that is our broadcast for this thursday night. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. ♪ destruction along the florida panhandle, search and rescue crews are trying to gain access to area es hit hardest. plus, new developments in the disappearance of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. and dena powell says no thanks. the trump official has removed her name from consideration to be the next u.n. ambassador following nikki haley's resignation. ♪

good morning, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin. we begin with the death toll from hurricane michael, which continues to rise as search and rescue teams comb through debris looking for survivors. six deaths are being blamed on the storm and officials are warning that number could rise. mexico city beach where the storm made landfall on wednesday has been left totally devastated. look at those images on your screen shot with a drone. wau once a tourist destination, that small beach front town is now littered with debris after 155 miles an hour wind gusts tore up homes and businesses there. >> i have nothing left except the clothes i'm in and my two dogs and that's it. my house right over here is gone. i don't know what to do. >> everything is just so devastated. i've lived here a long time and i've never seen it quite this

bad. >> electrical crews are coming in from several states to try and restore power. governor rick scott said the damage left from hurricane michael is still yet to be fully understood. to the latest in the disappearance of jamal khashoggi who walked into the saudi arabian consulate in turkey october 2nd and has not been seen since. the turkish government says it has audio and video recordings that prove khashoggi was interrogated, tortured and dismembered. khashoggi was a prominent critic of the crown prince known as mbs. the "washington post" reported that the operation to lure khashoggi from his home in virginia was personally ordered

by the crown prince. saudi arabia claims khashoggi left the consulate soon after entering and denies a role in his disappearance. >> saudi arabia's role is beginning to have a major economic effect. richard bran sson announced he suspending talks with saudi arabia. he says if reports about the disappearance are proven true, it would clearly change the ability of any of us in the west to do business with the saudi government. media outlets and reporters have all pulled out of a government sponsored business conference in riyadh that was scheduled two weeks from now. even the crown prince himself was expected to speak at that event. >> the harbor group has dropped the saudi government as a client and others are considering

following suit. the wwwe says it is, quote, monitoring the situation. linda mcmahon currently served as a high ranking official in the trump administration. and in the wake of the suspected murder of jamal khashoggi -- >> the words of a president reverberate around the world like no other world leaders. another audience for presidential utterances is the despot, the strong man, the authoritarian, the dictator. and from this president, that horrible focus group has received a great deal of sustenance. in fact, the oppressors of the world have taken to parodying some of their favorite lines from the white house.

anything critical of their regimes has become fake news. the press is the enemy of the people, just to name two of our president's greatest hits. and now with the apparent brutal murder of journalist jamal khashoggi, some of the real enemies of the people and enemies of freedom seem to have taken license to eliminate a man that their regime viewed as a threat. the free press is the guardian of democracy and the enemy of tyrants. and the man or woman who speaks from behind the presidential seal need to remind the country and the world of this truism again and again as long as the world will listen. >> dena powell has withdrawn her name from consideration as next ambassador to the united nations. powell, who served as deputy national security advisor during

the first year of trump's administration, was on president trump's short list to replace nikki haley, who announced her resignation earlier this week. powell informed the president of her decision to withdraw her name during a phone call yesterday. meanwhile, the decision came hours after trump took a swipe at gary cohen who worked with powell at goldman sachs. cohen resigned from the white house after clashing with the president over trade policy. >> looks like rob porter and gary cohen were the sources for that book. >> i was very good to both of them. it could have been. a lot of people have said that. you know, gary cohen -- i could tell stories about him like you wouldn't believe. >> the election countdown continues with just 25 days to

go. last night the "new york times" poll completed its survey of texas finding senator ted cruz ahead with 51% to congressman beto o'rourke's 45%. a brand new poll of tennessee senate race gives marsha blackburn a 14-point lead. tough numbers for wisconsin's governor scott walker. democrat tony evers leads the two-term republican among likely voters. it is worth noting that the nbc poll was conducted before a just released marquette poll which shows 47-46%. >> house republicans have narrowed their sights in hopes of keeping an even one seat

majority. a the report says a memo from the republican super pac congressional leadership fund circulated this week stating there are 20 races within four points that will determine the house majority and clf will keep working to win them. but the math is daunting since republicans hold between 60 and 70 competitive districts and democrats only need to flip 23 to win control. the times writes, republican groups have already withdrawn some or all funding from a few embattled incumbents, maybely where president trump isn't popul popular. they have abandoned more than half a dozen seats where republican lawmakers are not running for reelection on wednesd wednesday. joining us from washington, d.c., molly hooper.

let's start with the midterms, 25 days away, some of these races very close. it seems to be that republicans are hedging their bets in places where president trump is not so favorable, almost like they don't want to run on his coat tails. what's the strategy there? >> at this point in the race, it comes down to individual congressional districts and how the member of congress is actually running their race. again, i've talked to several sources with the gop campaign arm who are familiar with what's going on. they're saying it depends on the member's energy, how hard they've worked. in addition to which you have to look at the polls and see how poll that member is. really it comes down to how the district feels about the member and if the member can over come difficult odds to win those seats. texas 23 district along the

border, will heard is pulling ahead of his opponent. it's sort of opposite of what you'd think, but they're pulling their ad buys because he's doing better than expected. >> i want to move onto the disappearance of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. is that the main reason the president is shying away from denouncing saudi arabia's part in this unlike some of the gop senators we've heard from? >> it does seem unusual given that so many senate republicans have been outspoken on this, republicans and democrats have actually been united on this issue, saying severe consequences will happen to saudi arabia if in fact they are proven to be behind the

disappearance of this journalist. the past week it seems like the senate has sort of been decompressing in the aftermath of the brett kavanagh hearings, but this issue in particular has receiv revved up people in addition to key senators like pat leahy, a democrat from vermont, and lindsey graham, who are the top senate appropriators on the commit responsible for state department budgets. they sent a letter to the president on wednesday with the backing of about 20 other members basically triggering an administration investigation into what happened to the journalist. basically the administration has 120 days to come up with findings, after which sanctions could be imposed on saudi officials responsible for complicit in the disappearance.

still ahead, it couwas a sed straight day of losses for the stock market. plus is it 2016? president trump criticizes his former rifle hillary clinton arguing she should be where? in jail. we saved hundreds on our car insurance when we switched to geico. this is how it made me feel.

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the federal reserve is getting a little bit too cute. that's all. that's ridiculous what they're doing. but the democrats, they would knock it down. instead of being up 50%, you'd be down 50%. when i took over this economy, this economy was ready to crash. >> futures signal a rebound could be on the horizon when markets resume trading later this morning. china had a record trade surplus with the united states in september as the trade battle appear ns nowhere near a resoluti resolution. analysis from january through september, beijing's trade surplus with the u.s. was more

than $225 million compared with just over 196 billion for the same period last year. chinese data shows its economy has been unscathed by the trade battle so far. it's been almost two years since the 2016 election. hard for us to forget it. but this week presumptive nominee continue e -- president continued to criticize hillary clinton. he said fbi director james comey did her a favor, arguing she should be in jail. he also criticized her on the campaign trail just the night before. >> i did a great service for this country when i fired comey. he was a bad guy with bad intentions. you know, the democrats hated comey more than any human being. he actually did hillary clinton a big favor, because she should be in jail.

they should have taken her right off the campaign. so he did her a big favor. >> well, if you looked 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. >> so hillary didn't take that too quietly. in fact, she responded to trump saying on twitter, seriously, you asked russia to hack me on national television. >> it's no secret president trump is not happy with attorney general jeff sessions after all he recently publicly stated he has no attorney general. white house officials and advisors tell the "wall street journal" that trump is considering as many as five candidates to replace sessions based on the bheelief sessions will become the latest official to leave later this year. sessions anticipated he will be asked to resign most likely via

twitter. when asked for a comment, a justice department spokesperson said, this is actually the dumbest thing i've been asked to comment on in a while. it comes on the heels of a "washington post" report stating the president had talked with whittaker about having him replace sessions as attorney general. bill, you're tracking the remnants of hurricane michael and they're still trying to assess the damage that storm did. >> it went through north carolina. half a million people host power. they had nine inches of rain in the mountains with flash flooding that caused damage. overnight it rained seven inches in salisbury, maryland. finally the rain is over in

philadelphia. the rain is ending here in the next half hour in new york city. but we're still getting soaked for the morning commute. it won't be a fun drive of i-95 through southern connecticut. it will probably rain until about the middle of the day. rainfall additional totals mostly will be areas, again, cape cod maybe 1-3 inches. we're almost done with michael. you'll never hear that name again. it will be retired and there will be a new m storm. now, wune start talking about autumn. it's amazing how we go from talking about one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit our country to giving you a snowfall forecast in north texas. for today, chicago only 46. you're breaking out your jackets. temperatures dropping down to the 60s all the way through kentucky.

saturday, new york city only 58 degrees. how about what's going to happen in denver? 27 degrees on sunday. expecting about four inches of snow. it's going to look like a winter wonder land there in denver. in florida and georgia it's a beautiful day in the southeast. no problem what is soefsoever. there's nothing brewing in the tropics either. >> time to dust off the winter jackets. still ahead, the eagles certainly looked super against eli and company as big blue's woes continue to mount. sometimes, the pressures of today's world can make it tough

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the mlb playoffs resume tonight with the brewers and dodgers in game one of the nlcs. what could be the brewers 12th straight victory will mean free burgers at george web restaurants. i know a lot of people out there looking forward to those free burgers. >> i would. still ahead, what president trump has to say about the disappearance of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. some of the must-see moments from president trump's sitdown with the rapper kanye west at the white house yesterday. ♪ when the moon hits your eye ♪ ♪ like a big pizza pie, ♪ that's amore.

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president trump went onto praise relations with saudi arabia as excellent and suggested any consequences for disappearance of the u.s. based journalist would not be

economic. >> there are other ways of handling this situation. they're spending $10 billion purchasing equipment and other things. if we don't sell it to them, they'll say thank you very much we'll buy it from russia or china. there are other things we can do. let's find out what the problem is first, okay? i would not be in favor of stopping a country from spending $110 billion, which is an all time record. first i want to find out what happened and we're looking. again, this took place in turkey. to the best of our knowledge, khashoggi is not a united states citizen, is that right? >> he's a permanent resident. >> okay. we don't like it, john. we don't like it even a little bit. as to whether or not we should stop 110 billion dollar from being spent in this country

knowing they have four or five alternatives, two very good alternatives, that would not be acceptable to me. >> the "washington post" notes that the president's claim about saudi arabia making $10 billi1 n in arms purchases is false. most of the items from a summit in 2017 had been previously announced by the obama administration and there appears to be few, if any, signed contracts. a year and a half later they conclude that the $110 billion figure is not real and unlikely to come to fruition. and even if it did, it represents sales far in the future. >> president trump's ties to saudi arabia go well beyond the oval office with his business empire having connections there as far back as the '90s. trump and his companies have actually conducted various deals with the saudi government over the years. the post says that one example

includes in 1991 when trump was $900 million in debt from failed casino projects, he sold his yacht to saudi prince and billionaire for $20 million. the paper says that a few years later the prince also bought a stake in trump's plaza hotel by agreeing to pay off some of trump's debts on the property. the post goes on to say that bi businesses from saudi connected customers continue to be vital including lobbyists. just this year trump's hotels in new york and chicago reported significant upticks in bookings from saudi visitors. president trump bragged at a 2015 rally about his business with the country. >> saudi arabia -- and i get along great with all of them. they buy apartments from me. they spend 40 million, 50

million. am i supposed to dislike them? i like them very much. >> i had the opportunity to speak with jamal khashoggi a year ago. watch this. >> saudi arabia has reasons to turn down hezbollah and lebanon. but i think we are doing it the wrong way with policies that could fire back on us. >> that was the thing that made him very unique. you could hear that in one part he was actually justifying saudi arabia saying they do have a legitimate reason to go after hezbollah and rebels in yemen. but it was the way they were going about it that i guess the saudi government and saudi supporters did not like. he was always a person that was willing to speak truth to power. >> with the president there in the oval office where he has the hurricane to deal with and also the disappearance of khashoggi. but instead he hosted an array

of musicians, includie ining ra kanye west. in the morning the president signed the music modernization act to help reform u.s. copyright laws in the era of streaming music. he handed the mike over to mike love of the beach boys and also kid rock, who used the opportunity to heap praise on the president. >> thank you, president trump. thank you so much for your support of music. historically i remember you tried your best to help get whitney houston in some kind of shape. i remember being at mar-a-lago with this guy right here. he had ron pearlman came down. you tried your best to help whitney. >> there's a lot of people in this country that do give you a lot of credit for everything

you've been doing for this country. >> so love for president trump did not stop there as he welcomed rapper kanye west to the oval office later in the afternoon for what turned into what could only be described as a bizarre sitdown. west, who was at the white house for a meeting on prison reform, gang violence, prevention and other topics kind of went off track. he gave ten minutes of rambling remarks touching on his mental health, his business and his fondness for the president. watch this. >> i brought a gift with me right here. this right here is the iplane one. it's a hydrogen powered plane. i love hillary but the campaign didn't make me feel like a guy

that could play catch with his son. there was something about when i put this hat on, it made me feel like super man. that's my favorite superhero and you make a super man cape. trump is on his hero journey right now. he might not have expected to have a crazy [ bleep ] like kanye west run up and support. i was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. i was connected with a neuro psychologist that works with the athletes in the nba and the nfl. i'm going to drop some bombs. 98 percentile iq test. so he said that i actually wasn't bipolar. i had sleep deprivation which could cause dementia. >> keep in mind these are just snippets of the sitdown. >> it was jaw dropping if you

were watching that unfold in realtime. >> watching in awe especially as he drops the mf right there in the oval office. joining us back molly hooper. so we watched that sitdown and the exchange back and forth, mostly from kanye west. how is that meeting going over with some on capitol hill there, especially we see the hug here and knowing that kanye west is going on and on and on with the president right there? >> wow. that was so loaded. i wonder if there's a neuro psychologist who could come up and talk to members of the senate to see if sleep deprivation perhaps is influencing any of their decisions. he came across as unhinged. not saying it's a bad or a good thing, but members on capitol

hill, finally something took the attention off the craziness that's going on up in the senate. i don't know what else to add to that, but it definitely was a jaw dropper. >> let's switch gears away from kanye west for a moment and talk about something slightly more significant, president trump's personal business ties to saudi arabia. lot of potential conflict of interest there. as questions are growing about jamal khashoggi's disappearance, that's going to put president trump in a bind because he's been very clear about his allegiance for saudi spending billions of dollars not only on arms deals but inside trump properties themselves. where does that put the president when he has to look out for the interests of somebody who's a permanent resident of this country? >> well, there's a couple things. number one, if democrats take control of the house and/or the senate, expect this to be

something they investigate and look into. currently there's two lawsuits that have been filed against the trump organizations for access to records of foreign countries investing in spending a lot of money at the trump hotel in washington, d.c. one of those key leaders of the lawsuits is richard blumenthal, democrat, former attorney general in connecticut. president trump referred to him in several rallies. we want to know why you aren't coming down harder on the saudis. another aspect that involves republicans and democrats, there is a growing movement even though it's related directly to the disappearance of khashoggi, but there are republicans and democrats on the hill who are

very concerned with the u.s. fighting the saudis in the yemen civil war. the u.s. has been basically refuelling airplanes and what not for the saudis and it's causing massive civilian deaths. that's something that republicans and democrats are united in trying to stop. we may see a vote on blocking that help coming after the election. still ahead, u.s. stocks futures are pointing to big gains today following a second day of heavy selling on wall street. we'll get the latest on how much longer investors may be facing the volatility. bill karins will have another check on the weather. (vo) this is not a video game.

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sliding over interest rate fears and dragging global markets down with them. what more can you tell us about this? i guess the question is, is this the start of a bear market, or is this a simple market correction with the selloff over the past few days? >> as you say, it has been an absolute shocker of a week for markets. what we are seeing today and what we saw overnight is a bit of a relief rally taking shape. asian equities bounced back. now in europe we're seeing stocks rally as well. some of the sectors that are out performing today, banks, industrials and basic materials. u.s. futures suggest that the u.s. will also participate in this relief rally. but the sense on the ground is that there is still a lot of fragility around this market. i would not say we are out of the woods yet. in focus today are us banks, jp

m morgan, citi and wells fargo all reporting earnings today. the market will look for commentary around the outlook for interest rates, the macro environment, trade tensions between the u.s. and china, all of that stuff that's been driving markets over the last month is expected to take focus during these calls today. so that's the focus today. back to you, louis. let's switch gears and bring in bill karins with a quick check on your weekend forecast. >> we're just about done with michael. rain in new york city is finally ending. we got hit hard in north carolina and virginia. now the heavy rain is exiting new jersey. it's long island and southern new england that's going to be in the rain another three to four hours. then it will finally be gone. we go from hot and humid on the east coast to almost late fall like. it's 44 this morning in detroit. you're grabbing your coat.

we're looking at 60 still on the i-95 corridor. the temperatures will actually be dropping. chicago, only 45 for a high today. soak this up, denver, at 61. that's as warm as you're going to be for a long time. a little bit of rain in texas and oklahoma. that's going to be a theme as we go through the weekend. here's your saturday forecast. unfortunately not a complete washout but much of the area is going to be rain and thunderstorms, oklahoma and north texas. here comes some frigid cold air and snow through wyoming. look what happens as we get into sunday. denver, 27 degrees and snow. right now 3-5 inches of snow expected in denver. a rainy day on sunday once again in north texas and the rain spreads into kentucky and tennessee. big changes. this time of year in october, it was so warm and so humid, a lot of people on the east coast are going to go from the

air-conditioners and then the heat will be on tonight. >> i think that's happening in our apartments. >> what a pivot from warm weather to cold. thanks, bill. still ahead, new details on why hundreds of immigrant army inli enlistee have found themselves suddenly discharged. how the mueller probe factors into the president's claim about congressman devin nunes. the sun comes up, the sun goes down. you run those miles, squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom and floss to set a good example. you fine tune the proposal, change the water jug so no one else has to, get home for dinner and feed the cat. you did a million things for your family today but speaking to pnc to help handle all your investments was a very important million and one. pnc. make today the day.

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welcome back. in the span of a year more than 500 immigrant army enlistees were discharged over unclear reasons for their wide spanning language or medical skills in exchange for a fast track to citizenship. in 2016, that program was put on hold amid concerns that the immigrant recruits were not being screened sufficiently. service members under the program were booted out between july 2017 and july 2018. the explanation for expelling two-thirds of the recruits was listed as refused to enlist. specific incidents included subpar performance, pregnancy and other members. many of those discharged service

members have since sued. the army stopped the program last month and have reinstated many of them. according to the president, nunes should get a medal of freedom for pushback on russia probe. watch this. >> people like devin nunes, he should get -- if this all turns out like everyone thinks it will, devin nunes should get the medal of honor. what he's gone through and his bravery, he should get a very important medal. maybe we'll call it the medal of freedom because we give them for high awards for civilians. >> last year, nunes recused himself from an investigation by a gop committee looking into conclusions of the russian government and the trump

administration. still to come, with axios has a look at this morning's one big thing. and coming up on "morning joe," new allegations regarding jamaal khashoggi. new reports suggest there is audio and video of his detention and eventual murder. >> and president trump's relationship and business ties with saudi leaders comes into question. "morning joe" moments away. gotcha! ah! nooooo... noooooo... nooooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. bounty, the quicker picker upper. on a budget? try bounty essentials. because when you want to create an entirely new feeling,

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welcome back, everyone. joining us now from washington, d.c., jonathan swan. tell us what is the one big thing axios is tracking? >> you might recall when anthony scaramucci had his brief run with the white house, he had the idea for a daily show from the white house lawn and it was going to be a television show documenting the trump presidency. we haven't quite got the formal

show, but trump has done really what he wanted to do initially, which is fully merge the presidency with television. we are now seeing a new, much more free wheeling phase where, you know, you saw it with him inviting new york magazine's elizabeth nuzzi in for this interesting conversation over lunch with the vice president and others in attendance and yesterday was another round with the cameras in there. this is a much sort of bigger impulse from trump and i expect we're going to see a lot more. he's just booked, apparently, an interview, done an interview with 60 minutes which he had never done before. >> and in between, we've been seeing him calling into fox news, as well. so talk to me about this. is it something that's impulsive trump, he's just feeling it that he wants to go and talk here and there and everywhere or is there more strategy here when it comes to him getting his message out there? >> no one in the -- like early last year, people would try and

attribute.grand chess strategies to these things. they're not even trying any more. they're just like, yeah, it's just trump. i don't think you could, even if you wanted to, even if you were the ultimate spinner, try to pretend that there's a grand strategy to trump in the residence early in the morning picking up the phone and dialing into fox and friends for 46 minutes. i don't think that there is a way that you can put a strategic framework around this. it's just what he wants to do. and, frankly, you know, it's what he did when he was running for president. it's what he did to get elected president. and i think we're going to see a lot more of it. >> so let me ask you, switching gears away from trump and to another aspect of the white house, if you will, i know that you have new reporting on the search for who might replace nikki haley at the united nations and we also now know that there is at least one name who is in consideration. who is out and who is in, do you think? >> so dina powell who was the favorite has withdrawn herself from consideration.

she's decided to stay at goldman sachs. she was telling people that close to her on wednesday. but, look, there are new names being looked at. one of them being talked about is kay bailey hutchison, the current nato ambassador. but i wouldn't put too much stock in any of these names coming out. earlier this week, trump was telling people at the white house that he liked dina powell for the job. i haven't heard anyone with that level of confidence that it's even worth reporting. >> so a lot of balls in the air when it comes to that, with jonathan, you have him coming up with names and a short list for the replacement of nikki haley. you also have the disappearance of khashoggi as well as the response to hurricane michael. yet we saw the president there, in the oval office, with kanye west and this really surreal exchange that went on. is this something -- and you mentioned it earlier. is this something we're going to see that he has a couple of stops with rallies in the next

few days. >> kanye campaigning with trump? dare you say it. >> what are we going to see? >> i don't rule it out. the question i think reporters need to ask is what are we being distracted from when all of this is going on, when kid rock is at the white house? you mentioned saudi arabia. i'm watching that very closely. jared kushner could not have made a bigger bet on mbs, the crown prince, and propping him up as the visionary reformer. if, indeed, they have murdered this u.s.-based saudi journalist who writes for "the washington post," that is not a run-of-the-mill hiccup. that is something that jared and the president are going to have to confront and it seems that they think they can brazen through it. >> really quickly, what with are you tracking? what are you watching next week? >> at the moment, i'm focused on

the legal situation. i think there's a lot of balls in the air and the white house still haven't figured out how they're going to deal with the blizzard of subpoenas and investigations that awaits them. >> something to think about. we'll see you again in just a little bit on "morning joe" and we'll be reading axios a.m. in just a little while. sign up for the newsletter if you are interested, as well. >> that does it for us on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> america is a sovereign nation. and our first private is always the safety and security of our citizens. to the best of our knowledge, khashoggi is not a united states citizen. we are not here to lecture. it is not our country. it's turkey. and it's not a citizen, as i understand it. we are not here to tell other people how to live.