♪ i think there's blame on both sides. what about the alt-left that came charging as you said at the alt-right, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. i've condemned neo nazis. i've condemned many different groups, but not all of those people were neo-nazis, believe me. not all of those people were white supremacists. >> a defiant president trump lays bear his true views of the events of charlotteville that left a girl dead and a nation stunned. >> reaction pouring in from tap toll hill to mainstream across america with fears an aggressive opinions on trump's world. >> a federal offense as lynchon

memorial is permanently defaced. >> driving rains cause manhole covers to shoot sky warld. >> "early today" starts now. >> hello. i'm phillip mena. >> great being with you. i'm frances rivera. it was one of the most engrossing and head-shaking moments in political history, the president of the united states reigniting a firestorm, unnerving many across the country in national headlines as fake president from chicago central tribune. mr. trump painted them as victims of what he clibld as club wielding victims of the at-left, blurring the line in who is to blame. this morning the chicago sun times editorial board is referring to the president as the nation's bigot in chief. "the washington post" says he not only failed to help the

country heal, he made the wound wider and deeper. "the new york times" claimed trump himself took up many of the talking points of the white nationalists. >> we would like you to hear from the president himself this morning. here he was claiming white nationalist protesters were the real victims in charlottesville. >> what about the alt-left that came charging as you say at the alt-right? do they have any semblance let me ask you this. what about the fact they came charging, that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs, doproble? i think they do. i watched this very closely, much more people than you people watched it, and you have -- you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on that violent. nobody wants to say that, but i'll say it right now. you had a group, you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent. >> the president then defended the actions of those white

nationalists and talked about the removal of confederate monuments, the stated reason for the demonstration that quickly became violent. >> is it george washington next week and is it thomas jefferson the week after? you know, you really have to ask yourself where does it stop. you're changing history, you are changing culture, and you had people -- and i'm not talking about the neo-nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally. you had many people in that group other than neo-nazis and white nationalists, okay, and the press has streeted thtreate unfairly. >> that became before mr. trump angrily and defiantly defended himself and his initial response to the charlottesville violence. here he pled ignorance and refused to admit he waited too long to denounce the kkk, neo-nazis and white supremacists at the rally. >> why did you wait so long -- >> i didn't wait long. i didn't wait long. i didn't wait long. i wanted to make sure, unlike

most politicians, that what i said was correct, not make a quick statement. the statement i made on saturday, the first statement was a fine statement, but you don't make statements that direct unless you know the fact. it takes a little while to get the facts. you still don't know the facts, and it is a very, very important process to me. everybody said his statement was beautiful if he would have made it sooner that would have been good. i couldn't have made it sooner because i didn't know all of the facts. frankly, people still don't know all of the facts. >> and this morning we are learning the president was not supposed to take questions from reporters. he was merelily meay meant to m statement on an infrastructure executive order. according to a senior white house official, the president went rogue, stunning his own staff. it was evidenced by his chief of staff john kelly seen standing with his arms cross with his head sunken as the president

spoke. >> for more on the foulout facing the president and reaction from within and outside the d.c. beltway, we were join by edward lawrence. good morning. >> reporter: a history making moment. never have see seen the president take the side of neo-nazis in history. nbc news has obtained the talking points the white house sent out to republican lawmakers. in those talking points it tells the lawmakers to support the presid entirely correct, that both sides acted inappropriately. so far republican lawmakers have ignored that on twitter, prominent republicans are coming out against the president. one saying, just know house speaker paul ryan tweeting this bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. senator marco rubio adding the president needs to call it a terror attack by white supremacists. democrats were just as harsh related to this. senator bernie sanders tweeting out the president is embarrassing our country and millions of americansho to defe.

senator nancy pelosi, elizabeth warren, all critical of the president. two staunch supporters for the president, one the former grand wizard of the kkk david duke. the other richard spencer applauded the president as being fair. the spokesperson of the rn: said the president denounced hate and they stand behind his comments, saying that they were fair. the chorus is getting louder because of this press conference he had yesterday, that the adviser steve beenon should be fired, removed from office. the president awkwardly defended steve bannon. listen. >> reporter: do you still have confidence in steve? >> we'll see. look, look, i like mr. bannon, he is a friend of mine but he came on very late. you know that. i went through 17 senators, governors and i won all of the primaries. mr. bannon came on very much later than that, and i like him. he's a good man. he is not a racist, i can tell

you that. he's a good person. he actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. but we'll see what happens with mr. bannon, but he is a good person and i think the press treats him frankly very unfairly. >> reporter: sources in the white house say the president is nervous about firing steve bannon because of his following from his web seat. frances, phillip. >> all right. ed ward lawrence live for us in the capital. thank you there were a number of claims the president uttered during his explosive remarks, blaming both sides for the violence that erupted in charlottesville, but how truthful are these claims? nbc's gabe gutierrez has that report. >> jews will not replace us. jews will not replace us. >> they were there to protest -- excuse me. you take a look the night before. they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of robert e. lee. >> you will not replace us. >> reporter: this was that night. >> you had people, and i'm not talking about the neo-nazis and

the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally. but you had many people in that group other than neo-nazis and white nationalists, okay. >> reporter: but many were and several such as white nationalist christopher cantwell advocated violence. >> i'm carrying a pistol, i go to the gym. i'm trying to make myself more capable of violence. i'm here to talk in the hopes of that somebody more capable will come along and do that, somebody like donald trump who does not give his daughter to a jew. >> reporter: so donald trump but like more racist. >> a lot more racist than donald trump. >> reporter: the president did denounce violence, but once again spread the blame to include counterprotesters. >> i will tell you something, i watched this very closely, much more closely than you people watched it, and you have -- you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. >> reporter: the charlottesville

police chief when asked whether one side was more upon than the other said it was an alt-right rally. witnesses say both sides came prepared for a fight. >> we did have mutually combative individuals in the crowd. >> reporter: but the chief said the white nationalists did not follow the agreed upon plan and began entering the park from other directions. the rally's organizers including jason kesler have said they were following the law and were nonviolent. clearly some were. >> i'm not saying we're nonviolent, i'm saying we did not initiate force against anybody. we're not nonviolent, we'll [ bleep ] kill people if we have to. >> i will tell you this. there are two sides for a story. i thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country, a horrible moment, but there are two sides. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez reporting. we want the turn our attention to severe weather. torrential downpours in tokyo

caused this, water shooting out of manholes. over two-and-a-half inches of rain fell in the city in an hour. back in the u.s. storms in louisiana produced this water spout near new orleans. in charlotte, north carolina, 20-foot wide sink hole swallowed part of that roadway after a storm roll through there. red flags were spotted along virginia beach, caused by hurricane in the atlantic. >> let's move to our meteorologist for a look at what is in store. >> the middle of the country and heading east. all eyes on nebraska this morning. flash flood warning, you need to see the thunderstorms lined up over the center of the state and through northern kansas. we track the cold front and storms through iowa. watch out kansas city and st. joseph, missouri, columbia, too. then we willakicago during the hours, then we will continue the watch the storms on thursday in the ohio valley and by friday into area also of the northeast.

and the lincoln

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p i wonder, is it george washington next week and is it thomas jefferson the week after? you know, you really have to ask yourself where does it stop. >> where does it stop! buddy, we've been asking our question since january. >> remember when mike tyson bit evander holyfield off and then he bit his other ear off? this was the presidential equivalent of that. >> in his press conference a couple of hours ago president trump refrld to the neo-nazi as history buffs. yeah. then he referred to serial killers as population control experts. >> several late night hosts, of course, having a field day with donald trump's headline-making remarks on the charlottesville violence. >> and now to leading the news. the lincoln memorial in washington d.c. was vandalized according to the national park

service. a pillar of the monument was defaced with graffiti. somebody wrote in red spray paint an exmetive on the pillar. it is not clear it was caught on surveillance cameras but it is a federal event. someone appears to have carved m plus e, which is permanent. >> espn is issuing policy over a backlash over a fantasy football auction some foiund racially offensive. white players were also part of the auction, but many on social media said it resembled a slave auction. new orleans saints defensive end cameron jordan tweeted bad taste in whatever context it was intended. odell beckham jr., one of the players auctioned during the program simply said, speechless. espn issued an apology saying in

part espn segments replicated an auction draft with a diverse set of football players. without that context we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive and we apologize. >> wells fargo board of directors will be led by a woman. elizabeth duke will become chairwoman of the board at the start of next year. she is currently vice-chairman and former governor of the federal reserve. she will be replacing steven sanger, whose short tenure has been marched by scandal. remember last year the bank was fined $185 million after employees opened millions of fake accounts in customers names to meet aggressive sales goals. just last month wells fargo said it would pay 80 million in damages to more than 500,000 customers for improper insurance charges. it was a 40 years ago today that we said goodbye to the king of rock and roll, but controversy continues at graceland this morning. we will tell you about it next. .

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today marks the 40th anniversary of the death of elvis presley. just hours ago thousands of fans gathered outside graceland to pay tribute to the king of rock and roll, but many weren't happy about the near $29 fee they had to pay for the first time to enter the grounds. the company that operates graceland says the fee provides access to a new $45 million

entertainment complex on the estate. >> the sudden death of elvis presley sent shock waves around the world and he was mourned by millions of his fans. here is how david brinkley covered the story on nbc nightly news 40 years ago today. >> good evening. elvis presley died today. he was 42. apparently it was a heart attack. he was found at his home in memphis not breathing. his road manager tried to revive him. he failed. a hospital tried to revive him, it failed. his doctor pronounced him dead at 3:00 this afternoon. the end at an early age of one of the two most spectacular careers in the history of american entertainment, the other being frank sinatra's. long after he became an institution, here what how presley looked and sounded on an nbc television special four seasons ago. ♪ you ain't nothing but a hound dog ♪ ♪ crying all the time

♪ you ain't nothing but a hound dog ♪ ♪ crying all the time ♪ well, you ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine ♪ >> wow, fascinating to go back in time like that. >> interesting to watch that. i wasn't around when that happened and you realize the impact of him. it reminded me a lot of michael jackson, you see a lot of influences today. >> right. >> just based on watching that. >> and all of the people we lost way too early too. a big day ahead, including the chance to become wealthier way beyond your dreams. plus why this tweet from president obama just did something extraordinary. ...we run marathons... ...companies... ...solve problems. how? we eat. we eat almonds... ...strawberries... ...quinoa. and yeah...we eat chocolate. ♪ we eat in sweatpants... ...in skirts. we eat alone... ...and together. women are strong. we eat, and we own it. special k.

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♪ fast forwarding into wednesday, memorial service will be held in virginia for 32-year-old heather heyer, killed saturday when a man drove his car into a crowd of people protesting a rally by white nationalists. her family has asked attendees to wear her favorite color purple in her memory tonight's power ball jackpot has grown to $430 million making it the ninth largest in the history. >> today is national roller coaster ride, celebrating a ride historians say doubts back 200 years. are you a big thrill seeker? >> i like them. >> here is a ride. this one here, too. you're watching "early today." 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage,

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tensions over a statd chue,o calls to move a monument of a form ear philadelph former philadelphia mayor. and first line of defense when it comes to septa security issues. and what you need to know before looking at the historic solar eclipse, why it could lead to permanent damage. coming up on 4:00 a.m. i'm tracy davidson. >> and i'm vai sikahema. let's get right to bill henley with the first neighborhood forecast. >> look at easton, everywhere in between seeing some fog this morning. and especially thick right now. and could in other neighborhoods get even thicker.

town to zero visibility for allentown, quakertown, coatesville, lancaster has zero visibility and it's down to doylestown that one mile visibility fp mou. hasn't hit philadelphia international yet, but the airport at trenton is reporting zero visibility. and in millville, from zero to one mile a few minutes ago. but tshowers are gone. even though we're starting off with fog, we'll see sunshine. temperatures in the 60s and 70s will warm to 90 degrees, a hot one this afternoon for new jersey. 90 in philadelphia. and upper 80s for delaware and the suburbs. at the shore, 84 degrees and just a couple degrees warmer in the lehigh valley. i'll break it down hour by hour when i'm back in ten minutes. but first jessica boyington has your traffic. >> vine street expressway is

closed in both directions in between broad and schouylkill expressw expressway. typically lasts until 5:00. also construction over the burlington bristol. alternating single lane traffic there. they sometimes clear that a little early. ben franklin bridge is clear. still watching the schuylkill expressway for construction there, east and westbound in between the blue route and city line avenue, right now westbound showing yellow for a little bit of slow on the drive time, but for the most part, you can get by pretty well. starts around city line avenue. but from the blue route to the vine on the eastbound side, just 13 minutes. not seeing anything there even with some of the lanes lost. and new from overnight, a woman was trapped on the roof of h her home while her ex-boyfriend was in a