Approaches the southeast of the United States coast. Right now a hurricane watch is in effect for puerto rico just two years after the ravaging of Hurricane Maria. And fema and all the others are ready. Then finishing off with an insult to san juans mayor. I spoke to the mayor earlier this afternoon thats another one, and she made her priorities clear. We are on the ground doing what we can. We are fierce, we are courageous, and we honestly have no time for the tweeting of the president of the United States who continues to, rather than do what hes supposed to do, continues to get underway with his divisive and aggressive comments towards the comments of people toward puerto rico. It would be diverting more than 270 funds to pay for the president s border priorities. Lets start with the latest on the storms track. Msnbc news meteorologist michelle grossman. Whats the latest . I there, ali. Well, we have that category one storm. When this all started, it was projected to be a Tropical Storm towards the u. S. Overnight it blossomed, it became stronger. Then at the latest it became a category one storm. We do have reports of hurricaneforce winds over st. Thomas as we go towards the latest stat, 74 Miles Per Hour. Thats your line for a category one storm. Moving to the northeast at 13 Miles Per Hour. So it still has a pretty good speed to it. We are going to see that at least over the next couple of days before we see a slowdown before we see that impact on the u. S. You see these colors here of the hurricane warning, that is your red. So this is where we are seeing the impact right now over the next several days though as we follow this track were going to see it take a northward trajectory. And that was the big difference. We expected to go over parts of hiss panola. That did not happen as of last night. That only allow its to blossom and get stronger. It takes thaul fuel from the caribbean and strengthens it. As we move here, category two storm by friday, into saturday we are looking at winds anywhere from 105, and then a category 3 storm. It really has all the power it needs. Its not going to hit any land. Its just going to be over the open water and strengthening. Now we are really looking at the eastern coast of florida. Now keep in mind we have not seen an eastern hit of a major category since 2004. So its very uncommon for this to happen. And this is the cone of uncertainty. There is a distance where we think that this could end up. And we will watch this over the next several days. But this is the thought pattern right now. We are thinking anywhere from southern florida up to southern georgia, even into the carolinas. In addition to that, we do have a new moon. We have a high tide that will hit friday. So thats going to be a double whammy in addition to the category 3 storm coming nrk we have lots of rain. We could see some flash flooding anywhere from 2 to 4 to 6 inches of rain up to 10 inches of rain in isolation along with that new moon, we are going to see some flooding surely along the coast line. So your biggest impacts with Hurricane Dorian strongest winds, we are going to see the highest winds for eastern parts of puerto rico. We are starting to see that now. We are going to see that over the next several hours and over the florida east coast, high wind threat is on sunday into your Labor Day Weekend it. Couldnt be any worse timing. 10 inches in some parts where these colors are, the darker colors meaning the higher amounts. So anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain, 5 inches in some parts and even isolated amounts of 10 inches. The tropics, we are tracking erin now actually a depression. And we are see this move off towards alberta, canada. So we are going to continue to track dorian over the next several days. Weve already seen some changes with this system. But were certainly going to track it. Is it past the Virgin Islands right now . Its right on top. And zero milds from st. Thomas. So theyre really getting hit right now. We will stay close to you on this one. Joining me on the phone right now is congresswoman who represents the u. S. Virgin islands. Are you in the Virgin Islands now . I am. I am on the island of st. Croix right now. All right. Whats the situation . Um, we are having weve been having since this morning rain that has intensified as well as heavy winds. Power has been out for most of the morning on all three of the islands. But we believe that were really prepared for this. All right. This is what i was going to ask you, what are the lessons that you have learned from the last time that the folks in the Virgin Islands have learned from the last time that are being implemented this time around . We have a lot of prepositioning of materials for, you know, the Three Islands we have about 250 federal personnel that are here. Our governor very early declared a state of emergency. A curfew was instituted that began at noon today and doesnt lift until 6 00 tomorrow morning. We are waiting to see if its petitioned to the federal government to the white house and fema that they will also declare a state of emergency so that we can have assistance with debris removal as well as public personal assistance. The issue that were having of course is that were already in a very fragile compromised state. You know, we have well over 1200 individuals who still have blue tarps on their roofs and almost 3,000 homes that are still in need of repair. Our hospitals of course which were declared more than 50 destroyed in the last two hurricanes we still dont have modular units. So on the island of st. Croix where i am, we have one operating room and three triage areas. The questions were such as how do we get dialysis patients in, and get them back to their homes making sure that people are sheltered in place. Those who have compromised homes are going to Evacuation Center or with family who have some sound structures. Congresswoman, thank you for taking some time to talk to us. We will stay in close touch with you, and our thoughts are with you our concern is that we dont need the federal government diverting funds right now, particularly during hurricane season. Thats demoralizing to us as american citizens and just gratef grateful to you all for holding the federal government to path. Congresswoman stac stacey plaskett. Dorian is expected to be a major test for puerto ricos fragile infrastructure. The electrical grid was completely wiped out by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Some areas only regaining full power a year later. Msnbc correspondent Mariana Atencio is in puerto rico where residents are bracing for the worst. Whats the situation where you are . Reporter ali, every time you and i cover one of these storms, we always talk about the calm before the storm. And that is literally what is happening now here in the eastern part of puerto rico where i am standing now. I have reported from here. I came here about a year and a half ago after maria and power was at 20 . So this is one of those hardhit areas where even the mayor told me the power grid is not as strong as he would like that is now bracing for this category one storm. And, in fact, i had a conversation with him today in this Emergency Command Center that they set up about what concerns him the most is an area that has two shelters right now over just the city over 200 People Living under those blue tarps. This is a conversation with the mayor of humacao just before dorian makes its way here. Lets listen. Ironically, maria came in through here. How vulnerable is the city still . Well, we still have more than 200 people with blue tarps on their houses. So we still have and also our electric system, the power system is not powerful. Reporter islandwide, ali, there is 30,000 people or so that are living under those blue tarps. I did talk to people from the power authority. They told me that they have 141 billion in equipment ready for that Power Infrastructure to be repaired in the aftermath of a storm if it were to happen. But id say that right now what is keeping everyone on their toes is the unpredictability of the storm. Just to put it into perspective, last night when our nbc news team came on the ground, we were looking at places in the southwestern part of the island, and now we are in the eastern part of the island as this storm makes its way here. Ali . Thank you. We will stay close to you. Lets switch gears now to the 2020 election. Voters can expect to see a new democratic debate format come september as long as no other qualifying polls are released by tonights midnight deadline. The september debate will be one night featuring these ten candidates. Former Vice President joe biden, senator cory booker, pete buttigieg, Julian Castro, kamala harris, former congresswoman beto orourke, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and businessman andrew yang. According to the latest polling, biden sustains a healthy lead among democrats while senator warren continues her steady climb now surpassing senator sanders. The latest polling also shows President Trump trailing the five top polling democrats. Theres a lot in here. Joining me now to break it all down is msnbc Political Correspondent steve kornacki. Lets start with the debate. What you see on this screen here, you see the ten candidates who made it. But thats in context of this enormous democratic president ial field. The x is for those who dropped out. But there is a lot of candidates who didnt qualify. You know the criteria for this debate, this september debate, the dnc raised it. But on paper it sounded modest. Youve got to raise 130,000 donations. But 2 in four polls. That has proved for a major stumbling block. So these ten hit that criteria. They are on stage. The expense today, the two who were on the hubble, gabbard and steyer. You see he was one poll short of qualifying. He needed 1 more percent. Gabbard, she had hit it in two polls, she needed two more, and there were two new polls that came out today. Here was the first one, this was the usa today suffolk poll. You see biden in the lead. But you look for those 2 and above. You didnt see gabbard and you didnt see steyer. So you pretty much knew when this poll came out this morning, looks like Tulsi Gabbard will not qualify for the debate. You look at everybody 2 or above here. No gabbard. No steyer. So very likely this means no steyer in the september debate again. Were couching this because we dont always get notice polls are coming out. But these have to be something called qualifying polls. They are officially recognized and sanctioned by the dnc. And nothing unexpected comes out between now and midnight, this is it. But these polls that you quoted from, they are national polls. A lot of tom steyers money has been focused on early states. Steyer has spent 12 million. He was a late entrant too. So he spent 12 million in a really short period of time on this president ial campaign. But you look at these usa today, this is a national poll, not just New Hampshire, not just iowa, not just nevada. That 12 million bucks that steyer spent has gone into early states. Those are early state polls. So this is sort of luck of the draw. It just so happens that a lot of the polling thats been done has been national. And not early state. Not individual state. I think it is entirely possible, ali, if it just so happened there was a new New Hampshire poll that came out today instead of a new national poll. Really interesting stuff as always. Thank you my friend. Steve kornacki. All right. This will be the first time some of these top polling candidates are going to share a debate stage with each other. The the top three candidates, centrist and forerunner joe biden and the more progressive candidates right behind him senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Health care is expected to dominate the discussion as the two biggest proponents of medicare for all are going to debate the issue facetoface with the frontrunner joe biden who opposes it. Msnbcs Garrett Haake is in spartanburg, South Carolina, where biden held a townhall and spoke to reporters. How is health care playing out on the campaign trail . Biden holds himself up as the guy who was there for obamacare, and thats what he wants to be the law of the land. Reporter yeah. Thats right, ali. Its so interesting. Every one of these events i covered, not just with biden, but health care tends to be the issue that comes up most often after the preeminent of beating donald trump. You could have joe biden in the center flanked on either side by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who both support a medicare for all program that biden does not. This is sort of a twopronged attack. He really does believe that the best strategy for democrats is to take the Affordable Care act and build upon it. And it is another issue on which he aligns himself with former president obama, still a toweringly popular figure among democratic primary voters. It helps him in states like South Carolina where he has enormous support among africanamerican voters. Now this is also part of the biden strategy here. They want to talk about health care as an issue. They released an ad earlier this week in iowa, a very personal ad in which the former Vice President links his support to building on obamacare to some of the tragedies that have befallen his family, the death of his son bo of brain cancer. He even tweeted yesterday that it was hard for him to record this ad. And i asked him about that today after this event, the personal nature of it and why they went this route. Listen to what he told me. I know personally it makes a connection with people, and i was assured it makes a connection with people. People who have gone through what i have gone through or any of the help ive had and worse than ive had. And so there is just an enormous this is not hyperbole, there are enormous numbers who get up every morning who put 1 foot in front of the other and i cant imagine doing it without insurance. And what i wanted to make clear was it is personal to me. Ali, this is also the rare political issue in which everyone involved in the debate wants to have this debate. Bernie sanders wants to be talking about medicare for all. So does Elizabeth Warren. So does joe biden. Its the policy debate at the heart of the democratic primary right now. I suspect we are going to be hearing a lot more about it coming up in two weeks. One cant argue that joe biden comes by this personally. This is a guy who struggles with the health care system, and his family have been very public or not struggles but the experiences hes had with health care. Itll play itself very interestingly on the debate stage. Garrett haake with joe biden in South Carolina for us. All right, coming up, democratic president ial hopefuls are in las vegas today are hoping to win the vote for 50 unions. You are watching msnbc. So chantu quit slow turkey. Along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. With chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, youll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. 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Some 2020 contenders are making their case to thousands of Americas Union workers today in las vegas at the afl cio constitutional convention. So far weve heard from former hud secretary Julian Castro and senators cory booker, kamala harris, and Amy Klobuchar. We are going to hear from new york city mayor bill de blasio later this afternoon while former Vice President joe biden is not there because hes in South Carolina, a surrogate is going to speak on behalf of his campaign in the next hour. Joining me now is richard trumka, the president which stands for the American Federation of labor and Congress Industrial organizations. This group is comprised of more than 50 labor unions that collectively represent more than 12. 5 million workers. Thank you for being with us. Ali, thanks for having me back on. I appreciate it very much. Its been a tricky few years because you have yourself you guys have in recent years traditionally backed democratic president ial candidates. But you found yourself on the same side as Presiden