part of the country in decades. we are planning for a hard impact of the category 4 storm. the nation remembers 17 years after the worst terror attack in american history. and we pause and remember those who were killed in new york, at the pentagon and in a field in shanksville, pennsylvania. >> america's future is not written by our enemies. america's future is written by our heroes. and for the records as bob woodward's new book is finally released, the white house steps up the attacks on the legendary journalist, and woodward responds. >> how do you feel when the president says a that you are lying? >> i am not. and -- good day, everyone.

i'm andrea mitchell in washington. with the new details of the storm barreling towards the atlantic coast, florence is a category 4 hurricane, and the latest update from the national hurricane center says it is on a collision course with the carolinas. so far the governors in north and south carolina and virginia and maryland all declaring states of emergency. a massive evacuation is under way. more than 1 million residents and tourists are expected to flee the coastal areas ahead of a powerful storm surge anticipated over the next few days. >> this is still a very dangerous storm. we must take it very seriously. the weatherman here and others are all predicting that this is a unpredictable storm. we must be vigilant. we are in a very deadly and important game of chess with hurricane florence. >> joining me now is msnbc's marianna atencio along the north

carolina coast, and msnbc michelle grossman, and michelle, first to you, and looking at the storm track, and what are we preparing to, and then to marianna. >> hi there, andrea. yes, we are looking at a category 4 storm, and right on the borderline of the cat 3 and 4 and it did weaken, and it is go ing through the eyewall replacement, but it is going to change. as the next couple of hours, it is go ing to strengthen again, and encountering nothing to slow it down. so we expect it to remain on the path. this is what it is looking like right now, and just a huge storm, and the eyewall is a t textbook hurricane. and you open up the book, and this is exactly what you would see and not good news for the southeast coast of the u.s. we are looking at winds at 130 miles per hour, and we will see the winds strengthen as we head through the next couple off hours, and later on wednesday, 150 miles per hour, and this is what we are expecting. we do have a little bit of a change. we expected a late thursday and early friday landfall and now we are expecting friday morning, and so it is slowing down a

little bit, and that is not good news along the coast. we will have a high storm surge that is going to be causing a lots of erosion and home destruction and beach destruck shn, and then moving inland, and the problem is control block, and it is going to act like a roadblock and keep it to the south, and keep it spinning for days over the area, and we will be seeing the drenching rains, and when i say drenching rain, i mean, 20 to 30 inches of rain, which is going to cause a lot of problems. hurricane watch from virginia all of the way down to parts of is south carolina, and that is including myrtle beach, and wilmington, and it is looking like wilmington is going to be the landfall in terms of the national waeeather hurricane center, but still some room to play with, because there are 320 mi miles within the cone. so anywhere in there we could see landfall, and that is why we want to keep everybody on guard. pay attention to the path over the next 72 hours. so in terms of the impacts, we are looking at the winds, and

looking at extreme winds, winds that will start as early as 72 hours. so we are seeing it in the pink high risk, and wilmington and cape hatteras and charleston, i don't want to discount you, and some very, very strong winds. protect your home there, and also, the storm surge. storm surge is one of the deadliest weather events. it is something not to take lightly at all. prepare yourself now. wilmington, 6 to 12 feet. when you have a landfall in terms of the hurricane, most of the destruction is on the east side, so again, even if you have the landfall here, you will have a rot of the destruck shn on the north and the east side, and again, something to keep in mind there, and the rain, that is going to be a big, big story and i mentioned 20 inches and up to 30 inches of rain where we could see it where we are seeing the the darker colors. this is something to mention, the national hurricane model, but we want to show you the european model and the u.s., because it is showing a a difference, right? so you want to stay on guard. wilmington agrees with the national hurricane center, and

the european model is one that we look at in terms of the reliability, but the zus showing farther no the north and the east, and we will watch that, too. and we want to point out that it is a active tropic season n. terms of the ingredient sws we e warm water, and wind sheers to break up the storms that you want, and we have low wind sheer, and that why we have the hot tropics right now, and nothing to slow down this development. certainly watching it over the next kocouple of days, hour to hour, because we could see some changes by friday morning. >> thank you for that, michelle, and marianna atencio, you are there watching the preparation, and first of all s there enough time for people to get out? how are the roads, how clogged is the traffic? >> these are a critical couple of hours cocop coming up. and today is the last day to have people gas ip and leave town, andrea. the roads were clear around the wilmington area when we drove the wrightsville beach this morning, but the gas stations

are pretty much out of service. at least five of them as we were driving over. as you can see behind me in wrightsville beach, they rick mag the preparations using the cranes to rip off these lifeguard stands that when you are getting the 130-mile-an-hour winds that michelle was talking about, they can act as projectiles and be potentially deadly for the homes that are here along the coast. so the city definitely making those preparations, and as michelle was saying, andrea, if that european model is indeed the path, this storm take, wilmington, which is ten miles inland from here stands to get a direct hit, and wrightsville beach is where this storm would ram through. i want to bring in tim owens, the city manager, and our andrea mitchell is asking how critical the next two hours and how is the city preparing? >> we started friday and we knew it was a bad storm, and we started with the operation, and we are in voluntary evacuation

now, and turns mandatory the at 8:00 a.m., and after 8:00 p.m., nobody is on or off of the island as of 8:00 p.m. >> and 911 available for the folks here? . >> we will do what we can servicing the customers with the 911, with the fire and the police, but once it is 50-mile-an-hour sustained, we cease all operations like that. >> and tim, it is critical to be out and about and we appreciate your time here. a and andrea, with once the winds reached 50 miles per hour, not even 911 calls will be answered. so he is telling the people, if you are going to leave, leaf now and if not, hunker down, and make sure that you can stay in your home with inland flooding for the nextt couple of days. an dree ya. >> if you is any risk at all of being, you know, shut in that way, get out now while the roads are still clear. 8:00 a.m., marianna, 8:00 a.m. is mandatory evacuation, corr t

correct? >> 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, and then by 8:00 p.m. wednesday, nobody is going to be able to go in or out of the barrier island and so those decisions need to be made today today. >> important warning. thank you, marianna atencio, and you stay safe along with our colleagues. and now to the msnbc special report of who may be responsible for the medical mystery that sickened all americans in cuba almost two years ago. intelligence now believes it is russia and no accident. according to three u.s. officials and others briefed on the condition, backed up with the highly secret intercepts. joining me are the former deputy security adviser to george w. bush, and senior national security analyst, and political reporter josh leaderman who did a lot of the reporting. josh, you and the team have been working on to this for a long time and i was in havana last october talking to intelligence officials there, and there have

been suspicions all along, but you honed in on russia being the prime suspect according to the officials, and no evidence or proof to accuse russia diplomatically, but they are the real suspects? >> yes, a that is right. russia had been a suspicion from the start due to the large presence on the island of cuba and the advanced military capabilities and as you reported from havana, the cubans acknowledged that is a possibility, and now, andrea, this is more of a theory, and the main suspect, and it is backed up with some information from some communications intercepts known as the signals intelligence that the officials tell nbc news that they have developed. but andrea, it is not conclusive enou enough for the u.s. to take a dramatic step of formally accusing russia of being behind the attacks, so that the united states will continue to develop evidence, and try to hunt this down both who was behind it, and exactly what the technology was used to effect these diplomats. >> and josh, i talked to foreign

secretary john kerry about how russia would be involved, and this is what he had to say. >> well, russia has been there for a long time, and that is nothing new that russia is there for cuba, and they have been the lifeline for them for a long period of time. that is not going to change either. >> and what he said is that russia is there, and what has happened, juan, is that first of all to safeguard our people there, they were pulled back, but it also fit, let's say coincidentally or conveniently with the trump's administration desire to change the obama opening to the cuba and shut down the relations, and that is what has happened a son we have left the field, and russia is all over the island with intelligence gathering, and the u.s. is without any real weapons. >> yes, the reality is that the cold war never ended for parts of the cuba government and part of the russia government, including putin. so they have never left cuba and

they sent signals that they will not be absent not only from cuba, but venezuela and the region. this is coming at a time when russia is much more aggressive and acting without impunity around the world. you have the nerve agent acts in london and the cyber attacks on our election systems in eastern europe, and the provocative military exercises happening now, and the largest in recent modern memory, and eastern russia, and so, this is another demonstration. if it proves to be right, and if josh's reporting is correct that the russians have taken another step to use asymmetric attacks to effect u.s. interests whether it is sonic weapons, and electromagnetic weapons or microwave weapon, you have the u.s. having to confront another vector of attack from the russians. >> and another thing that is coming out of the new reporting is that this is not an accident or a microwave listeninging device gone bad, but it is an attack the against american

diplomats and intelligence officers. and it was target iing them. >> absolutely. there are a number of factors that you are looking at, andrea, and any investigative or intelligence officer would look at. so you have the number of attacks that happened in 2016 and began to reoccur in 2018 and so it is not random. it is also not part of some rogue operation that we have indications that it may have happened in china as well. you have a number of officials targeted and the facilities target and the diplomatic fac e facilities and the intelligence officials, and so this is not an accident and those who think that it is a rogue operation, you are operating in a fantasy world. this is target and led by a fist sophisticated likely state actor, and if josh's reporting is right, all roads lead back to moscow on this. >> and josh, one of the things that you and i have both seen and cover in cuba for years and the u.s. diplomacy or lack of it is that after the opening, there is may well have been some

hardliners and is secretary tillerson is saying that we are not blaming cuba, but that cuba being the kind of the government that it is, it must have known. and so they could have had some h help, and it should have been the inside job from some people in havana who were not happy with the obama and ray yule cast -- raul castro opening. >> right. some say that it is not possible for russia to carry this out entirely on their own without some cooperation or the tacit consent from the cuban government given that it is a small island, and they are a heavy surveillance on the island and the fact that, you know, this would have had to have been pretty, with the knowledge of the cuban government for it to take place in the hotels such as the hotel nacional. >> and one quick question, juan, where were you on 9/11?

>> on the treasury department, looking over the potomac watching the smoke rise. we were watching what was happening in new york on the tv and evacuated from the treasury department. we raced and a core group of us race f raced to the secret service headquarters and frankly watching the sky, praying to god that another plane was not heading towards the capital or towards the white house. >> and as we later learned that one would have been if it weren't for the heroism for the crew and the passengers on the flight 93. thank you so much. >> thank you, andrea. >> thank you, juan. thank you, josh. and coming up, never forget, and remembering the thousands lost on 9/11 17 years later. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" right here on msnbc. in the u.s. it's america's most popular street name. but allstate agents know that's where the similarity stops. if you're on park street in reno, nevada, the high winds of the washoe zephyr could damage your siding.

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most importantly to the family members of flight 93, today all of america wraps up and joins together. we close our arms to help you shou shoulder your pain and to carry your great, great sorrow. your tears are not shed alone. for they are shared grief with an entire nation.

president trump in shanksville, pennsylvania, honoring the victims of flight 93. the 40 passengers and crew on september 11th who rose up and fought back against the hija hijackers to prevent them from reaching their intended target, the nation's capital, and this morning the somber memorial services to remember those in grou ground zero at lower manhattan and at the pentagon and shanksville. james mattis was leading a brigade in afghanistan weeks after the attacks. >> we dedicate ourselves with the life that might have been and keep faith with the innocent who perished and take solace on the deaths, that they were not in vein, for in the passing they empowered us forever with our enduring sense of service, and

remember that hatred with false religious garb will not prevail. >> joining us is msnbc analyst kristen welker, and former nypd commissioner bill bratton. and commissioner bratton, you were in new york city that day, and tell us about your response, and what it inspired you to do. >> 9/11 was a primary election day in new york city, and i had just voted and i had gone back to my apartment to get my briefcase and i had the tv on and the first plane had crashed into the tower. it was the beginning of the horrific day for me. i was not in the public sector at that time, but part of the inspiration to come back into public service and help the lapd to create the new counter terrorism capabilities that america had to create after the

events of 9/11. >> and in fact, we are a lot safer in large part certainly in new york is because of the counter terrorism efforts by you and others, your are predecessors and your successor s in the nypd and some extraordinary state and department officials who joined in that effort. >> that is correct. where we are right now is light years away from where we were on 9/11, the day of the attack, but the threats are constant the ly changing also, so it is not something that we can be co complacent as we had after the first world trade center bombing. and we made the arrest and incarcerated the perpetrators and thought it was off. we did not heed the warnings from al qaeda and osama bin laden when he waged war against us, and we paid the price of

unpreparedness. >> and kristen welker, the president today was commemorating the losses in shanksville, pennsylvania, and people are noticinging the twitter storm, and all kinds of things, attacks on eric holder, and peter strzok, and -- he does not seem to be completely focused on the significance of this day. >> he does not seem to be, andrea, and he sent out the tweets before he der parted for shanksville, and you are right, taking sharp aim at attorney general jeff session, and comparing him to eric holder who was the a.g. under former president barack obama and lashing out about the russia probe and reiterating the claim can of no collusion, and so really reiterating the familiar themes and taking aim of all of the familiar targets. i think that it underscores the fact that even on this day of national mourning and the solemn

moment for the country, and he was in shanksville, and clearly these issues continue to get under his skin, and don't be a major problem for him, and of course o, all of it has been am plified this week, because of the bombshell book by bob woodward out today and the anonymous op-ed, i was speaking to officials about it just today, and they said no robust effort broadly within the administration to try to determine who wrote it, but there is no doubt that it is of concern to the president, andrea. >> and let's talk about the 9/11 survivors and the first responders. more than 7,500 first responders have developed some form of cancerer, and of cour e cancer, and of course, john stewart has been valiant in effort efforts to provide aid for them, but more than 3,000 police and

firefighters have died who worked on the piles of the aftermath. and so, bill bratton, what is this continuing plague continuing really on those who were so heroic. >> and new york city, and maybe other than pennsylvania or the pentagon is constantly reminded everyday because of the continuing deaths and not only of the first responders, but think of the construction workers who came to that site over many months to the rebuild it. they were exposed to it. the people living in that area, and so that the total death toll is probably never going to be known, but it continues n. new york, there is not a day that goes by that we are not reminded in the newspapers or the newscasts and more so than the rest of america of the tragic events of that day. it is a shame in some respects that the president to deflect attention from the other troubles could have spent the whole day focused on this event, and tweeted about this throughout the day and not generated a whole new set of controversies about minimizing

the response to it. t because here in new york, there is no minimizing of the response to this. it is something that is front and enter everyday and needs to be, because the threat has not gone away, and morphed in new and dangerous directions and the home grown terrorist events in different ways and new york has been a target of those three times in the past year and a half. >> and our colleague here, kristen, he was throughout this by our side, and making it the best of the world. >> and credit to commissioner kelly coming in, and mayor bloomberg and creating what i and mayor de blasio inherited in 2014. ours was isis, and theirs were al qaeda, but to face isis, we could not have done it without the magnificent platform that

they created after 9/11. >> we want to thank both of you and thinking about all of those still fighting the illnesses that afflicted them because of the heroism that day. that day in the month that followed. kristen welker, of course, and bill bratton, thank you. we will be right back. insurance that won't replace

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with a new nfl season under way, and excuse me -- we have this quick update first. following the breaking news here on msnbc. as millions of people up and down the east coast are preparing to feel the full force of hurricane florence, the category 4 coast is barreling to the atlantic coast, and packing winds of up to 140 miles per hour. florence is to bring storm surge to the banks of carolinas, and mandatory evacuations are under way in north and south carolina and in virginia and more in place tomorrow morning. and now to the nfl, and with the new season under way, president trump reigniting a culture war on the league, and slamming the players who kneeled

in the national anthem. it is a policy prompted by the nfl to require them to stand, but opposition by the union ultimately forced the nfl to backdown. with no policy in place at the start of the season, two miami dolphins' players took a knee in the team's season opener to oppose racial injustice. and the two wide receivers getting a shout out from colin kaepernick prizing them saying that their courage will move the world forward. and joining me is devin mccourt ti and governing member of the nfl players coalition who are leading the charge of oimpacting the social and racial inequality in their communities. thank you very much for being with us. tell me, what inspired you to get involved in such a high profile way, and what has been the team's response? >> i think that just hearing some of the issues. and earlier we got to go to boston to just learn, that kids can as early as 7 years old

being prosecuted, and so, you know, when we heard those things, a lot of us wanted to get more involved and from the teams aspect, it has been awesome. i have been able to sit down with jonathan and mr. kraft and talk about some of issues. we all talked about mass incarceration, and we talked about trying to get the equal education throughout the city of boston, and so it has been really good for me here in new england and everyone has been wanting to get involved and see how they can help out. >> i know that colin kaepernick a has a high profile nike position, but how do you feel about the fact that such a great player was not picked up by any team? >> i think that it has been a tough part for him, and just pr probably wanting to play football and wanting to get back out there, and he is super talented. i think that every player knows that if you watched the game sunday, he could be out there plague, but for him from the small conversations that i have had, he wants to push forward the issues that he is seeing wrong, and the police accountability, and being able

to hold everyone accountable when things happen, and so i think that from just talking to him, he is happy with the things that are being fush pushed forw and the nike campaign was a great idea. >> what is your message to the president and others who say that you are somehow protesting or the other players by taking a knee, and protesting against the flag or dishonoring the military. how do you explain to them what this is really all about. >> i think that listen. malcolm jenkins a has a shirt and he has a shirt that says "you are not listening." that is the key point. we are talking about the different issues, and you know, coming up in september, we will have a huge campaign and talking about the system where 70% of people sitting in jail have not been convicted of any crime. and so, i think that if you are truly want ing ing to get invold not just throw out the idea, well, these guys are protesting the anthem, and the service members, but if you talk to us,

we have talked to some of the service member, and that is what they have fought for, and so a day talking about 9/11 everywhe everywhere, it is the equality of what people went through when they were trying to rescue the lives and the same thing that we are trying to fight for. >> devin mccourt ty, thank you r the inspiring message and thank you for being with us today. >> no problem. thank you for having me. >> good luck this wek weekend. >> thank you. and the circle of trust, the president's narrowing circle of trust according to his son. you are watching andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. stay with us.

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interacted with the president day in, day out like general mattis, general kelly and myself and not disgruntled former employees who refuse to put their name on things when they come out to attack the president. >> i am joined by ashley parker, the washington post white house rert porter and msnbc political analyst, and jim messena, former chief of staff under president barack obama, and are rick tyler, the former senior adviser to newt gingrich and ted cruz. and ashley, you are at the center of the storm watching what they are saying and not saying, and don jr. now speaking out. of course, the press secretary sarah sanders in the first briefing i think in 19 day, and what is the mood inside of the white house, and let me get on the record quickly that the president paused before boarding the plane in pennsylvania and said that fema and everyone else is totally prepared, so he commented briefly, and not audible, but i am communicating what he said. but ashley, the fact is that

they have been preparing for this hurricane, and i'm sure at the fema level, the white house certainly gave no indication of it yesterday or this morning. >> that is true. the mood in the white house the just take the woodward book for instance and the anonymous op-ed to start with, the president is angry and frustrated and what his son donald trump jr. said, he is right, there is a smaller group of people, and dwindling group who he feels like he can trust. with within the president's orbit more broadly and within the white house, aides sort of feel like they have been through this before, and they are frustrated, too, and that is why we saw sarah sanders coming out to pushing back, and more than two dozen white house officials offer i offering on the record statements pushing back on the book, though it is worth noting that many of the statements say it is not true, but they don't offer any specifics or pushback on any of the specific, but blanket denials intended for the

audience of one, the president, and that is within the white house to awareness of this is a distraction and deeply unhelpful and there is a hurricane bearing down on the coast, and that something that they need to prepare for and get the president prepared for, and that is why you are seeing, you know, as you mentioned the president briefly waited and they have a fema briefing later in the afternoon, and so they do understand that not handling a hurricane well would just create another -- first of all actual crises for all of the people involve and optics and the political crises and trying to get the ducks in order now. >> and certainly the way he handled puerto rico and of cour course, a lot of concern, and the lack of empathy, jim massena and now this new cell phone policy as well, and the reaction of omarosa's best-selling book. >> yes, it is interesting, because the first rule in politics is that if you are min the hole stop digging, and these guys are in a hole, and instead of the 9/11 anniversary with a major storm, you know, heading

towards them, the easiest thing to do is the nonpart san and be presidential, and instead, he wakes up this morning and sending out a million tweets and they spend all day going on the defense to talk about this anonymous, and going after woodward and we are 55 days before a midterm election, and the white house is completely tanking the local candidate's messages while donald trump goes on the usual partisan jihad. >> and speaking of the midterms, let's talk about texas, and you know it so well, rick tyler, that you worked for ted cruz, and a lot of the democrats have been fooled before hoping that they could retake texas but it has not happened in more than two decades. >> well, you have to look at certain indicators. >> bato oo'rour. >> yes, and he has captured national attention and cruz is

likable enough in texas and they will hang on o, but it is a challenge no the race. and texas, and the problem for the republicans in texas is that, texas is a 44% white state, and 37% hispanic, but one in three hispanics can't vote, because they are underaged and younger than 18, and 1 in 4 african-american african-americans in texas are under 18. so you can see what the trend is, and if the republican party doesn't figure out how to be the party of the two groups in particular, it will be the minority in the texas for a long time to come. >> and ashley, i know that the president has a very busy campaign schedule, but at this stage, there are a lot of places that are other than some senate races in the red states that they believe they can pick off democratic senate seats, and a lot of places that house members do not want him to travel. >> that is right. and so, it is sort of this funny thing where you have the president largely going into the

senate states, and lot of them where he beat hillary clinton and he can be helpful in steering clear of the house races which is smart political strategy, the rub however is that this is a president who puts himself at the center of everything. and who since he came down the escalator to run for president dominates everything. so when he is not physically going to say a more omoderate suburban district where he is not welcome, it does not mean that his message or the temperament or the problematic tweets are not dominating the local news coverage and so it is not as simple as physically keeping him out of the areas where he is not helpful or welcomed, because this is a president who intentionally pervades everything, and that is a problem, especially in the effort to hold the house. >> and the senate race, as mitch mcconnell quoted saying that it is like a knife fight in an alley. jim massena some >> it is true. the midterm elections are about two thing, voter enthusiasm, and

independent voter, and the democrats have a 19% lead on who is more excited to vote in this election, and independent numbers and to ashley's point, trump is doing real damage to his party. he was in my home state for montana and instead of campaigning for the senate campaign, where he was at a rally, he spent the entire time complaining about anonymous, and woodward book and completely off message, and it is doing real damage to his party. >> and rick tyler and jim massena and ashley parker, thank y you. and coming up, out of control. former secretary of state will weigh in. let's go again.

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negotiations. now we have the palestinian office closed and the u.n. offices shutdown and they feel they palestinians? how does that work? >> it doesn't work. i mean, obviously, that doesn't bring you real peace. i don't know exactly what they are doing, to be honest with you. it's very hard to discern. but i think closie ining the palestinian office is a step backwards. it's also evidence of an approach that may, in fact, be just forget about 'em and crush 'em and, you know, have a one-sided peace or one-way peace, backed by some other people in the region. but what i think is happening is the politics of the street, for other people in the region, is proving to be more complicated than some people thought. >> we at the same time if you look throughout the whole region

of syria, we have the russians very much in charge, in charge of what's going on on the ground and in the air and assad still in power. we look back at 2013 at a critical moment after the chemical weapons attack in ghouta and you write in your book every day is extra that we reconvene the next day with the president. this is august. you remember this so well. and you write that the conversation focused on how, not whether, we should strike. and i remember so clearly, we were live. i was anchoring. you gave a speech that was broadcast live to the nation. >> so the primary question is really no longer what do we know. the question is whether do we collectively, what are we in the world going to do about it. >> well, i think everybody had the feeling leading up to thursday and friday that we're on track to send a message to

president assad and the russians and others we were serious about moving. i think that changed, not by virtue of what happened to the president, but in great britain. >> aside from that -- >> when the parliament refused to grant authority for participation to prime minister david cameron, a democracy taking a vote, given what happened in the iraq war, i think that there was a reconsideration by some in the white house as to whether or not we weren't under an obligation to do the same. now, obviously, many of us had argued we needed to proceed forward. the president made a different decision. he made a decision he thought he had to go to congress because we would be stronger, because it was important to have congress buy in to the use of force, and you never know where that may take you. it was not the policy i thought we were about to put in, but the president made the decision and i understand the decision -- >> do you think it weakened us

around the world? >> i think it wound up hurting us. even though we wound up actually achieving more -- >> understandable. >> through diplomat then we would have achieved simply by doing it. i suspect the president would acknowledge it, that whether we like it or not, there was a cost attached to that, and yes, it gained sort of a life of its own in terms of perception. >> how badly does it hurt the u.s. from your perspective for the iran deal to have been abrogated unilaterally by the united states and not by the rest of the world? >> i think it's an incredibly dangerous and counterproductive step that the president has taken. by just pulling out what the president has done is make it really difficult, if not impossible, for any leader in iran to sit down with him and negotiate. because we've proven, the great satan, the united states, which is what the iranians call us obviously, that the hard-liners

in iran were more correct. they said don't negotiate with america. you can't trust them. somebody's going to, you know, come along and they'll not keep the agreement. which is how america behaves. guess what, donald trump came along, didn't keep the agreement, and he sent a message to the hard-liners in iran. >> when you read in the book the kinds of things that mattis and other top official -- security officials have said about this president, what do you think about the way this white house operates? >> i don't think the white house operates effectively at all. it is sporadic. it is haphazard. it is impulsive. the president clearly reverses and goes forward and really doesn't do the homework that a president needs to do in order to make savvy decisions and everyone has heard in washington for a year and a half you didn't

need this anonymous open ed to know what is happening. what it does is it confirms with great clarity, coupled with bob woodward's book, and together you have the picture of an administration that is chaotic, not qualified, and the president who is clearly not qualified to do this job. >> you're not moving out alone though down the road? >> andrea, i'm not thinking about a run. everybody says, oh, you're thinking about it, you're planning. no. right now, i doubt i'm going to be running for office. >> he says first thing's first, the 19 -- excuse me, the 2018 midterm elections. and a final thought today about a friend and mentor. and we wish he were covering the races. "the new york times" political reporter and editor adam climber. he wrote the biography of teddy kennedy. he died in his home on monday.

he was a tutor to generations of reporters, myself included. he was one of a kind. the dean of senate correspondents when i worked on capitol hill. for while, the head of polling for "the times." christmas eve 1985 found that 87% of children aged 3 to 10 believed in santa claus. a month before he retired, he rangeled an assignment to alaska just so he could end his career saying he had filed stories datelined from all 50 states. adam climber was 81. we'll be right back. . (sighs) i hate missing out missing out after hours. not anymore, td ameritrade lets you trade select securities 24 hours a day, five days a week. that's amazing. it's a pretty big deal. so i can trade all night long? ♪ ♪ all night long... is that lionel richie? let's reopen the market. mr. richie, would you ring the 24/5 bell? sure can, jim. ♪ trade 24/5, with td ameritrade.

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thanks for being with us. craig melvin is up next right here on msnbc. hey, craig. >> hey there, andrea. good to see you. good afternoon to you. craig melvin here at msnbc news headquarters in new york city. fleeing florence. nearly the entire coast of south carolina start evacuations. experts at the national hurricane center say florence will be an extremely dangerous major hurricane, even after it makes landfall. also, circle of friends. the president's son chimes in on the latest book and anonymous essay about the white house. saying the group of people the president trusts is getting smaller and smaller. also, mystery attacks. exclusive reporting from nbc news shows u.s.