every step of the way as they rebuild their homes and communities and their lives and committed to all americans that we're going to build an economy that works for everyone. we're encouraged to see that the unemployment rate has once again dropped and workforce participation vaulted to 2.5 year high. this underscores the need for congress to work with us to grow the economy and create jobs. the importance of passing tax relief for american workers and business cannot be overstated. we have a once in a generation opportunity to create a tax code that is simple, fair and easy to understand. that means getting rid of the loopholes that primarily benefit the wealthiest americans and special interests. it also means lowering taxes for middle income americans so they can keep more of their hard earned paychecks and pie buy great american products made by american manufacturers. today the president signed a proclamation declaring october 6th, national manufacturering day. this honors men and women that

create projects that improve our lives and defend our nation. the people who as the president says believe in those beautiful words made in the u.s. in addition to 14 workers he hosted during the proclamation signing, more than half a million people around the country are participating in thousands of events relating to manufacturing day. among them will be numerous members of the president's cabinet and other senior officials. our tax plan would lead to a great american manufacturing boom. we'll cut taxes on american manufacturers and businesses of all sizes and restore their competitive edge so they can create more jobs and higher wages for our workers. our plan will also encourage them to bring back trillions of dollars currently parked overseas. the president will be back out on the road next week building support for this plan which is really a jobs bill. he'll visit hamburg pennsylvania on wednesday and have more details on that trip coming soon. with that, we'll kick off friday

with questions. we'll start now. this is kind of fun. we should do this more often, not just save it for fridays. john decker? >> the body of another u.s. soldier has been discovered by local forces in ni -- which brings to four the number of green berets killed. so far there's no response to this by the president, no tweet from the president, no statement from the president. can we expect some sort of reprisal by the u.s. military in niger as relates to what happened on wednesday? >> i made a statement on behalf of the administration yesterday in the opening and obviously any time one of the members of our great military are injured, wounded or killed in action,

that is certainly something that we take very seriously. our thoughts and prayers are with those individuals. we're continuing to review and look into this. as we have more details we'll certainly let you guys know. >> can you clarify the president's comments? was he referring to military action when he said calm before the storm? >> as we've said many times before, i know the president has as i have from this podium on quite a few occasions, never going to say in advance what the president is going to do and as he said last night in addition to those comments you'll have too wait and see. >> how seriously should the american public or adversaries take the comments? >> i think you can take the president protecting the american people serious, he's been very clear it's the number one priority and if he feels action is nersz, he'll take it. >> the president wants his

military leaders to give him military options faster. does he feel like they are intentionally slow walking these options to him? >> not at all. he's a person who likes to take action and take it quickly and i don't think you should read into anything beyond that as he wants options on the table so that he can make quick decisions. >> just a general comment or mean a specific country? >> i think it was a general comment, i'm not aware of anything specific it was in reference to. >> two questions, one on the soldier killed and the other on daca. on the soldier, when was the president made aware there was a fourth soldier missing in action and when did he become aware that discovered by local forces? >> believe it was yesterday but i would have to get clarification on the specific timing of when that took place. >> when was the president made aware that soldier's body was found? >> i know it was pretty soon

after that had been discovered but as far as like an exact time, i couldn't give you that. chief kelly kept him updated constantly on that situation as it evolved. >> a question on daca, today the president welcomed hispanic american leaders to the white house and did not mention his decision to end daca during remarks there and renew the call for congress to protect those who are going to be dpee portation starting in march. why did he not bring that up? >> look, i think he's been clear, there's no reason to continue to reiterate the same position he's held. he's called on congress to act on it. you can expect in the coming days he'll layout his responsible immigration reform. i think you can count on that to happen very soon. and that's all part of the process moving forward but he hasn't been unclear about what his position is on that front. april? >> going back to calm before the

storm, when presidents deal with world matters like this, all options are on the table, have you -- has this white house exhausted diplomacy? because for him to say the calm before the storm, and listening to what you just had to say -- >> we're continuing to put maximum economic and diplomatic pressure on countries like north korea, we're going to continue to do that but at the same time, the president is going to keep all of his options on the table. our position has not changed, very consistent. >> the storm -- >> i'm using that as an example, we have a lod of bad actors in the world, north korea, iran, several examples there. >> let me ask you about the decision to expand the contraception waiver. aclu has already filed a lawsuit or announced its intention to and this was their response, the trump administration is forcing women to pay for their boss's religious belief and we're filing this lawsuit because the federal government cannot

authorize discrimination against women in the name of religion or otherwise. your response to that would be what? >> i don't think it's been a secret that i would probably never use the aclu to get any of my talking points. the president believes that the freedom to practice one's faith is a fundamental right in this country and that's all today was about. our federal government should always protect that right. as long as donald trump is president, he will. >> what would you say maybe to the women out there or to the families out there who now have to pay more out of their pocket to get contraception coverage that they choose and desire? >> this is a president who supports the first amendment, supports the freedom of religion. i don't understand why that should be an issue. the supreme court has validated this decision, certainly many times over and the president is somebody who believes in the

constitution. if people don't like what the constitution says, they should talk to congress about changing it. >> given the lawsuits that the aclu has already filed, is the administration prepared to defend this con tra septemberive mandate roll back to the supreme court if need be? >> the supreme court has made clear what its decision is and supports what this administration has done. >> the legal fight that escalates to the supreme court -- >> i think if it does, it shows this administration is on the right side of the law. >> the calm before the storm issue again, the president wants to -- >> it's a different question. >> i thought maybe we would change it up. >> you say the president wants preserve an -- why would he dangle hints about his actions in the first place? >> i don't believe he did. matthew -- >> calm before the storm -- >> didn't talk any specific actions at all. >> first following up on the hhs change, does the white house have any estimate of how many

people would lose access to birth control under this change? >> i'm not aware. >> a quick follow-up on the topic the president repeated the u.s. is the highest taxed nation in the world. that's not true. why does he keep making that statement? >> i believe there are specific sectors within the country that are among the highest taxed in the world and we'll be happy to provide that data to you. john? >> thank you, sarah. i have to questions. first, there's been rumors that prime minister of greece will come here on the 17th, meet with the president and meet with the vice president on the 18th. we had no confirmation. is the prime minister invited and is he coming to meet the president and vice president? >> he is. i believe that date is correct. the 17th, i believe that he'll be here on that date. >> the other thing is that the

administration has had a vacancy without a permanent secretary of homeland security for two months which is a record for that position not operating with a permanent secretary. are we going to have an announce mtd on a choice for permanent secretary within days next week perhaps? and rumors are consistent, it will make elaine duke the permanent secretary -- true or false? >> i'm not going to get ahead of any announcement that the president may make about a permanent person but i will say that acting secretary duke is very competent and has managed the department well in a very tough and trying time given that hurricane season that we've had and certainly not wanted to make big shifts in leadership during this time. and while there's so much going on there in terms of a timetable, we'll keep you posted when we have an announcement.

>> i'm sorry? >> that's what you just said about secretary duke, testimony you gave is the president's opinion of her as well? >> yes, he's happy with the job she's done as acting secretary. >> george? >> it was said that the immigration principles being floated out there would be harmful to daca and it should be kept separate from any discussion about legal immigration. what is the white house response to that? are you guys committed to attaching legal immigration -- >> we want to make sure whatever we put forward is a responsible immigration reform and not one piece of this process dealt with separately. we need to make sure we're addressing all of the problems so we're not dealing with this again in 2, 4, 5, 6 years but putting forward a thorough a full plan and that's what you'll see coming from the administration in very short order. fred? >> thanks, two questions.

first, the view on the -- pay day -- >> not that i'm aware of. i have to check on that and circle back. >> just to follow-up on that topic, there have been some house republicans who believe that there's already cause for firing recocordray, why hasn't president -- does he approve of the job cordray has done so far? >> when we have personal noungs. s we'll keep you post. that's two already. have to move on. >> two quick questions. there have been rumors about the future of secretary of state rex tillerson today. can you continue to say president remains confident in the secretary of state? >> he does. as he said yesterday or two days ago as i said yesterday, nothing has changed despite what you may read in the media or watch on tv. i would certainly trust the

president in my comments far above those of other reporters. >> and i want to ask you, the president words matter, the president can cause markets and miscalculation when it comes to adversaries about the context of questions asked of you today when you've been asked what he meant calm before the storm, you mentioned north korea and iran and implication there's some sort of military action. some sort of forecasting there. can you clarify if we're interpreting things correctly? >> i haven't been specific about anything. i talked about the fact that we're continuing to put maximum diplomatic pressure on countries like north korea. i'm simply saying all options are on the table as they have about and we're not going to announce what actions we'll be taking into that moment comes. >> why didn't he say that? >> can you be more -- open to

legislation clearly banning? >> we want to be part of the conversation and gather more information. we'll continue to do that over the coming days and that's the current position, hasn't changed since yesterday. >> thank you, two questions. >> why not. >> i asked you about senator corker. >> not three, two is the limit. >> a few weeks back, earlier this week he said that secretary tillerson and secretary mattis and general kelly are basically what's keeping the country separated from chaos and said there are other people in the white house that aren't putting forth policies in a co-heefrnt fashion. do you have any response to senator corker? >> i think the president is the one keeping the world from chaos. he has an incredible team helping him lead that effort. and he's had tremendous accomplishments on an international stage by working with allies and confronting

enemies. we'll continue doing that as a team with the president leading that effort. >> i'll come back if we have time. >> getting back to the calm before the storm comments, i want to ask you about that in a different way. there's a theory in washington and forgive me in you've been asked about it before, that the president subscribes to this madman theory, that if he makes a lot of unsettling offputting comments that sort of throw people off, he likes to keep his adversaries guessing and that's one of the points making the comment the calm before the storm. what is your sense of that? anything to that? >> the president has addressed this himself. he certainly doesn't want to layout his game plan for our enemies, so if you're asking is the president trying to do that? absolutely. i don't think that's -- i don't think that's a secret. i wouldn't say necessarily he's

trying to throw people off but not trying to broadcast or telegraph his exact actions, we've seen what a failure it is when the administration does that and this is a president who's going to do it differently and do it better. >> when people are -- sort of catch their breath in this town and hold their breath in this town and he says something like that, you have a smile on your face -- is that somehow satisfying? >> i picture people in the town holding their breath. that might be a welcome surprise for most of america. >> one more thing to pick up on. let me put it to you this way, can you exclude the possibility that the president was actually just being mischiefous and messing with the press when he made that comment? ? >> i didn't say he was messing with the press. i think we have serious world issues here and north korea and iran both continue ton bad actors and the president will always look for ways to protect

americans and not going to dictate what the actions may look like. i don't think there's anything beyond that i can add on that front. >> the question on iran, tom cotton gave a speech in which he said he believes the best outcome for iranian nuclear deal had to be referred to congress but rather than have congress reinvoke sanctions we would use this period of 190 days to renegotiate several terms in the deal. does the white house think that sounds like a plausible way -- >> i'm not going to get ahead on the president's announcement ochb the decision he has. the president isn't looking at one piece of this. he's looking at all of the bad behavior of iran, not just the nuclear deal as bad behavior but ballistic missile testing and number one state sponsor of

terrorism, cyber attacks, illicit nuclear program. he wants to address all of those problems, not just one-offing those. that's what the his team is focused on and rolling out to address, that is a hole in the coming days. >> the president's wish that they reimpose -- >> i'm not going to get into details what the president's decision is until he makes that later in the week. >> sarah, cbs news reporting has taken the story to -- americans who do not work for the government saying they are subject to taxes and health department saying there are a handful. what's going on here? how is the white house viewing this? >> something we take extremely seriously and we're continuing to investigate the state department taking the lead on this effort. we'll continue looking into this until we get real answers. >> i'll come back. >> just a little down on what

was said yesterday saying that we owe it -- i don't think anybody disagrees we should be as accurate but to plip it, do you and the president believe the president has a responsibility to be as truthful and honest as possible. has he done it and for those surrogates who used your terms, alternative facts, did they then not do that? >> absolutely. we come here every day and do our very best to give you the most accurate information that we can. april? >> i think so. >> going back to the answer about the president leading, is the -- is general kelly part of that leadership team with the president as he's leaving in this white house? >> absolutely. >> the president have confidence in general kelly? >> absolutely. >> today is friday, can we expect a resignation today? >> i don't think so, april. >> david? >> since we last heard from you, film producer harvey wei nxwein

has become the subject of serious sexual harassment allegations and i know this particular producer was critical of the president during the campaign and suggested that latinos in hollywood would be -- if he was elected. do they support the idea that they should send the money back? >> this a decision for those individuals to make. whether or not that's money they wants to take, that's up to them and not a decision for us to make. >> one more. why hasn't the president fired john from the irs in all of the scandal that he commented about so much during the campaign. why does he still have a job? >> ilg have too ask and get back to you. >> the president -- amazing handling and response on the sunday night shooting. nevadans credit federal programs

that train -- >> can you speak up a little bit? >> nevadansa credible federal money to train terrorist atangz for their brave response. you have cuts in the budget plan? are you rethinking that? >> i think at this point we're continuing to move forward. if it is a moment where we feel like the safety and security of american citizens may be at risk because of cuts, i think we have to revisit it at that time. >> jim? >> sarah, the nation lot 32,000 jobs in september. i was curious how the president feels about that and is he stepping up efforts to convince congress to pass 'mancher tax reform because of this surprising job loss of september? >> i think that today's report shows certainly the devastate being impact of the hurricane seas

season. while many wernt able to work, the economy remains strong and the unemployment rate actually fell i think one thing to really note and something that this administration wants to focus on moving into the future, tax reform plays a big role in this and one of the big identifiers that i think we should look at is the drop in the unemployment rate including new lows for african-americans and teens and women, which is a great step forward in this process. >> president trump has said we should receipt obamacare implode. there's a new report that says president trump directed officials to deny requests from republican governor of iowa to fix the obamacare market in that state. is that true? >> i'm not aware of that specific directive so i'd have to check into that and get back to you. >> if it is true. >> i'm not going to comment on hypotheticals where i don't have the information in front of me.

>> i want to ask you a question. regardless of what the president decides, when he makes this decision next week, would you rather not have to do this every 90 days after that? >> again, as i said earlier, we're looking at something that is a broad strategy, addresses a wide range of issues. that would be our focus, hopefully they would continue to not be a bad actor and we wouldn't have to do this at all. our goal would be to address a number of factors, not just one or two things. >> the president dated he wanted pakistan -- against agents of -- under pakistani control. the foreign minister was hereino

the white house. have you seen any change in pakistani behavior? >> nothing specific that i can weigh into at this time but we'll certainly keep you posted. >> the president campaigned for the candidate for governor of virginia ed gillespie. >> i won't weigh into specific races and actions we may or may not take. that's a great place to end for friday. i hope everybody has a great reflt of your friday and great weekend. thanks, guys. >> sarah sanders wrapping up this briefing there at the white house. shedding some light but not exactly clearing up this thing that the pred said last night when he stood with military leaders and their spouses, maybe this is the calm before the storm. today he basically said the same thing, you'll have to see and winked. so i want to bring in my panel here to talk about this. dana bash, john keirby and

heather donnelly that was under the george w bush administration. dana, it's a little unclear here. she wasn't messing with the press when she said that. she also also we're never going to say in advance what the whd will do and and he did sort of mention vaguely something that he might be doing. it seems to undercut her very assertion there. >> it's a clear as mud, brianna. and that's the whole point here. and it starts with a very the word clever is coming to mind when i'm talking about the president and the situation and i'm sure that others will use a different word the flip side of that coin when he is standing with his military brass and

using unsolicited hints and terms like chaos before the storm suggesting chaos is coming. so at the end of the day, sarah huckabee sanders tries to stay in the lane that the president created during the campaign. criticizing the obama administration, criticizing opponents for even suggesting to the enemy what they were going to do at the same time, suggesting that just the general wink and nod and general foreshadowing of something, whatever that is, is not giving the enemy's a heads up. i thought when jim acosta was talking about the madman theory, a very legit theory going back to richard nix son, to try to keep the enemies on their toes and didn't say no to that. at the end of the day, that migtd be going on here. >> if you had been in your position at the state department

and the president george w. bush if he had spoken like this, what would your reaction be? >> the first question would be the allies would be picking up the phone and saying, where are you heading? and the question is and sara mentioned about diplomacy and economic measures, well the president took diplomacy off the table when secretary tillerson was in asia trying to gain on resolving the dris sis. to me this is -- the madman theory is about the potentially our adversaries would miscalculate and think something would happen to them and our allies don't know how to support us. the other questions we would be getting, how much does congress weigh in if there is in fact a military strike? how about the american people sending sons and daughters into

ha harm's way, you need the support of the american people and congress if in fact this is about any type of military action. >> john kirby, we spoke before and there seemed to be this consensus, maybe this didn't mean anything, what donald trump was saying, maybe it still doesn't mean anything. dana did say it's as clear as mud. is it possible that sarah sanders just felt compelled to not admit there's nothing there and he was just risting or after hearing her, and with her mentioning iran and north korea, do you think there may be something cooking that the president is referring to? >> i think it's more the former, that she was put into a box by the president's own comments and vague nature and had nowhere to go. she doesn't know the answer to those questions because quite frankly in my opinion, mr. trump doesn't know the answer to what he meant by that. remember, this event last night was a dinner. these generals had their spouses

with them. it was never supposed to be a substantive meeting of 'any kind. to say this is the beginning of a calm before the storm, i mean, just my mind reiterates the fact this was pure showmanship. that said, you know, i'm -- i don't have access to the operational plans and the military is ablgtsive around the world and certainly there are things in the offing they are planning but to call those things a storm would probably be an affront to secretary mattis who last thing he wants to do is up the temperature in these hot spots around the world. >> also, it's worth noting as well, the pool wasn't going to be let into that event. then the fact he was said something, yes, you can come into this event made folks wonder, was this for a reason? was there something he wanted to allude to? dana, i want to talk about rex tillerson. after this nbc news report, that rex tillerson referred to the president as a moron, something

he did not deny following that story breaking. sarah sanders saying the president still has confidence in his secretary of state. >> she did, repeating what she said the other day and what the president even said when asked about it earlier this week after that story broke. that might be true for the second, might not be. we've seen this movie before, over and over again with cabinet secretaries and former senior advisers, that he says he has confidence or suggests i has confidence and they are gone. the bottom line is and i was just before coming on with you talking to a senior republican who is familiar with this sort of machinations going on who said something that is really practical, which is, of course there's tension. that's obvious, between the two men, but more importantly, look at the job. the job of secretary of state is to represent the administration

around the world. and it is very, very difficult for somebody to do that job and to go and call on allies and travel arrange the world, maybe sit down with a north korean and for them to know that the president is furious at that perpendicular and really undermines the never mind the personality differences at the core, undermines the ability of someone like rex tillerson to do his job. >> can you imagine, heather, a situation where the secretary of state calls the president a moron in heear shot of other people, other officials and it's this public humiliation and the president would keep the secretary of state on for any significant amount of time. >> this week has been extraordinary. and you know, your heart goes out to the men and women of the state department who are every day doing a really hard job of protecting the american people overseas and strengthening

america. and this whole issue absolutely to dana's point, it reduces our ability to do effective diplomacy to work through the issues, whether it's iran, north korea, afghanistan. this whole thing just impairs our ability to be strong and bold on a diplomatic front. and of course everyone is talking about this incredible story. and it just reduces secretary tillerson's ability to do his job and reduces the president's ability to have those options -- all of those options on the table and limits diplomacy and we need more diplomacy now more than ever. >> that is certainly true. i do want to bring in barbara starr with new reporting and this is on the body of the fourth green beret found after the ambush. >> let's put all of this in context while the president was spending last day making a

number of statements of political drama, there's no question about that. as commander in chief behind the scenes he well knew there was a frantic search under way by the u.s. military for the last 48 hours in west africa, looking for a missing behind enemy lines american service member and sadly in last half hour we have come to know this american service member was found dead. after 48 hours of being missing in niger in west africa. now the fourth member to be killed in an very unexpected and vicious fire fight in the west african nation. what we know is this 12-man team led by green berets unexpectedly came under fire from about 50 isis affiliated militants and hit with rocket propelled grenades and machine grun fire and got out of their trucks that were exploding around them.

they tried to return fire and did not expect this level of opposition. one man becoming separated. this is the man that had been missing for the last 48 hours. the president knew about this search. the navy s.e.a.l. team had been dispatched and they were hoping to find him alive. sadly they did not. now, i want to emphasize, the news media did not report this over the last 48 hours because we do not report when an american is behind enemy lines, we do not report these things until we know that the next of kin and family has been notified. so we know that now and are reporting that. but it's really important beyond what has happened here and this tlb a full investigation, pardon me, on how they didn't know they were going to run into all of this opposition. but let's just take a moment and put it in context while the president is saying all of this in the white house, he and several commanders in that room

knew there was a frantic search under way for a missing american, sadly, now found deceased in west africa. brianna? >> it is very good context. barbara starr, thanks so much. we have another piece of news in. dana, i want to bring you in about this, the epa inspector general is expanding an investigation that it had going on of scott pruitt heading up the epa. this has to do with his travel on jets. can you tell us about this? what does this mean? >> first of all, this is a memo that our colleague s obtained about the inspector general's work. the internal watchdog of any agency and epa what this moem mow says is the ig is now expanding this scope of its investigation into the epa administrator scott pruitt's travel. specifically going back through

september 30th to see effectively whether or not or not the expenses and frequency and extent and cost was appropriate. so you know, just the beginning of that widening probe, he's already had some issues and we'll see what he finds, what they find. we know what happened when that widening probe happened at the hh -- department of hhs with tom price. it didn't turn out too well for him but we'll wait and see what happens. everything could be status quo, which is not the greatest for scott pruitt, given the fact the optics are not great for this cabinet. the fact they are expanding is note worthing and spoken by our colleagues. >> great report by them. thank you so much for breaking it down for us. i want to get to breaking news into las vegas information. sources are telling cnn that the gunman rigged his car with 90

pounds of explosives meant for either target practice or explode when fired upon. we're getting word about cruises, a number of cruises that he look. stand by for that. sked these co: how much money do you think you'll need in retirement? then we found out how many years that money would last them. how long do you think we'll keep -- oooooohhh! you stopped! you're gonna leave me back here at year 9? how did this happen? it turned out, a lot of people fell short, of even the average length of retirement. we have to think about not when we expect to live to, but when we could live to. let's plan for income that lasts all our years in retirement. prudential. bring your challenges.

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...or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. if you're still just managing your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. new details are emerging about the man who murdered 58 people in las vegas. a law enforcement source tells cnn he had even more explosives in his car possibly used for target practice or type of material used for target practice but possibly was in there for his car to be rigged so it would blow up if police took a shot at it. we're also being told the gunman tried but failed to buy what you're looking at on your screen, that would be tracer ammunition, essentially, the tracers allow you if you use these type of bullets to see where they are going.

could also reveal the source of where the bullets were coming from. important to note as well. puzzling news today about that note that was left behind in the hotel room. reportedly this was not a suicide note or manifesto it was a list of numbers. they are being carefully analyzed. all 58 murder victims have been identified. they are now remembered by these markers that you see on the screen along the las vegas strip. those were hand made in memory of victims by a man from illinois. a want to bring in charles ramsey, cnn law enforcement analyst, former philadelphia police commissioner. we know that sources are telling cnn that investigators found 50 pounds of explosives in his car. it's a type of material called tannerite. it is used if you can explain this to us for target practice at times but the amount of it, 50 pounds of it in a car that's led some to believe that the

idea was if officers fired on the car, it would be a big explosion. what can you tell us about this? >> well, i mean, tannerite is used by target practice for some, especially if they are shooting from a distance, i understand. i'm not a real gun guy but done research on that. if you're shooting at the distance and hit the tannerite you get an explosion so you know he hit the target. why he would have 50 pounds in the trunk of his car? i have no idea. obviously that's a lot and perhaps he had another plan had he lived he might have been able to execute. i don't know the answer to that. >> so we also know now sources are telling cnn that he fired at fuel tanks at the nearby airport. does that tell you anything? >> well, maybe he was trying to create an explosion. that's new information for me. but i will say this, the las vegas police have a lot of information that we simply do not have. we're kind of getting it in bits

and peegs pieces, they've got h drive to his computer and video and forensic evidence and slowly piecing it together. maybe that's why he chose that location. i've stayed at that hotel and it is right across from the airport as you know. perhaps that was all part of a broader plot. >> i want to ask you about this note that was found in his hotel room. so many people were expecting there would be some sort of note that may shed light on a motive or maybe he would have had a manifesto that would do the same but we haven't seen that. instead this is a note with numbers. what do you make of this? >> well, i mean, a note of numbers, i don't know if we've ever seen that before. he was an accountant, maybe he put together some kind of code only he understands. why he would do that, i don't know. and it could just mean absolutely nothing. i'm sure that they've got a lot of people down at quantico to

decipher what was on that note to see if it makes sense at all. you're talking about a person with a deranged mibd mind. there's no telling what he was doing and not everything he's doing is going to be logical to those of us not in that state of mind. >> one source is telling cnn that the gunman took 20 cruises, that is a lot of cruises. and that many of them were to foreign ports in europe and also in the middle east. so why would that be information that would be of interest or would that inform investigators of anything? >> it would only inform them if they follow up to find out who he met with. was this just a cruise? my understanding is that he did have some money and he maybe just liked to travel but he may have actually been going someplace to meet with others. we just don't know the answers to these questions. i wouldn't overspeculate in this particular case because this guy is going to be hard to figure

out. i'm sure he's given fits to the science unit right now because he does not fit a profile that we've had in the past. and we're going to learn an awful lot about him as time goes on. one thing is for sure, this picture is being painted by friends and relatives that he was a happy go lucky guy, that will get darker and darker as time goes on because obviously that was not the case. >> obviously not the case. we do appreciate it. as survivors came on to this network to share stories from las vegas, we were told time and time again about strangers acting self-lessly as first responders and the unscathed helping the wounded. i want to share a powerful moment from this week. erin burnett interviewed jonathan smith, struck by a bullet rescuing others. he was reunited with the police officer who then saved his life. >> i'm not a hero. i'm far from a hero. i think i just did what anybody

would do. was it smart? probably not. but if that was someone else's shoes and they seen me, i would want them to come back and help me. >> i know you were hit and kept trying to save people and then there was someone else who came in, san diego off-duty officer, he came in and saved your life, jonathan. and we actually have him with us tonight, officer tom mcgraph is here and i wanted to bring them in. officer mcgrath, thank you. i know you heard what jonathan said. >> yeah, i did. i think he's being a little too mon modest. >> from the moment i got hit -- he was the first one who actually helped me stop the bleeding and he never left my side at all. and i remember him helping me

get in the back of a red pickup truck that another young lady had a gunshot wound. and i kept telling him, i don't want to die. i don't want to die. you're not going to die. i got you. look at me, you're not going to die. >> it was a scary moment for both of us but i remember holding hands and telling him this is the time to fight, made it this far. he's a fighter and has a warrior mentality. he went into the sound of gunfire and saved -- it could be more than 30 people, if it's 30, it's 30. he had that warrior mentality. he went back in there and that's the type of mentality that got him through that and kept him alive. >> and erin is joining us now. you reported from las vegas with so many sensitivity to these victims and what they went through and their loss and just how emotional it was for them. you had a chance to visit with survivors in the hospital. tell us about that. >> tchs incredible to see.

you look at jonathan, this is what any human would do. it's not what any human would do. so many of us would have understandly been afraid and run and he didn't. he helped so many people and some of those people are so, so grateful for what happened and fighting for her lives. one was robert physicianaguilar going to walk again. he's part of what he had to say. >> it kept going and then the next thing you know you heard people yelling and screaming and get down, get down. and then next thing you know, i was grabbing my girlfriend and we were just starting to move. and i felt -- it felt like a concussion grenade -- i was military -- like concussed, it

hit me and i saw my leg just kind of twist a little bit. and grabbed her, took her to the ground and we were behind a little barrier, just stay down, stay down. and she was starting to freak out and just stay down right here. stay three to 500 rounds going off easily. >> and you are protecting her. >> right. >> did you realize that for you it really was possibly you are going to die? >> oh, yeah. >> you knew? >> if we weren't going to be able to get out of there, i mean i felt it. i knew i had it in my sight. i was just waiting to see when it was going to end. >> i mean, it was just that moment when people going about

their lives realized they were probably going to die. victim after victim telling us they thought they were going to die. with robert, his parents were there, his sister was there, his daughter, and he and his daughter was crying, just the relief they are actually alive and able to be together. but the recovery is going to be a long time. jonathan was shot in the neck. went to the er to have bandage removed, but it's going to be a long process, he's a copy repairman, can't go back to work. he has three kids, he says he wants to go back and spend time with his kids. but he does have a go fund me page that his sister-in-law set up. lives in texas. he lives in irvine, california. but people are trying to raise money to get through this because it isn't just a quick recovery. >> that's right. >> not emotionally. not spiritually and not physically. >> and fn financially. and as people look how they can help, that is one of the ways.

thank you so much, erin. you can catch it right here on cnn. she will have more on that. >> shortly after that, anderson cooper is going to host a special tribute to all of the victims of the las vegas massacre. las vegas lost, its commercial free ac 360 that airs at 9:00 p.m. eastern. and next tropical storm nate as new orleans declares a state of emergency. but first let's take a moment to honor this week's cnn her ho. it's a woman who lost her leg at 17 when she was hit by a drunk driver. but she found a way to lift others up. >> once we lose a part of our body, there are just so many questions, will i ever be able to work again, how will i take care of my children? >> it's strange to learn how to walk. >> it's a new world. >> part of my job is to remind people we are so much more than a body part.

we can either lay down and let our circumstance over take us, or we can stand up and take charge. >> and to see more of her story, just go to cnn heros.com. oh, you brought butch. yeah! (butch growls at man) he's looking at me right now, isn't he? yup. (butch barks at man) butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. (laughs) (vo) you can never have too many faithful companions. introducing the all-new crosstrek. love is out there. find it in a subaru crosstrek.

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for the gulf coast and new orleans, so all eyes is what is up with hurricane nate. already caused deadly needing, so i want to get to molgs allison chinchar. you have an update. what are you looking at. >> reporter: right. we are seeing where tropical nate is we do have warnings in cuba but lots in areas of the u.s. that's where we expect the storm to move. right now the biggest area where we expect it to occur is out over the open gulf. the question is how quickly can it intensify? because it doesn't have much time from where it's located until it would actually make landfall into the u.s.

category 1 storm. but we do have other models suggest tg could get higher than that. so time will tell. right now landfall seems to be late saturday night. then from there it continues up to impact at least about a dozen other states, including cities like atlantic, washington d.c., new york, even boston. so we have the tropical storm watches and warnings, that's the yellow and blue color, as hurricane watches and warnings, red and pink color along the gulf coast from louisiana through florida. cities could expect storm surge up to seven or 8 feet, others 2 to 4 feet. this will be a big concern for a lot of these areas. because of that we do have storm surge warnings out along the golf coast and that will go tomorrow lasting until the evening. as well as breanne the threat for strong winds. areas at landfall could experience gusts up to 60 to

100-mile-per-hour. >> thanks so much for keeping us updated on that as we train our eyes on the golf coast. and i'll send you over to the "the lead" with jake tapper. it starts right now. thanks, breanna. did he mean war? was he just making a joke? was he doing the old look the squirrel thing? the "the lead" starts right now. the commander in chief surrounded by his generals teases that it is the calm before the storm. what does that mean? and how unsettling might u.s. troops and their families find those comments? it could become a hurricane, it could be heading for new orleans and little time to get out. out of no where hurricane nate becoming a major threat to the gulf of coast. here we go again. plus new updates as to the mass murderer as to why he may have opened fire.