sexual misconduct when he was a teenager. is his confirmation now in danger? president trump feeling the heat today as his former campaign chairman is talking with special counsel robert mueller and his team. on friday paul manafort pleaded guilty to two charges, conspiracy against the u.s. and conspiracy to obstruct justice, all of that in exchange for full cooperation with federal prosecutors, which began earlier this week. as part of his plea, he was forced to forfeit several assets including several homes after he was convicted in a federal trial in virginia. his future is now in robert mueller's hands. that brings the number of people in trump's orbit who pleaded guilty to five, but the white house and president trump's legal team continue to maintain donald trump has done nothing wrong. with me to discuss is former federal prosecutor glenn kirschner. here with me onset, political reporter and host of the podcast off topic on politics, grace

rau. john, let me start with you. i want to get a sense of the magnitude of what happened yesterday in washington, d.c. when paul manafort returned to that courtroom. how does this hang the narrative? >> well, it is huge for a couple of reasons. number one, paul manafort is able to take robert mueller inside the trump tower meeting that's been a focus, we know about that. we also know he has the ability to shed light on what happened with regard to the changing of the republican platform. that's another area that's sort of a legal issue. third, if i were robert mueller i would be looking into what paul manafort did when he was the head of delegate strategy for donald trump in terms of trying to get delegates to go with trump and to keep those that were already on board. there's a lot of exchange that goes on in those discussions. most of it is legal, but if you are looking for conspiracies there may be something there, too. on a political level, this really cements the narrative that paul manafort is a felon, that donald trump hired this guy to run his campaign, and there's no ability now to say that the

charges were trumped up, to say that the jury was wrong in the first place. paul manafort has now pleaded and proffered something to robert mueller that mueller thought was worth not throwing the book at him. >> glenn, let me turn to you. i will quote another former federal prosecutor. this one was quoted in "the washington post." the quote is, this is a big win for mueller's team, gaining manafort's cooperation has been viewed as the holy grail of this investigation, said robert mintz, a former federal prosecutor. do you agree with mr. mintz? how big a deal is it for robert mueller? >> well, holy grail maybe a bit of an overstatement but it is an important development. following up on the excellent points john maybe, i will pull back and take sort of a 10,000 foot view. mueller -- manafort, rather, is the bridge to russia. we know that he was involved in illegal lobbying on behalf of pro russian forces in the ukraine. so there are going to be all kinds of facts and features of

the russian back story that manafort is going to be able to provide to the mueller investigative team. and then the other thing that i guess i would comment on is when you look at the two prosecutions, the virginia prosecution and the d.c. prosecution and you realize that there were 25 combined charges, and although manafort was only convicted of eight in virginia and he pled guilty to two in d.c., he actually accepted responsibility for committing the criminal acts that the mueller investigative team detailed in all 25 charges. that is staggering, and they date back to 2006. what that tells us is that mueller's investigation and this prosecution is the opposite of a witch hunt. those who care to be persuaded will realize it is, frankly, one of the most professional and productive investigations that we may have seen ever. >> grace, glenn is talking about the bridge to russia, one span in moscow, the other ending i suppose in trump tower. i mean a big focus here is on that meeting that took place in

trump tower back in 2016. paul manafort was there. we learned an awful lot yesterday from that criminal information just about the world that paul manafort was in, the relationships he had to other influential figures, wealthy figures in eastern europe. what does it tell you as you look at that whole thing that took 25 minutes to read, what does it tell you about the role of paul manafort we didn't know before? >> look, he is the key to russia and the key connection between the trump campaign and russian officials, and now we have him agreeing and cooperating with the special counsel as one of the people in the room. we have heard an evolving story of what occurred in that meeting from the president himself, who initially mislead the public about the purpose of the meeting. now, of course, coming clean that it was really an offer of dirt on hillary clinton, his opponent. but paul manafort may hold the keys to the kingdom so to speak for robert mueller in this investigation. additionally, he may be a very

significant cooperating witness when it comes to building some sort of obstruction of justice case against president trump because we know often it is in attempts to coverup any potential crimes that we end up getting actual crimes being convicted. so the president has signalled at least on twitter that he -- before paul manafort agreed to cooperate, that he saw paul manafort as being brave for refusing to break like michael cohen, his former attorney. it is possible that the president -- we don't know, but, you know, i have to imagine that the mueller investigation, his team is going to be looking at whether the president sent any signals either directly or indirectly to paul manafort to assure him that he would be pardoned and to help him stay strong and not do exactly what he's decided to do, which is to cooperate. >> on that point, john, i want to bring in here and talk a bit about the meta more morphosis, bringing up the point that we saw him praising paul manafort

after the first trial that took place in virginia. you look at rudy guilliani's teat the same time after this happened yesterday. and you wonder what is going through his head and the president's head. what was the pardon dangled that we have heard about over the last months? >> paul manafort is not behaving like somebody who believes he will get a pardon from the president. he is behaving like he has the final years of his life, whether they're free or in jail, on the line, and somebody who may be concerned that a pardon by the president could be part of an obstruction of justice conspiracy. this is basically someone who folded in the final -- and glenn spoke to this. this is somebody who basically admitted to everything that robert mueller charged him with. he's not waiting for a pardon. he has changed his stance. the president has changed his stance towards manafort. he is no longer beating his chest about what a great guy manafort is. it turns out when you surround yourself with criminals as the president has, you know, you've got -- you've got a lot of

exposure and the president is going to have to hope that neither michael cohen nor paul manafort know anything that president trump has ever done that broke the law. >> glenn, a basic question here. i'm just curious what this tells you about the status of this whole investigation. you look at who has pleaded guilty at this point. you have paul manafort, michael cohen, michael flynn, rick gates and george papadopolous as well, just taking a broader look here at robert mueller's investigation. 32 individuals indicted, six guilty pleas at this point, one conviction and three people behind bars. the president continuing to call this a witch hunt. we are hearing it from his closest advisers and legal team as well. your sense of where things stand with bob mueller and his investigation? >> i have a feeling bob mueller continues to move methodically through the investigation. we suspected, we have heard reported recently michael cohen is now talking with mueller's team. it is not surprising that that has taken some time to develop with all of the documents that were seized by the government

from the residence and the hotel room and the business of michael cohen. it takes investigators a long time to look through them and to prepare themselves to begin meeting with michael cohen. i suspect those meetings are underway, but i also wouldn't be surprised if it took another month or two before we heard more from the michael cohen potential cooperation camp. where i see this going, david, is probably -- it is going to go a little radio silent perhaps around the mid terms, and then i would fully expect bob mueller to ask the grand jury to return a great big conspiracy indictment of everyone that he has accumulated enough evidence of being part of a criminal conspiracy to defraud the united states by undermining the u.s. elections. i think that might be something we see around the first of the year. >> grace, robert mueller's investigation is one galaxy in this huge universe concerning donald trump. let's step back. you are based here in new york. there is a piece in "vanity

fair" that came out a few hours ago focusing on michael cohen who has been wrapped up in this in many ways but pleaded guilty in the district court here in new york. that piece reads in part, as one long time friend of cohens put it to me, he doesn't feel he needs to go out of his way to protect trump anybody, particularly as trump has gone out of his way to hurt michael. sources confirming to her it is now common knowledge that trump's former lawyer has been in contact with the special counsel's office. he could potentially provide a lot of information to robert mueller and his team. >> exactly, and has already implicated the president in a crime, in the campaign finance violation when he pleaded guilty in the southern district of new york earlier. yes, he is a critical person in all of this. he, unlike paul manafort who it is true had this critical role in the campaign in 2016, but he and the president don't have some deep history the way michael cohen does. michael cohen has been at trump's side for many, many

years, long before he entered politics. this is someone who can provide a great deal of information about how the president operates, how he keeps notes, whether there would be any record of the trump tower meeting, whether the president himself knew about it. there have been questions raised, even though the president has denied knowing about that trump tower meeting in 2016, steve bannon, for instance, raised a lot of -- he doesn't seem to buy that essentially. he doesn't think that john jr. would have had that meeting without telling his father about it. so michael cohen very, very critical. so one other note about manafort and his cooperation. >> sure. >> is that we have seen this president becoming increasingly isolated, right, on the heels of the anonymous op-ed in "the new york times", the heels of bob woodward's book, this feeling that all of the people around him he can't trust. manafort seemed to be this one final person standing strong for the president and now he has folded, he is cooperating. i have to think we are going to see, perhaps through twitter, through some public statements,

this president potentially unraveling even further as he feels like he cannot trust anyone around him beyond his immediate family. >> great segue to my last question for jonathan allen. on the subject of presidential restraint, there have been circumstances like this before, john, where something happens in the investigation, we wonder who president trump is going to respond. you look at his twitter feed today. he is tweeting about candidates he has endorsed. he is tweeting laude torrey things about how others have said about how he has handled the storm that batters the carolinas, but we are waiting to see if he responds to this. take us into the oval office. what does it look like? how difficult is it to restrain this president when things like this happen? >> the president is pretty see questered this weekend, but generally speaking he is someone who gets upset and we see the seeds of that on twitter. i think it is fascinating that right now he is extremely disciplined on twitter. people have told him that he can cause himself legal problems on

twitter by responding to the mueller case. you have a midterm election coming up where republican candidates are begging him to not go off track and distract them from being able to talk about the economy. if he is on message for the next several weeks, that will be helpful to him and to republicans running for congress. on the other hand, if he gives into his worst impulses, when he has a tendency to do, you will see a big attack on mueller again. this has got to have rocked him to have paul manafort and michael cohen now cooperating. as glenn said before, if you are at all persuadable, this is evidence that the president's -- that the people around the president are criminals. >> jonathan allen -- >> not all of them obviously. >> jonathan allen, thank you very much. grace and glenn kirschner who just joined as an analyst here on msnbc as an analyst. congratulations to you. at least 11 people have been killed at florence continues to batter the carolinas.

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we face walls of water at our coast, along our rivers, across farmland, in our cities and in our towns. more people now face imminent

threat than when the storm was just off-shore. i cannot overstate it. floodwaters are rising, and if you aren't watching for them you are risking your life. >> governor of north carolina a short time ago. we are continuing to track tropical storm florence as it hammers the carolinas. the death toll is rising this evening. 11 fatalities are now connected to the storm storm. more than 700,000 carolinians remain in the dark as crews work around the clock to restore people. 5,500 people are currently in american red cross shelters in south carolina. new footage giving us a first glimpse of the destruction. a boat was lifted by the floodwaters and slammed into a house in new bern, north carolina. shanna, what is the latest on this storm? >> we are looking at a tropical

storm still. we are approaching 36 hours since it made landfall as a category 1 storm. still heavy bans being pulled in from the ocean. as it moves towards the west, we will see it weaken as well in terms of the wind. right now 45 miles per hour winds, good enough to knock over trees. here is a timeline for you to get you ready for it. we are looking at a slow movement of the rain pushing inland. areas like charlotte who didn't see rain as the initial rain came on shore will see things pick up in the next 24 hours. i have family out there that i have talked to, they are starting to see the rain. heading into sunday it turns into a low. we may see it as early as tonight. the winds will lessen but the rain won't go away and that will be the major problem, the flooding. i'm pointing out the appalachians right now. that's where we could see mudslides and debris flow as the rainfalls heavily at once. you can see that the low is progressing north on monday.

areas like new york will get rain from it, but we'll still look at the residual effects from all of the rain that has fallen and all of the rain that needs to rekraed from the rivers that is flooding. the wind is not a big problem. the heaviest wind gusts about 31 miles per hour along myrtle beach, but as we said again it will not be a threat in terms of the wind. it is going to be the flooding rain, the an that hrain that ha saturated the ground. folks cannot let their guard down. we will be following this all weekend, at least until monday and tuesday of this week. >> check in with you, of course, that rain in the mountains posing a problems because of the rivers in the eastern parts of the state as well. shanna mendiola. you saw that photo of the boat elevated because of the storm in new bern, north carolina. garrett haake has been there covering the storm. garrett, get us up to speed. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: hey, david. the rain continues to fall, the

wind continues to blow. we've been on the backside of the storm for a day now, but every time we think it is over another band of wind and rain comes through. the good news here, the river has retreated more or less into its banks behind me, the neuse river whose storm surge caused so much trouble over the first day and a half of the storm. we were out and about in it for a good bit of the day take and saw storm surge damage along the riverfront including huge boats thrown into homes in the riverfront and even further back in the low-lying areas, flooding to levels that the mayor told me they've not seen here in 70 years. now, some good news here from new bern. all of the water rescues that had to be done have now been done. the city says it took in something like 400 calls when all of the counting was done, but they've gotten folks out who needed to get out. now, i'm going to put on my other hat for a minute and talk a little bit about the politics of the whole situation. the president has been tweeting, of course, about the storm and how it is progressing. his tweets, a mix of retweets of

some of the first responders here, folks like the north carolina department of emergency management passing out other warning, also retweeting congratulatory comments that come towards him, which has been his wont in disaster situationness the past. complimenting the work of first responders and the fema administrator. he is expected to come the region. we don't know exactly when, but the white house said he plans to tour in the region when conditions allow it and when his presence here won't be a burden on first responders. that is always a bit of alchemy to figure out when is exactly the right time for the president to come, soon enough to show his support and that he cares and to draw attention to the area, but not so soon that it sucks up resources needed for first responders. a presidential trip is a heavy lift for local police and fire and those folks have their hands full right now. david. >> garrett haake reporting from new bern, south carolina. to matt bradley, in the capital

of south carolina tracking the storm as it moves inland. matt, columbia a river town like so many we have been reporting over the last couple of days. what is the latest there as rain continues to fall in columbia? >> reporter: as you can see, it is barely raining. it is kind much misting right now. the wind is somewhat high. it is not that bad. we were driving today from myrtle beach all the way here to columbia, the capital of the state as you mentioned, and we kind of moved a little past the storm. we almost outpaced it and now it seems to be kind of still here. this storm is moving so slowly, about two miles per hour across the state. but as you mention, i'm standing over the congaree river, the river that flows through columbia, south carolina. it is rivers like this one that are the reason that this region could be in for a one-two punch. as the storm moves across the state and towards the appalachian mountains and it rises in altitude and starts to sort of let go of its wet payload into river basins and

creek basins, it will fill up rivers like this one and send all of the water cascading back down states towards the coast where it will add stress to river systems that have already been stressed by hurricane florence as it swept over the state on its way here. so that's why this river is actually being swelled right now. this river has risen not because of hurricane florence. it rose deliberately because people here, authorities, tried to release some of the dams, tried to release some of the pressure on levies here to try to stop flooding that had happened back in 2015, to try to keep a repeat of that from happening and in order to relieve tension on a lot of the infrastructure here in anticipation the that there would be a lot more water going through the waterways and through these streams. that's why we're starting to see some of this river rising. as i mentioned to you earlier, david, this is a slow-motion problem for the carolinas because the weather will start to improve. you will start to see sunnier skies as the weekend ends but the water is going to start

cascading down from the mountains and going to add stress and add to the possibility of flooding. that's why authorities here are still concerned and that's why south carolina, which managed to escape so much of the chaos and destruction of hurricane florence, is still really not out of the woods. david. >> my colleague matt bradley there in columbia, south carolina. we will continue to check in with you and to track the storm all night here on msnbc. after the break we will turn back to politics and an allegation of sexual misconduct being levied against brett kavanaugh that dates back to his days in high school. could it affect the senate judiciary committee's confirmation vote which is scheduled to take place in a few days? we're bae goigoing to discuss t next.

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welcome back. i'm david gura. republicans in congress are pushing ahead with a key vote this coming week on supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh, despite new questions surrounding his past conduct. "the new york times" reports a letter shared among senators and federal investigators claims that, quote, a teenage brett kavanaugh and a male friend trapped a teenage girl in a bedroom during a party and tried to assault her. that's according to three people familiar with the contents of the letter. kavanaugh is denying the allegations in a statement saying this, i categorically and

unequivocally deny this allegation. i did not do this back in high school or at any time. glenn kirschner is back with me, a former federal prosecutor, and so is cathie fleming who is with me here in new york. let me get your reaction to the hearing that was bubbling up during the confirmation hearings i gather, buzzing among staffers on capitol hill. let me read from senator feinstein's cryptic statement she released. the senator took these allegations seriously and believed they should be public. however, the woman in question did not want to be made public. it is critical in matters of sexual misconduct to protect the identity of the victim. do you think this poses a risk of derailing the proceedings under way? >> i don't think it poses risk of derailing anything because i think the republicans made it clear they intend to move forward with the hearings no matter what. i think it is unfortunate all the way around. it leaves and as terrific f ast

nominees. they're serious allegations and they could be disposed of easily. companies have these kinds of allegations a lot, they can take care of them quickly, they can take care of them quietly. if the accuser does not want to come forward and be public -- and who ka blame her after what happened to anita hill and who ka bla can blame her because sexual assault victims don't like to be public, then it should be over and he should be cleared. if there's corroboration evidence, maybe he should be investigated further. if it is only one incident, that lends some credibility issues because serial predators are generally serial. if it is not true, it is really unfair to him to have this cloud hanging over him. it is a really troubling thing i think even for the nominee, that he would really want it to be cleared up i would think. i don't know how you do it when it is an anonymous, unnamed person making the accusation.

you know, the fbi is doing nothing more than putting it in his file and presenting it to the white house. the white house could ask that the fbi investigate it or they could -- the senate or the senate finance committees could ask that they investigate it, but i don't think it is going to happen. >> cathy, you bring up the analog to what happened with anita hill in the early '90s. she has issued a statement. given the seriousness of these allegations, the government needs to find a fair and neutral way for complaints to be investigated. the senate judiciary committee should put in place a process that enables anyone with a complaint of this nature to be heard. i have seen firsthand what happens when such a process is weaponized against an accuser, and no one should have to endure that again. i want you to react to that, how that analogy is to 1991 and what comes to light and what doesn't as it stands today? >> i think it would be a good process to clear up the entire hearing. i don't like the way it has

begun. ruth bader ginsburg made comments that it has become so partisan. we are doing less to ask questions of the nominee. if there are accusations are made, they should be done in a dignified way to investigate whether they're accurate or not before they're made public. i think the judiciary committee should figure out a way to look into the veracity and credibility of something before it is made public. i am a criminal defense attorney. i believe in due process, and i think it is fair. you know, it is a tough situation because being a victim, if she is in fact a victim, who knows what really happened way back then. it is a tough thing for someone to come forward, but it is also really unfair to leave that cloud hanging over someone if it didn't happen. >> glenn kirschner i want your reaction to the process as well. dianne feinstein releasing that statement i read from, it being entered into the nominee's file.

it is something that all senators can now view if they wanted to do so, in a redacted form. the name of the accuser is not printed on the memo entered into evidence. your reaction to how all of this has unfolded, glenn? >> i think it is apt you bring up the 1991 incident involving anita hill and how she was treated and the problems that that caused for everyone involved. i guess we can look back and say nobody can accuse the senate of learning from its mistakes because here we are again, and we don't have any sort of a procedure to handle this sort of a situation. i see this as a lose/lose. i will throw a third lose into the mix. what i mean by that is you have a woman who at a young age may very well have been the victim of a sexual assault. let me tell you, david, as a career prosecutor, delayed reporting from sexual assault victims is entirely common because they feel embarrassed, they feel ashamed. they're afraid the system is going to put them through the wringer, and guess what? that is often what the system does.

we understand that a defendant has a right to confront and cross-examine his accusers, but i'll tell you sexual assault victims are put through a whole lot trying to seek justice. so maybe she wanted to avoid that, but if you want to maintain anonymity, unfortunately that means nobody will be able to assess the quality and the nature of this accusation. so it does sort of hangover the head of both the nominee. so you have the victim who loses out, you have the nominee who loses out because of the asterisk problem, and you have the american public who loses out because this possess doesn't seem to have enlightened the question of whether judge kavanaugh is qualified to be justice kavanaugh. so it does seem like everybody loses and we need to find a procedural fix for this problem in the senate. >> cathy, one last question, pivoting back to what we were talking about in a few minutes ago, that is what paul manafort pleaded to on friday. we said the president hadn't addressed this. in fact he tweeted about it a

moment ago. he said, my, in parenthesis, poll numbers are good. if it wasn't for the rigged russian witch hunt, they would be 25 points higher. highly conflicted. bob mueller and the 17 angry democrats are using this to hurt us in the midterm. no collusion. the district judge says, read the information, read what you have against him, it takes 25 minutes. i think the judge allowed she hadn't had something take that long before in her courtroom. this has been characterized as a sweetheart deal by some for paul manafort, what he has pleaded to. your reaction to what we saw in court on friday? >> well, i don't see it quite as a sweetheart deal. i see it as a tougher deal than other people did. he forfeited an anorm enormous of property. he is squeezed in a vise. it will be up to the government whether they think he lives up to his agreement or not. his lawyers waived the right to be present for briefings, which

i find suicide in a lot of instances. i don't think they should. they should be present for the debriefing discussions to make sure things are going okay and that they have a witness to what he has been saying. i understand at least that he has cut off, that he will have a ten-year cap on his sentence and he likely will get far less. he will have light at the end of the tunnel and not be spending the rest of his life in jail. in terms of what president trump is thinking, i don't know. i mean witch hunt seems to be the new word for felon because every time he talks about a witch hunt the mueller team is convicting people and they're being convicted because they're standing up and saying, i'm guilty. so i don't think you can really call it a witch hunt anymore. perhaps there is no collusion. one of the things that's going to come out of this is that manafort is going to give his version of what happened in the meeting in trump tower that involved some pretty key people involving russia. maybe it will be determined that there isn't collusion. maybe it will be determined that there is.

none of us know. we're all speculating. only the people that were in that room truly know what happened. mueller's team is now going to hear at least two out of the three people who were in the room telling them what their version of the truth is. >> beginning to piece together what happen in june 2016. cathy, thank you very much. nice to see you. cathy fleming joining me along with glenn kerr sherner in washington, d.c. doubling down on how many died in puerto rico, will it hurt his credibility further?

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welcome back. i'm david gura at msnbc headquarters in new york. tropical storm florence continuing to pound the carolinas tonight, swamping much of the area's coastal region. at least 11 people have been killed as a result of the storm and nearly one million people are without power in those two states tonight. president trump has declared a national disaster in the state of north carolina. meanwhile, the latest storm comes as we approach the one-year anniversary of hurricane maria, which ravaged the island of puerto rico. a recent study from the george washington university revealed nearly 3,000 people died as a result of that storm, but the president is continuing to dispute that estimate without offering any evidence of his own. joining me now is adrienne elrod, a former director of communications with hillary for america and michael singleton is with me as well, republican consultant and former deputy

chief of staff of housing and urban development. let me start with you. i'm going the read two of the most recent tweets and lately he has reported news articles without linking to them. quote. when trump visited the island territory last october officials told him in a briefly 16 people -- he capitalized that -- had died from mae rue. this was long after the hurricane took place, he continues. over many months it went to 64 people. then like magic, 3,000 people killed. they hired gwu research to tell them how many people died in puerto rico. how would they not know this? this method was never done with previous hurricanes because other jurisdictions know how many people were killed. 50 toiimes last original number? no way. as the president is looking back a year to what happened in puerto rico, casting doubt on this academic study, your reaction? >> it is ludicrous. when the storm happened, with hurricane maria hit the island

of puerto rico it was hard to know how many people died, what the devastation was. it is almost like the president is lying for the sake of lying here. first, there's the infamous photos of the president throwing paper towels at the people of puerto rico right after the devastation. of course, now he's now disputing the death toll, which is only adding more -- you know, just adding more devastation to everything that these families are going through. so -- and then he is blaming it on democrats. again, this makes no sense to me. it is almost like he is lying for the sake of lying. this is an independent survey that was done. nobody else is disputing it. this is why you had democrats and most importantly republicans, including governor rick scott who is in a contentious election in florida now, who came out against trump for making the comments. >> i look at the tweets. you see the crazy pro noun he likes to use, they hired. the president is drawing more attention to this. i would suffice to say that a lot of americans didn't know that many americans died as a

result of hurricane maria. he is bringing attention to it by this tweet. what do you make of what is president is doing here? >> david, i don't see any political advantage on behalf of the president at all for bringing it up. if you actually go through the study, then you will find that gw researchers, that's only part one. they indicate there will be a part two to this study, and during the process of part two they're going to go back there and actually talk to individuals, relatives of folks who died to try to figure out who actually died as a direct result of the storm or who died throughout the process of the rebuilding, et cetera, so that they can get an actual accurate number to say x number of people did die as a result of the storm, x number of people died as a result after the storm passed because they didn't have power or enough food, water, medicine, et cetera. so i don't see any, again, advantage for the president to bring this up. he just needs to allow researchers to continue to conduct their studies and figure out what the total number is, and then from there we go and try to figure out how we make sure this doesn't happen again.

>> adrian, i just got another tweet from the president of the united states referring to the storm. it makes me wonder how you're watching all of this unfold compared to what unfolded a year ago down in puerto rico. laura trump, his daughter-in-law who is from wrightsville beach, north carolina, sending out a note to supporters of the president on his campaign e-mail saying the president will be traveling down there to the carolinas in the coming days to assess how the recovery is going, how the relief effort is going down in north carolina. what do you see when you look at the two tragedies side by side? >> i mean i'm not sure that the residents in north carolina want the president to even go down there given the way he handled the situation in puerto rico. he trivialized it. he is almost making the people of puerto rico seem like second class citizens. so comparing the two, i mean i don't know. if i was a resident of north carolina, i think i would say, you know what, i want fema to come in, i want the federal government to step in and do everything they can, but i'm not quite sure that i want the president of the united states given the way he handles the situation in puerto rico to come down to north carolina. >> i'm sure, michael, to you, i

look at the statement from sarah huckabee sanders yesterday alluding to the fact triple take place, saying he will not do it until he knows it won't distract from or hurt the relief efforts underway. is it a good idea for him to go down? >> politically speaking, it is. it is a state he won. to be quite honest with you, david, i do not think the president is going to carry himself in the manner in which he did in puerto rico. he recognizes that folks in that state, in north carolina that is, voted for him. a lot of those people are going to want to see the president there. they're going to want to know that the president is thinking about them, that he cares and that he is going to play a pivotal role in the rebuilding process every step of the way. so politically speaking he has to go there and, again, i don't think the president is going to act the way he did in puerto rico. i think he's going to be much more sympathetic. why? because he recognizes that there's a political advantage there. >> we'll see if he plays basketball with the bounty once again down in north carolina. thanks to both of you for joining me. >> thanks, david. >> coming up, the very latest on

tropical storm florence. the carolinas are hit with catastrophic flooding and rescue efforts are ongoing. ♪

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tonight danger for hundreds of thousands across the carolinas because of tropical storm florence. while it may not be a hurricane any longer, its slow pace is creating a different concern than 24 hours ago. flooding rains. our team coverage on the ground continues. we're monitoring the latest developments. i want to go to mariana atencio who is oak island. it's 77 degrees there. i gather there is still some light rain. what are you seeing on the ground as we get ready for nightfall on oak island? >> reporter: david, one of the big issues that we're seeing here is what you have been reporting throughout your show. it is these rivers that are cresting in the state of north carolina that are beginning to cause all of these logistical nightmares for law enforcement and for people to try to get back into their homes. this is lockwood folly river behind me. it is usually not this high. it is more than double the water level at this point, and law

enforcement tells me that they've had to close, to shut down highway 211 that goes from southport all the way to greensboro because of the rising water levels here. that is what is making law enforcement job so difficult right now because it is beginning to just be hard to get around all along the eastern part of north carolina. i was on the phone with the police department as well. they tell me they haven't even begun to assess the damage because of the heavy flooding here, and there have also been some rescues, mostly people that have gone out in their vehicles and then all of a sudden you get stuck in these bands, and water just starts rising quickly, and they've had to be rescued by police. that's why this island is still under 24-hour curfew, and the bridges are closed indefinitely. david? >> mariana in oak island, north carolina, for us. i want to turn now to wilmington, north carolina, which is a little farther up the coast. flooding there a huge concern as rescue missions are still under way. my colleague, cal perry, is live there. he's been talking to residents

who have come back to their homes, residents who have tried to whether the storms. what's the latest there as we approach nightfall. >> reporter: you can see behind me the street that's flooded out. that's the problem, people trying to get into their homes. i wanted to show you what residents are doing to help pass the time. this is jay tatum's house? he put in his backyard, because this is a tight knit community, a full bar. when i say a full bar, i mean a proper bar. now, i told all of these kind folks to act normal while i interview jay so they're going to keep talking as if we're not here. when i say full bar, this is impressive. tell me how this bar came to be. >> we went to england for my 40th birthday, and i was -- we were in london and saw all these -- like i read this magazine about pub sheds and i came back to america, saw nothing about pub sheds. >> pub shed? >> that's what this is.

>> talk to me about the storm. why did you decide to sort of ride it out? >> i'm from here originally, and i felt that i wanted to stay here. you know, it's weird because you feel like you want to stay with your property and all your things. my wife and my children are actually in fayetteville right now, which is a little up the road. but it was a point of contention between us, but, you know, she felt like she was doing the right thing, i aand i agree. there's a part of me that feels you want to stay with your things but after seeing the wind and all the tcraziness, i can tell you if there was a category 3 or 4 -- >> you feel like you sort of reached your limit? >> absolutely. i'm so glad my wife and the kids went to fayetteville because, like, the power is off. there's nothing to do. our yards are, you know, in shams. there's nothing but time. so that's why we're pub shedding. >> david, you got to respect a neighborhood bar that's got its own coasters.

that's pretty impressive. i understand that you like ipa, but we do want to spread the word. in this neighborhood, carolina place, the crews are looking to get in here. hopefully tomorrow morning they will. these fine folks are going to hang out here tonight, and they're pouring shots. thank you. the crews need to get in here and get these trees off. of course the power is still out. it's of major concern as that water keeps rising. well done, sir. i appreciate you having us. >> cal perry down there in crime place. i say we call it tatum's tavern. it looks like you've got -- i saw dale's pale ale there. i'm glad you're keeping it local while you're down there, cal perry, my colleague. >> reporter: it's a good place to ride it out, right? i mean -- >> stayed remarkably dry. >> not bad! >> cal perry, thank you very

much. still ahead, more on paul manafort. what do they know? with paul manafort flipping and a new report claiming that michael cohen is talking too. what information do they have to offer? a discussion with our panel and the message that plea sends to the president of the united states. that's coming up next.

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welcome back, everybody. i'm david gura at msnbc headquarters in new york. all the president's men. first paul manafort flips, agreeing to cooperate with robert mueller.

now a new report says michael cohen is talking too. plus catastrophic flooding in north and south carolina as tropical storm florence dumps record rain on both states. rivers are rising, and families are fleeing to safety, and msnbc has live team coverage as that system slowly fizzles across the western part of those states. the 11th hour, an explosion letter given to senator dianne feinstein accuses supreme court nominee judge brett kavanaugh of sexual misconduct while he was a teenager. could that derail his committee confirmation? >> this whole thing about flipping they call it, i know all about flipping. for 30, 40 years i've been watching flippers. everything is wonderful, and then they get ten years in jail, and they flip on whoever the next highest one is or as high as you can go. it almost ought to be outlawed. >> perhaps some wishful thinking by president trump last month during an interview on fox news, especially now that his former campaign chairman paul manafort is