good morning. 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. we begin this morning with breaking news. helene slamming florida overnight as a massive category 4 storm. the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the big bend region. the storm bringing 140-mile-an-hour winds and torrential rains, triggering

life threatening flash flooding and historic storm surge. it left towns across the gulf coast completely underwater as floodwaters submerge cars, crashed over highways and seeped into homes. at least six people have lost their lives. take a look at this, rescue crews in pinellas county, encountering homes engulfed in flames as they try to save people trapped by rising waters. right now, helene has weakened to a tropical storm, as it heads north, putting 42 million people under flood alerts. millions across the south are still without power. and here is the moment when the eyewall hit perry, florida. jesse kirsch was reporting live on the air. >> reporter: i can tell you that we have had intermittent moments of really powerful gusts. we're getting some right now, again. this is some of the -- i want to point out, i don't know if you can see it off in the distance, but there are cars out here, i

can tell you, 45-mile-per-hour winds, not to be on the roads anymore. anyone out here, presumably, not a first responder and should not be out on the roads. the winds are really picking up right now. we have debris flying. we're going back inside. >> and jesse kirsch joins us now from perry. good morning. i'm glad to see you're doing well, the team is doing well. but, a lot of people have been affected very severely by this storm. what are you seeing this morning? >> reporter: yeah, and jose, despite what you saw there, remarkably throughout this area in perry, florida, not that much damage, which is astounding when you look at the wind gusts we were dealing with overnight. this shop, however, did take what appears to have been a direct hit from the winds. take a look at what's out here in the front doorway, all this glass shattered from the windows that were blown out. we're going to step inside. paul, the owner here, agreed to let us come in and give us the idea of the devastation to the shop. this is the third hurricane to

hit this community in a little more than a year. dahlia took out a window here, he replaced it with that wall, which is now gone. he also says this was solid brick. now look at it. let's come over here, take a look at this. you see the insulation on the ground and the bricks blown out on the siding here and the interior here now in shambles. he said to us, thinking about turning this into a patio because this is now two years in a row that something like this has happened here. but, again, we'll come back outside, jose, and just show you, despite what you're seeing here in this shop, and here in the background, he's already got repairs under way here, for the most part, downtown perry is doing okay. and it is really just remarkable because we're looking at all the street signs. some of it already tilted over yesterday and expecting to just see a lot of projectiles and a lot of this seems to have held in tact. we lost power overnight, still many people are going to be without power. it is sunny. it is hot.

people don't have air conditioning. might be trying to fire up generators. that brings its own risk to life. and then we did just see some preliminary information from the national hurricane center saying that preliminary modeling is showing that this county, this area could have seen in portions storm surge over 15 feet. i spoke with someone from the county earlier this morning, he told me they did not have any reports as far as this pio -- this public information officer is aware, did not have any reports of deaths in this county, which is good news. i can tell you the sheriff in taylor county told me estimated afternoon 200 people, 200 people may have refused evacuation orders along the low lying coastal areas and we know that the storm surge is something that you cannot escape once it is on its way. so, you know, hopefully we continue to not hear anything about deaths to be reported. officials here had asked people to write their name and their date of birth and their information, their personal information on their body in permanent marker so they could be identified if it came to

that. >> jesse kirsch, thank you very much. joining us now is the mayor of tampa, florida, jane caster. thank you very much for being with us. the storm made landfall 140 miles from tampa, but your city was hit hard and we're talking about -- jesse was talking about storm surge. what did your area experience? >> really it was a storm surge. we had minimal wind damage. i just saw your coverage of the damage, structural damage in perry. we had very little of that. but we did have some significant storm surge, right around 7 feet in neighborhoods around our community that had already been saturated from previous rainstorms. and so we had a great deal of flooding. we are -- although we gave the evacuation notices, our law enforcement and fire rescue began receiving calls around midnight.

about 150 of those calls to be rescued from their residences that were experiencing flooding. they were able to get boats out in the water, when it was safe. and they rescued about 50 individuals and several pets. >> so how are your residents doing this morning? >> we're doing good today. sun's out, wind's down. a lot of the water has receded. the tide is out. and so, you know, there are a number of streets that are still flooded. we have a particularly low lying area, davis island, just about every street in the davis island's neighborhood still has standing water on it. and we actually just about 9:00 this morning we were able to gain access to that island. as you know, we have a number of bridges that connect hillsborough county with pinellas county, so we were just able to open one of those

bridges, in a westbound direction and the rest of the bridges are being investigated and ensuring that they don't have any structural damage by our florida department of transportation. electric company is doing a great job getting, electricity turned back on. there were some areas they couldn't reach, like davis island. they're there now, restoring that electricity. so they have gone from 120,000 customers out to right around 50,000. we expect that to drop very quickly. >> mayor, you know, for folks that don't know just how extraordinarily beautiful the tampa bay area is, and where it is located and how it can very much be affected by issues like the storm surge, tell us a little bit about that. it is unique in so many ways, you got tampa, st. petersburg, you got the bay, you've got so much going on there.

>> right. it is, we like to say, we have the good fortune of living in paradise and that's the majority of the days of the year. but, you know, one of the few downsides is that we do experience these storms whether they're tropical storms or hurricanes. i try not to say this out loud too often, it has been over 100 years since we have taken a direct hit. but just to see that helene was over 100 miles off our coast, and still we had close to 7 feet of storm surge, and we benefited from a low tide at the highest storm surge. so that saved us probably three feet of flooding there. so, we're very fortunate, but we're going to be cleaning up for several days. >> yeah, is there any kind of help you're looking for, help that you need? >> no, we're good. we're good.

matter of fact, we'll be sending individuals up to the panhandle to be able to help our friends and neighbors up in that area with whatever issues that they need. we're doing our assessment damages right now, that includes private property. i actually went up in one of our police department helicopters today, so i was able to see from above what areas are still flooded, and the water is receding out of the majority of those areas. so just a lot of cleanup to do. >> tampa mayor jane caster, thank you for being with us. it has been an extremely long couple of days and one long night. joining us now, barbara tripp, fire chief for tampa fire rescue. chief tripp, thank you for being with us. i know that you have not slept one bit. but talk to us about these last hours. how have they been for your community? we're just speaking with the mayor there. what are some of the issues that you dealt with? >> you know, i would say

probably the peak time of the surge coming in, probably hit tampa around about 10:30, 11:00. the number of calls that we responded to, some of the individuals are trapped, that was in evacuation areas we had to go and rescue, some calls we could not respond to, the calls, it was so dangerous to my first responders. it has been busy. busy for the last 24 hours. we had multiple situations that dealt with lithium ion batteries, ev car or some scooters. we had downed power lines. wind has been blowing and flooding is definitely a must. a lot of water here in tampa. >> what kind of issues have you had with the downed power lines and the ev battery, lithium battery issues? >> as of now, still under investigation. we believe one of the homes that did burn, it was an ev car in the garage. and, of course, you know,

saltwater and lithium ion batteries do not agree. and with the downed power lines from the heavy winds, the gusts of the winds, some of the lines come down, get on trees, start sparking, and, of course, if there is a shed, a house, of course, it starts a fire. >> chief, what are some of the things -- when one lives in an area that is affected by these kinds of issues, as all of us in florida have to deal with, all of us have to look for, what always kind of brings me such pride is are the men and women that work with you and for you, that throughout our state are willing to do anything and everything to help save lives? what motivates people like you and your team? >> that's what makes this

profession just number one profession in the world. and the reason i say we enjoy helping people, the men and women of tampa fire rescue as well as the police department did not stop. they haven't had no sleep. they constantly working. our dispatchers are taking calls in. we talk about a call every second. and it is that dedication and commitment they want to do to serve their community as well as the country as well. my hat goes off to all the tampa fire and rescue men and women as well as our dispatchers and police department, first responders throughout the state of florida as well. >> and these are people who are helping others when they live in these communities. they're also being affected. they have families that are being affected by it and yet they are out there helping others and serving others. barbara tripp, tampa fire chief, thank you for being with us. very much appreciate it. >> thank you. and joining us now, nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, good morning to you, again. you have just been all over

this. you were so clear on what we could be expecting. tell me what you saw, felt and tell us what's going forward. >> this is a storm that i'll always remember, jose, as, you know, overachieving at the end. we thought it would be a major hurricane. i don't think any of us thought it would get up to 140. the forecast, all along, was, you know, toward tallahassee, the big bend of florida, where everyone was, like, is it going to turn toward tampa, is the one that tampa gets and then they get the direct hit and still saw a historic storm surge. i think that surprised a lot of people. it is hard for people to get the concept of this storm is not going to hit you directly, but yet it is going to bring you higher water levels than you've ever seen before. the pictures that we saw with people in their living rooms in kayaks, the st. petersburg area, around tampa bay, i think that surprised some people. and that was -- i think we're just beginning to figure out the scope of how many properties and houses have been flooded.

and you practically now they're ruined, have to be gutted. mold is a big problem in florida as you know, if you get water into your walls. so that's that part of it. and then this part that is going on today is historic. people will be talking about this for decades. the rain event taking place with the storm. the winds are down to 45 miles per hour. not worried about that. everywhere you see in the pink magenta color is under a flash flood emergency. this is where water rescues are happening right now. water going through towns and communities. roads being washed out. landslides, dams being breached. dams that the gates are all open because the lake is flooding behind it. this is all happening, very dangerous conditions here in the mountains of north carolina. now pushing up to virginia, upstate of south carolina from greenville, spartanburg, and atlanta still has about two or three rivers, still waiting to crest and we still have a flash flood emergency for atlanta. this is just all because of the rain we had before the storm and then with the storm last night.

now that rain is ending. we're just about done. knoxville, asheville, greenville, atlanta, now we have to wait for all the water to collect, head into the rivers, crest and then all the damage will be done. in addition, what is left of the storm is going to pour today and tonight into areas here around nashville, paducah, everywhere in between goaling green, along the ohio river here, southern indiana. this is where we could see an additional maybe 4 to 6 inches and some additional flooding and then the other thing i have to pontial for these tornadoes in eastern north carolina. we currently have one, two, three, four, five tornado warnings that are going. this one here is close to the durham area here, outside of durham. this one to the south of raleigh. we have to watch that going through raleigh. raleigh right now, you're under a flash flood warning. and eventually may be under tornado warning here shortly. so, a lot of the damage has been done, jose. this storm is not finished yet and i think it surprised a lot of people. there are more power outages in south carolina right now than in florida or georgia.

this storm hit south carolina, a lot harder than a lot of people there were expecting. >> bill, we got to keep looking out because the hurricane season is still under way until november. >> i wish we were done. >> thank you. we all do. appreciate it. stay with us as we take a look at the devastation left by helene. we'll go to atlanta where water rescues are under way. and later, we're going to turn to politics where just moments ago these are the pictures you're seeing. former president trump met with president zelenskyy of ukraine. we'll play for you what they had to say in just 90 seconds. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. more cash back in my top eligible category... suddenly life's feeling a little more automatic. like doors opening wherever i go... [sound of airplane overhead] even the ground is moving for me! y'all seeing this? wild! and i don't even have to activate anything. oooooohhh... automatic sashimi! earn cash back that automatically adjusts to how you spend with the citi custom cash® card. [mind blown explosion noise]

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17 past the hour. we're continuing breaking news coverage of now tropical storm helene, which is causing catastrophic flooding across the south. right now, there are five confirmed deaths, over 4 million people without power as the storm churns over florida. joining us now, craig fugate, chief resilience officer at one concern. craig, thank you for being with us this morning. talk to us about this storm, cat 4, a lot of rain, a lot of water and certainly, of course, cat 4, a lot of wind. what -- how do you see this storm? >> probably one of the best forecasted major hurricanes in modern history.

national hurricane center, weather service, were very clear about this was what was going to happen. the hurricane, you know, was forecasted to strengthen. and reach a major category. so, you know, from the standpoint of the weather service giving us all the information they could, i don't think they could have done better. but a good forecast doesn't mean we're not going to have catastrophic impacts. this is multistate, this will -- it is still ongoing. i'm sitting in gainesville, where i have the sound of chainsaws going, no power, no internet and we were on the good side. we didn't have that much, but we just lost a lot of trees. and this will be across the whole region as we start to recover. >> craig, what are people's lives going to look like in the next couple of days, weeks, i guess even months for some, right? >> yeah, i mean, as power comes on, i think a lot of areas will start to stabilize. most of the damage that i'm hearing and seeing outside of the coastal areas are trees coming down. flood damage, you know, they'll get in there, particularly down

in tampa bay and along the coastal communities, you know, some of it was destroyed, but a lot of it you won't know until you get in there and see how much water they got. but the big story is the inland impacts well away from the coast that occurred all the way into georgia and now the flooding up in the carolinas and stuff. i think for a lot of people it isn't over yet. and for a lot of people for south carolina, there is lost power, georgia, power gets back on, that's 90% of the response and then you can focus on cleaning up and what repairs need to be made. >> what resources are available for folks that have been affected by the wind, the water, the surge? >> right now, just the emergency services, red cross and the other volunteer organizations. the governors get a sense and send the request in, i'm pretty sure fema will be recommended to the president for assistance. once that gets turned on, a lot

of the individual and family assistance program for people who didn't have insurance, which i expect with flooding we have a lot of people who don't have insurance for that. >> and, you know, we talked about this, craig, forever, but there are no doubt people impacted that don't speak english as their first language, that may have different immigration statuses. what resources do they have access to, how can they get some of that assistance? >> fema will bring in language interpreters working with both people that english isn't their first language, including people that are hard of hearing and deaf. so i think fema, we learned that you got to prepare for the communities you serve, not what fits your plan. for undocumented residents, this is the hard one, congress has been very clear that fema cannot provide direct financial assistance. we can provide emergency services. there has never been -- we can't

get water, food or emergency shelter to folks, but the traditional we're going to give you funding to rebuild, that's prohibited. and that's why we work very closely with our charitable organizations. catholic charities and red cross and salvation army and the whole world out there of the volunteer agencies. and we kind of do a triage. one of the things that does exist, however, is as long as one member of the family is a u.s. citizen, even if that's a baby born in the u.s., they can apply on behalf of the whole family. so, you know, you and i know this, we worked these issues going back as far as hurricane andrew, we oftentimes have to piece together assistance for our undocumented families. and so that's something unfortunately we actually got a lot of experience at here in florida. >> craig, it is always a flur to learn from you. i thank you so much for being with us. and i hope you get power

restored soon, get back to the internet and appreciate everything you do, craig. >> thank you for having me. stay with us as we track the storm throughout today. but, first, former president trump, a critic of the u.s. aid for ukraine meets with the president of ukraine. we'll tell you what happened. and benjamin netanyahu just spoke at the u.n. general assembly as israel continues to bomb lebanon, leaving more than 600 dead and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. l. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ♪ ♪ with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. ♪ ♪ and i'm keeping the weight off. wegovy® helps you lose weight and keep it off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only fda-approved weight-management medicine that's proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with known heart disease and with either obesity or overweight.

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27 past the hour. this morning, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu delivered a defiant speech at the united nations as concerns grow over a wider regional war in the middle east. israel remains locked in a war against hamas and gaza and is engaged in a conflict, a growing conflict with hezbollah and lebanon. today netanyahu directly called on hamas to release all the hostages. >> as for the hostages, i have a message for the hamas captors. let them go! let them go! all of them. those alive today must be returned alive. and the remains of those whom you brutally killed must be returned to their families. >> joining us now from tel aviv is nbc's raf sanchez.

what were your biggest takeaways from netanyahu's address today? >> reporter: well, jose, in many ways this was the speech we expected from prime minister netanyahu. he started talking about the horrors of october 7th, the killing, the kidnapping by hamas and he said that justified israel's invasion of gaza with the massive death toll and destruction that it led to. he said his country has no choice but, quote, total victory over hamas. that is a talking point he's repeated many times, jose, over the last 11 months. his own defense minister has said total victory is not a realistic goal over hamas. and i thought it was notable that he repeated several times that he is serious about trying to get a deal to return those remaining 101 hostages still inside gaza. it is notable because many of the hostage families feel the

prime minister is not serious, that when given a choice between prolonging the war or getting the hostages back, he continually chooses to prolong the war. and many of them are deeply concerned that this escalation in lebanon, one, takes all the diplomatic focus away from the hostages, but, two, makes it even less likely that hamas leader sinwar will make an agreement because sinwar has been desperate to see the war in gaza expand across the middle east and now he appears to be getting his wish as israel talks about a possible ground invasion of lebanon. the prime minister said israel's strikes in lebanon were about restoring safety to the north of israel and ending 11 months of hezbollah rockets, getting those 60,000 displaced israeli civilians back into their homes. it was notable, jose, he did not talk about a possible cease-fire. something the biden administration has been working very, very hard to try to get into place, pushing for an initial 21-day pause in the

fighting. and then a more permanent diplomatic solution. that is not something that the prime minister even nodded to. and, of course, he talked a lot about iran, which he says backs both hezbollah and hamas and he insisted iran can never be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. jose? >> raf sanchez, thank you very much. i think it was also significant that benjamin netanyahu spoke directly to and about saudi arabia. and that's something that is certainly going to have a lot of headlines on that. raf sanchez, great seeing you. i thank you very much. appreciate it. here at home, ukraine's president zelenskyy made the trip to trump tower this morning to meet with former president donald trump. trump says if he's elected, he'll work to end the war in ukraine as soon as possible. >> it has to end. he's going through hell. his country is going through hell like few countries have

ever -- like it happened anywhere. it is a terrible situation. we have a very good relationship. i also have a very good relationship with as you know president putin and i think if we win, i think we'll get it resolved very quickly. >> this meeting comes one day after the ukrainian leader met with vice president harris in washington. with us now is peter baker, "new york times" chief white house correspondent and msnbc political analyst. peter, great seeing you. what do you make of this actually meeting trump and zelenskyy when it seemed as though in this meeting, it may or may not happen. >> yeah. they had called off the meeting or seemed to call off the meeting because they were angry, republicans were angry at zelenskyy for going to pennsylvania, a swing state to thank workers at a munitions factory for all the arms sent to ukraine. this is meant to be a nonpartisan event, but it was with the democratic senators and governor of pennsylvania, they called it inappropriate and got all worked up about it.

but, look, the truth is the republicans haven't been as supportive of ukraine as democrats have been. former president trump isn't. when zelenskyy today said at that meeting in the photo-op you're showing there, that the war, that we have an agreement, he said, we agree we have a common agreement that the war should end, trump kind of nods. but zelenskyy goes on to finish the sentence by saying and that putin can't win and that ukrainians should prevail. and he's never said he thinks ukraine should prevail. and that putin shouldn't win. i think there is a vast difference there between what you heard from president biden and vice president kamala harris who made very clear that russia should not be rewarded for its aggression against a smaller neighbor. >> and, i mean, how important is this meeting for zelenskyy and, you know, for ukraine? >> well, very important. in 40 some days, it may be that donald trump is elected the president. and he's going to have to deal

with him the next four years and he knows, zelenskyy knows that if trump is elected, the chances of american support go down dramatically. the idea that he's going to continue to get tens of billions of dollars worth of american aid very unlikely going forward if there is a new trump administration. that would make it very hard for him to succeed on the battlefield, he knows that. he would come under pressure from trump to negotiate some sort of settlement that requires ukraine to give up its territory and possibly even to give up any aspirations of joining nato, to swear neutrality, that is the outline that you heard jd vance make, give russia what it wants in order to end the war. that's not something popular to hear in ukraine, but he wants to have a good relationship with former president trump in case trump comes back to office. >> peter baker, thank you very much. appreciate it. up next, back to our breaking news, we will go to atlanta where they're dealing with massive flooding. here are some of the crews rescuing a mom, her baby, and

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36 past the hour. tropical storm helene is now moving over georgia, with officials there reporting five people have died in the state. flash flood warnings are in place for several parts. over a million customers there

are without power. catastrophic flooding has led to evacuations and rescues like this one overnight where emergency officials rescued a woman, her baby, and two dogs through the flooded streets of atlanta. nbc's priya sridhar joins us from atlanta. what is the scene there right now? >> reporter: good morning, jose. look behind me here. imagine waking up to this, this is your reality this morning, homes completely submerged as you can see. take a look at that mailbox behind me here. we have been watching that for several hours. and the water has essentially not moved. it stayed at that consistent level. and that really shows you how much these houses and these vehicles in the driveways take a look are completely submerged. we're being told by neighbors that the homeowners here woke up overnight, one of the homes beside me here, they were able to evacuate overnight. the other one, over there, actually had to be rescued from their vehicles.

and this is just one neighborhood, we're being told that a couple of miles away the peach tree creek, which is what is causing this flooding, has also led to several swift water rescues that are still playing place at this hour. 25 people were rescued overnight. authorities were going door to door, knocking on people's homes, telling them to evacuate these kinds of flood conditions. now, governor kemp has issued a state of emergency and today he announced the additional authorization of a thousand georgia guardsmen to help with recovery efforts and cleaning up of debris. we did hear from mayor andray dickens, just about an hour ago. and fortunately, jose, no one in the atlanta metro area was injured very badly. >> priya sridhar, thank you so very much. joining us now is evan peterson from the red cross in atlanta. thank you so much for being with us. so, what kinds of things has the

red cross been doing, just in the last 24 hours? >> so, in the last 24 hours, a lot of what we have been doing is making sure people are safe. those who have heeded the orders for emergency officials to evacuate. we worked to have them in shelters and we have had thousands of people take advantage of that. but right now, as you just saw from the footage, the storm is passing out and people are starting to get that all clear messaging. so they're starting to come out of their shelters, out of their homes, look what is happening in their neighborhood. we're looking to stand alongside them to make sure their needs as they discover them and as they change are met. >> and so what kind of -- evan, one thing i've noticed over the decades is that many times when there are these kinds of natural disasters, the red cross is often the first to arrive and many times the last to leave. what is it that you all can provide right now and what is it that you all need right now? >> what we're providing a lot of people right now is the comfort. their lives are changing.

for some people, this has been a nightmare going on since hurricane dahlia, and then debbie and then hurricane helene. we are working to help them process the trauma of this. also get their physical needs met and charging phones, a good healthy warm meal, a safe place to stay. and then, again, when they start returning home, we will start working with them to provide cleanup kits, get them with case managers to talk about long-term recovery planning. as it relates to what our organization needs, a couple things for people who want to get involved and help first, 90% of our workforce is comprised of volunteers. sign up to become a volunteer at red cross.org. make a blood appointment, the need for blood is always important. and also making a donation of finances at redcross.org. all the services we provide people, it is free of charge. it is because of the generous donations from the public that we're able to do that. >> evan peterson, thank you very much for being with us this

morning. >> thank you. still ahead, we're going to go to asheville, north carolina, where officials are warning tropical storm helene could bring a 500-year flood. an update on conditions there right now. plus, vice president harris about to make her first trip to the border as a presidential candidate. we'll get a preview. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. citi's industry leading global payments solutions help their clients move money around the world seamlessly in over 180 countries... and help a partner like the world food programme as they provide more than food to people in need. together, citi and the world food programme empower families across the globe. ♪♪

44 past the hour. vice president harris is set to

make her first visit to the southern border since she got into the 2024 presidential race. the visit to an arizona border town will also be the vice president's first trip to the border since 2021. immigration and border security are a weak spot for the vice president as a new nbc news poll gives trump a 21-point advantage when it comes to securing the border and controlling immigration. trump slammed her visit to the border during a news conference yesterday. >> she has done the worst job probably in the history of any border, not just our border. she keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border, we would merely ask why didn't she do it four years ago? >> nbc's gabe gutierrez is from douglas, arizona, with us. gabe, good morning. what message does the vice president need to send or will be sending with their visit to the border? >> hi there, jose, good morning.

good to see you. one point on the polling you just showed, yes, it could be considered that immigration is a weak spot for vice president harris, but when you compare her to how president biden was doing on immigration, there is actually been some improvement there. so, that could be seen as a bright spot for democrats. now, vice president harris is coming here to arizona as you mentioned for first time since 2021 and she's touting her record as a prosecutor. she prosecuted transnational gangs and drug traffickers and when she was california's attorney general, she is really trying to flip the script here, jose. as we have been reporting, democrats are the last several months really since the start of the year, when republicans tanked the bipartisan border bill, they have seen an opportunity. and so now the harris campaign is out with a new ad today in battleground states, again, trying to talk about her credentials when securing the border. she'll have many skeptics here in battleground, arizona.

we did speak with several. there was one independent, though, who said her support of this bipartisan border bill swayed her vote and she is now supporting kamala harris here. we also did speak with a trump supporter, a rancher, she's not going to make much headway with these types of voters, but it is some of the opinions she has to work against here in this critical battleground. listen. what do you make of democrats trying to argue that they are tough on the border? >> it is political rhetoric, it is an absolute lie. you want to counteract them, okay, look at all your sanctuary cities. now they're crying the blues. they don't want the people, they're broke. you tell me, you want this, but now you got this, and now you're talking tough because you want another democrat. >> reporter: now, harris is trying to push back against that message by arguing to swing voters here that it was donald trump who argued -- who blocked that bipartisan border bill earlier this year, convincing

house republicans to block it. trump has said that bill doesn't go far enough. but vice president harris coming here later today, to have an operational briefing and deliver remarks outlining her plans to secure the border. jose? >> david gutierrez, thank you very much. up next, tracking tropical storm helene, still producing dangerous conditions as it churns inland along the east coast. we're going to go to western north carolina, under the threat of life threatening flash flooding. plus, moments away from new york city mayor eric adams appearing before a federal judge on bribery charges. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. so i started my own studio. getting a brick and mortar in new york is not easy. chase ink has supported us from studio one to studio three. when you start small, you need some big help. and chase ink was that for me. earn up to 5% cash back on business essentials with the chase ink business cash card

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this blast went off. this is behind me. you can see as it turns dark a little of the haze left from a column of smoke that rose up from what sounds like the dahia area of beirut. it's a hezbollah stronghold. it came moments after we heard benjamin netanyahu wrapping up his speech at the u.n. general assembly. it put to pay what he was describing, that israel will continue to attack hezbollah targets throughout the country. then we heard from admiral hagari, the main spokesman for the israeli military. he has been saying that this sounds like -- we haven't heard from him. we heard from the israeli air force. they came out and said the idf struck hezbollah's main command and control center that they said is located under a residential neighborhood in the dahia neighborhood. we know it's the command center, the nerve center of hezbollah's operations throughout the

country. they have struck it several times in the past week, killing major top commanders of hezbollah as they have also been striking targets throughout the country and causing a major exodus of refugees -- excuse me, displaced people moving up northward from southern lebanon and the east to here in beirut and points north. all of this, jose, is going on -- i think you can see some of the smoke still rising up behind me. this was a big, big blast. it shook the windows of our hotel. that's where i'm standing right now. it was a continuous sounding blast. it was almost as though a low rumble we heard for quite a while. that's because it was successive bombs rather than one single bomb. we don't have those details yet. we don't have them pinned down. of course, we will be able to describe more later on as we hear more from the israelis about the nature of the attack. all of this is going on as we see a feverish effort by

diplomats throughout the world, not just the west but the arab world, australia, trying to get hezbollah and not hezbollah itself but lebanon to agree with israel to some cease-fire that could last for as long as three weeks. the israelis have resisted this. this is the best effort that diplomats have had to try to bring some measure of peace to southern lebanon and northern israel. >> matt bradley, thank you so very much from beirut. to new york city where mayor eric adams is set to make his first court appearance. it's one day after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment for bribery, wire fraud and other charges. adams accused of taking improper gifts from turkish officials, free hotel stays, discounted airline tickets. in return, adams did favors. the mayor says he is innocent. with us now, antonia hylton outside the federal courthouse

in lower manhattan. what can we expect today? >> reporter: good morning, jose. things should get started here any minute now. we hear from our team members inside, including tom winter, that mayor adams is seated in the courtroom behind me here and will soon -- all of these proceedings will begin with judge kathleen parker. he is accused of a decade-long corruption scheme outlined in a stunning 57-page indictment. the accusations range from accepting free or deeply discounted luxury accommodations and trips in exchange for political favors. they include taking advantage of a new york program and leading to millions of dollars in public funds being stolen. they include also the accepting of illegal foreign contributions

masked as straw donors here in the u.s. the mayor made clear in a presser yesterday and over the course of really the last 48 hours that he is innocent, he says, and that he is going to vigorously defend himself against these charges, that they have other materials, other text messages to refute a lot of the stunning vignettes and stories told by the prosecutors in this indictment, jose, which just to share one example include the allegation that he pressured a fire official here in new york city to approve an unsafe building, a turkish -- a new turkish consulate that was allegedly not up to code in exchange for some of the favors he had done for turkish officials and the turkish government. kathy hochul has the option to remove him. she's looking at what's best for new yorkers and has not yet

announced she's taking that step. >> antonia, the mayor more than once has said that he is not quitting. he is not stepping down. he says he's going to be doing both of these things, defending himself and running the business of the city of new york. has there been any reaction to the mayor's decision? >> reporter: there have been a range of reactions here in new york. some new yorkers coming out to support him here on the street today. also at the presser he held yesterday. other new yorkers heckling him at that outdoor presser he held, expressing anger. in terms of officials, politicians from new york, there's been a range. many of the new york delegation here, including our senators schumer, stopping short of calling on him to resign. many people leaving open, of course, that he gets to prove

his innocence, get his day in court. others, including city council members, pushing for him to resign. that also includes representative jerry nadler. many people concerned the cloud of this, the work to defend himself in court is going to take him away from this big and very busy city. >> i want to bring in chrissie greenberg. she's also an msnbc legal analyst. what is going on today? the mayor tried to get the arraignment and initial conference all done in one day as opposed to splitting them up. how unusual is that? >> it depends by each judge's personal preference. some handle arraignments themselves. this particular judge, who is the case is assigned to, has decided to have the magistrate judge handle both the initial presentment in court as well as the arraignment. that's fairly common.

what will happen today is he will this morning have appeared at the courthouse, been interviewed by a pretrial services officer to discuss a range of topics focusing on his ties to new york, his international travel, his financial assets and liabilities, his residences, things of that nature. that officer will prepare a report for the judge and the parties with a recommendation as to whether or not there should be bail or detention. i expect thereill be bail granted and both parties will agree to that and he will plead not guilty to the charges today. >> thank you both so very much. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. see you tomorrow night on "nbc nightly news." thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," helene ripping through florida and