Crawls east. Al is tracking its path and were live from the rainsoaked region. Coronavirus confusion. Yet another reversal from the nations Top Public Health institute. This time over how the virus spreads. As a former member of the White House Task force who quit over her frustration with the president s response speaks out for the first time in an exclusive interview. I felt that in my heart and in my entire being i think american lives were continuing to be on the line. Changing seasons. Ellen degeneres returns to the air responding to those allegations of a toxic Work Environment and promises big changes at her show. Take responsibility for what happens at my show. This morning, both new support and new criticism uring. Those stories plus, air bubba. Michael jordan and Bubba Wallace teaming up for a new era of nascar as they make history on and off the track. Today, tuesday, september 22nd, 2020. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with Savannah Guthrie and hoda kotb from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Hey, everybody. Welcome to today. So happy youre joining us on this Tuesday Morning. Not just any Tuesday Morning. It is the first day of fall. There is a little chill in the air. A lot happening as well in the news this morning. Actually weathers a story. Slowmoving Tropical Storm beta is bringing even more rain to the alreadysoaked gulf coast. Were going to talk about it is headed next when al gives us his full forecast. Indeed. And in our capitol, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be the first woman to lie in state this at the Supreme Court tomorrow. Thousands are expected to pay tribute. But the battle over her seat is our top story. Yes, from whether the vacancy should be filled before the election to the two candidates who appear to the frontrunners for the seat. Judge Amy Coney Barrett and judge barba rar lagoa. We have it covered beginning with nbc White House CorrespondentPeter Alexander. Hi, peter, good morning. Reporter good morning to you. The president announcing he will make his announcement this saturday. If confirmed that would be the most justices seated by any president since ronald reagan. President trump as nbc news was first to report meeting yesterday with one of the top contenders right here at the white house. Judge Amy Coney Barrett. President trump in ohio overnight. Fill that eat. Reporter rallying supporters behind his plans to fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburgs seat. We will. We will. Reporter the president pledging to unveil his selection by weeks end. Were looking at five incredible jurists. Five incredible people. Women that are extraordinary in every way. I mean, honestly could be any one of them. Were going to be announcing it on friday and saturday. Reporter President Trump earlier dismissing one of ginsburgs final wishing conveyed by her granddaughter to npr that the next president choose her replacement. The president falsely claiming that ginsburgs words may have been made up by democrats. It sounds so beautiful, but that sounds like a schumer deal or maybe a pelosi or shifty schiff. That came out of the wind. Maybe she did it. Maybe she didnt. The president saying he wants the senate to confirm his im just doing my constitutional obligation. New interview argues that decision should be left to voters. There will be close to 40 of the people already voted. Its a violation of the spirit of the constitution. Reporter Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell declaring the president s nominee will receive a vote. Were going to vote on this nomination on this floor. Reporter nbc news learned the president met at the White House Monday with one of the frontrunners, judge Amy Coney Barrett according to a source familiar with the meeting. The 48yearold married mother of seven including two adopted children from haiti now serves on the seventh u. S. Circuit court of appeals is the favorite among social conservatives. Another top contender Barbara Lagoa cuban american was the first hispanic woman to serve on the florida Supreme Court. She was appointed to the 11th u. S. Circuit court of appeals less than a year ago confirmed in a Bipartisan Senate vote with a support of 26 democrats. Americans will get their chance to honor Justice Ginsburg this week. She will lie in repose at the Supreme Court on wednesday and thursday. With an outdoor viewing for the public planned both days. Then on friday, House Speaker nancy pelosi announced ginsburg will lie in state at the capitol, becoming the first woman to do so and only the second Supreme Court justice to receive such an honor. Savannah and hoda. All right, Peter Alexander at the white house. Peter, thanks. Now to the battle brewing on capitol hill over the nomination process, the timing and the potential nominees with democrats hoping to swing at least four republicans to their side that is not going to happen. Nbcs capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt with the latest and the strategy Going Forward on the hill good morning reporter savannah, good morning to you republicans are moving as fast as they can to push President Trumps Supreme Court nominee e even know who it is. The timeline accelerating with just 41 days until election day. Overnight, senator Lindsey Graham saying Senate Republicans have the votes. Weve got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburgs replacement before the election. Were going to move forward in the committee. Reporter the republican senator whose comments from 2016 have gone viral since ginsburgs death if theres a republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said lets let the next president , whoever it might be, make that nomination. Reporter now saying the contentious Brett Kavanaughs hearings are what changed his mind. After kavanaugh, thats what changed with me. Theyre not going to intimidate me, Mitch Mcconnell or anybody else. Reporter so do republicans have the numbers . Right now there are 53 republicans in the senate and 47 democrats. With Vice President mike pence in position to break a tie, that means four republicans would ir to prevent President Trumps nominee from winning confirmation. If a Senate Majority over the course of six years steals two Supreme Court seats using completely contradictory rationales, how can we expect to trust the other side again . Reporter murkowski and collins both breaking ranks with their party saying whoever is elected on november 3rd should choose the nominee. But its a tough road for democrats to find a third let alone a fourth republican to change the outcome. Mitt romney of utah voted to impeach President Trump and could make his decision as soon as today. Meanwhile, democrats hanging their hopes on arizona where democrat mark kelly is leading republican senator Martha Mcsally in what is technically a special election. If kelly wins, he would join the senate in november, cutting the critical number from four to three. But its basically impossible t the outcome here. Leaving democrats threatening to add justices to the Supreme Court in retaliation if they win the senate and the white house in november. Savannah. Kasey, thank you. Rich lowry is the editor of the conservative National Review and an nbc news political analyst. Rich, good morning to you. Hey. If the question was can republicans nominate and confirm a successor, i think the answer is they can and they will. The question is will they do it before election day. How do you see this playing out . Well, there are two ways to stop it. W explaining get four republicans to publicly come out and say, no, were not doing this. You have two who said that. Its easy to see mitt romney being the third. Almost impossible who would be the fourth at this point. The other way would be for republicans who are up for Senate Election this year to privately say to mcconnell, please, please. This is too politically hard. Lets not do this. I kind of dont think thats happening either. So my guess is theyll go and try to do this before the election. The thing is theyll have very little margin for error. What do you mean margin in terms of lost votes . Margin in terms of anything going off the rails . Anything. Anything. Anything. Anything something goes wrong, you lose two weeks, the timing might be impossible but theyre going to make a go of it. Now to the unknowable ive warned you. This is impossible to answer because you can hear all kinds of theories on this. But whats yours how does this affect the president ial race . The fact that there is an epic Supreme Court battle in the offing i dont know. Ill say the polling of it it wont surprise me early polling indicated people want them to wait wouldnt be surprised if that polling holds. But then the key question is intensity. And in the past in these kind of court battles, theyve motivated democratic donors but really motivated republican voters. So it wouldnt surprise me if that holds true this time as well and then also savannah, this feels epic right now it will feel epic at various points in time including the confirmation battles but theres so much else going on it just wouldnt surprise me if this doesnt have the huge effect it would in a different quieter news environment lets not forget the economy in a pandemic and the rest of it but what do you think might happen with the senate thats the other issue that seems to be Going Forward. And democrats have, you know, potentially some potent arguments in terms of health care i mean, obamacare is going to be before the court one week after election day and that is one of the democrats Favorite Campaign issues yeah. I think the court, you know, for partisans and activists, it matters a lot for most ordinary people its an abstraction so i think it is it makes sense for democrats to try to ground the issue in a policy question and health care obviously has been a democratic advantage for generations. Makes sense for them to make the court fight seem about health care all right rich lowry, always good to get your analysis. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you all right. 7 11 now craigs here with another important story on the changing coronavirus guidance from the nations Top Public Health institute. This is a confusing one, craig good morning. Its just the latest controversy involving the centers for disease control. On monday the agency pulled new covid guidance off its website because it said the information was posted by mistake. But its information that outside experts have been calling for the cdc to issue for months nbcs tom costello is following this story for us. Tom, good morning to you reporter hey, craig, good morning. Heres the bottom line the cdc posted guidance on friday which essentially said that the virus can spread in aerosol form in droplets further than the six feet weve been working with that would complicate efforts, you can imagine to open up schools and restaurants and businesses then suddenly the cdc on monday pulled that guidance down saying it was posted in error for the worlds premier health agency, another black eye and more public confusion. The cdc says new changes to its covid guidance were posted in error. Guidance that represented a major change in how coronavirus a transmitted saying that aerosol droplets are now thought to be the main way the virus spreads. Small particles that are produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes. That last word breathes is important. But its no longer on the website. A former cdc director says this latest misstep only further undermines the agencys credibility. They havent been allowed to do their job this is not a failure of Public Health its a failure to support and be guided by Public Health. Reporter throughout the pandemic, the cdc has been accused of inconsistent messaging, bowing to political pressure from the white house. In late august, the agency abruptly reversed different guidance, suggesting people who were exposed to covid but were not symptomatic did not need to be tested. The cdc director was asked to explain that to congress the cdc guidance that came out was clearly misinterpreted within six feet of a person with reporter the New York Times then reported the sudden documented Covid Infection for at least 15 minutes and do not change was ordered by trump vet have symptoms you need a test. Objections of veteran cdc now new mixed messages about how scientists well covid is spread over aerosol form. Many in my field have been saying this since february and all the science shows airborne transmission is happening. Weve been urging cdc and w. H. O. To update their guidance reporter the advice for businesses, restaurants and schools trying to reopen open up the windows, bring in more fresh outdoor air or bring in higher grade filtration that can clean airborne viral particles out of the air reporter yeah. And while weve all been working with the six feet of separation rule, 12 feet is better. 18 feet, even better than that thats really the bottom line here craig, back to you it seems as if the president has also made some news about some comments he made related to the virus and young people specifically what more can you tell us about that reporter yeah, these were comments he made late yesterday specifically talking about how dangerous or how well this virus affects young people take a listen. Now we know it. It affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems, thats what it really affects. You know, in some states, thousands of people. Nobody young below the age of 18, like, nobody they have a strong immune system who knows. Take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system. But it affects virtual nobody. Its an amazing thing. By the way, open your schools. Reporter well, the problem is that simply is not accurate the American Academy of pediatrics reports 10. 3 of all covid cases involves people under the age of 18. 587,000 kids under the age of 18 have contracted covid. Now, they have a very low mortality rate, but the concern of course is they can easily spread it to older people. Their parents, the elderly, and they can become superspreaders in certain events. Guys, back to you. Tom costello in washington. Thank you. We turn now to the weather. Yet another storm battering the gulf coast. Tropical storm beta made landfall overnight. Its packing heavy winds and rain. Al is tracking that storm for us, but first let us turn to nbcs Morgan Chesky in galveston, texas, there with the latest there. Hey, morgan, good morning. Reporter good morning to you. And beta has definitely arrived. You can feel with this surf pounding the sea wall. We followed this storm north after it made landfall late last night dropping more than a foot of rain in many areas. And the main threat today, flash flooding from here all the way to louisiana. This morning, Tropical Storm beta crawling up the texas coast. Dumping heavy rain and flooding coastal communities. The sea just looks angry, right . You can tell its just mad. Reporter the slowmoving storm making landfall overnight. Its expected to hug the coastline moving at just 5 miles an hour. The National HurricaneCenter Warning of possible life threatening storm surge. That surge causing a chunk of this pier to come away before the storm even made landfall. The peer said he had to remove it before it caused any more damage. We did lose an additional piling which is disappointing. But i think were going to be okay. Reporter in port oconner, sheriffs deputies have been keeping a watchful eye on the shore. Patrolling around the clock to make sure the residents stay away from the dangerous tides. A lot of the streets and stuff down by the bay are already flooded. You know, were putting up barricades as fast as we can and just trying to make sure everybody stays away. Reporter but despite the warning, some deciding to ride out the storm and stay home. No. We stay for every Tropical Storm. If it was a category 4, we were in trouble, we would have been gone by now. Reporter others not taking the risk. Its just not worth it for us to stay. Getting trapped in your home, water everywhere. Reporter and this morning Houston Police reporting not just streets but parts of highways are under water. If this storm moves as slowly as it currently is, this could be a significant flooding event for the next 24 hours. Well send it back to you. All r