we'll see you soon. we're following a lot of news this morning. so, let's get right to it. >> search and rescue efforts are ongoing after a ship collided. >> they are searching for ten missing sailors at sea. >> they want to make sure there's not some other issue going on culturally or procedurally within the navy. a nationwide address is planned monday night to announce a new path forward in afghanistan. >> what we're doing now is not working. >> these are issues that we all want the president to succeed in. >> this president doesn't know what to do. this is why it's taken so long. >> the president has been standing on slippery ground for months. >> there are serious issues with our president that aren't going to go away, aren't going to get better and, indeed, with the pressures of the job may very well get worse. >> announcer: this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn

camerota. intense search under way for ten missing soldiers -- sailors after a u.s. navy destroyer collided with an oil tanker east of singapore. this is the fourth crash this year involving a u.s. ship based in the pacific. >> the president will have a chance to address the nation tonight. he can talk about those missing sailors. but his main goal is to tell you and instruct you on what the u.s. military strategy is going to be for the 16-year long war in afghanistan. let's begin our coverage with cnn's ryan brown live at the pentagon. what do we know, ryan? >> the collision between the uss john mccain and that tanker, the ship was able to make it back to

singapore. uss americas another ship harks docked in singapore and will help attempt to salvage and perform additional search and rescue operations with the mccain. during that collision five sailors were injured. none of those injuries life threatening but ten sailors have gone missing. the navy is in the process of notifying the families of those soldiers. aircraft and ships from the republican of singapore searching a wide area of that heavily trafficked parts of the waterways near the straits of malaka. this all coming two months after a similar collision took place between the uss fitzgerald and cargo ship, that collision costing the lives of seven sailors and in launching an investigation, the navy relieving the commanding officers of that ship from their posts and saying that the navy was already reviewing its procedures for training and accreditation for the watch

personnel, those personnel whose job it is to maintain situational awareness and make sure that these similar types of collisions do not happen. the navy was already doing that in the wake of the news of this. they will continue to review the policies and procedures in the day to come. chris? >> there has to be a little bit of a look of why does this keep happening from the threat side, threat assessment? ryan, thank you very much. >> so, president trump has been a long-time critic of staying in afghanistan. it has been 16 years of blood and there. >> this is a big moment for president trump. it comes at a time when his credibility, character, leadership capabilities have all been in question against that

backdrop he is going to step in front of the american people tonight and try to make the case that he has the right path forward when it comes to afghanistan and that they should trust him. >> it's a very big decision for me. i took over a mess. and we're going to make it a lot less messy. >> reporter: president trump set to outline his strategy for america's path forward in afghanistan. a major test for the new commander in chief, one that could put more american troops in harm's way. after meeting with top administration officials at camp david on friday, the president announcing saturday he had made a decision after months of deliberation and delays. >> he has made a decision, as he said. he wants to be the one to announce it to the american people. it is a south asia strategy, not just an afghanistan strategy. >> reporter: the president has been presented with a wide range of options. everything from a full withdrawal to the deployment of up to 4,000 more soldiers,

adding to the more than 8,000 american forces already there. that's an option recently ousted chief strategist steve bannon opposed. the founder of the controversial security firm blackwater has lobbied the white house to begin relying more heavily on private contractors. jim mattis remaining tight lipped about the details but gave this sobering assessment in june on the state of the nearly 16-year long war. >> we're not winning in afghanistan right now. >> reporter: trump has questioned the purpose of america's continued involvement in afghanistan. repeatedly advocating for full withdrawal on twitter before running for president. officials say he remains deeply skeptical but his doubts have come up against hawkish generals in his inner circle. any troop increase sure to meet at least some resistance from democrats. >> i don't believe putting more american soldiers in afghanistan is the answer. >> reporter: this crucial national security decision comes

amid questions about the president's leadership capability and mounting backlash to trump's defense of white supremacists in charlottesville last week. >> you had some very bad people in that group. but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. >> it will be very difficult for this president to lead if, in fact, moral authority remains compromised. >> reporter: the president's approval ratings taking a hit. dipping below 40% in three co-midwest states that helped trump win the presidency. with six in ten americans saying they're embarrassed by the president's conduct. now tonight we will see teleprompter trump addressing the nation. the very somber role as commander in chief. tomorrow we could see a very different president trump. he's hitting the road for a campaign-style rally in phoenix, arizona, a state where john mccain and jeff flake have been harshly critical of the president. back to you guys.

>> sara, thank you very much. cnn political analyst karoun demirjian. great to have all of you here with us. karuon, let's talk about this apparent tragedy, ten missing u.s. sailors off the waters of singapore. last night, he was asked about this. questions were shouted at him from journalists and it seems as though he wasn't fully briefed. though, frankly, president trump never engaged in the political speak. i will take this under advisement. we're watching this very closely. he doesn't say things like that. is it conceivable that -- he repeatedly said that's too bad. that's too bad. is it conceivable that his advisers wouldn't have briefed him by 8:30 at that point last night? >> it doesn't necessarily mean that he knew what his response was going to be. as we've seen trump in various other situations, he says i like to have all the facts. granted he tweets before he has

all the facts very often. in situations where he's expected to act presidential, we've seen this before, a dear in the headlights kind of thing and innocuous enough to him that end up not being innocuous to us because they're not presidential enough. if he wasn't briefed, it's a genuine reaction. we've seen a twitter response from him but not a strategic response of we're going to be doing this. >> even the twitter response seemed out of character even the way it was formatted, using different hash tags that seemed different than he usually tweets, looked a little more official. that's style. tonight we're getting to substance. this is a major test. he's coming into this -- you could say afghanistan, he didn't start this. no good options. he, this president, he has a new foe or new critic on the outside

in the form of steve bannon. his ideas about afghanistan and staying out were largely shaped by steve bannon. he has that on him tonight as well as coming out of charlottesville and his moral standing taking a huge hit. this is big for him tonight. >> that's right. and as we saw from those tweets, there was absolutely no daylight when donald trump was a candidate about what his position about afghanistan would be. he would withdraw. he was the only one strong enough to do that. now push comes to shofb and it sounds like the announcement tonight, rather than being a withdrawal, will be an increase in troop levels. this is the first policy fight we've seen that is a clear loss for steve bannon, mattis and the generals were fighting over this. generals won, bannon lost. he's on the outside. breitbart news this morning they're already going after the president's afghanistan strat jirks criticizing this increase in troop levels. he will have a new prominent critic on the outside that he

hasn't had at this point in the administration. >> it's not the first time we've had to see the president take a different tone than what he campaigned on. he promised a whole bunch of things that when he became president it's a matter of national security and keeping the world a stable place and not making things worse that he shifted tact. >> and that list is getting longer and longer and longer it seems. we're only seven months in. >> perry, this warped strategy for afghanistan was promised more than a month ago, saying it was going to be happening in mid july. is it too cynical to think that they rushed this together tonight to get away from charlottesville last week? >> i'm not sure of the exact timing and why. they've been talking about this review for a long time. i assumed it would come out some time in august. it might be cynical to say this day was picked for that reason. i would say on the policy

itself, trump might have been, if he was trying to become more popular or do what the public wants, there is some skepticism about these wars and having more troops there. i wonder if trump had the converge of his convictions from earlier if he would be in a better place, at least politically? there is some demand in the public for less -- fewer troops abroad versus trump's policy now is not that different from the status quo. going from 8,000 to 12,000 troops is not a big shift either way. he's basically kind of continuing the policies of bush and obama, of staying in afghanistan. just by campaigning on the opposite. >> josh, where are we with where bannon's head is and what this war is about? such a weird turnabout last night. one of these cronies tweets "war," says our presidency over that we fought for. then he clarify ied with you an

others, no, no, no, i'm not bad on the president. it's other guys. he goes after h.r. mcmaster and breitbart right away. >> i think bannon wanted to leave amicably and he was adamant that he was not fired, it was a mutually agreed upon departure. although i'm not sure how much choice he had about leaving or staying. but the issue with bannon is that he has these set of beliefs that he thinks the country has endorsed by electing donald trump. as we just talked about, trump promised all these things and is either unable or unwilling to carry through with them as president. bannon sees himself as someone who will nudge trump into what he believes is a proper direction, mowing down his opponents, using breitbart news. i tried to get bannon to say if trump doesn't do this, will you eventually take him on directly? he wouldn't answer the question but i think the answer is yes.

if trump slide toos far with these white house democrats, bannon refers to. >> the problem is that the white house democrats that he refers to are ivanka trump and jared kushner, her husband. >> that's blood, flesh and relatives and seems to be sacred for the president. he does listen to them even if he doesn't agree with them. if he goes after them too hard it will not work out too well for steve bannon, it would seem. how far is he going to push? how hard is he going to push before they push back? and will we see those trains colliding in public now because bannon is on the outside? >> what's especially awkward is that donald trump tweeted after steve bannon left, good for steve, going back to breitbart

news, fighting fake news. >> giving him the dignity of the exit that he could. >> right but bre. tbarr was writing nasty things about him within 24 hours of that tweet. >> charlottesville, there was an exit planned before, but then charlottesville happens and everything is through the light of charlottesville. it was really, really bad, but a self-inflicted thing that has screwed up the way we've seen everything from the bannon departure to afghanistan and everything else that we're seeing. >> the key question here is what does donald trump do? the worry in the breitbart community, arnold schwarzenegger ran as a conservative and some point moved to the middle. breitbart mentioned that comparison. if you're steve bannon you're trying to keep donald trump from

listening too much to the more liberal people in the white house. i think donald trump will stay pretty nationalist because i think donald trump himself has a lot of views that steve bannon did as well. he has been talking about trade deals and how terrible they are for years and decades. i think he will stay on this same path because steve bannon was a person who basically agreed with donald trump. that's why he liked him so much. i think he will stay in the same pathway. >> panel, thank you very much for all that reporting for us. cnn will bring you live coverage of president trump's address to the nation tonight at 9:00 eastern. right after the president's address, stay tuned because we're going to have a live town hall event with house speaker paul ryan. it's hosted by our jake tapper at 9:30 pm. what does paul ryan think about all of these developments? >> it will be good to finally hear him on the record about it. >> president trump facing backlash from his response to the deadly violence in

charlottesville. his moral standing suffered. several lawmakers now questioning his abilities. we'll talk with one of his democratic critics who actually suggested that the president may be sympathetic to white supremacists, next. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ it's time for the biggest sale of the year with the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your every move and automatically adjusts on both sides to keep you effortlessly comfortable. and snoring.... does your bed do that? the new 360 smart bed is part of our biggest sale

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president trump facing backlash over the response to the deadly violence in

charlottesville. >> the reason he is reluctant to denounce white supremacy and neo-nazis and klans members is because he has some level of sympathy for them. >> joining us now is that congressman, democrat keith ellison. good morning, congressman. >> good morning. how are you doing? >> i'm doing well. tell us what you mean that the president has some sympathy for neo nazis and white supremacists. >> if you look at the facts, the evidence that's been entered into the public record already, there are a few things that are insxa inescapable. one thing is that he did not immediately denounce the neo nazis and the klan. the flags they were marching under are the flags that enemies were killing americans in civil war and world war ii. but look at the record during the campaign, when david duke, when he won louisiana, david

duke endorse him. he takes a long time to say anything about that. you know, we know that richard spencer, a noted and open and avowed white supremacist coins the term alt-right. then he hires the guy who says that he's offering the platform for the alt-right, steve bannon, who has been advising him right up until a few hours ago. >> what does sympathy mean? >> wait a minute. >> so i'm clear on your position, you think he is like minded, that he is a white supremacist? >> i'm not saying he is one. i'm saying positions that they have articulated are positions that he does not feel an urgency to denounce and distance himself from. that piece of evidence right there is something that all of us have to ask ourselves why. now, if he is not sympathetic to

them, then the best person to clarify this is the president himself. he can talk about how we move forward as a country, one america, liberty and justice for all, everybody included. and yet that's not what we're seeing. we're seeing him, you know, be morally ambiguous and i think that this is of something that is of serious concern. i named what -- >> let me just give you a little bit more fodder here. he has been all over the map on david duke, in terms of the kkk. back in 2000, donald trump, obviously just a regular citizen, gave this interview with matt lauer where he was very strongly condemning david duke. and then over the years, and certainly during this campaign, he seemed to be much less sure about how he felt about david duke. let's just recap this for our viewers.

listen to this. >> right. >> well, you've got david duke just joined, a bigot, a racist acres problem. david duke endorsed me? okay. all right. i disavow. i don't know anything about david duke, okay? i don't know what you're talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. i know who he is but i never met david duke. >> so, congressman in 2016, he didn't know anything about david duke but if you rewind the clock to 2000 with matt lauer he was very clear, david duke is a bigot, a racist. he's a problem. but why do you think that that means that he's now evolved and come around to share some sort of sympathy or like mindedness with david duke? couldn't it just be as simple as he thinks those folks who support david duke are part of his base and support him? >> well, then what difference does it actually make, right? the fact is that if he really believes them and is a true believer or if he is just

opportunistically exploiting them to support him, the net effect is people who fought the nazis, people who fought the klan, who are stand iing up for core american values still end up getting hurt and diminished in the process. i mean, i'm talking about the pragmatic effect of the president's moral ambivalence. if he will not actively pull the country together around shared values we are left to speculate as to why he won't. i think one of those possibilities is what i said. >> sympathy? >> perhaps, yeah. i mean, let him clarify if that's the case. think about it. he is the one who has created this question about where is trump on the klan and the nazis

and white supremacists? you look at storm fronter, daily stormer, they were all very happy at his response. they feel like he was endorsing them. if you listen to those people, they feel he is an ally and a friend. and so i think it is incumbent upon the president to make it clear, they have no quarter because he hasn't done that. >> the question is what will you and other democrats beyond just speculating and speaking out about this, what you can do about it. you know, congressman, jackie speier, democrat from california, she tweeted this. potus is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability to place the country in grave danger. time to invoke the 25th amendment. do you agree? >> well, let me tell you this. i know that injury nadler has

invoked we had 160 events where we were talking to neighbors about how to really build a strong, unified country around shared values, economic prosperity for everyone. we did 160 events on which we knocked on doors, made calls and engaged with our neighbors and so we are being a part of this massive surge forward. counter to trump's moral ambivalence. you saw 30,000 or so in boston, thousands in new orleans. i was in durham when they -- the day before when people were protesting there. and calling account to some of these confederate monuments. so, my point is that, look, you know, most americans are appalled by what happened in

charlottesville. hear not slow to respond to it. we're trying to work with them because we're trying to change what happened at the ballot box where we want to restore and anybody who says -- we want to change the outcomes at the ballot box. obviously we want democrats to win but even republicans who step forward and say no, this is wrong. i respect that. so far only about 24 republicans have publicly named donald trump and told him that his moral ambivalence is not what this moment calls for. that's what we're trying to do, organize and move forward. >> understood. congressman keith ellison, thank you. >> organize and move forward.

address, prime time speech directly to the american people about what to do with the 16-year war in afghanistan. the fate of a signature items like health care, the wall, tax reform. what's going to happen with all of those without steve bannon? next.

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president trump's chief strategist, steve bannon already back to work at breitbart, the platform for the alt-right, as he called it. former white house chief of staff to president clinton. good to have you both, gentlemen. kurt, you know bannon. should the president be worried? >> yeah, i think he should. if you look at the pages of breitbart there's stories about ivanka, jared, h.r. mcmaster. it's all more perplexing that he put up the tweet over the weekend saying he will be a

great new voice at breitbart. attacking members of his staff, national security team, members of his family. trump was just a vehicle for them to try to prop up that agenda but they will not hesitate if trump deviates at all from any of the rhetoric he said during the campaign, they'll go full tilt. there are stories already that they'll help impeach trump if he goes the other way. >> on the flip, mac, it's just a propaganda outlet. he's no longer in the inner circle of kind of in the ear of the president on a daily, maybe even hourly basis. is he weakened to the point where his effectiveness won't be what it could have been? >> chris, i don't think so. i think kurt has it more right than not. i think it is a pretty big deal. steve bannon came in with great standing, with equal reporting responsibility to the chief of staff, reince priebus. he was on the national security

council, which was pretty unprecedented for a political strategist to be an active formal member of that council. he got demoted on that. that obviously did not set well. i think president trump has a very, very narrow pass here to go forward with his legislative agenda. what the real issue is, chris, the president now has to shift from campaigning to governing. steve bannon was effective in the campaign, fighting, being a provocateur. not so effective governing in the white house as part of a team. i think he will be a strong voice. breitbart will be at least one outlet that his conservative base, populous base responds to. i think this will be a complicated period for president trump in the days ahead. >> kurt, we got mixed messages from bannon. one of his cronies tweeted "war" then an interview to "the weekly standard" where he said the presidency that trump and i

campaigned for and won is now over. then people went to him and he said no, i don't have any problem with the president. it's the people around him, the mission i'm going to focus on. how much stock do you put in that? >> i pate lot of stock into the idea that he's definitely going to war against the adversaries that he calls the globalists inside the white house. i think you'll see steve will use breitbart to tell the story, the narrative really that the president they new and loved has been hijacked by these west wing globalists and they need to be removed if we're going to get president trump back on track. helping president trump means helping advocate for the agenda they started and supported in the campaign, even if that means turning on people within trump's inner circle, his own family and even at times turning on trump himself, steve will say publicly friends need to be honest with each other. trump is wrong. here what they should be doing. the more complicated situation will be when breitbart spends

its time and energy attacking fellow republicans in the house and senate as president trump is trying to work with these people to try to get a legislative agenda through. >> the alt-right isn't so much about the republican party, right? he's happy to see it drawn asunder. mack, from a chief of staff perspective, what is the message that you give the president when bannon goes too far or too close -- he can go after the kids, the people around as long as it's not about the president personally, he's okay. if he does take a shot at the president, what is the message going back at bannon? we've not seen that controlled by anybody, including general kelly. what would be your message? >> this move helps general kelly, chris. he will now be able to bring order to the white house, focus on the agenda. i think that's what the vast majority of the american people want. for president trump to be successful, he has got to move forward his legislative aenda. i think he can largely -- not

totally but largely square that up with some of steve bannon's terms relating to tax reform, infrastructure, relating to immigration reform. when you get down to some of the specifics here that's going to be very difficult. president trump has been a person who has made a real statement and his commitment, his strength, his beliefs. he will have to adhere to that, chris, even if it means criticism from steve bannon. >> kurt, we're paying artificial attention to bannon right now because he's freshly removed. this is his big story tonight on afghanistan. how strong do you think he will be? >> i think they will be very vocal, very strong. because he will be into maintaining that he his part of

the decision making. >> going for that star wars knobe effect, you struck him down but he will come back stronger than ever before. we'll have to see. >> the force is with us, as we know, from the eclipse. meanwhile, this story to tell you about, sonic attacks targeting u.s. diplomats in cuba are impacting more people than first thought. we have a live report for you from havana next.

so these sonic attacks in cuba attacking more diplomats than was first exposed. what have you learned, patrick? >> reporter: the plot continues to thicken as more u.s. and canadian diplomats appear to have been impacted by these mystery attacks than first previously thought. the cuban government, even though they were investigating these attacks, for months the incidents continued to take place. ut states believes a third country, perhaps receiving assistance from elements within the cuban government, carried out these sonic attacks which

broadcast a frequency you can't usually hear but cause very real physical damage. some of the u.s. diplomats have told officials that they were attacked late at night while they were in their homes, in bed. so, just terrifying to think about that. some u.s. officials have -- u.s. diplomats have gone back home as a result of these attacks. others have just decided to cut their tours short because of the continued harassment. still the u.s. embassy in havana, we're told, is fully operational. diplomats who continue to work here are working under what can only be described as very trying circumstances. chris? >> that is bizarre. patrick shall thank you for keeping us ahead on that story. appreciate it, my friend. be well. millions of americans will have their eyes on the skies for the solar eclipse. not alabama head coach nick saban. andy scholes has more in the

bleacher report. always on point this guy. >> i tell you what, i love nick saban press conferences, known for being hyper focused on improving his football team regardless of what's happening around him. he was asked yesterday how his team was preparing for the eclipse. >> we'll set it up so if the players want to get sunglasses and look at it, i guess they can. that's not something i'm that focused on right now. they're already saying what it's going to look like in every city in america so what's going to be significant? i'm going to watch it on tv. >> saban sounds so excited. his players better get those special glasses and not just use regular sunglasses or they might not fare too well in their home opener september 2nd. pennsylvania taking on chinese taipei in the junior little league world series. jack reagany goes over the wall,

able to hold on to make the catch to rob the home run. incredible concentration to hold on to this one. the catch was ruled an out. then the call was overturned. then it was overturned again. i don't know about you, chris, but it was an incredible catch. but for me the ball leaves the park, it should be a home run. >> isn't it about where you catch it? there's a rule, right? if you make the catch and go over the wall with it, that's how it is in pro ball. >> remember austin jackson made that incredible catch at fenway park and went over. it was ruled an out. i guess as long as you hold on to it, it's ruled an out. >> where the ball wound up, but whatever. it's a great catch. not trying to take it away from the kid but then again you're taking the home run away from the other kid. what a great piece of video. andy, thank you so much. get the right glasses or stay inside, like alisyn's kids. for the first time in nearly a century, a chance to see a total solar eclipse in the

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whyou're not thinking clearly, so they called the fire department for us. i could hear crackling in the walls. my mind went totally blank. all i remember saying was, "my boyfriend's beating me" and she took it from there. and all of this occurred in four minutes or less. i am grateful

we all made it out safely. people you don't know care about you. it's kind of one of those things where you can't even thank somebody. to protect what you love, call 1-800-adt-cares in just hours, folks along the west coast in the path of totality will see the first eclipse of the century, a total one. cnn's miguel marquez is live in salem, washington. oregon that's where it's going to begin. you also have a great voice. let me hear you say "path of totality." >> path of totality. >> good. it's good. >> we really need that. thank you very much. thank you very much. somebody actually drove by a little while and yelled out not something nasty to me but totality. it's very cool. look, they're already lined up in front of the state capital.

somebody who drove 12 hours from stockton, 36 hours from texas. why is this a big deal? it's the first time since 1918 we've had a coast-to-coast eclipse. 12 states will be hit. salem will be the first of five capitals to be hit by thi eclipse. they will see that total eclipse, that 70-mile or so shadow of the mean that will cross the u.s. the reason people are lined up here they want gear, glasses for this eclipse. we have all the nerdy gear ourselves. these are solar filters on the binoculars. the glasses, though -- look, i want to show you. these are regular sunglasses, right? if you look through them, you can see right through them there. these are the eclipse sunglasses. if you try to look through these, here is what you see. absolutely nothing. the only way you can see through these things is to stare

directly at the sun, something you wouldn't otherwise do unless you have special glasses. it goes to totality, look at these while it's in total eclipse and put them back on again. it's amazing. >> they only heard you say corona. that's why they cheered. >> that's right. we're ready here also, miguel. chris, i don't know if he's going to heed your warning. he's planning on having a staring contest with the eclipse. >> i'm going to look until it looks away. >> nice. sensible. >> miguel, thank you very much. we have the chief astronomer at the franklin institute and also andrew. do you think it's wise that chris will have a staring contest with the eclipse until it looks away? >> if he's willing to give up his eyes, sure, let him have at

it. that's not a problem. >> thank you. >> yeah, sure. >> no staring at the sun. >> we don't stare at the sun. it will be too dangerous. let's give people some of the data here. where are you going to be able to see this? what's going to be the duration? let's get some of the facts out there for people. >> yeah, sure. this eclipse will be visible all across the continental united states. if you're in the path of totality that stretches from coast to coast, you're going to be able to see the full event of this. you'll be standing in the shadow of the moon. during that portion of totality only is when you can observe directly without any eye protection. it's safe during that period of time. that period of time varies across the united states, on the west coast. it's just under two minutes on the very far west coast.

and it's just over two minutes on the very far east coast. right in the middle where we are here in st. joseph, missouri, you're going to get 2:39 of totality. down the road a piece it's up to 2:40. anybody else off the path of totality, though, you'll see partial eclipse. not all of the disk of the sun is covered by the moon. for all portions of your observing of the partial eclipse, you must have eye protection for the entire event. so, from beginning to end if you're in the partial section of the country, you need the viewers. but that way, you can enjoy an authentic science experience and you can see what's happening. but you must have either the eye protection or you can use an indirect method of which there are several that work really, really well that are cheap and easy and may be even available from your own kitchen. >> yes, right. you can go online and look at the homemade indirect methods, poke a hole in a shoe box, tin

foil and white piece of paper and all that exciting stuff. derrick, what about the cloud cover we're seeing behind your head right now? >> the cloud cover that's over us right now, i feel very good about this burning off and getting out of the way, hopefully, by around 1:00 this afternoon. we're certainly concerned about the cloud cover. we don't want it. but even though we're here under cloud cover if it stays we'll still have that experience of the darkness. we just won't be able to see the effects around the sun. we're hoping all of this gets out of the way by then. for many of us along the eclipse path there could be cloud situations. hopefully they'll have the same sort of situation that this burns off and gets out of the way by the time totality comes. that happens for us around 1:06 this afternoon local time and we'll have that 2:39. that's the only two minutes and 40 seconds i'm worried about today. >> that's a lifetime in television. i'll tell you the history of the world in two minutes and five seconds. as much as i love the phrase

path of totality, the key word is totality. that's what makes this eclipse special and a century event. how so? >> well, the reason why this is a special event because of totality is because the idea of totality being in one particular place in any location on the planet, that's kind of rare. solar eclipses can happen as few as two times a year, maybe as up to five times a year. but to stand in totality gives scientists the ability to study elements of the sun. the surface of the sun is only 11,000 degrees. that discrepancy is poorly understood. solar eclipse totality give that opportunity. then there's just the idea of this very rare thing happening for anyone that can experience this. we think back a little bit in history. people did not know when eclipses were going to occur. they were always surprised and

frightened because their life-giving star was being consumed, it looked like, or disappearing from the sky. nowadays we know so much more. it gives all of us a chance to have this great sort of interactive experience in a sensor at least to be able to experience this authentic science event without much effort. we can all have a good time of it. it evokes feelings for us, entertains us in an educational way. all those things about totality are very cool. >> astrology people are really keyed in to what's happening here. >> i hear it. derrick pitts, thank you for all the information. we'll just say we're sorry we weren't tiebl get andrew fazakis, the eclipse wreaking havoc with our satellite. >> he is too close to the path of totality. cnn "newsroom" with john berman is the totality package. >> he is.

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show me the carfax. start your used car search at the all-new carfax.com. when heartburn hits fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum tums chewy bites. good morning, everybody. i'm john berman. you can see the damage of the uss john mccain, guided missile destroyer, after colliding with an oil tanker off singapore, the fourth accident involving u.s. navy ships in the pacific so far this year. still no word on the fate of ten sailors missing as they lead the search in chaotic seas. pres