While. That does it for us this morning. Morning joe starts right now. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. On an extremely busy wednesday, october 10th, were following a number of fastpaced developing stories this morning. Chilling new reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times on the disappearance of Washington Post columnist jim malkashogi. Well talk to David Ignatius about that and get the very latest. Well have him about the political and Foreign Policy implications of the sudden resignation of u. N. Ambassador nikki haley. Plus, the audience at president trumps rally last night, again, breaks out in a lock her up chant, this time for someone other than hillary clinton. Steve kornacki will be here to make sense of a slew of new polling out this morning. But first, we are just hours away from Hurricane Michael making landfall in the Florida Panhandle, bringing with it life threatening storm surge as high
as 13 feet in some areas. The storm strengthened into an extremely dangerous category 4 overnight. The National Weather service is calling this an unprecedented event, noting that no category 4 storm on record has ever made landfall along floridas panhandle. Lets get right to bill karins with a check on the timing of all this. Still strength ing for the hour. We have about 10, 11 hours to go for the landfall. We are going to see areas of the Florida Panhandle uninhabitable for days, weeks, possibly. Panama city and Panama City Beach are right in the area. Theyre all veektsed, theyre out of there, but theyre not sure what theyre going to have to go back home to. Lets get to the latest from the hurricane center. Gusts, 170. The last time we gave a forecast like this for a hurricane was hurricane charlie. This is stronger winds than what
we saw last year. The forecast takes it on Shore Landfall sometime right after the lunch hour. Hurricane centers has it at 145mileperhour winds. Thats a strong category 4. And then it slowly weakened even at 10 00 a. M. Tonight, still a hurricane over South Central georgia. Look at all the lightning strikes. Thats why we know its intensified. We have Aircraft Flying through it. The pressure still dropping. The storm is getting stronger and all of the Heavy Rain Bands are moving on shore. Time is up for the most part to get out of the way. If you still could, do it. If youre in the panama city area, get out because youre risking your life and your familys life. In land, if you can get out of the area, do so. Theres the center of the storm. We have about 100 miles to go before it gets on shore. Threatening lives will be falling tree limbs and the
winds. The storm surge one to 13 feet over a 100mile section of the florida coastline. A lot of this is small Fishing Towns and little oil towns. Joe, youve been to these areas here. Picturing Panama City Beach later on, you know the Building Codes are very strict in florida, but theyre not strict for this keep of hurricane damage. If it goes in at a cat 4, this will be the strongest one in such a long time. Back in 2004, Hurricane Ivan Hit pen pensacola. The impact was devastating. Talk to people in that area about just how devastating a category 4 will be if its a direct hit on panama city and Panama City Beach. Theres about 50,000 people who live there and most of the them would have damaged instr t structures to return to. Were talking about at the water line adding about 10 to 15 feet. This is a Basketball Hoop on top of where the water level is and then we get the wave action. We have a buoy off the coastline, joe, that just went through the eye. It just reported a 31foot wave. Thats like movie type wave. So we get the storm surge and then we get the wave action on top of that. A lot of these homes are built on stilts, but the Stilts Arent High enough to protect it from a 10foot storm surge and then the wave action on top of that. So youll see homes washed away on the coastal Barrier Islands there. Its a devastating blow for the
beaches in north florida. A lot of it will never look the same, joe. Its looking frightening this morning. Lets pray that it goes to more rural areas, uninhabited areas. But even when the storm surge like that its running out of time. Yeah. Its goc to impact everybody along that coastline with the storm surge and the winds. Bill, thank you so much. Thank you. Well be staying with this and certainly my thoughts and prayers are with all of my friends in that area, mika. That will be a rough, rough storm. Well be watching that and checking back in with joe, willie and me we have mike barnacle, Susan Delpercio and David Ignatius joins us this morning. We have so much going on, but well start with the sudden resignation of nikki haley. David, it doesnt seem to be much of a reason for nikki haley to resign at this point. There was talk that she was going to go through the end of the year, but in a Resignation Letter dated october 3rd she said she was proud of what she accomplished and proud of what her team accomplished and after 134 years in Public Service she was looking forward to returning to the private sector. I think that was a freudian slip, i suppose, because it sure seems like she has been if theres been anybody that the white house has been worried about running in a primary in 2020, it would be nikki haley. And as you look back at her service, i think she is one of the few members that has remained independent and has stuck pretty steadfast to a traditional u. S. Foreign policy position. Joe, shes the rare person in the trump team who has managed to really keep her reputation, her dignity, her sense of
independence entirely intact. We sometimes say people who get touched by trump come away tarnished, diminished. She has a good sense of timing and you could say this is just the right moment for her to say time for me to move on to other things. I read he this announcement yesterday as her Campaign Announcement for 2024. I dont see her running in 2020. I dont think any republican thinks he or she can can take on donald trump right now. The other thing to say about nikki haley is with pompeo, with john bolden, there was more lean on her. During the Rex Tillerson period, nikki haley was the voice at the u. N. Thats not true now and i bet
thats also a factor. Willie, there always has been talk about nikki haley running, possibly running in 2020. David is talking about 2024. If my theory holds, donald trump wont seek reelection and this way shes not lining up behind mike pence, shes getting out in front of everything. If you get out before the midterm elections, which could possibly go pretty badly, well, then that stain is not on you. You were already on your way out. Yeah. Shes 46 years old. She has a lot of road ahead of her. She has two years of Foreign Policy experience she can talk about. And susan, you were writing about this last week before we had any idea that nikki haley was going to leave. She, you say, should jump in in 2020. I think more like joe says as a safety valve, maybe, if president trump, something comes up in the russia investigation, for some reason he does not run again, she could be there. But shes not going to primary donald trump, right . I probably not, but i think she should be ready to. We look at Donald Trumps numbers, hes always hovering around 40 . And if the democrats take back the house as we expect it, theres going to be a lot 06 investigations. Well see more on his taxes. Well see more on his business. Never mind the actual running of his government and the mueller report. So i think she my call to her was be ready to go and whether and i dont think shell wait until 2024. And the reason is, weve learned since barack obama you no longer wait your turn in politics. You take it when you can. And this will be her time. I dont think shell wait until 2024. Mika, clearly this is on the mind of nikki haley because in those remarks yesterday, she introduced, without being asked, the concept of 2020 and said im not going to run against donald trump in a couple of years. Interesting. I do think, though, you dont
wait donald trump out. You step up and get in his face. Maybe she will. You never know. Were going to move on. There are chilling developments in the disappearance of Washington Post columnist jamaal kashogi. Top turkish officials have concluded that the saudi dissident and the critic of the crown prince was assassinated in istanbul on, quote, orders from the highest levels of the royal court. A senior official tells the times that the operation was, quote, quick and complex and that kashogi was killed within tw hours of his arrival at the consulate by a team of saudi agents who dismembered him. The image from Security Camera footage was object stained by a turkish newspaper and claims to show Kashogi Walking into the consulate last tuesday. The Washington Post reports a
squad of saudi assassins was already in place and waiting for him. Two people with knowledge of the investigation tell the post that the saudis arrived in istanbul from riyadh that morning and checked into two hotels. By the end of the day, the post reports that the 15member saudi team left the area on two planes, one heading to cairo and the other heading to dubai. The unnamed source told the post that its unclear if they plan to arrest and interrogate him or kill him. He was a legal resident of the United States and some reporting, joe, shows that he was trying to get papers to get married. David ignatius, i cant even begin to contemplate what this would mean, what it should mean
for the United States and our relation with saudi arabia and also what this would say about the leadership of mbs if he got an a u. S. Resident, a Washington Post columnist, whose criticism certainly was not extreme. And had an Assassination Squad go to turkey and dismember him with a bone saw. How does the United States of america how does the civilized world actually deal with mbs, deal with saudi arabia, if, in fact, this is what happened . Joe, my answer is that the world should deal with this in a state of outrage. Jamaal is, i want to say im not prepared to say was. Is my colleague. Hes also been my friend for more than a decade. He is an outstanding journalist,
a person with a passion for telling the truth. These reports are so grim and they come now with details. The wing numbers on airplanes, the movement of cars in istanbul, specific details about how the sources who are talking to the washington pthe and the crimes. Its the middle east so i want to wait for confirmation. I think all of us have learned to wait to know with a firm confirmation. But if these reports are true, i think the only response from reasonable governments, certainly from the News Organizations that are are trying to cover this part of the world, is to say this is a fundamental break. Its a flagrant violation of the rules that should operate and it just has to be unacceptable and
tolerable and i just trust our government, Donald Trumps administration is making that clear to saudi arabia right now. Well, they are so close, with mike barnacle. The administration is so close to saudi arabia, jared can kushner is so close to mbs, donald trump was flattered because the saudis flashed his image up on buildings, so one of his first foreign trips and hes a sucker for that sort of thing. And he completely collapsed, caved into it. So the question now is, will donald trump keep playing dumb as he did yesterday when he was asked about it or is he going to start putting pressure on saudi arabia to give us some answers and also turkey to let us get in there and investigate and do whatever needs to be done. This is an outrage and mbs has to be not just called out, but
has to be shunned by the World Community if, in fact, hes doing this to Washington Post columnists. Well, joe, thats a key question. And the post piece is both riveting and truly disturbing. At several different levels. But perhaps the largest question this raises is did the administration in saudi arabia, did the Royal Administration in riyadh figure that they were so comfortable in their relationship are with donald trump that they can get a green light internally to do what they allegedly have done and get away with it without the United States doing anything . And, mike, Lets Underline exactly what that is before you go on. Did they get a green light to kill a resident of the United States correct. Who is David Ignatius colleague and writes at the Washington Post . Did donald trump, who has always been critical of the washington
post, always been critical of his ownership, did anybody in the administration, did jared kushner, did they give mbs sort of a nod and a wink to say its okay . We need answers. Well, i dont know i wouldnt go that far. That specific. But did they feel such a level of comfort im asking the question because donald trump is not giving us any answers. Thats right. So the question to be answered is was there such a level of comfort between reeat and the white house that they felt that they could do practically anything, that there would be no pushback from washington given what they perceive to be such a level of comfort between the two countries. David ignatius, talking about plans to intercept jamaal, and to capture jamaal and to do god
knows what else to jamaal. This is a quote from senator corker. I asked him for the videotape showing jamaal leaving. He shared with me they only live stream their tapes. Ive never heard of an embassy in my life that doesnt tape. Thats from senator corker. What would the United States Intelligence Community do with that information and should they act on it immediately . So, willie, i think you put your finger on a key questions. Put aside the issue of a green light. I think mbs and saudi arabia thinks donald trump has his back and is confident. He wouldnt ask approval to do something. But if our Intelligence Community had word that Something Like this was being planned against a resident of of the United States, against a Washington Post contributor, it seems to me that had an obligation to do something. And that is one of the questions i think were going to focus on
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