D. C. , former Trump Campaign manager Paul Manafort. Paul manafort has struck a deal. He struck a cooperation deal with Robert Mueller. Much more on that in a moment. First, though right now, bringing with it torrential rains. This is a live look at new bern, North Carolina. Rescuers there in new bern have been pulling people out of floodwaters there for a couple of hours now. Unrelenting rain that could total three feet by the time it stops. Nearly half a Million People, half a Million People are without power. Most of those are in North Carolina. Thats a number that continues to rise. Another 52,000 people are without power in South Carolina. More than 20,000 people have made their way to shelters in North Carolina. Mariana tencio is in oak island. 40 minutes south of where i am right now. Youre battered throughout much of the morning there. Has it slowed down a bit where you are, as well . Reporter the winds have died down a little bit, craig, but they continue to lash out here in the longest and the largest beach in North Carolina. And now were starting to see that flooding that we had been predicting here near the beach. I just want to show you over here to my left, for example, these streets, these mailboxes, you can see i want my cameraman to pan to my left, just how high the water has risen in some streets. It is very hit or miss. But it is what we have been talking about and as we keep getting pounded by the rain, this flooding is what were going to continue to see and it is what many residents who left the island feared about not being able to come back. I was just on the phone with a mayor of oak island and she tells me both bridges will remain closed so nobody can get on or off the island at the moment. I want to point to fallen streestretrees. We are seing them on homes and cars. I dont know if you can make that out to my left here. It seems, craig, the storm did appear to pass us to the west and that is why the winds are dying down and were getting the brunt of the water, the brunt of the flooding. And were still a couple of hours out from seeing the worst of Hurricane Florence. Craig, back to you. All right. Oak island, North Carolina, thank you. Be safe, please. Cnbcs Contessa Brewer is south of me. She is in myrtle beach, South Carolina. North myrtle beach fire and rescue saying they have halted emergency responses until storm conditions improve. What more can you tell us about that, contessa . Reporter well, for one thing, that right now, craig, the wind has really picked up and the rain coming down fast and furious and we are starting to get some of that fierce outer band weather that you were seeing just north of us in North Carolina. The other thing is some 55,000 people are without power in this area, including a shelter in North Myrtle Beach where the red cross says 450 people are taking refuge and there is no generators so theyre telling people, if you decide nows the time to get to a shelter, theyre open with capacity and might be uncomfortable. Out here on the beach, they have just done some dune replenishment. Theyre really hoping that this helps protect the grand strand from the worst of the damage with the storm surge and we are under warning right now and the hurricane warning and the flash flooding. Theres a 21 billion Economic Activity that comes in from tourism in South Carolina and so if these beaches get destroyed, it will really take its toll on that Economic Activity from tourism to say nothing of the jobs that are connected to that. 1 of 10 jobs in South Carolina is related somehow to the tourists who come in here so for the grand strand and charleston and butford, South Carolina, to stay up and running despite the storm, its very important for the economic future. What were expecting here. The surf is rougher. The wind picked up. This is only the beginning. The center of this storm is expected to be over myrtle beach, South Carolina, about 8 00 p. M. Tonight. So its going to be a long run. The National Weather service says this is a marathon, not a sprint. Theyre telling people to stay where they are and even if they think that the eye wall passed on them, the danger is not out because of the risk of flooding. Looking at rain into monday and rivers wont crest until tuesday. Some of those, craig, could breach i95. I think we lost contessa there maybe. Contessa brewer there in North Myrtle Beach talking about conditions there. And alluding to what people from South Carolina have been acutely aware of for a long time. Tourism. The greatest industry there in the palmetto state. Beach erosion very much a concern and well talk about that. Meanwhile, my man al roker, americas weatherman, standing by for us in new york tracking where the storm is moving. How strong the storm still is. Al, what are we seeing right now, sir . Im just curious, craig. Seemed like in the Contessa Brewer report your weather conditions changed all of a sudden. They did. Actually. They did. Its odd because i honestly feel like things are much better until we come back outside to start our reporting and then the wind and the rain starts to pick up. One thing, al, if you look behind me, cape fear. Ill step out of the way. High tide is as i understand it at least high tide has come. It looks right now like cape fear is going to be okay. That river. But the problem as i understand it, at least, is that the rain continues, persist throughout the afternoon. Correct . Yes, it will. So you have to i mean, the rivers going to keep rising. And in fact, we had looked at some river gauges and right there the cape fear, the river there, Cape Fear River, looks like its probably going to crest tomorrow or day after tomorrow. At above flood stage. So you know, a lot of this is still ongoing and even when the storm has passed were still going to see issues. Right now, we look and we can see, in fact, rain bands starting to fill in where you are with wind gusts of 48 miles per hour. We are looking at a buoy just off the coast. 67 miles per hour. So the winds are still out there. Heres the latest from the National Hurricane center. Still a category 1 storm. Winds now down to 75 miles per hour. Just this just came in. 25 miles west southwest of wilmington. Moving west at 6. Thats good news. Because we have for the last couple of hours seen it moving to the southwest which would have taken it offshore and we would have then had another landfall. Now, the other thing we have to worry about. Were not out of the woods just yet. We have tornado watches out. In fact, now this tornado watch has extended west. Because earlier it was not including goldsboro but now from Cape Hatteras to central South Carolina. Heres the path from the National Hurricane center. Slow mover tonight. Myrtle beach, still a Tropical Storm. The winds might be a little bit high right now. Since were already at 75 and were over land. Tropical depression or Tropical Storm i should say as we get into saturday morning and then heads towards columbia, saturday evening. You will have tropical conditions out there. And this continues, look at this, monday its in eastern tennessee. Tuesday its in central pennsylvania and it will continue into new york later. Here are the extreme affects we are expecting. Afternoon winds, strong gusts into the afternoon. Significant wind damage. Gusts from 78, Elizabeth City 41. Look how far north. Raleigh with a gust of about 48. That means lots of Power Outages. Less than 50 as you get into the northern part of the state and along the coast anywhere from 70 to 100 . And, of course, the storm surge. Right now, we look at high tide. That passed for friday. Next high tide comes in tonight from midnight until about 12 35 as you get down to charleston so well be watching that carefully. The storm ursurge up and over tt high tide. The greatest problems from cape fear to cape lookout. 7 to 11 feet. We could be looking at upwards to 15 to 20 inches from myrtle beach, to fayetteville, wilmington and ten inches just north of charleston out to almost charlotte and even you can see it spreads up to the north and thats going to expand out as the system slowly makes its way away from the carolinas. But were talking about monday and tuesday into the storm so were going to be watching this very, very carefully. Were going to be talking about it into early next week and the thing thats still struck me doing the special reporting for six hours on the today show talking to First Responders and talking to people stranded and we always kept hearing, you know, we went to bed last night. Heard it was downgraded to a category 1 so we thought we had the danger had passed. Again, as we have been saying, super storm sandy was the equivalent of a category 1 storm and looking at the damage that happened there. So, people we have been talking about this over the last 48 hours. Dont Pay Attention to the category. In fact, National Hurricane center is developing a product to rate categories as far as the storm surge so a wind category and a storm surge category which will allow you to make better decisions and that cant come soon enough. Its hard to fathom its raining here and other cities up and down this carolina coastline for the next few days. Just looking at how much rain has already fallen, effects of that are going to be catastrophic to say the least. Al, thank you, sir. I want to go back to Gabe Gutierrez now. Also in myrtle beach, South Carolina. Showing us some of the damage thats that you can already see there along the drag there. Gabe, what are you seeing . Reporter hey there, craig. We have been driving around for the last two hours or so. Trying to find some of the reports of damage. We had showed you this awning that was blown off earlier. We are here at ocean boulevard and what we have been seeing is a lot of Power Outages throughout the country. 55,000 people without power. Just one section we are at still has power. There have been trees down in the area. The winds picked up. Pelting rain really picked up in the last hour or so and seeing the outer bands of Hurricane Florence. As it heads further west into the myrtle beach area. As you heard from contessa a little earlier, expecting the worst of this later on this evening and the concern here is also the flooding that could happen over the next day or so as the storm lingers. So this ocean boulevard, for the most part, people are just not here. It is deserted. Popular Tourist Destination is eerily quiet and something to expect over a couple of hours to get worse here in the area. Back to you, craig. Actually, lost my earpiece so i cant hear you. Ill send it back to you. I can relate, my friend. Myrtle beach, South Carolina. This time of summer typically teeming with tourists to enjoy the last gasps of summer. Thank you, gabe. Be safe. I want to send it back to Chris Jansing with breaking news in the trial of former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Hey there, chris. Yeah. Takes a lot for us to go from the amazing work you guys are doing but we have a stunning development. President trumps former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort has done what he repeatedly swore he would not do. Agree do a deal. Hell cooperate with the Robert Mueller investigation. Just a short time ago, manafort pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy against the united states, tied to Money Laundering, and a count of obstruction of justice. Manafort is already back in jail. The white house reacting in a statement claiming this had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 president ial campaign. It is totally unrelated. Nbc news intelligence and National Security reporter ken delanianen is in washington. Jeff bennett at the white house for us. Ken, lets start with the details of this deal because, again, this not only was someone that said he wouldnt do it but someone the president repeatedly praised for standing strong. So what do we know . Why do we think he decided to make this deal . Reporter that is key, chris. And its look. Its hard to overstate the significance of this day for the Robert Mueller investigation into russian 2016 election interference. As you said, Paul Manafort had already been convicted in virginia. He was facing nine years in prison in virginia and a massive trial in washington, d. C. This week and he decided to cut a deal. Hes pleading guilty to two counts. But we shouldnt get all wrapped up. The bottom line is Paul Manafort went into court today, chris, and admitted to every bad thing that Robert Muellers office said about him. And hes agreed to cooperate and to tell Robert Mueller everything he knows about any illegal conduct and to do that truthfully and accurately and that is a huge deal. He ran the Trump Campaign, obviously. He was in sensitive, high level meetings. Mueller is investigating whether the campaign coordinated with russia. He got a deal to plead guilty to two counts. This also really validates and vindicates an investigation that the president called a witch hunt. The Manafort Team for a year is down playing and dismissing this case, calling it weak, selective prosecution. But Paul Manafort went in today saying im guilty and he said he admitted to Money Laundering, bank fraud. Pled guilty to two charges and admitted to misconduct and the mueller team had it all nailed down and essentially manaforts lawyer gave us a little shed a little light on the Decision Making process. Lets take a listen. Tough day for mr. Manafort but hes accepted responsibility and he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life. Hes accepted responsibility and this is for conduct that dates back many years and everybody should remember that. Reporter so theres Kevin Downing sort of summing up the difficult position his client was in and the path that hes chosen going forward, chris. Thank you so much. Jeff, let me pick up on the very last thing that Paul Manaforts lawyer had to say which was that this dates back many years which is essentially right. The argument that were hearing from the white house. They reacted pretty quickly, Sarah Sanders and the president s lawyer coming out and saying, look, this has nothing to do with us. Reporter youre right, chris. The president s outside lawyer Rudy Giuliani put out a statement to echo the one you read of Sarah Sanders. Once again, an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump Campaign. The reason the president did nothing wrong. Its worth noting that the president s outside legal team had to revise that statement. The initial statement ended with the president did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth. So the piece about Paul Manafort was deleted in the revision. You can see here this concerted perhaps strategy from the white house and the president s outside legal team to minimize the manafort mess, inoculate the president and we know that Paul Manafort played a crucial role as Campaign Chairman. We know that the president hired him knowing full well that Paul Manafort had a reputation for doing consulting work for strong men around the world. We also know based on the complaint that Paul Manafort allegedly was committing crimes up through 2016. That would suggest up through the time of working with the Trump Campaign. Laundering money through false corporations, but also, working as an unregistered foreign account doing work around the world at the same time for the Trump Campaign. Its fairly damaging stuff. We have to see what the president has to say about this. We have seen him defend manafort, call him a good man, a man he respects. One point the president tweeted that al capone, the former notorious mobster got a better deal, treated better than Paul Manafort is. But yet, we saw how quickly the president soured on michael cohen, the longtime attorney and fixer when he struck a deal in the Southern District of new york, chris. We have more to talk about and we will throughout did course of the hour, including the question of is a pardon off the table . Could he get out of jail any time soon . Paul manafort as hes working with prosecutors. Lets send it back to craig melvin in wilmington. Im going to talk to the officials in charge of keeping people safe in the storm in the aftermath and the cleanup. Well do that on the other side of the break. We have also a different Vantage Point for you right now. Take a look at this. This is one of the crew cars here driving through downtown wilmington surveying the scene as Hurricane Florence slows down but has decided to sit on the carolina coast. Be right back. With moderate to severe Crohns Disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. Is she alright . I hope so. So i talked to my doctor about humira. I learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. 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The palmetto tree. Blowing in the wind. Back here in wilmington, though, nearly the entire city without power a. City in darkness, including woody whites house, the county commissioner for new hannover county. What are the conditions like . Theyre tough. Took us triple the time to get down here from our house. The good news is the winds are now below 45 miles per hour. We started about 15 minutes, prioritizing rescue missions and that is going very well. We have had some reports of injuries and some pretty bad news that is forthcoming, unfortunately. But we are doing the best we can. These emergency call that is you guys were receiving, they started at the beginning of the storm . They did. We received 300 in the span of the first hours. Most alarms from businesses. 18 or 19 medical calls saying please check on me as soon as you can. One or two were very, very serious. And so, i think theyll be some news forthcoming on that soon, unfortunately. We are weathering it the best we can. You mentioned youre prioritizing these calls. How do you go about that . The experts do that. 911 is excellent at what they do. They know the questions to ask. Who needs the response sooner. And secondly, we have an army of people going out. They have been waiting to get out there and theyve deployed as of about 15 minutes ago. You made an astute observation of Cape Fear River behind me. What were you saying . Yeah. My family and i were standing here waiting to go on, craig, and all my life i have never seen the water go that way. The river flows that way. There was a giant log, debris. Thats probably a function of the surge and the wind. Its not a good sign. The rain continues for several days. Theres talk of cape fear cresting on tuesday. Whens the rain going to mean . It means its going to be rough. Governor cooper called me about an hour ago and asked me how things were here. And i said, you know, governor, i have been in touch with the emergency ops center. We dont really know whats going on. Whats going on in the rest of the state . He said that he its predicted this is worse than matthew inland in terms of the flooding by exponential amounts. Thats not good. And so, you know, were ready for the wind to get out. Ready do get out there and help the folks that need it and do the damage assessments and start clearing the roads and start recovery but its a long time. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the folks here. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Pat mccrow joins me now. He also served as mayor of charlotte. Thats where he joins us from. Thank you so much for your time, governor. I know you also have a radio show, as well. What did you hear from listeners calling in today on the radio . Well on wbt 1110 we heard people worried because when this storm comes up to the mountains, sunday and monday, then all that rain will come back downstream through charlotte so charlotte will get a double whammy and fayette and wilmington and from jacksonville to new bern. This is very similar dynamics as matthews two years ago but maybe twice the amount of rain and im most concerned as commissioner white mentioned whos doing a great job in the wilmington area, of towns 30 to 40 to 80 miles inland from wilmington, from new bern, from jacksonville because those are small farm towns that do not have the capability to recover. And they havent even recovered from Hurricane Matthew yet some two years later and often these people are the poorest of the poor. And people who cant just get up and move. They live in trailers or mobile homes. They live in rental apartments. They dont have a hotel they can go to. They have maybe a small hotel on the interstate highway. Im very worried about them and, you know, we forget during Hurricane Matthew, we lost 28 people due to drowning. And if the waters even worse inland this is not a beach issue. Although im concerned about the people on the beach. This is more of an inland issue of major flooding. All the way from the mountains to the coast. Which is 700, 800 miles. It is an incredible area. Matthews really from fayet fayetteville down to the coast. This could be asheville down to the coast and go on until tuesday, wednesday and even thursday especially if cape fear is not cresting until tuesday. The majority of people as you indicated who do die, unfortunately, as a result of storms end up dying as a result of flooding or as a result of storm surge. You also talked about folks who couldnt get out. And we have been talking over the last few days about people who decided to stay but there are a number of folks who could not get out and others that decided not leave for a host of reasons. We spent sometime in a Mobile Home Park and we talked to some undocumented immigrants who were living in this mobile home pack and they told us that they did not want to go to a shelter because they were afraid they might get rounded up by i. C. E. Since that report, we got a statement. I want to share the statement with the listeners and our viewers. I got the statement a few hours ago from the federal government. This is a statement frommize. Our highest priority remains the preservation of life and safety. In consideration of the circumstances, there will be no Immigration Enforcement initiatives associated with evacuations or sheltering related to florence, except in the event of a serious Public Safety threat. Governor, what do you make of that . What do you make of that statement, that response frommize . Thats a very strong signal and correct signal because we do have a lot of people in the Agricultural Community and listen. We want to save life right now. By the way, we are not just talking about humans and not only people are concerned about their pets which during Hurricane Matthew, sadly, a ltd. Of people lost their pets which was a very emotional traumatic thing for people in the shelters. Leaving their pets. But you have to understand in the ag community not far from where you are, outside of wilmington, we have chicken farms and pig farms and sadly during Hurricane Matthews thousands upon thousands of chicken and pigs drowned. And youve got environmental issues. So a big, important issue i know all of the leaders are including the Current Governor and i appreciate all their leadership is that water is very dangerous water, too. Very dangerous. Not just in volume but its also very filthy water. How real is the worry as it relates to beach erosion, governor . Thats a worry but thats more long term. Thats my worry right now is really frankly life and death. And sadly, when i was governor during Hurricane Matthew, we lost 28 people due to drowning primarily in cars and trying to escape because they were panicking as they were on top of the roof or they were in their house and they had to get out. And or in their mobile home or trailer. Its the vehicle. I mean, we had i95 two years ago close four to five days and anyone who would drive through that flooded area of i95, major corridor of new york and miami, it was unpassable. We had people drown. And so its this waters extremely dangerous. So right now, we are talking about loss of life, preventing loss of life is the major priority and then and then trying to help people in shelters. People go into these shelters, theyre traumatized. They have lost everything. And weve got to recognize the trauma that these people are in right now in North Carolina and new bern right now and the outer banks area and a whole different part of the state so i cant imagine the trauma theyre going through because that water came up so quickly, very similar to Hurricane Matthew. But even 20 or 30 miles outside of new bern youve got towns that are, you know, 300 people. And they probably feel very isolated and abandoned at this time. Because all the attentions on the midsized, large cities, or the beach areas where everyones standing. It is inland that scares me and i think what probably scares the Current Governor cooper. Governor pat mccrory, thank you for your time. Thank you for your work, too. Take a look at this video from sneads ferry, North Carolina. We just got this video in to the newsroom. A short time ago. This is video of water rushing up on to this womans porch. Bottom floor of the house. Its very close to cape lejeune. Near the coast here in North Carolina. But this was this was the scene there just a short time ago. And that is one of a large amount of Rushing Water can do to a home. Water moving very quickly there. Were showing you this scene from sneads ferry but thats the scene at hundreds if not thousands homes across North Carolina and some in South Carolina, as well, on this friday. Much, much more from here in North Carolina. Well go back to msnbcs Chris Jansing in new york. Thanks so much, craig. We are following the breaking story. President trumps former Campaign Chairman and agreement to cooperate with Robert Mueller in the russia probe. Our legal analysts are with me to talk about what it means for muellers case but for the president himself. My digestive system used to make me feel sluggish but now, i take metamucil every day. It traps and removes the waste that weighs me down, so i feel lighter. Try metamucil, and begin to feel what lighter feels like. 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More dramatically, there are scores of people still waiting to be rescued. They have got federal Emergency Management teams spread out all across the hardest hit areas. Well get back to craig melvin shortly but we want to talk now about the dramatic turn in the russia investigation. Paul manafort pleading guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice and cooperate with the special counsels team. I want to bring in mimi roker and msnbc legal analyst danny savalos. A couple of folks in the administration put out a statement saying it has nothing to do with us. I just want to put up a graphic, reminding people of exactly how many convictions, how many pleas we have gotten already. So convicted and pleaded guilty on Paul Manafort. Of the people on that screen, you have five people that worked in the campaign. Arguably, Paul Manafort had the closest ties of anybody in the campaign to russia. So, if youre one of the president s defense lawyers, what are you thinking right now . This had everything, chris, to do with the campaign and the president. His guilty plea today maybe and even this ill take issue with in a moment, maybe didnt have to do directly with the campaign but his cooperation does. There is no reason for the special counsel to sign up Paul Manafort as a cooperator at this point unless it is to further the open part of this investigation, which is the part about whether someone or more than one person within the campaign conspired with russia to commit the crimes that russians have already been charged with. So, there is no question that the cooperation is about trump and about others in the campaign. And the other smaller point i want to make is that even these charges, the dates on the charges do encompass the time that manafort was on the campaign. And while the charges are not directly about his work on the campaign, they are the sort of shelves, Building Blocks of what i believe is, you know, comes later in terms of the conspiracy with russia. In other words, that he was making money through these russian oligarchs, that he was, you know, trying to hide his lobbying on their behalf and that he was trying that he was aware of and the information specifically says this, aware of and trying to help them get the sanctions lifted and i think thats where it all comes together. So to say even the charges are disconnected is just false. Lets talk about the specifics of this cooperation agreement. Hes going do give up four houses, including one in virginia that his daughter actually owns, four bank accounts, a Life Insurance policy. He gets two counts with a maximum, a maximum of ten years in prison. Six years of supervised release. What is at stake for him and what do the terms of this deal tell us potentially about what he has to offer . He had no choice at this point. You know, it is easy for all of these people to say, oh, manafort should have done this way back at the beginning of these cases. Probably true but in reality if he thought he had a chance at a pardon, rolling the dice, doing the oldschool thing which is, dont plead. Dont cooperate. See how you do in that first trial. In that first trial, hes looking at i believe probably about ten years. Even though the sentencing guidelines are way higher than that, theyre somewhere on the order of 27 to 33 years. This judge will sentence him to below the guidelines. Almost all similarly situated defendan defendants. Now that the money is expended and very little for a second trial and looking at the Money Laundering sentencing guidelines which would have blasted him, now this becomes a better deal for manafort. Maybe his only choice at this point was to coop rate. But to get to cooperation, he had to convince mueller and his team through a proffer that he still had valuable information to offer. The question is whether or not that information is related to trump or related to russia. And i take issue with the assumption that it must relate to russia. Mueller is investigating things that may arise from his investigation of russia and we have seen he has the authority to do that. When you look at the pictures you put up a few minutes ago, George Papadopoulos not connected. Michael flynn pleaded guilty to lying. The attorney at the law firm pleaded theres the one right there. Alex van der zan pleaded guilty. The indictments are related to russia and looking at that screen there, i see five faces that arguably had very little if anything at all to do with russia. We spent more than a little time talking over the course of the last several months of a possibility of the pardon. What does this do to the pardon discussion . It would make a pardon less effective. It doesnt prohibit trump from doing it. I dont think this would sort of stop it in any way if he really wanted to but it makes it just more ineffective for manafort and so i think it wouldnt stop him from cooperating if thats what the goal is. And the reason it would make it less effective is a couple of reasons. First of all, theres still many state charges that can be brought. This information that hes pleading to leaves room for a lot of financial charges at the state could bring. Several different states. And also, the forfeiture he is admitted to and agreed to forfeit, you know, millions of dollars and several properties, that is civil forfeiture and i dont think that that can be undone by a pardon. So, theres two big areas that i think manafort benefits from this plea agreement and the pardon would not undo those. Lets just make this as simple as we can, danny. We showed the pictures of the people cooperating. We dont know, obviously, a lot of what Robert Mueller knows. But as a piece of the puzzle, i was already getting texts and emailings of people saying is this a turning point . We like to put it in a big picture. What does this mean big picture . As best as we can know from the Robert Mueller investigation . Theres not a direct relationship at least as to the individual defendants and their pleas to russia. When you look at the overall picture, yes, this could further Mueller Investigation and in fact it almost surely does further his investigation of russia. Because hes indicted several indictments of russians. And in addition, we know that hes investigating, for example, the trump tower meeting. May be something that manafort with information about that mueller in the estimation deemed it worthy of the plea and cooperation agreement. Only after being assured of what manafort had to tell him was the truth. Could it relate to trump . It could. But it doesnt necessarily because we at this point cannot know how much muellers investigation has blossomed possibly trangenital to the original investigation. Thank you. Lets go back to nbcs craig melvin from wilmington, North Carolina. Hey, craig. Hey there, chris. Thank you. Hans nichols, our pentagon correspondent, in camp lejeune, North Carolina. About an hour north from where im standing here in wilmington. I understand the entire base lost power earlier and running on generators. Where do things stand right now with camp lejeune . Reporter theyre still out of power. It is all generator, though. But, craig, theres a sense theyre starting to return a little bit back to normal. Every time i say it appears that the wind dies down, it picks up again. They have a lot of debris cleanup here. Ill swing around far sense. Take a look here. You see a lot of things here in the base. There, that stop sign down. Theres going to be a lot of cleanup here and the first step before these marines can get out and help with recovery, help with cleanup, if they get the orders to do. Ive been talking to military officials, all day, all morning long and almost a sense of frustration theyre ready to get out. They want to do some recovery, some cleanup. They just need to get the tasking, they just need the orders. Offshore, more towards where you are, south of the storm you have two big navy ships. Both of those have the capability to land a bunch of marines and help with recovery. For starters, they have to do cleanup, debris removal. They need the orders and they also need to get site survey. So at a certain point i suspect we hear about assets going up. Maybe even up in the air trying to figure out how bad the damage is so that the cleanup can start but i got to say at least compared to a couple of hours ago it seems down right balmy here and not that intense at the moment. Craig . In camp lejeune, hans, thank you. Of course, camp lejeune, marine corps base. I can tell you that the coast guard one point earlier today we were told that the coast guard moved 40 of the aircraft out of the storm zone. 40 of the aircraft would constitute 20 of the aircraft in the coast guard. Moved to a safer place. This is the scene right now in jacksonville, North Carolina. You can see the flooding thats started there in jacksonville. Unfortunately, that is going to be the scene in lots of communities around North Carolina and South Carolina, as well. Over the next few days. Who would have thought, who would have guessed . An Energy Company helping cars emit less. Making cars lighter, its a good place to start, advanced oils for those hardworking parts. Fuels that go further so drivers pump less. Improving efficiency is what we do best. Energy lives here. This is the scene in jacksonville, North Carolina there. As you can see flooding has started there in jacksonville. Flooding has started in numerous communities here in North Carolina. A handful in South Carolina as well. As florence starts to wind down in terms of winds and rain, this will be the story that plays out for the next few days during course of the recovery. The flooding thats going to persist here in the tarhill state. Im joined by john kirkland, the mayor of river bend, North Carolina. Its just west of new jburn. Thats where we have seen horrible storm surge and we have seen rescues there as well. Thanks for your time this afternoon. Talk to me about what youre seeing right now in and around your town. Thank you. The flooding occurs here because the wind out of northeast drives it and up the river valleys. Every time that happens, we have flooding here in riverbend. Its a town of about 3100 and about 20 of our land area is in the floodplain. Yesterdays flood here, ive lived in river bend for 23 years, and this is the highest ive seen water levels. The town issued a mandatory Evacuation Order. The same is the case for the notice we issued. Our town manager and Police Officer spent the night at the Fire Department building located a mile south of highway 17. Those, the police chief and the managers this morning traveled all the streets that were not flooded or barred by fallen trees with the purpose of generating a priority of operation listed for restoration of safe travel. The town staff wads going this morning, were fortunate by four man Swift Water Rescue Team from maryland and another crew from new york joined the effort. This crew went to work to remove person who is had made calls indicating their desire to be taken to an appropriate shelter. Those are residents that ignored the Evacuation Order earlier. One of our big problems as we recover is power is out all over town. We had no idea what the duration of that would be. I will conclude that it will be sometime before the appearance of our town returns to normal. That is what were hearing a lot of. The flooding and Power Outages will be a big part of this story. Thank you. Thanks so much for your time and good luck to the people there in river bend as well. Much, much more ahead from here in wilmington, North Carolina. This is msnbc. Before we let you go, another look at North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Known for some fantastic golf on this friday afternoon. Known for some pretty impressive waves as well. Myrtle beaches experiences what were experiencing here just a few hours ago. E experiencing hea few hours ago. Dont forget that the past can speak to the future. Im going to be your substitute teacher. Dont assume the substitute teacher has nothing to offer. Same goes for a neighborhood. Dont forget that friendships last longer than any broadway run. Mr. President. laughing dont settle for your first draft. Or your 10th draft. You get to create the room where it happens. Just dont think you have to do it alone. 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Call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, or confusion, which may mean a lifethreatening reaction or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be permanent. Side effects may not appear for several weeks. High cholesterol and weight gain; high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death decreased white blood cells, which can be fatal; dizziness upon standing; falls; seizures; impaired judgement; heat sensitivity; and trouble swallowing may occur. Youre more than just your bipolar i. Ask about vraylar. In the last ten minutes an advisory saying Hurricane Florence is moving slowly and still has Hurricane Force winds. Theres a striking visual as well from newburn, North Carolina that we want to share with you. The storm so powerful that it overturned extremely heavy and bolted down statues of bears. For those of you who have been there know the bears, mascot of newburn. Ill be back in a few minutes. For now im going to send it back to Steve Kornacki who is standing by at msnbc headquarters there in new york city with the other big breaking news story on this friday. Thats right. Thank you for that. Well continue to bring you more on Hurricane Florence with craig throughout the hour. We begin though with that breaking news that craig is mentioning. Its in the Paul Manafort case. The man who once headed donald Trump Campaign pleaded guilty
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