collision course with an asteroid. just after 7:00 p.m. eastern tonight, nasa hopes to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid on purpose. it s about 500 feet across and poses zero threat to earth. about 7 million miles away, but nasa wants to use the asteroid to conduct the first ever test of a planetary defense system known as d.a.r.t. joining me now to discuss is the senior adviser to the intrepid museum here in new york. so, it s orbiting right now, a larger asteroid, this is going to happen at a really high speed and it s to try and alter it s direction. not trying to blow it up or anything. just seeing if they could knock it off its course a little bit. it orbits a largest asteroid, as you mentioned. if something s coming toward
for real answers. that s 11:00 p.m. eastern tonight on msnbc. i did want to let you know about that. i hope you and your family are safe and informed, and i do wish you a good long weekend. thanks-for-watching the beat with ari melber. the reidout with joy reid starts now. ari melber. the reidout with joy reid starts now good evening, everyone. we begin the reidout tonight with texas officials sharing harrowing details on what happened when a gunman killed at least 19 children and two of their teachers at robb elementary school in uvalde where roughly 82% of the population is latino. yet take a look at the scene. that is steven mcgraw, director of texas department of public safety along with his law enforcement peers, a glimpse of leadership that doesn t quite match the demographics of the town 60 miles from the u.s.-mexico border. but that was even what was even more startling than the optics of all these press conferences this week with all of that leadership is what was
waterways into this region, the marshland, all of it, as conducive as it gets for what is known as the brown ocean effect. it s a phenomenon here where the system makes landfall but is able to maintain intensity over land because of that worm moist environment and of course the waterways across this region and the bayous certainly help with these tropical systems maintain that intensity. but i ve never seen one go from a strong category 4 to still being a category 4 by 6:00 p.m. eastern tonight, which is more than five hours after landfall. so this storm certainly packed a punch and it still does as a strong category 1 based on the latest advisory coming in here. special statement there bringing that wind speed down to 95 miles per hour. now, with that said we do expect the systems to continue gradually weakening into the overnight hours but produce as much as eight to maybe ten inches of additional rainfall with those sustained winds near the center close to 100 miles per hour. yes, s
eastern tonight, decision 2020 with jaden followed by brian williams and our whole team doing our special debate coverage. don t go anywhere because one of our guests from earlier this hour is now in the hot seat. hardball with chris matthews is up next. who can beat this guy? let s play hardball. good evening. i m chris matthews in the city of detroit. an hour from now, ten of the presidential candidates will compete in the second democratic debate here. each will be auditioning to show he or she can beat the guy who continues to fan the flames of racial hostility and division in this country for his own personal and political benefit. that s where we begin tonight, with him. president trump is defending his attacks on congressman elijah cummings tonight and his