July 14 thd, 2016. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everybody. Welcome to today. Its a thursday morning. When you hear what people in this road rage survey admit to doing while theyre agitated behind the wheel, you will be shocked. Were going to have that for you in our 7 30 half hour this morning. Lets start with politics this morning. We know the when and where, but the who is anybodys guess. Donald trump announced on twitter hell reveal his running mate tomorrow in new york city. Lets start with nbcs Hallie Jackson with the latest. Hallie, good morning. Reporter good morning. Donald trump today getting ready to reveal to the world who his pick for the president ial ticket may be. Publicly he says. Privately he says hes down to two or three finalists. Trump is waking up on the west coast for a fundraiser in california. Hes in a new york state of mind. Thats where an announcement will be this race for a running mate now in a sprint to the finish line. Just over 24 hours from now, the biggest decision so far of Donald Trumps candidacy. I want to pick someone thats solid and smart. Im not looking for an attack dog. Reporter trumps team taking advantage of a few extra hours in the Hoosier State because of plane repairs to meet with contender Newt Gingrich who was flown to indianapolis on a private jet to talk with trump. Travel facilitated by a fox news host. Gingrich now predicting its down to him and pence. He clearly is down to two. Hes got two really good but really different choices. And i think it will be interesting to see certainly im one of the people sitting by the phone waiting. Reporter those comments coming after trump met privately with mike pence over breakfast joined by his children. Character of his children is truly inspiring. It was an honor for us. Whatever the outcome. Reporter sources close to the campaign tell nbc news pence and gingrich and Chris Christie who spoke by phone with trump this week top the short list though the decision is ultimately up to trump alone. In the midst of an intense week, a distracting twist. Trump now filing a 10 million arbitration claim against a former Campaign Aide accusing him of trying to spread suggestive rumors about Senior Campaign staffers. Through it all, Hillary Clinton not letting up. Out with a new ad this morning showing children watching clips of her rival. I wouldnt lose any voters. Reporter clinton hoping to capitalize by keeping the conversation about kids. When kids are scared by political candidates and policy debates, its a sign that something has gone badly wrong. Reporter its a different kind of focus on family for the trumps this morning with these exclusive Time Magazine photos and story highlighting the trump childrens high profile positions as some of their fathers most trusted advisers helping to vet the vp pick, the selection suspension now nearly over. While we know trumps children will speak at the Gop Convention in cleveland next week, were learning more about who else will take the stage. A Senior Campaign official confirming to me that tim tebow will be one of the speakers along with notable names. You have people like dana white. But notable names not on the list. For example, governor mike pence not on the speaker list to come out and address the crowd. Neither is bobby knight who trump has long said could be one of the options. Matt, savannah . We know youll keep watching it. Thank you. Steve kornacki here to break down the top contenders in the trump veep stakes. We hear pence, gingrich and christie. Someone else you want us to reconsider . Could be a dark horse here. Lets look at pros and cons. Start with Newt Gingrich, trump says he wants d. C. Experience, gingrich has that. Gingrich sets himself up as antiestablishment guy. Very much like donald trump. What are cons . Lots of baggage. Ethics. A lot of stuff in Newt Gingrichs history and age. This would be the oldest ticket. You add up two ages, oldest ticket in history. Want to put Chris Christie on the ticket, personality, you have a lot of it. Bring energy to the ticket. Cons, the bridgegate investigation still going on. Those trials could play out during the fall campaign. And of course personality. Is it too much . Is there a risky overshadows donald trump. Pike pence, put him on the ticket . You get solid credentials. D. C. Experience. Gubernatorial experience. Hes a sure pick. Those are positives. Negatives, hes not that popular in indiana. That could be a swing state this year. Not sure he helps you much this year. Is he too safe . Donald trump is a showman and entertainer. Heres the wild card. Jeff sessions, alabama senator called in for lastminute meeting yesterday. Maybe a head fake. Maybe it means nothing. Obviously very solid conservative credentials. Immigration, thats his signature issue. Thats trumps signature issue. Very much in sync on that. Cons, a lot of past controversy. Racial controversy for Jeff Sessions earlier in his career and alabama is a deep red state. Deep red area. Not sure what he brings to the table in terms of the electoral college. Four options to look at. Steve kornacki going with the head fake at the end there. Thats good. Lets turn to the important path to 270, thats the number of electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Chuck todd has a look at the latest poll and what it reveals with the battleground states. Youll start with iowa. Yesterday we had battleground states that showed a tight race. Explain to people why we see this divergence. I think in some cases you see divergence because of the different way different pollsters conduct things. Theres one polling firm in particular thats shown more outlier results than any other. Its early. Any individual poll you can pick it apart. Lets look at our numbers here. Our track record has been with our pollsters has been very good. We split our battlegrounds north and south for the next couple of days. Were rolling out some northern battlegrounds. Ohio, iowa, pennsylvania. In these three states, in iowa, its extremely close. You would think why is a state like iowa extremely close . It is. Heres pennsylvania. This is one of the three that actually if youre donald trump, youre not happy that this isnt close. Because while hes close in ohio, close in iowa and doing well in northern states, pennsylvania is a state if he doesnt put it in play, then he cant make up ground if he doesnt win florida, doesnt win north carolina. Weve got him down nearly double digits. Something to watch for in pennsylvania, theres a large minority vote. Large africanamerican vote and in our poll, heres the amount of africanamerican support donald trump got in pennsylvania. Zero. Zero percent of africanamericans in pennsylvania. Thats a huge problem going forward, guys. Can i just mention these results come after we did this polling after the fbis report on Hillary Clintons private email server, correct . It is. Thats exactly right which is why the numbers did shrink in ohio and in iowa. It was extremely close. If youre trump and you didnt make up any ground in pennsylvania, then you got to start to ask yourself where will i find my path to 270. For trump, it all has to go through the rust belt and in the Northern Tier of this country. Chuck with new poll numbers this morning. Thank you. Syrias them battled president is weighing in on the president ial election. Nbcs chief global correspondent bill neely sat down with president Bashar Al Assad exclusively. We want you to know the interview was recorded by the president ial press office, but there have been no editorial changes to the content. Bill, good morning. Reporter good morning, matt. This was a fascinating insight into a man whos been at war for five years. It wasnt just that hes defiant, he was confident, sure of victory and that he said is done to russia. As you hear, he was critical of president obama. Some of the rest might surprise you on isis and on donald trump, whose inexperience in Foreign Policy doesnt bother him. From what you know of mr. Trump, is he smart enough . I dont know him. When i sit with him face to face i can judge him. He seems to president of the United States putin. Does that give you hope that maybe hes a man you could do business with . If hes genuine. I think hes saying the right thing. Every person whether agree or disagree with president putin they should respect him. Reporter he told me american air strikes against isis are ineffective and counterproductive. Whose fault is that . Is that a military fault or is president obama simply not being lets say ruthless enough. Its not about being ruthless. Its about being genuine. Its about intentions. Its about being serious. Its about having the will. If they dont have the will to defeat the terrorists but will to control them and use them up as a card like they did in afghanistan. Let me probe you about the new relationship you want with the United States. Isis is headquartered in your country in raqqah. If you knew isis was about to attack the United States, would you warn america . As principle yes because they may attack civilians and i cannot blame the innocent in the United States for the bad intentions of their officials. This is not correct. As i said many times, i dont consider the United States as they dont occupy my land. Reporter i put many direct questions to him including whether he was a brutal dictator. He said if a doctor cuts off a limb to save a life, you dont call him a brutal doctor. Hes doing his job. Personally, a very charming man. Thats a chilling comparison when you consider that its actually the lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands of syrians that hes talking about. Matt, savannah . Bill neely, thanks. A fascinating interview. You can see more of it tonight on nbc nightly news with lester holt. Here at home, the man hunt is intensifying for a suspected serial killer on the loose in arizona. Police are imploring potential witnesses to come forward to help stop the violence. Nbc National CorrespondentMiguel Almaguer has the latest. Miguel, good morning. Reporter savannah, good morning. Phoenix pd is teaming up with the fbi and u. S. Marshals office theyll need an arrest if they want to put this community at ease. This morning in phoenix, for some another sleepless night. A serial killer is stalking this community. Seven people dead. Fathers, mothers, even a 12yearold child gunned down here. Two others have also been shot and survived. This guy has killed seven people. Reporter the Guardian Angels now patrolling the neighborhood where many of the victims were targeted whats your big worry . Another shooting. Hes killed seven people. Hes going to kill again. Reporter the murders following a pattern. All happening under the cover of darkness. The innocent killed in driveways or in cars often steps from their homes. Two survivors helping police with their first big break. The sketch of the suspect. Witnesses reported very brief interaction between the suspect and victims but for the most part, i think these people are completely unaware of whats about to happen to them. Reporter the crime spree has spanned five months. Diego sanchez killed in front of his home. 13 miles away, crystal white murdered before sunrise. Another gunned down at 9 50 p. M. Manuel garcia killed one week later. Five miles away, angela leonard, malia, and Stephanie Ellis were also killed. I have to remind myself and tell myself that my mom is no longer here. Reporter white and her five siblings lost their mother. Every morning i cry. Every day is just it doesnt feel real. Reporter police say this is one of the most calculating and one of the most cold blooded murders theyve ever seen. That 12yearold victim was shot 12 times. Matt and savannah . Miguel almaguer in phoenix. Thank you. In other news, thousands of mourners paid their final respects wednesday to three of the five officers killed in last weeks dallas ambush. They attended a Memorial Service for brent thompson. One thing i would always say to my dad when he walked out the door was goodbye, daddy. I love you. Be safe. And tonight we say our final goodbye, daddy. We love you. Be safe. Elsewhere in dallas hundreds of mourners attended the service for Police Sergeant michael smith, a former army ranger. Fellow officers say he was a cops cop known for his upbeat attitude and a service held for lorne ahrens. His colleagues say the former semi pro Football Player had an intelligence equal to his size. Well shift gears and get our first check of the weather. Al, good morning. Good morning, guys. We had some pretty Severe Weather moving through a good portion of the country. It eventually made its way to the east. This is lancaster, pennsylvania. Look at what happened. Three to five inches of rain in a short time. Flash flood. These cows got across safely. Firefighters making their way across homes getting people out of the flooding. And it was all part of a long ranging system called a derecho. Its a wide ranging system that pushes at least 250 miles. It started in the midwest and ended up in the east. What happens is it bows outs, jet stream comes across. Gusts of 60 to 100 miles an hour and torrential downpours. Will we see that again today . We dont think so. Were looking at the risk of Severe Weather starting to set up already from indianapolis on into central missouri. Weve got a storm threat, wide ranging storm threat today from dodge city, tulsa, joplin all of the way to memphis with possibility of tornadoes, damaging winds and hail. And it stretches all of the way into the northeast along a front that could see strong storms late this morning into this afternoon up into the northeast and new england. This front will be pushing south. The storms will develop ahead of the front from buffalo, cleveland, down into charleston. Gusty winds, strong rain. This will move into friday into the northeast and kind of stall so that the early part of the weekend in the northeast not looking all that great. Thats whats going on around the country. Heres whats happening in your neck of the woods in the next 30 seconds. Good morning. Im meteorologist kari hall. Its in the upper 50s to low 60s as you head out the door this morning. Mostly clear skies except for along the coast. As temperatures build well also have some poor air quality in the east bay and the south bay especially. Its a spare the air alert day so take Public Transportation if you can. Highs today reaching the triple digits in gilroy. 89 degrees in palo alto. Low to mid 70s in San Francisco. And 101 degrees today in fairfield. Weather. Vemos lo comun que es la ira en al, thank you. Coming up, are you guilty of driving angry . An eye opening new look at just how common and how violent road rage has become. On rossen reports. Are you wasting your money . The secrets of those seemingly impossible to win carnival games revealed. First, this is today on nbc. Ns revealed. First, this is today on nbc. Maybe almond breeze tastes so good because its the only almondmilk made with california blue diamond almonds. But if you ask our almond growers. 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