night. carried out by the nassau county sheriff's office. they went out there. they saved those folks. no one was injured. good stuff. tomorrow on "special report," continuing coverage of the stop, its aftermath, maybe another sunset. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for tonight's "special report," fair, balanced, and still unafraid. jesse? >> jesse: great sunset. thank you. >> oh, my god! >> oh! >> oh, my god.

>> wow. you got the video? >> i got it. >> here it is. >> oh, man. >> that's our pool. that's our deck. that was my house. my house is gone. >> jesse: a fox news alert, one of the largest search and rescue missions in american history is underway after hurricane ian decimated moving up the east coast. governor ron desantis says the situation is really bad. >> the amount of water that's been rising, will likely continue to rise today, even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flood event. >> jesse: first responders are working around the clock.

hundreds have been rescued since the storm hit. here's nassau county deputies saving two people stranded on a sailboat in the storm. >> hold on, hold on! hold! >> jesse: on the other side of the state, naples firefighters rescued a woman trapped in floodwaters. watch. >> jesse: it's all hands on deck. we're seeing the best side of people come out in the face of

tragedy. a good samaritan used his jet ski to help firefighters with rescues. the cameraman stopped what he was doing mid-report to help people across the water. >> this one is as big as florida. that is massive. >> keep going. keep going. >> are you okay? >> it's an enormous -- an enormous storm. i'm fine. just helping some people through the water here. that's our camera operator glen ellis out there i think you can see trying to help people who are wading away from their homes. we've spoken to a couple of them. >> jesse: a man walked through floodwaters to save a stranded cat.

>> kitty. >> jesse: florida is no stranger to hurricanes, but this one is different. fort myers beach officials say there's nothing to come back to. 90% of the city is destroyed. 90%. there's at least 15 known deaths across the state, but that number is expected to go up. biden says this may be one of the deadliest storms ever. >> this could be the deadliest hurricane in florida's history. the numbers are still unclear, but we're hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life. >> jesse: we start our coverage off tonight with senior correspondent steve harrigan live in florida. steve? >> those 150-mile-per-hour winds were strong enough to rip the sides off a lot of houses in this mobile home park. you can see inside where people

were living normal lives one day ago. a pretty organized closet from. this neighborhood is now gone, street after street, as you pan over you can see a lot of roofs gone. some of the houses destroyed entirely. of course aid is flowing into florida from across the country. many states, first responders arriving here, but at this point in pockets like this, from what we've been able to see, it's still neighbor helping neighbor. if your house is destroyed, sometimes you go to live with someone whose house is still mostly standing. a lot of people who rode out the storm here, they rented rooms in nearby condos, much sturdier built, about $300 a night. ordinarily a day after a storm like today, you see families coming back to pick through their belongings. we're not seeing that here today. it's simply too difficult to move around the state with the conditions of travel, with flooding and everything else. ordinarily you hear the buzz saws, you see the backhoes, see people trying to get back to work to clear things away. still quiet here.

still empty. still suffering from the body blow of those heavy winds. jesse, back to you. >> jesse: thanks a lot, steve. let's turn to rob from the cajun navy, stepping in to save people stranded by the hurricane. before we go to the cajun navy, steve, can we get you back up on-camera one more time? i had a follow-up question for you. are the people not going back because the governor told them not to so they can leave the roads clear for the rescue vehicles? >> it's a combination. the governor has been cleared they don't want people looking around at the damage. they don't want people returning until it's safe to do so. ordinarily the day after a big storm, you want your valuables. we do see people, because of the flooding, because of downed trees and powerlines, simply moving around here, especially with gas stations closed, cellphones out, no electricity. it's a hard operation to pull off. >> jesse: yeah. i can imagine that must be tough. all right, steve, thank you very much.

let's go now to rob. do we have rob goudet from the cajun navy. all right,en ron desantis. tell us what you've been able to accomplish so far. >> yeah. we've done about 50 rescues since early this morning, and our team is still out there doing search and rescue with first responders off the island out here. >> jesse: okay. so when you're going in to save these people, what kind of condition are they in? >> umm, you know, umm, the citizens we're getting them in, handing them off to family or rescue personnel that can take better care of them than we can. our job is just to get them to safe land. >> jesse: right now they're in floodwaters, on top of their homes, or just unable to leave their property?

>> yeah. they have been stranded on their roofs or in their second floor of their homes, unable to leave. that's right. we started getting calls in the middle of the night when the storm started hitting. to date we've received over 350 requests. of course some of those were taken care of pie other first responders -- by other first responders, but our team was out there doing their thing. they left tampa as soon as it was safe to leave. we are -- wear also scouting out here in fort myers where we can set up our longer-term operations, an operation we call safe camp. once rescues are done, we continue helping by providing distribution, some coordination between other nonprofits, volunteer organizations, and just find ways to support the community here. you know, for instance, with hurricane ida, we stayed in south louisiana for six months,

staying behind and helping the community regain stability. >> jesse: what are the kind of things they say to you guys when you greet them? did we lose you? we lost the cajun navy. god bless those cajuns. we love them. let's go over to will nunley, fox weather correspondent live from cape coral. >> good evening. you know, tonight has been all about coming face-to-face really with the reality of what the storm has left behind. by all accounts, everything we're seeing, this storm lived up to really our worst fears in this situation. i'll start by showing you just what i have behind me. this is what rescue crews are coming face-to-face with today. coming up to homes like this, trying to determine, was anybody inside. trying to get people accounted for. they're having to go street by street essentially all through cape coral where we are. this is happening on several of these islands as well. this is the farthest we can go on cape coral, because if you tried to get to pine island, the bridges have been compromised,

and in some cases washed out. even the roads here in cape coral, in some cases, have been washed out. we have some video of where we are here. we've seen so many buildings washed away completely. others collapsed. we've heard the buzz of helicopters throughout the day, trying to get in here and do rescues. there have been people all afternoon waiting to be rescued. meanwhile the death toll continues to grow. at this point it is still an evolving number. neighbors are fearing that it's going to continue to grow as more people are found over the coming days. that's just the harsh reality, jesse, what we're facing at this hour, as convoys of rescue workers, utility workers, continue to move in here, to the area. i spoke with a man who lived in this home here behind me. he got about three hours before the storm hit. he came back this afternoon, and said, "will, i've been talking with my neighbors for years, what it's going to be like if we

get the one big storm." it's happened. he said, "i don't know i can come back and rebuild after a situation like this." that was echoed by a couple neighbors here, who, by the way, can't even access their homes because the road has been washed out. some tough decisions, not only with people here tonight, dealing with the loss of their neighbors, but for the homes that remain, the people that are safe, they're questioning tonight if they're going to rebuild here or if is the best place for them to be in the future. just a terrible situation happening here. >> jesse: thank you so much, will. tell everybody there our heart really does go out to them. as the storm ravaged florida last night, over in bow neat to bonitasprings nearly drowned, be was rescued by a group of cowboys. >> jacob! >> jesse: lenny and the rest of collier county cowboys rescued the man in his car in bonita

beach. joins us now. thank you so much, cowboys. that was a big rescue. everybody really appreciates that. what was it like out there? >> pretty bad. can you hear me? >> jesse: yeah. i got you. >> yeah. it was pretty bad. we wanted to get to the beach. we noticed that, and wanted to make sure everyone was safe. the surge came in really quick. we started making our way back. as we were coming back, it was starting to get 3, 4, 5 feet of water in some areas. it got rough pretty quick. >> jesse: what did the woman tell you when you pulled her out to safety? >> it was a gentleman. he was distraught, had no idea what was going on. we really felt bad for him. he tried to get out. didn't have enough power to get out in the car, and the water as pressing on the car. we were able to jam it open, get

him out. >> jesse: how is he doing right now? do you have any idea? >> no. we haven't touched base with him since. we took him to safety. another gentleman came next to us. he said he had a house about a mile back. took him to his house, and said that he'll take him back home. we weren't able to stay in touch with him just yet, but we will. >> jesse: he owes you guys a few drinks. he owes you big time. not that you're looking for anything, but he owes you big time. you pulled off this rescue, and no one lost a hat, it looks like. >> yeah, yeah. these are good hats. >> jesse: god bless the collier cowboys. we love you here at fox. "primetime" loves you. thank god you were there when you were. if it happens again, i have a feeling you guys will get back out there. >> we'll be right there. we'll be right there, ready to

save, anytime. anytime, any place. >> jesse: you guys are great. bunch of heroes. thank you. god bless. tip of my hat if i had one. >> yes, sir. >> jesse: coming up, actual evidence of russian collusion. you won't believe it. we found it. and later joe biden sees dead people.

>> jesse: if memory serves us right, joe biden just a few weeks ago threatened us with a dare. >> some people ask whether you are fit for the job, and when you hear that i wonder what you think. >> watch me. >> jesse: well "primetime" took him up on it. we watched something yesterday that was worse than falling off the steps of air force one,

worse than falling off the bike, and worse than saying russia can invade ukraine just a little bit. just a month ago, indiana congresswoman jackie walorski was killed in a tragic car accident. this was a major story in washington. joe biden put out a written statement, saying "jill and i are shocked and saddened by the death of congresswoman jackie walorski." then joe biden spoke to the congresswoman's brother on the telephone, offering him his condolences. but yesterday on a stage in indiana, biden didn't know she was dead, and went looking for her. >> i want to thank all of you here, including bipartisan elected officials like senator booker, representative -- jackie is? is she here? i thought she was going to be here. >> jesse: where is jackie? she's in heaven. how do you explain something like this? >> it will be a bill signing in

her honor this coming friday. so of course she was on his mind. she was top of mind. >> he said, "jackie, are you here? where's jackie? she must not be here." >> i just explained, she was on top of mind. >> if the late congresswoman was on top of mind for the president, and her family was expected to be here, that's what he was thinking about, why was he looking for her? >> again, i think people can understand, i think the american people out there, who watched the briefing from time to time, maybe at this moment, will understand when someone is at top of mind. >> jesse: jackie was top of mind, whatever that means, and he knew jackie was dead, why was he looking for her? the president is getting worse fast, and looks as lost as he sounds. here he is yesterday. biden can't even navigate his way around a stage.

you really think he's in full command of the country, the white house? joe biden is not in command of anything. thank god he chose a competent vice president to take the reins in case something bad happens. but he didn't. he chose kamala harris, because she was a woman of anchor, who in the middle of a border cries leaves the country, and flew to south korea, where she slapped on some binoculars and gazed across the dmz. >> it's 50 meters away. >> jesse: kamala is like a challenge, experiencing constant awe and wonderment. with many telescopes dangling from her neck, she discussed her true passion, outer space. >> when you see the photographs it's humbling. so we invested in this

telescope, and the images just came back. they show us a billion years back to the beginning, to all the galaxies. it's the most humbling thing you've ever seen. >> jesse: space was top of mind there for kamala. i'm sure the officers were excited to hear her babble on and on with north korea right there. >> the united states shares an important relationship, an alliance with the republic of north korea, and it is an alliance, strong and enduring. >> jesse: some would say the american north korean alliance more of a special relationship than american and great britain. our is to run deep. there's nothing that can ever come between us and the hermit kingdom. joe can't read a teleprompter and kamala can't read a map.

this would be funny, if we weren't getting smashed by hurricanes, crime waves and recessions. monica crowley joins me now. this was bad, a two-fer on a day we're getting walloped by hurricanes, the stock market dropping like a rock, inflation still red-hot, and they don't know where they are or the difference between dead or alive. >> so we have a president, jesse, who belongs in assisted living, and not in the white house. and if he starts wandering aimlessly away again, they'll have to put him on a toddler leash. the vice president whose daily idiocy is literally an episode of "veep." she can't even make chitchat. the soldiers with the dmz, can't even make small talk. this woman has been on the public scene, public life, f foa decade, and can't even make

small talk. people say, gosh, golly, this is so sad. this is worse than sad. this is absolutely dangerous for the american people. it's dangerous for the country. the country has serious problems. what we're actually experiencing now is a grave and rolling constitutional crisis where we actually have no formidable leadership. this country has grave problems, all created by the democrats. we've got serious international threats like china, what is happening on the border, iran marching toward a nuclear weapon, terrorist groups ascending, and we have zero leadership. we have a senile president. we've got a president who's a chronic state of nervous breakdown. none of this inspires confidence in the american people. and every republican running in the midterms should link their every democrat opponent to joe biden and kamala harris. >> jesse: what do you think the chinese, the saudis, the russians, and i'm talking allies, mexico, enemies, you

name it, when they see this, see joe look for dead people on the stage, when they see kamala, not know the difference between up and down, north and south korea, what do you think they see? >> i think they see, jesse, an opportunity. america's adversaries have on the march, whether it's chilly with economic warfare, iran marching toward a nuclear weapon, vladimir putin invade ukraine, isis and al qaeda, the taliban running afghanistan because of the catastrophic withdrawal. every single adversary of the united states has seen a window of opportunity here because the president of the united states, the american commander in chief, is not just perceived as weak, but is weak in real terms, and has created weakness in the united states.

so they know that they can act with impunity, and they are taking full advantage of that. it is putting the united states and the american people in a very dangerous and difficult position. >> jesse: i couldn't agree more. monica crowley, thank you always. >> thank you. >> jesse: for years the left was convinced they'd found clear indisputable evidence that donald trump was colluding with russia. it was the only thing they could ever talk about at every cocktail party, every harvard poly sci lecture, it was russia, russia, russia. >> we'll find out if the new president of country does what russia wants. >> this president needs to be impeached. i believe there was collusion. >> clear evidence of intent by the campaign to collude with the russians. >> there's clear evidence on the full of collusion. >> there's ample evidence of collusion. >> the beginning of the end of the trump presidency.

>> the president is a russian operative. >> jesse: they were dead wrong, of course, but in a wild turn of events we do have brand-new evidence of russian collusion. this is jamie lee henry. she was hailed as a liberal hero back in 2015 for becoming the army's first openly transgender officer. but i don't think they're too happy with her now, because jimmy lee was indicted this morning for trying to leak classified army intelligence to the russians. jamie lee and her wife, a doctor at johns hopkins, met with a russian diplomat, who happened to be an fbi agent, and offered to share top-secret information on fort bragg. the health records of our delta force soldiers. the russian military recruited jimmy lee to join their fighting forces after they invaded ukraine. so does that not make two trans military men or women who committed treason? didn't chelsea manning go to prison for leaking classified

documents? whew. jimmy lee and her commie doctor wife didn't care if they got caught. they told the undercover agent they were motivated by patriotism toward russia to provide assistance that she could to russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail. after this five-year russia collusion drama, it's a transgender lesbian duo caught red-handed colluded with the enemy. i can't wait for the media to cover this russian instance of collusion on tv tonight. tomorrow we'll show you exactly what they said. the bodies haven't been found yet in florida. the left is already attacking ron desantis and blaming global warming. new salonpas lidocaine flex. a super thin, flexible patch with maximum otc strength lidocaine that contours to the body to relieve pain right where it hurts. and did we mention, it really, really sticks? salonpas, it's good medicine.

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>> jesse: this is a fox news alert. florida governor ron desantis is holding a press conference right now. let's watch. >> wel welcome to florida. we're happy that you're here. i just got back from surveying the damage in charlotte and lee counties. and, you know, some of the damage was, umm, almost indescribable to see a house just sitting in the middle of the bay. literally must have gotten picked up, flown because of the massive wind speed and the storm surge, and deposited in a body of water. there was cars floating in the middle of the water. some of the homes were total losses. i would say the most significant damage that i saw was on fort myers beach. some of the homes were wiped out. some of it was just concrete slabs. of course, there were damage to our infrastructure, particularly the sanibel causeway.

breaks in that in multiple different areas. it was interesting. the pylons on the water, where you had that part of the bridge, that actually was good. it was the point that it was on a sandbar that it got totally wiped away. or from the mainland, there was breaks there. that's going to require major, major overhaul and potentially a complete rebuild. they're going to look at it and see. that's the only way on sanibel and cap tiva island. so the operations to help people there have been mostly by air. all told, search and rescue operations, it started in the wee hours of the morning. as soon as the winds died down enough to where it was safe, you had coast guard assets, you had urban search and rescue teams. we've had the national guard out assisting people. there have been more than 700 confirmed rescues. there's likely many more than that that will be confirmed as more data comes in. people have been rescued from places like fort myers, fort myers beach, sanibel, marco

island, as well as the barrier islands in charlotte county. obviously there was a lot of calls coming in as the storm was really raging yesterday. people who did not evacuate were hunkered down. there was storm surge. there was a lot of apprehension, understandably. when initially the first responders came this morning, people would wave them down, whether they were by helicopter, boat or high water vehicle. now what they're finding is on places like sanibel, most of the residents are just waving thank you for coming, but they say that they're fine, and that they're staying put now. there are going to be issues with being on some of those islands because they won't have services like we expect for quite some time given the limitations ofare stabilized in their home. they are first responders, are doing targeted searches, just

going home by home, checking to see if people are okay. then responding to specific reports if they're missing loved ones. umm, there will be of course many more rescues added to the tiller. now, we -- we absolutely expect to have mortality from this hurricane. i'd just caution people, you know, there's a process by where that is confirmed and there's people -- i know that people have said certain things. in terms of confirmed, that will be made apparent over the coming days. but i think the things that have been said out there, that's not something that has been confirmed at this juncture. of course we have thousands and thousands of people on the ground working to restore power, opening the roads, bringing in food and water, restoring communications. talking with local folks in lee county, probably the biggest immediate hurdle that they're facing is their county water utility had a big water main break. that is necessary to be fixed in

order to provide basic water services for the residents of the county. so they have been working to troubleshoot it. they requested the state to enlist federal support to help diagnose and potentially fix the problem. we work fema and the army corps of engineers came in. i mean, they came in pretty early. i think -- i think kevin called them maybe, like, 3:00 in the morning. they were in southwest florida from jacksonville by early this afternoon. and so they're helping to diagnose and hopefully be able to remedy that. that's going to be something that's very, very important for the county to get fixed. in the meantime we are assisting healthcare facilities to provide working water, because they need that to be able to take care of their patients. we're shuttling water from lakeland into healthcare facilities. right now there are about 20 trucks en route with 60,000 gallons of water for a total of 1.2 million gallons of water. i think they have been able to fix some of the water -- one. three hospitals has actually

been able to fix the water problem there. that's good news. port tampa, port everglades, the fuel is flowing into some of our major ports. a lot of fuel is flowing throughout the state. more than 330,000 gallons of fuel have already been moved into southwest florida. a saw a couple of the gas stations open in the fort myers area when we were there today. with this fuel, the state of florida set up six fuel deposits to fully support all response efforts. we think the remaining ports in the state of florida will open between some time tomorrow and sometime on saturday. there's been a massive amount of supplies staged. we're also bringing more into the region. more ambulances, more food, water and ice. more generators, more -- actually we're bringing in two full-service mechanical shops to help repair and maintain emergency vehicles, which are in rugged conditions, going through

water and others. bringing in more tarps. bringing in kits for parents of infants and toddlers to give them 10 days' worth of support, bringing in more high water ladders. now, as of 6:00 p.m., 2.6 million approximately reported power outages throughout the state of florida. that was anticipated. so far, compared to this morning, 200,000 accounts have been restored in southwest florida. 28,000 in lee. 62,000 in sarasota. 14 how in collier. 33,000 in manatee. 12,000 in charlotte. 44,000 in hillsborough have been restored. the prestaging was over 42,000 linemen. they're there on the ground, really in different parts of the state, but particularly in southwest florida. when they first got in there, of course, they're looking to see what is the damage. how much of our infrastructure has been destroyed? how much of it has -- has -- has

held up. when we were in charlotte, the reports were generally positive, that a lot of the infrastructure had been able to weather the storm. you still have to work obviously to reconnect the power, but in some areas you may need to rebuild from the ground up. in other areas where the infrastructure maintained integrity, you would be more just trying to rehook everything. so that's -- that's a 24/7 process. so if anybody sees some of the utility trucks pulled over somewhere, and maybe someone going rest, understand they're working constant shifts, and everyone is on the clock the whole time. they don't have a time where people are not working. we really appreciate that, because we understand how important it is, umm, for folks to have the basic services, umm, resume. there of course have been damages to cellphone towers, particularly places like lee county. the telecom companies have brought in -- they earmarked a

hundred cellphone towers being set up. many are being set up in southwest florida. i've been able to speak with ceos of both at&t and t-mobile. while there have been damages, a lot of the, first of all, has weathered the storm fairly well. while there may need to be repairs, they feel good about getting up service. some people have service in those areas. fdot had more than 1200 personnel on the ground. i'm happy to report the road situation is by and large really good. just talking with kevin before we came out here, if we were here yesterday at, like, noon, thinking about what the road situation would look like, i think we thought there would have been way, way more roads that were blocked by debris. of course, we did have the sanibel -- i think there are issues, but there's also a lot of roads where the traffic is flowing on i-75, without a problem. most of the other roads are doing really well. sunshine skyway bridge has reopened. so we were happy to see that.

most school districts throughout the state will be reopening, either friday or monday. obviously lee and some. those areas may be a little bit different calculation for them. we're thankful that fema has activated individual assistance for floridians who have been affected by the storm. if you are in need of help recovering, visit disasterassistance.gov. or wall 1-800-621- 3362. fema has approved the request to put central florida counties into assistance. we appreciate that. you look at the images, like you can see a house that's been totaled on fort myers beach -- and obviously it's a sad thing to see. you can see boats that have been flipped over, cars that have been flipped over. those are very striking images. but as the storm has moved through the state, it's caused a lot of problems with really historic flooding in parts of central florida, into northeast florida. so it's important that those

folks also have the ability to get assistance if they need it. over 8700 people have already registered with fema. if you're going to make a claim, take a picture, if you've had flooding, take a picture of the waterline on your house. make sure you're documenting the damage. our chief financial officer will be doing insurance villages at the disaster recovery sites. you don't need to go in to get fema assistance, you can do it online, but if you have questions, you go in, you can have people from the different insurance carriers -- jimmy will also help people who have flood policies to file the claims and get those claims paid as soon as possible. we expect that will be done without much delay from the insurance carriers. we're happy that a lot of businesses have committed to provide our first responders and volunteers with sustenance. burger king, four river

smokehouse, and maria smokehouse and texas road house, and many more will want to come and offer stints. for those coming in as either first responders or linemen, bucky's is giving away meals and soft drinks. in the daytona location, you can avail yourself of good stuff there. we're continuing, as kevin has said, the first 72 hours are really life safety, and then working to restore the main services, power, fuel, and communications. there's massive numbers of people on the ground working 24/7 to do that. of course it's too early to know exactly what the needs of everybody is going do be, but we obviously anticipate some floridians may end up being displaced from their homes. the first lady is spearheading efforts with volunteer florida to activate the florida disaster fund, where people can donate. it's much better to donate financially than to send items. we really appreciate the thought when people want to send water

or send these things, but, you know, contractors have been contracted for this. the best stuff you can do is if you're going to go a financial contribution, that can go to organizations that are more nimble with how they help people. fema, you have statutes, you have regulations, you have things, you either qualify for certain types of individual assistance or you don't. they're not able to go outside of what congress has decreed on that. a private organization, if you had more unique needs that maybe aren't covered by that program, they can meet those needs. by poig the cash assistance is the best way to do that. if you want to contribute, go to floridadisasterfund.org or text "disaster" to 2022 -- actually, what is it? 20222. okay. i'll let the first lady do that. she does it better than me. thi'm not a text guy, but i know

you need more numbers than that. for those who want to volunteer in person, that's another way where you can really be helpful and volunteer florida has a website for that. volunteerflorida.org if you want to see volunteer opportunities. we would certainly welcome individuals that want to give obviously their money, but also their personal time and effort. okay, kevin guthrie is here with some additional updates. >> thank you, governor. thank you first lady for going out to the area today and doing some onsite assessments. we're entering that phase of the response where we start to really get into what's referred to as indirect deaths. we've been -- myself and the governor -- have been mentioning this for quite some time, generator safety, generator safety, generator safety. we'll add chain saw safety. getting on ladders, getting on

roofs, watching out for powerlines that are mixed inside of trees. people need to be extremely careful -- >> jesse: that was florida governor ron desantis with an update on the recovery efforts down there. they're getting fuel in there. the roads are being cleared. they're restoring power to a lot of people. they have assets in the air, ground and water underway. rescue missions. just getting as much food, water and ice and generators as they can to help people. and next, we're going to go to break. karl rove, the architect, will be back on how democrats are politicizing the tragedy. ...

>> jesse: while rescue crews are assessing damage and sifting through rubble, the liberal media has been hard at work, smearing florida go ever ron desantis because that's what they do. >> governor ron desantis will be forced to do his job, when he's used to spending most of his time hanging out on fox news and owning the libs. >> this is the quote from

governor desantis about climate change. quote, i'm not in the pews of the church of the global warming leftists. this is what he thinks about climate change. now his state is getting hit with one of the worst hurricanes that florida will ever see. >> it's ironic now that you might have floridians to actually pour over the borders, and go north, and get out of the state of florida. >> jesse: then they wonder why we're such a divided country. the media loves attacking desantis, but when you add in the climate angle it's like christmas morning. msnbc contributor rachel vinman, the wife of alexander vinman, you may remember him for such shows as impeachment part one, writes this, they should use they them pronouns for hurricane ian to annoy desantis. nothing would annoy him more than a nonbinary hurricane. then she apologized, not to ron, but to the trans community. i'm not sure why she even

apologized to the trans community. i would assume we're months away from hurricane rupaul anyway. >> can you tell us what effect climate change has on this phenomenon? >> we can talk about climate change at a later time. i want to focus on the here and now. >> what effect does climate change have on this phenomenon? seems like the storms are intensifying. that's the question. >> i don't think you can link climate change to any one event. >> listen, i grew up there. something is causing the storms to intensify. >> jesse: wow. he got schooled. he doesn't know what he's talking about. i mean, in a time when we should be coming together, they're looking to exploit natural disasters to hurt republican presidential candidates. what was joe biden doing last night while the biggest hurricane in a hundred years hit the united states? joe biden went to a fundraiser to raise money to beat republicans. he kept saying "they're getting

hit," like in florida, "they're getting hit." it's we, mr. president, we. >> we're seeing the consequences of climate change around the world very vividly, including in the united states right now. >> jesse: if we just spent more money on climate change earlier this hurricane probably have been a cat 2. karl rove is a fox news contributor, and no stranger to these types of theatrics. you must have been through this during katrina probably. >> not as bad as this. one of the things that interested me, look, under the laws that govern these natural disasters, fema, the federal government relates to the governor. the governor relates to all the locals. before this event occurred, president biden called the mayors of several largest citieo forth -- directly long before, several days before, he called governor desantis. i thought that was an unnecessary stab at the

governor. the governor fortunately did not rise to the bait. he went out and was appreciative of president biden's call. complimented fema on the work they were doing in preparation of the event. it was a sign in an inappropriate way, president biden should have better sense to talk to the guy that i'm supposed to be talking to, the governor, making certain that he has all that he needs, because he's the guy that's supposed to be in touch with the mayors and county leaders. >> jesse: do you remember sandy, obama had the official jacket, and got hugged by chris christie. republicans were furious. it's costing us. is biden going to fly to florida, try to hug ron desantis, and should ron desantis hug him back? >> look, it's appropriate. the federal government has responsibilities under the law. people like having the president come in an aftermath of something like this.

look, what i think governor desantis is keep the politics out of this. he's completely focused on doing his job. if the president comes to visit, he should welcome him, thank him for his assistance. i'm absolutely confident he will. and remember, if you step back from this, the only politics about this is if you're up to the job. if you're the mayor of new orleans, and you don't seem to be up to the job after katrina, the voters respond. if you're the governor of florida, like jeb bush, and those before and after him, governor scott who seemed to be in charge of these things, doing the right thing, they're rewarded by the people of their state, because that's what they want a governor to do, to be in charge of something like this when the moment comes. >> jesse: do you think if ron desantis renamed florida ukraine joe biden would give him the federal aid faster? >> you know what, he did -- governor desantis made this point, that the federal government -- the -- the -- the state of florida sent its

initial request, they immediately responded and said yes. they made a request for what's called individual assistance. you heard the governor just reflect on it. the federal government responded and said yes. so far we haven't seen politics when it comes to the delivery of the aid. let's hope not, that the federal emergency officials that has to relate to the state keeps the politics out of it. that's what -- that's what in democratic and republican administrations alike they've done in the past. let's hope they continue to do it in the future. >> jesse: this came out of nowhere, the hurricane. the republicans were closing the gap, they got the momentum back, even though there was not democrat momentum, that was fake news in the media, but candidates are closing strong on the republican side. crime, immigration, inflation, stock market's tanking. this hurricane comes, how does this affect the landscape? interest we'll be talking about it for a few days. it's going to overshadow the

campaigns in, say, pennsylvania and nevada. it's going to effect, for good or for ill, i suspect for good, governor desantis in florida, governor kemp, and mcmaster. if you're a governor of a state that gets hit by hurricanes, you think about this and plan about this, and train for this a lot. i suspect we'll see all three of those governors rise to the challenge. >> jesse: what's the global warming game they're playing? >> you know, i thought that was interesting. there's the acting director of noaa, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration agency, who says to tom lemon, i'm not going to get into that. if don is right, they're intensifying, he has to explain why we've been talking about the fact there's been as many as 60, 70, ate, 90 years ago, even more powerful hurricanes that hit florida. look, he was right to get into this. you said you can't take global warming and relate it to a specific event. don lemon was so desperate to

say, this is global warming, and therefore we need to pass the build back better plan with green energy provisions, and aoc ought to be in carriage of this, and if we do that we'll never have a bad one again. that's not how the weather likes. >> jesse: and he says he used to live in florida, and he knows. that's basically science. you're a historian. the seminole indians hundreds of years ago, how were they at detect the hurricane speeds and rainfall? >> you know, you got to the edge of my historical, you know, information. i cannot respond to you on that. i have no idea. big wind, heavy water. >> jesse: we've only started measuring the voracity of hurricanes the last 70-80 years. we don't know that global warming has made them stronger. we only just started measuring

them. >> look, there is some evidence. the head of noaa was right, let's stay focused on the event at hand, and second of all, no relationship between global warming and specific events. >> jesse: i'm glad they didn't have a lot of solar panels in florida, because they would have been underwater, and never have been able to restore power. "tucker" is up next. i'm watters. this is my world. >> tucker: this is a fox news alert. search and rescue operations are underway at this hour throughout the state of florida. hurricane ian, as you know, struck the southwestern part of the state yesterday as a category 4 storm and caused catastrophic damage, roughly 3 million floridians no longer have power. many of them don't have communications. the entire communities were flattened. there's no official count as of right now, but it is clear this could be the deadliest storm in florida's history. let's go now to fox's steve harrigan in placida, florida, in