be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's. this sunday, historic flooding from hurricane florence. >> i've been here 20 years and this is the worst i have ever seen. >> hundreds without power. so many being rescued. >> i think people thought they could ride it out. they didn't realize how high the river would come. >> the worst the yet the come. this morning i'll talk to the fema administrator and the mayor of new bern, north carolina. plus, manafort flips. president trump's one-time campaign chief pleads guilty and agrees to cooperation with robert mueller. >> mr. manafort has accepted

responsibility. >> candidate trump brought manafort in to rescue his nomination. >> paul manafort has done an amazing job. >> and praised him for not making a plea deal. >> this whole thing about flipping, they call it. it almost ought to be outlawed. >> what can manafort tell prosecutors about the trump tower meeting? what does he know about trump it's campaign connection. and could trump still pardon him. my guests this morning, the leading democrat on the house intelligence committee, adam schiff and allen dershowitz. joining me for insight and analysis are -- adam wall street columnist and the host of the pbs news hour. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press."

good sunday morning, we have two huge stories this morning, the flooding from hurricane florence, what fema calls a mike tyson punch to the carolina coast. and paul manafort's decision to plead guilty and cooperate with the special counsel. but first, hurricane florence has weakened to a prom -- tropical depression, rain continues to fall, up to 30 inches in north carolina, and the threat now is catastrophic flooding which may last more than a week more. $700,000 are without power, and tens of thousands are staying in shelters. 13,000 defense department personnel are supporting fema and 1,200 search and rescue personnel have been deployed. multisections of i-95 will closed. and rescues are still under way by air and aboat.

and more than 450 residents have been rescued after more than 10 feet of storm surge. >> i'm going back for her. i need help with this guy. hey, guys, can i have a little help? >> it was horrifying, just wondering what's going on and where the water's going to go. >> i have lived here 20 years and it's the worst i have ever seen. >> joining me now is the mayor of new bern, north carolina good morning, sir. >> good morning. >> yesterday you announced on the city website that all water rescues has been completed. how out of the woods is new bern? how concerned are you about return flooding, if you will? >> we're very concerned. a lot of the creeks around new bern are increasing by the hour, we have some folks that their yards are starting to get water because of the tremendous amount of rainfall from the other eastern parts of north carolina

that is coming in to new bern now by trent river, bryson's creek, noose river. >> what is it that residents need to prepare for? on one hand they think oh, all the water rescues are done, this is going to recede. are you worried about the water coming back? >> we're worried about the trees that are going to fall because of the saturated ground conditions. we are urging people to stay at home and not travel. we are a curfew in new bern, we have 30 roads in but new bern that are still not passable. we have 40,000 homes in new bern that have been damaged. we have over 300 buildings in new bern that have been damaged. now we have had to go to the downtown area and close it down because of the number of folks that are just wanting to get out and ride around. we're trying to get these power

lines up. please, don't get in the way of the electrical linemen as they do their job. >> we have an opportunity to speak to the people in washington, so i'm going to give you an opportunity what, do you need in terms of the federal response in new bern. >> president trump and i spoke yesterday and he immediately declared a declaration emergency, and governor cooper has given us those resources to get the recovery processes under way. we have 1,200 residents in shelters right now.

and so at this time, again, the major concern is the power line restoration, getting the power back to our customers and keeping folks off of the streets so that we can restore the power. when you're riding around, you're keeping somebody from getting their power back on. please don't do that. and anybody that wants to help, a lot of groups are coming in, the firemen's association, and different groups are coming into new bern so we're staging that as we speak. we have a big stage area for 18 wheelers, we're working on a center in new bern, the omega center to drop off need and water and other things. >> sounds like you've got a pretty well coordinated response on the ground there mr. mayor. mr. mayor, thank you for talking with us for a few minutes. i know you have to go and run your response. good luck to everybody in new bern. >> thank you so much. >> you got it. joining me now is fema administrator, brock long, mr. long, welcome back to "meet the press." >> how are you doing, chuck?

>> let me start with what can you tell us this morning. we know this is a water event, there's a lot of flooding issues that you're dealing with. i know you anticipated catastrophic flooding, is it as anticipated? are there areas that are worse than expected? are there areas that are better than expected? >> unfortunately, the event is still unfolding for 48 hours. the national hurricane center did a phenomenal job of letting people know nearly a week in advance of what was coming. and everything they have predicting, the storm surge, the ocean rising, the coastal flood inundation was rising, you saw the ocean rise anywhere from 9 to 11 feet, causing a lot of damage along the coast, and in the back areas of the pamlico sound. we're actually seeing rainfall 30 inches or more in some areas. we're seeing damage as predicted, unfortunately.

>> what is your biggest need right now? what is the biggest needs down there right now? >> right now we're focused on life safety search and rescue. our urban search and rescue teams, we prepositioned 27 different teams, 1300 people from the national guard, to local swift water rescues, they have performed several hundred evacuations and rescues in isolated areas. because of the inland flooding and roadways going underwater, we're going to have to service people that are in outlying areas that are surrounded by floodwaters. and it's always a difficult life sustainment mission. people are in shelters, we need to make sure that we're meeting the demands and taking care of those people in the shelters. but right now, you've got a strong governor in governor cooper, and we're meeting their demands. it will be ugly, but we'll get

through it. recovery is always a very frustrating proposition when they have lost their livelihood, but we're going to be okay. >> obviously it takes a little bit longer to start recovery efforts when you start with a flooding situation, that was what happened in houston with harvey. how long do you expect this flooding event to hamper the ability to do some of the biggest part of the disaster recovery? >> we have to wait for the hazardous elements of the storm to exit the area before we can send our people in. we never want to put our own people in harm's way. the frustrating thing about flooding in north carolina, you have to wait for the flood to recede in order to go in and start rescue. i-40 anticipate and i-95 are compromised or underwater. you know, we have to do things like figure out other logistical routes to get supplies in to impact others on the coast.

now that the threat is diminishing and moving inland. >> as this preparation began, a reporter asked a simple question about what lessons were learned from puerto rico. >> sure. >> and the president went off and didn't accept the premise that there were lessons to be learned from puerto rico? were there lessons to be learned from puerto rico? >> i think the president is being taken out of context there. i have talked to the president every day this week and the department of homeland security. we discuss what we're trying to do as a result of last year. he's very well aware about that. the thing about puerto rico, disaster response and recovery is a whole community team effort. you have to have anybody from neighbor helping neighbor, like the cajun navy all the way up to the federal government response. and i always say that emergency management is like a chair with four legs. one leg represents the federal government, the other leg represents state and local government. another leg represents the private infrastructure.

and the fourth leg is you the citizen. so any time there is one leg missing-- >> which leg was missing in puerto rico? >> let's face it, i'll be honest, fema was the only responder for many weeks going into puerto rico. here's what we're doing to change that. we're working with the governor and he like me just came into his job and gets hit with one of the most complex disasters. i work with the governor every day to say how do we build a stronger emergency management capability in the commonwealth and the local and state level. we have hired 1800 -- fema is the largest in puerto rico. i have got the best of what puerto rico's got to offer, i've got teachers, doctors, engineers, helping to provide a more viable economic future going forward. >> the president has been disputing the death toll,

multiple tweets. he said over many months it went to 64 people and then like magic 3,000 people killed. believe it or not, mr. long, the white house put out a five page backgrounder citing other death toll numbers that were less than the one that the governor of puerto rico accepted. 2,970 people died from the impact from hurricane maria according to to the puerto rican government. does fema accept that number? >> the numbers are all over the place. fema doesn't count deaths. and if you take what's going on with florence, the deaths that are verified by the local county corners, are the ones that we take. what we do is offer funeral benefits for those who are eligible. those are some of the numbers you can put forward that can be cross referenced with any other numbers that are out there. these guys work around the clock, one death is a death too many. >> why does it matter? why is the white house so concerned about 3,000 deaths and

another report that might have had it at 1,800 deaths. you have said it doesn't matter, but the white house believes it matters. why? >> the one thing about president trump is the one president who has had more support for what goes on back here. i think he's defensive. he knows how hard these guys behind me workday in and day out in a very complex situation. the harvard study was done differently than the george washington study or this study and that study. and the numbers are all over the place. >> it is fair -- he said democrats did it to make him look bad. do you believe any of these studies were done to make the president look bad? >> i mean, there's -- i don't think the studies -- i don't why the studies were done. i think what we're trying to do. in my opinion we have got to figure out why people died from direct deaths, which is the wind, the water, the waves and buildings collapsing. which is probably where the 65 5

number came from and and then there's indirect deaths. so the george washington study looks at what happened six months after the fact. what happens, even in this event, you might see more deaths indirectly occur as time goes on because people have heart attacks due to stress, they fall off their house trying to fix their roof. they die in car crashes because they went through an intersection because the stoplight are out. there's all kinds of studies on this that we look at. spousal abuse increases after a disaster. you can't blame spousal abuse after a disaster on anybody. the president is very passionate about the work we've done. the president has been incredibly supportive of me and the staff. i think he's the only president who's held two cabinet level meetings to provide support. they come through this agency every day, he's very supportive. which is exactly what fema needs, there's too much blame going around and we need to be focused, chuck, on what is puerto rico going to look like tomorrow. >> final question, "wall street journal" headline, a bit

disconcerting for you, saying that the white house considered replacing you before hurricane florence hit having to he do with your use of travel back home to north carolina. were you aware of this investigation? are you cooperating? >> oh, yeah, absolutely. let me go ahead and clear all off of those. secretary neilson has never asked me to resign, we have a very functional relationship, we talk every day, we are both focused on florence. so let's put some context on this, the fema position is incredibly complex, you do not want to trade jobs with me. these vehicles were designed to provide preparedness to reflect -- i have an important role to make sure that this government works on the nation's worst day. these vehicles are designed to provide security communications. the program was designed back in 2008.

it ran for me the same way it ran for anybody else. and it's my understanding that maybe some policies were not developed around these vehicles that we'll get cleared up and pushed forward. >> you have no plans to resign? >> no, i'm here to serve my country every day, that's all i do. when it's over, i'm ready to go back home and love my family. >> brock long, i know you have to get back to work, director long, thanks for coming on and answering my questions. >> thank you. all right. >> by the way, if you want to help the folks who have been hit by hurricane florence, here are four organizations we are endorsing, redcross.com. directrelief.org and second harvest food bank. coming up, paul manafort agreeing to cooperate with special county sell robert mueller. i'll talk to democrat adam schiff, and professor of law emeritus allan dershowitz when we come back. peninsula trail? you won't find that on a map.

i'll take you there. take this left. if you listen real hard you can hear the whales. oop. you hear that? (vo) our subaru outback lets us see the world. sometimes in ways we never imagined. your hair is so soft! did you use head and shoulders two in one? i did mom. wanna try it? yes. it intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. manolo? look at my soft hair. i should be in the shot now too. try head and shoulders two in one.

then you might have a dcondition called dry mouth.? biotène is clinically proven to soothe and moisturize a dry mouth. plus, it freshens breath. biotène. immediate and long lasting dry mouth symptom relief. ♪ one look at you and i can't disguise ♪ ♪ i've got hungry eyes applebee's new 3-course meal starting at $11.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

this wi-fi is fast. i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's.

>> welcome back. paul manafort has countless connections that mueller can probe. for instance he can ask about the infamous trump tower meeting with a russian lawyer who said she had dirt on hillary clinton, why? because manafort was in the room when it happened. and then there's derapaska. there's constantine klimnik who's a long time russian agent. and then there's the mysterious gutting of a platform. and of course there's manafort's first partner in politics, roger stones, who appears to have talked to wikileaks about leaked emails. congressman schiff, welcome back to "meet the press."

manafort is cooperating, if you have a chance to ask him questions, what are the first series of questions you want to assume and what mr. mueller wants. >> you have a number of interests. you've got the president's son trying to get dirt in donald trump tower. you've got manafort trying to get money from this russian oligarch, trying to get made whole. you have the russians who want to have a relationship with the trump campaign, they want to help trump get elected. all those interests converge with paul manafort. so basically we want to know what can manafort tell us about whether any of that was consummated. he's trying to get money,

they're trying to get dirt, the russians are trying to help donald trump, was there a meeting of the minds? so that goes to the heart of the collusion or conspiracy issue. >> is it possible that with all this circumstantial evidence, it really is just a bunch of coincidences, that paul manafort, in a desperate move, donald trump was afraid of the ted cruz at the convention, stealing the nomination, he's told to hire the manafort guy and doesn't do a background check. and those russians connections just has been to be coincidence. what's the likelihood of that based on your investigation? >> manafort is the one to help unwind whether this is the most improbable string of coincidences or whether this was an active conspiracy. the bottom line is manafort knows. will manafort cooperate? only one thing mueller already knows & the leadership cut this.

>> i wasn't in the room so i don't know what manafort has to say. i do know this. this is, i think, a couple of the pro found implications of this. this sends a message to anyone who is in bob mueller's cross hairs right now. you better get to the special counsel and make your deal down. because anyone who gets indicted by bob mueller goes down. and the longer you wait to come clean, the worse deal you're going to get, the more time you're going to face. i think there was a need for the trials which gives mueller time to focus on other things. it gives him a key cooperating witness who has already seen what happens when you mess with bob mueller. i mean, he tried to essentially tamper with witnesses, he got caught, he went to jail, he better come clean. >> he's been convicted in one court of law, he has witness tampered as you just brought up. why should mueller believe paul manafort? paul manafort seems like he will

say anything he can to get out of a jam. how do we know that manafort is not somebody who will tell whoever is listening at that moment to get him out of a jam? >> you noi, aknow, all of the h could operating witnesses are corrupt. manafort is basically the swamp. but also flynn and also gates, and all of these people. and cohen, if cohen cooperates, all of these folks have pled guilty to lying and fraud, they're all tainted witnesses, and so as a prosecutor, you only rely on them to the extent you can corroborate them. but often you can, if paul manafort says i spoke to donald trump about the donald trump tower meeting, i did it at this particular time in this particular phone call and you go to the phone records and you find those phone records that

corroborates those statements, so you're not going to rely on the word alone, but you're going to rely on it when you can corroborate it. >> rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer has said that manafort is not disqualified from a pardon. rudy giuliani also confirmed that manafort's legal team and the president's legal team had a sharing agreement of sorts. what do you make of the pardon of rudy giuliani still dangling the idea of a pardon out there? >> clearly the trump team is terrified about what manafort has to say. >> that's how you view it? so this is fear about manafort? >> absolutely. they have to know that he may not have told them the full truth. and so they're terrified of what he has to say. manafort is cooperating. i thought he would hold out for a pardon, but i think two things changed his mind. the first is you have the state prosecutions hanging out there. one of the brilliant parts of the mueller team is, is

getting all these people to admit to state and federal crimes. even if you get pardoned by the federal government, by donald trump. he gets prosecuted by numerous states potentially, he goes away for a long time anyway. but paul manafort had to see watching the whole cohen saga, that trust and loyalty with trump run in only one direction. you're loyal to him, he's not loyal to you. and so i think that -- >> final question. as a member of congress, one thing mueller has done is surfaced a lot of, i think, dirty and weird stuff that happens on k-street with the lobbying community. what is congress actually going to do to try to actually clean up the swamp? because they haven't done anything. you guys have threatened this for decades. >> i think this is going to be a core part of the democratic agenda if we're able to take over the house, which seems increasingly likely. >> you didn't do it the last time though. you didn't get anything last

time. what did we get? it didn't do anything. >> if we don't, we won't stay in the majority and i want us to stay in the majority. and we need to go after this. >> because you failed the last time. >> we need to do the oversight, we need to do the oversight that this congress has completely abdictated responsibility, we took the opportunity for to clean up, to crackup. it's not unaccomplished. it's not job accomplished. people find new and creative ways to skirt the rules and refill the swamp. but the concern i have right now is donald trump said he was going to drain the swamp and the only person who's draining the swamp is mueller. and the president is talking about pardoning the swamp. we have to make sure there is no further act of obstruction of justice. >> money and alligators always find a way in a swamp. >> yes, they do. >> democrat of california, thank you for sharing you view. appreciate it. joining me now is profess or emeritus, he's author of a new book, "the case against impeaching trump."

professor desh der -- dershowitz, always good to have you on. you have said that the deal that mueller got from manafort was a pretty good one as far as mueller is concerned. explain. >> i think both manafort and president trump acted too late, manafort, if he was going to make a deal, should have made it before he was convicted, he would have gotten a better deal. and president trump, if he was going to pardon, he should have pardoned before manafort agreed to cooperate. so there's not going to be any pardon now, manafort has a deal. his sentence will reflect how much cooperation he gives. there is always the risk, you know, a man like manafort has to walk a tight rope. if he's caught lying, the deal is offer. is off. on the other hand he knows he gets a better deal if he can help support the narrative of the prosecutor. so we may see, and there's

always the risk of that, and judge ellis said that in the first manafort case, some people like this they not only sing, they compose, that is they elaborate a little bit, they remember things a little better than they occurred. and that's the risk to justice that could occur here. >> rudy giuliani seems to think a couple things, number one, he says let me play a bite for you from him on friday night, because he seems to think that this deal isn't as bad for them as others believe. here it is. >> i mean the reality is, there was a quote put out by a source close to manafort that the plea agreement has and the cooperation agreement has nothing to do with the trump campaign, quote, there is no evidence of collusion. now i know that, because i have been privy to a lot of facts i can't repeat. but the reality is, no evidence of collusion. >> professor dershowitz, rudy

giuliani continued to say, according to sources close to manafort's defense, that this cooperation agreement does not involve the trump campaign. first of all, what is rudy giuliani referring to? is this something he may have learned during the joint -- because they have a joint defense agreement of some sort? >> the joint defense agreement has to be over at this point if he's cooperating. and congressman schiff correctly pointed out, you can't control what you have. manafort is on one side, he says one thing, on the other side he says something else. i didn't know how you can say the deal is limited. the deal as i understand it is that manafort will cooperate with anything that the special counsel asks about. there are no limits. this wasn't a deal that we're only going to talk about so-and-so, but we're not going to talk about trump or the trump tower meeting, obviously one of the first questions they're going to ask him, is did donald trump's son know about the subject of the meeting before it occurred in order to put pressure on donald trump jr. in order to put pressure on president trump.

so, look, i understand why rudy giuliani, who's a good lawyer wants to put this in the most positive light. but this was a very bad day for the trump administration. it's bad because he doesn't know what manafort is saying and he can't count on manafort saying only things that the special counsel already knows, and when you don't know what a corroborating witness will say it's a bad day for you because you're vulnerable and exposed. >> so you wouldn't put any credence in the deal that rudy giuliani or manafort's defense team, you wouldn't put any stock into any of the assurances they might have felt from the manafort team before he cut that deal? >> well, i would use that information, if he ever testified in cross-examination. he would have told the trump team to under cut his credibility, if he says something different, if he's lying now, was he lying then,

that kind of argument. >> are you concerned now that paul manafort could say that a promised pardon was hinted at. or the pardon was dangled during the joint defense agreement? >> i doubt that. i think the president was pretty care in what he said and how he said and what was said in public. so i don't think that's a real concern. i think the concern is putting together information that the prosecutor knows about but can't connect. we have to remember again, that collusion is not a crime, conspiracy is a crime, but conspiracy requires knowledge. and it's also possible that manafort was always acting on his own, to make more money. he was using the trump campaign, saying i'll make introductions, i'll help you, but that the trump campaign didn't really know about this. that's a likely explanation,

beyond the series of coincidences. >> do you think the president has the legal team me needs to take on mueller it seems like mueller has yet to lose. >> prosecutors has a tremendous advantage. as they point out, you don't mess with prosecutors. they'll come after you, they'll threaten your family and make you plead guilty. president trump had a point >> mueller has a tremendous when advantage, as adam schiff he alluded to that a special said counsel will come after you civil libertarians like me have been concerned about flipped witnesses for many, many years, prosecutors have too much power to flip witnesses and use their testimony. so, of course, there has to be concern. prosecutors have all that much power, all defense attorneys realize that. >> but do you believe the president has the best defense team he needs right now? >> you know, i never want to comment on other people's defense teams, everybody would do it differently, rudy giuliani, i have known him for 30 years, i've been against him, i've been on the same side. he's an extraordinarily talented

guy, jay sekulow is a brilliant lawyer. i'm sure before this case is over, other lawyers will be added to the team. i will not be among them, but there will be other lawyers and teams tend to grow and shrink when you have a complicated case like this. but they're up against a very difficult problem, when you have a prosecutor who can give deals, make deals, it's very difficult. >> professor, thank you for coming on. >> thank you. >> up next, so much to get. to manafort, president trump, what it all means for this mueller investigation. the panel is next. this is frank's favorite record. this is frank's dog. and this is frank's record shop. frank knowns northern soul, but how to set up a limited liability company... what's that mean? not so much. so he turned to his friends at legalzoom. yup! they hooked me up. we helped with his llc, contracts, and some other stuff that's part of running a business. so frank can focus on the beat. you hear that? this is frank's record shop.

and this is where life meets legal. havi is not always easy. plaque psoriasis it's a long-distance journey, and you have the determination to keep going. humira has a proven track record of being prescribed for over 10 years. humira works inside the body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to symptoms. most adults taking humira were clear or almost clear and many saw 75% and even 90% clearance in just 4 months. and the kind of clearance that can last. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal, infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. join over 250,000 patients who have chosen humira. ask about the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists.

humira... and go.

welcome back. the panel is here. white house correspondent for the pbs news hour, "wall street journal" political analyst. and author of a brand-new book, "leadership in turbulent times" and editor of national review. all right, we're going to focus on manafort and that development. rudy giuliani put out a statement from the president. he actually put out two statements. here's the first one i want to show. once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with president trump or the trump campaign, the reason the president did nothing wrong and paul manafort will tell the truth. within minutes, they put out an updated press release and the paul manafort will tell the truth line was not included. that was not an accident. >> i don't think this was an accident. remember, rudy giuliani is someone who was hired really to work with the press and be this

person who's is spokesperson for the legal team. so you have the idea they're very worried about what paul manafort might say, and paul manafort has this deal that he will talk about anything that the government said, so if he tells the truth, that cannot just go to obstruction of justice or the russia collusion, but it goes to the financials. the fact that the president and paul manafort had some sort of financial dealings that get them in trouble is almost a bigger story sometimes than the russian collusion. because i get a sense in talking to rudy giuliani they're a lot worried about. how about you? >> i think it's makes sense on both sides, obviously paul manafort is not going to improve his situation any in a second trial. and mueller is not going to gain anything by making it bounce while manafort is in prison. the question is what does manafort know? does he truly know any dirt on the trump campaign or not?

what he can certainly help mule we are is a more details understanding of how the nefarious russian operates operation. >> paul manafort was replaced along before the election took place. he was with the campaign for a very short period of time. literally, for, like, what a couple of months? a little period of time. manafort has nothing to do with our campaign. >> but for some reason, a month ago this is what he was saying about manafort. >> i think the whole manafort trial is very sad. he happens to be a very good person. i have great respect for what he's done in terms of what he's gone through. >> you would have expected the reverse. >> yeah, you would. i suppose there is a greater fear now of what paul manafort, who was there, who was

present at the creation of the trump phenomenon, you know, he ran the campaign, he was a significant player for a while. what he knows is perhaps not fully known by the white house. the president would be nervous, i have wondered as i think we have all suggested, if collusion is not the most interesting question here, if maybe the nexxus of k street lobbying, law firms, pr strategy firms, what they will do with the money of foreign nationals and foreign governments, manafort has talked about that since he helped invent that rule. he was present at the creation there. >> that could be not only interesting but kind of a public service and maybe give something of a platform from which congress could finally move, as you mentioned. >> what do you see in it?

i mean, the president seems to be -- they seem to be nervous enough about manafort that they don't want to throw him under the bus. that's clear. >> i think what you see when you see the things that he said, two different things, loyalty is a one way street for him. so none of these people who are in trouble now can depend on him. and when you think about what matters when you're a leader of a team. you have to create a team that's loyal to the job and not to themselves. and that's what the splintered team seems to have been. and when teddy roosevelt came in after mckinley was assassinated, he said you can't keep those people are, they won't be loyal to you, he said they don't have to be loyal to me, they need to be loyal to the job. the greatest leaders build a team. this team is people who are just pleading for themselves, everybody is out for themselves, nobody is out for country. >> the president is starting to think about his own survival. it seems like that's always how

he's thinking. >> it's hard to know because you look at those statements and i think essentially for a lot of people that trump is acting out of cognizant of guilty. he's going to say things about the guy who's being nailed to the wall in this investigation whether he's guilty as sin or not. >> he gets to the point, trump has a history of being both of those guys. >> he does. but he also has a history of feeling isolated and feeling very wronged by all of. this really feels like his presidency is hampered and the investigation really hurt his credibility with the american people. and then you think about the people that have flipped. there is his personal lawyer, there is david pecker, there is rick gates. >> there are nine of these guys. this can't be helpful here. you have flynn and -- look at them, manafort, cohen, gates, flynn, pecker.

>> those are people he dealt with personally and in a businessmaner, david peck her secrets in a safe at the nation "national enquirer." the president has to be sitting back and thinking all these people are talking and paul manman manafort is just another man on the list. >> the nature of our politics today is we're constantly talking about prosecutors and people flipping, people going to jail. we should be talking about the state of the country. this is obsessing us and understandably so. >> i think part of the story perhaps with the president and all of these people who have been indicted or have come under questioning. is that he may not have any deep insight into their nature because he didn't really know them. so he almost can't judge where they're going next, the people around trump during the campaign were an island of broken toys. they were individual operatives, they were driven by their own

drama. donald trump couldn't get anybody else, he couldn't get the grown ups to join and he got what he got. >> and that shows the lack of experience and not bringing in the people that knew what they were doing. >> for what it's worth, trump's always built his worlds that way, it's not just in politics, he sort of ends up with everybody with their own agendas and he ends up clashing. all right. we're going to pause here. when we come back, a quick look at the midterm elections and how quickly one of the outlooks has changed. i don't keep track of regrets. and i don't add up the years. but what i do count on is boost®.

delicious boost® high protein nuritional drink now has 33% more protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals boost® high protein. be up for life. boost® high protein. breathe freely fast, with vicks sinex. my congestion's gone. i can breathe again! ahhhh! i can breathe again! ughh! vicks sinex. breathe on. discover.o. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. who would have guessed? an energy company helping cars emit less.

making cars lighter, it's a good place to start, advanced oils for those hard-working parts. fuels that go further so drivers pump less. improving efficiency is what we do best. energy lives here.

welcome back. data download time. so why is all the talk about the midterms suddenly turned to the senate actually being in play? you know, there was an assumption that the biggest challenge for democrats in 2018 would be the ten states president trump won where democrats are up for re-election, including some states that went from blue to red, including ohio, michigan and wisconsin. in fact we were talking about how many seats republicans were going to pick up in the senate. but right now republicans have failed to put all of those red state democratic incumbents in the danger that republicans wanted them to be in. some races don't even appear to be that close right now. for instance, look at the real clear politics polling average, democrats have strong leads in all four of these red and blue states. they're neck and neck in others, which you would have thought republicans without have put away right now, indiana and north dakota. on the other side, republicans are confident, they didn't have to defend as many states in the

senate and assumed the states they did have to defend were going to be pretty safe. but look at how things have changed, the race ask in the margin of error in arizona, tennessee and texas. none of this means that the wave is going to somehow wash over both the house and the senate in the same way and the same strength. but one thing is clear, something has shifted in these last 60 days, so momentum is not just on the house side of things, but also on the senate. all right, when we come back, leadership in a moment of crisis. , when we come back, leadership in a moment of back, leadership in a moment of crisis.

you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. but let's be honest, nobody likes dealing with insurance. which is why esurance hired me, dennis quaid, as their spokesperson because apparently, i'm highly likable. see, they know it's confusing. i literally have no idea what i'm getting, dennis quaid. that's why they're making it simple, man in cafe.

and more affordable. thank you, dennis quaid. you're welcome. that's a prop apple. i'd tell you more, but i only have 30 seconds. so here's a dramatic shot of their tagline so you'll remember it. esurance. it's surprisingly painless.

"end game" brought to you by boeing. continuing our mission to protect, connect, explore and inspire. >> back now with "end game." all right. we have doris kearns goodwin and a new book by you and a sitting president want to relitigate puerto rico. and it seemed as if this was a good way to kick off this conversation. two things i want to pull out and see if you'll apply them to today. one is this here. stories versus facts. you write, lyndon johnson and franklin roosevelt knew that people were more easily influenced by stories than any other way.

that stories were remembered far longer than facts and figures. it's a familiar caricature. >> i think what happened here in the whole hurricane situation is that what you want as a president is to gain control of the narrative. and by losing his temper because he got angry at new signs of maria that were on the television again and the criticisms of how well he did, he lashes out at the figures of how many people have died. and as a result, that becomes the story rather than florence and how he's preparing for florence. at the same time what you need in a leader is someone who acknowledges errors. suppose he said we made mistakes in maria and i'm going to make sure we don't make those same mistakes again. when john kennedy admitted error in the bay of pigs, his numbers go up. sometimes making mistakes and acknowledging them he thinks is a sign of weakness. >> sometimes? >> no, all the times. he lost the most important thing for a leader in time of crisis

and that's to exhibit empathy toward those being hurt. and to talk to these people at this time still being hurt in puerto rico about how many people died versus how many people lost people. their families. they've lost their wherewithal. it doesn't make any mistake. that ambition was for self. he thinks if you say it a number of times it will just be true if you say it. >> he's missing public sentiment. you quote lincoln in the book and i know people are going, doris quotes lincoln? >> who is this guy? >> with public sentiment, nothing can fail. without it nothing can succeed. such leadership is a mirror in which the people see their collective reflection. >> i think that's what we have to think about today, to be honest. when we just argue about president trump and what's going on, we have to look at ourselves and think, what was our system like, our voting system. we the citizens have a responsibility now. instead of just talking about trump to talk about what's going to happen after trump. if we can change public

sentiment, we can change anything we want. >> there's a near term problem for republicans running. rick scott very publicly said i disagree with potus and with the way he said thousands of lives were lost. this is the political problem he's now created. >> and rick scott has been to puerto rico multiple times. he's outperforming what republicans usually do with latinos in florida in part because he's been so empathetic to puerto rico and its plight. this is one of the stories where the president's opponents, especially the president himself, would benefit from the insight that not everything is about him. a category 4 storm devastated an island. it wiped out the grid. it wiped out the roads and all telecommunications. i think by any standard, the fema response has been massive and enduring and ongoing. it's just in those circumstances, it's hard to have everything snap back immediately. in fact, it's impossible to do

that. >> here's -- i think both of you have said something. it's the word empathy. it's this idea that the president is expected to feel bad for people and expected to exhibit that and to be this consoler in chief and it's one of the roles that president trump has not embraced and not really been able to carry forward. think about what he's saying. he's saying that dead people aren't dead and he's trafficking in this conspiracy theory that he's done for his -- throughout his life and it's starting to spread throughout the government because you have brock long now saying the numbers are all over the place. the numbers aren't all over the place. it's more than 3,000 people died and there's this idea that it's hard to say to people that died in katrina in the superdome, in the days after katrina that they didn't die because of the hurricane if they were waiting for medical help. even if you die after the hurricane, if it's because you didn't have oxygen and you didn't have power for your grandmother to breathe, and she dies because of that, she died because of the hurricane. and it's really heartbreaking when you think about the personal stories that you heard from katrina and from maria. >> unseemly what we are debate,

body counts. there are people suffering. don't be politicizing the number who died. don't be doing that. don't be arguing and tweeting about it. it's unseemly for a president. help. just go try to help puerto rico a little bit more. just go try to help north carolina a little bit more. i have rarely seen the president try to be above it. >> but how can that be? how can a person who is president not have that as a natural reaction? if you are either born with empathy or develop it through experience, you learn about other people's lives and you care about them. >> he has many reactions that are not the normal presidential reaction. >> i think that will be the final word. and one a riddle we have yet to solve. we want to let you know that tickets are available for our second annual "meet the press" film festival with afi. it takes place october 8th here in washington. tickets available nbcnews.com/mtpfilm. that's all we have for today. thank you for watching. we'll be back next week because

if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ahoy! gotcha! nooooo... noooooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent. bounty, the quicker picker upper.

we distributeus, i'm the owner environmentally-friendly packaging for restaurants. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. that's right, $36,000. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. my unlimited 2% cash back is more than just a perk, it's our healthcare. can i say it? what's in your wallet?

at first slice pizza lovers everywhere meet o, that's good! frozen pizza one third of our classic crust is made with cauliflower but that's not stopping anyone o, that's good! but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. like concert tickets or a new snowboard. matt: whoo! whoo! jen: but that all changed when we bought a house. matt: voilà! jen: matt started turning into his dad. matt: mm. that's some good mulch. ♪ i'm awake. but it was pretty nifty when jen showed me how easy it was

to protect our home and auto with progressive. [ wrapper crinkling ] get this butterscotch out of here. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. there's quite a bit of work, 'cause this was all -- this was all stapled. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. ♪ welcome to "kasie dc." i'm kasie hunt. we're live every sunday from washington from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. tonight, the woman behind the accusations about brett kavanaugh comes forward. the reporter who broke the story joins me live on set. and i have new reporting on whether it could derail his confirmation. plus, after fighting tooth and nail, paul manafort strikes a deal. joined by senator angus king whose committee is still investigating russia's interference in our elections.