you're watching a california cop handcuff a teenager in his living room. his parents watching and thrilling. the boy's crime, having sex with the officer's stepdaughter. was this an abuse of power? the boy's parents join us live exclusively. pandemonium. it may be the toughest job in the world to get. why 62,000 people applied for a chance to spend time with these giant pandas. all over the world, 62,000 applications to spend a month with these bears. >> do you blame them? >> they are cute. we hope you had a great weekend. including the leader of that megachurch vowing to fight sexual abuse charges leveled by four young men he had been working with. >> take a look at this. cell phone video taken inside a plane. the landing gear failing to activate. passengers told -- you see, keep their heads down. sparks flyout side the win dove. the pilot able to land safely. what it was like on that flight. >> terrifying moments but first democrats went on the offensive pulling out all the stops and i'm getting personal on their opponents to keep control of congress this november. we have team coverage beginning with jake tapper in washington. jake. >> reporter: good morning, george. that's right. with only five weeks and counting until the midterm elections big guns will playing defense in blue states and democrats are on the attack very early and often in personal ways. democrat barney frank has been in congress for 30 years and for the last two decades he's won re-election with huge margins sometimes running unopposed but in this angry political environment frank is taking no chances and over the weekend he unleashed the big dog to join him on the stump. >> people have a right to be angry. they have a right to be disappointed. but they still have to be make a choice. an election is not a referendum on theireninger. it's a choice between two candidates. >> reporter: president obama is also playing defense traveling to four states he won two years ago where democrats are struggling today. in wisconsin, endangered russ feingold will not appear with president obama, preferring the company of the first lady instead. a recent pew poll shows independent voters favoring the republican candidate over the democrat by 13 points. and many democrats are playing the only card they feel they have left, the fear card. >> risking social security on wall street. >> reporter: depicting their opponents as personally unacceptable. >> renacci tried to avoid paying his taxes attempting to shelter millions forced to pay over a million in back taxes. >> sued by customers for fraud leapt and deceptive practices. two fs from the better business bureau. >> reporter: alan grayson did not serve in the military but that isn't stopping him from using an anonymous narrate ter to assail his opponent. >> it breaks someone's heart to think daniel webster could be elected to congress. he doesn't love this country the way i do. >> reporter: an ad factcheck.org calls false. >> this is what you do when you're running behind in the polls. you have to make the race about the other guy because you know that if it's just simply about you, you don't have a very good chance. >> reporter: and the first lady michelle obama will be hitting the campaign trail soon. the president calls her the closer. her message will be moss. >> trying to rally women democrats all across the country. so where do the races stand right now? what are the chances congress will change control in november. i'm here with jon karl. chief political correspondent. take a look at what our political unit and where the races stand. the senate, magic number for republicans, they need to win ten seats to take control. >> in the bottom line this morning, senate republican control of the senate is looking less likely. right now largely because of what happened in delaware republicans would have to win all ten of these toss-up races. >> delaware, most democrats and republicans believe christine o'donnell cannot win. >> house looking for republicans, gaining ground. rubio in florida, pennsylvania, pat tumi. ron johnson giving a tough race to russ feingold in wisconsin. all three of those in the abc estimate have moved in the direction of the republicans so looking good. but look at this, george. right now we're seeing california and washington state move in the direction of the democrats if they win either one of those, they can commit and take control. >> if they do that, is there any other path to victory for republicans. >> here's the problem for democrats. the map is expanding. take a look. we are seeing connecticut and west virginia, two states that have been considered solid democratic state, now moving in the direction of republicans. if they can pick up either one of those they can offset washington or california. >> at least one poll i've seen has the republican ahead in west virginia right now. >> and the republicans put over a million dollars into that race beginning over the weekend. >> let's take a look quickly at the house. republicans need to get 39 seats overall in order to get control. >> yeah, and here's what's happening here. er are, this is the battleground. these are the toss-up races. they could go either way. this is shrinking and since we last spoke, george, seven fewer toss-up races all seven moved in the direction of the republicans, so what we're seeing this morning is a republican takeover of the is looking significantly more likely, in fact, they'd only have to win half of those toss-ups to get control of the house. >> jon karl, thanks very much. robin? >> elsewhere a hearing scheduled in washington state against the first of five u.s. army soldiers accused of murdering civilians in afghanistan. the charges against the men are shocking and as brian ross tells us they're backed by three of the soldiers' own confessions. >> reporter: it's a case reminiscent of the worst of vietnam, a unit of u.s. soldiers in afghanistan accused of killing innocent civilians apparently for sport with an entire platoon described as often high on drugs. the army says the murders all took place near what's called forward operating base ramrod in southern afghanistan. five g.i.s have the 2nd infantry division all in their 20s have been charged by the military with premeditated murder. >> in the alpha team leader in the second quad. >> reporter: on a tape, one of them, 22-year-old corporal jeremy morlock of wasilla, alaska, casually described how his sergeant picked out afghans to be killed with grenades and rifle fire apparently for kicks. >> he pulled out one of his grenades, american grenade. you know, popped it, throws the grenade and then tells me and winfield, all right, dude, you know, wax this guy, you know, kill this guy. >> reporter: morlock said his sergeant calvin gibbs seen in a high school photo was crazy and boasted of doing the same thing in iraq. morlock told him he kept fingers from the dead afghans and threatened his own men with harm unless they participated and kept quiet about it. >> if gibbs knew i was sitting here there's no doubt in my mind that he'd take me out if he had to. >> reporter: the military says the investigation of the murders also led to the discovery of alleged widespread use of hashish at the ramrod base blamed by the g.i.s on combat stress. >> bad days, stressful days, days that we just needed to escape. >> how frequently was that. >> i'd say probably anywhere from three to four, every three to four days. >> reporter: the parents of one of the five g.i.s specialist adam winfield of florida say their son sent them messages about the crazy sergeant and the murders, but that they were ignored when they tried to alert the army with repeated phone calls. >> we put them on notice and told them this is a travesty. look what's happening. not only is your soldier at risk but you have innocent afghan civilians that are at risk and they chose to just turn a deaf ear. >> the winfields say they made their calls in fib, one week before the second of the three murders, their son is charged in the third murder that took place in may at a time the father says when his son was threatened with his own life unless he went along. >> it's apparent the winfields did all they could in going forward and trying to have action take place. brian, let's talk about the possible fallout that now that this tape is public, the u.s. government has to be concerned about anti-american violence. >> without a doubt there could be repercussions. the military has done the right thing in going after this case aggressively bringing the charges with the hearing starting today but made sure there are photographs the soldiers took of some of them holding up heads of dead afghans they killed. those they have restricted so far but this has serious possibilities of hurting the army at the worst time possible as they bring the surge activity to a head in afghanistan. >> taking place now. brian ross, thank you so much for your investigation. george. >> robin, thanks. to the sexual abuse case in atlanta. the leader of one of the biggest chumps says he'll fight allegations that he forced four young men into sexual relationships. bishop eddie long delivered his speech. it was the first time he had spoken publicly about the allegations and the lawsuits he now faces. steve osunsami has the latest. steve? >> reporter: good morning, george. across atlanta and across black syndicated radio across the country, they're all asking whether bishop eddie long of new birth missionary baptist church said enough. it was the first time he addressed the sex scandal before him. ♪ it was one of the most well attended sunday services here in years, some 8,000 parishioners who wait for hours in traffic and came to hear their pastor answer his accusers. >> this is probably the most difficult time in my entire life. >> reporter: it was pure theater. the buildup to the bishop refusing to say much but never denying accusations he took them on trips and showered them with expensive gifts. >> it will be tried in the court of justice and dealt with in the court of justice. i feel like david against goliath. but i got five rocks, and i haven't thrown one yet. >> reporter: after the service he held a news conference where under the advice of his lawyers he again said very little. >> i am going to fight, fight very vigorously. >> reporter: after church, some of the faithful were losing faith. >> he wasn't genuine. >> it's heartbreaking. >> reporter: his critics believe he may have been living a double life preaching against gays, gay marriage and gay sex. they'd like him to explain these pictures that lawyers say he sent to the young men who were above the legal age of consent but still teenagers. >> even if they were 18 they were still kids. >> he's going to have to prove to his congregants that this is a totally made up story because this could taint his career and ministry and his spiritual kingdom. >> reporter: the four young men accusing the bishop have left town and aren't speaking. one of them was arrested this summer breaking into bishop long's office stealing an iphone and a cell phone. his attorneys say that he was looking for more evidence possibly robin more of those pictures. >> possibly. all right, steve, thank you. for more joining us from atlanta is the senior pastor of the first iconium baptist. he has known bishop eddie long for over 20 years and reverend mcdonald, thank you very much for joining us. we do appreciate it. and as we heard in steve -- >> my pleasure. >> as we heard in steve's report, some in bishop long's congregation on sunday, they were satisfied with how he addressed the allegations, still others wanted to hear more. they wanted to hear a flat-out denial. what was your reaction to what he said, sir? >> well, it was mixed. of course, we wanted to hear more, but we were just glad that the bishop finally took advantage of the opportunity to speak, to address not only his congregation but the general public and i think he did a good job of combining the legal, the spiritual and the moral aspects of all that is going on and so at least now we know that the bishop is going to fight and we saw how new birth responded and it was with a very thunderous applause. >> some, though, were taken aback by his tone. it wasn't just what he said or didn't say, but the tone in which he said it. your reaction to that? >> well, i don't think the tone was as bad. he did give a certain air of confidence. i want to make sure that there's healing at the end of the day. we have to be concerned about the four young men. we have to be concerned about their families, the bishop, his wife and his family, new birth but i believe that there are implications beyond new birth and bishop long. just towards the black church and black clergy and how we relate to our parishioners, how we relate to nonprofits and issues regarding the megachurch and how as a body of christ that we represent with integrity that which we preach and which we proclaim and our prayer is that there will be wholeness at the end of the day with the bishop and four young men and all black clergy trying to do what is right. >> there are so many issues here but you bring up the four young men and fourth one coming forward this weekend. one allegation is enough but four and that has a lot of people scratching their head a little bit and saying that this is real trouble for the bishop and the church. >> it absolutely is and we don't need to try to hide from that fact. we have heard that perhaps there are even others coming. but we don't know all of the details. everything is not as it appears to be in any situation and so we need to get all of the facts in before we can honestly draw any conclusion about what's going on or the truthfulness of the matter but want to make sure we don't throw out these four young men and that we don't just accuse the bishop. i think that there is an opportunity for us here to get all the facts on the table, my prayer is that it doesn't go to trial but that something is resolved before we ever get to that point because even the accusations of the particulars and specifics i personally don't want to get into that. >> you personally have known the bishop for over 20 years going back to his days in the seminary. anything in his behavior, anything that you ever saw that would make you think that there could be any truth to these allegations? we were just showing pictures that he sent to these young men which some people are trying to understand why. >> yeah, no, there was nothing in his past that ever gave any indication of these allegations or accusations. i was totally surprised. we were totally caught off guard but, again, i don't know all that's behind it, even the pictures and what context were they sent? i think we should withhold any kind of judgment either for the bishop or the four young men until we get more evidence out there until we learn the specifics, because as a pastor, i know that there are always charges and accusations for coaches, ministers and anyone would works with young men, we got to set a good example for young men and have to face the fact there are some good things that bishop long has done over the years even as it reels to young black males. there are a lot of positive things and we don't need to dismiss those as we're looking at these accusations. >> still more to come. reverend mcdonald, thank you very much very, very much for your time and perspective. have a good day in hasn't. to juju chang with the morning's other news. >> good morning, robin and george. happy monday. we have a lot of news going on. we turn now to a developing story in wisconsin where a levee holding back the wisconsin river is failing in the town of portage. 300 residents have been told to evacuate because water is flooding the only road that their neighborhood. we just spoke to a state official who told us those who didn't make it out could be stranded until the middle of the week. the sand levee was built in the late 1800s and was no match for the recent heavy rains. now to the big story overseas. thousands of u.s. and afghan troops are on the move in the fight for kandahar, a taliban stronghold. troops have been using explosives to clear booby traps on the streets, a key combat phase of "operation dragon trike" to drive out the taliban and establish more government control. also this morning, 50 militants were killed in fate to air strikes in eastern afghanistan, as well. meanwhile, we're getting more insight into tensions at the white house last year as president obama decided on his afghan war strategy. in his new book, bob woodward says the president erupted when military advisers hesitated to give him options other than sending in another 40,000 troops. diane sawyer and george will have the first interviews with woodward about his book, "obama's wars," beginning tonight on "world news" and "nightline" and bob woodward will join us here on "gma" tomorrow. in the middle east the palestinians are not walking away from peace talks, at least not yet. that was the concern when israel's settlement freeze in the west bank expired overnight. but the palestinian president says he'll consult with other arab leaders next week before deciding what to do. and a major car recall this morning. hyundai is recalling about 140,000 sonata sedans. they were built between december of last year and september 10th this year. the company says a steering wheel defect could cause drivers to lose control. and now the navy says an investigation is under way this morning after confirming what happened in a video clip that surfaced over the weekend. take a look. two navy helicopters appear to take a dip into the waters of lake tahoe before finally righting themselves. tourists caught this on camera and posted it youtube. it appears they lost power for a moment but they were not hurt. and that's the news at 7:19. >> i don't know if it was intentional or not. >> they don't and won't confirm what the mission was but confirm it is, in fact, true. >> we can see that. thanks, juju. time for the weather. happy monday morning to sam champion. good morning, sam. >> doesn't sound as good as happy friday but happy monday, robin and george, juju. two weather headlines in the u.s. one of the big rain on the east coast, the other the big heat in the southwest. dealing with this low ha kind of steers all this moisture through from atlanta to raleigh to washington to new york and, yes, even to boston later on. there will be heavy rain. a lot of flooding going in here. talking about 2, 3, 4 inches of rain, sometimes two-day totals and additional rainfall today north of atlanta near asheville talking about what could be 2 to 4 inches of additional rain, washington, d.c. will pick up some, new york will, as well and scattered showers that move in from the northeast. locally 4 inches of rain. look at the heat, l.a., 103. when you consider it's not even a record because 106, 109 in is the record in that area but normal temperatures around 82, 83 degrees so big heat there. areas of light rain moving across the region and there are holes in the rain shower but it will be a rainy day with intermittent showers and some will be have it. a batch as removing through montgomery county right now. i-81 corridor, all the runways are wet and we are 68 degrees at college park. we're on our way to the mid- 70's. thunderstorms are all of america's weather in the next half hour. robin, george? >> our picture of the morning is a gorgeous picture of the morning. our dear friend and colleague bianna golodryga got married over the weekend to peter orszag. it took place here in the city. it was -- >> it was beautiful and it was such a spectacular party but also touching moment in the ceremony. they actually whispered their vows to each other. it was beautiful. i had