before that was 2005 when we had katrina and it went to wilma and beyond. we don't have el nino and don't have dust coming off the african coast. those two kbooins combined make for potent hurricanes. >> thoughts and prayers for everyone in the paths. we will post how you can help those people on our twitter and the on our website. al roker the only good thing about the hurricane season is our chances to see you. mtp daily starts with katie in for chuck. congrats on the best selling book. >> thank you very much. see you later. if it is tuesday, it's three times the trouble for the white house. tonight, president trump's u.n. debut. >> rocket man is on suicide mission for himself. and for his regime. >> how the world is reacting to the escalating war games.

>> the message is really a message of peace. plus new republican prescription. does the senate gop have the votes on the graham catdy health care fix. >> can't tell you the whip count but i do kneel optimistic. and the russia investigation. from the feds to congress, it seems everyone wants answers from paul manafort. >> i think he will if he is under subpoena. this is mtp daily, and it starts right now. good evening, i'll katy tur in new york in for chuck todd. welcome to mtp daily. buckle up. we are following three major stories right now, all of which have been plaguing republicans and infuriating president trump. the first is their inability to repeal obamacare. that effort was left for dead, but it's been resurrected again on capitol hill today. the second is the russia

investigation, where there is now the very real prospect of charges against trump's campaign chief. and the third is north korea, which president trump today threatened to wipe off the map while speaking at the united nations. let's dive in starting with the day's dramatic russia headlines. the "new york times" reporting that bob mueller's investigation is almost literally breaking down doors as it probes the president and his associates. according to sources who spoke to the times, mueller's team broke into the home of paul manafort, raided it and told him point blank he was going to be indicted. cnn which is citing its own sources is reporting investigators wiretapped manafort twice including a period of time when it was likely he was talking with mr. trump. nbc news has not confirmed either of these reports. we have reach out to manafort's team but have not gotten a

response. that's just russia. then there's the last-ditch furious hail mary effort to repeal obamacare which this time just might work. the white house and republican lead remembers feverishly whipping support for a bill spearheaded by republican senators bill cassidy and lindsey graham. senator graham huddled with vice president pence today on air force one. the party face as september 30th deadline if they want to pass legislation without democratic votes. at this poi at this point that deadline seems to be their best argument to pass this bill. >> i am encouraging every senator to vote for graham/cassidy because it is our best last chance to get repeal and replace done. >> everybody knows that the opportunity expires at the ends of the month. >> paul ryan told me to my face, if you pass it, we pass it. at the end of the day, this is the only process left available

to stop a march towards socialism. >> but getting this bill to the floor for an actual vote is going to be an uphill battle. >> i can't tell you the whip count but i do feel optimistic. >> are you confident that leadership is going to put this on the floor for a vote? >> well i'm not leadership. >> like last time, three republican no votes will kill this bill in the senate. right now rand paul is no, number one. he says the legislation doesn't go far enough to repeal obamacare. susan collins is likely no number two. she says she is leaning against it because of concerns it goes too far, which means all eyes are on john mccain, again, lisa murkowski, again, and mike lee. all of them are undecided though for different reasons. as if the day wasn't wild enough, at his first speech before then u.n. genral assembly president trump threatened

allout war with north korea. >> the united states has great strength and patients but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. >> republican leadership is at the intersection of all of these stories. joining me now is republican senator john barasso of wyoming who is the chairman of the republican policy committee. senator thank you for joining us. i do want to start, if you don't mind, with north korea. the president today talked about attacking north korea. tell me what's the gop republican responsibility in congress to mitigate the pregnant's war powers? >> i think the president was very forceful. he puts the united states first. wants to work with our allies. talked about that with regard to china, with regard to russia. there is more that china can do in terms of cutting off fuel,

oil, supplies to north korea. talked about our partnership, and we have those in japan and in south korea. we may get to a point where we are going to have to have nuclear weapons there as a deterrent. but we are sending a strong message to north korea that what this young leader is trying to do will not stand with us or on the world stage. >> what about the war powers though for congress? if the president does decide to attack that country, what's the gop congress's role in? >> i support the president if that's his choice. it's not our first choice. the first choice is diplomacy. but i think the president has the authority and will use it if necessary to do the kind of attack that he has described. i don't know that's his first choice. it's certainly not the first choice of anyone. but north korea continuing to threaten the homeland, the safety and security of the american people -- and we've seen the advances of the technology in north korea remains to be very worrisome for us tonight. >> let's move on to health care. at this moment there are about

50 votes for the graham/cassidy bill, well it is a not clear though if there is going to be enough to get this thing passed. if it turns out that senators murkowski or lee or mccain do not vote yes for this, should they be primaried? >> well, you know some of those senators just got reelected in november. so you are talking a long way away, six years from now. the bottom line is obamacare continues to fail the american people. i heard it at home again this past weekend in wyoming. across the country, costs are going up even more next year. the republicans are looking to get the decisions and the money out of washington, back to the states, whereas a doctor and as a former state senator i can tell you the money could much better be spent. right now, 40% of all the obamacare money goes to just four states, california, new york, massachusetts, and maryland. that's just 20% of the people of the country. so there is this huge

disproportion in where the money goes. i just have much more confidence in people at home making decisions not washington, d.c. trying to decide what's best for everyone at home. >> are there 50 votes for this? >> well, we have another week and a half to make that final vote. it will be easy to get it to the floor. we are working with each and every one of the members. so many of the members want to get to yes because we know that obamacare has failed. we know that the democrats in the house, the majority of the democrats in the house have sponsored a program which is complete government takeover of health care. we know the litmus test for the liberal left in the senate and those wanting to run for president as democrats in 2020 is for a complete government takeover of health care. it's the bernie sanders plan, which is something that i believe will lead to remarkiati of care, limitations and care and i'm willing to do everything

i can to prevent that. >> you are saying as of now there are not 50 votes to pass all this. you also talk about giving the states power back. a number of governors say they don't want this bill and are urging their senators not to say yes to it. ten governors, four republicans, say this is not the right idea. that's the number of states that say they should not have the power that the graham/cassidy bill is putting forward? >> each governor decides what they think is best. i would ask them to understand it first. i understand if you are one of those governors from those four states that get the money -- >> this is ten governors from ten states. >> i understand. many of those are a result of medicaid because the people who medicaid was designed for

initially have been left behind. >> medicaid seems to be the only thing that is working. there is arguments about the exchanges. >> widespread popularity for medicaid. we know one out of three doctors won't take new medicaid patients. we know it's harder for people with medicaid to get care, the treatment is worse. there is not widespread popularity. there is widespread popularity by certain governors to take the money from washington for the expansion of medicaid. but for the patients who are on medicaid i will tell you medicaid continues to have failed the american people and expansion of medicaid has made it worse for people that people that medicaid was originally designed for, the low income women, the children, and the disabled. they have been left behind as a result of so many people being jammed onto medicaid, which is why it's harder for doctors to take care of then. >> senator, the majority of the people in this country have favorable views are favored

toward obamacare. they have not been favored toward anything that the republicans have put forward so far in congress. i want to talk about essential health care benefits. there are not protections for essential health care benefits in this bill. >> there suntd be. there subject be. the essential health care -- >> can you assure people of wyoming that they are not going to lose their health care because of a preexisting condition? >> those are two entirely different things. this bill protects everyone with a preexisting condition. my wife is a breast cancer survivor. she has been through chemotherapy three times. >> can you tell them they are not going to get knocked off. >> you keep interrupting if you like. i'm trying to answer your first question. the essential benefits was the obama approach that said you have to buy all of these different kinds of health insurance a lot of which you don't need, can't afford, don't want, isn't right for you and your family. but president obama said he knew better for you than you knew about you and your family. it's the number one complaint i

get in wyoming. the costs have gone up so much because people had to buy insurance they didn't want, didn't need and can't afford. i want states to have the option to opt out of the essential benefits. i believe people with preexisting conditions need to be covered for those conditions. as a doctor, and a husband of a wife who has had breast cancer i am committed to that. >> senator i just want to know one thing. can you guarantee the people of wyoming that the costs associated with their preexisting conditions will not go up so much so that they will not be i believe to apoured it? >> the costs have gone up almost already gone up on obamacare katie so much that people can't afford it. >> i'm asking it for graham/cassidy, something you are going to be voting for. >> more money is going to come into wyoming as a result of graham cassidy. more money is going to come in. when you have people who can't afford their policies. what i heard this week weekend,

only one insurance carrier is trying to sell insurance in wyoming. >> i'm trying to get you to answer the question that i asked. >> obamacare made a guarantee. >> let me finish my question, and then you can answer it i'm not talking about obamacare. i'm talking about graham/cassidy. >> you should because it has failed. >> respectfully, this is the bill that you are voting for. this is the bill that your constituents. >> yes. >> the people of wyoming, the people of america will use if they don't get it through their employer. >> and they will be much better of. >> can you tell your voters, the people of wyoming that the costs associated with their preexisting condition will not go.so much that they will not be able to afford health care coverage? >> people can't afford it now, katie. that's what you don't understand. if they can't afford it now -- we're trying to get more people able to afford it, custom is why there is additional money coming to wyoming under graham catdy. it will be easier to afford under graham/cassidy than they can do now under obamacare,

where rates are supposed to go up again next year by a huge number. they are talking 30, 40% increases again. whether you have a preexisting condition, whether you don't have a preexisting condition. just being alive in wyoming right now, you are being hammered with huge cost. and it's all a result of obamacare. which is why donald trump got 70% of the vote in wyoming. people were absolutely fed up with what the democrats have done across the country. >> senator thank you for answering, i guess, about obamacare, engo. i was asking about graham/cassidy. but i whole other 45 minutes of a show to did so i am going to have to leave it here, senator barasso thank you so much for joining news congratulations on your book of it's doing very well. >> thank you very much, i hope you get a chance the read it. i appreciate that, sir. and come back any time. i would love the keep talking about this. >> thank you. >> on the issue of repealing obamacare, senator lindsey graham is using bernie sanders's

push for single payer as a rallying cry for republicans to get on board with his plan. >> behind me is the only thing between you and single payer health care. bernie. this ends your dream of a single payer health care system for america. so we need people on board now to stop what i think is inevitable if we fail. we know how this movie ends if we don't change. we are going to have a single payer health care system in this country that's going to bust the budget, and we are going to start ration ing care like you have never seen. >> joining me senator chris coons of delaware. thank you for joining us. i do want -- unfortunately, we just lost senator coops but we will try to get him up in a moment. in the meantime, stay with us. we'll be right back. when i look in the mirror everyday. when i look in the mirror everyday. everyday, i think how fortunate i am.

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the united states has great strength and patience. but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. >> the art of the deal, and america first at the united nations for the first time today. we are back with more mtp daily in just 60 seconds. stay with us. i was working for the c.i.a. and pablo escobar... that sounds made up barry. woo.

no mas. no mas. [ laughing ] american made. rated r. ♪ ♪ keep your insights from prying eyes, so they won't be used by anyone but you. the ibm cloud. the cloud for enterprise. yours. welcome back. joining me now, finally, is senator chris coons of delaware. senator, it was a hard time getting you connected but i'm glad you are here. welcome. >> thank you katey. great to be with you. >> i want to talk about this idea that senator graham is basically using senator sanders's pitch for universal health care, a single payer system as a way to get other republicans on board the pass this thing quickly before september 30th. do you think that senator sanders's rallying cry for single payer backfired?

>> what i wish we were focusing on is the strong bipartisan work that's been going on here between republican senator alexander and democratic senator murray. they are the chair and ranking of the health committee. after the failure by the republican majority in august to repeal the affordable care act, they began working diligently together as we should have been for the last seven months bringing in governors of both republican and democratic states, bringing in insurance commissioners from around the country, bringing in leaders in health care and working on a balanced bipartisan package. your question about senator sanders' bill is a reminder that there are several democratic senators who have introduced aspirational or hopeful bills that would further expand access to health care. what is most trouble being this latest trump care effort, this graham/cassidy bill is that it is an effort that will lead to a

reduction in how many americans have access to health care. when the cbo finally gets to review it i think they will estimate something like 10 million americans will initially be thrown off of health care by this latest attempt of appealing the aca. i think appealing to sanders is a red herring, a distraction to what really going on here, a bipartisan evident and a partisan effort. >> you are calling it aspirational or hopeful. does that mean that this single payer system doesn't have any shot for you? >> katie, we are in a republican congress, republicans control the senate and the house and the white house. yes, i don't think in this congress there is any chance that a single payer act. >> if democrats take control of congress in 201081:18 do you think that's a possibility? would you sign onto it. >> what we ought to be focusing on is what is going to expand health care for americans and

what's going to restrict. graham/cassidy will enmedicaid as we know it, eliminate all the consumer protections in the aca by giving states the opportunity to repeal them. it will lead to a less healthy america. that's what i think we ought to be focusing on. i think pointing at the sanders bill is another attempt at distracting us from the very high stakes right before us in a vote that will be taken next week. >> given that, don't you wish senator sanders may have waited a few weeks so that that september 30th deadline passed and a bptd vote would have been necessary for something like health care? >> i do think it's important for us to focus on the very strong bipartisan efforts being made by patty murray and lamar alexander, and many others. i attended two -- >> not quite what i asked, senator. not quite what i asked. >> katy, what did you ask? >> i asked would you have rather seen bernie sanders wait until after september 30th to talk about medicare for all so that

it was not a distraction for the republicans for them to use that as a rallying cry to get the graham/cassidy bill pushed through? >> katy as you well know senator sanders has been talking about universal health care access i think virtually his whole career in the senate. the timing of his bill introduction, yes, i wish it had been put off by a couple of weeks. but i also didn't anticipate, and he probably didn't either, that graham/cassidy would pick up this much steam and that republicans would try one more time to pass trump care and repeal the affordable care act. >> if it does get passed in the senate do you have any hope of stopping it in the house. >> i think it's unlike the senate where we represent entire states. in states like new york you are got a lot of republicans in upstate new york who probably wouldn't support this bill but we don't know.

what we shouldn't be doing here katy is playing russian roulette with the american health care system. already the american medical association and the american hospital association have come out saying they oppose this further destabilizing of america's health care system. the graham/cassidy bill would indicate chaos in the individual markets right as insurance companies are supposed to be making decisions next week about whether they will continue to provide health insurance. think about how much this would destabilize both health insurance and health care across the country. >> senator i want to get your reaction to the president to the at the u.n. talking about attacking north korea if necessary. what did you think when he said those words? >> well, katy, there were some strong parts of the speech and there were some very concerning parts of the speech. he is right to stand up in the world forum like the u.n. and call iran on its violations of human rights and its ballistic missile program and to say that

north korea should be resisted by the world community when it threatens south korea, japan, and the united states. so i will applaud president trump for his continued forceful leadership as we try to assemble a world coalition against north korea. but there were also aspects of his speech that were unhelpful at best calling kim jong-un by a nickname, rocket man, which is really more suited for twitter or frankly for a school yard spat than for the u.n.an and threatening to walk away from the iran deal, which is exceptionally unhelpful if his real goal is to pull together our allies and potential partners from around the world in applying more pressure on north korea. >> senator chris coons thank you so much for joining us. senator coons will be joining a host of world leaders and sclebts for this weekend's global citizen festival in new york city. malaysia nbc will have full coverage of the festival this

saturday starting at 3:00 p.m. eastern. let's bring in our panel, bill crystal editor at large at the weekly standard. glen thrush, white house correspond end for the "new york times" and an msnbc nbc contribute and daniel plet ka from the american enterprise institute. i saw you chuckle at my jumbled introduction to yourself. >> it wasn't to me. i was wondering if you were going to mention that glen thrush has gotten off twitter. the twitter sphere is mourning. oh, we are going to talk about the president. >> don't put glen on the spot. >> i want to talk about senator about rasa making a hard pitch for graham/cassidy. i asked him over and over and over again can he guarantee to the people of wyoming that they are not going to pay more for preexisting conditions to the point where they can't afford it. he would not answer it. he kept going back tobook. why is that? >> becausebook has had failures.

>> this is not -- >> you make a big change like this and no one can guarantee anything. it is a complex policy choice, i think. what this shows is how desperate the republicans are on the hill to have achievements. they failed on health care. and donald trump pivoted and decided to start cutting deals with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. i think this is their attempt to say no, maybe we can pull it together one more time. tax reform was going to be the magic bauble that was going to save them. that looks to be more difficult. i think it's driven more by a political necessity than by a deep study of the health care system. >> that's grand. but at the same time these are people's lives, people's health care. i finds it striking that if you were going to go after the health care plan that is currently in place, obamacare, by saying that it's too expensive, people can't afford it but you can't guarantee your plan is not going to be too expensive as well what does that ass assay? >> this is why it is a time bomb

for 2020 and not necessarily for 2018, whatever pain is built into the system, we are talking about phasing out medicaid, talking about block granting federal aid and phasing out the he can changes. so it gives you a lot of political benefit up front so you can tell your strents this is something you accomplished but the pain comes in for 2020 the funny thing is this is a plan designed to help republicans in congress negotiably and hurt whoever the republican candidate for president in 2020 is going to be. let me remind people, the original idea for doing health care first was to save $1 trillion over ten years so you could clear the room to do tax reform. that's been thrown out the window. the key vote is john mccain. he was telling people in the capitol today he didn't even want to talk about it. >> what about senator coons, this is not going to be affordable not going to make lives better, there is a problem with preexisting conditions, a

problem with essential health care benefits. do you think he is being honest about all of that? >> let me paraphase senator coons and say the question i wish you had asked me. and ale of them. because there isn't a bill that is going to address health care any more than obamacare did that is going the provide guarantees to anybody. essentially the position we are in -- i don't want to pretend to be a health care expert to anybody, you all know i'm not one. but i do know capitol hill. we are either going to be in a position where the perfect or the best is the enemy of the good and there is always going to be downside for smchblt there's always going to be a problem. there are always promises. people are going to want made that aren't going to be able to be made. so the question is do you move forward if you are in the position of the republicans? do you say okay we are going to pass a bill? or do you say new york, no, we are waiting for the perfect moment like the freedom caucus. my argument would be that the freedom caucus has got nothing

done and the other side of the argument the democrats who don't want to do anything at all don't recognize that obamacare is falling apart. there is a middle grounds. is this the middle ground. we don't know. >> we don't know whether it is the middle ground. as someone who has written articles criticizing obamacare and is in favor of bettering it, we don't know if this is better. you have markup, you are amendments, scoring. >> shouldn't it go -- >> i believe john mccain will vote against it. >> really. >> mccain spoke on the senate floor he believed in the congress, believed in regular order, which means committees and hearings. >> you don't think he is going to throw his friend senator graham a solid? >> no, i think -- his friendship with lindsay will survive his voting no on this. >> glen. >> we are talking about

bipartisanship there are negotiations going on with patty murray on the republican with democratic senators and paul ryan ruled that out. there were some late last-minute -- >> which would have been a smaller fix to parts of obamacare. >> what is the political calculation of saying i refuse to work with anybody, we don't think there should be bipartisan legislation. >> to jam -- it's funny we spent all last week about bipartisan reconciliation. on a issue as critical, it seems the white house has abandoned. >> what you were writing was about donald trump acting like a democratic, bipartisanship wreck silllation. all the applauds he was getting was because he was eve of behaving like a democrat. that's not bipartisanship. that's abilitying like a democrat. >> the budget deal they passed was not bipartisan. what it was was nominal. >> i think it is a pure

political matter. people are sick of the partisan. >> that's why they voted for donald trump. not because he was republican, because he could get a republican agenda pushed through. they voted for him because they thought congress would start working. they thought he could get them to work. >> is sanders going to be a loyal soldier and vote for this i will about. he is the guy who is on the committee who holds the hearings on this and never has. still ahead, bob mueller's russia investigation kicks into high gear. what we know about the raid of former trump campaign manager paul manafort's home and what it says about the state of the investigation. stay tuned. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker.

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up next on mtp daily, bob mueller turns up the heat on paul manafort as the russia investigation continues. plus, puerto rico is bracing for the worst as hurricane maria makes its way through the caribbean. we will have an update on the storm's path ahead. stay tuned.

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in light this information about his wiretap? >> i think he will if he is under subpoena. >> how close are you guys to that right now. i can't answer that precisely. >> welcome back to mtp daily. that was democratic senator diane feinstein earlier today

responding to cnn's reportsing that former trump campaign chairman paul manafort was the subject of multiple wiretapping investigations by justice department. understand news hasn't confirmed that report but just received a famt from manafort saying quote if true it is a felony to reveal the existence of a fisa warrant regardless of the fact that no charges ever emerged. he goes on to say the justice department should conduct an investigation into how the warrant was leaked to the press. we have confirmed what was originally reported in the "new york times" that investigators used what's known as a no-knock warrant to raid manafort's home. in order for a judge to sign off on a surprise raid like that mueller's team would have had to show probable cause that his home contained evidence a crime and that there was significant risk he might destroy evidence. joining me now is ben with ittis, a senior fellow in governance studies at bookings

and editor in chief at law fair. thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> the times describe these tactics, the mueller tactics the picking the locks and whatnot as shock and awe. do you agree? >> they are certainly aggressive and to know whether they are appropriately aggressive or inappropriately aggressive you would have to know something about the evidence in the warrant application that the judge approved and we actually don't because while there has been a certain amount of information about the material that -- the activities that mueller has engaged in, there has been very little information that has emerged about the evidence that he's been able to collect and the stuff that he's showing to judges in these warrant applications that he's filed. this is now the second of them that we've learned about. and i think we have to actually reserve judgment about the

aggressiveness of these tactics. >> the prosecutors apparently told him according to the times that he was going to be indicted. could that have been an empty threat? >> so i imagine that that is not an empty threat. i think prosecutors are usually pretty careful about warnings somebody like that, that they tend to do it when they mean it. it could be they put pressure on him to cooperate or it could be a more formal notice that he is a target of the investigation now, which is a formal status. so it is a little bit unclear from that story what precisely that means. >> is there a chance we are going to be getting information about the investigation directly from mueller's team sometime soon? >> so mueller's team you know, has been awfully quiet. and you know, they keep -- stuff

keeps leaking out about the investigati investigation. but yolk i don't believe it's leaking from them. we have very little insight into what they are thinking or planning save for tidbits like this, which i assume came from somebody in the defense bar, perhaps somebody representing paul manafort. but i do think if they are reaching the stage where they are getting ready to indicted people when you indict somebody you have to release a lot of information about the evidence that you have collected about the person. and that's really a stage where we will learn a lot about what they are trying to do and what they believe they can allege about whom. >> cnn is talking about wiret wiretappi wiretapping. there was a fisa warrant that allowed the government to spy on -- essentially spy on paul manafort. what does it mean if he was the subject of a fisa warrant? >> right, so first of all i want to stress the word "if" here.

because as you noted up front, your news organization and a lot of other news organizations do not seem to have independently confirmed this yet. and moreover, cnn's sourcing in the story is, you know, quite vague. and so i am unsure. i'm not saying they are wrong by any means but i'm unsure how seriously to take how much of that story. i'm trying to make a point of reserving judgment on it. that said, if it's true, it's a very significant story. and so the authority that the government reportedly used in that could have been the counter-intelligence authorities under the foreign intelligence surveillance act. and that means that they would have had to show a fisa judge that probable cause that paul manafort was an agent of a

foreign power. and according to cnn, they actually did it twice. >> yes. >> once sometime back before the campaign. and then once after he stepped down after the campaign. >> what's interesting about that second one is it was around the time, it's believed, that paul manafort was still talking to president trump. so given that, if this is true, and again it is a very big if. if it is true, is there a chance that they could have been recording conversations that paul manafort was having with the president? if so, who has those recordings? again, if. >> so the answer is, if they were monitoring paul manafort's communications, then they were undoubtedly recording those communications. and the if he in that period of time used the modality of communication that was under

surveillance to talk with the president, those conversations or those exchanges may well have been collected. and those -- assuming those would have been collected by the fbi, which is responsible for the administration of fisa surveillance when it takes place domestically. >> ben with ittis, thank you very much. again, this is all a very big if right now. this is cnn reporting. but we appreciate your time. and we appreciate you talking to us about it. ben, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. and the caribbean brace for another powerful storm. we will have an update on hurricane maria's path next. i count on my dell small business advisor

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welcome back. caribbean residents struggling to recover from hurricane irma are bracing for another massive storm. hurricane maria is a category 5 storm with winds intensifying this afternoon to 165 miles per hour. the national hurricane center says it could strengthen more overnight as it moves toward the virgin islands and puerto rico. maria made landfall last night on the islands of guadalupe dominica and mart neek of it's expected to hit st. croix tonight before moving on to the virgin islands and puerto rico tomorrow. the governor of puerto rico declared a state of emergency for the island ahead of the storm encouraging residents in vulnerable areas to evacuate. we are back with the lid right after this.

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welcome back. time for the lid. it was about to get kind of weird here in the commercial break with you guys. a little strange. back to the news again. manafort and russia. they're picking the locks, they're telling him he will be indicted. i mean, the pressure is ratcheting up for him. white house though, are they trying to distance themselves once again frye manafort? >> apparently all the lawyers in the white house are too busy going to blt steakhouse. >> "new york times" reporters can hear them. >> a nice little plug. it seems to me they're trying to shake the tree with paul manafort. i've watched enough episodes of the wire to know this is how you turn the flip. i had nearly 20 years in law enforcement. >> it's getting weird.

>> yeah. he got off twitter 24 hours ago. twitter provided a stabilizing platform. >> let's go back to paul manafort. >> it seems like they are attempting, when you do something like this publicly, it seems, i've talked to with bunch of people. >> should drunk be worried? >> he should be worried. he knows what he did. i thinker it is good for trump in this sense. short term, he will attack the leaks. he'll say a -- >> does that give him cover to say yes, trump tower was wiretapped. >> to say comey's fbi, can't trust those guys and i was right about that. i think ultimately trump, people like me seem to think where there is smoke, there's fire. but trump won't go down reading the newspapers and watching tv

and saying they aren't coming after me. he'll attack they will and mobilize his supporters. and i think he wants to get rid of sessions and for the sake of getting rid of mueller. a fun law and order else where they get bad guy. at the end of the day, oh, yes, i can't believe i did it. i had problems growing up or something. he will go down fighting. >> i was going to say, nothing happens in a vacuum and today is the same. donald trump is at the u.n. and we have this news with russia. how do the foreign powers, how does someone like russia react to this constant drip, drip, drip of investigation drama. the separation, the rip being caused in the country. these questions about how much russia may or may not have had to do in our election sf. >> i think they're delighted. russia's main game is not to try on put somebody in power. they're delighted when somebody like trump wins but that's not

their main end. their main game is destabilizing, causing to us question our very system. the foundations of democratic governance. that's what the game is in europe. that's what they supported in france and eastern europe and elsewhere and that's what they supported here too. what do our allies think? our allies think the president is distracted. that he do something unhinged. that he will play wag the dog thing. they don't blank he's going to do because they don't think he has any set of principle that's guide him. he thinks he will turn and do this or that. >> how was his debut at the u.n.? >> he gave a get speech. there was a lot of criticism for being anti-democratic. anti-democracy. i have to say, speaking as a good neo con, i didn't think that. er this stuff on north korea, he was criticized earlier.

it was ridiculous. >> they wanted someone who would be strong, who would say the things no one else was willing to say. they wanted somebody to make it known america wouldn't be pushed around. you might not agree with that but is the person they voted for of the. >> they're looking for a man who quoted elton john of the. >> he played a lot at the rallies. so much so that rocket man is not as enjoyable as it used to be. wah-wa! >> it got weird. rocket man. trump style. stay with us.

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in case you missed it, president trump is an elton john fan. >> well, i think elton john is great. >> my friend elton john. >> he said you get the most people of anybody in the world that doesn't play an instrument. it's true. >> in case you missed it, elton john's song rocket marngs i did not miss this, was frequently at the play list in president trump's rallies early in his presidential campaign. like the one in new hampshire. ♪ rocket man >> but president trump took rocket man to new heights today when he used his new nickname for north korea's kim jong-un during his speech to the united

nations. >> rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself. and for his regime. >> the term rocket man was used back in 2006 by the economist to describe kim jong-un's father of because senior aide test msnbc that president trump's use of the phrase was all him. that he doesn't need any help in the branding department. so true. that's all for tonight. "the beat" withari melber starts right now. you have to 3 away from me. i lost the reins at the top of the show and it is a train wreck. >> you know what it says in rocket man of the. >> no. enlighten me. >> he says i'm not the man they think i am back hole of that going into outer space can really change your perspective on things. >> thank you. it's fascinating that you just dropped that of the. >> you dropped it. >> i think if we're going to do this, we have to do fish lyrics