"Peter Baker, we were just quoting at the top of the show from your story about this drama, this story you just broke in the last few minutes, this drama involving Wilbur Ross and the Commerce secretary. It is the Commerce department that has jurisdiction over NOAA. Take us through what you are reporting happened there over the last few days," Kornacki said.

"We all remember the Birmingham office of the National Weather Service contradicted the president when he said Alabama most likely would be hit," Baker said.

"Five days later, the national -- NOAA, the parent agency, issued an unusual statement chastising that office, saying they spoke with too much certainty and basically, in effect admonishing them for contradicting the president. Turns out that statement came after the Commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, who oversees NOAA, got in touch with the acting NOAA director and said he had to fix this situation. This contradiction is not something that could stand between the president and the agency of the government. He basically made clear, according to sources who talked to us, that he would be fired or other people around him would be fired if this didn't happen."

Baker said he didn't know if Trump ordered Ross to do this.

"Obviously the White House had a certain interest in this. One administration official I talked to said, you know, it would be perfectly appropriate for NOAA to rein in what they consider to be a rogue office. That's rogue only because they contradicted the president. Their argument is that speaking with so much certitude that the office was playing with politics. Doesn't seem to be real evidence of that. It's not like the Birmingham office is a hotbed of known political actors. Clearly the White House feels besieged. They're trying to justify the president's statement. They're trying to undercut any contradiction of him and the most important contradiction was that statement, that tweet that was put out by those forecasters in Alabama."