old grizzled admiral stavridis to the front lines at this point. that's how desperate they are. bottom line, this does not auger well for his efforts. i'll include this. that kind of outflow for the personnel is not only a loss of manpower and productivity, it's a huge brain drain. these are going to be the smart people, the ones who access the internet, who understand what's going on, they're not going back to russia. >> i'll say this. putin would be lucky to have you. former admiral commander james stavridis. thank you for getting up way too early on this friday morning and all weekend long. "morning joe" starts right now. i was afraid it was going to come through the roof and crush me. >> there's debris everywhere. my yard looks like a war zone, you know, it looks disastrous. >> i came here in the mid-'70s.

i was on the police department for 25 years, saw a lot of storms here. this is by far the worst storm i have ever witnessed. >> i promise you, i'm never going to sit through another storm ever again here. i am one of the lucky ones. >> just some of the survivors of hurricane ian after the storm decimated wide sections of florida, and now the storm is on track to make a second u.s. landfall threatening the carolinas and georgia. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe," it is friday, september 30th. joe is off this morning, but we'll get right to the latest with ian. intensing into a hurricane again, heading to south carolina after leaving a trail of devastation in florida. it is expected to make landfall near charleston around noon today as a category 1 storm. the national hurricane center is warning it could unleash life threatening storm surge, floods and strong winds.

a state of emergency is in place for the carolinas, georgia and virginia. the damage from hurricane ian is coming into clearer view in southwest florida. at least 12 people have been killed across the state due to the storm with president joe biden warning it could be the deadliest hurricane in state history. officials say some of the hardest hit areas are fort myers, sanibel and fort myers. homes are wiped out. >> 2 million people still are without electricity across florida this morning. officials say the electric grid for lee and charlotte counties will have to be completely rebuilt. cell service is also down for the majority of the area, and many people don't have access to the internet. this video shows a section of the causeway linking sanibel island to florida's mainland has been destroyed and washed away. let's go to naples, florida.

that's where we find nbc's chris pollone. how are things looking there this morning? >> reporter: yeah, willie, it's going to be another day of assessing damage and cleaning up here in southwest florida. it's really remarkable, the winds of mother nature, when you come into a disaster zone like naples here, some streets have power and driving down them you really wouldn't know there's a storm, and then you turn a corner and you see homes wiped away, you see boats in yards, trees down, power lines down, broken glass everywhere. it's really just an incredible dichotomy and as you go up the coast, that's what you see, all the way, another 40, 50 miles up the coast of fort myers, and fort myers beach and further on where the storm made landfall. you mentioned sanibel. yesterday, search and rescue teams were combing the entire region, trying to figure out if

people who called during the heart of the storm. saying they were trapped, seeing if they were still in their homes. that was what was going on in sanibel island because that island was completely cut off. it only has one road, a causeway that goes on to the island. that bridge has been destroyed and the coast guard was running helicopters over to the island. they were also taking boats over there. they found a lot of residents who were trapped who wanted to be rescued and brought back to the mainland. others said we're okay, we'll ride this out until we figure something else out. another day of clean up and damage assessment. >> those pictures from the sky this morning are just extraordinary and difficult to take in. nbc's chris pollone in naples, florida, thank you so much, we appreciate it. a big concern, hospitals in florida working to restore services and protect their patients amid power outages and critical disruptions to water supplies. at least 16 facilities across the state have been evacuated or

now are in the process of moving patients, according to the ceo of the hospital association. nine hospitals are without water. several hospitals were forced to move patients to other floors as wind and rain flooded wards. the ceo of lee health one of the largest hospital systems in the country gave an update on the dire situation the florida health system is facing. >> two of our hospitals do not have running water, and as you can imagine, we cannot take care of patients without running water. not only do we have four adult hospitals, we have a children's hospital in one of our hospitals. we're going to have to transfer also. >> joining us now, emergency room physician at tampa general hospital, dr. jason wilson. thank you for being on with us. first of all, how did tampa general fare for hurricane ian. >> we were very prepared and fortunate compared to our neighbors down south. our team members are all down

here and the aqua fence was up and we had little damage. we're trying to assist other hospital asks making sure their patient can stay safe and get them here if needed. >> tell us how you're able to help at this point. we understood there were nine hospitals in lee county without water. one hospital that had significant damage. what kind of needs are you able to meet to help other hospitals that bear the brunt of this hurricane. >> this is where fortunately relationships and networks really pay off. we have a transferred network built throughout the state of florida in the central florida area, we're a large care hospital. we receive transfers from lee all the time. our neighbors down south in punta gorda, we're well equipped and understand how to bring in transfers. with trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, any type of specialty you could imagine. we heard the ceo mention nicu, we have the ability to transfer

those patients here as well. we're working hard to get those patients here if needed. >> you're transferring patients right now. how many patients are you taking in and from where? >> i can't comment on specific numbers. i don't know where we're at right now. we're always bringing patients into the area, and specifically areas hardest hit. our ceo is working with other ceos to do those transfers, especially lee county. >> thank you for taking time with us today. i'm curious, it sounds like you fared well and dodged a bullet as the hurricane turns off. can you describe what some of the hospitals are going through. shorthand, they had to evacuate their hospitals but my gosh, that is quite an understanding, what does that look like for the hospitals that have had to do that in the last couple of days. >> i'm sure they were prepared, but not quite as prepared as we were. we were in the warning area,

they were in the watch area. there's a level difference how you activate and get ready. the ccr aqua fence, we were barricaded in. we came into the hospital tuesday evening and most of us stayed here well into thursday afternoon and thursday night, ready to take care of patients, just to get people understanding, when an icu patient is being cared for, it's a one-to-one nursing ratio with a team of physicians taking care of that patient. there's pumps that are plugged in. electronic pumps delivering medications 24 hours a day. there's a ventilator delivering breathing, critical things the patient must have to live. they require power supplies. these hospitals have generators, but the manpower it takes to care for one patient is intense. thinking about one patient, and an icu unit, 10 to 14 patients, that's going to require a large amount of manpower to safely

move the patients out of the unit. >> you mentioned the aqua fence and we put up a picture. you all at tampa general have taken extraordinary measures in the next decade to change the way you think about defending yourselves against hurricanes. can you explain a little bit about what that is, if we might see it at other hospitals and some of the other things you might have done to protect your hospital. >> our hospital is on an island, hillsboro bay in tampa. in 1985 there was flooding in a low level area. a lot of lessons learned from there, made the generators move to the top of the hospital. the emergency department sits over the hundred year floodplain high up in the air, and you see this aqua fence which can take on 15 feet of storm surge and over 100 miles per hour of wind. it's held up well. we tested it in 2020 and prevented quite a bit of flooding when the rest of the

area had flooding. we feel good about our ability to maintain power. there's a power supply at the hospital itself, and we know we can ride out these storms for a long period of time in a safe way for our patients and our team members. >> emergency room physician at tampa general hospital, dr. jason wilson, thank you very much for being on this morning, taking the time. and more than 2 million people in florida lost power due to hurricane ian. more than 900,000 residents in tampa alone. power companies are working to try and get the power back on amid major rescue efforts that are still underway, and clean up operations as well. joining us now, spokesperson for tampa electric, sherry jacobs, i guess, first of all, thank you for being on. how many people are without power as far as you guys can tell? >>. >> as of this morning, we have 185 customers who are remaining

without power. in the last 24 hours, we have restored 100,000 of our customers. >> and what's been the damage to infrastructure. what's the most challenging part in terms of getting everyone back online, everyone's power back, some areas are going to need a little bit more of just getting the power back on perhaps infrastructure being rebuilt. >> so comparatively to our friends in the south, we were so lucky. the original track of the storm had a big bulls eye on the tampa bay area. it did turn south. our damage comparatively is not as bad as expected. some areas with localized flooding. our infrastructure fared better than we initially anticipated. >> so how long for people who are tampa electric customers to

get their power back, all of them. >> i know that the very anticipated question for the folks who don't have power. we're working around the clock. we brought in 3,000 workers from other states, as far away as oklahoma and indiana. we are working as fast and quick and as safely as we can to get folks' power back on. we have estimates on when we can get the last customers restored. >> we're talking days, weeks, do we know? >> yeah, so days, not weeks. luckily for us, it's sort of restoration. >> a spokesperson for tampa electric, sherry jacobs, thank you very much. willie. >> it's not just florida's west coast that experienced that record flooding. in orlando and other central cities, cars and homes fully submerged the parts of orlando were hit with a foot and a half of rain. video shows people trying to escape to dry land by boat.

across orange county several nursing homes had to be evacuated, many residents being taken by boats. let's bring in meteorologist michelle grossman to talk about where this storm is headed now. this is just extraordinary, you had this massive hurricane moving to the west coast, go down to a tropical storm over florida, and now reconstituting and becoming a hurricane again making its way up the atlantic. >> yeah, i know, and all of those images are devastating, they're heartbreaking. we saw a tropical storm for 13 hours, jumped into the atlantic and regained strength. later on today, the landfall is expected between myrtle beach and charleston. it remains a strong storm, a powerful storm, and we are looking at a tough day in portions of the carolinas today. here are the latest stats, looking at 85 miles per hour winds. that is strong.

we're looking at moving at northeast at 9 miles per hour. as we go throughout the hours here today. the location not far from charleston, 145 miles south, southeast of charleston. and you can see on radar, already seeing that heavy rain. most of the rain is on the northern edge, we're seeing that already. where you see brighter colors, the reds, oranges, yellows, that's where we're seeing the heavy rains falling. north carolina, south carolina and a bit of georgia seeing that as well. as a result, we do have a flood watch. that is ingrained for portions of virginia, north carolina, south carolina, and georgia. also looking at those flash flood warnings. that means flooding is happening at this moment. where we see the red, that's where we see the flooding happening. we saw that on radar, where we see the darker colors. 15 million impacted by the flood alerts. we're concerned for life threatening flooding, storm surge once again, it has been such a water story with ian, and will continue to be so. 13 million people impacted by

tropical alerts today. where you see the red, that is a hurricane warning. we're expecting hurricane conditions later on today in south carolina, charleston, myrtle beach, all up and down the island. so here's that storm surge threat. it was such a devastating scene in florida. we're seeing images upon images of what storm surge can do. the power and ferocity of water. we're concerned about that today. probably around georgetown, south carolina, the timing, late afternoon into evening. we're going to see high tides early this morning around 11:00 in myrtle beach. and later on tonight. those are the two times that we're going to watch because that's going to raise that sea rise. what storm surge is a wallop on the ocean, very powerful and creates a lot of problems. here's the impact of rainfall. lots of rainfall across the area, stretching from the carolinas into the mid atlantic and portions of the northeast. we could see up to a foot of rain still with this storm.

we're going to be watching it closely. we're watching the threat for severe storms. back to you. >> you're talking about heavily populated areas, too. charleston, myrtle beach, and beautiful places in the country. we hope they do well. i'm curious, in your experience, how unusual is this or extraordinary is it to see a storm like this start in one body of water in the gulf of mexico, go overland, become a tropical storm and come back as strong as it has in the atlantic ocean, an entirely different body of water. >> you know, we've seen so many rarities. the atlantic to the pacific, back to the atlantic. with this storm, i think what stood out, it stood out as a weak storm and then just rapidly intensified. we don't see that that often and that is a connection to climate change. we're looking at the waters being warmer, being warmer a little bit further north. that's what we're seeing. it holds a lot of water. when the atmosphere is warmer,

we can hold a lot more water. that's why we're seeing this story being about the water. it's all about the sea rise and fresh water falling. that's the problem, and it's becoming more and more normal. that's a problem too. >> and a problem also we'll look ahead, michelle, but whether or not insurance companies cover damage due to storm surge versus the storm. doesn't seem fair. meteorologist michelle grossman, thank you very much. and still ahead on "morning joe," we're going to speak with the secretary of homeland security, alejandro mayorkas, about the federal response to hurricane ian. plus, the latest from russia and ukraine, vladimir putin admits mistakes in the way russia's recent military draft is being carried out while also taking a key step in the process of annexing part of ukraine. we'll have reaction from president biden and the trump appointed judge overseeing the special master in the documents case. the fbi might have planted

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we'll have the latest on the hurricane in just a few minutes. first we go to russia where russian president vladimir putin appears to be acknowledging mistakes in how his draft has been carried out. the "new york times" reports his comments came during a televised address to the country this week, stopping short of recognizing whether he himself made mistakes, putin said the draft had raised many questions. specifically he talked about citizens who were wrongly drafted despite being eligible for deferments, including fathers of three or more children. men with chronic diseases or men above military age. putin added quote those who were called out without proper reason should be returned home. the concessions are believed to

be linked to the massive and frequent public protests russia is currently experiencing as its war on ukraine escalates and more russian citizens try to flee the country. i think maybe, willie, it's possible putin got the message that some people in his country are not buying this war. >> yeah, a little bit of a crack in the facade for putin. we'll see what it means. he signed those decrees yesterday recognizing the independence of two ukrainian regions, kherson and zaporizhzhia. putin is expected to announce those moves today. the annexation follows a series of what the west is calling sham referendums where the 95% of the vote favors joining russia, often at gunpoint. putin has previously warned of a nuclear response if any threat is made against its own land.

that could include four ukrainian regions after they're annexed. president biden yesterday addressed russia's plans. >> the united states will never, never never recognize russia's claims on ukraine's sovereign territory. the so called referenda was a sham, an absolute sham, and the results were manufactured in moscow. and true will of the ukrainian people is evident every day as they sacrificed their lives to save their people and maintain the independence their country. russia's assault on ukraine is a flagrant violation of the u.n. charter and the basic principles of sovereign territory. >> that's president biden in washington. joining us richard haass, and white house bureau at "politico," and author of "the

big lie," jonathan lemire. the beard is incredibly strong on a friday morning. let's put that to the side. i can't not mention it. it's right there in front of me. >> that's a good point. >> let's talk about more serious matters and russia, and the ceremony today that putin's going to hold in red square, a mission accomplished ceremony. we brought the four regions home. our mission to bring them back has been a success and here we are celebrating that. where are we right now with vladimir putin? fold in the nord stream pipeline, annexation, sham votes, call up of 300,000 reservist, what's the state of play. >> russia continues to slowly lose territory. ukraine is gradually clawing it back. so what we're seeing on the russian side are responses to it, the political one with the

referendum, the annexations, the illusion of gain against the reality of loss. you have the sabotage against the pipelines, you have a return to what we call indiscriminate shelling or intense personal shelling of civilian areas. the russians can't win military on military. so they're turning to an entire other set of tools or responses to try to change the narrative at home, to try to weaken western support for ukraine, and that's where the threats of nuclear use come in. so this is, i think, what we can expect to see for the foreseeable future. >> and jonathan lemire, let's talk about the white house reaction, it appears president biden keeping that strong, clear focused message about russia. >> yeah, certainly president biden has not wavered in his support for kyiv as well as keeping that alliance together to do so even as europe stands ready to be tested by a cold, dark winter, and we saw the far right wing candidate come to power in italy. it's also a bipartisan support.

there's been even domestically, very few cracks in the facade. senators grant and blumenthal announced the measures that would have real sanctions and punishments for any country that did recognize those territories as part of russia here. so now they're standing firm. richard, there was some speculation early in the war that putin might do something like this, try to claim some sort of victory and use it as an off ramp. we got what we wanted to do and we'll leave now. that has tamped down. people think this is rather him locking in russia into the combat. why you think the nord stream pipeline believed to be moscow links so importantly. >> i don't think it's an off ramp because i don't think either side is thinking of off ramps. i don't see the raw material for diplomatic compromise here. the minimum russia can accept,

ukraine is not willing to give anything like that up. there's no overlap. diplomats could work 24/7, they would have zero to show for it. both sides are settling in for a long war, not just through the winter but long beyond. i think this is going to stretch on, and we need to set our internal clocks to that. the reason i think it's sabotage is putin understands that europe is moving away from gas, oil dependency on him. that's already happened. actually more has happened in the last two months than people realize. putin didn't have a lot to lose. his exports in the future are not going to be to europe. they're going to be in other directions, india, china, build the infrastructure on gs to do it. it's his way to maximize the pain this winter. he's hoping this winter could be a critical breakthrough, the italian elections, maybe putting extra energy pressure on europe to get europe to crack, to

reduce support for ukraine. i don't think he's going to succeed, but that's what i think this is about. he's essentially taking gamble to maximize chances for european this winter. i don't think it's going to work. >> we reported on another explosion of the nord stream pipeline in a different place. that's four totally. that's some coincidence. if there is no off ramp. if vladimir putin doesn't have a place to say diplomatically, we can settle this, and i can feel like i have gained something, and i have won this war that's gone so poorly for me. where does that leave him, ukraine, and the west. what's in between him admitting defeat, and getting something out of this. >> i don't see him ever voluntarily admitting defeat. i think at some point, he needs to have a narrative that this has all been worth it, to use an old phrase of pat moynahan's, he'll define success down, and maybe it would be that he can keep these provinces in the east

and in the south, the four provinces plus crimea. i think there's zero chance on god's green earth that any ukrainian leader would accept that. that would be political suicide. it's just not on. so i don't think he has a strategy. i think his feeling is, less bargaining chips, he wants to sit on the areas and see what happens. again, it's easier for both sides, willie, to play a long game here. it's much tougher for either side to sign an agreement. they would have to admit they didn't get what they wanted, what they say they need. we're looking at a long war. it might not be as intense as we've seen, the pace of the battle, the intensity of battle, the scale of losses will dial down as we get to winter. i think over time, again, it feeds a long war scenario. this has gone on for eight years. if you think of this as something less as something that began in february. and started eight years.

>> the continuation of the war in ukraine, the escalation, and the huge story in the united states with the hurricane, the death of a woman in the hands of the morality police in iran for not wearing a hijab there have been massive protests including many women. do you think this will move the meter at all in terms of modernization of the morality related issues in iran? >> the short answer is i don't think a lot, mika. the base of support for the regime is not urban women. it's much more conservative and rural. what's interesting, though, is this is a much more significant widespread pushback against the regime. the economy is not doing well, at a time the supreme leader is on his death bed based on all reports. iran faces multiple challenges. it doesn't look like the nuclear deal with the united states is going to happen, which would

have transferred a lot of resources to iran. i think they're battening down the hatches. i don't see much of a positive future there. the iran is we're more likely to get, and they're going to be focused on maintaining control at home in this conservative, repressive order and expanding their footprint around the region, focusing most recently obviously on iraq, continuing syria, continuing in lebanonment it's an imperial iran strategy and they're going to do what they have to do to keep the lid on at home at the same time. >> richard haass, thank you very much for coming on this morning, and i think it looks very arudite. >> i have one number, 62. >> the wife of a supreme court justice meets with the january

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southeast of the port of charleston, south carolina, and moving east at 9 miles per hour. officials are warning about hurricane conditions along the carolina coast with flooding rains extending into southwestern virginia. amid all the destruction, the heartbreak, the pain we have been showing you for the last couple of days, there has been more of what we often see during these hurricanes, neighbors helping each other. nbc nightly news anchor lester holt has the story of floridians working to help each other. >> reporter: in our darkest moments we sometimes struggle to find the light but it was at first light that the helpers came. >> tell me when you need help. >> reporter: volunteers and first responders raced into flood waters pulling people from submerged cars and homes. during a live broadcast from naples, australian cameraman glenn ellis rushed to help a family struggling to walk through flood waters.

>> we're just helping some people through the water here. that's our camera operator. >> reporter: in orlando that piggy back of a lifetime for a local reporter for a nurse whose car became stuck on the way to work. and it's not just people who are in need to have assistance. a shivering cat rescued from rising waters and this good boy was carried out of the waves and wind, help is coming from far and wide. >> i've come down here to check the area. >> reporter: deputy jason patch is from york town, virginia, he came across a man stranded on the roof of his truck. hi called for help and an airboat was dispatched and while we are just scratching the surface of the heart ache and damage that ian inflicted, time and time again, we are seeing humanity at its best. >> lester holt reporting. we always marvel at the heroism shown by first responders and regular people helping out after these storms. when we come back, we will take a turn to politics before we

continue our coverage of hurricane ian, and it is a hurricane again now as it makes its way to the southeast coast of south carolina and north carolina as well. ginni thomas, the wife of clarence thomas, supreme court justice thomas did sit before the january 6th committee yesterday continuing to make claims that the 2020 election was stolen. we'll have more when we come right back on "morning joe." moe right back on "morning joe." shingles. some describe it as an intense burning sensation or an unbearable itch. this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks. it could make your workday feel impossible. the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside of you.

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about three and a half hours. thomas didn't answer any questions from reporters but

here's what chairman bennie thompson said about the interview last night. >> did she express her belief that the election was still stolen, that she believed that? >> yes. >> can you characterize what she is not answering, what she's refusing to answer? you're saying she believes the 2020 election was stolen. >> thomas first came under scrutiny for sending text messages to mark meadows encouraging then president trump not to concede the 2020 election. in her opening statement to the committee yesterday, she said her husband justice thomas was quote completely unaware of my texts with mark meadows until this committee leaked them to the press. her attorney also issued a statement yesterday arguing that her activities relating to the 2020 election were quote minimal. willie, just the fact that she's still an election denier is

staggering to me. it defies every court ruling. fair to say it defies logic at this point. >> yeah, and a proud one as well. we've seen some humility from other people who have been called in front of that panel realizing that now that the screws are being turned, it's time to admit what's true, that joe biden won the 2020 presidential election. not her, in fact, emerged proudly from the long deposition smiling and proud of her position on that. let's bring in gene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist. she has been an influential player in washington for a long time as you know, as evidenced by her direct access to the white house, text messages we've all seen now with the white house chief of staff mark meadows, pushing him, imploring him to not concede the election and have donald trump hold strong and not concede.

she was at the have of this effort to try to stage a coup effectively against the united states government and holding strong to that position which raises all of those questions again about justice thomas and whether he should recuse himself from anything around the 2020 election. >> yeah, apparently she still believes, willie, and if you had asked me a few years ago about ginni thomas, i would have said she is a far right republican activist, but i would have sort of left it there. now she just appears just to be part of the demented fringe, really. just so far out there that she can't see reality anymore. the idea, you know, she is the wife of a supreme court justice. the idea that someone that close to the pinnacle of judicial power in this country does not

believe in our justice system, does not believe in results of more than 60, you know, court cases, or more than 60 judges looking at this question of, as if there were a question about the 2020 election and saying, no, this is garbage. this is ridiculous. none of these claims is true, and she rejects all of that. that is irrational is not a strong enough word for it. i just keep coming back to demented. it just doesn't make any sense. >> we certainly know, mika, that some on the right who embraced the idea that the 2020 election was rigged, of course a false claim, you know, did so for a while and eventually have moved on. she hasn't. she is still saying this now, and let's remember, this isn't just her saying yesterday on january 6th, this isn't just her

texting with mark meadows saying keep up the fight, she was working with state legislatures, pushing two different states, wisconsin and arizona to seat alternate false set of electors to try to overturn joe biden's win. she is into this up to her neck, and supreme court justice clarence thomas, i know she claims that there's a wall between the two of them, and they don't speak about this sort of stuff. let's remember he was the one dissenting voice in the trump case about keeping the documents at mar-a-lago, and many lawmakers, democrats have called him to recuse himself for trump related efforts going forward. it's hard not to be really worried about the implications of ginni thomas's beliefs. >> i mean, how is that minimal? how is that minimal impact and involvement in the 2020 election. it seems like a flat out lie given everything you've just said, but of course we'll see what happens as this progresses.

her testimony and her time with the committee sounds like it was very interesting. we'll be following it. we've got a lot to cover this morning pertaining to hurricane ian as it heads up the carolinas to virginia. states of emergency have been declared. we'll take a look at the front page newspapers across the country including a controversial decision from the fda on a drug to treat als. also ahead, a moment that was tough to watch last night in cincinnati, the quarterback for the miami dolphins carted off the field after a head injury. we'll explain why some are questioning whether he should have been on the field at all. "morning joe" is back in a moment. t aall. "morning joe" is back in a moment the tenth pick is in the new all-american club.

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. welcome back to "morning joe," 54 past the hour. a live look at myrtle beach, south carolina. of course the carolinas now

bracing for tropical storm ian, all the way up to virginia. states of emergency have been declared. this is not over yet as we haven't even begun to assess the damage in southwest florida. we'll be continuing to follow that throughout the show this morning. it's time now for a look at the morning papers. in missouri, the fulton sun reports that six republican-led states are suing the biden administration in an effort to halt its plan to forgive student loan debt. according to court documents, the republican states argue the administration's plan is not tailored to address the effects of the pandemic on student loan borrowers. it is at least the second legal challenge this week to the proposal laid out by biden last month. in massachusetts, "the boston globe" leads with the fda's decision to approve an experimental treatment drug for als or lou gehrig's disease. the newly approved therapy is designed to slow the disease by

protecting nerve cells in the brain. and spinal cord. the fda's decision was based on a single clinical trial that showed people who took the drug lived about ten months longer than those who did not. to california now, where the record search light reports an increasing number of fake prescription pills are helping drive overdose rates to record levels in the u.s. in the last five months, federal and state officials around the country seized more than 10 million fentanyl pills and hundreds of pounds of powder. according to the gazette, iowans struggling with opioid addiction will soon have access to expanded treatment and recovery support services under new federal funding. the state will receive $9 million in opioid response recovery money as part of the biden administration's nationwide effort to help states combat the opioid epidemic.

it will allow states to invest in opioid education, and increase accessibility to overdose drugs. there was a highly anticipated nfl game last night. miami dolphins quarterback, tu tua, you can see his head violently hit the ground as he's sacked in the second quarter. this is hard to watch. the quarterback's arms and fingers seemed to seize up immediately. he was taken off the field on a stretcher after laying on the field for almost ten minutes. after the game, the team's twitter account posted that tua was expected to be released from the hospital and fly home with the team. this morning, we've learned that he was, in fact, discharge from the hospital. many are asking whether tua should have been playing at all given what happened just five days ago. this is on sunday against the bills, to his head hitting the

turf after he was pushed to the ground. you can see here, he gets up wobbling and stumbles down to the ground before going in the locker room. the doctors said it was a lower back injury, and not a concussion, and tua was allowed to finish the game. the nfl players association responded by saying it is launching an investigation into the dolphins handling of concussion protocols. the nfl pa wished tua a speedy recovery and said its investigation is ongoing. nbc has reached out to both the dolphins organization and to the nfl for comment overnight. jonathan lemire, this is very very difficult to watch, and when you put those two pieces of video together, you watch him staggering and falling after taking a hit on sunday to go through the concussion protocol. then the official word from the dolphin was it's a back injury, he's going to play five days leader. to look at the video of him lying on the ground with his

arms and fingers seized up after another blow to the head, this is raising big questions about what this concussion protocol is in the nfl. >> no question. when the dolphins declared on sunday that that was a lower back injury, it was met with derision throughout the football world and the media. you can see on the video there, against buffalo, he hits the back of his head on the ground. when he gets up, he's trying to shake the cobwebs off, shaking his head and of course stumbles and falls and they had the quick turn around, sunday to thursday, and now last night when his arms seized up like that, cast called a fencing response, which is what happens when you have head trauma, head trauma, a concussion is head trauma, and we know, the science says that if you have concussions, subsequent concussions in a short period of time, in this case, over four, five days, that leads to significant potential permanent damage. this is very scary stuff. we certainly hope that he is okay. i'm not quite sure the rush to discharge him from the hospital to have him fly home.

not sure why he wouldn't have benefitted from more observations. they have tried to move beyond head injuries. >> the thursday night game, the only game played, the rest of the league is watching the game and you could see immediately on social media, players, current and former, saying this is outrageous, tua should not have been in the game, thinking of whether or not the nfl takes concussions seriously. >> i was watching that game last night. he shouldn't have been on the field. you know, it's hard to come to any other conclusion that this was a serious and potentially life threatening mistake that the dolphins made, and i think that the thing now is to insist that there be a thorough and i think somehow independent examination of his condition before he's allowed to put

become on the field again. you know, this is potentially very serious, as jonathan said this can be serious, long lasting, perhaps lifelong damage from this kind of injury, and it's now been aggravated. i think they're just really -- they need to be careful. this is a young man's life we're talking about. >> mika, he is a wonderful talent. had a great start to the season, played at joe's alma mater at alabama. the big thing here is you can't leave it up to the player saying, i feel good, coach, put me in. any player does not want to miss snaps. does not want to sit out and take the risk of being replaced in a league that contracts aren't guaranteed. there has to be leadership at the top that steps in and says we see what happened on sunday, you're not there. you're sitting out tonight. >> not to be predictable here,

but i'll pull back further and said, you know, i understand that football is part of american life, our history, our culture, our economy, our education system, but this sport is flawed. it's people slamming against each other, and so, yes, you can take concussions seriously, but if you have a sport that's based on, you know, body checking each other every two seconds, i think it's the big picture that ultimately for parents, you know, who have young athletes, it's going to be a question, and i see already my friends thinking i don't think i want my son to go into football. it's a conversation we've had a lot here on "morning joe," and i think we'll be revisiting it for sure. two minutes past the top of the hour. we'll get back to our coverage of hurricane ian as it gains strength in the atlantic, threatening heavily populated areas of south carolina and georgia. it's expected to make landfall near charleston around noon today as a category one storm.

the national hurricane center is warning it could unleash life threatening storm surge, floods, and strong winds. a state of emergency is in place for the carolinas, georgia, and virginia. the damage from hurricane ian is coming into clearer view in southwest florida. at least 12 people have been killed across the state due to the storm with president joe biden warning it could be the deadliest hurricane in state history. nbc nightly news anchor, lester holt walked through flooded and destroyed neighborhoods meeting people who survived the storm. >> reporter: our first look at ian's astonishing trail of destruction. entire neighborhoods flattened, homes still smoldering. people's possessions and livelihoods strewn across beach. >> our community has been in some respects, decimated. >> this is what's left on sanibel island, shredded buildings, ripped off foundations, the causeway

partially washed away by ian's winds and a wall of water. the island of 6,000 people now cut off. >> it got hit with really biblical storm surge and it washed away roads, it washed away structures that were not new and could withstand that. >> now the urgent search and rescue efforts to reach those still in danger. officials evacuating nursing home residents in orlando on stretchers. >> are you guys okay. in naples, first responders helping this woman wade through chest deep water. this elderly man rescued from his car. others could only be reached by boat, including one izara thomas. >> as soon as we opened the door, all the water rushed out. >> reporter: water so high, florida's governor calling it a 500 year flooding event. there are countless neighborhoods across the region that look skrus like this, flooded everywhere. the only way to get anywhere is to walk through the water. >> everything is gone basically. >> reporter: i met 14-year-old

juan garcia near fort myer's beach. he was hunkering down at home when the storm struck. >> the next thing you know the water is in the house, rising and rising. we grabbed our stuff that we needed like our phones and stuff and climbed all the way up there. >> reporter: they spent three hours on their roof whipped by cold rain and fierce winds. >> i see all the blankets and clothing up there. how many of you were up there. >> at least eleven or ten. >> reporter: his dad says they were just trying to survive. it's so frightening, you had rain and water and wind. >> yeah, but no choice, i don't want to be inside my house. >> reporter: then i met another survivor, fisherman, and coast guard veteran, matthew simonson. that's where his boat ended up after ian tore through. matthew road out the storm on a larger boat. for someone who's never seen a

storm surge, what is it like? >> it's like a tsunami. it's like a slow moving tsunami. it was rushing in here like a raging river. i couldn't believe it. >> reporter: and he says he couldn't believe where he ended up next. >> we were actually eye level, we were taking out some of these top wires. >> you were eye level to these wires. >> oh, yeah, we were that high. >> reporter: goodness gracious. president biden saying there are early reports of a substantial loss of life. >> this could be the deadliest hurricane in florida's history. >> reporter: as new video is revealing even more of ian's fury as it came ashore. trees crashing into homes. flood waters sweeping away people's belongings. power winds bringing down traffic lights and signs. this was a no hurricane hunters flight, headed into the eye of the storm. one of the scientists on board calling it the roughest ride he's ever felt.

states of emergency declared in multiple other states where ian is believed to be headed next. while in florida, officials say some 250,000 people may be displaced and millions remain without power. >> we're committed to restoring the infrastructure as needed. that is not going to be an overnight task. that is going to be something that is going to require a lot of love and care. >> nbc's lester holt reporting for us there, and joining us now by phone. collier county commissioner rick castro, 50 miles south of fort myers beach, including places like naples. thank you so much for being with us this morning. you said yesterday that this was a totally different hurricane. you have seen a lot in your state of florida. why did you say this was so different. >> we have never had this type of storm surge before, when we had hurricane irma, the storm surge predicted came in a lot

less and a lot of that had to do with the storm changing last minute. this exacerbated the storm surge and a lot of times they look at the higher end number of storm surge and think that's an overestimation. i spent the day yesterday driving my community, my district and the folks that didn't evacuate that were still here were basically pulling out all of their possessions because they got so much flooding. so we didn't get the intense winds that you're seeing from some horrific scenes further north. we have had those and other hurricanes and the massive amount of storm surge in areas that would never see minimum type of flooding was the biggest shocker. >> even today, you're beginning to get out and assess the damage. do you have a sense yet for damage reports, fatalities, injuries, rescues that still need to be made?

>> i don't know exact numbers, but we were getting reports back from first responders. i'm fairly certain that the lot of estimates are under estimated. when you don't know exactly where everybody is located, you know, and people didn't evacuate, and then you lose cell phone capability and the ability to, you know, reach first responders, we don't have a crystal ball to know exactly where everybody is. luckily neighbors, friends people have been reporting, can you check on my loved one, that's where a lot of them are coming down here. when the storm surge came in, there were people in vehicles stuck on roads and you saw some of those heroic rescues, getting people out of cars because it's a very dangerous situation. the amount of damage and the dollar value is certainly going to continue to rise. what i noticed yesterday in my drive around and talking to people, we have things that need replacement not repair,

especially in the way of utilities. you know, normally they put up a pole that fell down, they fix the wire and people get their power back. we have things that have been sitting in standing water, water that rose to like the governor said, biblical proportions. that's not a repair. that's a major replacement job. we have our work cut out for us. there's a monumental effort going on right now to get that started. >> yeah, as you say, we have had power company officials telling us even this morning, this is not in some places a question of reconnecting power lines, it's about rebuilding the grid. what does that mean for you? what does that mean for your county? that's a massive undertaking obviously. >> most of my district is still in the dark. i have naples, capri, these are pieces of paradise that people come to, it's going to be a slow

process. during hurricane irma, it was never like this. parts of marco island, we didn't get power here for ten days. we thought that was excessive, but i think the understanding that this was a totally different storm that had unbelievable amounts of destruction and then the word is obviously out down here that our neighbors just to the north of that took the brunt of the winds and the surge, that's total devastation up there. but we have our fair sierra here as well. so it's just, the extent of the damage around the west coast of florida is just something that i don't think we've ever seen before and the level of damage. >> we're looking at breathtaking photographs even while you speak here. mr. locastro, what about your hospitals, we have heard about hospitals having to ship people out, staff rallying for people who need critical care. how are your hospitals holding up?

>> we have two major medical groups here, i have been in contact with our naples community hospital ceo and they did a great job preparing. first responders and medical teams they don't under estimate anything. we're no stranger to these storms. this one was at a different level. the level of preparation, exercise, the emergency operations center we have. you have people in there thatch double digit amount of experience, so even well before the storm when i was taking briefings from a medical team and from our emergency director, dan summers, these are folks that were readying a very serious storm, but it's hard to sort of prepare for water. you can always batten down the hatches and if you lose your roof, that's one thing. when you get that type of storm surge, we have a high amount of elderly population.

that's why the effects are so massive. hospitals aren't shipping anybody out. if anything, we have been helping our sister county quite a bit with sending first responder teams to them, and it's possible they might be setting up people to our hospitals here. haven't heard that report. the sharing going on for the counties up against each other has been vast, and extremely helpful. >> we're happy to hear your hospitals have held up. off long day ahead of you. collier county commissioner, rick locastro, thank you and we're sending our thoughts as you continue to work through this. thank you so much. mika. we've got over 2 million obviously still without power in the entire state of florida. we have more now on the power outages where this is going to be an issue for some for many days to come. joining us now, chief communications officer for florida power and light, dave, what can you tell us about your customers in terms of how many are still without power?

>> good morning, mika. since the start to have the storm, we have more than 2 million fpl customers in power outages. we have been able to restore over a million of those already. that does mean, however, that we still have one million customers without power. that's predominantly on the west coast of the state, that's where we've seen the biggest effect from the storm. >> are there areas that the infrastructure itself has been destroyed and what's the time line on that? >> absolutely. so the good news is that if you look at the west coast, while we still have a million customers out, we were there yesterday assessing the damage. we're continuing to do that. that's going to continue over the next couple of days. one of the silver linings is that our transmission structures held up very well in this storm. we have put significant investment into our grid to harden it over the last ten years. and those investments paid off because the transmission

structures held even in almost a category five storm. that's a good sign because then we can concentrate on getting into those communities that are water logged right now, where we've seen the flood damage and after we do that, we'll be able to assess how long it's going to take to get those customers' power back on. >> and so in those areas as you describe water logged, are the grids destroyed or what do we know? >> you know, some certainly have serious water damage. that's what the assessments were doing right now are telling us. we have had our drone teams out over the last day, and we'll do so today as well to start to get into some of those areas. the reality is we haven't even been able to get to certain areas on the west coast because of the level of destruction. >> and how many areas, how wide an area are there where the level of destruction is significant, where you might be making people wait for quite some time?

>> well, if you look at the west coast and start at fort myers and go south all the way to sanibel, those were the areas most affected. those are the areas we're spending most of our time in right now in terms of assessments, the drone team being out, trying to get us eyes in the sky, help us understand what the facilities look like. obviously if you're talking about facilities like substations that may have been water logs, those are going to require complete rebuilds in those areas, and we're simply not going to know for the next, you know, couple of days exactly what the impact could be. on the flip side, if you look at the rest of the state in the northeast part of the state, we should know by the end of today exactly where we have all customers restored, and then in the southeast, the tricounty area which was affected because of the storm force winds, we have restored all of those customers to date. >> so the question mark remains over southwest florida. chief communications officer for

florida power and light, dave reuter thank you very much. acting deputy director at noaa's national hurricane center, michael brennan. good to have you back with us this morning. tell us about the path of the storm right now. we know it's moved across florida now, sitting in the atlantic. where are the regions it should be most concerned this morning? >> during the day and into tonight, we're most concerned about the potential for hurricane force winds, southeastern north carolina, you can see the heavy rainfall spreading in well in advance of the center, which now is about 145 miles per hour to the south, southeast of charleston. but all the weather and all the strong winds are starting to arrive in advance of the center here. we could see life threatening storm surge along the coast of south carolina. we could see inundation of 4 to 7 feet aboveground level in places like charleston and myrtle beach. folks there need to be prepared to protect themselves when the

water starts to rise later today. we have elevated water levels into north florida. a sort of widespread inundation event across much of the southeast coast, and then the rainfall threat is going to extend inland into charlotte, raleigh, greensboro, all the way up into southern virginia. this is the risk of flash flooding from today, tonight, and early saturday morning. we could see widespread flash flooding across central carolina and southern virginia. >> as we talk about places like savannah, georgia, charleston, south carolina, myrtle beach as well. are those places in your experience prepared for a hurricane of this magnitude. >> yeah, generally, you know, these counties go through lots of preparation. they have evacuation zones, they have their plans in place. this is the time, we're sort of in the hunker down phase now with the winds starting to increase, the water levels have been high in charleston since yesterday, and they're only going to come up further today

with the heavy rainfall. people need to be in their safe place now, and sort of ride out the worst of the storm that's going to occur in the next 12 to 24 hours. >> michael, as you look at the next 12 to 24 hours, we saw some of our forecasts earlier this morning. the rain bands extending all the way up into the northeast which speaks to the size of this storm. who else should be thinking about sort of nasty weather coming their way. >> yeah, i mean, you know, there's going to be sort of a separate high wind event up into the chesapeake bay region as the circulation of ian interacts with the front. the heavy rainfall front, we were focused on the carolinas to the lower mid atlantic states over the next day or so. some places have as much rain as 6 to 8 inches in virginia and north carolina. we get to the mountains, and that can cause considerable flash flooding. >> the coast of south carolina and parts of georgia, north carolina, getting ready as we

speak. acting deputy director at noaa's national hurricane center, michael brennan. thank you so much, we appreciate it. mika. >> still ahead, much more on hurricane ian as it barrels toward south carolina. we'll have a live report from charleston as that city prepares for land fall. and department of homeland security alejandro mayorkas will be our guest this morning. and a development in the mar-a-lago documents case, the judge steps in to help president trump's team to avoid what could have been an embarrassing filing. we'll explain when "morning joe" returns. filing we'll explain when "morning joe" returns. the new subway series menu. the greatest sandwich roster ever assembled. tony, the new outlaw's got double pepper jack and juicy steak. let's get some more analysis on that, chuck. mmm. pepper jack. tender steak.

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house, 24 past the hour, welcome back to "morning joe." a development this morning in the battle over the documents the fbi agents seized from former president donald trump's florida home in club last month. u.s. district judge aileen cannon has overruled a directive from the special master. judge cannon ruled yesterday the former president does not have to submit a sworn statement identifying any evidence he believes the fbi might have planted during the search at mar-a-lago. her order goes in direct contrast to special master judge raymond dearie's order last week for trump's legal team to submit such a filing after the former president publicly insinuated several times without any proof that federal agents planted evidence during the search. joining us now, congressional investigations reporter for the "washington post" jackie

alemany, an msnbc contributor. and andrew weissmann, served as a lead prosecutor in the mueller special prosecutor's office and an msnbc legal analyst. congressional reporter for the guardian, hugo lowell, and former aide to george w. bush white house, and elise jordan, an msnbc political analyst as well. what do you make of this ruling? >> i think it's really important for people to first understand that it's not the end of the world for the department of justice because the 11th circuit struck down what judge cannon had done with respect to every document that bore classified markings. what she's now doing has an effect on the investigation but a very limited one. i think that's the place to start which is that while her new decision is another example of her really being, in my view, unfit for office, it has limited

effect. what she basically did, having told the parties she wanted to appoint a special master, having selected a special master, having chosen the person who was actually nominated by judge -- sorry, by trump as the person who trump wanted, that is judge dearie, the government went along with it in saying please verify the inventory so that there's no dispute as to what documents we're talking about, and then decide any remaining issues. she then took that away from the special master, and you really end up sort of saying, if you're going to micro manage this, why did you even appoint a special master, why didn't you do it yourself, and then the idea of treating a judge who is far more experienced, far more respected in this way is really beyond the pale. it's another example of judge

cannon really not doing her job well. >> to your point on whether or not this matters to what the department of justice is trying to do, where does this go next. >> i think judge dearie is going to obviously obey the ruling, he's going to make decisions about attorney/client privilege and executive privilege, it doesn't seem like donald trump is ever going to have to say in court, whether he thinks any of these documents were, in fact, found at mar-a-lago or not. which is really a relevant consideration when judge dearie needs to decide whether they're protected by attorney/client privilege or executive privilege. i think he's going to do the best he can. the deadline was extended by judge cannon, so judge dearie had tried to move this on a fast track. it was extended several weeks. that's not the worst of her decision. but, again, you know, these are all about documents that, while

they're important, they are not the core of the government's criminal case or national security investigation. >> hugo, you're reporting about this in the guardian this morning, and effectively what it means is that donald trump does not have to defend under oath all of these wild accusations he's made, including that the fbi planted all of this as evidence at mar-a-lago. >> yeah, look, i think trump's lawyers got a big save from judge cannon here. the special master had, you know, instructed them to make sworn declarations, firstly, whether or not the documents were declassified as the former president has been saying and whether the fbi actually, you know, supposedly planted evidence, manufactured evidence against the president at mar-a-lago, and the fact that they don't have to make this claim now, i think, is a big deal for the trump lawyers because they were really put into a dilemma. there was no material planted at

mar-a-lago, and everything the fbi seized from the property was, you know, valid, then they're starting to give the doj ammunition for a potential charge, whether it's for obstruction, for instance, we're not complying with the subpoena back in june. >> so hugo, are you picking up any of what andrew was describing, which was, let's say at best, some curiosity about judge cannon's behavior in all of this, she does seem to step in periodically to throw donald trump and his team lifelines at moments they need them. maybe this is just a delay until december, but still, she does seem to be sort of meddling in the special master that was appointed under her direction. >> yeah, look, everyone we've spoken to thinks it's completely unprecedented for judge cannon in this case to be micro managing a special master, especially someone of the stature of raymond dearie who's senior status u.s. district judge, you know, much more experienced, much more senior article 3 judge than cannon

herself. i think there's been a lot of eyebrows raised in the way she's inserted herself into the process, and of course, i think andrew is absolutely right that 100 classified documents are what's at issue here. the fact that she's pushing this into december means that the other 11,000 documents are not in, you know, play for the justice department's criminal investigation, and of course trump can appeal at the end of this entire process, which could send this entire review into january and beyond. >> ginni thomas, the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas was on capitol hill yesterday for an in-person interview with the house select committee investigating january 6th. she spoke with members of the panel behind closed doors for about three and a half hours. thomas didn't answer any questions from reporters, but chairman bennie thompson said she still believes the 2020 election was stolen from donald trump. thomas first came under scrutiny for sending text messages to mark meadows encouraging then president trump not to concede

the 2020 election. in her opening statement to the committee yesterday she said her husband justice thomas was quote completely unaware of my texts with mark meadows until this committee leaked them to the press. her attorney also issued a statement yesterday arguing that her activities relating to the 2020 election were quote minimal. so elise jordan, and then jackie. i'm curious, first of all, defying logic that her interactions with the white house about the election and her involvement with the 2020 election was minimal when there's text messages and evidence everywhere. and what do you make of her still being an election denier? >> mika, i mean, i would question what her involvement, minimal involvement actually is. i want to see her full throated

involvement. now, that's scary. if she thinks that she really was not actually doing anything. maybe to her it's not a big deal to be texting with the white house chief of staff, but it certainly is for most americans even though in washington who are well connected. and on the election denying front, it is jaw dropping that someone who is presumably educated and holds a position of privilege as the wife of one of the justices of the nation's highest court is still denying the election, and i just want to go to jackie here. jackie, what did you hear in your reporting? did you hear anything about what her testimony was like to the committee and how she was received in the room over the three and a half hours she was before them? >> elise, so far, we have heard dribs and drabs come out of the committee from her five-hour testimony that she provided yesterday after months of negotiation, and what we have heard is that she was fairly

cooperative. she did, after all, come in voluntarily, but did maintain that she believed that the results of the election falsely were fraudulent, and that the election was stolen from joe biden. we were also told by chairman bennie thompson after her interview that they would be using video taped clips from that testimony if it warranted and when we're thinking about what the committee is trying to convey in the final hearing, part of that is how the insurrection is sort of still ongoing. it's sort of a slow rolling insurrection so to speak. i can see how her testimony of falsely claiming the election was stolen would play into that. she's very influential in a different way than her husband but has her grips on a lot of parts of the republican party. she was also in touch with john

eastman. that was a focus after they obtained e-mails between her and john eastman, one in part at least that dealt directly with efforts to overthrow the results of the election, and as the post has previously reported, ginny -- ginni thomas was in touch with state electors, advocating for them to choose their own. >> i'm curious, do we know anything more about the next hearing? there was supposed to be obviously a hearing this week and it was postponed due to the hurricane and other reasons, i guess, but will they have one? and how important do you think this testimony is into the investigation, into the actual attack on the capitol? >> i think that this hearing is a question mark. lawmakers are going home for recess after they vote. there's one member on the

committee, congresswoman in a competitive reelection. being home and on the campaign trail is important because she's in a tight race. the hearing has yet to be scheduled. they're trying to find a time that works for everyone but i think ginni thomas's testimony is just going to be a small snippet of the broader story that the committee is trying to tell. and as we know with the final hearing there's going to be several different themes touched upon. i can imagine the committee certainly using certain parts of thomas's testimony. >> all right. and also a jury has been seated in the trial of oath keepers leader stuart rhodes and four other members of the right wing militia group. rhodes and the other members face seditious conspiracy and other charges in the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. the 16-member jury consists of nine men and seven women. four of them will be alternates. they'll be sworn in on monday when opening statements are set

to begin. the judge also ordered several prospective jurors to appear on monday in case they need to be added to the jury. andrew, in terms of the seditious conspiracy charge, how strong is the case against rhodes and others, given the significance of this charge, i don't think anyone else has been charged with that one level. >> yeah, this is definitely the biggest and most important case that the d.c. u.s. attorneys office has brought. and this is a really important domestic terrorism case. it has received i'm sure enormous attention within the department all the way up to merrick garland given its significance, and it obviously is going to be a very important case to the department. it is very hard to see any valid defense here given the nature of the evidence in terms of what

people were doing, what the planning was and what they then actually did. so, you know, what we've heard as a possible defense was that everyone was just waiting in the wings until president trump declared that people could go forward and invoked the insurrection act. the problem with that defense is that the president didn't do that, and under the insurrection act, he wouldn't also be able to say that this is the group of people who would be able to act, nor would he be saying, you can go ahead and attack the capitol. that defense has many many problems, if that is, in fact, what is going to be claimed in this case. it obviously is a case that also puts a lot of pressure on the department if they are able to make a case against people in the white house up to and including the former president because to bring this case against people who are sort of

the foot soldiers i think puts a lot of pressure on the department then needing to say, well, the people who, you know, actually caused this to happen, for whom they acted are not going to be charged i think would be pretty untenable. >> hugo, final thoughts to you on this as the jury selection process finishes up and the actual trial gets underway, what can we expect? >> i think this is going to be a drawn out trial. stewart rhodes was the head of the oath keepers and this whole case revolves, as andrew said the quick reaction force that the oath keepers staged in a hotel across the river from d.c. a lot of things don't appear going in the way for stewart rhodes, the parking garage meeting that he had ahead of the proud boys, even if it was innocent and they were talking about attending the rally, it tooks terrible, the fact that you had armed qrf guys stationed

across the river looks terrible. and stewart rhodes may just be the first guy in a long row of dominos of people yet to come. >> hugo lowell, andrew weissmann, jackie alemany, thank you very much for being on this morning. we'll be following this. and up next we'll go back to the ground in florida as the state works to recover from hurricane ian. "morning joe" will be right back. ane ian. "morning joe" will be right back

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island, south carolina, right there on the coast, as it now braces for hurricane ian. joining us from fort myers beach, florida, nbc news correspondent, morgan chesky. we're looking at pictures of what the atlantic coach can expect as you assess the damage left behind by hurricane ian. what are you seeing this morning. >> reporter: what we're seeing is just heartbreaking scene after heartbreaking scene. sun coming up today on what should be day two of recovery mode but keep in mind, there are still search and rescue operations ongoing at this hour. we had a chance yesterday to fly over sanibel island, that is the community that is now left completely cut off as a result of hurricane ian. the lone bridge leading from the mainland to the island broke in not one but multiple places. some parts of it totally under water as a result of those 140 miles an hour wind that have now essentially left people on this island with two options, leave by boat or by coast guard or

army or local sheriff helicopter and we witnessed that firsthand. those are individuals there that they're hoping to get a ferry system going to soon because as of right now, thousands of people there, if they want to go on with their normal lives will have to find a new way to do so. the famed fort myers beach, willie, i cannot stress to you enough how portions are unrecognizable as a result of this storm surge combined with the wind. some buildings, not homes but hotels, rather, wiped to their foundations. it advocacy disturbing sight as we flew above that area that so many people have come to know as a popular, beautiful spot. one of the prettiest places along the florida coastline now left facing years of recovery here as it stands right thousand, we do know that power has been restored to about a million people here in florida. that still leaves about a million more in the dark, and the scene here in fort myers today leaves you wondering where exactly to begin as the folks

here try to recovery whatever they can and start this long process of recovery, willie. >> the pictures we're looking at as you're speaking here, morgan, are almost disorients, homes in the water and boats on the street. it's hard to put together sometimes what you're even looking at. to your point, where do they begin. we know florida has dealt with these things before, and they are prepared in some ways with evacuations, but my goodness, when you look at the pictures, where do they begin to start to recover and rebuild. >> reporter: it's certainly going to take more than what they can muster on their own. we know fema is in place here, and they're starting to share messages of how people can begin that process. outside of that, though, on a physical level, the waters are starting to recede. we were in one area of fort myers yesterday, where the majority of the neighborhood was flooded as a result of the storm surge, and people that had, you know, jeeps or pickups, were the only ones who can medicaid their

-- make their way down the thoroughfares. some people who chose not to evacuate were pretty much stranded inside their homes. we witnessed delivery of water and food to those cut off by waters. as far as where they begin here, that's a question officials are still discussing right now. regarding sanibel island that we just discussed, i asked the sheriff yesterday, what's the time line to get a bridge back up and going to individuals here, there isn't one. they are trying to come up with a game plan from day-to-day at this point in time because the dang is widespread, not just here in fort myers but every community up and down this coastline where ian struck. we were in tampa when it made landfall and as we drove farther south, it was so incredibly telling to see damage worsening just about every mile from a tree or two down to roofs ripped up to what you see now behind me

here in fort myers, unrecognizable neighborhoods that are going to be, as you mentioned, trying to sort out this process of recovery that will no doubt take an incredible amount of time and resources, coupled with the fact that, you know, there are still supply chain issues so everything that i need to get here to try to move on as fast as possible will be moving slower than usual. willie. >> we're talking about years and years, but in the short-term as you point out, they're just checking on neighbors for now and trying to make sure people are okay. nbc's morgan chesky in fort myers, florida, thank you so much, we appreciate your reporting. just ahead, we will go live to south carolina, where as we mentioned, the hurricane will hit later today. also ahead on "morning joe," an nbc news exclusive interview with senator joe manchin of west virginia. why he's saying he is quote paying the senate is not a 50/50 split again after the midterm

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senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says the republicans have a 50/50 shot of regaining control of the senate in the midterms. but that it's going to be really, really close either way. that's likely going to make senator joe manchin nervous since this is what the west virginia democrat told nbc news senior national political reporter. >> can i get your reflections on this congress. you've been at the center of so many things, you have gotten so many things done -- >> i'm praying it's not 50/50. i would like democrats to be 51-49, but i'm praying it's not at 50/50. >> so you don't have to be at the center of everything again?

>> tell us about your conversation with the senator. >> it's not every day that you see a politician praying that he has less power in the foreseeable future, that's what senator joe manchin did in that interview i had with him. the reason for this is not difficult to see. he said he would like democrats to hold on, he would like it to be 51/49 and the reason is simple -- he has not enjoyed being the decisive vote in this congress. he's been the linchpin of the democrats 50/50 senate majority all while representing a state that president biden lost by 39 points. west virginia is deep red and joe manchin has been put in position over and over and over again where he has to choose between the leanings of a state, his republican leaning constituents and his democratic party. he made a lot of people angry on both sides of the aisle every step of the way. he does not want to do that anymore. politicians wouldn't be so fazed by this, but manchin likes to

make the left and the right happy. he's simply not had the luxury of doing that over the last two years on many contentious issues. he would like not to be the decisive vote next year, certainly he would like to keep his chairmanship of the energy committee. >> do you get the sense from senator manchin that democrats, if they come around to him at all on some of his energy proposals, that he might have been more flexible on other proposals? >> they tried on some occasions to do just that. the inflation reduction act, the reason they got it through is they told joe manchin they would move forward on a permitting reform package that includes an overhaul of energy infrastructure packages, and they were ready to move forward with it until manchin recognizing there were not enough republican support,

backed down from it. the simple fact is that the energy and climate provisions in the inflation reduction act were negotiated entirely around joe manchin's demands. there's no doubt they have moved in his direction. they had to. >> senior national political reporter, sahil kapur, thank you very much for your reporting. still ahead, the latest on hurricane ian as it takes aim at south carolina. secretary of homeland security, alejandro mayorkas will be here on how the federal government is responding. plus how ian could impact food and gas prices across the country. we'll be right back. be right ba. president biden has now signed the inflation reduction act into law. ok, so what exactly does it mean for you?

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so many scenes like this across the area, downed power lines, downed trees, blown transformers, wires into the streets. >> there are neighborhoods now under water. the biggest concern here was

rainfall. they're concerned about alligators, they're concerned about snakes. once the water came from the gulf of mexico down here, it was a river. you see that section of the sanibel causeway wiped out by hurricane ian. >> i've seen office buildings, home after home after home with trees down, debris. boats sunk in the harbor. >> whole towns decimated. >> i came here in the '70s, i was on the police department for 25 years. saw a lot of storms here. this is, by far, the worst storm i've ever witnessed. welcome back to the third hour of "morning joe." it is friday, september 30th. joe is off. he has a rebound covid case, but willie and i got it this morning. ian is once again a hurricane. the storm regaining strength as it bears down on georgia and south carolina. many parts of florida are still reeling this morning. fort myers is the epicenter with

entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. last hour with an official -- florida official's largest utility company telling us heuer had been restored to about 1 million customers so far. that leaves more than 1 million without power. sam brock has the latest. >> reporter: nearly 48 hours after hurricane ian ripped through large swaths of florida, the scenes still surreal. >> five units that are burned to the ground. still smoking with water coming out of the ground. >> reporter: the monster storm reshaping not only the landscape but the lives of millions who call southwest florida home. fort myers, beachfront property obliterated into rubble. charming port charlotte, now under water. hard-hit sanibel island, approachable only by boat. and venice beach shredded by winds topping 150 miles per hour. this cluster of homes burned by

a knocked down power line. some neighbors stunned. >> it's a manufactured home, but it's brand-new. i don't think it's six weeks old. >> reporter: others heartbroken. >> it's too sad for me to talk about. thank you. >> reporter: the reality of a lifetime of retirement planning for this couple suddenly came crashing down. >> we were across the street. we saw the roofs blowing off. we thought possibly we were one of the lucky ones. unfortunately, we're not. >> reporter: the death toll now in the double digits, though that figure is expected to rise substantially. >> this could be the deadliest hurricane in florida's history. >> reporter: in orlando, a nursing home evacuated thursday. police forced to do their patrols through water-filled roads. even in communities like naples where surging flood waters have bub sided, business owners are returning to stores that can't be saved. >> they talk about surges all

the time. we never thought this would happen to us. >> reporter: lives and homes battered by a relentless storm. but heroes stepping in. search and rescue efforts are ongoing. in charlotte and lee counties, more than 500 rescues so far. florida coming together to clean up after this devastating storm. >> sam brock reporting for us from florida. joining us now is alejandro mayorkas, the department of homeland security overseas fema. mr. secretary, thanks for being with us. we talked to our reporters and local officials today, law enforcement. it is just overwhelming, hard to know where to begin. where do you all begin at fema as you look at the damage and assess things? >> thank you. the first thing i want to say is our hearts are with the people of florida who have been devastated by this historically strong storm. we engaged before the storm made

landfall. president biden acted swiftly in issuing a pre-landfall emergency declaration so we could preposition our assets, resources and capabilities for the assistance of potentially impacted floridians. since then, we have deployed thousands of individuals, not just in fema, but the united states coast guard, our cybersecurity infrastructure agency, tsa, we brought in an all-dhs effort, which is an all of government effort, not just the federal government. last night i spoke with mark milley to speak about the department of defense resources that he has deployed. we're working also with our state and local, tribal, nongovernment organizations. this is an all of government, all of community effort to address the needs of a community that has been struck so devastatingly by this storm.

>> mr. secretary, when you look at the scope of the devastation from the coast of southwest florida, from those barrier islands that took the first hit and now moving frankly all the way up to south carolina and north carolina, as well, what's the first order of business with a challenge this big? >> the first order of business is to make sure people stay safe. that is the key. they must listen to local officials in their community to understand what they should do and what they shouldn't do. we also have a website at fema, it's ready.gov, it's really important to follow instructions. you know, to stay put. don't think it's safe just because you think so. you have to get that official notice. we've seen people hurt thinking that the waters are at a level that are navigatible, in fact, we end up in a search and rescue operation. got to stay safe.

that's the first thing in order. >> mr. secretary, obviously in charge of fema and in southwest florida there are people who will be set back in their lives potentially for decades. are there concerns -- i know insurance companies cover certain things, not other things. it can be mired in red tape for so long. how is fema going to get funds to people so they can rebuild for a catastrophe of this magnitude? >> i think the president put it powerfully yesterday. the president after the pre-landfall declaration, he issued a major disaster declaration which allows us through fema to provide individual assistance to people whose homes have been destroyed or are in need of significant repair. it allows us to provide assistance to counties so they

can assist their residents. what the president communicated yesterday and fema administrator deanne criswell who will be in florida today, she and i echoed, is that we're not just here today, we're not just here tomorrow. we're going to be here throughout the recovery period for the weeks, months and years it takes. this is our responsibility. this is our commitment. and it's a commitment that we fulfill through the incredible personnel in this department and throughout the government. >> homeland security secretary, alejandro mayorkas, thank you very much for joining us this morning. let's go to meteorologist michelle grossman now for where the storm is headed. >> it's headed towards south carolina. we'll make that landfall in just a few hours, later on this afternoon. it strengthened back to a cat 1 storm after a tropical storm yesterday. it jumped in the atlantic and now we're looking at 85-mile-per-hour winds.

that's the latest on the storm. we expect it to hold that strength as it makes landfall later on today. here is the location, 105 miles south-southeast of charleston. we overlaid the radar and winds on top of this to show you we're feeling the effects of ian. winds gusting near tropical storm-force winds in charleston, 32 miles per hour in myrtle beach. where you see the brighter colors, the reds, oranges, yellows, indicating we're seeing heavy rain falling and we'll continue to see rain falling heavily throughout today and tonight. that's why we're concerned for flash flooding, we're concerned about the storm surge. just looking at the history of ian and showing how much water was associated with it, it was a major water story. it will continue to be a water story today. unfortunately the number one killer with hurricanes is water. tropical alerts dot the carolinas, north carolina, south carolina, portions of georgia.

13 million people still impacted by ian days later after it formed. we're looking at a hurricane warning along the coast of south carolina. also concerned about flooding. we have flood alerts for 15 million people. we have flash flood warnings, that means flooding is happening right now, early, way ahead of the system. we'll see many more flash flood warnings come into play. the forecast track, we're hours away from landfall. this afternoon, a category 1 storm along the coast of carolina. what will happen as it moves inland, it will weaken rapidly. it didn't do that in florida, it held its strength for a long time. it will weaken. that doesn't mean it will take away the rain. we'll see a huge rain story. that's what we're most concerned about. the cone at that point, 53 miles, it could fall along those white lines. what we want to emphasize is the

impacts are way past that cone. the cone is just telling you where the center will land. the impacts of the tropical storm-force winds into virginia, north carolina, south carolina, 265 miles wide. where you see the red, that's where you will feel the hurricane-force winds. that will bring trees down. there's a lot of trees in south carolina. the ground will be wet. we'll be dealing with power outages for days in the carolinas. going throughout time, we'll see it weaken to a remnant low, still bringing rain to the mid-atlantic and northeast this weekend. we're concerned about that storm surge as we were in florida. looking at 4 to 7-foot storm surge along the coast of south carolina. storm surge is a wall of saltwater that moves from the ocean on to dry land. it's fast, furious and it's deadly. that's why we're concerned about it. it wipes away everything in its path. think will the bridge in sanibel island. that was due to storm surge. we need to think about the high

tides, too. they come in at 11:00 in the morning and 11:00 at night. this is a major story. chevy rainfall. we saw nearly 2 1/2 feet of rain in florida. we'll see a foot of rain in south carolina. this rain stretches to the mid-atlantic. it continues to be a force to be reckoned with. we'll watch it very, very closely. >> all right. a tough weekend ahead for our friends in the carolinas. that hurricane about to hit a couple hours from now. michelle grossman, thank you very much. we appreciate it. as we've been saying, it was not just the southwest coast of florida hit so hard by ian, flooding from the hurricane devastated parts of central florida, forcing the evacuations of some of the state's most vulnerable people. blayne alexander has more on that. >> reporter: in orlando, even a weakened ian dealt a mighty blow. the emergency calls started before dawn with fast-rising floodwaters forcing hundreds of

evacuations. at the senior living facility, fire and rescue crews spent hours pulling residents to safety one by one. a desperate race against time as water continued to rise. >> we would go to the rooms and put them in the wheelchairs or we'd have to take a stretcher back to the room. >> reporter: all this was happening while water was still coming in. >> yeah. >> reporter: we were there when this ambulance arrived to bring the final person to safety more than nine hours after the rescue began. >> i've been with the county for 24 years. i've been through multiple hurricanes. i would say for me, this is the worst year with the numerous spots where we had water rescues going on. >> reporter: while ian's winds were fierce, some gusts here hitting nearly 70 miles per hour, in central florida, it's the rain that was the real threat falling at record levels. much of orange county saw at least a foot of rain, in some areas, more than 16 inches. it's the county's largest

rainfall ever in a 24-hour period. more than double what's typically seen in all of september. water spilled on to the roads, shutting down parts of the busy florida turnpike and leaving cars waterlogged. it even turned one reporter into a rescue worker. tony atkins carried one woman to safety on his back. she said she was driving to her job as a nurse when her car was swept away. >> blayne alexander with that report. let's bring in doug brinkley. he's a professor of history at rice university. back in 2007 he wrote "the great deluge: hurricane katrina, new orleans and the mississippi gulf coast." it's great to have you on. since you wrote the book, what was learned since katrina? what was actually put in place due to leadership -- often these things can get mired in so many

details that nothing happens. it seems like maybe one story line could be how some hospitals fared during this latest hurricane. >> well, florida traditionally does a better job of dealing with hurricanes than louisiana and mississippi. when hurricane katrina hit, it was a tale of two storms. one was when the storm hit mississippi, and then the new orleans story, the city was below sea level, it was like a saucer, when the levels breached, the water poured in. we had the horrific scenes of people on the roofs of their house and asking for the national guard to rescue them. in florida, it's more like what happened in the mississippi gulf. the storm just whacking places

like captiva island, sanibel, fort myers and the rest. this is one of the most beautiful parts of the united states. in fort myers alone, that's where the greats like thomas edison and henry ford would go to vacation. captiva island has a national seashell museum. theodore roosevelt used to come there to go bone fishing. it's a marine paradise and it's been destroyed. this will take a long time. what i learned from new orleans is you have about a 48-hour window that we're hitting right now. maybe 72, where you got to get to people. there are people in need and they must immediately be rescued. why do people stay? some people didn't have the money to leave. some people had a pet and they wouldn't leave the pet. you have people now, if they

don't have electricity, they're going to be on respirators, you know, the ventilators and the like. they'll end up dying. you'll see a death toll increase, but the hospitals are the key facilities right now. >> and we had a woman on our show yesterday, kerry sanders interviewed her, very typical situation. a caregiver with a loved one, she couldn't move him. this also is a test in leadership. we learned a lot after katrina. a lot of political careers were impacted by it, by the response. for florida governor ron desantis and governors of other states as this storm moves north, the challenge is not just the 48 hours and preserving life, isn't it also in the weeks and months after that overall response? >> absolutely. and governor desantis had the

gal, the audacity when hurricane sandy hit new york to refuse emergency funding for new york. it was an outrage. he was a young hot head tea party republican who just said that's just government doling out money. that's like charging things on a credit card. now, when this storm of a lifetime has hit florida, he needs the biden administration, he's having to abandon his ideology. desantis, who has presidential aspirations will be judged on his performance in the coming days. is he seen as somebody as mitch landreau was, the mayor during katrina, will he be there? most of the people who got out of their homes are worried about the mold and possible toxicity in the waters there.

a hurricane like ian is not about a day or a week, it isn't about week two. it will be years before they get anything close to full recovery. >> doug brinkley, thank you very much for coming on this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," a live report from south carolina as that state prepares for a direct hit. and a look at the economic impact of the storm with recovery costs estimated to be close to $100 billion. as for the overall economy, we learned things were worse in the first half of the year than initially thought. mark cuban will join the conversation for that. also ahead, the latest from russia and ukraine. vladimir putin admits mistakes in the way russia's recent military draft is being carried out, while also taking a key step in the process of annexing part of ukraine. we'll have reaction from

president biden. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. we'll be right back. with downy infusions, let the scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy. president biden has now signed the inflation reduction act into law. ok, so what exactly does it mean for you? out of pocket costs for drugs will be capped. for seniors, insulin will be just $35. families will save $2,400 on health care premiums. energy costs, down an average of $1,800 a year for families. and it's paid for by making the biggest corporations pay what they owe. president biden's bill doesn't fix everything, but it will save your family money.

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it will take days, possibly even weeks to get a full picture of the utter devastation in florida. this will be the costliest florida storm since hurricane andrew made landfall back in 1992. now estimates are beginning to come in for how much it may cost to rebuild. core logic is estimating that recovery could cost anywhere between 28 billion to $47 billion. other organizations put the price tag even higher with accuweather estimating the damage closer to $100 billion. for context, you can see the most expensive weather event in u.s. history was by far hurricane katrina.

at $186 billion. with harvey and maria the only other weather events to surpass the $100 billion mark. as for the economy as a whole, the markets ended sharply lower yesterday on worries about the federal reserve's aggressive fight against inflation. new data released yesterday showed gross domestic income, a key measure of u.s. economic output, grew more slowly in the first half of the year than previously thought. joining us now, mark cubingen, the owner of the dallas mavericks, an investor on "shark tank" and creator of the new company low cost drugs. what do you make of the economy not being as strong as initially thought and where it stands right now? it feels so uncertain especially in areas viscerally felt like the housing market?

>> it's so hard to predict. you have the war in ukraine, you have some disruption in supply chains, you have the devastation in florida. you can't really predict where it's going. i don't think we're due for a significant reduction in inflation for the next year or so. >> mark, as you look at these competing statistics we're getting in, historically low unemployment, 11 million open jobs, but inflation through the roof, the fed raising rates to try to slam the brakes on things. as a businessman, a man who looks at the big picture and decides where things are going, you have so many wall street firms with a bleak outlook for 2023, how are you personally thinking about this economy? >> i try not to speculate. i try to invest in companies that i think have great prospects. typically the cost to invest is now going to be lower than it

was six months or 12 months or 18 months ago. i'm trying to invest more, not less. >> so, i'm curious just how cost plus drugs and the decision for this company plays into where everybody stands right now. there are certain areas of the economy that seem stable. and then others where people are still really suffering. hard to get an overall assessment as to where things are going. how does that decision play into your assessment as to where things are going and what people need to get through these times? >> you know, when we look at health care, no one has ever said that health care is efficiently or carefully priced. everybody looks at their health care costs, particularly medications, and knows they're overpriced. none of us who get a prescription for a medication go to the drugstore even knowing what the price is going to be. we started cost plus drugs to deal with that. the idea that in 2022 people

have to make choices between paying rent, buying food or taking their medication is just wrong. so at cost plus drugs, we've created a goal. we're saying we want to be the low-cost provider for every medication we're legally allowed to sell. if you go to costplusdrugs.com, put in the name of your medication, not only will you see the price that we charge you'll see how we arrive at the price. you see the price we pay for the medication from the manufacturer. we mark it up 15%. we add $3 for a pharmacy fee and $5 for shipping. that's your price. we can sell for 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% less. we think we're a great counter to inflation. we think we reduce the stress of families. we all know someone who had to make a horrible choice on medication. our mission going forward is to eliminate that choice so you can always get your medication at the lowest price. >> mark cuban, thank you very

much for being on. the new season of "shark tank" premiered last week and is available on abc and hulu. up next, any minute now, russian president vladimir putin will sign an agreement to sermonly absorb portions of ukraine after the sham elections he held. it comes as he does publicly admit to mistakes with his draft. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ birds flyin' high ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ (coughing) ♪ breeze driftin' on by ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ copd may have gotten you here, but you decide what's next. start a new day with trelegy. ♪ ...feelin' good ♪ no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent

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we'll have the latest on the hurricane in a few minutes. first we go to russia where vladimir putin appears to be acknowledging mistakes in how his draft has been carried out. the "new york times" reports his comments came during a televised address to the country this week. while stopping short of

recognizing whether he himself made any mistakes, putin reportedly said the draft had raised "many questions." specifically he talked about citizens who were wrongly drafted despite being eligible for deferments including fathers of three or more children, men with chronic diseases or men above military age. putin added "those who were called up without proper reason should be returned home." the concessions are believed to be linked to the massive and frequent public protests russia is currently experiencing as its war on ukraine escalates and more russian citizens try to flee the country. i think maybe it's possible that some people in his country are not buying this war. >> a little crack in the facade for putin. he signed those decrees

yesterday recognizing the independence of two ukrainian regions, kherson and zaporizhzhia. putin is expected to announce those moves today. the annexation follows a series of what the west is calling sham referendums where the 95% of the vote favors joining russia, often at gunpoint. putin has previously warned of a nuclear response if any threat is made against its own land. that could include four ukrainian regions after they're annexed. president biden yesterday addressed russia's plans. >> the united states will never, never never recognize russia's claims on ukraine's sovereign territory. the so-called referenda was a sham, an absolute sham, and the results were manufactured in moscow. and the true will of the ukrainian people is evident

every day as they sacrificed their lives to save their people and maintain the independence their country. russia's assault on ukraine in pursuit of putin's imperialism is a flagrant violation of the u.n. charter and the basic principles of sovereign territory. >> that's president biden in washington. joining us richard haass, and white house bureau at "politico," and author of "the big lie," jonathan lemire. the beard is incredibly strong on a friday morning. let's put that to the side. i can't not mention it. it's right there in front of me. >> that's a good point. >> let's talk about more serious matters and russia, and the ceremony today that putin's going to hold in red square, a mission accomplished ceremony. saying, look, we brought these four regions home. our mission to bring them back has been a success and here we are celebrating that. where are we right now with vladimir putin? fold in the nord stream

pipeline, annexation, sham votes, call up of 300,000 reservists, what's the state of play in russiawillie, i think w the fact that on the battlefield, russia is slowly losing territory. ukraine is gradually clawing it back. so what we're seeing on the russian side are responses to it, the political one with the referendum, the annexations, the illusion of gains against the reality of loss. you have the sabotage against the pipelines, you have a return to what we call indiscriminate shelling or intentional purposeful shelling of civilian areas. the russians can't win military on military. so they're turning to an entire other set of tools or responses to try to change the narrative at home, to try to weaken western support for ukraine, and that's where the threats of nuclear use come in. so this is, i think, what we can expect to see for the

foreseeable future. >> and jonathan lemire, let's talk about the white house reaction, it appears president biden keeping that strong, clear focused message about russia. >> yeah, certainly president biden has not wavered in his support for kyiv as well as keeping that alliance together to do so even as europe stands ready to be tested by a cold, dark winter, and we saw the far right-wing candidate come to power in italy. it's also a bipartisan support. there's been even domestically, very few cracks in the facade. senators graham and blumenthal announced the measures that would have real sanctions and punishments for any country that did recognize those territories as part of russia here. so now they're standing firm. richard, obviously this seems -- there was some speculation early in the war that putin might do something like this, try to claim some sort of victory and use it as an off-ramp. hey, mission accomplished. we got what we wanted to do and we'll leave now.

seems like that has tamped down. people think this is rather him locking in russia into the combat. tell us about that and give us more on why you think the nord stream pipeline believed to be moscow is so important. >> i don't think it's an off-ramp because i don't think either side is thinking off-ramp. i don't see the raw material for diplomatic compromise here. the minimum russia can accept, ukraine is not willing to give anything like that up. there's no overlap. diplomats could work 24/7, they would have zero to show for it. both sides are settling in for a long war, that's the reality, not just through the winter, but long beyond. i think this is going to stretch on, and we need to set our internal clocks to that. the reason i think it's sabotage is putin understands that europe is moving away from gas, oil dependency on him. that's already happened. actually, more has happened in the last two months than people

realize. putin didn't have a lot to lose. his exports in the future are not going to be to europe. they're going to be in other directions, to india, china. he has to build the infrastructure on gas to do it. it's his way to maximize the pain this winter. he's hoping this winter could be a critical breakthrough, the italian elections, maybe putting extra energy pressure on europe to get europe to crack, to reduce support for ukraine. i don't think he's going to succeed, but that's what i think this is about. he's essentially taking a bit of a gamble to maximize chances for european weakness this winter. i don't think it's going to work. >> we reported on another explosion of the nord stream pipeline in a different place. that makes four total. that's some coincidence. if there is no off-ramp, if vladimir putin doesn't have a place to say diplomatically, we can settle this, and i can feel like i have gained something, and i have won this war that's

gone so poorly for me, where does that leave him, ukraine and where does that leave the west? what's in between him admitting defeat, and getting something out of this. >> i don't see him ever voluntarily admitting defeat. i think at some point, he needs to have a narrative that this has all been worth it. to use an old phrase of pat moynihan's, u.s. senator, he will define success down. and maybe it would be that he can keep these provinces in the east and in the south, the four provinces plus crimea. i think there's zero chance on god's green earth that any ukrainian leader would accept that. that would be political suicide. it's just not on. so i don't think he has a strategy. i think his feeling is he wants to sit on these areas and see what happens. again, it's easier for both sides, willie, to play a long game here. it's much tougher for either side to sign an agreement where they would have to admit

they didn't get what they wanted or what they need. my guess is the pace of battle, the intensity of battle, the scale of losses will dial down, particularly as we hit the winter. overtime it feeds a long-war scenario. this has gone on for eight years. if you think of this as something less as something that began in february. and started eight years. >> the continuation of the war in ukraine, the escalation, and the huge story in the united states with the hurricane, the death of a woman in the hands of the morality police in iran for not wearing a hijab, there have been massive protests including many women. do you think this will move the meter at all in terms of

modernization of the morality-related issues in iran? >> the short answer is i don't think a lot, mika. the base of support for the regime is not urban women. it's much more conservative and rural. what's interesting, though, is this is a much more significant widespread pushback against the regime. the economy is not doing well, at a time the supreme leader is on his deathbed, based on all reports. iran faces multiple challenges. it doesn't look like the nuclear deal with the united states is going to happen, which would have transferred a lot of resources to iran. i think they're battening down the hatches. i think the regime will most likely hang tough, but i don't see much of a positive future there. the iran we've seen over the last several decades is the iran we're more likely to get and they're going to be focused on maintaining control at home in this conservative, repressive order and expanding their footprint around the region, focusing most recently obviously on iraq, continuing in syria and continuing in lebanon. it's an imperial iran strategy and they're going to do what

they have to do to keep the lid on at home at the same time. still ahead, new updates from the house select committee investigating january 6th. we'll take a look at what ginni thomas, the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas had to tell committee members yesterday. we're back in just a moment. e b. the new subway series menu. the greatest sandwich roster ever assembled. for more on the new boss, here's patrick mahomes. incredible - meatballs, fresh mozzarella and pepperon- oh, the meatball's out! i thought he never fumbles. the new subway series. what's your pick?

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ginni thomas was on capitol hill yesterday for an in-person interview for the house select committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol. she spoke with members of the panel behind closed doors for about 3 1/2 hours.

thomas didn't answer any questions from reporters, but here's what chairman bennie thompson said about the interview last night. >> did she express her belief that the election was still stolen, that she believed that? >> yes. >> can you characterize what she is not answering, what she's refusing to answer? >> no. >> you're saying she believes the 2020 election was stolen? >> yeah. >> thomas first came under scrutiny for sending text messages to mark meadows encouraging then president trump not to concede the 2020 election. in her opening statement to the committee yesterday, she said her husband, justice thomas, was quote completely unaware of my texts with mark meadows until this committee leaked them to the press. her attorney also issued a statement yesterday arguing that her activities relating to the

2020 election were, quote, minimal. willie, just the fact that she's still an election denier is staggering to me. it defies every court ruling. fair to say it defies logic at this point. >> yeah, and a proud one as well. we've seen some humility from other people who have been called in front of that panel realizing now that the screws are being turned it's time to admit what's true, that joe biden won the 2020 election. not her. emerged proudly from that long deposition smiling and proud of her position on that. let's bring in gene robinson, pulitzer prize-winning columnist, associate editor of "the washington post." so, gene, ginni thomas is not a casual wife of supreme court justice as she's been described. she's been an influential player in washington for a long time as evidenced by her direct access to the white house, text messages we've all seen now with the white house chief of staff mark meadows pushing him, imploring him to not concede the election and to have donald trump hold strong and not

concede. she was at the center of this effort to try to stage a coup effectively against the united states government, and now holding strong to that position, which raises all those question, again, about justice thomas and whether he should recuse himself from anything around the 2020 election. >> yeah. apparently she still believes, willie -- and if you asked me a few years ago about ginni thomas, i would have said she is, you know, a far-right republican activist, but i would have sort of left it there. i mean, now she just appears just to be part of the demented fringe, really, just so far out there that she can't see reality anymore. the idea, you know, she is the wife of a supreme court justice, the idea that someone that close to the pinnacle of judicial power in this country does not

believe in our justice system, does not believe in the results of more than 60, you know, court cases or more than 60 judges looking at this question of -- if there were a question about the 2020 election and saying no, this is garbage, this is ridiculous, none of these claims is true. she rejects all of that. irrational is not a strong enough word for it. i just keep coming back to demented. it doesn't make any sense. >> we certainly know, mika, that some on the right who embrace the idea that the 2020 election was rigged, of course a false claim, you know, did so for a while, eventually have moved on. she hasn't. she is still saying this now. let's remember, this isn't just

her saying yesterday, january 6th, this isn't just her texting with mark meadows saying, hey, keep up the fight. she also was working with state legislators, pushing two different states, wisconsin and arizona, to seat alternate false set of electors to try to overturn joe biden's win. she is in this up to her neck, and supreme court justice clarence thomas, i know she claims there's a wall between the two of them and they don't speak about this sort of stuff. remember, he was the one dissenting vote in the trump case about keeping the documents at mar-a-lago, and many lawmakers, certainly democrats, have called for him to recuse himself from any trump-related efforts going forward. it's not hard not to be worried about these implications. still ahead, a live report from charleston as residents in south carolina brace for hurricane ian to make landfall later today. it's not over yet.

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live look at ayla palm, south carolina, as they prepare, as the winds begin, hurricane ian now downgraded to a tropical storm but headed that way. and there are many concerns about the impact of wind and water in the carolinas all the way up to virginia. welcome back to "morning joe." it is 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. on the east coast where a state of emergency has been declared in south carolina as the national weather service is warning of life-threatening flooding, storm surge, and strong winds. ian is now set to make a second

u.s. landfall hours from now as a category 1 storm. willie. >> that hurricane left a trail of devastation across florida, killing at least 12 people that we know of so far, leaving more than 2 million people without power and cell service, know a good portion of that has been restored. damage and economic loss estimates now topping $100 billion. let's bring in nbc news correspondent morgan chesky live from ft. myers beach. morgan, good morning again. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: willie, heartbreaking scenes in every direction you look in ft. myers. the sun coming up today on a city and a famed beach that is almost unrecognizable. we are getting a better picture now of the damage hurricane ian has left behind. one of the hardest hit areas, sanibel island, has been left completely cut off after its bridge was destroyed. this is a tight-knit community that witnessed some of the worst of what this massive hurricane

left behind. this morning the devastation in florida becoming clear -- whole towns leveled. near the famed ft. myers beach, the damage is historic. >> you ain't going to be able to get in that house safely. >> reporter: we met john strong, a volunteer out checking on neighbors, hoping to help those who lost everything from a storm that rewrote the rules. >> we were irma ready. >> reporter: but not ian. >> no, absolutely not. >> reporter: communities on florida's gulf coast left cut off. sanibel island, once a picturesque escape for vacationers now the scene of complete devastation. >> we got hit with biblical storm surge. it washed away roads, it washed away structures. >> reporter: the island taking the brunt of ian's impact as the monstrous tomorrow made landfall. time lapse video shows the storm surge drowning the area, the wall of water rising an estimated 8 to 15 feet. there was