and is expected to make landfall in the coming hours. forecasters say it will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for the residents of the gulf coast. idalia is currently a category 3 storm forecast to become a category 4 when it makes landfall. that means maximum sustained winds of at least 130 miles an hour. authorities warn the storm surge could reach 12 to 16 feet in some areas and will likely not be survivable. low-lying areas are already seeing flooding further down florida s west coast including pinellas county. more than 7 million people are under tornado watches. cedar key could be completely cut off by flooding. officials have been going door to door there to make sure residents evacuate. but not everyone is heeding the warnings. this is crunch time right now. we re going get hit with a major hurricane. it will be some time the eye will arrive on shore some time tomorrow morning most likely. and it is going to have major impacts. so it s likely to cause a lot of damage.
good wednesday morning and the breaking news we are following this morning, a significant storm, now a category 4 storm, hurricane idalia now in the extremely dangerous category, that category 4 storm designation is intensified over the hours from a category 3 now to a category 4, it is expected to make landfall onto florida s gulf coast in just hours. forecasters are calling the storm dangerous, life threatening, a once in a lifetime storm that could bring catastrophic storm surge of up to 16 feet in florida s big bend region. at 6:30, just about a half hour from now, florida governor ron desantis will be giving an update from tallahassee. we will bring you that live. desantis says if you wanted to see a press can he not. analog for a storm hitting this place at this scale, go back more than a century. sarah sanders has been there live, part of team coverage, bill weir, in florida, derek van dam in tampa. and brian todd. and we ll be speaking with local officials and the dir
apologized for over a false story. and even max kennedy will respond to vikram of who called him the grand wizard of the modern. but first, mark meadows, he took a big risk today by taking the stand. charged in efforts to overturn election results in georgia. and now he is arguing that his case should go over to federal court instead. today, there was a mini trial of sorts. one that s many legal experts have said may have put him in deeper trouble. cnn s jessica schneider is here to tell us what happened in that hearing today, jessica? abby, we are now waiting for the federal judge in georgia to decide of mark meadows case can be moved to federal court. meadows testified for several hours today, he tried to make the case that everything that he did was within his official duties as chief of staff for trump. he talks about that infamous phone call to georgia secretary of state where trump of course asked raffensperger to find him more votes. meadow excused the call, saying
sandbags, school closures and a race to get out of its way. hurricane idalia proms millions to prepare for a life-the threatening storm surge that s hours from the florida coast. plus, doing his job or aiding and abetting a scheme. mark meadows spends three hours on stand trying to show his actions were just normal chief of staff things and not part of a conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election. and a campaign claush over foreign policy turns ugly. vivek ramaswamy calls nikki haley a liar. some see it as a dog whistle. i m dana bash. let s go behind the headlines and inside politics. up first, florida eyes a monster. a major hurricane is swirling off the shoreses. forecasters warn that hurricane idalia could be a once in a lifetime storm that will gain strength as it barrels towards the panhandle. already officials have ordered evacuates across much of the gulf coast. they told residents to expect widespread power outages for days and they warn storm surges as tall as
away. and i think of the spike lee movie. you have the film cue and he is watching somebody move. and they are pulling him along in the streets as he s about to be assassinated. i think of all those different moments. you re right. not only was that the issue. today is also the day that thurgood marshall was sworn in as supreme court justice. an icon and role model like that. unbelievable. the echoes of history. have a great show. thank you so much. we re going to talk about that later. good evening, everyone. i m laura coates. frankly, there s one big headline after another tonight. we got the tale of two courtrooms. one s in fulton county, georgia, the other, washington, d.c. and here we are on this 60th anniversary of the march on washington, learning new details about the latest racially motivated shootings in jacksonville. we re going to step back tonight. we re going to examine all with professor michael eric dyson and get his take on the context. plus, we ll bring