an advanced fiber-network infrustructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. welcome to "inside politics." thanks for sharing your day with us. i'm manu raju, john king is off. president trump's outline tonight for the future of the afghanistan war. >> the president has made a decision, as he said. he wants to be the one to announce to the american people

so i'll stand silent until then. >> plus, steve bannon locked and loaded and free with his hands "back on his weapons." president trump exiled chief strategist vows not to go quietly into that good night. then total, beautiful and a little dangerous. the moon does something it hasn't since 1918. block out the sun. how to catch a glimpse of histories. with us to share reporting and insights, julie davis of the "new york times." jonathan martin of the "new york times," jeff mason of reuters and cnn's m.j. lee. president trump is back at work preparing for a primetime address with huge stakes and even bigger consequences. tonight at 9:00 p.m. the president will lay out how the united states will keep fighting america's longest war. candidate trump ran on the promise to pull out of a combat fatigued country out of afghanistan but president trump

does not want to the labeled the president who ceded to terror. the politics of the moment could rescue a presidency crippled by the president's response at shar charlottesville. what about a non-denial of the republican governor of ohio when asked by jake tapper if he plans to primary the stitting president. >> i don't have plans to do anything like that. i'm rooting for him to get it together. we all are. we're only seven months into this presidency. >> then this morning, the senior republican senator says she cannot say if trump will be the nominee in 2020. >> do you think he will end up the party's nominee in 2020? >> it's too difficult to say. >> and president trump, we have not seen him sthaince that erot

press conference last week. no officials on any of the sunday shows yesterday defending the president, yet hearing criticisms from prominent people within the party. what is the white house's strategy to turn the corner after charlottesville? just ignore what happens and hope the news cycle changes? >> they're hoping certainly for a reset after the last couple weeks. it's easy to forget he's actually been on vacation the last couple of weeks and this has been an event for him in all the negative ways. i think starting with his speech tonight on afghanistan. they're hoping he can focus on that message, as he said, though, it's a difficult message for him. he's sort of, by agreeing to send more troops and talking about the engagement in afghanistan, he's doing something he said as a candidate he didn't want to do. he said we shouldn't be in afghanistan. they're hoping for a reset but the message he has going into the fall is a difficult one for him. i think they're hoping when congress comes back they can focus on tax policy and a tax cut, that might play things forward a little a positive way. we have a few weeks yet to see

whether he can -- >> and the specter of charlottesville continues to loom over this president. he's not answered questions. has not answered questions after that, his incredibly controversial remarks last week. and listen to tim scott here, the south carolina republican senator the lone african-american republican senator saying this when asked about charlottesville yesterday. >> as we look, look to the future it's going to be very difficult for this president to lead if, in fact, that moral authority remains compromised. his comments on tuesday that erased his positive comments on monday started to compromise that moral authority that we need the president to have, in this nation, to be the beacon of light to all mankind. >> jeff, you're at the white house every day. you talked to white house officials about this. are they just ignoring what is being said about the president? or telling you things on

background? privately saying, we need to do something about this? >> when i was as trump tower last tuesday when he did that controversial message, i talked about that next step and he said, talking is losing. i think that their decision is to absolutely just to kind of try not to talk about it anymore. why you didn't see people on the sunday shows. we don't have the a briefing today. probably because they want the president's remarks tonight to dominate the news. it's also a strategy. it's, let's not talk about this. let's find a way to move on, to change the subject. >> clearly, a huge moment for the president tonight. it comes at a time where his poll numbers are dropping substantially. even in some key states. yesterday nbc news and maris put out a poll about how he's doing in michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. states the president often points to as helping propel him to the white house. look at those

disapproval/approval numbers significantly under water in those key states. trends what he's facing nationally, too. if you're a republican running for re-election, are you running away from the president at all costs at this point? at the same time you need voters -- >> look at virginia. across the potomac. he's trying to pull off this balancing act, criticizing what the president said about charlottesville but refuses to mention his name. doesn't want to -- he knows if he mentions trump's name, a whole new news cycle and the clip shown to trump himself and do you risk the possibility of a tweet war? that's the challenge. for folks on the ballot this year and next year, you criticize what trump said, but in some cases, you either refer to him obliquely or not at all. you flashed those three statesmen on the screen. the three states, governor races and senate races next year. they are not going to want to be

connected to somebody who's numbers are in the mid-30s. could be worse later. >> and of course the president is facing things he promised on the campaign trail he did not fulfill so far as president. seemingly taking a complete opposite stance, today's decision on afghanistan. see what he says. presumably, looks like an increase in troops could be in order. this is not what he promised on the campaign trail. among the things he said on the campaign trail he has since backed off on, calling nato obsolete. saying that, that he would -- essentially get rid of nafta. building a wall on the border of mexico, china currency ma n manipulator. and m.j., look what trump supporters are saying, they're not necessarily holding him accountable for those decisions to essentially flip-flop? this is one voter, republican voter, quoted in the "boston globe" saying, trump is the only one standing up and saying what

we think and it's getting him in trouble. the ones that didn't vote for him are acting like little brats. do you think that, at what point does the base say that -- look, you change your mind on some of these key decisions, i'm not going to support you anymore, or does it not matter? >> i think president trump is always very, very aware of what are the desires of his base? his core supporters. if you look at the polling that's come out in the last couple of weeks the most troubling for him should be the fact that his numbers have started to dip among republicans and particularly non-college educated whites. those people were so -- bringing him across the finish line. julie, you talked about the white house reset. i would say we should talk about that with a little skepticism. remember during the campaign used the word pivot. became the strategy word. #pivot. we kept saying, look, we've said this, predicted this so many

times and that pivot never came. we have not gotten any real indication that president trump is interested in any kind of a full-scale or fundamental reset. even with someone like steve bannon now being not at the white house. the president always, if he gets his way, and in the trump white house, he often does, he doesn't want a directional change. he always wants to be that last person to make the decision. >> we'll see what he says off script. onscript, off, when he's off script things often change. let's not forget today is the day, eclipse monday. americans across the country are gearing up for the event of a lifetime. in just a few minutes you'll witness the first time a total xl solar eclipse has gone from coast to coast in nearly a century. chad myers joins me now from the weather sar weather center. chad what can we expect?

>> depends where you live. if you are in totality, you will actually get dark enough to see stars. at 1:00, 2:00 in the afternoon. if you miss totality, it won't be that different than just leaving your blinds slightly cracked when the sun rises. it doesn't stay dark. it lights up. i believe i see the sun getting a little bit of a nick out of the top of that sun right there from salem, oregon, and so this is going to start in the west, and it's going to drive itself to the east bp you think, wait a minute. the sun goes the other way. the moon's going the other way. how can the eclipse go the wrong direction? well, i'll get to that. all the way are from salem to charleston. clouding up in lincoln, nebraska lewisville and charleston has not really cleared at all today. the west is perfect. the northwest will be dry, clear, sunny. low humidity. here's where the showers are popping up across parts of the

midwest, in a green belt and corn belt. the southeast, showers and clouds pop up across the carolina coast all the way down to about parts of florida. but it's that -- that middle part. that center part of the eclipse that is the most important part. 12 million people live somewhere in there. but we are seeing at least another 12 million maybe more than that drive to that center. so here it is. starts in salem. runs all the way across the united states. 3,000 miles. 70 miles wide. really, if you're in there, plus or minus ten miles from the middle, you'll get about 2 1/2 minutes of totality, you can take off your glasses and look up. if there's no sun peek, no sun peeking through. everything completely covered up. now the sun and the moon and mars and mercury all make shadows all the time. but today is special because the moon's shadow is going to reflect all the way here on to the earth. sometimes the earth reflects on

to the moon and you get a lunar eclipse. this is not that. this is a solar eclipse you cannot look at, because the sun is still in so many places, still very bright, even if it's only 3% or 40% exposed, you can't look at it. you have to have the solar glasses. it will be a dangerous day for the retina today. you probably don't understand how the retina can be burned because it doesn't hurt until the next day and then it truly does. appears i have an extra minute or two here. here's the morning, here's noon. here's the afternoon. you're saying, how in the world? chad, how in the world can this thing go in the wrong direction? here we are now. the shadow going towards oregon. about 2:00 or 3:00, the shadow is going down towards st. louis. 4:00 or so, towards charleston. that's how you get the shadow to go the wrong direction 1,000 miles an hour. >> chad myers, with the cnn weather center. thank you, chad. as you see, seeing pictures from salem, oregon, of the, what we

can expect, and in just about an hour. you can watch the eclipse live in virtual reality. go to cnn.com/eclipse. up next, president trump gets ready for primetime as he prepares to address the nation on his strategy in afghanistan. what it could mean for american troops. ♪ ♪ it feels good to be back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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some breaking news right now. the solar eclipse has begun over the united states. pictures there from idaho of what people there are seeing right now of this -- marvel happening in the sky as this

happens from the west coast to the east. we'll keep you posted here as this happens throughout this afternoon. right now, though, a massive search is on for ten missing sailors after a u.s. destroyer collided with an oil tanker in the pacific. a defense official tells cnn the navy is expected to order an operational pause as a safety precaution. the incident happened earlier today east of singapore. these photos show the gaping hole pierced in the side of the destroyer. and reported significant damage to the hull. the military says in addition to ten sailors missing five others injured. a short time ago secretary of defense james mattis spoke about the crash. >> obviously we have an investigation under way. and that will determine what happened. the chief of naval operations' broader inquiry will look at all related accidents, incidents at sea.

>> now, this marks the fourth accident for a u.s. warship in asian waters this year. earlier this summer, seven sailors were killed aboard the "uss fitzgerald" after it collided with a merchant vessel. meanwhile, president trump is gearing up for a major moment when it comes to america's longest war. tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern the president unveils a new strategy in afghanistan. the president will address troops from the nation from fort myer, virginia. possible military options include deployments of additional troops as well as the use of private contractors. also on the table, additional soldiers and air advisers. tonight marks the president's first major national security address. bringing in cnn's military analyst john kirby and a former spokesman and pentagon press secretary. if the president went ahead with the recommendation of adding 4,000 additional troops, what kind of impact do you think that actually could have in that country? >> remember, manu, the

commander, general nicholson, has been asking for about that number. what he wants to do with this, twofold. one, beef up the counterterrorism mitchell. more fighters on the ground to go after the isis network and other al qaeda affiliated groups actually using afghanistan, continue to use afghanistan, as a safer haven and use some for the advise and train beefing up afghan security forces fighting bravely in the field but in sore need of additional help. sort of a third component, too. enabling functions. air support, logistics, information and surveillance reconnaissance thas reconnaissance, that kind of thing. i think you'll see the three prongs if you use these troops and as a component of force protection. one of the reasons we don't have more troops is because we don't have mo

have force protections services as well. >> thank you, john kkirby. seeing live pictures of hailey idaho. >> the president needs to figure out how to explain this in the con texas of what he said on the campaign. this decision has been a long time in coming. donald trump promised for months to give a news conference on isis. how he'll go after isis, come up with and present to the american people a strategy for afghanistan. people will be listening to hear him explain how what he's doing here, authorizing, is different than he talked about during the campaign being the wrong thing to do. spending money here at home, not spending money in afghanistan. a conundrum past presidents before him faced and i wouldn't be surprised if he talks about that a lot this evening. that this is something, he's not the only president who's had to

make the hard decisions. but i think he'll try to characterize this as a turning of the page. other presidents couldn't get this solved and now he will be able to somehow solve this. and it's a difficult -- you mentioned, a difficult moment for him. he'll be calling on the american public to support what could be a dangerous mission. more troops. a war that hasn't gone well for the united states. general nicholson, who john kirby talked about, talked about it being a stalemate earlier in the year. he'll have to figure way to marti marshal support. >> the poll numbers suggesting just that from the nbc news/marist poll from yesterday showing in the three state the president carried michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, asking whether or not the president's standing has been strengthened or weakened on the world stage. by president trump. it says that in all of those states, 59% believe that the president has actually weakened world standing, not strengthened.

at the same time a separate poll from earlier this year said that 46% of americans in counties that president trump carried actually support appointing additional troops to afghanistan versus 39% who opposed the idea. john, you spent a lot of time in trump country with trump voters. how do you think they'll respond to the deployment of additional troops? >> oh, i think some of them will have heartburn over the prospect of continuing this war, but i think generally any moment where the president can cloak himself in the garland of commander in chief is a good moment for him with his voters, with voters inclined to like him but have some doubts. i could see nim fort myer, troops with him, looking the part of a commander in chief. not be in sitting watching "fox & friends" and tweeting is a better moment for him. is it going to erase charlottesville?

yourself not. this is a lingering issue not going away anytime soon, unless he says more about it. but this does give him a moment here to at least, you know, remind folks that he is the commander in chief. >> and julie mentioned, candidate trump taking a different position on the issue of afghanistan. this will be interesting to see if he addresses this tonight. this is a taste of what he said on the campaign trail about this issue. >> and i'd like to see money spent on this country. i'd like to see us take our money and build schools here and build highways here, and build transit here and reduce the debt of the country, which is now almost $16 trillion. instead of building a school in afghanistan and it gets blown up the following week and we build it again. >> when he said i didn't want to go to afghanistan. that's not right. no. afghanistan is where we should have gone. all right? i didn't want to go to iraq, because i didn't want to destabilize the middle east. >> so we're on track now to

spend, listen to this, $6 trillion -- $6 trillion -- could have wcould have rebuilt our country twice allen wars in afghanistan, or the middle east. it's time to rebuild america. >> as we know, this is the president that does not like to admit when he's wrong. does he at least have to acknowledge -- >> was that -- >> voting for it, voting against it. acknowledge that when he speaks to the nation. >> i think everyone is right saying this is a big moment for him and an awkward moment because of the clips you just played. he does have to own this now. this is president trump's administration. it's his decision. i suspect he may talk about the fact that he, to some extent, outsourced the decision to his secretary of defense by a couple months ago giving him the authorization to decide about

troop lettervels giving him, in mind, cover, but it is the trump white house and it is president trump's decision and he'll have to reconcile that and sell it in some way with what he said as a candidate. >> go ahead. >> i was going to say. i think the way in which he has chosen to make this announcement is really, really important and telling. this is not only going to be teleprompter trump. it is going to be the president delivering for the first time a primetime address from the white house. you know, if you think back to some of the speeches that have been made from the white house in a primetime address, this is a really, really big moment for him. right? and there's no image sort of more sobering and pulls more weight than the president makes this kind of announcement. i think especially at a moment having credibility issues and the trust eroded, the fact he's choosing to make the announcement in this way i think has to be obviously it was a deliberate decision but i will say once again add a little

skepticism, you know, keep in mind that tomorrow he is going to arizona to deliver what will be what we expect to be sort of a campaign rally speech. we don't know what that is going to sound like. and he is always, always, just 140 taps away from his next tweet. we don't know what that's going to be either. >> and the will he stay on message? one of the big questions here. we'll talk about that later in the show. watch the president's remarks at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn, and pictures, again, for the total solar eclipse you're seeing. monitoring that as well and tonight at 9:30 p.m., house speaker railropaul ryan joins j tapper. and reminding president trump to keep his promises and attacking's president's closest advisors. and more on the eclipse. those are the pictures you're looking at from salem, oregon.

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looking again at live pictures of the total solar eclipse. a rare event. you can actually see from the united states this in hailey, idaho. steve bannon leaving the white house promising to fight for his brand of conservative now back at the helm of breitbart told bloomberg this, is there's any confusion let me clear it up. i'm leaving the white house and going to trump against his opponents on capitol hill in the media and in corporate america. those opponents apparently include some of his former colleagues at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. today breitbart blamed the national security adviser h.r. mcmaster for trump's impromptu,

that's too bad comment, on the "uss john s. mccain" accident t this comes as a lot of questions what role steve bannon will play outside of the white house. what do we think is his red line here? is there something that's going to cause him to go after the white house, a specific issue, or just go after people, his enemies that he's created during his time at the white house? >> i would expect it to be fairly broad-based and i think steve bannon will focus a lot on the wall and an issue of border security. we saw the president tweet earlier this year about maybe we need a good shutdown. that's going to be an issue this fall. whether or not they cheese ooseo to the mat over border wall funding. i wouldn't be surprised if steve bannon got exercised about that from his new perch, uncertaintied by constraints he had in the white house. i'm not totally clear there were that many constraints. he's in an influential position

on the outside to make a lot of trouble for donald trump and for congressional republicans if he wanted to. i think tax cuts is something to look at. he talked openly, or somewhat openly, about raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for middle-class tax cut. something that won't sit well necessarily with republicans on the hill and donald trump shot it down, but he's not in the white house anymore. >> just look at some of the people that we expect him to go after based on his own comments and what we know about his personal relationships in the white house. john kelly, h.r. mcmaster, dina powell, gary cohen, ivanka trump, jared kushner, among the people that the president is, his advisors may be targets of steve bannon. the president seems to be trying to butter up his former chief strategist saying this on twitter over the weekend. steve bannon will be a tough and smart new voice at breitbart news. maybe even better than ever before. fake news needs the competition.

the president saying that on twitter. what do you expect from bannon? >> i think the question, manu, is bannon, will he be eclipse? >> oh. there's the fun. >> all week. >> and, look, i think the question -- in all seriousness is, put up that graphic with the folks in the white house that could be bannon's targets. guess what? they're all still there, have the president's ear. steve bannon has breitbart. look, a weapon that should not be dismissed, but i think that the president's instincts are much more bannon-like but now there's not somebody there to reinforce the instincts. just the opposite. more folks who either reinforce, centrists, hi daughter and son-in-law or a more traditional kind of market-based conservatism that folks like mike pence reflect. and that -- >> will the president listen to these, criticism from breitbart,

clearly reads in this clip. >> the president has shown he pays a lot of attention to outside sources. speaks to outside advisers. no doubt he will continue to speak to steve bannon and he'll have his ear. of course different from being inside the white house but a lot of those instincts president trump has came and were reinforced by steve bannon, he'll reinforce that whether at the white house or out. >> that story you showed earlier. the breitbart story, it was leading the website for most of this morning. i don't know if it still is. i thought it was interesting. it said, the story said it showed disrespect for the president and the manipulating the information that was given to him, similar to the decision with afghanistan. that is going to be a space to watch. right? >> and careerly wasting time right away jumping into that position. thank you all. coming up, high-profile viewing veenview i events and special performances all for today's historic clip.

donn bonnie tyler was on singing "total eclipse of the heart." here's a preview. ♪ i need you more than ever and if you won't hold me tight ♪ we'll be holding on forever ♪ ♪ ♪ it feels good to be back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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any moment now in out of this world once in a lifetime experience. all eyes watching for the first total eclipse to sweep across the u.s. in nearly a century including the president and vice president. while president trump and the first lady watch the eclipse from the white house's truman balcony, the vice president is hosting a a class. and possibly in salem, oregon, where we find cnn's miguel marquez. miguel what are you seeing right now? >> reporter: well, we are seeing the sun that looks more like a pacman, manu. absolutely incredible. this device is cool. called a sun spotter. like a fancy pinhole camera. you see how far the moon is taking a bite basically out of the sun. you see two sun spots at the bottom of the sun. and the next -- what? hour or so, this will be

completely consumed by the sun and we will get that corona effect where you actually see the streamers coming off of the sun. everybody is looking forward to it. we are on the grounds of the university here in oregon. the people in the red caps over here, people from all over the world are here. from cork, ireland. 36 members of the astronomy club here. people incredibly excited. on the other side of the capital, thousands gathered, throughout the small towns here. we were in independence, oregon. they're looking to quadruple the number of people in their town. pop laulation 9,600. you don't want to stare at the sun. these solar glasses you can't see through at all unless you are staring at the sun. a really good thing to do right now. >> how many people are out there right now in salem and what are they saying to you as you go around the crowd and ask them has they're anticipating?

miguel, are you there? looks like we may have lost miguel. >> reporter: what can i say you? >> what are people on the ground saying to you? >> looking at everybody staring up into the sky. watching this thing as this national phenomenon hopappens. this particular eclipse is special because not since 1918. woodrow wilson was president then, had we had an eclipse across the u.s. coast to coast like this. in that path of totality. 12 states it will pass through. about 70 miles across, the path. that's the shadow of the moon as it crosses through those 12 states. salem, oregon, is the first of five capitols, state capitols

that this will cross through. just an amazing happening here, starting in oregon and finishing up in south carolina. manu? >> cnn's miguel marquez? salem, oregon. thank you. watch the eclipse live in virtual reality. go to cnn.com/eclipse. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." wolf blitzer picks it up right now. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 9:45 in salem, oregon. 10:45 in casper, wyoming. 12:45 p.m. right here in washington, d.c. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we begin with a spectacular solar eclipse. almost -- almost -- 100 years in the making. take a look at this. live pictures now coming in from madras, oregon. one of the first cities to

experience this historic events. millions across the united states stretching across 14 states from oregon to south carolina. we'll be in what's called the path of totality for this solar event. cnn meteorologist chad myers is in the cnn severe weather center in atlanta. miguel marquez joining us from salem, oregon, where the eclipse is about to begin. stephanie elam in st. joseph, oregon. chad myers, start with you. tell viewers here in the united states and around the world who are watching what's going to happen over the next couple of hours. >> reporter: well, if you are in totality, in that 70-mile-wide strip, wolf, you will get dark. in fact, see stars. it will be that dark. you will also see the corona around the sun. because the moon will completely block it. this is a total eclipse. sometimes they're called eed annualar eclipses. you will have a ring around the

moon. that won't happen today. the entire sun gets blocked here. so are you in the path? probably -- not. but 12 million people are. how does this happen? the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun. guess what? it's 400 times closer. so it's in exactly -- going to exactly line up with the sun itself. 50%, you won't notice anything. not even look like a cloudy day. 75% you begin to see something. 90%, the sky gets a little dark, but not unless you're 100% will you really see the stars from this event. that's what -- that's why. so many people have traveled so far to get to that area of totality. so here is the area we're talking about. all of the way from salem, oregon which will be right in the middle of it for 2 1/2 minutes. the sun covered for 2 1/2 minutes. then to about yellowstone national park. kind of like grand tetons and parts of nebraska, where it's

raining now along with stephanie elam in st. joseph, missouri. major party going on there. and across parts of the carolinas and across into charleston, south carolina. some clouds now. we hope they burn off as the day goes on. one other thing, wolf. if you're seeing clouds where you are now, panic and, oh, my god. how much money did i spend to see this? when the sun begins to get covered, it will cool down and many of those clouds will go away. so don't give up hope. >> we won't, indeed. i want you to stand by. going to mihiel marquez. you're over at willamette university, oregon. hundreds of scientists gathered where you are. tell viewers what they will be doing. >> reporter: hundreds of scientists and thousands of people to see this incredible event. we are less than a half hour before totality here in salem, oregon. i can show you what it looks like on this very cool thing call add sun spotter. look at this. looks like a pacman, basically.

the sun slowing by the shadow of the moon, just absolutely gorgeous. people from around the world, scientists, astronomers, others, here to see this incredible event. it doesn't happen very often. at least in the fashion of this time around. since 1918 we haven't had one cross coast to coast in the u.s. it's a special one. so many people, so many cities. salem one of five state capitals that is in that line of totality, and people just taking it all in. lots of photographs being taken. one thing interesting for the scientific community is once you get sort of close to totality and you can see the diamond formations and those bailey beads they call them and then totality and the corona of the sun, they can really see stuff that you can't normally see. i can say, we're about 50% through with that covering the sun and it is starting to get a little darker out here.

may i speak to you real quick about what you're doing out here? >> sure. >> reporter: what is your name? >> dave coupling. >> reporter: i'm getting close. i have a microphone to hear. where you from? >> minneapolis. >> reporter: how do you get here? >> flew. >> reporter: when did you get here? >> yesterday. >> reporter: why did want to be here? >> once in a lifetime. got to be here. >> reporter: ever seen an eclipse before? >> just wonderful, never. see the sky disappear. >> reporter: the sun disappear. >> yes. >> reporter: and then stars come out. >> absolutely. >> reporter: listening to the crickets, see if they start chirping. here with who? >> my wife. right here. >> reporter: hello, hello. introducing you to these people who are actually playing hooky from the planetarium in fresno, california. your device. how excited? >> talking about this 25 years and teach my lesson on eclipses

and always mention this one. >> reporter: why is it so big? >> a total eclipse close to home. ordinarily you have to go to china, pacific ocean, ant tark ti antarctica and this time here. >> reporter: and they're meant to be at work and played hooky and have trdriven 700 miles. >> we shut down the planetarium and up here, but back in class tomorrow morning. >> reporter: no hooky tomorrow morning. you will be there. >> first day of school. >> reporter: and the path of the eclipse. why is that so special? >> it's going clear across the united states. we get that path of totality. hasn't happened since 1918. >> reporter: such mysticism dating back nar history. why are humans so motivated and interested in this phenomenal? >> a total eclipse will not happen in one particular place so often. people who have never seen that

before. the sun disappearing middle of date. stars coming out is truly special. >> reporter: i hope you don't get in too much trouble playing hooky but i love your sun spotter. he can line it up. you see, we are about three quarter of the way through. we are about -- by my estimate -- what? about 20 minutes away from totality here in salem, oregon. very, very cool stuff. when they announced 30 minutes a short time ago, everybody applauded. i guarantee you, when this goes to totality, this crowd will ooh, ah, applaud and god knows what. wolf? >> people are so, so excited. especially those who traveled long distances to see the totality, to see the full impact. i want to go to stephanie elam over at rosencrats airport in missouri. you're on location. the location you're at certainly will have one of the longest duration of the totality. more than 2 1/2 minutes.

what have people been doing when you are to prepare? >> reporter: for one thing, wolf, everyone here has been wondering about the clouds. i have to thank chad myers. raining where stephanie elam is in st. joseph, missouri, it started to rain. nonetheless, if i put on my special glasses here i can see that it is starting. the eclipse is starting here. i can see this top right corner -- corner. the top right sir come for instance of tcircumference is getting that bite out of it. even with the clouds you can city see it. people are dodging whether to put plastic over their cameras's people are here from australia. this group behind me is some australia. another group came from new jersey. the people really taking time to blan they wa plan where they wanted to be out in this field.

should be a good viewing area. the problem is the clouds. we were supposed to get thunderstorms. now we're not. still the cloud area we are concerned about. it's drizzling and the sun getting brighter at the same time. it's a little confused here but trying to hopefully see we can keep our eyes on it. you can see here, people have special lenses, to protect their lenses and also to protect their eyes here. but you can see, wolf, from where we're standing now, that the eclipse has started to make that progression in, just as we were told it would do at 11:40 local time. starting to see the transition. people still very excited. from what we understand, even if there are a lot of clouds, we should still see the lighting change here. we should still see perhaps the temperature change here, and we are not expected to see the full totality of this eclipse until 1:06 p.m., central time here. people very much excited about the eclipse even though we have a lot of cloud cover. but the cool thing is, with the

solar lenses, i put them on, i can see that the eclipse has started. clouds are no clouds, it's still pretty darn cool, wolf. >> very cool indeed. stand by. i want to go to cnn, our reporter in south carolina. one of last locations for this eclipse. we have drone video to show viewers as well. tell us a little about the people who showed up where you are. >> reporter: well, wolf, this is a seven-mile-long island. in the winter months only about 4,000 people here, but on the busiest weekends of the year more like 30,000. the kind of numbers we expect today. people say it will be like the fourth of july or memorial day weekend. all the bridges remain open to the island. a police officer said we want everybody to come and experience it with us here and then go back home. i met people from all over the east coast. from new york down to florida. over to ohio. but the folks who get the award for traveling the mattfarthest,

family from geneva. we are looking at maximizing the beach behind us, more than 200 yar yards of beach to enjoy the eclips. and see this incredible sand sculpture. how did you all get the honor of this prime real estate to build this on? >> we've been lucky to -- experience the sand sculpting competition many years and the last couple years we've won and the folks here at the olive balm palms called and said to do a sand sculptor for us. we have neem our jackets. i work for an architecture firm and was able to recruit architectures. can you explain it? >> sure. as you see, the moon is going out and then the sun coming in

as well. and then in the center it's the eclipse. >> reporter: how long will it take to build this sculpture and for the sculpt color to come to totality if you will? >> exactly. started at 8:30. should be finished in about an hour. almost there. >> reporter: classes started up for you again? >> we started xo eed school thu. and start again tomorrow. >> reporter: today's an off day? not skipping school? not getting you in trouble putting you on television? >> no. they didn't have school today, because the eclipse is so important, i guess. >> reporter: what have you learned about the importance of it and what makes you so excited to experience it here in your hometown? >> it's really rare because of the totality. it's so slim. like, out of everywhere. we learned about it friday at school. >> reporter: have you ever seen the beaches this packed here? >> well -- i guess around fourth of july, piccolo split, might be close, but it's pretty packed. >> reporter: but not on a monday. as so many of the folks here tell me, it can be sunny on one

side of the island, cloudy on the other. any given day. what do you think? what's the forecast going to be like from all you've experienced on this island before? >> a total eclipse. i think it's going to be perfectly clear. >> reporter: you think that, too? [ cheers ] everybody here, wolf, is cheering for sunshine. so that we can enjoy this special occasion together. >> an amazing moment for all the folks who gathered across the united states from oregon, cross the entire united states down to south carolina. everybody stand by. i want to bring in david demarkin, senior astronomy curator at the air and space museum here in washington and joining us chris hatfield, astronaut, kmormer comma former the space station and associate professor at belmont university. let me start with you, david. what's the most important thing from a scientific perspective we're going to learn today? >> more information on what happens when the sun sneezes and

the earth catches a cold. >> what does that mean? >> that means we are so dependent here on earth for any form of radiation that the sun produces, and that can be visible, infrared, ultraviolet, radio, particle radiation, you name it. every explosion on the sun can affect the earth in terms of communication satellites and power grids and all sorts of things like that. we want to be able to increase our ability to predict these little sneezes, these little burps so we can prepare and not get a cold. >> chris hatfield, what will you look for most specific? >> i think it's a really human experience, wolf. i mean, it's very scientific, of course, and, in fact, the apollo 11 astronauts put reflector on the moon so we could measure the exact distance down to fractions of an inch and know that the moon is moving away from the earth at about the same rate that your fingernails grow. so all sorts of really

interesting geometric science about what's happening, but it's also just an amazing human experience. it's fascinated us for centuries, for thousands and thousands of years, and so many people are going to get to see that combination of the scientific side, but also the bizarre human side of something that's so rare. >> very quickly, scott what will you be looking for specifically today? >> i'm going to be looking for the corona. i've studied the corona and looked at spacecraft images but this will be an amazing time to just see it with the naked eye and everyone's going to be able to do this. >> speaking of the naked eye, david, i just want to alert viewers watching. don't look directly. you need the special glasses. >> absolutely. >> tell viewers why they need this. >> the sun, as i said, all forms of radiation. even though we wouldn't feel the infrared or ultraviolet, if we stare at the sun, it will burn the retina