senator merkley. >> thank you.assador yamamoto, will you initially be serving, if confirmed, from within the country or operating out of nairobi? >> we're very hopeful that we'll go in, directly into mogadishu. >> well, that would be, that'd be tremendous. and one of the challenges described by the team in somalia has been that unlike the state department delegations from other countries, our delegation has been restricted to the military compound in mogadishu. do you foresee that might change? >> in my first time there in 2016, we were able to get out to the outskirts of somalia, and we hope to continue to do that. because we need to engage the six region regional leaders and also help coordination with the leaders and the federal government. at this point, we can't get outside mogadishu. travel within mogadishu is another issue. it's a challenge. it's difficult, it's dangerous, it's challenging. and, of course, from our windowless bunker accommodations, we'll see opportunities. but again, we'll take it as securit

joining me now is jeff merkley, senator merkley. thank you for being here. >> you're welcome. >> you're representing here the congress at the united nations as part of the routine and wanted to read to you while you've within busy focusing on foreign policy, sarah san s issued a statement saying that the request of attorney general rod rosenstein he and president trump had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories. goes on to say because the president is at the u.n. general assembly and has a full schedule they'll meet on the thursday when the president returns to washington, d.c. now it doesn't say when the conversation was. could have well been today or over the weekend but what is your reaction to the cloud over rod rosenstein and an experienced prosecutor who's the sur vising authority over the mueller probe? >> there's a cloud over the investigation and certainly the immediate battle question is rod rosenstein's role and whether

senator merkley will join us live in just a moment. but i want to show you the document that his office has obtained. i have it here. i think we can put it on screen. thank you. it's titled, you can see, department of homeland security fiscal year 2018, transfer and reprograming notifications. in other words, this is the whole list of money that homeland security took from one agency and moved to another. and the practice of transferring monies between agencies, that is not unusual in itself, but it is unusual to see in one of these documents a whole column full of money being deleted from the fema budget less than a year after hurricane maria on the cusp of this year's hurricane season. apparently to bolster the government's ability to lock up and deport immigrants. nearly $10 million taken out of fema. almost all of it going to i.c.e. in order to fund more detention beds and i.c.e.'s transportation and removal program. and this is all according to this budget document obtained by senator jeff merkley's office. senator merkley is on t

we'll be talking to senator merkley later. new poll numbers, i'm not sure i can tell you what they are because they're emembargoed until 6:00. for eight more minutes it's a secret that you and i, all three of us, have to keep. we've got new cnn poll numbers coming out in a bit. >> thanks, john. travel safely. >>> 52 minutes past the hour. we'll check on cnn "money" this morning. the dow jones industrial average rose more than 100 points yesterday. a surge in energy stocks and apple helped ease the effects of trade tensions. dow and s&p futures looking up now. european markets open higher today. tokyo closed lower after strong gains tuesday. >>> there are a record number of job openings in the u.s. and this -- the biggest share of workers since 2001 quit their jobs. that's a good thing. the quitters. it shows workers are confident that can get better jobs. are you feeling this? brand-new data from the pew research center shows income for middle-class families is just returning to levels of 2000, the year 2000. the typical famil

merkley released a homeland security document tuesday showing a transfer of $9.8 million. that document says the money is coming from the agency's travel, training, public engagement, and i.t. budgets, not disaster relief. but senator merkley insists the white house is diverting money from response and recovery budgets to fund additional immigrant detention camps. he says any shift in funding will make it even more challenging for fema to respond to natural disasters. >>> history will be made one way or another this november in new hampshire. voters in the first congressional district will elect the first openly gay or first african-american congressman. in a district that regularly swings between the two parties and backed president trump in 2016, democratic voters chose chris pappas from a crowded field in the primary. a field that included levi sanders, the son of vermont senator bernie sanders. pappas will take on republican primary winner eddie edwards, a black former police chief and navy veteran who got a big assist to the campaign trail from rudy giuliani. >>> abou

now jeff merkley is going to court to stop that. not something i think he would have done two weeks ago. could that actually work? >> short answer is, no. the underlying point's incredibly compelling. people saying it again and again. everything, everything jessica says and everything the back and forth scream out for reopening of an investigation which i have worked on a lot of judicial nominees, happens all the time. the particular lawsuit i think is sort of bound to fail because the court will find that the members of congress don't really have standing in the legal terms to bring it. it could take a day or two until it does and that might be part of the design. part of the design might just be for the greater pressure to bring an investigation. so, i don't think it's going to prevail but it's part of an overall political process saying there's got to be an investigation here. senator flake's statement which could be incredibly dramatic, right? in some ways think of this whole theater as directed at three senators. he is one of t

democratic senator jeff merkley disagrees.sen.the administration did a horrific job with the recovery. and the president is completely out of the circle of reality when he says they did a fantastic job in puerto rico."(vicki) the president says the government is ready for hurricane florence, set to hit the carolinas this week. one problem recently discovered.....20-thousands pallets of were sent to puerto rico are still sitting on an unused runway. runway. (catherine) even republicans are stepping back from his latest tweet minimizing the death toll from last year's hurricane. the president democrats for figures ... after earlier boasting about the federal response to the storm. natmaria was the first category four hurricane to hit the island head on in 85 years. the storm cut off most communications, and knocked out power to many areas for months. "the disaster, and the response and recovery effort, probably has never been seen for something like this. this is an island. surrounded by water. big water. ocean wate

merkley: am i correct that there is no regime. while it is hard to have a ,omplete verification regime you haven't worked out what you're actually eliminating. sec. thompson: that is correct. this particular statement says the united states and dprk commit to work toward the complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula. ist wording, to work toward, a far cry from what the standard that secretary pompeo set out for which was, i believe he used the words, complete irreversible elimination of nuclear weapons. why wouldn't north korea agreed to language, or did we insist and try to push language that would be a commitment to complete, irreversible illumination rather than simply to work toward denuclearization? sec. thompson: the administration stands firm for final denuclearization. those discussions are ongoing. the time of: at this statement, north korea was unwilling to reach the language we wanted? sec. thompson: they have committed to denuclearize the peninsula. sne. merkley: i'm just reading from a document. they have comm

the reason we were able to broke that story is because senator jeff merkley provided us with a document that those transfers had been made out of fema instead to transfer that money to i.c.e. for immigrant detention. we have an important advance on that story tonight coming up momentarily. and our advance on that story tonight comes as all eyes are on the forecast, as hurricane florence does continue to barrel toward the carolina coast. forecasters did shift their expectations overnight in terms of the path of the storm. the models mostly now have it hitting the north carolina coast before making an unusual left turn. forecasters are now saying they expect it to turn left and head southwest, creeping inland, meaning that it could sit there dumping epic amounts of rain on the carolinas for days. hurricane florence is now a category 3 hurricane, maximum winds up to 115 miles per hour. because of how slowly the storm is moving, when i say the carolinas could get epic amounts of rain, they're talking about 40 inches of rain conceivably in some places. that's more than three feet of rain. th

merkley april nine hundred sixty nine a group of activists takes over a derelict site belonging to university that's located not far from telegraph avenue where the students often demonstrate they call the site people's park and declared open to one annoying thing. but ronald reagan governor of california takes the creation of the park as a leftist challenge to the settlers and principle of private property he sees it as an opportunity to fulfill his campaign promise to correct down on drug using communist sympathizing students he sends in both the police and the national guard voters will soon experience the most violent confrontation and history of student activism in california. sheriff madigan unchallengable versions would literally mean that some of his men and many from vietnam war veterans had been overzealous in attacking the protesters . acting as though the words that caused. the use of shotguns loaded with buckshot the least of the death of a student james rector on may fifteenth nine hundred sixty. by the end of the sixty's i would characterize the mood in a broader circle. in whi

. >>> and coming up, we will get reaction from the senator jeff merkley who says that money was taken from fema to play for the zero tolerance immigration policy. stay with us right here on andrea mitchell reports on ms c msnbc. you always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed?m let's get someone to say it with a really low voice. carl? lowest price guaranteed. what about the world's lowest limbo stick? how low can you go? nice one, carl. hey i've got an idea. just say, badda book. badda boom. badda book. badda boom. nice. always the lowest price, guaranteed. book now at choicehotels.com >>> you know, right now, that money has knot nothing to do wi what you see behind us, and it is not paying for this response and it is not coming out of the di s disaster relief fund and no impact on the efforts to be prepared for hurricane florence, and it is just unfortunately that we have a congressman that is playing politics on the back of florence. there is no story there. >> that is fema administrator brock long moments ago reacting to new documents obtained by m democratic senator jeff

"outfront" now, senator jeff merkley.or coming in. >> you bet, kate, great to be with you. >> this is an unprice deecedent move. you're asking a judge to step in to stop the senate from holding a vote. is this a desperate move, too? >> it's not desperate. it's an unprecedented situation. the constitution lays out very clearly in the advice and consent clause that the president nominates and the senate can't interfere with that and the senate deliberates on advice and consent and executive cannot interfere with that. they're meant to be a check on each other. but in this case, on three separate occasion, the president has deployed his executive team to interfere with the senators' ability to get the key information to review the record of this nominee. brett kavanaugh. that is unprecedented. it hasn't happened before. it's an outrageous violation of the separation of powers and it's compromising my ability and my colleagues' ability to fulfill the pledge they took when they took the oath of office. >> senator, what vote ar

i will get reaction from democratic senator merkley.ur correspondents and analysts are standing by. first to our white house correspondent jim acosta. he is in new york covering the president. jim, the president's u.n. speech was overshadowed today once again by the kavanaugh controversy. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. overshadowed by events back home, and the president today offered his most stunning comments to date in the fight over brett kavanaugh,, raising doubts about the second woman to accuse the supreme court nominee of sexual misconduct. the president appears to be running out of patience with the nomination process, accusing the accusers of being part of what he called a democratic con game. on the world stage at the u.n., president injected himself into the court of public opinion on the fate of brett kavanaugh, all but dismissing allegations made by a second woman, deborah ramirez, who told "the new yorker" the supreme court nominee sexually abused her at yale university. >> the second accuser has nothing. she doesn't eve

merkley april nine hundred sixty nine a group of activists takes over a derelict site belonging to university that's located not far from telegraph avenue where the students often demonstrate they call the site people's park and declared open to one and all. but ronald reagan governor of california takes the creation of the park as a leftist shannons to the suckers and principle of private property he sees it as an opportunity to fulfill his campaign promise to correct down on drug using communist sympathizing students he sends in both the police and the national guard voters will soon experience the most violent confrontation and history of student activism in california. sheriff madigan unchallengable versions would literally mean that some of his men and many from the vietnam war veterans had been overly zealous in attacking the protesters. acting as though they would feel caught. in the use of shotguns loaded with buckshot lease to the death of a student james rector on may fifteenth nine hundred sixty. by the end of the sixty's i would characterize the mood in a broader circle. in which

senate office building and now the dirksen senate office building 226, senate judiciary good, senator merkley, democrat of oregon referring to a federal injunction he has filed to stop the final vote on the nomination of brett kavanaugh to serve on the us supreme court. the short break is just about over. christine blasey-ford will be reentering the room and another round of questioning, live coverage continues on the c-span networks. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> doctor ford, let me ask you a process question here. we were going to schedule a break for 12:05, this came a little later. we are going to have a vote at 12:40. would it be possible to go until 12:40 without a break? >> yes. >> senator cornyn's time, so proceed, miss mitchell. >> thank you, senator. i have a blowup here to my right of the map that was shown to you. the address indicated on here as belonging to your family is what all property tax records showed. to put it in perspective i would like to show you a zoomed out picture so that we can put it in perspective. so we can show the greater washington

. >> you can see the rest of this senate floor speech@c-span.org, just search for jeff merkley. right now we take you back to the supreme court confirmation hearing with christine blasey-ford who says brett kavanaugh assaulted her sexually when they were in high school. the hearing is just about to get underway. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> i will. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

the presiding officer: murkowski, collins, lankford, hoeven, shelby, udall, reed, coons, merkley, and leahy. mr. mcconnell: i ask the chair to lay before the senate the message to accompany h.r. 6157. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the chair lays before the senate the message from the house. the clerk: resolved that the house disagree to the amendment of the senate to the bill h.r. 6157, entitled an act making appropriations for the department of defense for fiscal year ending 2019 and for other purposes and ask for a conference of the senate on the two houses there on. mr. mcconnell: i ask that the authorize the chair to appoint conferees to the senate at a rareo of four to three and i know of no further debate on the motion. the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposeed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the care that a -- the chair appoints the following conferees. the clerk: shelby, blunt, durbin, murray, and leahy. mr. mcconnell: i

senator jeff merkley in. he's filed a new lawsuit today that is trying to get a judge to intervene and at least slow down the kavanaugh confirmation process until the white house cooperates more. senator, i'm sure you've seen some of what has come out of this press conference. do you believe donald trump when he says he has an open mind about brett kavanaugh as he hears a female accuser, dr. ford, tomorrow? and do you think that basically at this point this hearing should proceed this way? >> i do not believe that the president has an open mind. if he had an open mind, he would order the fbi investigation to find out what the real facts are, but he doesn't want the real facts. he's made a decision to try to push this through regardless of the truth. and in regard to the hearing, this hearing really is an outrage. you have 11 republican men who are bringing in a prosecutor to put dr. ford on trial. she is not the person who should be on trial. she should be treated in a dignified, decent manner. her story shou

senator merkley says, any shift in funding...re challenging for fema to respond to natural disasters... like the hurricanes happening right now. (ken) a shocking find in puerto rico, as the island continues to recover from last year's hurricane maria. this is 20-thousand pallets of thousand pallets of bottled water. they are stretched across an unused runway in the puerto rican community of ceiba. fema brought in the water with other emergency supplies in the aftermath of maria. but the water has remained relatively untouched. it's unclear why that's the case. critics say the discovery is another example of the u-s government's poor response to maria's devastation in puerto rico. the head of puerto rico's general services administration says the water will likely be returned. almost three-thousand people died in puerto rico from the storm. lawrence is here with the lawrence is here with the weather outlook lawrence karnow: there were some big changes in our weather as an early season cold front moved into the bay area. highs toda

fema spokesperson stated on twitter, "after calling senator merkley's staff about fema budget, we were told, it's a t.v. hit, take it where you can, regardless of the facts, though? unbelievable. joining us with reaction is former arkansas governor, mike huckabee. the whole show has been about how low can they go, michelle obama said, when they go low, we go high. i love that sentiment, but we keep going lower and now playing politics with this absurdly dangerous hurricane in line. your reaction tonight? >> it gets worse, laura. msnbc is runing that same story tonight, even after it has been discredited and totally debufrpged, -- debunked. it tells you facts don't matter, it is about politics. joe scarborough saying president trump done more damage than airplanes that flew into the building on 9/11, can you imagine what would have been said of conservative if they said barack obama had done more damage to the country than 9/11 when 3000 souls were murdered in cold blood? i can't even begin to get my arms around what that would have been like. we're dealing with not only the left, but w

jeff merkley:"i'm simply saying it will have ten million less than it would have, and ten million dollars"fema administrator long...insisting that money didn't come from the disaster relief fund...and won't affect relief efforts. brock long:"it does not come out of the fund that funds everything behind me. that funds everything in the field, so it's a non-issue for us at this moment." at this moment." (vicki) our coverage of hurricane florence continues online at kron-4 dot com. there you can track the storm on satellite and radar. also...details on how californians are helping. and always... stay connected on breaking news with push alerts from our free mobile app. (grant) back here in the bay area...tonight, a desparate plea for help...from a local family. 66 year old wamaitha kaboga-miller was last seen almost a month ago... and now a 25 thousand dollars reward is information t helps find her. the palo alto woman disappeared about a month ago...after going out on her own, apparently to run errands. police say there is no evidence to suggest anything criminal led to her disappearance, n

talk about that merkley claim. >> is completely, utterly meritless.t won't last very long and quiet. there are cases that have been dismissed along the same lines that were actually stronger. this one doesn't even reach any level of possibility for a federal judge. it will be dismissed relatively quickly. to speak when he says this is about the documents. because a constitutional responsibility is to review them as record and we can't do it if we are blocked by the white house. >> the courts don't afford that service. so this really doesn't pass that test for most judges. >> laura: vibrant, tonight, two more accusations surfaced. another network they were like, five accusers, making it look like it's a huge storm of women coming out. two anonymous, 12 cory gardner singable men and her daughter saw brett kavanaugh in '98 outside a restaurant push a woman in a sexually suggestive way against a wall or something. and then someone, a rhode island senator, saying something else, the guy was a nut job. this is what is being called an accusation. no name, by

as hurricane florence bears down on the east coast, senator jeff merkley has released documents showing the trump administration took nearly $10 million from fema -- the federal emergency management agency -- and gave it to ice -- the immigration and customs enforcement agency -- to build more detention centers. this is senator jeff merkley speaking with msnbc's rachel maddow. >> working hard to find funds for detention kim's. this is part of the child separation policy. that is how this information came into my hands because of my wowork on the issue ofof tryingo stop t thehildld sepeparations. but in fact -- so $10 million comes out of fema when we are facing our hurricane season, knowing what happened last year. amy: this comes as the health and human services department says it will triple the size of the tent camp where migrant children are imprisoned in the desert outside el paso, texas. the trump administration established the tent camp in tornillo in june as a temporary shelter amid the administration's zero tolerance policy, which included forcibly separating children from thei

a few tweaks from merkley yesterday -- tweets from merkley yesterday.hey may want to ram through or highinee come hell water, but that is not how our constitution works. he went on to say there's a lot we don't know about kavanaugh's record because the trump administration has gone to great lengths to hide it. must intervene to prevent this process from continuing until kavanaugh's full record is available for public scrutiny. if the courts were to intervene, it would have to be soon in the wake of the schedule moving forward with today's hearing and tomorrow's committee vote. host: from new york, republican line, andy. hello. --think the party [inaudible] i am sorry, that signal is coming in and out and it is hard to get that solid. james in ohio, independent line. hello. caller: my question is about the fact that the memories that professor ford has are recovered memories, psychoanalysis and the dismal,t those are very the percentages of those that are correct. i am wondering if any of the public knows that, that these are recovered memories, not actu

our colleague, rachel maddow reporting last night, it's a document courtesy of senator jeff merkley. i think we can show you that document on the screen. you can see the transactions highlighted there. what this shows is that about $10 million was transferred from fema's budget to the i.c.e. detention programs as you point out. this is part of a larger effort on the whole for the trump administration to try to pay for these detention facilities that of course have gotten more in demand in the wake of the administration's zero tolerance policy. now, fema today is pushing back primarily by saying that this doesn't at least impact funding for this particular hurricane recovery. here's brock long on msnbc earlier today. >> right now that money has nothing to do with what you see behind us. it does not pay for this response. it is not coming out of the disaster relief fund. it has no impact on our efforts to be prepared for hurricane florence. it's just unfortunately we have a congressman that is playing politics on the back of florence. there's no story there. >> so of course that doesn'

jeff merkley says that the administration was taking money from the fema response and recovery at a time when hurricane florence is bearing down on the southeast u.s. the fema associate administrator says that the agency is repaired to handle the storm. you that we have plenty of resources to respond and recover and it has not impacted the situation whatsoever. hurricane florence has now shifted slightly to the south, threatening to slam a wide area of coastline that may, sure -- a earlyomorrow night or friday. president trump says the government is ready for florence and he insists that his administration's response to the devastation in puerto rico last year was an underappreciated job . on twitter the president rejected criticism of the response to hurricane maria which hit puerto rico a year ago and killed nearly 3000 people. angela merkel and jean-claude juncker are warning about the threat caused by rising amidst the european union. the german chancellor and european commission president struck a comment town of alarm at the cohesion of the eu, both making the case for europe to st

jeff merkley says the money was moved from the disaster response budget. the department of health and -- homeland security say that it was moved from accounts used for training of operations and it will not impact disaster response. >>> san francisco, day one of the action summit. jerry brown is hosting the summit and has brought together thousands of policy expert we are in the city. the idea is to keep the people talking about the goals established by the paris accord that president trump abandon. >> reporter: there were a lot of people excited about this summit tonight. many people said that california is leading the way. governor brown signed it two actions to reduce carbon emissions and get to 100% renewable energy in the state. he was one of many vip speakers at the reception tonight. delegates from around the world lined up at the mosque only center in san francisco wednesday. more than 4000 people were invited for the three day global climate action summit hosted by california and governor jerry brown. a call to action for those still committed to

senator jeff merkley says the money is being spent on detention facilities...ion in funding pouring into that department. the newly released homeland security documentation shows a transfer of 9-point-8 million dollars from the federal emergency management agency to immigration and customs enforcement. merkley says any shift in funding makes it more challenging for fema to respond to natural disasters. (catherine) coming up...a greenpeace boat is docked in san francisco as part of governor brown's big climate summit. what that organization has to say about the governor's plans to reduce carbon emissions. (ken) police are asking for help after a three year old child was hit by gunfire during a drive by. the latest on how the child is doing. (catherine) and a brand new walkway in san francisco that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars is already falling apart. what's next at the new transbay terminal rooftop park. this isn't just any long-distance relationship. this is long distance with the best wifi experience, plus the most free shows to stream. and with savi

merkley april nine hundred sixty nine a group of activists takes over a derelict site belonging to university that's located not far from telegraph avenue where the students often demonstrate they call the site people's park and declared open to one and all it can be. but ronald reagan governor of california takes the creation of the park as a leftist shannons to the sec resend principle of private property he sees it as an opportunity to fulfill his campaign promise to crack down on drug using communist sympathizing students he sends in both the police and the national guard boating will soon experience the most violent confrontation and history of student activism in california. sheriff madigan unchallengable versions would literally mean that some of his men and many from the vietnam war veterans had been overly zealous in attacking the protesters. acting as though they would feel cut. in the use of shotguns loaded with buckshot the least of the death of a student james rector on may fifteenth nine hundred sixty. by the end of the sixty's i would characterize the mood in the broader circle

democrats are reverting back to their document battle, or senator jeff merkley says he is suing to stop confirmation vote altogether until all the documents are handed over. the president scheduled to come face-to-face today with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein amid reports that rosenstein secretly recorded donald trump. todd pyro live in studio with a story that has its own share of twists and turns. >> donald trump says he certainly preferred not to fire rod rosenstein and considering meetings a few hours from now. >> i'm talking to him. we had a good talk, he said he never said it, he gets a lot of respect for me. >> my preference would be to keep him and let him finish up. >> if the president referred to the report that rosenstein allegedly suggested wearing a wire around him and invoking the 25th amendment. the president adding he might postpone the meeting in order to watch the senate judiciary committee hearing. we are all going to be glued to that including the president but regardless of fisher is forming among house conservatives on how to handle rosenstein. on the one

who stands as a national leader at present unfortunately there are some very good people like jeff merkleybut there isn't anybody with the dynamism to replace the hubert humphrey. we could use him badly now. >> ideologically apart from personality? >>. >> maybe warren. kamala harris in california. there are a few. but nobody is systematic or thoughtful. that may save more of the state of american politics than the democratic party in particular. >> in the republican party? >> [laughter] >> considering his amiable personality what kind of a president do you think humphrey would have been? >> leaving out vietnam for the moment and serving as president and reasoning together turning him into an offensive president crack. >> i think he would have been very effective in the same way he galvanized people to vote for the legislation he wanted to push through it would be difficult and long and hard but the country shifted by 68 but his willingness to entertain arguments and debate and seek compromise he has a chapter in the book coining the phrase compromise - - compromise is not a dirty word. he

jeff merkley/d- oregon> "the administration did a horrific job with the recovery." monstrous fiction that cost lives. then today, the president escalated the war of words, tweeting, "3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit puerto rico. .....this was done by the democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible" when president trump visited san juan last year, the number was low."sixteen. sixteen people versus in the thousands."but a new estimate from george washington university puts the total at 2,975.i couldn't do anything to help himmiriam rodriguez lost her husband when the power went out to his respirator.for thousands of families, maria's impact went far beyond the wind and rain. the governor of puerto rcio says he accepts the higher figurethe victims nor the people of puerto rico deserve to have their pain questioned (grant) another big story we're following tonight. a shooting spree that left six people dead including the gunman. tonight we are learning more about the investigation. authorities have identified the shooter a

but here's oregon senator jeff merkley, he's a democrat, who brought the money swap to light.'s just kind of a lot of bunk. where you have preparedness lines and when you have lines de dedicated to response, that's exactly the sort of funs that he -- funds that help you prepare and assess the damage that comes from these storms. so this is kind of an evil partnership where the funds are being taken away from preparation, after we knew the impact of the three massive hurricanes from last year, and then the money is being directed towards a program that comes from a very dark place in the heart of the administration. >> joining us now, california congressman, john garamente, so what's you your reaction to transfer tom of this money from potentially preparedness to deal with i.c.e. instead of fema? >> it really is terrible. and it's a reflection of where this administration's priorities are. we have americans that are in harm's way and they need help. fema needs to be prepared. when you look at these tropical storms afterwards, there's a lot of cleanup. >> there are four to hit p

those documents released by democratic senator jeff merkley. >> certainly are relevant responding to disasters. >> reporter: fema says that money was for administrative rp es, never for disaster relief. >> that money has nothing to do with what you see behind us. it does not pay for the respse. it is not coming out of the disaster relief fund. >> reporter: bosides accuing the other of playing politics with florence fastap oaching. president trump is also giving frequent updates on twitter. he urges everybo in the evacuation zone to get out and to listen to local orauies. back to you. >> okay. thank you. >>> we are working for you day and night as the monster storm closes in on the east coast. you see the interactive radar from florence on your phone in our nbc washington app. much more coverage throughout the hour and hurricane's latest track tonight on news 4 at 11:00. >>>ve some breaking developments surrounding the future of the catholic church. a spokesperson for the archdiocese in washington confirmed late today that cardinal donald werle will ask the pope to accept his resignat

this was merkley revealing them on a cable tv show overnight.e says this money went towards -- was diverted from fema to i.c.e. to be used towards this zero tolerance policy separating migrant children from their parents. the department of homeland security is pushing back strongly on this one calling this a political stunt. they say under no circumstance was disaster relief funding used for immigration enforcement, george. >> cecilia vega, thanks very much. robin? >> all right, george. we have a lot to talk with the fema director with the management agency brock long. he is joining us this morning. we really appreciate -- we know how busy you are and to spend some time to update us and more importantly update our viewers. so what is the latest where fema is concerned preparing for hurricane florence? >> hi, good morning. so hurricane florence is t to the carolinas, as well as the mid-atlantic. i think what we've seen overnight is a shift south and so i never look at one single forecast and make decisions based on that. we often evaluate several

the department of homeland security was forced to go on offense today after democratic senator jeff merkley revealed $10 million of fema money was transferred to immigration and customs enforcement. >> clearly these are funds that are very valuable in terms of preparing for the types of challenges we fat in the past few weeks. >> dhs fired back the money was not earmarked for preparedness it was money left over for travel expenses, training, basic purchase cards, office supplies that came in under budget and could not have been used for hurricane response due to appropriation limitations. dhs officials pointed out the amount of money in the disaster recovery fund stands at $25 billion. that's 2500 times the amount of money that was transferred from fema to ice. dhs officials telling fox the mission impact on fema response and recovery of this transfer of funds is zero. >> bret: john roberts on the north lawn, thanks. president trump has signed an executive order authorizing sanctions against foreigners who meddle in u.s. elections. it calls for punishing any individual, company, or country

. >> reporter: the remote expense for hurricane florence but jeff merkley says the president shortchanged federal recovery efforts weeks ago just as hurricane season was starting. >> an evil partnership in which the funds are being taken away from preparation. after we knew the impact of the three massive hurricanes from last year and the money is directed towards a program that comes from a dark place in the heart of the administration. >> the development of homeland security says under no circumstances with any disaster relief transferred from fema to immigration enforcement efforts. fema's administrator is accusing the senator of playing politics. >> that money has nothing to do with what you see behind us, it does not pay for the response, does not come from the disaster relief fund -- >> fema was poorly prepared for hurricane katrina in 2005 and criticized after sandy in 2012. last september it wasn't ready for hurricane maria to hit puerto rico according to the after action report but there are signs that this you could be different. >> people and listening, evacuating. they are mov

that you don't know the current budget situation, but from what we lea learned last night from jeff merkleyrachel maddow is that there was money transferred out of fema into i.c.e. to house detainees on the border, and $20 million taken out of the coast guard, and it seems a bad time to take money away from the coast guard to i.c.e. >> well, reprogramming is not an uncommon tool in government, and i defer to dhs on that. >> thank you, admiral. >> and cuban officials in washington briefing washington officials on what a happened in havana. more reporting coming up on msnbc. msnbc. for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve. all day strong. the nation's largest senior-living referral service. for the past five years, i've spoken with hundreds of families and visited senior-care communities around the country. and i've got to tell you, today's senior-living communities are better than ever. these days, there are amazing amenities, like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars, and bistros, even pet-care services. and nobody understands your options like the advis

merkley, introduced a bill in the senate that would divest the federal government's funds from fossil. it obviously won't pass right now, but it is a marker kno lay down in this fight. amy: are you encouraged by the movement that has drawn strength from what president trump has done, this climate change to nine president, among other things? >> well, look. one of the problems with trump is he is done so many bad things that we have to work on so many things at once. standing up for immigrants may be the most crucial. but climimate change is the thig that will never come ever get another crack at. here are that we waste years that are tipping us into a kind of permanent climate chaos. we should stop acting surprised when that things happen as a result. it is horrifying to think of people having to somehow flee this hurricane florence, which looks like it may kind of several along the coast for 2, 3 days, pouring record amounts o f water, probably amounts of water nothing like w we've ever seen before. we use the phrase every day like something we have never seen before. amy: as we wrap

. >> no one is talking about what merkel did, hijack this issue -- >> merkley saying they took $10 million>> which turned out not to be true. the money that was shifted was nothing to do with disaster relief. so he gave false information to try to make this into an election issue. >> mitch mcconnell is voicing more concern about whether the republicans can hold the senate majority this fall. here he goes. >> i hope so. we have a storm headed toward the coast, and lawrence you've heard me say this before, we know the wind is going to be in our face, we don't know if it's going to be category 3, 4 or 5. i hope when the smoke clears we have a majority in the senate. >> it looks like the republicans, two weeks ago i thought they were going to pick up a couple seats, i think now they have a fight for their lives. >> i think that's true. all these races, as mitch mcconnell said are tied. the bottom line is generally they're all going to go almost one way. you have surges at the end. it could come back it's a big republican year in the senate and they're safe, especially if they win florida and n

on wednesday, democratic senator jeff merkley of oregon said he's seeking a federal court -- saying he is suing and seeking a federal court injunction to stop kavanaugh's confirmation process, saying republican leaders have obstructed senators' constitutional duty to advise and consent on supreme court nominees. today's hearing comes as righght-wing dark money groups have spent heavily in n supportf kavanaugh's s nomination. the judicial crisis network spent $1.5 mlilion lt weweekn a -second featuring kavanaugh's s longime e frnd lolouisaararry. but since thadad air, gagarr has withdrawheher suort t fo kavanah amid ausationsy deboraramirez,ho says kavanah exposehimself d thru his genals in h face duri a colle party ia dorm ro when th were bo stents at le univeity. meanile, on pitol hi, protts again kavanaug's nomition echd througthe halls congresagain on dnesday. outsidmaine reblican sator susan llins' office,olice leproteste away inlastic handcuffs as they chanted, "we believe survivors!" >> we believe survivors! we believe survivors! amy: among those protesting on capitol hill wednes

administration is sparing no expense and preparing for hurricane florence bray democratic senator jeff merkley says the president already shortchanged federal recovery efforts weeks ago just as hurricane season was starting. >> it is an evil partnership in which the funds are being taken away from preparation. after we knew the impact of the three massive hurricanes from last year and then the money is directed toward a program that comes from a very dark place in the heart of the administration. >> the department of homeland security says under no circumstances would name the disaster funding transferred from fema to i.c.e. they are accusing the center of playing politics. to speak of that money has nothing to do with what you see behind us, it does not pay for the response, not coming out of the disaster relief fund, no impact on our efforts to be prepared for hurricane for hurricane florence. >> fema was poorly prepared prepared for hurricane katrina and criticized after sandy. last september, it was not ready for hurricane maria to hit puerto rico. according to the agency's own after actio