jesse kirsch in ohio. >> great to see you. >> great to see you in my hometown.ts threatening red states and democrats challenging blue states. steve, you're blocks away from the u.s. capitol. what is standing out to you at the polls this late stage of the game? >> yeah, chris. literally an interesting back drop for me right now. but the back drop, this narrow, narrow margins democrats have. in the senate, it's 50/50. they have it because kamala harris breaks the tie. it would be a net gain of five seats for republicans to get control. this is interesting. came out from gallup. they are asking folks, do you consider these to be extremely important issues? that's what a you are seeing. at the top, this has been the story all year. the economy. is the most important issue. that's what voters are saying. you see abortion clocking in at number two, months after the supreme court, crime, rounding out the top five. what's interesting is this. when you take a look at -- take the economy. folks who say it is extremely important to them. 31 points. it's double digit. thou

nbc's jesse kirsch in orlando where many people are still flooded out of their homes. >> reporter: tonight ian's trail of destruction in florida stretches from coast to coast. in orlando emergency evacuations continued into this morning. people were carried to boats outside of their nursing home and shuttled to safety with many still in their wheelchairs >> is there anybody in there >> reporter: video just released showing sheriff's deputies using rope to form a human chain and rescue a woman whose car was swept away by strong currents. today more than 100 miles from landfill entire florida communities remain underwater. residents are navigating some streets by boat. in this orlando neighborhood even though it hasn't rained all day, the streets are still submerged as residents return to see what's left. >> it was like the entire world came crashing down on us we worked hard to have it and now it's gone. >> reporter: angela, sara and meredith are grateful to be alive. that's their home. do you think there's any chance you could still live there >> no. >> when the water is gone it will take

joining me now from capitol hill, from youngstown jesse kirsch and nbc's shaq brewster. also susan page, "usa today" washington bureau chief. why is the president choosing to push this focus on codifying roe in the next term of congress when, frankly, democrats have control now? >> reporter: it seems like it's an acknowledgement of the political reality because this is a body that is democratic controlled but because of the margins especially in the senate they have tried and failed to codify abortion access on multiple occasions and for the president to come out and say this is the first item he would move in a new congress where democrats retain control and potentially expand their margins, that, to me, seems like the white house is just recognizing the reality here while also trying to galvanize voters around the issues because, chris, you'll remember in the spring we saw the house pass the first version of the women's health protection act. that failed in the senate. in the senate the reality, too, not only do they lack the votes on the women's health protection act

mark murray, jesse kirsch, thank you very much. and blayne alexander, thank you, she had to leave a little bit early. >>> president biden is speaking about student loan relief. take a listen. >> student aid.gov. you can fill out your name, social security number, date of birth, and contact information, and no upload, no special log-in to remember, it's available in english and in spanish, and on desk top and mobile. it takes less than five minutes. and if you have any questions, you follow up and we will be able to follow up with you. this is a game changer for millions of americans, to get moving. and it took an incredible amount of effort to get this website done in such a short time. i want to thank the secretary of education, there he is. second of education crdona who is with me today, he and his team and a talented group of data scientists and engineers across the federal government test and launched this new application in just weeks. and the secretary insisted that the test, it had to be tested over the weekend, and it land

we have sahil kapur in atlanta and jesse kirsch in youngstown, ohio.il, you got early voting numbers out as we're seeing in georgia, first day turnout nearly double what it was in 2018. that's astounding in and of itself. what does this say about what we're going to see play out in georgia over the next couple of weeks? >> reporter: that's right. this is record breaking midterm turnout here in georgia on the first day of early voting. it was almost double what it was in 2018, and just a few thousand votes lower than what it was in 2020, which is the presidential election year, and since then we've seen some updated numbers come in. it is now upwards of 172,000 in terms of the early vote numbers. what does this all mean? i met earlier today, sat down with a prominent republican who's aligned with herschel walker and he said that this is a real wake-up call for republicans for the simple reason historically we've seen early voters are predominantly democrats. this shows what we've expected in the data, what we've seen in the data for some time. 2022 is s

. >>> let's bring in nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch.ready for tonight's debate. what are you hearing from them going into that conversation tonight in ohio? >> yeah, aaron, we're hearing more of what we've within hearing throughout this campaign. both candidates have tried to portray one image and the other campaign is saying that image just doesn't square up with reality. we reached out to both campaigns for statements today. here's what the ryan campaign told us. they said in a statement tonight, you can expect to hear a lot about all the ways j.d. vance is a fraud who's only in this race for himsel. the vance campaign countering in part, in the senate ryan would be nothing more than a reliable vote for the far left. j.d. is well prepared for the upcoming debates. he will have no problem wiping the floor w so you have a democratic cand skewing the to the middle trying to portray himself as someone who can agree with republicans and a republican candidate who has alied himself with the former president donald trump and is saying that t

. >>> jesse kirsch is live for us, and tell me what you're seeing and hearing and who you're talkingthe fact that the bridge is reopened, you can see behind us that traffic is now flowing in both directions, so this is the bridge that is mainland florida, behind me, and we are on pine island right now, and earlier, when we were here, there was an excavator on the bridge, moving rocks, side to side, and so that continued to make this, although connected, a one-way bridge and that was keeping traffic moving pretty slowly. i can tell that cars are still being pretty ginger about low they're going over the bridge here, but you can see we've got semis going over this as well, and there have been first responders coming here and residents are able to access this community again now. we spoke with a gentleman with the cajun navy who is bringing supplies and they are trying to help get supplies on the island, in case that supplies become a problem and here is what he told us earlier. >> we've got weeks and months of outreach, for the community, and obviously, building this thing back, it is

jesse kirsch has the details. >> reporter: even after the bitter rivalry came was over, these college score. spartans fighting michigan wolverines saturday night. police investigating, allegations another wolverine was also attacked. >> a few of our players were -- pretty bad. >> reporter: two wolverine players appeared to head to the locker room at the same time as the spartans. >> tempers flaring here at the end. >> we try to get our guys in the locker room. it's heated. i don't know what happened. very disappointed. >> reporter: today michigan state more forcefully denouncing its players, promising accountability, calling its student athletes' behavior unacceptable. >> we will let big 10 and law enforcement handle it. but this is not what a rivalry should be about. it's not how it should be remembered. >> reporter: but the reporter who witnessed the brawl said this rivalry has been getting uglier in recent years, with neither team entirely innocent. >> there's no reason for that michigan player to be in that situation. there's also no reason for the michigan state players to ever l

jesse kirsch in cleveland and david jolly formerly of ohio. f the clinton school of arkansas. jesse, what can we expect tonight in this ohio senate debate? >> reporter: yeah, jose, i think it's going to be really interesting to watch the same two candidates. they have been taking swipes at each other. we will see it tonight. this is looking like a close race. for context, it used to be a state that is purple. it's been skewing more red. former president donald trump won ohio twice handly. we wonder if ryan could take the seat currently held by a republican. these debates will force tim ryan to answer for the two-faced persona he is using to try to trick ohio in the senate. ryan would be nothing more than a reliable vote for the far left. that is what the republican campaign in this race is trying to portray. a democrat who is being pushed or voluntarily moving more and more to the left. on the other hand, tim ryan the democrat in this race, would like you to almost think he is a moderate republican. that is how he styled his campaign. his messa

. >>> let's bring jesse kirsch from youngstown, ohio where another important debate will be happeninge some tense moments that you talked begun in the first looking for going into tease's debate. they will try to perhaps take a hard lipostance on china and make the argument that each other's opponent is not the right candidate when it comes to that issue. we'll see that. colonel the economy will come up again and clarity to be had as far as j.d. vance's position and we'll see if the moderators ask about that and we'll ask for an opportunity to get clarity from that on the vance campaign. we'll see from tim ryan trying to peel off republican voters, trying to talk to people who might have trumpism fatigue and trying to differentiate himself from j.d. advance but at the same time seeing he can appeal across the. telling try to redirect the focus match up with his voting record. >> i want you to help us ups what the clarity is that we need to get on that folks who didn't see the debate or aren't familiar. >> reporter: yeah, obviously the abortion issue is something that is talked about i

us now to talk about this and some of the other tight senate races, capitol hill correspondent jesse kirsch in cleveland, ohio, and michael steele, former national committee chair. so ali, what can we expect from herb shl walker's event this afternoon? >> reporter: expect to see a huge show of support for herb shl walker. this is going to be the first time we see gop heavy weights against abortion rights at least in person to his side amid this whole abortion controversy against walker. with rick scott and tom cotton stumping for him here in georgia. what their message is going to be today is really to send this message of it's okay to back this guy. we know he's not perfect. but he is the best and quite literally the only option that republicans have right now in this race that could easily come down to quite possibly control of what is now a 50/50 senate. they are trying to show at least publicly that they don't care about this whole abortion controversy. they don't think republican voters should either. a source close to walker's campaign tells nbc that more republican lawmakers tell the

i'm hallie jackson, with me is dasha burns and jesse kirsch both in south florida. jesse, i'll start with you in fort myers beach. tell us about the latest on the ground. >> we're expecting to hear more from the governor shortly. here's what we have from the state. as of now they say more than 2,000 pallets of water have been distributed. more than 1,700 pallets of food. many people can't access their homes yet. at this point we're expecting the governor to hopefully have a bridge to pine island, a temporary bridge to pine island built by the end of the week. there are also plans to get a bridge to sanibel island opened again. i'm in fort myers beach. you can see one glimpse of the devastation caused here. you can see this wall just ripped to shreds. if we move all the way over, you'll see a couple of massive boats. these are not small boats. these are not little sailboats. these are substantial craft here. you can see they are just up on land. one of them up over there. off in the distance, this massive structure, which is probably at least two stories high if not h

joining us now is jesse kirsch live from ft. myers beach.ourse, this is what the president is going to see. he is going to be meeting with governor ron desantis. he will talk to victims. he will spend hours on the ground there. >> reporter: andrea, the airport where air force one pulled into, southwest florida international airport, wasn't open until earlier this morning. the fact that air force one is able to even land there i think is somewhat symbolic and speaks to the project being made here. a short time ago, the governor of floor held a press briefing and announced a bridge to pine island, a bridge to that island will be accessible to residents later today. that is ahead of schedule. they were saying it would be by the end of this week. that is good news. it's a reminder there are people who still don't know how devastated their neighborhoods have been, because they have only been able to see images and hear the accounts from afar. i want to list a couple other stats, new information that we have got. $34 million plus bottle of water d

. >>> first, jesse kirsch is on the ground. let's talk about sanibel. the number exceeded the number they thought about exceeded the storm. >> reporter: yeah, a very long road of recovery ahead. this is one boat behind me that you can see is beyond land, and another is beyond that tilted upward. beyond that, you can see this massive structure that is toppled over and you can hear helicopters in the background. this is a very much active and recovery and rebuilding scene. we were granted rare access on sanibel island itself, and from the water we have seen up close what we have seen from overhead, some portions of the roadway completely wiped out. i could see water going through where there should have been a roadway. when we got over to the island, we were headed with a famil, and we also met people at another congregation of another synagogue on mainland fort myers that had its tourers being brought back from where they were evacuated from, and hopefully they will be able to have the services. and melissa and scott congress were able to go and retrieve

jesse kirsch, thank you. >>> a new development in the mar-a-lago documents case. "the washington post" reports former president donald trump asked one of his lawyers in early 2022 to tell the national archives that trump had returned all materials requested by the agency. but that lawyer, alex cannon, declined to do so because he was not sure if that claim was true. that's according to people familiar with the matter. >> they're telling this lawyer to say something to the federal government that's a lie. and of course i guess because he wants to keep practicing. >> maybe he wants to keep his license. >> i guess he decides to tell the truth. or at least refuse to repeat the die that donald trump and his people around him wanted him to tell the government. >> yeah. interesting, even alex cannon, who is a trump loyalist and has been an attorney there in the trump organization for a long time, let it be known, whether directly or through sources to "the washington post," that he tried to tell donald trump no, you cannot do this. people in that mode trying to save them

in cleveland, ohio, jesse kirsch and here with me onset is steve kornacki. jesse, i'll begin with you. that debate was fiery and tim ryan got off that one good line. one of many some would say, but one line about you know, kissing you know whats. how did the rest of the debate play though because it wasn't one sided at all. >> no. and i should point out that j.d. vance threw that same concept back on congressman ryan saying he has sucked up to majority leader schumer in the senate and also sided with speaker nancy pelosi despite the fact that tim ryan wants you to believe that he pushes back on them all the time and has portrayed himself as someone keeping the democratic establishment at arm's length and one of the other points that stuck out in this same thread was when vance was being questioned for having the likes of marjorie taylor greene and florida governor ron desantis campaigning with him, he said let's not focus on these kinds of questions. let's focus on something substantive as he put it, like the economy and the fact people can't afford groceries

i want to bring in capitol hill correspondent ali vitale who is with me today, and jesse kirsch is in cleveland getting ready for tonight's big senate debate. and vaughn hillyard. with inflation, with the slowing economy, a lot moreirense are looking very critically and wondering whether the u.s. has this kind of ongoing responsibility to support ukraine. what are you hearing? >> that's one of the things, as they did the last round of government funding, watching the way this brokedown. less so in the senate. though there were republicans who said they wanted the funding bill to be as clean as possible. so few riders as possible. we saw $12 billion in aid to ukraine. when you look to the house, that is the most likely chamber to flip, this may be where the concern is coming from. only 10 republicans joined with democrats to fund the government, including that $12 billion in ukraine aid, plus disaster relief money. and we're hearing from the top two and three republicans in the house conference that they may want to be more concerning with where the money goes if they are to take contr

jesse kirsch joins us from youngstown where tonight's debate will take place.n we expect tonight? >> reporter: good morning, jose. i think we will see more in terms of policy positions from both candidates. we will continue to see them taking swipes at each other on the airwaves and as we saw in person last week. but one of the key strategy points i think here is going to be the two different groups that they are -- or the same group that these two candidates are trying to court but in different ways. j.d. vance is in a state that trufpl won by eight points each time. he is trying to hold that coalition together and maintain what should be a built-in lead in essence if the last couple elections are any indication. tim ryan, on the other hand, is trying to peel off some of the more moderate republican voters. that has been his stance throughout this campaign, trying to make an appeal to the right, talking about him being someone willing to stand up to democratic leadership. that is something j.d. vance said is a persona, a facade and not how tim ryan votes in co

the ground, joining me from atlanta, is nbc's blayne alexander, and in youngstown, ohio, nbc's jesse kirsch. so moving on from the senate race and going toward what we're going to see tonight in georgia, and that is the governor's race, between stacey abrams and brian kemp, what is the status of that race, and what do we expect for tonight's debate? >> very closely watched rematch from 2018. we're going to see these two go head-to-head again in the first two of debates this election cycle. and let's start with the polling. the recent quinnipiac poll shows the two are in close proximity and stacey abrams trailing by one point, and the incumbent governor, but it is worth noting that a number of recent polls across the season show kemp leading by a wider margin. needless to say a very closely watched race. as for what we expect to hear, talking to republicans sources, one thing that governor kemp is leaning on this time that he didn't have last time he was running against stacey abrams is a record, he has been governor for four years so some strategists i have spoken to said they are hoping to

nbc's jesse kirsch is on the ground there. >> more than a week after hurricane ian cut off the only bridgepine island, traffic is moving in both directions again but it's a temporary fix and slow going to get supplies in. >> reporter: supplies still being flown in by helicopter. this as damaged bridges that allow railcars to bring in critical materials like plywood and lumber, nearly impossible. you would see typically in the magnitude of 80 truckloads a day come in by rail. with the recovery efforts needed, you can triple that number. >> reporter: but not now. >> not now. >> zero is coming in now. >> at the moment, no. >> reporter: it could be two months or more to replace the broken bridges, devastating for those hoping to start over. the railroad company tells me that they've been in touch with fema, also with the florida department of transportation, but so far have not been age to connect directly with governor desantis as they are trying to get more aid to expedite that process. also, as far as the power situation is concerned here on the ground here, some 09,000 or more people in le

jesse kirsch joins me now. >> reporter: one of the biggest things was getting a bridge built to this island. up until yesterday, there was no bridge to cross by car. the county, lee county here confirming to me that residents and workers who are doing cleanup out here and rebuilding are able to now access this island again by road and you can see here, where i'm standing, there is still some standing water. i can tell you cell phone reception is tenable in some areas and horrendous in other areas. we've had signals completely drop out on us. and one of the things that stands out to me about this community is that we've seen power lines snapped over still, those poles snapped like toothpicks and hanging over roadways on a level that i wasn't seeing on mainland. and i think that speaks to how difficult it's been probably to get equipment out here. and even though the roadways are open, we just saw a short time ago a helicopter landing in a street here moments ago in world food kitchen -- world central kitchen tells us this is a chopper they contracted to brin. we've seen people leave a

joining me now, from pine island, is jesse kirsch. what does it look like there?yes, so we started to see a better flow of traffic here, i want to show you what the cajun navy has set up. they have food and water, they're piling up supplies here, just over the bridge, and they said they are continuing to have boats at the ready to keep bringing supplies over in case the bridge backs them up. when we traveled over here earlier, the bridge was still under construction, there was an excavator moving rocks to either side of the bridge, and so they only have one lane of traffic open. you can imagine that was slowing down what is the only one main road on to this island. at one point earlier there was a checkpoint over here. that has gone away. which is helping improve the flow of traffic. that is the mainland for context behind me, so the mainland florida is that way and there's a bridge just ahead, on this road, and it had been broken up in the mid of the storm. so people were not able to access it by road. so people have been getting over here by boat. we've seen hel

joining me now from fort myers beach is jesse kirsch. what does it look like out there? you walk us around? >> reporter: i'm going to give you context. the true beach front is that way. i'm on a middle island and the mainland is that way. so we are getting about as far over as eck now because the police and sheriffs department have the roadway on to the rest of the beach front still blocked off. so this is about as far off as i can get of fort myers beach. this is just scratching the surface. you can see this wall looks like a hurricane came through here and that's obviously exactly what's happened. you can see this boat behind me. on land. it should hopefully be in the water. there are structures off in the distance we're going to push in on including this massive structure. when you look at the scale of that compared to the people standing in front of it and vehicles on the ground, all of this torn apart by hurricane ian's fury. we see scenes like this all over the place and i just want to say having covered recently that horrible flooding in eastern kentucky, i think

joining us now from florida is jesse kirsch.e island hit very heavily. >> reporter: yeah, this is one of those communities we have been talking a lot about over the last week plus because the major roadway on to the island had been severed during the storm. we are now on pine island. we just crossed over and the county tells me that residents are now able to pass through here, which is something the governor alluded to yesterday. we're getting some of our best looks at the damage on foot to date. you can see the trees. look at the size of the base of these trees and the root systems and how they have just been ripped up and tossed over. this is what we're seeing throughout this neighborhood. there's a home over there that's boarded up. we can hear generators buzzing in the background. one of the residents over here tells us that she does not have power. she did not wait for the roads to reopen. she said that she came over on a boat yesterday and a neighbor who staid over here drove her to her neighborhood. now she's trapped over

jesse kirsch is live for us in youngstown, ohio, in the eastern part of ohio. good to talk to you. time around. and they ran the gamut of issues they covered from abortion rights to support for the current president and the former president respectively for either candidate. what are we going to be watching for this evening? >> yeah, i think much of the same. we've seen swipes from both sides in ads, in person on the debate stage. last week as you mentioned. so i think we can expect more of that. jd vance this morning is leaning into the economy talking about groceries. that's been his pitch. that's been a pitch we've seen from republicans across the board. tim ryan is trying to tie vance to extremist elements of the republican party, but at the same time, ryan, the democrat candidate, is trying to peel off moderate republican voters. although this is being seen as a closely watched race, obviously polling has had its problems in the past and there's skepticism around it now, what we know is that republicans are at least concerned enough about the possibility that there's been a lo

i want to bring in jesse kirsch, he's following the senate race from cleveland. jonathan lemire, a political analyst, and welcome to all of you. so basil, let's start with where democrats are spending. are they leaving winnable races on the tanl, or there suspect enough money to go around and they have to make these tough decisions? >> well, i think the latter point, and particularly having run a state party, tough make really tough choices about what's winnable, what's not. and where to put those resources. >> so is the message that tim ryan can't win in ohio though? >> no, i actually don't think that should be the message. i think he can win in ohio. and we have to take a page from georgia in 2020 for the all lessons we learned. the kras are contested in every race, at every level, wherever they could. and that is the lesson going forward. it has to be going back to howard dean. the strategy and not battleground state strategy. and what's happened here is that there are some in the party that believe ohio is no longer the battleground that it is. it's more red

up first, jesse kirsch has the latest from cleveland. as we're taking a look at the possibility of the collision of these three viruses, a lot of folks worry about what is to come and you have hospitals almost at capacity, especially where you are, cleveland clinic. >> yeah, yasmin. certainly the respiratory season is upon us and, frankly, a it a time when we wouldn't normally expect it. i talked with a pediatrician and they told me that they are constantly day in and day out looking at their hospital bed availability with so many children, more and more showing up with respiratory issues, many of them suffering from rsv. and that virus is not new. we've been talking about this. it doesn't typically cause problems at this time of year and so that is contributing to the stress on the health care system at a time when we were concerned about the possibility of a triple-demic. this morning another troubling sign of virus headaches possibly coming our way. a new cdc report influenzaing chile's flu season saying it hit earlier in the year. pr

nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch is in fort myers beach.om the ground there. >> reporter: we saw one of the moments we often see in the after math of the calamity as the presidential motorcade made its way through in fort myers beach, people stopped and watched. i asked one of the business owners who was trying to get things back together, and i asked what the moment was like. he said it's good for morale, and the reality is they need to get it over with so they can get back to clean up. a rare moment of solidarity between two political leaders who often do not see eye to eye, echoing the sentiment their administrations have been in lock step, even before hurricane ian made landfall. he toured by air, before going into the area on the ground, and he saw an area nearby where we've been, where we've seen boats stacked up on top of each other like dominos, and the motorcade would have made its way, we saw it making its way through where i am now, past a boat, 30, 40 feet long with an suv crumpled underneath it. that is part of what the preside

jess see kirsch is live with more.ey head to the polls? >> lindsey, we just got here and spoke with the board of elections director about what kind of turnout they're expecting heading into this and it's looking like, according to the board of elections here, something similar to 2018. remember, the conversation then was around the blue wave and we're cuyahoga county. it gets talked about over and over again during elections. this is a democratic stronghold, has been for many recent elections and so this is an area, a community that will probably be voting heavily democratic if history is a reminder of that. when we look at the turnout, that's an indicator of the fact that people might be more enthusiastic about an election this time around compared to a midterm where they don't have a statewide ballot -- race on the ballot. we have a governor's race with the republican running for re-election and we have an open senate seat which we talked about yesterday and that is making national headlines. there's a lot of attenti

leading us off this hour, nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch and liz mclaughlin. jesse, let's start with you. what have we heard from the president so far this afternoon? >> reporter: we know that the president is on the ground, has been there, we saw earlier that he took a helicopter ride in marine one and saw the motorcade coming by where we are and there were several electrical workers standing there watching this go by, bringing into context where we are. this is still very much a scene of recovery. and we know according to the press pool that the president met with the governor as well as with the two senators for the state of florida. he's here according to the white house to express support for the people of florida. we know the federal government and the state have been working together throughout the week, long process that has unfolded in the run-up to and the aftermath of hurricane ian's case. >> i'm curious about the need for supplies there and how significant that still is. what are the residents saying about what they need the most right now? >> repor