michael continues to batter the southeast with heavy rain and winds. let's go to jay gray live for us in panama city beach, florida. what are the conditions like where you are? >> reporter: we do have a bit of a gusting wind, but you often find that along the beach here. no rain to speak of. we're also seeing some of the devastation this dual threat left behind. we had the water and flooding. that's still an issue. and then these winds. snapped this roadside sign and

threw it into what is a beach side business here. you can see it wasn't done there. really this storm shredding what was a beach side business here, nothing much left of what was inside at the time or outside. this thing has been destroyed. and these kind of scenes i'm afraid are going to pop up as the sun comes up across this area. i think we're in for a lot more as the day goes on and the cleanup begins in earnest here. winds at 155 miles an hour, just

two miles an hour under a category 5. the strongest winds felt since andrew in 1992. >> this quickly escalated to hurricane. the fact that it is still fast-moving some say it is a silver lining. but did that also catch people by surprise? were people able to get prepared for this hurricane? what did you see on the ground there in terms of preparations and now the aftermath. >> i think you make a terrific point. it was a tropical storm on saturday and almost a category 5 yesterday. it caught a lot of people off guard. didn't have the runup to these storms like we normally see. most of the people here in panama city beach did evacuate

and get to higher ground. some who rode this thing out were in newer structures and felt like they were safe. they're beginning to understand it's going to be a while before they have the normal necessities back, the power, the water in some areas. it's going to be a tough go. >> did you see the shredded power lines? that video is incredible. >> michelle, so we were talking about this from the ground perspective there with jay gray. >> the story isn't over. we were talking about evacuations. some callers yesterday phoned in saying they don't have the means to get a hotel room, they don't have the means to get out of their house. there's a low income area in areas along the coast there, small fishing towns that couldn't leave. mexico beach was the hardest

hit. probably still on a curfew now. a lot of people coming home to destruction as they arrive back to their homes that may not even be there. it has been over land for not quite a day, but we're still looking at tropical storm winds. 30 miles west of augusta, georgia. this was the latest update as of 5:00 a.m. we are still seeing that fast forward motion. that's good news. we drive our cars sometimes 20-25 miles an hour, so you can image that speed. that is good news when it comes to the rainfall, not so much the winds. by 2:00, 45 miles an hour winds. that's still tropical force winds. this is still going on over the next 24 hours. we're going to continue to watch

this. we also do have a tornado watch. there's so many thunderstorms embedded that we could see some tornados spur off. we don't expect the supercells but still we could see some localized flooding and more damage to structures. flash flood watch affecting 64 million people. check with your local forecast, put preparations in place to protect anything that you need to. we have a system here. we have a front back to the west. we had high pressure. this is going to push it toward the coast. then it's going to get wrapped up in this front and raise off to the north and east. we're going to see enhanced rainfall with this cold front over the next couple days. as hurricane michael charged

inland from the gulf coast and officials huddled for the storm's response, trump chose to meet with donors in pennsylvania followed by a partisan campaign rally. the fund-raiser was expected to net about $250,000 to benefit the trump campaign. trump criticized president obama for a campaign event held a week after hurricane sandy hit the east coast. yet the president repeatedly claimed it would be unfair to cancel his event. >> do you think it's appropriate to go on a campaign trip tonight, sir? >> well, i hear they have thousands of people lined up. i don't want to disappoint people. some people were saying they got there last night. what are you going to do, tell

thousands of people that have been waiting there all night that we're not coming? that's not fair either. i can't tell thousands of people who have been waiting, some got there literally last night to get into an arena. we have thousands of people lined up. we wanted to make this stop. it would be very unfair. you have thousands of people that started coming last night. >> you heard the president there say repeatedly thousands of people coming last night. however at 11:00 a.m. yesterday our news crew did not see a line at the arena and a reporter on the ground could not find anyone who waited overnight. the president tweeted this photo, writing, couldn't let these great people down. they have been lined up since last night. in fact the photo was taken by a tweet from jim acosta that he posted at 2:00 in the afternoon.

>> late last night the mayor of san juan tweeted while puerto ricans suffered, trump played golf. floridians suffer and he has a ra rally. he doesn't get it. it's about saving lives. >> i want to send our thoughts and prayers of our entire nation to everyone in the path of hurricane michael, especially in the florida panhandle. it's a big one. one of the biggest we've ever seen. i'll be traveling to florida very very shortly. we just want to wish them all the best. god speed. god bless you all. well, if you look at it, when you think of it, there was collusion between hillary, the

democrats and russia. there was collusion. there's no question. there was a lot of collusion with them and russia. this is an education presentation, but under the rules of me too i'm not allowed to use the expression anymore. can't do it. he says do it anyway. i could do it except for these people up there. they would say did you hear what president trump said. did you hear what we said. so there is an expression, but we'll change the expression. pennsylvania was always the person that got away. >> wow. still ahead we're going to be tracking the remnants of hurricane michael all morning. plus, we're following the latest in the disappearance of a "washington post" columnist and what president trump is now saying about it. cancer.

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there's a couple of things to the storm. we have the before, we have the now and then we have the after, the recovery. right now heavy rain falling in parts of georgia, augusta and also in parts of south carolina. georgia, you have the rain heavy overnight and gusty winds. that is starting to move north and east at 21 miles an hour. this pink line is a tornado watch. in terms of the rainfall totals we're looking anywhere from 3-6 inches, up to eight inches in some spots. certainly could see some localized flooding. we still have some very saturated ground.

we could see rivers rising once again. and they just started their recovery process. so heavy rain and also flash flood watches in effect. we have 64 million, that include georgia up to south carolina, north carolina, virginia into the mid atlantic and also southern new england. that's what we're going to watch throughout the day. tropical alerts throughout the day. 39 miles an hour in some spots, even up to 48 miles an hour. that's going to bring down trees, enhance the power outage. we'll talk more about that when we come back. >> let's bring in matt bradley live in tallahassee. what are the conditions there you're seeing? >> reporter: this is typical of what you're seeing here in tallahassee.

trees here are kind of their thing. it's a city that's covered by 50% tree cover. so that's kind of their pride and joy. but at a time like a hurricane, it's a major liability. that's why we're seeing throughout the city downed trees like this one. if there hadn't been a lot of evacuations, if these sensible people of tallahassee hadn't left, this might have fallen on some poor man or woman's car here. this is a parking lot. really a lot of people here, the main risk of these downed trees was actually falling on power lines and causing power outages. this morning we're hearing that about 80 people here in the state capital are still without power. really tallahassee is counting its blessings this morning, saying that the worst was left behind and they have managed to escape it. >> you've made this point that

tallahassee has so many treats. is this a scene that you see repeated there in tallahassee, lots of downed trees with power line issues? or did they really dodge a bullet, comparatively speaking? >> reporter: we were driving around the city this morning. we've seen scenes similar to this one. but really considering the magnitude of this storm, this was a historic hurricane. the city of tallahassee released its first ever extreme wind warning yesterday. consider the magnitude, this kind of damage is quite rare here. people are saying they really did dodge a bullet. as hurricane michael slammed the florida panhandle, both republicans and democrats broke with the once considered taboo tradition of running negative

campaign ads during a hurricane. florida's republican party aired two as bashing andrew gillim. >> gillyou've got a whole regio our state where folks are fleeing for their lives, anticipating what is a life threatening event impacting this state. i again would encourage my opponent to just subside with the politics. >> desantis's campaign referred all questions about that ad to the state's republican party, which later said it would pull those ads down. super pacs for both bell nelson and rick scott ran negative ads during the hurricane. however, the campaigns have no control over the pac's ads.

still ahead, there are 26 days until the midterm elections. we're going to break down some new polling for you. we have serious problems. we're tumbling end over end up here. what are the chances your not coming back? five seconds to mandatory abort. that's one small step for man, [ alarms blaring ] one giant leap for mankind. first man. rated pg-13. ahoy! gotcha!

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since. the saudi crown prince personally ordered an operation to lure khashoggi from his home in virginia back to saudi arabia and then captured him. that's according to officials familiar with that plan. khashoggi was a vocal critic of the crown prince. the "washington post" advances reporting from the "new york times" stating that senior turkish officials have concluded that an assassination came on, quote, orders from the highest levels of the saudi court. saudi arabia has denied the claims and said khashoggi left the consulate. >> then a turkish newspaper with close ties to president erdogan's government has published a list of what they

say are the name of a 15-member saudi team responsible for killing and dismembering khashoggi's body. yesterday a bipartisan group of 22 senators sent a letter to the president informing him that they had triggered a provision in the magnitsky act requiring the government to impose sanctions on anybody found responsible for khashoggi's disappearance. national security advisor john bolton and secretary of state mike pompeo both spoke with the crown prince yesterday, who trump hosted at the white house earlier this year, as did jared kushner, who has developed a very close relationship with mbs. the situation has threatened to plunge the rosy relations to some new lows. >> it's a very sad situation. it's a very bad situation. we want to get to the bottom of it. >> do you think he's dead? >> i don't want to say that.

i hope he's not. i have to find out who did it. people saw him go in, but they didn't see him come out, as they understand it. we're going to take a very serious look at its. it's a terrible thing. this is a bad situation. we cannot let this happen to reporters to anybody. we're going to get to the bottom of it. >> we're demanding everything. that's a bad situation. frankly, the fact that it's a reporter, you could say in many respects it brings it to a level -- it's a very serious situation for us and for this white house. we do not like seeing -- >> i think it's got to be a little bit extraordinary for you in all this because you interviewed him several times for your show. >> he was well known to a lot of

journalists who cover that region. it's interesting when people are characterizing him as a dissident or a vocal critic of the saudi crown prince. when he was on our show, he actually defended and supported some of the policies of saudi arabia, for example in the war in yemen and some of the reforms the saudi crown prince had in the kingdom. he certainly did not hold back. so just 26 days until election day and it's time for a look at the latest polls in the battle for the senate. the "new york times" poll shows republican senator dean heller with a slight edge over jack y

rosen. over in arizona a big swing toward the republicans as martha mcsally leads kyrsten sinema. also in minnesota in the special election for al franken's seat, tina smith has a 16-point lead. amy klobuchar is leading her republican opponent with 30 points. democratic senator tammy baldwin is holding strong, up by ten points in her bid for a second term. republican governor scott walker in wisconsin has the barest of leads, though, as he seeks a third term, leading democratic

tony evers. that gap also narrowing. still ahead, much more on the destruction left in the wake of hurricane michael. >> we're going to go live to the carolinas where the now tropical storm is bringing heavy rain and winds.

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welcome back, everyone. residents along florida's panhandle a waking up this morning and beginning to pick up the pieces after hurricane michael made landfall yesterday. that storm has weakened into a tropical storm. it is making its way through

georgia and into south carolina after coming through florida as an unprecedented and catastrophic category 4 hurricane. governor rick scott has deployed search and rescue teams to some of the hardest hit areas. panama city saw some of the most extensive damage. at the height of the storm, more than 380,000 homes and businesses were without power. >> let's get a quick checkup on the storm's path with michelle grossman. >> once the sun rises and people get out there -- the latest advisory still a tropical storm with winds at 50 miles an ho g moving quickly up the coast. still could see some localized flooding and drenching rains,

but not what we saw with florence. let's track it with you as we go throughout time here. 45 miles per hour winds stilt ke -- still keeps it at a tropical storm status. we we're looking at rain and tropical storm warnings. now we're moving into south carolina and also north carolina. we could see some pretty gusty wind here. that could bring down some trees and also power lines and we could see additional power outages with that. let's go straight to kerry sanders live in panama city, florida. we saw your coverage yesterday. saw that image of you being blown around by the powerful wind. what are the conditions like there this morning? talk to us a little bit about that experience in terms of covering it yesterday. we made the point about how

quickly this storm grew and how quickly it moved. did that give enough folks on the ground time to prepare or get out? >> preparation really was flat footed. people thought that a category two was coming and they didn't do what they normally would do with a category four or five. this really tells the story here. we're at a marina here. this is called legendary marinm. you can see the damage created by the storm. >> oh my goodness. >> reporter: it's amazing. when you look at the rotation of the hurricane winds, this is actually coming off of the intracoastal waterway as opposed to coming in from shore. they did get a little bit of an early assessment because the storm passed through along the

coast here before the sunset. but since then in the darkness, it's been very hard to really get a handle on what this community has really been hit with. they do know there are some schools that lost rooftops. there's one hospital where windows broke out and they had to move the patients to another portion of the hospital. roads are extremely difficult to get through. that's important because there are folks waking up this morning who are watching what we're reporting and want to know can i go home. you cannot return immediately even if your home survived and everything looks like it's good, because those power lines are down, roads are blocked. it's very very easy to get yourself into trouble. something as simple as a flat tire stranded out here. nobody need you with a flat tire gumming up the works when they

have the power crews coming in. they've got more than 5,000 linemen that are going to be out trying to restore power in the affected areas. that takes time. you have to remove downed trees, reset poles, get the lines up. if you are somewhere else because you did evacuate, you probably want to take a day or so before you really assess coming back. just on panama city beach, people stayed put. they're waking up without power. there are no reports from the fire department that there were any serious injuries during the storm, but they did say their phones were ringing off the hook with people calling asking for help. we gave you a mandatory evacuation. you can't call us in the middle of the storm and say help. >> you were almost blown away. glad you're standing up right and safe and sound this morning. >> reporter: thank you.

let's turn now to kristin dahlgren joining us from hilton head, south carolina. krist kristin, the storm is making its way to where you are in south carolina. looks like the winds are picking up. >> reporter: i mean, it's nothing like what kerry saw yesterday, but michael really still going to be a dangerous, dangerous storm as we go through today. we've got these tropical storm force winds gusting higher than that. that's going to cause some tree limbs to go down, potentially some trees to go down. that could knock out more power lines and cause more power outages right now. hundreds of thousands of people still without power. crews are trying to get in to do those fixes, but they need to wait until the dwienwinds die do

they can get up into those bucket trucks and do that. we have the threat of tornados this morning through georgia and parts of the carolinas. those potentially could be very dangerous. then we've got to talk about flooding. it's dry where i am here, but some places through the carolinas expecting up to another eight inches of rain today. these are places that hurricane florence just went through a few weeks ago. so that ground is saturated. this is not over by a long shot. >> we were talking to kerry sanders just a minute ago and he was talking about how the preparations because of how quickly this escalated caught people off guard there. what are the preparations like in hilton head island and south carolina in terms of evacuations or resources being deployed in anticipation of downed power lines and what have you. >> reporter: well, they do have power crews standing by

throughout the southeast. they've staged those crews ahead of time. the power company had time to get those crews in place. many of them came in from other states. they are here and ready to do in as soon as it's needed. they're hoping to get power restored as quickly as possible. but in areas like where kerry is where there's widespread power outages, that could really take weeks. >> stay safe there. still ahead, the very latest on the morning's other headlines including the first arrest in connection to that deadly limo accident in new york. why bother mastering something?

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>> made landfall as a category 4 storm. could have been a category 5 storm. that's going to be determined in the next couple of days. the official landfall wind speed was 155 and 157 makes it a category 5. yes, that was the first category 4 landfall on record for the florida panhandle and the strongest u.s. landfall storm since andrew in 1992. so many names you remember, andrew, katrina. this is going to be one name to remember as well. we're looking at heavy rain now in parts of south carolina. augusta is kind of on the southern edge of that. we could see some localized flooding. we also have this pink line that is a tornado watch until 7:00 a.m. rainfall forecast through friday, we are looking at

anywhere from 3-6 inches. isolated amounts up to 8 inches. now we do have some very saturated soil in the carolinas. that could bring down some more trees. that flash flood extends from parts of georgia into the carolinas, virginia, the mid atlantic, parts of new england. we have 64 million people at risk for some flash flooding as we go throughout the day. let's look at the timing here. we have a cold front back to the west. this is a steering mechanism. it's like a push toward the east. it's going to get wrapped up in this front and skirt off toward the northeast. there's been a major development in that horrific crash nin upstate new york that left 20 people dead.

tom costello has more. >> reporter: days after that horrific crash, state police arrested the man who they say runs the limo company, 28-year-old hussein. >> the sole responsibility for that motor vehicle being on the road on saturday rests with hussein. >> reporter: hussein they said received written notices that the driver did not have the proper licensing. his lawyer says the state bears responsibility for an unsafe intersection. >> this road was a known problem to the state of new york. >> reporter: the limo company is owned by hussein's father in pakistan. meanwhile, the families of the 20 people who died are now preparing for funerals. >> he was my baby. he was my heart. he was everything to me. and now he's gone.

>> that's hard. >> heartbreaking story there. let's switch gears and talk about politics. peter smith struck up a professional relationship with michael flynn as early as 2015. the "wall street journal" is reporting that smith told associated that he was using the retired general's connections to help him obtain clinton's e-mails. smith met with flynn in 2015, this according to people familiar with the matter. now flynn had recently left his job as head of defense intelligence agency and was trying to set up his own consulting firm while smith was looking at investment opportunities in cyber security. in 2017 smith implied that he had connections to flynn. but people familiar with the matter indicated the two men were in contact and did have a

working relationship. no deal came out of that though. on many occasions the president has openly criticized his attorney general jeff sessions saying he wishes he had made a different selection and sometimes going so far as to say he has no attorney general. now the "washington post" talked with sessions' chief of staff matthew whittaker about having him replace sessions as attorney general. it's not clear how in depth that discussion went or how serious the president was about it all. but it comes as mitch mcconnell tells the a.p. that a potential replacement for sessions is not going to come from the gop caucus and it is the president's decision as to who serves as attorney general. still ahead, global markets are seeing massive losses this morning following yesterday's big selloff on wall street.

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welcome back. we are now going to turn to business and the market's 831-point plunge yesterday. it was the nasdaq's largest one-day drop in over two years. dow futures estimate the losses are going to continue when the stocks reopen later on this morning. but the effects of yesterday's slide are already being felt

overseaed. what's the latest? >> it has indeed been a brutal 24 hours for markets. on the back of the weak u.s., asian markets felt the pain, as well, with the main equity index in china tumbling more than 5%. now here in europe this morning, we're seeing the negative effects of this change in sentiment. the european equity index, the stoxx 600 is down nearly 2% hitting near two-year lows. n president trump yesterday weighed in on the market moves, criticizing the federal reserve which has raised interest rates three times this year. in terms of what is driving these market moves, it's a combination of things. one, concerns around inflation, what this means for interest rates in the u.s. in turn, the effect the higher rates will have on businesses, trade tensions, of course, between the u.s. and china.

the key question now, how long will it last? is this the start of a long-term correction or is it just a blip? we may get some insight today. focus will be turned there. back to you. >> okay. juliana, thank you so much for that. coming up, axios has a look at this morning's one big thing. and the latest on tropical storm michael as it makes its way further inland leaving a path of destruction in its wake. plus, new details on the disappearance of washington post columnist jamaal choggi and the role saudi arabia's crown prince may have played. plus, jeb bush, bill nelson and stacey abrahams all join the conversation. "morning joe" just moments away. sometimes, the pressures of today's world can make it tough

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d.c. with a look at ax axios a.m. is alexa. >> today's one big thing is the election tonight in the state of pennsylvania, we will be looking to see whether or not democrats can take back the house. we are watching this state because it is crucial, democrats say, to their taking back the house. there are four previously republican districts that many say could flip to democrats on november 6th. >> could you be specific? >> the one everyone has likely heard of is pennsylvania's 17th district which now thanks to the state's new congressional maps is a race between two incumbents, keith rothiss and conor lamb who won the special

election earlier this year. that one is interesting because, you know, keith is a pretty vulnerable republican, but the national party has pulled its advertising in favor of him from that district and many are saying conor lamb looks like the person to win that race. one more that i will mention is opinion pen's fifth district which, again, thanks to the new maps in the state has become 26 points more favorable toward democrats than the national average. >> wow. >> yeah. >> let's switch gears for a moment because i want to talk to you about the big shake-up within the trump world replacing nikki haley at the united nations. obviously, very unexpected. another race is on to figure out who is going to replace her. he says he has a short list of around five candidates. who are you hearing may be the front-runner and do any of them actually want the position? how do you also audition for this president, so to speak? >> auditioning i think is a great word to use for this. but you're right. there are, we are told, five people in the run to go replace

nikki haley. there's been no public movement on this yesterday, at least. but we are told dina powell is still the front-runner for this consideration, for this position. and, you know, a source close to trump told us when thinking about how to audition for this position, that the worst possible position you could be in is to be considered a maybe trump pick. the source said if you are considered a maybe and there's ambiguity around your position, you're waiting to get your head chopped off. you want to be someone who the president is all in about nominating and we're hearing dina powell is a front-runner in those regards. >> was there ever any serious consideration given to ivanka? she had to put out that tweet saying i'm not going to fit this description. by yo by your description, it sounds like she would be a good choice.

>> the president clearly thinks very highly of her, but he's keenly aware of the criticism he would get and the scrutiny for the nep temple which he mentioned himself. i think while he might think she's more than qualified, he knows he would potentially open himself up to questions about her role with the trump organization in the past. >> so switching gears one more time because i have to squeeze this one in, axios is reporting that democrats after the 2016 election, they're going to embrace big data ahead of the upcoming midterms. we know big data was critical in trump's win back in 2016. tell us more about their plans. >> yeah. like you mentioned, democrats feel like they blew the election in total, but especially with data. there's a new group that recruits and trains democrats across the country. they are giving the ability to

use the national voters database. it matters because it makes these first time candidates easier to find, these the persuadable crucial voters that could flip things for democrats on election night in a way they didn't have in 2016. >> what are you keeping your eye on today? what's the big thing you're watching >> so another thing i'm watching related to democrats is republicans are becoming openly increasingly worried about how much money democrats are raising. they are watching how bernie sanders are harnessing these smaller doe fashions and republicans are saying they are worried that puts democrats in play in a way they haven't seen before. >> thank you so much for that. i looked to see if i've gotten my nis letter yet. not quite soon. you can always sign up for the newsletter at signup.ax yios.co.

good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's thursday, october 11th. with us, we have rick tyler. we also have donnie deutsch with us today along with former trernry official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve ratner, heidi prisbella and mika has the morning off. we have a lot of developing stories to get to this morning. the dow experienced its worst loss in eight months yesterday plunging 831 points. we're going to tell you who the president says is to blame. i wonder if it's a 400 pound guy in his mom's basement. >> jersey. > . plus, new reporting on jamaal khashoggi. also, we're