interest rates up again. tonight with the context long time capitol hill correspondent, and now washington post live anchor leigh ann caldwell, and tom peck, political sketch writer at the independent. welcome to the programme. initial results for its self styled referendums, in four areas it occupies in ukraine, show people have voted overwhelmingly in favour ofjoining the russian federation. the process has been denounced as a sham by ukraine and its allies, who view the referendums as a stage managed forerunner to russian annexation which the ministry of defence here in the uk says president putin is likely to do within days. nearly four million people from the eastern regions of donetsk and luhansk, and the southern regions of kherson and zaporizhzhia, were asked to attend polling stations there s been allegations of intimidation, as election officials went house to house accompanied by armed guards. the votes serve a deadly serious purpose as they will be used by the
For office in america. whether it is a local election or whether it is a state or federal, the voters are the ones that ultimately get to decide. a question top of mind on that debate stage. all of that, plus the president and first lady about the visit the devastated hawaiian island of maui. that story is ahead as well. we want to begin with hilary, now a tropical storm expected to bring massive amounts of rain and potentially life-threatening flooding to parts of the southwest, as well as a tornado risk. it is the first tropical storm to hit california in more than eight years. governor gavin newsom declaring a state of emergency, and l.a. mayor karen bass calling it unprecedented. one person has already died in mexico after a car was swept away by floodwaters, others were rescued. nbc s is on the ground for us in san diego. we first want to go to the deputy director of the national hurricane center who s been tracking this thing for the last few days or so. jamie, good to talk
News conference. athena, president obama over and over again on the campaign trail talked about how in his view the now president-elect, mr. trump, was unfit to be commander in chief. there s no way he s still not going to be asked if he agrees with what he said before the election. is there any indication how president obama might answer that question today? reporter: hi, jake. that s a question top of mind for the dozen of reporters in this room. there s some hints at how the president might answer it today. we did hear white house press secretary josh earnest asked last week about many forceful things the president has said about donald trump over the past many months, painting him at some points as an existential threat to the country. josh earnest said, look, this was the president using forceful language to illustrate why he was so passionately in support of hillary clinton, as the person he thought should replace him. josh earnest said these were, quote, authentic views that h