daughter speaks out. and lucky lucy, a 6-year-old girl who nearly lost her leg to a shark attack in just 18 inches of water talks about the horrific ordeal for the first time today, tuesday, july 26th, horrific ordeal for the first time today, tuesday, july 26th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to "today" on this tuesday morning. i'm ann curry. >> i'm matt lauer. boy, it was interesting to watch these two speech necessary presn prime time. the president warned americans of impending economic crisis if congress fails to pass a comprehensive budget deal in seven days. he pointed a finger of blame directly at the republicans. >> the president described what happened in washington as, quote, partisan three-ring circus. house speaker boehner fired back saying when a deal appears within reach the president would not take yes for an answer. a live report coming up. also ahead, the question, where does the case against dominique strauss-kahn go from here now that the alleged victim in this case, his accuser, has spoken out. she said she wanted to defend her side of the story, but did she do more harm than good to her credibility? also this morning, we're going to talk about this year that charlie sheen has had from getting fired from his popular sitcom, public and unusual outbursts. >> what was it like for denise richards, his ex-wife and mother of his two daughters, to watch that all unfold? she will be here to talk about that, her marriage a sheen and her new memoir. we begin this morning with the debt showdown in washington. nbc's kristen welker is at the white house with more. >> reporter: good morning to you. with that deadline looming there's a heightened sense of urgency to get something done here at the white house and on capitol hill. this after a night of political theater in which both sides still seem as far apart as ever. >> tonight i want to talk about the debate we've been having in washington -- >> reporter: for only the seventh time in his presidency mr. obama delivered a prime time speech painting a dire picture of what will happen if congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling by next week. >> interest rates would skyrocket on credit cards, on mortgages and car loans, which amounts to a huge tax hike on the american people. >> reporter: despite weeks of partisan wrangling the president still pushed for a balanced approach, cut spending and raise tax revenue. >> the only reason this balanced approach isn't on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of republicans in congress are insisting on a different approach, a cuts only approach, an approach that doesn't ask the wealthiest americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all. >> reporter: with time running out the president called for compromise. >> i'm john boehner. >> reporter: but just two minutes after the president spoke, house speaker john boehner gave his side. >> the sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago and he wants a blank check today. this is just not going to happen. >> reporter: boehner seemed to reject all talk of compromise, backing a house gop plan that the two-step approach. first, slash spending by 1$1.2 trillion and raise the debt limit, then revisit the issue next year before the 201 election. >> obviously i expect that bill can and will pass the senate and be sent to the president for a signature. if the president signs it, the crisis atmosphere that he has created will disappear. >> reporter: earlier the president did put a plan aford with harry reid which would raise the debt limit to 2013, after the election. it calls for $2.7 trillion in spending cuts. but boehner said that's not the answer. >> the solution to this crisis is not complicated. if you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it. >> reporter: monday night the president urged viewers to call congress to push for his approach before it's too late. >> if you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your member of congress know. >> this debate is not about president obama and house republicans, it isn't about congress and the white house. it's about what is standing between the american people and the future we seek for ourselves and our families. >> it's a dangerous game that we've never played before, and we can't afford to play it now. >> in washington more spending and more debt is business as usual. i've got news for washington, those days are over. >> reporter: now, looks like speaker boehner's plan will be voted as early as tomorrow. one more interesting note, despite the fact that the president had been calling for this balanced approach with spending cuts and new tax revenues, noeither the house no senate plan includes new revenue. >> thank you. jim cramer is the host of "mad money" on cnbc and chuck todd is political director. good morning. chuck, this wasn't a speech to soothe the american public so what did the president hope to gain? >> i think what the president hoped to gain was to create a new sense of urgency to see if there is a chance to put this big deal back together that he and speaker boehner were very close to having this deal last week, that in many ways this speech was almost a post-mortem, almost setting up the blame game for the fact that no big deal is going to happen and no matter what happens here at the end of the day the debt ceiling is probably going to go up, nobody is going to be happy about the deal. i can tell you this, ann, i had a bunch of democrats who said to me would have been a good speech to give two weeks ago. >> i know that he calls republican activism, so much so that we hear capitol hill websites were crashing last night because so many people were trying to e-mail representatives. it sounds like he spooked main street. will he also speak wall street? >> no, wall street is calm. the markets are looking good today. we had a blip down in the indicators from 9:05 and 9:20, then i came right back. nobody is buying the panic or skyrocketing interest rates scenario. >> that said, hedge funds are prepare for a default. >> there's a possibility that we could default. it will be short term. i'm urging people to stay the course. i think that we have to remember that we've had ups and downs every time since 1776, this will be no different. i urge people not to panic despite the president's call for things that would normally panic people. >> chuck, i want to ask you this. both sides have agreed to deep cuts. is it fair to say that the big disagreement is on tax increases for the wealthy, specifically people earning more than $250,000 a year? >> well, there's two parts of the disagreement. yes, that was the big disagreement at the end of when the -- when speaker boehner walked away from the talks last friday. right. that was the sticking point which was this extra part of revenues. but there was some -- they had come to an agreement on some tax revenues going up. on some taxes going up as you lower rates and do the tax code. the current sticking point, the big difference between the reid and the boehner plan that is sitting in front of us today is this issue of another debt ceiling vote in nine months. that was another point of the president's speech that he was trying to make, which is, hey, this is not good for the economy to have this hanging over us for another nine months. >> bottom line, is it too late to reach a deal by august 2nd? >> i think august 2nd is going to turn out to be not that important date. i think you can manufacture dates. those bills will get paid. second, this idea that interest rates are going to sky october, mortgages, make it harder to go to college, it's not panning out. it's the wrong tactic. it ain't happening. >> a lot of optimism from jim cramer, chuck. what is your take? >> i have talked to house republicans who say in order to get some of their folks on board on something that is a big deal, that would include tax hikes, they would have to actually see the default, and that's the issue here. so that is -- might explain why there is some -- if you look at the president's strategy here, look, if they see a default and they see these possibilities, then maybe they will come to the table with the bigger deal. >> chuck, by the way, i have never seen you look this sleepy, so i want to thank you forgetting up this early in the morning because you were up late. >> thank you. >> no, just because you look like you were up late watching a speech. >> ouch. >> no, i'm trying to give you a little spacer now. 7:09. now here's matt. >> she means that in the best possible way. >> thanks, matt. >> thank you. new details emerging this morning about the man admitted to carrying out the deadly terror attacks in norway. nbc's martin fletcher is in oslo, norway. martin, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, matt. norway is in mourning here in oslo cathedral. this is the emotional heart of that mourning. people still in disbelief that one of their own could have carried out such a massacre. as more details emerging about the man who says he did it. the self-admitted killer anders breivik was in norway in court monday there were two more terror cells. police say they don't necessarily believe him, at first he said it did it alone. as more details emerge from survivors, they're investigating. >> no emeiotionemotion. he was so cold. he was so calm. could see that he was trained for this. >> reporter: more details about breivik, too. photos show him partying with girls as a schoolboy and on the internet as a hunter. his father spoke saying breivik's parents divorced when he was 1 or 2. father and son haven't been in touch for 16 years, and he also said no normal human being could do such a thing. my son, he said, should have killed himself. norway's royal family was hit, too. the kroucrowned princess' stepbrother was killed. even arizos they investigate possible more terrorists. growing concern about the performance of the police. after friday's dismal performan performance. >> i think that the police should get more money to spend. >> reporter: first news of the shooting came from desperate phone calls by terrified teenagers. it took the police 90 minutes to get there. the problem, no helicopter available in the norwegian capital, so the s.w.a.t. team drove by road, 30 miles and 28 minutes. then they couldn't find a boat. when they did, they were so overweight they reportedly had to bail water all the way. yet as soon as they arrived, the gunman surrendered. the police question is critical for europe because most are directed to prevent possible terror attacks by muslims. now they've got to switch gear and be ready for attacks by white races, too. >> martin, thank you. we're going to turn now to the rest of the top stories. for that we turn to natalie morales. >> good morning, everyone. a private funeral is being held today for singer amy winehouse has fans and visitors continue to pay their respects to the singer at a makeshift memorial set up outside her london home. autopsy results inconclusi inconclusive. no break for air travelers who thought a congressional stalemate would spare them from paying taxes on tickets. several expired over the weekend after lawmakers failed to pass legislation to keep the faa running at full speed. so instead of passing the savings now on to fliers many airlines are choosing to raise base fares instead. the cash strapped u.s. postal service is considering shutting down 3500 local branches. many in rural areas. last year the government agency lost $8 billion. the death toll is rising from the train collision in china over the weekend. 39 people were killed, including 2 americans. china has now opened an investigation into the safety of its railways. a confirmation hearing today for army general martin dempsey, president obama's nominee for joint chiefs of staff to replace mike mullen who is retiring. football fans, you don't have to worry any longer. 4 1/2-month lockout officially ended monday with the nfl players association agreeing to a new contract. nfl owners had approved the deal last week. so, al, it's going to be football night in america. it's back. it's on. yeah. >> all ready for it. >> great anticipation. natalie, thank you very much. now turn to the aforementioned al for a look at the weather. >> thanks so much. unfortunately >> i like that, aforementioned. we have more after for mentioned strong storms. risk of heavy wins and damaging storms. we are looking at a strong risk of storms along the dakotas board, supercells, possibility of tornadoes, rainfall amounts from 3 to 5 inches of rain from minnesota through the dakotas. that's what's going on around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> good morning. we'll be celebrating some lower humidity as it moves in today. right now temperatures around the region are near the low to mid-70s, most areas with patchy fog. rural areas around most of the region, watch out for that. fog will dissipate. we'll have lower humidity continuing to move in as we reach around low 90s by midafternoon. beautiful summer day tomorrow, not much humidity. lots of sun. >> and that's your latest weather. amanda knox has received a major boost in the appeal of her murder conviction in italy. in court on monday experts slammed the forensics used to find knox guilty of killing her roommate. keith miller has followed this case from the beginning. he was in perugia with details. >> reporter: amanda knox is in prison locked up here but monday in court the experts said that more than 50 breaches of international forensic proet controls were carried out by the first forensic scientists and that is also, by the way, the justice department follows this very closely. it was not an episode of "csi" but rather italian police bundling the evidence at the scene of the crime. police procedures projected on to a screen drew an audible gasp from the packed courtroom. >> i think there was some surprise and amusement from some people in court as to the bungled initial police operation. >> reporter: a crucial piece of evidence was dropped on the floor to be photographed. then lost. only to be retrieved 46 days later. video like this showed officers walking unsupervised through the crime scene. one officer handled evidence with dirty gloves. all this and more led independent forensic scientists appointed by the court to label the prosecution's dna evidence as contaminated and unreliable. amanda knox showed no reaction but her defense team felt she finally had her day in court. >> we were not surprised because we knew that many of the scientific evidence were not reliable, that the proet control was not respected. >> reporter: the most damaging testimony to the prosecution's case concerned the alleged murder weapon, the knife retrieved from knox's boyfriend's apartment did not, in the view of the scientists, have any dna material from the victim on the blade. as the prosecution had insisted. there was a frenzy outside the courtroom, but the lead prosecutor in the first trial had no comment. the appeals judge scheduled the next hearing for saturday, allowing the prosecution to rebut this latest testimony. matt? >> keith miller, thank you very much. amanda knox' mother edda mellas is also in perugia. >> good morning, matt. >> you just left amanda. you just paid her a visit. talk to me about the time you spent together. >> well, it was our regular, you know, hour visit. we talked a lot about what happened in court today or yesterday and how she was feeling. and, you know, her first response was, well, i'm still in -- i'm still in here. however, she understands that yesterday was a really good day for her, a really positive day and finally, you know, independents are recognizing that everything we've said from the beginning is true. >> talk to me a little bit about that confidence because i know as a mother you want her to have that sense of hope, but you also have to guard against irrational hope because it would be a devastating fall if things don't go her way. >> right. that's exactly what happened in the first trial when there was really nothing there that connected her to the crime, but she was still found guilty. that's why her first response is, well, i'm still here. so she knows that it's not over until she actually walks out of there. but she recognizes that yesterday was a really good step in moving toward getting her out of there. >> you know we were doing some research and we saw an interesting statistic, edda, that a staggering number, almost half of italy's convictions are overturned on appeal. having said that, can you gauge amanda's confidence level and what about the confidence level of her legal team? >> well, i think her lawyers are feeling more and more optimistic. i think this is the most optimistic i've seen them so far. but we're all, you know, really cautious about how hopeful we get. like you said, it's a big let down when it doesn't go the right way. but the italians have always told us to have hope and to have strength and to wait because mistakes like this do get fixed in the appeal process a lot. >> do you allow yourself or have you allowed yourself to start to think about the day that perhaps amanda would be released and come back home? >> yeah, we even talked a little bit with amanda about what to do when she comes home. you know, we're not putting a date on that, but we're all talking more about what we're going to do when she comes home, absolutely. >> how would you imagine she could go about rebuilding her life? there are no winners here when it comes down to it because we have a young lady deceased and your daughter who has been in jail for about four years. how would she go about rebuilding her life? >> i think, you know, she first just wants to come home and reconnect with the family, just kind of relax and get used to being out. and then really -- she talked a lot today about organizing her life, taking a look at everything that's happened to her. she's going to process this by writing. that's the way she just deals with things. and so she's already talking about how to figure out how to put it all down so that she can kind of just let go of everything that's happened to her. >> and if this doesn't go her way and she fails on appeal, are there other routes available? >> absolutely. there's a third level of appeal here in italy. we will definitely do that. if we need to, the level of that is to go to the european union. we won't stop fighting until she's out of there. >> edda mellas, thanks for spending time with us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you, matt. just ahead, the 6-year-old girl who was attacked by a shark in only 18 inches of water in north carolina speaks out for the first time. we'll talk to her and her parents, but first, this is 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