nothing. it looks great. and the whole time they're working, we're dropping bits of knowledge on how to make the right decisions in life. >> we're not looking for perfection. we're just looking for better than yesterday. >> that's it for us tonight. thanks for watching. the u.s. president blasts senator john mccain after the lawmaker says he can't support the latest republican effort to repeal and replace obamacare. name calling and nuclear threats, u.s. president trump continues his rocketman rhetoric while north korea threat haddens to test a heist again bomb. and the warning to people, get out now. that is the word to thousands in northwest puerto rico as a nearby dam threatens to fail. >> it's all ahead here. thank you for joining us and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around b the world. i'm natalie allen. >> and i'm george howell.

4:00 a.m. on the east coast and in atlanta. newsroom starts right thou. >> u.s. president donald trump had had harsh words for a fellow republican on friday. this after john mccain said he would not support the party's latest effort to repeal and replace obamacare. >> but the opposition puts the bill in jeopardy. keeping in mind, this is not the first time senator mccain has bucked the white house. mccain cast the deciding vote back in july on the skinny repeal of obamacare's health care law. >> we saw the president actually take several swipes at senator john mccain during that rally in huntsville, alabama. we were expecting that after mccame came out and announced that he would not support the effort to repeal and replace the

act. but the president said he was not expecting john mccain to be a no on this. he said he had a list of potential nos, and john mccain was not on it. >> they gave me a list of 10 people that were absolute nos. these are ten republican senators. now, john mccain -- john mccain's list -- john mccain was not on the list so that was a totally unexpected thing, terrible. honestly, terrible. repeal and he replace because john mccain, if you look at his campaign, his last contain was all about repeal and replace. repeal and re-mays. so he decided to do something different and that's fine. and i say we still have a chance to -- we're going to do it eventually. >> despite john mccain saying

he's a no on graham/caddie, the president still sounded hopeful that they can get something done with health care. but after one administration put it, the this undeniably hurts their effort. another target of the president's ire during this rally was north korean dictator kim jong un. listen to what he had to say about him in huntsville... >> we can't have madmen out there shooting rockets all over the place. and by the way, rocketman should have been handled a long time ago. this shouldn't be handled now. you but i'm going to handle it because we have to handle it. >> now, those fiery comments

come shortly after the president authorized new economic sanctions on north korea and after he spent the week at the united nations rallying the international community to confront north korea. kaitlin collins, cnn. >> let's get some context now with leslie. good to have you with us. let's start with health care, the president's comments about john mccain effectively, was he covering his own bases here, trying to excuse another failed attempt to dismantle obamacare? >>. >> well, i think it wasn't clear which way senator mccain is going to go with this despite his earlier and significant no vote. if you listen to what he said, i think he's exactly right. senator mccain wants us to by bipartisan.. and remember that 56% of americans, if we look at the

recent polls, support the affordable care act. the support for the affordable care act has gone up since the president has not elected. but i think senator mccain wanted to wait and see what the congressional budget office is going to say about this most recent proposal. and they've had so far that they can't give a full estimate of what it will do in terms of the cost to americans, in terms of the coverage, how it will affect, you know, how comprehensive coverage will be. so i think he's made a very astute call that this is not the time to move forward with this. but i do think that president trump was surprised and i think probably a number of people weren't sure which way senator mccain was going to go. >> and the personal comment that he made on stage about senator mccain, would you say it was a lighter attack than we would see typically with president trump given the cancer diagnosis, also? even given that diagnosis, there have been times when trump has

taken a very difficult line. it was a lighter touch than we've seen in the past. and it might be in part because remember, he haent decided not to push forward. there's still a question mark about whether they will try to take this to a vote under the reconciliation process which, again, allows them to pass it with a simple majority in the senator. so he might be sort of waiting to see, you know, playing politics, trying to still think that he might get a few of those senators that are iffy. susan collins and lisa murkowski on board. but it's not looking good for repeal and replace under this current legislation right now. >> another personal attack coming from president trump on the north korean leader kim jong un calling him little rocket man. the question is here, how does that play into the debt cat nature of diplomacy if diplomacy is the way forward? >> the rhetoric flying back and

forth between the president of the united states and north korea is very inflammatory. it's very dangerous. it makes it very difficult to walk back and restore any diplomacy surrounding this. if you look at president trump's remarks before the united nations, a lot of that language we're learning now is not in the text. so i think the people around him are very much displayed. there haven't been talks for many years.. the risks for miscalculation, for things going wrong, not because anything intends them to is high and this makes it worse. >> the president mentioned iran in his speech.

iran today, though, showing that they now have a new ballistic missile with tests that state media says was successful, that it can carry multiple warheads, and this missile, they say, could possibly reach saudi arabia or israel. here is what the president had to say. >> we cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles and we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program. >> important to point out the context, missiles and the nuclear deal.. these are mutually exclusive items. but the question here, the president pointing out if iran continues with its missile program as we saw with this test, does it give iran room now

to suggest that the nuclear deal is ineffective, that it's not working? >> the president has continued to suggest that iran is not in compliance with the spirit of the deal. iran has been determined to be in compliance with the terms of the deal by the international atomic energy agency.. time and again, it's been seen to be in compliance. there is not a broader question about this. and you're right to say the missiles are outside of that agreement. the agreement is broadly seen certainly in europe to be the best possible alternative if the united states walked away from that agreement and failed to in the future extent sanctions relief, which it did do last week which is significant. but there is not the process expects for renegotiating the deal as the president wanted to do. the europeans are very unlikely to do that. and if you look at the missiles,

iran continues to say this is a development that it's pursuing for defensive purposes. so it's very complicated but, of course, the president's rhetoric is potential hadly dangerous to the future of that deal. >> leslie, we always appreciate having you here on the show. thank you for your time. >> thank you. we turn to puerto rico now. the u.s. common welling has been utterly ravaged by north korea. >> authorities now urging thousands of people to leave that area around the dam. that area in imminent danger of the dam failing and a failure that would send water cascading into low-lying costal neighborhoods. the dam is in the northwestern part of the island. that's an area that's been severely battered by maria's rains and flooding. you can get a sense of destruction there from this drone footage. >> cnn has reporters across the caribbean. our nick valencia is in san juan

and he has more on what's happening with that dam. >> this is an extremely dangerous situation for the island residents. they now have to deal with a possibly failed damage in this territory. there is a crack in the dam and they're now using buses to evacuate people that cannot evacuate themselves. it was earlier this community was pounded with heavy rain, making problems even more difficult for roads and passage ways that are inundated with water. if that wasn't enough, it's been catastrophic damage here to the infrastructure. and the ominous warning for local foirchs is that modern

life may cease to exist for months. >> thanks for the reporting. now for the u.s. virgin islands, the island of st. croix. >> help is starting to arrive, but the island is still without power. >> st. croix suffering in silence so far. >> that is fema flying over st. croix today, making their assessment. we have just flown in from the east. from beach resort to ghost town in a matter of hours. a curfew emptying the streets

but at noon, they and the nature of -- >> everything is not okay over here. >> there ain't no aid. there ain't nothing going on right about now. everything is just trying to survive. >> just two days ago, this was paradise. but now everyone here is trying to take stock of exactly what this new world means for their daily lives. when will power come back? when can they reopen their business? and when will they realize, again, they're worried about what they have to eat. already, the search for food. >> i think the worst was when the rain started coming in and howling and just the noises outside and not knowing. >> we've been curfewed in. >> jamie and brandon went to the nearby island of st. thomas to help after hurricane irma.

they had their house torn apart by maria. >> they told everybody to let their horses go before the storm. >> there is not a world prepared for disaster. the lost dog bar is lost for now. no electricity means no ice means no business. and there arebies in the refrigerator. >> the first day after the hurricane, dodging telephone poles and trees trying to get here and took the generator and what we could. they wouldn't let us come out here yesterday. so we were hoping there weren't any looters. >> tell me some. >> what is it? ♪ i'm still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ >> life was easy, about vacations here. that's gone. >> we went to plaza extra, the big grocery store on the west end. and the line is all the way out to the road. they're letting people in one at a time. >> if it's going to look like this for months and months with no power, how are we even going

to be able to get tourists down here so we can make food, buy gas, what the hell are we going to do? >> frederick star here took the full force of maria. being remote has been a livelihood for tourism, but it's now their curse. we fly over huge lines for emergency food, but when we land later, it is all gone. 500 fed, but many still searching. >> are you hungry? >> yeah, man. >> getting supplies. >> i'm a soldier like you. >> later, we see two huge c-17 cargo planes land at the airport where the u.s. marines are moving in as yet limited access to the west. help is coming, but the future remains bleak and the past a much more comfortable place. nick paton walsh, cnn, st. croix, the united states. >> it's just island after island after island, all the same

things we're hearing. so let's get the latest on the strength and position of the hurricane because maria is still traveling on. >> theater. our meteorologist karen maginnis live with that. we were talking about the bahamas, turks and caicos just the other day. these islands are in bad shape. >> they've been devastated. everything that the residents there know has been in upheaval. there's no electricity, there's no food, at least not enough for everyone. take a look at this scene in dominica. there's a gentleman walking the streets strewn with debris, another gentleman with rocks all around, upturned trees trying to dry out or clean a mattress as best he can. and then this view, a street view, what looks to be a salon chair as people look on thrown into the street. dominica, one of those islands devastated. there are about 73,000 people that live on dominica.

now for hurricane maria, i have a lot of information to give to you. this is this broad view, the satellite image reis very impressive. still a category three hurricane. will probably continue to be a category 3 hurricane for the next 24 to possibly 36 hours, possibly even to 72 hours. this is what i wanted to get to. there is the model comparison. we've talked about this over the last month or so with harvey and irma. the gfs is the north american model. the european is in the blue. they're on.top of each other now. and it's in the open waters. but then we go into tuesday overnight. there you can kind of see the western edge, at least on the north american model impacting the outer banks of north carolina had. doesn't look like maria is there going into tuesday, but by thursday evening, the european model has it on the outer banks of north carolina. so gradually the computer models

are edging further and further wards the west. so we're not out of the woods just yet. some of the early computer models were suggesting bypassing the entire eastern so he seaboard of the u.s. it doesn't appear, at least right now, that that's going to be the situation. tropical storm warning out out for southeastern bahamas and the turks and caicos continue. back to you guys. and karen, thank you. still ahead here on news room, incredible stories from two mexico earthquake survivors rescued from a building that collapsed. stay with us. hi, i'm johnny bench. after a hall of fame career, it's no wonder why i use blue-emu arthritis cream. blue-emu's non-greasy, deep-penetrating formula gets down deep into those joints for big time pain relief. blue-emu, it works fast and you won't stink.

we've been talking about the caribbean disaster and now we're talking about the mexico disaster. >> rescue crews there have been working around the clock to pull people out of damaged buildings, to find people in rubble. at least 298 people died after this 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck mexico. among those miraculously pulled from the wreckage of a building in mexico city are martin mendez and diana pecherro.

they were trapped for 17 hours and they shared their incredible story of survival with continue r cnn's ed lavendera. >> at 1:14 tuesday afternoon, martin ma den dez was replacing broken locks in abdomen accounting office on the fourth if floe floor of this building when the world around him started to crumble. >> so the building moved back and fourth two or three times? when the shaking stopped, martin found himself trapped with three women he had never met before in the building. could you move? he said he could only move like a worm. he said they started getting

very nervous because they were running out of air. he thought they were going to suffocate. >> what came next would test any shred of perseverance they could muster. they could hear the floors above crashing down. what was it like when the earthquake struck? it all happened so fast, we didn't have time to get out. >> she rooechd her phone and started texting to her husband. i love you. i love you so much. we're on the fourth floor near the emergency exit. there are four of us. and then you can see a series of phone calls that wouldn't connect. deanna says the sounds were

horrible. she recorded this video of the space where she was trap. massive sheets of concrete around them. they used cell phone lights there was no way to escape martin and deanna and the two others talked to etch auto other.. martin's leg was broken. he sat this in excruciating pain. >> what was going through your mind? he said i was talking to god. as we talk, martin opens his phone and shares with us a picture he took of himself while he was trapped. he hasn't seen it, the emotions overwhelming. >> he believed there was no way i were getting out.? yes, i did..

i always believed i was going to get out alive, he says. finally, after 17 hours, rescue workers the pulled all of them out alive. they are now recovering in the same hospital on the same floor, but haven't been able to see each other since they were rescued. they were brought together in an unexpected moment of had horror and survive. and i teach him a phrase in fwlish that he and his friends can share. we made it. we made it.. in english, we made it. >> we made it. >> ed haven dare ra, cnn, mexico city. >> that's a nice sentence in english for him to learn, isn't it? come up here, president trump's war of words with north korea. he's not letting up. we're live in asia for you just ahead. plus, roads piled with trees, no running water, low food supplies.

we have an exclusive report from the storm ravaged island of dominica.

welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. it's always good to have you with us. i'm george howell. >> and i'm natalie island. buses are evacuating thousands of people in northwestern puerto rico near a dam that is in imminent danger of failing. the governor says the crack developed in the rain in the wake of hurricane maria's flood waters. if it collapses, it is feared tore ends of water would flood into low-lying areas. emergency workers in mexico believe survivors of the recent

earthquake remain trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings there. rescue crews have been working around the clock nonstop to continue to free people. at least 292 people have been confirmed dead. iran says it's successfully tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple warheads. it reportedly as a range that can reach israel and saudi arabia. china says that it is restricting some of its fuel and petroleum exports to north korea and that will likely mean less traffic on the border between the two countries as seen here. the move is part of unique sanctions in the curbing pyongyang's nuclear program. beijing says it will had also stop the import of north korean textiles. the united states is also trying to pressure north korea

over its nuclear program. it says it's stepping up people and companies doing business with pyongyang and u.s. president trump is renewing his insults against north korea's leader. >> the insults continue. he recently called kim jong un rocketman and on friday he called him little rocketman. here is more on what mr. trump had to say at a campaign rally in alabama. >> this should have been handled eight years ago and four years ago and honestly -- and 15 years ago and 20 years ago and 25 years ago. this shouldn't be handled now, but i'm going to handle it because we have to handle it.

little rocket man. we're going to do it because we have no choice. >> mr. trump making political crises with. these insult webs though, have not appeared to deter north korea let alone its nuclear issues. >> north korea already is getting ready for its next missile launch, according to administrative officials. possibly a missile that could hit the u.s. kim jong un now threatening the highest level of hard line countermeasure in history following president trump's speech at the u.n. north korea's foreign minister suggesting the regime may launch potential devastation. >> i think this could probably mean the strongest ever hydrogen bomb test on or above the pacific ocean. detonating a hiefd again bomb aboveground could change everything. >> what you're looking at from a

radioactive standpoint is large areas of east asia, the western pacific, all the west to the west coast of the united states being blanketed with radiation. what they could potentially see is special work being done on the missile itself. they could see certain things being moved around that would potentially indicate that a warhead of a particular variety was being put inside the missile. kim matching trump on the battle of words. i will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged u.s. dotard with fire. about t president trump responding kim jong un would is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people will be test like never before, all after a doomsday warning from

trump at the u.n. that if the u.s. is forced to defend itself or its allies -- >> we will have no choice but to totally destroyed north korea. >> the head of the u.s. strategic command who would help lead any attack on north korea making the case for u.s. firepower as a deterrent to kim. >> we're would it there. we're watching all the time. if you want to go that way, we're ready so we can deter an attack on north america or its allies. ? let's get more now from the region. ben wedeman is live for us in tokyo. certainly this cannot be good news or anything that's helping had to settle down japan and others in the region when this talk back and forth continues to heat up. >> the the situation, natalie, was tense enough following the three september nuclear tests by

north korea. tensions were high enough as it is.. but the rhetoric definitely makes things worse. certainly what we're seeing is that this tension is really beginning to get on edge. we heard yesterday the north korean foreign minister in new york attending the general assembly saying the north might, for instance, detonate a hydrogen bomb over the pacific ocean. here in japan, the concern is that that hydrogen bomb would be flown over japan. and certainly this is a country that has had a very bad experience with nuclear weapons in the past and doesn't want to

see more nuclear weapons flying over its territory. >> it's a hydrogen bomb we're talking about which is unbelievable and now we have iran testing a ballistic missile. these are the two countries, north korea and iran, that president trump lashed out against at the unga. >> and it's important to stress that this missile has a range of 1,250 miles with the possibility of multiple warheads, but that is not covered by the 2015 nuclear graem between iran and the five permanent members of the security council and germany. that focused strictly on nuclear issues and eej american

officials can see that even though president trump says it was the worst deal the united states ever made, u.s. officials concede that iran as far as the spirit and the letter of the agreement is still holding to it. iran insists its puck here program, its rocket program is completely separate from that. we've heard iran suggest that the missiles are strictly defensive in nature, but we heard president trump have strong words for iran and north korea and venezuela in his u.n. address. so we have multiple words that the tension was calming down between the u.s. and iran. well, no longer the case, natalie. >> yes.. that's quite obvious. thank you, ben wedeman for us there in tokyo. so the russia investigation into possibly meddling in the u.s., those continue.

russia's foreign minister is pushing back against the idea that his government interfered in the elections in the united states. sergey lavrov says he has yet to see any evidence to back this one. >> translator: once again, amid the fear and the chaos about russia interfering in the elections, how can we confirm that had this is well documented? he said i cannot show you anything because this is confidential information. >> well, president trump was even more forceful in ridiculing the notion that russia helped him get elected. here is what he said friday. >> and by the way, folks, just in case you were curious, no, russia did not help me, okay?

russia. i call it the russian hoax. one of the great hoaxes. this isn't the last word on the matter, as well. that may be up to special counsel robert mueller and multiple congressional investigations all of which are looking into these issues. >> still ahead, a mexican family's joyous celebration of a baby girl turns tragic. >> we'll have more ahead right after this. hi, i'm johnny bench. after a hall of fame career, it's no wonder why i use blue-emu arthritis cream. blue-emu's non-greasy, deep-penetrating formula

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hurricane maria is edging away from the islands.

>> so much devastation there. in northwestern puerto rico, thousands are being evacuated because a dam there could collapse at any moment. >> cnn has reporters throughout the caribbean. michael holmes is in dominique ya for us with this exclusive report. >> this drive usually takes no more than ten minutes reach after hurricane maria, getting between the two is to embark on a voyage of carnage. more people died in this community than any other. more than a dozen confirmed dead, many others missing. the foot traffic is constant. mostly out of point michelle.

food is running low and people head to the capital to find what they can. we meet jermaine fontaine on the way, leaving home because she no longer has one. >> we are homeless, but we are okay. we have life. every single thing i had in my house is gone. >> the closer you get to the capital, the more apock likt liptic things become. here, a massive tree shoved into a house .blocking the way.the during the storm, ravines and waterways became furious tore ends, obliterating everything in their path. there's no running water on dominica. these waterways are now the only way to bathe or wash clothes. the scale of this is just impossible to get your head around. this was the main road to point michelle from the capital and i mean, just look at it.

along the road, the trees begin, stripped even of their bark by maria piled high on to the road until they become the road. you don't walk to point michelle. you climb and clamor. these are what's left of the rainforests, giants that stood perhaps for centuries thrown like match sticks across the shore line, the rainforest now just a memory. we hear the stories of those who survived like miranda john. >> when i came back and i saw inside of there, everything gone. the sea was right inside there. >> as we venture further into the community, we find selma francis who insisted her mother leave her home next door to be with the family as marie ya boar down. this is what remains of her mother's house. these are stories repeated throughout the village. we met joan frampton further

along the road, born and raised here, still stunned at the voracity of what she and her family lived through. >> i was stunned. first time i ever experienced a thick like that. i saw many other hurricanes, not like this one. it was nonstop. it came with a vengeance and it came out not to play, but to destroy. >> and does he troy maria p did. three house hes fab vished why from part of the village. 13 people are still missing. but two bodies were found, including a 10-year-old boy. they lie in the tiny cemetery, marking just two of the victim is of hurricane maria. >> so much devastation to talk about there. michael, thank you for the report. moving on now to mexico,

nearly 300 people confirmed dead from tuesday's 7.1 magnitude earthquake. >> at least 12 people were killed when this church collapsed. they were attending a baptism of a baby girl when the quake hit. some survivors spoke with cnn's ivan watson. >> a community in mourning. crosses on the street to honor victims of the deadly earthquake that shook victims on tuesday. that morning, locals gathered at this church in the center of the village to attend a baptism of a 3-month-old girl. the this is a video of the 277-year-old santiago apostolic church filmed in happier times. it was the beating hard of this community. but that all changed in an

instant when the urg began to shake on tuesday. a church employee was assisting with the ceremony when the quake struck. >> it was almost instantaneous. when it started shaking, pieces of the creel started to fall. everything went dark. i shut my eyes. when i opened them, everything was covered in dust. i saw a little girl under cart bre. she survive. >> but others were fast less fortunately. a day after the baptism, the community held a funeral. what should have been the celebration of a new life instead resulted in the death of an innocent family. among those who perished in the church, most other this man's

family. he lists the victims, his wife, two daughters, his son in law and the two grandchildren. also killed at the church, the 3-month-old baby, her older sister and their mother. deep in mourning, perez turned philosophical to explain the loss. >> god, he can take everything away. >> leak the flood, most of perez's family has been swept away, leaving him one daughter to hold on to. cnn, atella, mexico..

albreakthrough withyou back. non-drowsy allegra® for fast 5-in-1 multi-symptom relief. breakthrough allergies with allegra®. saturday is the last day for campaigning in germany's national elections before voters go to the polls sunday. >> the dwerman chancellor angela merkel is expected to win a fourth term in office. atika schubert is following this live right now. she took a great deal of heat for her decision to allow

thousands of my dwrants into germany. how did she effectively weather that storm of criticism to now be sailing toward another term? >>. well, it's really interesting. she's seeking a fourth term, another four years in office. that would make her one of the longest serving chancellors in germany. at the same time, however, the afd, alternative for germany party, the first far right party that looks to enter parliament since world war ii is now pulling in third place. so what we could see here is a vote that at the same time says yes, we want chancellor merklel to continue, but a protest vote against her refugee policy. it's hard to know exactly. the polls are always shifting. but one of the key factors will

be voter turnout, especially on the issue of as you point out refugees, whether or not people feel motivated enough to come out and vote and have a say. the question is whether her had supporters are equally motivated to come out and vote, as well. >> atika, live in berlin, thank you for the report today. >> that's our news this hour. there is much more ahead. thank you for watching. the i'm natalie allen. >> and i'm george howell. the news continues here on cnn rit after this break. my name is jeff sheldon,

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rocket man should have been handled a long time ago. >> insults from the u.s. president, donald trump, at a rally in alabama friday night. calling out kim jong-un, john mccain, and his critics with insults. we'll have highlights and analysis ahead. news of other devastation in puerto rico. 70,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes with a dam in the northwestern part of the country expected to give way. these stories are ahead. welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world, i'm natalie allen. >> i'm george howell. 5:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. from cnn world headquarters in atlanta. "newsroom" starts right now. u.s. president donald trump had harsh words for a respected fellow republican friday