Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Hallie Jackson 20180913

Cooperate with any investigation that goes on and own up to any mistakes and push forward, and keep going, keep moving on. I want to bring in politico reporter Daniel Lichtman with his new reporting on fema director brock long, Washington Post sr. Political reporter andrew blake. That series of tweets just this morning, tamara, aaron and daniel, not Hurricane Florence, the one currently on the way to the east coast but the one that hit puerto rico, leading to the deaths ultimately and eventually of close to 3,000 people. The president now, lets pull up those tweets, is saying, in fact, those 3,000 people did not die as a result of the storm. He is accusing democrats now of actually adding to the death toll. Tamara, you have spent 24 hours, prefact checking this, not knowing that the president would tweet this. Looking into that death toll number from puerto rico. Right. And so what the president is saying is, hey, when i was there visiting and he was throwing paper towels and saying the response was great, the death toll was only 18. Whats going on here . Whats happening is that governor roseo commissioned a report and the report did an estimate based on an increase in the number of deaths over a sixmonth period following the storm over what it would be in a typical year. We want to continue this conversation. First, we want to go to North Carolina where governor roy cooper is speaking now. Well listen to his latest updat update. Going to be extreme. Catastrophic effects. Catastrophic effects will be felt outside the center of the storm due to storm surge as high as 9 to 13 feet. Thats the second story of a house. Battering winds and relentless rain that will last for days. Make no mistake, whether the eye of the storm makes landfall along our shores or further south, were on the wrong side of this thing. This storm will bring destruction to North Carolina. And remember that Hurricane Matthew didnt even make landfall in North Carolina, and look what it did to us. Flood plain experts know that from storm surge alone, tens of thousands of structures are expected to be flooded and many more by rising rivers and creeks. If local officials tell you to seek higher ground, please listen. These orders are not given lightly. They are based on experienced, Emergency Response experts who can predict dangerous and lifethreatening situations. As of now, we have about 108 shelters that are open with more than 7,000 people in them. Emergency managements goal is to set up even more shelters where people can stay safe throughout the duration of the storm and even after. We appreciate local communities stepping up to host storm evacuees and were grateful to the volunteers for helping us out at these shelters. Ive ordered 2800 National Guard soldiers to report for duty to help in this time of crisis and we are truly grateful for their service. And we also want to thank their families and the families of all of the First Responders, who are making sacrifices with their loved ones who are serving with this Natural Disaster. Across our state, we have more than 56 School Districts that are now closed and nearly all of the university of North Carolina School System classes have been canceled. Everyone needs to be prepared for Power Outages that could last for days and maybe even a week or longer. Duke energy and our electric coops are estimating power losses in the millions and families need to have their emergency supplies ready. I know ive said this a lot but it bears repeating. Your supplies should include water, food, flashlights, batteries, medicines, Important Documents that you may need to take with you if you have to evacuate quickly. And you need a plan for your pets. And please remember, if you do lose power, dont operate gaspowered generators inside your home or in a garage, crawl space or shed. This can be deadly. Stay away from loose or dangling power lines that may be knocked over during the storm. And no matter where you live, dont drive through roads covered by standing or moving water. The road that was there before the floodwaters may no longer be there. If you encounter a flooded road, turn around. Most stormrelated deaths are caused by drowning in fresh water. Heavy rains can cause swells in small creeks and can turn streams into ragie ining torren that will sweep anything away in their path, including cars. It only takes a few inches of water to cause devastation and flood. North carolina needs to stay alert and continue to take this storm seriously. You can download the ready nc app or follow North Carolina Emergency Management on facebook and twitter. There you can get updates and learn how you can weather the storm. I want to thank everyone across our state who is working to get us ready for this storm. And i want to introduce to you part of our team that is leading those efforts. We have mike spraberry at the end, dr. Mandy cohe inform, secretary of health and human services, colonel glenn mcneil, the commander of the North Carolina highway patrol. We have general jim trodman, secretary of the department of transportation. We have albie lewis, who is with fema, with us today and also redship check who is with fema. And Major General gregory lusk, commander of North Carolina highway patrol. You have been listening to North Carolina governor roy cooper. The message could not be clearer. Take this seriously. The storm surge is likely coming. They are expecting a storm surge of up to 13 feet, some 320 National Guardsmen right now are on state active duty. We want to get an update on the size and impact of florence from nbc meteorologist Michelle Grossman. The National Hurricane center in, what, less than an hour now, will give us yet another update, right . What do you think the expectation is . Where is florence going next . Were going to keep it at a category 2 storm. We dont want to get fixated on the category 2 or 3. This is a strong category 2 storm. But its really about the water that weve been worried about from day one. Thats what were still worried about. Thats what well talk about. Yes, well have the winds. That doesnt determine how much rain is going to fall or the storm surge. Lets take a look at whats happening right now. Category 2 storm. We have an update coming fairly soon. Winds at 110 miles an hour. Its moving at 10 miles an hour. That will change the next 24 hours. This is what radar looks like, a different picture than what weve been seeing. We are looking at the outer bands now reaching. Very heavy rain. Take note of that. Also in this last rain you see this line pop up. That is a tornado watch. That is what we expect a lot of times with landfalling hurricanes. Well continue to watch that all throughout the next 24 hours in terms of wind gusts, were seeing gusty winds off the coast. This will start to move inland over the next several hours. If you have not evacuated yet, now is the time. Were going to see some very drastic changes by sundown. The worst does seem to be sundown tonight into sundown tomorrow. Thats where well see the most flooding and the biggest storm surge. Here are the heights. Were looking at nine to 13 feet. Thats almost hard to even imagine. Thats like a tall light where well see storm surge that high. It goes up and over and inundates the land. I want to point out the high tides. One tonight at 11 13. The bigger problem, the peak storm surge will be tomorrow at 11 46. Certainly something to keep in mind. I just want to talk about this real quick. Again, i know were focused on the cat 2, cat 3. But with hurricanes the biggest source of death comes from the water, 49 . This is what were truly worried about. For sure. Meteorologist Michelle Grossman, thank you. Lets check on whats going on, on the ground in oak island, North Carolina. Its where msnbcs mariana atensio finds herself now. The wind, for sure, seems to be picking up. Right . Reporter hallie, yes. We moved a little further west from where we were at with Stephanie Ruhle. This is ocean crest pier. The waves and wind behind me are starting to pick up. This is an hour from north myrtle beach. It is a Barrier Island extremely vulnerable to the storm because you have the ocean to the south. You have the waterway to the north. And you also have the cape view river to the east. I want you to look at the scene behind me. This looks like a regular morning on the beach. You have at least ten surfers out there. You have families. You have onlookers, tourists. This is not the scene that authorities want to be looking at hours before this storm hits. And from what ive gathered with my conversations with locals, because the storm got slightly downgraded to a category 2, that gives people a false sense of security, again, in the critical hours where theyre going to be making these decisions of whether to leave or whether to stay. And, as michelle was explaining to us, it is not the category of the storm that makes it so dangerous. It is the storm surge that could potentially reach up to 12 feet. It is the rain that could potentially reach up to 40. Just to give you an idea of what that can do to a place like this, i want you to look at that parking lot behind me. They tell me with Hurricane Matthew, that was completely covered with sand and water. And with a storm like florence that is going to linger and keep pouring rain on this area, it could be so much more damaging. Hallie . Mariana, hang on a second. Are there people swimming behind you . Are they in the water . Reporter can we point to the surfers over here . Hallie, theres at least ten surfers out there. I want to ask my cameraman to point slightly to the left because theres more people headed into the water. And, again, these are the critical hours where people should be hunkering down or skipping town all together. Hallie . Any officials there, emergency personnel, First Responders, telling these people to get to safety . Reporter ive spoken to the mayor and police chief. They have patrol cars out here but tell me once these sustained winds reach 45 miles an hour they wont be dispatching anymore. The message is if youre out here by that point, youre on your own. Hallie . Mariana atensio, thank you for that. Garret hake is in wilmington, North Carolina. Reporter we just felt the wind. If you watch the last hour or so, 9 00 we were here and the area in front of me was almost completely dry. Now the noose river has started to get out of its banks and start to fill up the street level in front of me. I dont know if you can see how wide our who the is now but when we get into serious storm surge im told the level will go up to about this sign on the lamp post next to me. Officials expect this entire area to be under water, not just in an inconvenient, up to your ankles kind of way. Anyone who owns property along this stretch of river will experience significant flooding from storm surge. Thats what they know, based on previous storms. The last couple of big storms that hit up here have not been anywhere as big as florence has been, even as florence continues to be a little weaker, a little more to the south. Weve been talking to folks who decided to stay in town. This is not an especially touristy kind of place. Its not really a beach community. You have folks who have spent their whole lives here and they feel like staying and they feel like theyre making the appropriate preparations. One gentleman we spoke to a few moments ago, describing what hes getting ready to do and what were going to see tonight. Listen. I cleaned out the yard. Theres no projectiles. Im hoping my neighbors have done the same. Ive looked for any kind of places where water and wind might get in the house. Of course, thats not up to me in the end. There are trees in the yard. But the flooding where i am farther up in the neighborhood is not so much a worry. My worry is the trees and the wind taking them down. Reporter when these things come ashore at night its a whole different animal, more dangerous, and more difficult for First Responders to get out and help people when they need it. To help underscore the point that mariana and these officials made, its under mandatory evacuation order. If you dont need to be here, get out. Garret haake from new bern, North Carolina. Mayor of nagshead, North Carolina, thank you for being with us. Good morning, hallie. You heard garrett reference those mandatory evacuation orders in some places. How are these evacuations going . Are people leaving . Are they paying attention . Hallie weve got a great level of compliance with our evacuation orders. I went through nags head from end to end yesterday. I would describe it almost as a ghost town. Driving from my home to town hall this morning theres very little traffic. Weve been door to door to encourage the recalcitrant to leave. Weve gotten a really high level of compliance. Which is good news. What is your a moment ago, we saw about a dozen surfers up where mariana atensio was reporting in North Carolina. What is your message to people who are trying to ride this thing out, who have not left yet or who may be in the water right now . Ear in the water, youre a little nutty at this point. Our message since monday in their county has been to absolutely stay out of the water. The water is extremely dangerous. To the folks that havent left, if you know it floods or dunes may breach, we really need you out. Mayor, there will be a moment tonight when the sun will go down, the storm will make landfall. Thats the expectation. And everybody will wake up tomorrow morning in first light and see the damage, potentially the storm going on. In the aftermath, do you believe you have or will have the resources that you need . Are you comfortable that youre supported enough there . Absolutely. The governor has promised his support. We have great working relationships with sister towns and with county. We know that well have their support. This is a very resilient community, partly by design and partly just because of who we are and i feel very confident that well have a quick recovery. Mayor ben cahoon, thank you very much for being on with us. Please stay safe. Well be checking back in with you over the next several days. The head of fema has two words when it comes to Hurricane Florence, were ready. Two other words are plaguing brock long, under investigation. Well talk about the man in charge of the response to hurricane katrina. He is here with us to talk about the fallout from all of it coming up in a minute. Ute. 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. Improving efficiency is what we do best. New family connections, every day. Llion thats more ways to discover new relatives. People who share your dna. And maybe a whole lot more. Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com but he has plans today. Ain. Hey dad. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. Hurricane florence is barreling toward the carolinas, getting bigger in size. We expect an update from the National Hurricane center some time in the next 45 minutes or so. But here in washington at the white house, the president , while he is tweeting some about florence, he is also talking about Hurricane Maria, the storm that slammed puerto rico last year, ultimately killing as many as 3,000 people, according to an independent study. Thats at the core of a new president ial tweet storm. Kelly odonnell is at the white house for us to talk through that. The head of fema also under fire inny new politico report. Right . Reporter yes. Several things are pressing up against this administration at a time when florence is, they say, their number one, highest priority. Brock long, the fema administrator, says that it is not in his dna to have done anything improper related to government ethics. There is a report that claims he may have improperly used government vehicles for transportation to his home. He does not live in the washington, d. C. Area. He addressed that today and said hes 100 focused on florence, the storm that weve been talking so much about. The president , we are told, has been briefed and that Staff Members at the white house have been in touch today with various parties in the region, the path of the coming storm. The president is also showing some cranky before the storm, reflecting backward, not looking so much at what is coming in the next few days at a time when typically white house leadership is focused on preparations for the coming danger. The president is looking in the rear view mirror and responding to what he perceives as criticism that he deems unfair, which in the initial wave of Hurricane Maria hitting puerto rico, there were a limited number of deaths in the immediate aftermath. Since that time, there has been a revised death count associated with the not only the hurricane itself but the related problems that come from it, things like no power when people are relying on hospital facilities and so forth. Right. The president lashing out, blaming democrats for this criticism. Study looked at five months after the impact of that storm and has raised the numbers considerably. Initially it was a few dozen deaths and now the kind of accepted view at the point we are at right now is that nearly 3,000 lives were affected by the initial wave and then related effects after that. The president pushing back, saying that just didnt happen. Surprising tweets from the president , critical at a time when florence is the administrations focus, as they say. Hallie . Kelly odonnell at the white house north lawn. Let me bring in Daniel Lichtman with his new reporting on fema administrator brock long. Tamara and aaron are back here. I want to start with you daniel, then tamara and aaron to you. Use of cars, basically official car use on the governments dime. Yeah. Why does this matter . It matters because if he didnt have the right government authorization to go to North Carolina, using that black chevy suburban, getting driven by a fema aide, on his personal time, thats a waste of taxpayer money. And so dhs secretary nielsen confronted him about this several month ago. They have to have a second meeting and there are conflicting reports about whether she asked him to consider resigning. So this goes to the core of is there a good leader at fema. What is the status of that relationship between kierstin nielsen and brock long . It looks like nielsen is trying to push him out but cant right now because of this hurricane. If hes spending thursday nights and fridays not in the office while preparing for Hurricane Season when these storms are only getting worse. You heard brock long, we played it earlier in the show, saying im 100 focused. He said hurricane floyd and then corrected himself to Hurricane Florence. It came on the heels that have president ial tweet, that onetwo punch, and you heard Kelly Odonnell talk about it where he said 3,000 people didnt die. House Speaker Paul Ryan is about to hold a news conference. You know hes going to be asked about this. Senator orrin hatch was asked by our team. Hatch, when told about the donald trump tweet, orrin hatch, ally of the president , had a shocked or confused expression. Thats perfect his own aides who confirmed this, said i dont know anything about that. He said there is no doubt that the response or that the hurricane itself was a tragedy. The other thing about this, and all that is really important is we are not just talking about the president saying things that are counterfactual and have been prefact checked to be wrong by tamara but the president diminishing the severity of a hurricane that happened a year ago that was extremely devastating in puerto rico on the eve of an extremely potentially devastating hurricane. People are deciding to stay in those areas, maybe they dont believe things are that bad and the president is saying the official estimate here is overcooked. It wasnt actually that bad and basically the government lied to you about these things. And thats a pretty significant thing for a president to say less than 24 hours before this next landfall. Or that democrats made up these numbers. He alleged that as well, looking at the puerto rican officials, who have been very highly critical of his leadership on this. This is another case of President Trump was just praising governor roseo of puerto rico a couple of days ago, saying his response was aplus. And then governor roseo says something critical and hes suddenly hitting back and he doesnt like the official number. This is sort of a strong pattern for the president to come back at facts and say that he doesnt like them. Aaron brings up a good point that this is happening the day before this monstrous storm is supposed to make landfall in the carolinas. And as we heard from officials locally, people are saying do i really need to go . Maybe i can stay. I want to talk about that with retired Lieutenant General russel honore. You know the name. He coordinated military relief efforts after hurricane katrina. General honore, thanks for being on. You can hear me okay . Yes, maam. Sir, i would like to get your reaction from what you heard from President Trump this morning as it related to a different storm, Hurricane Maria, and the tweets that weve been talking about where he d diminished the death toll numbers, that he didnt believe them. Well, ive heard many of those comments from the president the last few days. My advice to the president is this. And ive given my best retired military advice. You should never blame the survivors or the victim of a Natural Disaster for attributing to anything that happened to them. Thats just bad protocol. Every First Responder learned that when you go get someone who should have evacuated. You hug them. You try to praise the fact that they lived and you take them to safety. But never should we ever talk about those who survive in Natural Disaster as if they did something to cause this to happen to themselves. Point two to the president , if i was his boss or standing next to him as his chief of staff, i would kick him on the ankle and say, look, focus on the future damn storm. Stop looking in the rear view mirror. Focus on the future storm. Stop looking at the last storm. Avoid any conversations about the last storm. Focus on the future storm. That would be my advice to my president of the United States, because hes our president. Couple of questions to follow up on that for you. Do you believe there is a danger to the president , as you put it, looking to the past rather than looking to the future when it comes to people who, right now, are at a critical moment deciding whether to stay or go . I think thats just Nervous Energy probably, saying things like that on twitter. But im confident and i do think fema is fully focused. I think the governors, who are in these storms, they are the principal leaders in storm responses. Not the president. What happens inside those states by constitution goes to the senior elected official and theyre in charge of what happens in those states. And from what ive seen, those governors are on it. They are mobilizing the National Guard. They are executing agreements with other states to bring additional guard assets in and theyve opened a way tore federal troops to start deploying and be prepared to come in, everything from ships to search and rescue helicopters all the way from alaska. So the quarterback of this show is not the president , its the governor of the state. Theyve got to ask for what they need and its the job of the federal government, fema and all of government to respond and provide what those governors need. And that being said, i think the president would do well to start that message he talked about yesterday, warning people to evacuate and that if the governors need something, the federal government will provide it. I think thats the message you need to be on. And he will be on better ground and take a lot less flack from looking back at the last storm. General youve been very clear and explicit in your advice to President Trump. Why do you believe he is struggling to take that advice, or use that . I cant imagine. He wasnt born a politician, but he sure as hell is acting like one, wont admit to nothing and deflects it. And i think thats something he needs to grow out of. You know, he we have used katrina to measure president s. Did they have a katrina moment, meaning was it paid attention to what was going on . He had his katrina moment. It was called maria. And the picture everybody will remember is those paper towels going out and throwing them. And oh, by the way, giving himself an a. He needs to move on and lets see if everybody can live and learn and lets see if he can focus on florence, stay off the damn golf course and cheer these troops on, who are on ships out at sea, flying helicopters and airplanes trying to get ready to come while their families stay ashore and have to evacuate separately. We have a lot of young soldiers, sailors, air men and marines getting ready to respond along with the National Guard. Those are the people he ought to be cheering on. I hope to see him in North Carolina and South Carolina and not on a golf course this weekend. General, before i let you go, one thing that has been striking when you listen to the response from federal officials, including, for example, brock long at fema, is talking about the Lessons Learned and particularly the Lessons Learned from katrina. Do you believe that the federal government has learned enough from the response to the storm to katrina, which you know well, over the years . Are they in a better place now . Are they where they need to be . Well, we went through the obama years with lesser weight for the governors to ask for the military to help, and now after maria, everybody is seeing weve got to start maneuvering the military in behind these big storms. We cant wait for the governors to ask individually, hey, i would like a ship to come in or i want a hospital ship. Its incumbent on the National Security council giving instructions to brock long how he gets those assets to maneuver on the storm. Had we maneuvered on maria, like we maneuvered on hurricane irma, we could have done a better job in trying to get there earlier and helping people quicker. That being said, its time to focus on this storm. And i hope thats what the National Security council is helping brock long figure out, how all of government can help respond, because the guy on the button is the governor. Real quick, general, brock long, in this investigation into his car use, do you think thats a distraction for him or do you believe he will be able to focus on the task at hand here . Im sure hes focused on this storm. Im also sure its a distraction but hes young enough, hes hard enough, hell get it done. Hes focused on hes learned. He learned a lot of lessons in maria, irma and harvey last year. So, i think lets move forward and all the American People need to know, if you totally evacuate, evacuate, make sure you stay communications with somebody and dont leave a neighbor behind. If youre leaving and the elderly, disabled or poor, put them in the car with you and take them with you. Good advice. Retired Lieutenant General russel honore, a pleasure to have you and your perspective on the show. Thank you very much. We are just past the half hour here on msnbc. We want to get you caught up with the latest on Hurricane Florence. With the outer bands starting to hit the carolinas right now. This thing is a category 2. Dont get caught up in the number there. Its actually gotten bigger in size, that could mean days of destructive winds, torrential rain and this lifethreatening storm with surges up to 13 feet. I want to go now to nbc news meteorologist dylan dreyer in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. I know youre getting ready for it to hit landfall. Where are you . What are you seeing where you are, can you explain that . Reporter hallie, were at the bridge that would take you over to Wrightsville Beach. Its totally closed. You cant get to that side of the bridge any longer. There was a mandatory evacuation for Wrightsville Beach and really for most of the Barrier Islands, if not all of them on the coast of North Carolina, because those Barrier Islands will be hit first, and the flooding, that storm surge we talk about, is more likely to affect the Barrier Islands. But the storm surge can go miles inland. Whats setting up here, we have this giant storm. As you said, dont worry about the numbers. Yes, its a category 2. Its weaker than it has been, but its a massive storm. As it moves through the atlantic, its pushing all of that water on shore. So, you are going to see this rapid rise of storm surge water that could rise feet in just minutes. I mean, it is so quick to rise that it could swipe you out from under your feet very quickly. A threefoot storm surge would come up to your waist. A sixfoot storm surge is over the average persons head. Ni ninefoot storm surge fills up the first floor of a building and were looking at a nine to 13foot storm surge especially after the high tide tonight at 11 00 and high tide tomorrow morning just after 11 30. Those are the two times well see our best chance of storm surge flooding. And its not just for areas along the coast. Its for areas inland. And its not just the storm surge flooding. When were looking at about 20 to 30 of torrential rain, this area cant absorb that much water, so it piles up. And then you have freshwater flooding as well, the rivers, streams, tributaries. Everything is going to flood in this area and it could cut it off for who knows how long really. Dylan dreyer there, be safe. Well see you later on this network, nightly news and tomorrow on the today show for sure. Thank you. Appreciate it. 80 miles down the coast from where dylan was, in myrtle beach, South Carolina, gabe gutierrez, what have you noticed thats different and what are you expecting in the next 24 . Reporter hallie, as you can see behind me for the most part, this place is deserted. Such a popular town, beach town. Theyre waiting for the effects of Hurricane Florence to hit in the overnight hours. We spoke with the mayor a short time ago. Shes very concerned about what this could mean long term for this areas economy. This is if you look over here, she thinks about 60 of the town has already evacuated. She would like for it to be even more. She says 19 million tourists visit this area every year and there could be significant impacts years down the line. Take a listen. I know the storm, the track has been shifting slightly and the intensity has been shifting slightly. What are you most worried about . The water. This storm is going to hit us with two high tide cycles. That concerns me as well as the amount of rain that were supposed to have. Reporter and thats a major concern here, hallie. All this rain. Feen the winds wont be as intense along the South Carolina coast as may have been initially expected, local authorities are warning people they should have already evacuated. Those that didnt, they only have a few hours left to make it out of here. South carolinas governor says more than 300,000 people did evacuate the South Carolina coast. But right now, this town, this popular beach town with so many visitors every summer, right now, is eerily deserted. And again they expect the effects of Hurricane Florence to really start kicking up in the overnight hours and into tomorrow, hallie. Gabe, i hate to put you on the spot. You say eerily deserted. Two people behind you are doing something on the shore line. We talked to the mayor of this town on myrtle beach yesterday. She said she wants people to get out if they can. Thats a challenge for people who may not have the financial resources, right . Who cannot afford to go and stay at a hotel room. I would wonder why some of those folks are deciding to stay. I dont know if theyre using metal detectors or what, or whats happening, but there they are. Reporter theyre trying to not quite sure what theyre doing over there. We did speak to them before we came on the air. They preferred not to be interviewed but did tell us they had made a decision to stay here. Theyre one of the people who dont think that this storm will be as bad as the local authorities suggest. Dangerous bet. Reporter the mayor and many authorities here say not to take that chance. For some people it is very difficult for them to evacuate financially. Gas money. Its very difficult to find hotels and emergency shelters have been filling up. We were at one yesterday in conway, South Carolina, not far from here that was expecting hundreds more evacuees over the last few hours. The red cross says it has the capacity. And for anyone that is still debating whether or not they should leave, they say just go to those emergency shelters and theyll keep you safe. Hallie . Gabe gutierrez, i will tell you what i have told every reporter on this show. Please stay safe. No joke. I know you will. Youve been through this. Well watch for your reports throughout the day. As we head to break, house Speaker Paul Ryan is talking about all of this on capitol hill. 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Which i used to offer Health Insurance to my employees. My unlimited 2 cash back is more than just a perk, its our healthcare. Can i say it . Whats in your wallet . I have no reason to dispute these numbers. I was in puerto rico after the hurricane. It was devastating. This was a horrible storm. I toured the entire island. Its an isolated island that lost its infrastructure and power for a long time. You couldnt get to people for a long time on the island because roads were washed out, power was gone and the casualties mounted for a long time. I have no reason to dispute those numbers. Those are just the facts of what happens when a horrible hurricane hits an isolated place like an island. That was house Speaker Paul Ryan, of course, commenting on President Trumps tweet this morning, disputing without evidence, the death toll, 3,000 people dead in puerto rico after Hurricane Maria hit. Kasie hunt is on capitol hill and was in that press conference with paul ryan. Kasie, he talked about Hurricane Florence, right, encouraged people to listen to local officials. Then he was asked, as paul ryan often is, about what the president is saying. Theres always a question about the president s tweets, hallie. In this case, this is something another question that, frankly, republicans dont want to have to be asked about and, as you heard the speaker say there, he said look, ive got no reason to dispute this death toll. He talked about visiting the island and how there was so much infrastructure devastation, that the death toll did rise in the wake of the storm, even if there were not immediate deaths from the wind, from the rain, from the floods. The number of people that were cut off from power, who lost access to hospitals or critical lifesaving drugs, he acknowledged clearly that those that that death toll, he believes, to be real. He wouldnt answer directly a question about whether the families of those who lost loved ones under those circumstances deserve deserved an apology. And then we also asked leader mccarthy, who pretty soon here, is potentially likely to be the next leader of the republican party. And he claimed to not have seen the tweets from the president. So, perhaps a preview of how mccarthy who, as you know, is pretty close with the president , speaks with him regularly, will handle some of this. Now, of course, lawmakers on both sides of the hill are being asked about this as well. Senator orrin hatch talked with us about it with some of our colleagues in the hall. The president said he doesnt believe the death toll is accurate. Say that again . The president is blaming democrats for the puerto rico death toll saying its not accurate. What do you make of that . I dont know anything about that. I dont know what to say about that. He said this morning, tweet this had morning that the democrats have increased the death toll from six to 12, to 3,000, that its democrats playing politics. I dont know. I cant really comment because i dont know anything about it. Reporter there you have it. Orrin hatch as well saying he doesnt know anything about it. Yet another day, hallie, where we are talking about the president s tweets, not about policies republicans want to be talking about. And, obviously, in this case, the stakes very high. Were talking about many lives that have been lost in the wake of that hurricane. Hallie . And were talking about, of course, the eve of another hurricane hitting the carolinas. You both have twitter alerts set for the president , right . Uhhuh. So you saw the tweets . Of course. Maybe senators dont. Who knows. We have the case of another disconnect between the president of the United States and the government of the United States. Fema itself didnt after action report discovered that there were deficiencies and that say that they are working to address some of the problems that existed, that affected the response to Hurricane Maria. The white house, on the record, wont dispute those numbers, the death count numbers. When the report came out and the numbers were fixed, Sarah Sanders put out a statement saying that, you know, they continue to work with the government of puerto rico. She didnt dispute the numbers on the record. But the president of the United States says Different Things than what his administration says. And certainly what members of congress say. And the president , im just looking now. He was asked about this, when this gw study came out. Listen, we had correspondents on the ground for months after Hurricane Maria hit, right . Covered it. Covered the updated numbers out of the gw study when those broke. I vividly remember that day. The president was asked about it when he was at this event for drugfree community. Unrelated event. The reporter shouted questions as we often do in the press corps. He said we did a fantastic job in puerto rico. He didnt dispute those numbers then. This is clearly coming from two days ago when the president said this was an incredible unsung success. That comment really rubbed a lot of people comment rubbed a lot people the wrong way. Now hes overcompensating for that by calling into question the official death count. This is only the latest example of the president questioning official government records, data, and findings. Russia didnt, you know, question whether russia hacked in the election, saying millions of people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton in the election, you know, autism and vaccines are linked together. You know, the birther thing, theres an official government record of that, and yet he was questioning that. This is all undermining faith in what the government tells people, and i think thats what we need to remember. And you know, during the campaign he said that the unemployment rate. Was incorrect. Was fake and phony. Now he brags about it because hes president and likes it. Let me give a different shade on this. The mayor of san juan was on this program 24 hours ago talking about a different set of tweets from the president on puerto rico. I asked her, does the administration have a point . Does puerto rico bear some responsibility for the bad infrastructure in some places that was already in place . She said yeah, you know, the island does bear some of that responsibility. And the governor has said that, too. If you look at the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation Came out with a poll that showed 80 of people disapproved of how trump handled this. Everybody else who is involved in this process also had majority disapproval. Thats the governor, thats the mayor. Thats federal officials. Thats local officials. Theres enough blame to go around here. This was not a good moment for anybody, but for the president to say this is an incredible success and diminish the death count i think is something thats going to be very difficult for people in puerto rico to read about. We are about 8 1 2 minutes away from an update on the other storm were talking about, Hurricane Florence, the one that is taking aim at the coast of the carolinas. We are going to be back with an update from our meteorologist on that, and were going to take you to the ground as the hour bands start to hit. Thats next. Thats next. 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. 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The most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. Life. To the fullest. And accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. Like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. phone ringing get details on this state program call or visit. We are just getting an update now from our nbc news weather unit about the impact and the size of Hurricane Florence. Right now the rainfall, the flooding and the storm surge are all predicted to break records. Nbc news meteorologist Michelle Grossman is joining us now. Were going to hear more from the National Hurricane center really in just a couple of minutes here . Thats right, yeah, we did get the latest advisories. We do have some changes. Still a category 2 storm. It weakened just a bit. Again, we dont want to focus on the wind speed. We want to focus on the water skrks we are looking at this storm starting to slow down as expected. Were going to see it slow and then move painfully slow as it gets closer to the coast. Almost at a walking pace. Bill mentioned that earlier, about three to four miles an hour, thats going to cause the flooding were expecting. Nothing has changed since monday when we started really talking about this storm. This is the latest radar. We are seeing some changes here. Very heavy rain on these outer bands. Hitting beaufort now. You can see some live shots across the area. You can even google them. Youre seeing some of the reporters starting to sway in the wind. Where you see this line here, that is a tornado watch. Expected a lot with hurricanes when they make landfall before they make landfall. Were going to watch that over the next 24 hours, and we are talking 24 hours of pounding rain and flooding rain as well. Lets look at the wind gusts. We are looking at the winds gusting up to 58 miles per hour, but we will see these winds move onshore as we head throughout the next few hours. By sundown tonight, thats when were going to see things picking up. Thank you very much. I want to bring in now Major General Brian Mckiernan and acting Senior Commander of fort bragg, obviously also in the path of this storm. Major general, thank you for being with us here. You can hear me okay . Good morning, hallie. Ky hear you fine, and thank you for having me on. 80 apache helicopters have been moved out of fort bragg. What else is being done to protect our military . Talk about how important that is. So thanks for the question, and we did take some precautions with respect to moving aircraft out of the area. I would emphasize also that we retained some capabilities here with our helicopters and put them in hangars that can withstand the wind so that we could be ready to respond after the storm passes. So some of the other things weve done, weve really been planning in earnest since friday, and weve stood up our Emergency Operation Centers Across the installation, suspended all training, and nonessential activities so that we could focus on preparing our equipment, our facilities, and our families for the weather thats coming. So weve stockpiled food and water and filled up all of our fuel Storage Capacity both mobile and underground, and so we learned also from Hurricane Matthew two years ago that it was important to look at the water levels in our lakes on post, so weve lowered those to prevent flooding and prepared our on base Evacuation Center so we can now be focused primarily on our ability to respond to any emergencies in the state or local community at the direction of fema or i believe federal agencies. Thats what i want to ask you about, too. You guys are working very closely in coordination with fema. Usa today reporting that some 80,000 liters of water, 34 generators have all been positioned where you are at fort bragg in order to be able to help after the storm. 270 semitrucks pulling off this stuff in to where you are. The coordination with fema, do you feel comfortable with how that goes moving forward as florence makes landfall tomorrow . Hallie, thank you very much for that question. Its excellent. We have done this in the past, so part of part of our response here is providing for fema to stage and, oddly enough, they use part of our one of our Army Airfields here where we move the helicopters from, but they are on ground. We have great coordination with them, and we feel very comfortable that we can support them as required as they move to the point of need. Major general brian mckiern n mckiernan, thank you very much. Were thinking of you guys down there in the carolinas. Right now im turning it over to my colleague Stephanie Ruhle in washington, ali velshi in South Carolina. Reporter still not in a suit. Good to see you. Well catch you later on this afternoon. I am in myrtle beach, South Carolina. Youre seeing the surf pick up. A few miles up in North Carolina where the outer bands of Hurricane Florence are hitting. And i am Stephanie Ruhle live right here in washington, d. C. It is thursday, september 13th. Lets get smarter. As the storm moves closer land, it is actually increasing in size, now bigger than north and South Carolina combined. Here you go. The outer rain bands now just hitting the outer banks. By this afternoon, the outer