for hurricane dorian. it's coming as millions in high alert with florida declaring a state of emergency. the storm is expected to intensify over the next few days and might make landfall as a powerful category 3 hurricane. we've got our team with the latest on these developments and all the day's top stories. peter alexander at the white house. i'm joined by ashley parker, "washington post" reporter, msnbc contributor as we start with the politics of the storm before heading out live on the ground in florida. so peter, let me start with you here. president trump in the last couple of minutes is talking a little bit about the storm, response, as he's come under fire for his response to the storm. walk us through. >> hallie, you're right. let's get to the president's newest comments as he's keeping a close eye on what's taking place rit now in the atlantic as the storm appears to be barreling toward florida. the president just moments ago in an interview with the radio with fox news host said according -- this is a quote, according to people over at

weather the state is going to be hit. here is more of what we heard from the president moments ago. okay. we don't have that sound bite. why don't i just tell you. he said the state will be ready. tweeted about it as well. said puerto rico is in good shape, fema did a good job there. that was good news. he said the storm is going to hit the florida coast as well. certainly the president has reason to be concerned about that. not just the massive population he has property that is in the cone of uncertainty, that is his property at mar-a-lago. obviously as you've been talking about the president facing scrutiny, hallie, because the administration as we reported in the last 24 hours is also diverting hundreds of millions of dollars, $271 million to be exact in disaster for

immigration detention, temporary hearing for asylum seekers, those forced to wait in mexico until their court dates. democrats called this backwards and cruel. chuck schumer claims it threatens lives and weakens the ability to help americans in the wake of national disasters. the white house is pushing back on that. they know the obama administration, it redirected disaster funds for central american immigrant crisis in 2014 during heart of this year's hurricane season. >> ashley, i'm going to go to you. acting fema administrator is also, as peter talked about, downplaying what it means to divert this melee. i want to play for you what he had to say. >> right now in our disaster relief fund, we have $27 billion. the $155 million is really less than 1%. we live with risk every day in this business and we assess that risk to be minimal. >> the message from the trump administration, ashley, seems clear. we're ready for the storm, got enough money and we're going to

be ready to handle it? >> that is the message from the trump administration, and it's one you're seeing a number of democrats express deep scepticism towards and raise alarm bells with. they say this is an administration who in previous storms with puerto rico did not have an adequate or competent response. they are worried about removing these funds or moving them and what it might do for populations, disaster readiness and handle the aftermath of the storm. for democrats it's a bit of a double whammy. they are taking away funds they believe are crucial and moving them to border enforcement, which is something that worries democrats. they say you are taking funds for people who need them for disaster relief and help them separate children from families and that's not something they support. >> what do we expect from president trump today. he's been tweeting about the storm as you noted. presume earl he's monitoring the track as it makes landfall in

florida. >> you're exactly right. the best indication is from the president's comments moments ago on the radio. some of his tweets early this day. we'll see him once this afternoon when he announces establishment of u.s. space command, space com. we've reached out for more details on that. i wouldn't be surprised if at the start of the remarks he delivers a message, as past presidents would do the same to people in the region and urging them to keep a close eye on the storm as it barrels toward the coastline. it's coming labor day weekend as the president is supposed to be traveling overseas with poland his next stop. we've reached out as well to find out if that trip remains on, if the president will still travel. we'll let you know about that. >> peter alexander, ashley parker. i want to play the sound peter was trying to talk to, the president talking about dorian, let me play it out for you. >> they will be totally ready. puerto rico is totally ready. fema and first responders did an incredible job with puerto rico

and then we got luck y, took a different course. we got really lucky. we were ready in puerto rico and we're very ready also in florida. >> very ready in florida, so let's get to florida with the latest on dorian. kathy in cape canaveral, michelle grossman tracking the storm back at 30 rock headquarters. let me start with you. on the space coast folks are bracing for a direct hit eventually. gorgeous where you are now but that's not going to last. >> uh-huh. hallie, good morning. that's right. floridians are used to hurricanes but they know how serious these storms can get. they are definitely preparing right now. the governor has issued a state of emergency here for 26 counties. a lot of folks are listening to those warnings stocking up on supplies, getting those generators ready, batteries, also businesses. this is a big tourism area. there is a port over here. the space center is 30 minutes away from where we are standing.

these businesses really rely on the labor day weekend holiday to goose their bottom line. they are going to be taking a direct hit. i'm going to bring in angela over here. she works a few minutes over at the water's edge cafe. i understand you guys are starting to prepare. you're noticing that customers aren't necessarily coming to dine because they are afraid of what's to come. >> they are out there getting hurricane supplies, getting their houses ready and that takes their extra money. we have jetty park that's right by us. it's usually loaded for the weekend by now, it's far from that. so it's far from that. i'm sure campers won't be coming. >> you're typically saying this area ahead of a holiday weekend is packed with campers. >> right. >> clearly everyone thinned out. >> it was supposed to be a really big weekend for our bait shop and cafe. it's still going to be all right but it will just be a little different this year. >> how are you guys preparing?

folks have been told to gather the sandbags and use this lull in the weather, this break from the weather to take precautions. >> right. the restaurant is pretty hurricane secure. it has hurricane windows and everything, so we're going to be open as long as we can to, you know, help get everybody. it's kind of fun to watch the boaters pull their boats in and out of the water and everything, getting this boats ready as well for the hurricane. >> meantime you're working but riding out the storm as well. >> right. >> tell me how you're maneuvering everything. >> my daughter is 24. she's out there getting cash, in the gas lines right now. she's going to the grocery store, coming to get my car and switch it out and go back to the gas line before it's busy. everyone getting this generator tanks filled so lots of gas is going out. >> but in the meantime, you guys are still open for business. >> come see us. have breakfast, lunch. our shrimp and grits is amazing.

>> we might have to join you when we get a little break. stay safe in this storm. hallie, that's kind of the situation here. people are kind of taking this in stride at least for now. it's hard to kind of complain when the weather is like this. things can really take a turn later on this weekend. >> sounds like they will. kathy park. michelle grossman, you are the expert on when things will take a turn. i understand an update on the track within the next hour or so, right? >> comes at 11:00. hi there, hallie. we can't emphasize enough. three to four days. it looks beautiful. now is the time to prepare. we had storms where we had power outages for one, two, three weeks. you want to get everything in order. that's for northern bahamas and state of florida. taking a look at the satellite, swirling north of the virgin island, also puerto rico. seeing outer rain bands there. not a big deal. moving off to the north and west. we are category 1 storm, 80-mile-per-hour winds. this keeps strengthening with

every update. we'll be interested to see what 11:00 brings. looking at the location 150 miles north northwest of san juan, puerto rico, 13 miles an hour. that's been the case over the last 36 hours. it's moving at a quick pace. that's going to change closer to bahamas and florida. that's not good news in terms of rainfall. let's track it for you, category 1 storm, open waters of the caribbean. very warm waters. that's fuel, like gasoline to a car for these storms. so there's nothing to slow it down. that means between now and tomorrow, an increase of category 3 storm and that will be the case as we go throughout the caribbean here. north of the bahamas you want to prepare now. by sunday looking at 125-mile-per-hour winds. these are sustained winds. we are seeing gusts higher than that. you want to prepare for the gusts. that will be higher than that. as we near the coast, expecting a category 3 storm. what happens, interesting, it does slow down.

moving at a pretty good clip now. it's going to slow down, go over the state of florida, drop a lot of rain because it will be moving slower. then we could see it move into the gulf, regain strength and could potentially could be looking at gulf coast states affected as well. we have time, three to four days. friday is the day to really solidify the forecast and see a better chance of where we're going to see that landfall. anywhere from southern florida to southern georgia. some models pointing to the carolinas. it looks now a lot of agreement for florida. looking at rain in the virgin island. not a lot in puerto rico. we are going to be watching this very, very closely over the next four or five days. >> sounds like it. meteorologist michelle grossman. thank you so up make. we have breaking news up next. doj inspector general, trump administration releasing rules on methane. james comey responding to the release of an inspector general report all about those memos he wrote. we're going to have a live

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trump administration set to make an announcement that could have big impact on the environment. plans to roll back obama regulations on powerful greenhouse gas methane, a big contributor to climate change. anne thompson has all the details for us. ann, you cover the environment day in, day out. what can you tell us about new proposals set to be rolled out

by epa. >> first, hallie, let's understand what methane is. the energy sector in this country is the largest contributor of methane admissions. methane is a heat trapping gas. that is a gas that fuels climate change. it's far more potent than carbon dioxide. that's the gas we normally associate with climate change. in fact, the environmental defense says 8 4% more potent than greenhouse gases two decades after it goes into the atmosphere. that sets the table. now, what is the trump administration trying to do? in 2016 the obama administration put limits on oil and gas industry saying they had to monitor and they had to limit the leaks of methane from oil and gas production. that means pipelines, tanks, wells. now what the trump admission is saying is, no, you don't have to

do that anymore. we're going to roll those back so industry disrnt have to monitor those leaks. why would they do that? the argument from industry, at least the american petroleum institute is there's a motive for industry to control those leaks. if they control those leaks, they can sell the natural gas. what's happened, though, that hasn't been the practice in reality. what's really interesting, hallie, is some major producers, exxonmobil and royal dutch shell have urged the trump administration not to roll back these regulations because they think it hurts the image of natural gas. as you remember, natural gas is sold to us as the cleaner burning fuel. if in its extraction and transport it's sending methane emissions into the atmosphere and helping to fuel climate change, that hurts its image. >> this was not an unexpected move by the trump administration, right? >> no.

they have been telegraphing it forever. it's part of, president trump has said time and time again he wants to lift the regulatory burden on industry and particular on the energy producing industry. he loves to talk about how america is energy independent and that this is just one more step towards that goal. >> anne thompson, live in new york. i know you'll be staying on top of that when the epa makes it official. we'll see you on "nbc nightly news." coming up on this show, the democratic field gets smaller than we've seen it so far, so does the debate stage. how that double edged sword could cut both ways as we hit the campaign trail live with our road warriors next. appreciate the invite here. as my broker, what am i paying you to manage my money? it's racquetball time. (thumps) ugh! carl, does your firm offer a satisfaction guarantee? like schwab does. guarantee? (splash) carl, can you remind me what you've invested my money in? it's complicated.

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we are following breaking news out of washington here. the department of justice just in the past couple of minutes released its conclusion of inspector general investigation of former fbi director james comey and how he handled sensitive investigation -- information from that investigation and memos. the bottom line here is the department said comey did violate policies but also says it found no evidence that comey or his attorneys released classified information to members of the media. comey seizing on that piece and

tweekt about it today. it's still a blistering report. we want to make sure we bring it to you correctly. our team is reading to all 82 pages as we speak. the second we're able to get them to a camera, we'll bring it to you asap. stick with us. in the meantime, breaking news, 2020 will came pain trail. we go to south carolina where joe biden will make his first stop of the day in about an hour or so. the former vp has one less democrat standing between him and president trump. senator gillibrand is officially out of the race after she didn't qualify for the race. she was stepping down. she wasn't the only one to miss. the biggest primary field will be cut in half. these candidates just one night. in rock hill, south carolina, ahead of biden's town hall. for biden he seems to be riding somewhat high based on polls showing him comfortably in that

front-runner status. >> hallie, any way you look at it, it's been a good week for joe biden. the monmouth poll a few days ago showed him essentially a tie. a series of three national polls in a row showing him right back where he's been since he got into the race, out in front some measure, double digits, some places doubling up his closest competitor, elizabeth warren, back in south carolina, probably his strongest state. a place he's very comfortable, talking about the issue front and center on the debate stage, that's health care. biden has made a big deal. run ads in iowa about building on afterwardable care act. this does two things. it's a policy fight he wants to have. it shows him superglued to barack obama, very popular with democratic voters, particularly african-american voters. he's raring up for the fight on the debate stage. bolstered by those poll numbers

he's chugging along. >> garrett haake, thank you. let me bring in senior adviser movon.org and a republican pollster. guys, big moment now on the debate stage. we know who the field will be, who will be up at the podiums. a lot like at the key matchup we haven't seen before. joe biden, elizabeth warren. >> it's been going on eight months now and this is the first time, technically third debate, where we'll see the front-runners on the debate stage. i think it's really important for voters to start to see that, make that apple and apple comparison, really see what do these folks who are -- we're talking about warren and biden and also sanders. we can't leave sanders out and also harris and cory booker and all the rest of them. we'll see how that goes, how they interact. can they make the case, the contrast with the one everyone is eyeing on, joe biden.

>> kirsten gillibrand spent a lot of moneymaking it opt the debate stage. tom steyer spent a the loaf money as well. he's not on the debate stage. you look at the numbers here. donald trump has spent so far $4 million. democrats, warren s.8, gill friend above $2. should the democrats who did not make the debate, when is the time they should start putting resources elsewhere for tom steyer and others. >> if i was a democratic voter i would want folks to step back and look at other races they could potentially jump into where they might have a chance of unseating a republican in a senate seat, congressional race. if there are folks with other opportunities to play, it seems at this point if you're not on that debate staple you're in the moving forward. folks not in the round of debates, governor steve bullock who qualified for the second

round. as the bar increases, if you're not on the debate stage when there's ten, it's unlikely you can all of a sudden drop tons of money and buy your way into the next round as tom steyer found out. you have democratic voters who many said once the field shrinks, then i'll begin to pay attention. as long as you've got two dozen people in the race, i don't have the energy to try to figure out what all these people stand for. give me a smaller field, then i'll pay attention. that's when we'll see if joe biden's lead in the polls, is it really because he commands a third plus of the democratic party or is it name id. at this point it could still just be name i dchd. they think it's too crowded. >> we see that in the poll. it's a name id with joe biden. of course, they know joe biden, like joe biden. we don't know yet.

when you see voters respond they don't know a lot in the race besides warren and sanders. we'll see. i think this third debate will be key when we see front-runners. >> here is tim ryan to reacting to not ending up on the stage this morning, watch. >> obviously you want on. we're doing it the old-fashioned way. i'm on the ground, meeting people, going to churches, shaking hands. >> i have to say i've been critical of dnc, last go-round, four debates, hidden, really difficult for other candidates outside hillary clinton and joe biden to break through. this time around, i think dnc has had a fair and open process. they are going to have 12 debates during the primary. it's really hard because there's 24 people in the race. that's really what's happening.

they are pretty talented, impressive group of folks. it's hard to break through. >> think about those that don't make the debate stage, delaney, bullock, ryan. a lot of folks who are the ones that could possibly challenge joe biden for moderate, centrist blue-collar lane of the party, if we're going to use the lane metaphor. those folks are gone. that could be the one thing good for joe biden is none of the serious folks left on the stage are actively trying to compete with him for that -- maybe with the exception of amy klobuchar. in some ways only a couple points here and there. it's fascinating. the folks knocked out are the ones that could have challenged joe biden for the centrist lane and never caught fire doing so. >> thanks to both being on. it's always a pleasure. >> thank you. >> following breaking news out of washington. department of justice releasing

conclusions of the ig report how james comey handled sensitive information and those memos he wrote about his interactions with president trump. i want to bring in julia ainsley. julia, i know you have 25 minutes or so to read through 82 pages. can you bring us up to speed on the highlights here. it sounds like james comey according to doj, ig, but they are not going to prosecute him. >> you've got the headlines out of this huge report we've got right here. the headline here is that the inspector general finished its report, found that director comey should not have passed along information they considered confidential, not classified to a friend, law professor daniel richmond who leaked that to the president. that was the conversation with the president when the president said he'd let the whole michael flynn thing go. we're going back in time. this is a big one that stands

out to anyone. they said he should not have done that, referred it and they declined to prosecute. really we're exactly where we were when we started this, the justice department will not prosecute this. the inspector general did take time to explain why he shouldn't have done this. one thing he said director comey failed to live up to his responsibility by not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his fbi employment. they are saying it could create public pressure for other fbi employees and many thousands of former fbi employees who similarly have access to or knowledge of nonpublic information. he's setting a bad precedent and should have known better as fbi director. i will say, though, hallie, it's interesting to see what director comey said in his own enter vows with the inspector general which they do include here. they put this exact thing to them, why would you do this, in your own personal interest to

leak this. he said he would frame it differently. he viewed the issue as one of incredible importance to the nation as a whole and he took this action because it was something he had to do for the love of this country. he loves the justice department and fbi and was trying to preserve their speaking rit in this. >> can you explain something, the department says or ig said comey violated policies by releasing sensitive information as they call it. james comey and what came out seconds after it was released, on different part of the report where he talks about he didn't release classified information to the media. is this a distinction between sensitive and classified? explain here. >> big distinction. hallie, you and i get information from sources every day. things they probably only get in their own jobs that isn't going out to the public. it's not classified. it's not putting someone in

danger, giving up sources for the united states that provide us with information every day. it's not classified. it's sensitive. that's what he's zeroing in on. it seems that is what the justice department zeroed in on as well when they decided not to move forward with the prosecution. the inspector general is saying the release of sensitive information was not in his best conduct as director but the justice department ultimately decided it was it was not classified, that was not a prosecutorable offense. >> this is turning into already this morning, julia, a political football, perhaps unsurprisingly as much of what james comey says and does does. jim foreman, at the forefront has released take statement on this ig report. he says it's a disappointing reminder the former fbi director put partisanship and personal ambition over patriotism. a top republican in the house. is it your expectation this will get spun politically and on a partisan level over the next 24,

48 hours or so? >> i think if you want to attack the former fbi director, who was the person who launched the entire investigation that came the mueller investigation, this report does give you a lot of fodder for that. it talks about how james comey's intentions behind the leaks of these memos were to create his own personal narrative. they counter this idea this was for the love of country and really say it had to do more with the love of his own image he was trying to save. there's a lot republicans can work with. at the end of the day, they don't have anything that's a prosecutorable offense. really he didn't do anything out of line with what a lot of whistleblowers do throughout washington, hallie. >> i'll let you get back to reading those 82 pages. ned price, former assistant to president obama, ned, i know you're just wrapping your head around this. can you speak broadly based on your assessment so far from what

you've learned. >> it seems the inspector general made a point, this wasn't a criminal matter, it was an administrative matter. he didn't violate law by leaking classified information. that's a determination. it's giving him what seems to be a slap on the wrist, saying this is conduct unbecoming of fbi officials, especiallyist senior most leadership. you know, in looking at this and thinking about this, you almost scratch your head and wonder why jim comey decided to put forward the full memos knowing these were official documents, even though they were essentially his contemporaneous notes at the time and why he didn't speak out publicly or why he didn't pass on just the key findings in another form. that may have allowed him to issue the warning that he very clearly felt he needed to issue. frankly the warning that i believe he needed to issue

without running afoul of these administrative principles on the department of justice. >> one of our team members points out people who blow the whistle as julie in aly talking about, do so often and off in violation of their department poll tice, doesn't always necessarily mean they acted wrongly. is that an assessment you agree with? >> look, i think you have distinguish between whistleblower and leaking. whistleblower is defined to channels in the agency, department of justice andphobic in this case or sometimes within congress. there are established and prescribed channels for whistleblowers to put their concerns forward, so those concerns are treated with discretion. if it's a classified matter, the secrecy that's required. that's very different from the actions of a leaker. a leaker knowingly in most cases

gives classified or highly sensitive information to the media for going those channels and essentially making the calculation. look, this information needs to get out there even if it violates administrative or even in some cases criminal law. i wouldn't call jim comey a whistleblower in this case. i'm not sure i would call him a leaker. perhaps there's some term in between. as the inspector general report suggests, there was not classified information in here. but i think whistleblower, we have to be very clear that that refers to a very specific category of individuals whose conduct does not reflect what jim comey did in this case. >> i'll ask you to stick around a little longer. we have a quick break and then more on the news out of washington, the doj that comey violated policies in how he handled sensitive memos. no prosecution, though.

more after the break. so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country.

doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. we are following breaking news out of washington. oppose th on that report the department of justice inspector general just released 35, 40 minutes ago looking into former fbi director james comey and how he handled several memos containing information. i'll bring in justice and security analyst on the phone. matt, as julia ainsley who covers the justice explained

earlier, this report found comey violated doj policies but declined to prosecute him. what's your takeaway here? >> they declined to prosecute him because it's not a violation of law. it's not a violation to violate doj or fbi policies. it may be for the department but that's different than a criminal act. i think that conclusion by the inspector general that he did violate fbi rules while probably technically true on its face, it just so misses the context of the time. it's so devoid of the context of what happened and what comey was responding to, it really feels me like the ig has missed the mark. you have to go back and remember when comey took this step, the president of the united states had asked him to back off an investigation into the national security adviser. he asked him for loyalty. when comey didn't do any of those things, the president

fired him and then went on television and she had he fired him to help end the russia investigation. the idea comey was supposed to take this up with the inspector general rather than alert the meamerican public and try to gea special counsel appointed seems like a complete missive of any real context of what was happening in the real world by the inspector general. >> you make the analogy on your twitter, you were tweeting, i hope you weren't driving looking through this, this was like slapping on the wrist for racing to save a burning village. explain that. what do you mean by that? >> it's like faulting someone for speeding when they were coming to alert the village that a fire is coming. the president of the united states was launching an assault on the department of justice, trying to turn his department of justice into independent law enforcement arm and kill an investigation into his campaign, that essentially involved

himself. yes, jim comey violated the department rule at the time but he did so as a whistleblower. a whistleblower blowing on the whistle for some of the most disturbing conduct you can imagine by the president of the united states. the idea that it's important at all that he violated these department rules just seems to me very short sighted and narrowly -- reflects a narrow view of the world by bureaucrats and inspector general's office. >> matt miller, justice and security analyst with a different take from folks you heard from on the show. matt, thanks fog ber on the phone. i want to get ainslie who has been sifting through the report and bring more from what she's reading. what have you got? >> when all of this was first leaked to the media, it was after comey was fired as fbi

director. that's an interesting question they get into. they slap comey on the wrist for the way they preserved these documents, whether or not they were fbi documents or personal documents. comey says he considers the majority of these memos, including the big one we're talking about here, where he's talking about the meeting where the president asked him to let go of the michael flynn thing, he said that was a personal document. he kept them at home. the ig said is whole incompatible with the statute's languages and policies defining federal court records -- defining federal records. they are saying all of this should have been kept in a secure location at the fbi. that might seem like they are kind of being picky here about where he keeps this, especially since it's sensitive, not classified, if you think about it, for james comey, what is the big investigation that made him a household name, that was looking into hillary clinton's

e-mails which should have been kept not at a private server in her home because of the information they contained. this all kind of comes around full circle. there is a question about where he kept the memos, whether employment status being former fbi director mattered. it should not matter he left. said, the fbi director was not a covered employee but he could have legally -- he could have legally disclosed the information with the office of professional responsibility or the inspector general. they give a number of different places where comey could have gone with this information besides the media. so this is another thing and a pretty scathing report on james comey that could be used as political fodder, that he didn't preserve these documents in the way he should have and that he shouldn't have gone to the press. there were other outlets he could have taken this information. that's what's standing out now but could be mayor.

>> i'll have you stand by for the camera but keep reading, julia ainsley. i want to bring somebody on the phone who knows a lot, former contributor and u.s. attorney and fbi official. chuck, thank you for hopping on the line with us. your perspective is important here. what have you seen or heard about this report so far? >> i'm somewhat torn. on the one hand, there are rules. the rules are clear and they apply to everybody. on the other hand, i think matt miller made an important point, this was an extraordinary circumstance, so we vest in the leader of the fbi as we investigate other leaders in government for the duty to do extraordinary things at extraordinary times. so to tell you that i have fully resolved this in my own mind would be a lie. on the other hand, i understand why jim did what he did when he did it. that makes sense to me. the president was interfering

with ongoing criminal investigation. jim saw it as an extraordinary and deeply disturbing thing and took action to try and thwart it. that at some level, hallie, makes a lot of sense to me. on the other hand, i abided by the rules. everyone does. everyone should. i am conflicted to tell you the truth. >> i want to quote you from the report that the director in the words of the inspector general failed to live up to his responsibility and says he set a dangerous example for some 35,000 fbi employees currently working. is that a fair assessment in your view? >> no. i think it's not. i think it's a little hyperbolic, and i think it lacks, as matt miller said, some context. what jim was responding to was in many ways an emergency. so in an energy, you need people to take emergency steps. might he have done it differently if he had more time to consider and reflect? perhaps. but we needed a special counsel

investigation and jim helped initiate one. i get the rules, abide bring them, i hope. desperate times call for desperate measures. >> chuck, sit tight. julia has been reading the report and has more information for us. julia. >> the key page is first section page 60 because it gets into the part that the inspector general found the most problems with of all of comey's behavior. that is when he's talking about memo four, exactly what james comey did with this. this was when he took the memo home with him after he left about his conversation with the president and he gave it to daniel richmond, his friend and law professor. it says after his removal as fbi director two months later, comey provided memo four, which the inspector general said he should not have had in his possession,

comey had without authorization to richmond, the law professor i described, with the intent to share contents with a reporter from the "new york times." we can remember that day, hallie, when this came out in the "new york times," the headline said comey asked him to end the flint investigation. that set off fireworks and really was one of the things that ended up leading to the appointment of robert mueller. so they detail all of this. really to put this in comey's face, they quote him in a 2017 testimony where he says the fbi is very careful in how we handle information about our cases and people we're investigating. our ability to share details with congress and the american people is limited when those investigations are still open. we need to protect the people's privacy. in other words, he knew the ramifications of sharing sensitive information, how that could hurt the bureau. again and again, we make the

case not comey trying to protect america or the bureau but to protect jim comey. i think as you can hear from contributors here, i can go over what's in the report more than they can but it was mention of this report so far. >> and chuck, you mentioned earlier, chuck rosenberg is still with us on the phone here. chuck, you mentioned being somewhat i think you used the word torn about this. >> conflicted, yes. >> what did you need to see or hear or learn to help you process this more? i'm curious. >> well, i need to read the entire report and i need to think about it, but i'm not sure i won't be conflicted after i read it either. sometimes we seek a yes or no or black or white answer and we live in a world of gray. julia's point is important as was matt's. when jim comey said in congressional testimony that the fbi closely safeguards sensitive investigative information, that was true, that is true, that will be true tomorrow.

it's true in almost every single thing that they do. he didn't do it here. i think you have to look at the context and the context here sthat preside that the president tried to interfere in an ongoing investigation. >> chuck, we look forward to seeing you on camera in a minute. julia ainsley will be reporting throughout the morning. we'll see you later on msnbc. we'll sneak in a quick break and be right back. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions.

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so president trump just in the last hour is promising farmers they're going to love what he's up to with this aid package from the administration to help them out. he's tweeting "the farmers are going to be so happy when they see what we're doing for eth nol, not even including the e-15, it's going to be a giant package, get ready." interesting timing. the president is facing a ton of pressure from the key constituency of his, why? because the epappased a couple dozen waivers letting refineries not use ethanol, led to more than a dozen plants halting production, the demand for corn down. i'm joined by von hilliard and lodger johnson, president of the national farmer's union.

von, we can't say the president has been watching your reporting but interesting timing about his tweet on ethanol. what are you finding as you're talking to folks out there? >> the president hopes this ethanol package that he is teasing out this morning in that tweet will please farmers because right now across the midwest they're far from pleased. multiple farmers we talked to tell us that these epa waivers, essentially the epa has told these oil refineries they do not have to blend corn ethanol as part of their gasoline they're producing, which caused ire, not only farmers saying hey, our corn prices have gone down but also the fact that the folks that are running these corn ethanol plants have seen this ethanol plant the company that runs it seen $150 million in losses just in the last year. you have just last week an indiana company announcing a closure of their corn ethanol

plant and yesterday one up in minnesota announcing a closure as well. >> vaughn hillyard live in iowa. >> john, we thought you were an important voice to have with us here. we were talking during the commercial break. you said the biggest concern for you for the farmers is not just the president they feel is breaking his promise but hurting their reputation. what do you mean by that? >> when you look at the stuff gone on with trade and china and the offensive remarks that he's made about leaders around the world, that has hurt our markets. when you add on what's happened with ethanol, with sort of these gifts to big oil the president has made to the epa waivers that were just talked about that helps destroy the markets, so net farm income is half of what it was six years ago. there's a lot of financial strain in farm country. in all these things combined, just create a lot of economic anxiety in agriculture. >> president trump says he's doing what he can to relieve

some of the economic anxiety. he was out on fox radio before the show. i want to play what he had to say to the host. >> what i did is i gave the farmers 12 billion the previous year, 16 billion this year to make up because the farmers have been targeted. that's how vicious they play the game. they actually target because they know the farmers like trump and trump loves the farmer actually, i love what they could, they're incredible people. >> is that enough? >> so these are the so-called market facilitation payments that were announced a year ago and then earlier this year to make up for the damage that's happened as a result of the trade turmoil. they are far from sufficient to make up for the loss and net farm income. net farm income's been down in the area of $600 billion. now so these payments, $12 billion, $16 billion, they're needed, yes, they're important.

they are not going to make up for the damage and this damage is long-term. it's going to be decades literally before we get some of these markets back, if ever. >> president trump alluded to it there. he knows farmers in many states are a key part of his constituency, his base. >> sure. >> do you get any sense some of the folks you talked to that you interact with are starting to turn? >> well, you never know. i mean, it's, we're very much in a political season right now. i mean, these two payments clearly were made with political minds at work behind them. my guess is we'll see another one next year. who knows if it will happen after that. >> roger johnson i appreciate you coming on to talk to us. that does it for this hour. it is good to be back it with you from washington. i'll see you tomorrow and next week. craig melvin picks it up in new york. >> good to see you, hallie

jackson. following breaking news a brand new update about just how strong and dangerous hurricane dorian is, as it pushes toward florida. al roker is standing by with a brand new update from the national hurricane center. also breaking this hour the justice department says it found no reason to prosecute former fbi director james comey over those memos he released and now there comey is already firing back at his critics. plus any minute joe biden will be making his case to voters at a south carolina town hall, this is a live look, rock hill, south carolina, in the upstate near charlotte. the crowded field of democrats just narrowed by one. we'll go to the palmetto state in a moment. breaking news, hurricane dorian getting stronger and stronger as millions of folks on the east coast are bracing for impact, could be a major hurricane by the time it makes landfall this holiday