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 cooperating with special counsel robert mueller.

on friday, manafort pleaded guilty to two charges filed in washington, d.c. and admitted his guilt to ten counts from his earlier trial in virginia. the white house maintains the plea agreement has nothing to do with the president. meanwhile the president tweeted in the last hour, slamming the special counsel. quote. while my our poll numbers are good with the economy being the best ever, if it weren'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 phony issue to hurt us in the midterms. no collusion. with me to discuss is msnbc legal analyst katie phang along with contributor to "time" magazine jay newton-small. jay, let me start with you because we have our first glimpse to how the president is reacting to the plea. he's doing it by copying and wai pasting previous tweets. >> well, david, i would say bubble, bubble, toil and

trouble. there seem to be a lot of witches brewing in washington. this is the third person that, as trump would say, bob mueller has managed to, quote, unquote, flip in terms of changing their initial plea from innocent to guilty and now turning state's evidence against whomever it is, as the president said, is next up in the food chain. that's a little problematic for him because it's ever getting closer and closer to the president on this food chain, and everybody now beneath him basically it's just sort of roger stone and donald trump jr. who is left, must be very, very worried because looking at what mueller has done with these other three, really put them in the vice, really squeezed them until they had to flip, it says that he's got a lot of information on these people. and if there's any wrongdoing that they have done, they should be very concerned because bob mueller is clearly coming after them next. >> fire burn and cauldron bubble. katie phang, let me turn to you to get your sense of the timing. we were just days away from when

this trial in washington, d.c. was scheduled to start. look at this vice. how tightly squeezed was paul manafort being? >> 11th hour plea negotiations is nothing new in a criminal case, so the fact that it happened literally on the eve of paul manafort's second trial is not interesting. what's incredibly interesting is the plea agreement itself. the plea agreement calls for cooperation and i will note that's paragraph eight of that plea agreement, and the number eight seems to be very popular these days with robert mueller. michael cohen pled to eight counts and paul manafort was found guilty of eight counts in his first trial. so paragraph eight of the plea agreement calls for cooperation with not only the mueller investigation but with any federal agency and federal investigation. so at this point in time, paul manafort has bought himself less time in prison, but he can shave even more down if he gives something of value to the mueller team. and you and i both know that's exactly what he's done. that plea agreement is dated september 13th. that is the day before he went to court on friday, and it

includes the reality that as early as tuesday, september 11th, the mueller team and the manafort team were negotiating. so if there's anything that's been told that has to do with either that trump tower meeting or russian conspiracy, that has been told by paul manafort to the mueller team because there's no way they would have let him negotiate to only two counts versus the multiple ones he was originally looking at. >> jay, help me understand sort of how paul manafort finds himself at this point. katie talking about what will be expected of him over these coming months. this is a guy who was living lavishly. as part of this arrangement, he's having to get rid of some property. he's going to trade his house in easthampton for the poor house, i gather. he's giving up a lot of assets. >> david, yes. just this one sort of deal pretty much pays for the entire investigation, so the president's criticism that the investigation is too expensive, well, they've recouped a lot of that from paul manafort in this deal. it's millions of dollars. it's a ton of assets, and it really means a huge lifestyle change for this man who once

bought $15,000 jackets and never thought twice about it. he's now going to really have to change his lifestyle considerably, and it also obviously does a huge dent to his business. that was obviously a big concern with michael cohen as well is that neither of them really could function during this investigation in their respective businesses because the mueller investigation just sort of took over everything and nobody wanted to pick them up as clients. i think this really is sort of a reputation ruiner for a lot of these guys. what are they going to do after this? even if they don't serve appreciate time, which is still a question, what happens after i think is a really concern for their faemily as well as they themselves. >> this is kind of like a william faulkner short story where you have an event that took place and you're getting an understanding of what took place in that room from a variety of different narrators. you have paul manafort who was present for that meeting in trump tower. we know others are going to testify about what they say transpire during that meeting as well. i'm curious just what your sense is of the import of that meeting. paul manafort we know now is connected to so many other

personages in eastern europe that could be of interest to this investigation. how interested do you think robert mueller is in that meeting still? >> oh, absolutely. remember, robert mueller is looking at obstruction. not only is there conspiracy with the trump campaign, with the russians to influence the outcome of that presidential election, but was there obstruction of justice that happened after the fact? we know that there was a false statement released by trump from air force one concerning the nature of that meeting at the trump tower in june of 2016. we were told that it had to do with russian adoption. later on we found an e-mail chain implicating trump junior and it clearly said they had dirt on hillary clinton. that's exactly what that meeting was supposed to be about. paul manafort, we should call him the russian whisperer. he has exceptional ties and knowledge when it comes to the ukraine and russia and he's the guy who is going to be able to tell mueller exactly why that meeting happened because we also heard a few weeks ago that there might have been a pre-meeting to that meeting that paul manafort attended. if that makes sense, then paul manafort told donald trump because manafort was the campaign chairman that that meeting was going to happen. that enemas trump knew exactly

what the russians were being to the table at trump tower. >> jay, what does this mean for the president and his legal team? there was a short statement from rudy giuliani that came out after this happened yesterday. it was a statement that was revised subsequently. a clause was taken out of it by rudy giuliani, that being that paul manafort is going to tell the truth. what do you make of how the white house is approaching this, how the president is approaching this? i read in that tweet there at the ftop. the president bringing up some familiar tropes when it comes to investigation. how do you expect rudy giuliani and the lot are going to react to this? >> i think it's looking very lonely for the president these days. so many of those people whom he thought would protect him have abandoned him. just a year ago, michael cohen was saying he would lay down his life for donald trump, and then, you know, a year later he's flipping on him. same for manafort. just a month ago the president was tweeting how manafort was so loyal, saying how great he was. now manafort has also abandoned the president. i think the legal team, you see the president sort of tweeting

vaguely about what's going on here, but he's not naming manafort strikingly, and he's not really tweeting in a sort of like -- those tweetstorms that you were used to in a lot of these circumstances. and so house of duty i think is an example of how seriously they must be taking this and how worried they might be because the next people, again, in line here are frankly donald trump jr., who was at that infamous meeting in trump tower, and what happens if it's the president has to decide is it my son who i throw under the bus next with everybody else who i have already thrown under the bus, or do i save myself and just -- and let him take the fall for this or whatever this is? and so i think it must be really concerning knowing that as they flip increasingly closer towards the president, he must be feeling very, very worried for his family and for his presidency. >> katie, we got to talk about this part on dangle and some of the points jay was raising there. a lot of people suspected that might be in the cards for paul manafort. remember after that first trial

in the eastern district of virginia, you had the president in that interview on fox news praising paul manafort for standing up for not being a flipper. the president professing to be somebody who knows flippers and has known them for 30 or 40 years. why do you think this didn't materialize? a lot of reporting on the quality of the conversations that were taking place between paul manafort's counsel and president trump's counsel as well. >> you really have to read tea leaves when it comes to whether or not the pardon was being intimated if not totally offered maybe in back channels to paul manafort. what you don't here from donald trump is praise for paul mav manafort, but you don't hear condemnation even after the man pled guilty to that multi-page superseding criminal information that laid out in painful detail exactly how un-american paul manafort is and was when he was trying to work for the ukraine. and so what i think could happen is trump could still pardon paul manafort, but paul manafort, again, if he's already given the goods to bob mueller, then really you can pardon him, but

he may have exposure to state charges in multi-jurisdictions and that would not save paul manafort if trump tries to pardon him. >> jay newton-small, how much attention are you paying to what's going on in new york city? michael cohen of course based up here. he pleaded in district court, and there are reports now in "vanity fair" that he is considering talking to special counsel robert mueller as that investigation continues. how important a key is that to this investigation, do you think? >> well, certainly, i mean, michael cohen was donald trump's -- one of his cloeftest confidants for many, many years. we don't know what michael cohen knows. certainly the case against michael cohen was sort of spun off by bob mueller, and he had a separate plea himself having to deal with the stormy daniels and the covert payments to her and another woman ahead of the election. but the question really is if he is talking to bob mueller, what does he know? what did the president trust him with? what did the president talk to him about? was the president ever worried about legal jeopardy in issues relating to this, and what were his thinking behind it if that's

the kpacase? and it certainly seems michael cohen is not a friend of the president these days and it seems he's willing to give up the goods on the president because he feels he's not only been thrown under the bus but he's the one feeling the pain. the president, who directed him to make these payments, didn't help him out, didn't help pay his legal fees, eventually abandoned him. so michael cohen sees no reason to be faithful, loyal anymore, and so he potentially could be vindictive here and go after the president and tell bob mueller everything, whatever it is he knows. >> >> thank you for your time today on this saturday. still ahead, a look at the number one concern residents face across the carolinas tonight after surviving 24 hours of rain and high winds from tropical storm florence. -clear. -trash can, turn on the tv. -my pleasure.

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welcome back. i'm david gura. tropical storm florence is pounding the carolinas with record breaking rains tonight. the president is weighing in on twitter, writing, quote, five deaths have been recorded thus far with regard to hurricane florence. deepest sympathies and warmest go out to the families and friends of the victims. may god be with them. according to our count, the slow moving storm is now responsible for 11 deaths. it has left more than 700,000 people without power as it continues its path inland, and

5,500 are still in american red cross shelters in south carolina. hundreds of dramatic rescues have been made by first responders across the two states. here we see a new video. the u.s. coast guard saving multiple victims from the flooding today in onslow county, north carolina. i want to bring in shanna mendiola for the latest. what are you seeing here across the carolinas? >> we're still watching tropical storm florence in the form of a tropical storm. hoping that it would down grade to, again, a tropical depression, but right now it's still a tropical storm with winds up to 45 miles per hour. still strong enough to topple trees, power lines and send debris flying everywhere. that's the threat there and it's moving very slowly, now two miles per hour. that's slower than what i can do walking down the street. it's still in the same positioning. we will watch those feeder bands bring more rains to the border of north and south carolina here. then again tomorrow we're going to see a progression, a little bit of some weakening as this

storm heads inland. those inland spots that didn't get any rain will start to see that pick up, including charlotte, columbia, raleigh, looking at a low by tomorrow night. then this moves out towards the eastern seaboard, remnants bringing humidity and rain to areas like new york even as we head to monday. really no signs of relief until we get to monday, tuesday. additional rainfall on top of record breaking rainfall, over two feet in some spots here. that's going to be isolated mainly in north carolina here. we're looking up to 40 inches of rain possible overall in this total. again, it's going to be -- what we're watching in terms of that flooding that will bring the threat, it's not going to be the storm surge anymore, not the wind. it is going to be again all that flooding we're seeing, all the rain on the ground already, additional from the sky, and the receding rains coming in from those rivers, which are flooding at this time. so we're monitoring the rivers. we're monitoring all the rain that's still falling as this is going to be something that will last through at least monday and tuesday. >> thank you very much for the update. i appreciate it.

nbc has a team of reporters on the ground tracking this storm as it continues across the carolinas. i want to go now to one of the areas hardest hit by florence, that is new bern, north carolina. garrett haake usually covers the u.s. capitol for us. he's covering what was north carolina's colonial capital. that being new bern. garrett, what's the latest? >> reporter: i'm glad we finally found the intersection point between my two beats on this story here, david. look, the latest here is actually pretty good news. there is no one in the city of new bern who is going to have to spend the night in a flooded home tonight who doesn't want to. the city says that over 400 calls for rescue have been answered. they have gotten everyone who was trapped in homes around this town out of those homes and into shelters. that's the good news. the bad news is there are still lots of neighborhoods in and around this town that are inundated with floodwaters. some of it had come from the river behind me, the neuse river, which is back in its banks tonight. but a lot has come from creeks and other sort of low-lying water that has risen up with the

30, maybe 40 inches of rain we've gotten here over the last couple days. it just has not stopped. we were in some of those neighborhoods earlier today. some houses surrounded by a foot of water, some places water waist-high. that water is not going to go anywhere for a little while. we're going to see a little bit more rain here. there is some danger although not so much in new bern but in some towns further up the neuse river that when the river reaches its cresting stage, you'll see additional flooding. but, david, this has been primarily a water event here. the worst of the rain, the worst of the storm surge is over, and i think what we'll see tomorrow at first light is the start of what's going to be a very long cleanup process here. a lot of homes large and small badly damaged by this floodwater. we're still under curfew until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, but i suspect if the rain stops, that may be lifted. we may see some folks start coming home although if they do, they'll likely be coming home to homes without power still. big swaths of this city including the downtown area where i'm standing, david, still with no electricity tonight. >> garrett, quickly here what's the rescue effort been like

there? is it mostly local led? is it a county wide effort? help us how all these different emergency response units are interfacing with each other. >> reporter: there's been pretty tight cord natiordination betwe national guard and local officials, the local fire department in particular. what i've seen a lot of are the local folks, police and fire, doing the scouting if you will, going door to door, knocking on doors, peeking in windows, seeing who needs help where. then we've seen these big national guard trucks, these lmtvs coming through to pick up the folk who's have been spotted by the local officials. there was some presence here by the cajun navy and by other volunteer folks over the first, i would say, day and a half of this storm. they have moved on to other areas over the last day and a half of it. but it's been that coordination between local and state officials here doing the heavy lifting in terms of getting people out of their homes. you know, as far as we can tell, they've been doing a great job of it. no reports of deaths or serious

injuries here in new bern despite all of this flooding we've seen around town. >> a lot of those rescues happening in new bern. thank you very much. garrett haake joining any from new bern, north carolina. i want to go now to south carolina's capital, columbia, where matt bradley is tracking the storm as it moves inland. we've heard how slow moving this storm is, how it's sort of hanging over the center of that state and moving slowly sort of west-northwest. what are columbians being told tonight? what are they supposed to expect? >> well, as you can see, i spoke to you just an hour ago, david. the conditions have actually deteriorated quite dramatically just in that last hour. that's because we're starting to see here that leading edge of what is now tropical storm florence. as i mentioned, we drove this morning from myrtle beach, from the coast, all the way here to what they call the midlands of south carolina, and we basically outpaced the storm. and now it's finally catching up with us as the meteorologist mentioned. this is really coming at a crawl. two miles an hour. it's hard to even walk that

slowly, and that's what this area of the country is going to have to be enduring for probably something like the next 48 hours. and that's a problem because if you look behind me, this river, the congaree river, it's already swollen quite a bit. that's deliberate. that's because officials here have tried to release some of the dams, release some of the levees to release stress on the water system here, to prevent flooding, to prevent streams and rivers from breaching their banks and causing injuries and causing flooding throughout the whole region. now, with the storm moving through, that's an already stressed system. it's going to be continuing up into the carolinas, north toward the appalachian mountains. then it's just going to release all of that moisture, and this river is going to flood even more, giving a one-two punch to this entire region and again to the coastal areas of the carolinas with still more flooding. so that's what this region has to expect over the next two days, and we're hoping that officials here will be able to contain the water, will be able to contain the infrastructure

that already was breached three years ago, causing 15 to 25 deaths. that's what people are worried about here, more flash flooding and a delayed response from the effects of hurricane florence as it climbs into the appalachian mountains and releases still more moisture. and that's why even though it looks like south carolina might have avoided the worst of hurricane florence, the worst might still be yet to come for this state. david? >> on the banks of the ever rising congaree river there in columbia, south carolina, thank you very much, matt. an accusation and a denial in the 11th hour as scrutiny focuses on supreme court nominee judge brett kavanaugh's past. what does it say about our government's confirmation system? that's coming up next. since joining ninehahi, ubmonths ago,o. my priority has been to listen to you...

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welcome back. i'm david gura. supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh denying an allegation of sexual misconduct ahead of his confirmation vote this week. the accusation reportedly made by a woman who sent a letter to congress detailing an incident from the early 1980s. the "new yorker" reporting that, quote, during an encounter at a party, kavanaugh held her down and that he attempted to force himself on her. the woman claims that kavanaugh and a classmate of his, both of whom had been drinking, turned up music that was playing in the

room to conceal the sound of her protests. the supreme court nominee is pushing back against that, saying, quote, i categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. i did not do this back in high school or at any time. joining me now is barry grissom and katie phang is back with me as well. katie, let me start with you and get your reaction to this story, your sense of what this difference might make as we look ahead to that committee vote. >> so chuck grassley has indicated that's what's going to happen. the vote is going to move forward on thursday and frankly it's not going to move the needle. this particular nomination and this particular nominee has been rife with several issues, and it's not to diminish the import of the accusation, and that is exactly what it is. it's currently just an accusation. but the fact of the matter is that the kavanaugh confirmation proceeding has been completely inundated with so many issues that run the gamut from second amendment gun control to abortion to whether you can

prosecute a sitting president. so this particular new allegation, the timing of it is fascinating. the fact that this has been known by senator feinstein since july kind of raises some eyebrows and some questions. but the reality is that confirmation will move forward on thursday. and let's look back a year, david, back in 2017, the filibuster that happened over justice gorsuch blew up exactly the idea that you had to have 60 votes to confirm a scotus nominee. with that the nuclear option was invoked by mitch mcconnell. now all you need is a simple majority. you have to look back in the past to figure out why what's going to happen with kavanaugh on thursday is going to be the likely confirmation of him. >> you mentioned the pushback senator feinstein has got for the timing of this. i'm going to read a statement from a spokesperson for the senator. quote, the senator took these allegations seriously and believed they should be public. however, the woman in question made it clear she did not want this information to be public. it is critical in matters of sexual misconduct to protect the

identity of the victim when they wish to remain anonymous, and the senator did so in this case. barry, i want to turn to you. the october term of the supreme court, the next one begins on october 1st. that's when we can expect the first arguments here. katie talking about the timing of this. the timing has been everything here. you've had a white house keen to get this going as soon as possible. as you look at this, another wrinkle as katie puts it, another issue that's come up during the course of these hearings, what do you make of how quickly all of this has transpired? >> well, the thing i think is most bothersome to me whether you are a republican or a democrat is, as katie indicated, mitch mcconnell moved away from the 60-vote rule. at least the 60-vote rule meant you had to have someone who was a consensus candidate who would get the nomination. wee moved so far away from that, that now the simple majority means it is even more politicized than it had been in the past. and i think to the institution of the court itself, that that

demeans it because it's now v w view viewed, i think, by a majority of americans as a political animal. it's not viewed as an impartial arbiter of different issues. sadly i don't think we will ever return to the 60-vote rule, and i think that was the one thing that no matter what the candidate's background was, whether he or she is a liberal or conservative, it was at least someone you could have consensus on and someone you would think would at least approach their position as a fair and impartial judge. >> you're not learning a lot about each nominee's jurisprudence because they're not going to answer questions that might put them into authority position. you had a nominee here who was very keen to talk about his volunteerism, the fact he coaches a girls basketball team, et cetera, et cetera. you walk away from those three days of hearings with what, barry? what do we take away from a supreme court hearing like this? >> well, you've watched kabuki

theater. i mean it's an exercise in not answering questions. it's an exercise in obfuscation. it's an exercise in not getting to the core of what that person's true jurisprudence is, which is what i think the whole process should be about. this idea that we stepped away and have abandoned the 60-vote rule i think will only come back to, as a nation, harm us in the long run. >> katie, there was a statement from anita hill. a lot of parallels have been made here to what happened in 1981 when clarence thomas was nominated to the supreme court. 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. we were talking just a moment ago, barry and i, about the way

these confirmation hearings work today. do you see any signs of this changing in light of this latest indication here, this letter that's come to at least the senator's attention by dianne feinstein based on the e-mails, the memos that were introduced during the course of this hearing against committee confidentiality? are things likely to change, do you think in. >> barry made a good point about the politicization of this process. you would think that confirming somebody to the highest court of land where the law that's promulgated from that court is stuff that is bound and binds all of us as precedent is pretty important, i think, for even the average joe. but i don't think they're necessarily going to make any of those changes anytime soon because there's never going to be an agreement between the republicans and the democrats. there are parallels with the anita hill issue. we also know, david, that even joe biden later on said, look, i'm remiss that i didn't actually follow up more with the fact there were other women that were going to corroborate what

anita hill said. at this point in time, you have to be mindful and respectful that when it comes to sexual assault or allegations of sexual assault, you have to be respectful of the desire of the victim to remain anonymous. i can't sit here and monday morning quarterback as to how senator feinstein handled the situation. i think it's a well taken comment by anita hill to be able to funnel those allegations. it's been turned over to the fbi, and hair not goithey're no investigate it at this time. >> thanks to both of you. nothing to do with president trump or the trump campaign. that is what rudy giuliani says about mall manafort's plea deal. what else the president's lawyer claims, and what he is ignoring in that case. with such a long history, it's easy to trust geico! thank you todd. it's not just easy. it's-being-a-master-of-hypnotism easy. hey, i got your text- sleep! doug, when i snap my fingers

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welcome back. i'm david gura at msnbc headquarters in new york. tropical storm florence leaving record setting rainfall in its wake along with massive flooding in the carolinas. the governor of north carolina warning residents to stay indoors as the storm moves westward. at least 11 people are dead tonight as a result of florence, and nearly a million carolinians are without power. as we approach the one-year anniversary of maria, a recent study from george washington university reveal the that nearly 3,000 people died as a result of that storm. but president trump is continuing to dispute that estimate from gw. joining me now are es ted

hernan, bassis michael here in new york along with susan del percio. just give us a sense here the degree to which the president is consumed by this. we've seen some tweets about what's been going on in the carolinas, but over these last few days there have been numerous tweets about this study and about that one-year anniversary. >> yeah. it started because democrats and other independent observers, journalists have been making the point that as these new round of hurricanes roll through the mainland united states, it's coming up on one year of what was a very deadly hurricane in puerto rico that had questions over the government response there. there was accusations from local officials on the ground, even some of the members of congress that said president trump's response to the crisis in puerto rico wasn't adequate. as that year anniversary has rolled around and more questions have been asked about how many people did diaze as a result of

that hurricane and the aftermath, we have two things. that study that you mentioned that pinned the number at almost 3,000 people, not nearly 60 or 70 that had been the original death toll. and then the puerto rican government actually did its own investigation and accepted the findings of that study and said that in the aftermath, that many did die. so that really brought doom to the winds on the president's response and said, was this taken seriously? was this given the adequate response? as that drumbeat began to roll, the president does what he always does, which is react so viscerally to any type of criticism that makes the scandal even bigger than it might have initially been. the question at hand here is did this administration do enough? we still don't have the answer to that. >> susan, i want to get your reaction to this. i'll put two of the tweets the president sent. there is this specious allegation that they paid for this study, the gw did, whoever they is or are. this isn't a good issue for the president. i think broadly speaking, he

received widespread condemnation for how this was handled. he made that one trip down there. we still lampoon that video of him lobbing rolls of paper towels at people who were gathered to see him speak in san juan. why bring this up again? what possible good could come from this as we approach that anniversary and as he's dealing with another huge disaster in the united states? >> from what i heard, the president was very concerned it would seem like his own katrina, that death tolls were so high. that video with the paper towels irks him beyond belief. he hates seeing that up. it's all about donald trump. the government -- the u.s. government, puerto rico, and the administration have both accepted this to be factual. there's a part two of this study that's going to be coming out, and we'll find out even more in those findings. but it's nonsensical, whatever the president's doing. he also did it as he knew florence was coming. so he could have just shut up,

which i know is unlikely, but he could have been quiet about it and done commander in chief, overseeing fema, reporting to the public, telling people to be safe. to my knowledge, he hasn't even acknowledged the deaths of florence. so i don't understand this president. >> yeah, he acknowledged in a tweet here, five deaths. again we're reporting there have been 11 here, so showing some disengagement with where things have progressed today. basel, your reaction. >> i take susan's point in terms of it being his katrina, and there's a step more that i would say that makes it even worse in some respects because he's denying the lives that were lost in puerto rico and just the denial of that, i think, is shocking for a president of the united states. and think about the toll that it's had not just on those who are on the island, but those who came to florida and other states having to flee the destruction. if you've got a point now where

you have republicans -- because there's a big republican race -- two republican races in florida. you have republicans actually denouncing and taking a step back from the president's tweets, which doesn't happen that often anymore. you know it's a big problem. i don't mean to politicize it, but you have hundreds of thousands of people who have left puerto rico to go to florida. don't you think this is going to have some impact on how people view this president and how they're going to go out and go and vote in this election? >> i can't help but think that if things read nearly 3,000 american citizens died versus 3,000 puerto ricans, i think that that is certainly in play here when you look at the president's reaction. >> astead, what are you going to be watching for this week? sarah sanders saying on friday that the president is planning a trip down to the carolinas as soon as he can to assess what happened there, assess the relief and rescue efforts in north and south carolina. his daughter-in-law, lara trump, using this opportunity to send out a campaign message, saying she's from wrightsville beach, north carolina, where the eye of

the storm made landfall at 7:15 on friday morning, indicating it's a good thing the president is going to north carolina. what are you going to be watching for? >> i think two things. there's the commander in chief aspect of t aspect, the consoler in chief aspect of speaking to a community that has been ravaged by these hurricanes. that is a question of what happened in puerto rico. that is what many say he failed to do in puerto rico. and so we will see the contrast in how he performs that role in the carolinas. there's also, of course, the looming issue of paul manafort's plea deal, and we have seen this president, in times of crisis, in times where robert mueller's investigation has come closer to him, really lash out at the next opportunity he has to speak extemporaneously. so i would be watching for those two things. does he do the type of sympathy, consoling that was absent when we talk about what happened in puerto rico because i do think that's a good point. this plays into a president that

has not really shown that same level of care and same level of consoling and sympathy for people who are not his base, not the group of people who think support him. so do the carolinians get a president that the puerto ricans didn't? do we get that paul manafort related tirade? that's what we're going to be watching i think. >> we've seen the president at a loss for words. you look at that tweet tonight that he sent about paul manafort. it's a lot of the familiar tropes about who is on bob mueller's team, et cetera, et cetera. was. the plea of paul manafort finally the thing that made him realize to be quiet. >> i always that michael cohen was very personal for him for a number of reasons but this is about the campaign. this is also about his family and the role that they've had in all of this. so maybe it's a good time to stay quiet. >> and also i think it's interesting because there's been a lot of talk about impeachment if the democrats take the house,

which is looking more and more likely if you look at all the polls. so i think he is literally spinning, and that's what a rabid, cornered animal is like, and he just doesn't know, and he can't hold it in for long. that's for sure. >> thank you very much. saving one life at a time. the biggest challenge is to save folks across the carolinas as night begins to fall on a region where hundreds of thousands of people remain without power from that tropical storm.

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welcome back, tonight more than half a million people still without power in the carolinas. as tropical storm florence brings heavy rain and winds to the area. many fear the potential for catastrophe catastrophic damage. mariana, what's the latest, i see the rain coming down in oak island. >> it's still coming down, as you can see, people here are not out of the woods yet, because it's very unpredictable. when you get caught in one of

these wind gusts and in one of these bands it can just pull on you for hours. just got confirmation that a dam about six minutes from southport is about to break. the police department telling me they've started evacuating people. it's a pretty big dam. it's going to cause all sorts of problems tomorrow. there's a nuclear plant near that area. they're already having to close some of the major roads and it's very likely that tomorrow a lot of the major roads around the area will be closed. we hope to bring you some of those updates as the sun comes up. it seems like this area, the southport area, not out of the woods, still feeling the effects of this hurricane now turned tropical storm. >> we'll count on you for those

updates you as the night goes on. >> i want to go back do the home of jay tatum. as we learned last hour, he's built a small bar in his backyard. entertaining members of the local community there. among them. what are you hearing from folks who remained in wilmington, returning to their homes there, having a drink with jay tatum? >> reporter: a lot of people here are happy they left, even though the storm got downgraded. this storm is it a duration event. good people making the best of a bad situation. you met jay earlier last hour. this is his pup shed. >> you built it, right? >> no, i was half of the part that built it. i was only one half. >> tell me about this neighborhood because it reminds

me of my neighborhood. halloween, people are all together. >> i mean, the pup shed is all about community. and we have a great community here, we love our neighbors. it's solid people people, #america'sbest neighborhood. >> are you happy you stayed? what was the thinking? >> for what? >> for the storm. are you happy you stayed for the storm? >> yeah, i was like, if i leave, i can't come back to the neighborhood and they're actually going to need me here at the neighborhood so i should stay. >> jay, your wife moved on just for now because you were worried about it, if the storm had been bad you would have left? >> yes. i felt personally we had our property here, all the things that matter to us, but at the end of the day, it's just stuff and it doesn't matter at all. so i'm glad they went on and i'm glad i stayed around. hey, we're all here, right? >> right. >> i'm told in north carolina during hurricane, you do shots

out of dixie cups? >> these are dixie cups. >> they're going to be here drinking tonight. i do want to say, though, and i promised everyone i would say, they still need to get some generators in here, pumps in here, there's a lot of trees on these houses. it's a serious situation. these are just good people making the best of a bad situation, we're grateful to be here. cheers. >> and we need generators. >> what else do you need, the crews in here? >> we need a lot of love. >> from the world. >> any messages to family that might be out there watching this on tv? >> to my family, don't watch the weather channel. it's a big lie. we're okay. we actually are really okay. it's kind of scary. we have electricity, we have a generator, we have gas, we're fine. >> and talk to me very quick bob, i know you've been here for many, many years.

i want to -- this neighborhood is coming together, right? people are helping each other out, i saw -- we met someone who had a tree in their house. talk about this neighborhood and what it means? >> it's a great neighborhood to live in. we all watch out for each other. we walk around and make sure that each other is doing okay. and do what we can to survive and get through tough times. >> the other thing we were talking about earlier -- >> i did a little research here after we talked to you last. there's an article about mr. tatum's tavern, i play the fiddle, i saw in one piece he has one of charlie daniels fiddles signed by the man himself. >> do you have a charlie daniels fiddle here? >> absolutely. >> this is some good research. here we go. there it is, look at this. i didn't see this, maker's mark pub shed. how about a local backyard bar

with brandy. i mean, that's impressive, right? >> cal perry, you got an early start tomorrow, i know you're going to be quick to bed on the heels of this. >> yeah, you got it, jay said we have to drink all the beer before it gets warm, we have a lot of work to do. >> my colleague in wilmington, north carolina for us. once again. that's it for me. i'm david gura here in new york, join me again tomorrow at 2:00 and 3:00 eastern time. up next, it's all in america, michael moore in trump country. uhp. i didn't believe it. again. ♪ ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? ♪ i want to believe it. [ claps hands ] ♪ ooh i'm not hearing the confidence. okay, hold the name your price tool. power of options based on your budget!

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they're getting a little nervous in michigan. >> key state. unexpectedly is michigan. >> on 11/9/2016, michigan went for donald trump. >> a 10,000 vote margin for donald trump in michigan. >> the majority of the people here didn't vote at all. >> do you regret not voting? >> tonight, michael moore is back, and he has a brand new film. which takes on trump, the governor. >> governor scott, i have some flint water for you. >> i don't care who you are, i'll fight you in the street right now.