Good to be with you this morning. It is wednesday, august 24th. Im Frances Rivera alongside Louis Burgdorf. A strong 6. 2 magnitude earthquake struck central italy overnight. About five miles from the city of norcia in a relatively shallow depth of only 10 kilometers thats a little over 6 miles. Several aftershocks have been reported. And there are reports of extensive damage. With one mayor saying his town, quote, isnt there anymore. Many roadways are blocked, severely hampering rescue efforts. Red cross officials tell local outlets that a bridge in the town of amatrice has collapsed. And at least 13 people are dead and officials expect that number to rise. One says the quake is similar in scale to the 2009 quake just 30 miles away which killed almost 300 people. Nbcs lucy kafanov joins us now on the phone. She is live on the scene. Number one priority are those people who may be trapped in the rubble. Good morning, frances. Rescue workers and residents have been racing against the clock, trying to save the lives of those still trapped under that rubble. Were hearing now at least 20 people perhaps killed so far but the fear is, of course, that number could go up. This was a tremendously powerful earthquake. It struck at about 3 30 a. M. Local time. Powerful enough, frances, that it woke me up nearly 100 miles away in rome. Now i am outside of a hospital here in amatrice, this is one of the areas that was most hardstruck by the earthquake. The building is Still Standing but you can see chunks of the plaster have fallen off. There is rubble all around. Ambulances have been rushing in and out trying to bring in the wounded. Weve heard on the radio officials pleading for people to donate blood as well as food, water, diapers, medicine. Theres a lot of people bound to be affected by this and we dont know the full scale of the destruction just yet. Now, the area that has been affected are these very small villagelike ancient towns. Theyre largely populated by older people. It would be much more difficult for them to move to try to escape. And of course, almost impossible to escape when the earthquake hits at 3 00 in the morning when theyre sleeping in bed. It is a terrible time for this earthquake to strike, as well, because in summertime, people are likely to be visiting. There are tourists here, families returning to visit their grandparents, their relatives. So quite a few people affected by this. Were seeing people lined up outside of the hospital with their possessions. Theres some donated sheets, some blankets, some food and medicine outside. People are dazed. Theyre shocked. In the early hours of the morning, even before the bulldozers arrived people were using their bare hands to try to pull people out of the rubble, to push that rubble aside to rescue those who are still trapped underneath. And we just simply dont know how many are still waiting to be rescued. And how many truly lost their lives. Frances . Really so terrible in such a beautiful, idyllic community and village that we see there. Nbcs lucy kafanov, thank you. Donald trump might be moving away from his hardline stance when it comes to dealing with the 11 million undocumented people in the united states. Trump, who previously called for a Deportation Force and promising their complete removal tweeted as recently as june i have never liked the media term mass deportation. But we must enforce the laws of the land. But in an interview with sean hannity who says he is informally advising trump on his campaign, the republican nominee said he could see a softening of his policy. What about people that work hard, have been here a long time, they own homes, they have their property, and this is a question everyones going to want answered, what about them . Do they have to go back . Or would you reconsider that . We are going to follow the laws of the country. That means they go back. Were going to follow the laws. Is there any part of the law that you might be able to change that would accommodate those people that contribute to society, have been law abiding, have kids here, would there be any room in your mind because i know you had a meeting this week. I did. With hispanic leaders. I did, great people, great hispanic leaders, and there certainly can be a softening because were not looking to hurt people. We want people we have some great people in this country. We have some great, great people in this country. So but were going to follow the laws of this country. Trump is planning a meeting at his manhattan headquarters with new yorkbased latino and africanamerican activists tomorrow in an attempt at hispanic outreach. However, on the stump he is still focused on highlighting the Violent Crimes of undocumented immigrants,icallying the families of victims onto the stage with him in texas last night and Standing Firm on his signature pledge. We are going to build the wall and whos going to pay for the wall . [ shouting mexico ] mexico is going to pay for the wall. Turning to the democratic side of things there are more troubling questions about whether private money influenced thensecretary of state Hillary Clintons time and attention. The Associated Press had to sue the state department to release calendars from her tenure, and they show the level of access Clinton Foundation donors were granted to secretary clinton in her official capacity. According to the ap quote at least 85 of the 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with clinton while she led the state department donated to her Family Charity or pledged commitments to its international programs. Combine those al donors contributed as much as 156 million. At least 40 donated more nan 100,000 each while 20 gave more than 1 million now the Clinton Campaign called the data, quote, flawed and cherry picked. They say it doesnt account for more than half her tenure and omits more than 1700 meetings with foreign and u. S. Government officials. They added it is outrageous to misrepresent secretary clintons basis for meeting with these individuals. Pointing to meetings with Melinda Gates and Nobel Peace Prize winner mohammed downous saying it reduces him to a charitable donation once made to an organization he chaired. And last night in austin, texas, donald trump hammered clinton for, quote, corruption. If our secretary of state can be bought, or bribed or sold, look whats happening right now with government favors then the whole american system is threatened. It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends, and the state department begins. It is now abundantly clear that the clintons set up a business to profit from public office. They sold access, and specific action actions by and really for, i guess, the making of large amounts of money. Well, few people want the stories about clintons email server to end more than the Clinton Campaign well that is with a possible exception of former secretary of state colin powell. Clinton reportedly told fbi investigators that she had gotten advice over dinner and separately in an email from powell to use personal email. Well powell told buzzfeed yesterday, quote, i have no further comment. She was using email long before the socalled dinner. And im not commenting about it. Anymore. Goodbye. The person who would like to see these stories continue, of course, donald trump who went through a litany of claims he dismissed as lies. About Hillary Clintons email scandal, make clear we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. She deleted 33,000 emails, and she got away with it sort of. She never sent or received classified materials. That was a lie proved over and over again. She said she turned over all of her workrelated emails. But the fbi found thousands she never turned over and now, just recently, found another 15,000 more. That was another lie. Lie, after lie, after lie. Hillary clinton is totally unfit to hold public office. While in california Hillary Clinton has been holding a series of highprofile fund raisers, events which cost 33,000 a ticket, took place yesterday at the home of Justin Timberlake and his wife jessica biel. The couple posted this image, look who came over for lunch. Also were actors jennifer aniston, jamie foxx and tobey maguire. A super pac backing clinton is out with a new campaign add using a device weve seen before, using trumps own words against him. I pledge allegiance to the flag theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her, whatever. Oh, i dont know what i said. Oh, i dont remember. I could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldnt lose any voters. Get him the hell out of here. Get him out of here. Get out powerful ad there and that ad has begun airing in ohio, florida, iowa and north carolina. Still when it comes to ads there is little comparison between how both sides are choosing to play the game. Hillary clinton and groups supporting her have spent 114 million so far. Donald trump and groups backing him by comparison have spent a mere 19 million. That is lopsided, 171. Nbc news confirms a political report that marco rubio faced more negative ads in the primary than Hillary Clinton has in the entire general election by a large margin. Rubio had 39 million spent against him while clinton had just 6 million so far in the general election. All right weve got some of the latest polling numbers to share with you and we start in missouri where Hillary Clinton is within striking distance in a usually reliable republican state. She trials by just one point in a new monmouth poll. She holds a 65 lead among minority voters while donald trump leads by 13 among white voters. But both are underperforming in those groups compared to barack obama and mitt romney in 2012. And a South Carolina poll from the state Democratic Party there shows a tied race 3939 between clinton and trump. Thats when you include third party candidates. But again, its from the Democratic Party. The republican state chair there not too impressed. He tweeted that internal polls show donald trump comfortably ahead. And tim kaine spent yesterday campaigning in arkansas, but he even acknowledged that bill clintons home state will prove difficult for democrats to win once more. In arkansas im going to say the polling would suggest its an uphill push for us. But this is a state where persontoperson contact matters and people know Hillary Clinton and we just feel like if we make our case, and we explain heres what we want to do and heres what the other guys want to do weve got a chance. And after former new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani said democratic nominee Hillary Clinton looked quote sick and encouraged people to quote go online and look up Hillary Clintons illness, Hillary Clinton illness republican Vice President ial nominee mike pence was asked about clintons health yesterday and had this to say. Le. The concern about hillarys health and Rudy Giuliani went out there and dropped that little bomblet, how concerned is the Trump Campaign that Hillary Clintons not up physically to the task of running for president or being president . Well, hillarys in hiding and trump is everywhere. I mean, you know, it is remarkable for me, campaigning with donald trump, and for donald trump, around the country, to see the energy level that he has. Being out with him, walking the streets of baton rouge last friday, seeing, you know, donald trump jump out of the car, walk onto the driveway of a family thats trying to piece their life back together, and seeing not only his strength, but also his capacity to encourage people in difficult times. It it is quite a contrast from Hillary Clinton, who i guess she showed up on a latenight show last night. But otherwise yeah, laughing. Off the campaign trail. Still ahead, a big shakeup for buzzfeed. Plus president obama tries to push aside politics while getting a firsthand look at the flood damage in louisiana. Well bring you those stories and also a check of the weather. Using 60,000 points from my chase ink card i bought all the framework. Wire. And plants needed to give my shop. A face. No one will forget. See what the power of points can do for your business. Learn more at chase. Com ink seemy advice for lookingints can doyounger, longer . Ss. Pam. This, this is pams. Try not to take things personally. All right. Thank you pam. Dont let the Little Things get to you. Get your beauty sleep. And use aveeno® absolutely ageless® night cream. With active naturals® blackberry complex. Youll wake up to younger looking skin in just one week. Younger looking skin can start today. Absolutely ageless®. Aveeno. Naturally beautiful results® president obamas back at the white house this morning after visiting parts of flood ravaged louisiana yesterday. While there, he toured the damage around baton rouge and met with some of the victims. His visit came a week after historic flooding inundated parts of the state, killing 13 people and damaging more than 60,000 homes. During a News Conference the president was asked how he felt about the disaster becoming politicized after a visit from donald trump. First of all, one of the benefits of being five months short of leaving here is i dont worry too much about politics. The second thing i have seen, historically, is that, you know when disasters strike, thats probably one of the few times where washington tends not to get political. Before leaving louisiana, the president visited with the family of alton sterling who was shot to death during a confrontation with police in july. And the president also met with the families of three officers killed in an ambush two weeks later in the wake of protests. All right, to see what is happening now to the country especially with this storm around the atlantic i want to get a check with nbc meteorologist bill karins. So if there was a gaston is it still a tropical gaston is going to be a hurricane later today. But thats the one thats further out in the atlantic. Thats going to turn harmlessly. Not even a concern. The one thats not named yet, right now a tropical wave, this is where all the thunderstorms are flaring up, bringing nasty weather to the northern leeward islands, and Virgin Islands and puerto rico today. Looks a little more organized. The aircraft Hurricane Hunters will fly into that later on this morning and let us know if were going to start officially tracking this. They have a 50 chance of formation in the next 48 hours. But over the next five days they give it a 70 chance and its heading towards florida. So that means theyre thinking that florida, you have a 70 chance of dealing with a tropical system sunday or monday and so now is the time, no reason to panic, anything else, but if you dont have all your supplies for your hurricane kits in florida, now is the time to get it anyway. Now, im sure a lot of people will be doing that over the next week. Heres the formation zone. This is over the next five days. This is where they think the 70 chance of it forming is. Also kind of gives you a general idea of the direction of where its going to be heading. You know it should be near san juan as we go throughout the day tomorrow. North of the island of haiti and Dominican Republic and towards the bahamas, friday, saturday, then sunday heading somewhere towards florida, possibly south florida. Now as we go throughout the next couple days were going to start to track and watch carefully all of our different computer models. All the squiggly lines that we show you. For the most part they are tracking it in this cone which is the reason why we have this cone. And heres the view of those lines. And you can see they squiggle their way up towards the bahamas and theyre in excellent agreement where near south florida through the upcoming weekend. The biggest question we have is what the intensity is going to be. Some of our computer models have it being a low end hurricane near florida. Some of them have it being just a tropical wave or a weak tropical storm. So those are the questions we know its going to head towards florida, the question is at what intensity. And then, louis, as we go in through next week this should be in the gulf. It could intensify more there so our friends in texas, louisiana, north florida have to watch it carefully, too. Seems like Hurricane Season is starting early this year. The peak of the season is september 10th. This is, things are usually bad right now is about when they start. And this is right on schedule. I also like the terminology a fish storm that means it doesnt hit any land. We like those storms. Cool. Lets turn now to business where an effort to solidify its dominance in digital video buzzfeed has announced yesterday that it will separate into Buzzfeed News and newly formed buzzfeed entertainment group. Cnbcs hadi gamble joins us live from london. Hadley, hat does this mean for the future of the company . Seems like its an exciting time there at buzzfeed. Absolutely, louis. This is a company that you have to remember that our own Parent CompanyNbc Universal invested about 200 million in last year. Essentially what we know right now is that theyre splitting up their news content and entertainment content. Not just to dominate the market but to tap into this new generation of users so exciting times over at buzzfeed and some great news as well for best buy. Yesterday shares in the company jumped 18 in