it is 11:00 a.m. in the west and 2:00 p.m. here in the east. and it is friday. and while many of us celebrate

today's arrival after all the weekend is coming, typically it's not that great of a day for members of trump's administration who might be at odds with the president. right now one of those people is rex tillerson. nbc news has learned the president is fuming mad over our exclusive that the secretary of state called president trump a, quote, moron. in a new piece from axios indicates the white house may have already picked a replacement. president trump is staying silent on the possible shakeup right now, but he does have people wondering what in the world he meant when he made these cryptic comments at a white house photo op last night. >> you guys know what this represents? >> tell us. >> i don't know, maybe, it's the calm before the storm. >> what storm? >> could be the calm before the storm. the calm before the storm. >> you talking iran? what? >> what storm, mr. president? >> we have the world's greatest military people in this room.

i can tell you that. we're going to have a great evening. thank you all for coming. thank you. >> what storm, mr. president? >> you'll find out. >> a lot of folks may say this is just the president creating drama. but, again, they are words coming out of the president of the united states mouth so it's important we talk about them, at least try to figure them out. maybe sarah huckabee sanders will have some answers for us when she holds a press briefing in about 30 minutes. for now though let's try and debrief with our team of reporters. you can see peter alexander standing by in the corner of your screen there. he is at the white house press briefing room. ashley parker is a white house reporter for "the washington post" and an msnbc political analyst. i'm katy tur, the camera's still on my face, but i promise the rest of those folks are going to join us in a moment. there's also nick johnston, the editor of axios. there you guys are. nice to see you. peter, we're learning the president is furious about rex tillerson and our exclusive that he called the president a moron.

what are you hearing from your sources at the white house? >> yeah, the president who prides himself on strength doesn't want to be portrayed as a weak guy certainly when it comes to his intellect as evidenced by our reporting that rex tillerson used that word moron to describe the president after a pentagon meeting this past summer. that had the president fuming. we know ultimately after he vented his frustrations with his chief of staff john kelly that john kelly did not make the trip out west to las vegas instead staying back here to try to deal with the fallout. the white house insists -- excuse me, that he was also dealing with the day-to-day operations that required his being here. we also know that the vice president has been frustrated by the details that we were able to report out specifically the fact that as it was reported by a spokesperson for the secretary of state mike pence spoke to rex tillerson about what he thought about the secretary of state -- excuse me, about the u.n. ambassador nikki haley, they were frustrated by that as well. i'm told that was a wildly egregious comment by sources.

here's what we heard from rex tillerson though going about his day-to-day business as if nothing happened as best he can, just a short time ago. >> never conclude that you've finished growing. i'm still learning even at this ripe old age. i learn something every day. learn from the people around you. >> so that was rex tillerson a little bit earlier today as he's continuing to learn now approaching nine months into this job. a lot of questions if he can continue in this position. foreign policy experts saying right now in effect the state department is paralyzed at this time given this friction, this extreme tension between the president of the united states and america's top diplomat in secretary of state rex tillerson. >> people saying his legs are cut off. that he has no real authority. no real credibility around the world. if it seems to be -- if it is what it seems which is the president doesn't have a lot of confidence in him or at least is not agreeing with him on some key issues. nick, axios is reporting the

president is floating the idea we've been hearing nikki haley but there's also talk of cia director mike pompeo being the next secretary of state. why? >> yeah, that was mike allen's scoop this morning on axios that mike pompeo is on the list. some interesting things we've learned in our reporting is he's giving the president his daily briefing every day, which means he probably spends as much time with the president as anyone. also has ability to push back against the president, that's something different for the staff. it's pompeo and mattis generally the two that have been able to achieve that. i think as you mentioned earlier, tillerson's had a rough relationship with the president for almost his entire tenure and i think that nbc story you guys had this week blew the lid off all of that showing that relationship is almost unreparable. and so now we're going to start the clock ticking to see if we'll get a replacement. >> ashley, what's the deal with moving cabinet officials? john kelly moves to chief of

staff, if mike pompeo moves to secretary of state, who replaces mike pompeo? >> that's a good question. part of it is the president is comfortable with people he knows. it's a very small group of people. that's why you see some of these people from his previous life sort of following him or at least that orbit into the white house. i think this reshuffling is he's chosen some cabinet secretaries some have clearly worked out better than others. and i think he's found the people he's comfortable with, found the people to be differential in the way he requires, the people who look the part and he thinks are smart and now taking the chance to elevate them. >> peter, not to get distracted by this idea of something happening soon, the calm before the storm, but the president has a tendency to do this. >> yeah. >> he has a tendency to tease upcoming news that never pans out. we actually went back and found quite a few circumstances where he did just that. let's take a listen. >> we'll see. we'll see the end result.

so we will see what happens. we'll see what happens with mr. bannon. we'll see what happens. we'll see what happens. >> mr. president , will you attack north korea? >> we'll see. >> will you attack north korea? we'll see. is this just the president, i guess, a crutch of speech for him? is that the best way to describe this? >> well, this is a reality tv star, at least in the not too distant past. a guy who knows how to sell a story or episode as it were and this in tv terms is a pretty good cliffhanger, at least that's perhaps the way the president has may viewed it and it's left some suspense about what storm he's referring to. we know the political storms he's dealing with here but storms around the globe exist as well including an upcoming decision, impending decision on the iran nuclear deal. our understanding from sources that the white house will announce that the president effectively is not resercertify

that deal. is there some action imminent north korea? we don't know. it's not clear the president's aides know. privately they've said as much. hopefully sarah huckabee sanders can enlighten us in some form as we get her briefing now less than 30 minutes away. >> ashley, is it us just getting caught up in this? should we ignore what the president says? is that the best way for us to go about this? is it just us falling for donald trump's flare for the dramatic? i mean, this is the president of the united states. he's saying something vague and somewhat potentially threatening. do we have a duty to try and figure out what in the world he means if anything? >> i think that's exactly right. he's the president of the united states. this is a debate people have about his tweets too. i just don't think you can ignore what he says. >> yeah. >> but in that same way i do think that -- and even his aides, closest advisors abide by

this theory that until he actually does something, until he has made a decision, you sort of can't count on anything. so his words absolutely matter. i can tell you ambassadors and diplomats in the world are certainly watching. but for reporters and close around him you pay attention to what he says, try to figure it out but really base it on what he actually decides and when he chooses to fire someone or what he actually chooses to do with the iran deal, for instance. >> ashley parker laying it out. peter alexander as well and nick johnson, appreciate your time, guys. >> thanks, katy. >> ambassador mark ginsburg is a former presidential middle east advisor. he was the u.s. ambassador to morocco under president clinton and currently serves as senior global counselor for the counterextremism project. ambassador, welcome. thank you for joining us. >> sure, katy. >> what do our allies make of this tension between the president and the secretary of state? >> well, any time there's this type of not only tension but also credible differences of

views on issues as important as iran or north korea, the transatlantic alliance or what to do about the situation in syria in the middle east, it drives a gulf between what allies can count on and what credibility the white house has versus the secretary of state. it's quite clear that most countries, most of our allies around the world do not want to see war break out on the korean peninsula. they do not want to see the iran nuclear agreement de-certified. and they clearly see a secretary of state who's individually put himself in an awkward position. and number two obviously has very little capacity to influence the president's mindset. >> where do we stand on the world stage right now? i ask because we've asked this question a number of times since january 20th. >> it's an interesting perspective based on who you ask and what country you're talking to. when you look at what's

happening in europe with the re-election of chancellor merkel and with the european union understanding right now that the situation in the white house is shall we say less than crystal clear as to where things will go, president macron of france has been trying to serve as the bridge between europe and the united states. and he has developed this great personal rapport and he's actually laid out some ideas on how the president can move forward on korea and on iran. but when it comes to our allies in the middle east, there's an uncertainty about what this may mean inso far as iran, secondly. inso far as japan and south korea. we're still uncertain -- isn't it strange, katy, how north korea comes and goes on the front pages of the headlines? you don't see it the last few days and yet the situation is as grave as it has been just two weeks ago. >> there's just so many stories that we have to cover with this

white house on a daily basis that are monumental. let's throw another one in here, the iran deal. if the president decides to de-certify it, kicks it back to congress, maybe trying to have his cake and eat it too by saying i wanted to get rid of it but congress didn't act. maybe that's the best case scenario for interpreting this. that's how we could see it. but how does north korea see that? what do they think of our ability to stick by our word and the deals that we make? >> katy, i think you read completely correctly how this will play out in the congress. congress will have 60 days to decide whether it will reimpose sanctions. i doubt congress will do that. the president will indeed as you said have his cake and eat it. he will de-certify. but if you're trying to negotiate an agreement which tillerson was apparently out in the far east to try to do and to arrange for support from china, from south korea and from japan, his legs were cut out from underneath him.

the president said in a tweet, you're wasting your time. there's no way, there's no way that we're ever going to get even in the hopes of any grand scheme some sort of agreement with the north koreans if the north korean government sees that we are prepared to pull out of an iran nuclear agreement that was painstakingly negotiated. why would they have the incentive to do so? >> yeah. >> they would clearly come to the same conclusion that no agreement entered into under the trump administration is worth the paper it's written on. >> well, i mean, how could you trust any agreement made under any president? if the next president's just going to come in and rip it up, that's an ongoing issue you might face. former presidential middle east policy adviser and u.s. ambassador to morocco, mark ginsburg, ambassador, thank you very much. >> thank you, katy. >> once again, we'll get the last press briefing of the week from sarah huckabee sanders. you can see what i believe was the pool filing in. so i guess they're getting ready for this press briefing. you'll see it right here once it

begins. but in las vegas investigators are gaining some ground in finding out why a wealthy gambler carried out a massacre sunday night. could a note left behind at the scene offer new clues into stephen paddock's state of mind and his motive? and the gunman's own electronic devices could also help solve this mystery. pete williams will break it all down for us. next though, september's jobs numbers are in. the labor department says we lost 33,000 jobs, the first loss in seven years. economists blame the impact of hurricanes harvey and irma on texas and florida. but despite losing jobs, wages increase and the unemployment rate actually improved falling to 4.2%. we'll be right back. i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had.

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our hearts remain heavy and sad for the victims of the horrible mass murder in las vegas. on wednesday in nevada, i visited with brave survivors still recovering in the hospital and with heroic police officers, first responders and everyday americans who acted with speed and courage to save countless lives. >> investigators are still searching for answers in the deadliest mass shooting in

modern u.s. history. and a lot of people are still looking for healing as well. crosses have been set up along the las vegas strip for each of the 58 victims of sunday's shooting at the route 91 harvest festival. investigators are combing through the digital background of stephen paddock, the man police say opened fire on the crowd from a hotel suite 32 floors above the ground. they're looking for any clues as to what his motive might be. but right now that remains unclear. let's begin with the latest on the investigation. nbc justice correspondent pete williams is monitoring developments from our washington newsroom. pete, are investigators right now certain that stephen paddock acted alone? >> certain, no. there's no indication that anyone else acted with him, but let me give you a little insight into this investigation and some of the things they're running up against. for example, one of the questions is was he alone in his hotel suite? now, the sheriff said the other

day that one of the news conferences they don't know that anyone else was in there, but let me give you an example of the kinds of questions they're trying to run down. for example, we're told by several law enforcement officials that an electric charger like for a cell phone was found in the room that doesn't match -- or doesn't go into any of the phones that stephen paddock left in the room. could that mean someone else had been in there and left their charger there? it's a question. a second question, he parked his car in the parking garage at the mandalay bay hotel, but part of the time that he was registered in the room that car left the garage and then came back. what we're told by several officials is during the time the car was gone from the garage someone used his room key, his card key, to get into the suite that he was in in the hotel. now, there could be logical explanations for both of those

anomalies that don't involve someone else being in the suite, but until investigators can figure out what the answer to that is, that's something that they want to try to run down. >> pete, did they see him on surveillance footage with another woman at some point as well? >> well, we know that there are several reports that he was with another woman. and the fbi and the las vegas police are trying to find that woman. they've heard various versions of why she might have been with him. and until they know for sure who that woman is, they can't say, but that's the so-called mystery woman you've heard talked about the last couple of days. no indication that she was in the room, but again, that's another thing that they want to run down. and i think you're looking here at video of the suite that he occupied when i know it was occupied by someone else, other people that have been in the mandalay bay hotel. >> got it. >> have posted on social media

video they made at the time they stayed in the suite. you can see it's two rooms, the sheriff talked about having to breach that door that the camera just went through that separates sort of the main room from the bedrooms. that's why they had to breach the second door that's inside there. one other thing, katy. >> yeah. >> we now know that he bought some of his ammunition from a gun show in phoenix about a month before the shooting. and we are told by law enforcement that a man who sold him some of that ammunition has told law enforcement that paddock asked him for what are called tracer rounds. >> huh. >> and these are rounds that leave a visible trail at night. and if you were firing at night it would help you better guide so you can see where your rounds are going. there's no indication that he used tracer rounds, but he was at least looking for them a month before the shooting. and one other thing, an

indication of how successful he was at gambling. we're told by a couple of law enforcement officials that his irs records show that he reported an income of $5 million in 2015, some of that may have been from his real estate investments, but authorities say most of that was from his gambling. >> pete, two very quick questions. one, the tracer bullets, could they have been to see whether or not he was actually hitting the gas tanks at the airport? is that an assumption right now? >> well, two things about that. one is we know that some of his rounds -- two of the rounds struck an aviation fuel tank. one penetrated it, one didn't. the airport has said that didn't create any damage. but the officials have said there's just no way to know for sure whether he actually sighted the round at that fuel tank. he was using bump stocks on some of these rifles apparently. and when you use a bump stock, it's a little bit hard to

control the weapon. accuracy goes down. so perhaps in the process of putting it into the window opening or taking it out there was a stray round or two. it's simply going to be impossible to know whether he actually aimed at those fuel tanks. if he did, he only struck it twice. and only one round penetrated it, katy. >> pete williams, thank you very much. thanks for all those updates. donald trump is now talking about manufacturing, he's signing a manufacturing bill at the white house. he did that just a few moments ago. he also addressed his comments from last night. let's listen. >> thank you, jay, that's great. thank you very much. okay. so this is our proclamation and this is in honor of our great national manufacturing day and tremendous success we've been having especially over the last

nine months it's been a big difference. >> we have 3,000 events across the country. you mentioned your cabinet secretaries are out celebrating manufacturing with manufacturers in some of these facilities as well. >> that's right. >> about 600,000 students and teachers and community leaders will be participating so they can learn all the great things there are to learn about modern manufacturing. and we're hopeful that many of them will join these fine people up in the manufacturing industry. >> and they will be. it's happening. thank you very much, jay. appreciate it. so the big question is, who gets the pen? what do you think? should we do it maybe jay? . >> thank you. mr. president. [ applause ]

>> thank you very much, everybody. >> mr. president, what did you mean by calm before the storm yesterday? what did you mean by that? >> thank you very much. you'll find out. >> we'll find out? >> we'll see. thank you, everybody. >> that was a proclamation, not a bill, excuse me, he was asked about his comments last night. the calm before the storm. he gave a smirk and a bit of a wink there it seems and he said we'll find out, you'll see. again, no information whatsoever from the president. just more intrigue, drama, who knows what. we're still waiting for that white house press briefing to start. we'll see if sarah huckabee sanders has any idea what the president is talking about. i'm not sure if she does have those answers, but we'll find out. meanwhile, new rules out of the white house this morning might make it tougher for women to get

birth control. the trump administration announced a new policy that allows more employers to act out of providing no-cost birth control to women by claiming moral or religious objections. religious groups had battled the obama administration over this for years. womens groups say it's a major blow to women's health while the hhs department says today's changes will not affect 99.9% of women in the u.s. house speaker paul ryan issued a statement calling this a landmark day for religious liberty. he also said the trump administration has developed a common sense rule to avoid a needless fight. the conscience protections installed will ensure that people and organizations can freely live out their religious convictions and moral beliefs. a much different response from house democratic leader nancy pelosi. she issued a statement saying this administration's contempt for women reaches a new low with this appalling decision to enable employers and health plans to deny women basic

coverage for contraception. democrats will fight with all of our strength to defend every woman's right to comprehensive health care including contraception coverage. and that is not all. attorney general jeff sessions has directed federal agencies to do as much as possible to accommodate people with religious objections to lgbtq rights. joining us now from our washington bureau, politico senior writer and playbook co-author jake sherman. and here in our new york news room real clear politics reporter. jake, are you surprised about this? >> no. this is something republicans have been talking about for a long time on capitol hill. what i am surprised about is if you read the jonathan martin alex burns story in the "new york times" this morning, the president had a fund raising dinner in manhattan, a restaurant i'll never be able to afford, he said that he will -- he wanted to cut a health care

deal with democrats. so, again, it's kind of the mixed messages. >> yeah. >> just like saying, you know, stay tuned, this is the calm before the storm. it doesn't really make sense if he's truly interested in doing a health care deal with democrats why he would eliminate a provision or change the law. >> well, is it just because it's an obama era rule? anything with obama's name on it he's going to roll it back, except for guns? except for the bump stocks and the atf decision? >> listen, it's systematic dismantling of the health care law, by the way no one should be surprised at this. this is what republicans have been running on since 2010. >> yeah. >> they've won, you know, multiple elections saying they were going to do these things. it highlights their failure of not being able to pass a repeal and replace bill. but this shouldn't surprise anybody if democrats have a problem with it they should win elections. and that's kind of what republicans are saying behind the scenes to me today. we told our voters we were going

to do this. we told the american people we are going to do this. >> so how do democrats win elections if they're with this? >> well, this is something i think certainly is going to animate democrats. i think what's interesting about this too is you've seen over the course of the trump administration that he has really endeared himself to kind of the social conservative constituency of the republican party. republican back in may he unveiled an executive order on religious freedom, speech and those sorts of things at that time. and that unraveling he suggested that this kind of order would be coming down the pike. and we've seen him, you know, time and time again really try to bulk up his constituency, his base of support at times where he doesn't have any legislative accomplishments to speak of at this point. but i think this is an issue, too, you know, republicans beyond trump are trying to figure out how to expand their party's reach among young people, among women, for example. and this kind of issue, i think, will -- could be an impediment to some of those efforts. >> jake, you were talking about the dismantling of obamacare and

systematic dismantling of it. what can you say though about the lgbt decision? >> i think there's some element of what you were saying before, which is right. i mean, the president clearly does want to dismantle the entirety of the obama era agenda. and this is, again, he has -- you're right, he has endeared himself to social conservatives. and social conservatives in kind have backed him up step by step through a lot of these scandals that he's been through, a lot of his, you know, controversial statements, social conservatives have been there for him. that has been a good relationship for donald trump. and you see on the other end he's doing a lot, not legislatively but in the oval office to keep them happy. >> politico senior writer jake sherman and real clear politics reporter, happy friday. >> happy friday. >> there are a few things that divide americans more than gun

control. those divisions are on full display as the nation deals with the attack that killed 58 people and wounded nearly 500 more. congressman steve scalise nearly lost his life at a congressional baseball practice shooting. he spoke exclusively to nbc's chuck todd about calls for a ban on bump stock devices. >> there are people that want to rush to judgment. they've got a bill written already, and i mean, look, minority leader nancy pelosi already said she wants it to be a slippery slope. she doesn't want to stop at bump stocks. they want to go out and limit the rights of gun owners. so i do think it's a little bit early for people to say they know what to do to fix this problem. >> so every mass shooting that we see in this country reignites another call for stricter gun laws, but usually that all fades away within days or weeks after that shooting. and there's no action that's left behind. a pugh research center survey conducted earlier this year found that there are measures that enjoy wide support among

americans. they include preventing the mentally ill from purchasing guns, 89% of republicans and 89% of democrats support that. banning gun purchases by people on no-fly or watch lists, 82% of republicans and 85% of democrats also support that. and conducting background checks for private sales at gun shows 77% of republicans and 90% of democrats support that. additionally a june quinnipiac university poll found that 57% of voters believe guns are too easy to buy. only 35% believe that more people carrying guns as the nra argues, will make america safer. pew also asked gun owners how they felt about gun laws. about 30% say they should be more strict. these massacres are awful, but they should not be the whole focus. more than 33,000 people are killed by guns each year, not just homicides but accidents

with guns. according to the gun violence archive 77 people at least have been killed by guns in the past 72 hours alone, that is more than everybody that was killed on sunday in las vegas. joining us now is adam winkler, a ucla law professor and author of "gun right" the battle for the right to bear arms in america. adam, there seems to be some widespread support about tighter gun regulations among republicans, among democrats. why in the world has congress not acted on behalf of the majority of americans? >> well, because there are a lot of single issue pro-gun voters who are very intense and who will really mobilize in opposition to any elected official that supports even reasonable or moderate gun control laws. i remember when universal background checks was up for debate after newtown. and heidi heitkamp, democratic

senator from north dakota said, well, the polls show 90% support, but calls in my office are 7 to 1 against. and she knows the people calling her office are much more likely to vote, get their friends to vote. 90% of the people support gun control but 10% that oppose are very, very strong. >> is this the nra coming out and just being very good at glossy, i guess you could argue propaganda for guns? convincing those small portion of people that the government wants to take their guns away and that they need them in order to protect themselves and protect their freedom and their constitutional rights in this country? >> well, it sure is. the nra is a very good advocacy group both in congress and in the public sphere more generally. and it's not just the nra. it's also the nra's allies. we just saw the congressman who himself had been a victim of gun violence say a bunch of nonsense talking points.

we shouldn't rush to judgment about bump stocks. dianne feinstein proposed banning bump stocks in 2013. this is not a new idea. california -- >> so when they say they had no idea of what they were they'd never heard of it, were they being dishonest? >> well, i think a lot of people haven't paid attention to these particular pieces of equipment, these devices and mechanisms that modify a firearm because they're actually not that popular in gun circles. >> yeah. >> but they're not unknown to lawmakers. and there's been proposals to ban them for many years. >> adam, this is such a small piece of this. the bump stocks it's like healing a symptom but not effecting the cause here. david frum and bret stevens has two interesting articles in the past few days, one in the atlantic and another an op-ed in "new york times." bret stephens conservative argues there's only one way to protect americans and that is to repeal the second amendment. he cites a number of statistics talking about people who die from handguns every year, who die from accidents with handguns

every year and that includes a number of children. so if you have a conservative like bret stevens arguing that and then you have david fruhm, also a republican, arguing that gun safety begins not with the technical fixes but with the spreading of truthful information, people who bring guns into their homes are endangering themselves and their loved ones. if you see that sort of movement from two, you know, republican thought leaders, essentially, do you think that there is at some point going to be a willingness for people in this country to talk about, you know, the taboo, to talk about what you're not allowed to talk about, repealing the second amendment or taking away guns? >> well, you know, it's important to have these conversations. i mean, i just disagree with the idea that the answer is in repealing the second amendment. you know, the truth of the matter is the supreme court just interpreted the second amendment in 2008 to protect an individual right to bear arms. if we were back in 2007 would you say that you liked america's gun laws?

no, the answer is what's preventing us from getting good gun control laws is not the second amendment. the courts have upheld the vast majority of gun control laws. >> but are gun control laws going to fix any of this? we are the only country in the world that has the problem with gun violence that we have. >> well, that's right. and there is no doubt, katy, you're absolutely right that in a society with 320 million guns we're going to have easy access to guns, for criminals, for people who want to commit suicide. and unfortunately for mass shooters. we don't seem even close to getting universal background checks much less repealing the second amendment and confiscating people's guns. so i think that's not where we should be focusing our attention. we should not necessarily only be focusing on small issues like bump stocks. we should try to have a more comprehensive approach that includes universal background checks, better enforcement of our gun laws, cracking down on gun trafficking, but let's be honest that conversation is not about to happen in congress. so you can't blame gun control advocates for pushing for a small reform when realistically

that's the only thing they can hope for. >> but it seems can't get anything done, something as small as bump stocks is going to get argued in congress. and then something as large as taking away guns it just seems to be a stalemate on all sides of this issue, which is unfortunate because people die every single day from guns. i'm going to get off my soap box for a moment. ucla and author, thank you. >> thank you. you can catch interview with congressman steve scalise this weekend. we are still waiting for the daily press briefing from sarah huckabee sanders. as soon as she takes the podium we'll go there live. maybe she'll answer what the president was talking about last night about, we'll see, the calm before the storm, who knows. up next though, when it first came out many thought that the steele dossier, remember that?

they thought it was a crock, but bob mueller continues to dig through it and met with the man behind it. now we have new information about who he might meet with next. is there any truth to the dossier after all, or is mueller just crossing it off his list? their experience is coveted. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of - researchers of technologies that one day, you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. (bell ringing) so, i was at mom and dad's and found this. cds, baseball cards. your old magic set? (sigh) and this wrestling ticket. which you still owe me for. seriously? $25? i didn't even want to go. ahh, your diary!

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hours after fema came under fire for removing key metrics about drinking and electricity, fema tells us the data is back up. in fact, we checked, it is back up. in the two weeks since hurricane maria hit only 2% of the island has power and over half of the residents have running water that they can drink. last hour i spoke with fema's acting deputy director who said the best information about where puerto rico is at the moment should come from the puerto rican government. >> if you look at the website that i just mentioned, the puerto rican government website, the data has gotten better. but it has nothing to do with whether it's on our website or not. the definitive source is the puerto rican government. >> earlier at the white house president trump tried to reassure the people of puerto rico that he will be there for them and so will this

administration, while he was celebrating a hispanic heritage month event. >> we are also praying for the people of puerto rico. we love puerto rico. we also love puerto rico. and we're marshaling every federal resource at our disposal. puerto rico has a long road of recovery ahead, very long road. but we know that its people are proud and they are resilient and they will come back strong. >> and as if there wasn't enough weather in this country in the past few weeks, meanwhile the gulf of mexico is on guard for nate, the tropical storm is now blamed for at least 20 deaths in central america and continues to churn toward the gulf coast. it is expected to make landfall some time this weekend and could intensify to a category 1

hurricane. cities from the florida/alabama border -- on the florida/alabama border could see around 2 to 3 inches of rain and heavy wind. the pentagon has released names of three u.s. soldiers killed this week in an ambush attack in west africa. 35-year-old staff sergeant bryan black of washington state, 35-year-old staff sergeant jeremiah johnson of ohio and 29-year-old staff sergeant dustin wright of georgia were gunned down by enemy fire while conducting operations in niger. they were all assigned to special forces at fort bragg. and murphy is a pro-life republican who's advocated bans on abortion but he was recently accused of asking his own mistress to get an abortion during a pregnancy scare last year. and it's been nearly a year since the infamous christopher steele dossier came to light.

nbc news is reporting steele has had talks with the senate intelligence committee about meeting their investigators looking into the trump campaign ties to russia. this comes after nbc news also confirms members of special counsel bob mueller's team recently met with steele outside of the united states. steele's 35-page dossier alleges that members of the trump campaign colluded with russia. it also contains sexual allegations against -- salacious sexual allegations against president trump, which he has previously denied. all of this flies in the face of what senate intel chairman, well, not all of it, the portion about whether or not steele was willing to come talk to the senate, well, that flies in the face with what senator burr said yesterday. >> as it relates to the steele dossier, unfortunately the committee has hit a wall. we have on several occasions made attempts to contact mr.

steele. those offers have gone unaccepted. the committee cannot really decide the credibility of the dossier without understanding things like who paid for it, who are your sources and subsources? >> now, price is msnbc's national -- or one of msnbc's national security analysts and a former cia analyst as well. he joins me now. ned, good to see you. we heard one thing from senate intel leaders another from sources familiar with the situation. what's behind the disconnect here about whether or not steele wants to come in and answer questions from the senate intelligence committee? >> well, katy, there does seem to be a disconnect, but i think the fact of the matter is that spies the world over are typically wary of the united states congress. they know that congress probably more so than any other body in this town tends to leak like a sieve. so i'm not at all surprised to learn that christopher steel

dlesteele met with mueller's team this summer. they speak the same language. christopher steele is a long-time operative of mi-6 along with the officials bob mueller has put together. so they are able to share details that i don't suspect that christopher steele would ever be comfortable sharing with congress probably because of the same concerns about leaks that often plague the capitol behind me. >> does it have to do with just not wanting to leak information or not wanting -- steele not wanting to reveal who funded this report? >> well, it could be a little bit of both. i think it's an open question as to what christopher steele has revealed to mueller's team. but it sounds like they have gotten much further than steele has offered to the senate investigators so far. but when it comes to the most cherished assets of an intelligence professional, that is his or her sources. and those subsources that report to those sources. so i suspect more than anything what christopher steele what makes him apprehensive is the

idea of providing names of the people behind the series of reports that comprise this dossier. >> so what is in the dossier? that's, you know, been a big topic of discussion after buzz feed released the entirety of of it, gosh, so many months ago now. it's been lambasted saying it's completely salacious and absurd. it seems like the other day when senator burr was holding that update, that they did -- they were able to corroborate at least portions of it. they said that they've been able to work with it up to a point. i'm paraphrasing. but let it led us to believe tht least a portion of that dossier could be correct. what is your interpretation of the information that was in there and whether or not investigators are taking that information seriously, or are they just trying to knock it down out of a matter of, you know, good housekeeping? >> yeah, katy. i don't think we can render a

single v single verdict there are smul details that have proven to be untrue. there are much larger details that have been borne out over time. there's a report in the dossier that's dated june 2016, and it describes the russian plans to launch and a multi-faceted campaign to denigrate hillary clinton and to advantage donald trump, and it speaks of tactics that involve operations in the cyber realm. it speaks of meetings with paul manafort. it speaks of leaked clinton campaign files, all of which had not come to light and all of which the u.s. government was not tracking in june 2016. so any reasonable person would be lead to believe there is at least some kernels of truth and perhaps the people christopher steele spoke to in putting this together knew a thing or who about what they were talking about. when it comes to what bob mueller's team is trying to do, it sounds like they are throwing everything against the wall,

everything and the kitchen sink. certainly while the entire things that not been -- >> msnbc national security analyst, ned price. good to see you. >> thank you. we're going to be back with one more thing in just a moment. that is if sarah huckabee sanders does not take the podium at the white house briefing. she's a little late, 22 minutes to be exact. so who knows? maybe she'll walk out in 13 seconds, and we'll have to break in from this commercial break. stay by your tv.

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investigators have now identified all of the people who lost their lives in the deadliest mass shooting in recent history. someone erected 58 crosses along the las vegas strip, one for each of the victims of sunday's attack. the clark county coroner's office released an official list of those who were killed. hundreds of others were injured, and dozens are still in the hospital. nbc's steve patterson joins us now from las vegas. steve, the sight of those crosses is bone-chilling. >> it's absolutely chilling. i'm looking at people right now coming through here. we can start walking now and just to show you. it's an incredible response. i'm looking at people with tears in their eyes setting down flowers on each one of these crosses. each one, by the way, represents one of the victims of the 58 who were killed by that mass gunman in the shooting.

and you can see some of the things here. i mean there's religious designations. there's things that people liked. there's sports teams and pennants, and then everyone, everyone has a picture individualized to each person. so an incredibly moving tribute that has moved people since they've been here. we've been here all morning, and the response here has been incredible. each person obviously gets their own sort of setup, and this was all shipped here from chicago. so 2,000 miles away, this retired 66-year-old carpenter did this and shipped it here, and the response, as we've been saying all morning long, has been absolutely incredible, katy. >> we can see people hugging behind you, steve. a little bit earlier, you showed us the cross for michelle vo, and the viewers of this show might remember that a couple days ago, we talked to cody.

"the washington post" wrote a touching article about how they connected at that concert and how one minute they're sharing a beer, enjoying the music. the next minute they're running for their lives, and michelle was unfortunately hit, and how he stayed on the phone with her family and made sure that the family was able to find her in the hospital. unfortunately, though, she lost her life. steve patterson in las vegas, thank you very much for bringing that to us tuesday. >> reporter: thank you. and one more thing before we go on a slightly different -- very different topic. journalism works. this was the headline earlier this week from the associated press, detailing its investigation that found some frozen seafood sold here in the u.s. is actually packaged by north koreans, outsourced by the north korean government to work in china. the food, like the frozen salmon and calamari you see here was eventually sold at walmart and some restaurants across america. that was then. check out this new headline.

because of the a.p. story, u.s. customs officials now vow to block all imports made by north korean workers. here's why. the story in "the washington post" -- excuse me. the story and washington's response to it matters. one, it's flat out illegal for any company to import such items according to a law signed by president trump in august. stores and restaurants in violation say they're correcting course and are working to find out how this slipped through the cracks. two, the workers are treated like modern-day slaves. they're required to live in dorms at the factory. they have to wake up early, and they're not allowed to be alone. then there's this. the north korean government takes 70% of the money they earn. so when americans bought those frozen seafood -- excuse me -- bought that frozen seafood, they didn't realize they were inadvertently funding north korea's nuclear program.

their communities and their lives, and he has committed to all americans that we are going to build an economy that works for everyone. we are encouraged to see that the unemployment rate has once again dropped and workforce participation vaulted to a 3 1/2 year high. this report underscores the need for congress to work with us to grow the economy and create jobs. the importance of passing tax relief for american workers and business cannot be overstated. we have a once in a generation opportunity to create a tax code that is simple, fair, and easy to understand. that means getting rid of the loopholes that primarily benefit the wealthiest americans and special interests. it also means lowering taxes for middle-income americans so that they can keep more of their hard-earned paychecks and buy the great american products made by american manufacturers. today the president signed a proclamation declaring october 6 national anthem manufacturing day. this honor