the impact. this extremely dangerous hurricane is now a category 2 storm and expected to intensify. one of the greatest threats is a storm surge. perhaps it's 15 feet high in florida's big bend region. officials there say it could be a once in a lifetime event. florida's governor warning that now is the time to get out. mandatory evacuations are under way in county after county. thousands of national guard members have been activated. we are monitoring it all. i'm kaitlan collins, and this is "the source." hurricane idalia is intensifying very rapidly tonight, now packing winds of 105 miles per hour. the eye of the hurricane is now 155 miles or so southwest of tampa and moving north. it is expected to slam into florida as a category 3 storm by early tomorrow. governor ron desantis is warning everywhere in the big bend area that they are going to see a storm surge and now is the time to get out. officials in taylor county, which is southeast of tallahassee, say that the surge there could possibly exceed 15 feet and that anyone who is caught in it would not be able to survive. evacuations have been ordered in at least 22 counties. the outer bands of idalia have already been hitting the florida keys and the southwest coast. here's a view of the storm from space. nasa released these images from the international space station just as it passed over it. cnn is tracking this storm across the entire region. we have full team coverage for you tonight in this hour. cnn's carlos suarez is on the ground in tampa. our meteorologist chad myers is at the cnn weather center. and we have key state officials on standby to update us. we'll get to them in just a moment. chad, i want to start with you, though, because we have seen this storm strengthening today. where does it stand right now and what is the time frame? what's that window of when it's going to make landfall? >> i think it makes landfall around 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. so like less than 12 hours from right now. somewhere along the big bend area. from one side would be apalachicola, the other side steinhatchee. and i'm sure we have our reporters there from steinhatchee. that's just the other side of the bend. the problem with this storm is where it's going. it's going into a catcher's mitt of topography here. there's nowhere for this water to go. this storm is gathering water under it, pushing water on the right side of it. and if there was nothing to the north it would be fine. but unfortunately, there is land there and that land is going to stop the rain and stop the water that'si isurging to the north. look at the eye right now. we have not seen an eye like this the entire storm, but there it is. it just popped in the past couple of hours. that means the storm is rapidly intensifying at this hour. and hurricane hunters are flying through that right now and proving that to us as the pressure is dropping rapidly. as the pressure goes down, the winds go up. it is going to make landfall likely as a category 3 hurricane. not that far from steinhatchee. probably to the north of crystal river. and then even make significant wind all the way into georgia. we're not going to see any storm surge from st. pete in tampa until the storm gets due west of you and the winds come from this direction. because right now they're pushing offshore. pushing that water away. but that's going to change because of the circulation of the storm. six inches of rainfall in places that people may be evacuating to that could cause some flash flooding here. so you have to be very careful where you're going with this storm and just trying to stay out of the way of that surge, and that surge is going to be the most significant part of this today and into tomorrow because there's no place for this water to go. it can't keep going. it has to stop. it's going to go up the st. marks river. it's going to go to apalachicola. it's going to go to steinhatchee. not places that are widely populated like tampa, but significant evacuations have to take place to get people out of there. a 15-foot storm surge, because this is so flat down here, could go four miles inland. if your house isn't on stilts, it's not going to make it. kaitlan. >> we'll be keeping an eye on the storm surge. obviously, you say it's what's going to be potentially the worst part of this. thank you so much, chad myers. >> you're welcome. >> carlos suarez is also on the ground for us. carlos, i know that you have been talking to people all day about this. how are people there bracing for what chad just laid out there, what we're going to see? >> reporter: well, kaitlan, we are in for a wet and windy night here in the tampa bay area. a look at the radar shows that we're in for a strong line of thunderstorms associated with the storm. in the next hour or so, we expect that bad weather to really continue through the night. of course the big concern as chad laid out there for a good part of the state including just about all of hillsborough county here in the tampa bay area as well as pinellas county is the flooding that might be headed this way when you take into account all of this rain that is going to fall over the next 12 to 24 hours. then you've also got all of that water just being pushed into the tampa bay area, and then you mix in high tide and that is the concern from emergency officials right now, are the folks that live in these low-lying areas in the tampa bay area, they really want to see them get more inland. they want to see them get to higher ground. kaitlan? >> any surge that is over four feet would break records that have been set in tampa. i know officials have been saying it could be not only four feet but between four and seven feet. is the city prepared for this flooding? what are officials saying? >> reporter: yeah, so the city goes into the night really hoping that a lot of the residents that live in these low-lying areas seek higher ground. there are two mandatory evacuation orders that have been in place for a good part of the day. one of those mandatory evacuation orders are right here in hillsborough county. that is home to the tampa bay area. the other mandatory evacuation order is just to the west of us. that's in pinellas county. that is home to clearwater as well as st. pete. a number of hurricane shelters have also opened in anticipation of this storm. of course, again, the concern is all of that flooding associated with this storm surge as we head into tomorrow. the concern is just not enough folks right now have made that decision just yet about seeking higher ground. a lot of the folks we've been talking to out here tonight tell us look, they don't think it's going to be that bad and so they're making the decision at least right now to stay put, which is something that emergency officials right now don't want to hear. kaitlan? >> so you're hearing from multiple people who say they're not leaving to go to higher ground? because we heard from governor desantis earlier saying you don't have to go hundreds of miles, we're just asking you to go to a shelter, go to higher ground, go a few miles away where you will be in a better position if the storm surge does get that bad. >> reporter: yeah, so the folks that we've talked to in this part of downtown tampa have told us look, we've seen other hurricanes come really close to the tampa bay area, in fact we were in this very same location last year as hurricane ian moved to the south and there was a great deal of concern then that that storm was going to hit the tampa bay area, and so a lot of the folks that we talked to out here told us look, last year we made all of these preparations with the anticipation, the fear that hurricane ian was going to hit, then that storm went to the south and this area saw some flooding but it really wasn't that bad, and so going into tonight the folks out here, at least the ones that we've come across have told us look, we also prepared for this storm, we thought that this might be a little closer to us than what the forecast has right now. and so as the storm moves further north but then a little further west of the coastline a lot of the folks are falling back to that sense from last year, which is sure, we're going to see some rain, we're going to see some wind, we might see some flooding, but we don't think it's going to be as bad. the concern as chad laid out as well as emergency officials out here is really we're not going to see the storm surge associated with this hurricane until tomorrow. a number of factors are at play here, right? you've got all of this rain that should fall anywhere between two to six inches of rain over the next couple of hours. you've then got the hurricane to move in. it's going to push all of that in. and then you're going to mix in high tide and the concern there is once all those three things happen at the same time that's when you're going to see some flooding in the tampa bay area. kaitlan? >> it's a bad perfect storm. carlos suarez, thank you. we'll check back in with you. want to turn now to john mcdonald. he is the director of emergency management in levy county, one of many across florida's west coast that have issued mandatory evacuation orders for their residents. john, thank you so much for being here tonight. i know you've got a lot going on. your county is set to see some of the worst of hurricane idalia later tonight and through tomorrow. are you prepared right now? what conditions are you preparing to experience? >> we're looking at the highest tide surge that we're looking for could be upwards of 15 agl. we convert everything to msl here. we have mean sea level storm tide poles out there so residents can get a visual on what that's actually going to look like. so basically it's not an exact science for us but we take and basically add two foot to those agl numbers the media puts out there. so that 15 agl converts to 17 as a high tide surge for us. i mean, same level and all that but at least it gives them some visual to go out and look at. but for mean when it came through in 2016 affected cedar key just to put that in perspective for people, that came in at a little over -- i think it was around 9.6 msl. and we're looking at 17 msl. and hermine tore that island up pretty good and the community of yankee town. >> so you're expecting this to be worse than that is what you're saying, right? >> yes. >> and given that, clearly officials there are worried because they've ordered the mandatory evacuation of all residents. has everyone evacuated? what is your sense right now of how many people have done so and how many people haven't? >> we're still having some issues out there on those -- out there on cedar key. one of the last reports i got, which that was earlier today, i haven't updated that yet, but there was roughly about 100 -- a little over 100 citizens that were still out there on the island that just refused to leave after the mandatory evacuations had taken place. we've shoved messaging out just about every way, every social media outlet that we have, every news media outlet. we've also done ipause messaging all the way down to going through the old school route alerting, going door to door to try to get these people to leave. >> if those 100 people are watching right now, what's your message to them? >> well, my message to them is you know, if they stayed during hermine they didn't really have that super wind field that we're potentially seeing here. we're looking at wind speeds of potentially 115 to 125. so we're looking at upper-level cat 3. hermine when it went by was a very strong tropical storm minimal category 1 hurricane. so that's the difference that we're trying to tell these people, that you know, when you incorporate a lot more wind with it that increases those numbers. so it's real. it's happening. you know, we can deny it, we can do that. we always tell everybody to run from the surge and hide from the wind. they don't have to go far. you know, just get far enough out of that surge zone, pretty much anything on the east side of u.s. 19, moving in like that would be a safe enough to get out of the surge. >> if they don't get out of the surge and what's expected to be the surge area, will first responders still be able to get to them? >> no. once the winds reach a certain level and then once the tide -- especially cedar key because cedar key has one way in and one way out. it's a state highway that runs through there. once that becomes unpassable, yes, they will not be able to get out there on rescue boats, winds and all that. so once those winds reach that 45-mile-an-hour sustained, they pull all the emergency vehicles off the road. so they're in it for the long haul. and those that stayed during hermine then called and wanted to be evacuated and all that and we couldn't get to them, they really need to take heed of this. >> it's a stark warning. john mcdonald, we are thinking of all of you all tonight. we know you've got a long few days ahead of you. thank you for taking the time to join me tonight. >> yeah, thank you. >> we have much more to come as idalia is bearing down on florida. we are going to be joined by a former governor of the state, current senator, rick scott. and we'll also hone in on the extremely warm water temperatures that are helping fuel this storm and make it more intense, as we heard. back in just a moment. somedays, i cover up because of my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now i feel free to bare my skin, thanks to skyrizi. ♪(uplifting music)♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ i'm celebrating my clearer skin... my way. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin, even at 5 years. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. thanks to clearer skin with skyrizi - this is my moment. there's nothing on my skin and that means everything! ♪nothing is everything♪ now's the time. ask your doctor about skyrizi, the #1 dermatologist-prescribed biologic in psoriasis. learn how abbvie could help you save. with your hearing, if you start having a little trouble, you're concerned that it's going to cost you money. to this day i only paid what i had to pay for the device... when i go back everything is covered. there's so much you're missing by not having hearing aids. we'll find you a hearing aid that fits your lifestyle and budget at one of our over fifteen hundred locations. call miracle ear at 1-800-miracle and schedule your free, no obligation hearing evaluation today. when it comes to getting your flu shot, cvs is pretty... flex. wanna schedule one online while prepping dinner? gravy. avoid the wait by scheduling for you... ...or the whole crew. or if you prefer to just pop in? do you. and if you wanna even tack on a covid-19 vaccine to your flu shot, feel free! and speaking of free? our flu shots are... well... free. really? yes, really. healthier is getting a flu shot on your schedule. cvs. healthier happens together. officials are bracing for landfall which will happen a few hours from now. they're warning the projected storm surges across the coastal regions could be, i'm quoting now, non-survivable. for residents who are still in those evacuation zones authorities have said the time to go is now before it becomes impossible. florida senator rick scott knows what it's like to weather these storms. he's the former governor of the sunshine state. he joins us now. thank you for taking the time to join us. this hurricane and the forecast it's expected to make near florida's big bend which is where the panhandle turns into the peninsula, it has not experienced a storm of this magnitude in more than 150 years. what are you most worried about as of this moment? >> well, kaitlan, i worry about life. i want everybody to survive this. this is a -- this area of the state is a low-lying area. and people are just -- are not used to thinking about these storms are water events. so what i care about is i want every floridian to stay alive. and the way you do that is you listen. here's what's going to happen. somewhere on the west coast of florida somebody's going to experience 10-plus feet of storm surge. probably six foot of storm surge you're not going to survive. i've watched what's happened. somewhere we're going to have 120-mile-per-hour plus winds. if you're a manufactured home or i atrailer park you might not survive. after the fact we're going to have a lot of flooding. and the flooding might come up so fast you might not survive. so what i tell people is stop right now and just say to yourself, you don't want to go through this. i've talked to people that have gone through six foot, nine foot of storm surge, they will never do it again. i've watched people just be shocked at how the water came up and they were not even next to the coast. and i've watched trailers just tumbled. and know family members that lost their life. and talked to family members they were looking the day after for their family member and they're found three or four days away blocks away because they got swept away. that should not happen to any family in this state. so i hope everybody stops and says am i in an evacuation zone? if i am i'm going to get out right now. you still have time to get out. but you have to make a decision right now. you know, when i was governor for four years, i had four major storms, or four major hurricanes. my goal was to not have anybody die. that was my whole goal. you can rebuild everything. you can rebuild everything but your life. >> and have you been hearing from people today that say that they're not heeding those evacuation orders and why? >> you know, i've been traveling the state. i've been with the emergency management people and sheriffs and policemen, fire, things like that and what they're telling me is not everybody's evacuating. and again, i really do believe it comes down to historically they never thought about the storm surge and they've just thought about wind events. and wind events are things that -- if you're in a home especially that's been rebuilt, built in the last 20 years, you're probably going to be fine. it's the water that's going to kill you. i talked to the hurricane center about this all the time about how we can come up with something that people focus more on the water side of this because that's what's killing floridians now. some of it's the wind. if you're an old home or a trailer park or manufactured home. but most of it's water. and so we've got to figure out how to get people to focus on -- here's what happens. because i've watched it in the hurricanes. ten foot of storm sushlg comes in, it comes in it breaks everything into your house. there's no way you can stop the water pressure in your house. and then it sucks everything that's not tied down out, including you. you're not going to survive it. if you get six and you're in a one-story house and you get six foot of storm surge your chance of surviving is almost none. i know of one person i've ever talked to with six foot of storm surge and it was probably fine foot, survived it. nobody else i've ever talked to. no one's ever survived it that i know of. >> we're hearing that from officials who are warning about unsurvivable levels. and obviously, life is the most important thing here. people there, though, are also worried about their property. floridians are already paying four times the national average for home insurance. as we've seen more and more of these natural disasters, how worried are you about this critical industry and people in your home state and their ability to have access to affordable home insurance? >> it's a wake-up call. if you look at what's happened with the property insurance rates, and i always think about -- as you know, kaitlan, i grew up in public housing. so i used to think about how's it impact somebody like my mom. it's devastating to people if they see their property insurance or their rent goes up because the property insurance of the landlord went up. so what we have to do is we have to figure out how do we get insurance companies to come back in and how do we work with them to get rates down. i did that. a company like state farm, companies like state farm had left the state before i became governor back in 2011, and i sat down with them and said what are the problems? and i went to address those problems. we've got to do the exact same thing again because this is way -- it's way too expensive to ensure homes in florida right now. we've got to work with the insurance companies. we've got to recruit them to come back in the state. we've got to get more competition and we've got to solve the problem so they can drive their rates down. >> and do you think enough is being done to make sure that that's happening right now? >> kaitlan, till it's happened -- the way i always look at -- i'm a business guy. i have a background. everything you're doing until it's completely solved you know there's more to do. we still have companies leaving. we have less competition and the private company -- the public organized company, the government one citizens, i worked to get it down -- i right-sized it from a million and a half policies to 400,000. i think it's back up to 1.3 million policies. it's not a fully funded insurance product. this has got to be figured out. that's at the state level. at the federal level i'm working on trying to make sure we have a robust private flood insurance market because we're actually a donor state in the national flood insurance program and when they raise our rates that's not fair. and so i'm trying to get a robust private flood insurance program because that would drive those rates down. but the property insurance program is a state program and there's clearly more that has to be done. >> yeah. it is a deeply important issue to many people in florida. senator rick scott, i know you have a lot to keep your eye on over the next few days. thank you for joining me tonight. >> okay. pray for floridians. bye-bye. >> we will. these record warm waters in the gulf of mexico are making this storm tonight even stronger, more dangerous, and more unpredictable. but is this the new normal? our chief climate correspondent bill weir live from one of florida's danger zones to break it down for us in just a moment. 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( ♪ ♪ ) ( ♪ ♪ ) experience the sanctuary of handsfree highway driving with lincoln bluecruise. it's the final days of the lincoln summer invitation event. right now, get 3.9% apr and $1000 trade assist cash on a new 2023 lincoln. hurricane idalia passed through some of the world's warmest waters on its way to florida's coast. in the gulf of mexico and in south florida as you can see here water temperature is breaking records this year. in july one buoy that was off the coast recorded 101 degrees. that is equivalent to the temperature of a hot tub. we'll dig into all this and how it's changing what we're seeing happening in florida tonight. bill weir is cnn's chief climate correspondent. he has in steinhatchee along florida's big bend where hurricane idalia is expected to hit the hardest. bill, thanks for joining us. how are these record-breaking warm waters amplifying the effects of what we're watching tonight? just how quickly this storm is intensifying. >> reporter: yeah, it's all connected, kaitlan. one of the scariest units of measurement i've learned covering the climate beat is hiroshimas per second. that is, the amount of extra energy absorbed by our oceans. a few years ago it was five hiroshima-sized explosions per second, every second of every day being absorbed. now it's around ten due to the heat-trapping pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels. and it's sort of the way if you were to heat up a bathtub of lukewarm water with a tea kettle it would take a while. it would lukewarm until it no longer is. and it feels like the summer of 2023 we saw these numbers where people went wow, this is off the charts faster than we had anticipated. and it just creates more storm energy. it's more energy for these hurricanes. it's steroids, whatever metaphor you want to use. one degree of warming fahrenheit can lead to a 10% greater intensity of the storm. there's other factors involved, wind shear and el nino and all that stuff. but this is coming at a time when you've got a lot of folks who know these waters, who know the hurricanes of years past and are sort of setting their risk management around the world that really no longer exists. one guy is mike baker, a captain here who's ferried presidents out on fishing trips down here. he knows these waters better than most. he's deciding to stay. and i asked him why. >> talk about the decision to stay when something like this seems so obviously scary. >> it started like back in hurricane donna as a kid i can remember my parents took us to the mainland, up into homestead. and we came back and our home had been rummaged from other people. you know, the looters. they took everything. not to mention the amount of time you're away from your home. you have no idea what it's going to look like or if you have a home when you're there. >> yeah. >> all it would take for me to just go two hours from here and come back. and trees or power lines would be across the road and i can't get here. that to me is more harmful than riding the storm. >> reporter: and kaitlan, this of course is a state about civil liberties. you know, part of the appeal for a lot of people moving here is no one's going to tell you what to do. well, now you've got authorities telling you what to do. that is get out of these low-lying areas for your own sake. nobody's coming back to help you until it's too late. the cautionary tale from a year ago, less than a year ago, hurricane ian, when it hit lee county most of the deaths came from storm surge. that is just not survivable if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. >> yeah. and i mean we saw the damage from hurricane ian. they're still recovering from that. but on the climate aspect of this, and we're talking about how much warmer the waters are, i'm fascinated, hiroshimas per second, does this make it harder for officials to track tees, to forecast where these storms are going? >> well, i think it's pretty good when it comes to directional modeling. but it's that rapid intensification that may catch residents off guard sooner than forecasters. just because when you hit -- when it goes from 80 degree water to 90 degree water and it just revs that engine it may ramp up. we may wake up in the morning and it's a category 3 that we went to bed we weren't anticipating that. so that's one big part of it. and then there's the ocean life piece of this. the coral reefs, the system at the bottom of the aquaculture, fishing industry is dying as we speak. it's being boiled in these hot waters. and so there's a lot of knockoff effects coming down on florida these days. >> bill weir, thank you for being there to break it all down for us. >> you bet. >> and a former governor who knows what it's like to deal with these storms will join us when we return. chris christie was the governor of new jersey when super storm sandy struck in 2012. his insight on preparing for the disaster and calls for him to drop out of the race from donald trump. next. let me be direct... you're watching football wrong! what do you call a guy in face paint that can't get the game? 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[ engine revving ] ♪ ♪ made it! mom! leave running behind, behind. the new turbocharged volkswagen atlas. does life beautifully. david: i'm david goldberg, a bilingual elementary school teacher and president of the california teachers association. as we start a new school year, there's something new happening in california's public schools. jessie: they're called community schools. david: where parents and families, students and educators are making decisions as one. damien: it's a real sense of community. leslie: we saw double-digit gains in math, in english, and reading scores. david: it's an innovation that's transforming our public schools. narrator: california's community schools: reimagining public education. we have breaking news here tonight. as florida is about to be hit by a major hurricane, idalia has strengthened to a category 2. it is expected, though, to intensify to a category 3 by the time it makes landfall, likely to early tomorrow morning. the governor there urging people who are in zones, evacuation zones, to heed the warnings and get out now because by tomorrow it may be too late and the first responders will not be able to reach them. florida's big bend region is expected to experience historic storm surge as high as 15 feet potentially that could bring catastrophic flooding to the area. this would be the first major hurricane on record to make landfall in that region. and joining me now is former new jersey governor and republican presidential candidate chris christie. governor, thanks for being here tonight. you oversaw the state of new jersey when hurricane sandy did unprecedented damage in 2012. what's your advice for leaders in florida tonight? how do you think governor desantis is handling his hurricane preparations right now? >> look, i mean, i think he's handling it in a very standard way. i think you don't really know what you're going to get until you get it. and that's what i learned from a number of different hurricanes that i had to deal with in new jersey. of course the worst one being sandy. but i think the best advice i can give him is just to be present, you know, to be present, be out there, let the citizens see you after the worst of the storm is over so they know that you're on top of the job and that you're going to listen to their concerns and do the very best you can to help get them rebuilt and recovered as quickly as possible. >> at the republican debate last week vivek ramaswamy brought up how you embraced then president obama following sandy. he said you hugged him. you really just shook his hand as he put his arm on you. but what do you think ten years later or so, do republicans want a candidate who isn't willing to reach across the aisle even after a natural disaster? what did you make of that? >> look, i just -- it shows his immaturity. and he's showing that every day with the things that he's saying. day after day after day. so i don't worry about him. i think what the public needs to know about what i did then was i put the citizens of my state before politics. i made sure that when we suffered $60 billion in damage in the state of new jersey that i knew the only way that we could rebuild and recover as quickly as possible was to be partners with the federal government. so i understood that i had been mitt romney's keynote speaker, i'd been his number one surrogate out on the campaign, campaigning hard against barack obama. i voted for mitt romney. and i worked as hard or harder than anybody for him. but mitt romney understood that when it came to a natural disaster and the devastating damage it did to my state your job, you take an oath of office, not an oath of party. and my job was to put the people of my state first. and when i'm president that's exactly what i'll do. i'll put the people of the country, their needs and their concerns before my own political concerns. and that's something that you're not going to get from somebody like donald trump. you never did. and you won't now. >> speaking of the 2024 race and trump, he wrote today that you, in all caps, should drop out of the race, "he is going nowhere and is very bad for the republican party." what's your response to that? >> he only wishes i was going away. and it's great, you know, for me, kaitlan, to live rent-free in donald trump's head. obviously, he was watching the interview as i was doing it. i was laying out the truth about him. and that's one thing he cannot stand, is when someone who's credible, someone who's been there as a prosecutor for seven years, running the fifth largest office in the country, who was 130-0 in political corruption prosecutions when i was u.s. attorney, he knows i'm not just some politician talking about his problems, i'm someone who has done it. and done it well. and i know how deep his problems are and how much they're damaging both the republican party and the country. and i'm not getting out of this race. maybe he should think about getting out of the race since he'll be spending most of march and half of april in a courtroom in washington, d.c., not fighting the fight against joe biden like i'll be doing every day. >> a super pac that is supporting you launched an ad. they have now featured trump's mug shot in that ad. his campaign is claiming they've raised over $9 million from it. trump is calling it iconic today. i mean, you're using it in an ad, presumably obviously against him. but does it actually hurt him in the republican primary right now? >> i think it reminds everybody of what he's up against. it reminds everybody what he's done to the country. this is his conduct. you know, kaitlan, whether you believe the prosecutions are fair or unfair, the one thing that not even donald trump disputes are the underlying facts of his own conduct. he put himself and his own selfish desire to stay in power ahead of the american people. ahead of our electoral system. ahead of the peaceful transfer of power. you know, you get in this business, it's not always going to be fair, kaitlan. but that's what you sign up for. and as president you need to put the country first. he never put the country first in that instance. what he did was put himself first. so he wishes i would drop out of the race because i'm the only one on that stage who's telling the truth about him. and i'm one of two people who didn't raise my hand and say i would support a convicted felon for re-election to the presidency. >> were you waving your finger in that moment? what was that? >> i was doing this. i was saying no. no. >> okay. >> like i'm not doing that. yeah. and i think i made myself very clear. >> yeah, you certainly have on that front. president biden announced today the first ten drugs that are going to be subject to price negotiations between medicare and pharmaceutical companies, obviously a big step. if you were in the oval office, would you keep or remove the ability for medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices? >> what i would do, kaitlan, is take an entirely different approach to the problem. the real problem in the cost of prescription drugs are these pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen that are taking 60% and 70% of the rebates that the pharmaceutical companies intend for the customers and pocketing themselves, making tens of billions of dollars a year. how about we start there, with the middlemen who provide absolutely no value to the consumer and little or no value to the pharmaceutical companies? how about we start there and then we work and see whether we need to have further negotiations on prices. but these are huge rebates that are given by the pharma companies intended for their patients and instead they're gobbled up by these big corporate middlemen that are just a huge problem in our system. and as i said, eating up tens of billions of dollars. kaitlan, when we made them bid for services in new jersey, in one year just on our public sector workers' health insurance we saved $500 million. imagine what they're doing across the entire country and how much money they're making. that's where i would start as president. >> but you're not prepared to say yes or no on the actual negotiations that are now allowed to happen on at least these ten drugs? >> i'm saying -- let me be clear. i'm saying no until we squeeze the money out of these middlemen. then we can go and look at that, if there's a further need for action. so i'd say no now. the president's taken the easy path. he should take the hard path and go after these pharmacy benefit managers who are bringing no value to it. the pharmaceutical companies are developing the greatest and best drugs in the world for american consumers and patients. those patients deserve the rebates that the pharma companies are offering and these middlemen are stealing it from them. that's the people i would go after first before i start using medicare to negotiate prices of drugs and further reductions. >> a notable no there. governor chris christie, thank you for your time tonight. >> kaitlan, thanks so much for having me on. and if people want to continue to hear the truth go to chrischristie.com and donate. that's the way we keep this truth train going. >> thank you. and tonight we are still closely tracking hurricane idalia as it is drawing ever closer to florida. a live update from the cnn weather center, next. your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel- nothing beats it. new pronamel active shield actively shields the ename to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a gamechanger for my patients- it really works. somedays, i cover up because of my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now i feel free to bare my skin, thanks to skyrizi. ♪(uplifting music)♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ i'm celebrating my clearer skin... my way. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin, even at 5 years. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. thanks to clearer skin with skyrizi - this is my moment. there's nothing on my skin and that means everything! ♪nothing is everything♪ now's the time. ask your doctor about skyrizi, the #1 dermatologist-prescribed biologic in psoriasis. learn how abbvie could help you save. 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(intercom) flightdeck, see you at the house warming. let innovation refunds help with your erc tax refund so you can improve your business however you see fit. rosie used part of her refund to build an outdoor patio. clink! dr. marshall used part of his refund to give his practice a facelift. emily used part of her refund to buy... i run a wax museum. let innovation refunds help you get started on your erc tax refund. stop waiting. go to innovationrefunds.com you really got the brows. officials are sounding the alarm over historic storm surge that is expected to hit the big bend area. the forecast along the coast is anywhere from 3 to 15, yes 15 feet. chad myers is with me to break this down. looking at this 3 to 15 feet, what would this even be like for homes in these areas, much less people who didn't evacuate and could experience that? >> i was thinking, most of this is wildlife management area. the animals, all the wildlife that is going to start to be hopefully running away from that surge. it's going to be a sad scene for a lot of people, i'm afraid. 105 miles per hour right now. i'm sure that this has gone up since the last pass from the hurricane hunter aircraft. we'll keep you up to date on that. every time we get a new pass in, the numbers have been going up. when speed, the pressures have been going. down look at the eye right. now we have not had an eye all day, but about an hour ago the i pop which means the storm is now breathing and is a leave living thing not just storms bouncing off each other. the rapid rotation around the eye, the lift in the sinking air in the middle of the eye, this is how a storm storm rapidly intensifies. just what we anticipated but didn't see all day. now it's happening. one more thing that is happening, thunderstorms are developing just off the west coast of florida. every single one of these is they come onshore could rotate a little bit. a waterspout coming onshore. or if it actually starts on shore, it would be a tornado. that threat threat is happening right now. we didn't have that threat for most of the day. here's what we're looking for. cat two right now, but up here in this catcher's mitt of the big bend of florida, that is where the storm surge will be the worst. and some of the storm surge, caitlin, will go miles and miles inland. we will see this from the flat, it and some of this area only goes up one foot every mile so if you take a 15 foot storm surge, this thing could go on shore and inshore for a very long time. >> obviously that's a huge concern, especially with the super moon, the high tide making things worse. chad myers, you're going to be busy. thank you for that tonight. our coverage of hurricane idalia is good continue. also this, a political controversy exploding in tennessee, as one of the same democrats expelled from the state house earlier this year over a gun violence protest silenced again by republicans. why representative justin jones will join me next. j.p. morgan wealth management knows it's easy to get lost in investment research. get help with j.p morgan peonal advisors. hey, david! ready to gettarted? work with advisors who create a plan with you, and help you find the right investments. so great getting to know you, let's take a look at your new investment plan. ok, great! this should have you moving in the right direction. thanks jen. get ongoing advice; and manage your investments in the chase mobile app. heading on a family trip? nah, sorry son, prices are crazy, [son deflates] awh, use priceline. they have package deals no one else has. 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(fisher investments) yep. we do better when our clients do better. at fisher investments, we're clearly different. >> tennessee state lawmaker justin jones, who infamously was expelled from his seat by his republican colleagues after heated debate on gun reform before eventually being reinstated, has been silenced by republican lawmakers yet again. during a special session yesterday on public safety measures in the aftermath of the deadly national school shooting that killed six people including three children, representative jones was accused of being, quote, off-topic, and was reprimanded based on newly imposed rules set by the republican supermajority. joining me is democratic state representative justin jones. thank you for being here. you were ruled out of order. can you walk us through what happened, and what it was you said that was deemed off topic? >> yes, and thank you so much for having me. today is a sad day for tennessee because we just adjourned our special session, not returning until january, without passing any common sense gun laws, and once again silencing voices of dissent. yesterday i was silenced in an unprecedented move to enact new house rules that would stop me for speaking for the rest of the day because i was talking about the need of my district for more mental health support, not more armed guns in our schools. the speaker said it was off-topic and could not speak for the rest of the day, and if i spoke out of order again i would be three days. these house rules are being weaponized to silence voices of dissent and to criminalize mothers holding up paper, sign signs dragged out by troopers for exercising their first amendment right. >> the special session is on public safety. you're bringing up things you believe would increase public safety, and you are there for rolled out of order. is that right? >> that's correct. i voiced the concerns of my district, district 52 in tennessee, saying what would make us feel safe in this time of crisis because of the continual occurrence of mass shootings and gun violence in her state and in our nation. i was unable to those voice those concerns, and that's unfortunate because we're supposed to be a legislative body. i'm representative of my district i can't even speak from my district. my the speaker gavel to be off-topic. what he was really trying to stop was a motion of non confidence i said was i'm going to make at the end of session called a vote of no confidence in his leadership because of his failure as speaker, attacking constitutional rights, silencing the voices of tennesseeans, refusing to take up seriously the issue of gun violence. and he wanted to shut that down. >> so you're saying he just did it because he was mainly worried that you are going to call a no confidence vote for him? >> he was. even today, before we adjourn session, once again i rose my hand and sought recognition to make the motion to vote no confidence and the speaker of the house of tennessee cameron sexton. he chose to ignore me and go to one of his members to call the adjournment vote. if he was confident in his leadership, he would take the vote. but what we are seeing is a speaker who is so fragile and afraid of being held accountable that even his own republican members are frustrated. we saw what happened on april six, and in the special session with the mothers whose children were involved in the shooting at their school, being dragged out of committee. the house in tennessee is out of order, the speakers out of order, you should resign. but she won't resign, i will be back in january to call for a no confidence vote in his leadership. >> the whole point of this special session was to pursue these measures. you don't believe anything of substance has passed and we will see what january looks like. representative justin jones, thank you again for joining us again at the source. >> thank you so much kaitlan. >> and thank you all so much for joining. us tonight on cnn we're continuing our coverage of hurricane idalia. it's forecast to make landfall in florida's big bend region in just a matter of hours. prime time with abby phillip starts right. now >> a lot to get to in these critical hours. our special live coverage continues tonight of that dangerous hurricane right. now it is starting to hit florida, and i'm abby philip. idalia packing winds of more than 100 miles an hour is currently a category two storm, but it is projected to make landfall and to slam into th