Good morning, its wednesday, september 20th. We are following a number of stories. President trump was America First se u. N. And steps up his warnings to north korea meanwhile, republican as far as see daylight on Health Care Reform. Some gop governors arent so sure about that. The Russian Investigation rolls on with new details on whos paying the president s legal bills but first, two Natural Disasters unfolding in real time. Rescue efforts happening right now in mexico after a powerful earthquake ripped through that country yesterday and Hurricane Maria about to slam directly into puerto rico. Well go straight to meteorologist bill karins with a check on the storms latest track. Bill. Power knocked out. Roof damage done, structural damages beginning as the strongest weekends are moving on shore in puerto rico. Overnight, can you see the storm, 124mileperhour winds in st. Croix. Now the storm is about to make
landfall. Lets get into the zoomed in radar. You see san juan to the north here. Then the storm, can you see the center of it. Now beginning to come on shore here, it has winds of 150 Miles Per Hour. Because of what we call an Eyewall Siej The Center weakened last night. Its a 154 cat 4. This is regarded as the strongest storm to move into puerto rico since 1928. This will leave extreme damage. We are concerned what will happen with the northerly path around san juan in the populated area. Tammy. You had a wind gust of 92 Miles Per Hour t. Wind center was knocked out at the airport. I imagine you are feeling it . Reporter oh, bill, we are feeling it. No doubt about that. We had to move in out of the elements a little bit because trees have been falling, debris has been falling on cars behind
us. Pieces of roof has been peeled off and so we had to take sheltary little bit out of the elements, but were still getting it. I can tell you that there are about 500 shelters set up across the island, 50,000 people have taken refuge in them. Some people we spoke to told us they are hunkering down in their homes. Theyve boarded up. Hopefully, they are okay. We know there are tourists out here on the island that are trapped. That were not able to get 0u6789 out, that are at hotels, fema set up a command post. 300 People Search And Rescue from the occupation, theyre here, fema will be passing them. As soon as the Eye Of The Storm passes over, they will be making rescues. Undoubtedly, there will be rescues to be made. To let you and your crew know, have you four hours until that eyewall is expected with
the worst damage. Quickly, we are done with the damage in puerto rico by about 4 00 p. M. This afternoon. Off the coast by noon. Toward sunset hopefully we will get pictures in to see how bad it is. All right, bill karins, thank you. We will be checking in with you all morning as this hurricane hits the other Natural Disaster is happening in mexico. Rescue efforts are under way as people race to save people under collapsed buildings following that massive. 1 earthquake. It was centered 80 miles southeast of mexico city. Official versus lowered the death toll there to 217 after raising it to nearly 250 overnight. Dozens of buildings were reduced to rubble if densely populated parts of mexico city and another nearby states. President nieto says 40 of the
what, 13, 14 for its Approval Rate something. Yeah. They just never learn. Its really incredible. How so. I talk about putting your hand on the hot stove. Yeah, we have been mocking donald trump for doing what only 33 of the country wants, which by the way bumps his Approval Ratings gone up three weeks in a row for the first time. I wonder why, hes not trying to constantly agra 200 Million People. Its the republicans, theyre not on Steve Bannons 33 plan. Theyre on their own 17 plan. Every one of these Health Care Bills are horrible. Everyone is worse than the last. Theyre going to do it again and once again, theyre saying we are going to reorder onesixth of the economy and were going to rush it before we have the Congressional Budget Office giving us a score and say we dont need a cvo score. We will get to this. It will be a score. We will talk about it for one second. Willie, its unbelievable the socalled conservatives saying were going to reorder one of sixth of the economy and have no impact what it will have on all of america, on their health care. It is the most radical thing anybody can do. Remember, they have a real deadline of September 30th. So thats next saturday i believe, its about a week and a half where they can use reconciliation and get a simple majority and get 50 votes and have mike pence break that tie. They the ticking clock, they will not look at it appropriately. They wont have the hearings if you reorder the economy. Few look at the bill, its not clear to me what theyve changed to give someone like Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski who rejected the last bill reason to vote for this again. How do you do something that has all of the worst qualities of the last Health Care Bill. Imagine, we play this game, why had democrats had done what republicans had done, imagine what the press would say. Mark, we have been doing thatten the years, imagine doing that for ten years, imagine if the democrats reorder onesixth of the xi and rush through it without a Congressional Budget Office, republicans, right wing radio, everybody on the far right would be going absolutely ballistic right now. Few ask why would any of the republicans who opposed the previous bill support this one when by all indications it doesnt meet their objection, particularly in covering fewer people. Its bus of the dead lean that willie pointed out, a lot of republican donors, some republican activists say this is the last chance to repeal and replace the Affordable Act with a bill that has not been through regular order and which has a lot of the same problems as the original legislation and be i the way if the senate does this
its not entirely clear the house would pass the same bill so they may be going through this political torture. How can john mccain suddenly decide, oh, Mitch Mcconnell and donald trump have a deadline . 50i78 worried about that. So im going to have people remember me for passing a Healthcare Bill that strips Health Care Coverage from tens of millions of people, its something we do radically without even looking at a Congressional Budget Office, without doing regular order. John mccain was so right when he talked about regular order. Thats what, you want to know one of the tension along with gerrymandering that made washington as sick as its been over the past several years politically . Its no regular order. They get two or three people in a room. They draft up something. Then they shove it do down the rest of the congress and the American Peoples throat. I highly doubt john mccain is worried about these false dead
loins and is going to let his legacy be that he reordered onesixth of the economy. Without thinking. In such a reckless radical irresponsible way and i just dont know why my friends in the Republican Party come back and do the same stupid thing over around over again this year. Its as if they are just destanee vat to make nancy pelosi speaker of the house. Well, then that would be helpful. Now to President Trumps nancy pelosi. Certainly not to the republicans that are tweeting. Which we could use leadership, real moral leadership in the Republican Party right now as we turn to President Trumps remarks to the United NationsGeneral Assembly, where he held nothing back regarding the ongoing crisis with north korea. Now north koreas reckless pursuit of ballistic weapons and
missiles threatens the entire world with unthinkable loss of human life. No nation on earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with Nuclear Weapons and missiles. The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself for its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. Rocketman is on a Suicide Mission for himself and for his regime. The president went on to praise the u. N. Security council for the harsh sanctions against pyongyang, specifically thanking germany and russia and also calling on the u. N. As a whole to step up its involvement. The scourge of our planet today is a small group of Rogue Regimes that violate every principle on which the united
feed. Reaction. And it seemed that donald trump doused kerosene all over himself and setting himself on fire. Then i started looking at the text of the speech and i saw, yes, very Strong Language towards north korea. Language you and i wouldnt prefer and be used. But he also criticized iran. He also criticized venezuela. He criticized rogue regems. He spoke glowingly of the marshall plan. He talked about dig cheney and Richard Pearl on steroids talking about the righteous many ago ens the evil few. I would say, okay, so im missing something here. Then i read you are oped later in the afternoon where you said actually you take away the bomb bath, this is actually a fairly conventional speech from a president at the United Nations. Well, joe, i had the same
reaction t. Speech had zingers in it guaranteed to kind of send the the news media crazy, were going to totally destroy north korea. This repetition of the president s new favorite catch phrase rocketman clearly replaced Crooked Hillary as his goto phrase, but when you go down the speech, what was fascinating to me the president in his first speech at the u. N. Was embracing a legacy of this institution. He mentioned president trueman, really the founding father of that world twice in his speech. He mentioned the marshall plap. Speed limitary of the marshall plan. The Building Blocks of the world you and i live in. And weve talked together. I would often talk with mikas dad when he was alive about the
danger that this world that was created in 1945 would be taken apart by donald trump and interestingly the speech went in a different direction. Its not to excuse the undiplomatic language. I dont think that that helps. But the substance of the speech tells me that nine months in, he is less determined to overturn the system than we might have thought at the beginning. So davgsd i was struck listening to that. Yes, it was different than previous president s speeches at the u. N. , but it was precisely what donald Trump Campaigned on, he said,ly defend America First,ly look out first for americas interests, unconventional, yes, but not unexpected i dont think from donald trump. Some of the analysis this morning is that the president Quote Reshaped the u. S. Role in the world with that speech. Did he really . Was it such a big departure from whats happened in this country in the past . I didnt think it was, willie. I think whats important is when
a figure who is trying to speak for the masses of americas who think the u. N. Is a big waste of time and money says we want to be invested in a United Nations thats a community of strong sovereign nations, thats reshaping the balance on which this rest itself, but its not overturning it. So i read it a little different from some of the other commentators. Well see. I mean, if President Trump is serious bringing the United States back in, for the reform of the u. N. , making it more effective. More of a place where problems get solved. That will be a significant difference for a conservative and republicans to do that would be a big step. I cant help but think that nikki haley, his fate Foreign Policy official, ambassador at the u. N. Is one of the reasons hes so excited about it, its his friend nikkis project. Well see where this goes. Mark, i was just going to say, the speech, minus the bomb bast could have been written by Secretary Mattis, could have been written by General Mcmaster, could have been written by ambassador nikki haley. There wasnt the ban noneesque isolation here. There wasnt the tip of the United States, a tip of the hat to the International Community and i would just, i dont know, it seems like a lot of headlines at least online were written before they actually heard this speech or digested this speech the way David Ignacious did a few hours after the piece. Both davids piece and the Wall Street Journal saw flaws in it but liked a lot of it. It reflected a lot of what the president thinks about these issues and a lot of what the American People would think. American people would like
america to be strong Around The World and stand up when american interests are threatened, would like to work with International Organizations and Doesnt Think America should bear all the burden. On forth korea, the longterm goals are to get rid of the weapons, in the short term, there are two other goals, one is to make this not u. S. Versus north korea and make it more multilateral. He encouraged the community to join the United States and solve it and deter an initial attack. I think some of this rhetoric david and other have criticize. Its downsized. I think it is meant to deter and attack. I think it may have that effect when the past three president s have failed in feeling comfort ability about where we stand. This president is shaking it up during a risky way but a different way. I will say also one of the Headline Grabers was he said he can destroy north korea. We can completely obliterate north korea. Of course, we were all concerned about that. We should be, he shouldnt have
said that, i think somebody brought up an old barack obama quote, where we talked about we have the weapons to annihilate north korea as well. Something you dont want to do. Again, its been done before and politically, again unlike all the other things that steve bannon had him doing where he was just keying into 33 and offending the other 200 million americans out there, this is a speech, whether a lot of people in the media like it or not that most americans would agree with. This is, if not an 80 20 speech, this is at least 60 40 peach. And represents again since ive listened to the president talk about americas role in the world, it represents what he really believes in a way a lot of his speeches dont necessarily do. From the beginning to the end, its what Donald Trumps world is, its a complicated world. The speech was contradictory, thats a part of the psyche of americas role in the world. He definitely made clear he believes kim jongun will only respond to military force. He gave a nod to north korea, he personally said speaking mantoman, i will destroy, thats dangerous, its an escalation and takes it to a place that maybe we dont want to be or havent been before. I believe he believes the only thing that will respond to north korea. I think one of the interesting things in this speech, david alluded to it, here you have a president that sound different nine months in or eight months in than he did during the campaign or his inauguration, suddenly he realizes, oh, wait a second, if im going to do anything with north korea, if there is any hopes at all of doing anything with north korea, i better stop insulting the chinese every day, i better stop insulting all of
our allies every day, i better stop insulting everybody every day, diplomacy may be setting in a little bit. Again, david said it was a conventional speech, but there was still the trump bomb bast. That said, this was a president eight months in has seen that you have to patch together alliances if you want to get anything done across the globe, even if are you the United States of marc. We will talk about this more, still ahead on morning joe Andrea Mitchell joins the table. Plus three former cabinet itself on set. Former Secretary Of State john kerry joins us and former secretary Madeleine Albright and tim ryan and senator bill cassidy the republican breathing new life into their efforts to repeal obamacare and tonight joes band has a gig at the
cutting room in New York City to mark the friday release of his new ept. Show kicks off early 7. A. Be there