Almost 3,000 People Killed in hurricane maria, and its aftermath, according to an official study commissioned by the government there. Thats roughly the same number of americans killed on september 11th. But to this president those people simply do not exist. He now claims that the 3,000 People Killed on his watch were made up by his political opponents. 3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit puerto rico. When i left the island after the storm had hit, they had anywhere from eighsix to 18 deaths. A long time later they started reporting really large numbers, like 3,000. This was done by the democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when i was successfully raising billions of dollars to help rebuild puerto rico. If a person died for any reason like old age, just add them onto the list, bad politics, i love puerto rico. Now, even by this president s standards, that is one of his most repugnant and oddious Public Statements. Whether its a monstrous lie, or whether he believes it, on the loved ones of those that his own malfeasance helped kill. His accomplices in the Republicancontrolled Congress have held no hearings or investigations to get to the bottom of what happened and why thousands of our fellow american citizens were left to die. Meanwhile, as the director of fema is right now, as i speak, under investigation for misusing public funds and we find out the Trump Administration took 10 million out of the Recovery Agency to pay for immigration detention centers, tonight Hurricane Florence is already threatening the coastline with powerful storm surge and flash flooding. The storm may have been downgraded to a category 2, but that doesnt mean its any less dangerous. Its getting bigger and more intense as it gets closer to land. Lets go to bill karins with the latest. Where the the storm right now and where are we expecting it to make landfall . Were getting the breaking news stories from this storm. I was saying all along it was from sunset today to sunset tomorrow that a majority of the damage is going to be done from this storm. Were hearing reports that the abc station, newbern area is evacuating. Pamlico sound, the winds have been coming out of the east all day long. Theyre piling the water up. The storm surge is coming in. Theres a lot of flooding problems in the newbern area and all the little water inlets and on the neuse river basin. Thats a developing story. There will be dozens if not hundreds of water rescues that will have to take place. High tide isnt until midnight. Were at a category 2. One development we just saw, so here, about 20 miles off the coast we just had one of our bouys that had a wind gust of 112 Miles Per Hour with the outer eye. In about five to about eight hours from now those winds will be moving on short of wrightsville beach, gusts up to 66. The Cherry Point Air base there at 81mileperhour wind gusts, the strongest weve seen there so far too. The winds are really starting to pick up, the were getting into the core of the hurricane now. This is the clouds. Big burst of thunderstorms, the bright white right there, maybe that was responsible for the 112mileperhour gust from that line of thunderstorms as it rolled on through. Thats going to push on shore here. Were not seeing it get any stronger, but i dont think its going to get any weaker hereto. Right now peak winds sustained are 100. There still could be gusts up to 120 Miles Per Hour. Were going to take this on shore as we go throughout the overnight hours it will inch onto shore, may get the official landfall early tomorrow morning. By 2 00 p. M. In the afternoon what a slow crawl, walk, jog drift it will be. And then it will rain itself out as we go throughout the upcoming weekend. The things that are the most threatening to life is the water. Surge is number one. Then the rainfall, flash flooding and river flooding is number two. This is whats happening now. Were heading towards high tide. The high tide is going to be here between 11 00 p. M. And midnight in the zone of greatest concern from cape lookout through emerald isle, surf city, wrightsville beach, Carolina Beach area. 11 13 p. M. Is the high tide of wrightsville beach. Because the storm is walking, we have to go through another high tide cycle tomorrow, through the afternoon, and it could be higher than the one were seeing tonight. Its a long, drawn out thing. Thats what makes this storm different. Chris, finally, the rainfall amounts, and well deal with these problems as we go throughout the weekend. Were going to see a wide area of 20 inches of rain. Someones going to get 30. Maybe even up to 40 inches of rainfall. A lot of the rivers are expected to go into record territory and it will take them a couple days to head out to sea. Were going to see homes and businesses with water in them. Thats going to happen overnight tonight. Then during the weekend were going to have these rivers sending water into homes that hadnt previously been flooded. The First Responders on the ground there, theyre going to have to be going and rescuing people and going door to door for those that didnt evacuate. Theyre going to have an extremely long and difficult three days ahead of them. Bill karins, that is an ominous update, but thank you for it. For more on the president s denial as another hurricane approaches. Senator, first, i want to get your reaction to what the president said this morning. Well, the president seems to live in alternative reality because if you take a look at what happened in puerto rico, not only horrifically you had nearly 3,000 people die either in the storm or in the months that followed. And plus, you have a situation where so much didnt get addressed in a timely manner. I went down nine months after the storm, nine months, and what i found were thousands of homes covered in blue tarps because they hadnt been able to get funds from fema to repair the roofs. What i also saw were whole communities that had not yet been hooked up to electricity. This is nine months after the storm went through so they didnt have power. And then i also saw hospitals that were deeply damaged, and the communities were telling me that if you got sick or injured you had to fly to the mainland. So you can take that analysis. Or we can take femas analysis, i have the 2017 Hurricane Season afteraction report and what this says in summary was that you had a challenge of disorganized and plagued with logistical problems as described by the New York Times summary of this. Let me ask cryou this. I want to ask you about fema right now as were looking at images of florence as it makes its way to the carolina coast. There were four americans who lost their lives in benghazi, ten total investigations into benghazi, according to one of the semipermanent committees in congress. There are nearly 3,000 Puerto Ricans who died, american citizens who died, since we started getting those numbers, one study saying 5,000, this one 3,000. There were no hearings, nothing since weve realized the scope. Is this acceptable . Its a shameful failure of leadership. Republicans decided they didnt want to embarrass the administration, and therefore they werent going to examine the cause of so many people dying. And by not doing so it means that they havent created the momentum to address those issues so that when the next storm comes well do far better. Wed like to hear fema saying we know there were a ton of problems, we did a report on it, and therefore weve worked with congress, weve got more resources, weve placed things in position in advance, weve trained more people, but instead were just hearing, well, the president says we did a great job last time. Thats no room for improving on what was done. Given the fact that you have, as you have sort of blown the whistle on 10 million have moved out of fema for immigrant detention, and that the head of fema now faces an inspector generals report about possible misuse of government funds, do you have confidence in that crucial agency as its about to be tested . I do know that there are thousands of people working for it who are incredibly dedicated and incredibly skilled. Theyre going to be up through the night day after day working. But in terms of the top management, and certainly the message theyre getting from the president to improve upon the performance last year, i do not have confidence. I mean, the destruction we had from irma and maria and harvey should have said, well, that destruction is probably going to give us a good sense that these stronger hurricanes, we need to be prepared for them better next year. And instead we havent had that leadership to take that forward. And the idea that in the first month of the Hurricane Season youre going to take 10 million out in order to build prison camps instead of prepositioning supplies, instead of training more people to evaluate the damage and get resources to the families quickly who are affected it makes little sense. Its a lack of leadership. Senator jeff merkley, thank you for your time tonight. Im joined by eduardo galtier. Senator, what message do you have for the president tonight . Well, my message would be we are so disappointed as human beings, as u. S. Citizens, as people. Were so disappointed that hes looking at numbers that are wrong, obviously wrong, that hes totally forgetting about the human side of this tragedy. The fact that so many families lost family members, and that they are grieving right now. And what they get instead is a bucket of ice water from the president of the United States. I think it is shameful as a leader of the free world to come up with words like he did this morning. I want to read you what the House Speaker paul ryan had to say and get your reaction to that. He said casualties dont make a person look bad. So i have no reason to dispute these numbers. I was in puerto rico after the hurricane. It was devastated. This was a horrible storm. Those are just the facts of what happens when a horrible hurricane hits an isolated place like an island. Do you agree . Well, i mean, i agree. I agree with the fact that, i mean, if his message is the fact that there are over 3,000 people that did not have to die in the aftermath of the hurricane and that the result was not i guess i would disagree with the premise that he had in terms of so many people dying as a result of the fact that it was a big hurricane. Because a lot of what happened had to do with human error. Human error, fema error, federal assistance error, local assistance error. The fact that so many people died because there was no electricity, and folks who could have provided electricity from the government, either the federal government or the State Government were not able to do that. So i do think that the very first 48 hours i could have agreed with speaker ryan. But then after that, when so many hundreds of people, thousands of people died, i think its totally the responsibility of a government that was not prepared to help. Would you like to see an official inquiry from the United States government in congress into why so many people did die . I think obviously there has to be an inquiry. I am trying to start inquiry locally, at the state level of puerto rico. But i think the federal government should look into it. And i think that Congress Must look into it. We have experienced other hurricanes in puerto rico. This is not the first hurricane. Of course its the largest hurricane we have experienced in over a hundred years. But in terms of other hurricanes we have also received better help, better assistance from fema than we did this time. Why did fema collapse . And the conclusion that fema collapsed is not my conclusion. Its the conclusion that fema itself has. If you hear the testimonials of so many families, so many communities, so many mayors up in the mountains who just did not get the assistance that we are used to getting in other hurricanes. I mean, something happened this time around that simply the federal aid and the local aid and the state aid totally collapsed. And the results, harvard, George Washington university both did independent studies, and the data is there, over 3,000 people died who did not have to die. Thats a tragedy. Thats a National Tragedy for the United States. Did the federal government and the president of the United States fail the people of puerto rico . Yes, they did, yes, they did, yes, i have i have to conclude yes, yes, we are u. S. Citizens who are part of the United States. We all share certain values. And theres a specific value in the United States when someone is in need you go out and help them, you go out and give them a hand. And i believe this time around something happened. The president came down here, he underplayed what happened. He started throwing a paper towels, he said less than 20 people had died. He proclaimed the assistance of the United States as successful. I mean, how can it be successful when over 3,000 people died . What is in his mind . What is he thinking about . So i do think that, again and i have to use strong words, it is shameful. And most people in puerto rico and perhaps people all over the United States and all over the world are outraged at the statements of the president of the United States. All right, senator eduardo guatier, thank you for your time. Big news, Paul Manafort. Since he was kwiconvicted last month, he have seen multiple reports of the former Campaign Chairman negotiating with Robert Mueller about a plea deal in advance of the second trial. Abc news is reporting tonight that manafort has tentatively reached a plea deal with mueller that will head off his upcoming trial. Abc news spotted the team arriving in a dark suv thursday morning, pulling into a secret entrance out of public view at the building where special counsel Robert Mueller is based. The deal, which i should say has not yet been confirmed by us at abc news, is expected to be announced in court tomorrow. Joining me now, maya wiley, an msnbc legal analyst. Matt miller, nbc justice and security analyst. And norah miezen, former u. S. Ambassador who has a new book out called the last palace. Let me start with you, maya, the significance of this development, if indeed this is true. Well, its certainly significant for Paul Manafort in the sense that he had everything to lose by going to trial in washington. And it makes a lot of sense that he would want to have a plea deal. Its not clear, though, how much this means in terms of the Mueller Investigation itself. Because, of course, the Mueller Investigation is still ongoing. Paul manafort is going to have to get up there and allocute, but fw theres not a cooperation agreement, thats the brass ring for Robert Mueller is a cooperation agreement. Thats the big question, norm, an ethical question given you were in the White House Counsels Office and you are sort of the ethics person there. We learned over the weekend that there has been cooperation between the president s legal team and Paul Manaforts legal team throughout. They had a joins Defense Agreement and theres a real set of ethical questions about whether they were discussing at any point pardons. Chris, thanks for having me back on the program. And, indeed, in these joint Defense Agreements, and i did them for 20 years in private practice before i went into the white house, youre always afraid that people will go too far and cross the line from cooperation to conspiracy, including conspiracy to obstruct justice. There are very serious ethical and legal questions that are raised by the idea that giuliani may have been dangling a pardon to manafort, did that to change manaforts behavior, might it change his testimony, was there an express offer of a quid pro quo . These agreements are no insurance policy against liability. And prosecutors look at them with suspicion. As maya says, well see what manafort allocutes to tomorrow, whether that line might have been crossed. Maya mentioned this, and this is the big outstanding question, and we have an occluded picture at this hour about what is or is not happening. The central question of cooperation, explain why thats so important. Well, obviously excuse me, if Paul Manafort were to cooperate and if we more to cooperate against the president he could prove a very valuable witness in terms of incriminating the president , putting him you know, talking about what kind of knowledge he might have about the june 9th trump tower meeting. If he has a deal that doesnt include cooperation youll see a very slightly reduced prison sentence. Bob mueller holds all the cards here. Theres no reason he has to give manafort a generous deal if he doesnt fully cooperate. Most people in this situation are rational actors. They will choose the path that gets them the shortest jail sentence or the shortest combination of short jail sentence and a low fine. If manafort doesnt take the path that gives him the lowest possible jail sentence, and that would be cooperation, it leads you conclude he has another path available to him. The only rational thing you could see that to be is a pardon. Youre nodding your head, maya. I absolutely agree with matt. Look, we know giuliani initiated the conversations with trump after hearing trumps Public Statements around a pardon for manafort, one of the things that giuliani then said is, of course, well wait until after the investigation. Yeah, he did not rule it out. He said nothings happening until after the investigation. He said that after Sarah Sanders had publicly said theres been no discussion of a pardon for Paul Manafort. So you have to wonder. So what is going on with all these conversations that whether actually out there publicly saying, yes, we are considering it . Wont be until after which is sort of a nod at were not trying to add an obstruction of justice charge here. Right. But it is a Public Statement that Paul Manafort heard is in addition to all the things that donald trump was saying about him being a standup guy, not flipping on him. So there have been so many Public Statements that have essentially signalled, you know, pardon. That i just think theres no other way to read, if he just comes out with, like a slightly better prison sentence and remember hes 69 years old, i dont know that theres any other way to read that but that he feels pretty confident hes going to get a pass. Of course states are a different matter. Does that to you, norm . You know, remember, when if, in fact, there is a plea deal, and there is a hearing and an aa allocution tomorrow, remember the cohen situation, chris, where cohen didnt do a cooperation deal but he made the shocking statement in federal court that he was acting at the direction of the president. So im going to be listening very carefully, does manafort tip his hand . You know, he can do a lot of damage even if theres a pardon ahead. For example, will he say that he did anything at the behest of his ukrainian or even russian contacts to change the official position of the republican platform . Remember, theres a controversy about that. Yeah. Whether the platform was changed to benefit russias position on ukraine. So well be listening closely. You know, for me, its so striking that it seems that Robert Mueller is relentlessly knocking down one domino after another as he gets closer and closer to the president. If theres any lesson that i learned in writing my book over the past hundred years, you can run, but you cant hide from the rule of law. It catches up to every corrupt regime eventually. That is the question, matt. Its a question right now, particularly as youve got to imagine that the specter of a second trial is not really encouraging for anyone, even if youre in the white house, right . Do they want three more weeks of the dirty business of Paul Manafort in the news every night . Yeah. Who wants this trial . Its hard to find a person that wants the Paul Manafort trial. At least three more weeks. Lets remember the prosecution hasnt said yet what theyre going to do about the ten charges in virginia that the jury hung on. They asked for more time to make a decision. They could still come back and push for a third trial after d. C. On those charges. And, in fact, i wont be surprised if manafort pleads tomorrow if you actually see resolution to those outstanding virginia charges as well. It would be in the white houses interest, i think. And Rudy Giuliani was quoted this morning seeming to encourage manafort to take a plea for that reason, a no cooperation plea. To go back to one thing about this pardon, the president has been talking about it publicly, we dont know what giuliani has been talking about with manaforts attorneys. Its been going on for a year now. Its been reported back last fall that john dowd dangled a pardon with both manafort and Michael Flynns attorneys. I have to think this has been on Paul Manaforts mind from the very beginning. Otherwise his actions to go to trial in the first case when the evidence was so overwhelming and to push this last one over the brink, they just dont make any sense. Maya, well find out if that did happen. But youve got to think that that itself, were there a pardon dangle, is subject of muellers inquiries as well. I would think hed want to know. I have to say in terms of this trial though, there is one loser, which is the american public. This is what we would have seen if this were to go to trial is actually a much more public outlay of evidence that much more closely ties the campaign to russian conspiracy. Norm, final question to you on this question of the sort of the pardon or the specter of it. There are some who argue that that power is absolute. And ergo cannot be abused in an unconstitutional matter, the president can pardon anyone or offer a pardon for any reason at any time under the constitution. As someone who worked for the white house and advised the president on legal matters, what do you think of that . I think its absolutely wrong, chris. Were seeing now a great battle playing out in the United States. Are we a government of laws in which no person, even the president , especially the president is above the law . Or do we have special rules for the president . I think its the former. And so if the president , for example, takes a bribe, or another quid pro quo for a pardon, if he tries to pardon himself, there are legal limits on what you can do, including inherent ones in the constitution. If he pushes those limits, if he does it with corrupt intent, maybe the pardon stands, but he can be prosecuted. Right. For obstruction. For doing it. So no, im not of the view that he can bandy that. Hed like to. Hes been testing the limits of it. Sure has. But ultimately he is subject to the same rules as the rest of us. And, chris, theyre catching up with him. Yeah. Maya wiley, matt, normizen. Nbcs coverage of Hurricane Florence continues next. Our reporters on the ground will give us the latest right after this. Let someone else do the heavy lifting. Tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. So you barely have to lift a finger. Or a wing. Tripadvisor. Hurricane florence isnt expected to make landfall for at least eight more hours. But the carolinas are already feeling the effects of the category 2 to storm with rein and sustained 100mileperhour winds. We have reporters all along the coast. We begin with Gadi Schwartz in beaufort, north carolina. Reporter weve moved locations. Im using a building as a wind block. Right over there where you see the light hitting it is extremely windy there, wind gusts well above what we were seeing earlier. This is an area that is starting to see the tide rise again. Were going to get high tide at 11 00. When that tide rises were also expecting to see a very a tremendous storm surge that could be catastrophic to some of these areas. Beaufort is just across the bay there and theyve already started to see flooding in some of their streets wchlt know the storm surge has come up and surrounded houses and worked its way through the stilts and is encroaching on some of those houses. So tonight, unfortunately, the power has been cut, or has been lost. Here on radio island where we are it looks like across the bay we dont see any lights either. So were not sure what the power situation is over there. But you can see the situation is getting even more critical out here. These winds are not going to allow First Responders to go out and save anybody. So at this point it is all about hunkering down wherever you can find safety. And this is what were going to see sweep through the north and South Carolina in the next few hours. Chris . Gadi schwartz, be safe out there. Thank you. Im joined by nbc news Carrie Sanders in Carolina Beach, north carolina. Where the hurricane is expected to make landfall tomorrow morning. Carrie, what it looks like there . Reporter right now its not as bad as gadi has it. Its beginning to pick up still. It will be around 4 00 in the morning when we start to feel the really heavy winds. Because the hurricane is moving so slowly, it will be from 4 00 a. M. To 10 00 a. M. As this area is likely, according to the National Hurricane center to get the eye wall somewhere between here and wrightsville beach, were going to see the most powerful winds and the of course the storm surge that will come along with the storm. The expectation, according to the National Hurricane center, is about 11 feet of water being pushed to shore by the storm which, of course, is well above the first floor of any buildings or homes here. There are some people who have decided to stay in their homes. One of the things that is at least positive for us for the moment is that we still have electricity here. You can see the lights that are on. Duke energy that provides much of the power to this region says that there are 4 million customers in this area and they anticipate that this is going to be worse than it was during hurricane matthew. There was about a million and a half people who got hit by storm damage there. You can see just by the nature of the officers who are walking behind me that this wind is not that dramatic. Theyre out making sure that there are no residents who have some crazy reason decided to go down and look at the surf or get too close. Because at this point just one rogue wave could take somebody and rush them out. And the authorities here, just like gadi said there, if you dial 911, theyre not going to come and get you. This is too late for that sort of response to happen. As the hurricane is coming in. Chris . All right, Carrie Sanders in Carolina Beach, thank you. Joining me now is joe fryer from jacksonville, north carolina. And joe, whats going on there . Reporter hey, there, chris, well, as the sun has gone down the wind and the rain have really picked up here. Thats, of course, one concern. But the biggest concern in a place like jacksonville is flooding. Im standing right now above the new river here which is expected to go up dramatically over the next day or two. Here in jacksonville were not right on the ocean. Tough drive about 20 miles to get to the ocean. Despite that, storm surge is still an issue and a concern here. Theyre bracing for the possibility that the river here and the bays could still surge as high as seven feet. That tells you just how powerful this hurricane is. And its not just the storm surge. Its the fact that were going to see a lot of rain coming up tonight into tomorrow, likely into the weekend, relentless rain as this storm slowly moves through. Thats also going to fill up the river and cause a lot of flooding. And its not just here in jacksonville. But go even farther inland, theyre expecting anywhere from six to 12 inches of rain, maybe even 15 inches of rain in isolated inland spots. You can expect to see a lot of flooding throughout communities, not just on the coast, but much farther inland. Chris . Joe fryer, thank you very much. Joining me from myrtle beach is matt bradley. Whats it look like there . Chris, its not really what youre seeing where gadi is up north. We havent seen the worst of it at all here. We have high winds and barely a sprinkle of rain. But what we have here in the Myrtle Beach Convention center is a huge setup for rescue workers preparing to face the brunt of the storm. When i talk about rescue workers, we need to expand that definition. Its not just the firefighters and the Police Officers and the medical workers who get a lot of richly deserved recognition for that. We have to remember its also public works people. Its also water works. Its also electrical people, theyre putting their lives on the line when the storm hits to go out and try to bring the Services Back and make sure that everything is flowing smoothly so that people can evacuate, so that people can be rescued. And we just had dinner with a bunch of them. Theyre all really waiting for the worst here, like i said, weve been waiting for hours, for days, and we havent seen it quite yet. The one thing that all of them say, chris, is that they hope that the remaining people who are still sitting inside their homes, who are hoping to wait out this storm, who like us have looked around and said this isnt that bad yet that they should really get out now, get out now when they have the chance. Chris . Matt bradley, thank you very much. After the break, the potentially catastrophic devastation caused by Hurricane Florence, why the storm surge poses even more of a unique threat to some areas in the path of that storm next. And the wolf huffed and puffed. 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The Weather Channel visualized what that could look like now with Hurricane Florence. Once the water comes up to three feet you can see it would be coming up my shins to my waist. This could be enough to knock you off your feet. It could even float some cars packed on the side of the roadway. This is extremely dangerous. Once we get into that six foot range. Look how high this water goes. Winds pick everything up. Cars would be floating at this point. This waters over my head. I wouldnt be able to stand here even withstand the force of the water coming in. Theres an added wrinkle in north carolina, lagoons of waste from the states thousands of hog farms as well as unlined pits of coal ash, the waste left over after burning coal. The overlap between the locations of those hog farms represented here by red dots and the projected hurricane path is considerable, to put it mildly. To help understand the risks here, eric holthouse, my must follow on all things hurricane. Explain the surge and why its so destructive. Sure, thanks, chris. What were seeing here, i mean, flons is a huge hurricane. I mean, this is one of the largest hurricanes weve ever seen in the atlantic. And you cant really talk about this without talking about Climate Change. We have some evidence that was published this week that the storm is actually a little bit bigger and the rain is going to be more intense because of warmer water. And weve also had about a foot of Sea Level Rise over the last hundred years or so in north carolina. So all of these are working to make the impacts of this hurricane worse. So were going to have all that wind pushing the water along the shore. And the rise of the level of the ocean because of all that wind is going to create the you know, a tremendous amount of flooding, unlike weve ever seen on the east coast. Theres two aspects. The storm surge and also the rain. One of the things that happened with harvey, which we saw, is that the slower moving the storm is, the worse it can be because it just stops and drops a lot of rain. Is that right . Yeah, exactly. And were seeing that a little bit too in the last few decades that hurricanes are moving a little bit more slowly as theyre making landfall. As weather patterns change in response to Climate Change. So theres a lot going on here, really. And its really its gotten to the point where, you know, we have a president that is denying the impacts of, you know, this Hurricane Season last year and this year and actively making the problem worse by, you know, not addressing this root cause of worsening storms. Theres also the way in which storm surges, and this is something that we saw with katrina, that the storm surges dont just go to the coast, they shoot up into inlets, part of the reason the levies failed in new orleans is you have the canals and channels the storm surges shooted up. This is something the National Weather service said toonight, storm surge is not just an ocean problem tonight, significant surge is expected to occur in inlets and rivers. In excess of nine feet. Another way in which the rising sea levels threatens people even far from the coast. This is not a coastal problem anymore. This is really a societal problem. Youre talking about this with the pig farms and the coal ash. You know, we have to learn that we live in an ecosystem here. Were all connected. We are all feeling the effects of this hurricane. You know, hundreds of miles inland this storm is going to cause record flooding. So its just its just sort of its really hard. I have two little kids. And to see 30 years now weve been talking about the science. We could have done all of this so long ago and were still talking about the same stuff. Yeah. Its just so difficult to face this. You know, i work and write about this every single day. And for a lot of people, you know, they only think about it or talk about it when theres a hurricane like this that hits. So its just, you know, we have to sort of rethink how we think about everything to understand this is just the start of the heart of the problem of Climate Change that were seeing in the last couple of years. We are we still have another, you know, maybe even six to eight to ten feet of Sea Level Rise this century in north carolina. Thats coming for us. Yeah. Were seeing the storm surge that were seeing in the worst hit areas tonight thats going to be an everyday thing in 50 or 60 years. Its just sort of its difficult to put into words. Yeah. How whats happening. And were watching it on our screens. Were watching those beaches being eroded away. And that is an impact of the storm surge and thats an impact of, you know, the collective decisions that were making. Eric holthouse, thank you for that. Coming up, the president facing a potential crisis in Hurricane Florence after outright denying the nearly 3,000 death that is happened in puerto rico under his watch. How the republicans are reacting next. To fidelity to find them. We give you research and datavisualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. So, you can do it this way. Or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just 4. 95 per online u. S. Equity trade. Fidelity. Open an account today. Open an account today. seriously, thats what we call tit. Officially. All a huge drag. And we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum experience a blend of refined. And raw power. Engineered to take the crown. The lexus ls 500 and ls 500h. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Have you lost weight . Of course i have ever since i started renting from national. 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Ron desantis wants to succeed scott as governor, repudiating trumps vile claim that democrats inflated the death toll from puerto rico. Scott raised 20 million for trumps president ial campaign and desantis ran a campaign ad featuring his Young Children building a wall. Scott and desantis had political reasons to push back against trumps comments. Many republicans are following trump down the rabbit hole. The latest on Hurricane Florence right after this. The staff needs to know, they will theyll drop everything can you take a look at her vitals . Share the data with other specialists yeah, im looking at them now. Theyll drop everything hey. Take care of this baby yeah, that procedure seems right. That one too. At t provides edge to edge intelligence. It can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. Thats the power of. When your patients tests come back. With the new chase ink business unlimited card i get unlimited 1. 5 cash back. Its so simple, i dont even have to think about it. So i think about mouthfeel. Introducing chase ink business unlimited with unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase. You wouldnt accept an incomplete job from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. And all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. Flonase sensimist. Before donald trump came along, american politicians did not simply deny the deaths of thousands of americans because they thought those deaths made them look bad. How things have changed. Here is robert costa today. Spoke to more than a dozen House Republicans here at the capitol. Very few had any criticism of the president s handling of the coming storm or his tweets on puerto rico. Most offered hearty praise, a revealing snapshot of the gop. With me jason johnson, politics editor of the root. Msnbc contributor Jennifer Rubin, conservative columnist of the Washington Post and associate professor christina beltran. Jennifer, i will show that the president just in the last few minutes, i guess, like tweeted a lou dobbs segment defending his utterly odious comments on puerto rico. And i got to say okay, the president says horrible things and people sort of they hate it. But this felt to me like the kind of thing you should resign over or announce yourself as the anonymous oped writer there are 3,000 people that died and youre saying they didnt die. Thats about as disgusting as it gets. It is. Its an insult to them, to their families, to the rescue workers. Imagine if george bush said what 3,000 people that died on 9 11 . The country would be in open revolt, and we should be over this as well. I think the realization is about to hit home for republicans that this is a loser for them. Donald trump dominates the news with these crazy pants theory and statements, and they are tied at the hip with him. No wonder their polls are dropping like a stone. No wonder there theyre doubledigits behind in the congressional generic polling. Theyre identified with this crazy stuff and their spinelessness, their encouragement, their enabling is going to come back to haunt them in november. Just so we were wrestling today with what to call it. Its not a lie because thats too weak. Its denialism. Its basically saying that the people dont exist. Right. Theyre not really people. They might not really be human beings. They dont really exist for him as part of the Political Community we share. I mean, i think one of the things that always strikes me so much about donald trump is he only understands spectacular violence in a particular way. I think there is a scholar rob nixon talks about slow violence. He talks about in the United States, but particularly with someone like trump who only understands spectacular. The di of the storm, 9 11, the kind of spectacular moment of death, thats the moment he recognizes. But the kind of longterm damage that the storm did, the sort of slow often not fully visible violence to him, and the december of huge number of puerto rican compatriots, fellow citizens. But also nonwhite colonial subjects for him. This is a classic example of the local gaze. He doesnt really see them as existing as part of the policy, he only cease death when he sees massive catastrophe. In a spectacular way. The point about it is what is so absurd sort of unnerving about it, jason, to cristinas point, i think he is telling the truth about what he really sees that is more horrifying than it as calumy. The decembers didnt exist. They were counted by my enemies. They dont matter. I said all along, the president s response, this administrations response is white manifested policy. These people do not matter. They do not deserve to be protected. They do not deserve our assistance one way or another. And it wouldnt surprise me if the president didnt even know the Puerto Ricans are american citizens. But the fact he simply denies their existence, this shouldnt surprise anyone. He denied that obama was born in this country. He lied about how many people were at his inauguration like he is perpetual liar. But the fact that the Republican Party as a whole, the only people who can find the stomach to Say Something about this are republicans who are on the line electorally this fall in florida is indicative of the fact that the party as a whole has become a cult. I thought it was so perfect. Desantis, who rans a cultist, almost tongueincheek, i will give it to him, its a shticky tongueincheek. For him this is out of bounds because uneed these peoples votes. But the most, jennifer, in some ways the worst thing said to me was not the president , it was paul ryan. It always. I want to play this, because i read it before. I want to play what paul ryan said today. Casualties dont make a person look bad. So i have no reason to dispute these numbers. I was in puerto rico after the hurricane. It was devastated. This was a horrible storm. Those are just the facts of what happens when a horrible hurricane hits an isolated place like an island. Its not an isolated place. No. We have airplanes. Its its not the 1600s. What the hell kinds of thing is that to say . He is in complete enabling mode. He knows trump is upset, so he is trying to communicate with him across the airways. Its okay, mr. President. Its not your fault. You know what . It is his fault. He is in charge of the federal government. It is his fault. This is the disgusting portrait that we see over and over again by paul ryan. Do you know he went to the Ronald Reagan institute and talked about American Values and American Leadership in the world today . How he does this with a straight face is really beyond me. He has done this from day one. He has been one of the i think worst enablers that have been out there. He refused to center him over charlottesville, and its been downhill ever since. So it doesnt surprise me. It still horrifies me, but it doesnt surprise me. And then whats so unnerving is the way this works is yesterday there was no position in american politics that those deaths were made of. That didnt exist as a position, cristina. Today that is now a position. And there are a bunch of people, american citizens and Political Leadership who will now have that position, they can be a somewhat legitimate talking point. I think it connects to the Climate Change issue that you were talking about before. Whats really interesting is there is mass death occurring in multiple locations. Were in the middle of global catastrophe with climate. There is deaths happening on the island. Tonight is a story of like there is a catastrophe happening in our country that is happening slowly and consistently and constantly. Yep. And sort of this really weird way in which someone like ryan is standing there. There is blood everywhere. There is bodies on the ground literally and figuratively. There is bodies in the future. And the sort of complete and utter capitulation, their moral capitulation over the crisis they failed to address in the past and the crises theyre failing to address in the future because they dont seem to understand the very fundamentals of what theyre doing and who theyre doing them too. Jason . I got say this, and i dont want to rain on everyones parade, but the problem also that i see in all this is its not going to impact donald trump. No. If you look at the political science, if you look at hurricane andrew with bush, if you look at katrina, basically what ends up happening, when a president fails to adequately address this kind of national thing, people just harden their opinions. They dont usually hold them accountable. I hope they hold them accountable in the midterms. Well dont know. To jennifers point, i dont think it helps politically the people in his party, the ones who aring on the ballot. But god willing not what happens tonight or in any other future disaster will be in congress. Jason johnson, Jennifer Rubin and cristina beltran, thank you for being with me. That is all in for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now. Good evening, rachel. Good evening, chris. Thanks, my friend. Much appreciated. Happy to have you here. This is one of those nights when there are more major news stories going on simultaneously than it is possible to process all at once. And so we just take them one at a time. You know of course this very large hurricane is bearing down on the carolina coast tonight. We are expecting an overnight landfall by Hurricane Florence. Evacuation of the most dangerous areas should have already occurred because this is what the wind is like on shore already. But there are fears that this is a life threatening event for a wide swath of the american