Happening especially now its so late in the season for the hurricanes. That was donald Trump Yesterday in georgia, but not only did forecasters indeed know about the Size And Strength of Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Season still has several more weeks remaining. Well bring you an update on Recovery Efforts and show you President Bidens fiery response to trumps false claims. Also ahead, well bring you the latest from the Middle East as israel launches a Ground Offensive into Southern Lebanon after weeks of deadly Air Strikes targeting hezbollah militants. And, of course, well preview what could be the final debate of the 2024 president ial race with the Running Mates set to square off Tonight Right here in new York City. Good morning, and welcome to Way Too Early on this tuesday, october 1st. We are in october now. Im jonathan lemire. Thanks for starting your day with us. And we have a lot to get to this morning, but well begin with breaking news. The israeli military has started a Groun
Hezbollah back from israels border. Joining us now, nbcs Matt Bradley in beirut, former u. S. Ambassador to morocco and former president ial middle East Adviser mike ginsburg, u. S. Retired Army Colonel Jack jacobs as well. I want to bring with nbcs white House Correspondent Monica alba with us by phone. You have this breaking news reporting. What have you learned about this potential iranian attack against israel . Well, ana, this is coming from a senior white House Official and a department of Defense Official who confirmed to myself and to our Pentagon Correspondent Courtney Kube this indication that the united states has, which is typically a reflection of Intelligence And Information that they have gleaned from other countries, who would potentially be affected by this, that iran is indeed preparing to launch that ballistic Missile Attack against israel. Now, to put this into context, this is something that has happened before, it happened earlier this year as we may remember. And
Middle east very closely. The united states is committed to Israels Defense. We are watching developments, as i said, very carefully this morning. U. S. Officials tell Nbc News they expect this iranian response to involve more fire power. Israel is trying to push hezbollah forces north. The israeli defense Forces Spokesperson announced israel uncovered Hezbollah Tunnels in Southern Lebanon. One of the buildings that our troops raided, we found proof of this. This is a map that hezbollah planned to give its terrorists at the time of a widescale invasion of israel. It was to cover out a massacre in israels north. Joining me from jerusalem is nbcs Erin Mclaughlin. Also with is monica alba. Monica, what are you hearing from the White House . The State Department ordered all u. S. Government employees and their families to shelter in place and that this is supposed by in response to the killing of nasrallah on friday in a massive Air Strike by israel as well as previous fronts to hezbollah
Your people back into their homes, you dont escalate to deescalate. And obviously now, with the iranian retaliation, israelis are in their shelters as they go into the new years holiday weekend. Ben . Yeah. I think, you know, since October 7th, the Biden Administration has had a number of goals, one was to provide support to israel as it aims to go after hamas, but then also one of the principle goals of u. S. Diplomacy since October 7th had been avoiding deescalation into lebanon, precisely because i think there was an understanding that lebanon could be kind of the Trip Wire to this broader regional war that essentially, you know, it is one thing if there is a conflict In Gaza, that alone is destabilizing enough and is obviously brought a tremendous Human Toll and has grinded on for a full year. But the concern has always been that if israel launched a Ground Operation and significantly escalated things in lebanon that could draw iran into a conflict in a direct way as were seeing to
Between israel and an arab neighbor. Katy tur picks up our breaking News Coverage right now. Good to be with you. Im Katy Tur in for chris jansing. We are watching israel and waiting for a Damage Assessment after iran sent dozens, perhaps more, of ballistic missiles at the country, including tel aviv. This is what it looked like and sounded like add it was happening. [ sirens ] in a statement, iran says the missiles were in honor of hezbollah leader nasrallah where the israelis killed with a 2,000 Pound Bunker busting bomb In Beirut last friday. If israel responds, iran says it will face crushing attacks. So will israel respond . Theyre already indicating, yes, they will. The u. S. And allies have been trying to convince all the parties involved to work toward a Cease Fire worried the continued escalation of attacks between Hezbollah And Israel and now iran could lead to all out war. Meanwhile, as the Iron Dome was trying to intercept these missiles, israeli News Outlets were reporting