Meet the Press NOW — October 9

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1:10Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Monica Alba, and we begin with breaking news. The Gulf Coast bracing for Hurricane Isaias, the first Atlantic hurricane of the season, and now a powerful Category 3 storm. East IS packing winds of 120 miles per hour just hours before forecasters expected to make landfall tonight between Alabama and the Florida panhandle. There was hope that this storm would weaken as it came ashore, but that hasn't happened yet, leading to what some forecasters worry could be a worst-case scenario. More than a foot of rain is possible in some communities, and water levels could rise between 6 and 9 feet above ground level.

1:48This could be a catastrophic event for many communities, and more than 26 million people are under flood alerts from Mississippi to Virginia. There are also 17 million people under wind alerts through Saturday. This is a live look at beaches along the Gulf Coast of Florida via EarthCam ahead of Isaias' arrival. And this is the current scene in Pensacola, Florida, where you can see strong winds and rain are already wreaking havoc. Just moments ago, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he was expecting ESA to make landfall as a Category 3 hurricane and urged residents to prepare for the storm even before it makes landfall tonight.

2:31The storm will hit at 11 o 'clock, give or take, tonight, but you will face very hazardous conditions prior to the storm making landfall. So you really need to finish your preparations now. You have to execute your plans now. There's going to be a point in the not-too-distant future where it's not going to be safe to go outside, even though the storm may still be a distance away from reaching the shore. Isaias also impacting President Trump's travel plans, with the president confirming he will no longer attend tomorrow's Georgia-Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa due to the storm. NBC News correspondent Jesse Kirsch is in Destin, Florida.

3:16Also with me is NBC News meteorologist Bill Karens, who's been tracking the storm, and NBC News senior homeland security correspondent Julia Ainsley, who's covering the federal response. Thank you all for kicking us off. Jesse, I do want to start with you and just ask how conditions are where you are right now, and what are local officials bracing for? Yeah, we're bracing for this to get pretty bad. and for it to be a pretty quick decline, Monica. What we're feeling right now, it's been pretty steady rain like this all day since the early morning. It feels like nothing more than a trickle, but these are just the outer bands.

3:54We are still waiting for the bulk of East IEast to make its way toward us, and we are starting to get the occasional wind gust that really picks up speed, and this gives you a good indicator of what's starting to happen here. This is a floating dock here in Destin, and you can see that we've already got it bobbing in the water. a good amount and we'll just turn around and just show you some of the palm trees, give you a sense of what's happening with the wind gusts here. We've seen businesses boarding up. You've got sandbags out. It's harder to find food. We are now locking down where we're going to be for the storm.

4:26We are not going on the roads now because of what is expected to keep happening. And, you know, it's a little bit of a lull at the moment, but you can even see it even when it's calmer, you've got the wind whipping around these palm trees. And I'm just going to have our photographer, Carlos, just pivot back with me this way one more time. And you can see what appears to be a lineman truck coming over that bridge right now. This is one of the complications of this area, this portion of Florida's panhandle in the Gulf region. There are a lot of bridges like this. And when the winds pick up to a certain speed, and it can vary community to community, but figure roughly around 45 miles per hour, they shut the bridges down.

5:04And so if you're trying to get somewhere, you might make that journey too late. And so that is why officials keep imploring people to not waste time, not second guess, get out of the evacuation zones, get to a shelter, get to a safer inland area. And if you're trying to finish preparations, they really wanted it done yesterday. And they'd said earlier, rush them to completion. And we are now at the point where officials, by and large, you would expect, want people to be where they're going to be to ride this thing out. Jesse, important point there on the bridge. And exactly that leads me to my next question, which is you said what you're doing, you're going to stay put for now.

5:40But what kind of evacuations have you seen so far? And are people heating those ahead of this storm coming ashore? I don't know that I've ever covered a hurricane moniker where there isn't at least one person that seems to be sticking it out, thinking they're going to stay home or wherever they are, even if it is in an evacuation zone, even if it is very near to the coast front. This is not the highest storm surge that we've ever experienced or are set to experience with a hurricane. But this just also speaks to how unpredictable these situations are compared to what we were looking at yesterday.

6:20This is a stronger storm, a Cat 3 major storm now. The storm surge potential is higher than it was. So that just speaks to if someone was thinking, oh, we're good with our situation, it's a different situation today. We did see some people around here earlier. There certainly are still people in Destin. And even when you hear mandatory evacuation zone, that terminology, you can ask a local sheriff's office in any number of communities. They are likely not going to say that we're going to drag people out or put them in handcuffs if they're not leaving their home. And so there's only so much officials will do.

6:55But one of the other things they try to stress is they're not coming to help you in the middle of this. When we get into the eyewall portion of the night, when Isais is making its way on shore, there is going to be a point where police, firefighters, EMS, they will not answer a call. They will take notes and they will come check on you when they are able to. But there is going to reach a point where they can't come to you. And if you're out on like a barrier island community or you have to try to cross one of these bridges, you're going to have no way to get on or off. So that's something that they try to impress upon people again and again in the run up.

7:28We try to communicate that as much as possible so that people hopefully seek shelter in a safer, more responsible place. But there are definitely people who are still in the coastal communities, Monica, as we get ready for what is now a major hurricane to roar on the shore. Jesse Kirsch, you and your team, please stay safe. I'm sure we will be checking back in with you throughout the show and the evening. Thank you for all of that reporting. And I do want to turn to Bill now to get a sense of this forecast and what areas are in East IS's direct path right now, Bill. Yeah, Monica, Jesse's right in the middle of it.

8:03I mean, he's got a Cat 3 hurricane heading at him at 20 miles per hour roughly, and he's only about 90 miles away from it. So you can do the math on that. We're going to probably get that initial eyewall in about three to four hours moving on shore. Then about an hour after that, we'll start to get the actual confirmation from the hurricane center of the official forecast of the landfall. So the bottom half of the storm, there's really nothing to it. It's windy, but there's not a lot of rain. It's a northern half storm. So the worst of it is now moving in and the stronger winds will begin to ramp up with every band that comes ashore.

8:34This is what our latest computer models are thinking. We're still in that 8 to 10 p.m. central time frame for the official landfall. But notice that eyewall is almost into Alabama by then. So it's well ahead of the actual center of the storm as it begins to rapidly push up into areas of Alabama. And even Georgia is going to have it pretty rough later tonight with all these bands and the chance of isolated tornadoes. Here's how it looks on our Doppler radar. Look at all the lightning strikes on the west side of it. So this is still packing a punch. This is worst case scenario. I mean, we were thinking it would be maybe a low end category two, hopefully a category one at landfall.

9:07We're just hoping that this can weaken a little bit before landfall. And right now, this northern half is not showing any signs of that. We still got about six hours, five hours to go. Hopefully we can knock it down a little bit so we get a little bit less wind damage. But now that northern eye is only 70 miles from the coast. And I mentioned about roughly about 20 miles per hour. So we got to knock some dry air into this or something because, as we mentioned, things are starting to get worse. Pensacola Naval Air Station just had a gust of 56 miles per hour. The buoy offshore 63. And this is going to quickly be moving onshore.

9:40Panama City even just had a gust of 43. Once we get above 50, we start getting isolated power outages out of this. Oh, man. Bill, well, when you were on yesterday, this was a Category 1 hurricane. So are you surprised about how much it's intensified over just the last 24 hours? Well, we had a battle going on. So the Gulf is extremely warm. And there's not just warm water at the surface, but really deep, too. So that's the fuel for the storms. And it's like record warm. So it had all the opportunity to be even more powerful than this. But what we call upper level winds have been shearing, pushing the storm, the top of the clouds off.

10:14So it was this battle between one thing was very unfavorable. One thing was very favorable. And the Hurricane Center thought it would get just a little bit stronger, maybe a Category 2. But then it jumped to a Category 3 and it just hasn't weakened. So that's why I say, if you said yesterday, Bill, what's your worst case scenario? I'd probably say, you know, like a low end Category 3. Unfortunately, that's what we're looking at. Wow. Bill, you've been talking about this all week, but we've been kind of fascinated by the AI models accuracy with this storm. What more can you tell us about those?

10:44Yeah, I mean, this has been kind of like the poster child for an advantage of AI, because we've had all sorts of different weather computers that tell us, you know, over the last 40, 50 years of predicting forecasts. And we all in our lives have this timeline of like before AI and after AI. And for all scientists and weather forecasters, we're going to probably remember this is the storm as after AI because the Google DeepMind, they call it WeatherNext, has been extremely accurate with the path and the intensity of this storm. Much better than any of our what we call our old traditional math or physics models.

11:21So, Monica, I'm impressed. You know, and you have to build trust with these things, these AI models. You know, I'm sure even you do your searches and you're kind of like, OK, let me just double check stuff on this. But with this forecast that is done for this storm, the National Hurricane Center is leaning more towards it. All of meteorologists are leaning towards it. I mean, it hasn't been the best PR month for AI. I mean, I think we'd all admit that this is a huge victory for how AI can be beneficial. And if it can give people a better lead time, accuracy, especially of a big weather event like a hurricane, they should be tipping their caps right now.

12:00That's so interesting, Bill. Karens, thank you for bringing us all of that and where the story might go next as we watch for what happens. I do want to turn to my colleague, Julia Ainsley, who's here on set with me. And Julia, what kind of preparations are we seeing already from FEMA right now? Well, FEMA's certainly monitoring it, and they're going to be running all of their response outside of their regional center out of Atlanta. They're also sending a liaison down to the National Hurricane Center that Bill mentioned. But what's different about FEMA and this administration is they're really operating under a state's first model.

12:31They are not going to be sending in more crews than Florida asked for. They really want the local municipalities and the states to respond first. And then FEMA is there as the backup. Remember, this is an administration that talked about eliminating FEMA. And then they've slowly backed off of that. But everything we're getting out of them, all of the talking points really emphasize states first. FEMA is here to support. And we've been reporting on this for months, and they did do a review of FEMA, the White House, looking into that to see if they were going to do away with it entirely. They opted not to, but still we have seen major cuts to the agency in the last year and a half under the Trump administration.

13:09So do you expect any of those cuts could hinder the federal response here or have an effect on it? Well, there has been an elimination of about 4 ,000 jobs at FEMA, which sounds pretty extreme, but they still have 20 ,000 who are there and people who are ready to basically be hired on during hurricane season. So they've already been hired on by FEMA really since June. And these are people who are really ready to go out and respond in their individual areas. And so we'll have to see if that does make an impact here. But really, it's always about where the storm hits. If a storm hits in a place like Texas or Florida, where they are so well-funded and ready for these things, a lot of times we see FEMA not have to do as much.

13:51If you're talking about a small town that doesn't have those kind of resources, and there is a path through many small towns here, we might really see FEMA get put to the test. Do you think it's unusual that FEMA didn't do any kind of national briefing today ahead of this? Yeah, typically you would see that. This is the new FEMA. They want DeSantis to be talking about this. They want those state leaders really to be taking the helm. But FEMA's still around. They will still do their job to respond in that case. Before I let you go, Julia, we do have to note that many of the country's offshore oil production facilities are basically in the path of this storm right now.

14:26Would the federal government have any role in protecting those facilities? How should we be thinking about that? Only in like a third tier responsibility. First, it comes to the companies. And many of the major U.S.-based oil companies have already pulled their men and women who are working on those rigs off out of precaution of safety. and then you would leave that to the states if there's something else behind that. FEMA is there and DHS overall could have a response because it is considered critical infrastructure, which would fall under CISA, something else that has definitely been shrunk under this administration.

14:57But as far as real concerns about oil rigs being destroyed, that's essentially up to these companies to ensure that they are able to endure that in the market. And at this point, they say they're pulling people to protect safety, but they're not worried about the infrastructure. Sure. We'll see how it all goes. Yes, we will. Julie Ainsley, thank you so much for bringing us that reporting. We appreciate it. And we are going to turn now to Okaloosa County Commissioner and Chairman Trey Goodwin, who joins me now. Thank you so much for being here. And I just want to start with what Governor DeSantis said, which is that landfall is expected somewhere in the Santa Rosa, Okaloosa County area around 11 p.m.

15:32tonight. So can you describe what you're hearing and seeing around you in this moment and how your community is preparing? Well, in Okalusa County, we are treating this as that we're going to be ground zero. This storm has tracked further east over the past couple days based on the models, and we know that we're going to see significant impacts. We are expecting a low Category 3 impact with storm surge and high winds. What that means is low-lying areas, they need to be evacuated. We've issued the orders as of yesterday for those evacuations, and most folks are taking heed following those evacuation orders because it's so important.

16:21Now, we do have some holdouts. There always are holdouts, and the reality of it is during the storm, we're not going to be able to send in first responders. We cannot put our first responders in life-threatening situations. They will come in when things subside. But for those who choose not to evacuate, when we've sent out the warning that they're on their own for a little bit of time, and that's unfortunate. But most people we're seeing take this seriously. They're doing their preparations. We're seeing houses boarded up. People were out getting their supplies this week. So we feel that most of our community has really taken this seriously.

17:00Oh, and we hope that everybody can. But to your point about those holdouts, I mean, how does this happening overnight kind of impact the way that you do prepare and respond to a storm as big as this one? Well, the reality of it is this one has come fast. It is really it's not something we didn't know about. We've had some warning, but we haven't had the warning that we're used to having. Now, fortunately, Okaloosa County has taken the approach that we prepare for storms all the time. So back in the summer, we had our Hurricane Expo where we brought in community members. We brought in, you know, all the stakeholders and really tried to educate our public on all the things they need to take seriously.

17:44So getting ready for a storm like this doesn't happen when it receives a name in the Gulf. Getting ready for a storm like this takes place in advance by months, years, all the time. And that's really the approach we've taken with it. And where should people be going if they are in an evacuation zone? Can you make that clear to anybody who might be listening and wants that information? Absolutely. Okaloosa County has two shelters currently open. One at the Northwest Florida State College Raider Arena. In fact, that's attached right here to the Okaloosa County Emergency Operations Center, where I am right now.

18:22And we have plenty of room. We have room for at least 400 there. And we're already seen about 50 maybe taking advantage of that. Then in the other end of our county on the northern side, we have Davidson Middle School. That shelter also has a capacity of around 400. We do have maybe 60 people there at this time. That is the shelter to go to if you have special needs, because we have the Department of Health there with resources to help special needs evacuees. And we also have designated that as the shelter for folks that have pets. So if you're evacuating and taking your pets with you, that would be the shelter to go to.

19:04That's Davidson Middle School. And so those are both operational, fully staffed. Important information there. And quickly, before I let you go here, Trey, are you getting the support that you need from state and federal agencies right now? Is there anything else you're looking for? I can tell you this. The state is here with us. The federal government is here. We have representatives from Eglin Air Force Base, Robert Field. So the military is here. But the way that we approach it in Okaloosa County, we prepped first. We are not waiting on somebody else to bring us the resources. We budget for this.

19:39We plan for this. Now, after the storm, more resources from state and federal entities will be useful. But in the eye of the storm coming down at us, we have what we need together because we plan for this year round. Trey Goodwin of Okaloosa County will be thinking about you and everybody there as this storm approaches. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Monica. And we are going to turn now to Mobile, Alabama. And joining me is Michael Evans, the director of the Mobile County Emergency Management Agency. Thank you for being here. And let's start with, as you are bracing for this storm, what the conditions are like, where you are, and what you expect.

20:25Yeah, so thank you for having me. The conditions now are starting to deteriorate. So I know you guys have been showing the radar imagery. So if you look what's going on, we're starting to see tropical storm force, gusty wind. We're starting to see some pretty substantial rainfall. So what we understand, it's going to continue to get worse as we move into the later part of the night. And then at some point, it'll be well beyond us and conditions will clear. So what's your message to people in the area right now? So, you know, the message right now is the conditions are rough, but there's still time to get to a safe location We have a lot of coastal residents And my concern are the people that live in some of our surge areas and are very flood-prone areas Manufactured housing We have a substantial portion of Mobile County that's not in any kind of flood, surge zone So what we're asking the people in danger to do is leave and go to a safe place.

21:33So we do that in several ways. We ask them, hey, if you have a friend, family, or relative who lives in some of these safer areas, you know, please go and shelter with them. If you have the ability to go somewhere and go out of town, please do that. Now, if you don't meet any of those criteria, we've opened three shelters within the county. They're all in safe areas. We encourage you to go to a shelter. Earlier today, we were using transit assets and public school buses to move people who ask for a ride. But, you know, it's all about being safe. We need you to be in the safest location that you can be.

22:13And that's away from our surge areas, our flood prone areas and some of the manufactured homes. We have seen all week long the preparations underway for this hurricane. people fueling up, people making their own kind of sandbags. So would you say Mobile is prepared for this storm? How would you assess that right now? I would say we're prepared. We've been talking about this, you know, preparation very strongly since Wednesday morning. You know, Wednesday and Thursday was decent weather days. So, you know, I was encouraging everybody, You have time today and tomorrow to do the things you need to do at your home to get prepared.

22:54You have time to go to the store and buy the items that you need. You know, have 72 hours worth of food and water, have batteries and flashlights. We know we'll get some power outages during this. We've had a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks, so the ground's already saturated. So this type wind and more rain makes trees fall, power line issues. so we've been encouraging everybody to get ready and we've been encouraging those who don't feel like they're in a safe area to please go to a safer area so i've got my eoc activated there's about 80 people in there from the municipal governments i have my state of alabama partners in there i have some federal partners from dhs and fema we've got the army national guard from Alabama.

23:43I mean, the room is full. Alabama power, the water and sewer. So everybody's in there. We're prepared to react. When people have a need, we want to go respond, help them, and get them to safety. You know, there's a point coming, though, when we get to Tropical Storm Force sustained winds and rain where it's not safe, you know, we'll have to shut down. You know, obviously, if we can talk to someone in need, we will take all their information as soon as it's safe for our first responders to go respond, we will certainly go to them. Yeah, that's always the concern, right, in these kinds of situations.

24:18Michael, I do want to also ask you about a threat for tornadoes, especially across the southern part of Alabama to the east of Mobile. Have you and other officials prepared for that possibility? And what should residents really be on the lookout for in terms of messaging from your agency on that? Yeah, so, you know, we'd messaged for all of the threats to include tornadoes, storm surge. We've been under watches and warnings since early yesterday. And, you know, the message is we want everybody to have a way to get the weather information, you know, get you a NOAA weather radio. We have an app.

24:56We have local stations, affiliates with, they have different apps. We encourage everybody to have a way to get the message, even if the power's out, you You know, go ahead and have those flashlights and batteries, have a radio, have those apps on your phone, have a way to charge your phone. And so now if you get the message there is a threat in your area, such as a tornado, then, you know, the encouragement will be to go to that safest place in that structure that you're in and get there and stay there until the threat is over with. Great tips there, Michael Evans. Thank you so much. We'll be thinking about everybody there in Mobile.

25:35Beal, please stay safe and thanks for your time. Thank you. And joining me now is former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. Thank you so much for being here, sir. As we mentioned, FEMA says it is actively monitoring and preparing to help states as needed in their response to this hurricane. But what is FEMA's role in this moment, given your expertise? And do you feel the agency is doing enough to prepare? Well, you've heard already, FEMA may not be doing a press conference. They're letting the governors take the lead on that. But FEMA has staff in the state emergency operations centers. They've been helping support the local EOCs.

26:12Again, a lot of this response will be managed by state and local government. You know, they've called out their National Guard. They're moving mutual aid teams across the state. FEMA is going to be in those EOCs throughout the storm, primarily right now if response issues come up. I'll give you some examples. When I was running the state, we had Hurricane Charlie. We needed additional disaster medical assistance teams, which FEMA sent in that night and got in the next day. So if those kind of things happen, FEMA's there in those EOCs as those issues are coming up and they're working as issues.

26:45So I don't see a big delay there. So it's working as it should. I think the whole message about states are taking the lead and FEMA's taking a little bit more of waiting and supporting the states. That's actually how it was designed. When the governors asked President Carter to create FEMA, they didn't ask FEMA to take over. They asked FEMA to be there to support the governor when disasters get that big. And you did note in this first answer that this does look a little bit more like when FEMA was originally conceived. But FEMA has lost 4 ,000 staffers in the last year and a half. And this is the first hurricane since those cuts.

27:22So how should we be thinking about that change potentially impacting FEMA's response? I don't think about it at all. Quite honestly, the people in the storm need to be getting ready to go to their safe rooms, know what they're gonna do. They're not gonna see FEMA. That's not what FEMA does. They're gonna see local responders, the sheriffs. This is these local officials have told you. They'll get to the point where they gotta shut down because the storm's there. When the storm passes, they're gonna be all out, going out and doing the rescues and stuff. And again, look at the size of FEMA. If this was the fifth or sixth hurricane, I may be more concerned.

27:57It's the first hurricane. FEMA has a lot of staff. They haven't been deployed on a lot of disasters. I think if you see anything with FEMA staffing, it's going to be later in recovery periods if there's more storms, more disasters. That's, even in the Obama administration, was a challenge for us to keep staffs where we were having disasters and a new one would happen and we'd have to pull recovery staff. But it didn't impact our responses. Let's talk a little bit more about those rescue and recovery efforts. Do you feel the agency is well-placed then to deploy assets to assist states with that part of it after the storm clears?

28:33Yeah, I'm going to tell you something. I was really worried last year when Nome had that stupid$100 ,000 limit on contracting, because a lot of what FEMA does is bring in contracted resources, and those were just crippling to the agency. That's gone away. New leadership in it, Homeland Security, new leadership at FEMA. They don't have that restraint. That was probably the biggest thing I saw that would hinder a response. So the teams are there. They've been funded. They're bringing staffing back up. There was a hiring freeze. That was another thing that I was very concerned about. Cutting positions is one thing, but when you have vacancies in critical areas, especially in your search and rescue, IMATs, the management assistance teams, your FEMA logistics, and not being able to fill positions, that's critical.

29:20So that's changed. They've been adding positions. They're bringing people in. And remember, FEMA has 10 regional offices. They can bring people from across the nation to support this response. So I'm not concerned about it. What I am concerned about, we're talking a lot about FEMA. We're not talking about people getting ready for the storm and what they should be doing in the immediate aftermath because we're not going to prevent the damages right now. But we can keep people safe and hopefully reduce the number of lives we lose if the storm is coming in as a cap three. We share that concern. And Craig Fugate, thank you so much for your expertise on all of this.

29:54And we hope that people will be able to heed the warnings and stay safe. Thank you. And we are following Hurricane Isaias closely and will bring you an update from the ground in one of the Gulf Coast cities bracing for impact straight ahead. Plus, trumping the trail. We're live in Syracuse, New York, ahead of the president's latest campaign stop with just 25 days to go to the midterms. And we have the takeaways from last night's lineup of Senate battleground debates. You're watching Meet the Press now.

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31:25No radiation, no contrast. Book your scan at PreNuvo.com. That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O dot com. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today. Welcome back. As we do keep an eye on the path of Hurricane Isaias, we turn now to the latest with just 25 days to go until the midterms.

32:04President Trump is getting ready for the next stop in his midterm sprint around the country, heading to Syracuse, New York, to campaign with Bruce Blakeman, the Republican challenging incumbent governor Kathy Hochul. It's the president's seventh campaign stop in nine days, with more on deck for next week, as the White House hopes that the president's popularity among Republicans can potentially boost GOP turnout, even as his approval among Americans broadly is significantly underwater. Also on the trail today, Vice President J.D. Vance in his home state of Ohio stopping to cast his ballot on his way to stump for incumbent Republican Senator John Huston.

32:41Recent polls have Senator Huston trailing former Senator Sherrod Brown in a race Democrats see as a prime pickup opportunity. And joining me now from the campaign trail in Syracuse is NBC's chief White House correspondent Garrett Haake. Garrett, thanks so much for being there with the soundtrack of that rally season. We know the president has been amping up these pretty friendly crowds in deep red states and key battlegrounds over the last week. So what is he doing in deep blue New York? Why is he in Syracuse? Monica, it looks set to have a fairly friendly crowd here of about a few thousand people in Syracuse.

33:19It is a strange choice for location. We are in a Democratic-held congressional district. But this is an area in the upstate more broadly where the president's hoping to churn out his base voters to help defeat the Democratic governor here, Kathy Hochul, who's very unpopular with Republicans. We're a pretty fair distance from the Democratic center of the political world in New York, New York City, of course. But whether the president can be effective for Republicans here remains very much an open question. And there are a number of local officials who've told the local newspaper here they're not governor.

33:50Well, the president today also announced this major plan for Russia to supply global energy markets with 800 ,000 tons of diesel in an effort to lower prices. Just talk about how significant this is and what this could mean. It's hard to overstate just how stunning this really is, Monica. It was only about a month ago that the Congress gave the president authority to jack up tariffs and increase sanctions on buyers of Russian energy products. Now, the president's announcing the U.S. will become one of those buyers. He says the Russians are prepared to release three million tons, an interesting unit of diesel fuel onto the global markets and that the U.S.

34:32and other countries could potentially purchase that. This is fuel that's been under U.S. sanctions since the start of the Ukraine war. Treasury Department says those sanctions will be lifted until April. Already, President Zelensky has been out calling this weakness and a gift to Putin. And it comes as a congressional delegation was in Kiev meeting with Zelensky just today. So a shocking move from the president and one that I think will face blowback domestically and globally after the U.S. has spent years leaning on European allies to stop buying the same kind of Russian fuel products. America will be buying now amid our own fuel price squeeze.

35:09Absolutely, Garrett. And of course, before I let you go, you have a new preview of the latest Here's the Scoop election edition episode. Tell us all about that. Monica, voters are voting across the country. And so this week we're talking about the mechanics of voting and questions about election security. Obviously, it's one of the president's favorite topics. We spoke to Republican Secretary of the Commonwealth, Al Schmidt of Pennsylvania, about not just the actual threats to the physical infrastructure of our elections, but his concerns that a lack of trust in those elections perpetrated by the president and his allies could be a threat in and of itself.

35:48Let's end up part of our conversation with Al Schmidt of Pennsylvania. And when the president talks about this big kind of conspiratorial, large scale fraud, I mean, you testified in the January 6th committee that that It wasn't the case in 2020. We've had elections in 22, 24, now 26. Have you seen any evidence of that kind of thing in any of those elections? No, and I would encourage everyone to be driven by evidence of facts when reaching conclusions about their confidence in elections. It's easy to throw out these sort of things. It's easy to do some matches of big databases and get an avalanche of false positives.

36:25But election integrity requires hard work. It requires a thoughtful, deliberate, methodological examination of accusations to determine if it's actually occurring or not and to what degree.

36:42Schmidt, a Republican, was Governor Shapiro's first hire in Pennsylvania, speaking to the importance of this idea of keeping elections safe and keeping people trusting that their election results will be safe. Monica, it's a very interesting interview. Garrett Haik, we know that song says 9 to 5, but when it's a rally day, it's more like 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. So thanks for being there for us. We really appreciate it, Garrett. Thank you. And you can always catch more of Garrett's great reporting on Here's the Scoop Election Edition every Saturday until Election Day. You can watch it on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

37:16And turning now from the campaign trail to the debate stage, Last night, candidates in three closely watched Senate races faced off in a set of fiery debates. And from Michigan to Georgia to Maine, Democrats making their strategy clear tied their opponent to President Trump. He said he thinks the war is going to end. He's got a direct line to the president who's making sure the war does not end. And he's not using it because he's cheerlead this war the entire time. Can you afford your gas? Can you afford your groceries? Under this guy who's going to rubber stamp everything Donald Trump tells him to rubber stamp?

37:49our economy is being strangled by Donald Trump and Mike Collins' economic record. Whatever Donald Trump says, Mike Collins does. Doesn't matter what it is. Doesn't think for himself. We are in a crisis here because she would not stand up and her Republican colleagues would not stand up to Donald Trump. Joining me now for more on what we heard and didn't hear is NBC senior national politics reporter John Allen. So, John, three big debates last night. We saw the Democrat strategy. That was pretty clear. What else stuck out to you? So amazingly, in that Michigan debate, we found out that we are at the Yo Mama stage of the campaign where Mike Rogers was going after Abdul El-Sayed's mother in the place that she had worked before.

38:33But even more than that, I think what you're seeing shape up here is an obvious move by Democrats to talk about the economy because everybody thinks the economy is bad. I mean, almost overbidding the country thinks the economy is bad. And the Republican, you know, and I've watched several of these debates, the Republican response is basically like the Democrats will make it worse. Their argument is Democrats want to raise your taxes, you know, Medicare for all, all that will increase prices. I think it's a tough sale with with President Trump in power right now. Let's talk a little bit more about those personal attacks that you raised, because we did sort of see that in the Michigan debate.

39:06It did get a bit more personal. The moderator even quipping that he wanted to jump in there and be part of it. But do you think that those attacks, you know, help Rogers or El-Sayed more heading into November? I think it tends to freeze the field, right? So generally speaking, I think that if there is an equal attack going on there and they're not actually talking about the issues, that you're unlikely as the candidate who is behind to make up ground. Right now, the polling generally shows Abdul-Sahid up by a little bit. But I don't think any candidate would be comfortable with essentially a margin of error lead, which is what he has.

39:40I also want to talk about a moment from the Georgia debate where Senator Ossoff pressed Congressman Collins over neo-Nazi posts that he that his son-in-law had shared. Let's take a listen to that. That's the problem, Mike. It's not just that you've hired half the Third Reich to staff your congressional office and you have promoted neo-Nazi content online. I've condemned racism, anti-Semitism, hate. I don't care where the source is. And I tell him that, too. It's wrong. We have no place in this world for that. But I've never heard him say a word about his DSA pick up there, Abdul El Saeed, Hassan Piker.

40:19If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club. His office has been in cahoots with some of the most notorious white supremacists on the country. He himself has amplified neo-Nazi propaganda. He's never apologized for it, and he should tonight. So talk a little bit more about the background there, John, and whether you think this could turn the tide in this race at all. Well, first of all, just on the specifics, the Third Reich, all of them are dead. So Mike Collins didn't actually hire half the Third Reich. But I think what you're seeing here is John Ossoff is leading by so much in Georgia that he is starting to run for president from the debate stage.

41:00The message that he's carrying there is one that is built for a 2028 Democratic presidential primary. And I think he is not at all concerned about what Election Day will bring this year in Georgia. An important reminder that the moment these midterms end, we're basically in 2028 mode, right? John Allen, I know you'll be tracking all of that. Thank you so much for being here. And after the break. New details and new footage of two separate ICE-involved incidents, including a deeply unsettling video showing federal agents tearing children away from their family during a traffic stop in New Jersey.

41:34Stay with us on Meet the Press Now.

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43:02No radiation, no contrast. Book your scan at PreNuvo.com. That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O dot com. Welcome back. I'm turning now to some disturbing new incidents as the Trump administration continues its immigration enforcement crackdown, and a warning that some of the videos we're about to show may be distressing to some viewers. The NYPD has released new video this hour of the moment ICE officers shot a man in his car during a traffic stop in New York City on Thursday. You could see the car reversing as officers with guns drawn approach before pulling out. And body camera footage from the NYPD responding to the scene shows the man, Oscar Belgao, wounded in the neck with NYPD officers then taking him to the hospital.

43:49DHS said the man was part of a targeted enforcement operation and was in the country illegally with a prior criminal history. They say he tried to ram officers, but NYPD's police chief said he was trying to park when plainclothes officers confronted him. He pulled forward and then shots rang out. And officials say a five-year-old was in the car but was said to be physically unharmed by the seven shots fired. And meanwhile, in nearby New Jersey, a dramatic video has emerged of ICE officers separating what appears to be parents from their children during a traffic stop. A DHS spokesperson said they were targeting a man from Honduras who was in the country illegally and had multiple traffic infractions.

44:31They said during the encounter, the man declined repeated lawful instructions to exit his vehicle and that a female passenger and a bystander are under investigation after they attempted to disrupt the address and the arrest. Now joining me is senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley. Once again, Julia, I do want to start with that incident in New York. We did hear from Secretary Mullen this morning, but how is the agency responding to the shooting? Well, it happened so quickly last night that they announced a press conference after midnight. This is undoubtedly because of the protests that we saw outside of the hospital where Burkall was being kept and because of the comments from New York City Mayor Mindani.

45:14Basically, this is a thing we're seeing a lot more of before midterms, where if DHS can go against what they see as unlawful sanctuary city policies from blue cities like New York, they will take the opportunity to do so. And so Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen held a press conference today to talk about this incident. And here's what he said. No, we're not putting a pause on enforcement. I'm sorry, we're not. In fact, I'm not sorry. Our job is to enforce the nation's laws and go after the worst of the worst, and our men and women do a dang good job at it every single day. And we will not stop doing our job.

45:51This is coming after Mamdani called for ICE to stop enforcement in the city because of what he says is policies that are making the city less safe. And Mayor Mamdani speaking with President Trump, we know as well, it sounds like for an extended amount of time. Julie, I do want to ask you about that really disturbing video that we just played from New Jersey, where it does appear that parents are being separated from their children. What more are we learning about that? Well, that's what I asked the secretary about today. I wanted to know if he had seen the video and what he could say more broadly about times where we see time and time again families being separated by ICE enforcement actions.

46:27And then we'll hear comments from people like Tom Homan who say this is not a family separation policy because these families can deport together. But in that moment, are those parents really given a decision about whether or not they'll see their children again? I asked him that exact question, and here's what he told me. Once the scene is secure, once we settle everything down, we figure out who is who, then we'll start having communications with the individual. When we're in the middle of the operation, it's very chaotic. You've got to assume every time we're approaching a car that there could be criminal behavior.

46:58There's a fight-or-flight mentality. We see it over and over again. So once it is secure, once everything is calm, they will start having the conversation. Who are these kids? Are they really with the individual? And he said he had not seen that video, but he stopped me saying, now, was this person wanted for trafficking? And I said, no, traffic infractions, which is obviously very different. This person was not wanted for any violent crime, but this is an individual who has now been apprehended. And he says the family will be given the opportunity about whether or not they would deport together.

47:30But obviously, I mean, chaotic doesn't begin to do it justice because you see at the end of this video, an ICE officer not sure what to do with a tiny pair of Crocs at the end, and he throws them on the sidewalk. Very hard to watch that, Julia Ainsley. Thank you for your dogged reporting on this. You've stayed so on top of it, and I know we'll be talking more about it. Thank you. Thank you. And we are continuing to track Hurricane Isaias, our other major story today, which, as we mentioned, is now a Category 3 storm with 120 mile per hour winds. Forecasters predicting up to 15 inches of rain in some areas and warning of potentially life-threatening storm surges that could reach nine feet.

48:13NBC News correspondent Chris Pallone is in Mobile, Alabama. He joins us from there now. So, Chris, what are the conditions there and what have you seen so far? Yeah, Monica, you can certainly tell that Hurricane Isaias is going to make landfall in the next several hours. Most of the day today, we had a pretty steady but light rain, almost no wind, just a few light gusts. And in the past hour or so, the wind has really picked up. The rain has gotten heavy at times as those outer bands of Isaias come ashore. Sometimes the rain lets up a little bit. But the wind now, Mobile Airport has registered wind gusts in excess of 40 miles an hour.

48:54And I want to show you this. This is the Mobile River right here just on the banks of the downtown area. And the wind is clearly coming from the north-northeast. We're on the backside of the storm as it comes in. And you can see that it's actually blowing the Mobile River down into Mobile Bay. That might be good news. This is one of the most flood-prone areas of the country. This is actually the rainiest city in the country, and so they flood all the time. But if the winds continue to blow in this direction, it might keep the Mobile River pushing down into the bay. So that's one good aspect for people here in Mobile.

49:30You can kind of see the wind's dying down a little bit right now, but you can see the trees blowing here behind me. When it really kicks up, you'll see them really bend in the wind here. But other than that, in downtown, it's been pretty desolate all day as people have mostly listened to the warnings and are staying home after they completed their final preparations. Oh, yeah. We hope that the fact that it is the rainiest city in the country helps them with that kind of experience. Chris, just tell us a little bit more about any conversations you've had with residents about whether they are staying in town or did many of them evacuate?

50:07Yeah. So the governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, actually issued a mandatory evacuation order for non-residents, for tourists. Obviously, this is a big beach area, and this is a fall break period where a lot of people had come to the beaches of Alabama and Florida. So the governor issued a mandatory evacuation order. We saw long lines of people trying to get out of town on I-65 up towards Montgomery yesterday. People who live here have to decide for themselves. If they're in flood prone areas, they're recommended to get out. Dauphin Island, which is south of here, that tends to flood when there's storm surge.

50:46Part of that has been under mandatory evacuation. But in the inland parts of town, the real risk for those people are going to be uprooted trees, downed trees and power lines, some high winds, but then also flash flooding, not necessarily storm surge. For those folks, they raided the grocery stores. They got all the last minute supplies and food that they need in case they are without power or they're trapped in their neighborhoods for a few days waiting for trees to be cleared, power lines to be cleared. But the attitude here is they're generally used to these things, although it's crazy. I was looking it up.

51:23This area, which is so generally we consider to be hurricane prone, hasn't taken a direct hit in about six years. And then there was another one two years before that. So 2018 and 2020, really the last time that this stretch of the Florida panhandle and the coast of Alabama have taken a direct hit from a hurricane. So some people might be rusty in their preparations. We'll have to see how it goes. Chris Pallone, thanks so much to you and your crew for being out there for us. Please continue to stay safe. Sure. And we will be following the storm closely and we'll bring you any major updates as we get them.

51:57But still to come, an unprecedented move by the Pentagon. Defense Department officials say they're going to live stream the firing squad execution of the man who shot and killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. That story and the fallout next on Meet the Press Now.

52:23Welcome back. The Pentagon says it will live stream the firing squad execution of a former army officer convicted of a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says Nadal Hassan's execution will be carried out at 1 p.m. on December 3rd, the same time of day and day of the week as the attack. But speaking to reporters today, Vice President Vance seeming to express some skepticism about whether it actually will be public. I've seen these announcements. I don't know that that's actually going to happen. and let's sort of see what, I think it's going to happen in December when he's executed.

52:58But whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don't forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people. Now that said, I mean, look, if it's ultimately live streamed, I'm not going to be watching it. Some fascinating comments there by the vice president. And joining me now to talk about all of this is NBC News senior national security correspondent, Courtney Kuby. So let's start with just the number one question that people probably have about this, which is, would this even be legal? That's what we've been trying to figure out. So under federal law, the answer is no.

53:30You cannot make images, video, anything like that public of an execution. But this could be under the UCMJ. He's held in a military facility. It's clear the firing squad is going to be U.S. military. We suspect they will be U.S. soldiers. And the UCMJ just doesn't have anything that addresses a live stream. So it's just not really clear at this point. It seems as if the Pentagon is really making this up or figuring this out as they go. I think the fact that Vice President Vance really paused this and said it's not clear if this is going to happen could be a good indicator that now there may be some question about whether even under military law this would be legal.

54:09And it raises all sorts of questions about who was kind of looped in on this. Is this something that Secretary Hegseth announced on his own? Was it his idea? Do we know? And also, we know that Hassan had said after the attack he wanted to be a martyr. He wanted to be killed and wanted to die. So is there a concern that doing this could deliver that for him? He openly said in 2013 that he wanted to be killed so he could be a martyr. In fact, he expected he would die at Fort Hood that day in the back and forth in the shooting. So, yes, this provides that to him. Putting it on camera and distributing that image, whether it's stills or video or anything, that provides propaganda that enemies could use to incite other people to join.

54:52It also, you know, it calls into question the moral authority of the United States, that they would publicly put something like this out when it could be seen as a serious human rights violation here. And frankly, it's just not the way that it's been done. In the past, when there is an execution, there is always this, it's almost a solemnity about it, where it is held quietly. People think about the victims rather than the individual who's being killed. And that's the way that they honor the legacy of the individuals, the victims of a crime like this. I think right now what's very clear is Secretary Hegseth has been talking about bringing some of these people who are on death row in the U.S.

55:33military, bringing them to justice, following through on executions. The U.S. Army has been planning for that for months. This has thrown a complete wrench into that planning. The idea of Fort Hood, the idea of firing squad, and then now this live stream. And in these last few seconds that we have, does this change anything about the appeals process for this specifically? It does not. Yeah. All right. Courtney Kuby, as always, thank you for staying on top of this. There will be much more to this story. We know that. And thank you all so much for watching, for being with us here today. We will be back Monday with more Meet the Press Now.

56:07And if it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press on your local NBC News station. Kristen will have exclusive interviews with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Senator Tom Tillis, and author Michael Lewis. You don't want to miss it. And there is much more ahead on NBC News Now. Have a good one.

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