let s get started. we begin this hour with an update on the aftermath of hurricane in, even in this early stage, experts believe ian will be one of the costly storms to ever hit the u.s. and potentially the deadliest. the death toll now stands at 77, 73 in florida, four in north carolina, more than 1.2 million households still without power in florida, making rescue efforts that much more complicated. nbc s guad venegas is on the ground for us in fort myers, one of the hardest hit areas on the west coast of florida. guad, you have been there for a while. what are we seeing as we go 48 hours after this deadly hurricane made landfall? ayman, a lot of moving parts here. the governor speaking about the efforts to fix the power grid here. they want to make sure that people have power, but there is also the search and rescue missions taking place in fort myers beach [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] and we had to get him out. there s othe
we begin with the aftermath of ian and what could be the costliest hurricane and u.s. history. ian o was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone today, the storm delivering heavy rains for the carolinas to new england, knocking out power to sum and delivering dangerous storm search to the east coast. in florida, the death toll is climbing. at this hour, it stands at 77. that number is expected to rise. they are also assessing the damage. it could amount to billions of dollars in the southwestern part of the state. businesses destroyed, homes flattened, residents left in complete shock. we should not be alive right now. we shouldn t be alive right now with the storm. but the power of that storm, if that would have crashed into the side of the house, we would have been swept away. to view the damage up close, it s almost frightening to see just how easily ian true through tons of concrete and steel. but the view the damage from above, heartbreaking, when you realize that this
next two years and congress, plus. extremism casting a long shadow over the republican party and will 2023 be the year democrats take on the judiciary? i am ayman mohyeldin, let s get started. good news, the house of representatives officially has a new speaker. in the early hours of the morning after four days and, yes, 15 rounds of voting, kevin mccarthy managed to drag himself across the finish line. earlier today, president biden released a statement congratulating the new speaker. pledging the work with mccarthy to deliver for the american people. white house republicans spent the week bickering excuse me, while house republicans spent the week bickering, biden was busy building bridges literally. on wednesday, the president traveled to kentucky to celebrate last year s bipartisan infrastructure. lot more than one billion dollars in funding from that bill will go to words repairs to repair the great spence bridge. biden stood alongside senate minority leader mitc
special counsel s office is doing to hold trump accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 election. i m ayman mohyeldin, let s get started. so, barack obama ran on hope and change. ronald reagan professed it is mourning in america, but donald trump, the head of the 2024 presidential election, essentially his campaign around, let s just say, a different kind of theme. one that is much darker. it is retribution. in an interview with univision this week if he is elected in 2024, he will use the federal government to punish his critics, weaponize the fbi and doj and the same way he falsely claims federal law enforcement agencies have been weaponized against him. quote, what they ve done is they ve released the genie out of the box, the former don t know what that means, it s usually out of a bottle, but whatever. mixing metaphors, but making his intentions clear. if i happen to be president, and i see somebody who s doing well and beating me very badly, i say, go down and
so, barack obama ran on hope and change. ronald reagan professed it is mourning in america, but donald trump, the head of the 2024 presidential election, essentially his campaign around, let s just say, a different kind of theme. one that is much darker. it is retributn. in an interview with univision this week if he is elected in 2024, he will use the federal goveme to punish his critics, weaponize the fbi and doj and the same way he falsely claims federal law enforcement agencies have been weaponized against him. quote, what they ve done is they ve released the genie out of the box, the former don t know what that means, it s usually out of a bottle, but whatever. mixing metaphors, but making his intentions clear. if i happen to be president, and i see somebody who s doing well and beating me very badly, i say, go down and indict them. mostly, with that would be you know, they would be out of business. they d be at. they d be out of the election. donald trump s ca