>> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm nattily morales. talk of impeachment ramps up as the president admits he discussed joe biden on a call with the president of ukraine. we're going to the warning from house speaker nancy pelosi. and senator elizabeth warren takes the top spot in a poll considered to be the gold standard of polling in the first of a nation primary contest. the big winner from last night's emmy's. a long time favorite goes out in style while an emmy rookie makes history. ♪ good morning, everyone, it's monday september 23rd, i'm ayman

mohyeldin along side yasmin vossoughian. president trump admitting he discussed former vice president joe biden on a phone call. "the wall street journal" and other news outlets -- investigate the former vice president's son hunter. the president deflected questions of whether he inappropriately enlisted a foreign government to help dig up durt on a political rival and tried to shift the scrutiny to biden. >> the conversation i had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption all of the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we don't want our people like vice president biden and his son crea creating to the corruption already in the ukraine. >> i'm noot nt looking to hurt with respect to his son. joe's got enough problems without that, but what he said was a terrible thing, and you know, he really made it -- it was an offer.

it was beyond an offer. it was something where he said i'm not going to give billions of dollars to ukraine unless they remove this prosecutor. >> that was the president of the united states speaking about politics in front of the u.s. coast guard. the president is referring to the call that he was referring to was biden's role in a cra crackdown on corruption in ukraine, including calling for the removal of ukraine's general prosecutor who at the time was also nfgt r investigating a natural gas company. the they viewed that prosecutor as a hindrance to anticorruption and biden was many diplomats -- here's biden recounting the time he threatened to withhold a billion dollars in loan guarantees if ukraine did not take action. >> i went over, i guess the 12th, 13th time and i was supposed to announce there was another billion dollars loan guarantee, and i had gotten a

commitment from poroshenko, atht they would take action against the state prosecutor and they didn't, so they said they were walking out of the press conference. i said nah, we're not going to give you the billion dollars. they said you have no authority. you're not the president. the president said -- i said call him. i said i'm telling you you're not getting a billion dollars. i said you're not getting a bill. i'm going to leaving here, and i think it was six hours. i'm leaving in six hours. if the prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting the money. >> and earlier this year e ukraine's prosecutor general told bloomberg news it found no evidence of wrongdoing by biden or his son. >> amid the growing fallout, members of his administration hit the air waves over the weekend to try and defend the president's actions. >> i want to also ask you about ukraine. the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani is publicly calling for an investigation by the ukrainian government into joe biden who is

obviously a political opponent of the president. is it appropriate for the president's personal attorney to be inserting himself in foreign affairs like this? >> if there was election interference that took place by the vice president i think the american people deserve to know. we know there was interference in the 2016 election, and if it's the case that there was something going on with the president or his family that caused a conflict of interest and vice president biden behaved in a way that was inconsistent with the way leaders ought to operate, i think the american people deserve to know that. >> what i do find is inappropriate is the fact that vice president biden at the time's son did very significant business dealings in ukraine. i for one find that to be concerning, and to me that's the issue perhaps that should be further investigated. >> i don't understand. so it's okay for donald trump jr. and eric trump all over the world, it's okay for ivanka trump to have copyrights

approved, while president trump is vice president, but while vice president biden was vice president his son shouldn't be able to do business dealings. >> i don't want to go into more of these details -- >> you're setting a precedent the president is violating. >> i think there's a significant difference in what you're saying, okay? or what i was saying between biden and his son's relationship with the ukraine oligarch and potential business dealings that the trump organization has had, which predated his presidency. >> all right, president trump's lawyer rudy giuliani was also pressed on whether it was appropriate for his client to ask ukraine to investigate the former vice president and his son. >> do you know what i found out about joe biden? do you know what i told my colleague? they're going to cover this up. too bad biden involved in this. i've got a straight case of ukrainian collusion. the minute i say biden that washington press corps is going

to go nuts. they've been covering up for years, plagiarism. >> now you're straining -- >> i'm straining into what is wrong with us today. >> we need to point out that the prosecutor who was appointed after shokin was fired, resurrected, reanimated the case and found that hunter biden was paid millions of dollars, but poroshenko said the board was able to a pay board member anything he wanted. >> how is that so distorted. >> if you did any work you'd find out the prosecutor that biden put in -- >> one other point. >> i won't answer another question unless you let me finish. these are very important things that have been covered up for years to protect slimy joe. >> the former vice president responded from the campaign trail. >> i know trump deserves to be investigated. he is violating every basic norm of a president.

you should be asking him the question why is he on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate a foreign leader if that's what happened. here's what happened, you should be looking at trump. trump's doing this because he knows i'll beat him like a drum and he's using the abuse of power in every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me. everybody looked at this, and everybody's looked at it said there's nothing there. depending on what the house finds, he could be impeached but i'm not making that judgment now. the house should investigate. the house should investigate. this appears to be an overwhelming abuse of power. to get on the phone with a foreign leader who is looking for help from the united states and ask about me and imply things, if that's what happened, that appears to be what happened. we know that's what giuliani did. this outrageous. you have never seen anything like this from any president.

a serial abuser. that's what this guy is. he abuses power everywhere he can, and if he sees any threat to his staying in power, he'll do whatever he has to do. this crosses the line. >> biden also tweeted this, let's be clear donald trump pressured a foreign government to interfere in our elections. it goes against everything the u.s. stands for. republicans have been so far heads tena hesitant to admonish president trump. >> i don't know the context. i don't know what was said. look, it is not appropriate for any candidate for federal office, certainly including a sitting president to ask for assistance from a foreign country. that's not appropriate. i don't know that's what happened. >> it looks to me like another deep state attack, another bureaucratic attack on the president. we have seen this over and over and over in this administration from anonymous sources deep inside the bureaucracy.

frankly it has been an unprecedented attempt by the bureaucracy to resist the policies of a duly elected president to the united states. >> senator mitt romney of utah, he levied the most pointed criticism tweeting out if the president asked or pressured ukraine's president to investigate his political rival either directory or through his personal attorney it would be troubling to the extreme. meanwhile, the democratic chairman of the house intel committee congressman adam schiff said the allegations could mark a turning point in the investigation of president trump. >> i have been very reluctant to go koun tdown the path of impea for the reason i think the founders contemplated in the country that has elections every four years this would be an extraordinary remedy, remedy of last resort. it may be that wie do have to move forward with that expoerd nar remedy if the president is withholding vital military

assistance. he is trying to leverage that to obtain impermissible help in his political campaign. and after having sought foreign assistance and welcomed foreign assistance in the last presidential campaign as a candidate, he is now doing the same thing again but now using the power of the presidency, then he may force us to go down this road. i have spoken with a number of my colleagues over the last week, and this seems different in kind, and we may very well have crossed the rubicon here. >> and of course democratic house speaker nancy pelosi hinted at impeachment in a letter to lawmakers writing in part, quote, if the administration persists in blocking this whistle whether or not her from disclosing to congress a serious possible breach of constitutional duties by the president, they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness, which will take us into a whole new stage of the investigation. joining us now from washington, d.c. political reporter for the washington examiner, emily

larson. great to have you with us on this monday morning. how might this growing situation with ukraine further the house's investigation into president trump's potential impeachment, and are we, in fact, seeing as some have suggested a tipping point on that subject? >> well, certainly i think a lot of lawmakers are viewing this as even a more -- if the allegations are true, a more direct example of what they were kind of worried about with the 2016 election and whether trump was soliciting help from russia. if this was a direct call with president trump talking to ukraine saying that they should investigate joe biden, that is much different than even some of the things that we were looking at in the russia investigation and mueller report. so those mueller report issues for impeachment have to do with obstruction of justice is usually what lawmakers are looking at in that investigation. in these allegations are true, that's even a more direct thing that they can kind of latch onto

and push forward in their calls for impeachment. but i will say that we don't know exactly what was in this call yet. the details industrial hastill out. right now the most that the lawmakers can say that nancy pelosi said if the administration is blocking the release of this information, that would be what they would use as their basis for impeachment. >> i believe the president is currently calling the call beautiful. he's used the term beautiful to explain -- >> he said it's perfect, appropriate. >> the conversation he did have. now that we do have president trump's admittance to discussing the biden family with ukraine, how does this advance the whistleblower narrative? >> it's an acknowledgment that he did speak about the bidens, which is what exactly was saud is still unclear, but he did speak about the bidens. it does advance the whistleblower's narrative. the whistleblower did not have firsthand knowledge of what exactly was on this call, but it does advance his narrative that

this is something that should be looked at by congress, but it is also something that i think could be a liability for joe biden in this. you saw in the clean ups yips y earlier members of the administration saying this is something that should be looked at with joe biden and whether he has any was acting inappropriately when he was vice president. this is something that i think could potentially be a liability for him on the campaign trail with democrats who already view him as sort of a -- a person who's been in politics for decades, and they're looking for a newer fresher face. that's yet to be determined. i haven't quite seen that yet. >> one important part in all of this is it's not just simply the whistleblower's word against that of president trump, it's also the inspector general who actually moved the process up the right chain of command, so to speak, by saying this was an urgent -- >> who thought it was concerning enough -- >> there are a lot of questions

that need to be answered as to why he agreed with the whistleblower's assessment. let's switch gearing for a moment if we can. you wrote about some of the 2020 hopefuls barely making a mark in the polls increasing their attack on president trump as well as elizabeth warren. we'll start with the president. tell us more about that. >> well certainly there are some people like beto o'rourke and tulsi gabbard who are kind of in the mid to low single-digits in the polls right now, and they're trying to make their mark on the primary in order to advance themselves. beto o'rourke not only is he calling for mandatory buybacks and was kind of latching onto that as his rallying campaign cry but after the el paso shooting he became more sharp in his criticisms of donald trump calling him a white supremacist, which a lot of other candidates did. he went as far to create a whole web page on his website, and tulsi gabbard when talking about president trump sending troops

to saudi arabia compared him to a pimp directing prostitutes to saudi arabia. that's something to look at as all. >> emily larsen live in d.c. we're going to get the latest in the race for president as elizabeth warren surges past joe biden in iowa. bill karins is going to come over here and tell us the latest on the weather. >> come on over here. >> from the news center. these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office

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welcome back, there has been a big shift in the 2020 race among the crowded democratic field. for the first time senator elizabeth warren is leading the pack in a poll in the critical state of iowa where many of the presidential hopefuls spent their weekend campaigning. nbc's vaughn hillyard has more. >> reporter: on the front lines at a union protest outside gm. >> uaw! >> reporter: senator elizabeth

warren sounding like a front runner. >> we are on this picket line today to say that we're going to make this america work for everyone. >> reporter: a jolt to the 2020 campaign, warren rocketing to the top of a new iowa poll. >> the stakes are only getting higher. >> reporter: the critical first caucus state was ground zero for 2020 candidates this weekend. 17 of them on hand at the annual steak fry, but warren is running away with the headlines. jumping seven points in the latest poll with senator bernie sanders dropping five points. other campaigns making their case for relevancy here. >> i don't know if you guys here heard i'm planning on moving to iowa. >> reporter: new jersey senator cory booker sending up a flare signal. >> either we're going to reach $1.7 million to stay in this race, or we're going to have to make tough decisions. >> reporter: nationally biden still leads wearren but only 9%

are firmly committed to a candidate. >> i have a top three right now. >> it's changing every day if they're going to stay in. >> our thanks to vaughn hillyard for that reporting. coming up on "morning joe," senator cory booker will have more on the state of the 2020 campaign after sounding that alarm about funding levels. let's switch gears and bring in our good friend bill karins, the weather has been, at least in the northeast, exceptionally good. >> toasty. >> is the streak going to end? >> and happy autumnal equinox. we just clicked into fall in the last hour, congratulations. >> officially. breaking news here on "first look." don't give the producers any ideas. >> your first look at equinox. >> it doesn't feel like fall. a lot of people are still waiting to turn the air conditioner off. this is the feels-like temperature outside even at this hour. it still feels like 74 in d.c. you had another 90-degree day yesterday. the poor people in the galveston, it feels like 3i9d

wi93 with the humidity coming off the gulf. usually this time of the year you cool off occasionally at least. that's just not the case. the thmonth to date, we're op pe in new orleans, houston dallas, and many other locations are having the top five warmest septembers they've recorded. this is about three quarters of the population has had above average temperatures. it's not just, you know, it's not just you. it has been exceptionally warm. how do we look as we go through the first six to ten days of fall? look at this map. this is the temperatures from september 28th through october 2nd. it's about a 90% chance that everyone east of the rockies is going to see above average temperatures, and in some cases record warm temperatures, but the west is actually going to be much cooler. we're going to be showing you pictures of snow in the rockies over the next couple of days. it's going to be a lot of extremes across the country. we're starting off the week very warm.

d.c. should be 89 degrees today. portland, maine, should be in the 80s, which is very rare for this time of the year. charlotte, atlanta into the 90s. new orleans in the 90 s. it's 80s and 70s and 90s all through the east, even through the middle of this week. it's going to last. it's almost desert like in areas of the eastern u.s. there's no humidity. it's very dry. >> so the cooldown is -- >> out west. >> it's not coming anytime soon. >> it's not coming anytime soon in the east. >> your fall dreams are going to have to be delayed a little longer. >> it's okay. i went apple picking this weekend. >> take your boots out of the closet, that's what you want to do. >> it was the sweatiest apple picking experience of my life. >> be patient, winter's coming. >> we're going to have take aways from last night. including this moment from jimmy kimmel. >> how's the old no host thing going? [ laughter ] >> what a dumb idea.

>> what a joke. >> so stupid. you know what has a host? app applebee's has a host. >> yeah. they have food, too. >> we would have brought food. >> yeah. >> and now you guys are going to starve to death. >> you know who the real victims are here? it's us. hosting is the only thing we know how to do. >> i'm sorry, but this show sucks. >> you would have been a great host. >> you would have been even better, steven.

last night at the 71st prime time emmy award "game of thrones" won big tieing the record for the most wins in the best drama series with the likes of "the west wing." one of the creators accepted the award on behalf of the show's historic end. >> these last ten years have been the best years of our lives, and for everyone who worked with us on it, i can't believe we finished it. i can't believe we did it. we did it all together, and it's over, and we shall never see like again. >> the drama took home 12 emmy's, and peter ding lidge won for his best supporting role. "fleabag" taking home the top prize as well as lead actress in a comedy series. and billy porter made history

taking home the award for best actor in a drama for his role in posse. porter is the first openly gay black male actor to win in the category. i'm sure you are familiar with every single one of those shows. >> not a one. >> not a one. you're not watching a lot of tv between the two kids and waking up at 3:00 a.m. >> i realized i watch no television. i used to know every single show. i did not know one. >> maybe now is the time i can actually watch "game of thrones." >> binge watching. >> i'll binge watch it. >> it's going to be around for a while. >> in a year i'll be super psyched about something you watched four years ago. under nfl investigation for multiple accusations of sexual assault and after being release bid a second team, wide receiver antonio brown has announced he's done with the league. brown tweeted yesterday this, will not be playing in the nfl anymore. these owners can cancel deals, do whatever they want at any time we will see if the nfl p. a. hold them accountable.

sad they are void guarantees knight, going on 40 million, two months, we'll see if they pay up brown's tweet makes a plea to the player's union to take action over money he believes he is still owed by both teams. brown denies all of the allegations against him, and is facing no criminal charges. still ahead, we'll set the stage for the u.n. general assembly this week, which gets underway right here in new york city. democrats chop it up with voters at the annual steak fry in iowa. we're going to have the very latest on that including more on elizabeth warren's new surge. we're back in a moment. ♪

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♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. senator elizabeth warren and former vice president joe biden are in a statistical tie in iowa, according to the latest des moines register cnn media com poll. warren leads the democratic field by two points at 22%. she is now up zseven points sine june. biden follows closely behind at 20% down three points. vermont senator bernie sanders sits in third place down five points since the beginning of the summer. >> that's putting bernie sanders's challenges in iowa into sharper focus. senator warren is winning a bigger share of people who caucused for sanders in 2016 and is outpacing him in voters under 35. the current indication she is eating into sanders base as well. as the sanders campaign tries to

hang onto voters volatility as operations led to the quiet firing of the campaign's political director in iowa less than five months before the february caucuses. the paper reports that employee disputes and staff shake-ups have jolted the senator's organization stretching from his important early states to the washington headquarters leading to firings, resignations, tense meetings and fierce rivalries according to people with knowledge of the situation. the paper notes that the sanders' campaign is dismissing any notions that the senator is struggling and vowed yesterday to plow ahead with aggressive moves to win the iowa caucus. >> with four months to go, 17 of the 20 democratic candidates took their campaigns to the state on saturday. more than 12,000 people attended the polk county democrat steak fry in the rain to meet with presidential hopefuls. pete buttigieg, elizabeth warren and cory booker were among those who brought their stump speeches to the first in the nation caucus state.

watch this. >> i'm going to call to you right now. i need everyone's help with my campaign because we're not running an individual campaign. we will win this election not by dividing democrats, but have people that unite us and bring us together. we will win this election not by showing the worst of who we are, but bets of who we are. >> and senator cory booker joins "morning joe" later this morning to discuss his 2020 presidential campaign. president trump is acknowledging he did discuss former vice president joe biden during a july phone call with ukraine's president. that admission comes after a whistleblower raised questions about what the president said on that phone call. nbc's kelly o'donnell has more from the white house. >> reporter: president trump added new detail about his july phone call with ukraine's president. >> the conversation i had was largely congratulatory. >> reporter: indicating for tin including for the first time hwe

joe biden and his son played into that conversation. >> it was largely about the fact that we don't want our people like vice president biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the ukraine. >> reporter: the firestorm is whether the president crossed a line by engaging a foreign leader's help to investigate a political rival and whether pending u.s. military aid for ukraine was a factor. >> there was no quit pro quo. >> reporter: i asked the president to explain why the ukraine aid was delayed. >> i didn't delay anything. we paid the military aid to the best of my knowledge. >> after the complaint was filed, sir? >> listen to me, i gave so much more to ukraine than obama did. >> but couldn't that leader have felt pressure, sir? couldn't he have felt pressure? >> the president appeared irritated by three hours later at a stop in houston, he readily responded. >> that was not pressure. i know when i give pressure. >> reporter: democrats in congress denied access to the secret whistleblower report say the white house must cooperate

and provide more about the ukraine call. >> there is no privilege to engage in underhanded discussions. >> reporter: regarding joe biden, no evidence of wrongdoing tied to his son's ukraine business has been found. relatively rare for the president, he's waking up today back in his own trump tower apartment in new york city because world leaders are gathering for the united nations. it comes at a time when his own interactions with the world leader are under so much scrutiny. among the many meetings he has over the next few days is his first in person with ukraine's president. that's set for wednesday. on iran, no meeting is scheduled, but mr. trump said he will remain flexible. >> all right, our thanks to kelly o'donnell for that report. a group of house democrats is putting more pressure on house speaker nancy pelosi to back impeachment proceedings after reports that president trump pressed the ukrainian president during a july phone call to investigate a political

rival. "the washington post" reporting that an increasingly vocal group of pro-impeachment house democrats are starting to dismiss their own oversight of trump as feckless, even accusing their colleagues of emboldening the president by refusing to stand up to what they see as lawless behavior. the paper notes that democrats say quote, the house should be taking more aggressive action to br break the unprecedented white house stonewalling, possibly even fining defiant trump officials. the post also reports that many house democrats, many feel increasingly helpless in fighting the white house's obstruction. in a letter on sunday to house democrats pelosi did not mention the word impeachment, but hinted at the possibility saying quote, if the administration persists in blocking this whistleblower from disclosing to congress a serious possible breach of constitutional duties by the president, they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness, which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation. >> as kelly o'donnell mentioned

before, the united nations general assembly set to begin this week here in new york city. it is u.n. ambassador kelly craft's first u.n. ga. the situation with iran is set to be front and center. it also comes days after the trump administration announced it is deploying military forces to the middle east, specifically saudi arabia, after recent taeks on that country's oil sites and facilities, which the u.s. has blamed on iran declaring it an act of war. the white house says it will be, quote a modest deployment, not thousands of troops, and whose responsibilities will be, quote, defensive in nature and primarily focused on air and missile defense. in addition, the trump administration is accelerating shipments of u.s. military hardware to saudi arabia as well as the united arab emirates. secretary of state mike pompeo who has described the oil attacks as quote an act of war as i mentioned earlier, will address the situation in an address at the u.n. on wednesday morning. while over the weekend, president trump commented on the

situation, the unga and a potential meeting with iran. watch. >> we are by far the strongest military in the world going into iran would be a very easy decision as i said before, be very easy, the easiest thing. most people thought i would go in within two seconds, but plenty of time, plenty of time. you know, but i think i'm showing great restraint. a lot of people respect it. some people don't. some people say you should go in immediately, and other people are so thrilled at what i'm doing, and i don't do it for anybody. i do it for what's good for the united states, what's good for our allies, and it's working out really very well. i will say i think the sanctions work, and the muilitary would work, but that's a very severe form of winning, but we win. >> president, is a meeting at the u.n. with iran completely

off the table? >> nothing's ever off the table completely, but i have no intention of meeting with iran. that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. i'm very flexible person, but we have no intention. it's not set up. we're meeting a lot of leaders. we have about 15 meetings set up but iran is not one of them. >> joining us gagain from washington, d.c., political reporter for the "washington examiner" emily larsen. this a pretty busy week ahead, some notable absentees from the u.n. general assembly. the president of china is not coming. the israeli prime minister is not coming, the president of russia not coming. what will you be looking for at this week's u.n. general assembly? is trurp expemp and wanted to s ukrainian leader after all of the controversy? >> he is expected to meet with the president of ukraine. i believe that that was on his schedule, and that will be

certainly something that is scrutinized whether there's anything else addressed from the president of ukraine or donald trump about what was said on this phone call that is sparking new calls for investigations and impeachment, but the biggest thing that i think is on the table right now is the rising tensions with iran and what the president may -- or the long shot chance that he might meet with the president of iran, what other actions might be taken to deal with the situation there after they allegedly taxed saudi arabian oil production fu facilities. also krut schicriticism of the for skipping the climate change. >> let's take a look at this new poll we were just talking about coming out of iowa, the latest des moines register cnn media com poll.

with elizabeth warren at the top there at 22%, up seven points. joe biden 20, down three, bernie sanders in third place where he has steadily been an 11% or so, down five, and then the rest pete buttigieg, kamala harris. talk to me about elizabeth warren here. this is the most notable thing coming out of this poll and her surge here. what do you make of it? this is a predictor of what we could feasibly see in some other polls. >> certainly elizabeth warren has been steadily rising in the polls all summer, and i think this is the second poll i can think of in recent weeks where she has surpassed joe biden or tied joe biden. this is usually thought of as the gold standard poll of iowa, something that a lot of people look to to see what the lay of the land is there, and so she is certainly -- her organization in iowa this weekend, i was at the iowa polk county democrat steak fry this weekend. she had a very good reception. she had a selfie line there after her speech, which she

usually does after she gives a major speech. was taking photos with as many people who wanted one. this is something that i think is displaying -- i'm seeing this on the ground as well as in the polls, there's a lot of enthusiasm for elizabeth warren right now. i think the question is whether she will retain this. she seems to be taking a lot of former bernie sanders supporters that are boosting her up, but whether she can attract people who might be a little bit on the fence about some of her proposals, like medicare for all, which would eliminate private health insurance, and she has been criticized recently from other democrats and from republicans for not specifically addressing whether her plans would raise taxes on the middle class. >> emily larsen live in washington. still ahead, the new concerns health officials in some part of the country expressing over the increase in a potentially deadly mosquito-borne illness. vice president mike pence is

facing criticism after a storied visit to one michigan chunt. we're goi r -- community. bill karins with another check on the forecast when we return. .

a vehicle ban on a michigan island did not stop vice president mike pence from traveling there via an eight-car motorcade. pence arrived at mackinac island by helicopter and then made his way down one of the island's main streets with eight suvs. he was there saturday for a republican party conference at the grand hotel. the suvs were brought to the island by ferry for his visit. pence is the first sitting president -- sorry, excuse me, the first sitting vice president to visit the historic island. the vehicle ban has been in place for a century. when president gerald ford visited the island he and the

first lady traveled by horse-drawn carriage. that streak of 100 years no longer -- >> now broken. >> no longer in play thanks to vice president mike pence. it drew some kind of angry reaction from a lot of michiganers including rashida tlaib the congresswoman from the state of michigan. so the death toll across the country from the mosquito-borne virus triple e is climbing. health officials in several states are racing to take steps to protect the public. nbc's kathy park has more. >> reporter: a rare mosquito-borne illness strikes again killing 78-year-old james longworth of massachusetts and 77-year-old patricia shaw of connecticut. >> we are here to pray for her family because it's not easy, of course, with a sudden loss. >> reporter: nationwide dozens of case of eastern equine encephalitis have been reported in six states and nine people have died from the disease. the threat triggering aerial spraying and canceling outdoor

events at night in some communities. >> there is no vaccination to prevent eee. this is one of the most deadly mosquito-borne infections. >> reporter: michigan has been hit especially hard with three deaths. 66-year-old greg mcchesky died in a week from being diagnosed. >> he went from perfectly healthy to brain dead. >> reporter: the virus spreads through infected mosquitos and less than 6% of people contract it. symptoms are similar to the flu or worse. >> if they have the infection of the brain known as encephalitis they may not act like their normal self, be confused, have a seizure or sometimes be unresponsive. >> reporter: approximately one out of three people die from eee with the most vulnerable over 50 years old and under 15. >> scary. >> yeah. our thanks to kathy park for that report. let's switch fweegears and g in nbc meteorologist bill karins with an update on your forecast.

>> one of the best things about heading towards winter is the elimination of mosquitos. >> i think i would welcome winter just for that reason alone. >> a good old freeze. let's get into the tropics. we're still in the peak month of the hurricane season, which is september, and we have tropical storm jerry, which is going to bring a close call for bermuda. it's a much weaker storm than humberto. we have a new storm that developed over the weekend, tropical storm karen, and a new tropical wave came off the coast of africa. this one could become a hurricane in a couple of days. that looks to make a big hook up into the atlantic. that bring us to tropical storm karen, very weak storm right now, not looking very impressive at all, and winds are only at 40 miles per hour, northwest at eight is the movement. we just got in the new update from the hurricane center. they do take it and head it towards puerto rico, so that has obviously concerns for them, but notice how weak it is, 40 miles per hour. then it goes to 45, then 50, 60, and 70. so again, this is all clustered, all these numbers here because it's not moving much. it's going to kind of stall out

in between bermuda and puerto rico towards the end of this week. the biggest question is what's going to happen after that. all these red lines are one of our american computer models and we kind of like tweak them to see if it will make a difference. some go out to the atlantic, some headed towards the bahamas. this is a week from now. we've got a long time to wait. the only thing we do know for sure is we will have some gusty winds and a little bit of rain over puerto rico, tropical storm watches are issued as we go into tuesday. as far as the week ahead for us goes, it's very warm in the southeast today. a few showers for our friends in the ohio valley in new york state. a very quiet start in the lower 48, and as long as we can keep those big storms away, all the better. >> thank you, bill. >> we'll take it, thanks. we've got some exciting news here at "morning joe." one to congratulate one of our producers joseph and his wife amy on the birth of their son liam. he made his debut over the

weekend. joseph is going to take much deserved time off to get liam -- to get some help with his mom and liam situated at home. >> the good news, i always like to emphasize this, anyone who works on an early morning show. they're already used -- >> sleepless nights. >> they're already used to the sleep deprivation. it should come in handy. >> you and i both well know there is sleep deprivation when it comes to work, and then there is sleep deprivation when it comes to babies. >> whole different ball game. >> it's a whole different ball game. >> exactly. still ahead, president trump hits the stage with india's prime minister. new polling on president trump and 2020 democratic front runner former vice president joe biden and when the two stack up among voters ahead of the election. we are back in a moment.

welcome back, indian prime minister welcomed president trump on stage during his rally in houston on sunday. the two leaders praised each other before an estimated crowd of 50,000 people yesterday afternoon, despite growing tensions every u.s. tariffs on india. >> his name is familiar to every person on the planet. his name comes up in almost every conversation in the world on global politics.

>> prime minister modi is doing a truly exceptional job for india and for all of the indian people. >> president trump's approval rating remains virtually unchanged over the last few months according to a new wall street journal nbc news poll. trump's approval rating sits at 45% with 53% disapproving of the president. meanwhile, nearly seven in ten voters dislike president trump personally. a combined 69% of registered voters say they don't like the commander in chief compared to 29% who say they like him, readless of their feelings about his policy agenda. a third of voters feel less confident in democratic front runner joe biden over the last few weeks. the poll found that 36% of voters say they've lost confidence in biden compared to 8% who say they've grown more confident in the former vice president. those who have lost confidence in biden cited his debate performance, his age, and what they say is an overreliance on obama's legacy and making his

own case for the job. the same share, 36% say they have become less confident in president trump's ability to lead while 17% say they've become more confident in the president recently. coming up, more on the president's admission of trying to dig up dirt on a political rival, the latest on president trump's revelation about his call with the ukraine prime minister over the business dealings of former vice president's son. >> hans nichols will join us here in studio live in person with the latest on that as the president prepares to meet with world leaders this week. we're back with your morning's top stories in less than three minutes.

talk of impeachment ramps up as the president admits he discussed joe biden on a call with the president of ukraine. we will have the warning from house speaker nancy employeesy. >> and senator elizabeth warren takes the top spot in a poll considered to be the gold standard of polling in the first in the nation primary contest. we're going to have reaction from iowa. >> the big winners from last night's emmys, a long time fafrlt goes out in style, while an emmy rookie