strong hurricanes didn't touch the united states. the united states has only gotten category 1s and tropical storms. >> guys, thanks very much for all you've done. and we appreciate it. simon and justin. that's it for this hour, two hours of "velshi and ruhle." we should do more tv together. >> it's pretty good. >> i'm stephanie rhule. >> "andrea mitchell reports" is up now. >> right now, irma's impact. more than 6 million in florida without power and flash flood warnings are in place and the worst could still come to jacksonville where they're experiencing record flooding. as the storm heads north to georgia, many are getting a first look at the damage. >> the angle of approach can make all the difference and a storm that's more parallel -- oh. >> this is the rain that's hitting me. wow. >> the beach got hit pretty hard. >> there's still a flooding risk today. first of all, they expect to see

more rain but irma will start to send some winds from the west. >> we have a baby dolphin here that has washed ashore. there we go. come on, guy. we think you can make it. come on. hang on. a little more water. here we go. okay. swim. >> and steve bannon speaking out for the first time confirming that he views the comey firing as the biggest mistake in political history. >> that would probably be too bombastic even for me but maybe modern political history. >> and the nation remembers. >> 16 years after 9/11 the trump administration now marking the solemn anniversary for the very first time. >> we americans are not made of cotton candy, we are not seaweed

drifting in the current. we are not intimidated by our enemies. >> today as we stand on this hallowed ground, we are reminded of the timeless truth that when america is united, no force on earth can break us apart. >> and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in new york. continuing our coverage of irma still causing major concerns. right now, hurricane force winds as the storm moves into georgia. there are still storm surge and flash flood warnings in heavily populated areas of florida especially tampa bay and jacksonville. and power outages, are still a problem for millions of people as emergency teams begin to assess the damage along both coasts and the florida keys. >> you can kind of get a view what we're looking at here. water damage, certainly wind damage here.

homes oh glitbly the rated. looks like tornado alley in some place whereas they've been shredded to pieces. a mix of what we've been seeing over the last several blocks. high water damage flooded out neighborhoods and homes that have been torn apart by irma's powerful 130 plus-mile-an-hour winds. >> and we start with weather contributor sam champion joining me from miami. sam, i've been watching you all weekend. good to sue you with bright sunshine behind you but you have really been through the storm. what is the latest as people try to i guess leave the shelters? >> yeah, and trying to get out of shelters and get back into their homes. so really today, andrea, is day one of recovery for miami and miami beach and all of florida as that storm made the move all the way up the peninsula of florida. let's set the story for miami beach a little bit. we've surveyed this morning all day long on damage. what we've seen is a lot of tree damage. most of the water that we saw that hit areas in downtown miami

and here at the beach is gone. i can show you debris lines and i'll show you boats tossed, as well in our location and some problems going on in that. what most people are waiting for and the people who waited out at theables on the beach are waiting for water and power. as you mentioned at the top of the show, 6 million without power. fpl has the biggest army of people that the u.s. has ever seen. 30,000 people ready to tackle the power problem. they have no idea when to tell people that the power might be back on in many communities because they don't know the extent of the problem yet. we've seen a lot of police officers block off the beach. you cannot come to the beach till maybe tuesday at noon. mayor philip levine says they hope to have it earlier but they want to clear the trees down. we've seen a lot of trees blocking roads into miami. we had power lines down. hopefully they've gotten those taken care of. they don't want to the give

people the all clear to get back in yet. an important thing for people thinking about leaving hotels and coming to booim beach is that most buildings do not have a combination or both of power and water. most of the power is off. almost all the water is off. we talked to a couple of people who said we have water in our building. most people do not. this is watson island marna. it's on an island between miami and miami beach which is a barrier island. this is where a lot of people moore their sailboats and working boats. they tie them to mooring lines. that right there, the area of houses you see behind me is called venetian islands, a little group of islands that extends in a chain and bridge from miami to booim beach. this is a fairly protected marina. it took a big hit of wind and water. a lot of these boats look fine. you'll see the boats that aren't fine. some of them are side ways. some you just see the mast or the top.

there's more than a dozen boats sprayed up here along the shoreline. and if, if you can just pan a little bit further over that way, that catamaran, you'll see the debris line. the line shows you how far the water went. it was a strong surge of water that went in some cases 15, 20 feet up. of course, these cars are here from today. that catamaran was not there earlier. andrea? >> so you can see there was a surge there in miami at that the mr.a. thank you so much for all you've been doing. jacob soboroff is in everglade city on west coast just below names. they took a real hit. >> andrea, it's incredible devastation to see down here. a town normally about 500 people. most of them evacuated ahead of irma coming in. and many of them are trying to return today. but the road into town is only passable by high profile vehicles. you've got the collier county

sheriff's department at the intersection of highway 29 and tamiami trail. they're not letting all of the residents through. there's also other islands beyond everglade city that residents are trying to get to. bridges are washed out. i just rode along with the sheriff's department through town. some people are trying to pass through town on air boats, believe it or not. the sheriff tells me they don't know the of casualties, thank goodness, as of right now. that's what they're out there to survey at the moment driving around looking for anyone who may have stayed through the storm and might be injured. i talked to a family on their porch who had a water line at the bottom of their home about 12 feet. they said the water came up almost all the way to the front door. their roof was torn off by the storm. we experienced the storm last

night in naples. by the looks of it, what the folks in everglade city went through or returning to is truly first of all, devastating and second heart breaking. > and it was the late turn, relatively late turn of the storm to the west that caught a lot of people unprepared. they swiftly had to revamp. but it wasn't as much time as the rest of florida had given the changing trajectory. >> that's exactly right. many of these people say they went through wilma. and that this was far worse than wilma. they had a little bit of warning with wilma. some of them came out during the eye of that storm. they said this one is a much more severe storm and blow to this community in southwest florida. >> thanks so much, jacob. nbc's morgan radford in jacksonville where there's been considerable flooding. morgan? >> reporter: andrea, you can see we're in downtown jacksonville. this entire area behind me has

been flooded. to give you a sense of the severity of the situation, high tide is expected at 2:00 p.m. so this is about to get even worse. authorities said at 9 app during a press conference, they're expect to see the water rise another four to six feet. they said this is going to break historic records since 1863. as we were driving this morning from gainesville, florida, down here to jacksonville, woo he passed several people whose homes were completely flooded in their front yards, some lucky enough not to have water enter their homes but ruined their cars and all their property. we saw anne passing on the side of the road. ung already feel the hurricane force winds. we stopped and asked her how we could help. take a listen to what she said. >> when you mentioned having to create the safe zone and put your mattresses up, i saw you get emotional. what was going through your mind? >> i've been through things like this before and you know, it's

you know, it's okay. you're going to survive and you'll swim out or whatever or something comes down. but when you're responsible for your children, it's kind of different. so i'm so sorry. >> andrea, it's really the aftermath that caught people by surprise. even that woman said look, the actual hurricane itself even though it frightened me it wasn't quite as severe as i expected to be. it's this aftermath, look just behind me, these are the downtown iconic buildings in jacksonville, florida. you can see the suntrust building, the omni hotel behind me. sft spreets are largely impassable. we had to take several routes to get here. we have 21 shelters set up in the surrounding counties one of them in gainesville already filled with students and staff members. those students were told they could bring their parents to safety. and that's what people are recovering from now today and

they're now try to make their way through the aftermath in the middle of the floods and winds, andrea. >> morgan, you have been following this hurricane, i saw you in puerto rico last week. and you're as familiar as any of our correspondents with the caribbean and the hit taken there sustained. i've been with you in cuba. i wanted to share with viewers some incredible footage taken by our colleague roberto leon in havana. the devastation in cuba and it's largely because the storm sat over cuba for a full day. and really because it was overlandfall began to slow down, lose momentum. so florida was spared in some measure because of the tragedy of our friends and colleagues and neighbors to the south in cuba. >> part of the difficulty is -- part of the difficulty, andrea there in cuba is that we are learning at least ten people have died there. but the problem there is the infrastructure. you and you were both in cuba

together when we were interviewing elian gonzales. i used to live in cuba, friends and family there, as well. the infrastructure is part of the problem. people aren't sure that even when a storm like this batters a place in the eastern portion of the island, they're not sure whether he they can get back up and running. not only is power out. we have rolling power out ands in cuba naturally without a category 5 hurricane bearing down on us. it's part of that infrastructure issue creating an additional challenge for people trying to recuperate, find loved ones and make sure everyone's safe also to puerto rico and moving up to jacksonville. this really walloped us as we were chasing the storm and not only as that category 5 weakened to now a tropical storm, it's the outer bands and the aftermath is affecting people from the caribbean up here to the states. >> morgan, thank you so much.

a final note. there are territorial connections. french, british, dutch helping their islands. we helping the american virgin islands and puerto rico, our territory where the american citizens, no one is coming ot aid of either haiti or cuba to my knowledge so far. former florida governor charlie crist joins me by phone. he's now a congressman representing the state's 13th congressional district including st. petersburg. congressman, tell me what the situation is there with your constituents. >> thank you, i appreciate the opportunity to be with you. yeah, here in st. petersburg, it's not bad. we've still got wind and gusts. and an occasional shower still coming through like almost mini bands, if you will, spun off in the very outskirts of the hurricane. and we've got limbs down. a few trees are down. we never did have the flooding. in fact, as you all have been reporting, we have a lot of tampa bay kind of washed out

into the gulf of mexico because of the side of the storm that was blowing water out instead of blowing it in. we were fortunate for that. and in the way, it was a blessing to our part of the state. and i was hearing you talking earlier about cuba and the fact that you know, the storm was there for a full day. really did seem to take a lot of the energy out of irma and that really helped our fellow floridians although it looked like southwest florida took it pretty hard down in the naples area, amok lee and some of the small communities but here in st. petersburg, the sun is in and out already and just a lot of limbs down and thank god, not too much overall damage really. >> thank you so much, charlie crist. congressman and former governor. joining me by phone is congresswoman debbie wasserman-schultz representing the 23rd district along the atlantic coast could.

tell me about your district, your constituents there just outside of miami. and i think we may have a problem there because i'm not hearing the congresswoman. >> i'm sorry. i'm here. sorry about that. >> thank you. thanks for being with us. >> i'm glad to hear they fared pretty well in st. petersburg. here in broward while we didn't get the direct hit we were anticipating, the preliminary reports from my district, i represent are broward and miami-dade countys we've had major flooding particularly in low lying areas on the ocean. my district goes from the ocean to the everglades. we have downed power lines. roof damage. numerous trees down that are blocking roads. 640,000 people without power. many traffic and street lights not functional. we have boiled water orders in

numerous cities across the county. and our a1a ta the main strip h sand covering it. it was pretty significant damage here. >> congresswoman, thank you so much. at least relief that the worst is over. and we will continue, of course, to monitor the latest from the tropical storm irma as it continued up the coast. the country is pausing to remember 9/11, the attacks 16 years ago. former homeland security secretary jeh johnson joining me next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. but he's got so he took aleve this morning. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill.

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♪ >> president trump at the pentagon today honoring 9/11 victims at the white house this morning. the first remembrance of this anniversary for the trump administration. today we pay tribute to thousands of american who's lost their lives. we honor the men and women who have worked tirelessly to keep our country safe ever since that fateful day and, of course, the first responders. jeh johnson served as homeland

security secretary in the obama administration and joins me now. welcome. i know you were down at the remembrance downtown this morning. >> i was. nice to be back on your show, andrea. >> thank you. let's talk about 9/11, lessons learned and paying tribute to those who lost their lives. >> yes, happy to do so. first, as you know, fema response responds to natural disasters. used to be part of my responsibility. so i do want to make mention about the hurricane. it's important for people in florida to remember that even though the storm has passed and the sun may be coming out, now may not be the time to hop in your car and go for a drive. that's the instinct of a lot of people. it's still dangerous on the roads. the flooding can deceive people. it can be deeper than it looks. there could be live wires and downed trees. it's important to stay and shelter in place till authorities tell you it's safe to go out unless it's dangerous to stay in your home. people should think about

donating through the american red cross and other organizations. 9/11 happens to also be my birthday. >> i was going to wish you a happy birthday. >> well, i don't celebrate any more on 9/11. this morning i went to the world trade center. last year i was at the world trade center. two years ago i was at shanksville and i've gone to the pentagon on 9/11 and for a lot of people, particularly new yorkers whenever we participate in this observance 16 years ago feels like 16 days ago. it's still fresh in our minds, particularly when the weather is clear and crisp like it is today. we remember how the beautiful was shattered by the pents that have day. it's tragic and meeting spouses, children of those who were killed on that day is a fresh reminder of the pain and the tragedy that it caused. it reminds us to rededicate

ourselves to fighting terrorism and to our homeland security. >> the agency you once led, homeland security was the creation out of the 9/11 commission report. and the conclusion that there was too much stove piping that agencies weren't talking among each other. that said, there's still criticism that it's too large, it's too diversity that, there isn't a generic reason for secret service to be in and fema to be in the same organization. >> well, you have to look where all these missions and agencies were scattered before the creation of dhs. they were scattered over dozens agencies and cabinet level departments. agriculture, treasury, energy so a lot of national security homeland security, public safety missions were consolidated into dhs but it is very much still a work in progress. and when i was in office, we

worked hard at management reform forming joint task forces for the dhs mission among all these stove piped departments. i'm glad that congress codified a lot of reforms that i made. but there's still a lot more work to do. it is definitely the most decentralized department of our government though it's only the third largest of our government. >> john kelley has now been white house chief of staff more than a month i think at this point. we still don't have a replacement for him at homeland. how troubling is it that there is no nominee to head this very complicated department? >> today is a reminder that the job of secretary of homeland security is an incredibly important one to the american people. and i hope and expect that president trump will nominate somebody very soon for this very important position. it's not just counter-terrorism and natural disasters. it's cyber security, aviation security, maritime security,

border security, the secret service, immigration, border security. and so it's a job that needs to be filled. you need somebody at the cabinet level to keep their eye on all of this. >> what we're now learning most recently from reports in the "new york times" and "washington post" about russia and facebook and the fact that russia was not just hacking, russia was then buying ads on facebook, going after specific -- specific election groups, did i verse groups throughout this country to compromise our election. how much did you know before november? >> well, it continues to be an unfolding picture, andrea. we were very concerned last year about the hacking and the dumps into the public space of the dnc e-mails. we were also concerned about the growing list of states where we saw voter registration databases infiltrated and in some cases

exposed. >> but the targeting of voters, how much did you know about that? foo well, we were very concerned about the targeting of voter registration databases. now, the recent reports about the russians using facebook as a vehicle for misinformation i have to say frankly nothing would surprise me anymore. >> you didn't know it at the time before the election? >> i have to say no. we were focused, i was focused on the cyber security around our election infrastructure. and what we saw happening with the dnc. it copies to be an emerging it picture. at this point, nothing would surprise me. i hope our investigators in congress continue to focus on this. >> how vulnerable are we in the cyber space? look at equifax that is potentially we are told more than 140 million customers whose identities are now at risk. >> when i testified before congress in june, i said that i believe it's going to get worse

before it gets better. and those on offense have the upper hand right now. they are tenacious, ingenious, aggressive. that includes nation state actors. and my worry is that our election infrastructure may be as exposed as it was nine months ago when jim clapper and i called out what we saw. so this has to be a work in progress and it has to be a national imperative and it's one of the many reasons why we need to have a senate confirmed homeland security secretary to lead that charge when you speak of nation states, we think mostly about russia, iran, china but also north korea. it isn't just what they distinguish against sony. now we're told, i'm told that they are really a criminal enterprise, the bank central bank of bangladesh potentially nation states have been involved in equifax. >> the nation state actors are growing in sophistication.

those that are in the top tier are growing. and they're becoming more and more aggressive. and it's always easier to be on offense than it is on defense. that's why we need to make this a national imperative. invest in technology. raise awareness of those that use various different systems how they can safeguard the systems and really take it to those nation state actors that engage in this kind of behavior. >> jeh johnson as always, especially on a somber day, good to have your expertise. thank you very much. and let's turn back to the southeast and to georgia where tropical storm irma is starting to cause some damage. msnbc's garrett haake is in albania, georgia. you've seen flooding there. what about the winds? are they picking up? >> well, andrea, the wind has been the story all day. the rain is falling straight down. about the first time that's happened since about 10:00 last night. we're in a lint of a break.

you can get an idea how powerful the wind gusts were. look at the size of this tree came down, ripped out by the root and absolutely smashing this car in an apartment complex just outside of downtown. we have seen scenes like this time and again driving around here in this little respite from the wind. big trees like this coming down. they're coming down on power lines which has been a major problem here. this complex has been without power since about 8:00 this morning. we're seeing a lot of businesses, stoplights, areas of downtown without power. crews have been told to hold tight, stay put. they don't want them out here working in windy conditions. even though something like 3500 power crews stationed around georgia ready to get to work, the folks in southern georgia are being told to hang tight for now till the wind dies down and stays died down enough for them to get out here and get some work done safely. we're trying to keep an eye on the track of the storm but we were under the understanding

that the worst of it here wasn't going to happen till about 5:00 this evening. we expect to see the winds pick back up. the rain continue and flooding will be a concern or at least something to watch especially downtown where the flint river runs right through the center of town. definitely not out of the woods here yet in southernya. >> garrett, thank you so much. coming up, we'll monitor the latest on irma including that flooding in jacksonville, florida. stay with us right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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that september morning, each of these s those brave americans died as they had lived as heroes. doing their duty and protecting us and our country. we mourn them. we honor them. and we pledge to never ever forget them. >> president trump at his first commemoration of 9/11 speaking alongside military leaders at the pentagon today. nbc's kristen welker is at the white house. kristin, it's been a busy, busy weekend of course, for the president, camp david, cabinet meeting, his fourth cabinet meeting and all of the coordination with fema and generally getting good marks especially from those down in

florida not only the governor but also from democrats, elected officials saying the response was well coordinated and it worked. >> that is something that president trump stressed yesterday, andrea, when i had a chance to ask him questions, he was returning from camp david and i asked him to assess the response so far. he said look, the bottom line is the federal government's response has been well coordinated. that the federal agencies have been in communication. and that that has been crucial to being able to deal with the storm that we're dealing with now in florida and georgia. but also of course, the continuing fallout from hurricane harvey. president trump dealing with those twin natural disasters even as he's marked a september 11th today, andrea, there as you saw an the pentagon. and really striking a note of honoring those who lost their lives. this is obviously a day when you sort of leave politics aside. that's what we saw and heard

when president trump delivered those remarks really stressing the importance of honoring those who lost their lives, the first responders and, of course, part of his agenda which is the fight against terrorism. now, in the wake of september 11th, as a candidate, president trump very critical of former president george w. bush and his handling of september 11th. but again today, andrea, was a day when we heard this president put politics aside and focus on this very solemn memorial and day of remembrance for the country. >> and this follows of course, his first outreach to democrats since taking office. with his meetings with nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, bipartisan meetings where he played up their role much more than mitch mcconnell's and paul ryan's and sided with them on the debt ceiling and also tweeting out what nancy pelosi asked him to tweet out which was that dreamers are at least protect the for the next six months. then there's this is remarkable be conversation reported by "the

new york times" which you've seen chuck schumer telling the "times" after trump cut the deal, he got a call early in the morning, where the president said, hey this was so great. here's what what he said. he said do you watch fox news. they're praising you meaning me and your stations i guess meaning msnbc and cmn. so he liked the reviews. >> he does indeed. white house officials say the gop democrats shouldn't be surprised that president trump campaigned as someone who was going to be a dealmaker. he was eager to get a deal done in the wake of the failure to overhaul obamacare. that's part of the reason based on my conversations here that he wanted to strike that deal with democrats. he also felt burned by republican leadership, felt as though they didn't do enough to get obamacare repealed and replaced and he also wanted to clear the deck so that he can move on to his top priorities like tax reform, for example. the white house thinks this also

could potentially pave the way for some type of legislation daca. that's a thorny movement. any movement on daca will be tough. the president looked at that and thought that's the best chance to move forward. you still have republicans some very frustrated still over what transpired. their big concern is he may have given democrats a lot of leverage in another three months when they have to revisit all of those issues. >> important resignations, retirements from republican members of congress. we'll talk about that in a little bit. thanks very much. kristen welker at the white house. >> thanks, andrea. >> coming up, irma weakening to a tropical storm but it is still dangerous causing record flooding in jacksonville. we'll bring you the latest forecast right here on andr"and mitchell reports"" on msnbc.

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it is here and i don't think we're in hurricane force winds. >> most of downtown st. augustine completely underwater at this point. >> the rain is coming in just from the southeast at this point. right now, we're not talking

drops. we're talking sheets. >> it's been a long weekend for our friends in florida. >> is an sunrise just comes up, we can start to see the scope of the devastation. >> what i thought was going to be a punch in the face became a glancing blow. we are still fighting. >> and it's been 27 hours since irma first made landfall in the u.s. more than 6 million residents across the state remain without power. more than 150,000 people are still in shelters. right now, mandatory evacuations underway in parts of jacksonville, florida, as record flooding threatens that city. meteorologist bill karins joins me with the latest. bill, i know this has been a marathon for you. you've been amazing. we've all been applauding you and thanking you for all of your information. >> thanks, andrea. >> what is the situation now as the storm heads. >> it's not over. i was really thinking that i could come into my shift today and we would focus on the winds, they would be dying down and then these storm surges will not end in northeast florida and in areas all the way up through

charleston. a friend sent me pictures from the charleston battery. waters coming over there. savannah the highest level you've seen. last year in matthew, there was water in homes in savannah. we could do that again today. pictures from jacksonville where we're under the flood emergency the rest of the afternoon. there are water rescues taking place and they just expanded the flood emergency all the way down the st. john's river basin. you can leave the pictures up on half the screen and i'll show you this. there's the storm circulation. the reason we're an still dealing, the winds go 415 miles out into the atlantic. that is piling water on the coast. it's a huge circulation. even though the storm is heading into georgia, why we're still dealing with problems in the areas of the east. the areas in red flash flood warnings from charleston all the way into savannah including

hilton head tluld new brunswick. this is the st. river's river where we have the highest river levels already recorded there. the city recorded its highest sim or 11 hours ago. they're supposed to go up another foot or two the rest of the afternoon. record flood and major flooding is taking place in areas near jacksonville. there's one little river the records go back to the early 1900s. it broke that record an hour ago. now it's supposed to go up another two feet. off the chort river levels because of a foot of rain and high tide happening now and the storm surge. it's like a triple whammy over this region. that's the storm surge in jacksonville. four to five feet still happening. rainfall 8 to 128 inches. high tide 12:36. we just went past high tide here in jacksonville. here's the thing. all that water piled up in this river, this is the st. john's river from south to north, see the little arrows moving?

that's the wind direction from irma. now the water is blowing with the river. so the water piled in and now it's flowing out. that's why they're worried about the areas in jacksonville. the water will go higher as it blows out of the river. they ordered a mandatory evacuation zone a and b. the only thing you need to know is this is downtown jacksonville and red and orange mandatory evacuation, get out. all the red is where they're telling everyone, you got to go. they had the bridges closed and reopened the bridges to get the people out of the region. we've still got bands up here, maybe isolated tornado threat in south carolina this afternoon. the worst of it is this afternoon. once we get past this high tide cycle this afternoon, we'll see how much damage was done to all of our friends from jacksonville along the st. john's river up through savannah into charleston. some areas did better. we didn't have the that horrific

storm surge around naples and areas like fort myers. then it was much worse in areas like in the northeast florida and along the south carolina and georgia coastline. it was a huge storm. we knew it was going to hit someone hard. it still is. >> and i'm almost afraid to ask you, what about jose? >> i just went and looked at the new gfs, the american guide. we start talking about the storms and the long range. we have two computers. unfortunately the american model comes way too close to -- i don't want to give specific locations. way too close to the east coast and about six days from now, the european model keeps it offshore. european model is typically better. i hope it's right. i don't think anyone wants to deal with another hurricane. right now, we're watching it. it's nothing anyone needs to prepare for yet. >> all right. i'm with you on that. we'll worry about all that tomorrow. tomorrow is another day as

someone once said back in fiction. craig fuguette served as fema director of president obama. now a senior adviser at blue dot strategies. craig, you've seen it all unfold and a lot of praise for fema. what is your best advice to people as we come through this period and look at the recovery? >> well, if you're not in an evacuation zone up in jacksonville, sit tight. a lot of people are anxious to get home, anxious to get out and check on stuff. you need to let the crews get the trees picked up, secure the power lines and start that process. i know people are anxious to get going. but this is the second most dangerous time during a hurricane is the immediate aftermath. everything from people driving through flooded areas to electrocutions to falls and accidents. just be patient and stay off the roads unless it's an emergency. if you're somewhere safe, stay there for another day or so till

things clear up. >> and the real problem, the real threat is the danger those power lines, there are a lot of hazards out there that people may not even know about. >> well, in florida's history, we've seen sometimes more fatalities after the storm than we did from the actual storm, everything from carbon monoxide poisoning to traffic crashes because signals are out because of power outages. the people literally getting electrocuted in standing water as power lines may not always be off. just because your power is off, doesn't mean the lines may not be energized. >> cragreg fugate, thank you. joining me by phone jacksonville beach mayor charlie latham. thank you. you're right in the zone where the flooding is most intense.

tell me what the situation is. >> hi, andrea. good afternoon afternoon. we're going through some pretty significant flooding in jacksonville beach along the coastline and adjacent to the city of jacksonville. we've lost about 90% of our electric power, electric power to about 90% of our customers, i think, is better said. we received about 27 inches of rain in 24 hours. >> wow. 27 inches in 24 hours. no wonder that river is back up. >> it's no question addition i've lived here 50 years and that's by far the most flooding i've ever seen. we also had some surge from the ocean. you may recall that during matthew last year, we took a pretty significant hit and lost all our dunes. we just replaced them over the last couple of months. they were tested again today. and for the most part they seem to be in pretty good shape. we had a couple small breaches

but they're okay. >> what about in terms of people not in shelters, people in their residents, just standing by. obviously, the emergency relief people can't get to them this this kind of floodwaters. >> right. well, we've -- we haven't had any injuries, deaths or incidents where there was concern for loss of life. we've been fortunate in that regard. but we're expecting another surge between 12:00 and 2:00 this afternoon of up to 6 feet. we have low-lying neighborhoods in jacksonville beach that were flooded in matthew. we're watching very carefully to make sure we're available to help them as best we can should those surges continue. >> mayor, thank you so much for being with us. we wish you and everyone down there in jacksonville beach the best of luck as you get through this flooding. the high tide as it's just begun to hit -- >> appreciate it. >> -- is obviously a critical time. we'll continue to monitor that flooding in jacksonville,

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someone said to me that you described the firing of james comey. you're a student of history, as the biggest mistake in political history. >> that would be probably addition that would probably be too bombastic even for me but

maybe modern political history. >> president trump's former chief strategist steve bannon in his first television interview denying to charlie rose that he was fired and challenging his former boss's controversial decision to fire fbi director james comey. let's get the inside scoop from sam stein, daily beast editor and ashley parker, washington post white house reporter and msnbc contributor. ashley, you've been writing a lot about bannon. this was bannon unplugged, bannon as many of us have never seen him. you've been covering him throughout the campaign and during his white house tenure. what is -- what is the impact of bannon on the outside compared to bannon on the inside? >> well, that's a good question. i mean, it is certainly been on the outside is a little more bannon unleashed. he was never sort of, as he even said in that interview, a government employee. he chafed at the suit and the tie and some of the restrictions. so, i think two things. first of all, the one thing is you always have more power

inside the white house than outside the white house. there's just no two ways about it. that said, bannon is sort of freed and liberated to push the agenda that he and the president share at times but is sometimes tough to push from inside the white house. we hear him talking about primary senate republicans. that's something i have to say, i heard him talk about while he was in the white house. it's a lot easier to do and to do forcefully outside the white house and could really make trouble for the president potentially and especially the republican leadership. >> he has the connection, the mercer connection, the money, breitbart. he has a big platform and a lot of dough. sam? >> that's actually -- >> oar ashley, both of. >> you ashley, you can go ahead if you have a thought. >> i was just going to say, he has all of that. the platform is big. unlike most people out of the white house, he's still talking to the president. it's not being in the white house but he still has the president's ear. >> sam, you want to weigh in on steve bannon, the bannon effect. the fact that he was a white

house top strategist, given his controversial background, is just extraordinary. >> well, trying to find an analogy here, and there is none. it would be as if karl rove were to have left the bush administration in 2006 and decided to get rid of a primary bunch of congressional republicans. or david axelrod and a bunch of congressional democrats. it just -- this stuff doesn't normally happen. and it goes to bannon's independence from the party. it goes to the fragility of the coalition that trump put together. it is a republican coalition, but it's not a traditional republican coalition. and there is a lot of disdrus happening on the republican side of the aisle. moderate republican congressmen and women announced retirements fairly far out. you're seeing senate republicans ponder retirements. corker and the hatch retirement. you begin to wonder, what are they going to get done before

the entire thing begins to implode and how big a role will steve bannon play in the implosion? >> i also want to ask both of you about climate change. it's something -- sam, you've been writing about this. something that has not been raised in much of the coverage. we've been covering these back-to-back storms. i know there's no cause and effect relationship that can be established, but there are certainly trends. >> sure. >> and warmer waters are certainly one of the factors here. >> i don't even know if you can say there's no cause and effect. scientists conclude that warmer waters feed these storms and these storms are of higher intensity because of it. and certainly among the factors that you should be discussing in the aftermath of these is climate change. what we discovered by going through transcripts of white house briefings and by television interviews and pundits, except for msnbc, i should say, was that this is not being discussed at all. the white house has not faced a question on climate change since these storms came on the horizon. so about 2 1/2 weeks. until yesterday when the pool

lob aid question at donald trump. scott pruitt, the epa director said we shouldn't be discussing this in the aftermath of hurricanes. that's the equivalent of saying you can't discuss counterterrorism in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. it's an interesting thing that we're not having this discussion in the midst of these historic storms. >> we hate to leave it there. we have to. ashley, we will continue in our next meeting. that does it for this edition perform chris jansing is right here. >> thank you so much. we have so much to talk about. good afternoon, i'm chris jansing at msnbc headquarters. we're watching tropical storm irma as it roars into southern georgia. rising waters are still a danger in florida. a flash flood warning has been declared for jacksonville's downtown as winds change direction. jacksonville's sheriff tells residents along the river, get out now. and in the florida keys, damage is widespread. those who did not evacuate are assessing the damage. those who did leave are still not able to return. the storm