fact that we had a very nasty and contentious business relationship. i turned him down to head the fbi one day before appointment as special counsel, and comey is his close friend. also, why is mueller only appointing angry dems, some of whom have worked for crooked hillary, others including himself have worked for obama. and why isn't mueller looking at all of the criminal activity and real russian collusion on the

democrat side, positive december au dossier. we. this is best thing that happened all weekend, politico "playbook" spotting bob mueller and donald trump jr. as you see in the circle waiting for their flights at reagan national airport friday morning. a spokesperson for the special counsel's office says, quote, that's him waiting to board a flight. if it is ak wrurt tccurate the person was don trump jr., mr. mueller was not aware of him and had no interaction with him. the chances of these two individuals at the airport waiting at this gate, unbelievable. >> do you think he was gathering evidence? >> i don't know, looks like he was reading a newspaper, likely a story about himself. i would like to have thought bubbles. to be the woman on the phone in front of robert mueller. >> look at him, the guy doesn't

look like he knows who is around him. >> president trump's lawyer rudy guilliani is dismissing the claim that donald trump knew in advance of the trump tower meeting with russians. here is what he had to say yesterday morning. >> now i listened unfortunately, fortunately to my client's point of view, to many hours of tapes and the man is a pathological manipulator, liar. i didn't know that. i didn't know him well. i didn't know anything bad about michael cohen until all of this started to happen in the last couple of weeks. if he taped everything else, why didn't he tape this? it is not on tape. he's capable, i think, unfortunately of doctoring tapes. hasn't done that, would be hard to do it now since we have an expert all over it. it is just flat-out untrue. seems to me his default position is to lie. >> one of the allies, congressman darrell issa,

doesn't think they will pay the price in the fall if the president is proved to have lied about the trump tower meeting. >> if he is proven to have not told the truth, nobody is going to be surprised. there are some things in politics you just take for granted. >> you don't think it has any long-term impact, and he wouldn't be the first politician or president for that matter maybe to misrepresent things and gets over it? >> you know, businessmen listen to almost everyone that might be helpful. by the way, they make pragmatic decisions about how the make bad stories go away. late last week the attorney for stormy daniels said he's representing three additional women who claim to have been paid to keep their relationships with donald trump quiet. according to michael avenatti, those payments were made before the 2016 election. here is the president's attorney, rudy guilliani being pressed on that issue yesterday. >> it is beyond stormy daniels, were other payments made to

as-yet unnamed women around the time of the 2016 campaign? >> there is -- there is a conversation about that on one of the tapes in which i think chris cuomo asked him that, and cohen says no, denies it. said there were no other situations like this. >> was that an accurate statement by cohen? >> as far as i know, yeah. i have no evidence to disprove that. and we've searched the records. >> so michael avenatti tweeted at guilliani, are you denying there were other hush payments made to as-yet unnamed women in connection with the 2016 campaign? asking for some friends. you better buckle up, buttercup, because mr. trump's stupidity and disloyalty is about to catch up to him, quote -- i mean in paren they size. american consumers are beginning to feel the impact of the tariffs. u.s. steel and aluminum prices are up 33 and 11% respectively

since the start of the year. in addition, prices for a host of products imported from china and used in manufacturing have risen dramatically, while companies that export certain goods to the eu, mexico and canada have seen costs surge. as a result, u.s. companies and manufacturers have been forced to make a decision, either absorb the costs or pass them on to the consumer. many say they have been forced to raise prices as a result. coca-cola says it is taking the unusual step of raising prices mid year as well as sam adams, the brewer in boston beer company says it is raising prices by 2%. office furniture maker steel case says it has raised twice in four months due to steel rights. polaris says it is not only raising prices due to steel and aluminum tariffs, but accelerating plans to move moator cycles bounder europe to

from iowa to poland. that's echoing a move announced by harley-davidson last month. now, per the labor department, consumer prices rose 2.9% in june compared to last year. that's the highest rate in more than six years, guys. let's talk about some of the stuff. swroining us from washington, "politico's" daniel lippman. good to see you on the show this morning. >> good to see you. >> let's talk about the continued pressure on president trump, rudy guilliani trying to take down basically michael cohen's credibility in light of the tapes that came out last week. do their claims have any merritt and who do you think holds more credibility in washington right now from what you have been hearing? is it the president or is it michael cohen? >> i think it probably is michael cohen because trump is the one who's out there on a day-to-day basis telling things to the american people that are flatout not true. so you saw that yesterday when

he went after arthur sulzberger when they said fake news was a big problem, and sulzberger said it is not what we talked about. i wouldn't hire cohen as my lawyer because i don't want a lawyer taping me, and that is very unusual. but i think cohen felt he needed bargaining chip, some leverage if he got in trouble for the work he the for the president. >> let's switch gears for a moment and talk about how the tariffs and toll surges are affecting the average consumer. we talked a little bit about products like coke, beer cans. we listed some of the issues with motorcycles having gone up in prices, but this is going to hit the average consumer in a lot of other ways. >> so i think it is going to hit consumers in small ways, but those can add up. you're already seeing a lot of pressure by, you know,

midwestern lawmakers to go against the tariffs. the koch brothers had a big summit this past weekend when they said that because of these tariffs they were willing to support democrats who shared their free trade principles. and so eventually this type of stuff trickles down and could hurt the president into the midterms, although it seems like the midterms will be more dominated by mueller and russia instead of trade. that's, you know, what we hear from lawmakers. >> yeah, and i think the president is touting his 4% economic growth as a sign that the country can withstand the pressures from the tariff war. >> yeah, from the trade wars. >> for the time being. >> that's not a guarantee. >> yeah, absolutely. daniel lippman, great to have you in washington. we'll touch base later. the death toll is rising as a fast-moving wildfire tears across northern california. the sheriff's office says a

sixth person has died tragically from the blaze. that victim has not been identified but we know the fire has been blamed for the deaths of one firefighter, a bull dozer operator and three preparing to evacuate. more than 500 homes or other structures have been destroyed and thousands more are threatened as we speak. for more on this, let's bring in nbc's jay gray live in redding, california. jay, over 95,000 acres burned, over 650 structures. what is the latest on ground there? >> reporter: well, louis, the damage here overwhelming as you can see. this home that we're in front of gutted by fire. this community, like so many across the state, struggling with what has happened here. fire burning, and some of those blazes for more than a week now. flames continue to race out of control across california right now. >> there's 17 major fires going currently in california with over 200,000 acres currently burning. >> reporter: the worst, the carr

fire near redding where at least six are dead, the latest victim 70-year-old melody bledsoe and her grade-grandchildren, and seven are still missing. >> i have been a lifelong resident of this community. i have never seen a fire with such destruction here in this area ever before. >> reporter: more than 500 structures in northern ra california kra alo california alone reduced to rubble and rash. >> extreme is not the adjective to use anymore because the fire is so explosive in california. >> reporter: fire teams from across the country continue to move in, digging out cut-off lines and setting backfires on the ground, dropping water from the air. >> those folks, 48-plus-hour shifts. they were going on pure adrenaline, they were doing everything they could to save structures.

>> reporter: and save lives, with no relief in sight. the hot, dry and windy conditions expected to continue to fuel the flames. yeah, you know, to give you an idea of the effort here, 3,000 firefighters or more, 300 engines, 17 helicopters working this carr fire around the clock. good news, louis. they say overnight they've managed to make some progress, containment up from 5% to 17%, but still a lot of work left to be done here. >> you hear those 48-hour shifts, i mean it is unbelievable for people to be on the ground fighting fires for that long a period of time. definitely heroes out there. nbc's jay gray . thank you for your reporting. all right. still ahead, the publisher of "the new york times" asks the president to reconsider his anti-media rhetoric. what we know about their private meeting and how it went over with president trump. later, new reporting about jared kushner and ivanka trump stepping back into the spotlight, reportedly ready to push for their projects.

those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. we have got a problem. still ahead, the publisher of push for their projects. msing r, aging power grids, ...aging everything. we also have the age-old problem of bias in the workplace. really... never heard of it. the question is... who's going to fix all of this? an actor? probably not. but you know who can solve it? business. because solving big problems is what business does best. so let's take on the wage gap, the opportunity gap, the achievement gap. whatever the problem,

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welcome back, everybody. president trump intensifying his attacks on the free press over the weekend following his meeting with the publisher of "the new york times." the president revealing on twitter that he and a.g.sulz berger recently sat down at the white house calling it a, quote, very good and very interesting meeting and adding, quote, spent much time talking about the vast amounts of fake news being put out by the media and how that fake news has morphed into phrase enemy of the people, sad. so following that tweet, you can imagine the paper confirmed the july 20th sitdown took place, saying it had been a long tradition of "the times" publisher to hold such meetings with presidents and public figures who have concerns about coverage. "the times" added that the

president invited sulzberger to the oval office and the white house requested the meeting be kept off the record. sulz berger stating in part, my main purpose for accepting the meeting was to raise concerns about the president's deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric. i told the president directly that i thought his language was divisive and dang rules. i warnld that it is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and would lead to violence. it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation and eroding one of our country's greatest exports, a commitment to free speech and a free press. >> so there's more. following the statements by "the times" and sulzberger, the president fired off a series of tweets. quote, when the media driven insane by trump derangement

syndrome, it puts the lives of many, not just journalists, at risk. very unpatriotic. freedom of the press also comes with a responsibility to report the news accurately. 90% of media coverage of my administration is negative despite the tremendously positive results we are achieving. it is no surprise that confidence in the media is at an all-time low. i will not allow our great country to be sold out by anti-trump haters in the dying newspaper industry, no matter how much they try to distract and cover it up. our country is making great progress under my leadership and i will never stop fighting for the american people. as an example, the failing "new york times" and the amazon washington ton post "washingtont write bad stories even on positive achievements and they will never change. switching gears for a moment, the trump administration has been ordered to provide information to locate hundreds of missing parents to reunite them with their children. a federal judge overseeing the

court-ordered reunification about 2500 immigrant children has ordered the administration to turn over a list of all parents deemed ineligible for reunification by wednesday. this list includes parents who have been deported, those who have been released into the united states and those who were not reunited because of a criminal history. 650 children remain separated because their parents had been deemed ineligible by the government. now, before the ruling, the department of homeland security claimed it had reunited around 1,440 children with their parents. the department has now yet committed to reuniting those with parents deemed ineligible, citing red flags in their background, waivers signed to be deported without their children, leaving i.c.e. custody or awaiting hearings inside the united states. let's get a check on the weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, you're going to give us a look at the west coast.

it is so critical, that weather out there, to contain the wild fires sweeping california right now. >> it has been bone dry and hot. when you think of seattle, you don't think of like hot and dry conditions. seattle will have their seventh 90-degree day this july. seattle of all places. today we have 6 million people still under heat advisories and heat watches. here is how it is going to feel today. pendleton, oregon 96. that's hot. they will be happy to get to august and it looks like today is the end of the extreme heat there in areas of the i-5 corridor. it will begin to cool off. this is the pattern this week. we will call it the logjam. last week we had the endless rains on the east coast. unfortunately we are setting up for this again. it will be very hot in the rockies throughout the week. that's not going to help the firefighting efforts at all. a storm system stuck in the

middle of the country and high pressure in the atlantic blocking it. this storm can't move and that pumps the moisture up the east coast. we will be dealing with days of rain and thunderstorms and high humidity once again, and that could end up with flooding concerns, too. this is through friday. the next five days areas of blue is one inch of rain, purple is two, the red is three. some areas in north carolina, north georgia, especially the southern appalachians, could get up to four or five inches of rain this week, leading to flooding concerns by end of the week. for today, enjoy your dry day today in the northeast from new york city to boston. late-day showers and storms in washington, d.c. wide-spread rainfall in areas of the south including florida, and a wet day from st. louis to indianapolis. for treading fire in the carr area, it is not 110 to 115, but they're still well over 100 degrees. not fun to be on the fire line. >> absolutely incredible for the guys out there.

tharks for th thanks for that, bill. in coopers town a star-studded hall of fame class take its place. details next in sports. now i'm doing more to lower my a1c. i take tresiba® once a day. tresiba® controls blood sugar for 24 hours for powerful a1c reduction. (woman) we'd been counting down to his retirement. it was our tresiba® reason. he needs insulin to control his high blood sugar and, at his age, he's at greater risk for low blood sugar. tresiba® releases slow and steady and works all day and night like the body's insulin. (vo) tresiba® is a long-acting insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache.

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tour de france, defending his lead. he earns his first tour de france title. what a race and congratulations. living legends were honored in cooperstown at the hall of fame induction ceremony. the six-member class in 2018 is one of the largest in recent history, including chipper jones as well as vladimir guerrero to becomes the first position player from the dominican republic to be enshrined. also inducted were trevor hoffman and alan trammell. in the third inning, lunging for a ball hit deep to left center field and making a tumbling catch on the running track to rob the twins of a base hit. what a play. boston au necessary newly acquired righty nathan threw

seven shutout innings in his debut as the red sox beat minnesota 3-0. >> exciting then. almost a no-hitter at the braves game they missed in the final pitch of the ninth inning. >> didn't catch it. >> missed that one. good high lie, louis. should have had it in the highlights. >> sorry, ayman. >> still ahead, the latest on president trump's threat to shut down the government over immigration and how it is playing with the midterms months away. plus, the president ups attacks on bob mueller and the russian probe. stay with us. ♪ a hotel can make or break a trip. and at expedia, we don't think you should be rushed into booking one. that's why we created expedia's add-on advantage. now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. ♪ add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip.

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♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis bergdorf. it is the bottom of the hour. top stories this morning, president trump spending part of his weekend at his new jersey golf course and used twitter to once again threaten to shut down the federal government over the battle for tougher immigration laws, the president tweeting yesterday morning, i would be willing to, quote, shut down the government if the democrats to not give us the votes for border security, which includes the wall, must get rid of lottery, catch and release, et cetera, and finally go to system of immigration based on mer ilt. we need great people coming into our country. his warning comes ahead of the september 30th deadline for congress to strike a deal to fund the government, raising a

possibility of a showdown 37 days before midterm elections. the funding battle would come amid efforts by republicans to confirm the president's supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh by october 1st. speaking yesterday, republican senator ron johnson of wisconsin, weighing in on weather to expect a shutdown come september. listen to this. >> i think hopefully most of the appropriations bill will actually be passed a little more -- a little prioritization of spending. so i lont like playing shutdown politics. >> how damaging would it be for republicans ahead of the november race? >> i don't think it would be helpful, so let's try to avoid it. >> put itting it lightly, not helpful. following his meeting on wednesday with mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, president trump trump signalled he was on board to fund the government with smaller packages of spending bills. he said talks over funding the border wall would probably have

to wait until after the mid terms. speaking of the mid terms, president trump announced he will hit the campaign trail this fall. >> i'll go six or seven days a week when we're 60 days out, and i will be campaigning for all of these great people that do have a difficult race, and we think we're going to bring them over the line. >> all right. so the president went on to say he's instructed the white house to compile a list of about two dozen mostly hotly-contested races so he can rally for vulnerable republicans across the country. however, trump had a different opinion about how presidents should spend their time when it was barack obama in the white house. >> i mean why is obama campaigning? he ought to be out working. he ought to be out -- but every time i look at him he's campaigning. >> in this year's highly-contested mid terms are on track to be the most expensive in history. according to a running tally by the center for responsive

politics, federal campaigns have spent more than $1.6 billion owe far this year, over 1 billion is being shelled out for tv ads by democrats and republicans vying for house and senate spots. neither of those figures include heated dub that torl races which do not have to release their financial reports to the same commission. they also do not account for sizable cash donations from outside billionaires. president trump is touting his high poll numbers among republicans. he tweeted yesterday morning, wow, highest poll numbers in the history of the republican party. that includes honest abe lincoln and ronald reagan. there must be something wrong. please recheck that poll. well, good news, we did. according to gallop presume's approval rating among republicans is 88%, not the highest in the history of the gop. at the same point in their presidencies, dwight eisenhower's approval rating was 92% among republicans. in fact, george w. bush's approval rating was 93%.

that's five points higher than president trump's. >> really doing your research, ayman. >> yeah, i was up early. me and daniel were cranking the numbers. >> all right. joining us from washington once again, "politico's" daniel lippman, coauthor of the "political playbook." let's talk about the president's threat to shutdown the government over immigration again, on the heels of the immigration debacle with parents separated if their children. still a lot of these children left wondering where their parents are. it seems at if 500 or so children left separated from their parents. what kind of reaction is that getting from washington? >> so speaker ryan and mitch mcconnell, they thought they had an agreement with trump not to have these types of antics because for the republicans to control all parts of the government and yet trump is saying, well, maybe we should shut down the government, that does not send the best message

to midterm voters because, you know, there is this process to pay for the border wall and there are just not the votes there in terms of, you know, getting democrats and moderate republicans on board for $25 billion for this border wall. to go back to your earlier point about, you know, trump's poll numbers, he mentions honest abe. i don't think that there was polling back in 1860. gallop was not calling everyone around the country. >> it was by telegram then, come on, daniel. get your history right. you have to telegram your poll results back. >> that would take some time. >> russia really hacked into the 1860 election. >> still awaiting results. we'll get back to you. let's switch gears and talk about the mid terms. i want to ask you about money being injected into the midterm elections. we put up a figure, there it is, earlier, about 1.6 billion spent on federal campaigns, another

billion or so in television ads. is there a correlation between higher spending allowance equating a win? is it guaranteed the more you spend, the more likely you're going to win? >> i don't think that's a one-to-one equation. mitt romney spent a ton of money, including some of his own money from his fortune, and he did not win. so you need a base level of spending to be able to be competitive, but it really comes down to candidate quality and also just the atmospherics of whether people are more interested in voting for democrats or republicans. i think it speaks to the broader issue with the political system in terms of the vast amounts of money. those donors, were -- remember, congressmen who get money from donors next time when they're elect, a donor asks for a favor, they will give it a high priority often. that is -- campaign finance reform is not a sexy topic, but if you talk to people around

town they think it is very important. those congressmen also don't want to be spending three hours a day raising money. >> i think of the congressional upset here in new york with alexandria cortez and she did it on a grassroots campaign. >> absolutely. money does not always talk. >> thanks, daniel. >> thanks, guys. president trump took time over the weekend to question the credibility of robert mueller by name again and mueller's ongoing investigation. in a series of tweets, trump hit his old tropes and added new ones saying there was no collusion and calling it a witch-hunt and illegal scam. trump hinted at a nasty and con ten shul business relationship he had with mueller without elaborating on that. >> joining us onset, nbc news correspondent making his first-look debut. welcome to new york. >> hey, i too get the high five. >> keir simmons, ladies and gentlemen. how do you like waking up this

early? >> i love it. actually, it is 10:00 in my world. >> let's talk about the trump/mueller investigation. he seems to be ramping up his attacks against mueller, using words like illegal scam, obviously he has used witch-hunt for some time. is this a sign you think the president is beginning to get nervous about the mueller investigation or how do you explain the sudden escalation in language? >> beginning to get nervous? of course he's nervous. he's furious. he doesn't know, like all of us, what is happening behind the closed doors of that investigation, and that is driving him crazy. but what he's doing is what anyone would do in a kind of sense politically and just throw mud, throw mud, see what sticks, accuse him of being democrats. that's a strategy born of the fact that what we have is a vacuum that's fuelling this story of speculation and what could mueller have, and in the end, of course, whatever comes out trump will say -- president trump will say that it is wrong,

that it doesn't stick. so he's kind of getting his rebuttal in early. >> it seems as if the president is taking a page out of putin's book, about deflection. what is the russian view on this? >> look, i talked to the russians all the time. i talk to -- >> do you now? >> yeah. >> and what do they say? >> by phone? >> you're not doing it deliberately, talking to them. >> somebody call bob mueller. >> sometimes it feels as though you're getting involved in a domestic dispute. they talk about american foreign policy can only really have to see it through domestic policy and it never has been more true than with the russia investigation. but the russians are watching. they are paying close attention. you know, i think one of the things that is missed is that this is all about money. >> yes. >> this is about rich people figuring out how they can make more money together. so when it comes to president putin, for example, his

overarching strategy is can we get rid of those sanctions. let me tell you a story. i spoke with a russian oligarch this year who is wrapped up in these accusations. i said, why don't you do an interview with me, set the record straight. he said to me, you know, i just sat down with a bunch of guyness -- a bunch of guys worth billions of dollars, so why do i need to. all of this is happening behind the scenes that the russians are pleased with, they're still pushing. i think the fascinating thing about the 2016 meeting -- >> so many questions about the meeting still unanswered. >> yeah. >> the fascinating thing about that, of course, is that has less to do with what did the russians have and what to they intend and everything to do with what did president trump think was happening. >> yes. >> again, back to it is all about the domestic. >> yes, and what did he actually know before the meeting. >> keir simmons, mixing it up with the russian oligarchs. >> all about the money. >> i wish i had that money.

>> a pleasure to see you, thanks. >> the president's son-in-law falling back into where he stands in president trump's or bit. after suggestions he may be close to exiting the white house. >> plus, bill karins back with a check on the forecast including the potential for some severe weather. stay with us. ♪ ♪ oh, look... another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work

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if you have inflammatory bowel disease tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. mitzi: with less joint pain, watch me. for less joint pain and clearer skin, ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. welcome back, everyone. we are learning more about the standing the president's daughter and son-in-law have in the white house. "the new york times" reports jared and ivanka are as comfortable and as close to the president as ever. one reason, you might ask? well, as trump continues to change members of his administration while cutting out dissenting voices, he's retreated back to his family. according to "the times" as the president becomes more emboldened, so have jared and ivanka. much of the confusion about jared and ivanka's standing appear to have come from the

president himself from telling aides to talk to jared to saying that jared hasn't been good for me. he told friends and john kelly that he wished jared and ivanka would head back to new york. >> i have a question as to why you guys make me read this part of a script. trump has joked about his daughter's choice of a husband, saying he could have had tom brady as a son-in-law but he got jared kushner. that's fact checking, folks. kushner who spoke about clearing the republican party from resistance to trump has many detractors saying that it steps from kushner being involved in areas out of his depth. kushner has reportedly feuded and/or undercut a long list of aides he views as not loyal. in a statement to "the times" kushner says through a spokesman, i have greatly enjoyed working collaboratively with so many extraordinarily devoted and competent people,

but those who tried to undermine the president found me to be an obstacle. >> i'm waiting for his middle east peace proposal. that's what has my attention. >> we've been waiting for that one. >> hopefully we'll get it before the four years are over. >> let's get a check on the weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. what have you got for snus. >> i hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. a lot of people in oklahoma were awakend in the middle of the night. this line of thunderstorms rolled through with 40 to 60-miles-per-hour wints. it went through oklahoma zand now is pushing for the red river here and may make it down stored dallas going through the morning commute. it should weeken shortly, but we will continue to watch that. other areas of the east are getting drenched. we are seeing heavy rains setting up in areas of eastern north carolina, virginia, around richmond, towards virginia beach and a little bit of rain in central illinois and indiana. the humidity will skyrocket again in the northeast. it will feel like last week. as we go through today, be prepared for downpours from d.c.

south ward through the carolina. on wednesday we are stuck in this weather pattern, guys, just like last week, the moisture up the east coast. we had all of the floodings in areas around d.c., baltimore and, of course, harrisburg. we have to watch it again for the flood risk on the eastern sea board. we start august as july was, humid on the eastern seaboard. >> the upside of having rain like that sometimes though is you don't actually have to water your plants. >> or mow either because you can't. >> thanks. >> you got to find the upside in things, you know. >> thanks, bill and yasmin. appreciate that insight. all right. still ahead, stocks in the u.s. point to a lower open ahead of a busy week, including a slew of major earnings reports. plus, cbs's board of directors prepares to meet amid investigations against chairman and ceo. details of those stories and others driving your business day coming up next. en "vengeful ver"

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welcome back. let's turn to business. futures dip sunday ahead of a big week more than 400 s&p 500 companies reporting their upcoming earnings. we are joined live from london. good morning. >> good morning, louis. this comes on the heels of a slightly weaker equity despite the strong gdp report and all declines were led by the tech sector. weak earnings twitter and

facebook was in the news. this week the focus will be on apple. their reporting tomorrow. we get a report from a third of the s&p 500 companies. we have the fed to watch out for on wednesday. not expected to hike, we want to watch out for language on trade and tariffs. elsewhere in company news, i want to point out that the board of cbs has been meeting over this weekend to decide on the future of its chief executive les noon ves. he had made sexual advancement towards six women. he's facing a legal battle with the parent company of cbs. this is over a potential proposed merger with viacom. that is expected to go to trial in october. he has been chief executive since 2006 and has been attributed with turning the

company around. cbs shares were down about 6% in trading on the news. but we'll have to see what the board decides later this week. back to you guys. >> thanks so much. coming up, everybody, axios nicholas johnston has a look at this morning's one big thing. coming up on "morning joe," president trump lashing out at bob mueller. the latest on the president's weekend twits targeting the special counsel over 2016 meetings at trump tower involving his campaign and a group of russians. richard blumenthal and eric swalwell will both weigh in on the president's comments. "morning joe" just moments away, everyone. to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country,

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precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. ♪ welcome back, everybody. joining us from washington a look at axios editor chief for axios nicholas jonathan. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> talk to us about axios's one big thing today. >> president trump being true to his roots, getting interested in

a big real estate deal happening in downtown washington about the fbi headquarters. this is an old 40-year-old building on pennsylvania avenue that has a very distinct style. many tourists thinks it looks a little out of place. count president trump among them. he thinks that building looks ugly. he hates it and wants it torn down and replaced. there's an on going process to get the fbi new headquarters. the deal to get them to maryland fell through. he wants them in prime real estate on pennsylvania avenue. >> brutalist is the architecture. >> what are your sources telling you about the reasoning for the president's intense focus on overhauling a federal building? >> of course he's a real estate investor. he has been very fascinated about. his hotel is on that same street. this is a really big piece of

land. this is a huge real estate deal that the federal government is working on. if the president doesn't like something, he'll get involved in a real estate scheming to get it fixed. >> i wonder if he wants to rename the building to trump fbi building. >> that's a stretch. just putting that out there. >> i don't see that happening any time soon. now that we talked about real estate and washington and the renaming of the fbi building to trump tower fbi, let's talk about the midterms. we have about 99 days left to go. can you believe it? we also know -- >> who's counting? >> president trump wants to get on the road six to seven days a week to stump for people that need it. what are you finding with regards to president trump's involvement with the midterms and how people feel about it? >> both sides are looking to make this about trump. the president is looking forward to get out after labor day six or seven days a week. he's been tweeting his approval rating very high among republicans. putting him out on the campaign trail is a great way to get

republicans out to the polls. on the flip side, his disapproval is super high. democrats hope that such as he'll get republicans out to the poll, his disapproval will get democrats to vote. >> president trump appears to be doing more harm than good for their campaigns. what is the biggest liability for some republicans to take on the trump train? >> that's true. there is very much a double edged sword here. for republicans in swing states where maybe hillary clinton had won, chasing a falling behind a democratic opponent, president trump can be a huge liability. we talked to some republicans introducing bills, out of the mainstream on the conservative side and not interested in president trump showing up and making these much more about local races. if they feel it's a referendum on trump, they'll lose their jobs. >> what are you watching this week? >> congress is out of session.

the senate is still around. remember what people forget is we have a supreme court justice working his way through the process. we also cover technology, big week for tech earnings we'll pay attention to it. >> seems like we forgot entirely about supreme court and everything else that happened in the past week. thank you for that reminder. to all of our viewers out there, you can sign up for the newsletter signup.axios.com. >> that does it for us on this monday morning. "morning joe," everybody, starts right now. i mean, why is obama campaigning? he ought to be out work. he ought to be out -- but every time i look at him, he's campaigning. >> i'll go six or seven days a week when we're 60 days out and i will be campaigning for all of these great people that do have a difficult race and we think

we're going to bring them over the line. >> wow. president trump is known to contradict himself. >> is he really? is he really? >> yes, a tiny bit. >> never happens. it's hateful that you would say that. >> so this time he's contradicting himself about being on the campaign trail. >> okay. >> the midterm vote is now just 99 days away. while the president is not on the ballot, his presidency certainly is. good morning, everyone, and welcome to "morning joe." >> 99 days away. >> that's so -- how did that happen? this has all gone so quickly. it's been so fun. >> you want -- it to be nine days away would be great. >> please, end it. >> 99 bottles of beer on the wall. >> something like that. >> let me ask you, obviously 100th day, couple people were talking about it. what's the state of play right now? there's always a back and forth and there will be more back and forth as we move forward, but where do the