that's nbc's gadi schwartz monitoring the winds in radio island, north carolina. coming up at the top of the hour north carolina governor will be briefing on the storm and my friend and colleague chuck todd is going to be speaking to the governor of puerto rico responding to donald trump's tweets this morning denying the death toll in that deadly storm one year ago this week. my thanks to rick stengel, nick, and corrine. that does it for my hour. mtp daily starts now. hi, chuck. >> nicolle, i appreciate the plug. >> i go sit in front of my tv, i never get home in time. >> that's what i like to hear. welcome to mtp daily. as the storm batters the carolina coast, the commander in kmeef is claiming without evidence that the death poll in puerto rico was doctored by democrats to undermine him. nothing shocks this town any

more, with you that seemed to. we're going to get to those comments and the fallout in just a moment. as you heard we have a lot of breaking news right now. hurricane florence's long siege is underway. this storm has begun slamming the coast of north carolina. north carolina's governor is about to hold a briefing. we will take you there when it begins. but first let's -- we have the new 5:00 forecast. we have the new update, so let's go to bill karins, our nbc meteorologist on duty right now. so, bill, what did we learn at 5:00 and where is it headed next? >> not weakening fast enough and we didn't really see too many changes with the surge in the rainfall forecast. it looks just as bad now as it did say 6 hours ago when we got the 11:00 a.m. advisory. you can clear see where the eye of the storm is. it is start that stall or slow drift. it's not going to completely stop. all ut outer banks getting hit with thunderstorm bands, wind gusts occasionally and the winds and the waves are picking up

dramatically. not quite yet in the wilmington beach area. a little further away. that will come after the sun sets. here are current wind gusts. we'll point out we have a noaa buoy. the winds are gusting in the 40 to 50 mile per hour range. people haven't begun to lose power yet. that will happen after we go through sunset and through the evening tonight. that's when we'll start to have some of the fuses in the transformsers blowing. the latest numbers, 100 miles east southeast of wilmington. winds are down to 100 for max winds. that's great. it's a category 2. the odds of it jumping back to a 3, 12 to 18 hours are pretty slim. it will most likely be a 2 as it gets to the wilmington area. it doesn't look that great in satellite presentation anyway. by 2:00 in the morning still off the coast of wilmington. by the time we get through, approximately maybe 11:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., the hurricane center

would have that landfall. so it will be a daylight landfall, near rights ville beach going over the top of wilmington weakening to 85 miles per hour and diving to the south. with this wind forecast i do not expect a lot of extreme wind damage. you're not going to be see houses with the roofs torn off. you'll see damage on roofs, a lot of awnings, stuff like that will be problematic. you won't see extreme wind damage. what will be extreme and the most life-threatening right through the night tonight, almost guarantee you there will be water rescues taking place. high tide between 10:00 p.m. and midnight. that will be dramatic in many cases, possibly record breaking in places like moore head city. and the sound, the trent river, that could be very dramatic. that's 30 to 40 miles inland where people may not be thinking they had to evacuate. when they see the water rising 6 to 10 feet that's going to be a huge earn yu overnight tonight and then the outer banks, you were pretty bad earlier today. probably do it again. the other issue, chuck, the

other thing that will cause life-threatening weather, the rainfall forecast. we are looking at two-foot rainfall footprint just north of wilmington to jacksonville, camp lejeune. possibly 20 inches as it heads towards florence, south carolina. we have a lot of things to play out. the concern with the wind on a minor, major record scale i put it in the moderate rain for wind damage. storm surge is major, possibly into record and the rainfall definitely is going to be record. we'll deal with that on the rivers sunday, monday, maybe into tuesday, talking about homes, new homes being flooded and damaged. >> i don't want to say 2 feet of rain is good news, but yesterday we were looking at 30 inches, looking at 40 inches. i take it that's the forecast is down a little bit there. >> actually i was just kind of pinpointing the footprint where the few feet would be.

inside of that there is still a chance of isolated 30 to 40 inch totals. i'd be surprised somebody would get 36 inches of rain. >> here i was looking for silver linings. >> the wind is the silver lining. water which kills 75% of people in storms that's our huge concern. >> absolutely. bill karins, thank you so much. let's go down to wilmington. we heard what bill said wilmington is experiencing mgt experiencing the first bands in wilmington, take it away, craig. >> reporter: we are experiencing them indeed, chuck. one point ever clarify kapgs. i heard bill's report. i spent the last 30, 45 minutes or so with the mayor of wilmington and the power outages have started here. roughly 11,000 homes are without power right now in wilmington, north carolina. the mayor telling me he fully expects that number will approach somewhere near 100%.

they fully expect that virtually all of the homes here in wilmington will lose power. upper left-hand portion of your screen there's a new graphic and it's connected to this wind monitoring contraption that we have at nbc for this storm. so far we have not seen, we have not seen it get north of i'd say 25 right now. we should also point out that we are being blocked by a building here, so right now it looks like it's reading somewhere close to -- per hour. there are parts of north carolina as you know that are seeing 60 mile per hour gusts right now. the rain has started. it's been going for a number of hours. we are fully expecting here the next 6 or 7 hours or so the winds to pick up considerably, the rain to pick up considerably. the aptly named cape fear river, this is of big concern. we're talking about -- >> i don't mean to cut you off

but we have the governor of north carolina starting his presser. we're going to him real quick. thank you, craig. >> with the extreme storm surge along the coast, rivers will start to overflow because when flowing river waters meet the ocean surge, there's really nowhere else for the water to go. as florence moves inland, we'll see more rain and more flooding from our rivers. and remember that rivers keep on rising even after the rain stops. already, areas of the northern cape fear river and vogue sound are flooding and we're watching the noose river rise. at mid afternoon the weather service had issued 43 flash flood warnings. i want to thank you to the people who have evacuated and are prepared. but to anyone still unwilling to

take this storm seriously, let me be clear, you need to get yourself to a safe place now and stay there. we in north carolina have to shift from preparation to determination. we will survive this and we will endure. in order to help speed more federal help, i have requested an additional disaster declaration for clean-up and recovery. here at the state emergency operations center, people have been working around the clock and they are ready. workers are helping more than 12,000 evacuees settle at about 126 shelters across the state, and they are opening more as needed and as we speak. emergency management and fema

have strategically positioned supplies and equipment a across our state. food and water is ready to be dispersed to wherever it's needed. emergency personnel, including swift water rescue teams and emergency medical personnel from north carolina and 19 other states are staged here. earlier today i visited with some of the teams who are prepared to help us out as we get through this storm. and, in fact, i talked to teams from florida and ohio today and i told the team from ohio we were not going to debate who is first in flight here because they're helping us out tonight and i'm grateful to each and every one of those people. it's gratifying to drive through central north carolina and see utility trucks, earth movers, and rescue vehicles sitting there ready to go. thank you to all of these public

servants who put their own lives at risk to protect the people of north carolina. as the storm hits, remember to call 911, but only in the event of emergency. dial 211 if you need shelter, food or other non-emergency information or assistance. and then i'd like for people to remember these five things. number one, never drive on roads covered by water. it only takes a few inches to wash away a car. if you come across a road covered in water, turn around immediately. number two, stay indoors, stay away from windows, and close storm shutters -- >> we are going to cut away from the governor there. he's going through plreparednes. that is important to local residents on that front. let's check in with kerry sanders.

he's in carolina beach right now. kerry, you're starting to feel -- yeah, there you are. you have our wind testing there. kerry, you're holding up -- what are you holding up there? >> okay, it's a wind speed monitor and it's detected bluetooth down to the producer here. we're in a little bit of a lull. let me take a moment while the wind is not back dramatic and show you over where i'm standing. on the other side of the board walk over the sand dune, you can see the angry atlantic ocean. the concern, of course, is that storm surge. you just heard the governor talking about the storm surge, which is also a mile the other direction coming up the cape fear river. we're out on this peninsula known as paradise island, carolina beach. and so the concern is that that 11-foot wall of water is going to come up. here's how it works. about 60 miles out, it's 5,000 feet deep. that's where the continental shelf picks up.

the shelf slopes up and the water has nowhere to go but higher and higher. it's predicted up, 13, but 11 feet of water that comes over here. if you're on the first floor of a building, that means the water is over the top of the first floor. so i got the wind picking up here. i'm hold this up as i continue to talk here. we'll get a read out of what this wind speed is. what do you see on there for wind speed? okay, 24, doesn't seem that dramatic. when the rain hits you in the face at 24 miles an hour, it hurts. >> yes, sir. >> chuck, i have my glasses on to protect my eyes. we know the wind is going to pick up more. we've had strong guftsts. as you can probably tell the wind is coming from northwest and it's whipping around if you know the direction of the storm there, the counter clockwise movement. >> kerry, you've covered as many hurricanes as anybody i know. north carolina experienced 24 straight hours of hurricane force winds. can you remember a hurricane that stalled like that? i can't, but i'm curious.

>> well, there was one in mexico that sat over cancun for like three days and our colleague -- hang on a second. >> check that wind speed. that's all right. >> yeah, here we go. one of our colleagues there spent three days in a bathtub in there and he works at the white house right now. and i think you know him very well. anyway, he could tell you what that's like. this is going to be miserable. i think the most important thing we heard is aside from this wind is the amount of rain that's going to fall. i think bill karins said it. this storm had been moving at 10 miles an hour. it's now down to 5 miles an hour. as it's moving, the progress is 5 miles an hour, that allows for more rain to drop and that of course is going to be the big problem here. >> it's geneva convention to be days later this impact is going to be felt. appreciate it. let's go to my colleague ali

velshi. he's in myrtle beach which is relatively calm. comparatively, trust me, kerry sanders was almost blown over. you have a bit easier assignment. what are they expecting in myrtle beach? >> it happens to be low tide. it's the opposite of what everybody else is showing. the surf is calm. the winds are light. we are just able to see the outer bands of the clouds of the hurricane. we know they're almost above us here, but they're not containing any moisture. now, kerry sanders is right that way, right? the storm is that way. it's east of here. that's what it's going to be like. 40 miles up the road is mariana. we might not have any rain. it's going to be the same stuff. if that storm path follows the coast as opposed to making inland like a traditional storm, we're going to get it here. even if it doesn't we'll get the outer bands and hurricane force

winds. the fact is it looks calm. there are lots of people, stragglers along the beach between here and north carolina. there are a lot of people who didn't evacuate. it's slow, it's going to dump a lot of rain. i don't know who stood in 50 mile an hour sustained winds. once in a while you'll experience that as a gust on a stormy windy day. 100 miles an hour means a lot of damage is coming, a lot of power out, a lot of people are going to get stuck. >> myrtle beach is getting -- it's never been hit from a storm this side, a storm that comes from the north. that's going to do damage that people aren't used to. for what it's worth. >> that's correct. and that's part of why a lot of people are staying. because of the way this part of the country is shaped, you think it's north, but it's northeast to north carolina. so this area is almost a little bit sheltered. people said i remember hugo, i've been through other

hurricanes. this flooding saturation, the ground is saturated, that's the difference. the river in conway is going to flood as well. it all depends how a place like this, any of the towns drain after the hurricane. if we're talking saturday afternoon and the place is still flooded that's when the problems start to develop. >> good point, ali velshi in myrtle beach. thank you very much. we'll keep our eye on the storm. the backlash against president trump over his claims about hurricane maria's death toll and how the gop is not responding to it. we'll be right back. ♪ this is a story about mail and packages. and it's also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business

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are you in good hands? welcome back. as hurricane florence batters the carolinas, the president is battling some intense backlash over comments he decided to make today about the devastation from a previous storm. in a series of tweets this morning, he claimed that the official death toll in puerto rico from hurricane maria, which numbered nearly 3,000 according to two different studies, was doctored to make him look bad. he said, in part, quote, 3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes ha hit puerto rico. this was done by the democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when i was successfully raising billions of dollars to help rebuilt puerto rico. his word there. well, que the mondtage a or avoid the baseless claims.

>> casualties don't make a person look bad. i don't dispute the numbers. that's what happens when a horrible hurricane hits an isolated place like an island. >> the president is blaming democrats for the death toll, that he doesn't believe it's accurate. >> say that again? i can't really comment because i don't know anything about it. >> thanks, guys. we have to get inside. >> i don't have any detail for you on that. i thought y'all wanted to talk about the kavanagh nomination. anybody have anything else you want to talk about? >> there's a big difference between 16 and 3,000. i don't know who picked the number 3,000. i don't know how they arrived at the information. i'd like to know more. >> by the way, that was our typo, not the president's typo, rebuild and rebuilt. my apologies on that one. let me bring in tonight's panel. alexi, political axios. >> speak-- speaker what mark bo.

msnbc contributor. michael steel, what would you have told speaker ryan to say? >> i don't know if i would have called puerto rico isolated. other than that, probably the same. he's trying to wrap up funding for the year. he's trying to get the members of the house of representatives back home to campaign in a very, very difficult reelection year. deal with the president's tweet dujure is the last thing he wants to deal with. think about it this way. as grotesque and amoral as his tweets are, 37% of the people will believe whatever he says is a smart strategy. >> how can your party say grotesque and amoral? it was an elected office. that's the part that -- >> all of the people -- all of the elected republicans on capitol hill have a job to do for their constituents. that means getting them done with a president and that means having to deal with this president. >> 37% of people who will

believe him no matter what is why it's dangerous for him to make ridiculous claims. it's giving people a pass not to care about the storms now because he's diminishing the gravity of the situation rear dealing with and people are still trying to build after hurricane maria in puerto rico. >> here's good news from fema. the word irony gets tossed around quite a bit. but fema has a rumor-control page. and yesterday, of course, the at potus account retwreeted the fema control page. we have created a rumor control page for florence that will be updated. always check with sources before sharing. >> always check. >> we may have hit peak 2018. >> i saw this yesterday and it sort of said, really? the president of the united states -- >> fema is trolling the president now. >> but it goes -- >> maybe that's deliberate. >> he's giving out instructions

about the storm. the president is, he's trying to. he's doing all the right things you would want him to do in this moment, but if he is literally saying, don't believe your lying eyes on this other storm, it's another credibility hit with somebody and don't we need to know when to believe our president? >> and the other concern right now in the middle of this storm is that it will encourage people not to evacuate. it will encourage people to stay put because well, they said it wasn't real, there weren't 6000 killed. it allows people to diminish the real threat that they face and maybe make poor decisions that put their lives and the lives of first responders in danger. >> i'm not sure about that. i mean, i don't think people are treating these hurricanes like -- >> we don't know that, that's his point. what if they start doing is that? a if they watch what the president says, it's not that big a deal. >> people see the death. people can believe their lying eyes and they can see the damage

and they can understand the forecast. i just think the damage is not -- i'm kind of sticking up for the president here in the sense that i think that the damage that he caused today is inflicted almost entirely on himself, not on dissuading people from taking the threat of the forthcoming hurricane seriously. >> there are a couple republicans on the ballot in 2018 that are petrified of these comments and they happen to be running in statewide in florida. what is interesting is how different candidates dealt with it. let me put up the gubernatorial candidates. andrew gillum the democrat, no death is partisan and our brothers and sisters in puerto rico deserve better. this is a very lengthy statement. line 7 from the communications director said this. ron desantis is commit today standing with the puerto rican community especially after such a tragic loss of life. he doesn't believe any loss of

life has been inflated. now let's take a look at the two senate candidates. he doesn't criticize the president. here's bill nelson. the president's comments in the nearly 3,000 american lives lost in puerto rico is shame frlful. we expect more from someone who holds a high office in our country. rick scott, republican nominee, i disagree with at potus. an independent study said thousands were lost and governor rosselio agreed. i've been to puerto rico owe 7 times and it's heart wrenching. i'll continue to help puerto rico. >> rick scott was also standing next to president trump as he was throwing out rolls of paper towels to people ahead of the hurricane or after. i think it's a really important point, though, to see how ron desantis doesn't take issue with the president himself. instead, gives this blanket general statement of i'm standing with the puerto rican community because he knows there is an influx of puerto rican people who live in florida now who are part of his electorate who he needs to rely on to get

elected. but also he is someone who has gone out of his way to embrace the president, mirror himself after president trump of so he has to toe that line. but that makes his statement seem not genuine. >> you know whose statement helped the most, that horrible statement? rick scott. he said they looked like the big brave man. >> i actually had a slightly different take. rick scott, the fact that rick scott is going to beat nelson is in part because he's done an incredible job embracing the people of the state of florida. >> if he wins, i see your confidence. i agree, that will be -- i talked to some florida strategists who think there will be gillum/scott voters and they'll be puerto rican. that's what they think. >> desantis won that primary by being in the trumpyest of trump, reading to his child art of the deal, building the wall. even this hint of criticism, even this hint that the president is saying things that aren't accurate may be the

beginning of the transition that you have to see where you win a primary by being out trumping trump and have to compete for general election voters. >> that's what passes for bravery. >> i don't know if it does. >> from trump. >> i think desantis didn't separate himself. do you think he successfully did that? >> i think he's begun turning the ship. >> at least he said he was truth-based and believed in the official assessments. i am not endorsing that as what passes for bravery. >> insisting on accepting reality is something these days, which is a sad statement. >> it is interesting that the most direct statement at the president came from rick scott. guess what? rick scott got there before trump did, desantis didn't, and that may be the difference. stick around, guys. up ahead, we're going to stick with puerto rico. its leaders have been pushing back against the president over his claims about the death tome in puerto rico. the mayor will join me live next. friends, colleagues,

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welcome back. as we said, president trump is denying the official death to estimate from hurricane maria. he's claiming with no evidence that the number of deaths in puerto rico were doctored by democrats. puerto rico's governor responded by saying in part, the people of puerto rico deserve a full accounting of the impact of the storm and they deserve recognition of that impact by our president. puerto rico suffered a terrible tragedy at the hands of hurricane maria and we strongly denounce anyone who would use this disaster or suffering from political purposes. the governor now joins me from san juan. governor, good to see you, sir, again. >> hell. hello, chuck. thank you for the opportunity. >> let me ask you. has the president made contact with you in the last few days as this issue has percolated in his head? >> no, i haven't had the opportunity to talk to the president in the past couple of days. we have been in communication with several of the white house

staff members for a variety of issues concerning puerto rico, but, no, i have not spoken to them recently. >> i have to ask you, what was your initial reaction when you saw those tweets this morning? >> well, you know, the victims and the people of puerto rico should not have their pain questioned. this is certainly, you know, statements that are wrong. you know, we went on an effort to identify how many excess deaths were -- occurred in puerto rico as a product of maria. we wanted to do it scientifically. we wanted to have it done independently. and we feel that george washington did that effort very well. remember, chuck, i used to be a scientist. that was my professional, you know, formation, and i saw how they went about it. so much so that we've taken their estimate of 2995 and

placed it as the official number. >> let me ask you this. did the federal government ever offer to try to do this as well, to try to help? g.w. came up with the study, it's very detailed. harvard did its own study and had an even higher death toll number. i understand the g.w. study is the one you asked them to do. explain why either your government couldn't do it or why didn't the federal government do this? >> well, you know, once the storm came about, we had typical processes to, you know, have accountability of the death toll. unfortunately as you may remember, puerto rico had essentially lost all of its basic functions after maria. we didn't have electricity. we depth haidn't have communica. all the folks that were working on the government, 40% of them couldn't get to the workplace. so we used a cdc protocol that ended up being insufficient.

as soon as we identified that it wasn't a good protocol, we decided to go with the experts, right. we wanted to give full visibility, full transparency. we wanted to have not only a death toll count, but also a valuation of how the communications went about and what we can do towards the future so that we can have a more robust response in the, you know, public health arena. >> governor, you have not -- nobody could accuse you of playing politics. you have not gotten in any sort of back and forth with any individual politician and those that have, that's their business and that's okay. but you have been very deferential of this president and praised him and the administration at the time for what they're doing. do you feel as if you have to take those comments back? or do you think the president is just totally misinformed? what do you make of this and does it make you reassess whether you think he cares about puerto rico?

>> well, my job as governor of puerto rico, chuck, is to make sure that i can get as much resources for our people and for our recovery. that is why i have chosen a path of dialogue, of openness, and of collaboration. of course, that dialogue includes pointing out what has been good and there have been some good things in these relationships. there have been some good efforts done, like with housing, our relationship with hud, the response by the d.o.d. was very good in the emergency. and there have been some bad things that have occurred. i was very unsatisfied with the core of engineers response to lifting up our energy grid. i am very unsatisfied with the bureaucratic strangle hold that puerto rico has with fema. so my position is the following. instead of, you know, having to kick and scream, i hope that with rational dialogue i can

convince people that when i am saying something it's because i either see it as something that's done right or something that's done wrong. in this instance it is my view that those comments are completely off. they are not based on anything. i think we should -- we should move forward. i think we should move forward towards the recovery using a lot of the funds that the president helped puerto rico get so that we can start rebuilding puerto rico stronger. but we need to show empathy. and again, it's no time to play politics. it's time for results. it's time to show empathy for those that lost their lives. >> what can the president to do restore his own credibility with 3 million citizens that live on that island? >> you know, i think having a dialogue and showing empathy. i think that's critical. he's done so in the past. i think it's an important step. i think that having, you know,

demonstrating certain things that are still outstanding, for example, we've asked him for an extension on the permanent -- on the emergency work after maria. this extension was given to lieu luz after katrina. we expect the same treatment in puerto rico now. fema denied it, but we can appeal it to the president. lastly, we're about a week away from the one-year anniversary of maria, and we are certainly going to have some events commemorating what happened. of course, remembering those that lost their lives. my hope would be that the administration would show what everybody in puerto rico and what the vast majority of people around the world feel, which is a deep sense of loss, a moment of mourning, and an opportunity to heal together so that we can rebuild stronger than ever before. >> look, last question. do you believe you would be treated better if you were a

state and you had an electoral vote that maybe the president might want to win in an election? >> no doubt, and here's -- this is the root cause of the problem, chuck. i mean, i am very grateful that people have shown interest in puerto rico. i really hope that this interest spans just the recovery. we have to be mindful that puerto ricans have been treated as second class citizens for over a hundred years. puerto ricans are part of the colonial territory. this needs to end right now, chuck. so, my challenge to all of the leaders that are running in the midterm elections, to all presidents and aspiring presidents, is you need to have a clear position here. how can we as americans say that the united states is the standard bearer for democracy, how can we go to cuba and venezuela and preach that we're not following suit in our own backyard? puerto ricans have chosen state hood twice in the past six years.

it is the right time. the american people and the world has seen what a second class citizenship is and what the treatment for that second class citizenship is. now it's time to take action. so i challenge everybody that has taken a position on puerto rico to not only do it as a politic political football. you really want to do what's right, take a position on ending colonialism. it's time to put up or shut up. >> governor, i'm going to let you have the last word there. thank you for coming on, sharing your views, passionate. all of us extend our heart felt prayers for the island as you continue to recover. thank you, sir. >> thank you, chuck. thank you for the opportunity. >> and we'll be right back. if you're waiting patiently for a liver transplant, it could cost you your life. it's time to get out of line with upmc.

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welcome back. let's get the latest now on hurricane florence. we're going to go to gadi schwartz. he's braving the elements in radio, north carolina. what have you got? >> we've seen considerable winds throughout the day. they're gusting at 50 to 75 miles an hour. you can see the ridge from the line of trees. that's over there in north carolina. that's an area that's already seeing the storm surge come up. we've seen some reports of the

storm surge going and surrounding people's houses. we know there are some streets over there that are starting to see? flooding. they are expecting things to get a lot worse tonight at around 11:00 when the tide is supposed to come up. that tide is supposed to come up at 7 1/2 feet. we know this area has historically flooded. it was really bad back in the 1950s and it got up to about 7 feet. this is an area that's never seen flooding and a storm surge of 7 1/2 feet. so that whole area is bracing for tonight. chuck, back to you. >> gadi schwartz in radio island, north carolina and our own north carolina native michael steel says it's essentially up a bump the baeft way to describe it. and we'll be right back.

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ruth, governor puerto rico is on a campaign, he launched a campaign at the end, which was i want puerto rican statehood and every puerto rican at the mid-terms has to be asked about it. >> they really should be. what i was struck by the governor is that these deaths occurred on his watch as well. but he modeled maturity, responsibility. he called on the president to show some empathy. good luck with that. but, you know, the president didn't have to go there with puerto rico. he didn't have to understand himself as the victim of these new numbers. he could just say, wow, this was really serious and this just reaffirms how seriously just going back to our previous conversation, we have to take this story. i just want the governor to respond as a model of responsibility and maturity. >> the mayor of san juan beat the living daylights out of the president, and again i understand her passion, too.

>> bullet it doesn't help. >> right, but he went out of his way to praise the president. >> he's being mature strategically and it would be nice to see our president doing the same thing. >> if you want a strategic winner, rick scott winning florida in part because of puerto rican votes show republicans in washington that puerto ricans will vote for candidates -- >> and also the governor extended concern past hurricane damage. you don't have to talk about the trump tweet, but we should be talking about puerto rico, maybe puerto rican statehood moving forward. >> it's my understanding there's going to be a hispanic heritage event. >> that will be interesting. >> it just adds to this awkwardness. >> awkwardness is a good way to put it. i think what i'm looking for but

consistently disappointed by is whether or not the president cares about people who don't look like him, but having the willingness to have those conversations and understand people's problems instead of make it about yourself and those who look like you is something we've not seen from the president. >> the governor said the president seems to lack empathy. >> and you bring up a very difficult and important point, which is you asked chuck if puerto rico had an electoral vote, would the answer have been different? if puerto rico wasn't an island would it have been different? but if the president understood puerto ricans to be americans, and if they looked like their model, typical american, would the response have been different and taken more seriously and sustained, and i think that's something we have to all ask. >> before we go there's been a

lot of speculation over the last few days that paul manafort might cut a sort of deal. but it's the type of deal where he wouldn't cooperate, so it smells to me like somebody who doesn't want to go through a trial, is still shopping for a pardon, ruth? >> how is manafort affording the legal fees mounting up? it's so enormously expensive to take a case to trial with the quality of lours he has, with the number of lawyers he has. and it may be a matter of sheer financial interest on his part because he's going to be sentenced to something. >> i think there's something else here, still. i don't think the -- as we know the trump legal team and manafort legal team have a cooperation agreement. i think they don't want this trial. >> i thought they did. >> they have a cooperation -- they have some legal teams,

giuliani confirmed a piece of it, i don't think they want this trial. this one is much closer to the russia situation than the previous trial. >> well, that's always been the question of if manafort does cooperate, what does he have, what could he share, and how far does it go in the campaign apparatus and administration? >> is it cooperation or he doesn't want to do what ruth said, he doesn't want a trial? >> i think you're exactly right. and those close to manafort's legal team have remained very tight-lipped, very confident, told me they have planned a, b, c, d all the way around, telling me they don't want a pardon. >> well, the fact they leaked manafort is insisting he's not going to actually cooperate, just a plea tells me that was a message for the oval. alexi, michael, ruth, thank you very much. workers at the riverbank zoo in south carolina have been

rushi rushing to get their flamingoes to safety. we'll be right back. s to safety. we'll be right back. . since world war ii, only two times has a president's party gained seats in a mid-term. >> nobody breaks it down like kornacki. make sense of the mid-terms all fall on nbcnews.com and msnbc. l fall on nbcnews.com and msnbc.

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here is another look at hurricane florence. yes, it's weakened a little bit, but it is battering the carolina coast, and for much of the region the worst impacts of the storm still have yet to be felt

thanks to this drenching that the carolinas are going to get. stay with msnbc today, tonight and throughout the weekend as we bring you continuing coverage. that's all we have tonight for mtp daily. our msnbc breaking news continues right now with the beat with ari melber. >> we are also of course covering this hurricane's path tonight. we have reporters up and down the coast. and new reports paul manafort reaching a plea deal with special counsel bob mueller. now, that would have huge ramifications for where the mueller probe is headed. our legal experts are all over this along with a u.s. senator. we will bring you that important news coming up this hour. and later in the show we're also going to dig into news with implications that long outlive the balm shells in this bob