are you in good hands? obviously we want to pray for anyone that s in the pathway of this storm, but the message is still the same, that all americans deserve a better future and that this president, whatever you think about him, the one thing that s true that everyone can agree on, he didn t fulfill the promises he made in 2008. republican chairman reince priebus on the today show this morning trying to balance his welcome for delegates here with obvious concern about what s happening elsewhere in the gulf coast. joining me now, msnbc analyst and former republican chairman, michael steele. nbc news political analyst and former pennsylvania governor, ed rendell. romney campaign advisor, ben weber. welcome, all. first to you, michael steele, why tampa? that was your decision. that wasn t my decision alone. 168 members voted unanimously
by decision and here today she once again goes back to it. the judge, quote, now i understand, wasn t my decision to move another trial in front of this. wasn t my decision on push that trial up to accommodate that judge s schedule. and you know, it was your decision to push it further. so you re under extraordinary time pressures that don t happen on a daily basis. but we have a pretrial scheduled on september 5th and i need to know what objections you have to the prosecutors exhibits. so what are we going to do? manafort s defense lawyer kevin downing says, i don t know, your honor. we don t have the resources of the u.s. government. we don t have two trial teams on get ready for two trials. this is us. three here and a paralegal. i don t see how it will get done with all the parts. the judge responds, well, the day you asked for was yesterday. so what are you asking for now? you can t just say i don t know. you haven t moved to continue the trial.