moments. we ll have live coverage once it begins. our team of reporters is covering this. let s begin with nadia in new orleans. we heard the player say some very serious, deliver serious warnings to residents. leave now or hunker in place. it will be very dangerous. people need to take warnings seriously. what are you hearing? reporter: wolf, you heard the mayor say don t expect emergency responders to risk their lives to get you in the middle of the storm. once the storm passes, they ll come out and the first priority is to clear roads of debris, especially around hospitals. if you re going to decide to stick it out, ride out the storm, you ll be doing so on your own. we have seen some business owners in french quarter boarding up their businesses, trying to prevent debris from flying. we know we ll have high wind speeds, you talk about a category four storm. we have seen people boarding up all morning long. look at the hotels. a huge tourist area. this is a line of hotel
who s in homa, louisiana. derrick, talk to us about what s happening on your end. reporter: yeah, okay, people are leaving this area and rightly so because they know what is looming. they know what is 250 miles off the coast of where i m located. just hearing these very ominous words from the louisiana governor really just perked my ears and my crew s ears up but it certainly perked up anybody who decided to stay and ride out this storm s ears as well. take a listen. this will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in louisiana since at least the 1850s. we can also tell you that your window of time is closing. it is rapidly closing. and just like we said yesterday, by the time you go to bed tonight, you need to be where you intend to ride this storm out. so it s still questionable whether or not the individuals behind me, who are currently sandbagging, are expected to leave. we had a mandatory evacuation order set in place at 6:00 a.m. this morning. mandator
president said the threat remains very high, could be the highest now as it s been in this entire evacuation mission given that there are still thousands of u.s. troops on the ground. so the president has continued to be updated every single day this week by his national security team. this morning was no different. they spent about an hour and a half in the situation room. and the white house readout of that meeting is pretty blunt, saying that the president was told that right now the threat of an attack is, quote, highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours. he said the situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous and of course the threat of terrorist attack still remains high. that s something they re monitoring very closely as they continue the evacuations. it s not clear how long the evacuations will go on, they ve said they will go on until the end but we re told they will be reduced while they pull out resources and weaponry. that will be the next big phas
gulf coast. . griff: we ll begin with afghanistan where the pentagon finished a briefing with new details on that deadly drone strike against isis-k. we have extensive coverage, including david spunt at the white house and trey, lucas tomlinson at the pentagon. lucas, let s start with you, you were just in the briefing, tell us what happened. griff, u.s. intelligence says the two high profile highs sis planners were plotting more attacks against the u.s. troops at the airport in kabul sometimes in the next three days before the august 31st deadline. here is how john kirby described the operation. they lost a planner and they lost a facilitator and they ve got one wounded. and the fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the earth, that s a good thing. it s a good thing for the people of afghanistan and it s a good thing for our troops and our forces at that airfield. the pentagon is not releasing the names of the people they killed. i m told
you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. we ve got a remarkable day across the country as thousands are making sure their voices are heard. right now dozens of voting rights alleys and protests are happening in multiple cities in honor of the 58th anniversary of martin luther king s i have a dream speech. it s happening from washington, d.c. to arizona. ralleygoers are forming a united front against restrictive voting laws and sending a strong message to capitol hill. what s happening today is just disgraceful, the way we re being treated, and them denying us our rights to vote, which is automatic. clearly the people want to vote, and the way they want to do it is without impediments. these restrictions are for that. why did dr. king and john lewis go to the federal voting rights act in 65? because it knocked out all of the state laws. we are doing the same thing today with the same fervor. it will not come from biden down, it will