Office, an absolutely truthful tweet that set the record straight on Hurricane Dorian and alabama. Im going to talk to the former noaa official who predicted last night on this show that Something Like this would happen. Also just how bad will the final toll be in the bahamas . An official warning people to prepare for the unimaginable as the death toll rises to 43 with hundreds or thousands still missing. Were going to take you to one of the hardest hit communities. What is the true cost of the president s family separation policy . This is a story that we dont want to get lost. The government report on the heartbreaking trauma suffered by immigrant children separated from their mothers and fathers. And could a lawsuit in minnesota change the way schools handle racist bullying . Parents say their children were subject to blackface, the nword, and threats of violence. Were going to get to all of that in this hour, but right now i want to talk about the president. The president spending his week digging in his heels and refusing to back down over his false claim that alabama was in Hurricane Dorians path. Thats our big picture tonight. Lets discuss with brian stelter, susan glasser, and former congressman charlie dent. Good evening to all of you. Charlie, im going to start with you. What do you think about how the leader of the country and the leader of your Republican Party spent his time this week . Well, again, this is just simply inexplicable. Im kind of oldfashioned, don. I always thought the words of the president were policy. Thats not been the case with this administration. Obviously hes certainly not the sharpest sharpie in the sharpie box based on what he has stated. I mean why cant the man simply own up to a mistake . He made a mistake when he mentioned alabama being in the path. He should move on, talk about his governments response to this hurricane, which from what i can tell has been fairly effective. But hes not doing that because this is always about him. Its always about him instead of the people who are in the hurricanes path unfortunately. And its sad that were talking about this because we should be talking about things like his trying to diversity military Construction Funds without the consent of congress. There are all sorts of things. So im not sure if this is an attempt at a distraction. I dont think its a very good one, though. You say that this calls into question his fitness for office. Tell me why. Well, i said that during the primary of 2016. I called into question his fitness. You know, look, don, i mean you watch stuff like this, you get the sense theres a lifetimes worth of work for a therapist here. What can you say . Hes so obsessed with all of this. Its absurd that he would be so focused on Something Like this when there are so many more important things he could be spending his time on. So i havent spent a lot of time talking about his fitness. Im not a therapist. I shouldnt be making medical diagnoses, and i wont, but theres something seriously wrong. Scaramucci knows him well, and hes said much stronger things than i have. The president and the white house, various offices in the administration focused on making the lie true. Can you imagine what theyd be able to get done if they focus on actual, real emergencies . Susan, you first. Don, i mean thats the thing is that were living the unimaginable, right . You know, you asked to imagine. What im struck by right now is that theres almost nothing that you could tell me right now that the president just tweeted that wouldnt at least have a certain plausibility to it because hes taken us so far down the road of the unimaginable, right . You know, we are actually talking about the president doctoring an official Weather Forecast with a sharpie pen in order to make a false tweet true. And thats where we are in september of 2019. You know, so theres sort of a fantasy element to the whole thing, and yet i think we have to step back and say, its a measure of the success of President Trumps project that we are all now living inside of this narrative. Interesting. I think we are talking about the absurd as if it is real here in this nice cnn panel framework, you know . I say that every day. Susan, youre channeling me. We have to talk about the absurdity as if it is not absurd, as if its logical, as if its normal. Right. We fit it in this frame. Its crazy. Its really crazy. He cant read a map. Thats a serious problem for the United States, not a problem for trump but a problem for the United States. I think what weve seen in the past few months is this sense that the president s getting worse. Thats the uncomfortable part of the past few months, whether its racist attacks against the city of baltimore or against democratic lawmakers, whether its any of his other antics lately, hes getting worse in some fashion. This week with alabama is another illustration of that. Now, whats the underlying cause . I dont know. Nobody knows for sure, but hes barely been in front of the cameras this week. Hes mostly only been on twitter, and hes wasted yet another week. When hes in front of the camera, hes doing the sharpie thing. Hes trying to reinforce his lie. This is your bailey wick because media is your expertise. Hes trying to use the media to make a lie true because he tweeted out a forecast from this very program four days yeah, from your show, wednesd wednesday, august 28th. But then the Trump Campaign tweeted out, put the actual date on it, which still doesnt make his lie and the sharpie thing true. Then he tweeted out, left the date off, which still doesnt make it true. But hes trying to use the media to make a lie true. Hes trying to use true information in a way thats twisted to prove his lie is correct. Look, on august 28th, there was a slight chance that maybe alabama would be affected in some small way. Obviously by sunday when he was saying alabama was threatened, alabama was not threatened. The National WeatherService Knows that. The incredible workers there that have been keeping the public safe note that. Thats why its a shame today noaa, this government agency, put out a statement trying to support the president s lie. Thats really disturbing. Whenever we see Government Agencies doing this. Our taxpayer dollars are being wasted in this way by the White House Press secretary who is out there misleading the public, by these Government Agencies that are trying to prove trumps falsehoods true. Thats ultimately why this story matters. It doesnt matter that, you know, the president got it wrong three times on sunday. It matters that weve spent a week seeing Government Agencies employed with our taxpayer money trying to prove it right. This is charlie, this is my gosh, this goes to susans point and i guess to your point, and i guess to everybodys point on this panel. But the absurdity of it all, the Trump Campaign is promoting, charlie, this marker that you can buy from their website. And this is as our fact checker daniel dale put it, this seems to be a first. The Trump Campaign selling memorabilia of its dishonesty. That is a whole new level. Right. Well what do you say to that . They must see some political advantage. They must see some political advantage to sharpiegate. Im just sitting a couple miles from the crayola factory. I prefer crayons, which may become the writing instrument of choice in the white house if this continues by the way. Again, i get asked to explain the inexplicable. I simply cant do it. The sad part is it just seems that the president has you know, he seems to be at war with the truth and fact. The serious question is, you know, how do we recover from this someday . I just hope that this doesnt set a precedent for the future that others will think they can go ahead and manipulate facts and the truth and just hope that well just all support them because hes the president or shes the president. Susan, meanwhile, cnn is reporting that National Security adviser john bolton and secretary of state mike pompeo rarely speak to each other outside formal meetings, recently went weeks without talking at all. I mean these are two people that are really crucial critical to our National Security. Is the administration falling apart while trump focuses on alabama . Well, right, its time to turn down the lights on the circus. That was the phrase that mike pompeo used in 2016 when he was campaigning against donald trump before he was for donald trump. And, you know, its interesting that report. I think its very significant. A few weeks ago in my piece about pompeo, i reported that they were not on speaking terms, the National Security adviser and the secretary of state. And, you know, this is at a moment where while the president is enmeshed in sharpiegate, were talking about the meltdown of the united kingdom, and the president was supposed to visit europe this week. He canceled that to monitor the hurricane, and to apparently engage in sharpiegate. Were talking about the administration seems to be having a big internal feud and possibly feud between these advisers and President Trump over a possible peace deal in afghanistan. This is americas longest war. Have you heard the president address that in any substantive or meaningful way . No. Youve had a complete breakdown in that process. The president meanwhile appears to be withholding aid from ukraine. Hes once again demanding that russia be readmitted to the g7, another source of tension with john bolton, his National Security adviser. Youre talking about questions about the trade war with china and are we going to have a new round of negotiations or not . The prospects for the u. S. canada mexico free trade agreement, any other president would be lobbying to save that where the prospects for passage are getting dimmer by the moment. Not a word from the white house that ive heard about that. Questions about the economy and hospital in charge of Economic Policy in the white house and what is it, were not talking about any of that because were talking about magic markers. Yeah. Were talking about magic markers. Magic markers is about lying in an emergency. The point is if the secretary of state and the National Security adviser arent speaking to each other and its not clear on what terms, if at all, theyre dealing with the president , meanwhile the president has sent Vice President pence to europe, and its not even the first foreign trip that he canceled in a months time. Its the second foreign trip that the president of the United States canceled in order to stay at home and watch tv and tweet. Yeah. Brian, i want to ask you about this because the president might as well be on the fox news Marketing Team for the opinion folks, right for the protrump talk shows. There are folks on the network who are calling him out, but he doesnt really tweet out about them because its an attempt to drive people who are favorable to him, to drive viewers to people who are favorable to him on fox news. Yes. That is ultimately what a lot of these stories are about. What he focuses on is what he hears on the protrump talk shows on fox, and that is to the detriment of everybody from alabama to california and everywhere in between. The country suffers when the president is obsessed with what he hears on tv. But that is why sharpiegate or emergencygate has been a big story this week, because he was angry at the fact checks on television. Notice those were on channels other than fox, but even on fox, news anchors were correcting trump on this fact and others. He only wants sycophants. He started the week by saying his main opponent is not democrats. Its the fake news media. That is what he wants. Thats why hes putting out a video today with the cnn logo being driven off the road. Hes creating that kind of environment on a daily basis. If i were the democrats, thats what i would be talking about all the time, the kind of behavior that is so outlandish, so beyond the pale. Its really just what a world. Upside down, don. Charlie, lets switch gears because i want to talk about this. According to a letter obtained by cnn, the House Oversight committee is investigating money spent by the u. S. Military at the airport closest to trumps turnberry resort in scotland. The letter from Elijah Cummings says 11 million was spent and the airport offered cut rate prices on rooms to some crews and free rounds of golf at the trump resort for americans, specifically military crews. Does this sound like a conflict of interest to you . Well, as a former chairman of the house ethics committee, i can tell you it certainly smells very bad, and it appears that it looks like so much of this seems to be selfdealing. You know, the whole issue with the Vice President in ireland staying at the president s hotel. The whole issue about bringing the g7 to his resort down in florida. I mean how blatant can he be . This would get you investigated if it were a member of the house of representatives doing this sort of thing, it would immediately come under investigation by the house. Its that simple. I think this is very problematic. I think cummings is going to have a field day with this. Hold on. Youre going to come back. Thats the tease. Were going to hear what brian has to say on the other side of the break as well as susan. We have a lot more to talk about. Well be right back. Dont go anywhere. Ys used brita. Its two stagefilter. Doesnt compare to zerowaters 5stage. This meter shows how much stuff, or dissolved solids, gets left behind. Our tap water is 220. Brita . 110. Seriously . But zerowater let me guess. Zero . Yup, thats how i know it is the puresttasting water. I need to find the receipt for that. Oh yeah, you do. Tmobiles newest signal reaches farther than ever before. With more engineers. More towers. More coverage its a network that gives you freedom from big cities, to small towns, were with you. Because life can take you almost anywhere, tmobile is with you. No signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected. Only marcos can deliver. Americas most loved pizza. Hot and fresh, and right to your door. Dough made from scratch, every day. Sauce from the original giammarco recipe. 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Now, we have heard the chairman of the committee, jerry nadler, make clear in recent weeks both in Court Filings and in public statements that they are conducting formal impeachment proceedings. But what does that look like . Thats been a big question Going Forward. Now we are learning that theyre drafting a resolution detailing exactly how that investigation will look like. What theyre saying is that among other things in this resolution, i am told by multiple sources familiar with the matter that the chairman will be authorized to call full committee and subcommittee hearings in connection with impeachment deliberations. Also it would allow the committee to have hearings, allow staff attorneys to question witnesses at hearings. Thats something that is not typically allowed to be done. Members of the committees are typically the ones who ask the questions, but this will allow staff attorneys to question witnesses. Well also see some language in there saying how the president s attorney can respond to questions in writing, also discussing how grand jury secret grand jury information can be handled by the committee in a classified setting. Now, what im told, don, is that this will essentially mirror the precedent set by the 1974 nixon impeachment proceeding under the House Judiciary Committee. They are essentially going to be following a similar process, but they expect a very full Fall Schedule starting with midseptember hearings with corey lewandowski, the former Trump Campaign manager who is mentioned in the Mueller Report in connection with the suggestions allegedly to thwart the mueller probe. We could see other matters that could come to a head over potential emolument violations under the constitution, questions about whether the president is enriching himself, also questions about whether the president dangled pardons to officials to break immigration laws. Those are some of the matters that we could see these procedures really play out, but expect on wednesday this first formal vote by this committee to make it clear what an impeachment probe actually looks like, don. All right. Manu, i want you to stand by. If youre just tuning in, again, this is the breaking news here on cnn. A house panel to make formal steps on impeachment probe starting next week. Manu said look for that to happen on wednesday. The House Judiciary Committee is prepared to vote next week on a resolution laying out the procedures for its investigation now that is actively considering moving to