good morning. it is thursday, august 27th. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we've got a lot to cover this morning. we want to get right to the coverage and the breaking news of hurricane laura barreling the shores of texas and louisiana this morning around 2:00 a.m. eastern as a category 4 bringing with it extreme winds and storm surge. according to the national hurricane center, the fast-moving hurricane explode yesterday and gained strength into the night. with that, i want to go to nbc meteorologist bill karins who's standing by for us and has been tracking the storm all night. bill, take us through what we're seeing and its trajectory as it made landfall with those really high intense winds.

>> yeah. you're not going to see dramatic pictures yet. this happens all the time when we cover these big major hurricanes especially when they're at night. there's this period like what happened, what's it look like, it's dark. we'll probably have to get a helicopter up there to fly over houston to see what happened in those small towns like cameron. here's what we do know. the winds were as ferocious as they've ever been in louisiana. at 1:00 is when hurricane laura made landfall. the highest tide ever recorded to make landfall in louisiana with 150-mile-per-hour winds. that's just off-the-charts-type stuff. yes, it did make landfall in a remote populated section of louisiana, but for those who

live there, it's devastating. lake charles had 132-mile-an-hour wind gusts when the eye wall went through. that may have been the strongst recorded wind gust. usually the devices fail. the one at the airport happened to stay up for a while. now lake charles is going through the backside. there was a lot of damage from lake charles from the backside. now the front side is kicking through. the winds won't be as severe. in beaumont, gusts at 60 to 80 miles an hour max. those winds will start to weaken and the rain will be ending shortly in those areas as the storm pulls away. the wind gauge stopped working at lake charles. notice the winds are starting to come down. beaumont and port arthur, but the highest gusts are heading up and eventually alexandria and shreveport later on today. we have flash flood warnings

from alexandria southward all the way down to the coast. we have 9 million people in flash flood watches for today. of course, you know, even as it's slowly going down to a category 2 and 1 and eventually tropical storm, we still have that swath of winds that will be causing power outages in into southern arkansas later on today. here's the predicted winds. we can see gusts up to 50 many little rock and, yasmin, my general rule of thumb is if you get wind gusts of 50 to 60, you can start getting power outages. that's kind of the general story. i didn't talk a lot about storm surge. we really don't know how bad it was. my indication and gut is that it wasn't quite as bad as predicted, but, again, i want to wait for the daylight pictures until we can confirm that. >> when we were talking

yesterday, we were talking 15- to 20-foot storm surge. but as you mentioned, bill, with power ought outatages, i'm seei the number is going to grow exponentially as the hours tick by. bill l you stand by for snus? >> of course, i want to go to catie beck standing by. good morning to you. bill was saying you were experiencing 132-mile-an-hour winds. you're on the backside of the storm, and i can hear the wind whipping in the background there. talk about it. >> reporter: yeah. it sounds like a teakettle. it's been an extraordinary morning. we have had periods of unbelievable wind gusts and incredibly strong winds and periods where we felt we were in the clear and we weren't. the backside has proven to be

more destruction active than the front. if you take a look around, this is the parking lot of the resort where we're saying. know bill said you wouldn't see pictures until daylight, but you can see here. this is parts of the roof o of t the resort that's only six years old. pieces of metal and sheetrock and roof that's laying on the ground. in addition to that, uprooting of trees. an entire dumpster was moved from one side of the parking lot to the other. the damage is going to be quite extensive, even if we didn't have the storm surge that was expected. you can still here that metal is loose and that's why we're standing in this doorway because it's not exactly safe for us to be outside while this debris is still flying around.

as bill said, this is not quite over yet. we're on the backside of the storm that's passing to the west of us and we expect another hour or so. it's strong enough do powerful damage as it passes us by. >> catie, did you see any of that yourself? >> this is why i'm in the doorway. sorry about that. i'm sorry. could you -- that was actually more of that roof that was coming down. it just narrowly missed our door. i'm sorry. could you tell me the question one more time? i didn't hear it. >> yesterday we had indications of possibly 15- to 20-foot storm

surge along the coast. obviously it didn't deliver to that degree, but did you see any indication of storm surge throughout the night with this storm? >> reporter: this resort actually on the other side from where we are faces the water, and we do know that crews were kind of displaced from that location early on in the night because the waters were rising and it was getting kind of dangerous. as far as flooding goes, we haven't really seen that here. we haven't seen the effects of that surge. that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist in other places in lake charles. we just -- as bill said, you kind of have to wait for daylight to get an accurate picture of what happened. i do think the predictions had this place sort of surrounded by water, which is clearly not the case. and with an hour left to the most severe parts of the storm, i think it's unlikely it's going to reach the strength that was predicted. as you can see, the structural

damage, this is a fairly new and enormous resort. we do have power, which is why we're staying here, but can you imagine if you had a smaller home, a mobile home, something that wasn't quite as secure? these winds are absolutely catastrophic and certainly we expect to see a lot of homes, a lot of residents displaced as a result of what's happening right now. >> yeah, i cannot imagine. i'm expecting that we'll see a lot of destruction as the sun comes up this morning. catie, we're going to be checking back with you throughout the morning. in the meantime, please do stay safe. catie beck for us. still ahead, a look at night three of the republican national convention. mike pence gave the keynote address, attacking joe biden and promising law and order under the president. and later a 17-year-old

arrested and charged with homicide after a shooting that took place during protests in kenosha, wisconsin. the very latest on the unrest there. those stories and more coming up. e stories and more coming up among my patients, i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend.

ther- oh.- oh, darn!it's some- wha- let me help. here we go. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. oh, boy. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them before they start with downy wrinkleguard. hey! bud. hey, pop pop! so you won't get caught with wrinkles again. [woman laughs]

last week joe bietden didn't say one worlder the chaos engulfing cities across the cities. let's be clear. the violence must stop whether in minneapolis, portland, or kenosha. too many heros have died defending our freedom to see americans strike each other down. we will have law and order on the streets of this country for every american of every race and creed and color. welcome back. while we're going to continue to track hurricane laura, we also want to talk about the republican national convention,

night three last night. that was mike pence touting law and order against the backdrop of the latest price-invololice- shooting in kenosha. president trump accepted the nomination and closed out the keynote remarks. even as the u.s. death toll has now hit 180,000 people -- >> as we speak, we're developing a growing number of treatments known as therapeutics, including convalescent plasma that are saving lives all across america. now, last week joe biden said that no miracle is coming. what joe doesn't seem to understand is america is a nation of miracles. [ applause [ .

>> and i'm proud to report we're on track to have the world's first safe effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year. after all the sacrifice in a year lie no other, in all the hardship, we're finding our way forward again. >> vice president pence also claimed that democrats don't want to talk about their agenda even though the republican party for the first time in its 166-year history didn't issue a policy platform this year. >> my fellow americans, we're passing through a time of testing, that soon we will come to a time for choosing. joe biden has referred to himself as a transition candidate, and many were asking transition to what?

but last week democrats didn't talk very much about their agenda. and if i were them, i wouldn't either. i mean, bernie sanders did tell his floers that joe biden would be the most liberal president in modern times. in fact, he said, and i quote, that many of the ideas he fought for that just a few years ago were considered radical are now mainstream in the democratic party. >> and last night after vice president pence's speech, the audience crowded a rope line closely together, mostly without masks, to greet the president, melania trump, and vice president pence and his wife karen, something we've not seen in months. while people in the audience were tested for covid, here's

what we know about the first lady's address on monday night. not all attendees were tested according to remarks from campaign officials. guests in the first few rows were screened for the virus prior to the remarks. dozens of others in the audience were not. chairs were slightly apart, but not separated at full six feet. the same health and safety protocols which have been in place for the white house the last several months of the pandemic are expected to be applied to the president's acceptance speech tonight on the south lawn were more than a thousand people are anticipated. nbc news has asked whether the trump campaign or white house has conducted the testing for that and who covered the costs incurred but has yet to receive a response. joining me now, a reporter for the "washington post," eugene scott. eugene, good morning to you. great to talk to you this

morning. interesting about the testing in that we had so many discrepancies of testing in this country, and yet it seems the white house, the trump campaign is using its full capacity for testing in order to make it seem that this pan dem sick not happening in this country, and so many of us are not staying close to our homes, and which we are, and now 180,000 lives being lost because of this pandemic. with that, what did you make of the vice president's speech last night and the overall reaction you're hearing about it? >> well, i think a key point from the vice president's speech seems to be a continuation of something we heard earlier this week, and that's this idea that the pandemic is over, that it has been a success in terms of how it was handled, and that president trump is responsible for that success, and the reality is none of those things are true except for president trump being responsible, although, it has not been viewed as a success. and the reality that he's having

another event after his big event in oklahoma a few months ago that ended up being, quite frankly, deadly for one of his high-profile performers, herman cain, that he's not taking it seriously, although he should be as the death toll continues to rise. >> there's another theme emerging out of all of this, and i'm wondering if the president is going to go hard on it tonight in its acceptance speech when talking about law and order. it reminded me of richard nixon's speeches and talking about law and order back then, and you feel like the president is now taking a page out of that book and wanting to talk about instituting law and order, that he's going to be the person that does that. the vice president touched on

that last night as well. what are you expecting to hear from the president tonight, and do you feel as if the country is hearing this message from the president, this idea of law and order, that they think this is the president that can do it? >> well, we know the president has leaned into the idea that cities in america are not safe for a while and that something needs to happen to change that. and the reality that we're currently in a time where there are protests, some of them violent and some of them disastrous to buildings and other property does really work in the president's favor. we have to also remember that the president isn't really talking to all americans and the campaign hasn't been secretive about the fact they're not interested in leading all americans when you listen to them attack certain groups of

machineries. when the president and his allies argue that some of the cities aren't safe. they talk about having won in 2016 and that includes suburban women, independent voters, and americans who just like to enjoy cities, not necessarily live there, but consume them and engage in their culture, but leave them. they feel like they can't do that right now. what they're not talking about a lot is how often protesters are actually demonstrating against systemic racism that they believe the president has perpetuated and cultivated, and he's offered no solutions for that. that would perhaps in many cases stop what he finds to be so destructive about what's happening in cities. >> yeah. it's such a good point. they're talking about the fact that they can be the president, the vice president that preserves law and order in the streets burke they don't talk about why the people are protesting in the first place and what has fed this always.

thanks a lot. still ahead, what we're learning from the national con vechlks apparently some didn't know video of the event would be aired. also w're going to track the path of the hurricane. it came on as a powerful cat 4 storm along the gulf coast. it's been downgraded now to a account goir category 3 as it's moving inland. we're back in a moment. moving inland we're back in a moment i'm a verizon engineer, and i'm part of the team building the most powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already available in parts of select cities. like los angeles and in new york city. and it's rolling out in cities around the country. with massive capacity, it's like an eight lane highway compared to a two lane dirt road. 25x faster than today's 4g networks. in fact, it's the fastest 5g in the world. from the network more people rely on.

this is 5g built right. only on verizon.

concentration - in we suppohectic times .oments, and focus to win the day. unlike ordinary memory supplements... neuriva's clinically proven ingredients fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. take the neuriva challenge with our money-back guarantee! (burke) just an app. (neighbor) whatcha working on... it's called signal from farmers, and it could save you up to fifteen percent on your auto insurance. simply sign up, drive and save. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ welcome back. tuesday night at the rnc featured a naturalization ceremony presided by the president. critics called it blurring the lines between political and official duties. two women who were newly sworn in as citizens of the white

house told "the wall street journal" they did not know the ceremony would be aired. one of the women said while she filled out a media release form, she does not remember being inforli informed about the rnc. both women said they did not mind but were celebrating their new citizenship. also white house chief of staff mark meadows has dismissed what many in the administration have called a violation of the hatch act saying, quote no, one outside the beltway really cares. according to politico, meadows said critics are applying the law beyond its original intent. he said what it's designed to do is to make sure people like myself and others do not try to use their political position to convince other federal employees to vote one way. we take it it on well beyond the original intent of the hatch act.

critics argue conclude it's using the backdrop for rnc events as well as the convention speech by mike pompeo while in jerusalem while in his official capacity. it says certain areas of the white house grounds are traditionally exempt from the ban on political activity including the rose garden where the first lady gave her address on tuesday night. still ahead, we're going to check in with meteorologist bill karins once again as hurricane laura lashes the gulf coast with extremely heavy rain and winds. we're back in a moment. in and ws we're back in a moment stelara® can provide relief, and is the only approved medication to reduce inflammation on and below the surface of the intestine in uc. you, getting on that flight? back off, uc. stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb.

tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. rpls, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. lasting remission can start with stelara®. if you've been financially impacted by covid-19, janssen may be able to help. when ourkids, bedtime!her kids moved in with us... ...she was worried we wouldn't be able to keep up. course we can. what couldn't keep up was our bargain detergent. turns out it's mostly water, and that doesn't work as well on stains. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. kind of like our quiet time. [daughter: slurping] what are you doing? don't pay for water.

tide is concentrated with three times the active cleaning ingredients. if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide. we live with at&t and we are well past the honeocupado tom. at&t, what's this i hear about you advertising a 100% fiber network? only like a fraction of my customers can get that. that's it?!? you have such a glass half-empty attitude. the glass is more than half-empty! you need to relax tom. oh! tom, you need a little tom time. a little tt. stop living with at&t. xfinity delivers gig speeds to more homes than anyone.

welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we're going to begin this hour tracking hurricane laura that made landfall at 2:00 a.m. eastern this morning that brought with it extreme winds, storm surge, and flash flooding. still downgraded to a category 3 storm. i want to bring in meteorologist bill karins. bill, as you and i have done a lot of coverage of these things together, we know there's a slight difference between category 5, 4, 3 storms. a matter sometimes of 10-mile-an-hour winds. so when you say something like that, it doesn't necessarily mean this storm is done and gone. it might mean there's a slight change from 130 to 120-mile-an-hour winds. as of this moment, bill, where are we with this storm?

>> the hurricane center right now says we still have a major category 3 hurricane that's 15 miles inland to louisiana. we haven't had wind gusts in that range yet, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. so we have what's left of the eye. you can still see it clearly between dequincey and derider. it's not exactly a picnic in lafayette, jennings, all the way up to louisiana. they have wind gusts in the 50-to 60-mile-an-hour range. we haven't heard any reports of any crazy storm sturridge. that was the crazy fear where they sent out dire warnings that you won't be able to survive it. it's not that it didn't happen. it may have happened in a very

unpopulated sparse area with little monitoring devices. we've seen storm surjs up to 8 feet in a few spots but haven't heard of anything close. if it didn't happen, fantastic. one less thing to deal with in 2020. as far as what we're left with for today, we could still see tornados. with'll have to watch out for that. as for ar as power outages, we' have to watch out. shreveport has to be 200 miles inland from the coast and that's where we expect it to be a category 1 hurricane later today. you know, those are kind of the concerns right now. as we get the sun up and the winds start dying down on the coast, we'll find out a little later, probably in a matter of hours where there's the most damage. i've seen pictures of the higher elevated buildings, the high

rises in downtown lake charles. some have all the glass blown out of them. the wind damage was as anticipated. extreme in some areas of southwest louisiana. >> just quickly here, bill, i'm about to head over to sam brock in texas. but did beaumont get a direct hit. >> no. they were on the weaker west side of the storm. they had wind gusts approximately 40 to 60 miles per hour. there are power outages in the region, but their cleanup will be 1/100 compared to their friends in louisiana. >> all right, bill. stand by for us. i want to bring in nbc news correspondent sam brock who's standing by for us. sam, bill just mentioned for us there, you guys got lucky. you didn't necessarily get a direct hit and get the huge winds of 120, 130 miles an hour, but what were you experiencing on the ground because it does seem fairly calm there now.

>> reporter: i think it's fair to say -- good morning, yasmin. good to be with you -- that beaumont folks feel like they've dodged a bullet here. right now we were getting wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles an hour, strong enough to bend trees in different directions and move me around, but not strong enough to do heavy damage. if you look over my shoulder, this is an intersection near interstate 10. there's no light where i'm standing. across the street you see lights are still on and shopping centers with lights on, depending where you're situating. about 70,000 people, that's over 150,000 when you think of three to four people per house. the mayor of port arthur thought

there would be billions of dollars in damage. where we are is the oil refining capital of the country, and between bow mon and port arthur, you have about 9% of all the refining production in the country. those were all shut down that. could have been very costly if there was storm surge and flooding. i'm taking you over here. you see gas pumps all over the areas are closed down because of concerns about damage. they were all wrapped up that. was a real worry because a few years ago, people weren't able to get gas and get out of town. the messaging started several days ago with mandatory evacuations with port arthur and beaumont populations collectively. you're talking quite a few folks. that started a couple of days ago. for the most part, people were listening. we did talk to the port arthur mayor, mayor bartie. here's what he had to say. >> why would someone try to

stick this out knowing it's a category 4? >> i don't know. i don't know what frame of thought a person would be thinking, i really don't. >> it's kind of inexplicable. >> right. >> you're warning people to get out. my understanding, these are the last buss. >> yeah. >> this is it. >> reporter: i had conversations with people in their homes not where i am, but within a half mile to a mile of the gulf coast. they said it's fine, we're jt goichk to ride it out. they got luck ycy. they saw heavy rain and winds. it could have easily tracked here and done considerable damage as well. it just goes to show you. i mean at times you can be lucky. be careful.

be sayre. and certa be safe. we saw ton s -- tens of thousas evacuating. hopefully we're paying close attention. yasmin? >> better to be safe than soifrmt sam, hsorry, sam. how are we supposed to be social distancing and wearing masks when you have what's going on in texas with a high case count? >> reporter: critical question. great question. what they were doing was overloading on buses. there were 400 buses brought in to try to bring everybody out. certainly the capacity would be 50. now it's 20, 25. it's about half of that. when you saw these people huddling around civic centers, you had to get a temperature

check and mask and they were all registered. so certainly there were precautions put in place to make sure in the midst of what is a national disaster right now, the covid pan demic was not promulgated even further. the mayor was saying go to a motel if you can, don't go to a shelter, but they did the best they could given the circumstances. >> given the circumstances. sam brock, thank you. appreciate it. still ahead, new details on the police-involved shooting in kenosha, wisconsin. and all athletes and social justice. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. stice. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. (neighbor) whatcha working on...

(burke) just an app. it's called signal from farmers, and it could save you up to fifteen percent on your auto insurance. simply sign up, drive and save. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ sti♪l fresh... unstopables in-wash scent booster ♪ downy unstopables

we're learning more details surrounding the shooting of

jacob blake. there was a knife found. according to the department, the officers had unsuccessfully deployed a taser when blake walked to the other side of the vehicle, opened the door, and leaned forward, the department did not say if they saw the knife or knew it was there. an eyewitness said they heard the police say drop the knife before they responded with a fire. he was at the home of a woman and not supposed to be there but did not say whether that man was blake. the officer who shot blake in the back seven times was russ ten sheskey, a seven-year veteran with the kenosha police department. he remains on leave during the course of the investigation.

to to to tony ever sent in the national guard. the curfew will be in effect through sunday. police have arrested a 17-year-old man who allegedly opened fire late tuesday killing two and wounding another in kenosha, wisconsin. kyle rittenhouse faces multiple counts including first-degree murder after allegedly firing into a crowd gathered to protest the protest of the shooting of jacob blake. a warping that -- a warning that the video i'm going to show you is disturbing. it show as man aiming a rifle at protesters. one person a piers to try to grab the weapon before a shot is fired. at least one other person was shot before the shooter fled the scene. nbc news can not con furthermore

what happened leading up to it or whether the shooting is the same one describes by the police. speaking before the arrest was announced was barnes who said the gunman was believed to be a vigilante and part of a militia group who showed up to protect property in the area according to "associated press" much of rittenhouse's facebook paez is devoted to praising law enforcement with references to blue lives matter. in addition a video posted to a tiktok account reportedly run by rittenhouse appears to show him sitting in the front row of a rally hosted by the president in january which has been verified by a c-span video of the event. and a wave of boycotts and

postponements across the professional sports world in protest of the shooting of blake after the milwaukee bucks refused to take the floor in their first round playoff series against the orlando magic. >> in the past four months i've seen the ongoing racial in justice facing african-americans. communities have used their voices and platforms to speak about the wrong dining. despite the plea, there's no action, so our focus cannot be based on basketball. >> we're expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and be held accountable. in this moment we are demanding the same from lawmakers and law enforcement. >> all right. so the move which prompted the nba to postpone all three playoff games scheduled yesterday comes with the support of the bucks owners even though

they didn't know about it before hand. the team's president put out a statement on twitter, some things are bigger than basketball. the stand taken show wes're fed up, enough is enough, change needs to happen. i'm incredibly proud of our guys and we stand 100% behind our players and ready to insist on bringing about real change. the protest flowed beyond the nba to several other major sports leagues including games in the w nba, major league baseball and soccer. following the nba's decision t w nba games were postponed achlt game between the cincinnati reds, brewers and milwaukee and giants and san francisco were called off hours before they were set to begin. and all but one of six major league soccer matches were postponed after one or both teams decided not to play.

the nfl's washington football team said they've canceled their game at fedex field to allow for a time of reflection. naomi osaka will not compete citing her position in a, quote, majority white sport. still ahead, the ceo resigns. while another's net growth grows to a record high. the stories driving today's business coming up. driving toda business coming up c'mon! hurry up! (vo) audi e-tron. the next frontier of electric. get an exceptional offer at your local audi dealer.

sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days.

time now for business. tiktok ceo kevin mayor has left the company as the fight over the company is continuing. julianna tatelbaum is joining us live from london on this. quite a 24 hours or so, especially when it comes to

tiktok. talk us through this move. >> it's been a few weeks for tiktok, we've been talking about how it's caught up between the political battle and watch and now the ceo kevin mayer is resigning, he just took the helm june 1st, and he in a letter to employees that cnbc obtained he said in recent weeks as the political environment has changed i have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes require and what it means for the global role i signed up for. it is with a heavy heart i want you to know i have decided to leave the company. so major changes for tiktok there on the management front and with the deadline approaching with microsoft and oracle in the running to take over operations. a big you purl a live.

jeff bezos has become the first man worth $200 billion, he's crossed this major milestone, amazon stock has soared in the pandemic up about 80% since the beginning of the year and jeff bezos' net worth skyrocketed next to it. >> just so happens during the economic times it's always someone making a heck of a lot of money and it seems that jeff bezos is one of those individuals right now. up next a look at axios' one big thing. and on "morning joe" a look at hurricane laura. brock long joins the conversation. and an update from the mayors of two texas cities under threat. "morning joe" is moments away. threat "morning joe" is moments away. at leaf blowers.

you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. and you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. make ice. making ice. but you're not mad because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad get e*trade and start trading commission free today.

don't get mad get e*trade and start trading and mine's unlisted.. try boost® high protein... -with 20 grams of protein for muscle health- -versus only 16 grams in ensure® high protein. and now enjoy boost® high protein in new café mocha flavor. i'm a verizon engineer, and i'm part of the team building the most powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already available in parts of select cities. like los angeles and in new york city. and it's rolling out in cities around the country. with massive capacity, it's like an eight lane highway compared to a two lane dirt road. 25x faster than today's 4g networks. in fact, it's the fastest 5g in the world.

from the network more people rely on. this is 5g built right. only on verizon. welcome back joining us from washington with a look at axios a.m. editor in chief for axios,

nicholas johnston. great to see you. >> good morning. >> give us axios' 1 big thing today. >> trump and biden ready to refight 1968. we were unpacking a lot of similarities this morning between the campaign this year and the epic campaign in 1968 where richard nixon ran on a law and order platform that he was designed to encourage the silent majority to come out and speak out against unrest in the united states at that time. that's something that donald trump is focussing on right now. you can see it in the all caps tweets when he's talking about law and order, pushing for national guard deployment and federalization of troops to quell the unrest in a lot of states. the flip side of that is the way joe biden is running, focused far less so on the unrest and more so the causes on that unrest. police violence against black

people in the communities, he's talked about the victims of the violence instead of the president who's focused on the police side of that. we saw it last night when mike pence at his speech in baltimore focused on defending law enforcement as opposed to talking about those who have been victim of some of these law enforcement misdeeds. in this kind of campaign i think it's something we'll see far more strident as the campaign goes on. we'll see what a cultural moment this has been with a lot of professional athletes moving to strike and cancel the rest of the seasons. we'll see more of this into 2020, and the campaign's final moments. talk about the fact they're trying to talk the institution of law and order but they're not talking about why protesters are

in the streets in the first place. is this distinction resonating with trump voters? >> this is the way trump is trying to vote it, if you go back to how he framed it in the silent majority, the way he talks about the suburban housewives, it's about talking to a base, the concern about what changes are happening to the country, this is similar to what nixon did in 1968 and emphasizing safety and security in the changes as opposed to digging into what the und underlining changes are. >> nicholas, thank you. you can sign up for the news letter at sign up.axios.com. that does it for me, i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. hurricane laura barrelled ashore near the texas, louisiana border around 2:00 a.m. eastern this morning as a category 4

storm, bringing with it extreme winds, storm surge, and flash flooding. the fast moving hurricane exploded intensity yesterday and continued to gain strength into the night. it has been downgraded to a category 3 storm for now. good morning and welcome to "morning joe" it's thursday, august 27th. we'll get to the storm in just a moment. we'll go live to jonathan lemire at the white house for his latest reporting and fact check of night three of the republican national convention. it was hard to keep up with all the fact checking. also this morning we'll go live to kenosha, wisconsin where we are learning more details regarding the shooting of jacob blake. we'll get the latest on the investigation and the continued protests. plus details on the 17-year-old arrested and charged with homicide after a shooting that took place during wednesday night's violence there.

and we will discuss the wave of boycotts and postponements across the professional sports world in protest of that police shooting. a lot going on willie. >> it is a busy morning. let's bring in, nbc meteorologist bill karins to start us off with hurricane laura. when we spoke at this time yesterday you said you woke up and shuttered at the size and gathering strength of this storm. it delivered as a category 4 a couple hours ago. how does it look right now? >> we just got the new update from the hurricane center. we're no longer calling it a major hurricane. it's down to category 2, but it's still doing wind damage far inland. when it made landfall, it was the second strongest hurricane recorded in louisiana's history, that's serious stuff. when we see the wind damage that occurred in lake charles earlier today within it'll be eye opening. i saw a