platform. there was a helicopter flying over the platform this morning. this oil platform is working in about 2,500 feet of water. 13 people were on the platform. all 13 have been accounted for. there are reports that one person has been injured hospital terrabone parish medical center is on standby receive that person once the coast guard picks his or her out of the water. the owner of the platform tells cnbc they have seen no evidence of an oil sheen around the platform or a leak. robert gibbs said this platform was not in production. we don't know what was going on at the platform when the rig exploded. at this signs no explosion of an oil leak. >> a frightening reminder of how dangerous it is down therement thanks, anne thompson. now about two hours earlier the talks began. they got under way. george mitchell, the president's special enjoy for the middle east is now briefing. so it looks as though the talks have concluded. let's go to george mitchell. >> to approach these negotiations in good faith and with a seriousness of purpose. they also agreed for these negotiations to succeed they must be kept private and treated with the utmost sensitivity. what we are able to disclose to you today and in the future will be limited. but i will now describe some of the key items that were addressed in the trilateral meeting. both prime minister netanyahu and president abas condemned all forms of violence that targeted innocent civilians and pleanged to work together to maintain security. they reiterated their goals for two states of two peoples. to establish a viable state of palestine along a secured state of israel. robert leadses now. tony blair here in washington. and a special assistant to former president clinton on arab-israel affairs. they met for really less than two hours. what can we draw from this? is this really just the start? >> absolutely. this was a breakthrough and just getting the two sides to the stable. today was a meeting for them to get acquainted and to really set the parameters of what they are going to talk about. i believe that the comments that both sides made were very important. both sides went out of their way to address each other's needs. president spoke of condemning violence. about the unacceptability of terrorism. prime minister netanyahu spoke about palestinian sovereignty. i think there's some good will there. >> and it appear ls they are still going on in separate talks. there are more face-to-face talks going on. you've written many obstacles are ahead. >> everyone would agree there are obstacles head. hillary clinton and president obama both said the same thing. certainly in the body language and what the two leaders are saying there's a lot of good will. the real problems start at home president abbas faces an extremely controversial opinion. prime minister netanyahu is? a more comfortable position. he has deal with a right wings that do not want them to freeze assets after the moratorium ends. the domestic challenges will be at least as great as that those they now faced at the table. >> robert, you've been there very recently at tony blair's side as he tried to bring the two together? do you think they can be the leaders to bring peace to the area? you've got a very hard line right wing israeli prime minister. so is clinton right when she said these are the leaders that can bring peace to the region? >> that's what're going on the find out. the fact that prime minister netanyahu comes from the right is an asset. he can deliver on the compromises that may be necessary here. he is in a good position. it's true. president abbas is in a much more difficult situation. but he still retains legitimacy. he's the head of the palestinian authority. he's the head of -- but really want to see if he can dlir. if he fails, he's going to have serious problems. >> and briefly, they did agree to get together again in the region on september 14th and meet every two weeks. >> if something is going to happen, and there's a lot of reason to be skeptical, the two leaders reached some common ground. if they can't reach a breakthrough, nothing is going to happen. if they do, they're still going to face huge problems. a whole host of problems. but they need to forge the personal relationship. they seem to be off to a good start today. we'll see what happens in the weeks to come. >> rob malley, thanks to you very much. now toe the giant hurricane barrelling towards the east coast. tens of thousands of people have already been evacuated from north carolina as coastal towns for the outer banks to cape cod are preparing for possible hurricane conditions. ron mott is line in kill devil hills. what's happening there on the ground first of all? >> andrea, good day to you. you can't hear it from here. but you can hear the sound of drills and circular saws as people start to board up to get out of here. evacuation orders have been in effect for 24 to 36 hours. mostly for tourists. a lot of evacuation orders affect the residents. the surf picked up. the red flag is flying. there is no swimming here. we have a 15-knot or so sustained wind. we expect to start to feel and see the effects of earl in earnest by 6:00 eastern time. then, of course n the overnight hours we'll get the full effect of the storm winds and the surge. we don't believe that the eye is going to approach here. bill karins can give us more detail about that. we started to see the easterly turn from the storm, which a lot of people were hoping to see. they do not want this eye to come over land. that means we stay on the western side of this advanced march, which is the weaker side. we shouldn't see as strong as storm surge, as heavy a wind impact, but a lot of folks are taking this seriously at different tone, andrea, than we saw on tuesday and wednesday. >> indeed. we want to bring in bill karins and talk about the track of this storm and the timing of the coast. what are the people of north carolina being told about once they've leave when can they come back? >> we have a lot of tourists. ha lot of folks have been planning to come here for a year or longer. it's tough for them to walk away from the money they're going to lose from vacation rentals. a lot of folks go back to ohio, new jersey, and some of the other places where they've come. ha lot of residents are going to go to shelters. about a dozen or so open at this hour. we expect dozens and dozens more to go online later in the day. they're hoping the storm will not leave behind a lot of damag damage. >> can you take us through the track of this storm in where you expect it to hit? we are in a very crowded balcony with the state department with the international press. we're all side by side. take it away, bill. >> i can hear you loud and clear. ron has been in these storms for many years. all these lines are potential paths. for the most part, all are off the coast with the exception of cape cod. we'll deal with that tomorrow night. the first thing first is the outer banks. this is a weather computer. in the center line where the bulls eye is, that's the center of the storm. tonight at 3:00 a.m. it will make the closest approach to cape hatteras. that's where we could have winds up to 100 miles an hour. we could see the worst damage there come daybreak tomorrow. this storm flies. it's all the way out there. the worst of the weather whether be out in long island and southern new england. through midnight tomorrow, we think the storm will be the closest out there to nantucket and martha's vineyard. we're not expecting a ton of rain. this evening it moving up to the outer banks. tomorrow in the middle of the night into early morning is where norfolk and virginia beach get the worst of it. rapidly goes up to cape cod. that's also out there in block islands through the islands. this storm is going to miss the united states. even on a weak back side we could see winds of 100 miles per hour. that's not exactly weak. we will see damage. >> nothing to sneeze at, indeed. bill karins, thank you so much. ron mott, thank you. i know you'll be at your post throughout. coming up next, is israel's prime minister going to extend his moratorium? that's a big issue. later we hear from one of president abbas' members. plus which three em battled senators could decide who wins the senate? catching up over wood-grilled shrimp and chicken. and with lunches starting at just $6.99... it's an hour you wouldn't trade for anything. ♪ now the healing power of touch just got more powerful. introducing precise from the makers of tylenol. precise pain relieving heat patch activates sensory receptors. it helps block pain signals for deep penetrating relief you can feel precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. how's it work? ok, she's gas. he's constipation... why am i constipation? ...he's diarrhea. and our special fiber helps our probiotics so that you can show those symptoms who's in charge. this isn't even my floor. 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( whispers ) workaholic. - i heard that. - she said it. - i-- cisco-- introducing healthpresence. coast guard rescuers are responding to an oil platform explosion in the gulf of mexico. the platform located about 80 miles off the coast of louisiana, not in deep water. all 13 people have been evacuated. money may have been injured. else in the gulf, engineers are removing the cap from the broken well that caused the deepwater horizon rig to explode in april. crews will try to lift the broken blowout preventer from the sea floor. that's an important piece of evidence. officials do not expect oil to continue gushing. two u.s. troops were killed in action in afghanistan on the same day defense secretary robert gaipts arrived on a surprise visit to kabul. he flew there from baghdad with meetings with karzai and general petraeus. a. federal chairman ben bernanke says if one lesson is to be learned, it's to fix too big to fail. he said regulators must be able to shut down big banks if they create risks to entire financial system. and three veteran democrats in the fight of their political lives with control of the senate at stake. speaking of fights, the story behind this bench clearing brawl at last night's marlins versus national game. [ animals calling ] ♪ [ pop ] [ man ] ♪ well, we get along ♪ yeah, we really do - ♪ and there's nothing wrong - [ bird squawks ] ♪ with what i feel for you ♪ i could hang around till the leaves are brown and the summer's gone ♪ [ announcer ] when you're not worried about potential dangers, the world can be a far less threatening place. take the scary out of life with travelers insurance... and see the world in a different light. >> let's talk politics. with most experts saying the house is likely to go republican, the big question is what will happen with the senate? that may depend on the fate of three incumbents. politico senior white house reporter joins us now. take us through it. let's talk about the three cases. first let's go to california where there was a hot debate last night. you have carly fiorina, the republican, former businesswoman from hewlett packard. >> if you look at senator boxer's long track record of 28 years in washington, d.c., you will see this, she is for more taxes. she is for more spending. she is for more regulation. and she's also for big government and elite extreme environmental group. >> people are going to decide if they want to have me back or if they want to elect someone who made her name as a ceo in hewlett-packard laying thousands of workers off, shipping their jobs overseas. making no sacrifice while she was doing it, taking $100 million. i don't think we need those wall street values now. >> it's hard to imagine that barbara boxer would be in trouble in a democratic state, but she's always had close races. what kind of race is carly fiorina running against her? >> reporter: the big question is is she willing to spend her own money? fiorina has only raised about a million thus far. and a lot of republicans out in california are wondering if she's crack open the multimillion dollar severance package she got. >> there's the issue of meg whitman and fiorina running for governo governor. >> we're also seeing this with ron johnson, and also out in washington state where patty murray, a well regarded incumbent is facing a self-financed campaign from dina rossi. this populous republican party revolution this year is being led by a bunch of self-financing multimillionaire candidates around the country. if you had to rate them on the endangered species list, who is the most in trouble? >> i would put patty murray at the shop. she's been focused on washington. russ feingold has a track record of working the state and also a history in really twigt elections. ironically people thinkboxer stands the best chance, not so much because of her great vir chus but because fiorina has almost as much baggage as she does. >> okay. thank you so much from the white house. and coming up next, new hurricane warnings from massachusetts as the huge storm churns closer to the eastern seaboard. and later the president's plan "b." if the u.s. cannot broker a peace deal? 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are people heading out? >> reporter: a few people are. you know monday is labor day. busy three-day weekend. the unofficial end of summer. a lot of people head out to the cape and nantucket. entire area under a hurricane worng, which means we can experience hurricane conditions as we head over the next 36 hours. the closest approach will be late friday morning and early saturday. people are trying to head out and try to take the ferry. expect those ferries to stop or even limit service as we head throughout the day on fri. if you were trying to get in here. it coup a long trip on friday. you have the option to delay it until saturday, that's the preferred thing. right now we're sitting next to chatham harbor. this is a calm looking harbor. but here's the thing. it was calmer yesterday. almost like glass it was so smooth. most boat owners have been busy taking their boats off the water because many residents lived through hurricane bob back in 1991. that took what boats were left in the harbor and dumped them about more than 40 feet onto the beaches here, doing a lot of damage. they are preparing for what could be an intense hurricane as it approaches here early saturday morning. >> and what is your advice as an experienced weather watcher? should travelerses rye to beat the hurricane? and ride it out? do you think it's better to wait until saturday and try to salvage some part of the weekend by going later saturday night or sunday? >>. >> reporter: well, no official evacuation orders are here. if you can get here before noon, that's your best bet. they don't turn on like a light switch. they'll build throughout the day. that could bring trees and power lines down. that will make travel that much more difficult. in case you do have emergencies you want to leave the roads open for crews to deal with the emergencies versus dealing with travelers. friday night is not going to be pleasant. towards saturday afternoon the sun will come back out. sunday and monday will look fantastic. a little cooler, but no concerns in terms of what's coming from above. but the beach waters themselves, a huge concern and risk here through the weekend will be extreme rough surf and the rip current risk that will unfortunately probably claim more lives. hurricane danielle sponsored 400 or 500 beach rescues up and down this area of new england. >> thanks, paul. tough be crazy to go to the rip tides given what's going on here. coming up, the stumbling blocks to middle east peace. martin fletcher is joining us. and we're now on sirius xm radio. this is andrea mitchell reports live from the state department. , sharing our expertise, and working with people who are changing the face of business in america. after 25 years in the aviation business, i kind of feel like if you're not having fun at what you do, then you've got the wrong job. my landing was better than yours. no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think? 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[ male announcer ] have a heart to heart with your doctor about your risk. and about lipitor. as secretary of state hillary clinton formally opened direct peace negotiations this morning, she insisted the parties can overcome their obstacles, the obstacles that have blocked the process in the past. joining me now are two experts and veteran watchers of all of this. jonathan alter, national affairs columnist for "newsweek" and martin fletcher joining us live from london. his new book is due out at the end of the month. we're all excited for you, martin. thanks for joining us. we been through this together over the decades. why now? why is there anymore opportunity or isn't there? >> it isn't clear there is more opportunity? there's certainly a need to look like there's real progress. so they find themselves being pushed together. it's not a bad thing. it's a good thing. the chances look better today maybe than they have for a very long time. netanyahu seems to be in good control of his government for the time being, and president abbas is in control of h his government of course, hamas and gaza is different story entirely. >> let's talk about the settlements and what he said today what is there has to be some extension of the freeze on the settlements. is that a deal breaker if israel won't do that? >> i think it is, andrea. they have to extend the freeze that expires at the end of september. if they don't, these talks will fall apart. that doesn't seem to be huge barrier now. there is a possibility for some real progress. one of the most important things that's happened is hamas has not been able to disrupt these talks in the past one of the main points of terrorism was to stop things like this from happening. and it worked. now you have them both essentially saying we're not going to let hamas get in the way of us at least beginning to talk to one another. also the principals are doing this without staff. you had hillary clinton an george mitchell this morning with abbas and netanyahu. no staff. no note takers. now of course netanyahu and abbas meeting one-on-one with no note takers. last the way to build trust. >> jonathan alter and martin fletcher, we're working forward to "walking israel", martin. i want to ask briefly if you think the security situation and the gaza situation in particular is about to explode give tennessee -- given the recent inciden incidents. >> it's been good except for the last couple of days. nevertheless, president abbas is committed to find the killers. they've already found the car the killers were driving. they arrested the people who sold the car to the killers. they're on the trail of the killers. in gaza there's a pretty good security situation for the time being. it does not want to attack israel for the time being. but they want to somehow stop these talks. >> thank you so much. joining me is a state department spokesman from upstairs where two sides are going back and forth. let's talk about the amount of time they spent together one on one. >> jonathan had a good point. the way we designed the program was to make sure there was meaningful interaction between president abbas and president netanyahu. ultimately, these are the leaders they have to reach an agreement. these are the leader who is will have to overcome the difficulties that do exist within the process. it's their commitment starting now they're going to meet together roughly every two weeks going forward. this is a meaningful process through which they can address and resolve the core issues. >> now, those core issues, of course, are so tough. right off the bat abbas said there needed to be an extension. >> certainly. we've started the discussion that will continue in two weeks in the region. there is now a process under way. we understand the issues. we understand the difficulties. we understands the differences that do exist between the parties. now we have a process through direct negotiations as if only mechanism to resolve them. we don't want to this bo about one or two meetings. this is going to take a long time. we're committed to do this over the course of the next year. we're citied with the level of serious of purposesness both leaders experienced today. >> why do we think this is more than a giant photo opportunity? they were only together for an hour and a half? >> they were. but we haven't had what we had today for 20 months. this is the way to get to the core issues. this is an important moment. this is the start of a process. we didn't solve everything today. we didn't expect to solve everything today. but now going forward we will tackle and try to narrow and close the differences that do exis exist. >> what does hillary clinton do next? >> we have a lot of work being done as we speak. there's a meeting going on right now to map out what will be our goals for september 14, 15 in the region. we're now where we wanted to be exactly. narrowing the differences. getting to an agreement between the parties. >> pj crowley from the state department, thank you very much. and what political stories will make headlines? let's go to chris cillizza. >> well, andrea, you're exactly right. you're in the hub. a lot will be coming out of there. i'm looking at the august jobs report that comes out tomorrow. we're 60 days today from the november elections. looking like the unemployment rate may bump up just a little bit. that's bad news for president obama, but it's really bad news for congressional democrats. they were hoping maybe against hope but hoping that the economy would bounce back just enough so they could go to their constituents this fall and say, look, what we voted for, what the president put in place is working. it does not look like they'll be able to make the argument. you're seeing political prognosticators saying we're looking at republicans win control of the house. >> we talk about winning the control of the house, what about the senate. >> three or four months ago to be honest it was a dreamer's scenario. if this went right and this went right, and nine other things went right, maybe. i would put it at a 30% chance now. jonathan martin of politico wrote about it. wisconsin, washington state and california. look at those three places. we weren't talking about them at all six months ago. republicans found serious good candidates and the volatility of the electorate is dragging down them. so keep an eye on those three. that's where the majority will be lost. >> we have israel's ambassador of the united states. what is your perspective of prime minister's netanyahu's perspective on how the talks went with president abbas. >> his response was very positive. it the two leaders have been convening for close to three hours. we are looking forward to the next round. >> when you left, they were still together? >> yes, still are. how direct is this? >> they are basically alone in a room. last night they were laughing and shaking hands. this is not the first time they've met. they've got ha lot of history. most people on our two teams go back, in some cases 17 years of negotiation. >> but 17 years of failed negotiations. >> well, 17 years that started from nothing and got us to this point. the there was a time when even the thought of a palestinian state living side-by-side with israel was unthinkable. only in the recent years is that the official policy of the united states and the israeli government. you have a functioning palestinian authority in the west bank with a great authority with great economy and good security. so there has been progress. >> if you can be satisfied about the security issues, is there any chance you would be willing to extend the moratorium onse l on settlements. >> we understand they're an important political issue for the palestinians. they're an important political issue for us as well. we prefer not to cherry pick the issues. half the palestinian population. we wanted to discuss the settlements within the frame work of the final agreements to resolve all the issues. >> which is a more complicated time line. >> certainly. >> thank you very much, michael orrin, ambassador. you just gave us some news in that they are face-to-face upstairs rather than having split up. thank you very much. up next we'll be hearing from one of president abbas' closest advisers. ♪ [ male announcer ] ever have morning pain slow you down? 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[ mom ] game time costs less at walmart. save money. live better. walmart. palestinian president mahmoud abbas is calling for peace in the middle east. joining me now, one of president abbas's closest advisors. mr. shaw, you have seen this for decades, i have watched you through all of these twists and turns, but they are still at it. and this is a longer conversation than any of us have expected, is this a good sign for to you? >> we are still at it because all our people are not free and there is no real peace in the area and when the president of the united states, and particularly this one calls for negotiations and gives it his support, we think there's an opportunity, we'll try again. >> the two leaders are still meeting today, longer than we thought they would be. is it a deal breaker if israel resumes building settlements september 26 as is now scheduled? >> it is a daeal breaker, we ar trying to run very fast to make as much progress as possible before the end of this month. if all of this effort is not appreciated and if israel still continues to grab more land while we are discussing land for peace, i think they will torpedo this opportunity which is a good one that should not be torpedoed. >> president abbas was very quick in condemning the violence that took place, four israeli settlements that left six children orphaned and a seventh children with the person in the other car, so you have seven orphans now as a result of this violence in one day. he condemned it, but what benjamin netanyahu said today, it's important to condemn it, but it's more important to find the killers. can the palestinian police found these killers? >> the palestinian police have found the car and the weapon and a lot of information that would possibly lead to getting the killers and president abbas said he would make every effort to do so. remember this incident took place in an area that the israelis have full security presence and the israeli police is not even allowed to be there. and that is really part of the problem. also, i think what happened was tragic, whenever you lose elive, but that's why we're here, 1,400 were killed in gaza in that attack that killed so many orphans and i hope this will stop all the killing and bring peace into the area. >> we can always hope and that is the hope of these talks. the first talks in nearly two years and, again, a meeting scheduled now for september 14 in the region to follow up on this. with everyone facing that informal deadline of september 26 when israel may or may not resume settlement construction. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports," live from the state department today. thomas roberts will be coming up next on nbc, with the latest of course on hurricane earl, which the national weather service has said just weakened to a category 3 storm. 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