but we start tonight with a major political battle taking place across the country. as of today, we are just six weeks out from this year s midterms. despite economic and historical trends that could she should favor public, and this election is shaping up to be closer than anyone expected. thanks in large part to republican extremism and states across the country. from the supreme court s decision to overturn roe v. wade and subsequent state abortion bans, to election denialism, to a cruel political stunt using s a asylulm seekers, to book bans and censorship in the classrooms, republicans are executing on a radical agenda. those efforts are being led by red state governors. governors like texas greg abbott and florida s ron desantis. men who are pushing this extremism while they raise their own political profiles and jockey to inherit trump s mantles as leaders in the next generation of republican presidential hopefuls. on the other side of that fight our handful of democ
special master raymond dearie thought the trump lawyers could do in a day, last week, they still have not done. judge dearie s order says, in light of delays in retaining a vendor to digitize the seized materials, plaintive trump deadline for submitting a declaration affidavit in response to the governments revised inventory is extended to october 7th, 2022. that appears to mean that the trump lawyers incompetence in trying to hire a company that would digitize and organize the 11,000 documents seized by the fbi has brought them, bought them in effect, one week extension or so, of the deadline when the trump lawyers will then have to respond to the justice department s filing and updated inventory of what was seized. but it is actually worse than that. worse than just lawyer incompetence. what judge dearie s order did not review about the delay in hiring evander, was revealed tonight in a late filing in the case by the justice department, which says, quote, plaintive trump in
good evening once again. i m stephanie ruhle. we are tracking hurricane ian tonight as it closes in on florida s west coast. we just got the 11 pm forecast from the national hurricane center, and we ll bring you the latest on the huge storms path in just a moment. meanwhile, the january six committee has postponed tomorrow s hearing because of the storm. so far the hearing has yet to be rescheduled. but we are getting more video from a roger stone documentary that the committee is likely to feature once the hearing does happen. in one newly released clip, stone is heard talking about challenging the election results even before the election happened. what they are assuming is the election will be normal, the election will not be normal. oh these are the california result, sorry we re not expecting them, will challenge them in the court, if you actually show up at the electoral college, armed guards will show them a. on the president, a few, you re not stealing florida, i
spinning toward the west coast of florida this morning. bringing with it life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds and flooding. we ll have a live report from tampa in just a moment. and also ahead, a former d.c. metro police officer does not hold back at a sentencing for a capitol rioter. plus, we ll dig into new data that suggests significant covid waves could be coming this fall and winter. good morning. and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, september 28th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us and we re going to begin in florida where millions of residents are bracing for hurricane ian as the powerful storm barrels towards the state intensifying every hour. the storm is expected to make landfall on the southwest coast of florida, as early as this afternoon. just moments ago, it reached the status of category 4 hurricane. the center of the storm is then forecast to move over the central part of the state, with winds likely re
keep coming. willie? yeah. start in florida, though, this hour, mika. millions of residents are bracing for hurricane ian as that powerful storm barrels towards the state getting stronger by the hour. just this morning it became a category 4 hurricane expected to make landfall in the southwest coast of florida as early as this afternoon. the center of the storm forecast to move over the central past of the state with winds reaching more than 130 miles per hour. the national hurricane center also warning of dangerous storm surge and flooding with up to 18 inches of rain expected in some areas. more than 2.5 million people under evacuation orders along parts of coastal florida. the powerful storm passed the florida keys last night causing a couple of tornadoes and some damage there. officials say there also is significant flooding across that area. yesterday the hurricane battered western cuba knocking outing the island s electrical grid, causing a nation-wide blackout. offic