deteriorating security situation. but after 20 years of war and thousands of lives lost, the question is, what was it all for? plus, a major earthquake hits haiti, leaving more than 1200 people dead. there s been a scramble overnight to find any survivors trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings. the question is what is the scope of this disaster? and as the delta variant causes covid cases to surge, a new warning from top u.s. health officials. the u.s. could soon hit more than 200,000 new cases per day. the question is, how does america s hospital system keep up? it s way too early for this. good morning, and welcome to way too early, the show that has a lot of news to get to. i m jonathan lemire on this monday, august 16th. we have plenty going on and we start overseas where 20 years after the united states toppled the taliban regime in afghanistan, the group is on the verge of retaking political power. taliban forces entered the capital of kabul on satur
than half of america s new infections. and later, the battle over history. schools and teachers under pressure over how much context to give students when teaching about america s past. good to have you with us. millions of people along the u.s. gulf coast are bracing for impact this hour as tropical storm elsa barrels toward florida. elsa briefly strengthened to a hurricane late tuesday but has since lost a little bit of its punch. still 33 counties are under a state of emergency. the storm is expected to make landfall in the coming hours along florida s northern gulf coast. before that, elsa has been battering southwest florida. this was the scene on marco island tuesday as the storm skirted up the coast. our meteorologist tyler mauldin is tracking the storm and joins us now. tropical storm elsa no longer a hurricane. it had a brief little flare-up where it restrengthened into a category one hurricane around the evening hours on tuesday. but it has since weakened. how
states and all around the world. i m rosemary church. just ahead here, many in the southeastern u.s. are bracing for tropical storm elsa. we ll have the latest on its path and what it could mean for the rescue efforts at the surfside condo collapse. plus we re closer than ever to declaring our independence from this deadly virus, but the fight is not over. president biden makes another push to get more americans vaccinated against covid and the urgency comes as cases of the delta variant take over u.s. hospitals. and later, we will have the highlights from game one of the nba finals. good to have you with us. millions of people on the u.s. east coast are bracing for impact as tropical storm elsa closes in on florida s gulf coast. the storm briefly strengthened to a hurricane tuesday before losing power as it approached the coast. el elsa is expected to make landfall in florida s big bend area. here is a look at conditions near tampa where they are still feeling the
trump also asked the judge to sever his case from some of his 18 co-defendants who are seeking a speedy trial. more now from sara murray in washington. reporter: donald trump officially entering his plea of not guilty in the sprawling racketeering case he faces in fulton county, georgia where he and 18 other co-defendants were charged for their efforts to allegedly try to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in georgia. donald trump is now one of five again of the 19 co-defendants in that case who have entered not guilty pleas and waived their right to an arraignment. that means that we won t see donald trump showing up next week in the courthouse, we won t see him on camera there had many had expected. and now it is a question of what happens next for candidate s case. his attorney has moved to sever his case from other co-defendants saying while there are some who want to move ahead speedily with this trial and move ahead to trial in october of 2023. donald tru
leader mitch mcconnell while he was answering questions from reporters. how his team is responding to growing concerns about the republican s health, including from some leading republicans. also ahead, rudy giuliani s lies about the 2020 election are catching up with him legally and financially. we ll explain yesterday s ruling by a judge. meanwhile, two of donald trump s co-defendants in the georgia election interference case now are requesting separate trials. we ll have the latest on a possible timeline in that case. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is thursday, august 31st. i m willie geist. with us this morning, the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. we do begin again this morning with tropical storm now idalia. it weakened overnight but still making its way through the carolinas, dropping massive amounts of rain, flooding streets, causing widespread power outages. charleston, south carolina, recorded its fi