it was a miracle that people got to safety. but like i said, we will never make an excuse. we will find better ways to protect people and i hope it will be a global conversation about the reality on the ground because people can be saved if we're better. >> thank you so much, governor. we appreciate your being with us. >> thank you for supporting us. we appreciate it. >> you bet. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." chris jansing reports starts right now. good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. it could be the most powerful hurricane to hit florida's big bend since 1950. fueled by wildly hot gulf waters, idalia is expected to explode from a category 1 to a category 3 or even 4 before slamming into the coast tomorrow. officials at tampa general hospital are putting up what's called an aqua fence, an attempt to protect against life

threatening storm surge. plus, mark meadows making an argument he hopes could shield him and potentially his boss from prosecution in georgia. is it a crime if you can claim you're just doing your job? a member of the tennessee three once again at the heart of a politically and emotionally charged scene inside the state house. the incident that justin jones calls a troubling abuse of power and prompted his fellow democrats to walk out. but we begin with less than 24 hours until hurricane idalia makes landfall in florida. and then the next 20 are critical. residents in low lying areas are being ordered to get out now with a storm surge of 12 feet possible in some areas. and while right now idalia is a category 1 hurricane, that storm is forecast to rapidly intensify today as it rips over those unusually warm gulf coast waters. by the time it hits the coast tomorrow, it could be a cat 3 or

4. and the timing just couldn't be worse. tampa bay is about to see what is called a king tide, some of the highest ocean water levels of the year, coupled with the possibility of the most hurricane in the last century. for the latest on the track, let's go to bill karins. bill, what is happening? >> chris, this will be a very dangerous storm, just as strong as some of the most powerful ones we have seen in the last couple of years. what looks to be different about this one is that it is not going to head inland over beaches or heavily populated areas, it will be over the big bend area of florida. mostly swamp land with inland cities that will have to deal more with the wind problems than the storm surge. but for areas like cedar key, a little barrier that sticks out, our thoughts and prayers are with them, 700 people call that home and that looks to pay the brunt of the storm surge and the wind. the latest from the hurricane center, category 1, it is trying

to work its way to a category 2, over very warm water and it is pretty much heading up to where my hand is right here, almost going to go due northwards from here. and that's the current motion at about 14 miles per hour. this will give us landfall tomorrow morning, roughly around about 8 to 10:00 a.m. or so. now, as far as the hurricane center, here is the 8:00 a.m. position off the coast, 125-mile-per-hour winds. that's a strong major hurricane, bordering almost getting up to category 4. so the inland cities i'm most concerned with for wind damage is areas like perry, florida, cross city, tallahassee, if we get more of a west shift or possibly gainesville a right shift. right now in the middle here. notice that the tampa area, pin pinellas county, you're 100 miles away from the center of the storm. not going through the core of the hurricane. your winds are more like tropical storm damage. that's what you should expect. the storm surge is a different story. we'll talk about that in a second. as we go throughout the day tomorrow, the storm makes its

way to savannah by 8:00 p.m. the problem with this is that at 8:30, it is your high tide. a full moon tide too. and we'll have the onshore winds and storm surge coinciding at the same time. that's why a top ten storm surge total water height is possible in the savannah area. we'll watch that. charleston, water levels very high as we go throughout your wednesday evening high tide. computer models, most of them are right near the black line, that's the hurricane center forecast track. notice majority are just to the west. so at this point if we get any shift in the forecast, it may be getting closer towards the tallahassee area. remember, the right side of the storm, this part, the right side of this black line, that's where the worst storm surge is and where the highest winds are and also the best chance of tornadoes too. that is pretty much all of the west coast of florida. so that's why even with the storm 100 miles off the coast, the water is going to pile up here in the tampa bay area.

tomorrow morning's high tide 4:40 in the morning, when we see our highest water levels with this storm. at the same time, winds 40 to 50 miles per hour. if we get significant flooding from the storm surge in the tampa area, it will be early tomorrow morning. landfall, that's where the 10 to 15 foot could happen. thankfully this is swaswampy ar, this is going to be historic catastrophic for those little areas there. so got to get out of the way to save life and save property, whatever you can bring with you and hopefully that's already happened. as far as the max wind gusts go, we're thinking in the highly populated areas, tropical storm gusts 40, 60 miles per hour, minor scattered power outages. the real thick heart of the power outages will be here in the northern florida and areas of southern georgia. as far as what we're going to deal with impacts in the carolinas, doesn't look like the wind should do too much damage, more the storm surge and the rain is a big issue with the

storms. someone could get up to a foot of rain, especially in north florida, but even through the carolinas, four to eight inches is possible. as you expect, a major hurricane, you'll have all sorts of issues, we'll have to wait and see how this plays out to see if we get any last minute shifts. it looks like this one will head toward the big bend of florida. >> bill karins, thank you for that. guad venegas is live from crystal river, florida, where evacuation orders are in effect. i want to let you know, guad, we're waiting for the white house press briefing and the fema administrator will be there. so pardon me if i have to interrupt you. give us a sense of what you're seeing on the ground when it comes to evacuations and other storm preps? >> reporter: chris, as we wait for this presser to begin, we have been getting alerts for these evacuation orders and i'm going to read what the alert is like that people get. the alert we got two hours ago said life threatening storm surge expected, evacuate citrus county zone a, take action now. that's the county that we're located. we are in one of these zone as.

so the state of florida has identified zones along the coast, the most dangerous low lying areas and the residents know what zones they're located, so zone as are the ones that are being evacuated in certain areas. bill karins was going over the map and the path that is forecasted at the moment. what is important for people in florida to note is that 22 counties have different evacuation orders in place, and people need to know if their area is an area that needs to be evacuated, there is other areas where there is voluntary evacuations. people who aren't in the a zone, if they're in a mobile home or in a structure that cannot sustain those high winds, they're being asked to also evacuate. you can see these communities like the one that i'm standing in right now, there is a river that goes through the area and there is houses left and right. the governor is talking about the possibility of a storm surge that would go up as high as 12 feet. so from where i'm standing to

the water, it is a foot and a half. if we get a storm surge of three to four feet where i'm standing, i would be covered almost at my waist and i have a building that is maybe another foot. so this whole area would be under water if we were to get six feet of a storm surge, so these are, of course, the dangers in different parts of florida and we have seen what the storm surge can do as we -- that's why they have these evacuation orders -- i've been hearing from some of the residents in the area -- >> people i know are panicking. i'm pretty calm about it. i don't live by the water. and i've been through several of these. >> we got generator ready. fuel from the generators, food supply and everything tied down. not the first rodeo. >> reporter: and when we talk about generators, authorities always want to remind people how dangerous it can be if the generators are used inside.

sometimes people can forget that they produce carbon dioxide. it is dangerous for someone to operate a generator when the power goes out. the governor said we expect the power to go out in parts of florida. thousands of workers are standing by, crews that came from other states to help once the power outages take place here in florida to come in and do the repairs that are necessary. we're going to know in the next few hours what happens. the state has prepared as best as possible, they're asking people that have to evacuate to go to a friend's house, relative, loved one, and if they can't, there are resources by the state and there is also some federal aid here for them to be able to get a place to spend the night. there are shelters, they also have generators standing by. they have gasoline that -- >> we seemed to have lost guad. i have a feeling over the next day or two, we'll see a lot more of that. i want to thank him for his report and go on to the fact

that more than 20 florida counties are under those mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders. let's talk about pinellas county. schools have been turned into makeshift shelters for families told to leave mobile homes and low lying areas and officials say now is the time to renew essential prescriptions or buy ice to preserve food. with me, david conner, public information manager for the county. thank you for being with us. give us a read of the situation on the ground and maybe start with those evacuations. do you know how many people who should be out have gotten out? >> of course. thanks, chris. our zone a and mobile home park areas, which is what we ordered to evacuate encompass about 300,000 residents. of them, i can't give you a specific number about how many have left, but what i can tell you is that our sheriff deputies on the beaches are reporting very little activity, they're reporting boarded up businesses.

that's a good sign. we want people to get out because of the threat of life threatening storm surge. just three feet of storm surge water is enough to move a car. and we're anticipating four to seven. >> have you gone door to door? do you anticipate going door to door? what is your last effort to get as many people out as you possibly can? >> we have been using a number of methods, working with our media partners, social media, direct messaging through text alert systems, which you can sign up for and also we can just send to all the phones and also land line phones, so we're using about as many ways to reach our residents as we can. there is a million people in pinellas county. we're asking them to get out of zone a and go somewhere else in the county that is not in an evacuation zone. they don't have to travel 100 miles, maybe just five. >> what is your message to those floridians who said i lived through hurricanes before, i can do it again?

>> it is easy to get complacent. i've been a florida resident for ten years. i've seen several storms in that time. but really these are powerful, natural sources. storm surge is not something to be messed with. it is not something to take chances with. it is not always easy to evacuate. but it is the safest thing to do and with any luck, you know, this will pass, those waters will come and then recede after that high tide that you mentioned tomorrow. and residents will be able to go back to their home. >> it was just last year, i don't have to tell you this, that hurricane ian killed 149 people with some aspects of that recovery still going on. so, does pinellas have the resources it needs to face another hurricane and what we hope will be not a significant but could be a significant aftermath? >> we take these storm preparations very seriously. we start at the beginning of storm seen in may and june. and we also keep in close touch

with the rest of our partners both at the county, state and federal level. so we're regularly talking with the florida national guard, we have a fema representative in our building, we are prepared for what comes and we ask that our residents take that level of preparation seriously as well. >> well, david, i know you have your work cut out for you. we appreciate you taking the time. good luck to you all and thank you for being on the program. we have breaking news also out of florida, where miami mayor frances suarez says he is suspending his presidential campaign. that makes him the first republican to get out of the race. it comes after he failed to qualify for last week's republican debate or in fact make a dent in any of the national polls. suarez released a statement saying he would keep in touch with the other candidates, and work to put forward a, quote, strong nominee who can inspire and unify. country. up next, the waiting game as a judge considers mark meadows' last ditch bid to get his georgia charges moved to federal

court. the impact that decision may have on the other georgia cases and what we know about the judge's timeline when we're back in just 60 seconds. timeline whek in just 60 seconds (fan #1) there ya go! that's what i'm talkin' about! (josh allen) is this your plan to watch the game today? (hero fan) uh, yea. i have to watch my neighbors' nfl sunday ticket. (josh allen) it's not your best plan. but you know what is? myplan from verizon. switch now and they'll give you nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv, on them. (hero fan) this plan is amazing! (josh allen) another amazing plan, backing away from here very slowly.

(fan #1) that was josh allen. (fan #2) mmhm. (vo) football season is here. get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy z flip5. only on verizon. a federal judge in georgia is weighing the first big decision in the racketeering trial of mark meadows. donald trump and 17 others. one that could decide not just where they will be tried, but potentially whether meadows himself can be tried at all. that judge is going to make the critical decision after listening to meadows testifying for roughly four hours. whether the alleged crimes brought in the indictment were just that, crimes, or instead whether meadows, which is doing his job as trump's chief of staff. arguing the latter, his lawyers say the whole case should be moved to federal court. and once there, they would move to dismiss the charges altogether.

based on their argument that as a federal official he would be immune from state prosecution. i want to bring in blayne alexander in atlanta, georgia. paul butler, former federal prosecutor georgetown law professor and msnbc legal analyst. and peter baker is "the new york times" chief white house correspondent as well as an msnbc political analyst. so, paul, what are the stakes here? i wonder if you agree that we're not just talking about a potential change of venue, but in fact could be whether the charges ultimately stick or not. >> yeah. so, meadows is asking for two things. one is that the case be moved from georgia state court to federal court and the other is that the indictment should be dismissed entirely. he's blaming an immunity based on the constitution's supremacy clause. i doubt that the judge is likely to dismiss the case either in federal court or state court.

he's got a lightly stronger argument with regard to removal to federal court. the main difference is that the jury pool will be wider than at the state -- if the case stays in fulton county. it will be -- have more white folks in it, more people from the suburbs, that kind of diversity is what the co-defendants might view as more favorable to their side. a federal trial would also not be televised, unlike the state trial, where in georgia the presumption is to allow cameras in the courtroom, but, chris, even if meadows is successful in moving the case, it is the same charges and the same prosecutors. >> so when do we think we might get an answer from the judge, especially given enormous consequences we're looking at here. >> reporter: the judge made it clear he's not going to rush the decision. he kind of gave a nod to that during the proceedings at the end yesterday. basically saying, listen, i understand the time is of the essence, but he said there

really isn't any precedent for this, so this would be something that would set some tremendous precedent. at least as far as the other 18 co-defendants are concerned. and he also made it clear that he knows that there is a state case that is still kind of moving forward. he said while he is making his decision that the state case can still proceed forward as planned. not putting any stops here on what is happening in fulton county. he even tipped his hand and said that if there is this situation where he hasn't ruled by next week on september 6th when the arraignments are set, the arraignments can still proceed as scheduled. that lets us know he's going to take time with his decision. we know the arraignments are scheduled for september 6th. we know one co-defendant waved that arraignment and legal experts and others do expect many others to follow with waving their appearances as well. >> blayne, thank you for that. paul, as for this, i was just doing my job argument, let me dig into that a little bit and read to you something that

politico wrote. meadows and lawyers argued that any matter capable of distracting trump or diverting his attention fell in the scope of those duties and should be covered by federal law. what are the key factors that a judge will weigh there? >> so, meadows has to establish that his activities in georgia were part of his -- part of his official responsibilities as a federal employee. and, chris, he really struggled making that argument yesterday, basically -- chief of staff, his job -- is to help with whatever trump needed including ensuring election integrity. the constitution -- the administration of federal elections. yesterday, meadows admitted that he supported this law -- trump's

campaign -- other receipts like text messages and youtube videos meant to promote the big lie. so prosecutors -- political activity than -- >> so, peter, look, i think i'll be understating it to say the trump white house operated at times unconventionally. not like the white house you and i covered with barack obama. but building on this idea of meadows' expansive role, his attorney said his client is federal operations and also argued he was trump's alter ego. to make sure people remember meadows' role in the effort to overturn the election, here is meadows on the call with brad raffensperger four days before january 6th.

i'm going to play that. >> mr. secretary, i was hopeful that in the spirit of cooperation and compromises there is something that we can at least have a discussion to look at some of these allegations to find a path forward that is less litigious. >> i have to leave you to go to the white house where fema administrator deanne chriswell is addressing the storm headed to florida. >> -- as well as other states in the path of hurricane idalia. yesterday i had an opportunity to speak with governor desantis. i also had an opportunity to connect with south carolina governor mcmaster and georgia governor kemp to help understand what their concerns were and to identify any unmet needs they may foresee and will remain in close contact with all of them

in the hours and days to come as hurricane idalia makes landfall and moves across the states. as the president said to governor desantis in his own conversations yesterday, fema and the entire federal family are activated to support the people of florida. the president also quickly approved an emergency declaration in advance of the storm in florida, turning on the many tools that are available at my disposal to provide the governor any support or resources he may need in advance of landfall and then after. this allows me to prestage people, equipment, and resources in florida, georgia and the carolinas and i have done just that. we have prepositioned different types of resources across all three states to include several incident management assistance teams, urban search and rescue teams, disaster survivor assistance teams and they're all ready to pivot to the most impacted areas immediately after the storm passes. we also have ware houses filled

with commodity like food, water, blankets and medical supplies ready to move into the impacted area at the state's request. but we are not in this alone. we have an entire federal family that is postured to support. our national response coordination center here in washington, d.c. is fully activated, and this means there are several hundred staff from across the federal family that are working together to support any requests for federal assistance. we have our partners from the u.s. army corps of engineers prepositioned to support any power restoration needs. health and human services is assisting with evacuations from hospitals and assisted living centers and the red cross has 50,000 meals to support the immediate needs as requested and has prestaged shelter support to supplement the 19 shelters that are already open by the state. this is a really important point that i want to talk about next. it is preparedness.

again, i really ask for all of your help to help me ensure the people and the storm's path get this message. while we are engaged with our states to prepare for the path of this storm, it is critical that the people that are in the path of this storm are also prepared. and i know that the people of florida are no stranger to storms and i encourage all floridians to take the storm seriously. this storm is very strong and is expected to strengthen to a major hurricane by the time it makes landfall due to high surface temperatures in the gulf of mexico. this means heavy winds, high winds, heavy rain, and a forecasted 12-foot storm surge in some of the areas along the western coast. this storm surge, this is one of the highest risk parts of a hurricane and is especially problematic along the west coast of florida due to the underwater

geography. the coastal shelf gets shallow very quickly, which increases the amount of the storm surge, putting more people at risk. very few people can survive being in the path of major storm surge and this storm will be deadly if we don't get out of harm's way and take it seriously. so i ask all floridians to be vigilant and heed the warnings of your local officials. have a plan to communicate with your family and your loved ones, charge your cell phones, your batteries, any devices you may have, and ensure that you are receiving emergency alerts. and most important, please listen to the warnings of local officials. if they tell you to evacuate, please do so immediately. and remember you don't have to evacuate far. if you are in a storm surge warning area, it could mean just traveling 10 or 20 miles to get out of the most significant impact areas. it does not mean having to

travel hundreds of miles to get out of the storm's path. and finally, we are all in this together. i ask that you check on your neighbors, especially those who are older adults, people living with disabilities or may need additional assistance. before i close, i want to provide an update on another topic that has been widely reported and in recent days and asked by many of you. fema's disaster relief fund, which as of this morning has a balance of $3.4 billion. so today i am directing the implementation of immediate needs funding. this means that fema will prioritize available funding for critical response efforts to idalia, the maui fires, and any other extreme weather events that may come our way without interruption, while continuing to meet the immediate needs of survivors for the remaining weeks of the fiscal year. i want to repeat, we are

prioritizing funding for idalia, for the maui fires, and any other extreme weather events that are coming our way without interruption. and i want to stress that while immediate needs funding will ensure we can continue to respond to disasters, it is not a permanent solution. congress must work with us on the supplemental request that the administration has made on behalf of fema, and you are going to hear more from me on that soon. my primary responsibility at fema is to ensure that we are always postured to respond to any disaster and to provide the life saving and life sustaining support when needed. with that, i'll take any questions. >> can you relate what your conversation, what you talked about with governor desantis and add any details about what coordination you're undertaking with florida officials? >> yes, when i spoke with governor desantis yesterday, my

main question as always what are your main concerns, what are the areas that you have the greatest concern about. and do you have any unmet needs or resources we can bring in. he shared what his posture at the state is going to be and where he has great concerns and we're working and embedded with his staff and assure him that we have teams working side by side with our colleagues, our emergency management colleagues there at the state emergency operations center to be able to quickly respond as needed. >> what were those concerns he had at the time? >> he shared with me the concern about people taking this seriously and being able to evacuate as a result of the storm surge. he has concerns about the vulnerable populations and making sure that we are providing any assistance we can to help them get out of harm's way. >> you mentioned the supplemental request after getting a fuller idea of what happened in hawaii and what the

storm threat and impact. do you anticipate raising the level -- >> the supplemental request that we have put in is $12 billion and that will be a bridge to get us through the end of the fiscal year. if we continue to see more storms, we're going to continuously monitor very closely the health of the disaster relief fund to determine what more may be needed. right now, as situations stands, the supplemental request will get us through the end of this fiscal year. >> in some places there is frustration with institutions and authorities. we have seen that in the wake of some other disasters. do you have concern about people taking the warnings from public officials, acting on them, and when we saw with hurricane ian, there was a -- the forecast indicated it was going to one place, it went further south and some people did not get out of the way. my question is given what we don't know, are you concerned that there is any weariness,

mistrust or fatigue about listening to officials in times of crisis like this. >> i think the important thing to look at and when we look at hurricane ian is it is not just the path of the hurricane we need to be concerned about. we have to be communicaing what the entire risk is and the highest risk for loss of life is storm surge. that storm surge right now shows the impact along the western coast. i encourage people and i appreciate your help in getting that message out, it is not just the path of the storm and it will continue to change, but look at all of the risks that are associated with this storm, storm surge being the most life threatening, not just where the path is going to go or where the eye of the storm is going to make landfall. >> in terms of the credibility of authorities, do you sense that there is any erosion of that at a time when you're trying to get that message out? >> i don't have any indications that there are. i think that what we are seeing right now in florida is people are heeding their advice.

local officials and people are moving out of harm's way. >> thank you. when -- back to hurricane ian, you had communities of color, poor communities saying they were not prioritized during this time. they didn't get necessary relief that they wanted and they felt like they were kind of put on the back burner. many of these areas are in places that are more physically vulnerable. what is your message to those who have that concern there may be a repeat in their community? >> during hurricane ian, we had a large amount of people that were impacted by that storm and we had teams of personnel that went out into communities across the state. and as we heard of stories of maybe pockets of people that we missed, we immediately sent our teams out into those areas to ensure they were getting registered for assistance and we were bringing all of the resources that are available and so what i would say is if you hear about groups of individuals

and parts of the state that after the storm passes are in need and aren't getting that, let me know. i will send my teams out to those areas to make sure they're getting all of the assistance that they're eligible for and that they need. >> -- dealing with the after math of the wildfires in maui and now preparing for a very powerful hurricane hitting florida's southwest coast. to what extent is fema overextended or stretched too thin in dealing with these two natural disasters? >> we're certainly postured and have the staff that are available to support multiple large events at the same time. we do have several open recovery disasters that we can pull some personnel from if we needed to extend or increase the amount of personnel we have. we also have a very layered approach. we can also reach out to all members of the department of homeland security through what we call the surge capacity force for individuals that have volunteered to support during the disaster and so i'm

confident right now that with these two storms that we're currently dealing with in maui and this one or another one to come that we have enough personnel to go in and support the immediate life saving efforts. >> you mentioned extreme weather that we have seen all summer from hawaii, storms in southern california, is this in your view the new normal, just summers where we're seeing these kinds of events more frequently and maybe more intense events than before? >> what i can say is that we don't have a typical operational season like we had in the past. we would normally prepare our staff to be extra alert during the peak of hurricane season, which is where we find ourselves right now. but our operational tempo has been year round. we started with atmospheric rivers in california in january. extreme tornadoes in the spring, to the wildfires and now we're in peak hurricane season.

and we have had an unprecedented number of disaster requests from governors because of the extreme weather that they're experiencing. this is our new normal. this is the operational tempo we find ourselves in. we have to continue to invest in mitigation, in resilience, to help the communities reduce the impact from the storms so we don't have such complicated recoveries afterwards. >> thank you so much. >> fema administrator diane chriswell, acknowledging what many of us have lived through and know and that is that we are in a whole new world now. she said the number of disaster requests that are coming in from states have never been like this before. we are in unprecedented territory. but also saying that right now the federal government of fema has what they need to do the job they need to do and in florida that means prestaging, they have entire warehouses that have

supplies. they're going to be sending people to help with power outages that are expected. they're sinding people to help. they know they have to evacuate senior centers, nursing facilities, hospitals. all of that that the federal government can help with and warning people who are under evacuation orders to get out that 12-foot storm surge that could hit some places. let me bring back peter baker. when you put this in a political context, if you're an incumbent, it is very difficult to get attention away from the other side that has a horse race going. until you get something like this as you know, peter. how much is riding on what happened in hawaii, what happens here in florida, and unfortunately what may be future disasters that are coming if what diane says keeps up in terms of president biden and his prospects for re-election? >> we expect our president these

days to be in charge when we have moments like this, moments of disaster, maui or florida or anywhere else and they're happening with increased frequency. i've been covering presidents now for more than a quarter century and i've never seen them have to respond to nearly so many disasters in such a way. like a mayor having to chase the latest fire alarm in the city, making sure the apparatus and government is working and making sure they convey a message of compassion. i think that's where president biden got in some trouble, the maui fires, he didn't seem to be out front as quickly and as fulsomely as some of the critics thought he ought to be. white house thinks that's unfair. that's the reality of this moment where we are seeing so many extreme weather events. we expect our presidents to be not only top of it in a

governmental sense, but on top of it in terms of a communications way. >> the other thing that was brought up with a lot of conversation we have been having about whether or not fema given this unprecedented demand has the money it needs. what they have got right now in their disaster relief fund is $3.4 billion, enough for hawaii, enough for florida and one more. they have the staffing they need. who knows. and the question i have for you, peter, is what you're hearing there in washington, d.c. because of concerns and i heard them expressed on our network by members of the house, the democratic side about the possibility of a budget impasse that brings a shutdown. where are we on that, and how entrenched are you hearing that members, for example, the house freedom caucus, are in terms of trying to work to get the budget lower and what the risks are of that right now, for things like this disaster fund. >> yeah. the president asked for billions of dollars more as part of a

supplemental appropriations request, that's something outside of the normal budget. it is tied to more money for ukraine security and its war with russia, more border money and some other things. disaster relief funds are often political because parts of the country aren't getting the money, resentful of the parts that are. everybody knows a disaster can happen anywhere. while you may not be thrilled about spending money in someone else's district it will eventually happen in yours and you'll want somebody to support you. we think congress will still make sure that fema coffers are replenished, they can handle whatever is coming. but it is not a guarantee. there is a fractious moments, they had a debt ceiling a couple of months ago and the freedom caucus is reluctant to do anything that goes above what they agreed to as part of that

agreement. >> peter baker, who made the quick turn with us from some of the former president's political problems to what is happening now. thank you, peter. great to have you on the program. and still ahead, why did he do it? police searching for a motive as the alleged unc student shooter is charged with first degree murder now. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. you're watching "chris jansing porerts" only on msnbc that's me before dawn powerwash. [sigh] now, powerwash gives me the power of an overnight soak in minutes. with 3 cleaning boosters... not found in traditional dish soaps that help break down, loosen and lift away food and grease... so much faster! ♪i've got home internet from t-mobile.♪ ♪it only costs $50 bucks at t-mobile.♪ ♪just one cord to set up.♪ ♪say goodbye to that truck.♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful mornin'...♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful day...♪ ♪they won't raise your rates at t-mobile...♪

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in north carolina, police have now charged a unc chapel hill graduate student with first degree murder after a shooting yesterday that killed a faculty member and put the entire campus on lockdown for hours. classes are canceled today as police search for a motive. dana griffin is following all of this for us. i understand police identified the victim and what else are we learning? >> reporter: hi, chris, yeah, they identified the victim as professor jun j. yun, he was the adviser to the suspect. that's according to a since deleted unc profile. the shooting suspect, 34-year-old tailei qi has been charged with first degree murder and having a gun on educational property. we know that they had some sort of relationship but the motive behind the shooting remains a mystery. we were getting reports of a

single shot, so there are questions now on if this was targeted. the suspect was found several minutes, up to an hour and a half later. we know investigators were looking to investigate more about why this happened and last we heard they were still looking for that 9 millimeter pistol they allege was used in the shooting. we're seeing some images here of kids jumping out of second story windows to safety because when active shooter alert is sent out, kids don't know if this is targeted. they don't know if a potential shooter is coming to their classroom, so people did everything they could to stay safe, to stay hidden. listen to one student's account of what happened yesterday. >> we just stayed hiding in the stalls, squatting on the toilets, scared, we tonight know -- didn't know what was happening. >> this is a situation that we

really shouldn't have to be worrying about. we're in class and lecture and have to be concerned about gunmen coming into our classrooms and hurting people when we're just here to learn like anybody should be able to. i'm very angry about this and something needs to be done. >> reporter: so students are not only angry, they're also concerned about their mental health. the school has now implemented a hot line for those students to call in to check in to learn more about the shooting and to also work through their emotions. you heard from one student who said this is something they're going to be thinking about for weeks, looking over their shoulders and this is another example of how gun violence and shootings have prompted this sort of fear on students. this is only their first week in school, yet classes are canceled once again because of the actions of that alleged -- because of the alleged actions of that student. chris? >> we should all be able to agree with that student, this is not something they should have to worry about in class, dana

griffin, thank you. inside tennessee special legislative session today, democrat state representative justin jones is back on the house floor after his republican colleagues barred the member of the tennessee three from participaing in floor debate on monday, claiming he had spoken out of order, twice. the black lawmaker wrote on social media today if he, quote, speaks off topic today, he'll be silenced by the speaker for three days. he also added that he's heard we may adjourn today because my republican colleagues are feeling the pressure. the vote to silence jones yesterday sparked chaos. jones' fellow departments storming out and protesters got so loud that one republican lawmaker said he couldn't hear what he was supposed to be voting on. this is the same republican majority that expelled jones back in the spring for leading a gun control protest on the floor. >> that's a charade, a sham happening there. people are united, challenging

authoritarianism. all of it is a facade of democracy and the legislative process. >> joining us now is paul ryan and brendan buck. what do you make of how lawmakers are handling this debate? >> when you make a big mistake, like they did the first time around handling these votes, you would think you would learn your lesson. they need to stop digging. the idea that you have put in place rules that members of the legislature can only talk about certain things strikes me as ridiculous and strikes fundamentally at issues of free speech. but the fact that they haven't learned when they try to silence somebody, all you do is elevate your opponent it just bad politics. and once again, you have a situation where the person who

is outnumbered does not have the votes to do what they want to do is getting all the attention. here we are talking about him again and it shows once again the folks running the legislature down there have a good handle on how to handle these things. >> not a good look to go into chambers, you have to walk through a line of police officers, i want to read something the tennessean, that's the nashville paper reported, quote. crowds of angry demonstrators mostly cleared out of rotunda as state troopers slowly pressed the lines further back with protesters chanting we will be back, and we're coming for your seats. the crowds overwhelmingly shouted that they would be back tomorrow, meaning today, and every day until they hear us. i mean, i guess the problem for those protesters is do those members of the legislature really believe that their seats are under threat? >> yeah, you know, i compare this to something i actually experienced in 2016 in the house of representatives. democrats staged a sit-in.

they took over the house floor and we couldn't vote for two days. and we had a lot of members who were republican majority who were really angry and wanted us to drag people away. john lewis off of the floor, arrest people on the house floor. but you got to realize, all you're doing is but all you're doing is elevating this and helping those people who want to make a point here. i don't condone having chaos. we are a modern democracy and should have some level of stability in a legislature. but at some point, you're only hurting yourself when you keep doing this. you're only emboldening these people. they are not going to turn away because you hold a representative out of there. they're going to come back louder. so once again, we're talking about the tennessee state legislature. i don't think that's a good place that they want to be. if they had just allowed him to say what he wanted to say, speak his mind and then ultimately vote it the other way, this wouldn't be a national story but here we are once again.

the republican party being defined by state legislatures. >> thank you so much for being with us. appreciate it. we want to go to lake city, florida now. we have breaking news there. and governor ron desantis having a press conference. the latest on the incoming storm. let's listen. >> national guard major general haas, we have columbia county director, shane morgan. sheriff mark hunter from columbia county and chuck brannon. this storm is going to impact inland counties and particularly in northern florida. you are going to see significant impacts. the contours of that will obviously determine will be determined by the exact path of the storm. but i think you're doing the right thing to be prepared. counties like columbia. counties like hamilton, madison, all those counties are going to be affected by hurricane idalia. we are monitoring some of these computer models.

you may see the national hurricane center update the track in either 2:00 or the 5:00 advisory. there are models suggesting that this is going to take more of a westward shift. that could bring it into areas like jefferson and leon and wakala area even and people have known this has a possibility and i know they're making preparations but that is something to look out for. there's still a range of uncertainty here. they're going to be updating this track as the day goes on and we will have probably better resolution on that as we get to the 2:00 or the 5:00 advisory. but that is a possibility. we've been in contact with all the local officials in all these areas and i know people have been making preparations. so continue to do that. the state is already starting to feel some effects of this in the southern part of the state. you're going to start to feel some effects in the northern part of the state. probably later tonight.

the beginning of tomorrow morning. we have expanded our executive order this morning. we now have 49 counties total. we've added bravard, orange and oescola counties. pretty much the top of the state into central florida maybe excluding some of the farther western panhandle counties but there's a huge number of counties that are going to feel impacts of this and we want to make sure they can do what they need to do. we're proud of all the staging that's been done. particularly for power restoration. we're now at over 25,000 linemen as of this morning. that is going to be approaching 40,000 by the end of today and the goal is when the power, and you are going to lose power if you're in the path of this storm. you should assume that's going to happen. and the goal is going to be rapid restoration of power. some of the parts where this storm is projected to go are a lot of trees. going to be a lot of branches, a

lot of trees. there's going to be a lot of powerlines down. just expect that. there's a lot of manpower that's going to go to address it but it's definitely going to be something that's going to require a lot of manpower and attention. so power restoration is something that is very, very important and we want to thank all the utilities that have -- we've got people coming from southeastern states. got people coming from nebraska coming to florida to be ready to go to restore power here in the state of florida and we think that's important. the local municipalities that have utilities, some of the electric co-ops, all those, please accept the mutual aid. we want to have as much manpower as possible to get that power back on for all of your residents and we know how important it is for so many florida residents to be able to get back online. but you should prepare to have some time without power if you're somebody that's in the path of the storm. and by the path, it doesn't mean just in the cone because there's

going to be impacts that are going to be outside whatever the national hurricane center says is the path of the storm. there have been evacuation orders issued for people on coastal areas, barrier islands, low lying areas. you still have time particularly if in the northern part of the state, you have time to be able to evacuate. you don't need to drive hundreds of miles. don't need to try to outrun the storm. just get to higher ground. get into a safe structure. ride out the storm then you can go back to your place. but in some of these areas like a cedar key, some of these others along the big bend, you're talking about really, really significant storm surge potential. i mean, this is similar ten, 12 plus feet of storm surge could happen in some of those areas. and the storm surge is not something you're not going to win that battle. if you decide to stay behind for that. you run away from the water.

and then you hide from the wind. and so in florida, if you get away from where the surge is going to hit, you know, most of the structures that we have, particularly things that have been built in the last 20, 30 years, those are going to be fine for a category 3 storm. and so you can hunker down there on higher ground where the storm surge isn't going to be a threat. but if you're putting yourself, if you're hunkering down in an area that could get hit by ten, 12 feet of storm surge, that's a life threatening situation anned we saw that with hurricane ian how massive the storm surge was. you are going to see part of the coast, probably in the big bend area, that's going to be really significant storm surge. we anticipate the national hurricane center to increase their estimates for the storm surge. particularly in the big bend from where it was this morning. so please be advised. you've got time. you've got the ability to do. i know all these counties have opened up shelters. you can go stay with friends,

family. i know there's deals on hotels. you have time to do that if you're in this big bend area. but time is running out very, very rapidly. we are working with counties to make sure they have the resources they need to be able to help their residents weather this hurricane. we've had more than 450 active missions. we've fulfilled or will have those fulfilled sometime today. all 450 of them. i want to thank the florida division of emergency management for doing that. we're now up to 1.1 million gallons of fuel that is on stand by to be able to mitigate any fuel interruptions and sometimes you have it. sometimes you don't. we'd rather be safe than sorry so that fuel is there. we have all eight urban search and rescue teams from the state of florida are activated and ready to go. hopefully they're not going to

have anything to do. hopefully everybody got out of town and there's not, those in the low lying and vulnerable areas, hopefully there's not a need for rescues but we assume there will be and they're going to be there and do their thing, which they do very, very well. we have a lot of assets available. we have 5500 national guards men. rotary wing assets. river wing assets. that's ready, locked, and loaded to be deployed as need ed. we have deployed almost 250 star link internet devices and we have over 500 staged that can be sent to areas that need it once the storm passes by. we have 3,000 stage and ready to deploy, excuse me, we have 700 personnel including over 220 cut and toss crew members with more than 650 pieces of heavy equipment and trucks

strategically placed. that is going to be necessary. hurricane ian, because it was a more populated area, the amount of tree debris in some of the others on the road, while there was definitely some, is probably not going to be as much as this storm will be because you've got a lot of wooded areas. you're going to see a lot of branches go down so we have people standing by to be able to help clear the roads. and that's important just for pedestrian traffic but also important for emergency response traffic. so that's something that's going to be really, really important . once the storm passes or once you lose power, if you use a generator, please use it appropriately. you cannot run it in your home. you can't run it in your garage. you can die from carbon monoxide poisoning. it's got to be outside your house. 20 feet away from doors and windows and the exhaust needs to be pointing away from your house

so please use that appropriately. there's obviously a need for power generation in these circumstances. we understand that, but make sure that's being done outside and that there's not exhaust coming into your house. we're going to be heading back after this to tallahassee to continue with preparation efforts. in the meantime, we'll hear from director guthrie, director morgan, and cfo jimmy patronus. >> thank yo governor and for your continued support and leadership. i'm going to pick up about generator safety. please make sure that's 20 feet outside your home. i know we've had a couple of times where we had people think garages are open. that is not open. they need to be out away from your garage as well. so please do that. talked to the chief meteorologist for the division before i walked in the door. again, reiterating what the governor has said. we anticipate seeing some higher level storm surge values coming out of the national hurricane center shortly. potentially a track back