Milton Approaches Florida, Harris' Balancing Act, Biden's F-Bombs
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Storm of the century. Hurricane Milton still a dangerous and catastrophic category five storm barreling toward Florida. Plus this. Please don't get political on this. This storm is going to affect everybody. Rumor control. Tampa's mayor trying to tamp down misinformation just hours before the storm hits. And this. I'm obviously not Joe Biden. Balancing act. Kamala Harris has struggled to stay loyal, but also differentiate herself from President Biden.

And Joe Biden uncensored, F-bombs, blunt talk in a new account of private and tense discussions between the president and Israel's prime minister. All right, coming up on 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look.

at St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Coast of that state, bracing for a dangerous Category 5 hurricane. The outer bands have already begun impacting the state at this hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Hurricane Milton is racing towards Florida's Gulf Coast, and it

expected to make landfall as a dangerous category four storm, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center. More than 12 million residents across Central Florida are under hurricane alerts, with parts of 14 counties issuing mandatory evacuations ahead of the storm, a storm that could become one of the most destructive in state history.

You want to pick a fight with Mother Nature, she's winning 100% of the time. And individuals that are in these, say you're in a single story home, 12 feet is above that house. So if you're in it, basically that's the coffin that you're in.

For the most part, people do seem to be taking these orders seriously as major highways are filled bumper to bumper with traffic, one of the largest evacuations in state history. But those evacuations are leading to another issue as gas stations run low on fuel. More than 20% of stations are reporting outages. And now Florida State Troopers are escorting tanker trucks to make sure stations along the evacuation routes stay full.

Despite evacuation orders and these grim warnings, some residents are planning to try to ride out the storm. Better safe than sorry, but this is where I plan to be. I have a life jacket, I got some lights, more battery packs. I'm a lot more prepared and I'm hoping for the best. So we're just kind of hunkering down in place for the time being.

All right, joining us now from Tampa to talk about getting ready for the storm, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister. Sheriff, thank you so much for being with us this morning. You heard that resident there saying he plans to ride out the storm. What's your message this morning to those who plan to do something similar?

This is the 11th hour. If you're in evacuation zone, the time to get out is now. Here's my biggest fear. When those winds become sustained more than 40 miles per hour and it's too safe to go out to those emergency calls for help, that individual, I wonder how he's going to feel if he needs help and help's not coming.

So, sir, what risk will your officers, your team be at if people stay there and are asking you and your teams to come out and help them?

We're already feeling the effects from this storm. We already saw some flooding out here early this morning. That's only going to get worse as this storm wobbles. We don't know what type of storm surge and if we don't get the storm surge that was expected, we're still going to get flash flooding. We're going to get a lot of wind and that means a lot of down power lines. It just becomes too dangerous to be out at that point. We're going to ask our first responders or law enforcement to hang tight until the storm passes. Then we'll watch.

a full assault on search and rescue and clearing trees and roadways and do what we're trained to do. - Sheriff, can you talk a little bit about what you've seen before in your job in terms of hurricane response in the community and how it compares to what we may see from Milton?

We only have to look back two weeks ago. We're still healing from this storm and recovering. Two weeks ago, we did over 1,000 rescues, and the winds never got above 40 miles an hour, so we never had to suspend service. But our amphibious vehicles, our airboats, our Marine unit, they stayed busy. We answered over 3,000 calls for service in a 12-hour period. It was all hands on deck. This will be no different. My only fear is when the storm gets too violent

risky to be able to allow first responders to go out and answer those calls. We're just going to have to hold the calls for service until it's at least safer to do so. Sir, in the aftermath of Helene, which you obviously mentioned, we saw misinformation start to spread pretty quickly. What is your guidance for residents on where they should be looking to get their information about what to do? And what impact does bad information have on your ability to do your job?

Yeah, that's a phenomenal question. You know, I ask them to follow the sheriff's office. They follow the county websites that will continue to update information. The reason it's such a phenomenal question is that people think when the storm passes, hey, it's back to normal life here and go out. And it's not. It's very dangerous. We had people getting electrocuted. We had more deaths here in the Tampa Bay area from storm surge than

related accidents and down power lines than where the storm actually made landfall up in North Florida last week. That's my biggest fear. So I would encourage everyone, follow a trusted website and make sure that you're allowing us enough time to go out and make it

safe to where you can return to your home. And we want you to go back home as quick as possible too. And the more you stay out of the way, not to sound insensitive, to allow first responders to do what we're trained to do, we'll get you home that much more rapidly. All right. Sheriff Chad Chronister with some important warnings for us this morning. Sir, thanks very much for your time. I appreciate it. And we'll be thinking of you. Thank you.

All right. Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall either late tonight or early Thursday morning. Officials urging everyone in the storm's path to rush to finish their safety preparations with just a few hours to go. Joining us now with the latest on this major storm is Michael Brennan. He's the director of the National Hurricane Center. Michael, good morning to you. What are you most concerned about and what is the latest from your end of this?

Well, you know, Milton remains extremely powerful, very dangerous hurricane this morning category five and it's going to be reaching the west coast of Florida now within the next 24 hours, you know, late tonight, the early morning hours of Thursday. So folks along the west central coast of Florida, particularly in the storm surge evacuation zones from north of Tampa all the way down to Naples, you've got your last few hours to get out before water start to rise. Tropical storm force winds begin. Your evacuation routes could be cut off.

And again, you know, you don't have to drive hundreds of miles to get to a safe place, maybe just tens of miles to get to a shelter outside of that surge zone. How does this hurricane compare to others that you've seen? Because the language many officials are using is, quite frankly, borders on apocalyptic.

Well, you know, every hurricane is unique and has its own unique mix of hazards. But for this portion of the Florida West Coast, this is a track and a threat we have not seen in anyone's living memory in terms of a track basically perpendicular to the coast. It's going to allow the winds of Milton

to push in a destructive way that Gulf of Mexico water up onto normally dry land. And that's why we're so concerned about the storm surge getting 10 to 15 feet above ground level. The potential for that is certainly there in Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, Manatee, down to Sarasota. And substantial storm surge risk even farther south down to places like Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and even Naples because the size of Milton's Wind Field is gonna basically grow almost double in size between now and just prior to landfall.

Briefly, Michael, what portion of the severity of this is due to the changing climate, to human-caused climate change?

Yeah, it's hard to know on an individual case, but you know, certainly warm, very warm Gulf of Mexico waters are what fuel the intensity of the storm and those waters are warmer than normal. On a broader scale, we're seeing sea level rise occurring, which is worsening the threat from storm surge across the board. And also heavy rainfall threats are increasing because warmer air holds more moisture. And that's something we haven't touched on here yet with Milton, but

Some places are going to see up to 18 inches of rain producing life-threatening catastrophic flash flooding potential across much of the central Florida peninsula. And that potential will be there beginning tonight, today through tonight and into Thursday. All right. Michael Brennan for us this morning. Michael, thanks very much for the work that you do every day and particularly today, of course. We appreciate you. Thanks. All right. Coming up on CNN this morning, Kamala Harris walking the fine line between loyalty and separating herself from her boss.

You ask me what's the difference between Joe Biden and me? Well, that will be one of the differences. What she says and what she doesn't say about what will make her different from Joe Biden. Plus, a new book detailing previously unreported conversations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and Trump's secret gift to the Russian president. Plus, bracing for the monster storm Hurricane Milton churning in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida already feeling the impact.

We're going to get hit, whether it's a direct hit or it moves slightly. There's just no ifs or buts about it. We're going to get hit and it's going to be hard.

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Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years? There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of, and I've been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact. Vice President Kamala Harris trying to thread a needle, portraying herself as a candidate who can deliver the change that voters want while still remaining loyal to the president she serves alongside. Her comments on The View Tuesday sparking this response from Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance.

Kamala Harris's economic policy, you heard her say it on The View today, it's to do exactly what Joe Biden did, and it's going to lead to the exact same place. Higher inflation, fewer Americans with good jobs, and a manufacturing sector that we're shipping to China instead of building right here in the great city of Detroit.

All right, panels here. Zolan Kano-Youngs, White House correspondent for The New York Times. Kendra Barkoff, former press secretary to Joe Biden. And Republican strategist and pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson. Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here. Kristen, I want to start with you on Kamala Harris here because I was a little bit surprised she didn't have a more specific answer to that question because it does seem like it's something we're seeing in polls that people seem to say that they want to know a little bit more about her. What do you make of it?

I agree with you that I was surprised she didn't have a better answer because it's an obvious question. It is one of the central questions of this campaign right now. If voters are frustrated with the status quo, what would be different? And it's also a little baffling because she does have a good answer. You could very easily say, look, I don't want to be in the business of bashing the guy with whom I've served for the last four years, but clearly there are some things I'd do differently because I've proposed some policies that would be new under my administration. And she could immediately pivot to things like,

home buyer tax credit, and so on and so forth. - She does have a list. - She does have some things, and so it is just wild to me that she wasn't more prepared. And this really speaks to the peril of having been, I think, kind of sheltered in the campaign for the last couple of weeks, and now suddenly doing this big media blitz, is you're gonna see a little, I don't think this will be the only stumble we see before election day. - Kendra, your thoughts? - I mean, you took literally my answer. I think she,

she clearly is outlining a series of policies and went on The View specifically to talk about the sandwich generation, right? And she laid out exactly what she would do to help those people who are taking care of both their parents and their young ones. And so,

it's a tough position for her to be in. She still has a boss, she still has to report to the boss, and he's still making the decisions at the end of the day. But I do think she could have talked a little bit more about what those policies are. - And of course the question, Zolan, is who is the candidate of change here, right? And the most recent New York Times-Siena poll showed that Harris actually seems to have something of an advantage on that. I think we can put that up on the screen. Kamala Harris, 46, Donald Trump, 44%. But maintaining this,

would seem to suggest she needs to differentiate herself from, I mean, Biden is the incumbent, right? - That's the central challenge, right? Because you do have a Harris campaign that is trying to sort of promote her as a change candidate. At the same time, this is somebody who does represent incumbency as well. Her camp often said she was the last one to leave the room for throughout the Biden administration. So it's a tough needle to thread there. I do think that answer tracks with how the vice president has operated.

really since President Biden came into office, even at times, my reporting showed, even at times where she did disagree with the West Wing or wanna push Biden on something. Student loans, for example, she did it privately. She had her team draft up a memo and present it to President Biden and his aides privately.

when she wanted to advocate for abolishing the filibuster for voting rights, she did that privately pushing the president as well. When she disagreed with how he was describing his foreign policy agenda as autocracy versus democracy, she wanted to talk about international norms. The framing of it was different. The policy platform was somewhat the same. She still did that behind closed doors.

I think she's in a place right now where President Biden has dropped out of the race to pave the way for her. And now she has this tough sort of balancing act where she doesn't really want to criticize him and her policies on the way out. - Right, of course. - But at the same time, you need to differentiate yourself as you reintroduce yourself. - Kristen, how do you see the decision to go out there and do these? These are mostly friendly type of media outlets. What does it say to you about where the race

stands and what is your polling say about where things stand? Well it's not just that they are friendly media outlets but it's also that they are outlets where you have folks that are not interested in political news.

but are nevertheless now going to be exposed to a side of Kamala Harris that perhaps they've never seen. You know, she went on Howard Stern and talked about things like how she really likes Formula One racing. I really like Formula One racing. I was like, oh, that's interesting. I didn't know we had that in common. I mean, I'm a Republican pollster. I don't know that I'm necessarily her target audience, but there are a lot of men listening to Howard Stern who probably are a little bit outside her target, but

may not be firmly decided, may not be interested in political news. I do think that the places she's showing up are actually smart. She just has to have a good, concise, clear, consistent message on them. I'm not quite sure she's there yet. All right. Ahead here on CNN this morning, we are, of course, continuing to track Hurricane Milton as it closes in on Florida. Up next, the latest track of the major storm set to bring life-threatening conditions to the state. Plus, on the

On the picket line, Boeing workers on strike for nearly a month now. What caused the latest round of negotiations to break down? All right, going live to Fort Myers, Florida from EarthCam. Fort Myers already seeing the impacts of Hurricane Milton as it bears down on the Gulf Coast. The latest update from the National Hurricane Center shows Milton remaining a dangerous Category 5 storm overnight. Milton's outer bands already impacting the Florida coast.

bringing with them the potential for tornadoes and water spouts. We're seeing mass evacuations from the Tampa Bay region ahead of what could be a once-in-a-century direct hit from the storm, with up to 15 feet of storm surge expected. Take a look at the view of Milton from a NOAA Hurricane Hunter plane. It was a bumpy ride, the crew barely able to see because of the downpour. It was pretty violent. Milton is growing in serious intensity very fast and

We saw some incredible wind speeds out there today, 148 miles an hour, I believe we saw. All right, let's get straight to our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, with more on the latest with the storm. Derek, what are you seeing at this hour?

Casey, this is a significant moment. One of the top 10 most powerful hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin ever recorded is less than 24 hours from making landfall here in the U. S. Particularly across the southwestern portions of florida. We are hours away from experiencing tropical storm force winds. We are hours away from the water starting to rise in some of these coastal communities.

I these are sobering words, but this storm did not weaken overnight like we had hoped. When I analyzed the satellite imagery, I am seeing some promising signs. The eye wall is now starting to fill itself in. So perhaps we are getting some slight weakening right now before landfill. We've been calling for that.

because we know there's a lot of sheer in the upper levels of the atmosphere that will help bring this level down. However, we don't want to minimize the threat here because it is real and this is a terrible trajectory towards the southwestern coastline. Now, National Hurricane Center has this as a category four landfall late tonight or early

Thursday morning. Now we'r eye versus the center po path. This is the cone of is of course the middle pa want to call that as lan important because we're n trend in the eye of the s part of the storm, most p that has downstream impact the greatest surge impact

and who will receive the greatest wind impacts as well. One thing's for sure, this wind field is doubling in size, so we're going to feel tropical storm and hurricane force winds hundreds of miles from the center. Here it is, not just a coastal storm, catastrophic impacts potentially inland as well. And if you look at this computer model, this is a European model, still indicating a worst-case scenario for Tampa Bay. The storm surge here cannot be understated enough. 10 to 15 feet, that's twice my height.

And that will inundate buildings, homes, and people's livelihoods. Tornadoes, water spouts, flash flood threat, the list goes on, Casey. So much to talk about. All right, Derek Van Dam with a busy day ahead. Derek, thank you very much for that. Coming up here on CNN this morning, Israel's defense minister delaying his visit to the U.S. as President Biden prepares to speak with Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning. Plus, Florida Congressman Carlos Jimenez joining us live with his biggest fears about Hurricane Milton.

You do have time to get to a shelter. You have time to evacuate further than that if that's what you want, but that time is running out.

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All right, we're back now with more on the powerful hurricane set to hit Florida's Gulf Coast. Tampa's Tropicana Field Stadium transforming into a base camp for thousands of emergency personnel who are there to help residents as they brace for a storm surge that public officials warn could be life-threatening. For the areas where the eye itself is going to make landfall and areas directly south of that, we are expecting 10 to 15 feet of surge.

And as you see here, 15 feet is to our roof.

Wow. All right. Joining us now, Republican Congressman Carlos Jimenez. His district in the Florida Keys expected to be first impacted by Hurricane Milton's storm surge. Congressman, thank you very much for being with us this morning. I do want to note that you also, before joining Congress, were a career firefighter and paramedic. So you have looked at these kinds of incidents from a variety of angles. What is your message to your constituents at this hour as the storm approaches? And what are you most worried about?

Well for my constituents, we don't expect to feel the brunt of this storm. Key West will probably be the most affected. Something like what happened with Helene, I think we have like maybe up to three to five feet of storm surge and I think that's something that Key West can handle. But you know, need to prepare for localized flooding. On the other hand, the Tampa Bay down to Fort Myers area, depending on where that the eye actually makes landfall,

It's going to make all the difference in the world in terms of the height of the storm surge. And so my message to those folks are if you were ordered to evacuate, evacuate. Most people that perish in a hurricane do so from the storm surge. So if you're in this path, you need to get out. You need to get out. You need to get out now. It's better to be safe than sorry. Your life is worth a heck of a lot more than any property that you want to protect.

Congressman, one of your Republican colleagues in Congress, Congressman Chuck Edwards of North Carolina, he's obviously trying to help his constituents recover in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which hit just...

two weeks ago, he had to put out a statement debunking a variety of myths, conspiracy theories that reads Hurricane Helene was not geoengineered by the government. FEMA is not stopping trucks. The FAA is not restricting airspace. FEMA has not diverted disaster response funding. And he says that misinformation is really causing problems for the recovery.

What would you say to people about what they should believe in times like this? And what would you say to your fellow politicians about how they should be conducting themselves in this moment? Look, whenever there's a disaster, I think we should all come together, give out the right information and help people. That's what we did in Miami-Dade. Look, I was the mayor of Miami-Dade County. It was nonpartisan.

And so for me, it was always about saving lives, making sure that the folks in Miami-Dade County were safe, restoring power, you know, getting, making sure that people were, who needed help, got the help they needed and then moved on. So, you know, there's all this stuff that we get now with all the social media, et cetera,

Listen to all the information that you can and then follow what you think is right. There's no place for misinformation, especially when it's on purpose.

at times like this. So that's my message and hopefully we can get the people in North Carolina the help that they need. I think the response has been a little bit slow, to be honest with you. In Florida, we do things pretty well. We have a great governor. And look, when I was mayor of Miami-Dade, really didn't

After Hurricane Andrew, I was also the emergency manager of the city of Miami when Hurricane Andrew hit and the federal response wasn't what it needed to be. We made up our minds that we were going to be self-sufficient. We were going to carry this through. And then however and whenever the federal government came, it was great. They came with money, which is fine, but it's up to us really to help our own citizens. And it's up to the citizens themselves, too.

to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours knowing that if it's a really severe storm, it may take us some days to get to you because of the severity of the storm and the damage that a storm may cause. Well, I'm just hoping that people have heeded the warnings from their officials and are mostly getting out of Dodge. All right, Congressman Carlos Jimenez, sir, very grateful for your time this morning. Thank you very much. It's my pleasure.

All right, unimaginable anxiety gripping Floridians this morning as Hurricane Milton makes its march toward the Tampa area. There's a run on gas in the region. More than 20% of stations are already dry, making it even more challenging for residents to evacuate in these final hours. This is, of course, the second major storm hitting the area in just two weeks.

We have an area that's already heavily saturated. We're already recovering and healing from the last hurricane. When you dump five to 10 inches of rain on top of 10 to 15 feet of storm surge, the system's already overburdened and full, the drainage and sewage system. There's no way for where for that water to go. It's going to be catastrophic. All right, CNN's Ivan Rodriguez joins us now live from Tampa. Ivan, good morning to you. What are you seeing out there at this hour?

Casey, we're beginning to feel some of those outer bands now from Hurricane Milton. Light rain, wind not too much of a factor now, but progressively as the day goes on, we know conditions are going to deteriorate vastly. By midday, we could begin to feel some of those tropical storm conditions increasing.

Later this evening, some parts of Florida's Gulf Coast could begin to feel those hurricane conditions as well. We're standing right here by the water where we'll be now for several hours as we begin to see some of that rain pick up. Tampa skyline right behind me. Officials are urging people still this morning to get out while they still can. There's still a window of time to do so. But at this point, they're also asking people to seek shelter. We know thousands of people are currently in shelters.

in different counties across the state of Florida. Tampa's General Hospital also putting up their aqua fence. We know that during Hurricane Helene, it actually kept out floodwaters as well. Hear what one doctor at the hospital told us. I'm honestly, I'm a little nervous, but we are going to, you know, we're going to keep working. We're going to keep the hospital functioning. We're going to be taking care of the kiddos that come in and just kind of doing our best here.

And Casey, a big talking point in preps for this hurricane has been debris collection. Here in Hillsborough County, that's actually going to wind down at noon. So you're already getting that sense of things beginning to shut down. And debris is a big concern. When those winds pick up, they could become dangerous projectiles.

All right, Ivan Rodriguez for us this morning. Ivan, stay safe out there. Thank you very much for the important work that you're doing. Still to come here after the break, politics getting in the way of disaster relief, how the Biden administration is fighting disinformation during this hurricane season, plus a new book from the famous writer Bob Woodward offering new insights into Donald Trump's relationship with Putin.

Trump once made a senior aide leave the room so he could have a private call with Putin, which... Hello, Donald. What are you wearing? I'm shirtless on my horse again.

I'm not gonna defend FEMA's honor. They've made a lot of mistakes. They continue to make a lot of mistakes in our recovery efforts here. All of the rumor, the falsities were more getting in the way of us trying to help the people here in Western North Carolina recover from Helene. From the damage already done by Hurricane Helene to preparing for what's next with Milton, the Biden administration's ongoing recovery efforts have been hampered by dis misinformation.

FEMA, among a whole bunch of other federal agencies, has been using your tax dollars that are supposed to help you as American citizens if you get some kind of disaster and every community gets them. They use that money helping illegals here that they brought into America. The House Majority Leader Steve Scalise repeating a debunked claim, FEMA writing on its webpage dedicated to addressing false rumors that no disaster relief money is being diverted to border-related issues. President Biden has this to say.

It's not America. It really is. People are scared to death. All right, our panel is back. Kristen Soltis Anderson, the congressman we saw at the top there, Congressman Edwards, who represents one of the hardest hit areas of North Carolina, having to go out there and debunk, put out this really remarkable press release, like point after point after point, we just

Talked about it there with Congressman Jimenez, debunking misinformation in the wake of this storm. That said, the politics of this are incredibly complicated and difficult for any incumbent administration if there are real failures here. How do you see the landscape as we barrel toward Election Day? People are going to judge elected officials on how the recovery actually happens.

is it a good recovery or is it a botched recovery? You've seen two examples of this. One, Hurricane Katrina. You saw George W. Bush's administration. His numbers absolutely plummeted in the wake of people seeing the botched recovery there. But then the flip side, people still, Republicans still have not yet forgiven Chris Christie for hugging Barack Obama in the wake of

Superstorm Sandy where there was a sense hey, this was a tough storm But the recovery went well and it was a moment that looked good both for Chris Christie frankly may have helped with his reelection that he was considered a competent leader during that and so how Politicians handle recoveries is a big piece of their legacy and is a big piece of how voters will assess them when they are next up at the ballot box what is a Kendrick

Kamala Harris's role here, because on the one hand, you've got Republicans who are trying desperately to convince their voters that she's actually in charge and that all of the failures of the Biden administration are her failures. On the other hand, Ron DeSantis is refusing to take her calls and arguing she has nothing to do with it. Yeah, I mean, I think it is the Republicans that are playing the politics here. I mean, she did reach out. She tried to have a call with him.

You've seen the president out there. I saw a montage actually last night on CNN with every Republican governor saying, we have heard from everybody in this administration. They are doing what they need to do. They are giving us the funds. They are doing all that they need to be doing with this recovery effort. And she's out there. She went to North Carolina. She is doing exactly what she needs to be doing and exactly what the vice president needs to be doing. It seems like in the past you would seem a...

you would see a brief hiatus from sort of the partisan bickering around at least those first few days after a natural disaster. You mentioned Obama and Chris Christie. I mean, Joe Biden and Ron DeSantis during a building collapse. I remember that scene of him reaching over and touching the governor's hand at that point while they were trying to plan the way forward. You're just not seeing it this time. I mean, almost a

immediately after Hurricane Helene you have former President Trump say the misleading claim that the Georgia governor was struggling to reach President Biden as well for hurricane recovery so you are seeing just it's a sign of just how polarized this country is that even at a time of natural disaster we're seeing sort of the cruel reality of politics also take shape you know in the days another Hallmark of living in the Trump era really seems to me all right turning now to this

New reporting this morning. President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to speak by phone in just a few hours as Israel weighs how to retaliate against Iran. Netanyahu reportedly telling Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galan to postpone his planned Tuesday trip to Washington until after Netanyahu speaks with Biden. All of this coming amid fresh revelations from Bob Woodward's new book,

war about Biden's frustration with Netanyahu over the past year and how the president talks about him and others behind closed doors.

Joe Biden, in private, refers to Trump as that effing a-hole, which tracks. Of Bibi Netanyahu, Biden said, that son of a b---- is a bad guy. He's a bad effing guy. And he referred to Trump's COVID buddy as that effing Putin. I don't know why Joe Biden only curses behind closed doors. You're on your way out. Start doing press conferences like Richard Pryor on the Sunset Strip.

It's Joe time at the Apollo. Have some fun already.

All right. Joining us now to discuss Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts. Congressman, welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for being here. Let's start with Israel and Netanyahu, because there is this report that Biden called Netanyahu an SOB, a bad guy. This was in the spring as everything was unfolding between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Rafah situation as well. And The Wall Street Journal has reported that these two men have not spoken since August 21st. Now Netanyahu

puts a pause on Gallant's visit and says, "I gotta talk to him first." What do you anticipate they're gonna talk about today?

Well, first, salty language behind closed doors is nothing new in politics. And the U.S.-Israel relationship is much stronger than the vicissitudes of Biden and Netanyahu's personal relationship. And in fact, I think a majority of Americans and a majority of Israelis strongly agree, one, that Israel has a right and an obligation to defend itself against this ring of fire encircling it to the south and the north and the east. And also that Prime Minister Netanyahu has not

articulated and executed a coherent strategy that can galvanize the Israeli public and the free world to its side. So I think this really underscores actually how aligned the two nations are on the core objectives of this war and on their frustrations. As to the conversation today, clearly it's going to focus on Iran and the scope, time, place, and manner of the attack against Iran.

This reprisal is fully justified. Iran launched the biggest missile attack in Middle Eastern history against civilian population centers. It can't do that, not expect to have a response. But again, it needs to be vested within a larger strategy that Israel can articulate. And that has been the frustration from the beginning with the prime minister. Would you be comfortable with Israel striking Iran nuclear sites as part of the retaliation?

I can't speak to that because I don't have the briefings on Israel's weaponry and on the state of Iran's military infrastructure. And you really have to understand how those two things pair up with each other to understand if that strike could be successful. What is absolutely an imperative is that Iran cannot be allowed to gain access to a nuclear weapon if that can be achieved through a unilateral Israeli strike against those

uh sites and i think that absolutely is a legitimate consideration but i just don't have the information about whether that's feasible or not and that's at a classified level

Congressman, let's also talk about what Woodward reported around Vladimir Putin, which is that Trump has had multiple calls with Putin since leaving office, and also that Trump sent a COVID test machine to Putin for his personal use at the height of the pandemic when the access wasn't there for many Americans. Now, Trump, in an interview with ABC, denied. He said both of those things were false. What's your reaction?

It falls under the header of shocking but not surprising, right? Trump's always been a Putin fanboy. And...

He's now, I think, spoken to Vladimir Putin seven times, Woodward reports, since leaving office. And the question I have is, well, we know that Trump had classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. We know that Trump has been rooting for Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and has called it brilliant and has indicated that he would hand Ukraine back over to Vladimir Putin, no questions asked. We know that Trump trusts Russian intelligence more than U.S. intelligence. He said that himself repeatedly. So during those seven phone calls,

you know they weren't pleasantries that were being exchanged what were they talking about were they talking about and planning around russia's invasion of ukraine was trump giving putin uh not just assurances of his acquiescence to putin's invasion should he take back the oval office but actually actionable intelligence about how to best do that invasion these are legitimate questions to be asked

Congressman, on another topic, the vice president and Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, has been doing a series of interviews over the course of the last 48 hours. She went on The View and was asked how she might be different from her current boss, President Biden. Let's watch that. There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of and I've been a part of of of most of the decisions that have had impact.

She says there is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of how she's different from President Biden. Do you think that's a satisfactory answer for swing voters who are unhappy with the Biden administration?

I think there are things that she can point to that she would do differently in a stronger way. Let me give a few thoughts. One is on housing. The Biden administration has made moves on housing, but Kamala Harris has put forward a bold proposal to try to construct three more million units of housing in this country. The cost of housing is the single biggest share of wallet. Why didn't she say that? Because I get where you're going. Yeah.

Because the Biden administration has been a successful administration. She has been a partner in it. And I think that she respects the president and wants to see the rest of his tenure be a success. But I do agree. I think there's room to say, and here's what I would be doing. Another example is on drug pricing, right? She has called for more transparency with pharmacy benefit managers and with

taking out the middlemen in the drug pricing supply chain to put more money in the pockets of patients and to rationalize our drug pricing supply chain. That's another area where she can say, hey, Biden administration made a good start. I'm going to go even further. All right. Congressman Jake Aachencloss for us this morning. Sir, always grateful to have you. Hope to see you again soon. Good to be with you.

All right, 54 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Talks to try to end the month-long strike at Boeing breaking down. 33,000 union machinists walked off the job over pay and the lost pension plan. No new talks are currently scheduled. Both sides do say that they're willing to go back to the table.

The cost of your shot at the Mega Million is about to go up, the price more than doubling from $2 a ticket to $5. Lottery officials say this will improve the odds of winning bigger prizes. The increase begins in April of next year. And this.

Wow, end of an era just an hour ago. The Tropicana Hotel imploded on the Las Vegas Strip. The third oldest casino in Vegas closed in April after welcoming guests for 67 years. The demolition clearing land for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium for the relocating Oakland A's.

All right, with Florida bracing for yet another devastating storm, new estimates reveal that Hurricane Helene alone caused up to $47.5 billion in losses for property owners. If you're looking to buy a new home, you'll soon see that Zillow will include climate data in its listings, showing their flooding, fire, and heat risks amid more frequent and severe natural disasters. For Florida homeowners in particular, the financial impact of these weather events is clear.

Insurance premiums in Florida are up as much as 400 percent over the past five years in certain areas, one of the fastest increases in the country, the Wall Street Journal reports. One Florida resident recently spoke to CNN about her experience after her home was destroyed by Hurricane Ian two years ago. I remember looking at my policies and thinking, I'm covered. I'll be able to build and be OK. I ended up with...

Almost $8,000. Out of what was it supposed to pay? I had a $300,000 policy. They gave you eight? Yeah, it was around eight. I was just in shock. How much have you spent so far? I'm probably close to $250,000 by now. Why stay here? This was the house I had with my husband before he passed. We loved it here, and I have great memories here with him. All right, our panel is back.

Kristen Soltis-Nangy, you're from Florida originally. There is this bigger question as these storms continue to bear down. There have been all these people moving to Florida lately. That seems to be reversing in trend as well. But how do we justify continuing to build in areas when the weather is trending the way that it is? Well, you're right. I grew up in Florida. I love Florida. Florida is a wonderful place to grow up. I understand why people want to move there. It's beautiful most of the year.

maybe not in the summer, it's a little bit hot. No income taxes, but you're right that with the threat of these natural disasters, and if we say that they're going to become more and more frequent, flooding is more of an issue. You go down to Miami during a rainstorm, the downtown gets flooded a lot more easily. There is a real question about resiliency and the need to build infrastructure

in ways that are prepared for the long haul. - And this is a real sort of sensitive and difficult conversation amongst a broader conversation about resilience in the United States. A lot of communities right now throughout the country are having this debate about how much to invest in communities that are in flood zones, that are in areas that are prone to natural disasters.

You know, my colleagues and I have reported on this and FEMA even has a program that is ramped up in recent years that basically invests in relocating residents and entire communities at times to move away from flood zones. So

I think we're going to see more of this, of a certain conversation around whether or not you're going to see people continue to move to communities that are in areas that are prone to natural disasters. - And I was gonna say, I think that makes the plan that Harris put out even more important about housing because I think housing, not just in Florida, but across the country,

with the weather patterns we're seeing, with climate change we're seeing is gonna make those things so much more important that we're building in a way that is smart and sustainable for the future, which makes her plan even more important on housing. - Kristin, at what point does the insurance market just break?

I mean, it seems like we may be headed in that direction. You hear stories from people in Florida about property insurance going up. They want to move to a new home and that becomes an issue. And I think especially after what is likely insurers are going to have to pay out after Helene and Milton and the expense of that, I think it could be a real, real problem. Yeah. Zolan, how do you think that impacts things here in Washington? Because obviously the way this debate often...

There's always a loser in this kind of a conversation is the challenge, right? - Sure, sure, sure. And you know, I mean, how much do you continue to take taxpayer money and invest in recovery efforts for areas that are gonna continue to be hit by these different natural disasters? Do you take that taxpayer money and actually try to invest more in resilience? Some of the programs that I described,

You know, because you're going to have a choice. It cannot just continue to be a response that's centered on sort of the immediate disaster response, sending trailers, moving people into hotel rooms, paying for flood insurance programs that will continue to rebuild homes that will be hit again. You're seeing more and more momentum around sort of the long-term sort of emergency response, which does involve, you know, not just resilience, but also investing in areas that aren't as prone to natural disasters. But

But this is difficult. I mean, when we've talked to people in these communities, we're talking about retreating at times from your home, from the place where you've grown up. And that's a difficult conversation to have. All right. Thank you all for being here this morning. Thanks to all of you for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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