Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Ali Velshi 20170907

Nbc news weather correspondent sam champion for us live in miami beach. Whats it looking like . Well, ali, we just got to set this up for people realistically. At this point this is a recordsetting hurricane. Its not like any hurricane ive ever covered or weve ever seen. Its been stronger longer than any other Tropical Cyclone on the planet in recorded history. This is a bad storm and one that demands everyones attention. Lets show you exactly where this storm is right now. And the center of this storm making its way towards the turks and caicos. Weve still got a category 5 storm. 175mileperhour winds. Moving to the north, northwest at about 16mileperhour. Now, ali, you showed some ijz from saint martin. And if anyone has seen the pictures from barbuda, when this storm, the center, the eye of this storm moves over turks and caicos, it is all that and more. The difference with this center of this storm when it moves over the turks is it will probably be pushing about a 20foot wall of water. The storm surge will be just too much for these islands to handle, and that goes through the bahamas, the lower bahamas and the central bahamas. There is the shortterm track. Still staying as a category 5 through the turks and caicos into the lower bahamas. Then look at that area where you see a 4. The double 4 right there in cuba. Thats because this storm, the forecastmonthold z have this storm making a northern turn and thats why everyone in florida is trying to get out of florida or people who can get out are trying to get out. So watch this 4. Right now we have it as sunday at about 8 00 a. M. The center of this storm paking impact with the southern tip of florida. The area where that 4 is is homestead to miami right now at this point. Thats the Hurricane Centers track that has this as a category 4 storm. Another thing im going to tell you is and we have just recently been talking about harvey made impact at category 4. Irma as a category 4, never have two category 4 storms made impact in the same season, much less back to back on the u. S. So weve got a lot going on here, and Everyone Needs to take this storm very seriously. I know youve heard a lot of people talk about storms and even people who were standing right here in florida riding out matthew last year. Matthew stayed off the coastline. So the impacts on florida were not that severe. This storm will not be like that storm according to the hurricane all right. Just lost sam champions audio. Well get him back. You got most of the story from sam. Lets go to jacob who is standing by for us not too much away in miami beach. Jacob. Ali, about 150,000 people are under mandatory evacuation orders as weve talked about all day long here in the miami area. Here on miami beach, at the beginning of september this beach would normally be absolutely filled with people, with beach chairs from all of these in many cases pretty nice apartment and condo buildings and hotels. Out here right now there is virtually nobody. I talked to the life guard just a few mijts ago. He said rarely will you ever see it as quiet as it is out here on a day that looks as beautiful as it does today. But if that storm holds and it indeed does go along the path it is projected to go on now, this area is in the direct target of the hurricane. The National Guard who we speak with earlier today is mobile iedsing around 7,000 troops from throughout the state of florida to come all to this area, especially particularly the miami beach area. We were talking with some of them earlier. Some of them are local sheriffs officers. Some of them are former military officers and theyre coming in after boarding up their own homes to come and help. What i want to tell you about right now, this vehicle, excavator, large tractor, i dont know what you would call it is basically picking up beach shaks, something that would normally be out here in order to get it out of the way of the incoming storm. And weve seen this happen all day long, day in and day out. If we can actually show you as well, the condo buildings up along the beach here, youre seeing sort of this corrugated metal shut the windows and the terraces in many cases on many of these buildings. A lot of the residents here have gone through hurricane andrew and experienced it on this very beach. They are saying theyre taking this as serious if not more seriously because of the news reporting that were hearing here. Let me actually take a minute and come and talk to this guy right here. This is james who i met before. Were live on msnbc. How are you doing today . Talk to me about what youre doing what do you have here. Basically whenever we get anything over a category 3 hurricane the city oshds us to go ahead and move all these boxes off the beach. Causes as little damage as possible to any of the builds or anything else. This is a manned to her evacuation zone right now. Yes. What does it look like on a normal day right here. Usually you would say 150 to 500 people. Its kuwait bare compared to what you would see. Where do you live. I live on 47th and pine tree. So you live right here in the direct path and the mandatory evacuation absolutely. Are you going to stick it out. Im going to stick it out. Why. Its my home, man. Got to take care of your family, your home, you know. Are you worried about your safety, about your friend or families safety. Ive been down here for 20 years. This one is worse than anyone ive seen before, but its nothing we cant get through. Its miami beach. How long are you going to be doing this. Probably all day today and part of tomorrow. We still have a lot of boxes to do and we try to help out with as many other people as we can when youre on the beach. Do you fear tore your safety. A little bit. What are you going to do, though, its miami beach. I guess you could manned editorial evacuate. James has decided to stick it out. Its a great trade off for the view. It certainly is. James, i appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you. No problem at all. Good luck to you and well see you around here on the beach. Ali, people like james doing last minute propositions. Thooefr got a couple days to go but there literally is no time to spare. Beach shaks to move. So its worth if you can ask your photographer just to push into one of those con doze just to show people that because of the experience of southern florida with these things, youll see theres usually these condos on the lower levels are raised. So theyve got some allowance for flooding. Thats right. Exactly. Thats exactly right, ali. So if you look at the one that dana roker is looking at right now. Those lower levels have huge gaps. There are no condos on those lower levels. I can show you the beach paths out here obviously theyre raised up a couple feet above literally where the sea is today. But this is sea level. I mean, if you walk up here, you see signs, ali, that are out here. In fact, to point out what the impact of Climate Change would be, and it says 1, 2, 3 feet of Sea Level Rise could be devastating to this area. Thats right. Of course, it would be temporary storm surge from a hurricane like the one we expect to strike here, but nerls its something that they think about here often, they prepare for often and its not just the storm surge that comes into the beach here but also on to the bay on the other side of the road here. And what happens when those canals over flow and create a scenario thats not just storm surge coming in but actually water that seeps into the neighboring communities. And thats why people here are frankly very scared of. All right. Well stay close to you during the course of the next few days. Thanks. In some ways irma is really a generational storm. Its that monstrous. Floridans as you heard jacob say are no strangers to hurricanes. They build around it, they prepare for it. Some of the them like the guy we just taurkd to arent leaving. This is what makes our next guest such a great person to talk to about this. Congresswoman lewis frank el. This is boin ton beach, dell ray beach, lake worth and parts of west palm. Representative frank el, thats for joining us. Lets talk about what things are looking like in your district. Are people evacuating . Is it a mandatory evacuation zone . First of all, thank you for having me. Obviously i share the concern and first of all, i want the people who in florida know that my colleagues here in washington on a bipartisan basis is going to do Everything Possible to make sure we get the resources that we need for recovery. We are gearing up in Palm Beach County, which i represent most of Palm Beach County for a very, very big storm. The people who live on the coast have been ordered to evacuate and i hope that they do. Everybody else has been told to hunker down. We expect not only a very, very big windstorm, potentially a big storm surge, but the likelihood that we will be without electricity may be for the next three weeks. And so, you know, i have been through many of these hurricanes. I was mayor of my city West Palm Beach for eight years. We had four hurricanes. And this is what i learned, ali, and i want people to hear what im saying right now, which is this. State, local, federal governments, agencies like the red cross are doing Everything Possible to prepare, but there is absolutely no substitute for people being personally responsible and being prepared, because we dont know when or how someone else can get to you. And once it starts, once the winds get up about 35, approximate 40, 45 miles an hour, ems and rescuers are not going to be able to get people. Some of the towns along the east coast of florida have warned people, once the winds get to that level, youre going to have to sit tight until the other end of the storm. You have a lot of people in your district who are retirees. Are there special considerations that they have to think about or that have been undertaken for people who either need constant medical care or dialysis or are living in assisted living facilities . Well, in florida, most of those kind of facilities are required to have generators. People have been advised to make sure they stock up on their medicine. Its very, very important that we have a lot of people who live by themselves, so it is very important that they have a buddy system. A lot of these retirement communities, they do that. They make sure theres a budy system, there is somebody who will be knocking on doors. There are special shelters for people who have special needs. For the most part people are going to have to hunker down, make sure theyre not near a window during the hurricane, have their supplies and have a buddy. A very good idea. Congresswoman, once the storm rolls through and it neftel will, whats your biggest concern on the other side . Obviously as weve seen with harvey, its not just the storm as it comes down. There are really serious considerations in the several days after the storm. Well, what folks should know is initially dont be running outside. People are going to be trying to walk their pets and so forth and maybe try to ride around, but most likely the traffic lights will be out. There will be a lot of danger on the road. So people have to stay in. I would say the biggest hardship especially in florida where it is still very, very hot is we will probably be without electricity for many weeks. And if people get very hot and overheated and they get angry and they get thirsty, i think that is my biggest concern. Congresswoman, thank you for joining us. Our thoughts are with you and your constituents over the course of the next few days. Lewis frank yell who represents floridas 21st district. Well be thinking about your folks down there. Thank you very much. There are 2. 5 Million People in miami dated county. Lets go back south to where we started. A lot of them are trying to get out this arch, but its a five, five and a half hour drive to get out of the panhandle or out of the peninsula in florida. So its a tough task. What about flying . Marryiana, are you at the airport . Ive been here since 4 in the morning, ali, and this is a pretty tough task right now. These lines to get on any flight anywhere just keep getting longer and longer. There are many canceled flights, even though the airport remains open. This is the line of lucky people that actually have a boarding pass on their hands. Where are you trying to get to today . To orlando. To evacuate to yes. Get out of the storms way. Yes. Exactly. Its the only flight we could get tore tonight. When is your flight leaving . Can you show us. At 10 55. Its 3 something now and youre at the airport. How long have you been here for. We arrived at 8 00 in the morning. Thank you so much. Good luck to you. Ali, ive heard so many stories of frustration. Families that have been here overnight with their small children, with their parents and pets. Ive seen tears today. I actually spoke to one woman who got married in miami today. This is not how she imagined spending her first day as a newly we had. And i want to play that sound for you right now. This is what she told me. Its been a very stressful time. I mean, we really havent been able to enjoy everything the way that we wanted to because weve been so stressed and worried about our getting home situation. And weve had so many friends and family, coworkers texting, calling, you know, concerned. Its just its overwhelming. So many people out here today, ali, who were out on vacation, who were coming back from cruises who have absolutely nowhere to go if they dont get on a flight today or tomorrow, because they know that this airport, because of the kind of storm that were seeing, is likely to close over the weekend. And i have an update for you from that woman who we just spoke to. We ran into her moments ago. She had a boarding pass in her hands. It looks like she might be able to get out today, but as you can see from the crowds behind me, she is the exception at this airport right now as florida braces for this monster storm. So theyre going to close that airport they think maybe even tomorrow at some point. A number of the airlines have sent more planes to miami and Fort Lauderdale and airports to try and get more people out. But are all those people around you, they dont know what plane theyre getting on . They dont have tickets . What weve been hearing from passengers and again thats what they have told us is the opposite is in fact that the airlines dont want to send their crews out here. Thats what theyre being told because they dont want their crew members stranded in miami. This line of people here are people that are just trying to get many of them on any flights. So we know that places like dallas, houston, there are still folks that may be able to get to these cities today. The people in this line have a boarding pass. Theyve been able to check their flights. And it looks like in six, seven hours from now they could be getting on a flight. But this line over here to my left, thighs are people that have canceled flights that are pretty much stranded, and they dont know if they were be holding a boarding pass on their hand. Weve been talking to people here who actually ditched the line and said you know what . Im going to rent a car and try to get as far away from this storm as possible. Really its people trying to get out fast because they know it may be their only channels before this airport closes possibly tomorrow or saturday, ali. Well stay close to you. I know its hometown so you know it well, and youll be sticking with it through the storm. Thanks very much. You and i will be talking a lot over the next 72 hours or so. Florida governor rick scott was speaking just moments ago. Lets listen to what he had to say with his latest update. Good afternoon. I just had a briefing with jackson emergency officials. The storm surge is forecast to be five to ten feet, which is lifethreatening. Rainfall is forecast to be to 12 inches with isolated rain receiving up to 20 inches of rain in places. A hurricane watch is in effect for jup terr and southward around the florida peninsula to bow knee at that beach. The florida keys, lake oh key chao beand florida bay. Right now the National Hurricane center is reporting that Hurricane Irmarie mains a dangerous and lifethreatening category 5 storm with winds of 175 miles per hour. Based on what we know now, florida will have major hurricane impacts with deadly storm surge and lifethreatening winds. And we can expect this all along the eastern coast of florida. The florida keys should be prepared to start feeling the effects of this storm as early as tomorrow night. Look at the size of this storm. It is wider than our entire state and could cause major lifethreatening impacts from coast to coast. Regardless of which coast you live on, be prepared to evacuate. Floridans on the west coast cannot be complacent. Just because models show it going along the east coast, the west coast will still have hurricane conditions. Remember, hurng andrew is one of the worst storms in the history of our state. This is much worse and more de stating on its current path. Irma has already caused multiple fatalities. This storm is powerful and deadly. Were being very aggressive in our preparation for this storm and every floridian should take this seriously and be aggressive to protect their family. Possession can be replaced. Your family cannot. This is serious and we cant take chances. It is lifethreatening. This is not a storm you can sit and wait through. One of our Top Priorities right now is fuel availability. We know there are problems with supply at gas stations and are working around the clock to get fuel to you. Last night i spoke with all the fuel retailers. This morning i spoke with the Oil Companies and earlier today i spoke with fuel suppliers. I have been very clear to all of these groups i have to know exactly what they need so we can Work Together to get fuel to families as fast as possible. The issues as of now include fuel availability from some of our ports. Federal rules and regulations and getting fuel through traffic to gas stations. To address these concerns were doing the following. Ive talked to fema, the department of energy, epa, the department of transportation and the white house about waving federal rules and regulations to get as much fuel as possible into our state and through our ports. I have directed state Law Enforcement to provide Escort Service to gas trucks to get them through traffic so they can get to the stations faster. These state Law Enforcement he is courts are happening right now. For gas stations in evacuation zones, we need you to stay open as long as possible so people can get out. We will arrange police he is courts for your employees so they can get out sale. We need your gas stations to stay open as long as you can. My staff is reaching out to gas stations in the keys to help provide contact, to help coordinate with Law Enforcement he is courts for staff and tankers. We know fuel is important, and we are absolutely devoting every state resource to addressing this. Three tanker ships are delivering fuel to port tampa today for resupply efforts. Each delivering 1. 2 million gallons of fuel. State Law Enforcement continues to escort fuel supply trucks from port of tampa and port ever glads. While we are making progress, you will see lines or outages, unfortunately. I know this has to be very frustrating, and we will not stop working on this. If you are concerned that you do not have a way to evacuate because of a fuel issue, please call your local Emergency Management hotline or the florida emergency information hotline at 18003423557, which is a dedicated Emergency Management hotline. We will get you out. But you have to call now if youre in an evacuation zone. We cannot save you when the storm hits. We cannot just remember this. Once there is an evacuation order, get out. We cant take care of you in the middle of a storm. If you know youre going to a shelter in your county, please take only how much fuel you need. You dont need to fill your tank to the brim if youre going to stay in your county. Ive said this many times. Please only take what you need. Be considerate of others. The go buddy app is a great resource to find open stations with fuel. The go buddy app. Yesterday i asked the governors of alabama, south carolina, georgia and North Carolina to rescind weight and driver regulations so out of state resources can move expeditiously into florida. All of these states worked quickly to respond to our request. The epa has approved an Emergency Fuel waiver which will allow more fuel to quickly enter the state. All ports still remain open and are operating to bring fuel and supplies in. We are laser focused on how we get as much fuel as possible to ports while they are open. The florida keys. I have offered school buses for Transportation Needs in monroe, miami dated and broward counties. At this time miami dated is using these services to help evacuate those with special needs and broushd has buses on stand by. Monroe has said they do not need these buses right now because theyre using city buses, but my offer still stands. Right now there are mandatory evacuation orders in effect for the florida keys. This means all residents and visitors. Leave the keys. We estimate that about 31,000 people have already evacuated from the keys as of 6 00 p. M. Last night. If youre in the keys and still home, leave and get out. We cant save you once the storm hits. The entire lower keys hospital has already been evacuated. All other hospitals in the keys will be evacuated today. Ive been very clear with Monroe County that the state will provide whatever resources are necessary to get the hospitals back open quickly following the storm. We also have a task force devoted entirely to helping prepare and respond to the keys. Their issues are somewhat different because they have all those bridges down there. For the remainder of the state waiting on evacuation orders, listen to your local officials. They will tell you if and when your area needs to be evacuated. If youre told to evacuate, get out quickly. The roads will fill up quickly as pu need to go. We can expect additional evacuations as the storm continues north through our state. In Broward County there are voluntary vaektsds ordered for mobile homes in low lying areas and mandatory Evacuations Ordered east of federal highway. In miami dated okay. Were going to continue it to monitor. We will monitor that for you. But were going to carry on with the show and provide any information as necessary from these updates. We want to go to capitol hill. Theres some breaking news there. The senate has just passed a bill that among other things approves 15 billion in disaster relief. The bill now goes to the house, which needs to pass it before it heads to the president s desk. Now, the senate bill is from the president s deal with democrats. It links recovery money and an extension of the countrys debt limit for three months. This was a very surprising move. Donald trump turning his back on keshts in congress. Instead, is siding with nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Here is what President Trump said about it earlier today. We had a great meeting yesterday with nancy pelosi and senator schumer, and it was a very bipartisan meeting. We could have done a longer deal, but that would have affected the military, as you know, so we really kept it for three months because of the military. We have a Great Respect for the sangtty of the debt ceiling and chuck does and nancy does, and we all do. So that will never be a problem. The debt ceiling will never be a problem. We would have done a oneyear deal. We could have done a oneyear deal, but we couldnt do it for one reason called the military. All right. I want to bring in Kelly Odonnell who is at the house. Lots to digest in terms of that deal and new developments. This is something that has got a lot of republicans and conservatives upset and surprised a lot of people that President Trump using this moment to sort of adopt a new bipartisanship. It was a surprise in that way, and it seems to give democrats some additional Bargaining Power that they were looking for, and that has confounded and frustrated republicans. When you hear the president keep referring to the military there, thats because the National Defense authorization act, which is the military policy and funding, huge packages, just under consideration, so a continuing resolution which would keep the current budget going for a longer period of time would not allow for the additional money the president wants to see directed toward the military. So thats his reference there. Tying the debt ceiling to something that many lawmakers if not all lawmakers feel is an important imperative like relief for the hurricanes is something weve seen in other configurations because theres so many conservatives who dont want to vote for whats known as a clean debt ceiling, not taking away any spending in order to allow the government to borrow more. So by tying it to something that is sort of must pass, thats often a vehicle that gets it across the finish line. But this only buys time until december 8th. So ali, are mark your calendars. We will be talking about this again in the lead up to that because the president will have to reopen negotiations. Republicans had wanted to buy themselves more time to not have to relitigate some of these issues. So siding with Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi is keeping all of the president s republican allies a little bit off kilter because its not something they expected. Ali. All right. And then there was a meeting at the white house today, just ended, with the emir of kuwait. There was a press conference after that, and the president was, once again, asked about north korea. Yes. And notably, none of the domestic issues came up at this east room mini News Conference of the but the president did talk about what could happen with respect to the growing power and the saberrattling of north korea and its testing of Nuclear Related devices. And the president said that military options remain very much on the table. He hopes it doesnt come to that. Hes frustrated that talking sometimes has not proven to be persuasive with north korea for past president s. Here is President Trump. Weve had president s for 25 years now. Theyve been talking, talking, talking. And the day after an agreement is reached, new workmens in north korea, continuation on nuclear. So i would prefer not going the route of the military, but its something certainly that could happen. So not the more vivid, colorful language we heard from the president earlier this summer with the fire and fury statement toward north korea, that continued to provoke and challenge the u. S. None of that today, but still talking about the potential for military interaction but also hoping that some kinds of negotiations can work. The president would not say if containing north korea, allowing them to keep this capability they have but containing them from using it would be satisfactory. He just wouldnt answer that question. Ali. All right. Kelly, thanks very much for your analysis. All right. Coming up, in the hot seat, donald trump jr. Interviewed behind closed doors on capitol hill by Senate Staffers today, reportedly telling them he took that infamous june 9th, 2016 meeting with a russian lawyer to get dirt on Hillary Clintons fitness to be president. More on what he told Senate Investigators after the break. Also breaking today, education secretary betsy devos is calling for an overhaul of how clejds investigate sexual assault. She said the guidelines from the obama era are not working and do not do enough to protect the are rights of the accused. For your heart. Your joints. Or your digestion. So why wouldnt you take something for the most important part of you. Your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. Supercool notebooks, done. Thats mom taking care of business. 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Get started for free at ancestry. Com. Turning now to the white house and the investigation into russias role in the 2016 election, the president s eldest child and executive director of the trump organization, donald trump jr. Seen here sat down for an interview with Staff Members of the Senate Judiciary committee. Thats a key group of congressional investigators looking into the trump campaigns contacts with russians during the 2016 president ial race. Nbc news received a copy of his statement and claims that done junior took the meeting to get information that would incriminate election rooifr Hillary Clinton. The excerpt reads, quote, to the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications of a president ial candidate, i believed that i should at least hear them out. Depending on what, if any, information they had, i could then consult with counsel to make an informed decision as to whether to give it further consideration. With the latest from trump juniors interview on the hill, lets bring this Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, he first reported on trump juniors statement today. Also joining us is msnbc correspondent garrett headache who has been standing by on capitol hill as this has all been going down. Garrett, let me start with you. What happened today . This was a meeting with staffers from the committee. It was not testimony before the committee. Whats that about . Thats right. Its best to probably think of this like a deposition. Donald trump jr. Sat down with Staff Members from the committee for about five hours and answered very specific questions, sort of very author re questions, laying out specifically about this meeting and about the fallout from that meeting that happened afterwards, what discussions there were afterwards, things like that. We know that that was sort of the tight focus to this. We also know there were about half a dozen senators, mostly democrats, who sat in on this meeting, but the rules of engagement were that they couldnt ask questions. They were allowed to observe. The end goal here is of course to get donald trump, jr. In front of the Judiciary Committee in a public setting and then he would be questioned by all these senators in front of the cameras, in front of the public. This was very much not public. So much so that in fact donald trump, jr. And his people went to fairly Great Lengths to make sure that we didnt even see him on capitol hill today coming or going from this meeting. All right. It did take a while. And i want to bring in matt. Great reporting on this. First of all, lets just run our viewers through this. The first reference to this meeting from donald trump, jr. Was that he did it for a friend. The second reference was that they were talking about adoptions. And the third refrpts was that it was to get some dirt on Hillary Clinton and who wouldnt take such a meeting. And now its almost like he performed a public service. To find out if she was capable and fit to be president. What do you make of all this . Well, look, this is all of a piece, right, for the Trump Administration right now, the biggest problem theyve had is one of their own making where they have asserted things that have just ended up not being true. You know, there were no we had no contacts with russians. Well, you know, reporters have spent the last nine months finding more and more contacts with russians. Is that illegal . Not necessarily, except they have put forward this line of no contact with russia. Its the same sort of thing here. We interviewed done junior back in march and he said on the record, i didnt meet with any russians as part of the campaign. And then we find out, actually, there was. There was this very important meeting at trump tower. And part of the issue here, matt, is that there is lots of stuff for these investigators on the committee and for Robert Mueller and the House Committee to go back on because donald trump jr. Has put out a lot of statements on this. Right. Its been a little bit of a moving target. The statement he gave us when we first approached him about this trump tower meeting was to be clear, because you guys had those emails. In other words, there are still people who believe he just willingly gave up those emails. You were going to publish those emails. We ultimately got the emails. When we first found out about the meeting sh the very First Response we got from him was a statement in which he said what was discussed at this meeting was russian adoption. To be charitable, he at least left out the part where the entire purpose of the meeting was to get politically damaging information about Hillary Clinton. And only after we got the emails did he say, well, who wouldnt have taken this stuff. And garrett, you talked to one of the there were a few senators, even though this wasnt testimony, there were a few senators who we want in and out of this thing. One of them was senator blumenthal. You spoke to him and he corroborates the information that weve got. He corroborates the information that we got. Also, he was probably the senator who was in the room most often. He was there off and on for most of the time donald trump, jr. Was there. And the senators have said theyre not going to talk about the specifics of what went on in that room today, but he did say when i asked him for his general feeling about whether or not trump junior was honest or not he said, look, there were a lot of gams, that this interview today created a lot more questions. So i think the Senate Investigators will have a lot more to work with with coming out of this than they had this morning. Thanks very much. All right. For the full scope of what todays hearing actually means and what consequences it could have, lets bring in former watergate prosecutor and partner at the law firm of dorsy and whitney, nick aker man. Thanks so much for helping us work through this. Sure. Some will put emphasis on the idea that this was not sworn senate testimony. But for purposes of telling the truth or not telling the truth, which is with important in the case of donald trump, jr. Because we now have four implicating and evolving statements, depending on how you want to phrase it. Does he have to tell the truth . Did he have to tell the truth today . Oh, he was under an obligation to tell the truth. In fact, lying to government officials, lying to Senate Investigators is a federal crime. Its a felony thats punishable up to five years in prison. So it is a pretty serious situation. He cannot go in there and just make things up, even though i think he did. And hes been making this up ever since the get go on this. But, look, he was in the same position as a lot of people have been in the past in these kinds of investigations. If he were to go in and tell the truth, that would probably be the end of the Trump Administration. So hes caught between a rock and a hard place. If he acted like a normal person under investigation, he would assert his fifth amendment privilege against selfincrimination and have never said anything in the first place. But he has this other piece where hes a public figure, hes the son of the president of the United States he likes to talk. Well, its not only he likes to talk. He has to talk. He has to talk in order to save the administration. I mean, based on all of these lies, and its a whole series of lies, including his whole story about what happened at the june 9th meeting, that he just got there, they talked about adoption and Nothing Happened after that, not mentioning the fact that the key reason for that meeting, according to the Ron Goldstone email, was to bring him all of this information and documentation that the russian government had for him on Hillary Clinton. That apparently he just walked away from or wasnt interested in. Yes. Not only not interested in, but he was interested in the beginning because out of a sense of public service, he had to make sure that Hillary Clinton was qualified to be president. I mean, everything this man has said is more ridiculous than the next. And what you have to do is put all of this in the context of other events that kurd around that time. We know that at least in april the russians had broken into Hillary Clintons Campaign Headquarters and taken emails. We also know that two weeks after this meeting of june 9th, these emails started appearing on the internet on guccifers website, the russian hacker and also that roger stone, Donald Trumps chief political dirty tricksster was having contacts with both gus fer and Julian Assange and the day before the Democratic Convention opens, a whole bunch of these emails appears on wikileaks. Now, you put this together because youre a guy who thinks this way and youre a lawyer. If you had Robert Muellers power of subpoena and a grand jury, this is going to be real easy because you can actually get phone records and the rest of the emails that we havent seen. You can get the phone records, you can subpoena computers, you can look at the ip addresses. You can see where these emails went. Youll know how long the phone calls were. I mean, if you look at those emails between june 4th and june 9th, theres some gaps in there. There were clearly a number of phone conversations. Those are not recorded. Right. There may have been some sense that if i give you this pile of emails, youll leave me alone, but there are a whole bunch of emails in amongst them. Nick aker man is a former watergate prosecutor and partner at the law firm of dorsy and whitney. Up next, Hurricane Irma on track to batter miami. Already leaving a path of death and destruction in her wake. Rick scott governor of florida kblorg floridans and tourists to go now. Floridas attorney general is promising tough action and has activated a price gouging hotline. There it is, 1866 no scam. Youve got to be in florida to use it. vo my name is bryan. Im proud to make dog chow in davenport, iowa. Dog chows been a part of my familys life for over 40 years. My grandfather made it and now im making it. As a microbiologist i ensure that dog chow leads with high quality ingredients. This inot this john smith. Smith. Or this john smith. Or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana Medicare Advantage members. No, its this john smith. Who we paired with a humana team member to help address his own specific health needs. At humana, we take a personal approach to your health, to provide care thats just as unique as you are. No matter what your name is. Brandnew video showing just how bad the damage on saint martin is after the category 5 Hurricane Irma blasted through. Wow, look at that. It is now heading to florida, where a mass kpoe did you say, look at it, under way in the keys and throughout the state. Many of the residents there remember the last category 5 hurricane to hit their state. It was 25 years ago. Hurricane andrew pulp meld south florida, killing 65 people. This is andrew youre looking at. Causing 48 billion worth of damage. It will be worth a lot more today, about i the way, because that part of florida is so much more developed than it was back then. Today Florida Governor rick scott cautions that irma is bigger, faster and stronger than andrew. Wnbcs dave price is closely tracking irma for us. Help us out here. Lets go through the here and now first. Give you an update on what we know. Turks and caicos, directly in the eye of this storm right now. 20foot surges. Thats what theyre expecting. And if you can look through the colorinfused satellite picture right now, you can see the islands right here, about to just take the eye wall, which is going to go over the island. Then, of course, this storm begins to continue on its path. Its a huge storm. The shield, the cloud shield of this storm, the expanse is about 400 miles. Lets begin, ali, by talking a little bit about how andrew is compared to irma. We go back 25 years, as you mentioned, to august 16 through 28th. Dates which will be elm blaze ond in the minds of anybody who lived through that time in homestead, florida or south florida in general. A category 5 storm. It was a category 5 for 16 hours. Winds maxed out at 175. The low west pressure it got to was 922 mill bars. Again, thats a little tech talk but means it was very strong. And size was 180 miles wide. We go forth and look at this storm too wide. What are its stats . Well, the storm continues to barrel through on its way to florida, and these numbers are just remarkable. This has been a category 5 storm for over 55 hours now. That is the longest period of time in recorded history that we have seen a storm this strong stay this strong. Highest winds up to 185 miles per hour. Lowest pressure even lower than andrew. And the size, significantly greater at 370 miles. So the difference is, though, the trajectory. This was andrews path 25 years ago. Again, with such strength on the northeast side of the storm. This is the projected path, projected for irma right now. The big question remains is miami, is south florida, is the coastline going to be on the strong end of this storm. If so, it could be catastrophic. But other options are still on the table, and they could significantly vary at this point in the at this point in the forecast. Thats important, and you recognize this really well. And theres a lot of variability and there are a lot of changes that could happen over the next 24 hours, so dave, thanks to all and all of your team in helping us cover this. In Miamidade County more than 100,000 residents are under mandatory evacuations today. The mayor of a small Barrier Island is warning her residents if you stay behind youre putting your life in china. Mayor linsey of key biscayne, florida. Mayor, thank you for joining us. Kind of unbelievable to me because anything im hearing from dave price and our colleagues here, everybody in south florida is hearing on local news, this stuff is serious and there are some people who are staying put. There are. I have to say most of the residents of key biscayne have been through this before, they have ridden through andrew, and it wasnt a different hit but theyre scared enough. We have one road in and out, and its a series of bridges but some people do, you know, decide to stay put. Its putting their lives in danger. Now tell me about how Emergency Services are going to work in key biscayne. A lot of the towns up and down the east coast of florida said theyre cutting off the Emergency Services after winds reach a certain level because its too dangerous for the rescuers and anybody who remains who needs anything has to wait until the winds get back down below 35, 40 miles an hour. That is our policy. We cannot put our First Responders in danger. Again, because we have a series of bridges. You get to a certain wind point where vehicles cannot safely cross the bridges and the causeway. And so we do suspend all First Responders services and people are completely on their own. Possibly for days. And that i spoke to somebody from farther north than you were, and look we have just seen harvey. People in south florida. You have new people who werent around for andrew or very big hurricanes. This is the important part. Its not just what happens when this thing makes landfall. If it makes landfall in south florida. Its the several days hence. What are the things that people need to think about . People need to think about that, you know, there may be a medical condition, some emergency that arises. They may be compromised by the storm surge or the wind event and they are on their own. I mean, we are suggesting and our fire chief is suggesting if people stay along that that i pull a sharpie out and put their name, the name of the next of kin and their numbers just in case because we cant guarantee when we can come in for help. Its terrifying. Thats terrifying. Terrifying that you have to say that. But people have to take this seriously. Do you have an issue though in your area there are a urge in of gas stations that are there are a number of gas stations out of gas entirely and thats going to continue. The governor said theyre trying very hard to get gas stations replenished but its hard to do with the traffic situation. What are you doing about the fact that some people may not have enough gas to get where they have to get . We actually have one gas station that was able to bring in fuel. We are rationing it to 30 per person. So they can at least get to a safe place and people are being very respectful and they understand its safety for everyone. They have been very cooperative. Right. In your end of florida its important to remember that if people are trying to outrun this storm unfortunately this storm is so big that you may have to get right off of the peninsula and that is hours and hours under normal circumstances of driving and in this case its that much more because of traffic. The other point you mentioned is that for places like yours, low lying, and Barrier Islands, the storm surge is as damaging or could be more damaging than the winds. Yes. This is that something that we did not face as much with andrew. The storm surge we are anticipating can be as much as 25, 20 feet and thats catastrophic in and of itself. Mayor, thank you very much. Our thoughts are with you and everybody else in key biscayne and south florida. Well stay with you through this. Well cover it all the way to the other side. Thank you. Up next, an early look at Hillary Clintons book hitting bookshelves next tuesday. After the break what shes saying about what her decision not to go after then fbi director james comey who called her careless for using a private email server as secretary of state. Take out the trash . sigh dad molly trash whoo mom hey, molly . Its time to go bell ringing class, lets turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations. Who would like to read . molly i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. Its running much faster now. See . Its amazing, molly. Thank you. thank you. You dont let anything lkeep you sidelined. Come on thats why you drink ensure. With 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals. For the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. Ensure, always be you. When i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. I just snapped a photo and got an estimate in 24 hours. My Insurance Company definitely doesnt have that. You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. Hey youve gotta see this. Cno. N. Alright, see you down there. Mmm, fine. Okay, what do we got . Okay, watch this. Do the thing we talked about. What do we say . Its going to be great. Watch. Remember what we were just saying . Go irish see that . Yes im gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. Nbc news has obtained a copy of Hillary Clintons memoir what happened in which she chronicles her stunning loss to donald trump. She discusses james comeys comments into her use of a private email server. Clinton says quote i was angry and frustrated that comey had used his public position to criticize me, my staff and the Staff Department with no opportunity for us to disprove the charge. I felt like ray donovan. President reagans secretary of labor who after being acquitted asked which office do i go to get my reputation back . My first instinct is my campaign should explain to the public that comey had badly overstepped his bounds and my team raised concerns. In the end we decided it would be better to just let it go and try to move on. Looking back, that was a mistake. That wraps up this hour for me. Ill see you back here tomorrow at 11 00 a. M. Eastern with Stephanie Ruhle and then at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. Find me on twitter, facebook, Instagram Ali velshi. Ill be with you through most of the weekend as this hurricane settles in over south florida. Thank you for watching. Deadline white house with Nicolle Wallace starts right now. Hi, everyone. Its 4 00. Donald trump is promising a new relationship with congress after waking up to better than average News Coverage of his presidency. Mr. President , you signalled more bipartisanship . I think it does. Yes. I think we will have a different relationship than you have been watching over the last number of years. I hope so. I think thats a great thing for our country. The president was so pleased with the coverage of his First Official bipartisan accomplishment that he dialed up nancy pelosi and followed her instruction to reassure d. R. E. A. M. Ers that they wouldnt deported. Quote, for all those daca that are concerned about your status during this six month period, you have nothing to worry about. Dash, no action. All of this set off a day of republican moping and venting more akin to breakup blues than bridge Building Back to the president who jilted them. The president sided on a fairly what i would say a smallish