Transcripts For MSNBCW Up With David Gura 20190831

And well talk to a report wloer wreporter who was in the room this week with joe biden. All right. Lets start with President Trump who is in camp david this morning. He canceled his planned trip to poland he said in order to monitor Hurricane Dorian stateside. Hes opting to send Vice President mike pence to poland in his place. Were following the path and strength of the storm which overnight intensified to category 4 in magnitude. Heres a view of dorian from space. You can see the turning eyes with sustained winds of up to 140 Miles Per Hour. It is expected to make a devastating impact on the northern bahamas before hitting the east coast of florida late monday into tuesday. Last night President Trump spoke to reporters in part about the approaching storm. The hurricane is roaring, it could be a big one. Were hoping it maybe makes a right and goes up north, thats about a 5 chance. Its not looking good. Its one of the biggest hurricanes weve seen in a long time. Here with an update moments ago from the Hurricane Center is janessa webb. How is it looking . We had a tremendous shift in the past in the last 24 hours. We just got our latest update at 8 00 a. M. Now we have sustained winds of 145 Miles Per Hour. So gaining some strength overnight. We did have that rapid intensification phase that happened. So you can see the diameter, the eye of this storm is dramatically decreased what does that mean . Its slowing down dramatically. So what you can count on is that prolonged flooding event here along with taup cope usiocopeio rain. Lets talk about this cone of uncertainty here. We had a chance of it shifting to the north. Folks, thats exactly what has happened here. As it slows down, we still have that major hurricane for sunday with 145 Miles Per Hour, but by monday it calms down just a little bit, to 130 Miles Per Hour by tuesday. Look at this, by the coast area we are going to see potential landfall now georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, they are in the mix of this with a cat 2 potentially for Hilton Head Island. The cone of uncertainty still very wide here. The slowing down pace, jeff, of this system, well be talking about this until next thursday now. Wow. All right. Thanks for that. Well check back with you later in the show. Lets head to miami where julia ba bagg is standing by. Shes with nbc 6. Whats the scene there . A steady stream of people filling up, not only cars but also canisters like this one. We were just speaking to this gentleman about that. What are you expecting . [ speaking Foreign Language ] he says he doesnt want to be taken by surprise if it does come our way. Better news for miami, but we remember well the lessons of irma. [ speaking Foreign Language ] he says hes filling up his car and he will have an extra gallon in that container just to be ready. He doesnt have a generator at home but he wants extra to put in his car so he can go. Overnight people had trouble looking for gas. We saw plastic bags over lots of pumps. So this place really like an oasis. Yesterday there were much longer lines. Things are going very smoothly now. Yesterday my own mother spent nearly three hours in line waiting for gas. So people are trying to take advantage here, wake up early before everybody else does. This gas station has a 90,000 gallon capacity. They were waiting for another shipment. It has not arrived yet. Aaa says there is enough gas in florida, the thing is getting that gas to the gas stations to keep up with demand. Thank you for that. Lets bring in our panel here, back here in washington. Glenn, thanks to you for supplying the pastry plate here. D. C. Doughnuts. Shout out to them. Lets talk about the president s role in all this. Two things can be true. One, he can think it is prudent to stay stateside while a cat 4 storm approaches the u. S. , but he could be concerned about the optics being overseas as a storm hits the key swing state of florida where he also has two properties. Lets not always beat up on President Trump, unless he deserves it. He cancels a trip overseas when theres a serious storm sort of barrelling down on our country. I think thats a good thing. I think he should be focused on whats good for the nation right now. Is it a coincidence what hes maralago is where . Its in florida. Yep. That why hes so concerned about this . Thats my snark for the morning. I actually think its a good thing when we have a president who is more concerned about us than he is rushing overseas to try to curry favor with folks over there. Whats your take . Dhs and fema. He has acting directors. I think this is madness. This is really tremendous for our country. Hurricane andrew was so big. So catastrophic. Dorian, its just one category lower. The president doesnt seem to understand that. Hes comparing this to andrew already. He has some loose lips. He seems to want to talk, talk, talk but he doesnt understand how to lead in the face of disaster. He doesnt have the people in place to do that. There are people within the administration who understand how to pull the levers of government to serve the people affected by this storm. Until you confirm people and get people in positions of leadership that you trust and know the process to help fellow americans who will suffer from this, this is all ridiculous. I think were in a moment where theres no leadership. The president does have a mixed record when it comes to Natural Disasters. He sometimes shows more empathy to states that voted for him. This week, we saw how he preemptively attacked the leadership of puerto rico and then when the storm had florida in his eye, he was far more concerned. Yeah. Yeah. Look, this president , you know, you never know what he will tweet about the hurricane. I remember watching television and him saying its the wettest from the standpoint of water. I remember that. I think i was there for that. It was a great moment. Him canceling a trip to poland, its not that big of a deal. Hes very well liked in poland. He has an incredible relationship with the polish president , which, you know, the polish president deserves probably a lot of criticism for the way he leads in poland and treats reporters. I dont think this is a big loss for the president by not going over to poland. Its not really going to hurt him internationally. Hes weakest on the International Stage. It looks better for him to be here probably rather than there. I remember last week i was on msnbc last week when he was at g7, i said we do not want this to blow up. I dont think the polish im not going to poland, that wont hurt him. It wont hurt his base. Like glenn was saying, it looks good for a president to be in the United States when were expecting a Natural Disaster in the United States. Im worried about the aftermath. I dont know how theyll lead the way. Because the government doesnt have a full apparatus . Absolutely not. How can acting directors be wellequipped theyre acting. It seems like Vice President duda will forgive trump. I couldnt help but key in on one thing reported by the New York Times yesterday about the president canceling the trip. President duda said i find it very easy and good to cooperate with President Trump because he is very down to earth, very concrete, he tells me what he wants and he asks me what he can get from us. Its a purely transactional relationship. Its a onesided transaction. Yeah. Thats remarkable to have one world leader say about other. I know we dispensed with the snark as you put it, the president canceled his trip to denmark when the leader there said his bid to buy greenland was absurd. Here he is canceling poland. Do you think it serves his purposes coming off the g7 that he would prefer to stay put rather than going out on the International Stage . I think whatever donald trump does in his decisionmaking process is best for donald trump. Thats not even snark. How we are now in a time in our history when most people feel that way about an american president is troubling. I look forward talking about the 2020 elections coming up. Well do that in a bit. Well continue to bring you developments on Hurricane Dorian throughout the morning with floridas governor expecting to give an update at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Up next, why one of the longest serving assistants to President Trump is now out of a job. The details of her sudden departure and what she reportedly said about the president s daughters. Stay with us. Ng the future. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States Postal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Its been a long time since andrew dusted off his dancing shoes. Luckily denture breath will be the least of his worries. Because he uses polident 4 in 1 cleaning system to kill 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria. Polident. Clean. Fresh. And confident. Of odor causing bacteria. This is the kid i went to the junihe was a cutie and if you go down, thats me, above him. You won best looking in your senior year of high school . Somebody had to win it. My Best High School moment was the day i walked across the stage. My dad. Couldnt read real good, so, it was a milestone for me. Ancestry has over 400,000 yearbooks from all across the country. So go back to school with your friends and family, and discover more of their stories. Search and share for free at ancestry. Com. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance, so you only pay for what you need. I wish i could shake your hand. Granted. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Some things are too important to do yourself. Get customized security with 24 7 monitoring from xfinity home. Awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Call, click or visit a store today. Bennett. The president s inner circle continues to shrink. President trumps personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout. She has been viewed as the gatekeeper of the oval office. Her departure came after the president learned she shared int ma intimate details about the first family with reporters. She reportedly bragged she had a better relationship with trump than his own daughters and the president did not like being in pictures with tiffany because he perceived her as being overweight. Trump addressed the situation yesterday. I really think she had a bad night. I think it was unfortunate. She said she was drinking and the whole thing was unfortunate. The comments about you not wanting to be in pictures with tiffany s that true . No, tiffany is great. I love tiffany. I love tiffany. Joining us now is daniel litman. Congratulations on your scoop. Thank you. Help us understand the space that madeleine occupied in the west wing. Who was she to donald trump . She was his executive assistant but was recently promoted to the director of oval office operations. So basically anyone who kneed anything from trump went to her, that included journalists looking for interviews, woodward was castigated by trump because he didnt call madeline when seeking an interview with him. If you had a Good Relationship with madeleine, you could talk to the president pretty quickly. And her cardinal sin it appears was running her mouth to a group of my colleagues, white house reporters, when the president was in bedminsterment help us understand how that unfolded. She and hogan gidley, the White House Deputy press secretary, they had this off the record dinner two weeks ago with four white house reporters, gidley left to do a tv hit, and then she started kind of spilling the beans after one too many drinks. These dinners are a commonplace thing on trips that the president goes to because staffers and press people want to have kind of an off the record atmosphere, but she went too far and started criticizing the president s family, which is a nono in trumps mind. There had been some reporting that the president was ambivalent about firing her or forcing her to resign. Do you have a sense of how that unfolded at the white house . Yes. He to be persuaded over all of thursday it appears that she had to go. So the chief of staff and others around trump were telling him that this story was going to break, and this was an untenable situation for them. Trump does not like to fire people. Hes long had a Good Relationship with Madeleine Westerhout. On Election Night my colleague reported in american carnage, his book about the last few years in american politics, that Madeleine Westerhout cried on Election Night because she was not happy that trump won and she found her way then into this top job and seemed to enjoy the access and power that it held. She was always posting pictures on instagram of her life in the white house. It shows as a staffer you have to remember not to be breaking the bosss trust. Even though trump is not loyal to his aides, if you wanted to keep your job and have good employment prospects in the future, this is not the way to leave the white house. Daniel, you mentioned the tim alberta book. 25yearold Madeleine Westerhout broke down drying on Election Night inconsolable to trumps victory to the amusement of her rnc peers, she was chosen as the president s executive assistant and now just sits outside the oval office. She graduated from college in 2013. She worked as an intern on mitt romneys campaign. Before that she was a fitness instructor. What does it say about the Trump White House that someone with that background could be given that responsibility . I came across her name when she was an assistant at the rnc to katie walsh. She was one of many staffers at a lower level. She went on to be an elevator greeter girl. His piece is great, it sheds light on how many of trumps inner circle comes to get there. Its questionable. People who are generally inexperienced, unprofessional. Madeleine was no different. The loose lips she had, its no surprise. Shes around a boss that doesnt seem to have tact. Why should she, even in a semiprofessional situation ive been around reporters. I really subscribe to one thing. You can have great relationships with reporters. Reporters are friends to those of white house protect our principle, the candidate, the elected official. Its very important to not bad mouth your boss. That seemed to have been lost on her. Her quick ascent to someone who screens the president s official calls, doesnt understand that. This is indicative of who trump surrounds himself with. Regardless of the way one feels about the president , what madeleine appears to have done here, that is a cardinal sin. She deserved to be fire. Yeah. There doesnt to be Quality Control on the people trump pulls into his inner orbit. I think on one hand we like to see and historically we have seen keeping the president s children out of this kind of thing. Tiffany in particular doesnt seem to have done anything to warrant this. But, you know, i dont think trump inspires loyalty with those people that he brings in. So when they have an unguarded moment, theyre probably exploding with information that they have about just how erratic and unfit President Trump is when theyre dealing with him. This kind of explosion of information doesnt surprise me. I think everybody kind of loses in the end. Thats a great point. I covered the end of Barack Obamas presidency, you didnt see those leaks coming from his aides. You didnt see it in the george w. Bush white house, but yet in the Trump Administration you see this thing a lot. Yeah. You see this kind of thing all the time. You know, i get drinks with white house people off the record pretty frequently. Sometimes they have bad things to say about the president. I never encountered anybody bad mouthing the president s family. With madeleine, the more important thing, madeleine was there from the beginning. We talked we ironically talk about everything and how many scare moo scaramuccis it lasted. She was one of the last people there from the beginning, which is interesting to me. It shows me what has to happen what is the line that has to be crossed that you go all the way youre one of the last people with the president , you go all the way, so this is the line and now that this is crossed i think glenn is right. Quality control in this white house, her coming from, you know, her resume the rnc. Its not massive, but thats also not surprising. Lets talk about the white house pipeline. Usually you get people going from the hill to the white house, the rnc or the dnc to the white house. That pipeline in the Trump Administration, at least in the current day, doesnt seem to be as active as it was in previous administrations. One wonders where the white house is pulling some of these staffers from. Pulling them from loyalists, people who show up at the trump hotel sometimes to be honest. This is a real thing. Ive been in republican circles where theyre like lets have drinks. We dont know who well see tonight. You have to put yourself in the right place at the right time. What troubles me about this piece, one is that she was reprimanded earlier this year for violating the hatch act. So she was exhibiting this loyalty publicly where she was crossing the line. They dont care. They just want to be in good graces with the president. The people around him. It will lead young women and men to do things like drinking too much on the job. Violating what seemed to be normal terms of washington engagement. But it was interesting also in the piece they want to throw this back on the Washington Post and on phil rucker saying their sourcing is questionable. They do questionable things every day. They cross the line every day in how they talk about american citizens and our free press. What do you expect . A reporter wont go back and say this woman is purely calling out your family. Its a funny thing. Daniel, thanks for joining us. When we come back, Hurricane Dorian strengthens to a dangerous category 4 storm. Where it now looks to make landfall. Every day, visionaries are creating the future. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States Postal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Ecommerce deliveries to homes when you start with a better thats no way to treat a dog. You can do no wrong. Where did you learn that . The internet. Yeah . Mmm with no artificial preservatives or added nitrates or nitrites, its all for the love of hot dogs. Corey is living with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. Shes also taking ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr her2 metastatic Breast Cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. Patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. Before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. Common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. Corey calls it her new normal because a lot has changed, but a lot hasnt. Ask your doctor about ibrance. The 1 prescribed fdaapproved oral Combination Treatment for hr her2 mbc. Just in the past half hour we learned the category 4 storm seems to have shifted its path with strong winds and storm surges possible along the georgia and carolina coasts. Carolinas governor issued an order to help farmers harvest crops ahead of the impending storm. Good morning. We have that shift in the pattern here of this storm system. I want to get to the cone here. We have sustained wins right now of 145 Miles Per Hour. Still warnings are in place here for the bahamas. We will start to see the pressure continue to go down. The winds will start to let up by monday and tuesday. But look at the track now. Its well to the north. This does not mean if youre in florida, south florida, across the coastline that this forecast could not change. We need to take those precautions of a landfall for florida. But now well add on four more states, georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina as well. And possibly here in our next update at 11 00, maybe even virginia here. But it goes down to a cat 2 here as it stays well offshore, potential landfall now with this latest update is Hilton Head Island. Weve been talking about this storm since last sunday. Look at this. With this newest update, thursday, 2 00 a. M. Throughout your labor day, all through next week well continue to talk about this system. Finally now our models here in the last 24 hours have started really to come into agreement here and it keeps this system well offshore. Taking a look at the european model, this is the left side of this storm system. Still going to cause the major surge here and possible flooding. The right side quadrant of this storm is the heaviest side of the storm, we see that damaging winds, thats well offshore. People still need to be taking precautions, were not sure of the landfall here. Still North Carolina and South Carolina now in the mix of this. Janessa webb, thanks for that. Lets go to florida where nbcs Kerry Sanders is on the ground. Whats the story where you are . We heard janessa talking about the strength of the hurricane. One of the Big Questions is how powerful this hurricane could grow. Category 4, maybe a category 5 . Now the knnoaa working in co conjunction with the national Hurricane Center has some new pieces of technology to give them instantaneous information. This looks like a tornado. This is an autonomous glider, it goes out and dives down to the water. It doesnt even have a battery on board to cause it to move forward it swims like a fish. It has a bladder. When the bladder contracts, it uses gravity to go down. It is gathering the levels of the water so that you can understand the density of the water out there. Most important is the temperature. That temperature, the warmer it is, the more powerful the hurricane can get. When that glider comes back to the surface, it transmits back the information so that the scientists at the national Hurricane Center can say okay, this is what we think will happen with the continued growth or decreasing power of the hurricane. Critical information. We spoke to many of those involved with this including grant rossin. This is what he had to say. Its impossible to collect this data underneath the hurricane before these came along. Because its too dangerous to get out there. Yeah. A ship cant be out there. People cant be out there. This has no problems flying through the hurricane under the water, collecting data and transmitting that data back to us. So he says it is like a game changer here. He did the analogy. He said it is as if you went from a rotary dial phone to an iphone. Things change that dramatically with this new technology. They have that instantaneous information and its the atmosphere, the wind shear that will cause the direction of dorians movements here. While we have you, this is Labor Day Weekend, one imagines how this storm is affecting travelers and then the economics down there. Whats the scene as people try to, i imagine, flee that part of florida. The airports have been slammed. People have been getting out. In the southern part of florida, things are shifting a bit because they see the new direction of the storm. But a lot of people already left. There was not a Seat Available on a flight. You would think hotels would get a big hit, not so. As tourists were getting out, drentz residents were like lets go to a hotel. Its been hard to get hotel rooms in south florida and up the coast. The bottom line is as you well know, this is for many people this is the last chance before Labor Day Weekend to have that fun in the sun. Florida is always great weather but its peoples schedules. Peoples schedules were open for this. They flew down, they were here and a lot to of things have been upset. You want to know something . I wanted to point something out that was interesting. Whats that . I was curious about the name of the storm. Dorian, possible origin of the name dorian, from the greek dorios, meaning child of the sea. Sort of appropriate name. Angry child of the sea. Kerry sanders, our best to you and your crew there as you ride out this storm. We have more breaking news this hour. The protests in hong kong are heating up as the city faces its 13th straight weekend of unrest. Hong kong police are squaring off with protesters firing tear gas and water canons into the crowd as the latest demonstrations turn violent. Geoff, were broadcasting live from the one chi neighborhood of hong kong which has been the scene of pitched battles between police who banned a massive demonstration and the protesters who defied that ban any way. They met today moments ago in clashes. We witnessed them firsthand when protesters hurled molotov cocktails at police. Police for their part fired back with a water canon. For the first time they used a water canon that shot colored paint, red and blue, which local media say is in order to identify the protesters who were there in the front lines. So the government can know how to follow up with them later. All of these scenes have been escalating in recent weeks. Theyre all just completely out of the norm for a city like hong kong, which prides itself on Financial Stability but also stability and order at large. Its completely out of order with the rest of china as well. The last time we saw these types of challenges to the authority in beijing, 1989. Thats an ominous portent considering those clashes ended in bloodshed. Now everyone here is wondering how will these protests end. Geoff . Thank you very much for that report. Well take a moment now to remember an Emmy Award Winning actress, Valerie Harper who passed away friday morning. Her daughter posted the news on social media saying my dad asked know pass on this message. My beautiful caring wife of nearly 40 years passed away at 10 10 06 a. M. After years of fighting cancer. She will never ever be forgotten. Rest in peace. Harper was best known for her role as rhoda on the Mary Tyler Moore show. Harper won four emmys as her role. She is survived by her daughter and husband. This is amazing. With moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay . Even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. So i talked to my doctor about humira. I learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications havent worked well enough. And it helps people achieve control that lasts. So you can experience few or no symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, control is possible. Its been a long time since andrew dusted off his dancing shoes. Luckily denture breath will be the least of his worries. Because he uses polident 4 in 1 cleaning system to kill 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria. Polident. Clean. Fresh. And confident. Doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. They give us excellent customer otservice, every time. E. Our 18 year old was in an accident. Usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. All i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. If i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. Were the gomez family. Were the rivera family. Were the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life. Get your Auto Insurance quote today. Enterprise car sales and youll take any tradein . Rom thats right great here you go. Well, it does need to be a vehicle. But i need this out of my house. vo with fair, Transparent Value for every tradein. Enterprise makes it easy. Welcome back to up. Im Geoff Bennett in for david gura. Democratic front runner and former vp joe biden took on the issue of race this week. Biden told a small group of reporters on tuesday that racism in america is an institutional white mans problem visited on people on color. Biden took aim at President Trump saying he must be held responsible for deepening the racial divide in the u. S. Washington post political reporter eugene scott was in the room for bidens remarks. Eugene, help us understand how this all unfolded. I understand it was supposed to be off the record, a short conversation, and then the Vice President clearly had different ideas of how things might go. Indeed. There were a few members from his campaign that reached out to about 10 to 12 journalists, black journalists from major Media Outlets for an off the record conversation with the former Vice President. When we arrived, we were notified there would be some elements of the talk that were on the record. So given the demographics of the journalists there, we spoke to the former Vice President about his plan to connect with black voters, we spoke about some of the challenges that he is having with black voters, and just across the board. We spoke about his plan for working class americans. He speaks often about middle class americans, and just touched on other issues related to those headlines that were seeing in the 2020 campaign. So what were some of the top takeaways . Did he explain why it appears black voters seem to give him higher marks than they do Kamala Harris or cory booker . One reason why joe biden is the frontrunner and has been is because of his standing among older black voters who are the core of the Democratic Party. He did address that. He believes black voters are more familiar with him because of his relationship with americas first black president and he also believes black voters know him because hes been in policymaking for more than 30 years. He also spoke to the fact that everyone is aware that black voters tend to be older voters. He has a relationship with these members of the american electorate that he believes he started with legislation going back for years addressing issues that are of relevance to black americans. He said he feels comfortable in spaces with predominantly black americans, speaking to the issues that matter most to them and he believes that translates into support. He made no decisions, obviously hes doing well in polls compared to others, he said if he was the nominee, he would prefer a Vice President ial candidate who was either a woman or a person of color or both. So he spoke about the importance of having the top ticket for the democratic 2020 election reflect the diversity of america. That was very important to him. But he said more than that they need to be on the same page philosophically, politically in terms of whatever it is they need to do to dismantle trumps legacy when it comes to issues related to racism and globally, which he believes to be a more significant issue than many of the challenges americans are facing domestically under President Trump. We should say the election is 400 plus days out, but to eugenes point the Vice President , you know, if he happens to become the nominee, with you hinting at who he might want to pick as a Vice President , a woman and possibly someone of color. What do you make of that and perhaps some of the democrats who already dropped out . Might they be a suitable vp pick . I dont think anybody who dropped out would be a suitable pick. Im thinking about kirsten gillibrand. Shes been a womens issues candidate. People take that seriously in this post Hillary Clinton era where we have trump and we wonder what happened. As a woman of color, i could identify with Hillary Clinton. Its weird to say. Much much younger than her, im a daughter of immigrants. I pride myself on those things, yet i could look up to her because shes what my mother raised me to be, a woman who aspired for the highest office of the land and aspired for greatness. So we see somebody offending us every day from the highest office in the land, thats hard to match up. You cant also make this a single issue thing. You cant make it about women or people of color, you have to blend. Thats what biden gets. Im a biden supporter in that way. As we talk about offair, hes decent. He would take us back to a normal era, i think. People so desperately want that. Thats where im at on this thing. Its a great thing hes said it out loud. Well talk more about this after the break. First eugene scott, thanks to you. Thanks for getting up early. Appreciate it. Thanks. Kirsten gillibrand is the latest 2020 hopeful to throw in the towel. As the 2020 field narrows, we have to ask how many more candidates are going to follow suit . And how many more are Still Holding out for a possible hail mary. At the top of the next hour, an update on Hurricane Dorian from the governor. We put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States Postal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Ecommerce deliveries to homes do your asthma symptoms ever hold you back . About 50 of people with severe asthma have too many cells called eosinophils in their lungs. Eosinophils are a key cause of severe asthma. Fasenra is designed to target and remove these cells. Fasenra is an addon injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. Fasenra is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. Fasenra is proven to help prevent severe asthma attacks, improve breathing, and can lower oral steroid use. Fasenra may cause allergic reactions. Get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. Dont stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. Headache and sore throat may occur. Havent you missed enough . Ask an asthma specialist about fasenra. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. Billions of problems. Sore gums . Bleeding gums . Painful flossing . Theres a therabreath for you. Therabreath healthy gums oral rinse fights gingivitis and plaque and prevents gum disease for 24 hours. So you can. Breathe easy, theres therabreath at walmart. So chantix can help you quit slow turkey. Key. Along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. With chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. Chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, youll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or lifethreatening allergic and skin reactions. Decrease alcohol use. Use caution driving or operating machinery. Tell your doctor if youve had Mental Health problems. The most common side effect is nausea. Quit smoking slow turkey. Talk to your doctor about chantix. This is up. Im Geoff Bennett. Kirsten gillibrand dropped out of the democratic primary earlier this week after missing the cutoff for abcs september 12th debate in houston. Gillibrand is not the only candidate to miss the cutoff. Others include Tulsi Gabbert and tom steyer who spent 12 million to make it to the next round of debates. Steyer joined msnbc last night and said despite not making the debates he has not intention of dropping out. The actual polls show my message is working, people are responding. It would be crazy not to keep going. Im going to. All right. So as front runners like joe biden and Elizabeth Warren pull ahead, the question remains as to when its time to throw in the towel. Still with us here is our panel. Alex, ill go to you. Theres 20 democrats still staying in this race. Fewer seem to be relevant. Whats the over under here on when people call it quits. I talked to a lot of campaigns asking when would you like to see this scenario . The answer i got was super tuesday. The debate stage is such a big moment. People were talking about that. Tom steyer just got in the race, tried to buy his way on to the stage. Was not able to way on to debate stage. Was not able to do it i had a staffer tell me that from one of the top campaigns. You need to take a hard look at why youre in this race. I think well probably start to see even more drop out now that were about to see the next debate. I want to draw on your experience, you were a strategist for Evan Mcmullen who ran as an independent in 2016. Now joe walsh, a former congressman, controversial conservative radio host. Announcing a primary challenge to donald trump. Donald trump has a 90 standing in the Republican Party. How might joe walsh in the republican field running a campaign thats relevant or might at least get donald trump you know off his game . Well number one theyre banking on that approval rating. They think it might not be true. That 9 had 4 it 94 , the Walsh Campaign is saying look you know this guy is indecent, hes an affront to democracy, were going to have a bar fight with him every day and joe has been steady with that on the twitter beat. Joe nodes to understand that america is more than twitter. Thats where i take issue with how hes coming about on this. Theres a Brilliant Exchange he just had with fox news, where he says do you believe this president lies and Stewart Varney says no. And i think joe walsh showed who he really was in that moment. Hes a truthteller and joe is going to do this and i think hes going, hes trying to do it from the right of trump and i dont know that thats going to work. Our situation with mcmullen is unique in that we were independent. We had a threemonth, very much a sprint to the finish. We went out to the states like utah, those western states where i could feel and see what these people thought and what i heard over and over again is something i just heard last week from a republican from North Carolina. Somebody with a very strong catholic background, i should admit, its about the injustices, these people are still, these people, the Trump Supporters who reluctantly support him, are still about the legacy on the court. They just really believe that we need more conservatives on the courts. And thats why theyll vote for trump again. So this is, just, this is not where i thought my party would be in any way, ive come back into the Republican Party as somebody who believes at the core, we have these issues. That we can talk about and message to communities of color and talk about opportunities. But were so far away from that right now. How do we come back . And i dont think joe walsh brings us back. To rinas point, she said the american electorate is more than twitter. That seems to be the argument that joe biden is making. Do you think hes right about that . Yes, i do. You talked a moment ago about when do other candidates start to drop out . I think there are a lot of great candidates, im anxious to have candidates start to drop out. It feelts like everybodys message is being diluted by everybody elses message and i look forward to a time when we have a few main contenders and we can start to absorb more. Not just who has a chance to beat trump. They awe all want to beat trump. That cant be anybodys primary focus. You have to have something beyond that. Not that there are only two great candidates. If you compare and contrast biden and Elizabeth Warren, those are two very different candidates. And i always think in terms of football analogies because im a gutter kid from jersey and my dad was a football coach. What part of jersey . My dad coached at every high school. Im from south jersey. Clifton, monthville, so heres the way i look at it. If you think in terms of a Football Game, youve got, youve got Elizabeth Warren, listen i want to win the Football Game and along the way i want to rework the parking lot so the fans can park in a more commonsense way, i want to make the bleachers more comfortable and the hotdogs and beers cheaper. I want to improve the way the refs do business and i want to make the uniforms look better and i want to win the game and you get the sense that joe biden saunders into the stadium and says i want you to look at the scoreboard at the end of the game and see that i got more than 270 electoral votes. Two very different approaches. They both want to beat trump. But who is it thats not only going to beat trump, but going to build and reform government in the wake of trumps destruction. Ben kirchner with a football analogy. Well have an update on Hurricane Dorian from the Florida Governor. I cant believe it. That sophie opened up a wormhole through time . speaking japanese where am i . woman speaking french are you crazy nuts . Cyclist pip pip woman speaking french im here, look at me. Its completely your fault. man speaking french ok . Its me. Its my fault . No, i cant believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my Car Insurance with geico. pterodactyl screech believe it. Geico could save you 15 or more on Car Insurance. Corey is living with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. Shes also taking ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr her2 metastatic Breast Cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. Patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. Before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. Common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. Corey calls it her new normal because a lot has changed, but a lot hasnt. Ask your doctor about ibrance. The 1 prescribed fdaapproved oral Combination Treatment for hr her2 mbc. Welcome back to up im jeff bennett in for david gura. Hurricane dorian is whipping the coast of the u. S. With winds of up to 1 45 Miles Per Hour. Preparing to strike the northern bahamas as a category 4 hurricane. This of course is before slowly making its way towards the eastern coast of florida where residents are preparing. Georgia and the carolinas are now bracing for impact. At this hour were awaiting an update on storm preparations from Florida Governor ron desantis. President trump canceled his trip to poland to remain stateside after he launched a new series of attacks on puerto rican officials when Hurricane Dorian looked to be making its way to the island. Joining us this hour from washington is democratic strategist and former Senate Leadership aide joel payne. Former director for Strategic Communications for Hillary Clinton and an msnbc contributor, adrian elrod and former deputy assistants secretary of state and host of the podcast felipe rinas. The president said he canceled his trip to poland so he could stay here and keep an eye on the storm. It strikes me that two things can be true. Yes, its prudent to do that. Its true that the president wanted to avoid the optics of being overseas while a storm took aim at the electorally important state of florida. I think also the third part, he wanted to avoid being overseas, period. What were seeing from last week at the g7 or whats been reported around, he doesnt enjoy these things. The polish, obviously were ready to put out the full pomp and circumstance. But i dont think hes brokenhearted to have missed it as if it were the uk or the queen. In terms of there are a lot of the history of politics, is littered with the corpses of mayors and governors who mishandled and even president s, who mishandled Natural Disasters, obviously george bush with katrina and in a different way, Chris Christie hugging barack obama a week before the election of 2008. Its not good look to be overseas. Hes going to undo it in a mter of time. Hell start tweeting thank god maralago was missed. Thank god doral was missed. He might go golfing today. Hes not, this is not going to hold. I dont think the people of florida should be holding their breath for any kind of empathy. To philippes point, weve seen how the president handles his Natural Disasters, he shows way more empathy to states that voted for him. Remember california with the wildfires he was there and talking about how officials didnt do enough when it comes to raking the forests. That kind of thing. What should we expect to see here . Well it will be left to be determined to see how he handles this. To your point, jeff, were going to see him hand it will far differently than he handled puerto rico, than he handled california. States that did not support him in 2016. Hes got properties in florida and hes got a lot of personal stake in any sort of Natural Disasters that impacts that state. I think the broader picture that weve got to consider is . Going to change his views on Climate Change . Thats really whats happening here. I have to believe that hes probably not going to. But when you actually see his properties being potentially damaged by the storm, you know in a state that he wants to win in 2020, in a state that i think youre going to hear more and more people talk about, the impact of Climate Change especially if the hurricane damages florida significantly, i mean that to me is what im looking for. The Democratic Party primary voters Climate Change is one of the top issues. Youre seeing now with independents and some republican moderate voters, does this change his vision on Climate Change . Well see. Well go to janessa webb for an update on the storms path. What do you make of the president s shift. The way he talked about puerto rico when it seemed that the storm was going to hit puerto rico. And then towards florida, a decided shift in tone. He views everything through the prism of donald trump. So he has a personal interest in florida, this is kind of a theme with republicans overall when theres a personal interest. When dick cheneys daughter is a list beian and all of a sudden he has more progressive views on lgbt issues, when rob portman has a Family Member thats lgbt. Hes more progressive. When ted cruz has a disaster in his state. He cares about federal funding. Its kind of a republican thing that predates donald trump. So donald trump is continuing a legacy of a long line of republicans that kind of only care about things when it happens to places that affect them. Republicans as hypocrits . You said it, not me. Adrian, to adrians point, how should we think differently about Climate Change . If its democrats. Taking democrats out of this. If its not enough to do the right thing, its an economics issue of the cost of doing nothing as it relates to Climate Change. Theres Climate Change but theres also just like disaster prep and funding. Remember, hes also redirected fema funds to his you know, his quixotic border wall project that you know really all theyre doing refurbishing some fences. He probably needs to take some money and refurbish some of his hotels so they dont keep violating code. But thats really all this is, its the president trying to cover up for clear mistakes that hes made. When you think about somebodys budget, ive always learned when i worked in government, a budget is a moral document. It tells you who someone is and what their priorities are. The president doesnt prioritize being the comforter in chief or being somebody who has to you know oversee a disaster. He prioritizes being able to oversee state ceremonies at maralago and things of that nature. Thats what he cares about. Lets go to florida where i understand the governor is speaking. Well listen to him for a few moments. Were going to be monitoring the situation, working with our federal and local partners, fema has been engaged with us from the beginning. We have time to take some questions. I want to ask you with the two counties that have issued evacuation notices, are you doing anything to enhance that evacuation, lifting tolls or doing anything with the shoulders . We are going to monitor the traffic flows and if the traffic becomes abnormal, we will take needed action to alleviate that. However at this point, we do not see any abnormal traffic on the roadways. So those options are on the table and if need be they can be exercised. Governor are you worried that people are seeing the track and just assume it will continue to go one way and maybe not heed evacuation orders you know, dip into their hurricane supplies a little bit early . Obviously you dont want to overread these tracks. Because you can look at a little bit of a movement to the west and then all of a sudden were looking at a much different scenario if that were to come out say later today. I also think what weve tried to do here is just be very factual, be very direct with people. We havent tried to overreact. But weve also tried to put out the information and explain the risks. So i think the fact that weve taken that approach, i think people look and say, okay, it looks like its been positive movement. But were not out of the woods yet. I think people are probably going to still understand you know that preparations need to be made. And understand understand even if it doesnt directly strike florida, this is a big, powerful storm. Youre still looking at really significant storm surge on the east coast of florida. Youre looking at major flooding events. In different parts of the state. And so the effects can range, but youre still looking at significant impacts, even if the storm remains hugging the coast. So just be vigilant, listen to your local officials, follow the news and do what you need to do to protect yourself and your families. How would you describe the fuel situation today compared to yesterday . Better. The trucks were in all night refueling. Youre starting to get those are now in, moving into the gas stations. Weve been watching Florida Governor ron desantis giving a press conference as Hurricane Dorian works its way up the coast. Lets go to nbc news meteorologist janessa. We had Hurricane Matthew in 2016 here. It wasnt a direct hit for florida. As they were first forecasting. But still, over is 1 billion of damage across florida. 14 people lost their life. Even though were not going to potentially now not see a direct impact due to this cone of uncertainty. Were still going to see the massive storm surge and the massive flooding. Right now sustained winds of 145 Miles Per Hour. Door yn has slowed down dramatically. This is going to be a really big prolonged event. Wove been talking about it since last week. Were going to be talking about dorian until thursday of next week here. Now still a cat 4 going into your labor day. With sustained winds of 140 Miles Per Hour. It does hug the coast here. The storm surge really going to be a problem. With the latest change here. Now were adding on three to potentially four more states. Georgia, even atlanta youre going to see some of the leftovers of this storm system. But still, now potential landfall of a category 2, out towards the coastal areas of South Carolina. We will have North Carolina, the outer banks into wilmington, also in the mix of this. Our models are now starting to come into agreement. This is the european model. It really skirts the outposts of west palm beach, into orlando. This is the leftside quadrant of the storm. So not as heavy as the right side quadrant where we see the damaging winds and still, the storm surge and the flooding going to be an issue and were still going to be watching the cone of uncertainty here it could possibly change once again. Only about 1015 miles and we could potentially have a landfall, jeff, for florida once again. This erratic storm system continue. Lets go to jowlia bagg standing by in miami. With the nbcowned station there, nbc 6. It looks like youre at a costco. Thats right. In fact in the last few minutes the opening of early, normally opens up on saturdays at around 9 30 eastern time. But there was a line around the building just in the last few minutes. To get in. People wanting to shop for generators, for water and the good news is theyve been telling people there is plenty of water, other places, though, other grocery stores, its been different. Youve had just one or two cases per customer. Here, theres no limit. Weve seen people gassing up, and just trying to decide whether theyre going to stay here and weather the storm. Two years ago in irma, the lastminute unexpected turns really caused a lot of families anxiety. Some having to change their evacuation routes at the last minute because of the changes in the storm. So people telling us this morning they dont want to be caught off guard. Theyre sending them to the back of the store to get water. As weve been telling you, theyve been telling us, you can get as much water as you need and people shopping for generators, they dont want to be stuck without air conditioning in this kind of south florida heat. Well send it back to you. Julia bagg, thanks for that report. Well monitor the storm throughout the hour. Up next the commanderinchief just release classified information . And on twitter . How President Trump is taunting iran and raising alarm bells within the intelligence community. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States Postal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Ecommerce deliveries to homes just between us, cleaning with a mop and bucket is such a hassle. Well i switched to swiffer wet jet and its awesome. Its an allinone that absorbs dirt and grime deep inside. And it helps prevent streaks and haze. Stop cleaning. Start swiffering its been a long time since andrew dusted off his dancing shoes. Luckily denture breath will be the least of his worries. Because he uses polident 4 in 1 cleaning system to kill 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria. Polident. Clean. Fresh. And confident. Of odor causing bacteria. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance, hmm. Exactly. So you only pay for what you need. Nice. But, uh. Whats up with your. Partner . Not again. Limu thats your reflection. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. Welcome back to up im jeff bennett. President trump is denying that the u. S. Sabotaged irans apparently failed rocket launch. The president tweeted this highresolution photo yesterday of a launch pad explosion, wishing iran quote good luck determining what happened. A u. S. Defense official tells cnbc that the photo was part of the president s intelligence briefing. President trump was asked about this yesterday at the white house. Take a look. They had a big problem, and we had a photo and i released it. Which i have the absolute right to do and well see what happens, youll have to figure that one out yourself. They were going to set off a big missile and it didnt work out too well. Had nothing to do with us. The New York Times put out that this is the third successive failure of tehrans efforts to show it can loft satellites into orbit, adding that more than twothirds of iran satellite launches have failed over the past 11 years, a high number compared with the 5 failure rate world wide. General Barry Mccaffrey says it appears that trump is proactively taunting iranians and implying we did hack and wreck their missile launch. It appears he used a classified photo to make this implied claim. Incredible. We heard the president say that he has the right to declassify whatever he wants. Hes right, but should he have . I mean he could declassify the Nuclear Codes later today, thats probably not the best idea, either. And theres two problems here. One that photo in particular look im six years out of government but ive seen enough of these to know, there are countries who have a hard time gathering intelligence, north korea, iran, you dont want them to know exactly how youre doing it and for anyone who has watched tv you can tell thats a photo taken close to the site. Im sure what might be worse is that the photo was taken by another country like israel who shared. But this is pattern. Forget about his relationship with russia. The first, when he first came into office at maralago. He was sharing intelligence or they were holding an openair intelligence briefing with Prime Minister abe and every guest who paid 2,000 to be part of the club. He met in the oval with Sergei Lavrov and ambassador kislyak. Whether you can do something is different than whether you should do something. And this is the reason why, general mccaffrey and every intelligence official is legitimately freaking out is because it might be harder to get the next piece of intelligence, because now the iranians are going to be looking up in the sky and saying, uhoh we need to worry about these things a little bit more. Lets talk about the consequences, perhaps the unintended consequences of this. It imagine working within the National Intelligence apparatus. You deliver your work product to the white house, probably at risk of life and limb and it ends up on twitter. What does that do . It does a numb of things, philippe accurately laid out. It really compromises a lot of our sources and methods probably. It makes people who are career officials and those agencies i would imagine, feel like oh, my gosh, can i trust sharing this kind of information. Up the chain and am i going to get some of my sources in hot water. Am i going to risk their life or am i going to risk my Information Sources Going Forward . There are a lot of you know really important drawbacks to think about when you consider that. But also this brings up theres always been just a lack of seriousness when it comes to information, right . And when it comes to the responsibilities of the job. When it comes to this white house. I worked in highlevel government, okay . Every word this came out of the Majority Leaders Office we had to be sure was precise and correct. And treated with the soberness that deserved the attention of the majority leader. This president just does not get that the people around him dont care about it. Thats how he ran his business, thats how hes running his government. The former personal assistant to the president who as we reported this morning. Had a few too many drinks and said some disparaging things about the president s family and that got her fired. The president , adrian tweeted this in the last hour. He said while Madeline Westerhout had a fully enforceable confidentiality agreement, she a very good person. She called me to apologize, she had a bad night. I fully understand and forgave her. I love tiffany, doing great. Hes efficient with these 280 characters. Lets start with the nda. Why would he mention that . If she had an nda as a government official, is it enforceable . Why does donald trump do a lot of things . The fact that hes using his twitter account to comment on a Personnel Matter a bizarre. I will say this and i cant believe im going to sort of defend donald trump on this one. You have to have a trust of your staff, right . If you are the president of the United States if youre the a United States senator, United States congresswoman. Congressman, no matter what you do, you have to have the trust and faith in your staff. So i think in this circumstance, it was warranted. Probably for her to depart. But you know the circumstances are weird, right . Because its, you know, its kind of fishy and you know, supposedly she made some comments about his family that was not kosher with him. I dont blame him for making this decision. I just think he needs to stop tweeting about it and move on. Because its not normal for president s to tweet about their staff. The eyes at this table have seen a lot and heard a lot. And our trust has relied upon to insure that those folks that continue to do their job in a way that they dont feel like the people around them cant be trusted. The irony of his tweeting she has a fully enforceable nda. But you know, why are you tempting someone to even talk out of school afterwards . Ndas are notoriously unenforceable. The carrot and stick is if someone says youre fired, youre going to be paid out over three years, you keep quiet, because you dont want to violate the terms. But this was unceremonious. They could have said madeline, its time to go you could have announced youre going to grad school or moving to the department of agriculture. They made a point of doing this. Without getting into the nuance of how this happened, its clear fellow staffers made the argument. If report something correct, trump who was legitimately upset, he was apparently pretty agnostic about it. He probably likes her a great deal and also knows that she knows a lot about him. Its not a great idea to fire her. In the minutes that remain, should she have had that job in the first place . She was a fitness instructor, an intern in the Romney Campaign and next thing you know shes answering phones in the trump office. All work is honest, im not ragging on the fact she was a fitness instructor, but that does not mean she should be sitting outside the president s office. His 2016 Campaign Staff was largely filled with b and clevel Campaign Staff who could not have gotten hired on another campaign in the republican primary. People who had no experience working on no campaigns. You know steve bannon i think wrote in his book that he was furious walking into the Campaign Offices in trump tower two months before the election on a sunday morning and two people were in the office. Joel and i can attest on Hillary Clintons campaign, it was full on sunday mornings. It was full every single day with hundreds and hundreds of staff. So he filled his campaign with a lot of people who had no experience. Its no surprise of course that he filled his white house with a lot of people who have no experience. In this realm. Zblee was at the rnc, a personal assistant to a deputy there. So she had some experience. Also she replaced a guy named keith shiller, who his claim to fame was that he carried a gun to protect donald trump. Is up next the tall tale thats gotten joe biden into some controversy. Will it even matter now that were living in the age of trump . Were talking about that coming back. Volunteerism. Fundraising. Giving back. Subaru and our retailers have given over one hundred and sixtyfive Million Dollars to charity. We call it our love promise. And its why you dont even have to own a subaru to love a subaru retailer. Love. Its what makes subaru, subaru doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. They give us excellent customer otservice, every time. E. Our 18 year old was in an accident. Usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. All i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. If i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. Were the gomez family. Were the rivera family. Were the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life. Get your Auto Insurance quote today. In the human brain, billions of nefor people with parkinsons, some neurons change their tune, causing uncontrollable tremors. Now, abbott technology can target those exact neurons. Restoring control and harmony, once thought to belost forever. The most personal technology is technology with the power to change your life. This is up, former Vice President joe biden is back on defense over a gripping war story he told on the campaign trail. Lets listen. I was making the point how courageous these people are. How incredible they are. This generation of warriors, these fallen angels weve lost. And so that i dont know what the problem is. I mean, what is it that i said wrong . A new report by the Washington Post points out multiple inaccuracies in the anecdote he shared about a u. S. Soldier being honored for heroism in afghanistan. This guy climbed down a reconvenient, carried this guy up on his back under fire. And the general wanted me to pin the silver star on him. And he said sir, i do not want the damn thing. Please, sir, do not pin it on me. Do not do that. He died. He died. According to the Washington Post. In the space of three minutes biden got the time period, the location, the type of act, the type of medal, the Military Branch and the rank of the recipient wrong. Joining us is 2020 nbc news president ial campaign embed amanda golden. How is the former Vice President explaining what we in the media like to call a gaffe . So jeff theyre standing by with the what the former Vice President said. Both when he told the story in hanover New Hampshire when the story broke in greenville, system system during his stop. Voters didnt seem to be affected, either. They see this larger narrative that biden has of propensity for gaffes and for exaggerating stories or for going a bit further with his details. As endearing and the Campaign Says it speaks to a larger Central Point that biden has these experiences and is able to showcase them in front of voters when he does these events across the country. Joel payne to her point she says the campaign thinks theyre endearing, loose on the details is built into his public persona and voters seem to not care. I agree with the premise of amandas reporting there. I think the bigger point here is the inaccuracy and what it suggests about his ability to endure a long campaign. And i do think that is something that over the long run the biden folks are going to have to mitigate. This is a concern that this is going to be a very tough campaign process on the former Vice President and in that in a potential oneonone matchup with donald trump, i think theres some concern democratic primary voters feel like he might have a hard time. In a debate or in a public back and forth. That the president will be able to take advantage of him in some way. And i think thats going to concern a lot of democrats, we know the president has no scruples when it comes to throwing everything but the kitchen sink in a fight and we know hell do that to joe biden. The president seems to benefit from the asymmetry. He says whatever he wants whenever he wants. Sometimes more often than not its not tied to the facts and yet joe biden tells a story thats at its heart. True. He seems to be conflating two different stories into one. At the heart of it is true. And yet here all this ink is spilled and were talking about a gaffe. Comparing apples and orpgs when you consider the fact that donald trump has lied at least 1200 times publicly versus joe biden who might have mangled a little bit of the story about the members of the military to try to show compassion. He wasnt coming from a place of maliciousness, he was coming from a place of compassion and showing his respect for members of the military. I think this is okay. I think part of his charm are his gaffes, right . But the bigger issue here is if hes on the debate stage, if he manageles, Elizabeth Warrens voting record for example. If hes throwing the shot at her on stage. If he does the same thing with Kamala Harris, if he somehow misstates their record, or misstates you know, an attack that hes lodging at them, thats where it becomes a bigger issue. I think when youre telling a story, its like the fun uncle who might exaggerate at the thanksgiving dinner table about you know a story to make it sound more impactful, this is harmless. This is part of joe bidens charm. But i think Going Forward, hes got to be careful not to turn this into something that is could be detrimental to him. What about the notion that democrats have no margin for error when it comes to defeating donald trump . I think its true. But i dont know that this is the error that they need to watch. I mean to me, three years later were not entirely sure what happened in 2016. So its a little strange to say we know exactly what its going to take to win in 2020. Our Party Debates among itself whether or not we just need to turn out the base. Or whether or not we appeal. When donald trump says were going to if he cuss on my base, everybody says whats he thinking, its so narrowminded. Whether joe biden is the person or not, i dont know. Whether its this gaffe thing or not its too much of a catchall. When you say gaffe, iweek up this morning and i didnt know what day of the week it was, it took me a minute to remember i got to get in the car and thankfully there werent reporters around and i wasnt giving a press conference. Theres a difference between that and someone saying you know, race, is a problem with the white men. Thats something you shouldnt say. Thats a reflection of maybe being someone who has been doing this for a long time. What strikes me is how ineffective he has been in dealing with it. And what stands out to me about the Washington Post story is that this is the first time biden has really said come on. I mean this is ridiculous. He needs to do that. He needs to say look you know what . I got a couple of facts wrong ive spoken to tons of Medal Winners this is donald trump who wanted to give himself the medal of honor. He got five deferments and someone gave him a purple heart. Im second to no one in what ive done in helping people and making sure our troops in afghanistan and iraq, et cetera. Hes not doing that. Its a real problem. Got it. Amanda golden, thanks to you. Coming up next, a possible site for the g7, a 30,000 Holiday Party by the attorney general. Some of the ways that President Trumps hotels are cashing in on his presidency. Coming up next. O count on. O count on. Is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. Boost® high protein. Be up for life. Its been a long time since andrew dusted off his dancing shoes. Luckily denture breath will be the least of his worries. Because he uses polident 4 in 1 cleaning system to kill 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria. Polident. Clean. Fresh. And confident. Of odor causing bacteria. Youre smart,eat you already knew that. But its also great for finding the perfect used car. Youll see what a fair price is and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. Now youre even smarter. This is truecar. You wouldnt accept from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. Flonase. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . vo cascade platinum does the work for you. Prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. mom wow thats clean vo cascade platinum. The first survivor of alzis out there. Ase and the Alzheimers Association is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Join the fight with the Alzheimers Association. burke at farmers insurance, weve seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a threering fender bender. clown 1 sorry about that. clown 2 apologies. clown 1 . Didnt mean it. clown 3 whoops. stilts sorry clowns were sorry scary hey, were sorry [man screams] [scary screams] burke quite the circus. But we covered it. At farmers, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum welcome back to up im jeff bennett. The nations top Law Enforcement official will be wroiting a check to President Trump this holiday season. Attorney general bill barr is set to host a Holiday Party at Trump International hotel in washington, d. C. In december to the tune of more than 30,000. Thats unfolding as the Justice Department continues to defend the president against charges he is profiting off of presidency. Barr will be paying out of his own pocket and the Justice Department says he chose the president s hotel after two others fell through. Ethics observers adding the move is not against the law. An analysis by the Washington Post shows so far the federal government and republican campaigns have spent at least is 1. 6 million at Trump Properties since he entered office. And as he wrapped up things at the g7 in france this past week, President Trump pitched his resort in doral, florida, as the ideal location for next years summit. We have a series of magnificent buildings, we call them bungalows. They each hold from 5070 very luxurious rooms. With magnificent views. We im not going to make any money. I dont want to make money. Each country can have their own villa or their own bungalow. Its not about me, its about getting the right location. So sales pitch there for doral. Joelle payne lets talk about the attorney general having this 30,000 Holiday Party. First of all what kind of party costs 30,000. Weddings cost 30,000 or more. Federal workers have drill nod their brains that you have to avoid even the conflict of interest. The appearance of a conflict of interest. Here he is having this party at the trump hotel. Fish rots from the head down. The president has never, never, ever, ever, laid out that theres clear separation between his business and between his work as a government official. Anding everybody who is around him all adhere to those same principles, the president doesnt care about the appearance of impropriety. His entire life is about the appearance of impropriety. Hes very comfortable operating in a world where the lines are gray between heres where my business begins and heres where my government work ends. He doesnt care about these things. Donald trump tells you, the one thing i appreciate about donald trump, the clarity is like amazing. Hes nothing if not transparent. Theres nothing intransparent between donald trump. You can tell everything thats on his mind at every given time. He sounds like a twobit salesperson on qvc talking about bing los and villas and whatnot. Bungalows. With apologies to our friends at qvc. Love you. Lets get a tweet from george conway. Husband of kellyanne conway. He says this is a silly starry. Barr is paying for the party out of his own pocket. The hotel is next door to doj, the notion that the small from this will improve his standing with trump is absurd. Is it silly or significant. Ive gotten to know george a little bit over the last couple of months and i typically agree with him. On this i disagree and go one step further. At least this is the attorney general spending 30,000. Whats happened with the d. C. Hotel is thats become basically a way to curry favor with trump. Both with domestic organizations and worse, with international, with sovereign powers. Who just coincidentally are no longer buying tickets at the hilton. Or the four sees bes theyre spending millions there. Thats a much different problem. The same as people spending 200,000 to have a maralago membership. Youre not doing it because of the bungalows and villas, youre doing it because youre ten feet away and can you make a point about veterans affairs. His notion about taking the g7 seriously as one bungalow away is a little absurd. I agree with, i disagree with george on this narrow point. I know that george agrees on the whole that hes basically an absolutely insane narcissistic unethical how much time we have left. Adrian what do you make of the president s sales pitch there . Salesman in chief talking about all the finer points of hosting the g7 at doral. Even though as weve reported some of his aides and top advisers have cautioned him against doing it or talking that way. Its so unethical for him to talk about his businesses when hes on government time. At an event thats an official event. That is being paid for by the u. S. Taxpayer dollars. I mean thats absurd. But to joels point were so used to this at this point. I look through everything through the lens of whats going to impact his standings in 2020. Whats going to impact his chances of getting reelected. At this point its so baked in. People are used to it. If youre a foreign government, u. S. Business, or any sort of fortune 500 company. You come to washington, d. C. , its very well known if youre trying to curry favor with trump, you stay at the trump hotel. You spend money at the trump hotel. You have dinners and events there, thats going to get you one step closer to achieving whatever goal youre trying to achieve with President Trump. Thats extremely disturbing. I cant even imagine if a democrat did this. Obviously barack obama, Hillary Clinton didnt have this kind of wealth, these kind of properties. I can only imagine the scrutiny that would come under fire for the two of them. If they ever did anything like this. What if he said, when you come to Illinois State in our wonderful hyatt facilities, like we, literally our heads would explode. They probably said he needs this money a great deal. As much as he says hes got all the money in the world. His properties are really suffering. When i heard him say i want to do to doral, i first thing i thought is doral is probably the one thats doing the worst in the trump portfolio. The g7 would put doral back in the black. Just ahead, the Alarming Number of Climate Policies that President Trump has targeted since taking office, is it because of Climate Change denial or undoing former president obamas work . Stay with us. Every day, visionaries are creating the future. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States Postal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Ecommerce deliveries to homes now, theres skyrizi. I have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. 3 out of 4 people achieved. 90 clearer skin at 4 months. After just 2 doses. Skyrizi may increase your risk of infections. And lower your ability to fight them. Before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection. Or symptoms such as fevers,. Sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs. Or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. I feel free to bare my skin. Visit skyrizi. Com. Just in the past hour weve learned that Hurricane Dorian seems to have shifted its path to potentially miss a direct hit with florida and now make landfall in the carolinas. Lets bring in nbc meteorologist janessa webb. The national Hurricane Center with the latest update has the system well offshore. But still, a major hurricane for at least the next two days. Sustained winds by tuesday of 130 Miles Per Hour. But you can see the storm surge still going to be a problem for florida. But potential here landfall, for South Carolina, this is Hilton Head Island into charleston as well. This is thursday, still wind speeds of 110 Miles Per Hour. We are adding georgia as well as North Carolina. Into the cone of uncertainty. Well get our next update from the national Hurricane Center in about an hour. Jeff . Jnessa, thanks for that. The New York Times points out that 30 of the u. S. Population live adjacent to a coast. With about 60 Million People in the potential path of a tropical storm. As more americans are moving towards the countrys coastlines, Climate Change is causing more frequent and intense storms that produce more rainfall in these specific areas. So for instance its clear that Climate Change poses environmental risks but were really just now starting to come to grips with the economic costs. So help us understand the cost of doing nothing. Sure. Well, i mean, i think that what we talked about earlier in the week was that in the National Climate assessment that came out earlier this year, our own government scientists, people who serve in this administration and who have served in previous administrations have warned that the cost of inaction will reach into the multibillions of dollars per year to deal with all types of climate impacts, things like wildfire management, coastal flooding, flooding in our farm country and our farmlands and you know, these are the types of impacts that were already seeing play out pretty y pretty well this past year. The major utility, one of the biggest utilities in the country went out of business as a result of the wildfires that happened in paradise, california and elsewhere throughout the northern part of the state. Right. So a 510 billion price tag, thats the cost of inaction and a new poll shows the number of Republican Voters age 18 to 34 who are worried about the issue of Climate Change rose to 18 Percentage Points to now 67 . So you have the electoral dynamic and the public dynamic. Its difficult to understand, you know, how you could have such a wide disconnect between what voters want and what their representatives in washington do, but nonetheless, particularly in the Republican Party, weve got leadership starting with President Trump, but also extending to the senate, leader mcconnell, others who have been willfully blind to this unfolding crisis. And its now, you know, as we look at Hurricane Dorian making its way towards the east coast, its reckless. There are are people that have the ability, sitting in positions of power and they can make meaningful changes and what what theyre saying is lets skip that because there are corporate interests who have donated to my campaign or there are special interests who dont want me to take action on climate and im more comfortable listening to them than the voters. And Climate Change is a winning argument democrats believe for them. We have a Climate Change town hall coming up on this net work. How should democrats talk about, think about the message around this issue of Climate Change, but to make it a winning issue for them overall. To the point of what jake is saying personalizing the issue and helping them understand its not somebody elses problem, its your problem too. If you live across the bible belt. If you live along the gulf coast, if you live on the east coast, you know bordering the Atlantic Ocean those are a lot of red states and those are places where they should care about, you know, the different effects of Climate Change and so i think what democrats have to do is really kind of take the argument out of politics and really just make it a personal hey, this is affecting our communities, this is affecting our future. This is going to affect your kids. I think if you talk like that over time that will have a desired effect. I agree on joel on this and i think a lot of the issues that lead campaigns like you know, that drive voters toward a specific Political Party or drive independence toward a specific Political Party in elections have to do with issues that affect your everyday life at this moment. Jobs, the economy, health care, education, those issues that affect you in the moment. Climate change is something that we do feel but we dont think about every single day in terms of how it impacts our lives. What youre seeing with this Younger Generation of voters both democrats and some republican conservative voters is they they are concerned. Theyre educated on this and they are thinking to themselves im 22 years old. Im going to be around for another 80 years and i cant imagine what the lack of action on this right now will cause to my life and my, you know, my future family years down the road. And i that is a good thing because i think often times voters are only focused on the issues that are impacting their daily lives at this moment but its good to see a set of voters both democrats and republicans focusing on the future. Absolutely. Thanks so you for getting up early this in los angeles. I appreciate it. Thanks so my panel here in washington. Coming up in our next hour, joy reed and how the president seemingly lining the pockets of the wealthy even during a storm. Stay with us. Snacking can mean that pieces get stuck under mikes denture. But super poligrip gives him a tight seal. To help block out food particles. So he can enjoy the game. Super poligrip. Did you know you can save money by using dish soap to clean grease on more than dishes . Try dawn ultra. Dawn is for more than just dishes. With 3x more grease cleaning power per drop, it tackles tough grease on a variety of surfaces. Try dawn ultra. Enterprise car sales and youll take any tradein . Rom thats right great here you go. Well, it does need to be a vehicle. But i need this out of my house. vo with fair, Transparent Value for every tradein. Enterprise makes it easy. And we are well past wethe honeymoon phase. Oooh lufa. Ocupado tom. At t, whats this i hear about you advertising a 100 Fiber Network . Only like a fraction of my customers can get that. Thats it . . You have such a glass halfempty attitude. The glass is more than halfempty you need to relax tom. Oww tom, you need a little tom time. A little tt. Stop living with at t. Xfinity delivers gig speeds to more homes than anyone. And thats it for me today. A. M. Joy with joy reed starts right now. Good morning and welcome to a. M. Joy. We have a lot to cover this morning including the escalating corruption and cruelty including toward children in the Trump Administration. And were keeping a close eye on Hurricane Dorian which is National Weather Service Calls an extremely dangerous hurricane. Last night it was upgraded to a powerful category 4 packing winds of up to 145 Miles Per Hour. The national Hurricane Center says its expected to impact the bahamas tomorrow. Then head towards the southeast United States. Forecasters are watching to see if the path runs along floridas coastline or moves more inland. Right now theres a chance that florida will actually avoid a direct hit but that is not for certain. Officials warn residents along the coast of georgia and South Carolina should also be on alert. People are boarding up their homes and stocking up on supplies because the storm could bring in heavy flooding. Well be monitoring the latest forecast and updating you as they develop through the show. We begin with politics. I want to take you bac