headquarters here in new york. rnls new developments in the case of jamal khashoggi. they've provided nbc news of pass port photoses of the 15-person team thaw say travelled to istanbul to kill khashoggi. it began just a day after a federal judge threw out her defamation suit against the president. and president trump is also lashing out at his former fixer, cohen. he accuses cohen of lying under oath and claims he was a pr person who did small legal work. ♪

good morning. it's wednesday, october 17th. we begin with the latest in the disappearance of washington post columnist, jamal khashoggi who walked into the saudi arabia's consulate in turkey. and has not been seen since. that parts had been just repainted. they plan to search the home of the consulate attorney general. that person suddenly left in several vehicles. this shows the vehicles planning to the residence shortly after khashoggi entered the consulate. this as they provided nbc news with photos and bio pages of members belong thing to 15-person saudi hit team they believe is responsible. they identified one of the suspects, claiming he's been a

frequent companion of the crown prince seen with him in madrid and around the united states. and link three others to the crown prince's security it tail and others said to hold senior officials -- at least nine of the 15 worked for the saudi government. >> and the president of the united states appears to be defending the office side. president trump said he quote spoke to the crown prince. he said he and his father knew nothing about it. and that was very important. i spoke to the king yesterday, the crown prince today wanting to know what was going on and he said very strongly he knew nothing about it. and his comments about rogue kill canners came up and the president said well, the concept of it i guess.

yesterday when i spoke to the father but not so much today but when i spoke to the father it felt like he tid not do it, he tid not know about it and it seemed like the concept of rogue killers. that was just a feeling from my converseation with the king. and trump said quote i thunk we have to find out what happens first. here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent. i don't like that. we just went through that with justice kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way. so i wasn't uncancerned. but they're strong in their denial about knowing. mike pompeo met with the person at the center of the operation who's toads lure him from his home to saudi arabia.

>> did they tell you that mr. khashoggi is alive or dead? >> i don't want to talk about any of the facts. they don't either. they want the opportunity to umpleat this investigation in a thorough way. >> a new oped we questioning th response. they compared sec are tar of state, mike pompeo to the cleaning crews that arrived at the consulate after cushowikhas was apparent lakill canned. he seemed less intent on itterming the truth. the saudis are said to be preparing a cover story that will attribute his murder to the excess of a a team dispatched to

intear fwat him. mr. trump signalled he is more than ready to assist in that daunl. dodge. what should not be acceptable is a diplomatic clean up for a ruler and country it has indulged. until the full truth is disclosed, u.s. businesses should shun the saudi regime and congress should block all military sales. and the president tweeted yesterday "for the record i have no financial interest in saudi arabia or russia for that matter. any suggestion i have, is more fake news of which can there is plenty." the washington post reported there are leaders there as far back as the 90. 1991 when trump was nearly $900 million in debt from failed casino oprojects.

he sold his yacht to the saudi prince for $20 million. the paper says a few years later the prince bought a stake in trump's plaza hotel by agreeing to pay off properties. and trump sold the entire 45th floor to the kingtime of saudi arabia. and took in over 270,$000 of payments from the king cantime. >> joining us is white house correspondent for the daily mail. we've seen a lot of reaction to president trump's response. what has the reaction been in the white house? >> reporter: it's very clear from the president's remarks he doesn't want to jump the gun and blame saudi arabia because of

the relationship united states whaz saudi arabia. the conference that secretary of treasury is going to in saudi arabia, that he hasn't pulled out of, the white house has said is about terror financing. at the same time the united states has an important arms deal that could be worth up to 110 billion. president trump has made it clear that even if saudi arabia is found to be behind the disappearance and suspected murder, that you would want to look at other wraurias. >> to you think there will be a shift here with the new reports? ed the president be changing his tactics and heading to point where he may want to look into finding blame with saudi arabia and changing tactics when it comes to some kind of penalty.

>> reporter: it's very strab strained with turkey. it is still a a strained relationship. so that's likely a factor here as well. i thunk the president gave us an important key into his thinking when he said that when he spoke to king solomon, that's what made him feel very strongly had he had nothing to do with with it and that's what made him up with with the wrd of rogue killers but he said not as much when he spoke to the crown prince. so some of this may be the united states secretary of state and president getting a feel for what could have happened. but pointing to the fact that the king gave him that impression, the son, the crown prince has said to be the defacto ruler right now of saudi arabia. so there's a question as to what the king may have known about this at the time at this point. >> what's your sense of the time

table for all of this now? i read a lot of frustration about how long this has lasted so far. mike pompeo is on his way to turkey. what's the white house saying about their time table for this investigation unfolding? >> reporter: the president says he'd like to see this take up to a week. he says in his conversations with saudi arabia that he fwets the sense that's possible and mike pompeo saying, however, they need have a thorough and complete investigation and refusing to comment on what he called "the facts" until that's finished. and residents from florida to virginia return home to deal with the devastation left by hurricane michael. overall at least 29 deaths across four states have been blamed on the hurricane. that's based on official kountsz. search and rescue crews have

been working for 12 hours a day in hard-hit towns like mexico beach. they say the death toll in florida could climb as high as 19. president trump threw out a crash insult one day after a federal judge after judge tossed out the case. and trump tweeted in part quote great, now i can go after horseface and her third rate lawyer in the great state of texas. she knows nothing about me a total con. "she was paid to keep quiet about her alleged affair with trump. referringing to him as tiny. during an interview, trump didn't back down from calling daniels horseface. when asked if it was okay to

insult a woman's appearance, he said take it any way you want. >> the law y i just beat him in a big case. >> are you going to have her pay the legal efoos? she does? >> i don't know if she has any money but he and she have to pay me a lot of legal fees. based on texas, i love texas, based on texas law where fees are nice and plentiful. . >> the horse it is face comment is a long standing pattern of trump attacking women for their looks. >> you said i don't think so. >> she was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem. >> reporte >> you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. >> quote look at that face. would anyone vote for that? can you imagine that, the face

of that next president? >> i think women all over america heard very leclearly wh mr. trump said. and stormy daniels interview twice as many viewers as trump did. the president's interview reached 11.7 million viewers. we're digging into new reporting overnight. robert mueller may show key aspects. mitch mcconnell says republicans are not to blame for the ballooning federal deficit.

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unstopand it's strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. ...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. welcome back. a report from bloomberg site officials say that special counsel robert mueller is toads release key aspects after the

november elections as he is under mounting pressure to shut down his investigation. he said i won't respond but you're right we are looking at certain questions having to do with the word "collusion." of course there was no collusion. and he discussed in an interview with fox business. >> we haven't heard a tremendous amount about the mueller investigation -- >> first all of there's no collusion. do you think i'd call russia. i need help in idaho, iowa. oh, let's call russia. it's a conjob, just like so many other con jobs you've been seeing. >> they're eyeing a provision that dates back to the 1920s that could can give them access to president trump's tax returns with with the possibility of eventually making them public.

get any tax filer in the treasury department. they could use this information to fine taletermine if he had any entanglements. they're still preparing an onslaught of investigations and vow to move forward pending november's election results. if you're trying to blame republicans for the deficit, look else water. he explained it's disappointing but it's not republican problem, it's a partisan problem. the federal deficit ballooned by 17% to 779 bill wrn input's first full fiscal year in office. they were shy to attribute it to

the tax cut but the orperate tax cuts fell by nearly 1/3. according to mcconnell the only option is cutting medicate, soels soe social security, a move that's too risky without bipartisan support. ever heard the saying don't cross a road if it's washed out or over it. well, this bus driver in texas tried to cross a flooded river wre yesterday and there was one student on the bus and yes, the bus driver is being charged with endangerment of a child. texas appears to be a problem area. a lot of rivers are well above their banks and some were in mainlier to record flood stage. rurltsz not turengzal-type rain but there's already been a lot of damage ton.

one river was going up. once it gets so high they don't have a choice, so this river at one point was going up seven feet in one hour. pretty incredible rainfall rates in texas. year going to continue with it today. we have flash flood watches from san rio, back through dallas and fort worth. it looks like the rain stays in the forast at least through friday. this is just through thursday. so it's not like epic-type rain but the ground is super saturated. all of it goes into the run off and of course with the river so high, it's more added problems and 54 degrees and rainy is not a fun forecast anyway, let alone with all the flooding. still record heat in tampa. beautiful day in areas of the northeast but the cold air is coming. next half hour i will give you

the first snow forecast for the mountains of the northeast. >> bill, thank you very much. and still ahead october because ball in full swing as the playoffs continued in both leagues. and don't look now but the nba is finally back as the champs took the hardwood. took d surviving for five years is a big deal. i had so many people at ctca helping me find a way to go through the treatments. the reality of cancer is not everybody survives. at ctca, they have a huge celebrate life event. that was amazing, because the whole day was about all of the survivors. i'm excited about my future. visit cancercenter.com to schedule an appointment now. as one of the nation's largest investors in infrastructure, we don't just help power the american dream, we're part of it. this is our era. this is america's energy era.

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bradley jr. a high flying ball to right. reddick is at the wall can only watch. a grand slam. jacky bradley jr. a knockout punch here in the eighth. >> there weren't many red sox fans at that game but they did find the one that was smiley and happy because that was the eighth inning grand slam that closed the door in the it it alcs last night. taking an early lead with two runs in the top of the third, they allowed them to briefly tie in the fifth before he made it a one-run lead with a home run in the sixth. and a meltdown after loading the bases. moreland guvs up a run. and the next batter was the jacky bradley jr. grand slam

that gives the red sox a one-game series lead. game four is tonight in houston. to los angeles and this was a late, late game, just ended three hours ago. this is game four between the brewers and the dodgers. the home team takes advantage of a brief start of gonzales who gives up a run off the rbiing issal. with one out in the second after rolling his ankle. the brewers even things up with a rbi double there. the score remains tied at one into extra innings. the bottom of the 13th. cody bollinger grounds one to right. the throw to the plate not in time. just beating that tag and the dodgers tie the searsies at two games as piece. game five tonight in l.a.

nba basketball, it's back. regular season tip off but not before the golden state warriors get their bling and the championship trophy. this is their third in the last four years. now to their opening game match up against the oklahoma city thunder. the warriors showed why they're tfding champs. it was a quiet win. russell westbrook didn't play for the thunder and they lost. just one of many, men ey wins on the season for them. but how about this? this is supposed to be a big marquee match up. while the red sox were in their game, we saw the celtics against the philadelphia sixers and it was a pretty close game the first half but the celtics pulled away with a 105-87

victory. we're just wetting the appetite. >> early days yet. and still ahead president trump suggesting yesterday that rogue killers may be responsible for khashoggi disappearance. and it was debate night in texas. orork borrowed a line from president trump to attack ted cruz. president trump to attack ted cruz ife. it's time to get out of line with upmc. at upmc, living-donor transplants put you first. so you don't die waiting. upmc does more living-donor liver transplants than any other center in the nation. find out more and get out of line today.

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good to have you back with us. it is the bottom of the hour so let's get started. law makers on capitol rr hill are muling in the disappearance and alleged murder of jamal khashoggi. they tell nbc news there is strong bipartisan support for punishing the saudis with the u act. there's still hesitation to take more drastic measures that could overturn the entire u.s./saudi relationship. and mitch mcconnell stressed more details are needed. >> you do think there will be some type of response if these allegations are true? >> i can't imagine there won't be but i think we need find out what happened. >> i've been their biggest

defender. this guy is a wrecking ball and he was kill canned in a consulate. i was on the floor every time defending saudi arabia because there's a good ally. there's a difference between a country and an individual. he can never be a world leader on the world stage. we're going to sanction the hell out of saudi arabia. we deal with bad people all the time but this is direct lain our face. why would you put us in this spot after all the president has done. this guy has got to ge. there are a lot of good people you choose but he's tainted his country and himself. >> president trump continues to site $110 billion in arms sales to saudi arabia and claims hundreds of thousands of american jobs are on the line.

>> they made the largest order outside of our count ary for weapons, for any kinds of military weapon. missile systems, ships. they're buying. from us. $110 billion they're purchasing. it's 500,000 jobs, american jobs. everything's made here. >> the president's claim of $110 billion is far fetched. there appear to be few, if any, signed contracts. many of the announcements were only memorandums of inteent buy weapons. the review on the defense website reveals that besides a $15 billion deal for an antiballistic missile system, there have been eight announcements totaling just $4 billion.

tu.s. senate race in texas continue toosz favor the republican. senator ted cruz a majority of 52% verses are representative beto o'rourke. they met for their second debate where o'rourke revised the nickname from the 2016 primaries. >> this is what you expectover the course of this debate. he's not go tuing to be honest h you. he's going to makeup votes i have never taken. it's why the president called h 'lyin' ted' because it's true. 69,049 voters cast on early voting. some voters waiting as many as two hours toast the midterm

ballot, which includes the closely watched race. that's a sharp increase from the last election when 20,898 showed up. 129,458 georgians have voted. fund raising reports were released. in the 45 most competitive u.s. house races, 71% of the democrats outraised their republican opponents. all told in those races democrats brought in $154 million while republicans raised 108 million. president trump says he believes republicans will do well. "look, it feels very much like '16."

i said why am i going to lose?" i'm not sure that's right and i'm not running. there are many people who will say i'll never vote in the midterms because you're not running and i don't think you like congress. well, i do like congress. " he says he expects to get the credit if they win, echoing comments he made in nevada last month. >> i want to give a victory speech. i want to give a victory speech on the evening of election day, which is coming up very quickly. we're not going to let people undo the inrcredible job that we've done. cohen has reported with investigators. during his wide ranging interview, the president argued cohen was lying under oath when he testified earlier this year

that trump had directed him to commit a crime. a "michael cohen was a pr person who did small legal work, very small legal work. it's a very low level and what he was was also a public relations person. if he wants to get a lighter sentence for what he did, totally uninvolved." so francesca all these words from the president targeting michael cohen. what does that say about possible anxieties with the mueller probe? >> reporter: the president is le clearly distancing himself saying he did small deals for me, he was just a pr guy and his problems are his own. what he got in trouble for legally had nothing to do with me and the things he says had to do with me are things he's lying about.

the fact the president says he's a pr guy and did smaller deals, that's not entirely inconsistent with the claims that he was the president's fixer and it's not consistent with the fact that the president ran a company the deals were relatively small comparatively. but the president trying to make sure anything that happens to michael cohen does not blow back on him in the special counsel investigation. >> i want to get a read from you particul particularly when it comes to the house. if republicans don't retain control, don't blame him. . >> reporter: the president has been out campaigning quite aggressively in the midterms. go thing to states, senate races. so he really doesn't feel like it will be his fault if those

candidates don't end up making it across the finish line he's been supporting and at the same time the president has been participating in fund raisers aggressively in almost every state with round tables with supporters and he believes the things he's out on the campaign trail have actually been helpful. the president has said he believes his comments about christine blasey ford who accused now justice kavanaugh of sexual assault, help under jz republicans and the attacks on kavanaugh helped energize republicans as well. just ahead, a new name to replace outgoing ambassador, nikki haley. president trump says there's nothing to worry about. why his assessment matters more than research led by established scientists.

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welcome back. u.n. ambassador nikki haley announced her stepping down last week. nauert currently serves as the state department spokesperson. they also report she a capable advocate for the administration pfsz foreign policy and also a potential leading candidate to replace sarah huckabee sanders when she leaves the white house. white house officials stress the process for selecting hailey's replacement is in its early stages and a lot is likely to change before president trump makes his selection. after last week's report warning that pollution is

speeding up the effects of climate change. trump responded no, no, some say that and some say differently. you have scientists on both sides of it. my uncle, dr. john trump and i didn't talk to him about this particular subject but i have a natural instinct for science and i will say you have scientists on both sides of the picture. >> bill. if you haven't broken out the winter gear yet, in the ohio valley of the great locks, you need to do it today. because the cold air is coming. the big story is still the flooding ongoing through the yaur wru. the other travel weather concern, not men ea. we have some rain and thunderstorms possibly in new orleans. the cold air is coming down

through the great lakes and as the cold air comes down, it's windy along with it. so tomorrow morning is the wake-up call. wind chill in areas of new england. buffalo 26. detroit 23. even new york city will have a wind chill of 21 and into friday it stays pretty chilly in the 30s in many areas and this morning you get the cold air over the lakes and we're going to get lake h-fect snow. this is the first snow map in areas of the northeast. some of the hill areas beand higher peeks in new hampshire could get a coating of snow. that's one of those stories that's staying with us, the cold. the eastern half of the country staying very chilly. about 13 degrees below average. and how about texas?

so far in dallas we've had the wettest fall on record. that's how wet it's been in areas of texas and austin is 27 degrees below normal. not only is it pouring rain, it's one of the coldest falls we've had in texas. this upcoming weekend looks very chilly in the northeast. bottom line if you haven't gotten the winter gear out. >> the gloves and the hats. >> wind chill in the 20s, they're not going to fight you on that. frrjts u.s. markets snap their losing streak. >> president trump offers up fresh criticism of his own chairman.

welcome back. in an unexpected move the white house formally note fewed congress that they're going to begin trade negotiations with with the japan, uk and eu. it's imposed metal tariffs and vowed auto tariffs as well. walk us through what happened yesterday in terms of the markets. >> yesterday was a positive day for markets.

quite a change of pace from what we saw last week. all three embassies ended higher and a lot of this is fuelled by optimism on the top of corporate earnings. netflix smashed expectations, in particular on subscriber growth. in after hours, netflix was trading up about 15%. investment banks were quite strong. beating expectations else water. so quite a positive day there. easing some concern on the back of last week's global sell off. in market-related news and perhaps slightly less positive, president trump is back on the -- back on criticizing the federal reserve. yesterday he was reiterating his critique of chairman jerome powell saying he is raising rates too quickly and remember

that the federal reserve is an independent body and while it's not illegal for the president to comment on their action, it is really breaking protocol for president trump to be commenting on his action. >> not whole lot precedent here. he did pick the guy to be fed chair. ways to lose stubborn belly fat.

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proud to call our own. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com appointments available now. joining us now from washington is editor and chief for axios, nick, what is the one big thing for this morning? >> this morning's one big thing is the great white fight. as american as grown increasingly diverse, the

political debate is increasingly being driven by two groups of voters on both ends of the spectrum. more educated and more white as a whole. this is a new poll of 8,000. these two groups, both on the right, both on the left. these are less than 10% each of the entire electorate. they're more engaged, more wealthy, they're more educated, they're more engaged on social media and have an oversized influence and sort of pushing the political debate along, but from opposite polls. they almost have inverse views of politics. >> let's play a little bit of goldilocks in this. not the extreme right, not the extreme left, where does the middle fall in all this? >> in the middle is about 67% of americans which the study calls exhausted americans. i think that's that big silent majority that a lot of potential

third-party candidate cans look for, looking at sort of presidential runs maybe by mike bloomberg. but i think the catch there as the study shows is that that big middle isn't nearly as motivated as the edge. we'll see this in the mid the term election from the left and the right. democrats and republicans are trying to get the far extreme toes their parties to the polls because they're the most likely to vote. >> i know axioss is looking into what a lot of people are talking about and that is more meddling in this election. the appearance of that being just as damaging as it actually happening. >> a new wrinkle in this is it's very difficult to meddle in elections as far as changing votes, but it can be far more easy to create that look. we're talking about a potential threat where someone attempts to change votes, attempts to hack into electric tore systems and even if they fail can create a social media misinformation campaign saying they succeeded. the big goal is to sow

disinformation calling the election results into question. they can do that fakely with fake information without having actually changed the result. >> and there's a line when it comes to hacking, the hoaxes, and you put that against eroding voter trust and maybe it's a combination of both in some cases. >> i think that's exactly right. it's very much about swing discord and trust 37 it's will sowing misinformation where the voters don't believe the result one way or the other. coming up, we saw president trump down in florida and georgia, as as well. where is the going to be the most important factor here as you you look at the midterms? >> this is a big sleeper issue.

during hurricane maria, many puerto ricans came to florida. both parties are looking at them as a massive untapped voter group, getting these people motivated and having a huge impact on the polls. those are very important races in florida. look for this to impact connecticut, massachusetts and new york where they're seeing many of these people who left puerto rico settled. they could certainly tip the electorate. >> and when it comes to the midterms, if you're voting for this guy, you're voting for me, but if i lose, not on me. >> that's the real question about midterms. donald trump tries to make it about him. donald trump tried to make it about donald trump, as well. republicans who support the president are certainly drawn to the polls. but midterms are always an

outlier. the president is not on the ballot. that's why turnout is often lower and they're harder to predict. >> nicholas, thank you very much. we'll be reading axios a.m. in just a little while. for all our viewers, sign up for the newsletter at axon.signup.com. "morning joe" starts right now. >> do you trust him? >> i do trust him, yeah. that doesn't mean i can't be proven wrong. >> why would you trust him? >> first of all, if i didn't trust him, i wouldn't say that to you. but the fact is, i do trust him. we'll see what happens. >> it will be a thorough complete investigation. they made a commitment they would show the entire world the results of their investigation. >> president trump trusts north korea to throw away its nuclear weapons and secretary of state mike pompeo trusts saudi arabia to investigate itself in the apparent murder of a washington

post columnist. good morning. it is wednesday, october 17th. along with willie and me, we have sam sign, willie geist, kasie hunt up early this morning. columnist and associate editor for "the washington post" david ignatius is with us and white house reporter for the associated press jonathan lamere. he interviewed the president yesterday and we'll get to that just ahead. there's so much going on, willie. >> there is so much going on and we hope joe gets better. but i am glad there's one degree less of red sox gloating this morning. it's going to be bad as it is. >> we'll talk about that later or never. there are a number of developments this morning.