we are following a lot of news this morning, so let's get right to it. >> sounds like a tornado and feels like an earthquake. >> this is going to be a strong storm as it continues on this track. >> it's catastrophic. there's no other way to put it. >> forces tell the team fbi got the permission -- >> it's more aggressive than the norm. >> this is an unprecedented situation. >> in recent years the united nations has not reached its full potential. >> president trump is expected to use what aides are calling a harsh tone. >> he needs to be showing he can be a world leader. >> announcer: this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. chris is off and john berman

joins me. we have had a busy two hours. >> like, 30 things going on. >> and they still are. and a hurricane expected to make a direct hit in puerto rico tomorrow. the island's governor said the impact could be catastrophic. this is a dangerous category 5 storm. you can see what it's already doing, battering the islands of dominiqua and guadalupe there. and then wiretapping paul manafort. in about two hours president trump is expected to give his first address to the united nations general assembly. it will be, we are told, a deeply philosophical speech, that's what the white house says, and include warnings for north korea and iran. we have this all covered for you this morning. let's begin with chad meyers

tracking hurricane maria. >> yeah, category 5 as of 5:00 a.m. the hurricane hunter flew in and said this is back to 5, it's not a 4. up to 160 miles per hour, and totally devastating dominiqua overnight, and puerto rico and the u.s. and british virgin islands under the gun as a category 4 or 5, right there between 155 and 160, and to me, what's the difference. it will bear down on st. croix and puerto rico and make landfall tomorrow morning. there will be rainfall but the real damage will be surge and wind damage. this area here, puerto rico all the way through the british virgin islands and u.s. virgin islands and the country through dome tphaebga. we could see mudslides and we

could still see the potential for damage with flash flooding as well. the yellow track irma, the red track, maria. maria will make a right-hand turn, at least we think so. we always wait for that turn, guys. right now we hope it's a gutter ball between bermuda and the u.s. 48. >> with all of the attention on maria, we seem to have forgotten for a second about hurricane jose. is that doing anything right now? >> yes, let me get to it. it's here on this graphic. hurricane jose, it will eventually die out in the atlantic, but right now a category 1, category 2, somewhere in there, and then dying to a category nothing in about 48 hours, but will take a long time. this is sunday. it's almost five days away now and it's still sitting in the same place making waves and wind. the waves and the rip currents across the northeast are tremendous today. stay out of the water, please. that's all you need to do.

>> chad meyers, we will take your advance. thank you. puerto rico is bracing for a direct hit from hurricane maria, that will happen tomorrow. nick valencia is live in san juan. good morning, nick. >> reporter: we have already started to see conditions deteriorate. walk with me a little bit and i will show you what we are dealing with on the beach. these waves are starting to swell, and the clouds are starting to creep into the blue sky and eat up what is left of it. we still see people on the beach. earlier we saw some of the hotel officials trying to keep people off the beach and they are not listening clearly and want to get in their last good swim before what local officials say will be great wind and rain tonight. there was a press conference on facebook live and said conditions will get worse and

worse by the hour, and reminded people that flood something a major problem. one of the locals told us we are in a flood zone, and on the inside of a lagoon. this area floods during a normal rain event and that's not expected to be the case tomorrow but expected to be a category 5. shelters have been put in place, about 500 across the island. we understand it's being reported that some food is being rationed, including baby formula. they want to make sure everybody has resources at their disposal once the storm hits. we can't expect miracles. this storm is not going to change and people here are preparing for the worst. alisyn. >> thank you and be careful. we will check back with you. sources tell cnn u.s. investigators wiretapped former trump chairman paul manafort before and after the election.

we have broken this story and we have all of the breaking details about why the government was listening to somebody so close to the president. and tell us everything you have learned. >> sources tell us that the fbi got permission from the secret surveillance court to monitor the former campaign chairman before and after the election. this is an extraordinary step for the fbi to do surveillance of a high-ranking campaign person, and there are interceptions that raised concerns about whether manafort was encouraging russia to help the campaign, and other sources tell us the investigation was not conclusive. robert mueller has been told of this. >> what does that mean? >> there's a lot we don't know

about what was said. we were told the fbi does have communications between russian operatives relaying communications involving manafort himself. none of this amounted to what officials tell us is considered a smoking gun in the investigation, and there's a lot more work being done to determine if there's a criminal violation here. manafort has previously denied he knowingly communicated with russian intelligence operatives during the election, and he's also denied helping russia undermine u.s. interests. >> evan, why two separate times? why did they get two fisa warrants to monitor him? >> the order that began on manafort began back when he was a subject of an fbi agent in 2014 and that centered on work that was being done by a group of washington consulting firms, including his, for ukraine's

former ruling party, according to sources we have talked to. the surveillance was discontinued last year for lack of evidence according to one of the sources. the fbi restarted the surveillance after obtaining a new fisa court warrant that extended into earlier this year. the second warrant was part of the fbi's effort to try and figure out what was going on between these trump campaign associates and russian operatives, and it's unclear when that new warrant was started, and we learned earlier this year the fbi conducted a search of a storage facility belonging to manafort. of course we know in july the fbi raided his home outside of washington. >> in the timeframe here involved here, again, before manafort worked for the campaign and after he worked for the campaign, do we know if paul manafort spoke to donald trump during this time? >> we do. that's the big question that hangs over this. we have been told by sources

that the president and manafort were still talk into earlier this year, and that's well after the campaign and after the president took office. during this time the fbi was listening to manafort and it's possible those conversations were collected. >> you remember the president tweeted that trump power -- >> oh, yeah. >> -- was wiretapped. does this mean he was right? >> well, it doesn't. the justice department denies the own lines were wiretapped but it's possible conversations were picked up with manafort. as recently as last week the justice department told a certain court it would not conform or deny where there was a fisa on any of this. >> what does it all mean now for that robert mueller

investigation? >> it points to the fact that prosecutors and lawyers working for him are pushing forward on manafort. it's not clear what the plan here is, but as best as we can determine they do plan to charge him. this is something "the new york times" reported last night, and according to our own sources, that's accurate. the picture that is emerging they are going to use financial issues, tax issues and possible financial crimes to put pressure on him and perhaps use that to flip him. whether he has any actual information to provide for this broader investigation is a big question, but, again, the big unanswered question is what has been found to prove whether there's any crime in the weird connections that have emerged between the trump campaign associates and the russian government. >> evan, thank you so much for sharing all of that exclusive reporting with us. let's bring in our legal plan that will jeffrey taouza, and

chris cillizza, and susan hennessy. great to have all of you. jeffrey, evan just gave us so much information there. let's start at the end. their reporting suggests that paul manafort will be charged with something and that they then might try to flip him or use him somehow to get to something different, bigger, more information. what does that tell you? >> it tells you they think paul manafort is the key to the investigation. if you look at the tactics, especially the search warrant at his house, which is very unusual for a white collar crime investigation, not unprecedented, but an extremely unprecedented tactic and it suggests they think paul manafort is still hiding things from them, and they want to get him to tell the truth and plead guilty in the process. whether he has committed any crime and whether he has any information to implicate others, we don't know.

it certainly shows the mueller investigation thinks manafort is the key to the investigation. >> susan hennessy, you were trying to explain the significance of the developments overnight, and it was in 30,000 words, and i will sum it up in one word, really significant. you point out the timeframe as fascinating. the first fisa was before the campaign and the second after. so it's not necessarily clear as we sit here this morning what robert mueller might go after him for. >> exactly. there really do appear to be two distinct investigations, but there are connections. the first one, the early fisa warrant was for his connections to ukrainian government officials, and that predates the campaign, and the second one was related to the investigation into the russian and campaign

official contacts, and the connective tissue there is paul manafort, and his connection to individuals with russian interests and connections to that country, but we are talking about two separate buckets here. what is interesting, as jeffrey mentioned, that mueller's team does appear to be mount pressure and be aggressive on paul manafort, and the real question is what else might he know? >> obviously this is huge and breaking and exclusive that cnn has. this is more specific and bigger than things that we had heard previously. "the new york times" also has new reporting with color about what was going on at paul manafort's house while robert mueller's team is trying to poke around and get more information. so here's this from the "new york times." manafort was in bed early morning in july when an agent picked the lot on his front door and raided his home, and they took binders and copied his computer files and photographed

the expensive suits in his closet, and then the prosecutors told mr. manafort they planned to indict him. your wheelhouse as politics, what does this all mean politically? >> i thought tommy lee jones is going to play mueller in the movie. that kind of stuff really sounds like movie -- they are picking the lock and take pictures of the suits and issuing warnings. to susan's point, they are taking a very aggressive approach here. i think you guys evan about this, and what i have seen politically speak something what you are see something trump and his associates trying to c conflight in some ways to prove donald trump's tweet in early march he had been wiretapped, and that's wrong, right? it's just wrong.

paul manafort being wiretapped and donald trump being wiretapped by the orders of barack obama, that's not the same thing. again, it's so important to remember. this operates on two tracks. yes, there's a political track. there's the attempt to discredit bob mueller, and donald trump is saying again and again this is a witch hunt. the legal track continues and continues aggressively and really operates in a lot of ways, while, of course, the political pressures are there, and operates totally separate from it. no matter what is said, well, see, donald trump was right -- bob mueller and his investigation continues on here the way that politics is not terribly influenced by it. >> can i make one point about the investigation. we put a lot of emphasis on who

will testify, will donald trump, jr., testify? these cases are made on evidence, paper trail, that's where this case is going to stand or fall. we know that witnesses by and large are not going to implicate donald trump if they are not forced to buy a paper or electronic paper. the fact that there are tapes and e-mails, that's what this case is really going to come down to, not the testimony. >> there are tapes, again, a significant phrase right there that we could not have said yesterday because we did not know that to be the case. susan hennessy, chris used the term plotting along, and i am not disagreeing with chris cillizza. >> one thing to keep in mind,

there are a lot of different threats. one investigation into paul manafort, and investigations into michael flynn. there are a lot of pieces. this is an indication that the manafort piece of this investigation has progressed to the next phase. if he has, in fact, received a target letter, it's not clear from the "new york times" reporting what occurred but he has been informed he's going to be indicted. that might mean robert mueller is prepared for the next stage, which is the next stage. >> in trump's judgment, remember that first the ukrainian fisa warrant on manafort well predates him on the campaign, and he had done a lot of work in

foreign countries, and some of it that had raised questions. i heard those sorts of things when manafort was brought on, and yet donald trump instituted him at the top of his campaign in order to try and secure him the nomination. that's not a legal thing but it does get to the judgment factor. you could have seen the potential problem with paul manafort coming a mile away. this was not something that even with the most basic digging you might have been able to surface. >> in terms of the different areas of investigation, the one that we should not forget is the whole idea of a possible obstruction of justice by firing james comey who was investigating the president. that is obviously another major focus of the mueller investigation. >> again, it's no small thing when a president's campaign chair is indicted. if that happens, that's a giant, giant thing. we tend to overlook the

significance of that one statement. thank you very much. donald trump is preparing to make his first address at the united nations. how will he balance his america first policy with a call on world leaders to work together. we will discuss that coming up. . kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. marcopolo! marco...! polo!

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many good things and some tricky ones happening. we have a great team. good speech at 10:00 a.m. we're told the president will address a deeply philosophical address, and that's what the white house is calling it. he will single out north korea and iran. and jane harmon is the director and ceo of the woodrow wilson center. congressman, let's start with you. yesterday we had tony blair and he said the world is confused by president trump, they want clarity from the president today. we are told he will give a deeply philosophical speech, marrying the u.s. with common goals. possible? >> i think it's possible. the world is confusing. i am not sure anybody could make sense of it, including tony blair who admits that. i would have to give trump high

marks with north korea. the obama administration focussed on iran and not north korea and now north korea is the most dangerous place in the world and trump is focusing on it. from what i hear he will read his text today and stay within boundaries. nicky capable is very capable at the u.n. this is his biggest foreign policy stage so far in his presidency and he might say things that are helpful in clarifying how he sees the world and how the rest of the countries in the world who are also worried about north korea see the world. >> he has been talking and what he said yesterday at the u.n. is different than what he said on the campaign trail, and yesterday he was talking about how the u.n. does have problems, so let me play for you what he said yesterday, how he characterized it. >> in recent years the united

nations has not reached its full p potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement, and while the united nations on a regular budget increased 140%, and its staff has doubled since 2000, we are not seeing the results in line with this investment, but i know under the secretary general that's changing and it's changing fast. >> what did you think about what you heard yesterday and how different it was than what he said previously about the u.n.? >> alisyn, it reminded me about the things he used to say about nato. remember during the campaign he would say nato was obsolete and the u.n. was undemocratic. he said nato was no longer obsolete once he came in, and in the united nations' case, he has a reasonable argument to make

that the bureaucracy has gotten out of control and the return on the investment the country's make, particularly the united nations, which is obviously the largest supporter of the u.n. has been relatively low. he's got a difficult balancing act today as jane eluded to. the first is he comes as a president that talked about america first and he's in a building that is 15 blocks and a world away from trump tower, which is to say that it's all about the world first and the united states as one if the most powerful among many nations. walking that line will be difficult. and with iran, he has to make the argument he will leave the agreement, the 2015 iran nuclear accord if it doesn't get amended, extended and so forth. he will probably be a little vague about what his standards

will be. this is difficult because the european countries are not coming with him if the u.s. goes out. and then on korea, he's got the additional problem that it's hard to make the argument you will reach a diplomatic agreement with the north koreans. if they have seen you just leave or threaten to leave a nuclear agreement with iran, and they would say why would we trust this administration. there's a lot of inner relationship he doesn't have to deal with during the campaign, but he does have to deal with as president. >> it's more under discussion right now with north korea, the so-called military action. james mattis looking at all different possibilities. he noted the united states has not tried to shoot down any of the north korean missile launches yet because they were not headed towards the united states or guam, but it's possible they might try to do that in the future.

does that move the bar at all? >> well, it certainly would seem to me to move it because right now the u.s. has only done this if they thought they were threatened. i would be interested to hear what congresswoman harmon has to say about this, but shooting down a missile not aimed at your territory is a risky act, but it would start us down the road to conflict. >> what do you think? >> a couple things. david is a former and future scholar at the history center so he's smart. it's risk, and intercepting at boost phase on the launch pad is riskier. what will the north koreans understand this to be if we do this.

20 million people in south korea. on the other hand, the message isn't received yet. we have to contain this program. the world wants to contain this program. i strongly agree with what david said about iran, if the trump administration tries to get out of that deal it will send a very disturbing and destabilizing message to north korea. iran is complying with that deal. all of the intelligence agencies think it is. it has engaged in provocative behavior in the region, but that was not part of the deal. and that deal was a transaction, not a transformation. we need to be very, very careful. i think the trump team is doing a much better job, and he was praising the team and i want to praise nikki haley. i think she's doing a star turn as our representative at the u.n. >> that's good to hear. thank you very much for being

with us. the gop is taking another shot at repealing obamacare. days ago they have a new plan that they are putting forward against the deadline of september 30th. what are democrats planning to do to stop this? we have a senator here next. experience a shift in the natural order. experience amazing.

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trying to make a last-ditch effort to repeal obamacare. four senators introduced new health care legislation and they hope to get the 50 votes they need to pass at the end of the month without a full cbo score. we spoke to senator ron johnson about it. >> cbo is saying they need weeks and i respect that notion and i think we can decide based on the information we have. >> let's talk about this and more with democratic senator, jeanne shaheen. what do you think of this new legislation? there's four senators behind it. >> this is just more of the same in a new package.

this is a bill that would deny millions of americans health insurance. it would mean that medicaid, which 70 million americans depend on in new hampshire, the expansion of medicaid gave health care coverage, and what it would do is kick people off of their treatment and it would wind up meaning people with pre-existing conditions would have to pay more or be denied insurance coverage. this is just the same kind of mean-spirited effort to deny coverage to people across the country. >> i mean, senator johnson sounded pretty bull yish on ish morning, and he said some of the republican holdouts, senator john mccain, they were going to be able to find some sort of deals, give them some sort of sweeteners for their state that

would get them onboard to pass this. >> well, that may be the case. they are certainly reshuffling money so it's going to many red states, and in new hampshire we would lose $410 million, and ohio, they would lose upwards of $2 billion. the issue is it's the same problem with the process. this is legislation that has not had a hearing or bipartisan support. the sad thing is also that it's going to derail attempts by lamar alexander and patty murray who are making a strong bipartisan effort to address the immediate uncertainty in the insurance market that is affecting so many in the country, and it's hard to understand why there's a driving effort to pass a partisan piece of legislation that would deny people their health care. >> thinking of bipartisanship, i want to ask you about what you have seen in terms of protecting

the d.r.e.a.m.ers. as you know nancy pelosi and chuck schumer sat down with trump in a surprise move, and president trump seemed to side with them and they say they will craft something to protect d.r.e.a.m.ers, and then something unusual happened yesterday, senator, nancy pelosi was met with backlash. he was in san francisco, and she was at a news conference and young -- i believe, d.r.e.a.m.ers, certainly young people were shouting at her and chanting. let me play a moment of this so you can react. >> you have cut off the d.r.e.a.m.ers who are here to speak. [ yelling ] [ chanting ]

>> let us speak! let us speak! >> part of what they were chanting is let us speak, and it seemed she was allowing them to, but why of all people is she getting the backlash from d.r.e.a.m.ers? >> d.r.e.a.m.ers and young people across the country are frustrated, and they want to go to college and join the military and get jobs and be americans, which is what they are. this is the only country most of them have ever known. >> she's the person who is pushing the president to help, right? >> she is. i think the good news that we have heard from both republicans and democrats that believe we need to do something to protect the d.r.e.a.m.ers, and that's one i am certainly going to continue to work on. >> again, i am just confused about why they are holding nancy pelosi at fault here. do they not like she is working

with the president on this? >> who knows what stirred up the an ph animosity. we saw it in charlottesville, russia, we don't know what is behind this, but what we do know is we need to take action to protect the d.r.e.a.m.ers to allow them to stay in america. >> let's talk about what is happening today at the u.n. what are you looking for and what do you want to hear president trump say? >> i hope the president will continue his more moderated comments about the role of the united nations and the world. it's very important for peace keeping efforts and important to address negotiations in hot spots around the world. i hope he will talk about the importance of american leadership in the world. we know that's what countries across the world are looking for.

when we don't continue our leadership position, countries like china and russia and other rogue nations step in. it's important for us to continue a leadership role and i hope the president will reaffirm that. >> thank you, senator, for being with us on "new day." hurricane maria now an extremely powerful storm tearing through the caribbean and aiming right at puerto rico. we will bring you its track next.

caribbean. caribbean. crib. caribbean. hurricane maria regained category 5 strength this morning as it tears across the caribbean with high winds. the storm is expected to make a direct hit on puerto rico tomorrow. meteorologist, chad meyers, has been tracking it all morning for us. >> the aircraft flying through, it's like a weather balloon but goes the other way, and they found a 118-mile-per-hour wind,

certainly a cat 5. it's over warm water and there's no shear there, so puerto rico you are in the way. now is the time to make final preps and get in a safe place. it will be uncomfortable. there will be a lot of people in the strong buildings but 3.5 million people need to get out of the way. last time we had a big storm, only 1.5 million people. florida is different because of the migration there. >> and antigua is where michael holmes joins us live. michael. >> reporter: yeah, all night and right through this morning so far you can see the conditions behind me. the seas are just pounding out there, and trees have received

damage and the hotel we are staying in, actually, but the real concern in dominica. we heard it from the prime minister before communications went dark that his own house had been badly damaged and he has been evacuated. we heard from radio operators that got word out that there has been structural damage here. we talked to a pilot that flies these islands for a living and he said a couple years ago a tropical storm did damage on dominica, and this is a category 5, communications are down and we are not sure what is going on there. guadeloupe also hit. that storm is 120 miles southwest of where i am now and you can see what it's doing to

antiqua. less than two hours from now president trump will give a speech in front of the u.n. general assembly. we'll have that next. ♪

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president donald trump about an hour away from one of the biggest moments of his presidency so far, and he will give a speech to the united nations general assembly. let's get to david axelrod. first speech at the general assembly. it's always a big deal. arguably a bigger deal for this president who has more questions to answer. without question. he always stated america first, we will look after ourselves and

everybody else looking after themselves, and he's suggesting sovereignty issues concern him and suggesting they are not carrying their load. he's facing a very skeptical body there, and this will be a challenging space. at the end of the day he's concerned about domestic audiences as well as international audiences. >> do these speeches shift the sands geopolitically? >> i think it does. the president of the united states has enormous power. i always said when president's speak it could send army's marching and markets tumbling, and here you have to hear from him on american policy, and it's significant. this is not just another political event. >> this is happening with this

new cnn report overnight, the exclusive from cnn, paul manafort had his phones tabbed with fisa warrants twice during the campaign. this is not a drip but a torrent of water coming down on him. >> they wiretapped him after the election as well and into the first months of the trump presidency. did they capture conversations about the president and manafort talking about this particular case? did the president in any way signify to man fort that he's got his back? these are questions we don't know the answer to. certainly if i were the president's lawyers, i would be concerned about that. and clearly the government is squeezing manafort very hard, and that's how the investigations work. you take down people below your top target and you squeeze them

and see what you can get. >> hillary clinton was asked about this yesterday in terms of if there were a bigger bombshell, if the mueller investigation leads somewhere, to a real smoking gun, something really significant, what would she do? let's listen to this. >> would you completely rule out questioning the legitimacy of the election if we learn the russian interference of the election -- >> no. >> you wouldn't rule it out? >> no. >> i am not sure when she answered that question she knewette. she has been subtly questioning the legitimacy of the election in many ways. her book focuses on the russia

incursion and comey. we have constitutional processes to remove a president. i don't know there's a processes to invalidate an election. i would be very careful about how we approach all of this, because at the end of the day this is about a larger issue, which is our democracy. we don't want to undermine peoples' faith. we want our processes to work. i think people think she meant somehow the election is invalidated, and i am not sure that's what she was suggesting. she will have to speak for herself. i read that and thought more is being made of it than it should. i think she think's there's

questions about the legitimacy of the election now. >> have a great day. cnn special's coverage of the president trump's address to the u.n. general assembly will start after this break with wolf blitzer taking over. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you.

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. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> there's breaking news we are following here in the united states. this morning. i am wolf blitzer in washington. hurricane maria taking direct aim at puerto rico, and dominica as a category 5 monster. the prime minister said they lost all money can buy and replace. we are watching the monster storm's path. let's go to our meteorologist, chad meyers, for the latest. how's it looking? >> we have had contact. if you remember what happened to barbuda, we did not have contact for eight to ten hours but at least now we have had contact with the prime minister. the eyewall made landfall on the island of dominica. the worst side was the north tip but on the