The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle starts right now. Tonight, a Monster Storm about to make landfall. This hour, Hurricane Helene slams into floridas Big Bend as a category 4. Plus new York City mayor Eric Adams is defined as he faces multiple federal Corruption Charges including Bribery And Wire fraud. And how Wall Street is responding to Vice President harris and her economic address. The 11th Hour gets underway on this thursday night. Good evening once again, i am Stephanie Ruhle, good to be back in new York City where tonight we are tracking Breaking News in the southeast as the incredibly powerful Hurricane Helene is hitting the florida coast. I want to bring in our own Bill Karins with the latest. Whats going on. A horrific storm. The Storm Surge is in areas where people have never seen the water on the coast of florida, the Big Bend is getting a 20 foot Storm Surge. You can see it for yourself, this is the shoreline right here and wants half of the eye crosses the coast, we get the official landfall from the national Hurricane Center. What is historic is that this big Bend Region in florida, in our recorded history of hurricanes, weve never had a category for, or Category 5 make landfall, this has never happened before and thats why we are talking about Storm Surge values, ever recorded in florida. This Eye Wall, this is where the intense winds are. He goes from tallahassee to perry, florida, thats in the middle of it, and the most intense winds, they call this the northeast quadrant. You see these bright purple colors, thats her we could get the guests the gusts of 132 140, that will tear off the tops of houses, trees will be down everywhere. Everyone that is in this box has been getting alerts on their phones or devices, telling them to seek shelter, almost like a tornado is coming through. They will be in that situation for another 2 to 3 hours. The Water Levels are rising rapidly. Apalachicola, the wind is blowing the water out to the coast but the water is trapped and rising. Cedar key broke the record for the highest Water Level Theyve ever seen. In tampa, the water continues to rise, we are 6 1 2 feet in clearwater. If you are on the edge of the water with your toes, this is how much higher than the water should be. So we are six feet now all through this region, so all through the bay area, along the coast, we are seeing water go into businesses and homes and in the coastal areas, we have Wave Action on top of that. We just hit 76 in perry, and we are still gusting 50 to 60 around it, thats where the eye is in the center of it, as far as the Hurricane Center goes, we just got this update in. Looks like landfall will be at 140 miles per hour, a strong category 4 and the storm is flying, 24 miles per hour, thats extremely fast for the speed that the storm is moving. Itll be in and out, and as we go throughout the night, this Storm Races up through georgia, but it 00 tomorrow morning, its over the top of atlanta or just east of atlanta, still with 65 mileperhour winds. So we are focusing on where the most extreme damage will be, all in might people will be losing power across the state of georgia as the winds circulate. Then finally about noon or so tomorrow, then itll begin to weekend. We will have 60 to 70 mile per hour gusts, and the appellations of the storm. Just a devastating, historic, multibilliondollar Weather Disaster that is taking place right now. Later we will go live to perry, florida where the storm is expected to make landfall within the next hour. But we are going to head to the president ial race, with the election just 40 days away, tomorrow Vice President harris will visit the southern border to talk about her bipartisan border security plan. Trump has attacked harris every day on immigration, trying to make it the centerpiece of the election. Today trump spoke to reporters ahead of Harriss Visit calling her weak and incompetent on immigration policy. Meanwhile both candidates are meeting with World Leaders this week during the Un General Assembly which means traffic is truly unbearable in new York City. To nice tonight Vice President harris standing Side Byside with ukraines President Zelenskyy. Accusing trump of wanting to surrender. There some in my country who would force ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory. They are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender. Late Today Trump responded. Its not a surrender. What my strategy is to save lives, i will meet with President Zelenskyy and we will see what happens but i believe i can work that out. Saying he can still work with iran despite his campaign saying that intel briefed him on iranian assassination attempts. Would you try and make a deal with iran . Sure, im would do that. I doesnt matter, i have a great memory but its a memory that once to serve the people mr. Allen, what do you make of the behaviors going on offense when it comes to immigration . I think her campaign has made a decision that its an issue theyre going to have to address. Shes been hammered on it by Donald Trump as one of the top issues that voters say that they care about particularly the group of voters that may be making a choice between the candidates. There is some risk in that, she is hang a lantern on her problem as our friend Chris Matthews would say, basically saying here is the issue. I know im not doing on well as well on its why will go and address it. Theres risk and that but a lot of risk in letting trump continue to hammer her. He says some things that are outlandish, today he said, you know, basically she is the worst Border Enforcer in history of the world. I think there are plenty of examples in World History of borders being far more porous than the usborn her with mexico. The history of the world, planet, the baddest there ever was could be, and then some. Natasha, its a bold move on Vp Harriss part. Was that a risk because there are a lot of difficult questions shes going to have to answer. Right, i think what shes doing is continuing the strategy that democrats have really began months ago, really at the beginning of the year which is really accepting that immigration is a huge liability for them. And we saw that with biden coming to this agreement, this bipartisan legislation that she surely going to bring up tomorrow and surely going to bring up that trump pretty much, that he blew it up, and didnt let it happen for political purposes. So you know, i think because of all the different dynamics in our country this year including migrants flooding in to blue cities. It really shifted peoples opinions on immigration and democrats are really hurting in the area. They are saying that my would expect her to come out tomorrow and be really tough on immigration and the border. I mean, whether it is believable, whether its too little too late, as trump is trying to frame it now, itll be up to the voters but theres no surprise that she will be talking about arizona quite a bit. There are all sorts of people in this country in red states and blue states, blue cities that are unhappy about illegal immigration but trump going all in, right, does that say that almost half the country right, assuming this race is met and that, his only Policy Solution is mass deportation. And people are down with that . I think people may here mass deportation, i feel like it hasnt really sunk in the people what that really means. I feel like when they here mass deportation they assume theres a specific number of people who shouldnt be here who will be kicked out. They havent wrapped their minds around what they would do if they got the chance, that millions of people that would be at risk of being deported, the way the economy will be destabilized. Or is it, that they dont actually think that trump is going to go as big as he says he is because he talks a big game but they like their i say it, the direction he is heading in. They like the tough talk, the taking it on and they think hes not really going to do that. They can think that all they want but they are saying thats what theyre going to do and with this case, you want to believe them, if they dont succeed they are going to at least try and that in itself will wreak havoc on this country. You know what else is wreaking havoc in this country, Hurricane Helene. It is extremely dangerous. This thing is a category 4. I want to bring in my colleague Jesse Kirsch from florida. What can you tell us . Reporter so we are in the Eye Wall of helene right now. We are seconds away if not experiencing land all right now. I can tell you weve had intermittent moments of really powerful gusts and we are getting some right now. Okay, i dont know if you can even see it, but there are cars that here. I can tell you, 45 Mileper Hour winds, anyone who is out here presumably not a first responder, should not be out on the roads. These winds are really picking up right now. Weve got debris flying, we are going to stay there is debris that is flying, we are going back inside. The eye is coming any moment now. It back inside, be safe. Are you still with us . I cant see you but i can hear you. We just lock the door. We are good, we are inside, we had to get the door locked. That is incredibly powerful. Okay, we are good. We smelled some gas outside. We are good. We are with you. There are cars out there and they should not be out there. Hold on, those cars out there, are people in those cars . They were moving and im seeing a vehicle backing up right now. I can tell you, they asked for mandatory evacuations in Taylor County, the sheriff told me he thought about 10,000 of the 20,000 people here had not heeded the warnings including potentially around 200 people who live in coastal low lying areas, where the Storm Surge could be reaching 20 feet. I dont know if you can hear the Wind Howling but you can hear the Wind Howling through the windows, through the glass, and we have stuff prepared in an internal room. This is effectively like having a Tornado Overhead for an hour. When you have that kind of Wind Force over a prolonged period of time, im out of breath, this is not easy to walk through, if you have wind like that, that could weaken structures. This could get up to 20 feet and that is unfathomable. Officials told people bluntly about evacuations, they asked people who are not going to evacuate from Taylor County that they should write their name, date of birth and other information about themselves in permanent marker on their body so they could be identified after the storm. Thats a we are dealing with that im still seeing vehicles out there on the road. Im hoping its a first responder but there are definitely people who have chosen to stay in these communities, which we often talk about and the headlines that we have in the days after can be grim. But as we are waiting for landfall, im going to check my phone, ive been texting with our climate team. This is now the third hurricane i have covered in a matter of weeks, no question this is the most powerful, and this area has been hit with three hurricanes in a matter of about a year, 13 months, and this is demonstrably stronger, and thats one thing that im picking up from talking to people, Theyve Seen Storms before, this is a different kind of storm and this is not something to be playing around with, so hopefully many people heeded the warnings and we will send it back to you. Did you speak to People Today who said we are just going to stay put, we dont think its going to be so bad . We were here yesterday and today, and anecdotally, some when we met he was working at a restaurant that we were able to get food at before it shut down and i asked on his way out if you would leave town and he said he was going to stay and ride it out and i said you should really consider leaving and he said he was staying because his grandma was going to stay and he was going to be with her. We got her on the phone and you know, try to convey as much as we could that this is a different storm and they told us that they were changing the plans and they were going to leave. I hope more people have those kinds of decisions and i just checked with our time climate team. We are still waiting, its not landfall yet. Stephanie, to answer your question, there are people who i think were planning to stay here, multiple people, the Gas Station across the street, and a person who was working there told our team they were to stay open and the lights went off. This happens whenever we are coming, there are people who dont plan to evacuate and then there are people who learn the lessons from previous storms. I met someone at a Sandbag Location that stayed during Hurricane Debbie and that was a category 1, Borderline Category 2. But that was a weaker storm in terms of wind strength, and that scared that man enough that he decided he was going to leave town this time. Jesse, i dont know the name of the person you met in the restaurant or his grandmother, im assuming you do so please say a prayer for both of them tonight. Stay safe, we will check in with you later in the hour. We are thinking about you and your crew. Thank you for being down there. Lets head back to my team up here. John allen, Vp Harris met with zelenskyy today, Donald Trump said he will meet with him tomorrow. Donald Trump Hasnt even said if he wants ukraine to win, how will this meeting go down . Its a great question, stephanie, i think zelenskyy will be Begging Trump that if trump becomes president again that trump continues to support the ukrainian efforts but it doesnt look like trump has that in mind at all. He talks about wanting a quick piece, the strategy is largely contingent upon being handed over to russia, so low, you could not have a bigger distance between two candidates meeting with the same person back to back. Youve got Vice President harris who wants to continue where the united states has been doing under biden, continue to help ukraine fend off russia and then youve got President Trump who never exactly said that he wanted russia to win but to your point, doesnt say that he wants ukraine to win, and he has a Vice President ial running mate, jd vance, who is consistently questioning the value of the united states continuing to back ukraine. So theres a real contrast here. Im not sure how many voters will make the decision based on that but certainly a contrast of values and worldview. Trump has said that europe should be taking in more money because they are physically closer to russia than the united states. The united states foreign policy basically since World War ii, has been to bolster europe, so that other countries in europe are not a threat to the rest of europe and the united states. So, a huge contrast between these two candidates. I want to take a moment and acknowledge that with 40 days out from the election, what else Candidate Trump is focused on. Today melania trump, who weve barely seen on the Campaign Trail made an appearance on Fox News because she is selling a new book and when she was asked about Kamala Harris and the state of the country, heres what she said. Well how i see it is the records speak for itself. The country is suffering. People are not able to buy usual necessities for their families. Not four hours after talking about that americans can barely afford necessities, her husband, Candidate Trump announced his of watches, some of them that cost 100 grand, on monday, he launched a silver Commemorative Coin for 100 Bucks that has a Teeny Bit of silver in it and thats the latest in his line of merchandise over the last few months, bibles, Nft Trading cards, trump sneakers, his media company, and his newly formed crypto exchange. Meanwhile, we also learned from an sec filing, that 99 of his Soninlaws Investment Fund is financed by foreign entities. He its like, its like the Trump Campaign is the home shopping network, 40 days to go and this is what we are seeing Donald Trump doing. Absolutely because he knows that hes got to have some money in his pocket if he doesnt win, youve got to put something in there. This goes back to his roots, Donald Trump, he said hes a real estate magnate, but in most of his career, hes been a brand, he loves to have people pay him to use his name on things and thats what we are seeing in the middle of the campaign season, him taking advantage to be in the spotlight the way he always has and trying to turn the attention into money. And whether that is to the detriment of his political campaign, we will see. Its very clear from the bottom of all of this merchandise, none of it is going to the campaign, just going straight to his pocket. Does his campaign ever acknowledge any of this. Imagine a Vp Harris was doing anything else, how would that be taken, how has his campaign responded to any questions about the qvc Trump Campaign. Just 40 days left to buy at this price, stephanie just 40 days left. His Campaign Response to him. This is not a campaign that comes up with what hes supposed to say, its very much the opposite. So whatever he says goes and they try and support that as much as they can, sometimes they answer questions about the merchandising and the Business Stuff but for the most part, his campaign is focused on the election, for the most part Donald Trump is very easily distractible by you know, small and silver shiny objects or objects with tiny amounts of silver in them. The question for voters is with these watches, is whether he knows what time it is. 100 grand. All right, natosha john, you know what time it is. A look at the Corruption Charges against new York Citys mayor and the decadelong pay to play scheme that hes accused of running and later the dangers of Dona