joining us tonight. we have new developments in the georgia case involving donald trump's alleged efforts to overturn the election. today, as chris was talking, about the former trump lawyer, sydney powell, asked the court to separate her case from the 19 other defendants in the trial. their lawyers claim that sydney powell, quote, has no substantive connection with any other defendant regarding the charges in the indictment, and quote. therefore, should be tried alone. that is to put it mildly, a difficult case to make. powell, seen here standing alongside rudy giuliani in front of a campaign sign for the codefendant, on all trump, has many substantive connections to the other defendants. she attended a meeting with several other defendants at the white house where they discussed ways to overturn the election. at that meeting, they considered making sydney powell a special counsel so that she could investigate the election. but now her lawyers say that she doesn't really know any of those folks, and she is not alone in that. another codefendant in the georgia case, this man, kenneth chesebro, has also filed a motion to sever his case from the others. mr. chesebro would also like the court to release the names of 30 unindicted coconspirators in the indictment. there are 30 of them who were not named. so this motion comes as fani willis told the court that she wants all 19 defendants in this case tried together. no exceptions. chesebro and powell have all invoked georgia's speedy trial act trying to get their cases to court before all of the other defendants in the case. another codefendant trump lawyer, john eastman, says he intends to do the same. we don't know who the courts will side with on that particular question. but of those defendants think that they will have an easier time on their own, they may want to rethink their strategy. just last night, listen to this one, john eastman, also a codefendant, gave an interview to fox news where he issued this challenge. >> on the rico side of the fulton county case, that would require findings of bad faith. that would have to be you all basically agreeing, implicitly, explicitly, that you all knew that this was all phony, and that you say? >> well, they have got all the evidence. they have all my emails, my phone was seized over a year ago, to have all of that stuff as well. i challenge them to find a single email or communication that supports that implausible theory. >> challenge accepted. john eastman wants to see an email where he admits that this is all, but this is not all above board. okay, how about this one? it is in the january 6th indictments and by john eastman to then vice president mike pence's chief counsel in which he says, i implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation of the electoral count act, and adjourned for ten days to delay, to allow the legislators to finish their investigations as well as to allow a full forensic audit of illegal activity that has occurred here. okay. how about this one? where he tells rudy giuliani, i decided that i should be put on the pardon liz, if that is still in the works, and quote. okay. joining us now are people who know more about this than i do, and might chuckle less about it. the former campaign manager for barack obama and for barack obama's 2012 reelection campaign, and a former white house deputy chief of staff and the ceo of the massena group also with us is anthony michael christ, a professor of law and political science and george estate university. good evening to both of you. anthony, let's start with you. because some of the legal stuff makes some sense, and some of it makes no sense at all. donald trump tried this the other day. the day that he turned himself in, he came out, he spoke briefly to reporters and he said i don't even know most of these people i am charged with. he may not know a couple of them based on the breadth of this set of charges. sydney powell was on the ground. she was doing things there, hanging around election offices, also trying to become a special counsel. she was behind a lot of these plans. tell me, on the face of it, the merits of their arguments. >> i think this is exactly why fani willis has used the georgia rico statute, with which is essentially a very broad conspiracy statute. unlike the federal statute. rather than a traditional conspiracy crime, or conspiracy to commit election fraud, because other traditional conspiracies to commit election fraud charged, you would have to have a situation where two people, essentially get together, agreed to do something unlawful, and then one person in that group does something concrete and further that crime, or that conspiracy. here, what we have, is a much more difficult scenario. where you have a number of different moving parts, and everyone knows that they are a part of some kind of machine that is up to no good. like they have an unlawful enterprise or unlawful ghoul. but they don't really know how they are all working together. so this idea that they can say i do not know all the defendants, i really didn't have any concrete agreements with them, that really doesn't fly. because that is exactly why fani willis is charging these crimes in the way that she is. >> how do you think that this is all playing out? it is less coordinated than the whole case that fani willis is making. they all seem to be doing their own thing right now which leads me to believe that at some point there are not all lined up behind donald trump. >> you are exactly right, at some point they are all going to make deals and say things like eastman said last night, on fox, i love how you nailed him on it. this is the kind of thing that they are all going to start to do. this is a problem when you have 30, shall we say, some unsavory characters trying to cut deals and trying to defend themselves. now they all want to go to the individual trials which, if you are the trump campaign, is just an absolute nightmare. and it would be very bad for them as this plays out on national tv every single night. >> anthony, there is some speculation, i do not understand this very well. but the reason why these attorneys for a few of these characters want their cases to go first and separately, it is because they can then invoke attorney client privilege, to not say things about their discussions with donald trump. donald trump can later use that information. what do you know about this? >> i think what we are seeing from the individuals who have invoked their speedy trial rights, two things. the first, being that the council issue, that the attorney client privilege issue. i will get to that in a second. i think the first thing is that some of them, particularly cheeseborough, he has the opportunity or wants to make the opportunity of standing alone to say i was just engaging in legal theory, and i was not engaged in the actual criminal conduct that other people were potentially, or allegedly doing in georgia. just leave me alone. i'm just the guy who was thinking of legal theories like law professors do. i think that is part of the strategy. the other thing is that attorney-client privilege is not completely absolute. so if a judge finds that there is a crime that was involved in a conversation between an attorney and their client, there is a crime fraud exception which would allow some of that evidence to come in. we already have an example of that from federal court where a federal judge found that there was some criminal activity in more likely than not to occur between john liesman, and donald trump, and some of the individuals that john eastman was working within some of the litigation they had during georgia. that can be pierced. so i think that some of the defendants may have thought, maybe fani willis wouldn't be quite prepared to have trials this fall. i think, really, a number of the folks are gaining out the system to essentially say, i really was not engaged in this really deeply criminal stuff. i kind of have the fewest fingerprints on georgia of everybody. i think it is unpersuasive. i think it will be a hard thing for them to create a defense around. but i expect that is largely their strategy. >> jim, of the four indictments, two of them, georgia and january 6th have to do with fraud, or donald trump's claims of fraud in the election. they are detailed, they are going to play out sometime over the course of the next several months or a year. take a look at this poll conducted by the atlanta journal-constitution in which the question was asked, do you believe that there was widespread fraud during the 2020 presidential elections, or not? just to be clear with everybody, these are republican primary voters. 61% say yes, 30% say no. eight and a half percent are undecided. i'm puzzled as to how you are undecided two and a half years into the thing. but this is what is going on, donald trump looks at these numbers and if you believe there was fraud in the 2020 election, you are more likely than not to be a trump supporter in the next election. his base is not dwindling on that front. >> it is not. and this is the lasting damage that he is doing to american democracy. because he is out here telling an entire wing of one of the two major parties that up is down, and that black is white. now, they are not going to believe the next thing they hear. it is really a huge problem. it is a huge problem for people running against him in the primary. because the moment you say hey, the election was not stolen, or even if this guy is going to be prosecuted on 91 felony counts, should he really be the nominee, you are going up against 60, 70% of the party who believes that that is not true. they believe that donald trump was right. i saw an interesting statistic that among religious voters, more people believe that donald trump is honest than religious leaders. now, you and i can spend a lot of time on national tv about whether that is true or not. but it is part of the problem that all of these folks running against donald trump in the primary are going to have to deal with. because right now he is the arbiter of truth as horrifying as it seems to you and me. >> speaking about truth, anthony, mark meadows is trying to get his case taken to federal court. he probably thinks he has a better chance and a jury pool their. but his principal point, and he's not really fully making it, but there has been a trial before. he can see what he would do if he got to federal court. his argument is that i was a chief of staff for the president, the words he used, i was trying to land the plane. this vote counting business was incidental to the fact that i was actually just trying to get the business done of the president of the united states. but there is a phone call in which he is on recorded, that the court has heard, where he's talking to brad raffensperger, the secretary of state, and while he's not using trumpian language, in terms of being threatening and mob boss, he is implying, is there something we can do to work this all out? because we need the votes we need. >> yeah. i actually had the opportunity to go to federal court on monday and watch that hearing. mark meadows did his very best to be an affable witness and to present evidence that suggests that he was just doing his job, and really, the activities he was engaged in here in georgia were kind of run of the mill activity is for chief of staff. but it was somewhat unpersuasive, largely unpersuasive. because while there may have been some incidents where his conduct may have been fairly benign, the d.a.'s office had evidence to show he was coordinating with campaign stuff and doing things that were not furthering federal interest. in particular, there was an effort by a trump ally to get a signature on it, on mail ballots here in fulton county, and mark meadows asked a number of the secretary of state's office, if you could somehow coordinate campaign funds to come to georgia to assist that. he made a lot of efforts to coordinate with campaign workers, and with state officials, to write to the phone call connected between donald trump, and brad raffensperger. there was a lot he was doing. throughout the entirety of everything that mark meadows did here in georgia, one of the things that stuck out in that hearing, which is that he had no good answer for why, when he was chief of staff, he did not read in anyone from the white house counsel's office, anyone from the department of justice, or anyone from the department of homeland security. because he was really doing campaign work. that is not permitted under federal law. and it really cuts against this removal motion. >> and he was the chief of staff, not someone's assistance, he could have anybody and say, hey, do you have a view on this? should i be making that phone call? thank you very much. a lot to unpack. we appreciate your expertise. anthony michael christ, and jim messina, we appreciate your time tonight. all right, we are going to take a quick break. we will be right back in just a moment. moment driving around is the only way we can get our baby to sleep, so when our windshield cracked, we needed it fixed right. we went to safelite.com. there's no one else we'd trust. their experts replaced our windshield, and recalibrated our car's advanced safety system. they focus on our safety... so we can focus on this little guy. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ try killing bugs the worry-free way. not the other way. zevo traps use light to attract and trap flying insects with no odor and no mess. they work continuously, so you don't have to. zevo. people-friendly. bug-deadly. as someone living with type 2 diabetes, i want to keep it real and talk about some risks. with type 2 diabetes you have up to 4 times greater risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. even at your a1c goal, you're still at risk ...which if ignored could bring you here... ...may put you in one of those... ...or even worse. too much? 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>> the library was everything. i am checking out ten books, ten more books, i'm at home reading books. >> over the summer, dozens of houston schools replace their libraries with team centers. where students will do work, or go when they must behave. many librarians were laid off, or reassigned to new jobs. the change is overwhelmingly impacted black and latino neighborhoods. so lauren, and other moms spent their summer going to meetings, and protests demanding to be heard. >> i want you to look at my face and remember me, because i am your new best friend. >> republicans have made parental rights a centerpiece of the gop platform. arguing that parents have the right to demand that books be removed from schools. that lessons on race and gender be restricted. but this spring, when the state of texas took over the houston independent school district of almost 200,000 kids, in a blue city in a red state, there was little outcry from those same parental rights activists. the state replace their elected school board members. they pushed out the superintendent. >> taking these principles -- >> they brought in the dallas superintendent, and school founder, mike miles. houston mayor, sylvester turner, things the move is anti-democratic. >> i am not going to chat about this. it is a hostile takeover where the people are not accountable to the parents of the teachers of the local community, and the students. they are appointed by the people at the state. >> it's houston in conflict with its own state government? >> houston has been in conflict with the state government for years. what is happening here with h. isd cannot be viewed separate in part from the greater picture. let's not be fooled. >> for years, a number of houston schools were failing. parents pleaded for more resources, as large numbers of students fell far behind on reading and math. former district leaders tried to implement new programs, and the state gave them a b rating in 2022. the texas education agency took it over anyway. superintendent, mike miles, new education system model will emphasize instruction time in the classroom and use team centers like these, for the kids who are excelling, and the kids who need a timeout. he understands families are anxious about change. he believes that it was necessary. >> what message do you think is sent to kids, the, who see classmates in other parts of the city who still have functioning staffed libraries? >> i think that kids like to learn. i think that kids focus on their schools, so i think that the kids are going to be fine. i think that they are very flexible, adoptable, you have seen them already on the first day. >> i've spoken to some of the kids in your district. one third grader told me that it made her feel angry. one fifth grader told me that it made her feel like she is a bad kid who doesn't deserve a library. >> you know, when they come to school, what i have heard, and what my staff has heard is nothing but oh, this is okay. so i think people need to get here, i think that the kids will adapt, and they will love school. like you see kids learning here. >> do you believe librarians are important? >> every single position has value. and it has a role to play in different places. we can't be all things or all people, and we can't have everything we want. so there is a prioritization that has to happen. science or reading, versus this position. >> does that mean that you are robbing them? >> i wouldn't phrase it that way. what i would say is we are putting in a bold, different model that works. >> but parents like lauren say that their wishes are being ignored by the school system. >> do parents here feel heard? >> i am having to literally fight and yell from the rooftops that my children deserve a library. even prisons have libraries. >> cheryl hensley worked for hst for 39 years. she was lawrence second grade teacher before she became a librarian. she got laid off as part of the takeover. >> this is just part of your community. i am building a lifelong learner. i am building beyond the teacher. i am giving them a choice. they are going to the classroom and they are told that they have to pass this test, they have to read this passage, they have to do these strategies. when they come to me, they are given a book that they choose. a book that they want to read. >> was it hard to leave your school? >> extremely hard. i still go by. i don't want it to be done. these kids, they are important to me. and i felt like i love every single one of them. >> lauren says the library that was a lifeline for her as a kid is worth fighting for. >> what are my rights as a parent? are my children not entitled to a quality education in their neighborhood? where does that fit into my american dream? the pursuit of happiness, and life, and liberty. i do not feel very happy right now. i don't feel very liberated. i don't feel very free. i feel very frustrated. i feel very unheard. and i feel like my children, the children in this district, are being treated like political football. >> lawrence son, james, can already read well. but her daughter says that he struggles with dyslexia. >> sometimes people forget that there are real people that are impacted by this. seriously, what am i supposed to do for my baby girl who is doing her best? >> they lived and they -- a house, and in the woods. >> i don't know why people need to take a library away for no reason. it does not make sense. because it is really hard to see things that you love, to just be, gone. >> the library was one of sydney's favorite spaces at school. >> you are going into the third grade. that is an important here for reading. what are you hoping to still learn, what kind of help do you need? >> i need help with words. and i need to read a lot. >> what message do you think it sends to you to go to a school that does not have a library? >> but kids just shouldn't read. or kids like us shouldn't read. >> that kids shouldn't read, for kids like us shouldn't read. that is incredible reporting from nbc news correspondent, antonia hylton, who has covered many stories, a school struggling under unique challenges as school politics and education policy collide. we will talk about all of that when we come back, stay with us. ack, stay with us. i love my knix, i could not live without them. having period underwear makes life so much easier. i don't think i could ever go back to just using pads and tampons. just throw them in the laundry, it's super easy. k-n-i-x, knix. book a work trip. earn onekeycash. shake some hands. do not forget to laugh. 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(alternate voice) poligrip power hold + seal gives our strongest hold and 5x food seal. if your mouth could talk, it would ask for... poligrip. >> the city of houston is run by the democratic mayor, sylvester turner, who you saw. in the presidential election, harris county, where houston is located, went blue, as it has an every presidential election since 2008. joe biden won the county by more than 13 percentage points. harris county is one of the most diverse counties in the entire state of texas. the school district is no different. more than 80% of the 200,000 students enrolled in houston's independent school district are black and latino. and the republican-led state of texas is focused on improving the districts test scores by taking away their school libraries. the state appointed superintendent has instituted a new plan for the school year that will transform the libraries and many of the schools and two centers of discipline, literally replacing books with isolation. mayor turner says that the library plan is creating a present like atmosphere, and space is typically associated with learning. nbc's correspondent, antonia hylton, spent a few days in houston talking to parents and students about these new changes, and what it means for communities. literally no one tells these important stories better than you do. that last thing you had in your story, that boy saying that kids shouldn't read, or kids like us shouldn't read, i don't know if he recognized that in american history, particularly in the south, particularly in texas, that was a thing his ancestors may have faced. a deliberate effort to make sure certain people did not read. they couldn't attend self sufficiency. in those days, they couldn't get away from their owners and captors. but in this day, it also keeps people in their place. that was a remarkably resonant piece, a very remarkable story. >> thank you, ali. that boy is actually a ferocious reader. so he may well know all the history that you spelled out right there. and that is really the weight that a lot of these families of color here in houston are feeling right now. you know, nobody thinks that the school didn't need any kind of a former change. in fact, in all of the years in which the state was criticizing houston isd, the parents were as well. they wanted more for their kids. they wanted more resources. they were asking the state for more money. they want to new programs. they wanted infer interventions to help their kids catch up in reading and math. no one was saying that no things should change, so they agree with the superintendent on that. i think for these families, who are seeing some of their kids struggle to read, and struggled to find points in the day as well where they could also just relax, be themselves, have fun, curl up with a book, the library meant something to them. in mental lot for those kids to go into that space, to make a decision, a choice about what they wanted to explore that day and really have agency in that room. that is the question parents tell me that they're asking this administration. where is our agency, now that we've lost our elected representatives. where do we get a seat at the table? and if we are going to make all of these changes, okay, some changes are good. but what say do we have, and will you partner with us before you go ahead with them? that is what is at stake here. and they see this history, and what could happen to kids who look like them, ali. >> so, you spoke to the union, non elected appointed superintendent. i thought something you said was interesting. when you asked him specifically about libraries, it was stark, i can't imagine such a thing. i've known of the story for several weeks but i have not seen the imagery that there are literally libraries without books in them. he said we cannot be all things to all people. we can't have everything we want. i think it is reasonable to say that we can't have everything we want, but there are virtually no students in this country who will tell you that the library, whether a school or otherwise, was not central to the being of a child who enjoyed education. so yes, we can't be all things to all people, but why the libraries, of all things to cut, why the libraries? >> he sees himself as a reformer. he has a large network of charter schools in which he has implemented this new education system. and he says that he has seen a track record of success. here is the logic behind it, if they are able to take resources, focus more time on instruction in the classroom, and use some of the way in which they reorganized, and removed some positions to increase some teachers pay, then those teachers will succeed, they will go above and beyond, they will do more for kids in the classroom, and kids will get more of that reading instruction, and all kinds of other instruction to catch up with the rest of the state. so it is not that he doesn't think kid should still read, but it's that he thinks the library might not necessarily have to be the space for that. that there are other points in the day where kids are going to be able to, of course, read through their classes, through english, read as part of assignments, what librarians have said to me is that they did a whole lot more than just check out books, or stand there as kids read. that they found kids, who maybe were not that into reading, and they help them find subjects that they were inspired by, and that they would give kids the next book in a series, so that they would keep falling in love with reading and in love with authors. they also would teach classes to help kids figure out the difference between fact and fiction. how do you evaluate sources, and how do you start to cite sources in your first school papers. librarians were paying all of these roles. their concern is, this is so much bigger than just how do the shelves look in a big room? it is more about the culture. all of the pieces and the joy and love of learning that go with it. we have the chance to go inside of the teams center, and you can see some of it in the story there, where there are rows and rows of desks in what used to be a library. than along the wall, there are a lot of these shelves, where kids are going to be able to, before they go to the bus, grab books on an honors system. and kids may well do that. we didn't get to see any kids actually do that today, but the other piece that librarians are concerned about is that if the books are just there in the corners, and along the walls, kids are going to forget about the library and it just will not be a focal part of school culture anymore. >> you spoke to the parent of a child in the school system that has disabilities. they are worried about how this transformation is going to affect their children. especially the children and their ability to learn english. let's talk about that together. >> [speaking in a non-english language] >> [speaking in a non-english language] >> [speaking in a non-english language] >> tell me a bit more about that. >> you just met a mom named salina, she has children who are headed into one of these schools. one of these schools where the library has been transformed. she have a son with autism, one son with adhd, and her concern, what she told me, is that her kid special needs will be interpreted, or misinterpreted in the classroom. that they may then be sent to spend some time in one of these teams centers for discipline. and her other major concern here is that she says she has not received enough information in spanish. this is a district in which some schools, the majority of kids are latino, the majority of kids have parents who do not speak english at home. many of them are going home and they can practice reading with an adult who can help them read their assignments that day, or dive into a book written in english. so getting that instruction in school that supports in school, it is really all those kids have. these parents are doing their best right now, i actually got to spend time with one mom who speaks both english and spanish. she has been translating, she sends out text messages, emails to all of the spanish speaking parents around her neighborhood to try to give them an update on the questions that she asked administration. the information that she receives from the teachers. so that she can try to give them that sense of a feeling that they still have a say in their school, and that elementary, the principal no longer speaks spanish who has put in place after the takeover. there's a lot of anxiety there. i think it will take a couple weeks before we have a sense of how this new system really works. you know, i've spoken to people who are excited, we say the pay increases are going to help, the teachers are going to be more excited, more engaged now. but right now, the parents, they are describing chaos. that is for parents both who speak english as a first language, and for parents who are still learning. >> i will follow it closely with you, thank you for your fantastic reporting on this. antonia hilton and houston. the attacks on books and education in texas and across the country is exactly what i have been exploring for the last year and a half. now i have a brand-new podcast for it. the velshi banned book club. the first two episodes are out right now. you can scan the qr could on your screen to listen to wherever you get your podcasts. still ahead, an outpouring of bipartisan support for senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, after an incident at a press conference in his home state of kentucky today. we will have more details on that when we come back. come back oh, hello! hi! do you know that every load of laundry could be worth as much as $300? 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[sigh] now, powerwash gives me the power of an overnight soak in minutes. with 3 cleaning boosters... not found in traditional dish soaps that help break down, loosen and lift away food and grease... so much faster! oh stuffed up again? so congested! you need sinex saline from vicks. just sinex, breathe, ahhhh! [sniffs] what is — wow! baby: daddy. sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh! >> before the senate reconvenes next week, senators intending a few file of ads in their home states. tonight reporters caught up with the majority leader, mitch mcconnell, after he spoke at a chamber of commerce event in covington, kentucky. this is what happened when one of those reporters asked senator mcconnell about running for reelection. >> what are your thoughts and running for reelection in 2024? >> my thoughts on? what >> running for reelection in 2026? >> okay. [silence] >> did you hear the question, senator? running for reelection in 2026? all right, i'm sorry, we're going to need a minute. want to come with us. >> okay. >> somebody else have a question, please speak up. >> senator mcconnell, by the, way missed, oak bespoke as minority leader, he went on to answer questions with the help of this aid. in early july senator mcconnell went silent for a few minutes before his colleagues escorted him away. at the time, mcconnell's office said that he felt light headed. nbc news reached out to his office for comment on the senator appearing to freeze up today. a spokesperson said in a statement, quote, leader mcconnell felt momentarily light headed and paused during his press conference today. while he feels fine, as a prudential measure the leader will be consulting a physician prior to his next event. and quote. this afternoon president joe biden wished him well. >> we disagree with him politically, but he's a good friend so i'm gonna try to get in touch with him later this afternoon. >> after the episode in kentucky, senator mitch mcconnell began calling his fellow republican leaders in the senate, senator john thune, spokesman, senator mcconnell sounded like his, quote, usual self, and was in good spirits, and quote. when we come back, the cost, not just in terms of life and limb, of the hurricanes destructive path through the southeast. much more on that, right after the break. e break. 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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[ cheers ] yeah! woho! running up and down that field looks tough. it's a pitch. get way more into what you're into >> been a little over 12 hours when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. since hurricane idalia made landfall in florida's big bend region, downing trees and power lines and flooding streets and homes. especially populated island city of cedar key saw 8 to 9 feet of storm surge, damaging many structures. in tampa, while structural damage was minimal, there was more typical of a built up area like that, tampa bay saw up to five feet of storm surge. we're dealing with a couple of problems. waters, storm surge, flooding. just tonight, a seawall has been breached in charleston, south carolina, a town that floods literally every time a hurricane glances in its direction. but there's another issue with the water. it's really hot. you've probably seen references in the past few weeks to ocean temperatures off the coast of florida feeling like you're getting into a hot bath. that's not some quirky artifact of global warming. it's a harbinger of really damaging super powerful storms. joining us is monica dean, a former deputy undersecretary of noah, assistant secretary for oceans environment and science in the state department, both under president biden. now the president and ceo of the wildlife conservation society. monika, thank you for being. here you have for so long been a counselor to be in terms of understanding climate, but you have a special to hear about oceans and ocean water. and that is part of what we see here. when a hurricane in the atlantic gets close to mainland, the temperature of the water, enclosed by the climate, influences the power of that hurricane. >> it sure does, ali, thank you so much for having me on tonight and for talking about this really important topic. it's supercharge is the storm. i just want to say, hats off to the folks who flew through the storm to feel its impact and actually the forecast was incredibly accurate this time. it's where it would make landfall. so it gave people plenty of time to prepare. but what they had to prepare for was a supercharged storm, full of heat and energy, and that huge storm surge, which is different than what we have seen decades ago. that supercharged water just acts like a vacuum and it's sucks up more and more energy into the storm and it all comes ashore. >> let's look at this. hurricane idalia winter may category one to a category category 4 overnight. warm waters help to fuel idalia 's rapid intensification hours before it made landfall. is it moved to the gulf, it winds rose by 55 miles per hour in just 24 hours. strengthening from a category one hurricane to a category category 4 by early wednesday. now i want to put up a tweet by jeff masters, a former scientist and, he was saying that idalia is one of ten historical storm since 1950 that have intensified by at least 45, 40 miles per hour in 24 hours before landfall. you and i follow storms very closely. a storm can arrive close to land, and the temperature of the water might not be warm enough, and the storm can fizzle and save lives. when it hits water and it's that hot, it intensifies into, again, it could've been a category 1 or 2 a couple of days ago, it ended up a category 4. >> it is such a huge powerful thing to contend with, and most of the building codes weren't made for storms of this intensity. we had time to prepare for a storm, but not the one of this intensity. if we had, i think a little more climate information, if we continue to perfect these models, maybe we can better predict the intensity of the storm a few days out. we're getting better at it, but we need to keep going. >> there is damage. we believe, i think, there were two lives lost in connection to this. but there is a lot of property damage. in years past, you would say, hopefully you have instructions for it. when insurance is hard to. get flood insurance is hard to get, and it's getting harder to get, particularly in flood prone areas like florida. our producer on this show told me here in new york state they couldn't renew their flood insurance. this is becoming a serious thing. insurance companies are sitting here thinking, i don't want to get involved in this. >> it's a real problem. some people may think climate change is a hoax, but it's not. insurance companies know it. that's why it's harder to get insurance in the state of florida. in fact, florida itself now has to write insurance policies because big companies won't come in and do it any longer. thousands of floridians are going, are turning to the state to ensure them. the system is already at a very critical point, where it is hard for it to take on much more damage and have to pay out more claims. they can't keep up. the same thing in california. and i will tell you, a decade ago, in new york city, the very institution that iran lost its aquarium. we lost the aquarium in coney island to super storm sandy, that wasn't even a hurricane. it has taken us more than a decade and millions and millions of dollars to repair. so we know that climate change is a real force that we have to contend with now. and we are, i think, fooling ourselves if we think the hits won't keep coming. and osha is absorbing 90% of those extra greenhouse gases, that heat is trapped in the ocean and it's going to continue to track things up. of course on top of that, we have had horrific heat waves this summer, and fires, like the ones in maui. i think issuers are going to be increasing prices everywhere, all over the country, because climate change is here. it's hitting everyone in the u.s. one way or the other. it has been quite a summer. and hurricane season hasn't even ended yet. we have a big month ahead of us, ali. we have to hope that things don't get worse. >> and you are right. in california if you want insurance for a fire, you have problems getting that is well. some people want to ensure you for anything. thank you so much, monica medina, president of the wildlife conservation society. one quick reminder, as we continue to follow all of the developments in donald trump's multiple trials, all four indictments will be available complete and unabridged in a brand-new book, edited and introduced my by me. the trump indictments, comes out september 25th. why wait for the boot book, you can help me read all the indictments on prosecuting donald trump podcast, by scanning the q r code and a lot more content in that podcast as well. that's it for our show tonight. it's time now for the last word with my friend lawrence o'donnell. good evening. >>or good evening, ali. thank you for that reporting on this weather situation. it's really unlike anything that we have seen. >> it is difficult, and more to come. what have a good show, my friend. >> two former law clerks of the disgraced supreme court justice clarence thomas got together tonight on the tv show hosted by one of them to discuss the status of the other as an accused coconspirator with donald trump into criminal cases in washington and georgia. we will bring in the breaking news of trump codefendant john eastman's tv testimony tonight, which will get him in serious trouble in court if he tries e