we believe in food that's anaturally beautiful,, fresh and nutritious. so there are no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, no artificial preservatives in any of the food we sell. we believe in real food. whole foods market. and now we go to a briefing on preparations for hurricane irma. >> -- for gas stations and

evacuation zones we need you to stay open as long as possible. please, stay open as long as possible so people were get out. we will arrange police escorts for your people so they can get out safely. we need gas stations to stay open as long as possible. we know fuel is very important and are absolutely devoting every state resource to addressing this. while we are making progress, you will see lines or outages. i know this has to be very frustrating, and we'll not stop working on this. if you're concerned you do not have a way to evacuate because of a fuel issue, lease call the emergency management hot line at 1-800-342-3557. 1-800-342-3557. which is a dedicated emergency management hot line. we will get you out. but you have to call now if you're in an evacuation zone. we cannot save you when the storm starts. if you're in an evacuation zone

and need help, you need to tell us now. if you know you're going to a shelter in your county take only the amount of fuel that you need. you don't need to fill your tank to stay in your county. i've said this many times. please, take only what you need. we've got to be considerate of others so everybody can get out. the gas buddy app is a great resource to find open stations with fuel. yesterday i asked the governors of alabama, south carolina, georgia and north carolina to rescind wait and driver regulations sow oe out of state resources can radio spo s can r. just approved a waiver request from the florida department of environment protection allowing more fuel to quickly enter the state. all ports still remain open and operating bringing fuel and supplies in. we are laser focused on how we get as much fuel as possible to our ports while open. i have offered scoot buses for

transportation needs in monroe, miami-dade and broward county. at this time miami-dade is using these services to help evacuate those with special needs and broward what buss on standby. monroe said they do not need the buses now, they're using city buses but the offer still stands. right now there is mandatory evacuation orders in effect for the florida keys. this means all residents. all residents and all visitors in the fwlorida key. a mandatory evacuation. we estimate 31,000 have already evacuated as of 6:00 p.m. last night. it you're in the keys and do not have a way out, please call 1-305-517-2480. this number is for monroe county residents. 305-517-24 305-517- 305-517- 305-517-2480. all others hot line, 1-800-34 3

1-800-342-39557, hot line for the entire state. if you are in the keys and still home, leave, get out. we can't say to you once the storm starts the entire lower keys hops has been evacuated. all other hospitals evacuated in the keys today. i've been very clear with monroe county state will provide whatever is necessary to get hospitals back open quickly following the storms and we have a task force dedicated entirely to help respond to the keys. for the remainder of the state waiting on evacuation orders live to your local officials. they will tell you if and when your area needs to be evacuated. if you're told to evacuate, do not wait. get out quickly. the roads will fill up quickly. so you need to go immediately. we can expect additional evacuations as the storm continues to get nearer to our state. miami-dade ordered mandatory evacuation zones a. and b.

if you live in these zones and are still home, leave right now. volunteer an evacuations in collier county. evac ways of mobile homes and low-lying area's pt i cannot stress this enough. do not ignore evacuation orders. regardless of what coast you live on, be prepared to evacuate. floridians cannot be complacent. this storm can still move west. traffic -- i know many of you are stuck in traffic. it's frustrating. please, be patient. evacuations are not meant to be convenient. they are meant to keep you safe. we've increased the number of troopers on florida highways to help move traffic and keep people going down the road safely. realtime traffic routes are available. we have traffic cameras on every major roadway in florida and

clearing traffic issues in realtime to keep people moving. fdot and law enforcement are working diligently. already seeing bottle necks at junctions. you do not need to evacuate out of the state or hundreds of miles to stay safe. find shelters in your countycoordinated with google's rch response team to prepare closed roads in google maps in realtime in the event that hurricane irma forces cloche herb of any roads in the aftermath of the storm. by directions all told across florida roadways to help families evacuate quickly and safely. if you're concerned you don't have a way to evacuate due to traffic in monroe call 305-517-28480 or outside of monroe, 1-800-342-3557. florida national guard. today i'm activating another 3,000 national guardsmen to help with shelter operations and

evacuations. today we will have more than 4,000 national guard members activated to begin a system with ongoing irma preparation. tomorrow every member available, 7,000, will be deployed. 13 helicopters and more than 1,000 temperatuchnical high-wat vehicles ready and being restored. 30,000 troops, 4,000 trucks 100 helicopters in air evacuation crews that are ready to support our state. i spoke with president trump multiple times, and he's assured me florida will get all the help from the federal government we need. they will be our partner providing all federal help we need. so far wee requested a variety of things. disaster tarps, water, baby food supplies, supply trucks, search and rescue personnel and equipment and management teams. military watercraft and aircraft with capability to move fuel from the mainland to keys and

marathon. a military vessel like marine and navy ships sustaining several operations and complete ship to shore missions allowing us to move crews, supplies and fuel to the mainland. and major concerns with the florida keeps fema including potential destruction of bridges. if we lose a bridge, people south of that bridge will be stranded. fema is looking at options to assist the state with this. the fish and wildlife division, preparing for deployment. more than 200 officers standing by based on potential storm impacts. 30 teams with supporting resources such as trucks, coastal and river boat pa controls, atv and shallow boat, support and rescue operations and preparing for additional needs. and also coordinating with partners in states such as texas, georgia, south carolina, tennessee larks ouisiana and

arkansas. florida highway patrol monitoring road and highway making sure they are clear. established 18 emergency response teams for deployment to impacted areas. utility providers, here with us now from fp & l actively prepositions resources throughout the state and in neighboring states. we know from previous storms how incredibly important it is for power to be restored quickly. florida power and light activated an emergency response plan and han thousands of workers preparing to respond to irma. one of the largest providers in our state and working with out of state utilities and local contracting companies to secure additional resources. they've opened more than 20 state sites throughout the service area where restoration crews trucks and equipment are stationed. lake oh ka cho

lake okeechobee. we have no major concerns with the dike at this point and will immediately advice if that changes. staying up with the army corps of engineers and the water management district. shelters. it you're evacuating to the keys shelter at florida international university. there's absolutely no reason for anyone not to evacuate if ordered to evacuate. shelters are available and will be available, and you should follow the directions of local officials to go to the shelter that fits your needs. if you need a hotel, go to expedia doin p expedia.com/florida. they're working in realtime. and lodges associations encouraged all hotels to waive pet policies, offer shelter and compassionate with cancellations. go to floridadisaster.org/info to learn where shelters are open in their area. comcast. more than 137,000 free xfinity wi-fi hot spots throughout the state for individuals in need

including non-comcast customers. for a map of these visit xfinity.com/wi-fi. at&t, verizon and t-mobile are helping with hot spots. supplies such as meals, shelter support trailers and water at state logistic research center in central florida for deployment as needed. we will precision the goods to help everyone. we still need volunteers. we need more volunteers. more than 6,800 signed up in the last 24 hours. that's great. thank you to everybody who signed up including more than 1,000 state workers. great. we still need more. 's we ultimately need 17,000 volunteers state-wide. you can go to volunteerflorida.org to sign up for volunteer opportunities or call 1-800-fl-help-1. volunteers make a huge difference in these emergencies. and help with shelters, food

distribution and response efforts. every florida family must prepare to evacuate. regardless of the coast you live on. we do not know exactly where this storm is going. we know projected path. we do not know exactly where the storm is going. we are 100% focused making sure floridians and visitors have timely information on the storm and will continue to closely monitor hurricane irma and issue updates throughout the next few days. but i did not stress this enough. get prepared now. know your evacuation zone. listen to your local officials. this storm has the potential to catastrophically devastate our state and you have to take this seriously. this is a catastrophic storm that our state has never seen. remember, it's already killed many people in the caribbean. people do not think, do not believe you can ride this storm out. if you're told to evacuate you've got to evacuate.

you were rebuild your home get possessions again but not your life or family. protecting life is our absolute top priority. no resource or expense will be spared to protect families. but we cannot protect you in the middle of the storm. this means you need to plan now on where you need to go. do not wait. figure out where you need to go. [ speaking in foreign language ] [ speaking in foreign language ] [ speaking in foreign language ] >> i'll be glad to answer any questions anybody has. >> is there any talk of dealing with the traffic situation that we're seeing on the turnpike and i-95 in terms of potentially switching lane directions? >> so -- right now we're -- highway patrol, fdot,

everybody's -- monitoring all the highways across the state. the first thing we would do, everything we do, we do it, safely and we do shoulders, but the goal is, we got to do this very safely. we'll do everything we can. bottom line, if everybody evacuates when they're supposed to evacuate, we should -- everybody should have the time to get to shelters. that's our goal. every county knows the time frame it takes. we're asking everybody to even take a little, give a little more time, because this can impact any part of our state. so we're going to see a lot of evacuations. >> governor, and the people leaving the state -- have enough gas to make it all the way out? >> they have. we're working to get, get more fuel into the state. you can go to the gas app and find fuel. there's no -- we have not found an area where there's a pleat outage. unfortunately, there are lines. i was dmoun high leah a couple

hours ago. there are lines. lines yesterday when i was in collier yesterday. my family told me there are places that are out and other place ice drove by, nobody was in line. so it's -- you've got to go, find out where it is. but we're doing everything we can. we have, trying to get more tankers in. we are trying to get more -- supply in to the state through trucks. we are providing escorts to the carriers to get it to the stations. we're telling stations stay open as long as possible. we'll make sure your employees get out, if you're? an evacuation zone and doing everything we can. unfortunately, i know there are outages and lines and it has to be frustrating right now. i'm sure people are frustrated. i ask people, don't take -- to you don't need it, and if you know you'll stay in the county, don't fill your tank to the brim, because other people might not be able to, going to evacuate literally. anybody else?

>> you said that anybody should be prepared to evacuate in florida. is it your understanding that this storm stays the same strength as it is now and is going to hit a particular area, whoever is in that area where the storm is going to hit, are the ones issued sudden mandatory evacuations? >> well, you know, we're going to track this storm and make -- the decisions made as the storm comes up the state. what everybody has to realize, though is that if you're in that cone that the national hurricane center put out, the storm can move west. we can be lucky and the storm move way east. right? you know? and stay off the coast, like happened with matthew, but it could still go up the west coast. so everybody's got to follow this, and if you're in that zone that the national hurricane center's put out you need to be following this to see if it, what's going to happen. the -- the evacuation zones will come out.

one thing that's this is different than andrew, the storm surge is tremendous. it's completely different. we could see houses covered, and it's not like harvey where it was a storm that came ant sad s. we don't believe that will happen. this is the water's going to come in from the coast are and could cover your house. we could have ten plus feet of storm surge. so the, we will be doing evacuations but everybody's got to listen. >> we have been flooded with calls and e-mails from viewers not in potentially a mandatory evacuation zone and they're asking, should we leave? leave now? should we stay? what is the recommendation to those people? >> so you should listen to the local officials in your area. and they will tell you exactly what you should do in that area. and so -- that you have a very good emergency management team here led by bill johnson and

everybody here, they'll be putting out information on exactly what people should do. all right. thanks, everybody. you've been listening to the florida governor rick scott describing urgent preparations underway in florida for hurricane irma. do not believe you could ride the storm out, the governor said and at the end expectations are doesn't know where it will hit but if somewhere in florida could have ten-plus feet of storm surge. the person watch aring this most closely for us here at cnn meteorologist chad myers. get straight to you. just heard ominous talk about the potential here from the governor and as the people are florida wonder, is it going to hit miami-dade? come to the west coast? competing or different forecast tracks. walk us through where we are. >> i think, john, the chance of it running up the east coast now, probably less than 5%. that's not zero, but it's 5%. if it goes often the east coast,

probably better than 30% chance of a near miss and then the rest of it hitting florida directly somewhere. we now do have a hurricane watch for south florida. there is the storm still very close to the dominican republic but heading through the turks and caicos and right at south florida. and a worst-case scenario is for it to drive itself very close to biscayne bay. say just to the north of ocean reiff, k reef, key largo, homestead, cutler. the potential worst-case scenario and guess where the middle of the cone is? the worst-case scenario. i mean, it doesn't really -- i can't imagine other than coming in, slamming in like this, like andrew did, and this is bigger than andrew. this is significantly stronger, wider. andrew had a tight core and small wind of wind. this window of wind is 30 miles across, andrew was more like 12. as it drives itself up into

south florida, will it stay along the coast, maintain its energy at 130 miles per hour and scour the entire coast, or could it get out here? greatnesses for florida. terrible for the carolinas. because it's going to go left from here. it's going to go into the carolinas, the strong ter is, because it's out here. the harder the carolinas will get hit. bottom line is, the u.s. is going to get socked. somebody is going to get socked and you need to pay attention now because it looks like sunday morning will likely be the closest approach to south florida. if that happens, and i know governor scott and governor scott and i had a long conversation in pensacola when it flooded a couple years ago. i think ten feet is conservat e conservative. the storm surge could easily be 20 feet pushing up into homestead, towards the air force base, all the way up into biscayne bay, because this is the european model making landfall in the exact worst spot

possible. right there, biscayne national park. and moving to the north and to the northwest, right over miami proper. up towards high leija through fort lauderdale and west palm beach finally offshore at fort pierce and turning, slams into north carolina. here's the american model, john, slightly farther offshore. only 40 miles, though. those 40 miles could make a difference in tens of billions of dollars in damage. whether your home is able to come back to or not and whether you live through it or not. because this would significantly reduce the amount of wind compared to this for the european model, still too early to tell. models are doing fantastic. we battle these all the time, but 40 miles one way or the other, three days out, is an apa amazing forecast. south florida, get ready for it. carolinas, maybe even coastal georgia, get ready for it. it's coming everywhere. it's huge. >> it's huge. a great way to put it, chad

myers for us in the weather center. we'll keep in touch today and the next few days. chad noted the governor of florida noted, not exactly sure where, but this storm pack as big, powerful punch. listen to local officials and get prepared irma devastated st. maarten. buildings flattened, littered with debris. the island, looks like this. incredible winds, torrential rains wiping out nearly everything in irma's path. >> it was people running from house to house trying to get shelter. they saw 40-foot cantinas flight, carts flying, animals flying. there were some who stayed in their home and the house started going away piece by piece. >> so far at least six people have been killed. turn back to preparations in florida. rosa flores is in miami more than 100,000 people ordered to

evacuate this morning. a lot of people trying to hold out thinking it's going it turn, won't hit me. are they following these orders? >> reporter: there's a lot of stress and worry, john, in south florida as people brace for this storm. now, the good news is, it's that according to florida highway patrol they are seeing a lot of vehicles. a lot of people heading north. that's the only way that you can evacuate out of south florida. there is no going east or west. that is a sign that people are heeding the warnings. when it comes to evacuations here in miami-dade, there san evacuation order for zone a., a lot of the coastal area including the island that you see here behind me. it also includes all of the barrier islands, the island i standing in now. momentarily you'll be able to see a cruise ship and we've learned the cruise lines canceled some of those cruises and expecting to give people refunds, because, of course, when you come to south florida,

come to miami, a lot of people come here because of those cruise lines. now, you were talking earlier about fuel shortages, and the worry about fuel shortages. we learned from the governor that there is a tanker that's expected to be heading towards the port of tampa from a refinery in mississippi. that tanker will get a military escort to that port. right now they're unloading 300,000 barrels from another ship, just to try to keep that fuel coming, john, because as you know, that is a huge concern as more and more people try to leave their homes and try to get to safety. they need fuel. they're packed in that car with their family, their kids, their pets, and they're trying to get to safety. they're trying to get to higher ground, and, again, as we take another live look out here you'll see one of these big ships. one of these cruise line ships. you know? this is what we're used to

seeing on this channel. people heading out for some fun. we've learned some of these cruise lines are actually being used to evacuate some employees that normally would be working in these cruise lines. so, john, a lot of concern. a lot of worry here in south florida. the good news is, there's a lot of traffic going north, which means people are heeding the warning. john? >> rosa flores on the ground for us in florida. again, rosa will be there and keep in touch. today, the storm still approaching people starting to evacuate. see if they continue to listen to their governor and officials. up next, republicans asking themselves this question -- can they trust the republican president? let's dance grandma! you don't let anything keep you sidelined. come on! that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals... for the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. ensure, always be you. when you really want to save just go to priceline. they add thousands of new deals every day up to 60% off.

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welcome back. uncomfortable questions for house speaker paul ryan this morning forced to shrug off the president's decision to sell him out to his political archrivals, chuck schumer and nancy pelosi. >> the president sided on a

fairly -- i would say smallish-fiscal matter with democrats after you went public and said that the proposal that the democrats made was ridiculous. >> i sort of noticed that. what the president didn't want to do is have some partisan fight in the middle of response to this. he wanted to make sure that in this moment of national crisis where our country's getting hit by two horrible hurricanes, he wanted to have a bipartisan response and not a food fight on the timing of the debt limit. >> in washington, we call that spin. now we also call that taking one for the team a day after the president abandoned his team. a shocking decision in every way. what the president did, when he did it, how he did it, even where he did it. the republican president took the side of liberal democrats pelosi and schumer on issues embedded in republican dna. spending and the debt. and did it entering a key stretch for congressional action on a half dozen key issues maybe more and did it in the oval

office humiliating speaker ryan and mitch mcconnell after assuring republican leadership the president was on board with their plan. if a picture says 1,000 words look at this one. embracing, schumer and the president. to the republicans, betrayal. their president is not to be trusted. all the president saw were smiling faces. >> we had a great meeting with chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, and the whole republican leadership group and i'll tell you what, we ub wa walked out of there, mitch, paul, and everybody, kevin, and we walksed out and everybody was happy. not too happy, because you can never be too happy, but they were happy enough. >> it is to say the least an interesting day in washington. with us to share reporting and insights politico sunlen kim and michael warren and margaret talev from bloomberg politics. it is just a hard one to fathom.

speaker ryan putting his best public face on think, but heading into this stretch with all the work they need to do, i mean, i was joking with the staff this morning. a little football game tonight i might be watching. like tom brady taking the first snap, flipping the ball to the chiefs saying, go. it's all yours. >> and nancy pelosi made that offer early in the morning on wednesday and not even what, three hours later it was done like that. and paul ryan had actually gone out to reporters and said, look, a short-term debt limit extension not a good idea. a lot of senate republicans and house republicans telling reporters as the white house meeting was going on that this is something they would not accept. and yet, you know, very abruptly the president of their own party went around them and took that deal. >> people look down, making tax reform harder. make debt ceiling harder. have to do debt ceiling twice for republicans. do it short term and then again. if you are a republican member of congress heading into a very critical period of votes, then

into a very dicey midterm election season do you have any faith in your own president that your president switched sides in the middle of the game. >> why should anybody really be surprised? this is sort of the president's m.o. he's never had a really deep connection with the republican party on those issues. you said part of the republican dna. well, trump is not a republican by dna. sort of adopted this party. this is something i think brewing the last couple of months. the failure of repeal of obamacare. something i think the president felt stung on. and ever since then i think putting distance between himself and the establishment republicans on the hill. >> i've been trying to figure out -- we talk a lot about trump's instincts for tactical moves rather than strategical moves. use a football analogy, move the ball five yards every play you eventually probably get

touchdowns. his iran stink is always go the short game instead of the long game and hope the long game works out. is there strategy? what is he signals if there is? that he wants to start doing things with democrats or just a one-off play? what does it say how he intends to deal with paul ryan and mitch mcconnell? feels betrayed by both of them, frustrated. doesn't feel loyalty to them. seemingly this move would anger the conservatives and folks even to the right of the speaker and of mitch mcconnell. but possibly emboldens them. if it creates pressure on especially ryan, potential for a challenge to the speakership and invitation for more aggressive primary challenges in february when the new debt ceiling limit comes due. there are a lot of possibilities to spring out of what the president's done if he's in any kint of position of strength heading to the new year to exercise those things. >> republicans worry about confusing their base headed into a mid-term cycle. the president won't have their

back if they cast tough votes and was it a one seim thing yesterday? mad at paul ryan, doesn't like mitch mcconnell. decided he want add win, get harvey money, might need irma man, get the dell ceiling raised and look like congress has its act together at least a month. just today a republican saying what happened here? just today nancy pelosi says she called the president. she said, a lot of the d.r.e.a.m.ers are nervous. reassure them they won't. president trump tweets for all daca concerned about status during the six-month period you have nothing to worry about. no action, meaning the government won't come after you during those six months. nancy pelosi had a press conference this morning. look at her face. democrats are kind of happy today. >> and i was reporting to colleagues saying, this is -- i'm going to ask the president to do and boom, boom, the tweet appeared. >> literally, having shown any control over his twitter account. >> bravo. >> i think --

>> there are short and long-term ramifications here. i don't know dems are that thrilled about this particular win except what it means when they get together again. incentive for democrats to ask for more. did not couple this request with anything on daca. went with a clean proposal. i think to your point, though. i think he did something here. if you look at, 2017, can't look at republicans as true majority party. they break apart on a lot of issues. repeal and replace was because republicans couldn't get their act together. i wonder if the president looked at this and said i don't want a quote/unquote republican shutdown or default. get through this phase of september, october, fight the other battles later. for every democrat that votes for this, a republican who doesn't have to. there are ways to gain advantage from this. let's not pretend we're suddenly discovering that the president can sometimes be vulnerable. >> and if the president wants to be bipartisan, could have done

it out of the box. might have obamacare fix and infrastructure bill? and achievements, decided to be out of the box. timing makes it weird. read something from erick erickson, conservative, not always a trump fan writing in his post from the resurgent, remember there are two parties in washington. the student party and even party occasionally get together to do something both -- and on the road because of what president trump just did. i laugh but the confusion donald trump has caused since day one of the politics. confused his party and then won the nomination. different in every way. the conversation around this ranges from throw him overboard. betrayal. more to your point, what tomorrow? >> i think the president does have a sense for what sort of grass roots republicans or sort of the base of the republican party feels which is they don't

like paul ryan. they don't like mitch mcconnell or the idea of the republican establishment and donald trump ---ants and want washington to work. one of the reasons he won. >> donald trump is good at exploiting that kind of visceral almost hatred among republicans for their own party leaders. and doing a very good job of exploiting that here. >> and also done a very good job of -- you're right. not a ton of loyalty any that reservoir to begin with for the president among republican leaders but i think it's empty. sit tight. up next, the president's son face-to-face with investigating the trump campaign team's contacts with russia.

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because the time to think about tomorrow is today. throughout history, the one meal when we come together, break bread, share our day

and connect as a family. [ bloop, clicking ] and connect, as a family. just, uh one second voice guy. [ bloop ] huh? hey? i paused it. bam, family time. so how is everyone? find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. welcome back. in a moment's president of united states talking about preparations for hurricane irma. bring thaw in a moment and also watching political. the president's son facing

questions behind closed doors. closest of the russia invest gayses have co investigation has come to the president himself. a copy's donald trump's prepared statement to the committee in which trump jr. says he took the meeting to get the dirt of hillary clinton's fitness for office and talking about propriety of using any information learned at that meeting. and manu raju joins us live. a big day for donald trump jr. and part of an escalation of these committee investigations to try to get what i'll call to the inside players? >> right. donald trump jr. has spent more than three hours behind closed doors with staff of the senate judiciary committee going through that opening statement, which really did not deviate much from what he said publicly, but what i'm told from senators who attended the staff meeting, listened in,sying there are still a lot of questions they want answered.

dick blumenthal from connecticut, eamericaned from that meeting. had a chance to speak with him and he said that donald trump jr. has been answering questions but still there are people they want to interview, people who were elsewhere at that meeting and other names brought up through the course of the session including the president's son-in-law jared kushner and paul manafort. democrats are calmicalling for and the chairman hasn't made a final decision on having a public hearing. this comes as several committees are ramping up investigations including the senate intelligence committee told yesterday by facebook that russian actors purchased ads on facebook to try to influence. elections. i had a chance to talk with mark warner, top democrat on that committee who says that the question remains whether or not any trump associates were involved. >> do you have any reason to believe that any trump associates were involved in any

way with those ads on facebook? >> one of the questions that i have asked, and i don't have any answer yet, is that particularly if we determine that there was also geographic targeting of these ads to specific areas or key swing areas. i can understand how the russian wos ha russians would have the technology to do that but how would they have the political knowledge, particularly a state like wisconsin frankly democrats weren't aware enough it was fully in play. i don't have the answer to that question yet, but i hope to get that answer. >> reporter: so that's the question that the senate intelligence committee wants to explore. whether or not trump associates were involved in any way. i had a chance to ask richard burton, chairman of that committee, whether or not they would look further into the issue on facebook and didn't want to comment. it shows several committees, with donald trump jr. and

intelligence committee also wants to talk to donald trump jr. down the line a lot more work to do. this isn't going away anytime soon for the trump administration. >> live on capitol hill, manu raju. and vie to interrupt us in a moment, the president talking about hurricane irma. but the fact donald trump jr. says in the "new york times" i wanted to take this meeting see if it would undermine hillary clinton's fitness or office and knew if it was any good i would talk to my lawyers about whether it was proper to use in the campaign. paul manafort and jared kushner also in this meeting. senior people involved in the campaign. that tells you something. tells you at least he had something going on in his head saying maybe i shouldn't be doing this in the first place? >> yeah. so this represents yet another new chapter in sort of changing explanation for -- >> sorry. i need to interrupt you. the emir of kuwait and the president of the united states. >> how concerned are you about

irma? >> very concerned. working very hard and have tremendous groups of talented people there. the people of florida are like the people of texas, louisiana you've seen how the people of our country have reacted under this tremendous pressure and these horrible things that we call hurricanes. this is something that is probably bigger, not as much water but much more power than harvey. the governor has so far done a terrific job. i mean, they're prepared. we don't know exactly when it's going to be landing, where landfall will be, but we think we're as well prepared as you can possibly be. many of the folks have left texas. obviously, on an emergency basis, and come down to florida. puerto rico escaped. could have been far worse. they really escaped the brunt, but it's heading right now right directly into florida. so hopefully it will take a turn. go east and do it quickly. right now it's not doing that. we are with the people of florida, and as you know, the

virgin islands got hit very hard. very, very hard, and we're findi finding out the kind of damage. actually communication is actually difficult. we have people right now on the virgin islands, and we'll see how that is, but it's been hit very, very hard. i can say this. florida is as well prepared as you can be for something like this. now it's just a question of, what happens? it's the largest hurricane they've ever seen coming out of the atlantic. and the winds are the strongest. most importantly. this is the real problem. the winds are the strongest that they've ever seen in a hurricane coming from that region. so -- we're with everybody in florida. we're working very hard. we have tremendous talent, and, really, tremendously brave people to be there and hopefully it's going to work out all right. we'll see over the next few hours. >> how fearful are you -- >> and start with the president of fema may be spread to thin now? >> fema is don an incredible job

as you all know. you've been reporting it and seen how incredible they are and a great bravery to what they're doing. certainly we're being hit with a lot of hurricanes. nerve her a thing like this where you get hit with harvey, which was about as bad as it gets certainly from the standpoint of a water dump and then you get hit with irma and one right behind irma. i guess you probably know. a smaller one. nerve are the less, right behind. i think fema -- i don't think anybody has done anything live take that done at fema and done a really good job. you see what happens in texas and already what's going on in florida and i have to give a special shout-out no the coast guard. the united states coast guard saved 14,000 lives in texas. 14,000 lives. and now i think the number's even higher than that. these people -- and they go right into the eye of the storm. you know what's been happening. most of you have been reporting

the number is astronomical. what could have been a total catastrophe in terms of life has been obviously much less. so i just want to say that the coast guard of our country has really performed incredibly. i've never seen anything like it. i've gotten to meet them. gotten to meet a lot lot of the when i was in texas and they are terrific people. they are shifting their effort to florida, right in the middle of it. the difference again being these winds are tremendous. they have never seen winds like this coming off the ocean. hopefully it's not going to hit florida very directly but it looks like it's going to be hitting it. thank you very much, everybody. appreciate it. thank you. president trump in the oval office wit emir of kuwait talking about other issues, obviously talking about the government's preparations for irma at moment on path to thump the state of florida. it's striking, listening to the president on this.

criticized from time to time taking a health care question or some of the sensitive policy questions, kind of sometimes is a little scattershot, sometimes goes around and undermines his own party, sometimes doesn't the facts or policy just straight. that was an incredibly thorough briefing. clearly he is deeply involved in getting the latest track. keeping in touch with government officials. impressive. >> enormously important test of the federal government, the state and local governments biggest one on his watch so far. obviously very, very invested in having all of this go smoothly. but it was a very -- he speaks, hurricane response, clearly. >> and disasters bring that ow in presidents. jit sort of calls presidents to get the facts and reassure people. i'm sure also he knows the area well down in florida. this is -- he's probably thinking about it on a personal level as well and that's, you know, come away with a good talk

right there about her containur response and relief. >> and political structure and a chief of staff with the homeland security experience and pretty well prepped for this. so far the federal response has been competent. let's hope it's competent this time around. it's true. quite a contrast to -- some of the sort of non-storm events. he's really focused on the details. interested in the speed, power, the threat. >> okay. turn back to what we were just discussing with manu raju. wand erg the halls on capitol hill. inthe sense donald trump jr. is now being questioned. you have a conversation, i'm not sure a disagreement, a conversation between chairman grassley and senator feinstein whether that should be in public. what's the sense on the hill where they are? i saw manu interviewed chairman burr saying aspirational goal finish by the end of the year but didn't look like they would get there. >> not very ambitious of a

timetable. said it repeatedly. goal, get it down by the end of the year. democrats are quite sure. even though we look at the intelligence committee as the primary investigation on the hill on this we still have the senate judiciary investigation and where donald trump jr. is speaking today. the chairman chuck grassley of iowa is known as a meticulous oversight investigator. since his time under the reagan administration. he's going to make sure he's got every kind of, leaves no stone unturned. that investigation could drag out a while. certainly something that's not going a way anytime soon and almost certainly not this year. >> almost certainly not. put up, still have the graphic of that 2016 trump tower meeting. democrats to moss over their skis talking collusion without evidence of collusion and then this meeting came up. depends what happened. but donald trump after initially saying he took the meeting to talk about adoptions. what he said in an interview with sean hannity. released the e-mail chain making

clear he took the meeting and the statement obtained by the "new york times" makes clear he took the meeting because of a phone call, they have dirt on hillary clinton. the president's son, active player in the campaign and brings in to that meeting jared kushner, son-in-law, paul manafort, campaign chairman and experienced political hand that this is where the questions come from. you know, one of those adults on the left-hand side of your screen should have known better or if they were doing this, why were they doing this? and what were the relationships with those on the right-hand side of the screen? >> jumping to conclusions is something democrats have been eager to do and wanting to do throughout this whole investigation. the problem is that we keep learning new things and new information that raises more questions. when you hear pro-trump voices certainly from the administration himself saying this has gone on too long. we don't know -- there's no smoking gun. well, fact that donald trump jr.'s only story changed what? six, seven, eight times means

there are more questions. >> you can assume there's a good chance the reason the stories keep changing or are becoming more explicit is the production of documents by everybody who's a part of the mueller investigation. as more information goes forward to the committees it's important for those questions by the committees to be at least appear to be more forthcoming in the congressional investigations as well. >> you have -- half of the news stories i see about this investigation, they read like messages to people who have yet to be questioned. they're like, here what we have. contradict it if you want, don't waste our time. they read a lot like that. although today's reads more like donald trump jr. trying to say he did nothing wrong. i think talking about being concerned about fitness for office of hillary clinton a way are saying did they have dirt? >> and in the past, brought reactions from the president lashing out about these investigations. see if this happens in this

case. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." see you back here tomorrow. president trump has a news conference in an an hour with the emir of kuwait. wolf blitzer is up after a quick break. at whole foods market, we believe in food that's naturally beautiful, fresh and nutritious. so there are no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, no artificial preservatives in any of the food we sell. we believe in real food. whole foods market. on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

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