good evening. i'm chris jansing at msnbc headquarters in new york. continuing our breaking news coverage of hurricane dorian. millions of people taking precautions tonight as the storm remains just off the coast of southeastern florida with maximum sustained winds

exceeding 150 miles per hour. the category 4 hurricane is extremely dangerous. mandatory evacuations have been ordered across multiple counties in the state. and while florida may avoid a direct hit, residents there are preparing for whatever dorian may bring. from florida the storm is expected to creep north along the coast of georgia, south carolina and north carolina. meanwhile, dorian has been pummeling the northern bahamas where the storm has hovered at a virtual standstill for the last 20 hours. heavy winds and storm surges have battered the islands causing massive flooding, and tonight the prime minister announced that five people have lost their lives so far in this storm. but first, authorities in california are holding a briefing on that deadly boat fire this morning in the waters near santa cruz island off santa barbara. four bodies have been recovered. dozens more unaccounted for. let's listen in. >> all of our speakers' statements, that would be helpful. we will give you an opportunity to ask those questions as well

as have an opportunity to interview individuals one-on-one if you need to after. please see me for those requests, and i'll try to coordinate that for you. and, again, we appreciate you being here, and i'd like to introduce santa barbara county sheriff, bill brown. >> thank you. thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the press for being here today. before i begin my remarks, i just would like to acknowledge our local elected officials who have come to show their support today. we are joined by congressman carbahal. senator jackson. assembly member monique lamone and two of our county supervisors, supervisor greg hart and from the third district, supervisor joan hartman. so i'm going to give a quick overview of the incident and what occurred early today. i'm going to then hand it off to

coast guard captain who is going to talk about the rescue effort that went under way this morning. that will be followed by some remarks from our fire chief to talk about the santa barbara and ventura county fire response to the incident. our santa barbara county district attorney will have some comments for you, as well assistant chief ryan smith from the office of emergency services, and then suzanne grimacy will talk about what we're doing for victims' families. the incident today began at approximately 3:30 a.m. the coast guard sector in los angeles received a mayday call that was from a fully engulfed 75-foot commercial diving vessel that was off the coast of santa cruz island. crews from the u.s. coast guard,

the ventura county fire department and the vessel assist organization responded. the coast guard launched aircraft as well as boats and located a vessel that was fully involved in flames in the platts harbor hair yeah on the north side of santa cruz island. the crews were actively fighting the fire when the vessel began to sink at approximately 7:20 a.m. this morning. 39 souls were on board that vessel when it left santa barbara. five victims were subsequently rescu rescued and -- during the initial response and have been transported to ventura -- were transported to ventura harbor. this particular dive trip that the boat was on was on a three-day trip that began august the 31st. it was scheduled to end tomorrow

morning. it was advised as a labor day weekend north channel islands dive trip. the boat was scheduled to depart santa barbara harbor at 4:00 a.m. on saturday, the 31st, and return on monday the 2nd, as i say, in the morning. the dive company chartered the boat and the crew from truth aquatics, a santa barbara harbor-based operation that has been in existence since 1974. so far the -- in santa barbara i am the coroner as well as the sheriff, so our coroner's bureau has been involved in this event because four victims have been recovered thus far as deceased. they have been transported to our coroner's bureau. we can only identify them at this point as two adult males and two adult females. rescue and recovery efforts on

the scene have located an additional four victims on the ocean floor in close proximity to the vessel and we have dive teams that are in the water as we speak that are working to attempt recovery of their remains, but the boat remains unstable and i'm not sure when we're going to be able to recover those bodies as well as any more that may be within the vessel. the coroner's bureau is responsible for identifying the victims, for notifying the next of kin and for determining the cause and manner of death. we have asked for assistance due to the sizeable nature of this incident and have received support from the los angeles county coroner's office and from the sacramento county coroner's office as well. the four victims that we have recovered as of now will need to

be identified through dna, and that may take some time. the condition of the remains that are recovered subsequently will determine the speed at which we are able to identify any of the victims. our hearts go out to the families of the victims of this terrible tragedy. we understand the tremendous burden that they are under right now as they wait to determine exactly what happened and what condition and situation their loved ones are in. we will be working diligently to try to get them as much information as possible, as soon as possible. we've also set up a family assistance center which is designed to provide specialized assistance to family members of victims of this tragedy. i am going to now turn this over

to captain monica rochester of the united states coast guard, los angeles sector, and she will give you a briefing on the rescue effort that was undertaken this morning. my name is sheriff bill brown. common spelling. >> thank you. >> so that was an update on the latest on the recovery efforts for that deadly boat fire in california. again, the latest information, and this is new information that we have gotten, 39 total people had been variously reported as 36 to 38. 39 people on board. five were rescued. we believe those were members of the crew. the rest of the people who were sleeping below and were not able to escape, five -- four of those have been -- their bodies have been recovered. two men, two women, which would leave 29 people still missing. dive teams in the water in that

horrific accident. we've got our other big story today that we're following. the devastating storm currently pummeling the bahamas. nbc news correspondent gabe gutierrez is in jensen beach, florida for us. gabe, what's happening where you are? >> reporter: hi there, chris. well, right behind me you can see the choppy surf that we've been seeing here throughout the day. and every few minutes, every hour or so we get one of these rain bands, the outer edges of hurricane dorian that are just starting to hit the southeastern coast of the u.s., but, chris, as we've been reporting, this storm is moving so slowly across the bahamas that there are still so many unanswered questions about when it will make that northerly turn and scrape florida's east coast. now, mandatory evacuation orders are under way for much -- many of the low-lying communities along the florida coast as well as georgia and the carolinas.

more than a million people across those states under mandatory evacuation orders. we expect new ones tomorrow as well. florida's governor today said that several nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been evacuated and that there are 85 emergency shelters open throughout the state for folks that want to get out. now, there is still some time to leave, of course, with this slow-moving storm. we spoke with an evacuatee earlier today, an older woman and her husband decided to take no chances. she lived nearby and didn't want to take any potential chances with the potential storm surge or the potential flooding, but we are understanding that tomorrow orlando's international airport will be shut down. ft. lauderdale and west palm beach airports are already closed today. more than 1,000 flight cancellations into and out of u.s., including hundreds here in the state of florida.

so the florida is waiting for this storm as it barrels across the bahamas. of course, earlier this afternoon the bahamian prime minister confirmed that at least five people have been killed in the bahamas has at category 5 storm rolled through. now it's a category 4 and we're waiting to see what the impacts will be here on the florida coast, chris. >> thank you, gabe gutierrez, in cocoa beach, florida for us. now we turn to msnbc meteorologist bill karins who has the latest on the path of the hurricane. this has been so frustrating for literally millions of people who have had to make decisions about preparation, about whether or not to evacuate. >> labor day plans cancelled. >> and of course the staging with all the people there, the rescuers. >> the power crews are staged, too, from other states. this is impacting people all over the eastern half of the united states. we're at 145-mile-per-hour winds. that's come down from 185. this still makes it a very powerful category 4 storm. it's stationary. just sitting there. this is a six-hour radar loop.

i can put my finger right there when it started and there is the end of the six-hour loop. i mean, what the people in freeport and on grand bahama island have been through in the last 24 hours is what no one really in -- i can't think of anyone else on the planet that's been through anything like this. a category 5 hurricane stalling right over the top the of you. so there is hopes tonight. they don't have power. they're going to be in the dark, but hopefully the winds will begin to come down a little bit as we take storm, we drift it off the grand bahama island -- over the next 48 hours, it's going to be about 100 miles off the coast of florida. we still have the cone of uncertainty, but we've eliminated a lot of florida from the cone. that means we don't expect any direct landfall. we do not expect the eye of hurricane to move onshore anywhere in florida. so that's great. as it begins to slowly weaken, we have a couple of close calls. the cone, at least 60% of it is

offshore. areas up through south carolina and north carolina including the outer banks. the outer banks of north carolina stickut like a sore thumb on the east coast. it's far out there in atlantic. ea even though it's taken that northeast turn, they could still get clipped. that would still have an impact in that area. with those said, i've kind of done a graphic here just to kind of show you what do i expect to happen? if i did this impact graphic for the bahamas, it would have been historic storm surge, historic flooding from rain, wind gusts, historic. florida, the only one i have even in the moderate category is storm surge. it could be 4 to 7 feet from anywhere from about the indian river area northward, especially up there towards volusia county, duval county, new brunswick, new jersey. i have wind gusts and also inland flooding in the minor category. with the storm being offshore, i don't think that's going to be a huge concern in areas of east

coastal florida. let's talk about georgia's impact, 20this is just for the coastal area. same thing for you. the biggest concern is right along the backwater ways and along the coast, the possibility of that 4 to 7-foot storm surge. up into south carolina, you do notice the potential here the storm surge at least moderate. we'll have to see how bad. it depends on the track further to the north. with the more rainfall we get, the more prone areas of flooding in north carolina and south carolina. that's about three days away. this is the area of concern, chris. the storm surge of 4 to 7 feet all the way up here to coastal south carolina, back down here towards stewart and palm bay. by the way, if it people remember with matthew three years ago, the storm surge was 4 to 7 feet. we're expecting a similar event. some areas saw the highest water levels they've ever seen with that storm. so, again, that's the main concern. what we're going to see on the east coast of the united states is about a fraction of what they

dealt with in the bahamas. >> so, i've seen this graphic i don't know how many times over the years. i don't know when i've ever seen the movement stay stationary. >> 24 hours. >> it was pretty wild to see you pointing at the center of the storm. >> that was six hours. >> six hours? >> i set this one at 24 hours. that's where it is now. this is where it was 24 hours ago. >> so what's going to get it to it's a trough off the east coast. what that is is, you know, it rained a little bit in some areas of the east coast today. there were showers, thunderstorms. that kind of has weakened what was steering this towards florida. that's why it stalled out. and then it's going to begin to pick it up. it's going to begin to let poleward, northward. that's what storms want to do anyway. there is nothing to push it towards florida. that's why we know it's not going to head much further west than it is right now. >> bill karins, we will check back in with you.

thank you so much for that. let's go to katie beck in savannah, georgia, where the governor issued a mandatory evacuation order. katie, what's the latest in savannah? >> reporter: well, we're just starting to see some landfall here as well, chris, and people are heeding those evacuation orders. you can see behind me this area is deserted. we are in historic downtown savannah right along the river. this is a very popular tourist area. lots of bars. lots of restaurants. right now every hotel is closed. every shop is closed. there are sandbags in front of the doors. so obviously people know to take those orders seriously and get out ahead of this storm, not wait until it arrives. tomorrow morning traffic on 95 out of savannah will be counterflow, that means the traffic will be going away from here. they'll be telling people to continue to evacuate to try to avoid some of the traffic backups we've seen in the past. additionally the civic center here in savannah will be opening its doors to maybe those who wanted to evacuate but had nowhere to go. so quite a stark difference from

yesterday. there were sort of people taking their time, enjoying the rest of their labor day weekend. today in savannah, a very different feel as most of the hotels have shut their doors and told people to go ahead and head out of town. chris? >> cat ie beck, appreciate that update. up next, a live update from the national hurricane center. stay with us as our breaking coverage of hurricane dorian continues. inues. our 18-year-old was in an accident. when i called usaa, it was that voice asking me, "is your daughter ok?"

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welcome back to our breaking news coverage of hurricane dorian. central florida not projected to take a direct hit from the hurricane, but the impact will still be felt. let's turn to the mayor of melbourne, florida, just south of orlando. it's good to talk to you. are you breathing a sigh of relief or are you still sitting on pins and needles worrying about what exactly might happen? >> good evening. yes, i'm still sitting on pins and needles because we still are under a mandatory evacuation for the barrier island and low-lying flood-prone areas, which started this morning at 8:00. that has not lifted. our city manager and her staff are in the melbourne emergency operation center, and that started today at 12:00 noon. we do have emergency shelters are still open and uber is offering free rides to approved shelters up to $20.

orlando melbourne international airport is closed -- it was closed today at 12:00. so we are asking our residents to remain vigilant. >> when you say remain vigilant, what do you mean? do you believe that the people who you feel really needed to have evacuated have evacuated? are you confident at this point? >> i -- i'm not sure, but i hope they left for safety reasons. to either a safe home or a shelter. but i am not guaranteeing anything. >> mayor, thank you so much. >> yes. >> we wish all of you the best. much appreciated. now let's get the latest on dorian's path from the national hurricane center. deputy director ed rapoport joins us now. ed, what do you got for us? >> this evening we have the hurricane that remains almost stationary near the northwestern bahamas. really a devastating conditions occurring there. it has been that way for the

last 18 hours or so. in fact, if we take a look at the radar image that -- that was satellite, take a look at the radar. here is the center of the hurricane. grand bahama island with freeport located just outside the eye wall being hurricane wi begin to move in the next 12 hours or so. a little complicated in terms of the florida east coast, southeastern united states and the forecast takes the center parallel to the coast and just offshore, but close enough that there is still a significant risk for hurricane-force winds and a dangerous storm surge along the coast. >> yeah, ed, so let's make sure that we make it clear to the folks -- for example, i was just talking to the mayor from melbourne, you know, it's sort of a natural thing when you think this might be a devastating 5 hurricane and it starts to back off a little bit. people start to get a little bit

complacent. what would you say to them? >> right. and that is the concern we have here, too, because even though the center's forecasts remain offshore, a couple of things are important here. one is, we could be off a little bit and the center could get closer to the shore. right now it's forecast to be 50 miles offshore. hurricane-force winds extend to the west at 35 miles. if we're off even just a little bit, then the hurricane-force winds make it to the shoreline. but even if the center goes as forecast and passes that far offshore, we're still going to have a storm surge of on the order of 4 feet, a 4-foot inundation, that's enough to require storm watches from florida up to the carolinas. that's why we have the evacuation. remembering that storm surge is the most deadly hazard. we're worried about the 4 feet. if the center comes closer to the coast, which is possible as we've talked about, the inundation could be up to 7 feet. still great risk from the west

palm beach area northward. >> ed rapoport from the national hurricane center. thank you so much. i know you've got a long couple of days ahead of you after a long weekend. we appreciate it. stay with us. our breaking coverage of hurricane dorian will continue in just a moment. so ...how are you feeling? on a scale of one to five? one to five? it's more like five million. there's everything from happy to extremely happy. there's also angry. i'm really angry clive! actually, really angry. thank you. but what if your business could understand what your customers are feeling... and then do something about it. turn problems into opportunities. thanks drone. customers into fanatics change the whole experience. alright who wants to go again? i do! i do! i have a really good feeling about this. ♪ ♪ applebee's handcrafted burgers

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welcome back to our live coverage. hurricane dorian stalling out over the bahamas and inflicting historic damage to the northern islands. five people are confirmed dead. nbc news correspondent morgan chesky covers the devastation from nassau. >> the water continues to rise. >> reporter: tonight, the bahamas torn apart. dorian a slow-moving monster. >> that's a roof. >> reporter: swallowing homes, mangling cars and pushing an angry sea on to people's doorsteps. >> we're literally in the ocean. >> reporter: on grand bahama, david mackie gave a chilling play-by-play. his home on stilts, no match for the storm surge. on abaco island, prayers for a

family as dorian turned deadly. >> our son -- my grandson dead. that's so sad. >> reporter: the grandmother in tears after she said her grandson drowned seeking shelter. today conditions remain so bad the u.s. coast guard couldn't move in until late this afternoon. rescuing dozens but leaving many fearing the worst. >> what's your biggest fear right now as a dad? >> my biggest fear right now is my son's safety. >> reporter: robert monroe's son, part of the bahamian military stationed in abaco. his last message, the weather is picking up. since then silence. >> the storm came and then all communication was lost at this time. >> nothing? >> nothing. >> reporter: right now flooding is among the biggest concerns. with cars submerged at police headquarters on grand bahama after dorian dumps foot after foot of rain. >> the severe flooding. we fear for the lives of many there. >> reporter: tonight the bahamas' prime minister tell me that help is on the way but

stresses he's never seen such a powerful storm. >> it's just saddening. it's as if we're fighting a war with the enemy having all of the weapons at its disposal and we have absolutely nothing. we're hopeless. the only thing we have to us is god. so we can pray to god and ask god to bring us through. >> that was nbc's morgan chesky reporting from nassau. joining me by phone now is nico gibson in the pbahamas. he works for an air ambulance company that is waiting for the winds to die down so they can start their search and rescue operations. thank you so much for joining us. do you have any idea when you might be able to get up into the air. >> yeah, pleasure to be here. we're still sitting on the ground at georgetown. estimating it's probably going to be tomorrow morning before we can get into nassau to get everything set up. as you know, daylight is a big factor in this rush as well because there are not going to le any lights or anything at the runway to move any traffic by

air for nighttime. basically it's looking like tomorrow morning before we can at least get back to nassau. i'm sitting here with about 11 or 12 different airplanes, and like i said everybody on the private sector, we're all kind of doing what we can to get ready to head in tomorrow and do what we can do from that end. >> there's been and i'm sure you've seen some of this, particularly on social media, people posting things about the devastation. we hear that thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed. what are you expecting when you finally do get into the air? >> we're not expecting it to be good news at pull. good news at all. we experienced this with joaquin a couple of years ago. this one was even bigger and it's a lot slower so it's just kind of sitting there hammering on those northern islands. so we're expecting either the same or a little bit more since the last storm. and we're not really looking forward to that. we've been in contact with a

couple of people on the ground and i know everybody was saying that they're running low on water and food for babies and stuff like that. i think formula and everything is kind of needed right now, so we're just doing what we can from the private sector to see what we can do to get help in there. >> so from what you know, from experience, what does it tell you about what you're likely to be spending much of your day tomorrow doing? >> well, right now our focus is just assessing points of which we can get help to everybody in the those northern islands. we know that freeport's airport is under water. so i think as far as air traffic and what that's going to look like, i think we're going to be focused on sandy point, if that's, you know, operational, an option. i'm pretty sure that's going to be priority, is getting that runway clear. also i've been given reports that treasure key might be above water as well. so i think at this particular point, just assessments on, you

know, where we can focus air traffic and getting supplies is in. >> neko gibson, in the bahamas, to you and to all the others who work in that search and rescue, good luck to you tomorrow and we tell you be safe. we're thinking about you. appreciate all you do. >> thanks so much. and still ahead, the latest on that deadly mass shooting in odessa, texas. coming just as the state loosens its gun laws. stay with msnbc. we're back after this. we're reporters from the new york times. this melting pot of impacted species.

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there's new information coming in about the latest mass shooting in america. nbc news confirming that the gunman had been in a downward spiral, made rambling calls to police and the fbi and was fired from his job just hours before embarking on his shooting spree. he had a criminal record and so he shouldn't have had a gun. saturday's shooting in odessa, texas left seven people dead from 15 to 57 years old. 22 more injured. and it comes just four weeks after 22 people were killed in a massacre in el paso, texas, and just hours before new texas gun laws that loosen regulations were to go into effect there. at the white house yesterday, president trump insisted his administration is working with congress on a package of measures to address gun violence, but he brushed off calls for expanding background checks. >> this really hasn't changed anything. we're doing a package, and we'll see what it all -- how it comes

about. it's coming about right now, and a lot of people are talking about it. and that's irrespective of what happened yesterday in texas. i will say that for the most part, sadly, if you look at the last four or five, going back even five or six or seven years, for the most part, as strong as you make your background checks they would not have stopped any of it. >> well, several of the democratic presidential candidates tend to disagree. they're blasting lawmakers and the president for inaction. >> what we need is action. we have a failure of supposed leaders to act. >> the answers to this are pretty clear. we have too many guns. there are, you know, 330 million americans, 390 million guns in this country. let's act. let's act now or let's accept that this is our fate and our future and we will only see more of this. >> the president has no

intestinal fortitude to deal with this. he knows better. his instinct was to say, yeah, we're going to do something on background checks. what's he doing? come on. this is disgraceful. this is disgraceful what's happen. >> i'm joined now by matt bennett, executive vice president at third way, and shannon watts, founder of moms demand action for gun sense in america. i thank both of you for being here. i'm sorry every time that we have to talk because it means that there has been another mass shooting. you know, shannon, you and i spoke after el paso and dayton. the president talked then about getting background checks. now you heard him. he said it wouldn't have prevented anything. these are mental health issues. what do you say? >> well, first of all, he's wrong. we know that the background check law passed in 1994 has stopped over 3 1/2 million gun sales to prohibited purchasers including felons and domestic abusers. just since that was passed in 1994, imagine if we required background checksn unlicensed

sales. we don't really know what happened in this case yet, but the governor has implayed thied a gun, failed a background check but managed to get a gun anyway. these laws work with states like connecticut that have passed them, we see gun homicides and suicides go down. states like missouri that have undone strong gun laws, suicides and homicides by guns spike. so these laws work. it is not even up for debate. the question that is up for debate is whether donald trump will continue to be beholden to the nra because they gave him $30 million in his presidential campaign. >> that's the question, matt, what's going to happen? the odessa shooting brings the number of victims of mass killings by firearms to 53 in the u.s. just in august. there have been 38 mass killings by firearm in the united states this year. do you think that it is enough to increase pressure on congress in general and mitch mcconnell specifically and also obviously the president? >> probably not.

i think what is going to be required is we're going to have to replace a bunch of people that are currently in congress that have been standing in the way of action on guns since 1994. it has been 25 years since we've done anything at the federal level to meaningfully impact gun violence. and enough is enough. we have not only seen this epidemic of mass shootings that you just talked about, but 34 people died today in gun murders. 34 people more are going to die tomorrow. every single day in america 34 people on average are murdered with guns. that doesn't even account the suicides, which are vastly more, and the accidental shootings. we have a huge problem is shannon is exactly right. when we have sensible gun laws, that problem gets better. when we don't, it gets much worse. >> yeah, the problem, shannon, is -- matt is saying essentially what we heard from a number of the democratic presidential

candidates. we've got to go to the ballot box. if you care about this, if you care about making the country safer from gun violence, you have to go vote in 2020. the obviously problem is that there are more than 400 days between now and election day, let alone when they get sworn in. what do you say to the parents who are afraid that their little kids are going to go to school and they aren't going to be safe and they have to get them a backpack that's bulletproof? what do you say to people who now think the synagogue, the church, the walmart, the movie theater is not safe? >> they should be afraid, and they should turn that fear into action. over 100 americans are shot and killed in this country every single day. there is not an american parent who isn't afraid that their child will be next. and that has to turn into momentum. you have to use your voices and your votes and act on this issue. and i want to be clear that we're winning. we outspent and outmaneuvers the nra in the 2018 elections. we flipped the makeup of seven state legislatures and we are

going to do that again in 2020. this is not going to go away. if senator mcconnell thinks that he can slow-walk this issue and that our momentum will dissipate, he is wrong. there will be hell to pay at the ballot box, not just in 2020, but in 2019. because mothers in this country are mad. and when they are mad, we see things change, and i truly believe that that will happen in the upcoming elections. >> you know, matt, a lot of the projects -- a lot of the progress that has been made has been because of groups like shannon's. it's been on the state level. is progress even possible in a red state like texas where the gun culture is so strong? >> i think it is. and you're exactly right. we've seen unbelievable progress because of moms demand and because of every town and a whole bunch of other groups that have come along in the last 15 or so years that have not only change the politics of guns but have levelled the playing field in two important ways. one is they've brought a lot of money and resources to fight the

nra, but they've also brought the passion that shannon just talked about. when you have that kind of passion, it doesn't matter how deep red your state is if shannon notes, if moms are angry enough, things are going to change enough. i am reasonably optimistic that they will. but at the federal level what we've seen is in all of history we've only passed real gun laws three times. in 1968 and then in '93 and '94. all three times we had a democratic president and democratic house and senate. so my optimistic is that those angry moms will help us create that dynamic again and we'll get some progress at the federal level, too. >> shannon, this package that the president talked about and nobody knows what's in it, but do you have any optimistm at al that something might be done as a result of it? >> i'm always optimistic that lawmakers will act in the wake of horrific tragedy. whether it's because they've had a change of heart and mind or

for political expediency. time is of the essence. we have to save american lives. we know that senators are working together in a bipartisan way on a strong red flag, on comprehensive background check legislation. whether or not the senate majority leader will allow a vote on that is up for question, and i would encourage every american who is listening right now to text the word "checks" to 64433 and tell their senators that they need to act, and if they don't, you know, we won't have their backs anymore, we will have their job, and that's the member we have to send. >> shannon watts, matt bennett, thank you so much. appreciate you coming out on this holiday. >> thank you. up next, the president's lost summer. allies are saying that trump squandered a big opportunity to lay the groundwork for a successful 2020 campaign. more after this. don't go anywhere. is just a button. that a speaker is just a speaker. or - that the journey can't be the destination.

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broaden his appeal. instead his words and actions this summer served to further divide the country and harden public opinion about the ever-poll risiever ever-polarizing president. some lament that he did not seize the opportunity to lay a foundation for his 2020 campaign. i'm joined now by jonathan allen, nbc news digital reporter and victoria defrancesco-soto. jonathan, the list is arguably long. the president started a trade war that led to wild market swings. there was a less than robust economy. he picked fights, including calling baltimore a rat-infested city. he went on a twitter war with four congress women of color. does his team think he has self-inflicted wounds or do they believe as he apparently does that he's been judged unfairly? >> well, you're never going to get a quote on the record from his campaign saying that he blew it this summer, but certainly there were opportunities missed.

to borrow from the great dramatic piece "grease," summer dreams, ripped at the seams, but, oh, those amazing tweets, chris. the fights he got in often times with people he appointed. fed chairman jay powell. people he chose to fight with on the trade war, china as you pointed out. this is a president who has had a lot of opportunity to move some of his agenda over the summertime, but has chosen to sidetrack himself. i think if he focused on one thing, he might have gotten more done. you could perhaps see the usmch trade deal if he gave up on other immigration things he wanted, he might have been able to get something done. right now you see him looking for a big foreign deal, perhaps with iran, perhaps ending the war in afghanistan. this is a president who wants a victory right now. >> yeah, and he always does and always has trusted his gust. and, look, he won the

presidency, so he seems to feel like i have a good gut, but victoria, you and i talked about this one on friday. migrants coming to this country for lifesaving medical treatments were being kicked out, including a beautiful little boy who was on msnbc with us. there was a front page story in "the new york times." now the administration is saying just today they're reconsidering after a humanitarian outcry. i mean, who couldn't see that one coming? >> right. and, i mean, here he's losing those moderate republican women that put him over the top in 2016. and i think that it's issues like these where there is so much backlash at the humanitarian part of it that that's his achilles heel, chris, because we know that trump got 41% of women in we kn2016. it's not great. right now it's interesting, he's polling at about 30%, mid-30s with women, and we women, we vote a lot.

we've been outvoting men for decades. so if he wants to win in 2020, he's going to need those women who maybe they're conservatives but when they see those pictures of those children like we saw on friday, these little boys in hospital beds and trump is threatening to deport them, that's what's going to hurt him. so while he was base building over the summer, he definitely overstepped his mark and he recognized that and he's going to try to walk it back. >> the other interesting thing i found about this article, jonathan, they talk about the exhaustion factor. you know it. anybody who has ever worked in a white house will tell you it is exhausting. the nature of the job is just so demanding. it's so intense. but with this president i think it's a different kind of intensity, right? he likes chaos. he creates it frequently. and you do wonder can his staff either in the white house or on the campaign hold up? it is grueling under the best of circumstances. >> i mean, not only is it grueling, chris, but there aren't that many of them left. >> well, that's also true, yeah.

>> not only in the white house, which itself is a skeleton crew, but also in the agencies. the campaign is bigger and more professional this time than it was last time, but you're still dealing with a lot of catch-up. a lot of what goes on, the president makes policy, sets an agenda and says something campaign related and other people have to figure out, scramble and try to come up with a strategy sort of ever he's set it in motion. >> you know, one thing he does have going for him, victoria, without a doubt, it's his ability to communicate. he uses the power of his office. he uses twitter, obviously. he's been on a twitter tear because, you know, he had no events on his schedule for a holiday, so he's been tweeting today. not about the hurricane mostly but about other stuff. could he still use that to get some things done? i mean, infrastructure maybe. maybe something to address gun violence. i will tell you that when i talk to a lot of democratic activists, they say one of the things they worry about is that

strategically he will start moving a couple of things that will have some of the doubters back in his column. >> you know, and here's -- here's the question. why doesn't he harness this for good instead of for bad or for getting into twitter spats with debra messing? he has an incredible twitter following. i'm not sure if it's the most of anyone, but probably close to, so why not use that to speak directly to folks to encourage them to reach out to their elected officials? to say, hey, let's get infrastructure done. let's figure out how we're going to do it. he has the bully pulpit of this day and age, which is twitter, but why not use it instead of creating chaos? so, i mean, he uses it for base building, but as we were just talking, chris, there is a limit. you can only do so much with that. >> victoria de-fran chess defra jonathan allen. our coverage of hurricane dorian will continue after this. don't go anywhere. er this.

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it is 8:00 p.m. on the east coast. i'm chris jansing, continuing our breaking news coverage of hurricane dorian. the enormous category 4 storm inching toward the southeast coast with wind gusts up to 145 miles per hour. you can see just how huge this storm is with views from 260 miles above