from an mess nbc rolled headquarters, welcome in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. we begin this hour with the big story of survival and recovery, mostly in florida that state hit hardest by hurricane ian. the total death toll from that storm is estimated 78 people. power outage numbers are down from reporting last hour, now it s over 21,000 in north carolina and just over 7000 in virginia without power. 1200 in south carolina. search and rescue operations are still underway, with the coast guard leading most efforts as 100 of thousands struggle with basic necessities like power, water, cell phone service. here is fema director demon chris just short time ago. we have well over 2 million people without power immediately following the storm and the power companies there have done a numbing job of getting the majority people back online. i think where the difficulty comes in, jonathan, is that there are so many homes especially in fort myers beach, area that are compl
generations. we know in our bones that our democracy is at risk and we know this is your moment to defend it, preserve and protect it, choose it. i want you to know we ll meet this moment. every freedom loving american needs to understand the time stands up to this growing left wing tyranny is right now. if you want to save your rights and liberties, you have to start by dealing a humiliating rebuke to the radical left of this election. this is so important, this election. the current and former president delivering their final speeches of this midterm campaign. but donald trump had a lot more than this election on his mind. we re also going to hear the closing pitches from the candidates themselves and several key races that could determine the balance of power in washington. plus, how speaker nancy pelosi gives her first interview since the brutal attack on her husband. we ll have all of that for you straight ahead. good morning. welcome to way too early on this tue
i m katie fang in for ari melber. we begin with a reminder of the violent threats facing our country s political leaders. paul pelosi, husband of house speaker nancy pelosi was violent aassaulted in his san francisco home with the assailant reportedly shouting, quote, where is nancy? mr. pelosi, aged 82, was home alone. police say the attacker struck him multiple times in the head with a hammer. he had a successful surgery for a skull fracture, according to the speaker s office. and doctors expect a full recovery. the united states capitol police say nancy pelosi was in d.c. at the time of the attack guarded by security, as she is at all times. a pelosi family member telling nbc news the suspect was trying to tie up paul, quote, until nancy got home. it was when the suspect wasn t looking that paul called 911. when the police came, the suspect said, quote, we are waiting for nancy. sources identified the suspect as a 42-year-old berkeley resident. there were posts where he po
arizona s democratic candidate for governor burglarized. i m brianna keilar with alex marquardt this morning. good morning. good morning to you. john berman is off this morning. and police in phoenix are investigating this break in at katy hobbs campaign this week. this is coming amid reports of intimidation, where hobbs is currently the top election official. her campaign claims this is the person who broke in. cnn has blurred the face because police have not yet identified any suspects. hobbs campaign manager saying they ve faced death threats, blaming kari lake. and here is how lake responded. i m saddened that the hobbs and her camp would try to pin this on us. it s just defamatory and it s wrong. and it s so obvious what s happening. her own party is attacking her. she s trying to deflect her own abysmal campaign and the fact that, you know, nobody even knows where her campaign office is. the person who broke in probably didn t realize it was a campaign office.
brand-new cnn polls in two of the tightest races in the country. the clues and data that could determine the balance of power. also, what prosecutors call a landmark case. a mass shooting suspect pleads guilty to killing his classmates. his parents accused of giving him easy access to the guns. and republican senator, lindsey graham, getting supreme court help for now in his fight against a subpoena in a case trying to get to the bottom of election interference. welcome to the lead. we are 15 days away from the midterm elections and u.s. voters are hitting the polling booths nice and early. almost 7.3 million ballots have been cast in 39 states so far. florida and georgia, critical battlegrounds, reporting huge numbers. not so great news, complaints of voter intimidation in arizona. two armed men were seen in tactical gear according to the election department. the men left when deputies sh showed up. this afternoon, merrick garland responded to that incident with a pledge t