we're putting some of these efforts together right now but it is. it is a problem. we establish it before the storm hit puerto rico. we were going to be in a blackout phase. this storm with the veracity and weak infrastructure hit the island of puerto rico, it would be catastrophic and it hasn't failed in that direction. >> governor, i want to talk to you throughout the week. thank you for making time tonight. appreciate it. >> i'll be here for you. >> that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. >> thank you. >> you bet. happy monday. the election was e larly novemb, the inauguration and swearing in of the new congress was in late january, right? but during that two and a half month period, the high-profile thing happening was obviously the obama administration folding up and the new administration becoming, right? the new administration staffing up and moving to d.c. but for the incoming congress,

you know, not that much is expected between the time of the election and when they actually start work. so the incoming congress between november and january, what they have time to do is basically plan. plan what they are going to do once they are actually up and running. you might remember this congress announced this controversial decision they would actually swear themselves in and get to work doing congress things a little early before the new president was sworn in. they said they wanted to hit the ground faster than usual and start working earlier than usual because they had a very specific to-do list. they wanted to have the delivery of an important campaign promise wrapped up with a bow sitting on the new president's desk for him to sign as soon as he was sworn in, for him to sign on inauguration day as he was trying out the new chair and new desk in the oval office for the first time. it was his campaign promise.

it was also a campaign promise for every republican member of congress. there was not a single republican from their party's plan to kill obamacare, to kill the affordable care act as their first priority as they took control in washington. they had an elaborate plan to convene early, suspend the reels and pass repeal of obamacare by a simple majority vote everybody before the new president was sworn in and as soon as he was sworn in, it could be done. obamacare would be repealed on day one on inauguration day before we realized they were making up the crowd size. that was their plan for the start overthf this administrati. that did not happen, right? they were not able to get it together for it to happen on day one and despite the fact they haven't been districted by efforts to pass anything else, despite the fact they have passed no significant legislation of any kind since they took control in january,

today their latest and potentially last effort to try to kill obamacare finally fizzled out. kentucky senator rand paul was a no. john mccain said no on friday. they could spare no more republican no votes if they wanted to get this thing passed but then today susan collins of maine said she was a no vote, as well. so once again, it's dead. this thing that they were going to do even before trump got there, they still can't do this many months in. so we're going to have more on that coming up tonight, including the reason why it seems to have happened. which will likely be the same reason these efforts by the republicans will keep failing again and again and again, even if they keep trying to do this thing forever. so that story is ahead tonight. i have to say, it been kind of through the looking glass day in the news today. there is a lot of big news. some of it is news we were expecting or watching for but a lot of it is stuff that would be shocking at any other time in american politics.

up to the bar on what counts as weird anymore. but here today, some of this stuff seems weird. the president's campaign manager for example, he's been told by pros k prost cue to prosecutors they plan to indict him. he's expected to promote the time that aims to break up the nation and government of iraq. he's promoting the kurdish inwe dependence referendum despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of american troops fought there for well over a decade to try to keep something like this from happening. that independence referendum, which had paul manafort has a paid consultant was held in northern iraq today. we're still waiting on a result. but given the turnout, which was very high, it looks increasingly possible that that independence referendum in northern iraq will have passed. i should mention we're trying to figure out if the president's

campaign manager paul manafort actually physically went to iraq today for the referendum. seems remarkable he would be comfortably traveling internationally undermining u.s. foreign policy abroad as a private citizen while awaiting indictment on other matters. it seems bizarre he would be doing that but it been reported that he maybe was planning to be in iraq for the referendum today. we asked a spokesman directly if paul manafort was planning to leave the country to attend this thing. that spokes p sman would not te us. if you're watching from iraq tonight, and you have seen paul manafort around, let me know, www.send it to rachel.com, where in the world is paul manafort?i in the world is paul manaforin the world is paul manafor manafort?hillary clinton's use of a private e-mail address to conduct government business while secretary of state.

today we learned in this white house after that campaign, jared kushner and ivanka trump and reince priebus and steve bannon and, and, and, and conducted government business on their own private e-mail accounts. and while we're indulging, "the washington post" reported even though facebook for months insisted there were no russian activity aimed at the u.s. election last year, actually, facebook twice last year in the middle of the election campaign called the fbi to alert the fbi that in fact, they had detected strange russian activity on facebook related to the election. according to the washington post today, facebook noticed enough about what was happening that they twice called u.s. law enforcement about it but then later, they made repeated insisting statements they had seen nothing at all to worry

about. some of theed as th ed ads plac facebook have been handed over to congressional investigators. "the washington post" reports those ads seem to reflect a particularly subtle and sophisticated understanding of u.s. politics and political divisions. including ads about black lives matter and american muslims and of course, it's possible that russian operatives working alone were just tremendously excellent at what they do and they really do have a sophisticated understanding of what works on american audiences and which exact americans might make the difference in a driven strategy. they might just be that good at it. but the themes in the russian-funded ads that have been described so far, they do seem to match what the trump campaign itself was pursuing as its own strategy at the time operatives were pushing it, as well. the russian purchased facebook ads are now in the hands of

congressional investigators. we don't know what they will do for them but figuring out whether the trump campaign and russian operatives might have knowingly been working together. that is obviously the next crucial investigative step, either by the special counsel or congressional committees or both. so like i said, a lot of news today. also, you know, a lot of news that would feel a little surreal at any time more normal than this one. in late 1968 and early 1969, u.s. service members regularly flew flights outside north korean air space. they did this almost every single day and this was a low-profile effort, not just because surveillance efforts are designed to be kept secret. it was also low profile because the american public was focused on other things, even if just talking about foreign policy. we had a brand-new president sworn in january 1969 and had

run in part on the secret plan to end the vietnam war. he did not have a secret plan to end the vietnam war. the war effort was by then massive and growing and more divisive than ever. and so u.s. sailors and airmen and marines flying routine surveillance flights near north korea at the time was something the united states was doing. it wasn't exactly a front of mind concern for the american public, though. until all of a sudden, it had to be. >> the evidence now is the north koreans did indeed shootdown the american plane as they boasted they did. some wreckage full of shrapnel holes has been found and found no survivors. so far, president nixon has said nothing in public. he is left it to the pentagon to tell what few details there are. our pentagon spokesman had a

short statement telling what the u.s. military had learned so far. >> all evidence now available to us including north korean claims and debris sightings leads us to believe that the aircraft was shot down by north korean aircra aircraft. as of this hour, regretfully, there has been no report of survivors. >> it seems certain that 31 c w crewmen of the plane are dead and american destroyer found the bodies of two of them today and the defense department said it concerned about the prospects of finding any survivors. defense secretary lard was talking to newspaper editors and gave some details on the lost airplane. >> it should be understood i think by all that during the

last three months, the first three months of 1969 there were 190 flights. similar in nature flown over this general area. these missions had been flown over international waters for more than 20 years. they have been flowing right in this area in the sea of japan. there was absolutely nothing unusual about this mission. >> nothing unusual about that mission except it was shot out of the sky. 31 americans died. two soviet made north korean made jet fighters fought down the plane and as you heard in the somewhat bewildered statement, the u.s. didn't believe there was anything unusual about that particular flight that would have warranted any sort of confrontation, let alone the shootdown. yes, things were tense at the time in the spring of 1969. but things were more or less stressful and tense all the time

with them. which continued to be true. one prevailing theory at the time as to why they maybe picked that date to shoot down that particular plane and kill those 30 u.s. sailors, not one u.s. marine, one prevailing theory on why that flight got targeted is because that flight happened to take place on april 15th and april 15th was the birthday of kim and so maybe that was the way he decided to celebrate. in 1994 they did it again. this time it was a smaller u.s. military aircraft. it was a two-seater helicopter. one of the crewmen was killed. the survivor was named chief officer bobby hall held prisoner in north korea for 13 days before they finally let him go. >> tonight, after surviving a helicopter crash and 14 days in captivity, doctors here at the army base gave hall a thumbs up. looking considerably more poised after the checkup, officer hall

was ready to go home. >> i'd also lake to express my gratitude toward my family and friends and everyone in brooksville and everyone that had anything to do with helping me and supporting me get back to the united states. >> the united states and north korea have been at some level of hostile stand off for decades. as countries go, we tend to think of north korea as crazy and most of the discussion what to do is experts and observers trying to figure out how crazy they might be and rational the thinking might be and how far they would go to make good on the threats. in the past, though, north korea really has proven itself happy to shoot down u.s. military aircraft and kill u.s. service members when they get the chance. and while north korea remains something of an i to us, we don

know how to out think them but we have seen how they have behaved in the past. the new real wild card in this difficult relationship is our own president. after several days of kim jong-un and donald trump trading personal insults and threats to destroy one another, today the north korean foreign minister stepped up to a bank of reporters and cameras outside his hotel in new york and he told reporters that north korea believes the recent insults and threats by president trump constitute a deck cloloration, war against his country. the audio from the translator here is is not that great but let me tell you what he said here. he said, all of the member states participating in the united nations should clearly remember it was the u.s. who first declared war on our country. the u.n. charter stipulates individual member states have a right to self-defense. since the united states declared war on our country, we will have every right to take counter

measures including the right to shoot down u.s. strategic bombers, even when not yet the air space border of our country. you know, it's one thing when they are threatening to turn us into a nuclear sea of fire or some crazy thing or calling our president mentally deranged or playground/south park tantrum stuff that makes nuclear north korea scary but funny, but clearly, if there has been any strategy behind our new president's insult comic approach to the north koreans, it doesn't seem to be working. remember when he threatened he would rain fire and furry like the world has never seen on -- rain that down on north korea if they ever threatened us again? remember what their response was? they tested a hydrogen bomb. they started threatening us the day he wheeled his fire and furry at them and they didn't stop and they then tested a hydrogen bomb and the threats escalated and missile tests

escalated and nuclear test and posturing and threats just escalated. given the latest round of threats that north korea issued today, i have two questions, both of which i think can be answered. the first about the latest nuclear threat they made. the united states, what was in the soviet union and china have all conducted tests of nuclear bombs where the bomb blew up in the air, an atmosphere nuclear test. there are few countries on earth that tested nuclear bombs that way. the united states and soviet union tested nuclear bombs in the air over the open ocean. china did it over some un uninhabited desert. we haven't had a nuclear test on the planet since the chinese one in 1980. north korea in response to the latest fight with president trump is as of now saying they are going to detonate the new hydrogen bomb in the atmosphere. over the pacific ocean.

again, we haven't had an atmosphere nuclear demonstration test on this planet in 37 years. so my question about that is: is that threat real? do we know if they are capable of pulling that off? relately, if they do try to pull that off, what are the material consequences of that for the rest of the globe and is there reason to worry that they might screw it up? they have had this incredibly increased pace of nuclear tests and new missile tests that they have been displaying over the last several months as president trump ramped up threats and insults. they have been in nuclear power since 2006 and been a threat to neighbors and countries in far flung parts of the globe since before 2006 but now that they are threatening a new highly unusual, very rare, nuclear demonstration in the sky, do we have reason to fear that they might be able to successfully do

that? or that they might make a mistake if they try to do something like that? is a mistake also potentially very dangerous if they give it a try? so that's my first question about their new nuclear threat. here is my second question. they are now threatening to shoot u.s. war planes out of the sky. what was the quote exactly? quote, even when they are not yet inside the air space border of our country. and yes, we all know that the north koreans make threats against the united states all the time. they have trademarked international relations but u.s. war planes fly over the korean peninsula and near to north korea as a matter of course. i mean, just because we've got 35,000 u.s. troops based in south korea and every time north korea does a test or issues a threat the way we typically respond is by sending strike

that -- strategic bombers to go buzz them. we went through news stories we've seen this calendar year of president trump presumably ordering b-1 or b-2 capable bombers to fly near north korea. march 22nd, may 2nd, may 29th, june 8th, june 20th, july 6th, july 8th, july 17th, july 19th, july 30th, august 7th, august 31st. it happened this weekend on saturday. nuclear capable bombers buzzing north korea. i mean, the way we respond to their threats and their threatening rhetoric now is by sending strategic bombers. the president insults them and threatens them they take as decoloration, of war and we send bombers. that's what we're doing now and we do it all the time. but it's one thing to threaten nuclear war. it's another to threaten to shoot down u.s. military aircraft.

they have shot down u.s. military aircraft in the past. that's my other question. what is the united states likely to do in response to this new threat from north korea they will start shooting down u.s. military planes? if, as i expect the united states is going to keep flying the strategic bombers because they don't want to stand down pr from a threat like that, are we at an increased risk of the worst happening? maybe not by deliberate intention but maybe because of mistake or miscommunication or miscalculations. these are the questions i am worried about. i think they are also questions that can be answered with the right expert. joining us now is the right expert president of the fund who i'm pleased to say is msnbc's nuclear analyst. congratulations on this msbnc gig and glad to have you here. >> thank you very much, rachel. pleasure to be here. >> let me ask you the sort of specific stuff i'm worried about first.

do we know if they are capable of setting off an atmospheric nuclear test of the type they threatened today? >> probably. probably. the last test they had was almost certainly a hydrogen bomb. it was quite large. hundreds of kilotons of explosive force. the size of a hydrogen bomb. could they put it on the nose cone of a missile? probably. u.s. intelligence says we have to make that assumption and plan for that. it would be very risky. there is is no certainty here. so yes, they could do it, could they do it reliably? could they screw it up? yes. they could screw it up. they could send this missile over japan and it might not make it over japan. it could explode prematurely. it could fall into the ocean. it could explode too close to japan. their plan would be to put it deep out into the pacific in the area where we roughly used to

test. we detonated 100 hydrogen bombs in the pacific but could go wrong and that could be catastrophic. >> can i just ask you, i know you said we did this 100 types with our nuclear program, if they do it and they don't screw it up, if they do it and do it correctly, is that also a dangerous thing in terms of fallout? >> absolutely. the fallout from our bombs spread around the world. it wasn't just regional. it was carried by the wind. it a reason president kennedy and the russians, soviets negotiated what they called a limited test ban treaty in 1963 to stop atmospheric tests. the soviets and u.s. stopped and other countries, france, china gradually stopped. as you said the last one on earth was in 1980 but then not just the radiation. it the shock of this. remember, this was 1980. most people in the united states were born after 1980.

median age is 37. so most people have never seen a hydrogen bomb go off in the atmosphere, never seen a mushroom cloud. this is a hugely phycologically shocking veevent to see somethi like this and it's unpredictable what the u.s. response would be. >> joe wlar, what do you make o threat north korea see it as their right to shoot down u.s. military planes if they don't cross into north korean air space. i know their capability is not the same as ours and i know the air force isn't necessarily state of the art but is this a real risk? >> absolutely. that's why the air force when they flew the b-1 bombers parter north then any plane, u.s. plane has flown in this scentury, the sent f-15s to escort them. remember, in 2010, the -- 2003, rather, the north koreans sent

21st up to scare away a plane which scooted out of danger quickly. yeah, i think there is a real risk here. i'm a big admirer after james the dean of the fletcher school of law and diplomacy and he puts the odds of a conventional war with korea right now at 50/50 and the odds of a nuclear war at 1-10. except the odds of nuclear war are higher. i don't think there would be a fire break. nuclear experts, nuclear security experts, asia hands are freaked out today at what they see as this escalating crisis. it got so bad the experts at 38 north, one of the leading expert sites had to do an editorial saying take a deep breath. people are very worried about this crisis. it is, as one said, the closest we've come to a nuclear war since the cuban missile crisis.

this is a dangerous new phase of this confrontation. >> joe, thank you. >> thank you, rachel. okay. loa lots more to get to tonight, stay with us. what started as a passion...

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hundreds of people wanted a spot inside the hearing. this is one and only hearing they will hold. people got in line at 5:00 this morning. first come first serve to get in. people got in at 5:00 a.m. even though it didn't start until 2:00 p.m. committee only made room in the end for 20 seats for the general

public. they made even fewer spaces available for people who use wheelchairs. but then once things did get started, they went downhill quite fast. >> come to order. i'd like to welcome everyone, and i do mean evening. [ inaudible ] >> if you want a hearing -- if you want a hearing, you better set up -- [ inaudible ] >> okay. let's get -- [ inaudible ] >> have the police take care of it. [ inaudible ]

>> that one will go down in history, if you want a hearing you better shut up. republicans in charge of that hearing about getting rid of the affordable care act and getting medicaid tried repeatedly to get the disability rights activists in the room to shut up. they did give up and called brief recess and that's when the arrests started. one by one, every single one of those protesters from the group adapt, those folks who woke up before dawn to get in the room were physically removed from the u.s. capital for protesting the bill. took three officers to push this woman and her wheelchair from the room. that woman was carried out of her wheelchair by her arms and legs. once police got her out there,

they put her on the floor and she kept chanting in cuts to medicaid. the woman on bottom is the very front line of this thing. they went ahead with it. [ inaudible ] >> it took about 15 minutes for police to arrest every single member of protest. in total they arrested 181 people today. people there to try to save the affordable care act. susan collins. do the math. john mccain and land paul were

no votes already with two no votes. but with three they are dead. it would be toast. cbo put out the latest score on the republican plan because the way it written, it's hard to estimate because it was all health insurance and the cbo felt safe today and estimating that the number would at least be in the millions. it's anybody's guess at this point whether republicans will go for it again and if so when. but if they do, unless they change course radically, they are very likely to keep running into the same brick wall, the same resistance including from some very, very determined americans for whom this is absolutely life or death.

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man: and dr. pascal and her team, they know what to do. they know what to do. the doctors know what to do. so here's the plan. first off, we're going to give you all... (voice fading away) we have a couple very large consequential stories playing out tonight. one international. one domestic. it's the continued watratchetinp of tension. b one expert says brings us closer to unintentional war since the cuban missile crisis and simultaneously, the domestic matter of what looks like the end for now of republican efforts to kill obamacare and the affordable care act which would result in millions of americans losing all health insurance coverage. that effort appears to have collapsed today in the united states senate. two big stories and our next

guest has a front row seat for both of them. senator chris murphy of connecticut serves in the health care committee and foreign relations committee. thanks for making time to be here tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> let me ask you about health care. we're reading this as its dead for now. do you think that is true and what do you think happens next? >> it is not dead yet in part because you have only two hard noes that you can really trust which are susan collins and john mccain. i remember larand paul was a ne before he suddenly changed to a yes. this is is not over yet, and you know, it's just miraculous at some level that we are even where we are today a few days before a vote with no cbo score and not yet enough members of the senate aligned against a bill that essentially is the equivalent of health care system arson. you would be lighting the american health care system on fire by ending medicaid as we know it ending the health care

exchanges removing all of the tax credits today that help people buy insurance, cutting the amount of money states get by 25% and asking them to deal with the mess. but that's where we are. i think it looks a lot better tonight than it did this afternoon but we still need one more hard no before this thing goes down. >> do you believe that the pressure that people -- that members of the senate, constituents have placed on them, both at their home offices and with demonstrations in the lobbying efforts in washington, do you think that regular people have made a difference in terms of stemming this off thus far? >> so it's funny. i was just talking about this with colleagues today. i said remember early last week where we really thought that we were in trouble, it felt like tremendous momentum behind this bill and i remember thinking then but you know you haven't seen the real troops arrive. you haven't seen these groups representing handicapped americans. you haven't seen the phone

calls. you haven't seen the big turnout to members' offices and when that came late last week and over the weekend, it did start to change minds. the fact of the matter is, this bill still enjoys a 20% approval rating across this country. people are plugged into the issue of health care in a way they haven't been since 2009 and it is an enormous political liability to republicans who are already freaking out about their prospects in 2018 with donald trump on the ballot. so i absolutely think that this political pressure ends up being this positive. the only thing i worry about is that, you know, people who have family members with conditions, they have a lot to worry about. for them to get up off the mat over and over again is version ten and 1 1 and 12 and cops befo -- co comes before congress. >> let me ask you what is going on with north korea. we got a new strategy of dealing

with fornorth korea making some very specific threats. they say they will carry out an atmospheric nuclear test. we haven't seen that on this planet since 1980 and say they will start shooting at u.s. military planes, even if they don't stray into north korean air space. is this sort of just a new day of new crazy threats from north korea or are you legitimately concerned this is a new level? >> well, i know the north korean ambassador today suggested we issued a decoloration, of war. that's nonsense. if insults were a decoloration, of war, the trump administration would be at war with half the world at this point. more importantly, you know, there is two ways to think about the regime and north korea. one is that kim jong-un is a rational actor and if that is is true, then making him understand the consequences of his

continued nuclear escalation may make him thing twice or at least make him think twice about launching a weapon anywhere near the united states or our allies. on the other hand, he could be an irrational actor. he could be a true madman. and by spinning him up with this kind of escalating rhetoric, you could prompt him to do something truly catastrophic. and so, i don't think the trump administration understands the consequences of the language they are using and then by creating no off ramp, no diplomatic path by shutting down any prospect of talks, you make it very hard to give even a rational actor a way out and that is the box that the administration is in right now. >> senator chris murphy of connecticut, thank you for your time tonight. lots going on. >> sure. lots more ahead. stay with us.

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1970, the vietnam war raged on and as approval ratings circled the toilet bowl, president richard nixon saw a way to help himself. he decided to pick a convenient fight with a convenient enemy to

try to bring his own base back home to him. as president, he started berating and provoking anti-war protesters at the public appearances. after protesters threw eggs and rocks at the motorcade in california, president nixon released a statement condemning what he called the stoning at san jose. calling it an example of the viciousness of the lawless elements of our society. in may 1970, when 1,000 young, anti-war activists took to the streets in new york city they were counter attacked. they were attacked by 200 middle aged white construction workers with lead pipes and crowbars and american flags. it was a riot. over 70 injured and 4 police officers. a few weeks later, president nixon invited members of the so-called hard hat riot to come visit him at the white house. nixon looked at the tensions in play in the country and figured

out how to use them to political benefit, amplify them and accrue to himself for political gain. by now you have seen the images of this weekend of hundreds of nfl players taking a knee in the national anthem in protest of police violence against african-americans, a protest waxing and waning in the nfl for months now. by now you have seen the president cranking the handle on the twitter machine, swearing at nfl players over the protest saying they should be fired. lest you think this is an undisciplined outburst on the part of the president, consider a group by the trump campaign team is running facebook ads urging supporters to turn off the nfl and stand with trump. this isn't an outburst. this is not a political burp. that is coordinated intentional political operation. an opportunistic response to the moment in the national, cultural

life. we're 60 years out from little rock today when one president used the power to help the kids go to school against a governor calling up the national guard to stop them. 60 years ago eisenhower and little rock nine. clearly what we're seeing with this president now is different but is it -- is it the opposite? and is it unprecedented? are there thing that is our history can show us of what we're seeing and will see next? joining next is presidential historian michael. >> thank you. thank you, rachel. >> i don't like to see anything as unprecedented and talk to you in terms of historical echos of these things. i think the president moved deliberately to try to take this moment of civil rights activism and racial an misand turn it into capital for himself. >> agree. nixon started out in the inaugural and victory statement saying my great objective will

be to bring the american people together. 1968 was a really tough year with a lot of conflict. and as you said, by 1970, you know, he was running behind in the polls, behind democrats. he had a bad economy. so he thought the way to do this is to come up with a wedge issue. just as you were saying. you know? law and order. he talked about the anti-war protesters. these bums who were blowing up the campuses and nixon's objective was, you know, if americans were unhappy with what he was doing in terms of not getting things done at least they could say, dick nixon hate it is same people i do. that would bind supporters to him, make it more possible to run in 1972. what does that sound like today? >> well, and the way you tell that story, i mean, the lesson that politicos are taking hearing that is that it did work in a way. the concept of wedge issues persists because it works time and again. but is there anything that we

have learned as a country in terms of type of damage that that type of politicking does or if there's an anecdote to it. >> ugly and dangerous and destructive because the idea of this country going back all the way to 1789, george washington, he said it, almost every president has. the job is a lot of things and to bring the country together. it is a big, diverse country. different views, different aims. almost every single president has understood that. perhaps lincoln above all. the bad presidents, the few of them, have been the ones who have tried to rip up the country for their own political benefit and what nixon did. >> in their own political era, not just history but does it come back and bite them? >> i think it does because in nixon's case, for instance, his short-term aim was to win the midterm election of 1907 70.

the republican leaders lost and they felt because -- you mentioned san jose and the nixon and the throwing of rocks, they went to the white house and they said, mr. president, this law and order stuff, san jose, that didn't work. you're killing our party. stop it. and nixon behaved better the next year. >> fascinating. michael, presidential his attorney, thank you. >> wonderful to see you. >> we'll be right back. what is this? it's the new iphone, it's for our anniversary. our anniversary? it's thirty-four days since we first met.

i didn't... get you anything. oh it's, it's fine 'cuz... i got myself one too. oh! from you, for me, happy anniversary. i love it. that is very thoughtful of you. thank you. get the amazing new iphone 8. and with all at&t unlimited plans, get hbo for life. less than $40 per line for four lines. only from at&t.

puerto rico is now enduring the sixth night in almost

complete darkness. most of the island remains without power in the wake of hurricane maria. for all the urgency of the humanitarian situation, the lived experience of the storm is waiting, waiting for help, waiting for government response. residents of puerto rico waiting in line for hours to buy gas, the power generators which is mostly the only source of power still on the island. people are also waiting in lines for water. including people setting up makeshift water stations at streams and springs that opened up in landslides after the storm. governor confirmed last hour with chris hayes 40% of the households have running water and 60% do not. almost complete lack of phone service means they are unable to reach loved ones. in the northwestern part of puerto rico, residents are still watching the local dam. one of the largest on the island which is threatening to collapse since the end of last week. a few hundred people in shelters but tens of thousands of people downstream from that dam.

above all, though, these americans on puerto rico are waiting for more help. puerto rico's governor felt the need to put a statement out today. making basically just an urgent plea for more help and attention. quote, we'll need the full support of the u.s. government. we are u.s. citizens. dispatches from reporters across the island today paint a picture of many areas of puerto rico that are still utterly cut off. many places on the island that have yet to see any aid or any assistance whatsoever. and as i say, this is the sixth night of this. thus far. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening. >> good evening. it's good to know that the president was concentrating on how to help puerto rico. >> yeah. >> right? really good to see that presidential attention being paid to it. and, rachel, puerto rico doesn't have as you know an elected -- a member of congress with voting rights. >> right.