said stephen combs, quote, flu the hell out of that plane. there are eight sailors alive today who are living proof of that. that is our broadcast on a tuesday night. thanks for being with us. good night from nbc news headquarters in new york. we've got the mayor of san juan puerto rico here tonight. she's going to be here with us live in studio tonight. as yet, another scandal broke today concerning the federal government's disastrous response to hurricane maria in puerto rico. again, i'm very excited to speak with her. we've also got our nuclear expert here tonight as north korea fires off a missile that appears to have been the longest range weapon that country has ever tested, a missile apparently capable of dropping a warhead on the white house, or

for that matter on anywhere else within the continental united states. he'll be joining us in just a fumes to give us some perspective on that. we are exactly two weeks out as of tonight from the u.s. senate race in alabama, where beleaguered republican roy moore faces democrat doug jones. the stress appears to be getting to the roy moore campaign a little bit. his staffers have now taken to physically shoving news crews who are trying to cover their candidate in alabama. even when those news crews are credentialed and are news crews that have rsvp'd for official roy moore campaign events because they are invited to cover them. we've also got lots of eyes tonight on democrat john conyers, where a third former staffer of his has now come forward to allege that congressman conyers sexually harassed her in the workplace. now, john conyers is the longest serving member of the house of representatives.

he is a founding member of the congressional black caucus. he is the leading democrat on the judiciary committee or at least he was. he already announced yesterday that he would be stepping aside from his leadership as the top democrat on judiciary. but now in the light of yet another accuser coming forward this afternoon, congressman conyers' position on capitol hill is starting to seem precarious. one of his fellow judiciary committee democrats called for his resignation today. "the wall street journal" has a report tonight on trump national security adviser mike flynn. yet another new report on mike flynn. that loads yet more weight on to the pile of legal scrutiny that he appears to be facing, citing people familiar with the matter, which is always the least helpful hint to figure out who's leaking, people familiar with the matter. oh, come on! "the wall street journal" reports tonight that mike flynn as trump's national security

adviser in his brief tenure in the white house, according to the journal, he aggressively pursued at least one project that he had been paid to promote as a consultant, a controversial plan to build nuclear power plants in the middle east. according to sources, even after national security council staff pushed back on that advocacy for mike flynn saying hey, way, we can't work on this if you've been paid for that deal, even after that pushback, people hired by and loyal to flynn inside the white house reportedly continued to promote fly flynn's plan. that brings me to our nightly reminder that the president of the united states now says he will not be providing any financial assistance to mike flynn's legal defense fund. not a dime.

and it's reported that the president has been telling random passersby and friends that the russia investigation and the mule are inquiry itself will definitely be done bit end of this year. quote, hanging out at mar-a-lago and at his south florida golf clubs, trump told friends, this investigation is going to be over with pretty soon. some trump aides and confidantes worry about the president's optimistic assessment of the situation, which he has repeated

in conversations in recent we s weeks, waxing on about how he's eager to be out from under the russia cloud by 2018. one outside advisor to trump warns that the president would

quote blow a gasket if there was no statement of exoneration by year's end. blowing a gasket. i wonder what that looks like. there are 33 days between now and the end of the year. the president is going to blow a gas get if he's not exonerated if everything isn't over by then? while republicans have been in control of the house and senate and white house since january, they have passed no significant legislation of any kind and you can't blame all of that on the russia investigations. yesterday republicans and democrats all members of congress and senate came back from the holiday break with a head of steam because republicans think they have one last chance to show over the course of a year in power, they can maybe pass one thing. they haven't passed anything yet but think they can do it by the end of the year. the bill they are trying to pass is wildly unpopular with the general public so as congress is headed back to work to pass this tax bill of theirs, their constituents have headed back to work, as well, to try to block it. ♪ >> this was a polite middle of the road, literally middle of the intersection protest in texas. the way it worked is every time the light turned red, this group who said constituents would run out into the intersection and do a dance routine with a fake donald trump shoving money into hats to explain the effect of the tax bill. they call themselves tiny jazz hands as a tribute to the president. and, you know, when the light turns green, people would honk and they would get out of the intersection. it's hard to think the senator of texas will vote no on his

party's tax bill because of the constituents entertaining people politely at red lights but at least they will let him know what they think of him and what they think of this bill. so that was john garrett's office. constituents provided a giant $275 billion check to a guy dressed as mr. moneybags. the transfer of money to the wealthiest americans. mr. moneybags and the $275 billion check then marched through the parking lot and into congressman garrett's office lobby. congressman garrett's staffer would not actually take the check. they wanted to deliver it to him. he wouldn't take the check but he did take a picture of the check and said he would forward along the snapshot to his box. check your inbox. rob portman's office had a hard time handling the numbers of people coming into that office to tell senator portman to vote no.

his staff would only let in a few of his constituents at a time so they patiently queued up outside his door. more rob portman constituents were outside his toledo office. they sang anti tax carols. -- christmas carols. they are telling me that is rob portman. they also paraded around the grinch. they're telling me that was rob portman. in maine, senator susan collins' constituents took a look at this picture posing with a sheet of money. they decided then to ape that shot at a maine rally aimed at persuading senator collins to vote no on the tax bill. they also then rounded up a bunch of people to shove fist fulls of cash at the fake treasury secretary and his wife in her opera gloves. protesters targeted ted cruz' office in downtown houston.

and senator marco rubio's office in palm beach florida and james langford in his office in oklahoma city. and senator corey gardener in his coughs office in durango, c. when your tax bill has rock bottom poll numbers and most people in america recognize that it will actually make their taxes go up, you really can't -- can find protesters against it all over the country. to welcome congress back from the thanksgiving break, there have been more than 100 demonstrations targeting republican lawmakers asking lawmakers to vote no on their tax bill. that would increase taxes for millions of americans. the poorer you are, the more likely it is that it will raise your taxes. the congressional budget office report on this bill is absolutely brutal. it will slam the poor harder than it hurts anyone else. the lower income brackets will all pay more immediately as will most middle class families and that will get worse over time. the bill is expected to add $1.4 trillion to the deficit.

1.4 trillion and for good measure, it will cost 13 million americans who have health insurance to lose all their health insurance coverage. and i'm no mind reader, but it does not seem impossible to me that those kind of baseline facts about this bill are part of the reasons why republicans are trying to pass this things with no hearings. and basically no debate. and on paper, when you try to push something through that way, it's very neat and tidy. no debate. no time for argument. just vote and get it over with. on paper, that is a very tidy process. but in reality, when you're trying to do that with something this big and this radical that affects this many americans this severely, on paper it might be tidy. in real life it is not tidy at all. did you see this article today

on the republican party line vote? before they voted on the floor, they have to vote on it in committee. today was the vote in committee and happened today. it was a party line vote. all republicans said yes and democrats said no and sounds like the easiest thing to understand in the world. sounds tidy and easy. it made it seem like zip, zip got that done. look at what it was actually like, though. i just -- just look at this tape. i'm going to let this roll so you can see how it actually went. watch this. >> i thank the ranking member for his comments. >> my name is amanda anderson. >> my name is amanda anderson. >> i am running with -- [ inaudible ] >> there is a disturbance in the hearing room. the committee will recess to allow the capital police to restore order. the committee will recess subject to the call of the chair. >> do not tell me --

>> do not tell me. do not tell me. >> do not tell people like me. >> do not tell people like me. >> kill this bill. >> kill this bill. >> do not kill me. >> do not kill me. >> kill this bill. >> kill this bill. [ inaudible ] >> i've been a nurse for 30 years. >> i've been a nurse for 30 years. >> i can't believe we had to come back. >> i can't believe we had to come back. i can't believe we had to ask the government to stop attacking us. >> stop attacking my patients. not attacking americans that make ordinary income that you're going to devastation with the tax bill. >> stop taxing ordinary americans -- >> my taxes --

[ overlapping speakers ] >> shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! >> shame! shame! shame! shame! shame! >> my name is mark and i'm living with aids and cancer. >> i'm living with aid and cancer. >> if this bill is passed. >> if this bill is passed. >> people like me will die. >> people like me will die. >> i'm asking the republican senators to vote against this bill. >> i'm asking republican senators to vote against this bill. >> don't kill us! >> don't kill us! >> kill the bill! >> kill the bill! >> tell them no. don't kill us!

don't kill us! >> shame! shame! shame! shame! shame! shame! >> kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! >> i'll call the meeting back to order. i said that we would vote. clerk will call roll. >> grassley votes aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> mic check! >> i have aids! >> i have aids asked.

>> i need my medical coverage. because i want to live! >> stop the tax scam! stop the tax scam! >> mr. purdue. >> stop the tax scam! >> stop the tax scam! >> mr. gardner. mr. kennedy. mr. bozeman. mr. strange. mr. sanders. >> no. >> miss murray. >> no. >> mr. widen. >> no! >> miss dab know. >> no! >> mr. whitehouse. >> no. >> mr. warner? >> no. >> mr. merckly? >> no. >> mr. cane? >> no. >> mr. king? >> no. >> mr. van hollen? >> no. >> miss harris?

>> no. >> mr. chairman? >> aye. >> report the vote. >> kill the bill! kill the bill! >> the ayes are 12 and the nays are 11. >> the bill is reported out. >> kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! >> that's how it went. you saw the headlines about that today. it sounded like a neat and tidy process. that was the neat and tidy process. it wish the republicans got their no debate, party line hearing today. what they are trying to do with this really enormous bill will hurt the american poor and hurt the american middle class quickly and significantly and for a long time.

and it will throw 13 million americans off their health insurance. and so what they are trying to do is very, very unpopular and that's why they are trying to go fast. that's why they are trying to outrun the resistance to what they are doing. they are also likely to get another non-partisan report on the cost of their bill and who it hurts as soon as tomorrow night and so they have got to outrun that, too. their whole strategy is to get this through now. to get this through as fast as they possibly can. when i say now, in the next two days they want to get this done before more of this starts happening and spreading before too many people realize what they are doing and how fast they are doing it. there is a lot going on right now i know, but this is a huge thing they're trying to do and fast. watch this phase. >> mr. sanders? >> no. >> ms. murray? >> no. >> mr. widen? >> no.

>> ms. stabernow? >> no. >> mr. whitehouse? >> no. >> mr. warner? >> no. >> mr. merkley? >> no. >> mr. cane? >> no. >> mr. king? >> no. >> mr. vanhallen? >> no. >> ms. harris? >> no. except for one of us. i write them a poem instead! and one for each of you too! that's actually yours. that, that one. yeah. regardless, we're stuck with the bill. to many, words are the most valuable currency. last i checked, stores don't take "words." some do. not everyone can be the poetic voice of a generation. i know, right? such a burden. the bank of america mobile banking app. the fast, secure and simple way to send money.

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this is going to be a kind of a clip and save thing. it's not a public service

announcement. i feel like it is trying to be like a public service. this is a list i used to be able could keep in my head. but today we had a name added to the list and when i tried to add the list, i was humbled. the list got too long to keep track off anymore. see if you agree. let's start with the most obvious one. the russian ambassador to the united states. there is nothing wrong with presidential members of a campaign and transition meeting with a foreign ambassador. he did it a lot.

he met several times with jeff sessions when he was a top campaign official and jared kushner and jared kushner and mike flynn during the transition. that was the meeting where intelligence intercepts afterward reportedly over heard the ambassador explaining how kushner inquired about setting up a secret communications channel between the trump transition and the kremlin. so that's the first one. that's the ambassador. then there was also the head of a kremlin controlled bank. a graduate of what is basically russia spy school that banker who graduated from spy school also met with jared kushner during the transition and then the russian born ex-con convicted of a $40 million mafia conducted pump-and-dump stock scheme. him and also the russian real estate mogul and former member of parliament he was working with were quietly working during the campaign with the trump organization to try to get a trump tower built in moscow. candidate trump signed a letter of intent to pursue that project as he insisted publicly he had no interest and no deals with russia. so then there was the -- ambassador, the banker, the ex-con guy, the real estate guy. then there was the long-time employee of trump campaign chairman paul manafort, a

russian intelligence visit in contact all the time with manafort and he's the one that flew to new york to deliver messages from a russian close to vladimir putin. then recently we learned about the official from the bank of russia. he's been described by law enforcement as a god father in the russian mafia and contacted top trump campaign officials to set up a meeting with donald trump at an nra conference. he did not get that meeting with drut donald trump sonald trump

dinner with donald trump jr. then of course in june of last year, there was the kremlin connected russian lawyer who met with don junior and jared kushner at trump tower. there was also a russian-born lobbyist, who was once a kgb counterintelligence operative and another russian dude at the center of a congressional investigation into russian money laundering in the united states in the 1990s. he has since been in business with some of putin's favorites back home in russia and the son of the russian billionaire that arranged the trump tower meeting and spoke about it multiple times with don junior. then there was also the director of a russian university that invited paige to speak in moscow and all the folks carter spoke with during his trip, a russian deputy prime minister, a top official at russia state oil company and according to one report that carter paige denies, the head of the oil state company one of the vladimir putin's top lieutenants and the kremlin linked academic that seems to have cultivated foreign

policy advisor telling him the russians had dirt on clinton and introduced him to a guy with connections at the russian foreign ministry who wanted to set up a meeting between trump and putin and met with a russian woman who was introduced to him as vladimir putin's niece. something he very excitedly e-mailed superiors. vladimir putin doesn't have a niece but if you want to keep track what is going on in the mule are investigation, say, what we have learned in the congressional investigations in terms of the trump campaign's links to russia, try looking at it in terms of the sheer number of russians and people linked to the russian government who made contact with the trump campaign and the trump transition. i mean, that's a lot of different russians. but all of those folks had to make room for one more today. back in april, "the washington post" reported that just before the inauguration, eric prince major trump donor and founder of the controversial private

security firm blackwater and agent of betsy devos went for a meeting with the russian representative of vladimir putin's office and presented himself as an unofficial envoy for president-elect trump at that meeting. the purpose was to set up a secret back channel communication between the trump camp and putin camp. eric prince said yeah, okay. i went and met some russian guy and think he was maybe a fun manager but we had a beer. he doesn't remember the guy's name. they didn't talk about anything important. whatever they did talk about, it had nothing to do with donald trump and besides, he can't remember anyway. today we found out who that russian guy was that eric prince so unmemorably shared a beer with in the seychelles and reports that according to flight

records, th they obtained on th date that this meeting with eric prince occurred, a private plane flew a man to the seychelles islands, the russian direct investment fund. he confirmed they crossed paths in the seychelle and one more russian gets added to this roster of contacts. we got russian ambassador, russian banker, russian ex-con, military, russian lawyer, russian lobbyist, russian money laundering suspect. russian billionaire son and connected academic, oil executive, russian foreign ministry official, russian president's fake niece and now new guy head of russia's fund. -- sovereign wealth fund. that's too big for a band. that's too big for a marching band in most towns. i mean, but there is one more thing to say about the russian sovereign wealth fund that met

with eric prince during the transition. the russian direct investment fund, the fund he runs is one of many russian government institutions under u.s. sanctions. since russia invaded crimea in 2014, which means that no american business person, even eric prince, should be doing business with that fund. prince's explanation about that meeting in the seychelles is it had nothing to do with the trump transition. it was just business. it couldn't have been business with that guy from the russian sovereign wealth fund, at least it couldn't have been business if it was legal business. eric prince scheduled to testify before the house intelligence committee the day after tomorrow. so maybe that will come up. meanwhile, though, more than a year after our presidential election, more than like a year and a half since the fbi started

its counter intelligence investigation into links between russia and the trump campaign, how is it possible that even today we are still adding to the list of russian government figures who got themselves involved with the trump campaign and transition? still, we're still learning about more of them. how many more can there be? coaching means making tough choices. jim! you're in! but when you have high blood pressure and need cold medicine that works fast, the choice is simple. coricidin hbp is the #1 brand that gives powerful cold symptom relief without raising your blood pressure. coricidin hbp. jimmy's gotten used to his whole yup, he's gone noseblind. odors.

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on the first working day of every month, the state of hawaii conducts a test of attention alert siren. it's a steady tone, 60-second

long siren that blairs from loud speakers around the islands. and when used properly, it's meant to signal an incoming hurricane or tsunami or natural disaster. they test that once a month. now hawaii is rolling out a second siren, one they haven't used since the cold war since north korea conducted 16 missile tests this year alone as it develops a program for nuclear weapons. and hawaii is 4600 miles from north korea and these days sometimes that doesn't feel like far enough. so hawaii as of this week is taking me precautions because hawaii is awesome, they are rolling out this new precaution. they are reminding people about this old siren and the most chill way possible. >> on the first business day of every month, the state and the counties normally conduct a test of the alert signal, which is a steady tone.

starting december 1st, a second tone, the attack warning signal a warning tone will be added. the attack warning signal advises everyone to take immediate shelter. get inside, stay inside. stay tuned. to find out more info, go to ready.hawaii.gov. >> i would be less alarmed by that siren if it did come with soothing music whenever it went off. stay tuned, hawaii. in the event of a nuclear attack it would give the 1.4 million residents a little time, about 12 to 15 minutes to find shelter ahead of an impends attack. today on the plan to dust off the attack warning signal, today north korea also decided to break from a two-month hiatus to launch yet another missile into the atmosphere. pentagon officials believe this was an intercontinental

ballistic missile, an icbm, the third one north korea tested thus far. the first two were launched this summer. north korea has been launching these things with unusual trajectory whether than sending off in the distance, they tend to shoot them almost straight up, really high up so when the missiles finally do land they land fairly close by. well, the one they shot off today reached a height of around 2,800 miles. it went 3,000 miles up before it landed in the sea of japan. if it had been fired for distance, scientists said if the missile had thrown on a standard trajectory, it would have a range of more than 8,100

miles. and i mentioned before that hawaii is 4,000 miles away from north korea. if it's got an 8,100 mile range, this missile, that means it will hit washington, d.c. the concern scientists co-director today said it would have more than enough range to travel from north korea to washington, d.c. it could hit new york city or

anywhere in the continental u.s. the state of hawaii in the pacific from the cold war days and being admirably calm and playing soothing music to explain that to the people of hawaii and north korea to being a threat not just to the pacific neighbors but the rest of the united states, how close was north korea to being that global threat and how much should we see the threat as changing with the kind of test they performed today. joining us is president of the plou ploughshares fund and nbc news and nuclear security analyst. great to see you. >> thank you, rachel. >> we have not seen -- we're corresponding about this today. you mentioned that it's rare to see north korea do a big missile test like this at this time of year. why is this a weird time of year

for them to be doing this kind of test? >> they normally don't test in the fourth quarter of the year. of the 85 tests they have done since 2011, only five have been in the last quarter. people think that this has to do with weather conditions. sometimes the troops move from military duty to harvesting for whatever reason we don't test this year and the pause that we've seen, the 74 days since the last missile test partly is explained by the time of year it might not have been a gesture. the u.s. said that if south -- if north korea stopped testing for 60 days, that would be seen as a positive sign to open up negotiations. they did stop testing but we didn't make any move to open negotiations. >> what about the quality of this test today? do you agree with these assessments that we've seen today, this is potentially the longest-range missile test? >> there is little doubt about that. this is a very serious step forward. it went a little over 4,000 miles. the second was the end of july. this is an 8,000 mile missile. this is about the range of our missiles, our minute men in north dakota and montana and other places. the good news is we don't know if it can actually carry a nuclear warhead yet. it might have been a light payload on this test, a nuclear warhead weighs a ton. can it carry a ton all the way?

can it withstand the stress es and strains of reentry? these are unknown questions. if you're the u.s. military, you have to assume the worst and a nuclear arm ballistic missile that can deliver a warhead on washington or mar-a-lago or anyplace in the united states. >> this feels like what we've seen over the course of this past year and a little bit in a broader time frame is a relentless march that they have been making significant, steady progress. is that a surprise or a disappointment to counter proliferation efforts, people running counter proliferation efforts in the united states? has the united states believed that we have done anything substantive to slow them down, trip them up, mess them up to put a cap on how far they can go with their missile technology? is this stuff a surprise or does the united states basically accept they will keep testing, keep learning from their tests and keep getting better? >> this is where it gets serious. it's not a surprise any longer. it was around last year we realized how much more advanced they were than some of us thought and we seen that demonstrated repeatedly. remember, this is the third successful test. they haven't had a failure. so these guys know what they are doing. this is a sophisticated program. is it disappointment? absolutely. only during the clinton administration and for some period of time in the george w. bush administration do we have

real negotiations that really paused the program for eight years and caused a delay and we were very close to reaching a deal to end the program all together. but the obama administration kind of dropped the ball on this and the trump administration has done, well, it's hard to know what they've done. the policy is somewhat incoherent. a lot of bluster and tweets. i would expect more tweets tomorrow but no negotiations, no real strategy to stop them and that gets us to the really bad news. there is an increasing chorus you hear in washington that we have to go to war and take military action to stop the north korean threat. it's starting to feel like 2002 when a consensus is growing that the only thing we can do is go to war, even though we haven't exhausted our diplomatic options. joe, president of the ploughshares fund, thank you for that oning, my friend. appreciate it in every sense of

the word. thank you. >> thank you, rachel. >> i'll be right back. stay with us. can you fit in there? i got this... that's the new man, huh? yup. getting kinda' close to my ride. wow... now, that's how you make a first impression. they're going to love you... that's ford, america's best-selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across the full line of ford cars, trucks and suvs! and just announced...get 0% apr for 72 months plus $1000 cash back! take advantage of these exclusive holiday offers during the ford year end sales event.

was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government?sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse. they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations,

while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters. so this is the 11th week of recovery from hurricane maria in puerto rico. as night fell tonight, 1.5 million americans are still living in darkness. it's been one step forward, two back. puerto rico went through two major blackouts in the last two weeks. line being fixed by whitefish energy, the unlikely winner of a

$300 million contract to rebuild puerto rico's power grid, a company that is two years old with two employees. that giant inexplicable contract became a national symbol of the botched disaster response quite literally plunging americans into darkness without end. and now we have another example. this time it's about those blue tarps that you often see in situations like this stretched over homes where the roof once was before the storm ripped it off. they don't seem like much, i know but when you've spent the last ten weeks in darkness struggling to find clean water, anything helps. helps to have a roof over your head, even if that roof is a blue tarp. and this is where the story feels like deja vu. the company hired to deliver the blue tarps for puerto rico after hurricane maria is a quote newly created florida company with an unproven record, a company formed by two brothers in august. the company had never before won a government contract or delivered tarps or plastic

sheeting. despite that fact, for some reason this is the company that got more than $30 million in contracts from fema to provide emergency tarps and plastic sheeting for repairs in puerto rico. this company, address listed is a single family home in st. cloud, florida where presumably one or both of the brothers lives? shockingly, it turns out the company never delivered but were given $30 million worth of contracts to provide, they never turned up with the tarps and apparently took fema four weeks to notice that and start to sort it out. it's ground hog day, whether it's millions of americans living in the dark or living without so much as a makeshift roof, the response to this disaster and this part of america and puerto rico has bee

long time now. no one knows that more than our next guest the mayor of san juan puerto rico that joins us in studio, next. and now we get an even bigger discount from bundling home and auto. i can get used to this. it might take a minute. -swing and a miss! -slam dunk! touchdown! together: sports!

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the woman with the bullhorn here is carmen yulin cruz. she is the mayor of san juan, puerto rico. see her here wading door to door. to see her constituents. this is 48 hours after hurricane maria made landfall. we're starting the 11th week of recovery, which has been painful and slow for puerto rico. and the mayor of san juan joins us now. really nice to have you here. >> thank you. call me yulin. >> okay, i will.

it's hard for me not to call you madam mayor -- >> no, no. >> this is probably inappropriate, but how are you personally? i know this has been an unimaginable time. >> it's been very stressful. it's been very difficult. but it's a lot more difficult for people that still don't have water or have to boil their water but they don't have anything to boil it with. we have about 50% of generation. but generation does not mean that people have power in their homes. and as you mentioned before, we keep losing power lines. so you still have the inability to have stability in our energy grid. and that puts a lot of things in an unstable situation. medical services. you may be operating and all of the sudden you end up operating with your cellular lamp because the power went off or the generator went out. generators are not made to withstand -- see, you count 11 weeks because you're counting maria. but you have to count two, three weeks before that because irma came before that. >> right.

>> my parents have been without electricity or water, running water -- they have running water, but they haven't had electricity for 72 days now. >> and as this work is being done, we've talked over the course of some of this recovery about work not being done. but as, you know, as there are workers on the ground, as there are people trying to fix the power lines, as there are people working on the issue of running water, do you feel like that work to fix things is being done rationally, and that the systems are being rebuilt in a resilient way? >> no, they're not. that's why what bernie sanders did today, it's a very comprehensive bill towards the transformation of usvi and puerto rico. and it puts the transformation in the hands of people from puerto rico and the usvi. and of course the whitefish scandal didn't help a lot, the credibility of the puerto rican government. but that does not mean that we're incapable of doing what needs to be done. >> and the bill that he put forward today, it's a big bill.

it's over $100 million. and the idea is to go for infrastructure in a way that is sustainable, resilient and local live controlled. >> correct. what happens with fema and the staffer act, you have to build everything to the way it was. if you have a wooden house with a zinc top, you have to rebuild it that way. that's why i don't like talking about reconstruction. i like talking about transformation. we need a waiver on that to ensure that we can build to this. because we are an island surrounded by water. lots and lots of water. >> lots and lots of water. big water. >> we didn't know before this happened. and we need to build in that resiliency. the power generation in puerto rico happens in the southern part. and then the grid spreads out throughout the mountains. so if that generation gets off the grid, the entire island is blacked out just as it has been. so it is actually on president trump's best interests if we have the power to develop an

economy that can plug in to the world economy. things like the jones act that congressman john mccain has talked about eliminating. but our brothers and sisters from the maritime units also have to eat and feed their families. so we need to develop a path so that at least humanitarian ships right now can come in and be waived totally. and it's interesting. in texas this was waived completely. and of course -- >> in the wake of the hurricane that hit texas. >> that hit texas. and then just to develop a path for the jones act to be completely eliminated. and now we have this -- and i'm going to do this on national tv, this reform. >> the tax bill. >> which not only as senator sanders was saying today a single mother of two children gets a $75 tax credit. and a family that makes $500,000 with two children gets a $4,000 tax credit. but it puts an excise tax , an

import tax, for puerto rico, 20%. >> so products made, like pharmaceuticals, big manufacturing sector, products made in puerto rico and exported to the united states. >> would get a 20% tax. >> that's not a -- >> a tax that's not there now. >> that's not there now. >> it would cripple the puerto rican economy. >> it's crippled already. it would obliterate it. this would be a much more devastating blow to our economy than irma and maria put together. and the republican congress has promised we're going change the language. we're going to change the language. but nothing happens. and that hurts the credibility of the trump administration if they have any credibility at all at this point in terms of the puerto rican humanitarian crisis. >> what do you think puerto rico needs now, right now the most in terms of national attention, federal attention, and charitable help? >> we need three things. one, we need our debt to be eliminated. we couldn't pay it before. we're certainly not going to be able to pay it now.

we need tools for economic development. and in order to do that, we need power. but we need to move also from gift power right now and move to a more sustainable and more ecofriendly power. >> that's resilient and sustainable. >> and also have our grid divided along different sides that can help different sides and portions of the island. we have to provide our communities with microgrids and solar communities. and we have to move into that path. and we also have to sit down and talk about what is it about the relationship between puerto rico and the united states that keeps us from getting the help that we need to get. and just, you know, everybody in puerto rico, the politics is about the national pastime. so we all have a different way of thinking. some like statehood. some like things to stay the way they are. some like independence. i like free association. but i think it's more of what is the process that we're going to follow to ensure that everyone that comes to the table has a democratic way of showing what they have, and it's based on the facts, not on what we want it to be, but on what it's actually

going to be. and we started a foundation. it's called somebody help us. because the trump administration and i love you say botched effort in puerto rico. so i started getting postcards with i'm a retired grandmother from austin, texas. here is $10 for you. i'm a kid from arizona. here is $1 for you. so we're putting this in this foundation, especially to help rebuild those homes that at this point will have nothing but the help that we can give them. >> in terms of what does happen next, what you're saying about the political situation there. obviously politics is not the point, but politics has to be part of the solution. it has been a process of education for the american public to be reminded that all puerto ricans are american citizens. >> yes. >> that puerto rico is part of the united states. that puerto rico does not have another president to go to besides donald trump. >> no.

we're a u.s. territory. we're a colony of the united states because the power resides in congress completely. so let's change that. >> yeah. >> and you're right. it isn't about politics. it's about saving lives. but politics gets in the middle of that. and our relationship gets in the middle of that. i said very few weeks ago some strong words. we won't be able to hide our inequality and poverty behind palm trees and pina coladas anymore. so we have to transform puerto rico and ensure that we have an economy and a resilient structure that will help us move forward. because about 100,000 -- this is what i don't get, rachel. i don't think president trump realizes that many of the puerto ricans that are moving to the states, about 100,000 in the past few weeks are going to florida. so they're going to change the landscape of the election for 2018. and we're going to make sure that they vote. and we're going to make sure that they remember who didn't

help when the time came. >> carmen yulin cruz is the mayor of san juan, puerto rico. mayor cruz, it's really, really nice to have you here. >> thank you. >> thank you for being in touch with us throughout this whole time period. >> thank you for not forgetting us. >> good evening, rachel. and an extraordinary interview with the mayor. really glad to see that follow-up. >> thank you, my dear. thanks. >> good evening from philadelphia, by the way. did i lose rachel? i uguess i lost her. and i just wanted to tell rachel she has a lot of friends here in philadelphia where i've been spending the day. today donald trump gave chuck schumer and nancy pelosi more power than any republican president has ever given to a minority democratic party in congress.