and noaa is still in the commerce department. and that is why on friday when it came time for the trump administration to come down heavy on the acting head of noaa, to tell the head of noaa, reportedly, that his job was on the line, forget the national weather service forecast, forget the science done at your agency, forget it. noaa instead needs back up president trump and put out a statement saving the president's face for political purposes. when it came time for the freaking weather service to get political orders to undo their science and instead prop up some random untrue utterance made by the president, when it came time to do that, now you know why, the cabinet secretary who had to shoulder that burden, the cabinet secretary who r0r89d made that call was slippers himself, this guy, wilbur ross, the secretary of commerce of all people who, according to "the new york times" today, phones up the acting head of noaa on friday and told him that he and all the other top appointees would be fired unless they pull the out a stat

as assistant noaa administrator craig mig clain put it, an unsigned press conference from noaa that contradicted the national weather service forecaster was not based on science, but on external factors including reputation and appearance or simply put political. craig wrote that press release compromised the ability of noaa to convey life-saving information necessary to avoid substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. if the public cannot trust our information, he wrote, or we debase our forecasters' warnings and products, that specific danger arises, unquote. and it is a danger being caused by president trump. cnn credit cakaitlan collins ree president is denying all of this. >> no, i never did that. i never did that. >> reporter: president trump debbieing he was involved in white house efforts to clear his name after he falsely and repeatedly claimed alabama was in the path of hurricane dorian. "the new york times" reports his chief of staff directed commerce secretary wilbur ross to have noaa issue a statement disputing the national weather service after it contradicted the

. >> if you were still at noaa, right?s would have been you, sir, on the other end of the line from secretary ross. sure you've thought about it. how would you have handled it? >> in this case, this is a direct violation of scientific integrity and when i worked in the administration, the clinton administration, we had very strong and positive support from the white house and we didn't have to come up against this problem. so it's always hard to put yourself in the place of someone else. but in this case, i think the only right thing to do was to say, i can't do that. i'm going to have to resign. i can't violate scientific integrity. that's what noaa's all about. >> scientific integrity. jim baker, thank you very much. >> thank you. >>> just in to cnn, hurricane survivors from the bahamas will not be granted temporary protective status, what we are hear from white house sources on that, and apple rolling out its next generation iphone moments ago. details on the changes to the phone camera. i get it all the time. "have you

noaa then putting out an unsigned statement undermining its weather experts. supporting the president's claim. think about this, this is the president saying that what the weather is even when that's not the weather. for either country that has an independent weather service or are we living in the country where the great leader tells us what the leather is, the truth in front of our eyes be damned. it's one or the other. when you think of the scale of the federal government, the whims of the man on top and the incentives he creates, the possibility for abuse and corruption are so broad even when petty and trivial, it's hard to get your head around it. yesterday we learned that the air force had ordered an investigation into airmen staying at trump's scotland hotel on the public dime. in the grand scheme of things, not a ton of money. why are we paying for air men to stay at trump's hotel? they shouldn't stay at trump's hotel and shouldn't be public dollars spent on trump's businesses. end of story. we saw the vice president direct public money to the hotel. i

. >>> and what did the president noaa and when did he noaa it? a report draws a straight line from trump to the weather agency's condemn nation of forecasters who contradicted him. getting perplexed looks. you don't know the noaa pun? come on, man. welcome to wednesday. it's "meet the press daily." good evening. sometimes some puns are better read and some are better said. president trump is spiking the football today. but last night's special election in north carolina arguably reinforces the dire political situation still facing this president and the kind of brutalist campaign, if you will, he needs to run again to pull off the inside straight to victory again. the republican candidate he endorsed barely averted disaster in a red district trump won in 2016 by double digits. dan bishop topped democrat dan mccready by 2% points in north carolina's ninth. bishop credited the last-minute campaign stop by trump for putting him over the edge. >> the president and the vice president stepping in and committing the way they did to this race was tremend

should leadership at noaa resign?nestly think that it would be hard for them to look at themselves in the mirror after having undermined the entire national weather service and the hurricane center and still lead that agency. i don't know how they can do it with credibility. >> monica medina, appreciate your time. thank you. have a great weekend. >> thank you. >> thank you. >>> the trump administration's family separation policy at the border taking a terrible toll on immigrant children. a report by a government watchdog outlines the devastating trauma they're facing and how facilities are struggling to cope. steak and sh more shrimp! and you know what goes great with that shrimp? steak and unlimited shrimp! and this year, with two freshly made sides, you'll get more than you imagined. hurry into outback now for our steak and unlimited shrimp. outback steakhouse you can stream and scroll through other people's vacations, or you can be the kind of person that books their own vacation. a booker. scootin' through life at

leadership at noaa, should they resign? >> i honestly think that it would be hard for them to look at themselves in the mirror after having undermined the entire national weather service and the hurricane center and still lead that agency. i don't know how they can do it with credibility. >> monica medina, appreciate your time. thank you. have a great weekend. >> thank you. >>> the trump administration's family separation policy at the border taking a terrible toll on immigrant children. a report by a government watchdog outlines a devastating trauma they're facing and how children are struggling to cope. i...decided to take the dna test. and i...was... shocked. right away, called my mom, called my sisters. i'm from cameroon, congo, and...the bantu people. i had ivory coast, and ghana...togo. i was grateful... i just felt more connected...to who i am. new features. greater details. richer stories. get your dna kit today at ancestry.com. >>> a very important and frankly devastating report came out this week on the trump admi

appointees at noaa fired. that's according to "the new york times." wilbur ross denies that and now there's new reporting that the pressure on noaa came straight from the white house. "the new york times" is reporting, quote, mick mulvaney the acting white house chief of staff told wilbur ross, the commerce secretary, to publicly cis avow the forecasters position that alabama was not at risk. and "the washington post" reporting, quote, president trump told his staff that noaa needed to deal with a tweet that seemed to contradict his statement that hurricane dorian posed a significant threat to alabama, senior administration officials said. when asked today if he had directed mulvaney to do that, the president denied it calling it a hoax by fake news. that has not stopped the inspector general of the commerce department of directing that unsigned statement saying this was a matter of, quote, scientific integrity. in an e-mail to craig mcclain he condemned the agency's response as quote political and a danger to

in fact, noaa did disavow that tweet. the statement was unsigned.oday, the commerce department's inspector general is now looking into all of this. so that's the backdrop to our conversation with richard painter, who is ethics czar in the george w. bush administration and monica medina who served as principle deputy noaa administrator during the obama administration. i spoke to them just before air time. monica, can you just explain why this matters? that -- it's one thing to say your crowd size at inauguration are bigger than they are. why is this so concerning to you? >> this matters because the president's changing of that weather map really crossed a line in terms of the sanctity of the weather forecast. it's important that the national weather service speak with one voice, in unison, because they communicate to all the weather forecasters out there in the country about what's the real forecast. what's the most up-to-date information. and it has to be up-to-date, because the storms can change, as we've seen. >> and when you saw that statement fr

when it was opposed, he was told noaa's political staff would be fired. in fact, noaa did disavow that tweet. the statement was unsigned, which is unusual. the "times" added to the story reporting that the commerce department's inspector general is now looking into all of this. so that's the backdrop to our conversation with richard painter, who was ethics czar in the george w. bush administration, and monica medina, who -- i spoke to them before air time. can you plaexplain why this matters? why is this so concerning to you? >> this matters because the president's changing of that weather map really crossed a line in terms of the sanctity of the weather forecast. it's important that the national weather service speak with one voice, in unison, because they communicate to all the weather forecasters out there in the country about what's the real forecast, what's the most up-to-date information. and it has to be up to date because the storms can change as we've seen. >> when you saw that statement from noaa that was put out to back up what the president ha

it is the commerce department that has jurisdiction over noaa.ake us through what you are reporting happened there over the last few days. >> exactly. we all remember the birmingham office of the national weather service contradicted the president when he said alabama most likely would be hit. five days later, the national -- noaa, the parent agency issued an unusual statement chastising that office saying they spoke with too much certainty and basically, in effect admonishing them for contradicting the president. turns out that statement came after the commerce secretary, wi wilbur ross, who oversees noaa got in touch with the acting noaa director and said he had to fix this situation. this contradiction is not something that could stand between the president and the agency of the government. he basically made clear, according to sources who talked to us, that he would be fired or other people around him would be fired if this didn't happen. >> is there any indication that ross was told this by the president to do this? >> that's a good question

james baker, a former noaa administrator. thank you for joining us. we really appreciate it. >> thanks, don. >> first, tell me, have you ever heard of a white house administration getting so involved in noaa's forecasting as to threaten to fire staff? >> no, i haven't. in fact, it's illegal for the president or anybody else to put out a false weather forecast. congress passed a law in 1894 providing for a fine or an imprisonment for anybody putting out a false weather forecast. we haven't seen this for a long time, not since something like 1954 i think there was a tornado hoax but it was just last week was the first instance we have seen since then so this is something brand new. >> "the washington post" reporting putting it all the way up to the president himself right? they say he put the pressure on mulvaney to put the pressure on noaa to support the false forecast, and the president denying. but look. it's actually a federal crime to put, you know, out the information as you said. so is that a federal crime? can they prosecute it? >> absolutely. t

the new york times now reporting the commerce secretary wilbur ross threatened to fire top noaa employees after the agencies birmingham office contradicted the president. i'll get reaction from jerry connelly. >>> first, let's go to our white house correspondent. the president is rejecting harsh criticism of his willingness to meet with the taliban at camp david. >> reporter: he's standing by his location choice even though he's facing push back not only from democrats and republicans. he got some criticism for the choice by members of his own staff who said they thought the venue of camp david just days away from the 9/11 anniversary was inappropriate but now the meeting the president pushed for himself and said he cancelled by himself has been scrapped at the last minute. tonight president trump declared u.s. peace talks with the taliban dead after his abrupt announcement and cancellation of a secret summit with the group's leaders. >> they're dead. they're dead. as far as i'm concerned, they're dead. >> reporter: the meeting was kept under wraps until he tweeted about it announcing he

in fact, and this is real, this whole thing has now triggered multiple official investigations noaa'sentist said he would investigate why the agency backed trump over its experts on dorian the commerce department inspector general has opened an investigation, and on wednesday, a democrat-controlled house science committee kicked off its own inquiry. this all started with a sharpie. if the pen is mightier than the sword, the sharpie is a long-range missile [ light laughter ] i mean, this is an actual scandal now. there are multiple investigations that means there's a chance, which would be awesome, we could have meteorologists testifying before congress. [ cheers ] "please state your name for the record." "uh, my name is breeze thunder." [ laughter ] "and mr. thunder, where did the president tell you to lie? "well, first the lies began over here, but then they eventually picked up speed and moved down here." [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause "also, and remember, remember, that you are under oath. mr. thunder, is dew point an actual thing?" "no, it is not." [ laughter ] seriously, this

ross told noaa to disavow a tweet that contradicted the president's claim.hen the acting head of noaa pushed back, he told him the political staff would be fired. the commerce spokesman denies the story. now, noaa's acting chief scientist told colleagues in an e-mail that he is investigating the response. craig mclean calls the agency's response political and a danger to public health and safety. >>> north korea said, yesterday, it's ready to restart nuclear talks with the u.s. then, just hours later, test-fired two weapons, after more than a year of remaining from missile tests. the rescream has launched ten since may. kim jong-un regime is barred from missile tests. president trump is playing down the missile tests, calling them, quote, very standard. mike pompeo said that kim has not broken any commitments to the president but that the u.s. is disappointed. >>> concern that president trump mishandled u.s. intel led the u.s. to extract one of its highest level covert sources in the russian government. cnn was first to report on the successful previously se

noaa issued a rare statement saying that tweet was wrong. ross denied the "times" report but a source whn the commerce department tells abc news there is an open investigation into the threatened noaa firings. some were concerned the trump administration is politicizing the weather service. >> we make forecasts, we don't deal with politics. our job is to protect the american public with the weather information we pass around. so of course it is frustrating when things get politicized. >> reporter: president trump first warned dorian would hit alabama in a tweet on september 1st. then doubled down on his claim by holding up what appeared to be a doctored map of dorian's path in the oval office. >> alabama could even be in for at least very strong winds and something -- >> reporter: even as he defended president trump, dr. jacobs said he was proud of the work done by all weather forecasting offices, including noaa's birmingham office and said no one's job was under threat. abc news, washington. >>> time to get to our accuweather forecast. >> i

not just at noaa but at other agencies. and with this evidence wilbur ross may have threatened these people with firing for having told the truth and having lied to the congress about who initiated the question on the demographics, you know, of citizenship for the census, that really calls into question what else he may be tampering with that we don't even know about. >> the recourse here is there's not many recourses. obviously they can try to bring them before the committee. you can impeach a cabinet secretary if you so choose, the i.g. has a report. how do you see the binding constraints on ross here? >> unfortunately what we've learned in the last 2 1/2 years here, the systems we had in place to protect against abuses are a lot more fragile than we ever thought. i don't have a lot of hope there is much that can be done except hopefully shine some light on what's really going on here. and we've seen in the past that can create enough pressure that somebody's out. but it can also serve to deter this kind of misconduct. pe

after conflicting the president's claims that hurricane dorian might hit alabama, the national -- noaa put out a statement, unsigned, backing the president's version of events over the scientists. what do you make of all that? >> i thought that was an onion article when i first saw this. this looks like it is a joke. the unfortunate truth is it is the reality. congress should look into this. but ultimately the president has got to lead, the president has got to realize this is actually an incredible responsibility that he has, and his secretaries can no longer just be concerned about the president's ego. they also have to assume responsibility. i'm deeply disappointed by this, obviously. it is breaking news, but yet another illustration of the fact that we right now don't have the leadership we need. >> congressman max rose, democrat from new york, from the great -- most of your district, the great borough of staten island, thank you. >>> did the trump administration cross the line with the agency that tries to keep americans safe by accurately forecasting storms? and then with lives d

. >>> commerce secretary wilbur ross threatened to fire political staff at noaa if the agency did not fix the contradiction with president trump's claim that hurricane dorian might actually hit alabama. "the new york times" reporting according to three people familiar with the discussion, the times reports he called the acting administrator of noaa, from greece, last friday, to instruct him to quote fix the agency's perceived contradiction of the president. it ultimately led to noaai issuing a statement by the birmingham office, inconsistent, and a spokesperson for secretary ross denies the times reporting telling nbc news that ross did not threaten to fire any noaa staff over forecasting and public statements over hurricane dorian. noaa acting chief scientist craig mcqueen says he is investigating why the agency backed claims over dorian hitting alabama over its own forecasters. according to an eternal email obtained by nbc news, he said an unsigned friday statement issued by noaa which defended trump's claim quote inappropriately and incorrectly contradicted the national weather ser

cnn reached out to noaa. they referred this story of the will bur ross story to the commerce department temperature examiners department denied the story saying it was false. we should point out several law makers have called into an investigation into this. at least one democrat, of virginia calling for ross' resignation, kate. >> boris, thank you so much. let's speak to that congressman right now. joining me is don beyer, he sits on the commission that oversees noaa. congressman, thank you for being here. >> thank you, very much. >> off have called for wilbur ross to be fired over this. they flat out deny this happened. you are calling for him to resign. do you think that's premature at all? >> i don't think so at all. i think this is the final straw, kate. ross has been a disaster so far. i mean he lied or mislead on his ethics forms. he got all involved in what looks like philadelphiaer trading. he's been held in contempt by the house for denying their subpoenas. he, now this is sort of a final straw of t

but not against the backdrop of the noaa graphic in the oval office as tweeted by the president. i'll just say that. i'll put that out there. is there any view inside the traveling trump white house that this latest story we're covering, scotland, mike pence's choice to stay at a trump resort, way far away from the venue where the talks were taking place, that this kind of thing, recent, understandable by the public, may have true consequences? >> reporter: i think it's all a risk that it could have true consequences. i think most people don't know sort of what's going to -- what's going to sort of catch fire, what could catch on, what could turn into a bigger story than it actually is. i mean, the fear here is that, you know, there's been concern about these emoluments issue for a while and people staying at the trump hotel in washington, but maybe as democrats or investigators or reporters start digging deeper into these other properties, that there's more threads that could be pulled, that could start to unravel something bigger. that's the risk, if there's anything there, tha

a former official at noaa under the obama administration, the former noaa general counsel under clintonso much. i appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me. >>> hurricane dorian now lashing the carolinas as it moves closer and closer. how officials are preparing for the worst. that's next. dough made from scratch, every day. sauce from the original giammarco recipe. and authentic toppings like crispy, old world pepperoni™. that's italian quality pizza. and it makes the moment... primo. every day at marco's, get two medium, one-topping pizzas for just $6.99 each. hello to the italian way. hello primo. sleep number 360 smart bed.st sale of the year on a you can adjust your comfort on both sides your sleep number setting. can it help us fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but can it help keep us asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. so you can really promise better sleep. not promise. prove. it's the final days where all beds are on sale! the queen sleep number 360 c2 smart be

e unsigned noaa release said that tweet was wrong. this afternoon the commerce department said the statement was not sent because secretary rlbur ross threatened to have people at noaa fired, something they are denying altogether, and the director of the national weather service today stood by the birmingham tweet saying it was sent out for one reason, public safety. norah. ij o'donnell: all right, weijia who is in north carolina where the president is campaigning tonight for a special house election. thank you, weijia. now a cbs news exclusive. three former heads of homeland hecurity addressed the biggest tscurity threats to this ununtry. michael chertoff, janet napolitano, and jeh johnson gathered today at the national september 11th memorial and neseum in new york city. this all ahead of the anniversary of the attacks. they served under presidents george w. bush and barack obama and address the rising challenges facing this current administration. it's been 18 years since 9/11. t're here at this very solemn memorial. hre threat has

i guess we know where noaa stands. monica, you were shocked? >> i was shocked. i found it unprecedented, dangerous and out of control. >> perhaps the darkest day ever for noaa leadership. i don't know how they will look their workforce in the eye again. moral cowardice. >> the fact that no one was willing to put their name on the statement means it was the subject of political pressure. it is dangerous. it puts american lives at risk. not signing it. does it have that protection? what did you make of it? >> i think there ought to be an investigation and figure out why they let it go. i would have pushed back hard. if my bosses told me to put that out, i would have quit. the previous noaa administrators disavowed that statement today. >> i know there are great people that work there. what do you think the morale is like for them? >> you documented with the way the president undermined other agencies but until now noaa was relatively unscathed. we need the public to trust those forecasts and believe they are true. we need the weather forecasters to make the correc

within minutes, the national weather service of birmingham part of noaa. pointed it out.arty keeps repeating. two and two is five. trump repeated the lie over and over. he faked a map in the oval office. that's the sharpiegate. forced the farce on other parts of the government. tonight a new press release. no name attached. says, quote, information provided by noaa in the national hurricane center to president trump demonstrated tropical storm force winds from hurricane dorian could impact alabama. quote, birmingham the national weather service is sunday morning tweet spoken absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time. the employee union president didn't take it lying down. let me assure you the hard working employees of the nws had nothing to do with the disgusting and disengenuous tweet sent out by management tonight. understandable anger. that anonymous noaa statement an argument that a tiny sliver of alabama that wasn't in the hurricane cone with minimal potential to see tropical force winds make it's

that was fake news right from the beginning. >> noaa said the national weather service sunday morningabsolute terms that were inconsistent with the best forecast products available at that time. the "times" also reported that the commerce department's inspector general is investigating the noaa statement and "the washington post" reports that noaa's acting chief scientist is investigating whether the agency's response to trump's tweets on hurricane dorian violated agency policies and ethics. joining us now to talk about this is wisconsin democratic senator tammy baldwin. she sits on the commerce, science and transportation committee. what do you have make of this? we have politicized a weather forecast. we already have a problem with the public not always trusting the government's forecast or not trusting the media on these things. now we've politicized this. where do we go from here? >> this is deeply disturbing. this extends far beyond noaa in terms of the respect for science and the lack of respect i should say for science in this administration and others in the past, but the publ

noaa had been relatively unscathed and hadn't felt pressures to change the science or feel like theirthey were supposed to do, what the statutes, the law tells them to do. . now i think they're worried they won't be able to do their jobs effectively. one of my successors said he couldn't imagine how leaders would stand up in front of the agency and look them in the eye after having told them to do -- not to take on the president. >> tiffany, we understand the significance of what it means for ordinary americans when organizations and agencies like this, especially when there is a hurricane and natural disaster emergency. what's the political impact of th this. >> essentially, you've seen donald trump yell fire. he's creating chaos. time and again, the republican party is not willing to stand up and say this president is a liar. that's a problem. you saw that with roy blunt on the sunday talk show. this say problem. we know the president is a liar at this point. that's not up for debate. i think his base, who will always believe those lies. look, he still enjoyed a 78 to 89% approval r

an unsigned press release from noaa did disavow that tweet last week. the agency's chief scientist fighting back with a statement last night, including this, and this is a quote. the content of this press release is very concerning as it compromises the ability of noaa to convey life-saving information necessary to avoid substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. if the public cannot trust our information or we debase our forecasters' warnings and products, that specific danger arises. think about this whole thing for a minute. the acting chief of staff telling a member of the cabinet that it was a problem that anybody would contradict this president when he made false claims. false claims about a hurricane. the problem that had to be fixed, even if it meant top employees losing their jobs -- losing their jobs if they refused to cover up for the president, who, not at all surprisingly, denies knowing anything about any of this, all of it. >> did you tell your chief of staff to have noaa disavow those forecasters who said that alabama w

. >>> coming up on the show, the acting head of noaa talking just this morning, just within the last few minutes, just a day after a word commerce secretary wilbur tried to threaten top forecasters for contradicting the president. we have a live report on what he had to say, coming up. >>> plus, the president in hot water over new revelations his scottish golf club is being used as an overnight home for traveling air force service members. new reporting on that, next. (ding) hey, who are you? oh, hey jeff, i'm a car thief... what?! i'm here to steal your car because, well, that's my job. what? what?? what?! (laughing) what?? what?! what?! [crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem... like me. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ applebee's handcrafted burgers now starting at $7.99 now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. now starting at $7.99 so that early retirement we planned. it's going ok? great. now i'm spending more time with the kids. i'm introducing them to crab.

you know, where are the whistle-blowers at noaa?sit back and say let's hold our top. this is about lives and humanity and trying to help people who are in the path or telling people who aren't in the path you're okay, but those who are in the path, you've got to move to safety or shelter in place or do something. you know, victor, i just can't help but thinking about the severity of storms. as we look at what happened, or what is happening in the bahamas. i think back to katrina. you know? i was there 14 years ago in the bush administration when they were dealing with to do or not to do, you know, states' rights issues. this is a real issue. you cannot play with people's lives and particularly farmers and people in urban areas along the path who are trying to figure out their lives. this is a matter of life and death. this is not a matter of a sharpie. this is more than just a sharpie moment. no one need to really figure out what they are going to do. are they going to help or hurt by trying to support a president who is wrong. >> w

that statement was made days after alabama was ruled out by noaa as a potential target for dorian. trump not only wouldn't just say he made a mistake. he actively kept tweeting out inaccurate information and doubling and quadrupling and with spaghetti models and the big moment, that, holding up a forecast map that had been altered with a crude line drawn, the black sharpie. his black sharpie that made it look like alabama was in dorian's path and of course, he was ridiculed and somehow his chief of staff on his own, if you believe what trump just said there, when he said he didn't do anything about this. so apparently mick mulvaney tells secretary ross on his own, ross is the boss of noaa which issues the hurricane forecasts to fix the problem and "the new york times" reports ross carried out this order to fix the problem by threatening to fire anyone who contradicted the president's inaccurate message. the bottom line is trump made a mistake and he wouldn't admit it and he made a bigger lie and expected others to lie for him and caitlyn collins is live outside the white house. thi

but noaa has a responsibility to forecast the weather. for the safety of the american people and preparedness of the american people and the president undermined that mission. it's good the agency is taking responsibility. >> david, what do you think? >> it's so surprising these days we're not used to it to have a senior official in the administration take a stand on principle in a public way like that that administrator mcclain's statement stands out for that alone. no matter which side you're on on this issue, it's clear that he wants to be count ed as someone standing with people in his agency and with sign as science and not the politics. >> he zefs a lot of credit, jeffrey, for having the guts to he will his colleagues you know what, just keep doing your job. >> and you know, i'm a federal former federal employee. and what i love to see is someone standing up and saying most of the people who work for the federal government are trying to do the right thing. they are trying in this case, to protect people from dangerous weather. that'

ross told noaa to disavow a tweet that contradicted the president's claim. when the acting head of noaa pushed back, he told him the political staff would be fired. the commerce spokesman denies the story. now, noaa's acting chief scientist told colleagues in an e-mail that he is investigating the response. >>> north korea said, yesterday, it's ready to restart nuclear talks with the u.s. then, just hours later, test-fired two reps, after more than a year of remaining from missile tests. kim jong-un regime is pbarred from missile tests. president trump is playing down the missile tests, calling them, quote, very standard. kim says he has not broken any promises to the president. >>> cnn was first to report on the successful previously secret mission citing multiple u.s. officials with direct knowledge. the mission was ordered after this may 2017 meeting in the oval office, where the president discussed highly classified intelligence with top russian officials. >> the informant was the highest level source the u.s. had inside the kremlin. the spy had access t

department calls "the new york times" report false adding secretary ross did not threaten to fire any noaa staff over forecasting and

we don't have a lot of answers. >> i also wanted to ask you about noaa and the sharpie issue. any indication that the white house played a role in the agency's latest statement? >> we see many experts across the country that say they are shocked noaa would rebuke what is an agency within its own agency, the national weather service. there is a very strong statement from the union representing the weather service saying what noaa has done is unconscionable. in that initial tweet rebuking the president on sunday was actually the right call. >> thank you so much. >>> joining me now, politics reporter from "the daily beast." and reporter from the center of public integrity. i want to set up the session with the august job's report. adding some 30,000 fewer jobs. now we are seeing warning signs that the president's trade war is affecting the manufacturing sector. how does that fit in to what the president needed. was there a level to distract here? >> i think so. the economy is no doubt a huge part of that. economists predicted 140,000 to 160,000 jobs in august. that number you rep

let's start with noaa.ormer heads are concerned that the president's actions and the threats from wilbur ross under mine the life saving work of the administration. >> yeah, this is not i'dolodeol. they keep people aprides of what is happened with the weather. >> i think what you're seeing is a classic statement of the fish rots from the head. trump decided to compromise the truth and compromise fact p patter patterns, and people in the administration are falling into line. i think what is unfortunate here with noaa is it is an agency populated by data researchers and scientists. they simply put out raw information from the public to dige digest, and even they are not immune to people in the trump administration pressuring people there to lie and backing up the president. >> this goes beyond let trump be trump. wilbur ross also overseas the bureau of economic analysis and the census. if we know that he is threatening to fire employees if they're not going along with a false narrative, what does it tell us a

the former noaa official. she'll tell you why this is so important. >> first time noaa corrected something that was right. >> yes. >> good weekend. >> that was a vape cough. >> lay off the steam. >> not here. just tequila. >> thank you. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. what a week. what a week. a week of a monster storm, threatening the southeast coast. after spreading death and destruction in the bahamas. in a storm of a different kind in the white house. we have been discussing here the president who even by the standards of this administration seems to be out of control. out of touch with reality. none of this is normal. none of it. i want you to listen. this is what former white house communication director said today. >> i think the president is in severe mental decline. i'm not saying that now because i'm a political adversary or i disavowed him. i'm looking at what's going on. objectively. >> that is a former member of the trump administration saying that. is he right? all right. let's have a look

any indication the white house pressured noaa to do this? >> look, i have not -- i'll be completely the transparent. i have not been following sharpy gate as closely as i should have. it's been dominating conversations inside the white house press corps as everyone has been chatting about this. the president doubled down essentially saying there was a forecast path that the hurricane dorian ultimately could have impacted some other states, but, you know, to be completely transparent i've not been following this as closely as i should have been. >> there's a lot to cover with the this white house. i completely understand that. you got a bunch of issues to look at here. brittney, the president tweeted on friday that this has never happened to another president, suggesting he's waiting for someone somewhere perhaps the immediate where a to apologize. but my question is why does the president continue to dig into this because we have many other issues that matter a whole lot more than this internal thing? >> well, it's a great question, jo. kevi

>>> noaa's snackerk.t's false claim to the hurricane threat to alabama. did president trump know that his acting chief of staff intervened. >>> mr. tough guy. that's how president trump is describing his ousted national security adviser, accusing john bolton of making very big mistakes. their feud escalating today on a day when america's security should be front and center. >>> and

david tetly, the former chief officer for noaa, quote, the darkest day for the leadership of noaa.t know how they will recognize their own cowardice. >> i'm a scientist. one of the first things we look for is direction in science. one of the best aspects of what always made this country great is the fact we invested in science and scientists to give us the truth. when you start seeing that science fall away for partisan purposes, noaa saying we have to asauj the president's ego, even though it didn't go neither alabama so he can talk about alabama for political purposes, we ask what is this man doing to the infrastructure of america? >> what did you make of it? >> it seems at this point there's no aspect of our government that cannot be politicized by the president. this is the weather. this is the science. we saw what we saw. it is on people in the media and other aspects of government to say no, that's not true. what he put on the sharpie was not true. but this is a game trump plays. he keeps poking it because he wants to say look at them, they're going ballistic and we will take

to alabama and this is how trump responded moments ago. >> did you tell your chief of staff to have noaaw those forecasters who said that alabama was not in the path of the storm? >> no. i never did that. that's a whole hoax by the fake news media when they talk about the hurricane and talk about florida, they talk about alabama. that's just fake news. it was right from the beginning it was a fake story. >> april ryan is our cnn political analyst and white house correspondent for american urban radio networks and with me in baltimore where the president will be tomorrow, and i'll ask about that in a second. you hear the president saying it's fake, but what are you hearing? did this direction come from the white house? >> i will tell you this. we've heard over and over again that what the presideen the pre something the white house stands behind it. always something, actually happened when the president says it didn't happen. so, well, i don't know. the president's confused me on all this. the bottom line is we always hear the president say, it didn't happen and somebody else comes out an

noaa's chie calling it a dachger to public health and safety and investigating whether it violated public it standards >> meanwhile it appears the trump 20 twbt campaign is cashing in on this they're selling the official fine point markers with the tag line -- >> and holding its annual product unstraling event in california we're expect tootds gelt news on three iphone models. there is also a new version of the apple watch and for the first time kroul rr be able to watch the apple ntonogle >> year a few months away from people waiting in line to get whatever is next good morning. >>> pretty serious storms. i'm sure waking people up in the middle of the night. and the northern plains, the only action. brutally hantmany areas of the south. and south dakota to minnesota and also through wisconsin that's where year going to have numerous rounds of storms. and not so lucky in oklahoma city and souwards is brutefully hot it and a lot of people wondering when the relief is coming. i can't promitous for all. i'll give you the details coming up >>> in today's quick hits mattel is releasing the fir