Donald Trump's Hurricane Katrina and Sandy x 10

WE'RE 53 DAYS from Election Day, and a storm is barreling toward the East Coast. People will probably lose their lives and their belongings. The response to the storm already has some Republicans spooked. It's always sensitive to talk about the political impact of a storm of this nature. But with utility companies predicting power outages for weeks, and roads already flooding, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S government will be under a microscope.

AND YESTERDAY -- when he denied that 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria -- the president showed he wasn't exactly savvy in dealing with suffering. A top Hill Republican pointed out that North Carolina has several House seats up for grabs. If you combine government dysfunction with a dash of insensitivity, that has the potential to be a drag for the GOP.

THE PRESIDENT'S reaction to the travesty in Puerto Rico also might be instructive in predicting how he could react to an electoral calamity in November. There are a bunch of districts across the country where the president's approval ratings are in the high teens. If Republicans lose the House, will he accept a scintilla of blame?

FLORENCE NEARS EAST COAST-- AP: "'Catastrophic' freshwater flooding expected over Carolinas," by Jonathan Drew in Wilmington, North Carolina: "Hurricane Florence already has inundated coastal streets with ocean water and left tens of thousands without power, and forecasters say that 'catastrophic' freshwater flooding is expected over portions of the Carolinas as Hurricane Florence inches closer to the U.S. East Coast.

"The National Hurricane Center said early Friday that Florence's eyewall is beginning to approach the North Carolina coast bringing with it life-threatening storm surge. ...

"Screaming winds bent trees toward the ground and raindrops flew sideways as Florence's leading edge whipped the Carolina coast Thursday to begin an onslaught that could last for days, leaving a wide area under water from both heavy downpours and rising seas." AP

-- POST AND COURIER: "Hurricane Florence weakens to Category 1, path down SC coast 'cannot yet be ruled out'": "At 11 p.m. Thursday, Hurricane Florence had weakened to Category 1 hurricane with 90 mph winds off the North Carolina coast.

"The storm continued creeping at 6 mph to the northwest. Federal forecasters expected it to turn overnight to move more westward then begin to crawl down the coast toward the South Carolina-North Carolina border, where earlier forecasts suggested it would move inland on Friday. But federal meteorologists couldn't rule out that Florence might make landfall farther south. Three computer models still indicated the storm would straddle the South Carolina coastline before turning in closer to Charleston." Post and Courier

WAPO'S PHIL RUCKER, BOB COSTA and JOSH DAWSEY: "Trump creates political storm with false claim on Puerto Rico hurricane death toll"

BEHIND THE SCENES -- ANDREW RESTUCCIA, CHRIS CADELAGO and MATT CHOI: "West Wing aides perfect a Trump survival skill: Ignoring the tweets": "President Donald Trump minimized the pain and suffering of more than 3 million American citizens in Puerto Rico in a pair of tweets Thursday morning - and White House aides acted like it wasn't their problem.

"Trump's broadside, in which he peddled a false conspiracy theory that 'Democrats' inflated the official death toll from Hurricane Maria to smear his image, was met largely with silence from his White House advisers. There were no efforts to walk back or explain Trump's rage-tweets - no apologies or statements of support from the press office. Nobody resigned in protest. Officials refused to comment on the record.

"Three Republicans close to the White House said Trump's tweets reflected his spiraling frustration with the media narrative that the federal government's Maria response was a failure. They said that the president himself was the driving force behind the message, noting that it was not echoed by other White House officials or other Republican leaders.

"The disconnect reinforced the growing sense in the West Wing that, after 20 months of failed efforts to corral the president, it's best to let the president - who has long viewed himself as his best spokesman, strategist and negotiator - say what he wants to say and move on." POLITICO

-- EASIER SAID THAN DONE: AP'S GARY FINEOUT in Tallahassee: "Trump tweets roil Florida GOP's play for Puerto Rican voters"

Source Politico Playbook

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