need a whole lot of ingenuity. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. it is 8:00 a.m. just about now on the nose, 5:00 a.m. out west and here's what's happening. the worst tropical storm of the season lashing the southeast coast and it could grow stronger and more dangerous for tens of millions. we're tracking tropical storm hermine's slow go up the east coast. halfway around the globe, president obama arrives in china and pledges america's support in a landmark battle plan against climate change. and on the campaign trail, donald trump again tries to appeal to african-americans. this time he's going to church. we begin with the severe weather across the south. tropical storm hermine is barreling up the east coast. it began as a hurricane when it slammed into the south. florida governor rick scott said

the damage from this hurricane may be difficult to face now, but florida is resilient. we have rebuilt before and we will rebuild again. let's go to msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider who's joining me on all of this. the big question, how bad is this going to get? >> it's going to get worse for a different part of the country. improvement for florida as the storm pulls away. right now we're getting really heavy rain along coastal virginia, delaware and maryland and just coming into cape may, new jersey, and we'll see that in atlanta city as well. the location is ten miles north-northwest of oregon inlet north so this is a strong tropical storm. just because it's not a hurricane, don't let your guard down. the movement is to the east-northeast at 21 miles per hour, which is pretty fast moving. but then everything changes. by the time we get to this afternoon, the storm pushes off coast, offshore and eventually by the time we get to monday or perhaps tuesday becomes a hurricane once more, once those

winds exceed 74 miles an hour. if you look at this day by day, we're talking about today through wednesday the storm is in the vicinity of much of the mid-atlantic and east coast so the proximity will make all the difference in terms of how much rain we get and wind we get. but regardless, because of the slow movement of this storm and because it will be cut off from the jetstream not going out to sea, it's going to pummel the coastline and that is going to bring coastal flooding all the way from the south shore of long island and possibly the north shore as well and then southward to the maryland coastline and virginia. so at the time of high tide, we'll look for that storm surge to build 2 to 4 feet all the way up to the north and eventually 2 to 4 feet as far north as the long island sound. keep in mind that the watch extends northward, a rain maker more for the carolinas. >> so in terms of your focal point, which states do you think are the most vulnerable right

now? >> at present i would say north carolina to valuirginia. the next few days we'll be watching coastline anywhere from maryland and certainly delaware and of course the jersey shore and the south shore of long island. my biggest concern is the storm is sitting here for a while and that coastal flooding and storm surge is really going to be dangerous. it's not another sandy, but it's definitely going to cause some damage. >> you mentioned virginia. we'll get a live report from virginia beach and see how things look in just a little while. thanks so much. let's go now to politics and the day's other big headline. three hours from now, donald trump will be in detroit to visit a black church. he is scheduled to sit down with the pastor for an interview which will air at a later date. it is also unclear when and how he will deliver remarks to the congregation today. his trip comes a day after meeting with african-american leaders in philadelphia where he touched on his immigration plans. here's what he told a reporter with our nbc affiliate, wcau. >> once the border is secure and we've stopped this horrible flow

of illegal immigration, once that's all done over a period of time, then we sit back, we see where is the country, what's happening and we make a determination for the people that are here that weren't criminals, that weren't -- i mean other than the fact that they came in illegally and we make that determination at a future date. hopefully it will be a very positive determination. >> meanwhile today there are tensions. sources telling the times that the rnc planned on making a celebratory statement about it but scrapped its plans after hearing that speech. rnc chair reince priebus denies reports of a worsening relationship. meanwhile the clinton campaign is facing new scrutiny over the candidate's private e-mail server. the fbi released part of its interview with her conducted back in july. they found no evidence

confirming that clinton's e-mail accounts or mobile devices were compromised but efforts to penetrate her e-mail did occur. we'll have more on the fbi's release a bit later in a live report. clinton and tim kaine are off the campaign trail today. gary johnson and his running mate, bill weld, will be holding a rally in des moines, iowa. as donald trump visits detroit, his running mate, mike pence, will be tailgating at the ohio state university. less than 48 hours before trump touched down in detroit, a wrinkle in the plan. "the new york times" revealed that the campaign revealed a script with wayne t. jackson. he's previously taken pride in speaking off the cuff. with a big welcome to you, you're the one behind this story and the fact is this information had to have been leaked. i'm not asking you your sources, how you got it or if there was an intermediary, but it does

suggest that someone in the campaign may be trying to sabotage trump. do you see it that way or does it at least agree with how he's doing things? >> as my story reported, there are a lot of frustrated republicans out there, a lot of people inside the campaign and outside of the campaign who are frustrated with the fact that they feel like donald trump is not making a genuine attempt to go after african-american voters, to appeal to hispanic voters. they feel like really this was going to be an infomercial, it was going to look bad for the campaign and look bad for the church. there are a couple of people, maybe even several people that are feeling this way. so it's both inside the camp and outside the camp. i won't reveal my sources, but people are really feeling like donald trump, even though he's speaking about african-americans, even though he's talking about his appeal, they're thinking, you know what, you're focused on white suburban voters. pundits say that on tv but inside the campaign they feel that way too. >> interestingly, as you report, they were trying to keep donald

trump very tightly scripted. why would they do that, and do you think he would have actually stayed on script? >> it's really hard to tell whether he would have stayed on script. it's possible they could have set up teleprompters. because the interview is going to be taped, we would not have known whether there were teleprompters and so it's hard to tell whether he would have stuck to the script. however, the script was done because people are really nervous about what he's going to say, especially around african-american voters. the questions were seemingly tough. they were asking him about how he's going to deal with racial tension, how he's going to deal with police killings, how he's going to deal with the fact some people think he's a racist. but he was told to avoid the word racism, avoid the word race. some of the things they were hoping he would say is make america great again, talk less about race. he also was supposed to say i want race not to be a factor in the governing of this country. so i think that people were just really nervous. i don't think he's going to

stick to the script anymore mainly because if they start off with the first question being why are you a christian, we know that was going to be the first question, if they ask him then, if the last question is how are you going to convince undecided black voters to vote for you, we know they're sticking to the script because that was also supposed to be part of the script so that's what i think is going to happen but up to last night at midnight when i was e-mailing the campaign, they couldn't tell me whether or not donald trump was going to speak. the church pastor has said he's not going to speak so there's still that discrepancy hours before he's supposed to step into this church. >> it's my understanding that pastor jackson, he says, even when celebrities come to this church, they're not given a pulpit, if you will, to just preach what they want to. maybe a welcome statement. is that at least what we can expect? >> we can expect, i think, if the bishop is to be believed and

i've interviewed bishop jackson every single day since i've gotten to detroit a week ago. he's been very consistent. he said trump can give a greeting, he can say hello but he is not going to speak before my congregation. the only person that said donald trump might speak before this church is the actual campaign. i've talked to the senior communications advisor, jason miller, and he told me unequivocally that donald trump was going to speak about 10 minutes and do a 30-minute meet and greet with the congregation. the bishop said that's not happening. so i think it's really unclear why the trump campaign would be saying he's going to speak before this church. the church says it's not going to happen. bishop jackson, i talked to him yesterday, he's a very genuine guy. he really wanted to do this interview, really wanted answers and he's really frustrated. he said he heard rumors that donald trump is going to speak at his church. i said, sir, the campaign have told me on the record that he's going to speak and he said that's just not true. >> interestingly, the timing of this, it follows the big change

in plans from "the wall street journal" that trump adjusted his big immigration speech after the tweet that came from mexico's president. so what do you make of the fact that he is apparently so sensitive or reactive to public opinion? >> it shows that the campaign really understands that the perceptions of donald trump i think as a racist, as someone who's bigoted, as someone who is too harsh on immigration, that they're sinking in with the larger population and people don't want to get behind that. he was able to beat out 16 republicans in the primaries and that helped him when he wasn't really talking about african-americans, but in a general election, the republican party understands that you have to have broad appeal. because of that, we're seeing these adjustments where they're trying their best to steer donald trump in ways that will be more palpable to the general population. >> may i ask you also since you're there near that church, talk about security. what do we expect today? is there going to be extra

security than what they would normally have on a normal saturday morning for a service? >> there is going to be extra security. i went to bible study on tuesday and the bishop said there there was going to be state police, local police, that they were going to have a strong police presence because the bishop told me really he promised the campaign donald trump was going to come to a safe, peaceful environment. they picked this church because they didn't want him to be ambushed, they didn't want him to have to face any issues, so they are trying hard to make this go very smoothly. of course donald trump will be here with his secret service detail. i'm going to go meet the campaign off-site because they really are very -- they want to be very particular about who they're letting into donald trump's bubble so i have to go and be swept by the secret service. so they're really taking security very seriously. >> i'm imagining all these cars behind you, are they coming in for this 11:00 a.m. service or is there a previous service there, which i think securitywise would be a nightmare? >> from my understanding there was not a previous service. the bishop at bible study on

tuesday told his church members this is going to be an open to the public event. if you want your seat, you need to get here very early. he suggested they get here at 10:00 a.m. but i was able to get here at 7:45 and people were already lined up. the parking lot is pretty full so these are not cars coming from a previous service, these are either reporters or members of the public who want to see donald trump or church members hoping to get their regular seats. >> okay, thanks so much from detroit for us. let's go now to breaking news out of china. president obama says the u.s. and china have made a deal to both sign on to the paris climate change agreement. he made the announcement in china ahead of the g-20 summit. >> together, the u.s. and china represent about 40% of global emissions, so today we are moving the world significantly closer to the goal that we have set. that means full implementation of this agreement will help delay or avoid some of the worst consequences of climate change and pave the way for more progress in coming years.

>> nbc's ron allen is joining me now live from china. i want to let all of our viewers know we have a slight delay here. ron, with a good day to you, this is the president's last trip to asia during his presidency. how important is this deal to the administration? >> well, president obama has invested a lot in this whole issue of climate change. remember, some of his critics in the united states and elsewhere around the world don't believe that this phenomenon of global warming even exists, so he has pushed hard. he has tried to forge the paris agreement with the help of china over the past couple of years. it's noteworthy that china also signed on to this today. the president formally joining this agreement. that means that the two largest emitters of carbon in the world, the two biggest economies in the world are now a part of this agreement. now, the paris accords are not a legally binding document, they're not an enforceable

document. they essentially set out a framework as goals that various nations will try to meet to try to lower carbon emissions. it's incumbent upon those nations to enact policies and programs in their particular countries that will do that. for example, the obama administration has tried to create new regulations through the epa on power plants, certain power plants in the united states. there's been a lot of opposition, cases gone all the way to the supreme court, so that gives you some idea of the headwinds that are being faced in the united states and perhaps elsewhere. but it's very significant, there have been attempts over the past couple of decades i daresay to try to forge some kind of agreement amongst the nations of the world about what to do about climate change. they failed. this has happened. it's happened in paris at the end of last year. there still needs to be several dozen more nations to sign on to make this fully implemented. but this was a huge step forward for president obama and a very important part of his legacy. >> absolutely.

all right, nbc's ron allen. thank you for the live report from china. breaking news out of virginia. state of emergency. the biggest concern in virginia right now from tropical storm hermine. we bring you a live shot from virginia beach. a dvt blood clot.al after what about my wife... ...what we're building together... ...and could this happen again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? i spoke to my doctor and she told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. but eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. knowing eliquis had both... ...turned around my thinking. don't stop eliquis unless you doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling,

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a very strong and dangerous tropical storm is now rolling up the east coast putting millions in line of some dangerous floods. it is promising to last for days. hermine has already hit parts of florida knocking out power for 300,000 people. nbc's kerry sanders is right in the thick of things for us in virginia beach. kerry, with a good morning to you, try to describe how bad it is out there, but we can see it's not good. >> reporter: yeah, visually you can take in the idea of how strong the winds are at about 45

or maybe even a little stronger now. if you take a look at that pole right there, that's a metal pole that's just bouncing around, so i'm going to try at certain points, like i can walk normal and other points there's gusts. the real concern, of course, is that this is not going to go away. as we saw in florida, this sort of wind can actually bring down a tree. one tree limb came down on top of somebody and actually killed them. so the authorities are really encouraging people here to take this seriously so that they understand how strong this storm will be. about 30,000 people have lost power in the area. the state here in virginia has already opened up some emergency operations centers for people to fall back to if they feel unsafe in their homes. one of the concerns is in a couple of hours here we're going to have a high tide around 11:00. that high tide will cause -- there's somebody running with the wind. that's a lot easier than walking against it. they're going to have that high

tide, and the high tide is going to bring some coastal flooding. the meteorologists suggest that the high tide may actually be much the way it was during hurricane sandy down here in virginia, so they know there's going to be some flooding and people need to be prepared for it. the bottom line is, as we saw that person running out there today, the authorities really say just limit your time outside and really they prefer folks not to get in cars. i mean it's not easy to drive in these sort of winds, they can blow you into somebody and then you have accidents and then when you have an accident, you've got to get folks like the fire department and the ambulance and the emergency rescue, ems and police out there. it's really something that can be avoided to begin with. for those who are going to have a labor day weekend on the beach here in virginia beach, the bottom line is it's going to be ruined today. depending on the speed of the storm, and we'll get that from the meteorologists, but they might be able to salvage at the end of a long weekend here, at least in virginia beach.

>> you said 45-mile-an-hour winds right now and that's what that looks like? >> reporter: alex? >> well, that speaks volumes right there because kerry is having trouble hearing me. thank you very much, kerry, we'll let you go and seek shelter. let's get back to politics. donald trump is headed to detroit this morning in an attempt to court african-american voters. steven cortez is a trump campaign surrogate and also a member of his national hispanic advisory council. steven joins me on the phone w a welcome back to the broadcast, we're going to get right into this. for the most part trump's outreach to african-american voters has come before mostly white audiences, most recently he was in iowa for that. a new poll is showing that your candidate is getting just 2% of the african-american vote in a four-way contest. what does he hope to gain from this trip? what's the point? >> you know, alex, i've long thought that it's really a shame that the party of lincoln earns such a low percentage of african-american vote and a low percentage of vote from people

of color in general. so i commend him that he's making this effort. i think it's incredibly important, this outreach, even if it doesn't prove fruitful and it hasn't yet in the polls. my guess is we're going to start ticking up, both among african-americans and hispanics. even if it doesn't work in terms of votes, it's important to do because we have to show the republican party can't be content to be safe in rural areas and in white suburban country clubs. we need to be in the inner city, we need to be in the barrio. i love that he's bringing our pro-growth message to people of color everywhere. >> we're giving folks a live shot of the church where the candidate will be speaking in about two and a half hours. steven, look at the calendar, 66 days left before the election. how much support can donald trump realistically hope to build within the african-american community? a lot of minds are made up. >> listen, i'm realistic about it, it's an uphill battle. after decades of heavy democratic voting, will this turn around immediately? i'm not so sure, but i would

hope it does. even if they don't come out in high numbers or better numbers and vote for donald trump, if he becomes president trump, which i hope and believe he will, i think it's important that he's built up good will and he's trying to persuade african-americans that he cares about their plight. people of color, hispanics and blacks, have not done very well in this economic recovery. they're badly lagging white america when it comes to prosperity and for many of us also badly lagging when it comes to personal safety. crime after decades of declining is starting to uptick materially. too many live in neighborhoods that are dangerous, send their kids to schools that are failing and economically are not participating in the american dream. for decades they duty fully given their votes for the democratic party which i believe takes these communities for granted, so we're trying to give a hopeful message that we have solutions to the hurdles and problems that face your communities. please give us your votes and give us a try. give our solutions of free

market and capitalism and law and order a try to make your lives better, safer and more prosperous. >> what about "the new york times" story that happened on thursday describing today's appearance as a highly scripted event. after the story appeared, the campaign made some changes to trump's trip. there is going to be a walk-through in the neighborhood and he may speak to the congregation, although there's debate on that. "the times" reporting says that it was based on a leak from someone who was involved in the planning. number one, do we know if mr. trump will speak to the congregation? >> i do not know that. i'm aware and taken a rare couple of days off so i'm not sure about that. >> well, then thanks for spending a few minutes with us. how big of an issue is it that these details leaked. do you think it indicates there is dissatisfaction someplace in the campaign with the initial plan to limit mr. trump's appearance in detroit? >> certainly it's possible. when you have hundreds of people

involved, there's going to be a disaffected person for whatever reason, sure. but to the meat of this, "the new york times" story and this i do know about, this "new york times" story was typical of "the new york times." this was a hit piece. this pastor who's doing the interview, his regular m.o. is to furnish the questions, to have scripted questions presented to the interviewee ahead of time. some interviewers prefer that. and so trump, this is no break in their regular standard procedure and trump is following that. so i think it's disingenuous of them to attack trump for being too scripted when hillary clinton has yet to give a press conference in this year. so she is the most scripted presidential candidate i have ever seen and donald trump in contrast is available almost constantly to highly adversarial press at many times. so to accuse him of being overscripted and to ignore hillary, to me that's disingenuous. >> all right, steven cortez, thank you for your time,

particularly on your vacation day, appreciate it. details about the fbi's assessment of hillary clinton's e-mail serve er and the one abbreviation she didn't understand on the system. plus a live look from tropical storm hermine at virginia boech. i'll talk with the director of the national hurricane center in just a few minutes. you're not taking these. hey, hey, hey! you're not taking those. woah, woah! you're not taking that. come with me. you're not taking that. you're not taking that. you're not takinthat. mom, i'm taking the subaru. don't be late. even when we're not there to keep them safe, our subaru outback will be. (vo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. en you're livingke off. with diabetes. steady is exciting. oh this is living baby! only glucerna has carbsteady, to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and try new glucerna hunger smart to help you feel full.

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my eyelove is finding a ♪"all yodifferent angle.ays my eyelove is season 1, episode 1. my eyelove is making a story come alive. eyelove is all the things we love to do with our eyes. but it's also having a chat with your eye doctor about dry eyes that interrupt the things you love. because if your eyes feel dry, itchy, gritty, or you have occasional blurry vision, it could be chronic dry eye. go to myeyelove.com and feel the love. within, everyone, i'm alex witt here. 32 past the hour and here's what we're monitoring for you. tropical storm hermine is unleashing heavy rain and 50-mile-an-hour winds from the carolinas to virginia. in some parts more than 3 inches of rain could fall in an hour if and when that storm stalls.

a storm surge of six feet has caused considerable damage in cedar key, florida. that city is on the gulf coast about 150 miles south of where hermine made landfall yesterday. i want to bring in richard knabb, the director of the national hurricane center, on this very busy saturday morning. first up, where on the east coast do you expect this storm to hit the hardest and how hard will it be? >> because we expect it to meander for several days before it slows downs are the center of circulation might not be the center of action and we could have a large area of the mid-atlantic and northeast coastline that experiences a pretty angry ocean with high waves and rip returns. and there is the potential, the possibility in some hot spots, vulnerable areas, for li life-threatening storm surge and we'll try to refine that. we've got tropical storm watches and warnings for this area.

if the system is close enough to you, we could rack up some rainfall totals so a dangerous weekend ahead. the system is not going anywhere for a few days. >> richard, i know this is the first hurricane to hit florida in a decade. with your calculations and your projections, is this the beginning of a trend? >> no. every storm is unique and has its own set of circumstances. all this tells us is that florida is vulnerable to hurricanes like we've always known it to be. we've had a fortunate decade plus without a land falling hurricane in this state but that ended this week. we're only halfway through this hurricane season so we have to keep our eye on the ball with hermine the next several days but remind ourselves we have september, october, november to get through and we're monitoring all the tropics for the rest of the season very carefully. all eyes on hermine this week. >> are you surprised by the strength of hermine and is your greatest concern flooding?

>> well, we're not surprised by the strength of hermine. we forecast the development from tropical depression to hurricane and had the hurricane watch up well before it came ashore in florida so that was anticipated. we are forecasting restrengthening as it gets back over water, even though it might not be as fully tropical as it was in the gulf of mexico. but don't worry about that technicality. we're going to have a large and vigorous storm system that is going to have multiple hazards produced at the shoreline and some points inland, even if the center doesn't come ashore. >> and that is your flooding, that is your gravest concern, richard? >> water has been the deadliest hazard overall for the last several decades with tropical systems affecting the u.s. so it's not just about the wind. definitely a bad weekend to be at the beach and on boats. >> unfortunately given this holiday, richard, i know it's a busy time for you. let's go back to politics. after months of speculation the fbi has just released notes from

its july interview with hillary clinton about her e-mail practices while she was secretary of state. the clinton campaign says it is pleased with the release adding, quote, these materials make clear why the justice department believed there was no basis to move forward with this case. let's go now to case e kasie hu. good morning, kasie. what is the fallout from these notes. >> no bombshell in these notes. the clinton campaign wanted these released to the public because they were worried about selective leaks from republicans. but we did learn how hillary clinton explained herself a little bit and republicans are seizing on some of that information. she says that she didn't necessarily know that the "c" that was in some of these e-mails meant that they were marked classified. she said that some of the back and forth over drone strikes, those were some of the more concerning e-mails for republicans and those who are looking into this, she felt that that was -- could easily be

routine and part of her private e-mail server. of course donald trump seizing on this immediately. take a look at what he had to say yesterday. >> why is it notes? why don't they have tape recordings of this meeting? they're taking notes of the meeting. the notes are horrible, by the way, for her. they're horrible. but why wasn't she put on tape? who ever heard of a thing where she wasn't put on tape? when they break into a mob den, it's tapes, right? they use tapes for everything else but they didn't use tapes to interview hillary clinton? why isn't she on tape? >> this an issue that we're expected to see more of as this fall election season unfolds. more e-mails and schedules of hillary clinton's time at the state department set to be released as well before the election. alex. >> kasie hunt from washington, thank you very much. well, donald trump heads to detroit this morning in an attempt to reach out to african-americans in the nation's urban centers. trump will visit a predominantly black church during his visit and may also go on a walking

tour with his supporter, ben carson, a detroit native. trymaine lee is in detroit with us. so what are you hearing from detroit residents about mr. trump's visit? how are they taking this? >> reporter: good morning, alex. i tell you what, in so many ways the voters here in detroit simply aren't buying what donald trump is trying to sell them. in particular, black voters. they have watched him go from city to city, from audience to audience, mostly white audience, talking about some of the ills in the community, in this strange appeal saying your schools are no good, your neighborhoods are no good, you're getting shot, what do you have to lose. i've been talking to voters and they say they have a lot to lose. let's take a listen. >> he wants to appeal to our sense of i don't know maybe instability or insecurity in the same way that he's appealing to the fears of others and hopes that this will, i don't know, get him elected? i don't know. >> do you think that he's appealing to those insecurities or appealing to a base that

might -- he might somehow be reinforcing a notion people have about our communities? >> i think he's trying to play on our insecurities. you're basically telling us we're hopeless without you but we've always been hearing that. we need some white savior to save us. >> if you try to engage us, have a rally where black folks can come in, raise our hands and say what we want to say like anybody else. >> is there anything about donald trump's message that resonates with you? >> he's just entertainment. nothing he has holds any value to it for me. >> reporter: in so many ways voters feel that donald trump's outreach efforts, these latest efforts are disingenuous. behind me at great faith ministries there are already 100 or so people lined up. adding to the drama surrounding this visit, will he address the crowd or won't he? there has been contradictory information from the campaign, which said donald trump will actually address the folks here at great faith ministries while apparently the pastor and others

have told "the new york times" that in fact donald trump will not be speaking. so again as people are waiting to hear what donald trump has to say, will he actually finally talk to black voters, just not about them, there's still so much in the air. again, people here in detroit so far aren't really buying what the great businessman is selling. >> well, you've got about two and a half hours until you're in there and figuring out the answers to those questions. we'll talk with you again, thank you. a group of american military veterans writes to colin kaepernick after his protest. what's in that letter might surprise you. coming up next hour, the block of voters who could have a decisive impact on the presidential election but are mostly ignored. ayman mohyeldin will break that down when he continues our coverage at the top of the hour. ♪ [cheering]

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[cellphone vibrating] do you want to answer that? nah, i'd never with a kid in the car. it's ok. i'm not here. [phone vibrating multiple times] i'm there. after slamming florida, georgia and the carolinas, tropical storm hermine is now churning towards the east coast with heavy rain and high winds threatening to bring some dangerous floods, and it's

promising to be long lasting. nbc's tammy lightner is in seaside heights in new jersey along the shore for us. tammy, certainly windy, big stormy waters. >> reporter: good morning, alex. yeah, just in the last few hours, the winds have really kicked up here and the ocean, take a look at those waves. it is really churning out there. one of the biggest concerns out here are rip tides yesterday and today. i'm here with the mayor of seaside heights. as you remember, they were hit very hard in 2012. what are you doing to prepare this time around? >> since 2012 our emergency management has organized a system of what to do in the event of storms, hurricanes and so forth. since wednesday in preparation, we've put up sand berms on the north end of the beach. on this end of the beach we've poured some sand under the boardwalk. our trucks are fueled and operable. we own our own electric, our

lines are in good shape, our generators are in good shape. we own our own water company. our treatment plant is in good shape. >> reporter: so a lot of preparation has gone into this just in case the storm gets bad. >> yes. >> reporter: thank you very much. we're hoping that it doesn't get too bad. attic, you heard that here in seaside heights, they are preparing for the worst but hoping that it doesn't get to that point. back to you. >> tammy, as we wish the mayor good luck getting through this, as you look at the beach, it's a saturday of labor day weekend. how many people are out there? probably very few, yeah? >> reporter: nobody. there's about a dozen people on the beach right now and there are people out to look at the waves. yesterday a different story. the sun was shining, miles and miles of beautiful sand and there were people out here, but everybody was being advised not to go swimming because of the rip tides. but again, this morning, very quiet out here. >> what a difference a day makes. tammy, thank you so much. a new twist in the story of colin kaepernick boycotting the national anthem. the santa clara, california,

police union says its officers may stop working 49ers home games. about 70 officers volunteer to work them during the season. for the second game in a row, kaepernick chose not to stand during the national anthem. the quarterback has been criticized by fans and on social media saying he is dishonoring the u.s. flag but a group of veterans is writing an open letter in favor of his right to silent protest. i'm joined now by one of the authors of that letter, which was just posted on medium.com, u.s. army veteran richard alan smith. sir, welcome and thank you for taking the time to talk to me. first of all, your reaction to police perhaps boycotting these games? >> i would hope that police would be more concerned about their brothers and sisters out in the streets, the way that they are treating african-americans and america more so rather than whether or not one individual at a football game is standing or sitting. >> let's get right to the point behind this letter. what made you decide to write

it? >> after colin kaepernick started with his protest, there were a lot of folks on social media, on youtube and whatnot, burning jerseys and doing all sorts of other things to condemn his action. lots of them invoking the troops and military service and saying how it's disrespectful. we wanted to put something out there to counter that, to say not only do we support colin kaepernick's right, that that's a right that we fought for or pledged to defend with our lives, if necessary, but there is a serious issue with systematic racism in america and we need to address that and it's a good thing that colin kaepernick brought attention to it. >> at this point, though, big picture or little picture? is this really addressing the black lives matter movement, for example, or kaepernick himself? >> i think it's both. i support colin kaepernick and his right, but a lot of the conversation has been about whether colin kaepernick should stand up or sit down or what

have you. sort of missing the forest for the trees and saying listen to what colin kaepernick is saying, black lives matter, right? that's something that unfortunately as much as we've heard it in the past several years, we aren't hearing it enough and aren't seeing that sentiment reflected, especially in law enforcement in a lot of places. >> beyond what he has said as the reasoning to why he is sitting during the national anthem, you may be aware during training camp kaepernick has worn socks of ridiculing police officers. do you think ridiculing police sepds the right message? >> i think it's focusing on the wrong thing to focus on a pair of socks rather than talking about tamir rice, a 12-year-old child murdered by police and between the camera and the official police report that the cops lied about that. we're not talking right now about sandra bland, who's dead today because of falsified logs and illegal traffic stop. we're not talking about philando

castile who was shot. we're not talking about eric garner who was strangled on the streets of new york for selling loose cigarettes. we could go on. i'm sure you don't have time in the segments but i would like to devote a lot more time to that than talking about one person's socks. >> we have devoted a significant amount of time on this network to each of those individuals and the issue. that said, what he is doing with the socks, there is a statement, this is a guy who's all about statement right now. so you think he's got a motive behind wearing those socks, don't you? >> i certainly do, and i don't think the motive is look at my socks. it's let's talk about all of the people in america who are being systematically oppressed. >> what about more players getting involved now, do you think that's going to make a difference? >> i hope so. it's certainly bringing attention to the issue. we say in our letter that we may not all choose to protest in the same way as colin kaepernick, as much as we respect and honor the action that he's taken. so if more football players or

any other athletes want to participate in the same way as colin kaepernick, i absolutely support that. by the way, i'm speaking for myself here today. i'm speaking on behalf of myself here. i would just ask that everyone take a look at what's happening to african-americans and people of color in this country and find your own way to challenge that. if that's in some way related to our national symbolism, national traditions and you feel that's the best way for you to advocate, then do that. if there's another way to do that, do what you feel comfortable with, let's just not turn a blind eye to what's happening in america to people of color. >> richard allen smith behind that letter, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. in moments back to tropical storm hermine, the one big concern at this hour. hit 300,0. or here, when you walked away without a scratch. maybe it was the day your baby came home. or maybe the day you realized your baby

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donald trump's visit for a black church in detroit. you're going to see a live picture ahead of his arrival. we'll bring that up for you in

just a moment. joining me right now, john harwood, chief washington correspondent for cnbc and political writer for the "the new york times." also caitlin huey burns from real clear politics. john, with a good day to you, i'll start with you. is that standard practice in a campaign, giving talking points to the candidate in this manner, and do these strike you as especially different? >> candidates get talking points, but they usually put things in their own words. what was striking about what we learned about the talking points for donald trump was the statement of religious faith that he was supposed to give or that was given to him to give that didn't sound very much like donald trump. now, having said that, donald trump hasn't spoken yet, so all we have is things typed out on a piece of paper and donald trump will decide what comes out of his own mouth and then we can evaluate it. >> okay. katelyn, if you're good to go,

we're hearing it's kind of unclear whether trump's tour of detroit with dr. ben carson is going to happen, but how much do you think this outreach with dr. carson by trump will buy african-american votes? >> i really don't think it will at this point. the strategy behind donald trump's outreach to african-american voters is really to make himself more palatable to republican voters at this point. he's still working on shoring up his base of support among republicans and trying to portray his candidacy as one that represents a broader republican party. he's been criticized a lot for making kind of an outreach in name only. he has been talking about african-americans to largely white audiences and has been criticized for not actually making the effort to go to these communities having these conversations. so he's starting this now. of course we're 60 some odd days out from the election and there's a big question, of course, about whether this is

too little too late. so we'll see what the reaction is. but there has been a lot of pushback against the campaign for these kinds of efforts. it's not clear that they will really make a difference. >> how about, john, "the new york times" reporting on the tensions deepening between trump and the rnc. what are you hearing about this and your reaction? >> that story is very bad news for trump. let's just set the situation. he's behind. he's behind by a significant amount. not as much as he was a couple of weeks ago, but he's still behind. he has to have everything go right between now and election day to win this thing. and so if he is fighting or squabbling or has strained relations with the people whose money and expertise he's counting on to turn out his vote, that is not a good sign for his ticket. >> okay. caitlin, very quickly, i want to turn to the fbi release of the notes with hillary clinton back in july. does the timing help clinton? we've still got two full months. >> right. the timing right before labor

day when people are taking a break perhaps, people tend to tune in again to the campaign after labor day, we'll see how this figures. but what this does, again, there are no big bombshells in this report, but it does add color to the description that comey gave us a couple of months ago in deciding not to bring charges but making the assessment that dlin clinton had mishandled classified information. when you're looking at how this is digested by the voters, i think it's important to look at her favorability ratings have been dropping since the end of the convention. it's not clear to me yet whether these perceptions of clinton are already baked into the polling or whether this kind of confirms people's opinions of her. and again, we'll see how this is received over the next couple of weeks in polling as people begin to take -- pay more attention and whether donald trump can seize on this issue. but it's -- the timing is not

great for her, of course. >> in terms of timing, guys, i've got to go. >> alex, can i ask you a quick question. i have tickets to see springsteen tonight in virginia beach. they haven't cancelled the concert but i would have to drive into the storm to go. do i go? >> it's springsteen, man, what do i tell you? carefully, how's that? be very careful. we're looking at virginia beach right now. honestly, john, it's not safe to drive in weather like this, but that's a toss-up, man, it's springsteen. good luck making that decision and be safe, whatever you do. >> thanks, alex. >> thanks to you both. coming your way at the top of the hour, breaking news on the state of emergency in the mid-atlantic from tropical storm hermine and look at the damage and flood threat happening right now. stuffy nose? can't sleep? enough. take that. a breathe right nasal strip of course. imagine just put one on and pow! it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than allergy medicine alone. so you can breathe,

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