♪ ♪. happy friday, bracing for impact. hurricane irma is expected to make landfall in south florida, the deadly category 4 storm reeked havoc in the caribbean. >> this is what we're talking about at 6:30. irma scraped the coast of cuba and weakened to a category 4-and blame for more than 20 deaths, it destroyed dozens of homes, schools, businesses and roadways in the caribbean and left thousands without power >> the house approved that 15 billion dollars hurricane bill which includes funding extends the debt ceiling, the president

and in virgini, governor terry mcauliffe declared a state of emergency in order to provide aid for irma victims. let's get over to gwen. what are we looking at tonight? >> tonight, the storm is located just between the bahamas and cuba, but it is really making its way right toward florida. and the path really hasn't changed much in the latest update of it. and this is what we're concerned about. take a look now as we deal with three hurricanes, we got jose, which looks like it will move out to sea, katia, which is affecting mexico and the monster and that is definitely irma. so as we take a look at the track of this, we'll see that by saturday, into sunday, is when it's anticipated to hit the southern area of florida into the florida keys and the peninsula, then it will move its way to the north, the cone of uncertainty is what i want everybody to pay attention to. anywhere within this cone we can see major impact, not just the central track of where it looks

like on here, the georgia, the carolinas, all of these areas can be affected with the system and all the models are really showing that it looks like it will make landfall just to the west of miami. so no change in that is really happened much either, definitely keeping a close eye on what's going to happen with irma. here at home. things calm and quiet with temperatures into the 70's. back to you. >> thank you, gwen. president trump is offering his support. he sent a video message and this is what he did to say >> we're doing everything we can to help with disaster preparations. when the time comes, we will restore, recover and rebuild together as americans. in times such as these, we see the strength and the resolve of the american spirit. >> at president trump prepares to help out with the federal response to hurricane irma, he also seems to be riding out another storm >> the president took to twitter to criticize party leaders for their failure to pass big

reform and comes days after the president. what does all this mean for future of the republican party? we have a group of panelists, niles stand age and gary a prospective of political management. during today's white house briefing, sarah hackabee-sanders was asked about this, republicans were upset and this wasn't intended to be a one be time thing he wants to reach across the table and help get some of his key plans passed. why is this a problem for the gop? >> well, look, they were elected to work with the president and to help him get his agenda through, to one extent or another, they have been trying to do that. they've come up with a big goose egg so far. number one,

of all clutter of the debt and the hurricane funding, so that they can spend the time working on tax reform. if they get a win on tax reform. it looks good, if they don't, it maybe doesn't look so good. meanwhile, without the republicans delivering him the support that he needs, he's holing that possibility out there. that it will happen again. >> early this week in north dakota, he brought democratic hide deheight with him. he's reaching out to her, she's also incumbent upon her to play ball with the president because that's a state that went red >> he needs her vote for the tax reform. he's going to have to get some democrats. he might as well start with the red state democrats that are up for reelection next year >> during the campaign, there was a lot of talk about donald trump once he was elected and in office coming back to the center a little bit. niles, you tweeted that a senior democratic

several months ago he thought donald trump might run independent as 2020. you wrote you scuffed at the time but now not so sure. we're looking at your to tweet there. you're not so sure >> it wouldn't be the first time i'd be wrong about donald trump for starters. but the one suggestion was that because he is a base that is very loyal to him, but it's relatively small, 37, 38% of the population, you can win without a three person or four-person, the green party race in a way that you can't with true parties, could he present himself as above the two existing traditional parties? someone described it to me as trump angulation, a version of try anglation. >> we've heard talk there may be other members of the gop who might run. this may be a way to position himself to stave that off >> and to really distance himself from the image of the leaders i

more unpopular than he is, we talk a lot about donald trump's ratings. he actually has better approval ratings than his party in congress >> speaking of, mike, let's talk about the talk about paul ryan, there seems to be discord from members of the freedom caucus, do you think his position might be ten wus >> he clearly doesn't have control of the caucus. problem is there's nobody in that caucus who can take control, who will heard those 238 cats. the not possible. thely smallest special interest group is the freedom caucus. when they decide they'd rather have half than no loaf, we might see progress >> is this a win overall for democrats >> i don't think it's a win for democrats. i don't think this was some big strategic decision for donald trump. i think he was sitting in that meeting. he was

he tends to react to his own instincts, it's like, ok, enough talk with this, let just go for a 90-day plan. it's solved the three most immediate problem, debt limiting hurricane relief and keeping the federal government open. >> thank you for joining us, we're out of time. we'll put your prediction on record, so that when and if this happens, we will bring it back. >> got to get more people retweeting >> not a chance. >> if he wants to run for reelection, i think he'll run and win the nomination >> that's 62 million votes >> here's the issue. it can't be done in a multi-way race, he can't win the race if he's not a member of a major party >> we'll go live to florida >> we'll get an update on irma as the monster storm takes aim at the sunshine state.

♪ ♪ it's a category 4 storm. caused death of as many as 23 people. >> joel waldman joins us from miami. when we talked most of that area had cleared out. what is the situation now? >> reporter: good evening, once again, for the most part, people have heeded the evacuation orders and have left, town, a short time we saw a family with a young child that walked by and a another woman walking her dog, we're not far from the airport and there's a flight that appears to be leaving town, heading towards the ocean. so flights also extremely limited but let me step out of the way and show you some major concerns with irma. if you look into downtown miami there, this is the

area, you'll notice the crane, there's been an explosion of development in the downtown miami area and these cranes are very problematic. they're only capable, from what we understand, of being able to sustain 145 miles an hour winds, right now, irma once again in these latest forecasts, could make landfall as a cat 5. either way these will be much greater than 145 miles an hour, especially with the wind gusts. the higher the foyer, the stronger the wind gusts can be. we're talking in excess of path of totalitily 200 miles an hour with these cranes up there and that could spell danger. the other major factor, you see bis cane bay, storm surge, we're about 20 feet above bis cane bay and forecasters have upped their predictions for the surge from an

if it makes its 20 feet. this area right here will be flooded out. a lot of areas are on water level. it does not bode well. guys? >> you told us before you worked in miami in florida before. what's the mindset of the people in the area compared to previous storms? >> reporter: much different. i was here post andrew. andrew really, really, you know, left its mark on south florida. that storm was of course back in 1992, it was a category 5. the difference between that and irma is number one, size. hurricane andrew was a fraction of the size of irma >> also hurricane drew went east to west. whereas irma is expected to go south to north. up the peninsula of florida, could be much more devastating and damaging. because of that people are taking this extremely

most people have levittown. as i said there are a few stragglers, but by all accounts, it is a ghost town right now. >> all the best to you, my friend, thanks for the update. coming back on 5at630 we're talking russia >> and is joe biden returning to the white house. a new clue that might be pointing at a possible 2020 bid. we'll be right back. born and raised in rural virginia went to vmi. trained at johns hopkins. an army doctor who treated soldiers seriously wounded in the gulf war. eighteen years as volunteer medical director of a children's hospice. as lt. governor, he's fighting to expand healthcare in virginia. he'll get it done as governor. ralph northam: i'm ralph northam, and we need to provide access to affordable healthcare for all virginians, not take it away.

♪ ♪. the russia investigations continues after lawmakers came back from summer break and donald trump juniorier met with the senate judiciary committee and said he didn't collude with russia >> katie williams a reporter with the hill joins us via skype. thanks for joining us. where do things stand right now as we know with donald trump juniorier meeting with this committee and them asking about this meeting, we know that robert mueller is also now asking about this meeting. does this signal some

change in the direction of the investigation? >> i think this he meeting long been of interest to congressional investigators and certainly the specials counsel, it gets to the heart of the question of whether or not atrium campaign members may have possibly tried to coordinate with russia over this election meddling interference campaign. when donald trump accepted this meeting, in june of 2016 at trump tower with a woman who was portrayed to be a russian government lawyer offering dirt on hillary clinton, he sold senate investigators his intention was to assess clinton's fit ness for office. but the other thing we said in this testimony that i think stood out to people is he -- he said that he always intended to seek legal counsel if he decided to use any of that information. now, what people are pointing to about this is that it's just that trump junior

that to accept damaging information about a political opponent from a foreign agent could be illegally problematic >> we heard from one of the senators in attendance. do we think there's going to come be another upcoming round the testimony where we may see donald trump junior in a public setting or is this one and done >> certainly prior to -- when this whole story originally broke of the trump tower meeting, the committee chairman charles grassly, as well as rank diana find stein said it was their intention to have trump junior come before the committee publicly. they struck a deal that he would have written testimony behind closed doors. democrats are still say they want to see him come and testify publicly. it's unclear whether or not the committee chairman will think that's necessary. he was not present for the closed door meeting.

staff conducted the interview. he was said to be reviewing the notes once it was finished. so at this point, i think it's a little bit of a wait and see game. the other thing the democrats are seeking is a release of the transcript of this interview. and that also is a little bit of a wait and see game. i spoke to a committee aid, majority commit aide about this yesterday and he said that they are grassly and feinstein will consult with one another about this but he did point out that releasing transcripts in the middle of an investigation can chill future testimony from other witnesses. >> let me jump in here. we got about 30 seconds left. tell us, if you will, we know there was new information about robert mueller putting the white house on notice that it wants to talk to six aides to the president. >> yes, so you know, what this suggests is that the mueller probe is getting a little bit closer to the white house

itself. now, according to reports, they -- mueller's team has not indicated they want to speak to the president himself and of course, president trump repeatedly said that he is not personally under investigation, but this is certainly a closing in of that investigation sort of around the white house. >> the circle is getting smaller. >> a little bit, yes. >> thanks so much for joining us, we appreciate it. >> my pleasure, thanks, guys. >> hillary clinton's book about the 2016 presidential bid goes on sale and democrats are reportedly dreading its release, leak sections of the book contains harsh criticism of mrs. clinton's fellow democrats, the question is are all the recent hillary flashbacks is it good or bad for the democratic party. let's welcome back a professor of political management at george washington university. we certainly seen -- heard some of the excerpts from the book, we know she's been

bernie sanders, of joe biden and the former head of the fbi. what do you think? is this -- we've heard from democrats saying enough. >> i'm kind of with the democrats and with your opening statement, i think it's, you know, a classic case of clinton fatigue, i don't know very many people personally that are going to rush out and buy the book. >> i think we heard the criticism of bernie sanders. neck, bernie sanders was on steven colbert talking about it. kind of speaks to the democrats were building up to what was inevitable and bernie sanders was the one who challenged that. as we go to 2020 and the democrats are looking for new face and leader and hillary is sticking around, does that bode well for the party as a whole >> that's the fascinating thing, donald trump ran against 17 republics for the nomination. many of which were the republican parties a team. the big question is on the democratic side, when you get

biden and bernie sanders, where is the democratic a team for 2020? >> well, do you have an answer for that gary? i'm just curious, that's what a lot of people are say, who is going to be there next time around >> i agree. i don't think it's going to be hillary clinton. i don't think it will be bernie sanders. i think there's probably going to be some sort of governor out there that we're not think about right now, you know, as much as bill clinton was leading up to 92. >> one name, by the way i saw milling around, there was a top 15 list of who could fill that void and one was chris murphy, a senator from connecticut. you come back to the bill clinton coming out of nowhere. is that what the democrats will need to make some sort of splash >> the traditional game plan is you travel the country next year, campaigning for democrats all over the country. that way, you get known, you boost your profile. we'll see who's going to be out there. >> gary, got a question

a lot of people have been critical of hillary clinton, you know, during the campaign, afterwards and here we are again with the book about to come out. is this really about hillary clinton and her qualifications or i know there was people who just weren't ready for a woman to be in that office. what do you think >> the polling certainly on the republican side show that day gender is no longer seen as a unique qualification for getting to elected office. i think once you had an african-american elected president, you kind of removed the mystique of breaking the glass ceiling for women >> a double dose of garylinger on friday night >> hillary clinton's book took a little aim at former vp joe biden. the democrats didn't focus enough on the middle class during the election. speaking of the elections and our last topic there's a lot of speculation about whether mr. biden

>> in an interview with the fashion website and political destination women's wear daily. as long asler father is in good health come the next presidential election, biden has been focusing on his cancer initiative, his son beau died of brain cancer and that was the reason he decided not to run. i think there's going to be a lot of talking it will be the big speculation going into 2020. will he do it? >> who will it be for the democrats >> lear's a big story a lot of people are talking about. the fbi tracking the credit breach equifax, we heard executives sold their stock. we learned consumers could be giving up their right to sue. equifax set up a website where you can check to see if your data was hacked but according to

log on you waive your ability to bring or participate in a class action, class arbitration or other representative action. you give up your right to sue them, basically. so read the fine print before you do anything there. >> we're back after this. >> we're back after this.

speaking of irma, gwen keeping her eyes on that and what's the latest? >> we'll take a look at the track and it is going to be moving its way right to southern florida. once we get into late saturday and for the morning of sunday, they're really bracing for it. also, that cone of uncertainty stretching all the way up to georgia, the carolinas also have to be on guard. anywhere are areas that could definitely be impacted. don't just focused on the exact track of this storm system, it will be wide and very widespread reaching as far as the rain are concerned as well as the storm surge and damaging winds. as far as here at home is concerned, a different story, things calm and we have temperatures into the 70's for our weekend, no shortage of sunshine for you, it will be comfortable. we're looking at a chance of rain by tuesday and wednesday, that could be some of what irma is bringing. back to you. >> at least the weekend here looks great. certainly we will be keeping an eye on things i

>> hard to believe we're so close to fall. it's coming. i know. >> all right. thank you for joining us, 5at630 >> we'll see you at 8:00 on fox 5 plus.

announcer: today on "tmz" -- harvey: ok. we've got so much to talk abou today. janet jackson is unbeevable, but salt bae, this huge chef that works for every big star took his shirt off and it's unbelievable. >> his name is actually nusret gokce. he owns a wholehain of turkish steakhouses. harvey: what's a turkish steakhouse? >> i think it's just a steakhouse in turkey. [laughter] >> anthony bourdain, said he would be open to gto north korea. i say if trump and kim were going to have some sort ofeace summit and they wanted yo to caster, what would you serve them? >> hemlock. >> oh, no!