. >> 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 politics on pause, but the

commander-in-chief can't seem to help himself. we will get to that in minutes. we got breaking news from the meteorologist, it's the 5:00 p.m. forecast. it came out moments ago. bill, i tell you, hurricanes do crazy things, make crazy things, to every advisory, people are on the edge of their seats, what can you tell us? >> every storm is different. it's the first thing you learn as a meteorologist, this is like none i've ever seen before. we were thinking yesterday at this time it could be a cat 5. it's down to 125 mile per hour winds, it's holding onto the middle ground of a category 3. that's good news the weaker the better, the less water it can push onshore the weaker the winds the better. 120-mile-per-hour winds. the reason it's weakened a bit, there are some physics things in the center why the eye is

regenerating itself. movement still at 16 piles per hour. >> that will slow down dramatic ally tomorrow. here's the all important forecast track. i've zoomed in here. this is the outer banks, cape hatteras. moorehead city, wilmington to myrtle beach and charleston. this point here, tomorrow afternoon 2:00 p.m. you go from here to 2:00 p.m. saturday. this is 48 hours of a major hurricane, slowly weakening down to a category 1, as it rakes the coastline of north carolina and eventually into south carolina. i never seen a forecast like that along the coast raking it like that. harvey went inland, this could remain a strong storm the winds friday afternoon at 150 miles per hour, 80 by the time we get to the afternoon. you are still losing power in the myrtle beach area. let's let people know what you see of when the storm is going to arrive. so this yellow, that's the

tropical storm force wind. that's when you can lose power, transformt fo transformers blowing. the red is the hurricane force wind. that's when we get the destruction the storm surge begins to arrive. that's around 8:00 p.m. thursday. we start with the hurricane winds, here all the way back to emerald isle, eventually getting into wilmington in the overnight hours. the real show when you wake up friday morning, you turn us on. you watch, people blowing around on the beaches. we may not have coverage people in place. it pay be too windy or strong. almost over the top of wilmington at noon on friday. during the daylight hours is when if you haven't lost power yet, you will in areas of the southeastern portion of the state. as far as the storm surge, what is interesting the stronger the winds the longer the storm surge. the winds have come down the hurricane center refused at this point to lower these numbers. they're saying a 9 to 14 foot

sandstorm surge. this is getting a hurricane once every four years. 13 feet, multiple high tide cycles because of that stall, that will test the pilings the concrete that the wood goes down into, into the beaches. we will see considerable damage in those areas. a little in cape hatteras, to the south. finally, the last thing will be a rainfall the stalled out storm the deadly destruction of the storm, this is a huge foot print of a foot of rain in the pink, isolated areas could get up to 3 to four feet of rain, it's not telling you how far off the charts the record rainfall in areas of south carolina and north carolina is 2 feet or under. we're saying three to four feet. >> twice. very quickly, how the confidence level of that track now? i assume, what is that confidence level? >> we're pretty locked in now. there was a big shift overnight, it went further to the south. it spared raleigh northward, brought into the equation,

charleston, georgetown, dillon, south carolina. i don't think we will change, maybe it goes inland and stays inland and weakens faster, or it could go to wilmington, head south back over the water, mr. el the coast and then go inland. that may make a minor difference in how much damage we get. we are pretty locked in on this path. we are 36 hours away from when the damage will begin. >> bill kierans, you are supposed to bring us better news for a wilmington county native. >> it's so beautiful, too. it will be a change to see what it looks like. >> i'm sorry you didn't have better news for you, bill, thank you very much. turning now to the latest developments from the white house as this storm approaches. the president today blasted critics who attacked his claim that the government response if puerto rico, where an estimated 300 people died in the after math of hurricane maria was an unsung success, the governor of puerto rico pushed back and so did the mayor of san juan. >> there are about 60,000 people

with blue tarps or blue rooves. the suicide rate has gone up between 20 and 30%. suicide attempts have gone up between 55 and 60%. so i really don't know where the president gets the nerve to call this a success story. >> now, the president seemed to aim back for some reason deciding to tweet. we got a pluses for our recent hurricane work if texas and florida. i don't know who did the gried, and did an unappreciated great job in puerto rico even though an inaccessible island and a total incompetence in the mayor of san juan. they put fe pa in the awkward position of having to defend his agency's preparedness and the president's remarks about puerto rico. >> you know i can't speak for the president. i know fema put 100% into puerto rico. these people back here are incredibly dedicated. they work around the clock and

bottom line is i know, we know, we kept them from collapse. we faced a rotted and decayed infrastructure, fema can't help that. we have to deal with the deck of cards we have been dealt. >> julia ainsley as i previewed is with national security and michael steel msnbc political analyst and former lt. gov. of maryland and donna edwards, a democratic congress woman from maryland. welcome all. look, julia, in fairness to brock long, she ride, fema's job is not to rebuild infrastructure, their job is there to basically save an entity from disaster. so he was in that. but for some reason, here was a chance a president gets to be president and he doesn't act like it. >> there is a point there that is worth discussing. when you look at the disaster declaration orders after harvey dealing with the damage if texas and after maria, there is a key language left out of what they did in puerto rico.

>> that is to rebuild infrastructure. they purposely pulled back because they knew the road was so long, they did a lot of private contracting. we saw that didn't always work out. he is right, it isn't their job to have it back in a minute up before the storm comes. they don't have to be on the hook for everything. it seems that north carolina, my home state, should be in a very different position. but even still, there are more complications. not everybody has to evacuate from some areas that could be hit really hard. >> you know, michael, donna, it's not -- you just sometimes the president, you just like, this is i hate to be crass, this is a layup, you talk and preparedness, we will do everything we can to help people. and he just can't help himself. >> no, he can't. and that's talk about the layup. that's particularly true after the lessons learned from katrina. we watched the bush administration deal with weddings in europe and you know ignoring the warnings from meteorologists as we just heard

leading up to that storm, that five-day run-up. so presidents know now pretty much how to deal with this. but i thinkion anythibeyond i t beyond anything else, everything is about donald trump. even a devastating hurricane is about donald trump. so his pushback is not so much because of anything other than he thinks the way he handled, executed orders out to people is somehow come under assault. the proof is in the pudding. look at where puerto rico is today. >> right. >> tell me whether or not that was a success. when you still have homes that are tarped up and still inability to get supplies there. so that's where we are. >> make it up with the governor of puerto rico, who has not been an an tag nis to the president the way the mayor of san juan. bluntly stated this, this was the worst natural disaster in our modern history. our basic infrastructure was devastated. thousands of our people lost

their lives and many others still struggle. he is personally walking the line if not attacking the president. all it does in an odd way the president's raised the bar on himself. >> i think, look, there were 1830-some lives lost in katrina. 2975 in maria. and the president can't seem to own up to any responsible. even the action after disaster report for fema show that there were multiple areas where fema failed in delivering services, in delivering food, and rebuilding -- >> let's quote the gao report. you are referring to that, let me put this up here. this is a fault to the administration on puerto rico response. they were not prepared to respond to an event like that says the lead author of the report. they were having trouble getting people, not just people, qualified people. >> this was all of that from

prump trump's perspective, blaming the victim, instead of owning the responsibility and here's what he says, here's what we will do differently when it comes to florence, the president is completely incapable of doing that. his response really proves it. so now we're waiting to see what happens. >> the weird thing about the president, he sells the hurricane the way he sells a condo. just like, look, and i don't know why he does. that take a listen. >> they say it's about as big as they've seen coming to this country and certainly to the east coast, as they've ever seen. we'll handle it. get out of its way. don't play games with it. it's a big one. it may be as big as they've seen and tremendous apples of water. we're fully prepared, food, medical, everything you can imagine, we are ready. >> so here's what ashley parker

wrote, tremendously big, trump reaches for superlatives in the face of calamity. storms like the one on bearing down on the east coast this week, have offered a particularly revealing glimpse into trump's penchant for the dramatic. >> he absolutely speaks in hyperb hyperbole. you can see his strategy here. does he want to show after this if we have a great recovery effort, it was him, he stood up to that? >> he alone can fix it. >> we know so much has to do with the resource that starts way before the storm. we can talk about what fema has done for this, some money has been curtailed for fema. there is a lot can you look at that doesn't have to do with his rhetoric. maybe that's the idea, from the strategy perspective, he wants it to seem like he was out there on the beach. >> the more calamity you

describe then the easier it is to either write off a mistake, oh, it was so devastating. >> right. >> or look how great we were, the response. beneath all of that i go back to the clip and the quote from the president and what he said in response to the mayor and others who have been correct am of him. this is puerto rico. it is foreign. it is different. it is concerns people that, quite honestly, i'm not interested in. just to put it on the street. it's puerto rico. it's an island. there's a lot of water around it. what do you expect? and this is the core of where he's coming from. the lack of empathy and concern for people that he considers to be over there, out of the way. and as president, that is damming. and as president, it should be really concerning to the rest of us. >> there is no electoral vote. >> me made a point of making it seem as though puerto ricans

weren't americans. i think that's the rub. so you can see the difference with which he treated houston versus puerto rico in maria, and i just, i think that with this president, everything is about him. even if it's a natural disaster. >> and it does feel sometimes red state, blue state. okay. jul you brought up this report, senator jeff berkeley photothad some fema budget money was used the department of homeland security, which oversees fema and i.c.e., moved fema money to help i.c.e., walk me through this. >> we will put that in context. i talked to fema and dhs. this was money that was not going to be spent from the blue sky fund, meaning this isn't what you use in the middle of a natural disaster. he was used for training, some relocation and that if they didn't spend it, they might not get it the next year. you know how the process works that way. it is within the same agency. so they need to alert congress,

they don't need approval tore moving this around if it doesn't cross a certain threshold. that said, you can also say any money going toward fema or emergency response agency is money that eventually trickles down to helping people down the road. i do want to point out a lot of this re-allocation started this summer. we are finding out about it now. it's not that they looked at the storm and said, detaining pike grants mattered more. >> brock long was asked about this, let me play you his response to this story. >> that money has nothing to do with what you see behind us. it does not pay for this response. it is not coming out of the disaster relief fund. it has no impact on our efforts to be prepared for hurricane florence. it's just unfortunately, we have congressmen that is playing politics on the back of florence. >> all that said, michael and donna, he did sort of confirm that is what happened, he lost money and gave it to i.c.e.. >> it is, here's what happens with fema.

it's true, it's within the same agency. now all of these many agencies have been lumped under one. >> we don't want to debate the whole mess of dhs, although i would love to debate that. it's a crazy thing that we've done. >> when it comes to natural disasters, it comes to fema is when it becomes really important. so what will happen is even after the disaster, fema will come back to the congress and ask for more money to continue its work. which it should do. but it's $10 million lacking. >> the dhs is, it is never figured out how to be an agent, a department. >> that's because it has too many people stirring the pots and too many interests that want what's inside that pot. >> that makes it much tough tore deem with these types. >> not to be overlooked. they are using this money to grow i.c.e. attention as they are starting to hold families longer, longer than 20 days we reported last week. they will start doing more interior enforcement to hold people before they're deported.

this shows where the agencies lie. >> that's an awkward moment when we have fema beds over here with immigration beds. >> that will be stirring the pot there. stick around. we'll have more "mtp daily" right after the break. hey allergy muddlers. are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec®. it's starts working hard at hour one. and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. your hair is so soft!

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flip and move and it moves in a hurry. last week, the conventional wisdom in the united states senate has gone from, yeah, there is a bunch of fights over here, oh, wow the senate is in play. it started thanks to mitch mcconnell's and i assume, mitch mcconnell never does anything haphazardly. he wanted this quote out there. we know this will be a challenging election. arizona, nevada, tennessee, north dakota, tennessee and florida off the top of his head. all of them too close to calm, every one is a knife fight in an alley, it's a brawl if every one of those places. let me ask you this, if it's knife fights and it's september, isn't this a part of the wave? >> it is a part of the wave and a number of us have been talking about this for close to eight or nine months now the senate could potentially be in play for a lot

of reasons. you know, when everybody was counting out west virginia and places leak that oh, democrats are going to lose those seats, no, they're not. and i think what's caught up now is that reality, the internal numbers are showing these races that should not be close are close. and the races that we should pick up we're not. i think that's what mcconnell is basically, i love mitch, what he does is, he's like, let me all let you know what i know so you can all go prepare to do what you can do to change this. that itself what that signal was. >> donna, conner lamb won a district trump had won by 20 points. we all kept saying, oh, this is more sign the house is in play. okay. well, that also means, indiana senate, missouri senate, west virginia senate, north dakota senate, let's take those red, the four of the reddest here, i will set aside florida in a minute. those were anywhere from 10 to

40 point trump things. it's not as though we weren't giving hipts that trump country wasn't so ecstatic about their senate candidates. >> it's true, it's just that republicans didn't want to own that for the senate. they had begun to own it for the house, that pathway is becoming much more clear. but when you look at states like indiana, where you got joe donnelly who i think is now up six points. >> we had him at six points, what was interesting, nobody pushed back on it, not only that, it was the quiet of -- >> yeah, then you look at a state like tennessee where the former governor is on top of a very weak candidate in marsha blackburn. i think that the senate has been moving itself in play for a long time. and now finally mitch mcconnell is owning up to that publicly. >> julia, there is another reason why the senate is in play. it's four states that mitch mcconnell didn't talk about. they are four states that donald trump carried spiesingly to win

the presidency and they were four states that were going to say, guess what, democrats are in real trouble in the senate, wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania and ohio, none of them are on the playing field. i think wisconsin will be very close. it's the closest one to the playing field, ohio, pennsylvania, michigan, republican terms aren't seeing those as pick-up opportunities now. that's why i would also argue the senate is in play. >> right. those were such shocks, something clearly wasn't watched by hillarys catches, they're overnight surprises so this could be something that would really damage what trump has been riding on this wave. i know who has been looking at this for a long time, bring it back to the mueller probe, is guilianis, people defending the president who look at the senate and know if it flips, they could look at impeepment proceedings, it explains why they do such a pr push, they know the court of public opinion matters so much when you are talking about this

flip you are describing. >> also, they're spending more money in a state like texas where they shouldn't have to spend money, which means they don't have the reserves to fight in the real battle. >> i had a conversation, there is a rescue mission to save ted in texas. there is no rescue mission to save tammy in wisconsin the point being, democrats aren't going to wisconsin. >> they're not. >> they're sort of feeling with environment is on their side, maybe it's a close race, but texas, suddenly, that tells you everything you need to know. >> texas, you know, it's one of those things that if folks had paid attention ten years ago, you'd understand why o'rourke is where he is today the democratic party as much as it's maligned, it has focused on texas, to groom the electorate to vote for like minded senate democrats in mayor's races and city counsel races and the like and that

voting pop wlags is now, chuck, okay -- population is now, chuck, okay for voting for a democrat. if it's the right kind of democrat. the ill that's a transition. >> the other thing note who you brought up beto o'rourke. these were a-list, some recruits six years ago, donnelly was. >> my point. >> meanwhile, look at the republican recruits. i've talked to plenty of republicans who wished they had a better candidate in missouri. i talked to many who thought ron would be a better candidate than in indiana. then i bring up michigan, pennsylvania, ohio, where they have not found a candidate to put it in place. >> yeah, i think that's exactly what happens. we now are if a place where people want to rally behind you calm them populist candidates, there are people that do well on social media, people like beto o'rourke, if you don't find someone people can gravitate behind still in your party lane to be that senate moderate, you

are stuck in a tough position. >> beto o'rourke was not a fresh recruit. nobody was paying attention to him. he did the ground that it took. then you look at a chris cinema or jackie rosen in in a minute or arizona, those were top list recruits from democrats. >> i would say only in arizona do they have the best candidates they can find. she's an a-list. >> that's a fair point here's the rubble about the point you made. >> and rick scott. by the way, what if the republican party didn't have rick scott running? i would say, look at all the financial power he's brought. rick scott pay be the single post-important person in mitch mcconnell's life right now. >> for a whole lot of reasons, real quick on that point. to the point you were saying before the problem is the party didn't think they had to recruit. pause they thought first off we have the bench. and that bench was largely supported by a voting population that was aligned with trump and all of. that so they figured that's going to be the automatic. so that's why ohio, pennsylvania

and elsewhere, they didn't really do the kind of recruiting. >> i'm curious, he brought up something that triggered this quote i saw two days ago from roger stone of all people. he was speaking at a class in south florida i think it was. >> where he teaches? >> he was a guest lecturer at a reporter friend's class, he said, oh, i he gillum will win if florida. the reason, he brings something, he brings passion, he's a star. look, donald trump is a believener this, that you got to sell something, you got to be apeeling. right. beto o'rourke follows into this category. roger stone is basically saying i think gillum will win because gillum is a star, selling star power and embracing it. you buy, are we celebritifying politics nor now? >> i think that's always been true. >> to a point. >> people need energy and excitement.

i think what you get in some of these candidates like beto and gillum is not only do you get the star power, you get the youth and you get you know a lot of substance that goes behind that. i think that's a winning formula. >> the rob with the star power is there is always the morning after and then you have to wake up and you realize, oh, my god, he's raising taxes in a state with no tax? >> we'll wake up to -- >> how does that happen? to pay for all of these free programs? that's the other side, folks. >> fair enough. julia, peek, we will give you a break. we will talk a little more puerto rico with the governor of puerto rico. up ahead, supreme court drama, democrats seem to be trying everything to stop the brett kavanaugh nomination. the chances that their strategy has any chance of working? we'll be right back. keep those shrimp comin'! endless shrimp is back at red lobster. with all the shrimp you want, any way you want them. try delicious creations like new crunchy fiesta shrimp

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. every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally over bearing. nobody's ever seen anything like this. is there welcome back, that, of course was president trump if puerto rico contrasting hurricane maria with what he called a real catastrophe with

hurricane katrina. officially raised the death toll in puerto rico to nearly 3,000, that's actually higher than the estimates from hurricane katrina. over, even with that new information, president trump proclaimed the federal response an unsung success at the white house yesterday. >> i think puerto rico was incredibly successful. puerto rico was actually our toughest one of all because it's an island and i actually think it was one of the best jobs that's ever been done with respect to what this is all about. i think that puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. i think in a certain way the best jock we did was puerto rico, but nobody would understand that. we have gotten a lot of receptivity a lot of thanks for the job if puerto rico. puerto rico is very important. >> joining me now is luis rivera marine, the state governor of puerto rico. he was spending some time at the white house and mr. lt. gov. thanks for coming on, spending

some time with us. let me just start with what you heard from the president yesterday and whether you could go back to puerto rico and say, the president's right, it's an unsung success. there is nobody that could have done a better job cleaning up after hurricane maria than the federal government led by president trump, could you go back to puerto rico and say that is true? >> oh, first of all, thank you for having us, chuck, in your program and our prayers to our brothers and sisters in the eastern seaboard. particularly north and south carolina. i know the feeling getting ready for the streak of a major hurricane, certainly, when you talk about maria, you talk about what we went through last year and throughout last year, it's the largest event, the most disaster with the highest monumental effects in recent history and certainly that took into local government, federal

government and also many, many thousands of volunteers, a lot of work and facing challenges and hurdles, because of all the conditions pressing the island. you are talk about we lost all our airports. we lost all our communications and these happen overnight. so we have been working shoulder to shoulder for productive meetings in what is almost the anniversary where we are commemorating one year from particularia. we are making sure that we build these and we can relocate thousands of family that before maria were living in conditions that are not adequate. so the response what i can tell you is that we are working, we have been working since day one, shoulder to shoulder, with the federal agencies in making sure that puerto rico can't mo move

forward and start building new jobs. >> i understand you have to work with the administration, i get that. let me ask you this, do you think you would be getting more resources, more help, if you were a state? >> certainly. what history with puerto rico, i have been coming here for years claiming party and equitable treatment in health care funding. in puerto rico, we get probably half of the funds that other states get and we pay the same medicare taxes. in terms of housing and other federal programs, puerto rico, because of its territorial condition is discriminated. and envelopes, puerto ricans as u.s. citizens, we don't have representation in congress. we don't vote for the president. so when we come here, we do differently than those brothers and sisters, we have 3.4 million u.s. citizens that have no representation on the island and that certainly reflects in the

resources that we have. >> let's put it out, we did math here today, based on just population alone, a state of puerto rico would be america's 30th largest state. bigger than iowa, just under connecticut. which by my math would give you four members of the u.s. house in addition to two u.s. senators. let me ask you this, lt. gov. the island in my professional life, the island has always been split into thirds, it seems. a third want statehood a third want pure independence and a third would just like to improve the commonwealth relationship. has hurricane maria changed this? do you think there is now a majority that wants statehood? >> what i'll tell you is those thirds are not necessarily proportionate. there are three views as to what's the political future of the island. independent statehood of state as a territory or a colony. on the last, that's what's run

in the island 97% of the people of puerto rico favor statehood. a few years ago, back if 2012, was 61%. last year, we had a decision, 2016, i'm sorry, i must correct, the supreme court put it out bluntly that we are on the plenary powers of congress, thereby, thereby, that means that congress and only congress dictates what happens if puerto rico regarding programs. we don't have that representation. nevertheless, nevertheless, i must say, that the states in all te agriems that we have in place for collaboration have been supporting puerto rico. i must say that many, many members of congress so have helped sensibly to take care of the suffering on the island and the federal agencies and the administration is working on a very bold program to reconstruct

a more resilient island, where there is dignified housing for our people. what our aspirations are to be as equal. at the end, that's what the foundation of this nation is all about. >> that we are all created equal. that doesn't happen if puerto rico. >> it's a fair point, lt. gov. ly have to let you go there the lt. gov. serves as the sax. luis rivera marine, thank you for taking the time to talk with us. i appreciate it. we'll be right back. here we go. discover. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying

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welcome back, democrats are fighting an uphill battle to stop brett caf faug's nomflat k nomination after he avoided major missteps last week. a floor vote is expected if two weeks. it's still not stopping abortion rights groups from targeting centrist gop seniors, like susan

collins of maine. do any of these efforts have chances of working and are they actually helping the cause or set democrats back on that? i am joined by a member of the senate judiciary committee. senator coons, welcome. >> thank you, it's always good to be back on with you. >> have you made a decision with judge cavanaugcavanaugh? >> i did my thing questioning him on presidential power and his views of some rights and libs important to the american people. he claimed i misquoted him out of context, didn't represent his views accurately. so i've sent him another round of written questions and i'm giving him an opportunity to set the record straight. but frankly i have grave concerns about his judicial philosophy and unless i hear something strikingly different in the written responses, than i heard in the testimony, i'm not

inclined to support him. >> when you say, is there -- is there something specific that he didn't answer your question, if he answers it in a better way, you will be opened to supporting him? >> well, i questioned him on two different topics, chuck, there were many others that other members of the committee questioned him on that concern me. i really went to school on the issues around presidential power and in particular, whether or not it really is his view that a president can fire at will a special counsel investigating him, just because he dislikes the special counsel or the job he's doing, not for cause. and whether a president can shield himself from accountability by refusing to comply with a subpoena for evidence or testimony. i think it's obviously to your viewers why this is currently relevant. >> sure. >> the other line of questions i pursued had to do with his approach to something that's called substantive due process. it's been at the foundation of recent opinions byious tis kennedy that recognized a right

to marriage or marriage equality, that further advance the right to access to contraception to abortion, and it's been at the core of a number of key decisions around reproductive rights and lbgt rights if recent years. i wasn't satisfied with his answers on that line, either. i frankly would be stunned if he reversed course based on what he said and written and decided over the last few years. >> it does sound like we have an idea of where you are leaning. you will officially await for his answers on these written questions? >> that's right. >> i have a question about the tactics of special groups, there have been coat hangars sent to susan collins office, nasty voicemails that have been played. you know the tactics, it seems that the extreme tactics being used. i'm sure you have a lot of passion. what do you make of them? >> there is a huge passion, as the country saw, dozens were

arrested in the course of the hearings. all of our office versus gotten hundreds if not thousands of calls, many on a daily basis. i think that's well justified. because of the level of fear, of concern, of anxiety, both about the unpredictable behavior of our president and the ways if which the supreme court may well shift to a conservative majority for years or decades to come on vital issues on individual liberty in this country. i do, i'll take your point, tope, chuck. i think it may end up backfiring. it pay turn off several of the key centrist votes, both republican and democrat who are willing to consider a vote against kavanaugh as they're weighing tear decision here in the last days. >> do you think that when you look back at how you guys handled the confirmation hearings, i say this of the group on the senate judiciary committee. let's be realistic. i don't think you guys were on the same page. ki tell, i had senator sheldon in the white house on. he was not happy with the idea of walking out tore tryior tryi

approach. did you concede you didn't have a strategy or there weren't too many people? maybe you had a strategy, sheldon whitehouse had a strategy, it didn't seem like you guys were always on the sage pag -- same page. >> i will say this, i was proud of my committee who asked tough and focused questions. there is a lot of different too early to cover here with a judge who has been a partisan engaged in both the bush white house and the ken starr, the judge starr investigation of the clinton white house and begin his 300 opinions on the d.c. circuit. so maybe to the general public, it seemed as if we were focusing on different topics. but what i to the was important was we were focusing on different top effects. you got some very skilled and experienced fors from dig blumenthal to amy klobuchar, who are career prosecutors,

practiced law for many years and are senior members, folks like senator leahy and feinstein who i felt pressed kavanaugh. our goal was two-fold, one was to make clear our complaints, our objections to the failure to produce documents and then, second, was to really question caf fakavanaugh aggressively. >> if democrats go back to senate, will you filibuster for judicial nominations? ly think we should seriously discuss restoring the filibuster for all tom nations wouldn't in the long term, strengthen the court to nominate confirmable justices. chuck, i am concerned in the ways in which we talk about judges as if they wear blue jerseys and red jerseys and you can pediatric exactly what they will do based on the way people voted for them. >> i like to tell people, if you like the way congress polarizes,

wait until you see the judiciary in 20 years. thank you for coming on there thank you, sir. coming up, one final update on hour. bill car rons will be with me next. karins. experts. rodney -- mastermind of discounts like safe driver, paperless. the list goes on. how about a discount for long lists? gold. mara, you save our customers hundreds for switching almost effortlessly. it's a gift. and jamie. -present. -together we are unstoppable.

so, what are we gonna do? ♪ insurance. that's kind of what we do here. tonight's meet the midterms focuses on a state we usually associate with presidential elections or presidential primaries, new hampshire, where chris pappas won the democratic nomination in the state's

swingiest district in the country. the first congressional district. he defeated 10 challengers including bernie sanders's son levi. he'll face eddie edwards who won the republican nomination there. history will be made no matter who wins in november. pappas would be the first openly gay member of congress, edwards would be the state's first african-american member of congress. more "mpt daily" right after the break. determination to keep going. humira has a proven track record of being prescribed for over 10 years. humira works inside the body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to symptoms. most adults taking humira were clear or almost clear and many saw 75% and even 90% clearance in just 4 months. and the kind of clearance that can last. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal, infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions and new or worsening heart failure.

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let's get an update on hurricane florence's track. bill karins is keeping a close eye on the radar. i think the thing a lot of folks are concerned about outside the coast is how long is this thing going to sit in the mid-atlantic? >> this is going to be -- put it this way. if you chose not to evacuate and you're sitting in the wilmington area you could be with your family, your kids, your pets, wilmington area is forecasting

hurricane-force gusts above 75 miles per hour for 24 straight hours. when the hurricane force winds are in your area, especially if a tree is near the house, go to your safe room. so try to picture 24 hours in your safe room with your kids, your spouse, your pets. that's trouble. if you have the means to get out, that's why everyone has been saying get out. this is a long duration haven't and once you lose power you're sitting there in a safe room in the dark and it gets creepy and scary so this is the issue. i was just calculating this. this 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, category three. roughly about 200 miles, 150 off the coast. in 48 hours, it's only going to travel 170 miles that averages out to about three and a half miles per hour. that's the average speed humans walk. so for 48 hours this storm will walk from just off the coast to wilmington and walk itself down to myrt myrtle beach and we'll

numerous high tide cycle with the storm surge the same time as the rain tries to go into the rivers. >> so a storm surge, what does it do to a storm surge if it's just sitting there? >> it compounds. it compounds and piles up as the winds weaken. noon friday is the strongest winds and high tide. >> bill, you got the high sign, you know i got it, too. thank you, sir, much appreciate it. you'll be getting a lot of work the next 72 hours. we'll be right back. hey allergy muddlers.

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. that's all we got for "mpt daily" tonight but "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. there are millions bracing for hufrrricane florence and we have more on that later in the hour. the senate is pushing with a key vote on brett kavanaugh, that's tomorrow even as new questions emerge about his standing on roe v. wade. also later tonight i have a special report we've been working on on how to hold alex jones accountable in the age of trump. we think it's important we have that later tonight. we begin with breaking news on paul manafort and the russia probe. plea deal negotiations with bob mueller for paul manafort have stalled and that is because we are