A weakened but dangerous category 2 hurricane hammering South Carolina with winds of 105 Miles Per Hour and heavy rain people in historic lowlying charleston bracing for the worst. Meanwhile, folks in florida assess the damage from what tthew left behind. Now ive thegot holes roof and its leaking in my kitchen. Dylans tracking it all 2016. From nbc news, today this today, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And welcome to today on this very busy saturday morning. Im craig melvin alongside Sheinelle Jones and Stephanie Ruhle is here. Dylan dreyer is standing by. Charleston hammered right now. So much to talk about. Hilton head being hammered right now by matthew. Lets get to it. Carolina after leaving a path of destruction in florida. We will go live to our team of correspondents in the south. Dylan is tracking the storms path. Well get to all of that in just a few minutes. Overnight, political news with the election 31 days away. Donald trump apologizing for lewd comments he made about women back in 2005. This after the tape catching trump in an unguarded moment. He was Campaign Event today but hes been disinvited. Paul ryan saying he was sickened by what he heard on the tape. There is so much to get to this morning. Lets start with nbcs katy tur who has been following the Trump Campaign from the beginning and has latest from the fallout. Good morning, sheinelle. 16 months in and donald trump has refused to apologize for anything, be it an attack on a federal judge, a gold star this morning that changed. Trump finally saying he is sorry he could grope a woman because he is famous. Is the damage already done . When you start it, they let you do it. Grab them by the [ bleep ]. Reporter after those outrageous remarks, finally a contrite trump. I said it. Im sorry. I apologize. Reporter and then this. Bill clinton has abused women and hillary has shamed his victims. Reporter the nominees brief apology believed to be unprecedented in his public life came off a 2005 tape surfaced revealing a conversation between trump and then access hollywood host billy bush. Trump brags about groping women, laughing off an effort to seduce access hollywoods nancy odell. I moved on her heavily. I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get furniture. I moved on her like a [ bleep ]. I couldnt debt there. She was married. All of a sudden, i see her, she has the big phony [ bleep ]. Shes totally changed her look. The comments were caught on a hot mike during a publicity tour, eight months after he maried his third wife melania, who was already pregnant. Trump had no other choice but to repunt. One Campaign Staffer calling it thei v Reince Priebus saying no woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner, ever. Paul ryan disinviting trump from a scheduled appearance in wisconsin today. Saying he is sickened. Utahs formers sitting republican governor is along with republican congressman Jason Chaffetz and senator mike lee revoking their support. I can no longer endorse donald trump for president. Just cant do it. Reporter swing state operatives are calling this the but trump isnt leaving. He with will discuss this more in coming days. See you at the debate on sunday. Reporter this morning, new talks to see how the Republican Party can go forward and whether they can take trump off the ticket. Pressure to do so mounting from big dollar gop donors, but its a move that is highly unlikely because of ballot issues. Remember, early voting has started in a number of states, meanwhile, billy bush apologizing saying hes embarrassed and ashamed t younger and less mature. Guys . Trump has done countless interviews like this before with access hollywood and others like it. What are the chance there could be more tapes out there. There has been grumbling about that. We could see more of these tapes. I was talking to someone who had known donald trump for a long time and said hes said much meet the press, chuck todd. Good morning. Trump says something crazy or trump does something ridiculous and it doesnt stick to him. Does this feel different to you . It does. I think, look, you had a campaign that was reeling. And sort of in some for conventional reasons. Now, this. I think its unrecoverable. I think the question now break away from him . Is it done by the leadership first . Is it mcconnell, it is ryan . Is it the chairman of the party . Its unrecoverable. The question now is what does do people what does the rest 6 the party do . That apology, that half apology, half threat, that promise to continue the conversation, likely during the tomorrow . If if this debate is what donald trump threatens, i dont think i mean, it is unchartered territory, craig. Im trying to envision what this might look like. Disaster doesnt begin to describe it, if this is the road that trump goes down. If this is what it turns into, i dont think he has much of a mistake this would be, how poorly this would play to attack to attack a woman for the infidelities of her husband. It would be of Epic Proportions of a political miscalculation. These defections, chuck, weve started to see them, Jason Chaffetz we showed in the piece there, senator mike lee as well, saying that trump should get out of this thing. Paul ryan uninviting him to that event in wisconsin today. That over the next few days . I think we will. I will be stunned if we dont. So far, the first people to break have been two groups of republicans. One have been mormons. And obviously, this has been an issue for many utah republicans, rank and file for months, let alone leaders. Youve had the next set of condemn nations have come from republicans in very, very competitive races in a month. I think today and tomorrow and e panic among potentially house republicans. Remember, craig, lets talk about winning and losing here. This is about can republicans hold the senate . But if this is mishandled, if donald trump truly goes into tomorrow as a political ied, then the house could be in play and suddenly the entire party could collapse on itself over the next few weeks before this election. Chuck, it sounds like i think its a total i people will start running for the hills. It sounds like youre saying donald trump could bring down the entire gop. I think he could. Come november. But to be clear, 31 days out, theyre stuck with it. Theyre stuck. Look, i had a conversation with some highlevel republicans in early august, craig. During the khan episode when he was attacking the gold star family and the khan family. There was chr, could con vince him to quit, you know, how much time would they have . When would they have to do it, when would he have to get out . It was essentially determined they had until approximately the first week of september. Now its too late. The ballot deadlines, all of that is too late. Maybe theres a weird Electoral College thing where they could somehow get all of the electors that have promised to elect trump to sign some other pledge. Fundamentally, its too late to replace him. Look for much, much more tomorrow morning. You got it. On meet the press. Yes. Hard to believe. Thats not all that happened in politics yesterday. At about the same time that donald trump tape was made public, wikileaks released more emails they claim are from Clinton Campaign chairman John Podestas personal email account, they appear to contain cone tents of private wall street speeches. Many people wanted to know what was in those. Casey hunt is in st. Louis, the site of tomorrows debate with more on that. Good morning. So much news at all once here. Were finally getting a glimpse into those speeches that you mentioned that clinton gave to wall street and other private groups that Bernie Sanders demanded she release during the primary. She never did. These are from wikileaks. We havent confirmed the authenticity of them and the campaign hasnt either. John podesta tweeting im not russians in their quest to throw the election to donald trump. But these documents do give a glimpse of a Hillary Clinton thats different in private than in public. She even went so far as to say as much, saying politicians need to have one public position and one private position as they try to get things done in washington. And, of course, on the issue of trade that was so important to sanders, she actually went so far as to say she would call for an open border policy, quote, my dream is a mark wet open trade and open borders. Potentially causing her some trouble. Now, the Clinton Campaign out with a statement, again, focused on the rugs saying, quote, the u. S. Government removed any reasonable doubt that the kremlin weaponized wickly leaks to meddle in our election and benefit Donald Trumps candidacy. He says that theyre not going to confirm the authenticity of stolen documents released by Julian Assange who has made no secret of his desire to damage Hillary Clinton. There are no major bombshells in these documents. If they are authentic, that really stands up to the magnitude of that story about donald trump. Many democrats ive auctioned to in the last 12 hours privately saying they think this race might already be over. Casey hunt in st. Louis. Ill see you there tomorrow. We have to open up this conversation. There is too much to cover. Lets bring in a republican strategist who is a Deputy Campaign manager for Carly Fiorina and harold ford former u. S. Congressman from the state of tennessee and msnbc political analyst. Good morning. Good morning to both of you. We have to start with donald trump. These comments, any other person could make them, it would torpedo their campaign. This is a conversation weve been having over and over. Hes had a problem with women already. 64 of women polled have a negative view of him. Will this have an impact . Is this going to change votes . Were heading into an election where we are going to have the largest gender gap in wont be able to measure this outside of the debate on sunday. What this does in a debate he needed to win, be on offense for, hes heading in on his heels at best. They have no now be sending all of today and tomorrow preparing for how to hannel this. I dont think last nights apology video does anything, anything to help that. And so i think that this will all be tied into a debate that he couldnt lose. Go back to the video that he put out around midnight. Half apology, half to be going after bill clinton. The debate tomorrow in st. Louis, how ugly could this thing get . Its really all on him. I agree with saras comments. A lot of ways it shows inside in his mind about what his wealth really provides. He talked about the advantages of celebrity and wealth. They allow you to treat women a certain way. You have to wonder what it was like dealing with his daughter who defended him vigorously and i thought convincingly at the convention. And three, the gender gap. No doubt it was going to be large. Republicans alike, i dont think well hear well hear from more republicans today about him stepping down. He has a daughter, a sister, its hard to look your family in the eye and say im going to actively support and be for donald trump. Not only can the debate be interesting, the next 24 hours will be interesting, how he handles women and his own family. Its going extraordinary. Thank you so much. So much news this morning. We know this topic and a lot more will come up tomorrow night during the second president ial debate. You can see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trumps faceoff on msnbc and we will be streaming it live on nbcnews. Com. Coverage begins at 9 00 eastern, 6 00 pacific, thats tomorrow night. Im pretty sure well get a huge audience for that. I would imagine so. Other big story, Hurricane Matthew, that storm is a about 105 Miles Per Hour. It is battering South Carolina. But on friday, heavy damage and destruction was left behind in parts of florida. At least four people were killed in that state. More than 1. 2 Million People are without power this morning. Through georgia, through florida and the carolinas as well. We have Team Coverage this morning. We start with nbcs Chris Jansing in charleston, South Carolina. Chris, how is charleston doing . Yes, i mean, this is what hurricane conditions look like, craig. And this wind and rain has been steadily worsening over the last hour or so. They say its going to continue for several hours more. In fact, the hurricane conditions for at least another hour and take a look at the flooding. You can see how deep my boots are. This isnt even the worst of it. Were pretty far away from the worst of it. Having said that, officials believe that the combination of wind and rain and flooding could and thats why governor nikki haley has called out the National Guard. Has said that shes upping the number of National Guard to 35,000 people. We saw some of them out actually braving some of the earlier conditions and some of the flooding yesterday. In addition to that, you have waves that are cresting at 20 feet, measured off buoys off the coast. 90,000 people now without power. That number expected to rise. They have per crews that are here from a problem, downed power liens causing burglar alarms and fire alarms going off that has been keeping the emergency crews busy. Now, the one thing that officials are happy about is they told people to evacuate 335,000 did, many of those in shelters and those who didnt, heeded the warnings overnight. They have no problems, kept off the streets. The only thing we saw when we came in about 8 00 or 9 00 last that curfew seemed to hold. I just talked to a city official who said they didnt have major problems overnight. Having said that, when you look at this combination of factors, the wind, the rain, the flooding, perhaps the third highest surge that theyve ever had in history. Theyre going to have a mess on their hands here in what is clearly as you know, craig, because you spent so much time here, not one just one of the most historic but one of the most beautiful cities in the south. Thewn carolina. Chris jansing, thank you for the update. Scary scene out there, dylan. Whats the latest on Hurricane Matthews track. The track is supposed to make landfall near charleston shortly. It is a category 2 hurricane. Winds are down to 105 Miles Per Hour. That is still very strong. Take a look at the rain bands swirling into most of South Carolina, even up into North Carolina right now. And since we are very close to possible landfall, you can see are also making their way onshore with the eyewall. Hilton head island reporting gusts of 87 Miles Per Hour. You go up to charleston, inland just a bit, 37 mile per hour wind gusts. Tybee island, georgia, 93 miles an hour and also the highest storm surge they have ever experienced. Speaking of the storm surge, were looking at 5 to 7 feet from hilton head, farther north. Cape fear up to kitty hawk, we could see 2 to 4foot storm surge. Thats the push of water tha flooding we see compared to a regular high tide. Heres the latest track although we get an update later this morning. It is expected to continue its weakening trend and then eventually to a tropical depression before it loops back around, possibly into the bahamas as we get into the end of next week. In the meantime, we are looking at heavy rain, torrential downpours. That 5 to 9foot storm surge, totals of up near 15 inches of rain possible. Look at how far north it spreads now. We have an approaching cold rain across eastern long island and southeastern massachusetts, not really because of the storm itself but adding extra moisture. So well even see the effects across the northeast as well. Guys . Tough time, dylan, thank you. Well get much more from you throughout the morning. We want to get back to charleston, South Carolina and see how the city is doing. John techlenbery is the mayor of what have you seen as far as the damage is concerned . Well, first let me say how proud i am of our Emergency Operations personnel, both in the city and the county and the state. I was riding around downtown charleston last night and despite the fact that we always welcome people to our vibrant and lively city, it was we really did a great job in evacuating folks and getting them safe and secure in their homes before the storm came. What were concerned about today is the high winds that are about to unleash on this city as the eyewall of this storm actually hits the city of charleston. So were expecting over 100 mileanhour winds. And the triple threat of flooding, which includes that storm surge, the high tide that will be here midday today and receiving as the day goes on. I was just about to ask you that. Lets talk about flooding for a moment. Charleston is low lying, downtown floods easily. How much flooding are you expecting . A good bit. Weve already closed about 80 streets, local streets, due to flooding and due to some trees already coming down. The trees and the Power Outages, frankly, will increase as the wind. But the flooding midday should be the worst. Because as that storm surge pushes water in, and the high tide comes in, and the rain has nowhere to go out, were going to have continued and increased flooding throughout the day. And finally hopefully, god bless, it will have no loss of life. Thats the most important thing. Amen to that. Finally, my colleague mentioned about 90,000 people are wit when can they expect that to be back on . Well, just to let you know, our city personnel, both Public Safety and public