right now on "andrea mitchell reports," hurricane ian, a category 3 storm slamming cuba this morning with winds approaching 130 miles an hour. on a collision course with florida. veering away from tampa now and heading towards sarasota. the governor of florida warning residents, get ready. >> if you are ordered to evacuate, that's a decision based off of what we are seeing with this storm. we can't un-ring the bell if you stay and end up getting washed away. a first look at a new documentary on roger stone, the january 6th committee will likely play tomorrow, showing

the longtime trump confidant predicting political violence. in washington, jury selection in the trial of the only keepers, facing seditious conspiracy charges. good day. i'm andrea mitchell. there will be a brief on the government's plan to assist florida communities bracing for hurricane ian. evacuations are under way. a shift in the storm's direction is now heading towards sarasota and ft. myers, veering away from tampa. we have a new forecast. tell us about this more than change in direction. >> now that we are 30 to 36 hours from the hurricane force winds coming onshore, every

wobble will have impact for one town. some will be better. some the forecast will be worse. first, this is cuba. you can see the eye coming off the coast. look how it cleared out. with the sun angle high in the sky, you can see into the ocean in the center of the storm. the eye clears out. we expect it to infence phi. the latest from the hurricane center. it's pouring in south florida. we are at a category 3. we are heading due north. it's in the general motion next 12 or 24 hours. then it will turn towards southwest florida or west coast of florida. the latest from the hurricane center. going up to a category 4. wednesday morning, as scary as it gets. then they bend it. people in tampa are saying, it's better. but it can shift back.

we have an error that goes out here to the landfall south of ft. myers. that's why we have this cone of uncertainty. the official forecast, most likely is landfall between sarasota to venice down north of port charlotte. 2004 category 4 hurricane charlie made landfall in this area. this is where the worst of the damage was. we could be seeing that same places with the worst storm surge and the worst conditions. what are our computer models saying? i left the cone of uncertainty on it. we could see landfall here, just south of port charlotte, that would be tomorrow afternoon, almost right now. that's how soon it could be moving inland. if it's a little more up the coast, like the european

computer model, that would be near sarasota at 7:00 p.m. that's close to what the hurricane center is saying for tomorrow early in the evening hours. we have a couple models that are more off the coast. if those happen to be correct -- that's within the cone of uncertainty -- it could be closer to tampa. that would be early thursday morning. the landfall timing, because of the angle of approach, differs. after that the storm will move inland. it will weaken. it will be a wind event. it's a strong tropical storm over disney world and the top of orlando. a lot of trees in the area. expect power outages. it would weaken by the time it gets up near daytona beach. and heading up to jacksonville. the concerns, water kills the most people. storm surge is the biggest issue with this storm. we are getting concerned for those areas south of sarasota all the way back down towards ft. myers. those are the areas. we will watch rainfall.

this is a slow moving storm. freshwater flooding could be a storm. our friends in sarasota to ft. myers, your forecast continues to get worse. >> thank you so much for all the latest news on the storm's direction. let's go to sam brock, who is in florida. residents are boarding up. what can they do besidesing and supplies as they can? >> reporter: the immediacy is over evacuations. to give you a frame of reference, sarasota, is an hour south from where i am right now. the governor of the state, ron desantis, is talking as we speak reminding folks that this is a very, very significant storm. no matter where it makes landfall. you should be heeding the warnings from local officials about evacuating if that's what they are asking you to do. over my shoulder, you see these

gentlemen are boarding up the store. this is common all up and down the strip here in gulf port. there are sandbags as well to prevent flooding. that's small potatoes compared to the evacuation orders which expanded this morning. originally, 200,000 people were told to leave. they made zone b go from voluntary to mandatory. it's closer to 400,000 people now. mandatory vacuations for a, b and c here, 750,000 people. you are talking about over a million between these two counties. they are the largest. we had an interesting morning. we came out to speak with folks from a senior center. they are trying to help older members of the population to get out of town, out of harm's way. no one wanted to go. they are concerned about the senior centers being moved to shelters, what that would look

like. they were worried about food restrictions, pets, how am i going to communicate with people i love? different concerns. they had to be convinced -- one person was -- to leave. here is a sample. how are you feeling with the storm only 24 hours away? >> just waiting to see what happens. >> reporter: you too? >> i'm apprehensive. my sister lives in southern california. they are talking about the big earthquake that's going to come. this could be our big hurricane. >> once the storm comes in, the emergency vehicles are no longer allowed to come down here and evacuate people. what i was trying to explain to the gentleman we were talking to is, you need to make your decision now. >> reporter: the time right now is running out. these are critical hours. that senior center blasted 5,000 people with voicemail saying, we are here and can provide free transportation out.

accept our offer. we will see how that works. tampa's airport is closing today at 5:00. there are a few remaining flights to get folks out of here. it's possible in the coming days they could do emergency flights or cargo flights if needed. right now, they are making decisions with critical infrastructure to close that airport down knowing the risks involved with flying right now. >> indeed. sam brock, thanks. we will have a briefing from the white house from fema in 15 minutes. we are waiting on that. we will bring it to you live. the very latest on the emergency response. the january 6 committee is preparing for what could be its last public hearing tomorrow. it's expected to present clips from a documentary showing roger stone taking a page from the trump playbook ahead of the 2020 election. >> celebrating. i suspect it will be up in the air. when that happens, the key thing to do is claim victory. possession is nine-tenths of the

law. we won. [ bleep ] you. you are wrong. [ bleep ] you. >> just claim victory. joining me now, ali vitali and julia ainsley. ali, the committee spent months trying to find links between the trump inner circle and individuals who planned the insurrection. that makes this footage critical. >> reporter: it makes it critical. it's why our sources are telling us it's likely going to be among the new elements we see from the committee tomorrow in a hearing that's supposed to be more sweeping in nature. you are right in saying it's probably the last of these hearings, or at least the last of the ones that are investigative in nature. we also know that there are likely going to be hearings around the final reports that they issue, potentially an interim report. definitely around the final report. all of that set to come before the end of the year. what these clips do is they further flesh out that this idea of stealing an election,

declaring that you won, even if you don't know you did, is something that had been percolating in the trump orbit well before january 6. the committee also could go down the road after bringing us up in the time line prior, during those july hearings, to the day of january 6. they could go further, trying to show why this threat to democracy is still very palpable in that trump himself is still out on the campaign trail pushing the idea that an election that he lost was actually stolen from him and trying to make it so that other election deniers across the country are more legitimate when they say that in standing closer to him. again, each member is going to have a section of the hearing that they are in charge of. each of them having a role to play as they go into what my sources tell me is likely the last hearing that we see from this committee until before election day. >> i've been told by people involved with the committee that they are not going to finish. no way. they have so much material. they will not finish when this

congress expires. presuming the likelihood that -- we don't know what's going to happen in the election. certainly, the strong possibility that republicans take over and get rid of all of this. in fact, start investigating the democrats. what's going to happen? we heard dick durbin of the senate judiciary tell chuck todd that they can't support under their rules. even if they keep control of the senate, they need republican buy-in to take over what this committee did. >> reporter: yeah. look. that's why this committee is so determined to get their final report done by the end of the year. each of the questions that i think are still lingering out there for them to answer, what happens, for example, with the five republican congressmen who are going against and ignoring their subpoenas from the committee, what happens around ginni thomas? other depositions they would like to do. decisions around trump and pence.

are they going to call them? all of these questions are ones the committee is still actively grappling with. at the end of the day, when it comes to when does the pen get put down, when do you start drawing conclusions, chairman thompson and others continue to tell me that the end of the year is the deadline that they are thinking about. we also know from the perspective of what the committee is sharing with who, that they don't plan to share with the department of justice until at least after their work is done. that's something that chairman thompson, other members have been clear about. their work is their own, despite the fact that there's clear overlap with doj and the investigations that they're doing. >> julia, let's talk about that. also, your new reporting. great reporting on the secret service. the fact the secret service did in july turn over their cellphones, 24 members of the secret service turned over their cellphones to the inspector general who has been under scrutiny for not doing things sooner. >> it's interesting the way this

conversation has changed. we know at first we were talking about, what is the secret service hiding? text messages are hiding. then we find out that the conversation is changing into what's going on with this investigation. a trump appointee is a dhs inspector general. in late july, he alerted congress that the text messages were missing and he made the probe into this missing text messages criminal. we don't know under what statute he is investigating, what evidence he has of criminal activity. we understand at that time, we are reporting first here, that the secret service leadership took cellphones of 24 ac agents involved on january 6 and handed it over to the inspector general. what has come off of the phones, we don't know. of course, they had that systems upgrade. it shows what a black box this investigation has become. people i talked to inside dhs say there's nothing that the secret service can do to do an

internal audit. they took when they did it. they're not allowed to do their own internal review. more questions about where this investigation is going and will we know the communications shared between secret service agents that day? >> they may be lost forever. >> maybe. we also know from previous january 6 testimony why it's so important to understand what they are saying that day. >> what were they saying to mike pence? >> like to know. >> ali, before i let you go, any update on the stalemate over the legislation that's now in joe manchin's hands which is holding up -- keeping the government open? there has to be agreement on that. >> reporter: exactly right. republicans have long said they want to vote for a continuing resolution to fund the government that's as clean as possible, which is in their words -- their way of saying they want to do it with as few things attached to it. the problem is, chuck schumer and joe manchin in making that agreement on the large climate

and infrastructure bill earlier this summer, they made an agreement to put permitting reform as part of the continuing resolution. now is an interesting trading of the tables where joe manchin actually needs to try to keep some of his democratic colleagues on board with this while he also tries to get republicans on board to the number of 60 that he would need to keep permitting as part of the package. they come back tonight. we will see them do the first procedural step getting on this bill. that's where we see if permitting is able to stay in or if they have to strip it out to fund the government. the senate coming back tonight and we will see the first part of that later. >> we heard tim kaine is a no and bernie sanders is a no. he lost go democrats. >> reporter: as they try to keep republicans on board as well. >> ali vitali, julia ainsley, thanks to both of you. we are waiting for the fema briefing from the white house. you can see reporters are just beginning to come in. any minute now, the fema briefing on the hurricane. we will bring it to you as it

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with six weeks, voters will be choosing among candidates in more than 500 races across the nation. today, we continue our series diving deep on the 25 contests that could decide who is going to control congress as well as the electoral process for the presidency in 2024. back with me again today is senior political editor mark murray. the man with all the answers. our answer man. only one state is on all three lists, house, senate, governor. that's pennsylvania. my favorite state in all of these races.

pennsylvania, "the new york times" is reporting today that the republican governors association is not going to come to the rescue of doug mastriano. very controversial candidate for candidate. >> josh shapiro has a tremendous amount on advertising. that disparity -- dasha burns, our colleague reporting on pennsylvania, has noticed cross-ticket voters. there are some republicans who say, i'm going to vote for oz in the senate race but maybe for shapiro in governor vote. just being the nominee in a major political party, you have a puncher's chance to win. we saw that in 2016 with donald trump and hillary clinton.

>> we did. in pennsylvania, first of all, mastriano, until he was called out by our show and others, on the anti-semitic website he was connected to and using that against josh, who is a jewish person. there's a lot of anti-semitism out there. he is tapping into that. that's not something you will find in the polls. >> it's that issue. it's the election denying as we know when it comes to mmastrian. abortion is a huge factor. whoever is the next governor of pennsylvania, whether it's mastriano or shapiro, will have a big say on the legality and access of abortion after roe v. wade overturning. >> a new poll is indicating election denying is more widespread than at this point even after all the january 6

hearings, they are denying. one out of three? >> it's very consistent. 29% of all americans, including 61% of republicans, don't believe that joe biden was legitimately elected in 2020. regardless of the polling outfit, those numbers have been durable. one in three americans don't think that joe biden won fair and square. a majority of republicans share that same belief. you are right, january 6 and the hearings, we ended up hearing videotape of key donald trump officials saying, we knew we were going to lose, we told the former president that. we knew that there really wasn't any widespread voter fraud that would change results. we heard all of that testimony. i do think the news consumption that republicans are getting, they might not tune in to what's happening on the january 6 or the media that they actually end up getting their news from isn't necessarily conveying all of that testimony that we have all

covered over the last several months. >> they had a lot of women registering in pennsylvania. mastriano would banish abortion. that's an issue. that's another pushback on mastriano. >> overwhelmingly, midterm elections, the party that controls the white house and congress usually uses. their voters aren't as energetic as the opposition. we have seen first from the leak of the dobbs ruling that democratic voters are almost as fired up as republicans. including among women. i think that that is really going to be the demographic we will be following over the next six weeks to go. >> we haven't talked about the house races. we need to do that. you will have to come back again. >> i will be here. >> pennsylvania, the eighth congressional district. >> it's scranton/wilkes-barre. this is a district that donald trump narrowly won in 2020.

a rematch where matt cartwright ended up beating jim bognet. there's a remax again. it's a proxy fight between donald trump and joe biden. biden has been in cartwright. trump the same for bognet. an area where that part of the pennsylvania, northeast, republicans have been doing better and better each election cycle. >> used to be joe biden country and big casey country, father and son. >> see what happens in november. >> pennsylvania. mark murray, thank you so much. court date. the trial beginning today for the founder of the oath keepers and others from the january 6 riot. we will bring you the latest from the courthouse. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. andwh roster ever assembled. next is the new great garlic. the tender rotisserie style chicken is sublime and the roasted garlic aioli adds a lovely pecan flavor. man, the second retirement really changed you.

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at the white house, fema administrators are going to join the daily press briefing. we monitor hurricane alba is a house. this is front and center for the president and his team,

responding to hurricanes. it's a major test of presidential experience and competence. >> reporter: that's right. president biden and his team have been monitoring ian for the last couple of days. over the weekend, the white house did authorize that emergency declaration for 20 counties in florida. what's notable here is, remember the president was actually supposed to be in orlando tonight for a dnc rally and separate event. they canceled the trip over the weekend given the trajectory of this. that's why you have the fema administrator here alongside the white house press secretary to brief reporters on the latest federal efforts and preparations and to take questions on how the coordination is going. we know that the administrator has been the one in very close contact with republican governor ron desantis down in florida over the last couple of days. the administrator was in miami

yesterday surveying some of the prep. again, trying to reiterate that the federal government will be there for whatever is needed and necessary. it was governor desantis who made that emergency declaration request in the first place. the white house says they have granted everything so far that he has asked for when it comes to trying to brace for the impact of ian. as to the question whether president biden himself will speak with governor desantis, that is possible. it's typical when we see natural disasters, of course, for there to be that kind of contact between the white house, the biden administration and statewide officials. so far, we are told that conversation hasn't taken place. it's been at the fema level. it's likely in the coming days the two will speak. in the words of the white house, putting politics aside given the recent controversy and the president calling out governor desantis over the flights of migrants to martha's vineyard. this is all about the learn

response, getting the millions of people to prepare as much as possible in florida as it is expected to make landfall in the next 36 hours or so. >> we remember president obama hugging chris christie in new jersey during super storm sandy. traditionally, politics gets put aside. we will see whether desantis and biden can do that. we remember, of course, the trump reactions in puerto rico and elsewhere to storms. some of the sharp criticism of his responses. thanks, monica. i know you are standing by. we are waiting for the fema briefing in the briefing room. we will come to you when that's about to start. elsewhere in town, jury selection beginning today in the high-profile trial of five oath keepers in their role in the attack on the capitol. the leader and four others are facing charges of seditious

conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding and other things. ryan, first of all, you have 150 potential jurors. this could take a while. if he are in jury selection. what's going on now? >> reporter: it could take a while. with the jury selection, you get a cross-section of d.c. i find fascinating. one woman talked about her son being incarcerated. another woman, former member of the military, had been to the capitol a couple of times. you have another woman who came in and said that she was friends with a lot of journalists. she used to work on the hill. she knew people on the hill. she would have a lot of really hard time putting her feelings about january 6 itself aside were she to be on the jury. she had strong feelings about the oath keepers. that is someone who was easy to

toss out quickly. none of the lawyers posed any questions. as soon as they left out of the room, they said, they dismissed it. she's not a part of the jury. overall, there are a lot of people in d.c., as they learn about the surveys, who don't know a lot about the oath keepers and said they would be impartial jurors in the case and learn the facts as they come in. we have seen juries taking the cases seriously, as based on the questions they have asked. a lot of the trials, there's an ongoing one deliberating right now, there's another one last week. a frantic pace here down at the courthouse for a lot of the january 6 trials. >> ryan, we understand white house briefing is about to start. we will bring that to you. first, let me see if we can bring in ben for the significance of the oath keepers and their connections to this. you have been digging through it. >> reporter: the general counsel for the oath keepers, in this book, it was put out -- he used to work for the january 6

committee. in this book, it details kelly attempting to text the white house switchboard. who was she trying to text? you can't text a land line like that. we looked into this. andrew giuliani is someone she was in touch with in the weeks shortly after the election. they were talking about false allegations of voter fraud and things like that they are trying to determine a nexus between the white house, proud boys, oath keepers. kelly's texts might provide that. >> andrew giuliani is rudy's son and a former candidate in new york and a white house aide at the time. we will get back to you after the briefing. now to the fema administrator. >> make sure we are there to support them and what they need and they can reach out to me, to him any time with any needs they may have in the aftermath of the storm.

a little bit about the storm. as of this morning, ian was upgraded to a category 3 storm. it's moving toward western florida at approximately 12 miles per hour. at this time, we are expecting landfall between ft. myers and tampa. by the time it reaches florida, it will slow down to approximately five miles per hour. this is significant, because what this means is that floridians are going to experience the impacts from this storm for a very long time. i can tell you that our biggest concern as we wait for this storm to make landfall is storm surge. it's a leading cause of fatality. in 2018, when hurricane michael impacted the florida panhandle, there were five recorded fatalities as a result of storm surge. therefore, if people are told to evacuate by their local

officials, please listen to them. the decision you choose to make may mean the difference between life and death. we won't just see storm surge though on the western coast of florida. hurricane ian's path will bring storm surge to the eastern coast. near the daytona to jacksonville area. we will see significant rainfall with the possibility of up to 25 inches in isolated parts of florida. as always, there's a possibility for tornadoes. the main message i have for everyone in florida is that this is going to impact everyone in different ways. you need to stay focused. i did speak with governor desantis on friday to hear his main concerns and his priorities for the response and the preparedness actions. we immediately began moving resources and personnel in. president biden signed governor desantis' emergency declaration request on saturday.

this made sure we were able to immediately start supporting the governor's concerns that he relayed to me. the preparation for this storm has been extensive and it has been coordinated. it has been a coordinated effort between fema, our federal, our state and our non-profit partners. a little bit about some of that forward leaning posture we put in place. search and rescue we know that this is going to be a priority. we have established a search and rescue coordination group that's going to be in miami. it includes members from fema's urban search and rescue teams, coast guard, department of defense, department of the interior as well as the state of florida. these teams are going to coordinate search and rescue efforts by land, by air and by sea. we have also pre-staged 128,000 gallons of fuel for immediate deployment. we have moved a variety of generators of all sizes and types to help restore power to critical infrastructure after the storm passes.

the army corps of engineers has pre-staged 300 personnel to conduct power and fuel assessments as soon as the storm passes. we have 3.7 million meals and 3.5 million liters of water in alabama. there are multiple volunteer organizations that are posture and prepared to support feeding operations as soon as it is safe to do so. the red cross, they have established 29 shelters right now for evacuees. they are prepared to open an additional 60 shelters if needed. we have 200 ambulances from our fema contract that are in the state working side by side with local officials. we have four medical -- federal medical teams on standby. while we are postured and ready to support florida as they prepare for the impacts of hurricane ian, i want to make clear that fema's ongoing support to puerto rico's recovery efforts from hurricane

fiona as well as alaska's recovery is still ongoing. we remain focused on helping puerto rico restore power and water and our staff remain engaged with families to help them through the application process. i'm happy to say just now, the final four municipalities in puerto rico were added for individual assistance. the entire commonwealth has that available. our teams in alaska are helping the state complete damage assessments and addressing emergency repairs as the state is preparing for their near freeze as the winter season approaches. as far as hurricane ian's path, it has become more defined. as with any hurricane, it can still be unpredictable. this means that it is more important than ever that communities inside and outside of that projected path that you see, that you stay vigilant. my message to those who may be watching at home, get ready and

do not underestimate the potential that this storm can bring. know where you are going to get your information. listen to your local officials and heed their advice. they are trying to keep you safe. have a plan to communicate with your family. finally, fema and our partners are here. we are ready. we are focused on meeting the needs of those we are charged to serve. we need the help of everyone that we are charged -- everyone at home to be as prepared as they can be. i am confident we have the right team in place as we work this emergency response to hurricane ian and together we have the capability to meet whatever threats may come our way. >> a couple questions. >> thank you. you mentioned puerto rico. there are 750,000 customers without power in puerto rico. you authorized just in june $600

million, i believe, for rebuilding the power grid there. something like $10 billion approved back in 2020. what's the status of the effort to try to rebuild puerto rico's power grid? had any of that taken place before this? >> i was just in puerto rico maybe about three weeks ago checking on the recovery from hurricane maria. what i saw when i was there is one cohesive team between the commonwealth of puerto rico and the federal family that has been really focused on all of the recovery efforts, but primarily the power restoration. when we were there just last week, checking on the impacts from hurricane fiona, what i saw there is they were putting power back on as quickly as they could. the important piece and what stood out to me is i saw them as they were repairing the downed power poles, they were bringing back more resilient. putting them back with more resilient poles to withstand

future impacts. we are working with the governor in his efforts to make sure we can rebuild this grid in a way that's actually going to be more resilient for future impacts. >> how long do you think it will take to rebuild? >> i think that we have done a lot of work in making sure that we have taken the time right now to do the plans -- the commonwealth has to do the plans to make sure as they are rebuilding, it's more resilient. i think that the time -- will get back to you on the time frame. it takes time. recovery never is as fast as anybody wants it to be. we will extradite it. >> has the administration waved the jones act to allow a diesel ship to dock there in puerto rico? >> we are committed to doing everything that we can within our legal authority to support the people of puerto rico. we know that the jones act waiver is one of the things. we have a legal obligation to

ensure that each waiver request meets the legal requirements of congress. any final determination on that will be made by the secretary of homeland security. >> given the pressure from the governor and the puerto ricans in the territory, what time frame should they anticipate that decision should be made given the urgent need? >> they are working on that approval or consideration right now. i don't have a time frame for you right now. >> curiosity, we spoke to several mayors down there. they said there was complacency. first question is, complacency, the second, you have spoken to the governor of the state, is there a scheduled call to speak? >> i do have concerns about complacency. we are talking about impacts in a part of florida that hasn't seen a major direct impact in nearly 100 years. there's also parts of florida where there's a lot of new residents that have never

experienced this type of threat. my message to them is still, take this very seriously. listen to your local officials. those floridians that have been through this before, help your neighbors that may have not had to go through this. heeding the advise of your local officials is most important. the president directed me to contact the governor early on before we even did the declaration. i did that. my regional administrator is with the governor making sure we are understanding what the needs are. our focus is on the current life safety needs that need to be met. >> the fema administrator explaining that the regional administrator for fema is with the governor desantis right now. in response to peter alexander of nbc saying, president biden has been in touch with the mayors of ft. myers and clearwater and tampa. the mayors but not with the governor. there's the political situation there.

so far, they are doing that at the regional fema level. it's a category 3 moving at 125 miles an hour. rather, the storm is 125 miles an hour moving at 12 miles per hour. it's expected over landfall tomorrow to slow down to five miles per hour. this storm is going to be very serious for floridians for quite some time. it's not only the west coast of florida, she said, that is going to experience storm surge but also east coast from daytona to jacksonville. all of florida will be affected by this storm. get ready. go going back to the only keepers trial. ryan and ben, you were talking about the jury selection. david, you are an expert litigator. talk to me about choosing a jury for this kind of trial. in washington, d.c., which is

the place most directly affected by what happened on january 6. >> absolutely. the timing is interesting. i was teaching this to a group of students last week. i told them, it's not jury selection, it's jury de-selection. you are not picking who should serve. you are picking who shouldn't serve. based on what we know, the oath keepers have lost this trial, because they have lost jury selection. they may not know it yet. here is why i say that. if you look at what's happened during pre-trial, lawyers have a right to say, we think some people shouldn't serve becaused on their questionnaire. they were able to agree on 13 people. the only keepers wanted to challenge an additional 72 people. the judge said, i will give you 16. what that means is for every four or five that they identify as being bad for them, they are getting one struck. you may want to think about cutting a deal.

>> ben, you and ryan, have that exclusive reporting that kelly texted andrew giuliani in november of 2020. what do we know about that? she's seen in that garage video, of course, from the garage on the eve of the attack. >> that's the big, scary thing. that garage video is her with the proud boys. that's the first time that people generally knew about these two groups meeting up and planning together for anything. that was the day before january 6. we know those two groups colluded. did they have a link with the white house? they did hang out with, talk to, plan with and were around roger stone in the days before. we do know that. did they have a more direct connection? our reporting reports to some of them talking to andrew giuliani. in the days and weeks before

january 6, did they have a more direct line? that's something that remains to be seen. >> ben, ryan and david, thanks to all of you. former trump chief of staff mark meadows is scheduled to appear before a grand jury in atlanta today. including, former president trump, then president trump, asking georgia's secretary of state to find those 11,780 votes, so he could beat joe biden in the state. joining us now, blayne alexander at the courthouse, jonathan lemire, and glen kirschner. do we know whether meadows showed up? >> reporter: the short answer is no, we don't know. this is a grand jury. it's a secretive process. we have been watching all of the

entrances all day long. we haven't seen him walk in. there is that underground entrance where vehicles can enter. we have no way of knowing whether or not he actually used that entrance. as for what the d.a. wants to hear from him, she's laid out several things. at the top of the that list is information about that now infamous phone call that former president trump made to secretary of state making him to find enough votes to overturn the election results here in georgia. we know meadow was on that phone call during the more than hour-long phone call he spoke up several times. it's something we know the da wants to ask about. but we know she wants to hear about anybody who has insight into the former president's mind settle. she's going to ask about the conditions that led up to that phone call. the setting up of that phone call, really anything that has to do with that infamous call. i think it's important to point out the timeline. we're looking at a week or so, a

little more than a week until this entire process is going to take a hiatus. just going to shut down for awhile. election is going to begin here in georgia. we're eyeing october 7 when people can start casting their abc ballots. that's the same time they are going to put a pause on this. we're not going to see anymore witnesses or subpoenas because she doesn't want to give the appearance of influencing the election. >> one universal truth, whether it's a georgia state proceeding or a federal proceeding is if you don't show up for a grand jury subpoena, unlike a congressional subpoena, you will will get locked up. prosecutors will apply to the judge who has vise ri authority over the the grand jury for a bench warrant to enforce the subpoena. they will send law enforcement out to get mark meadows. unless he has a legitimate excuse, a medical emergency, but

then ordinarily his attorney would reach out to the prosecutors and reschedule the appearance. so we're still waiting to see if he complies, even though we know that he did not comply with the january 6th congressional committee. make he likes his odds of nothing being held accountable. >> you wrote about the big lie in the book about the central role of measuring meadows. why he's so important. and also he would have been important to the january 6th committee. >> there's no question about that. he was the president's last chief of staff. he was chief of staff on election day 2020. the time in between then and january 6th and we know he was heavily involved. he was being lobbied by ginni thomas, to keep fighting to overturn the election.

he had conversations with those in that war room who were trying to scheme ways to overturn the election. we know he was in and out of the oval office when the likes of michael flynn were floating and completely false conspiracy theories in terms of what had happened. they claim torks votes and what could be done about it. he was there with trump himself on january 6th. one of the many voices trying to get trump to call off the rioters, who were committing violence in his name. meadow was also the one getting text messages from trump's children to fox news personalties urging him to step in and get the president to do something. he did not listen. so he is a great sbrast interest to all sorts of investigators, including those in georgia. >> fullton county, he went down there and intervened with the state legislatures trying to get them to overturn the election. >> he did. we talk a lot about the phone call he was on, the find the

11,780 votes phone call. december 22nd, he went down there uninvited, unannounced and tried to assert himself in an audit of absentee ballot. thanks for coming, we're not going to getlet you in. this is not a public proceeding. and they sent him away. but it would sure be nice to know the back story of how it is. the chief of staff of the president of the united states shows up in georgia unannounced to try to watch an election audit. >> that's certainly one of the questions you'd expect they'd be asking. before we let you go, let's talk about tomorrow. the january 6th hearing is not going to include witnesses, but you are going to see, we expect, that documentary on roger stone and roger stone connected to some of these conspiracy theorists, fellow conspiracy

theorists and talking about violence before the election. >> yeah, it's extraordinary. we played some of that this morning, where stone very bluntly, and using coarse language, basically says to hell with the process, let's go right to the violence. if needed, trump should get out there and claim victory. as he put it, if california and he's lost, say, no, that's not the case. say you won. station armed guards in front of the capitol. don't let electors in there. he was so up front here in the days before the election, before november of 2020 saying this is what trump should do. he is later offered an explanation that he was joking or his comments were somewhat manipulated in this documentary. there's to evidence of that whatsoever. so that would just with be a piece of away we see tomorrow. organizers keeping the proceedings close to the vest.

we suspect they have some surprises in store. >> jonathan lemire, thank you so much. the book is "the big lie." and thanks to all. that does it for this decision of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow us online, on facebook and on twitter. tomorrow be with us when katy tur, hallie jackson and i host the special coverage of the january 6th committee hearing. "chris jansing reports" starts right after this. "chris jansing reports" starts right after this no, he's seizing the moment with merrill. moving his money into his investment account in real time and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. before we begin, i'd like to thank our sponsor, liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. and by switching, you could even save $652. thank you, liberty mutual. now, contestants ready? go!

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good day. i'm chris jansing live in new york city. and across the southern end of florida at this hour, the tension is building because that monster hurricane maybe just hours away. hurricane ian actually weaked a little bit as it crossed over cuba, but it's still a category 3 storm moving into the gulf of mexico and heading for florida's west coast. more specifically, right now it does look like it's headed for tampa, potentially the first hurricane to hit that city head on since 1921. but make no mistake. the whole state is bracing for this. across florida, shelters are open, schools are closed, thousands are evacwaiting and millions more are on edge