But can they stop them . And a surfer nearly attacked by a shark on live tv. As we look at fanning on the rankings oh sh [ bleep ]. Today squuljuly 20 2015. Announcer from nbc news this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning. Welcome to today on a monday morning. Cast back together for the first time this a while. Can can we put up that footage again . That shark attack we have talked about shark attacks on this show so many times. To see it happen and know it was on live tv is unbelievable. He goes under for a couple of seconds. Especially when the wave comes up and you cant see him. More amazing is the competitor in the water who swam to try to save him. Our top story, a major interstate in Southern California closed after part of the roadway washed away. We have latest. Good morning. Reporter good morning, matt. A wild weekend for weather extremes after a kriping drought. The area is seeing historic rainfall that brought flash flooding washing away bridges and cars and damaging homes. A much neededed heavy rain across Southern California turned dangerous on sunday. Bridge collapsed. Reporter at least one driver was trapped after the downpour caused a 30foot section of the freeway to collapse east of palm springs. Oh fishes have shut down part of the interstate until they can fully assess the damage. With winds near 60 miles an hour the thunderstorm dropped an estimated inch of rain every hour. The storm led to mud slides and flooded roadways with several cars getting stranded in Orange County california. Fire officials rescued are residents are from flooded homes across the southern part of the state say this is some of the heaviest rain they have ever seen. I have worked here almost 17 years. I have seen the creek fill up but never to the point where it got this high coming over the road almost into the trailer parks. Reporter the weather in the region was so unusual the Los Angeles Angels were rained out at home for the first time in 20 years. Delays hit the National League facebooks in san diego where the city broke records for the most rainfall ever in july. In a bit of good news the rare summer storm allowed firefighters to contain 60 of a wildfire that swept across the california state highway over the weekend. To the east in arizona, severe flooding also hit hard leaving fields of debris. As a community this is not the first time it happened. It is the worst i have seen in 26 years. Reporter with this much needed rain lightning strikes followed. Over the weekend, concerns closed 70 miles of beaches. Lightning struck a plane and forced it to make an Emergency Landing at lax and a person was struck by lightning in california city. Matt . All right, gadi schwartz. Thank you very much. How are things looking today . System not much better. A little bit. This could be a recordbreaking el nino warming of the waters in the pacific. We have had the impact already. This is remnants of delores. The moisture the streamed up into Southern California and the southwest causing big problems. The problem here is water temperatures. The sea surface temperatures 3 to 6 degrees above normal and they are getting warmer. This is favorabler for tropical development. We have seen record amounts so far. Its an active pacific hurricane season. We are looking for more later this week. Something developing off the mexico coast. We expect another 12 Million People at risk for severe thunderstorms with thunderstorms and big flash flood watches. 1 the to 2 inches of rainfall per hour. The other story, heat and humidity. Dangerous are heat. 51 people under a heat advisory or warning from new york city to oklahoma city. Temperatures though in the 90s will feel well over 100 both today into torp from the midatlantic coast, gulf coast into the southeast. This this heat in the south is going to stay entrenched right into the early part of next week. Thank you very much. Now to the big story this politics. Another controversial comment from donald trump, this type taking aim at the military record of senator john mccain who trump said this weekend is not a war hero. We are going to talk live to mr. Trump in a moment. First the latest on all of it. Nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander is with us from washington. Good morning. Reporter good morning. Donald trump is not apologizing for comments about senator john mccainser war service. In fact he has a new oped today on issues saying mccain made america less safe. His comments freed up other republican rivals to let him have. Facing a growing course of condemnation donald trump isnt backing down. In a usa today oped posted overnight trump a kuzs the media of distorting hi words after he said john mccain wasnt a war hero. This in iowa saturday trump said this about mccain who spent five years as a prisoner during the vietnamer war. Hes not a war hero. He is. Five and a half years hes aer war hero because he was captured. I like people who werent capture capture. Reporter later adding. Hes a war ro because he was captured. Perhaps he is a war hero. Reporter he said mccain abandoned the veterans i will fight for them. The backlash from original comments was immediate. Mccains daughter megan said she was horrified and disgusted. Hes crossed a line the American People wont tolerate. I dont think he has the character or temperament to hold the highest position in the country. Reporter scott walkerer spoke to kelly odonnell. Clearly he needs to apologize and refrain from comments like that. Reporter several groups called the attack on mccain despicable and an insult. Fafing off with reporters the 69yearold defended his own lack of military service insisting a foot problem and student deferment. Which foot did you have the bone spur in . Le. Its in the records. Look it up if then the records. Reporter mccain said trump fired up the crazies on illegal immigration. Trump shot back on twitter calling mccain a dummy. John mccain picked a fight with me. He said 15,000 people were are crazy. They were great americans. Reporter has donald trump gone too far . Trump insists jealous rivals want him out of the race because in his words hes leading the pack. Husband next Public Campaign event is rm tomorrow in south carolina. Peter, thank you very much. Donald trump joins us by phone. Good morning, mr. Trump. Good to talk to you. Good morning. These comments you made about john mccain, it seems to me this is part of some personal resentment you have against john mccain and perhaps he has for youment this is a feud thats boiled over into a war of words and its less about how you would define a war hero. Is that fair . Well im not a fan of jop. Hes done a terrible job for the vets. I go around on the circuit and i see so many vets families crying before me. They cant see doctors. Today wait in reception rooms for five six days. But you are talking about veteran affairs and im talking about the comments you made. Im saying john mccain has done a horrible job. The v. A. Is a scandalous corrupt organization a disgrace the way it is being run and the veterans are suffering. With that being said if you saw what i said and saw the press conference afterwards savannah and the media just has done such a false number as usual. In fact Cheryl Atkinson the highly respected reporter hang on matt i said four times hk cane is aer war hero. I said it at the News Conference on the stage. Let me ask you this donald. Would you say to john mccains face what you said in the one comment im using the one string of sentences together. Hes not a war heroment. Hes a war hero because he was captured. I like people who werent captured. Would you say that no. Youre the media matt and you do the same thing. The next was he is a war hero. I said that but they dont want to play it and you dont. Why did you excuse me. Savannah started it by saying i said he wasnt aer war hero. If you would have let it run another three seconds you would have said that i said he is a war hero. I have no problem with that. What i do have problems with is he called 15,000 people that showed up for me to speak in phoenix he called them crazies because they want to stop illegal immigration. They were insulted. They were great americans. Let me state for the record we did run the other part of the comments mr. Trump, the part where uh you said he is a war hero. Please dont say we didnt because we did. Well then why did savannah start off by saying i said he was not a war hero. I never said that. I said he was a war hero matt. You misrepresent like everybody else. Back in 2000 it seems to me donald and i have known you for a long time. I ting you wille admit that. Correct. Think you were trying to get a rise out of a room of strangers at an event in ames, iowa. Back in 2000 i went to vietnam with senator mccain. He took me to the prison where he was held. He took me into the cell where he was held with other americans for almost six years and subjected to beatings and torture. I will tell you it had a profound effect on me. Whether i have a political disagreement with him or a personal dispute, i could never, ever question his heroism during that war. And i didnt eitherer. Oatheither. I said it four times. Cheryl atkinson did a mayer juror expose. She said trump is being miss treated. Four times he said mccain is a war hero. I have a problem with what hes doing on the border. Hes terrible. I have a problem with the illegal immigration is a disaster. Hes doing a horrible jobber for the vet s. Matt i see the vets. They come to me. These are powerful wonderful people. They are crying. They dont know what to do. Frankly, Illegal Immigrants are treated better than many of the vets. It is a disgrace whats happening and john mccain has done nothing but talk the one portion at the end of one comment, i like people who werent captured. Let me just highlight that moment for a second. If you are elected president you will be commander in chief of this country. They have 10,000 u. S. Troops in afghanistan, about 3,500 in iraq. They face danger on a days ago, donald the. Donald. They face capture. I agree. Do you think you have sent the wrong message to those people that if they are captured somehow donald trump, commander in chief, is not in favor of them . I dont think so. I also respect people that arent captured. Nobody talks about them. We talk about john mccain. I think its great. He is a brave man and uh allall of that. We dont talk about the people who werent are captured. Thats what i was tying to refer to. I think i did. If you see the News Conference a few minutes afterwards everything was perfect. I never thought it would be an issue. My opponents brought it up. These are guys with zero in the polls. You said that i said im doing well. Im not saying im doing well. The polls are saying im doing well matt. When you introduced me it was said i said i was doing well. The polls is have ss have me leading. Im leading nevada by a large number and mostly leading the hispanics. Im leading by a tremendous margin on the hispanics. Thats the way it is. People want to see our country be great again. These politicians are not going to be able to do it. Donald trump, thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Senator mccain will be joe and mikas guest on means at 7 30. This is the first time hell speak out about this. Well bring it to you live. I should mention we did play the whole comment. Even when he said oh he is a war hero he followed up with but i prefer people who werent captured. Hes a war hero because he was captured. Luckily there was a camera are there. People can see what they think about it. A Security Breach making stories. Hackerers claim they have stolen the private information of tens of millions of people and the target of that hack is a website that helps married people cheat. Tom costello has the latest on that. Good morning. Reporter good morning, savannah. The hackers are threatening to paycheck make public some embarrassing details for cheating spouses stolen the from Ashley Madison. It markets itself to married people with the slogan life is short, have an affair. Reuters reports the hackerers calling themselves the impact team have leaked some compromised data and are are threatening to release the names of the sites kpers. Plus credit card details, naked photos and secret sexual fants unless the site is shut down. They claim to have are taken over the database source code financial records and email and threaten the owners saying shutting down Ashley Madison will cost you but noncompliance will cost you more. It is owned by a Canadian Company which said it has secured the site and is working with Law Enforcement to track down the hackers. Hackers are claiming the breach could affect former Ashley Madison customers who paid a big fee to have their information permanently delete ed. Thats right. The group said those customers who paid to have information deleted were lied to and the company had retained records including their credit card information. Probably people with jitters this morning, topm. Thank you very much. Now a historic era between the United States and cuba. Full diplomatic ties were restored which pave it is way for openings of embassy this is washington and havana. Andrea mitchell is in washington, d. C. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning. Later this morning the cuban flag will be raised and cuba will open an embassy if washington. As the United States and cuba formally reestablish diplomatic relations afterer more than half a century. History was made overnight when cubas flag was hung the lobby of the state department. The u. S. And cuba have been adversaries but president obama launched secret negotiations with havana culminating in a for mall meeting in panama with raul castro this spring. Today the Cuban Foreign minister will visit washington for the first time. Hell be hosted by john kerry at the state department. The white house is opening some economic ties with havana but the trade embargo needs an act of congress. The republicans vow that will not happen soon. Matt . Thank you very much. We turn to natalie with the other headlines of the morning. An emergency situation in texas. Fire crews just put out a fire in the Houston Ship Channel where two barges collided this morning. The accident caused a rupture on one of the barges carrying petroleum product. No report of injuries or environmental impact. Two people are critically injured with severe burns after their small plane crashed outside of las vegas on sunday erupting into a massive fire ball. Two other passengers sustained injuries not considered life threatening. Also on sunday a small plane crashed on a beach in michigan. Eyewitnesses say the plane took a nose dive in the dunes, narrowly missing nearby condos. The pilot walked away, injure uninjured. Reporter the family of a woman found dead in a jail cell will be autopsied she was jailed this month after police say she became combative during a traffic stop. She was awaiting posting bond when she was found dead in her cell. The family disputes the jails account that her death was a suicide by hanging. One person was hospitalized after a freak mishap in a hotter air balloonfest evalment heavy winds sweeping up balloons and first workers raced the to control two balloons that were tethered. Then eyewitnesses watched as a balloon tied to an suv dragged the vehicle and crashed into a tent. Remarkable video. A fasnascar race came to a fiery end on sunday when alex bowpan made a pit stop with a flat tire which then burst into flames. The crew got the fire out. Just as the car pulled back onto the track the tire erupted into a fireball consuming the front end of the car. Bowman escaped without injury. They are still looking into what kaf caused that. They did say the temperatures on the track of the asphalt got up to 126 degrees. That might have something to do with it. He got out fast thankfully. Mr. Roker . Thats whats going on around the country. Well get to your local forecast good morning. Im first alert meteorologist Brittney Shipp. Make sure you stay hydrated. Dangerous heat expected until 8 00 p. M. Tonight. The feelslike temperature between 100 and 105 degrees. Drink plenty of water, stay in the air conditioning and check on your pets kids and the elderly. Another day in the 90s tomorrow. By wednesday, less humid, temperatures drop down and we stay average as we head into the rest of the workweek. Expect temperatures to stay in the 80s wednesday through next weekend. Thats your latest weather. Thank you very much. Coming up uh senator. John mccain responds live for the first time to Donald Trumps controversial comments. And the video thats got everybody talking this morning. Well hear from the surfer attacked by a sark during a live competition, fought it off and lived to tell. First, this is today on nbc. Coming up is it time to ban your fans digital devices from are the dinner t music imagine these kids wont have to remember passwords or obsess about security. For them, every screen is meant to be touched. 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