1877866 8555. Good morning. You are live in the cnn newsroom. Im Jim Acosta in washington. We are following Breaking News. Hurricane milton is quickly getting more intense, even more intense in the Gulf Of Mexico at this hour. And taking aim directly at central florida. Its at category four strength right now but is expected to be a cat five again later today. Were also getting this new Exclusive Video from madeira beach florida, a Town Standing right in miltons path. This is debris piled up from the Hurricane Helene cleanup, still posing a danger as miltons winds could pick all of this up and shoot it in all sorts of directions as the storm pummels this area. Something to be on the lookout for if you live in that area. Got to clean that up. Lets begin our coverage in Fort Myers florida. Flood waters there could reach ten feet in some areas. Thats where we find cnns Carlos Juarez and carlos thats a big part of the story, right . The Storm Surge. And it could just really come up throughout that area. Youre standing in right now thats exactly right, jim. Good morning. So the folks here in Fort Myers, florida, have been preparing for this storm for the better part of the last couple of days. One reason that theyre taking this storm. So serious is because of hurricane ian, which hit this part of Lee County, a good part of Lee County, really two years ago. And so the folks out here are well aware of what these powerful storms can do. You can see this sheet of plywood thats gone up this morning. What theyre concerned about is what you said, the Storm Surge anywhere between 6 to 10ft of it. And so when ian hit, were told about four feet of water flooded. A lot of these businesses. And so what youre looking at is more or less where these folks believe the water will most likely come in from one of the main rivers out here, just to the other side of where this business is at. The folks have been preparing for this again, for the better part of the last couple of days. They have been trying to figure out whether they were going to stay put. We know that Evacuation Orders went out for fort Myers Beach to the south of us. Here they also went out for sanibel those are two parts of Lee County that were really destroyed by hurricane ian. And in fact, if we can take a live look at interstate i75, youre taking a look at alligator alley, or at least you should be, and you can see the traffic thats been building there for the last day or so. Interstate 75 connects Southwest Florida to South Florida and so on our drive last night, we ran into what youre taking a look at there, which is folks from this part of the state of florida deciding to go ahead and make the drive across the everglades into broward county. If you live in Southwest Florida thats probably the easiest Drive M the storm. But then of course, the further north you are chances are folks there are trying to make their way a little bit more north in florida and then some folks are just trying to cross over into central florida because theyre trying to get away from the storm one final note from me out here there are some concerns about the Gas Supply at Gas Stations across the state of florida. The governor already said that the state of florida recognizes this is becoming an Issue And Theyve tapped into some of the state reserves to try to get some of these Gas Stations back with a supply of gas as we move forward and the storm inches closer jim. All right. Im sure theyre getting ready as quickly as they can carlos suarez in Fort Myers, thank you very much. Lets go straight to the Cnn Weather Center and Meteorologist Derek Van dam derek, hows the storm looking . Right now . It sounds as though it is slowing down a touch, but thats giving it time to strengthen. So a lot of Moving Parts right now yeah. Still a dangerous category four. And its made that dreaded Northeasterly Turn which will give it its inevitable path into the west central coastline of the florida peninsula. And lets talk about that angle of approach, because i feel like thats so important. And Thats Something that im very concerned about. If we can compare it to helene two weeks ago, which basically ran parallel to the West Coast of florida, this will run into it perpendicularly. So this means the difference as an analogy would be taking a sideswipe from a sedan versus a tbone from an suv. Right. So we are going to maximize and realize the full energy the full brunt of this storm as it makes its way onshore. What we believe will be late Wednesday Night into early Thursday Morning as a powerful major category three hurricane. Now, the beauty of the technology that we have at our disposal is we get real time updates from the hurricane hunters, who have recently just had two planes within the center of the storm. This is what it looks like from inside of The Eye of Hurricane Milton. You can see there on board radar. You can see information that we provide to you at home. So what we have now is a category four, were noticing some clearing on the satellite imagery. So thats indicative of perhaps some strengthening and the national Hurricane Center has explicitly stated that size while it approaches the state of florida. So the impacts of this will be felt well outside of the center of the storm, jim, we all know that, but the Storm Surge here, we cannot understate the threats to the coastline yeah, its its a big threat. Everybody needs to hear it ready to start evacuating, make plans now, derek van dam. Thank you so much. Lets go back to Southwest Florida. Dana alors is the mayor of fort Myers Beach. It was battered by Hurricane Helene just a couple of weeks ago and before that, i was there covering that storm. Mr. Mayor, are people in your community doing doing enough to prepare . What can you tell us yeah, thanks for heavy june. Yeah. Weve got off the Emergency Evacuation at what yesterday or monday actually, we issue mandatory evacuation for 3 00 yesterday most people have heeded that warning and they have gotten off the island. I just got back a few minutes ago just to check to see if people were gone and its its pretty its pretty empty out there. People are listening and theyre getting off. I think being so close to two years ago, ian hitting us with the same surge and the same power that were looking at with this one. It still fresh in Peoples Mind and they know its better to be inland yeah. I mean, mayor all i mean, i remember ian. I was down there covering it. And when that Storm Surge came in, it just made a huge mess throughout the community and there are some predictions are that this could even exceed what ian did on top of that, there is still debris from the previous hurricane that does not sound like a good mix know, im we our staff and the county have been great working together with our contractors to get everything cleaned up from helene as about two days ago, we were to get the majority that we do i still have a little bit left butt you know, our big concern now is ian took away a lot of our structures along the Gulf Coast were only a sevenmile ireland, so a lot of those structures are still not built back. So as this surge comes in, if it makes any turn towards the south, its going to be even worse. Were expecting six to ten here with nothing to block it on the golf side. So its going to come inland and its going to hit the house has done some of these Side Streets pretty hard. So it could be as significant as ian. Were hoping certainly that it doesnt. But we know whats coming. We feel for the people that are in that 12 to 15 foot Storm Surge, which is what we got during ian. And as you said, if you were here, you saw the damage. It does nothing to joke about. It. Its you need to get off the island thats exactly right. I mean, its absolutely deadly when this comes in. And what about the reports of Gas Shortages . Are the residents theyre in countering that what do you say to that one . I have not heard anything about Gas Shortages i havent been off the island yet no one is reported to me that theyve had a hard time finding gas. People are saying that they got inland than they were happy that they were given notice a little bit earlier. Its better to heed on the side of caution then regret it later. So i have not heard anything about shortages of gas yet all right. Mayor Dan Dollars at fort Myers Beach, florida. Best of luck to you. Hope i hope this is not as bad as it looks right now. We really appreciate your time. Thank you, sir. So much. Yes. Thank you. Stay safe. You as well. And as weve been reporting for days, fema is still battling disinformation and lies about its response to helene as Milton Barrels toward florida. Heres yet another plea from the fema administrator, Deanne Criswell earlier today this has to stop because if it continues, we will see more and more people not trusting their federal government to be able to give them what they need. And so i need people to register for assistance. So i can get them the financial resources they need to support their recovery and at any moment, President Biden is expected to speak about Hurricane Milton and the preparations for that, as well as Helene Recovery efforts will have that live when it happens plus The Eyepopping things the president has reportedly said, plus new details about Donald Trump, according to a new book from Legendary Journalist Bob Woodward, thats Coming Up, stay world changed. 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Cnn a new book is offering an extraordinary look at President Bidens candid and brutal views of fellow World Leaders and a copy of Bob Woodwards war obtained by cnn ahead of its release, the president privately referred to israeli Prime Minister youre Benjamin Netanyahu as a quote, Son Of A And a referring to netanyahu as a quote, bad effing guy. Biden also had a blunt assessment of Vladimir Putin saying the russian leaders the epitome of evil. Lets discuss now well talk about that. And also whats happening on the campaign with the Harriswalz Campaign Cochair cedric richmond. He was also a Senior Adviser to the president , cedric, good to see you this morning. We appreciate it. Did you ever hear the president referred to the israeli Prime Minister in those terms . And does the Vice President shared this view, i guess i should ask that too. Well, no. Ive never heard the President Talk like that. Ive never heard them refer to either those World Leaders in that manner find Joe Biden, President Biden are being credibly honorable guy and his focus is always been on the american people and i think thats the same thing with Vice President harris. You see here today rolling out new Health Care plans because she can shes concerned about the american people and it just the second component of that question, you havent heard the Vice President refer in those terms, or agree with the president in those terms . No. Okay. Alright. So lets talk about the campaign. Lets talk about the electron new poll from the New York Times finds the Vice President , leading former President Trump by three percentage points this has gone up a little bit in this particular poll the polls are kind of here. And. There, according to the margin of error, why is this whats your assessment of why this race is so close right now like its going to, its going to be a close race. It will be within the margin of error. I think all of the Battleground States are within the margin and we have work to do. We have to talk to american voters about whats important to them and whats important to their families and their communities. And i think thats what the Vice President is doing this week shes out there a lot this week talking about issues that are facing americans and you still have some undecided voters out there that are trying to decide whos in it for them. And its our job to show them that Vice President harris is in it for them and has a plan for them and former President Trump is in it for himself. And i do want to ask you about the former president and some of the comments that hes made in recent days, he has suggested in just the last day or so that undocumented immigrants who commit murder have what he calls bad genes lets listen to that how about allowing people to come through an open border 13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person. And theyre now happily living in the united states, you know, now a murderer. I believe this its in their genes and we got a lot of bad genes in our country right down he also refused to say last night that he would not use Government Institutions to go after his political rivals. So what does the Vice President have to say about some of this rhetoric were hearing from the former president i dont think shes addressing his rhetoric at all. I think today shes going to talk about the fact that so many families find themselves in the Sandwich Generation where they can, for not only a child, but there can for a parent also. And shes going to expand medicare so that we can include Home Health for our seniors who deserve to live but there lives with dignity and respect. So while shes talking to that Health Care crunch, thats so many seniors find themselves in. Donald trump is talking about genes. Donald trump is talking to fly at a rally. Donald trump is talking about hannibal lecter. Donald trump is talking about windmills causing cancer, Utter Qsen and sharks and so what i really would encourage listeners out there to do is go watch Donald Trump. Hes unhinged. Hes all over the place. Hes unwell and hes talking about himself over and over again. And if you look at Vice President Harris And Governor walz they are attempting to address the issues that are facing our families. And so thats going to be a contrast. Were going to continue to drive you know, i want to ask you about these hurricanes. Cedric florida is preparing for yet another major hurricane, a white House Official told cnn that the Vice President reached out to florida governor Ron Desantis multiple times. Since Hurricane Helene hit two weeks ago, but he didnt take her calls harris says desantis is playing political games and the florida governor had this to say this morning. I want to have a play that for you. While the sudden as she injected herself when shes never shown any interest in the past, we know its because of politics. We know its because of her campaign. I have zero time to entertain these political games. Cedric, whats, whats the response to that . Joe, i want to be very clear here. I went through Hurricane Katrina and rita and i saw thousands of people died, 1,500 people die. These hurricanes are serious, and that is an idiotic statement from a governor who will need all the resources ahead of time and after to help his people recover. And it is beyond the capacity of florida. It is beyond the capacity of people who will get devastated to do it on their own, they need government assistance, federal government assistance. And when the Vice President or the present thank cause you to see what youd need on the ground to see what you need before the storm. During the storm and after the storm, it is irresponsible. It could cost lives to not answer that call and not to take it seriously. Its why Ron Desantis didnt make it to the big boy stage. Its wide. Donald trump is emasculated him at, at every step because hes not ready for primetime and he is putting the people of florida at risk. People are going to die because he is selfish and playing political games. And this is personal to me. I saw katrina and rita. I saw what happened in iowa in sandy dont play games with the storm dawns dont ignore Climate Change. And if the president or Vice President picks up the phone to call you, answer it cedric, did if you can just give us a little Editorial Guidance every so the Vice President called the florida governor. Do we know how many times so when she did this and it was The Call just not returned, what happened . We know now what happened there from my understanding, he just didnt answer the Call And Wont take The Call and so its no secret when the Vice President or president or the Fema Director are Cabinet Secretary is trying to reach a governor they inform the governor that theyre trying to reach him in a governor facilitates a call accepts a call and this is dangerous. Ive worked under republican governors while i was in the state legislature. I worked with a republican president while i was in congress this is dangerous as americ