It is heading right for texas and louisiana. Look at that shot. At least half a Million People have been ordered to evacuate. A crisis within a crisis as officials race to find solutions during a pandemic. And new protests turning deadly overnight in wisconsin after police there shot a black man. Over night, two people killed, one sent to the hospital. The governor issuing a state of emergency, you can see tear gas unleashed again in the streets with hundreds of police and National Guard out there. Were going to take you there live. The rnc and President Trump digging in on their decisions to scrap tradition, big backlash from democrats, now an investigation with questions this morning about blurred lines and air blushed attitudes. Night three and a show of strength up next with a top official from the Trump Campaign joining me live. Im hallie jackson, good to be with you. Breaking news on hurricane laura. The storm is intensifying, now just hours away from a direct impact along the gulf coast. This thing is a category 3 right now with winds above 115 miles an hour. And it is expected to strengthen to a category 4 later today. Thats new this morning. Forecasters are predicting a life threatening storm surge. Youve got hurricane warnings now posted from free port, texas, to south of galveston, all the way east to include the entire coast of louisiana. Nbcs sam brock is in port arthur, texas, between houston and the texas border with louisiana. Reading from the latest National HurricaneCenter Advisory out this morning, steps to protect life and property should be rushed to completion in the next few hours. That is an urgent warning. Reporter urgent and potentially catastrophic, the legal of damage that could be inflii inflicted here. When you talk about laura landing as a category 4, that means the winds have to be more than 130 miles an hour. Thats the reason were seeing buses all over the state of texas now, some 400 of them, transporting folks outside of the cone where i am right now in port arthur, may or may not take a direct hit from this, and moving those evacuees to places like san antonio, austin and dallas. In fact, here in port arthur, just over that bridge over my shoulder there, there is going to be more evacuations later today. The last rounds of buses leaving around noon. And that is it. The window is closed. The level of urgency is acute at this point to get people out of here. Another thing you see, amidst the 500,000 or so evacuations, aa hallie, the refineries over my shoulder. Theyre now shut down. Im in port arthur. If you go to beaumont, youre talking about 95 of oil capacity all over the united states, 40 of the u. S. Oil Refining Capacity in the u. S. Gulf here shut down right now. And they have their own emergency plans, but between the flooding and the rain and, of course, the high winds, youre looking at a trifecta of terror bearing down on the gulf coast. Hallie . It is scary to listen to, scary to think about, sam brock, i know youll stay on top of it. Well bring you updates on the hurricanes at this hour. Al roker is finishing up the today show, hell join us in a couple of minutes. More breaking news this morning, the chaos in wisconsin. You have protests escalating there, some people arming themselves against protesters. The New York Times reporting on fights outside a gas station near where two people were killed. The protesters are demanding justice for jacob blake, whose family is pleading for peace and confirming devastating reports about his condition. Blake is now paralyzed, possibly permanently. Here is his father. They shot my son. Seven times. Seven times. Like he didnt matter. Our team is in kenosha with the latest. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez at the scene of the protests with more on what led up to the deadly shooting last night. Shaquille brewster has more on jacob blake and his condition. Gabe, let me start with you. Tell us what police are saying this morning, what youre hearing from officials there. Reporter hi there, hallie. This is still a developing situation. As you can see behind me, this is one of the cars torched overnight, this is a third night of violent protests that we have seen here, but, yes, as you mentioned, there was the first time a deadly shooting here in kenosha, witness. Two people are dead. One other person is injured and right now authorities are looking for potential suspects. They say theyre looking for a man who is armed with a long gun. Now, there are still a lot of questions about what led up to the shooting, videos were posted on social media showing a very chaotic scene. And tensions are very high here. Last night we also saw video on social media and from eyewitnesss there were several apparent militia members here in the area, unclear if that played any role in the shooting that we had last night. Certainly tensions remain high. Hallie, what we saw last night was an increased police presence, authorities came in, in Armored Vehicles, not far from here, the shooting happened just down the street. The courthouse is not far from here, the Armored Vehicles came in, deployed tear gas, dispersed the crowd and those protesters went off into side streets in this deadly shooting happened around midnight. So, again, authorities now looking for potential suspect, two people are dead, one person is injured. This community really is on edge, wondering if there could be another night of violence as you mentioned, the blake family is calling for peaceful protests, hallie. Gabe gutierrez there in kenosha, so is shaq brewster. Can you tell us more about blakes condition, what were hearing from his family and what were learning today . Reporter this morning his family is saying that hes in a lot of pain, hes doing better, but is not out of the woods yet. We know he went through a spinal procedure yesterday, during that press conference with his family and his family attorneys where they gave a full account of his condition. They say he was shot at least seven times, you heard it from his dad there, most of the wounds in his back, but they say there was a bullet in his vertebrae that was still in his vertebrae. They say he had kidney and liver damage, they said it will be a miracle if he ever walks again. Theyre still asking for prayers, theyre asking for member of the community, for people all across the country to pray for mr. Blake as he recovers. You know, the family yesterday in that press Conference Also announced a civil lawsuit against the Kenosha Police department. Prior to the explanation for that lawsuit, they said is because of the amount of care and medical attention that mr. Blake and his kids will need as they recover from this situation. So, thats part of the explanation for why theyre launching the civil case. You hear mr. Blake still going through the tough recovery, still being hospitalized and having surgeries, latest surgery was yesterday afternoon as the family was talking to reporters. Hallie . Shaquille brewster, Gabe Gutierrez, thank you for your reporting. I want to bring in mandela barnes, Lieutenant Governor barnes, thank you for being with us this morning and taking the time to be here. Thank you so much for having me today. So here we have the state of emergency in effect in your state, in wisconsin, more police, more National Guard, deployed last night and yet here we are this morning, two more people dead after another night of these demonstrations. Can you provide some clarity as to what happened last night, and as Gabe Gutierrez talks about, people are on edge about tonight what are you doing to try to prevent Something Like this happening tonight . Two lives were unnecessarily taken last night. I woke up to the news myself, the first thing i saw, a flurry of Text Messages reporting or, you know, mentioning what took place. But what it seems to be is a member of a militia group, who decided to be a vigilante and take the law into his own hands and mow down innocent protesters. And that is the scary thing, but it is the result of rhetoric that we have been hearing, even from the white house, where the president threatened violence against peaceful protesters, threatened sick dogs on protesters, and now you have these groups of armed individuals who are seemingly living in fear of everything, fueled by whatever Conspiracy Theory and this is the result, this is what happens, when you have such lax gun laws. In one week, in one week span we have seen two iterations of gun violence in america play out in completely different ways. Youre talking about these huge and systemic issues, people buying into conspiracy theories, taking action, you know, on the prim te perimeters of the laws themselves, the issues of gun laws, all of those are huge big issues. People in wisconsinland wo are wondering what happens tonight. What can your administration do and now in the next 24 hours if anything to try to make people feel nor comfortable, more safe in their own communitys . Well, absolutely, thats one reason, why the the National Guard was requested from kenosha from local authorities there, the governor met that request in an order to hopefully prevent Something Like this from happening. This shouldnt have happened in the first place. We can even rewind, just think about all the armed protests around the country, where these men were storming state capitals, trying to make their presence felt, now, what do people expect to happen . In many instances those militia men have been cheered on by republican legislators and those same states and republican members of congress, who encourage this sort of behavior. And these people arent carrying around guns for nothing. If they feel frightened, theyre likely going to use guns and thats what happened, we lost two more lives. Tonight i am concerned about what may happen and we right now we are responding to the needs of the community appropriately and figuring out next steps. And just to clarify, when the Kenosha County executive talks about this destructive element from the outside, to fuel destruction, he says, that is the myrrh wilitia groups youre talking about, right . Thats who im talking about. I cant confirm what the county executive had a chance to have a conversation with him in the last few days. But when i talk about it, thats what im talking about, look who took someones life. You we played some sound bites from you on our show yesterday, covering this story, and we appreciate you having you live today, but one of the things you said that stuck with me was this was not an accident, you said this was not bad police work, this felt like some sort of vendetta being taken out on a member of our community. I would like you to elaborate on that. Absolutely. You look at the video, it wasnt like the officer accidentally pulled the trigger. There were three, four officers, they could have stopped mr. Blake before he even got to the vehicle if that was the concern. And the way that it was, you know, callously, you know, that action was callously taken out, you cant help but think that this was intentional. There wasnt any hesitation. There wasnt the officer didnt even try to use a different means to suppress mr. Blakes activity. And when i say a member of our community, a person who lives in kenosha, who lives in the state of wisconsin, our greater community, we should all agree that no matter where we live in the Broader Community of American People as well because you look at that video, there is no way you can tell me thats the way the scene should have ended. One of my colleagues just reported on a condition of mr. Blake, paralyzed, it is unclear if that is permanent or not. I want to give you a meoment to talk about him and his family and what you learned from them. His life is forever changed. Lets not forget about the three children in the car either, while physically unharmed, i cannot begin to imagine the mental harm that has been done to those young boys, growing up having witnessed their father shot multiple times in front of them. And this is going to continue it is going to push us more into the cycle of violence that children see and experience at an early age, and it affects their entire lives. How do we expect them to grow up without thinking about this every single day, i dont know what kind of professional Mental Health help those children can even receive that would repair that sort of damage. Mr. Blake, beaing paralyzed, quite possibly permanently, his life is forever changed. The state of wisconsin is forever changed if you look at the incident thatful followed. For all the protests going on over the past several months, the thing that hasnt changed unfortunately is policing. This isnt about any particular good or bad police officer. This is about policing. Because if an officer in any department thought that course of action was appropriate, then they are hugely mistaken and it shows the disconnect between the communities needs and the communitys safety and where they stand. Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor mandela barnes, i know youll be watching kenosha closely tonight and the coming days and weeks and the rest of the country. Thank you for being on the show this morning. Coming up next, more on hurricane laura, including the today shows al roker who is tracking that storm and brandnew forecast from the National Hurricane center, expected this hour, with laura expected to become a dangerous category 4. Then, back here in washington, in the world of politics, the first lady delivering for her a unifying message as Vice President pence gets ready to take center stage at the rnc tonight. Was it effective . Were talking to the Communications Director for the trump 2020 campaign about what to expect tonight as we get started on a busy wednesday morning. E get started on a busy wednesday morning. The open road is open again. And wherever youre headed, Choice Hotels is there. Book direct at choicehotels. Com. Its totally not the asame without you. M. Were finally back and cant wait until you are too. Universal orlando resort. Buy now and get two days free at the parks. Restrictions apply. Im heading to baltimore to cover Vice President mike pences speech at fort mchenry headlining night three of the Republican National convention, after last nights remarks which seemed toned down but also tone deaf. Melania trump hitting a note of empathy that felt different from night one, acknowledging how difficult the coronavirus pandemic has been for millions of americans. Many people are anxious and some feel helpless. I want you to know you are not alone. Donald will not rest until he has done all he can to take care of everyone impacted by this terrible pandemic. But there is also the unconventional and in the eyes of some of the president s opponents unethical if not illegal moments too as the president used the power of his incumbency for his own political advantage. He had, look at this, the first ladys speech from the rose garden, secretary of state mike pompeos video from jerusalem while on an official trip, a president ial pardon, a naturalization ceremony on white house grounds, all of it leading to some fresh criticism this morning. Monica alba joins with us new reporting on what we learned about night three and Peter Alexander at the white house looking at the context here as we move into this. Monica, let me start with you, in baltimore. Talk to us about what we can expect to see tonight. I understand a focus on the military, national security, and so on. Reporter exactly, hallie. The Vice President will be delivering his speech about 12 hours from now here at historic fort mchenry, a national monument, where Francis Scott key was inspired to write the starspangled banner. There is an audience set up here, 1130 cha30 chairs spaced somewhat, not six feet and in the like what you saw at the rose garden, in fact a little larger. Hell be speaking tonight to close out the night in primetime. But were also going to be hearing from white house counselor Kellyanne Conway tonight, she is set to leave her post as this official adviser to the president in the next couple of days. So she will beflecting back on Campaign Manager for that 2016 ticket that won and led them to the white house and the time in the last few years advising the president. But what is notable and were learning new tonight is that kali mcenany, the press secretary, will also an dressing the convention in her personal capacity. Adding to that list of white house officials and cabinet members going to be doing this, which is quite unusual. You had secretary of state mike pompeo last night, secretary carson coming up, ivanka trump will be speaking on thursday, introducing her father, and we had several other important advisers who are doing that and this is the greatest example of blurring those lines between official government business and Reelection Campaign. But you can expect the Vice President tonight to tout everything in terms of the administration and accomplishments they feel they have done. But also remember hes the leader of the White House Coronavirus task force. Hell be talking about the National Moment and the pandemic as well, we expect, hallie. Monica alba there. Peter alexander in washington. We were talking about the Convention Events last night we have seen. And there are some real questions this morning about the president as the ap put it, his campaign seemed to try to airbrush some of the sort of messier and potentially more problematic points of his presidency. Reporter i think thats right. The president putting the powers of his office to work in this election, parts broadcast from the white house, we saw the convention blurring that longstanding tradition, that line supposed to separate governing and politics, it seemed to erase it altogether, you show the examples, the rose garden, the first ladys speech, the president pardoning a convicted felon and recorded event broadcast during the political convention, perhaps a way to reach out to africanamerican voter or suburban voters. The president of the dhs secretary hosting a naturalization ceremony, the white house tells me just getting a statement from the moments ago, both of those were official white house events, they say, they made them public hours before posting them on the web and then they say basically the campaign simply decided to use that available content for campaign purposes. They say, quote, there was no violation of law, but critics say this is clearly flouting the rules. They also look at mike pompeo, the secretary of state, from jerusalem, thats a government funded trip, shattering the tradition that american diplomats do in the participate in political conventions. The state Department Says he spoke in his personal capacity, they say on his own time, that no federal dollars were spent. What else with as noticeable, notable, i think, hallie is the first ladys speech there, a lack of social distancing in the rose garden as we saw, very limited mask wearing as well. And the president s top economic adviser earlier tonight referred toed pandemic in the past tense. Right. The economy was rebuilt in three years. Then came a once in 100 year pandemic, it was awful, health and Economic Impacts were tragic, hardship and heart break were everywhere. But president ial leadership came swiftly and effectively with an extraordinary rescue for health and safety to successfully fight the covid virus. Reporter larry kudlow as if the pandemic is behind us. Some were tested for the virus before attending. Interesting to see a thousand people supposed to attend tomorrow for the white houses address, do they test all of them, test any of them, any masks present . Well wait and see. Well wait and ask our next guest monica alba, Peter Alexander, thank you. Tim murtaugh, the Communications Director for the president s Reelection Campaign. Tim, thank you for coming on the show. Happy to be with you, hallie. Good to see you. So thank you. Lets start where Peter Alexander left off, with some of the Convention Speakers including larry kudlow putting the coronavirus pandemic in the past tense. Saying it was awful. It is awful, tim, right, thousands of deaths per week. The Biden Campaign said this is an alternate reality that you are trying to present, why not acknowledge and address the coronavirus pandemic more directly than you have been . Well, i think i have to take issue with the premise of the question there. The president has taken the coronavirus seriously from the very beginning. Beginning with forming im asking about the Convention Speakers though, tim. He, other than let me point out to the viewers, other than opening prayer we have heard nothing other than Melania Trump expressing sympathy to the victims. Thats not true. I would certainly take your counsel on other moments where that happened. The president met with front line workers on monday, the first night of the Republican National convention, and thanked them for everything that theyre doing, real people, that is, firemen, First Responders, even postal workers, going to help real people as real people are dealing with the Coronavirus Crisis. So the president has acknowledged it. And i dont think it is really a very effective critique to say that no one has addressed the Coronavirus Crisis and then cite examples when people have addressed the Coronavirus Crisis. I mean, the president i think, tim, respectfully, you might be misunderstanding the question, the acknowledgement of the difficulty, tim. Sure, rather than saying absolutely also, hallie thousands of deaths a day, thats what im asking about. The president addresses the country virtually every day in a Coronavirus Briefing that is televised on most cable networks, not sure if msnbc carries it all the time. The president speaks to the American People about the Coronavirus Crisis on almost a daily basis. Giving them the information, the updates, the progress the government is make on fighting the coronavirus krocrisis. For anyone to suggest the president doesnt communicate with the American People about coronavirus is off base. The president does that routinely, a number of times each and every week, in or outside of the convention. Thats just a fact. Let me ask you about Something Else that some of the president s critics are raising here, which are the these issues of blurred lines, basically, the president using white house grounds for that naturalization ceremony, for the rose garden speech for the first lady, for example. I want to get you on this more broadly. Let me get some facts on the record here, the campaign, correct me if im wrong, is or is not reimbursing the white house and the administration for costs incurred . I dont have any information on that, but i would suggest if youre talking about costs, look, the democrats dont want the president traveling. We know they didnt want him giving a speech wait a second, wait a second. Who is paying for the events . And these are events that is very limited cost, you know how much it costs to move the president around the country to keep him staying home at the white house is an enormous cost saving and the campaign for if things are political for political purposes, the campaign does reimburse the taxpayers of the united states. I would also point out that so there hold on now. There is great concern about cabinet members and such being involved in the convention. I dont recall any great outrage when eight members of the obama cabinet participate and spoke at the 2012 Reelection Campaign for barack obama. I think people have a very short memory and perhaps even a selective memory. Eight members. Eight of obamas cabinet participated in the dnc in 20 12 and obamas reelection year. I dont remember the outrage that were now hearing from the media with apparently very short memories. No secretary of state, of course, just to note that, unlike what secretary of state pompeo did. A lot more to get to. You say it was Cost Effective to keep the president at the white house basically. How is that not a taxpayer subsidy to the campaign . As i also said, the campaign also by law, we follow all the laws, we do reimburse the taxpayers for expenses incurred on behalf of the campaign. Just as when air force one is used for political travel, we thats the way the president must travel, and if hes going to a political event, the campaign reimburses it that way. I would point out, when you see tv ads from joe biden hes using images from when he was the Vice President , so i got to cram in a lot of these last 60 seconds with you here. Marion mendoza was supposed to speak last night. Part of the lineup. You had an on the record statement saying her video was pulled. Why was that . Well, i think everyone knows the story about the tweet from earlier in the day, and pointed people to some really very foul and objectionable antisemitic tropes and different conspiracy theories and we decided to pull the speech. And i would note that we acted on the day that is that something the campaign disavows . On the democrats side absolutely. We disavow antisemitism is foul and repulsive in all of its form and we denounce it fully. I would point out the democrats let me ask an antisemite for ten decades and gave her a slot at the dnc, thats a wholly different situation. We reacted in real time in the same day. You talk about i appreciate you responding to that, and acknowledging that it was because of those sort of Conspiracy Theory tweets and antisemitic tweets sent out, maura green was invited to be on tomorrow night, a candidate who embrac embraced conspiracy theories as well. Will she be disinvited . I dont we hear from the media all the time about this qanon business, and frankly we dont have time to or the inclination to we have a lot of things we work on here in the campaign. And chasing down it is one and the same if youre talking about deranged conspiracy theories and pulling a speaker from the lineup, how is this different . Because antisemitism is something that is clear and everyone understands how foul and repulsive it is. The latest seems to be focused on the only ones we ever hear about this from are the media. It is not something we deal with here in the campaign, not something we ever think about, i never heard the president even offer an opinion about it. It is always coming from the media side. Qanon is not something we focus on. Were focused on drawing from the president s record to gather support for his reelection. And the latest flavor of the month that the media seems to be obsessed with, like this one qanon, is not something that we get distracted by. Okay, tim murtaugh, we should note too you mentioned the 2012 convention and the cabinet members for barack obama, none of them actually spoke based on our understanding of that. Tim murtaugh, i appreciate you coming on the show, as always an interesting discussion. Hope to have you back as the Campaign Continues on for the next 6 9 days, appreciate it. Programming note, next hour, craig melvin is up talking with former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker about the rnc and protests in kenosha. Thats at 11 00 eastern. Next hour right here on msnbc. We want to take you to galveston, texas, a live look at the waves starting to pick up here. Were going back to our breaking News Coverage of hurricane laura, more than half a Million People already leaving the gulf coast. This storm now just hours away from landfall. Ay from landfall. No one is going to answer. You are on your own. Your own. For bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. 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I got these three suitcases for less than 40. And shipping is always free. Go to dealdash. Com right now and see how much you can save. When we say mandatory evacuations, were not going to come physically remove you from your house. But i want you to understand that there is going to be a point where we cannot help you. And youre on your own. And you may be on your own for an extended period of time. That is a pretty scary warning from the sheriff of lake charles, louisiana, telling people to get out as hurricane laura barrels toward that city. Officials are expecting a catastrophic storm surge, extreme winds, and flash flooding along the gulf coast. Joining me now, fresh off the today show is al roker. Great to have you on the show. Thank you for being with us. Thanks, hallie. I wish we were here on better to talk about better circumstances. We are waiting for the latest from the National Hurricane center. Absolutely. At 11 00. We havent gotten that yet. You can already see those feeder bands now just starting to brush the louisiana coastline. It is 280 miles south southeast of lake charles, louisiana, 115mileperhour winds, moving as a category 3. It will intensify as it approaches land. We have gulf waters that are averaging 86 grows, thats the fuel for this thing. The wind and the rain will increase during the day. It is a category 4 storm this afternoon. It theoretically will drop down it a 3 at landfall, hallie, around 1 00 a. M. However, it is going to be interesting to see because if it doesnt get the sheer breakup, it is going to come as a 4. Whether it is a strong 3 or weak 4, it is not going to matter. It is going to be a lot of devastating impacts with this system, hallie. Can you talk about the potentially catastrophic storm surge for parts of texas and louisiana . Can you break down what that means and how significant that . Yeah, absolutely. This thing is going to move inland, it is going to bring a lot of rain, a lot of flooding. It will even affect the Midatlantic States and the northeast. To your point about the storm surge, this is life threatening, large destructive waves. From galveston to about almost the eastern coast of louisiana, gulf coast of louisiana, we got anywhere from six to nine feet to eight to 12 feet, the highest is right along the louisiana texas boarder into louisiana, 10 to 15 foot storm surge that is possible to make it 30 miles inland to give you an idea, thats where i10 runs, 30 miles inland. The storm surge is the winds push and the push all that rain up and on to the land, and so with the three foot storm surge, the initial rush can cause those waves to rise suddenly. If considered life threatening, at six feet, back walls of buildings get blown out, water goes through doors and windows, nine feet or more, this is where it starts to push inland, entire neighborhoods could be destroyed with this. If you have been told to get out, get out. Your house will not withstand a nine to 12 to 15 foot storm surge. Plus, with the winds that come in, we are probably going to see Power Outages that will extend all the way up into the Mississippi River valley, downed trees, power lines, and these outages will probably last for days, if not weeks. And there is the heavy rain. Flash flooding, urban flooding, thats what with katrina did so much damage. Wasnt the hurricane itself, it was the flooding afterwards. Moderate to major river flooding as well throughout the region, locally upwards of 15 inches of rain. This has the potential really reminds of rita in 2005. This year is shaping up to be a lot like 2005. I think back to threeier sye go, today, i think Hurricane Harvey made landfall in texas. Something that people there will be worried about. Absolutely. But they got to really heed those evacuation orders, because as you heard that sheriff say in a number of mayors and sheriffes saying were not coming were not coming for you at a certain point. They have to protect their First Responders to deal with the aftermath. So you get out while you can. Al roker, i really appreciate you bringing us all that. Well see you tomorrow morning on the today show as we cover this storm. Thanks. Next up, deep diving where florida is of course as always a very critical state, the president needs to keep it in his win column if hes to win reelection. Steve kornacki live at the big board breaking down why. And Vaughn Hillyard heads back to a key midwest town he visited before that overwhelmedly for the president in 2016. Four years later, what are they thinking . With donald, i think if he could calm down his rhetoric there would be no question as to what how people would vote. Qo what how people would vote. It sure can. Really . Can it one up breakfast in bed . Yeah, for sure. Thanks, boys. What about that . Uhh, yep it can . Yeah, even that i would very much like to see that. Me too. Introducing tide power pods. One up the toughest stains with 50 more cleaning power than liquid detergent. Any further questions . Uh uh nope one up the power of liquid with tide power pods. And still going for my best. Even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib. Not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin, i want that too. Eliquis. Eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. Plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Whats next . Reeling in a nice one. 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Thats over fiftyseven hundred dollars cash back on this equinox. Its time to find new roads, again. The open road is open again. And wherever youre headed, Choice Hotels is there. Book direct at choicehotels. Com. Since day one, President Donald Trump has put america first. Hes a tough, no nonsense you outsider who cant be bought or intimidated. So republicans are not going to have the convention where they hoped to have it, the backup spot, but in many ways the election is all about florida, florida, florida. His reelection might hang on the sunshine state, maybe more than any other state in the country. Steve kornacki is at the big board for us. Steve, walk us through it. Lets look here, such a big state electoral votewise too for the president. Well show you that in a second. To set this up, you remember what happened, Election Night 2016. This is where it all started that night. You started to see numbers in florida, particularly the gulf coast here, trump was doing much better than expected, turnout was much higher than expected, and that when he got in florida, set the stage for what came later that night. He won it by just over a point. What are we seeing now, from trump winning it by a point, what are we seeing in the polling now, the average of the florida polls out there now, shows joe biden ahead, at 50, 4 points ahead of donald trump, a close race, but that is a lead for biden, so what has changed in florida, well, it is something hugely important in florida, and something were seeing nationally too. It is this. Senior citizens, voters over 65, in 2016, in florida, trump ran up the score, with senior citizens, he won by 17 points. Big reason, hes able to get that narrow win in 16. What is the polling showing now . Seni senior citizens, trump versus biden, night and day. Trump trailing in the polling among senior citizens, against joe biden. We have seen it nationally. Nowhere is that more important than florida. What does that mean when it comes to the all important battle for the Electoral College . This is the 2016 map here. Let me just show you, so big, if this goes to biden, it wouldnt get the democrats to 270, it would put them basically within a state of 270. Pennsylvania, with florida, theyre there. If they win michigan with nor, theyre there. Florida and any one other state, as long as nine electoral votes, gets democrats there. If trump cant win florida, he basically has no margin for error on the rest of the entire electoral map. 29 electoral votes, hugely important to him. No kidding, steve. I know well be seeing more of that map, a lot more of you in the days and weeks to come. Thanks for being on. Appreciate that. Another state, one that is a little further north, one that President Trump will also need to repeat victory in november. Were talking about ohio. It was considered out of reach for democrats this year, polls show maybe it is now in play with donald trump and joe biden pretty much virtually tied. Both campaigns are really investing in this state when it comes to tv ads. Vaughn hillyard is live on the ground in circleville, ohio where President Trump won pretty handily in 2016. You were there in the same town, around here, four years ago, when President Trump was inaugurated. Youre back today. Reporter yeah, hallie. I came here to pickaway county, a month after President Trumps inauguration. This is one of the long time republican counties, went for mitt romney by 19 Percentage Points in 2012. Donald trump won this decisively, it helped make ohio decisive. He won it by 42 Percentage Points. This is one of those old towns with that is 95 white, had three manufacturing plants that closed, hundreds of jobs to lose, but now joe biden is looking to fight back and take some of the voters back with which steve just outlined. I want to let you hear from megan edgington, mother of three in town, she voted for barack obama in 2012, then donald trump, now take a listen. So now here in november, joe biden, Barack Obamas former Vice President , versus donald trump. Thats a hard one. Im paying a lot more attention to both debates. Reporter why arent you all in on donald trump a second go around . Issues that have came up throughout the last, you know, year and things hes done or has said or hasnt done or hasnt said, ill see what each party brings to the table and then make that choice when it is time. Reporter hallie, this is still a very real conversation and, in fact, when i drove into town in february 2017, the first place i went, i went to sunday school class at the Methodist Church over the shoulder of our photographer, and there was one woman, linda kennedy, at the time, she said she confessed on the spot to voting for donald trump, she said she thought god was going to come and strike her down. I stopped over at her house and talked with her on her porch yesterday and she said shes a lifelong republican, and she said now she is angry at the divide in this country, she is frustrated with the turmoil shes seen in the country, she has deep concerns about a democratic presidency, but right now she said she leaning towards joe biden. The big question here, over the next 69 days, there are enough megans, lindas, that joe biden is actually able to chip away and put ohio up for grabs in november . Interesting look at some of the voters with just, what, less than 7 less than 70 days to go before the election. Vaughn hillyard and paul, his photographer in circleville, ohio, thank you, appreciate it. I want to quickly correct something i said earlier with tim murtaugh from the Trump Campaign. I mentioned that president obama cabinet members didnt speak at the 2012 election. Some of them did in their personal capacity. I want to make sure we have the correct information out there as we hit the brake. We want to talk about the coronavirus pandemic coming up. Colleges and universities tackling the outbreak with students back in campus. Well take you inside the massive Covid Testing Lab on campus doing everything inhouse. Thats next. Thing inhouse thats next. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. Thousands of women with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. Ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr her2 metastatic Breast Cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. 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Take the neuriva challenge with our moneyback guarantee new this morning, the cdc is revising some of its coronavirus testing guidelines, now saying people without symptoms do not need to be tested for the coronavirus even if theyve been recently exposed. Heres the thing, experts are warning that could miss asymptomatic and pre symptomatic spreaders of the virus. Meanwhile, as College Campuses look to reopen, some schools are doubling down on their testing efforts hoping to avoid big outbreaks seen just days into the semester across the country. Some are scrapping the inperson learning plans after reporting hundreds of cases among their students. I want to bring in Anne Thompson at Boston University where they set up a massive testing lab. What can you tell us about the approach the university is taking, how hopeful they are that they can avoid the spikes weve seen at other campuses . Reporter Boston University believes the best way to avoid spikes is to test everyone, students, faculty and staff wlrks they have symptoms or not. Its implementing an Ambitious Program to test students. Those tests will be processed in a new lab built over the summer over the summer. Eight row bolts and 16 people can turn 6,000 tests a day, getting results in just 24 hours. Rapid testing that is part of an overall plan to contain any outbreaks. First of all, if someone is positive, we can call them and do Contact Tracing and get them isolated as quickly as possible. If we start to see numbers going up quickly or going up in a way that is doubling too soon, well know a lot about where the virus is on campus and if we have to pivot and change. Brrku has a doosh board wher you can track the positive tests out of more than 16,000 tests done since the end of july, they have had only 28 positive tests. Hall hallie . Anne thompson, thank you. The National Hurricane center is out the latest advisory on laura. Its expected to develop into an extremely dangerous category 4 storm. Thats the indication we had gotten from the earlier update. Well have much more on the next hour and throughout the day. We appreciate you joining us for this hour of msnbc live, a busy one. Ill see you on our special coverage on nbc news at the convention. Right now much more with my colleague craig melvin. Nd new a. You hope the more you give the less theyll miss. But even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past. They may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. Lets help protect them together. Because missing menb vaccination could mean missing out on a whole lot more. Ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. You should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. And you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. Make ice. Making ice. 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