heading elections have consequences. that's our broadcast on a wednesday night. well this morning fallout after president trump decides to revoke the security clearance of former cia director john brennan. the president is accusing him of abusing his access, without offering any evidence. it is up to the jury now. deliberations are set to begin this morning in the fraud trial of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort. with 82 days until the midterm leaks new polling showing democrats have the advantage in the race for congress. breaking down all the new numbers for you. good morning. it is thursday, august 16th. i'm richard lui alongside frances rivera. we're going to start with this. president trump has revoked the security clearance of former cia director john brennan, punishing

a prominent critic of the president as a former white house aide makes explosive claims and the jury heads to deliberate in the trial of trump's 2016 campaign chief. white house press secretary sarah sanders announced the action by reading a statement from the president, take a listen. >> mr. brennan's lying and recent conduct characterized by frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation's secrets. the very aim of our adversaries which is to sow division and chaos. >> when the white house distributed the statement it caused question as to the timing as the document was dated july 26th. the white house said that was an error, and it was not meant to have any date at all. the day before his clearance was stripped, brennan, a senior national security analyst for nbc news and msnbc, commented on president trump's use of the word "dog" to describe a former white house aide.

brennan wrote this it's astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civilry, and probity. seems like you will never understand what it means to be president nor what it takes to be a good, decent, and honest person, so disheartening, so dangerous for our nation. >> the move to revoke brennan's clearance appears to be spontaneous. nbc's andrea mitchell reports director of national intelligence, dan coats, was not informed of the decision until it was announced according to an official familiar with the decision. and a person familiar with the matter told bloomberg president trump consulted with vice president mike pence. white house chief of staff john kelly, national security adviser john bolton, and dni coats before taking the step but did not report whether they knew it was going forward. a former cia director reacted yesterday. >> i do believe that mr. trump decided to take this action, as he's done with others, to try to intimidate and suppress any criticism of him or his

administration. revoking my security clearances is his way of trying to get back at me. this is not going to deter me at all. i'm going to continue to speak out. >> the consensus on the president's move yesterday was that he was using the power of his office to intimidate. former vice president joe biden tweeted, in the time i have known him, john brennan has never been afraid to speak up and give it to you straight. revoking security clearance is an act unbecoming of a president. if you think it will silence john then you just don't know the man. officials like senator mark warren and retired general michael hayden said they felt this had more to do with the white house than brennan. >> it appears obvious to me that this is a white house that feels under siege because of the president's former campaign manager's trial. and obviously some of the issues with his former staffer omarosa. this is an attempt to distract the american public from those items that this white house faces on a daily basis.

>> the white house just messaged the entire american intelligence community, if you stand up and say things that upset the president or with which he disagrees, he will punish you. and that is a horrible message to be sending to folks who are there to tell you objective truth. >> and this morning several other top intelligence officials are also at risk of losing their security clearances. for more let's bring in nbc news national political reporter heidi pressbowl, good to have you on set. >> it appears john brennan will be just the first official ever to get his security clearance revoked as white house brace secretary sarah sanders said yesterday when reading the president's statement. >> i've also begun to review the more general question of the access to classified information by government officials. as part of this review, i'm evaluating action with respect to the following individuals. james clapper, james comey, michael hayden, sally yates,

susan rice, andrew mccabe, peter strzok, lisa page, bruce orr. >> all those names are potential officials except bruce orr who currently serves in the justice department and whose wife worked for the firm that commissioned the steele dossier. >> so we have this situation here, heidi, where first time ever, these are waters we are just floating into, uncharted before, but it may not be the last. the timing of it, the date on the statement. and again what we're hearing time and time again, the distraction factor. >> that's right. as andrea mitchell reported this would be the first time ever, absent some kind of criminal accusation or conviction, that a former official would have their license revoked. then of course there's this very suspect timing. the date that was scrubbed from that press release that seemed to suggest a decision was made awhile ago, and yet it was strategically dropped the night after brennan criticized him, and also, very importantly, as

the president is trying to distract us from this omarosa nartive. >> the question of distraction, also the question of what does it mean to our intelligence and our security infrastructure, and how, if you will, these gray hairs of security and intelligence are used here and there in important ways. >> this is such a critical time. we have had the biggest attack on this country in terms of cyber warfare since 9/11. and these officials were on the front lines of that warfare. intercepting a lot of the information that is critical to us going forward. this means now that they are not able to access that information to advise our officials. secondly, there's the chilling effect that we discussed before. >> right, right. >> officials who now served but may be in the private sector, and what is that -- what kind of effect does that have on them in terms of whether they're going to be willing to speak out? >> that's exactly it. you had the voice of brennan we've heard, even just since this happened, this statement

came out. even before, calling the president treasonous after helsinki. even being outspoken with omarosa. we've heard from him directly he's not going to be quiet. what about the others, these names as well on this list? that may be -- >> the one thing they seem to have in common that is they have all been critics of the president. comey, they say comey was fired, i saw a statement from jim jordan saying, all these people were fired. yes, but comey's firing is potential evidence in an obstruction of justice case against the president of the united states. so the one thing that these people all seem to have in common, critics of the president. >> heidi, we don't necessarily know all the details of the process but we know how difficult it is to get clearance. in this case, the head of dni didn't know until it happened, how easy it is to remove clearance. >> these are things we have just never had to grapple with. these types of heavy-handed actions from the executive. this is a total breach of protocol, of how this should work in terms of coats being

involved. this is ultimately like paul ryan said an executive decision. but again there's no accountability to the people who should be at least consulted in these matters. >> we'll see if we're going to be having this discussion again, if there are more names that come out that we hear. >> they seem to have a long list. >> we have a list to talk about, potentially. heidi, great to have you here at nbc news this morning, see you again a little bit later, appreciate that. we've got new polling that shows that democrats are leading republicans in a nationwide generic congressional ballot. a cnn poll finding that 52% of americans would vote for the democratic candidate in their district if elections were held today. now that is an 11-point advantage over those who say they would vote for a republican instead. similarly, a quinnipiac university poll shows democrats with a 9-point advantage over republicans. according to that quinnipiac poll, 52% of voters say donald trump's presidency makes them

think less favorably of the republican party, while 16% think more favorably of the gop. the poll also finds 58% of americans oppose president trump's proposed border wall with mexico, while 38% support it. the jury in the trial of paul manafort is set to reconvene in just a few hours to begin deliberations after prosecutors and the defense presented their closing arguments. jurors were dismissed yesterday evening after nearly two hours of instruction from judge ellis. the judge reminded jurors that the defense was not obligated to prove anything, adding they should acquit president trump's former campaign chairman on tax ovation, bank fraud, and money laundering charges "if the evidence leaves you with a reasonable doubt." manafort has pleaded not guilty to those charges. in their closing arguments yesterday, prosecutors told the jury that manafort had lied for years, calling a vast amount of documents and e-mails they say prove manafort's alleged crimes. the star witness in the case.

his defense team tried to place the blame on manafort's former political protege, rick gates, who served as one of the prosecuto prosecutors' key witnesses. president trump's supreme court kick cavenaugh continues his push to win over senators. he met with key red state democrats joe donnelly of indiana and heidi heitkamp of north dakota, both up for re-election this november, voted for trump's first supreme court nominee gorsuch. they said they'll wait to make a decision until after his confirmation hearing, scheduled to begin september 4th. according to the latest quinnipiac university poll, 44% of voters say that the senate could confirm kavenaugh to the supreme court, up 4 points since last month. 49% say trump's pick should not be confirmed, down 2 points. 17% of voters remain unsure, down 1. despite bipartisan

opposition president trump continues to insist his ongoing trade and tariff battles ar good thing tweeting our country was built on tariffs and tariffs are now leading us to great new trade deals as opposed to the horrible and unfair trade deals i inherited as your president. other countries should not be allowed to come in and steal the wealth of our great usa, no longer. during an interview with "the wall street journal" yesterday, president trump also said that his wide-ranging steel tariffs will actually spark a revitalization of that industry not seen since andrew carnegie more than 100 years ago, claiming that competition will be quote internal like it used to be in the old days when we actually had steel and u.s. steel was our greatest company. >> as the "journal" points out, steel users around the country have blamed the tariffs for higher costs, crimped profits, layoffs and production costs. another industry particularly hilt hard by trump's policy is farming. a new survey by "farm journal" research says while trump

received 70% of the farmer vote in 2016, 56% say they'd vote for him again, 35% say they view trump less favorably than they did before the president started his trade and tariff fights. still ahead, america's opioid epidemic was a major issue during the 2016 campaign. and there's a new report from the cdc that shows the problem has not gone away. we're following the latest on the deadly bridge collapse in italy as crews continue to search for survivors.

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this wi-fi is fast. i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's. we're talking about drug overdoses now that have killed a record 72,000 americans in 2017, according to a preliminary estimate from the centers for disease control and prevention. the cdc's bleak estimate reflects the near 10% rise in drug-related deaths. that's a total higher than the

peak yearly death totals from car crashes, hiv, or gun deaths. they attribute the uptick to more people using opioids and the drugs themselves becoming more lethal. cdc noted a rise in synthetic opioid use, and substances like fentanyl being mixed with other drugs. deaths from heroin, methadone, and prescription opioid pills fell. the cdc numbers are a midyear estimate. the organization will continue collecting and investigate state death records throughout the year. at least 34 students are dead after a suicide bomber attacked a private education center in kabul. at least 56 more also wounded there in what a witness describes as a quote horrific scene. that attack happened as teenaged students, both male and female, were studying for university entrance exams in a classroom set up in a large tent in the education center's courtyard, according to reuters. it occurred less than 24 hours

after multiple taliban attacks in afghanistan killed more than 30 police officers and soldiers. the taliban has denied responsibility for yesterday's attack. also according to reuters. no group so far has claimed responsibility although officials say isis is most likely behind that bombing. about 400 genoa firefighters worked through the night in a search for survivors in the italian city after a bridge collapse killed at least therein people. dozens of cars and three trucks plunged to the ground, raising questions about what caused the bridge to collapse. according to one structural engineer, corrosion of steel cables within the concrete most likely contributed to the collapse. he also noted with routine maintenance every 15 years this type of failure could have been prevented. corruption in the public sector has been highlighted as an additional issue. a 2014 report by the european commission warned infrastructure projects were at the greatest risk of corruption by organized

crime. experts say such corruption occurs most frequently at the stage when quality checks are in fact carried out. let take a turn and see who's going to need an umbrella, who's going to need the blast the ac, maybe all the above? >> a forecast map with fans or umbrellas. yeah. that would make it easier. the flash flooding's been the story the last couple of days, last couple of weeks. we did get interesting video in of camping while trying to navigate a flash flood. these people were out of the camper, thankfully. water can carry things away pretty easily when it gets flowing like that. this was in pennsylvania from two days ago. so flash flood risk today, nashville, louisville, lexington to columbus, all of southern ohio, even a little section of western new york to pittsburgh, finger lakes had it rough two days ago. more heavy rain returning for you. currently we already have showers and thunderstorms on the map. kind of following the mississippi river through

western kentucky, louisville has been getting heavy rain, now that's pushing into areas around cincinnati and soon if not already in columbus, ohio. that's the area of focus for the flash flooding because you get one round now, second round will be later today. let's time this mess out for you. the good part of this is that once this cold front does swing through, the rain chances will end towards the weekend and it will cool things down a little bit. for today let's go to the afternoon drive home. this is 5:00 p.m. hit and miss in areas of tennessee. looks like a steadier band of showers and thunderstorms south of london, kentucky. cincinnati, sprinkles and showers around areas. cleveland, buffalo, pittsburgh could have showers and thunderstorms between 4:00 and 5:00. some of our friends in southern minnesota too, nothing horrible, not severe, but we're worried about the ground, so soggy, getting additional showers and storms that cause flash flooding. 7:00 a.m. friday, tomorrow morning, we'll watch showers and storms possibly around chicago, hit and miss in kentucky and ohio valley. not too bad. through friday afternoon, this is the change for areas of the

northeast. we're going to be hot, humid, we will see a line of showers and thunderstorms more widespread northern and central new england. hit and miss d.c., baltimore, philadelphia. because of the heat and humidity out there, once again today all of new york city and the five boroughs under the heat advisory, roughly 12 million people. it's hot and humid all through areas of the south. this afternoon, 95 in atlanta. 99 in raleigh. 96 in new york city. dallas one of the hottest spots, it will feel like 105. as you said, it's either blast the ac or carry the umbrella. in most cases both. >> i was about to say, you need both nowadays. >> get the rain out in time foft weekend. >> i'll have the weekend forecast coming up. it will be hit and misrain. still ahead, controversy in atlanta. what led to the benches-clearing brawl and all the highlights from around the majors next in sports. ke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything so we know how to cover almost anything.

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maureenpeg, a fastball to the elbow, ouch. that sends both benches onto the field. not surprising there. things don't escalate beyond angry words. morena and braves manager brian snicker are tossed while acuna exits the game, no word on the extent of his injuries. braves complete the sweep 5-2. both teams concerned something like this would happen. hopefully he is okay. st. louis, a scare for the cardinals as first baseman matt carpenter takes a pitch off the wrist in last night's 4-2 win over the nationals. with his exit in the bottom of the seventh cards fans feared the team's chances for the playoffs would go with him. fortunately x-rays of the emerging national league mvp candidate came back negative and he'll be back. philadelphia, an unusual base hit for boston's andrew benintendi during last night's 7-4 loss to the phillies as the ball actually hits his bat in two different spots as he leads off the seventh with a single up

the middle. you don't see that every day, take a look, ba boom. bad news for willie geist and any yankee fan. gm cashman says aaron judge will be out a little longer than expected as he recovers from a broken wrist. judge was injured in late july after being hit by a pitch and was expected to only miss three weeks. he was in the midst of another stellar season. the yankees have been in a slump ever since that injury. they lost again last night 6-1 to tampa bay. >> i think willie's going to remain steadfast, my friend. the red sox are doing so well, it's tough to come into work. >> all right, great. still ahead, new reporting on how president trump's legal team is preparing to fight a possible subpoena from special counsel robert mueller. much more on the white house's decision to revoke former cia director john brennan's security clearance, including what the president has

to say about it. >> i am concerned that if security clearances are now going to become a political tool in the hands of individuals such as mr. trump, that i think will send a very, very chilling message to individuals in the government currently, maybe former officials who still hold their clearances, as well as the future generation of intelligence professionals. rs o♪ ♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪

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good to be back with you,

i'm frances rivera alongside richard lui and louis burgdorf. it is the bottom of the hour and we've got you covered. fallout over president trump's decision to revoke former cia director john brennan's security clearance. the president's accusing brennan of using his access to sow division ask chaos in the white house. right now several other top intelligence officials are also at risk of losing their security clearances. nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker has the details. >> reporter: unprecedented. president trump revoking the security clearance of one of his harshest critics, career intelligence official and former cia director john brennan who's also an nbc news analyst. press secretary sarah sanders reading a statement from the president in which he accuses brennan of erratic behavior and abusing his access without offering evidence. >> mr. brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of

unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and television, about this administration. >> reporter: brennan has called mr. trump everything from a traitor to a danger to the country. and he responded forcefully. >> revoking my security clearances is his way of trying to get back at me. but i think i have tried to voice the concerns of millions of americans, and this is not going to deter me at all. >> reporter: the white house also announcing it's reviewing the security clearances of other intelligence and law enforcement officials, many of them trump critics or involved in the russia investigation, including fired fbi director james comey, former cia director michael hayden, obama's national security adviser susan rice, and former director of national intelligence, james clapper, who called the move an infringement of first amendment rights. >> isn't it also an attempt to curtail their freedom of speech by penalizing them for being

critical on television? >> not at all. the president has a constitutional responsibility to protect classified information and who has access to it. >> reporter: the backlash was fierce. >> these people were being singled out to have either clearances revoked or in the process of being revoked, to me smacks of nixonian-type practices, of trying to silence anyone who's willing to criticize this president. >> reporter: why now? the white house won't say but officials here are eager to turn the page on multiple controversies. mr. trump's former adviser omarosa accusing him of using the "n" word. his former campaign chair on trial. >> kristen welker with that report. in a new interview president trump said his actions against john brennan had to do with the russia probe. let's bring in nbc news national reporter heidi prizbella. interesting statement by sarah sanders. >> yesterday the white house press secretary read a lengthy statement on why the president

ordered the review of security clearances, focusing on the need to quote protect the nation's classified information. but in a later interview with "the wall street journal," trump cited brennan as among those held responsible for the russia investigation. quote, i call it the rigged witch hunt, it is a sham and these people led it. trump added quote so i think it's something that had to be done. on msnbc yesterday brennan said the president is acting out of fear. >> i think he fears individuals who could damage him, could damage his standing among the american people. i look at the way he's been referring to bob mueller. bob mueller, who is a national treasure, an icon within the law enforcement and justice communities, who's doing his level best to investigate russian interference in the election. i think mr. trump is getting more and more concerned, more

and more desperate. i would say more and more frightened. as there is a closer and closer magnification of some of the things that those around him have been involved in. >> meanwhile, when the white house first threatened to revoke certain security clearances a little more than three weeks ago, nbc's kasie hunt asked republican house speaker paul ryan for his reaction. >> the president has said that he wants to revoke security clearances from some former national security officials who still hold them and who have made political remarks. is it dangerous to go down that road? >> i think he's trolling people, honestly. this is something that's in the purview of the executive branch. i think some of these people have already lost their clearances. some people keep their clearances. that's something the executive branch deals with. it's not really in our purview. >> the banana republic comments -- >> i think he's trolling people. >> nbc news reached out to the

speaker's office for reaction and he has yet to respond publicly. so the house is in recess. radio silence. >> so we're hearing here and looking at the reasons. nothing tangible. kind of abstract saying, he made the series of unfounded, outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and tv. when it comes to the reason here, it's clear this is the easiest game of connect the dots when it comes to brennan and everybody else who has spoken out who could be on this list as well. >> the "wall street journal" interview, i just read in the break, i thought my goodness, this is time after time when this president implicates himself and the obstruction aspect of this, saying these people were all involved in the russia investigation. that's what he said in "the wall street journal" interview. that they were all involved in the rigged witch hunt and quote it had to be done. so this is going beyond retaliation for being critical of him, to these people being involved in a very serious investigation of him and his

campaign. >> two sides really, right, heidi? the word used in kristen welker's report, protect. protect the information, that which is classified. any of these individuals we are unaware of any sort of situation where they have gone outside the classified space, right? taken stuff as classified and said it in the public, number one. flip side this fits in with the messaging to the base. >> it does. >> the intelligence community, not good. >> here's the thing, though, that's so interesting about the base. at the same time that the base is fired up and it speaks to the base, if you look at the numbers, more and more americans are saying that in this midterm election, they want whoever they pick to be a check on this president. so you do have this small, fervent base. but the numbers and the intensity in terms of the opposition are only growing larger. >> let's also talk about the timing of all of this statement where we had our reporting that the statement was dated sometime in july, late july. and that was a mistake, they

scratched that later. look what's happening, this is the week of the omarosa trickle of revelation lations of recordings this is manafort. so you have that in this massive bag of distraction tricks. >> it makes you wonder if omarosa really does have something on her tapes. there are many more tapes that she made. is he -- the question is, he's clearly responding to omarosa. is it because he thinks she actually has something on those tapes? or is he so angry by being owned by this woman on the airwaves that he lashed out and took this action to change the narrative? we know he does this because he's told us that this is his strategy. this is what he does and how he changed the narrative. >> the reactions there in the beltway, you saw it there with speaker ryan, either shrug or a chill. >> there will be a lot of pressure on him to respond to those comments that this was just trolling. that sounds very playful, but this is not playful. this is serious. >> heidi, thank you so much.

she'll also be on "morning joe" with more. president trump's legal team is preparing to take a possible subpoena showdown with the special counsel robert mueller all the way to the supreme court. trump's lawyers are now preparing to oppose a potential subpoena from mueller for a trump sitdown. the rebut from the president's legal team could move the fight to federal court. in an interview with "the washington post," trump attorney rudy giuliani said, quote, we would move to quash the subpoena and we're pretty much finished with our memorandum opposing a subpoena. giuliani added that trump's attorneys are ready to argue it before the supreme court if it ever got there. privately white house lawyer emmet flood has cautioned the president and others about the unpredictability of a subpoena fight that could be decided by the supreme court, according to the white house officials. a subpoena fight between trump and mueller escalating to the supreme court would be unprecedent unprecedented. a new poll shows the majority of american dozen not support a presidential campaign

meeting with a hostile foreign power to obtain dirt on a political opponent, like the meeting that took place at trump tower by members of the president's campaign in 2016. 79% of those asked by quinnipiac university say it's never acceptable, while 12% say it in fact is. meanwhile, when it comes to how president trump treats russia, 55% say he's not tough enough. 36% say he is tough enough on moscow. only 1% said he's too tough. the president told "the wall street journal" that his campaign rallies, they make democrats want to throw in the towel. he said quote as long as i can get out and campaign i think republicans are going to win. it's a lot of work for me. i have to make 50 stops. it's a lot. so there aren't a lot of people that can do that physically. fortunately i have no problem with that. when asked if his appearances mobilized democratic voters the president said quote i think the democrats give up when i turn out. if you want to know the truth i don't think it energizes them, i

think it defer jizes them. twitter follows the lead about the social media giants cracking down on info wars alex jones. what the company ceo is finally taking action against jones and his inflammatory rhetoric. bill karins with a check on the forecast, more wet weather for the east coast. i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. i bet i'm the first blade maker you've ever met. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making our thinnest longest lasting blades on the market. precision machinery and high-quality materials

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welcome back. twitter's ceo standing by the company's decision to put info wars alex jones on a seven-daytimeout. it comes after jones urged his twitter followers to ready their battle rifles, his words, against the media in a video posted to the site. twitter ceo alex dorsey spoke exclusively to nbc's lester holt on the raging technology war with the alt-right conspiracy theorist and their reasons for a temporary ban. >> i feel, you know, any suspension, whether it be a permanent one or a temporary one, makes someone think about their actions.

and their behaviors. and -- >> you think alex jones is going to change his behavior based on a time-out. >> i don't know. we have found that it does have the potential to change -- impact and change behavior. >> jack dorsey there, head of -- ceo of twitter. alex jones was banned or restricted from at least ten tech platforms just this month are. including apple, facebook, twitter also han criticized for its late response in capping info wars' ability to spread hate speech and more on their site. weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. if we're really lucky you're going to give us a good weekend forecast. >> i'll give you portions of a good weekend forecast. >> we'll take it. >> that's a start. the worst weather this morning is in between paducah and the memphis, cape girardeau, the boot of missouri. thunderstorms, heavy downpours, ugly around louisville and into cincinnati with rain, maybe a rumble of thunder. throughout the rest of the morning, ohio is going to get it

pretty good. now raining in columbus. cleveland you've had some showers go through. same with toledo. the heaviest, steadiest rains along the ohio river. today's forecast, very summer-like. heat advisories for new york city because of the high humidity levels, temperatures around 91, d.c. 93, atlanta 90. very much like the middle of summer. texas you're warm, mostly dry. fast forward into friday. the slow-moving front still plaguing us in the same areas that are getting the heavy rain today. because it's a couple of days in a row, flash flooding threat from areas especially around indiana, ohio, maybe western portions of pennsylvania too. late friday afternoon and evening a strong line of thunderstorms should move through upstate new york, central and northern new england. it will be hit and miss from hartford to new york to philly and d.c., more of a solid line of strong storms that will head up through the new england area. if you have potential plans outdoors friday evening, keep that in mind. probably a 30-minute period with heavy rain moving through. saturday that front lingers

throughout areas of the southeast and the mid-atlantic. hit-and-miss showers and storms. sunday, looking pretty good in the northeast. much cooler. lower humidity. it will be enjoyable to be outside. looks nice in the ohio valley but strong storms in the northern plains. so the weekend's kind of hit and miss. >> we're not going to have plans. >> it's not picture perfect. >> make plans inside and we've got you covered. >> be ready for the airline melee friday. >> yes, in the northeast. still ahead, global markets getting a boost on a potential thaw in the trade standoff between the u.s. and china. federal regulators reportedly take action against tesla ceo elon muflk over his tweets mulling the idea of taking his company private. sk o tweets mulling the idea of taking his company private. ♪

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global markets stalled, the session in correction territory as economic and diplomatic tensions between the u.s. and turkey continued. cnbc's villa marks joins us live from london back from istanbul. what could influence the markets today? interesting turkey makes up less than 1% of the global economy, but is having such a big impact. >> yeah, that's a lot to do with the sort of concerns there are about a spread of contagion from turkey into other emerging markets. the turkish lira is stronger now than earlier in the week, sort of a bounce last night after

qatar announced it would supply about $15 billion worth of funding for financial markets for banks in turkey. something that allows president erdogan to say, it's all going to be okay. big but still a huge amount of dedebt and companies and banks, huge amount of dollar denominated debt. also watching closely for tariff announcements in response to the ones that were issued by the them yesterday. investors will be watching very closely, as well. new round of talks on tariffs and that is something that people are very, very interested in seeing how that unfolds. >> a formal inquiry and announced by tweets by elon musk

last week. what does the sec want? >> they have actually issued subpoenas to tesla's board of directors. that would indicate that a formal inquiry has been launched. this is all focused on the words he used that funding had been secured. whether that was misleading for investors, that wasn't necessarily the case. cynics said look at how the share prices has gone way, way higher and that allows tesla to pay off some of its obligations in stock rather than cash because the share price reached a certain level. a lot of cynics saying that is something investigated for motive. >> live from london you have elon musk there manipulating his stock price. that's what the sec wants to know. thanks for your insight. jonathan swann has a look and coming up on "morning joe" president trump punishing john brennan. the latest on the president's

decision to revoke brennan's security clearance. foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell has more on the possible motivation behind the president's decision and james lankford and jeanne shaheen. we'll have their reactions moments away. your brain changes as you get older. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory.

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well, guess what, joining us with a look in studio jonathan swann. jonathan is here. good to see you. what is axios one big thing for this morning? >> steve bannon the sequel. mr. bannon who has been exiled from the white house and still loathed by the president and everyone who works there is now making a quick bid to insert himself in the midterm elections. he started a c-4 group which the "new york times" broke last night and an exclusive trailer from his new movie. >> "trump at war."

>> "trump at war." everything is a war for steve. >> when it comes to this film, we're talking about 75 minutes here. trump at war. before we delve at it, let's take a quick look. we have a sample. >> this is a cultural war. >> that's why we must do everything in our power to block this appointment. >> the left wants to undo our country. they want to take away the pr d freedoms we have. >> we have created 2.4 billion new jobs. >> the president is unstoppable. but he's only one man. >> you know, this is stutough stuff. >> i can't help but notice your chuckle. >> the voice rich undertones, you know, describing. >> with the sound track. >> trump will love this. if trump can get past steve

bannon which is a very open question, he'll love this. it is the ultimate bannon. it's a caricature version of the left and a burning mega hat against the hero donald trump. and trump will love that. bannon is framing this election as all about trump and all about impeachment. >> what is also interesting here, you talk about the release date. september 9th. having to do coincidentally with -- >> the second anniversary. i have forgotten the date when hillary clinton put the trump supporters into a basket of deplorables. look, to pull back the lens a little bit. i cannot emphasize enough on how bleak people feel about thiz midterm elections. just a massacre looking across the suburbs, educated women, it is looking really bad. one of the real questions i have

about the steve bannon effort is will he be able to get real donor money behind it because the donor community ran away strom steve and didn't want to be associated with him. there are plenty of billionaires around this country. i don't want to rule anything else. >> part of the steve bannon episode 2. what does this mean? it used to be called sloppy steve. does this help during the midterm, as the president said y have to hit 50 states but steve might help him here. >> depends how many people get engaged. one of the questions is, look, i don't think trump will promote or endorse this just purely because he can't stand steve. will the republican base engage with this? >> especially if you think of who is behind it. grassroots groups. citizens of the american public. >> set up, yeah. >> speaking to that, so you have this group bringing up to it.

isn't that essentially what the base will be looking for? >> what he's done, which is smart. he's recruited the biggest trump die hards. he has people who are popular with the base. look, i just don't know. it's one of those open questions. >> will this help with the relationship and help with the bannon/trump makeup? >> i would be skeptical. >> to kokaokay, thank you so mu friend. >> you'll see jonathan a little bit on "morning joe." we'll read axios am in just a little bit. and with that, that does it for us right here on this thursday morning. i'm richard lui and "morning joe" starts right now. president trump tried to push back today on omarosa.

>> accused of bank fraud, failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars hidden in off shore accounts. >> i would like to begin by reading a statement by the president. i decided to revoke the security clearance of john brennan. >> as a former white house aide makes explosive claims as the jury heads to deliberate in the 2016 campaign chairman, president trump decides to punish one of his most prominent critics. good morning, welcome to "morning joe." i'm willie geist and host of kasiedc, kasie hunt. >> just don't sing dave matthews. >> we'll get you in on dave matthews in a few minutes. >> dave matthews. >> jonathan lamire, heidi prisbilla and national affai