Happens. I dont know what to say. Anyway. Listen to me. Its been something. Yeah, its something else. I remember those from when i lived in colorado. We would feel the ones coming all the way from california wed feel them in colorado. I dont know if it was the same ones or we just felt them. Its a really weird thing to feel. Be safe out there. Its something that you get used to. I was with my daughter on the fourth of july in the morning and i looked at her and said were having an earthquake. And she not being from california, really . Orvetio oh, yeah, this is not a truck, its an earthquake. Were going to have lots of chatting about that and i look forward to seeing you again soon. A have good day see you soon. Byebye. From afl offhere from the broke caul news center in los angeles. Its high noon in the east, early 9 00 a. M. On the west. Tremors, fires, rock slides, how crews are assessing the damage from the strongest earthquake to hit Southern California in decades. And big one hit and it knocked my little one to the ground. I was like trying to get to mom. I couldnt. I was like, just holding on to the ground like trying not to open up. Whew. Census battle, why the president is fighting to get a Citizenship Question on next years form. And considering an executive order to make it happen. And as the 2020 polls get tighter, how joe biden is trying to hang on to his lead. We begin with this breaking news. Weve been talking about it all day from here in Southern California, thats where First Responders are getting a first look at all of the damage for last nights 7. 1 magnitude earthquake. It is the most powerful in 20 years. Of course that was felt across a massive area. The epicenter believed to be right near ridgecrest, but the tremors were felt as far as sacramento to the north, san diego to the south, las vegas to the east. So far, good news, no reports of casualties. However, look at this. Firefighters certainly battling flames at several properties overnight where ruptures in gas mains may have caused some fires to break out. And then heres what it looked like when rock slides shut down 178 in concern county last night. Were looking at the aftermath in a liquor store in ridgecrest. What a mess. You can imagine the cost of the damage from this earthquake, what that might be for proprietors like that. If you to look close loy, you can see the lights swaying. Can you imagine on this roller coast center scary enough that coaster 80 alone with the sways. Basketball fans in an nba game in las vegas, they headed right for the exits once the arena started shaking. While most people stayed put through the tremors. People were kind of spooked and hesitant. They didnt know whether pausing and looking to move and walk away. They didnt know whether to run out or stay in place and hope for the best. We were actually kind of running away so we were in line still and we felt like the whole shake. Everyone was like an earthquake. We were running and grabbing their kids and stuff. Once it stopped, crowd started cheering around us, then everybodys on their cell phone like texting people and probably checking facebook. So officials here in california just wrapped up a press conference. Lets go to Steve Patterson with all of the latest there. Pretty scary times particularly for those folks in the ridgecrest area in kern county. Tell me what the press conference had to say about things. Parly for those folks in kern county, but youre talking about a blast area, an area which 20 Million People likely felt some form of that earthquake. That was concern county who just had that press conference, one of about four that we expect within the next 4 few hours. Theyre basically saying that theyre waking up to all of this just like everybody, but theyre finally getting some light on the situation. Able to get some vehicles into those areas where were talking about extensive damage from the rock slides, the gas fires that had to be put out overnight, those. So fires in several places around kern county. But also the structural damage. Taking a count of any possible injuries that may have come in. As you mentioned, though, thankfully no casualties reported, no fatalities. Minor injuries that obviously theyre going door to door to door to check. But because everything is just sort of opening up with the first light that were getting on the situation, its going to take some time. The initial reporting, though, is that things are under control. However, when youre talking about under control, after a 7. 1 magnitude earthquake, that is still an incredible situation for those First Responders and for the people that are now going in and cleaning up and assessing the damage. So that will take some time. As you mentioned, this is the most powerful earthquake that weve seen in the last 20 years in this region. Thats 6. 4, the one that we were all talking about just a few days ago fon the fourth of july now thought to be a fore shock to the one we just had, that 7. 1 from last night. Kern county officials were already responding to that one, already had their hands full with one that. Not to mention the hundreds upon hundreds of aftershocks that we are all now experiencing following these both of these quakes. The usgs says theres been about a hundred following that 7. 1, that they will get more dramatic. Theres insome good news. Weve been speaking to dr. Lucy jones. Shes the incredible authority on all of this, has incredible experience covering all of these things. I think the voice of reason and calmness that we all listen to in these situations because she has such a grasp on what shes talking about. Shes saying theres about a one in ten chance of another 7. 0, that number decreases if you go beyond the 7. 1 mark in the next coming week. But when you get down in numbers to lets say a 6. 0, theres maybe about a 50 50 chance that well have a 6. 0 earthquake or maybe even, you know, youre talking about a 5. 0 earthquake. Those are extremely likely as we move forward from this. But also speaking to her about just how rare this situation is. And she actually said that in these situations, in about 20 years you should be having an earthquake the magnitude of a 6. 0, that its rare that weve gone so long without it. Heres what she said about the situation that were under right now. Listen to this. California would expect to have a magnitude 7 once every 15 or 20 years. The last one was 20 years ago. We would expect to have a 6 every three years or so and bigger surprise is that weve gone 20 years without a 6. This is more think of this as a return to what californias supposed to be doing rather than really that the last 20 years was the standard. And of course those First Responders and officials also include the Police Department, the chief there in that kern county area telling residents to stock up on food and supplies because they may not have enough resources to get to everybody as theyre trying to make sure everybodys safe and assessing all the dabbling they have all the damage that they have to deal with. Good to hear from lucy jones as always. As you said, voifs reason. Ive got another voice of reason joining me right now. Hes a professor of size molg at ufc. John, did we dodge a bullet here . At 7. 1 the fact that this was in kern county, much less populated area, i think 3,000 or so live in the ridgecrest community. Yeah, we were definitely lucky. An earthquake of that size anywhere near one our large cities would have had much more impact. Like how much more impact . Well, it depends exactly where it. Its the details that matter that we never know until we see. So it could be destroying a small city. I mean, the earthquake in christchurch in new zealand basically disabled that city for years. Theyre still rebuilding. Or you could have magnitude 7 earthquake ten or 20 miles out of town that sends its energy off in a different direction than is much less damaging. There was some concern that the fact here in las vegas aos that we didnt get some sort of Early Warning system. Is that because it was far enough away that in l. A. We felt it but it wasnt really rocking and rolling . Yeah, thats right. And its complicated. You know, theyre just developing the Early Warning system so its only been started with the county of l. A. , not the whole state. And the way theyre starting it is to not warn people unless the shaking gets up to a certain level. Just a decision because they want to make sure its working right, they dont want to give people false alarms at the beginning. So that 6. 4 thursday morning didnt reach the level at which l. A. Should be washed. Im not su warned. Im not sure what happened last night. I think they had a fore shock and they have to work out the system with what happens with a swarm and starts swelling and then has a bigger earthquake. Well have to hear what happened during that bigger earthquake. Perspective the difference between 6 point to 4 which again i felt and i was significantly away, i was by the beach. You felt it. But 6. 4 to a 7. 1, differential there is how much . Yeah, we can look at it a couple of ways. One way is its about ten times as much energy thats coming out of the ground. Another way is that kind of the strongest motions are maybe twice as strong. And another way is that it lasts about twice as long. So the motions are different in a number of ways. And i felt that 7 much more than the 6. 5. Does this mean anything to you . You going to sleep tonight thinking uhoh . We hear that question pretty often. Its all prohibits to us. As they say, theres a 10 chance of another one of these or bigger. Theres 90 chance well only have smaller earthquakes. I wish we knew. Weve been trying to decades to find that giveaway that things are coming in the next hour or the next day or the next week. And all we can say is right now aftershocks are likely and its much more dangerous than a usual month, but whats coming tomorrow we cant say. Okay. Thank you for saying what you can. Much appreciated. Thank you. Were going recap. Still there nor reports of fatalities. Not even any major injuries. This from last nights again 7. 1 magnitude earthquake. It is the most powerful quake in nearly 20 years. That jolt was centered in ridgecrest, california, about 150 miles or so northeast of los angeles out in the desert. It did cause several fires. Youre seeing the result of that right there. Cracked open a couple of streets as well. Going to put the pavers to work. Seismologists are cautioning large aftershocks will continue. Thats a guarantee. And we here at msnbc will monitor for more seismic activity for you. Lets get to other headlines developing this hour. A federal judge ordering a case go forward on whether or not a Citizenship Question can be added to the census. The judge saying that the lawsuit from immigrant Rights Groups will focus on whether the Trump Administration was steeped in discriminatory motive. That order issued shortly after the administration told the judge that government lawyers are indeed looking at all available options forrarding the question to the 2020 census form. Are you going to issue an executive order on the census . Were thinking about doing that. Its one of the ways. We have four or five ways we can do it. Its one of the ways and were thinking about doing it very seriously. Were doing well on the census. Meanwhile, fear of i. C. E. Raids are growing as the president says his administration will move forward fairly soon with mass deportation roundups of thousands of migrant families across major u. S. Cities. This weekend marks the end of that twoweek deadline the president imposed on democrats to work out a solution to the asylum loophole problems at the southern border. And the mystery deepening over Vice President mike pences abruptly canceled New Hampshire trip week. Heres what the president told reporters about it yesterday. Why did mike pence the other day, do you know . Youll know about in about two weeks. There was a very a very interesting problem that they had in New Hampshire. And i cant tell you about it. It had nothing to do with white house. There was a problem up there and i wont go into what the problem was, but youll see in about a week or two weeks. But according to the Washington Post, the top Police Official in salem, New Hampshire, says he was unaware of any Security Threat that would have caused the Vice President to cancel his trip. Well, House Democrats are ramping up efforts to fight back against the president S Immigration policy after an inspector generals report found dangerous overcrowding in one texas facility while children in at least two other facilities were left without access to showers or hot meals. The president is disputing that report and putting blame solely on the democrats. Lets take a listen. The southern border is being policed very well by mexico. Mexico is doing far more than the democrats. We all know it. Ive seen some of those places and they are run beautifully. Theyre clean, theyre good, they do a great job. They do a great job. Theyre crowded because the democrats will not give us any relief from these loopholes. The House Oversight committee will hold a hearing next week on the treatment of migrant children. The heads of Homeland Security and Border Patrol have been asked to testify. Joining me now here in the studio in los angeles, the vice chair of that committee, democratic congresswoman from california, katie hill. So glad to see you here in person. Thank you so much. Earthquake, whats happening in your area there . We felt it. We felt it pretty significantly and right now were focus opened making sure that were prepared and we can really get everyone in the district feeling like were under control as much as possible because i think this is a wakeup call for a lot of people. You dont want to get complacent in the have Southern California, you worry about that after 20 years. And Edwards Air Force base is just outside of our district, theyre providing support to the lake so we want to make sure they have the resources they need as well. We just heard the president blame your party for the conditions at the centers where theyre Holding Migrants and others along the borders, those seeking asylum and the like. Is there a point that he makes, could democrats have potentially signed a bill earlier to alleviate the issues at these centers . No. I think that the issues at the centers come from really frankly systemic structural problems. The first issue that i have and that i think we need to examine in this maehearing is why is it that Law Enforcement agencies are operating these centers that need to be centered on humanitarian relief . Youre talking about what would normally in any other situation be operated by a nonprofit for by a communitybased organization like the red cross. This is where you have People Living in conditions that theyre not criminals, theyre in many cases theyre unaccompanied minors. Thats not a Law Enforcement function. And, frankly, i dont think that its even something that we need to be considering. We need to shift away from that. Thats one thing that i think we need to be having much bigger conversation around. And i think that that would actually free up Border Patrol to do more of what its supposed to be doing. Do you just secretary, cbp, either of hem planning to come to your committee to speak on this . I know youve requested if . We believe so. We hope so. Ill find out more when we get back. But as of right now we believe that the hearings going to continue on friday. Okay. Census. We have the president saying that he could issue something of an executive order to allow for the Citizenship Question. The logistics of it are nearly impossible to figure out how that would practically happen. What are your thoughts about that, that the president would do that . So this is where i think were coming closer and closer to a true constitutional crisis. We have the three branches of government and the Supreme Court has made a decision that what the administration was trying to do with the Citizenship Question is not allowed. Normally, in any other circumstance, we follow the constitution and the Supreme Court makes that decision and thats it. But under this administration, this president , he is continuing to try to pretend like those normal, you know, the normal way of doing things doesnt apply to him. And so if he issues an executive order that directly contradicts the Supreme Court, that literally throwing away the constitution and the checks and balances put in place by our founding fathers. Thats when i think we have no choice but to move towards Something Like impeachment. Weve talked about that. Before i ask you another question on census, what is the tenor of that right now . I know that you have spoken and said that for very common sense reasons you feel that the president needs to be held accountable approximately but t the. But youre in the final nor the for the Democratic Party. In terms of. In your position in believing that the president needs to be held accountable potentially with regard to impeachment, at least to start an inquiry. I have said that we need to go through the process that were going through right now. Right. The implications right now, right now on the litigation side we are being our subpoenas are being upheld. Right. Weve been seeing vic fridto in that regard and the courts are moving faster than anybody could have anticipated. Each committee is working on their aspects of it. I