president spent days defending himself and even displayed a map that appeared to can you a hand-drawn circle that extended the cone of uncertainty into alabama. friday he got some cover. noaa released unsigned statement that read, quote, from wednesday, august 28th through monday, september 2nd, the information provided by noaa and the national hurricane center to president trump and the wider public demonstrated that tropical storm force winds from hurricane dorian could impact alabama. now "the washington post" has obtained an internal email sent out a week before that statement was released in which a top noaa official warned its staff against providing any opinion on the matter. national weather service told nbc news the directive made no specific reference to the president but noaa meteorologist told "the post" it was understood internally to refer to the president as it came