the storm is packing 125-mile-per-hour winds. it's produced 83-foot waves and it's closing in on the carolinas. more than a million people have been ordered to evacuate from coastal areas and time is running out. florence is expected to make landfall by early friday. and for those in harm's way, a message from the president. >> we're fully prepared -- food, medical, everything you could imagine -- we are ready. but despite that, bad things can happen when you're talking about a storm this size. it's called mother nature. you never know. but we know. >> with mother nature you never know, but we know. for anyone needing a little extra reassurance after that, al roker, what do you know? >> what i know is what we know from the national hurricane center, we're about 40 minutes away from getting an update from them. in the meantime, here's what we do know. it's still a category 3 storm.

could still strengthen a little more. 485 miles southeast of wilmington, north carolina. 125-mile-per-hour winds, down a little bit, but not by much. sloed down moving northwest at 6. the track from the national hurricane center brings it just to the tip of north carolina. some time late friday, but then skirts the coast and makes its way inland some time saturday afternoon as a category 2 storm and then continues across south carolina and on up back into parts of tennessee, western -- i'm sorry, western north carolina. but here's what we're looking for as far as rain is concerned. a wide area of about 10 to 20 inches could be isolated amounts of 40 inches. however, the european model is a little bit different. it comes close to wilmington, puts on the brakes late thursday night and then makes its way along the coast approaching charleston. and in that instance, this is

the worst case scenario for storm surge because the strongest part of the storm is in the northeast quadrant. from wilmington and moorhead city, myrtle beach, charleston, they all will be raked by this system. they'll see the storm surge. and that is going to be devastating. and if you look at the rainfall amounts, the heaviest rain now moving further inland in south carolina. again, isolated amounts of over three feet of rain. and as we talk about the tropical advisories, we've got hurricane warnings now stretching from much of north carolina into south carolina, and the power outages are going to be very widespread. especially with these tropical force winds making their way in. but the biggest problem and the most dangerous from the storm surge. the worst looks to be somewhere in the south central coast of north carolina. a 9 to 13-foot storm surge. that's on top of high tides. that's what you have as a high

tide, put another 13 feet on top of that, and that's the wall of water that will come rushing in. basically driven by these tropical force and hurricane force winds. they inundate the inland areas. the water can actually move in miles from the coastline. so even if you don't live along the coast, you need to be aware of this. if you're in an evacuation zone, everybody needs to get out because once this starts, nobody will be able to come get you and save you. nicolle? >> i'm looking at that region. it's vast. so many of our viewers affected. talk about some practical preparations for those in the evacuation zone. is it in the next few hours? do we have another night at home? how long should people be prepared to be away? if you're just outside the evacuation zone, are you looking at power outages, floods, water in your home? talk about what our affected viewers should expect in the coming days. >> if you are along the coast, if you're in the evacuation

zone, you need to start planning to get out, and get out now. the longer you wait, the worse the roads are going to be and you may get to a point of no return. i can't give you an exact time for that but what i can tell you is that the longer you wait, the less chance you have of getting out. that's the first thing. so get out, and get out now. even if you're just on the outside of the evacuation zone, the storm surge can travel inward. besides the fact you're going to have -- down there in this area already it is already saturated. so with the heavy rains that are coming, already infrastructure is weakened. so you're going to have downed power lines, trees being uprooted and tropical force winds. roads will become impassable. downed power lines. it will be a mess. that's going to be a problem, even if you are not right along the coast. if you're just outside of it, you're still going to feel those effects. if you are within that area, that's going to see anywhere from 10 to 20 inches of rain, there's going to be massive

flooding. all of these things. there is no real safe zone if you are going to be even within five or ten miles of that evacuation zone, nicolle. >> al roker, the only person i know that can make weather armgedon sound survivable. we'll keep calling on you. as the storm bears down on the east coast, the president managed to fire off a tweet about collusion with russia this morning, saying there wasn't anyone. he also reupped his feud with the mayor of san juan, puerto rico, over the response to the deadly hurricane that hit puerto rico one year ago. the president tweet, we got a-pluses for our hurricane in texas and florida and did an upappreciated great job of puerto rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incomp tent mayor of san juan. we are ready for the big one that is coming. the mayor of san juan responded. >> oops, he did it again. here he goes again.

he doesn't understand that this isn't about him and about his ego. this is about the inability of his administration that he directs to ensure that the appropriate help got to puerto rico in time. so, you know, the president is all about political posturing. it's all about how good he's going to look. >> joining us from "the new york times," chief white house correspondent peter baker. here at the table, republican strategist rick wilson. elise jordan, a former aide in the george w. bush white house and state department. now co-host of the podcast "words matter." "washington post" columnist and associate editor eugene robinson and zer li na maxwell. now director of progressive programming for sirius xm. peter baker, just the words, i don't remember talking about my grades since i was in grade school. the president tweeting about a-pluses, really even the most -- even the most generous

read can put the president at the center of his words, his public statements, his utterances about this potentially deadly storm bearing down on the carolinas. it's bizarre. >> well, this is why other presidents don't talk about themselves in the moments like this. they talk about the people in the path of the storm. now the president has issued a video. he has made some comments about those people in the path warning them to get away. he cannot stay away from this idea of what people are saying about him. this person says something nice about me. this person says we did a good job. this is a pattern with him that goes back through a year and a half in office and particularly seems, you know, jarring to some extent in a moment of national crisis when the issue is not how he feels about things but how his leadership is in terms of leading a country that's facing a deadly storm. >> peter baker, i bring it up because your paper in the op-ed published last week by anonymous described a two-track

government. i wonder if in your conversations with white house or government sources the reassurance goes like this. you know, the president is going to do his thing. he's going to use his twitter feed to urge people to heed the evacuation warnings. in terms of running the government, we've got this. >> well, to some extent, yes. in fact, the government did good marks if you want to use that phrase or that kind of standard. in a couple of the hurricanes last year before puerto rico. in fact, the fema agency has, you know, aquitted itself at times with great efficiency. it didn't do as well in puerto rico. the challenges were different. more intense. and it's in moments like that you expect a president to step up and take ownership, take leadership and make things better when they don't seem to be working correctly. that's not been the perception people had of what happened in puerto rico. >> and it's not the perception because it's not the reality. more than 2,000 puerto ricans applied for funeral assistance after hurricane maria.

we've got stories now of fema monies being moved around to pay for baby jails and other detention facilities. so peter is right. it's not the perception, but it wasn't the reality. people died in puerto rico. this was a federal response that was anemic compared to the responses that people described as getting better marks. >> it was. and, you know, donald trump is numbingly insecure about how well he's doing, how people perceive him. i think this is an expression of that. you know, i got an a-plus. put that aside -- >> it's bizarre for an adult. let's leave all -- >> but, you know -- >> what grown person talks about their grades. it's like i got a star on my paper. it's bizarre. >> there's one who talks like that, and he happens to be president of the united states. and that's a problem. but i am concerned about what's actually happening. on brian williams show last night -- you remember general

honore. >> of course i do. i got to know him very well after katrina. >> you know, he sort of ran it down about the kind of mobilization of military assets, particularly helicopters, that he feels ought to be happening now. we ought to be seeing signs of that, that will be needed in the days to come. just to do search and rescue. just to do that initial phase. and he was very worried that not enough of those assets have been mobilized. >> in a water event which is what katrina largely was after the levees were breached. that was a water event. water rescues rescuing people with sometimes minutes to spare on the roofs of their house. there is this question. n when you have a hurricane, it's not an exercise. there are lives on the line, and there are questions from within the president's cabinet about his competence and the competence of the government. >> of course. one of the things we all learn in politics in the very beginning is, under promise and

overdeliver. don't say you'll have this thing handled before we know what this storm is going to do. don't say we're going to get another "a." we're going to do great. we're ready for this. we're not ready for this. no one is ready for something like this. so the president has given people this expectation, i think, especially folks who believe in him, that he's going to be able to perform some miracle in a cat 4 hurricane, when it slams into north carolina. i'm worried about that and haven't seen a lot of the inf infrastructure moving. i haven't seen a lot of the nuts and bolts, the block and tackle stuff the government ought to be doing because he's busy tweeting about collusion and having a beef with the mayor of san juan. this is a serious thing where americans are going to die if we don't do the right things as a government. >> elise, weigh in on this idea of a bifurcated government which is what anonymous rights about in "the new york times" op-ed. i want you to speak to this idea that the president even in -- i believe there was a hurricane, and as it was bearing down, he pardoned sheriff arpaio. there's an inability to focus at

a moment of emergency. >> donald trump has sought to remove himself from decisions that he doesn't necessarily want to get involved in the nuts and boel boel bolts of disaster relief, but then he wants to take the credit. contrast what he said about puerto rico to what fema itself said. they released an after action report. they had underestimated the needs for water, for food in puerto rico in the aftermath. but he's not doing anything to reassure the public that we realize the mistakes and are making sure we're doing better this time. he's just the loose cannon all over twitter talking about whether it's the russia investigation or whether it's name targeting the mayor of san juan. >> right. >> donald trump is not doing anything that's seemingly constructive. >> let me just in our constant effort not to normalize any of this behavior. name checking the mayor of san juan. let's talk about how weird that is. there are people filling their

carsbelongings, nopositive everything will be all right when they get back. >> he does not like women attacking him, particularly when it's a woman of color. he was sensitive to her chris simp, which was warranted because her citizens were dying. the idea that there will be future deaths is important but 3,000 americans have already died as a result of their negligence and they have not taken any responsibility for that whatsoever. essentially every comment he says about puerto rico is blaming them for their poor infrastructure. and i am not okay with blaming the victims of a natural disaster for being deceased, right? i think that's immoral. >> one of my favorite leadership moments before a hurricane was governor chris christie. and he told new jersey residents, get the hell off the beach. and it was colorful. it was brash. but that's, you know maybe a

better model for donald trump. maybe focus on encouraging your supporters who believe in you to leave. >> i want to get peter baker on the record on this reporting that is in your paper today. a document that shows the trump administration took $10 million from fema and gave it to i.c.e. for detentions ahead of the 2018 hurricane season. i'm not an expert on where dollars go in and out of one budget or another but certainly the optics of something like this are catastrophic. >> yeah. money is moved around from funds all the time. it's a relatively small amount. and if you didn't need it for that particular quarter and you need it in a subsequent quarter, you'd get it back by appropriations made by congress. the idea that it went specifically to a different purpose that is so controversial, so fraught with political emotion right now is a bad optic and gives ammunition to his critics who are saying what are your priorities? your priorities are separating

families, not taking care of americans in the path of a storm. so whether it actually matters in a substantive way as a matter of symbolism it, obviously, was not well thought through. >> eugene? >> it certainly can't help, can it? to take money after, you know, 3,000 people die in puerto rico and take money away from fema and you send it over so you can make jails for babies. that is appalling. and it totally is unacceptable. >> fema has always been or has typically been not a political pot of money. after 9/11, new york city got the money to -- i mean after katrina and i was in the white house. i was part of the failed response to new orleans. that is supposed to be money that is not politically tainted. there is no more tainted money than the money that went to the detention centers used for child separations. >> absolutely. absolutely. and one thing we should have

learned from katrina and should have learned from puerto rico is that you really do have to pay attention to fema because stuff is going to happen that you haven't anticipated. that you don't know you're going to have to respond. even when you see a hurricane coming, it's going to affect people in ways that you can't really anticipate. >> and you can't trust this congress to look at a storm disaster as being beyond politics. just ask chris christie. just ask the citizens of new orleans. when we come back, a story sure to drive the president bananas. the man who literally never speaks in public is out polling the man who never stops speak, tweeting and shouting from the podium. what the face-off that neither man asks for reveals about the political power of one man's silence. also knife fights, dog fights and one of the most vulnerable republicans in america. why all eyes are on deep red texas and what it could mean for the balance of power in washington. if you think the white house

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most people with commercial insurance pay nothing out of pocket. talk to your doctor and visit botoxchronicmigraine.com to enroll. to say the russia investigation is on donald trump's mind is a monumental understatement. he's consumed by it, obsessed with telling anyone that will listen that the whole thing is corrupt, rigged. we should mention it's absolutely not either of those things but that doesn't stop the president on his crusade. he's tweeted about the investigation 70 times just in the last month. in that same time frame, heck,

since he was appointed more than a year ago, robert mueller has said exactly nothing. nothing in public about the president, about the investigation or anything at all. clearly, two very different strategies and thanks to a new poll on public approval, it's very clear one of them works better than the other. 30% of respondents approve of the way donald trump is handling the investigation compared to 50% for robert mueller. trump's 70 tweets about the investigation since last month has corresponded with a 4-point dip in that approval figure during the same period. and the hits keep coming. new from "the washington post" today, days before in-person jury selection is set to begin in his second trial, president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort is in talks with the special counsel's office about a possible plea deal. according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. the discussions indicate a possible shift in strategy for manafort who earlier this year chose to go to trial in virginia to be convicted last month in

alexandria federal court on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. joining us from "the washington post," national security reporter devlin barrett and former u.s. attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general harry litman. take us through your reporting about paul manafort as he gets ready to face his second trial in d.c. >> what we're told is manafort would very much like to come to some sort of deal that eases the prison time burden on him and probably the financial burden as well, given what it costs to pay lawyers for a trial. but that he's still really not interested in cooperating. and the big question is, can the prosecutors and manafort come up with some sort of deal that they both feel they get something out of? obviously the prosecutors would dearly like manafort to cooperate but it's not at all clear that he has any interest in that, even if it means going to trial again. >> is it clear manafort has anything to offer the prosecutors? >> no, he's gone through more than one lawyer so his past

lawyers have, you know, always sort of signaled they didn't really believe that manafort could offer mueller very much. but that's an open question and the way the process would normally work is there would be what's called a proffer session so that manafort could lay out a little of what he knows, if he wanted to do that. as far as we can tell, there hasn't been much interest in that proffer session so far. >> harry, take me inside with the mueller prosecutors, what they are thinking. they've got him convicted on eight counts. standing trial on some similar -- many similar charges. do they need manafort? do they care? it seems like a deal is in manafort's interest but not necessarily the government's. >> yeah, the only obvious thing they'd get is the not have to go through the trouble and the expenditure of resources to be at trial. and some litigation risk, negligible here that they wouldn't get a conviction. now it would -- should he plead, it would potentially clear the

path for them to try to give him immunity and put it right in the grand jury. so that's an interesting play they have but they would have that in the wake of a trial anyway. i think the -- what the parties are talking about is a small gauge deal where each gets little and gives little. and particularly, if he doesn't -- there's very little they will give him in terms of a reduction of sentence. does he have stuff for them if he wants to cooperate? we still, i think, get good information that trump, among others, thinks that mafr could really inculpate him but his strategy centerpiece has been to not talk about that and i think he's going to stay the course there. >> would mueller want to know if manafort was promised a pardon? there was some reporting last summer that john dowd, the president's former attorney, had dangled the prospect of pardons for manafort and flynn in front of their attorneys. is that the kind of thread that may play into the obstruction of

justice investigation ongoing into this president? >> you bet. it's not even a thread. it itself could well be a separate count of obstruction of justice. that's one of the many things that manafort is staying silent about. again, though, they -- there's a possibility they could maneuver him once his jeopardy is removed. once all the charges have played out, they could force him to talk in a grand jury. he could say i refuse, send me to jail, under contempt. if they, do that jail sentence is in addition to any sentence he has. he doesn't begin to serve his sentence as long as he's under contempt. so you could have a game of chicken there. >> rick, i'm struck by the poll numbers we talked about at the beginning of this block. the idea that mueller by saying not one word, but by speaking through his actions, by speaking through the charging documents, speaking through the meticulous nature of the indictments, has an approval rating 20 points higher than a president who

spends every waking moment maligning his character, maligning the character and integrity of every investigator is stunning. >> not only that. an entire television network dedicated to blowing up the special prosecutor's investigation every single day. he's got an entire media apparatus out there dedicated to trying to blow up robert mueller. >> he's got rudy. >> my old boss. whoo. but he's got this entire infrastructure banging away every day and robert mueller's numbers keep getting better. and the number of americans who say we ought to pursue this investigation keeps growing. it's not working. the president may think he's this master manipulator but he's dead wrong this to. keep doing what you're doing there, don. >> what he's doing is losing everybody except his core base, right? >> it's the ceiling. that's what i was going to say. >> the people who, you know, believe donald trump can do no wrong. therefore, they approve of him and disapprove of mueller. he's lost everybody else. everybody who is convincible has been convinced. >> this is this idea, too, that

we spend too much time talking about this noisy minority. that's a lower number of approval than nixon had when he resigned. so we talk about the trump voter like they're this impenetrable wall. they are so small, he didn't think he had won on election night and they're sclichrinking. we're talking about 70% of americans not approving of what he's doing. >> i always try to remind folks he got 26% of eligible voters in 2016. that's a very small amount of people, right, in terms of the vast majority of the population of the country. plus half the country didn't vote at all. and so i think when you put it in that context, it's like, oh, wait. the 75% of other people, not only are opposed to donald trump but they're digging their heels in, in terms of the opposition. running for office themselves. organizing their communities to support democrats in the midterms to push back against this administration. it's not just that they disapprove of trump. they're working against his administration and republicans. >> it reminds me of the american

president. sort of like bob mueller is, i am the president. bob mueller, i'm going to let this speak for itself. there is something, there is this perception of strength in the way trump blusters but it's projecting. it's mueller and his silence and strength of his actions projecting more confidence. >> and mueller is controlling his message that he is looking into and investigating wrongdoing. that is his only message. it's not muddled the way that donald trump -- he could talk about absolutely anything he wanted and command the stage, yet he chooses to his detriment to be off message and to be berating people, to be harassing the san juan mayor. to be going completely off kilter. >> devlin, obviously the president's pr campaign has a ceiling. does it manifest itself in any

of the legal machinations you cover? >> i think the one area you see mueller's people push back quickly is when they think there's a legitimate question about their professionalism. if you think back, there were two moments when mueller's folks put out a statement very, very fast and that was when the paid struct text first surfaced and that was when mueller happened to be in the same airport gate as donald trump jr. so they're very sensitive to these allegations of impropriety or bias or whatever. but i also think they pick their spots and they really only choose to speak when they feel like an average person might question what they're doing. when they do it, they do it really quickly. >> harry, let me get your last word. bob mueller with a 50% approval rating by saying nothing. >> yeah. he's a hero, right? he's an old-fashioned american, strong and silent hero. in terms of endorsing what he's doing, should manafort plead, he's going to have to stand up

in court and admit to the entire sheet. he's going to have a colloquy with judge jackson where he says i did that, i did that and i did that, too. and that only reinforces mueller's work. >> mueller's work may also have a role in the fact that 47% of americans now think that donald trump should be impeached. stunning poll numbers on the russia investigation. we'll keep following those. harry and devlin, thank you both so much. after the break, the democrats have a shot in the senate race in texas. how many times have you heard that? not many. just ask nervous republicans who never thought they'd move ted cruz into the vulnerable category. how o'rourke could turn texas politics on its head. all work. it gives us the best night sleep ever. i recommend my tempur-pedic to everybody. the most highly recommended bed in america just got better. introducing the all-new, reinvented tempur-pedic. designed with the most pressure relieving material we've ever created. it adapts and responds to your body's

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we're not going to be defined by our fears. who it is that we don't like, who it is that we are scared. we are going to be known by our ambitions. the big things that we want to do that we will do when we decide that we're going to come

together and do. this country has never been more polarized. this country has never been more divided. at least in my lifetime, than it is right now. this country is calling us. it's not calling for us to call names or to define ourselves by our party affiliation or our race or ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation or the number of generations we can say we were in texas or whether we just got here last week. all that matters is that we're now together. >> i have seen a lot of candidates. that's a good one. beto o'rourke, the democratic senate candidate shaking things up in the traditionally red state of texas. allies of his opponent senator ted cruz warn the opponent needs to bring it. one lawmaker noted of cruz, he's got a dog fight on his hands. i can tell you there's beto signs all over my district and there are beto signs all over deep red parts of texas unexplainable. with 55 days to go until election day, the pressure is on for republicans. right now things are so bad,

texas is in play. the panel is back. it's like a bad joke. how bad is it? it's so bad, texas is in play. >> that never happens. so in that sense, in that sense, the moral victory has already been won by the democratic party and by beto o'rourke who is a huge star. >> he's good. >> the fact that democrats are making texans, republicans work so hard for texas, which they, you know, ought to be able to take for granted is astounding. but there is the possibility of the actual victory and i don't know of a lot of people who think that -- nobody thinks that's in the bag and nobody, you know, and most people think that's ultimately not likely. but it could happen. in a big enough blue wave, it will happen. >> here's what feels important about this race. i don't know how to say this without being personal or mean but ted cruz is despised. it's no secret that my old boss

the bush family is not fans of ted cruz. donald trump, not a fan of ted cruz. ted cruz makes other republicans hate ted cruz. >> you've still got to consider that it was ted cruz, donald trump and still >> also another state that i'm really watching because i think democrats are very likely to take a senate seat in tennessee, too. and it's crazy that we're talking about texas and tennessee in 2018. >> a thing about beto that reminds me of what people loved about the late, great john

mccain. what he says doesn't come from something some aide hands him. no one does a poll and says say this. he gets asked a question and it reminds me of john mccain in new hampshire. he get s asked a question. no matter whether it's about nailing in the nfl, immigration, whether it's something that ted cruz is going to chop into some political ad or not, he answers the question. >> no one ever looks at ted cruz and says, wow, that guy is comfortable in his own skin. no one looks at ted cruz and says he's going to -- we're going to have an actual discussion. there's always machinery going on in his head. when you see beto. texas is a high hill for the democrats to climb. no matter what. he's a very high quality candidate who is doing -- he's hustling like crazy. he's not hanging out in d.c. green rooms. he's out beating -- >> we welcome him in our green room. we have a lovely green room. >> you do. but he's out hustling. he'll show up at a four-person

barbecue and make sure he makes four new friends. you don't feel that way with ted cruz. he doesn't come across as a guy you want to have a proverbial beer with. >> i want to ask you about what's -- what can be extrapolated from his campaign success because i feel like it would be a mistake if we stopped talking about him the day after election day no matter the outcome. what is it about his success? it seems like it's this ability to connect which president obama had from the early -- when he was in illinois state politics. but what can be extrapolated from his success that democrats can try to replicate? >> i think there's a couple things. the historic narrative where democrats tried to run to the center to try to convince moderates the republican is bad but i'm just a little better than the republican. vote for me. i'm in the middle. i'm not too scary. we should get away -- we should do away with that. beto is being authentic, progressive. he's answering the question when asked. and he's not, you know, giving

focus group-shopped answers. he's answering it like a human being. the human side of him, the side of him that he's answering a question how i would answer a question thinking about it and then giving a thoughtful response. that's not something you see in politics often. and that resonates with voters. i also think that, you know, donald trump has revealed that you don't necessarily have to have the policy chops and all of that to be an elected official. i think that, you know, we're all sort of -- that's our new reality. you also need somebody who at least gives the -- their constituents the feeling that they are in it for me. they're fighting for me. i think beto evokes that. you have to do the work. alexandria cortez, obviously a small turnout election. but she did the work. she tweeted a photograph of her shoes with the holes in it. she knocked on the actual doors. >> there's something in his message, too. he has this ability to redefine -- values are a big

thing in texas. usually code for social conservative values. he seems to be at the cusp of redefining the code of values. he's not afraid to compete by talking about good morales and american values. >> and the other was to take barack obama. you know, there are -- >> exactly. >> at least -- you said it. he has the it factor that politicians you really need to keep your eye on have. and not everybody has it, and he has it. and one of those things is the ability to talk about those inner things that matter to people in a way that doesn't sound phony. >> i loved how he was saying he didn't like the name-calling. he was taking on the nastiness. a climate that so many americans can't stand and is just repelling so many americans from the political process right now. and i appreciated that he is standing up there and speaking

with optimism in contrast to ted cruz's message of fear and certainly donald trump's message of fear. >> and i think also texans saw -- texans have always liked a tough character from lbj on. and what they saw in ted cruz was that donald trump said that his dad murdered jfk and his wife was ugly and ted cruz, he didn't punch donald trump in the nose. he said can i shine your shoes, boss. and he humiliated himself. this complete collapse of any strength. you know if donald trump screams loud enough, ted cruz will be in the corner curled up in a fetal position. so texans looked at that, and i think part of that is that beto o'rourke will come out and scrap for a good idea and work hard for a good idea. they don't see that in ted cruz because donald trump emasculated him on live television. >> there was that. after the break -- how a blue wave in november could sweep in a wave of investigations that may further paralyze this already dysfunctional white house.

that story is next.

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donald trump's presidency may be hurdling toward the collision of his grim legal and political realities. according to a new report from axios, even trump recognizes that may mean an impeachment is in his future. quote, a few months ago, trump was scoffing at midterm consequences for himself. but now, trump has heard the dire warnings from enough advisers that he's shifting into salvation mode sharpening his campaign rhetoric and privately contemplating life under subpoena and the threat and reality of impeachment." axios reporting that trump is already mulling the impact an impeachment could have on his 2020 re-election bid. a source stressed, this president is not interested in being an impeached president. his ego would not tolerate such a thing. peter baker is back with us.

this is astonishing to read white house aides already sort of talking amongst themselves about the prospect of being under constant investigation. you covered the white house in which i worked where that was our reality. congressman waxman who subpoenaed records on enron, the energy task force. that's a new reality that would be a new reality for this white house and the talk about impeachment. talk about that. >> i think that's exactly right. i think you hear the president in public musing about the possibility of impeachment. he said in montana the other day that might be possible. he told supporters in the crowd, if i get impeached, it's your fault because it means you didn't go vote. >> he said if i'm impeached it was on you. >> it's on you. exactly. he's already, i think, sort of bracing for this idea that if democrats win, that does put him in very serious jeopardy, first of all, for multiple investigations and second of all for some sort of impeachment inquiry. it's hard to imagine democrats

winning the house and not feeling compelled by their base which just hates trump to at least open an inquiry to consider the idea. that doesn't mean they'd go all the way to a vote in the house. they might. might not. they got through the house, what president trump seems to be counting on is they wouldn't get to a two-thirds vote in the senate. whether the democrats or republicans win the senate, neither side will have a two-thirds majority there. he's counting on a party line vote that would save him in the senate. looking ahead to what that would mean for 2020. it's possible it could help him. it's very possible it could rile his supporters to say, see, we were shot at, but missed. and the deep state is out to get him and we should turn out to save him in 2020. we'll see. bill clinton was impeached in 1998. acquitted in 1999. couldn't run in 2000 but polled suggested it's likely he could have won. the difference, of course, i would point out. the difference is bill clinton

was always at a higher poll number than donald trump is. so it's not necessarily a direct comparison. >> it was 67% the week he was impeached. the poll number we were acutely aware of in a white house that was never impeached. you are one of the best of the best that covers that white house. this dynamic is playing into the search for new general counsel. the current white house counsel don mcgahn expected to depart after the kavanaugh hearings, if he is confirmed. and emmitt flood is known as being expert in these political knife fights over executive privilege and protecting white house secrets. they understand this is their reality. is that the case? what other machinations are going on in this white house to prepare for this reality? >> that's exactly right. in your white house, they did the same thing after it lost the midterm. you want a white house counsel who is a time consigliary.

how do you prepare for the blizzard of subpoenas they think they'll be getting. they haven't seen what it can be like once the house committee chairman get their hands on this. emmet flood is somebody who is thought to be prepared for that. he was one of the lawyers who worked for president clinton on the outside during his impeachment in 1998 and 1999. he does have that experience. and he's already shown on the inside to a lot of people in this white house who have come to respect him as a voice for, you know, unlike some of the other lawyers, a voice for a calm and orderly defense rather than the historionic things you see on television. >> the optics of preparing for impeachment in an investigation. a move that suggests no one thinks they are clean. >> this will go down as one of the most corrupt presidential administrations ever. it's not just the impeachment hearings are coming. it's not just that the other

scandals and corruptions inside this administration are going to be put under the hot lights and that's going to be the narrative all through '19 and all through the first part of 2020 is this is a profoundly venal and corrupt man and etch down the chain from him has their own venal corruption about them. it's also going to be they can't run the blocking and tackling against the attacks on the justice department, that meninos and these guys have been doing for months. >> mark meadows, thank you for spending time with us. after the break, four senior former intelligence officials on one stage talking president and dissent. i was there. we will bring you that story.

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i was honored to participate

in an event for the hayden center named for general hayden. he was joined by admiral mike rogers and philip muddcia analysts. the four have never shared a stage before the trump presidency. their frankness was both refreshing and alarming. >> the thing that concerns me the most is our institutions are under attack, which i always thought, that's the strength of our system. it's the fact that we can count on these institutions, their ethos, their professionalism, their capitol hill to the rule of law over time regardless of the broader context that's ongoing. >> that has been a real strength for us as a nation. and now i just do not want to lose that. >> what bothers me the most is the institutions and values and norms and standards in this

country that i spent a good 50-plus years in one capacity or another, in the trenches of the intelligence for every president since john f. kennedy, which those are under assault, which they are now, i felt it was my duty, my obligation to speak up. >> we're in the "in emergency break glass" situation. and so we're doing things that we probably didn't plan on doing, were not enthused about doing, but we're going to go do them. >> gene, their le rug tans and discomfort at being a part of the public dialogue, i fell it there on the stage. >> you can see it. >> they don't like it as well, they hate it. >> but this does not come naturally to them. it's unpleasant to them in some ways him when they say they felt they had to speak out. i think they really fell that. i think that's really clear. >> what does it say about donald

trump? >> well, it says everything about donald trump. it says, what a dangerous admiration this presidency is and, you know, read the woodward book. it's harrowing. >> yeah, it is. >> it's harrowing. >> it is. >> it's like diving catch after diving catch. you've got this sort of loose cannon. you got the shambolic presidency that can't even spell right much less do the staff work, the things that need to be done to make the country function right. it's scary. >> shambolic presidency. thank you for that. don't go anywhere. we'll be right back. a leaf is a hint that is connected to each person in your family tree. i learned that my ten times great grandmother is george washington's aunt. within a few days i went from knowing almost nothing to holy crow, i'm related to george washington.

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. >> some day we will broadcast the breaks. thankfully today we didn't. thank you, that does it for our hour. i'm nicole wallace. mtp daily starts next.

>> hello, nicole. it's dry here. it's wednesday, is america ready for the storm? >> good evening, i'm chuck todd here in walk him welcome into mtp daily. a monster hurricane is barreling down on the carolinas, as you may have heard, dire warnings and historic flooding and damage and it is the after math everybody is more worried about with this one. this is arguably a time to put