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 trumps 2016 campaign chief. White House Press SecretarySarah Sanders announced the action by reading a statement from the president , take a listen. Mr. Brennans lying and recent conduct characterized by frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nations 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 Trumps use of the word dog to describe a former white house aide. Brennan wrote this its 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 brennans clearance appears to be spontaneous. Nbcs 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 hes 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. Im 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 dont 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 Managers 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 lets 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. Ive also begun to review the more general question of the access to classified information by government officials. As part of this review, im 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 were hearing time and time again, the distraction factor. Thats 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 theres 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, theres 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 theyre going to be willing to speak out . Thats exactly it. You had the voice of brennan weve heard, even just since this happened, this statement came out. Even before, calling the president treasonous after helsinki. Even being outspoken with omarosa. Weve heard from him directly hes 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 comeys 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 dont 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 didnt 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 heavyhanded 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 theres no accountability to the people who should be at least consulted in these matters. Well see if were 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. Weve 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 11point advantage over those who say they would vote for a republican instead. Similarly, a Quinnipiac University poll shows democrats with a 9point advantage over republicans. According to that quinnipiac poll, 52 of voters say Donald Trumps 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 Trumps 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 Trumps 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 emails they say prove manaforts alleged crimes. The star witness in the case. His defense team tried to place the blame on manaforts former political protege, rick gates, who served as one of the prosecuto prosecutors key witnesses. President Trumps 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 reelection this november, voted for trumps first Supreme Court nominee gorsuch. They said theyll 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 trumps 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 wideranging 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 trumps policy is farming. A new survey by Farm Journal Research says while trump received 70 of the farmer vote in 2016, 56 say theyd 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, americas Opioid Epidemic was a major issue during the 2016 campaign. And theres a new report from the cdc that shows the problem has not gone away. Were following the latest on the deadly bridge collapse in italy as crews continue to search for survivors. Your hair is so soft did you use head and shoulders two in one . I did mom. Wanna try it . Yes. It intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. Manolo . Look at my soft hair. I should be in the shot now too. Try head and shoulders two in one. This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you this wifi is fast. I know i know i know i know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. Were 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 cdcs bleak estimate reflects the near 10 rise in drugrelated deaths. Thats 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 Centers 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 yesterdays 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 whos going to need an umbrella, whos 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 floodings 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 thats pushing into areas around cincinnati and soon if not already in columbus, ohio. Thats the area of focus for the flash flooding because you get one round now, second round will be later today. Lets 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 lets 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 were worried about the ground, so soggy, getting additional showers and storms that cause flash flooding. 7 00 a. M. Friday, tomorrow morning, well 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. Were 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. Its 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, its 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. Ill