Fairly small place. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Were getting our first real look at the devastation wrought by Hurricane Dorian in the bahamas, where it looks like a bomb went off. This is aerial footage from the abaco islands in the northern bahamas where houses are leveled. Cars and boats are scattered. Much is under water. Total destruction in every direction. The hurricane basically stalled over the bahamas for over two day, starting as a category 5 storm. And so there are at least five reported deaths with searchandrescue missions still under way. The storm has finally left the bahamas. Now the people on the ground are left assessing the devastation left by the storm. Dorian is now a category 2 hurricane. It is working its way up the southeast coast. We dont quite know exactly where it is going to make landfall or even if it will. But hurricane watches, warnings, or advisories have been issued through parts of georgia, florida and the carolinas. Late last week the president canceled his trip to poland to monitor the hurricane. On monday as the hurricane basically destroyed parts of the bahamas and threatened the u. S. , he took a helicopter to his private golf course in virginia. Over the weekend he tweeted over 100 times from everything from the apprentice to Actress Debra Messing including telling the people of alabama to prepare themselves for a hurricane. The storm was never going to hit alabama. Imagine for one thing the scene at the National Hurricane center, people in the room discussing whether to fact check the president or not and then deciding its their job people know the actual truth about the hurricane. The National Hurricane center issued a strong factual rebuke. Quote, alabama will not, all caps, see any impacts from dorian. That was probably better than when trump talked about the hurricane. On sunday he went to visit femas National Response center and was not sure he had ever, quote, even heard of a category 5. There have been several category 5 storms since he has been president , including hurricane maria, a mega disaster in which 3,000 american citizens died. And for that huge disaster, there has never to this day been a formal official u. S. Government federal official inquiry or report about what exactly went wrong there and why. Increasingly, the basic question of the fitness of this president is exacerbated by the question of his fitness in the era of climate disaster, and he has shown himself not up to the task. In fact, he has been taking steps at every turn to accelerate said disaster, to roll back regulations that will reduce carbon i missions from the auto industry, power plays, opening up Tongass National forest. He is moving us in literally the wrong direction at the moment when we most need climate leadership. It is the sad and tragic state of affairs in american politics in the year 2019 that there are two Political Coalition, and only one is debating about what to do about the civilizational crises before us. That is the core truth of american politics at this moment. The Prime Ministers words of desperation show just what the stakes are. Its saddening. Its as if we are fighting the war with the enemy have all the weapon at its disposal, the greatest weapon you can think about and we have absolutely nothing. Were hopeless. The only thing we have to us is god so we can pray to god and ask god to bring us through. And joining me now, 2020 president ial candidate senator cory booker of new jersey, who today released his 3 trillion plan on Climate Change and Environmental Justice. Prime minister of the bahamas there talking about the devastation in that set of islands. This comes actually years after hurricane maria. But it does feel like a matter of time. Just a question of when, of how many climate disasters were going to see increasingly here on the mainland of the united states. Tragic fires. The increase of those fires, the flooding in the midwest, these horrific storms, this is something that is coming at us, that is really barreling towards civilization, and we must act with a much graver sense of urgency, or else the cost of inaction now is measuring for our economy trillions of dollars. Theyre predicting by 2100, it could shrink the u. S. Economy by more than 10 if we do not act. By 10 . What is your understanding of the fundamental problem here, and i want to talk about your proposal is that its an issue where there is one Political Coalition having a debate about it and one Political Coalition not, right . It is just a onesided conversation right now. In terms of the human species, its bigger than that. There is only one Major Political party on the planet earth that is denying that this is a problem with a sense of urgency. Thats how singular, what a small handful of republicans. Lets not paint each other with broad brushes. Republicans polling them. Thats true. Rank and file folks. Everybody understands it. And open your window. Most americans are seeing wacky weather. The hottest months ever recorded in the last months that weve had. So this is no longer up for debate in most americans hearts and minds, except for a narrow group of leadership that is doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industries and other massive corporate lobbyists who are trying to stop us doing action. And meanwhile, the consensus of global scientists are saying if we do not act with a sense of urgency, in about an 11year window, the catastrophic effects on humanity in fact, read the military reports. Those things are scary to me. When our own u. S. Military is saying we better plan for planetary crisis, migratory problems, extremism, famines, the kind of things if we do not act, that we will see on the planet earth. If this is urgent, before we get to the details, to me there is two questions about a climate plan. Whats in the climate plan, and how high is it on the list of priorities. So my question to you, if youre elected president of the united states, and you have unified democratic governance, lets say. Right. Is climate the first thing you move on . Is that the first domestic . This is the thing about my plan that im excited about. When we had another republican president who refused to join the kyoto accords, i turned to my city and said climate will be the lens through which we view everything that we do. So i was a guy that said hey, our prisoner reentry programs are going to be putting people to work on urban farms, because in our city we need to pull more of the carbon out of the air. Our job Training Programs are going to be about environmentally retrofitting buildings, union jobs. There is nothing we can do anybody that is not viewed through that lens. And thats changing the practice of how we procure things. Where its we invest. Its our r d. Its our ag bills. Everything has to now be about meeting this crisis. If not, by the time my second term is over, our planet will be slipping into crisis. And youre specific in the plan. A few others have broken out where you can take executive action. Yes. As president and where there is legislative need. When were talking about the kind of money and a fee and dividend system on some of the biggest polluters. You put a fee on carbon. That needs legislation. Yes. So the question again, is that the first thing you legislate on . Yes, because its tied to a lot of other things. Look, there are Many Americans calling out for massive infrastructure program. This is in line with what infrastructure looks like. Im an Environmental Justice guy as a guy that lives in the city that has a massive lead problem right now. Most people dont know this. There are 3,000 communities, 3,000 jurisdictions where the children have more than twice the blood lead level of flint, michigan. We should get rid of all the lead pipes that are going into residential area, schools. This should be something that should have been done decades ago, frankly, but we havent done it. So much of what im doing relates to others a expense, whether its r d, whether its infrastructure, whether its jobs. Boosting the economy, our plan would create millions of jobs in this country. So you see that as a priority, like a package together . I see a package together that it will touch on a lot of other priorities. Climate has to be the lens through which everything that we do. I want to ask you about another issue, which is obviously front of mind right now after the shooting in west texas. A horrible massacre there. Theres really interesting polling on gun control right now, gun Safety Measures that are showing higher levels of support than there have been for a while. And one thing jumped out at me was from quinnipiac poll. Do you support requiring a license to purchase a gun . 82 , which its a very polarized country. I dont get a lot of 82 percents. Thats part of your campaign platform. What do you think of that number. When we came out on this, a number of people in the democratic field took potshots at me calling for licensing. It is something that works. It is evidencebased. Connecticut did it. Shootings dropped 45 . Suicides dropped 15 . Someone who needs to drive a car. Shouldnt you be licensed to own and buy a firearm . You think its constitutional . Absolutely. Again, even even with the courts jurisprudence. I absolutely think so. Look, we have most people, we have restrictions on our First Amendment rights. Common sense restrictions like this. Lawabiding citizens have nothing to worry about purchasing a gun. This will dramatically stop the ability for people who want to do horrendous things to get weapons. 82 polling. I dont know how many votes are in the u. S. Senate if you call this for a vote tomorrow. 30 maybe . There is a gap right now between what the public is telling pollsters and what the institutions of our various Political Leadership views as the frontier of the possible. So as the one guy in the senate that lives in a neighborhood where people get shot, that had shot, get killed in the top of my block . The reason why i came out so early with a bold plan which includes things like licensing, which split miss own party on notice, that you should not have to wait until a mass shooting comes to your state, your community, your neighborhood to feel this sense of urgency. I wanted to move the national conversation. So i when you say only getting 30 something votes, im telling you right now that our party needs to get on board with bold vision on whats going to protect our country. Because governments are formed for the common defense. Weve lost more people in the last 50 years to gun violence in our country than in every single war in america combined. The carnage is going up. Weve seen the terrorist attacks were having, the majority since 9 11 have been right wing extremist groups. The majority white supremacist groups. We have to understand that we are in a dangerous perilous time. And if our party is not leading with a vision to protect our country, then what the hell are we why are we forming . And again, as a guidance coming from a community, remember, the majority of people murdered in our country are black men. And that to me is not something there should be moral clarity on this and thats why i came out with the bold plan i have. Senator cory booker of new jersey, nice to have you here. Come back soon. Thanks a lot. For more of urgency on dealing with hurricanes in an age of denialism, hurricanes are getting worse. Why are so many people afraid to talk about Climate Change. David, you write about ways to think about storms like the one that is off the coast of the southeastern u. S. Right now that just devastated the bahamas in the context of the warming climate. How do you think about it . For a long time, we in the media and experts have been really, really afraid to talk about Climate Change when were talking about extreme weather, because of the idea that you cant blame any one storm on Climate Change. And i think thats misplaced. I think its like refusing to talk about drunk driving when youre talking about traffic deaths. You cant blame any single traffic death on drunk driving alone, but we talk about drunk driving when were talking about traffic deaths. Similarly, we know Climate Change is making storms more severe. We should be talking about it when we talk about the horrific storms that produced the devastation that you showed at the top of the show tonight. Some of the data that is interesting, you included in the piece you where for the times, there is some thinking early on we would have more frequent storms. That has not borne out. Instead what the modeling has shown and less frequent but more severe. Instances of 4 and 5s going up over the 20year moving average from about one to two, which is quite significant. Thats right. So hurricanes have not become more frequent. As you said, whats become more frequent are the category 4 and 5s, the category that our president said he has never heard of until this week. So we used to have about one of these extreme storms a year in the atlantic, and over the last 20 years, weve had about two. You see similar patterns with extreme rain. The big risk now for the southeast is going to be the storm surges. And so one of the things that happens is warmer air and warmer seawater not only makes hurricanes more intense, but it causes them to produce much, much more rain. And so the Climate Change doesnt change everything about the weather, but it does change a lot about the weather. Thats the thing about Climate Change. It changes the climate. And so we see more extreme hurricanes, and we see hurricanes that produce much more rain than they used to. There is a sort of global justice aspect to this, that is sort of front of mind right now. As we look at the pictures of the devastation of the bahamas. Places like the bahamas are extremely exposed. Places like the dominican republic, places like bangladesh. There are places that are poorer than countries like the u. S. And western europe that have done most of the emitting that are the most exposed to whats going to happen. And there is going to have to be some reckoning for that. Look at those pictures. Theres going to be a lot of that. And those folks are going to need their needs taken care of. Thats right. And so you have a lot of poorer parts of the world that are both more exposed to Climate Change, and you also have its exacerbated because any given storm in those places tends to create more destruction. Right. Because the buildings arent as strong. The infrastructure is not as strong. And so we are all now suffering the effects of Climate Change, from heat, from increased storms. But to say that were all suffering from it is not at all to say that were all suffering equally, because were not. And this is going to essentially in certain ways increase global inequality. Well do it within the u. S. As well. Its remarkable how much. If you talk to people in coastal communities, its striking. Every time i have a conversation with someone, i was talking with a friend of mine from charleston, everyone is already dealing with it. On the ground, everyone is already dealing with it. Its not even a thing that people debate. Its well, what do we do about the flooding . Now we have to evacuate the peninsula around charleston twice a year, twice a hurricane season. That stuff is already here. Oh, yeah. Miami now floods all the time. A lot of the places that are in the line of potentially being hit with the rain from the storm have been dealing with flooding recently, even before this storm came. Thats right. And so what i its really hard to predict how markets reacted. But it feels and this is by no means the most important thing going on. But it feels when you think about real estate prices and other things in these communities, it feels like we actually have not yet sufficiently reacted to this. I agree. And whats going to happen, people are going to wake up over the next couple of years. Yes. Its not going to be linear. Its going to happen. People are going to realize a lot of these places arent going to be as pleasant to live. There is going to be tangible Economic Loss in front of peoples faces, already starting. Dave leonhart, thank you. What that might sig until in two minutes. Shield fixed. Teacher lets turn in your science papers. Tech vo this teacher always puts her students first. Student i did mine on volcanoes. Teacher you did . oh, i cant wait to read it. Tech vo so when she had auto glass damage. She chose safelite. With safelite, she could see exactly when wed be there. Teacher you must be pascal. Tech yes maam. Tech vo saving her time. [honk, honk] kids bye tech vo . So she can save the science project. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace man hey. N banjo . Go home. woman banjo sorry, it wont happen again. Come on, lets go home. After 10 years, weve covered a lot of miles. Good thing i got a subaru. man looks like you got out again, huh, banjo. avo love is out there. Find it in a subaru crosstrek. Go where my baby lives b[ growl ]olle s good boy. Hey. Hey. You must be stevens phone. Know whos on your network and control who shouldnt be with xfinity xfi. Simple. Easy. Awesome. It would be toes overlook two little announcements from the Trump Administration what with Hurricane Dorian making its way towards the east coast and the president once again live tweeting the weekend away. It would be easy to overlook two things that just happened that indicate something profound about the trump, that political gravity does still exist. So much the president is worried about his base and the base doesnt care about this, the base doesnt care than. As if that base has veto power over everything. And it is true. The president is uncommonly attuned to and obsessed with his base. But it is also the case that political pressure does affect the Republican Party. It affects them in congress. We saw that in the midterms. It affects the president s decision making. This administration has had to walk things back. Theyve had to climb down. They hav