donald trump stand in our way. onslaught of he said he said headlines out of washington on the eve of block buster testimony expected from james comey. >> chaos in front of the notre dame cathedral. >> courtroom testimonyrom the woman accusing bill cosby of sexual assault. >> police search for the suspect in this random act of violence. >> rain and flooding continues in the south. >> and babies make four for george and amal clooney. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm gigi stone woods. >> i'm frances rivera. a flood of dramatic headlines overwhelming the capital ahead of forme

comey schedule testimony on thursday. the new york times reports that while still director comey told attorney general jeff sessions he did not want to be left alone with the president who according to "the washington post" is now absolutely furious with media coverage of comey. and he plans to publicly fight back during thursday's hearing. >> politico reports that the anger led sessions to offer his resignation which was refused. back in march the president reportedly asked director of national intelligence dan coates to get comey to back off from his investigation. these come just before major hearings in d.c. where tracie potts is this morning. good morning. what can you tell us about the day ahead? >> reporter: dan coates is going to be asked if "the washington post" report is true whether or not the president asked him to help and to back off this investigation to get the fbi to back off the investigation. co

saying he never felt pressured to influence investigations or to shut down any ongoing investigations or intelligence. so we have somewhat of a preview of what his answer may be. also testifying today, the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, he put in place the special counsel for this investigation. mike rogers and the acting fbi director andrew mccabe. the last time he was before lawmakers mccabe said he wouldn't answer questions, no comment on what the fbi director and the president talked about behind closed doors. comey, the fired fbi director, testifies tomorrow. it is much anticipated the fbi has given him the clearance to talk about essentially whatever he wants that's not classified. >> right. a lot of people will be watching that. tracie potts thanks. >> certainly the country's attention will be glued to james comey tomorrow.

adjusting schedules for the hearing. we'll have more in a moment. first nbc hallie jackson brings us up to speed. >> reporter: less than three weeks after reportedly calling james comey a nut job president trumple sending a more magnanimous message. >> i wish him luck. >> reporter: luck from the president to the fbi director he fired set to speak publicly thursday. coaxy likely to lay out a pattern of what he pleved were inthe appropriate conversations about the russia vaes gags according to sources close to him but not expected to accuse the president of obstruction of justice. the president who is consulting with counsel will counterprogram comey with a speech in d.c. thursday and maybe something more on line too. >> the president is expected to be tweeting on thursday in response to comey, not to stay quiet during the testimony because he himself wants to be the one driving the process. >> the president is the most effective messenger on h

agenda. >> reporter: that seems jammed up for now with the capital consumed by comey. >> this is going to take all the air out of the room. >> reporter: the white house hoping to jump start movement on the president's priorities, health care and tax reform, meeting a it the white house with gop leaders. >> now the senate i'm sure will follow suit and get a bill across the finish line this summer. >> reporter: that timeline striking some as ambitious. >> i think the president's agenda is at a virtual standstill because of all of these distractions. >> reporter: leading anthem to pull out of ohio's masht leaving 10,000 without no provider come 2018. >> thank you. anding we'll have live coverage of james comey's testimony before congress beginning tomorrow morning at 10:00 eastern, 7:00 pacific on nbc. and bars in d.c. will have the hearing on tv, one is opening early thursday morning. a tavern will open

$5 russian vodka flavors and fbi sandwich if i is f like fried chicagop breast, b, bar bacon and i for iceberg lettuce. >> in a courtroom in philadelphia, bill cosby's i accuser came face to fails with the man she says drugged and sexually assaulted her. andrea constand telling the court her account of what happened. stephanie gosk was there. >> reporter: andrea constand arrived at court serious and determined. sitting across the courtroom from bill cosby she described her initial impressions of him while working at temple university, a friend, somebody i trusted, a mentor. in january 2004 she went to cosby's house to talk about her career. the comedian offered her three blue pills saying these will help you relax. moments later feeling unsteady and panicking a b

cosby moved her to the couch. with a shaky voice she told the jury, i was trying to get my hands to move and my legs to move but i was frozen. unable to fight back she says, cosby molested her. i wanted it to stop she told the courtroom. constand admitted she spoke to cosby several times after the alleged attack, and even attended one of his shows with relatives. she says i did not have the courage at the time to tell my family so i just went along with it. cosby is facing three felony charges of aggravated indecent assault, dozens of women have accused the once beloved actor of unwanted sexual contact. many say they were drugged. cosby denies all of the charges. >> she faces cross-examination when the trial resumes this morning. french authorities opened up a terror investigation after a man wielding a hammer attack add police officer outs of the notre dame cathedral. police shot and injured the man who yelled this i

the man is believed to be an algerian student however his identity has not been confirmed. the shot sent tourists running for cover. up to 600 people were blocked inside as police search forward possible accomplices. officials say it appears the man acted alone. this comes at the wake of the latest terror attack in london where three men killed at least seven people. at least two of the attackers were reportedly known to authorities. these new details revealed just ahead of elections in britain. lucy joins us live from london. what effect do these attacks have on the upcoming election? >> reporter: good morning. british prime minister theresa may has come under some fire over police cuts in the wake of the attacks, the terror attack in london. the issue is likely to weigh on the minds of voters but it's difficult to say how it will affect her chances. as recently as last month mays conservatives led the opposition labor party more

percentage points in the polls but that lead has slowly been shrinking and more people dils approve rather than approve of her performance for the first time. one of the three men saturday was not only known to the authorities but he was featured in a television documentary about british jihadis. the attacker was known to authorities so these things likely on voters' minds. where once in the last few days the discussion might have been on brexit or taxes or spending the focus now is on police numbers, intelligence and extremist ideology. that doesn't necessarily bode well for her. >> thank you. closer to home roads became rivers when flood waters in mip ep swept up a camper in forest county. they are expected to continue to rise but not reach flood stage. check out this atv water skiing in the florida ever dplads. most of the city is under water due to rains and dozens of

>> let's bring in bill. any relief? >> we have flood warnings for southeast florida, 3 million in that, in the flood watches, 8 million, so the heavy rains continue from yesterday into this morning. look at the radar. this is over the last 12 hours. it really shifted from naples southward and now pretty good thunderstorms are going to roll toward miami and homestead as we go to the beginning of your early morning rush hour. we'll get 1 to 3 inches out of this over the next day or two and areas of northeast florida could get additional 1 to 2 inches also. and this is the rainy season but this is a little too much too fast. that's a look at the big weather story of the day. now a closer look at the day ahead. there's great weather behind the storm. we have to get it out first. you're improving in houston, new orleans, fantastic chicago up through michigan. and a slow improvement in new england after a miserable cloudy cool day yesterday. how about this feat.

league baseball. cincinnati reds outfielder, scooter crushed four home runs against the st. louis cardinals, that ties the record for the most home runs in one game in major league baseball history. the 17th player to accomplish this feat joining other huge names like willie mays. he entered with only 38 homers in his 5-year careerment this was a shock to everyone. >> we'll remember that name, hard to forget because of that name scooter. ahead what drove this guy to jump on the hood of a car and stomp 0 windshield and a shocking study coming out about the huge divide between white and black members of military. n! i wonder who... . we're gonna need some reinforcements...quick. copy that. walgreens makes it easy when summer needs a little help. your summer base camp is just around the corner so you can get in, out and back to those summer shenanigans.

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suspect. leading the news, a new study finds black service members face higher rates of military punishment than white comrades. protect our defenders looked at pentagon data from 2006 to 2015. they found black troops faced court-martials or other discipline two times more often than white troops. some of the highest discrepancies in the marine corps. black marines 2.6 times as likely to receive a guilty verdict in a court-martial. the pentagon says they will review the report. to a story about this woman in mcdonald's, got into a brawl there in iowa. she and another man have been arrested in the incident. here is a back story. valerie shepherd seen in that video got into a bit to mcdonald's employ when she became angry that her food wasn't coming out fast enough. that's what happened. she hops up. police arrested her tuesday along with jesse downs w w

they had been charged with assault causing injury and disorderly conduct. >> i wonder if she had other things on her mind. listen to this. hollywood's most anticipated newborns have arrived. george and amal clooney welcoming twins, a daughter ella, a son alexander, they were born tuesday morning. clooney's publicist announced the birth saying the babies and mom are happy, healthy and fine though he joked george is sedated and should recover in a few days. congratulations to them. i don't know george per se but i feel comfortable saying i think he is going to make a good dad. >> great parents as well. can't wait for the photo. a huge day for bruce wayne proposing marriage to whom. and planet of the app, is, it might be apple's next big thing. we're on to you, diabetes.

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all with a 2-year agreement. switch now at fiosgigabit.com. farce forward into wednesday president trump travels to cincinnati to meet with what the white house calls victims of obamacare. he will deliver a speech on infrastructure. congressman al green of texas plans to draft articles of impeachment against president trump for obstruction offiousties over the firing of james comey. and bat man is popping the

question. bat man's going to propose. big news in the comic book world. >> it's about time after all of the flirting. thank you. the united states is poised to hit a new record for oil, apple's next big thing involves some of hollywood's stars. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. yes, oil is tracking lower after the eia did up its forecast for 2018 u.s. crude production to around 10 million barrels a day. this number of course higher than the record 9.6 million barrels a day hit in 1970. the aia says the number of active rigs in the u.s. has more than doubled in the past year alone. we need to remember as well that companies underwent cost cutting so have a much lower break even price point around $50 a barrel, the eia also lowered its forecast for wti and brent prices for

over at sears rumors are they are planning to close additional 66 sears and kmart stores as they continue to seek return to profitability, the news came out on tuesday afternoon. sears has already planned to close 180, they announced earlier so this comes on top of that. and finally over to apple launching their first original online tv show, it will feature celebrities such as jessica alba and gwyneth paltrow to design new apps and called planet of the apps. back to you. >> wow. thank you very much. gigi, they have honest and fitting that we'll see this lifestyle app. >> they know what they are doing. it will be good. straight ahead, a new class of astronauts welcomed to nasa in an out-of-this-world way. a cringe worthy scene on the red carpet. what is trending this morning. you'll want to watch this next up on "early today."

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if you've got a life, you gotta swiffer it's time for kid theater of it here we go. >> kid theater. >> this is a good day. let's do a head bump. the mummy and the skeleton do a head bump like a fist bump but with your head.

>> great seeing tom cruise out there. exactly the same. >> having fun. a small step for man a giant leap for new explorers. mike pence to announce the name of nasa's astronaut class so the corps scent a message with a peek into the not so distant future. >> welcome to the 2017 class. this is the most i can guarantee the most unique environment you'll ever work in. >> so that's your new view. and your job is to take the wonder and amazement that we get to see every day and share it with the world. >> how cool is that. how fitting also for mike pence to be involved

science all of those gears. jerry seinfeld definitely not a hugger in case you wondered. giving a red carpet interview pop singer and fan kesha approached. she wanted a hug. she was surprised. check it out. >> so much. >> thanks. >> can i give you a hug. >> no thanks. >> oh, no. >> it got worse, seinfeld told the reporter he didn't know who she was and when he was told he said, i wish her the best. i don't blame him for not knowing all of the pop stars. she has been out of the spotlight for a while. >> ahead a shocking story, a florida mother a baby and a snake. bus a home intruder takes time to tickle the ivories. you're watching "early today." more "doing chores for mom" per roll more "doing chores for dad" per roll

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i'm numb. >> now on "news4 today," heartfelt words from the father whose son and another teen was gunned down just hours before graduating. what he has to say to the gunman still on the loose. wujust one day before forme fbi director james comey takes the stand. "the washington post" dropped a bombshell. who's in the hot seat and could have just as much to say? and all it takes is $2 and a dream. your chances for winning today's massive powerball jackpot. >> announcer: "news4 today" starts now. oh, it's a

sounds so easy, doesn't it? >> not that easy. 4:26 your time. good morning, everybody, i'm aaron gilchrist. >> and i'm eun yang. we're living the dream right here, aaron. congratulations. >> melissa keeping an eye on your wednesday morning commute. we'll start with chuck and sheena, confused, chuck? >> very. what are you talking about $2 and a dream? did i miss something?ball jackp. come on. >> oh. >> normally, i'd buy the tickets when they get over a certain price. >> but you only need $10 million. >> then i remember to get a ticket. >> hey, while were you sleeping, the clouds started to sneak back in. you won't get much in terms of sunshine. rain chances are relatively low. there's already mist and sprinkles on the side of the

temperaturewise, we're back in the 50s in most of the suburbs. around 60 downtown. it will be way cooler today than yesterday. upper 60s to around 70 today. cloudy and cool, light rain and drizzle. not expecting any heavy rain. we'll talk about the next coming days and return with summertime heat. that's coming in a few minutes. for now, let's go to melissa mollet. >> good morning, one problem we do have this morning, northbound 95 at old keene mill road. that is a crash on the left side of the roadway here. just a warning. not really slowing anything, thankfully, because it's so early. outer loop after branch avenue, blocking the right lane. as you're approaching 95, but no report of any actual issue there any longer this morning. westbound river outbound western avenue still have that milling and paving p

we do have some of the roadways shut down with the left lane getting by. >> melissa, thank you. >> that was the sound of gunshots recorded by a homeowner's surveillance camera. gunshots that ended the lives of two teenagers who were one night away from graduating from high cool. shadi najjar and zabber recover were killed. >> i waited. are you okay, my boy? are you all right? >> montgomery county police are still trying to figure out why the young men were in that neighborhood so late at night. it's five miles away from where they live. families tell us the teens were close friends and they were preparing to graduate from northwest high school

germantown yesterday morning. now shadi's dead, all he can do is ask why? >> why? why you kill my son? what you have to gain? your anger. you're going to be caught. >> police are offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in this case. counselors will be at northwest high school in germantown again today to help comfort students and staff members. >> you are looking at chopper 4 footage of a frightening situation in bethesda last night. montgomery county investigators say at least one child is being treated for minor injuries after a fire inside of a storm drain tunnel near bethesda middle school. officials say apparently there were other childrened involve and it took some time to locate given. the cause. fire is being investigated. >> happening today, a prince george's's mother facing 45 years in