No joke, jimmy kimmel doubling down on his criticism of the new republican push to repeal obamacare and one of the senators behind it. He either doesnt understand his own bill or he lied to me, as simple as that. Senator cassidy not laughing. It was a personal attack and i cant help that. Do republicans have the votes to get their latest Health Care Bill across the finish line . All that, plus the agency in charge of protecting your investments hit with a massive cyber attack. Look out, oh, my goodness. A child struck by a foul ball reigniting the fight over ballpark safety. And Olivia Newtonjohn speaking out about her new battle with Breast Cancer today, thursday, september 21, 2017. This is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Morning, ever announcer live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza, this is today. Good morning, its thursday and were glad to have you with us. We certainly are. Our top story is Hurricane Maria. That storm restrengthened into a major category three overnight, its now lashing the Dominican Republic, thats happening right now. Its bearing dun on turks and caicos. The storm is leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. The overall death toll in the caribbean has climbed to at least nine people. As we said, puerto rico has been decimated, the island left entirely without power, its governor warning it will be months not days or weeks before electricity can be restored. And the Virgin Islands hit once again very hard by maria. Tourism officials telling tourists to postpone trips while the damage is being assessed. Well get to als allimportant track of the storm in just a moment but we want to start with Gabe Gutierrez in san juan. Gabe, good morning. Savannah, good morning, it is extremely difficult to get around san juan and this is part of the reason. Power lines are down, streets are impassable, many roads are floodedment now this was a powerful storm, the siding of this building crushing this car. The governor imposed an overnight curfew as this island begins to assess the damage. Overnight, Hurricane Maria lashing the Dominican Republic. The powerful storm dumping dren shl rain on the caribbean islands after blasting neighboring puerto rico where the damage is catastrophic. The monster storm hitting the u. S. Territory with a force not seen here in nearly a century. Marias direct hit leaving widespread damage, virtually the entire island has no power and some areas may not have it restored for months. The hurricane tearing down power liables, cables and debris littering the streets, high winds uprooting trees, overturning cars and turning buildings into piles of twisted metal. In san juan, floodwaters are making roads nearly impossible to passment so mepass. Some neighborhoods raging rivers. This woman says the winds were horrible, like nothing shes ever seen. Making landfall as category four with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour, it barrelled ashore. This man says the building behind him was shaking and he feared for his life. At this san juan sports coliseu during the worst of the storms wind blew open metal doors, rainwater falling from the roof. The mayor of san juan was here with her family helping console others. Im just concerned that we may not get to everybody in time and that is a great way. Maria shaming st. Croix, the largest of the u. S. Virgin islands, the flooding of st. Thomas, the Remote Island of dominica now in ruins. Just the latest in a string of massive hurricanes to batter the caribbean. This morning searchandrescue teams including some from the u. S. Mainland are on the move. Telecommunications systems are down. The communication is extremely difficult here. Again, matt and savannah, the full extent of the damage from the storm will take a while to be assessed. Back to you. So many people worried about loved ones there as well. Gabe, thank you. Al is here, hes going to talk about not only whats happening with maria but where shes headed. Were still seeing a lot of rain in the western part of puerto rico so theyre still not done with this. It did intensify overnight a category three storm redeveloping and here it goes, 220 miles southeast of grand turk island, 115 mile per hour winds. We could see more strengthening out of this thing, northwest movement at nine miles per hour. Now for the Dominican Republic today about 50 to 75 mile per hour winds, eight to 16 inches of rain and as we move into tomorrow the turks and caicos are under the gun for this, up to a storm surge of nine to 12 feet, strong winds, eight to 16 inches of rain and then the path of it goes between Cape Hatteras and bermuda and as we put the spaghetti plots, as we call it, the models into play, we can be cautiously, cautiously optimistic, most swing it through bermuda i should say to the west of bermuda and to the east of mainland u. S. Again, its the still too early to say okay, were out of the woods, even for the folks of bermuda but were seeing glimmers of hope. That map looks better than the one we saw yesterday, al, thank you. Now to the other disaster were following very closely, this massive earthquake in mexico. This morning the death toll is rising but there are glimmers of hope among the devastation. More survivors pulled alive from the rubble nearly two days after that quake. Nbc National CorrespondentMiguel Almaguer is in mexico ci city. Reporter savannah the Elementary School behind me has become a symbol of hope and loss. More than a dozen students bodies were recovered there over the last couple days, moa few we saved. The school a symbol of hope. In mexico city, glimmers of hope after two days after heart break. Children found alive after their school crumbled to pieces, some of the youngest victims still buried beneath a mountain of rubble. Their tiny school bags hang just feet from classrooms that First Responders are desperately trying to reach. These rescues have to be carried out with extreme precision. Theyre listening for any sounds and possibly tapping, thats what led them to previous rescues. More than 20 students lost their lives here. Luis carlos says he has no idea how he got out. In 30 seconds, he says, my school was down, my best friend, his little sister, died. This morning, rescuers believe more children are trapped. Teams working right through the night. Theres a little girl, she says her name is freda and that theres two more children near her. Reporter as more images of devastation emerge, families desperately wait for word on their loved ones. Gloria hernandez clutches a photo of her 24yearold son ivan, buried beneath six floors of rubble in his office. Time is now the biggest enemy. She says my son has been buried for hours. Nobody will tell me a thing. Mexicos deadliest earthquake since 1985 leveling 38 buildings on tuesday in an untold number of homes. President Enrique Pena Nieto vowing to help those in need. Maria elena vargas, who lives near the earthquake epicenter, says her neighborhood is in ruins. Funerals here on wednesday. A toddler and his aunt never made it out alive. But this morning the search goes on. Rescue teams asking for silence. They can hear faint calls for help. The names of those pulled from the rubble are written down on paper for waiting families to see. But this is what theyre praying for a sign of hope amid a sea of disaster. This morning the search and rescue for little freda and other students like her continues at this very hour. We know at least 54 people have been pulled out of the rubble all across mexico. First responders say they will continue to stay here until everyone is rescued. Back to you. Still hoping to hear more about them. Miguel, thank you a lot more to get to this morning, including the newest battle over health care. President trump now offering his support for the latest attempt by republicans to repeal obamacare but there are vocal critics lining up from states and hollywood. Kasie hunt joins with us more. It seemed like republican efforts to repeal and replace obamacare were dead. But not so fast, this could pass the senate coming up next week and its sparked a very unusual fight between a louisiana senator and a late night comedian. Jimmy kimmel fired up and firing back. He made a total aboutface which means he either doesnt understand his own bill or he lied to me, as simple as that. Reporter doubling down on his criticism of republican senator bill cassidy and the new gop Health Care Bill sponsored by cassidy and senator Lindsey Graham. He said anything he supported would have to pass what he named the jimmy kimmel test which was fine. Unfortunately and puzzlingingly he proposed a bill that would allow states to do all things he said he would not let them do. Reporter it comes after kimmel went public with the story of his newborn sons heart defect in may. The clip going viral. Found that billy was born with um a heart disease. On wednesday cassidy defended himself to nbc after kimmel went after him the night before. He called you a liar last night. It was a personal attack and i cant help that. All i can say is that if youre in texas or maine or virginia, missouri, there will be resources in your state that you do not have to provide you coverage and we have protections for preexisting conditions. Reporter President Trump coming to the senators defense on twitter writing i would not sign grahamcassidy if it did not include coverage of preexisting conditions. It does. Gra t eabill. Repeal and replace. But the grahamcassidy plan does allow states to opt out of covering preexisting conditions, though theyd have to explain how they intend to keep those people covered. Overall, the bill makes sweeping changes, eliminating the individual mandate to buy coverage, redistributing Medicaid Expansion and obamacare subsidy money to individual states to let them implement their own plants. Now the race to find 50 votes is on. Majority lieder Mitch Mcconnell making plans to bring it to the floor before september 30. I think it has a very good chance, theres tremendous support from republicans. Certainly were 47 or 48 already senators and a lot of others are looking at it positively. They can only lose two votes and all eyes are on senators john mccain and lisa mmurkowski. Are you ready to support it . No. Reporter former president obama now speaking out. Its frustrating to have to mobilize every couple of months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents. Its not just democrats, Insurance Companies are warning this bill could destabilize the market hospital groups and nurses groups opposed to this but republicans are pressing ahead anyway and as of the current vote continue its possible this could pass the senate next week. Matt, savannah . Kasie hunt on the hill for us. Health care was one of the topics covered in our nbc news wall street journal poll. When it comes to dealing with health care, President Trump got low marks, just 27 approve with 53 saying they are dissatisfied . But overall the president s Approval Rating is up for the First Time Since february. 43 Approval Rating, thats a threepoint jump over last mo h month. One possible reason, the bipartisan debt ceiling and Hurricane Relief deal he made with democratic leaders. That got the approval of 71 of the polls respondents. While the Health Care Battle rages in washington, President Trump has another busy day in new york. Hes going to meet with the president of south korea and the Prime Minister of japan days after trumps stern warnings to both iran and north korea in that address to the u. N. North korea u. N. Officials have responded to that now comparing the president s speech the sound of a dog barking. And this morning there are also new developments in the russia investigation. Reports that special Counsel Robert Mueller is asking the white house to turn over documents related to both the president s Oval Office Meeting with russian officials and the firings of his National Security adviser and fbi director. Were happy to be joined by President Trumps current National Security adviser general h. R. Mcmaster. General, nice to see you. Welcome to new york. Thank you, great to be here. Let me start with iran. The president has said hes made his decision on what he wants to do with the Iran Nuclear Deal but he hasnt revealed the contents of that decision. Its been reported he wants to renegotiate certain aspects of the deal. For example, the term, when it will expire. Also a part of that deal that might allow iran to develop certain ballistic missiles. Is that accurate . That is accurate. I think whats different about President Trumps approach to the nuclear deal is his approach to iran broad ly. Previously the approach was about getting this deal and while that focus was happening and that was the focus of policy, iran engaged in a broad range of destabilizing activities. Is he trying to pick apart certain aspects of the deal to scrap in the its entirety . Its about our approach to this deal it fits into a broader iran strategy to address what iran is doing enmesh in the greatest middle east conflict to prevent this catastrophe from lebanon to syria to iraq to yes, maam. Are you saying hes going to rip up the deal . No, im not saying anything about it but when the announcement is made it will fit in to a fundamentally sound and broad strategy aimed at addressing irans destabilizing behavior and prioritizing american vital interests. Americans president rowhani has said, look, if the americans try to mess with this deal we may just start enriching uranium again and i dont feel to tell you the iranians were close to breakout capacity getting a Nuclear Weapon which led to this deal. Even if you hate the deal, wouldnt that be worse now. You mean the program they said never existed that they were going to restart . Do you think theyre in violation of the agreement . We dont know, do we . So we know theyve walked up to the line and crossed the line. Too many centrifuges spinning, too much heavy water. Then when theyre confronted by the iaea theyve backed off of that. The inspection regime is not that robust so one of the first things that has to happen is it has to be rigorously enforced. The worst thing that could happen is if this deal provides cover for iran to get a Nuclear Capability and of course all the while you mentioned the sunset clause is a problem but also the fact that they have a Missile Program thats continuing unabated. We want to move on to other things but do you think something in something where the iranians have any incentive to come to table. Those sanctions that were crippling the iranian economy. Why would they even talk about this. What iran needs to be is incentivized to stop its destructive behavior across the region. That has caused so much human suffering. Our approach to iran doesnt change fundamentally. We have vacated very Important Competitive states with iran in the campaign of subversion where theyre creating almost a hezbollah model across the greater middle east. Let me go to north korea quickly. The president said if were forced to defend ourselves or our allies we will totally destroy north korea. What would be the definition of being forced to defend ourselves . Would it be an all out attack from north korea, would it be the launching of a missile capped with a nuclear device. Would it be testing another missile that could reach the United States or detonating another Hydrogen Bomb . What defines defending ourselves . Attacks on us or our allies. An actual attack . Of course, of course. This is a regime that if you look from 1953 from the armistice that suspended the war, north korea has engaged in a broad range of violent and evocative behavior including assassinating leaders of south korea and cabinet officials and direct military attacks to sinking of ships so in terms of provocation, this is nothing new to the north korean regime. What is new is the grave danger to the world if this rogue regime has a Nuclear Weapon we have to ask you about the developments in the russia investigation. The Washington Post and the New York Times are reporting that the special Counsel Robert Mueller is zeroing in on the president s own actions including an Oval Office Meeting that you attended with the Russian Ambassador and foreign minister the day after james comey was fired from his position. Have you personally or your lawyer been contacted by the special counsels office for documents, evidence, or your testimony . This is not my area of responsibility so today what were focused on is the meetings you mentioned but also very important meetings with two nations whose sovereigntys been threatened. Have you been asked . No, i have not. You have not received any contact from the special counsels office . Im busy with other things. Has your lawyer or any representative of yours . Ive bee