miles per hour. those winds caused storm surges. a major hazard for this low-lying region. at this hour, more than 1.2 million people across florida remain without electricity. as of late yesterday, parts of the county, where i am now, where it made landfall, they did not have access to clean drinking water. many people have no running water whatsoever. it is hard to know exactly how many people are displaced right now. officials estimate that it is in the tens of thousands. at least 34 people have been confirmed dead so far. 12 of them right here in lee county. after barreling through florida, you can regain strength over the atlantic ocean. it then made a second landfall as a category one hurricane in south carolina yesterday afternoon. the damage there is a fraction of the devastation that ian brought through southwest florida. you can see the aftermath. what you can see in the images are the broken lives. these are people on the margins whose homes, jobs, bodies, and he
and we also have some new reactions today to the january six committee hearings. as questions arise whether there should be a criminal investigation. when congresswoman as describes as the hearing serves as a scary reminder of what was happening as the riot unfolded. it was incredibly terrifying that day. we all in the gallery thought that we were going to die. there are hundreds of members of congress, we were five hours stuck in a room. we were frantic. there were bullet holes, there was glass all over everywhere. some new word today on president biden s condition three days after testing positive for covid. a new letter just out moments ago from the president s doctor. we ll take you to the white house in just minutes for what s new. and vice president harris in richmond, virginia, meeting with state legislators to discuss reproductive rights. she will travel to indianapolis on monday to meet the legislators there. well the doctor who performed an abortion on a ten yea
seek help and advise from his china loving wife coco chao. the wall street journal s editorial board condemning trump, saying it s all too easy to see trump taking trump literally and attempting to kill mr. mcconnell. mcconnell himself has not publicly responded but watch gop leader rick scott repeatedly dodge when pressed about donald trump. you re a member of the senate gop leadership. are you okay with this? well, look, i can never talk about respond to why anybody else says what they say. the language is what i m talking about. isn t that dangerous? i think we all have to figure out how do we start bringing people together? and you would agree that that language doesn t bring people together? i believe that what the i believe what president trump was talking about is the fact that we can t keep spending money. okay, that s not what the former president said. and coco chao was the phrase he used to refer to a former cabinet secretary, elaine chao. loo
he says are threatening the very foundations of our republic. plus, trump s lawyers and the justice department face off in federal court. we ll explain the big developments to come out of the special master hearing. and, a hot holiday weekend arrives with little to no running water for nearly 200,000 people in mississippi. the state has troops on the ground to help in the water crisis. good morning. and welcome to way too early. i m jonathan lemire. on this friday, september 2nd. thank you for starting your day with us. we ll begin in philadelphia, where president joe biden issued a dire warning about threats to american democracy last night, in a rare prime time address. standing outside historic independence hall, where the united states constitution was written and signed, the president spoke directly about the dangers posed by the trump-backed wing of the republican party. here s some of what he had to say. quality and democracy are under assault. we do ourselves
rights protections for their stay constitution, voting it down 59 to 41%. now just to put that in a little bit more into context, to put the entire political earthquake into context, that ballot question was supposed to be an easy win for the antiabortion side. was not even supposed to be close. a recent poll said the 47% of kansans plan to vote yes on the amendment compared to no gland vote no. and republicans were supposed to cruise to victory with their demographic advantage. last night, most of the primary races were for republicans. there was not much incentive for democrats to even show up, aside for this one ballot question. and it was a strategic and very cynical question to put this question on the primary ballot, instead of the general election. proponents of the measure were hoping and planning for a low turnout. the question itself was intentionally garbled to confuse people. the text read in part quote, to the extent permitted by the constitution of the united s