heart feel good. here we go. >> in our classroom it starts with the cnn hero segment. we watch it, then have a great discussion. >> to see more, go to cnn he cnnheroes.c cnnheroes.com. that's it for us. thank you for joining us. much more coverage of hurricane harvey with jake tapper right now. welcome to "inside politics." i'm jake tapper. john king soon a well-deserved vacation. hurricane harvey intensifies on its way to the gulf coast in what could be the worst storm to hit the continental u.s. in over a decade. president trump's new fema administrator is urging residents of dirge designated areas to flee. >> texas is about to have a very significant disaster. >> the bo um line message is right now, people have not heeded warnings, again, their window to do so is closing. if they refuse to heed the

warning, that's on them. >> president trump tweeted minutes ago, i have spoken with the governor closely monitoring hurricane harvey developments and here to assist as needed. facing its first natural disaster test. a senate republican is warning president trump to remain focused and avoid mistakes made during hurricane katrina. plus criticism coming from inside the white house. gary cohn admonishing the white house for comments such as these -- >> i think there's blame on both sides and i have no doubt about it. >> you had very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were -- very fine people. on both sides. you had people in that group -- excuse me. excuse me. i saw the same pictures as you did. >> we'll start in the south. half of texas is in a potential disaster zone as hurricane harvey is barreling towards the

texas gulf coast. nasa captured the image of how massive the storm is so far. harvey strengthen the this morning to a category 2 hurricane with winds up to 110 miles per hour. it is only expected to get stronger later this evening. the national weather service is predicting up to 35 inches of rain in some areas. sdr destructive waves and life-threatening flooding that could reach at high as 12 feet in places. the storm could spin off tornadoes in regions. the governors of texas and louisiana declared states of emergency and the number of counties and cities along the coasts are under mandatory evacuation orders. many families trying to escape since yesterday. some have been stuck in traffic for hours. meanwhile, ten contradictly ill infants were evacuated from a hospital in corpus christi, texas, arriving safely, thankfully, at a fort worth hospital this morning. and our team is tracking the hurricane. nick valencia live in corpus christi.

ed lavandera in galveston, texas, and ed lavandera in the weather center. what are you seeing? >> reporter: jake, things starting to get interesting. sustained winds picked up as has the rain. we've been at the sea wall here in corpus christi and have seen this water rise slowly throughout the day. it was a little while ago, the water wasn't as far as it is here. seeing maybe a foot of water increase, and we're going to see residents, all morning long, residents who have chosen not to evacuate. one of the last few about to evacuate. what kept you here so long? >> like i said, i work in ode a odessa. take care of my house. board it down. get prepared for it. this will be the first time being here in a storm here in corpus since i lived here, and i just wanted to see the side of the water before i take off north. >> reporter: do you believe the

hype, weather experts saying a storm, a meteorological event the likes of which we've never seen before? >> it's hard to decide right now, but what it seems like -- pretty much probably going to get a lot more rain and that wind. i don't know. it's hard to tell right now what's going to actually happen. >> reporter: are you happy with the city's efforts? some are saying, why aren't there mandatory evacuations? what do you think? >> you got to be cautious, plan. can't just stay here and wait it out, wait for the worst, at the last minute try to get out. i mean, being stuck here is -- at your own risk. >> reporter: you were stuck here last time in 2008, right? during hurricane ike? >> no. i mean, i came down, but the worst was in houston. i came down and pretty much couldn't get anything. all went up north, to houston, we -- didn't get anything here. >> reporter: this may be a different scenario this time. wish you the best of luck. get out of town while you can. congress representing this

district about 30 minutes ago said this is probably the last hour residents here in corpus christi have to get out safely. otherwise, stuck here with the rest of us. jake? >> all right. thanks so much. go now ed lavandera in galveston, texas. >> reporter: you see a lot of people on the roads, jammed with traffic most of the day. last-minute preparations, grocery stores that sort of thing. here on galveston island we expect to be on the eastern edge of this storm, as we've talked about. it's flooding, that's the main concern. we started out the morning here about 30 yards down here, out on to this jetty. see the storm surge, how it's already starting to pull, push up here towards the sea wall. gives you a sense how things are changing here. hasn't been raining that much here in galveston but the winds definitely have picked up quite a bit.

as we mentioned, flooding is the real main concern between corpus christi and where we are here in galveston. various communities. not just on the gulf coast, but even inland where that flooding is going to be a major concern, and we know their first responders at the county, city, state level. the state deployed some 700 national guard members and really getting prepared, we'red to, for these swift water and high water rescues they anticipate will have to be performed here in the coming days. a lot of those teams and those first responding crews pre-positioning themselves, we're told, to get ready for those types of evacuations and types of rescues they anticipate they will have to carry out here in the coming days. so as much as 25 inches, perhaps even three feet of water in some isolated areas. some of the predictions we're hearing so far. that is an unbelievable amount of rainfall, as this is expected to kind of stall out over this area of southeast texas, and, jake, this is already an area

that doesn't take much for a lot of these areas to flood. you can talk to people here over and observer agaver again and if the last tropical depression and storms that caused devastating flooding. a hurricane of this magnitude can be much worse. jake? >> ed lavandera, thanks. and in the cnn weather center tracking hurricane harvey. what can you tell us about the impact of the storm and its path? >> well, still looks like, jake, going to be a strong category 3 after the midnight hour near corpus christi. i know many are probably saying here they go again. overhyping a hurricane. using words such as "catastrophic," "devastating" uses phrases of the likes we've never seen. i answer that shares a statement that came out this morning from the national weather service out of houston. they used wording in the statement that we haven't seen since katrina. it says, there will some lokes uninhabitable for weeks if not

months. that's catastrophic but not so much focusing on the category 3 making landfall. it's about what happens after landfall. the national hurricane center's track takes it as a category 3, as mentioned, wee hours of the morning. take out the track. take out about 120 hours. watch what happens. the model they use brings it back into the waters, possibly redeveloping and throws it up into houston. one model. base it on all of our models. use these spaghetti plots, in agreement for some time. using the steering current and taking it on land. but a few days ago we noticed, we're losing the dominant steering course. see how the moldals shape up to how they looked yesterday, a bird's nest, believe it or not, just another bird's nest. uncertainty here of where the system goes. which leads us to certainty that there will be a lot of rainfall. now, more models today are dropping it back offshore. interesting sliding up to the north. one model, jake, yesterday, last

night. looked a the it. gff. merp model. great model brought in the system early saturday. spun it around sunday, monday, tuesday, still going, wednesday, thursday, friday. and kept it in the state of texas until saturday. now, where will the cutoff be for rain? a big question, because san antonio's on the western flank here. it's possible they could see inoccasion of 10, 15 inches and possible right at the cutoff. a large area of white you see here. that's 20, 30, 40 inches. another concern is, secondary model, broadens that area of 20, 30, 35 inches. big concern is houston. much of houston floods at the two to three inches. can you imagine 22.5? the resources here, the emergency services are going to be stretched. it's going to be so strapped. they're going to bring in services from other states and they're going to need it. that's after the system leaves, and where does it go? louisiana. already starting to see tornado

warnings. that's the problem with these feeder bands as they slide in. do not focus on the eye right now. it's a broad storm. may have tornado warnings up towards the galveston area. this is going to be a doozy. it is catastrophic. we can use those words, jake. >> all right. thank you so much. bringing in fulton, texas, mayor jimmy kendrick, of the emergency management team as well. joining me now live from rockport, one of the cities under mandatory evacuation. mayor, thanks for joining us. are residents in your area listening to evacuate orders and how much time do they have left to leave? >> well, truthfully, we have until about probably another two hours before we're get hit with more bands of this storm coming in to us, harvey. the thing we've really run into is the fact we did mandatory evacuation, but a lot of people just feel like we're calling their bluff. like calls fox and hounds, games. but asked them to leave. had about 50 to 60% of the

community leave. 40% still hanging around with us trying to ride it out. we've run into problems, because we're a peninsula down here. corpus christi across the bridge. they'll vut that down, 55 mile-per-hour winds, we know will happen. no way out of here and no hospitals here in our community to cover people. so we have got -- quite a few volunteers and both fire departments, volunteers. between myself and judge mills, county judge, sitting on a board and trying to make things happen the right way. >> how is your county preparing for the hurricane? what are your biggest concerns right now? >> our biggest concern is the people who have medical problems, and cannot leave. we've had shelter in place. we have a reverse 211 number we give out, everybody signed up for. we're tracking those people now. it's going to get to a time here tonight about, you know, between

9:00 and 10:00 that we can't get out anymore, and when that occurs, that creates a problem for us in the community, because we'll be part of the problem, not part of the solution as we call it here. and there will be -- we can't come get them. can't come help those people when their roof blows off or suddenly things happen and the water surge, the fear that goes through their eyes. >> what's your message to those people who are still in your area who have not left? if they're watching now, what do you want them to hear from you? >> well, you know, you joke about it, but there's a lot of -- sometimes we sit here in the office are and say we wish you'd put your social security number on your arm if you're going to stay here. the people staying, if you can leave, leave. leave now. go somewhere. if you don't, make sure we know you're here so we can come find you after this is over with. and check on you. we're going to go out and search and rescue soon as its over with. fire departments, check everybody we know that stayed behind and try to find them.

first thing is, nothing's worth your life. and we want to make sure everybody can make it and that's what we're going to try to do the best as a group. >> all right, mayor kendrick. hoping that people still in their homes listen to you now. stay safe, stay in touch. >> yes, sir. thank you for your blessings and godspeed things will work. >> i hope so. just ahead as we continue to track the hurricane another top trump aide in the middle of a political storm. criticizing his boss publicly in dressing resignation rumors. stay with us.

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stay sharp people! dissent from within. trump's top economic adviser sharply criticizing the administration's reaction to violence in charlottesville saying they can and must do better to condemn bigotry. the former number two man at sachs told the financial times,

as a patriotic american i'm reluctant to leave my post because i feel a duty to fulfill my position to the american people. and i feel i must respond. as a jewish-american i will not allow neo-nazis chanting negative things. we can and must be better unequivocally condemning these groups and doing everything to heal divisions that sdmi s thas. cohn said he had spoken privately about this issue and not bashful with his feelings. fwling our panel. nia malika henderson and mary katherine. a high-profile rebuke to this administration. what do you make of it?

>> cohn is in a position many in this position. i feel a duty to be in this slot, but trump doesn't always make the slot easy to be in and pressure from both sides how you're handling this kind of thing. he as a jewish man has to say, look, i don't agree with how the president handled this. i have no doubt he was pushing him from the inside, but this may be a situation, nice knowing you, cohn. how fast does he leave after publicly takes on the president? i don't know. >> steve mnuchin wrote a letter. was dressing his fellow yale alumni. defending the president. he took a depletely different tone. just said basically said, i know what's in the president's heart, and he condemned this bigotry and you guys are all wrong. >> yeah. defended the president. interesting to see people within the president's inner circle how they've dealt with this. a lot of folks were, came back privately raising a lot of

concerns. we've heard from the chief of staff, john kelly. he made it very clear to his staff having a mass exodus would not be good for this administration. put your head down, work. avoid all of the noise that's happening here, and it's that that seemsing to have alleviated concerns internally the president can do, say these things and creates distraction but we still have a job to do. see if it works. the president is marking it awfully hard to discuss. >> brian, at the tuesday event where the president referred to the people marching with the neo-nazis saying some were very fine people, gary cohn was directly asked if he agreed with president trump about whether he viewed some of the people marching with the klan as fine people. take a listen. >> -- some of these people as fine people? >> we share the president's view infrastructure is really important to america, our infrastructure is crumbling,

underinvested. we can go into that if that's of interest to you and what we're going to talk about. >> so he sounds a little different two weeks later talking to the "financial times" but had an opportunity to say what was on his mind then in front of everybody in that moment. >> yes. the greatest moment of, wow, if i could have that over again, what i would have said, the french expression for that? stairway thoughts? >> exactly. >> clear with it. >> and remember, he stood, if i'm not mistaken, he, mnuchin and chao stood next to trump when he made those controversy remarks. god only know what's he was thinking in the moment. as someone who, we in the media, i didn't heep a lot of criticism on cohn and others for not speaking out, leaking anonymously, i was really upset about that. you have to give him credit for speaking up forcefully on the record today. is it too little, too late? he was in a very difficult

situation. we' going to work for donald trump we are learning at the senior level puts you at excruciating positions and his spokespeople because they have to defend things that are not true. put jewish-americans, not just jewish-americans, anyone should be offended i what was said, being spokespeople for jews and others, and having to stand up to your boss. so have to give him a little credit for finally speaking out. you have to know that this is going to offend trump, piss trump off. what did trump do this week? went to that rally and re-invented the history of these comments and cohn saying, no. wait a second, mr. president. what you said is wrong and final inially my conscience tells me to condemn it. >> give you in views to react to. sara murray reporting on the brink of resigning after the

president's press conference that tuesday, the one where he likened white supremacists to counterprotestors in charlottesville. there were violent people but the protestors that started this whole thing were the nazis and klan spewing hatred. and saying cohn was very upset but did not seriously consider resigning. we have different versions of the story. >> who knows what the truth is, and what gary cohn actually did. if you look at sort of the visual of that and talk about them standing by, in ways they were props. right? for the president there as he stood there and equated protestors to neo-nazis. almost as if he had done that, again, right? when ben carson, and were at a rally in arizona. i think the president has cover from people from these different groups, jewish-americans, or african-americans, essentially giving him cover for these harsher statements. what's interesting for gary cohn

is, if this puts him in jeopardy? we know he's been eyeing fed chairmanship. because jessica yellen is likely going to be out -- >> janet yellen. >> right. jessica yellen? >> yes. right. >> someone else. >> right. likely will be out and she said controversial or critical things about trump today. we'll see if that jeopardizes what likely cohn has been eyeing this job and whether or not trump decides against that. >> and any administration official condemning the -- >> in the administration. >> blames the administration. not president trump. didn't criticize his language specifically it's clear what he's talking about but not criticizing president trump individually. and criticism, strong criticism from a republican party, elder, ordained minister in a scathing op-ed in the "washington post"

saying president trump corrupted the republican party. exactly what republicans or not. what we've opposed in our 160-year party. he is the most divisive president in our history. that hasn't been a more divisive person in national politics since george wallace. compares trump to the infamous former alabama governor and opponent of desegregation and the civil rights movement and calls on republicans to distance themselves from trump. you can add this to the collection of voices, former new hampshire senator humphries, current senator bob corker. people are, some people, not a majority, but some republicans taking strong position on this. >> right. sort of a wash, rinse repeat, throughout the primaries, throughout the general election. people have to figure how close they want to stand to this guy. i likened it to camping with a grizzly be grizzly bear. this is a dance continuing to go on. it's hard to be a part of the

party where the head of the party, and the president, who won the presidency, duly elected, to step so fay$!raway from him. they've been having to do all year. >> and current members, former members. some afraid to stick out their next, be the center of a twitter storm like bob corker, what happened to him. attacks on corker. that's not going to help trump advance his agenda. members don't like when colleagues are called out like this but sends a message to other members if you speak out, trump will come after you and do you want to be in the centers of the storm? >> taking a quick break. up next as the golf coagulf cob hurricane harvey, another republican speaking out, president trump needs to be more focused on harvey. we'll be right back after this. ♪

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as the texas gulf coast braces for impact hurricane harvey could prove to be the first natural disaster test for president trump. the magnitude of the storm is raising questions how his administration might react. with a number of key administration posts still unfilled. a critical task for president trump and at least one republican senator iowa's chuck grassley is concerned enough to tweet this morning to the president, "keep on top of hurricane harvey, president trump. don't make the same mistak president bush made with katrina." the white house projects confidence. kaitlan, could be a defining moment in the trump presidency. how is the trump administration planning to respond to the storm? >> reporter: we heard from the president shortly here ago jake and he received a hurricane briefing this morning from acting homeland department

secretary, from chief of staff and his homeland security adviser. we also know he spoke with texas governor greg abbott and louisiana governor john edwards yesterday. now, we heard from the fema administrator, brock long,error tod earlier today warning texans not to youunderestimate the storm. >> i think the president's allowing me to do my job and we've been in constant contact with the white house and the bottom line is, we are really focused now on the life safety message we're putting forward, and the president is fully engaged and will be so throughout this event. >> reporter: and now yesterday at the press briefing press secretary sarah huckabee sanders asked if there's concern a perm 234e7 permanent replacement has not been named yet.

no. they have confidence in elaine duke, acting secretary to oversee this. ghs oversees fema. we'll hear from press secretary sarah huckabee sanders here again in the next hour and will keep you updated on anything she says. like you said, jake, this is the first natural disaster test for this administration, and as you know, this can be a defining moment for a lot of presidencies, as it was with george w. bush. we'll keep you updated on anything the white house has to say as the storm progresses. >> kaitlan collins at the white house. thanks so much. what is the opposite of a gold standard when it comes to dealing with natural disasters? perhaps the brown standard, or browny standard. take a look. >> again, i want to thank you all for, and browny, you're doing a heck of a job. the fema director is working 24 -- [ applause ] >> yeah. he was not doing a heck of a job. that was not how you would describe the job he was doing. president george w. bush a few days after hurricane katrina

struck the gulf coast. referring to his fema director michael brown, doing an incredibly bad job. especially in the wake of the failure of the levee sim in new orleans. wondering for months how president trump would deal in a natural disaster, not the disasters he created himself and this is the first test. the most important thing here obviously, is that the people in the path of the storm survive and are, and deal with this as well as they can, but there is a political ramification to how well this goes. >> yes. how well it goes. how well the president is able to show empathy and competence about folks who he's appointed, brock long one of them, and used to do similar work in alabama. brownlee wasn't that experienced, and all sorts of moments that happened around that, where, katrina, bush got it wrong. he flew over the site of all of the destruction in the wake of katrina and a moment, right,

with kanye west. george bush doesn't hear about black people. all of these moments george bush failed and donald trump has to figure what he's got to do. grassley is already worried, tweeting that, and delay, i think, in terms of donald trump tweeting about it today. i think melania trump tweeted about it this morning. donald trump sent several tweets and finally tweeted about it this morning saying he's gotten a briefing. it's a big test. hopefully one he's able to pass for the sake of the folks there in the wake of these, this hurricane over the next couple days and hours. >> pointing out, one of the issues, missing scores of people, not even nominated. no permanent homeland security secretary since retired general kelly left the department to become chief of staff and no confirmed le eed leader of oshas storms, and other seats remain empty. president trump nominated

candidates a month ago. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders says not to worry, though. >> we are in great shape having general kelly sitting next to the president throughout this process. and probably no better chief of staff for the president during the hurricane season, and the president has been briefed and will continue to be updated as the storm progresses, and certainly something he's very aware of. >> let's hope so. >> yeah. there are two big concerns people have rightfully. one is the staffing issue. we just don't have a government filled with people. it's not even people being competent. in cases just no there. rightly, concern about that and trump's laissez-faire view how the president acts. constantly a view of the government that he leads as something that is a part from him. he talks about it sometimes as if he's not present. there's a lack of a hands-on leadership role that is constantly cropping up, and

threatening to shut down the government earlier this week. i think -- that's series of things is worrying people and maybe making people not at confident in the leadership that they might otherwise be, and he's only been president a few months. new on the job. any new president will have trouble with something like this. >> what about the tone he sets? we've seen the president, in other crises, they've happened overseas, prematurely tweet about something that happened. suggesting things are going great. attacking people. did it during the campaign. he is able to layoff twitter before prematurely saying something at a time of a national emergency affecting thousands and thousands of people, how does he respond to it by setting the tone? i think that's a big test as well. >> vice president pence tweeted reports show hurricane harvey continues to strengthen. our prayers for safety we those in the path of the storm.

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because the time to think about tomorrow is today. president trump facing his own storm inside the republican party. today he's hitting back against republican senator bob corker who said last week the president has not democraten -- demonstrated or competency of a president. strange statement considering he is asking whether or not he should run again in 2018. not happy. clearly not on the same page. responded thursday when asked about corker's comments, this is sarah huckabee sanders. >> i think that's a ridiculous and outrageous claim and doesn't dignify a response from this podium. >> apparently it does -- gets a response from president trump on twitter. right. very different higher standards for the press secretary at the

podium than the president on twitter. >> the rules. >> he was -- corker has been generally speaking not particularly critical of president trump. >> right. >> the difference is, he's expressed with him, have to do usually with policy such as a position, positioning towards russia. this was a very strong statement, whether you awe glgr with it or not. trump is very popular in tennessee and this could hurt him. >> again, the line they're all walking. in tennessee, even folk whose have an issue with trump or held their nose and voted for him or think twitter is too much don't want to see a tennessee senator of the gop what they see as ganging up on him. plenty of people are taking shots. why is corker among them? the thinking back home. but there are moments when trump makes it impossible for corker not to say something, or for senators in general not to say something. i think the, saying fine people, in a nazi rally, perfect

illustration. you cannot, not say something and then it ticks off people at home. >> isn't the first time taking on people of his own party. the president a frequent critic of arizona senator jeff flake and one of the challenges, kelly ward released a digital ad attacking flake using trump's own words from that rally this week in phoenix. is there going to become a time when party leaders try to intervene or is that just a fool's error? >> seeing effort by mitch mcconnell's super fuch put money behind jeff flake to actually go after kelly ward. >> county trail kill, attacking her that way. >> and remember president trump going after dean heller. they have the closed door meeting at the white house with president trump, republican senators made it clear their distaste for this type of action. going after one of its own members of the senate. obviously the president didn't get the message.

look, bottom line is, the president will probably continue to do this. he's not listening to republicans, don't attack your own party. attack democrats. attacking your own party feeds the narrative, civil war, the party's dysfunctional and harder to get things passed. one thing the president hasn't learned talking to republicans. if you want legislation through the way you do that, talk to members. learn them. their state, their needs. don't single them out on twitter and publicly shame them nap lea. a lot dig in like lisa murkowski and ends up killing a bill. >> and attacking jeff flake has not helped. take a listen. here's jeff flake talking about his relationship with president trump and also about his position on the border wall, which is, of course, relevant given that he's a senator from arizona. >> my position is, i work with the president, vote with the

president when i think ease rig he's right and oppose him when wrong. this 2,000-foot wall, anybody who spends time on the border, just -- you know, out there. >> that's not the view of most republicans who represent anyplace on the border. more than likely to say, no, we don't need an actual physical wall across that whole thing. one thing that we've learned in the last week is, if you ever plan on criticizing the president, don't reveal any private information to him. james clapper, mitch mcconnell and bob corker all criticized president trump recently and he responded to each with revealing some personal nugget of information he gave them in a private conversation. jit with mcconnell, the conversation on the debt ceiling. with clapper -- >> wrote a letter. >> in a letter he wrote, clapper explaining the letter was -- >> lindsey graham's cell phone

number. >> if you want to criticize trump as a republican, don't tell him anything personal. >> one of the things trump is setting, setting himself up as, as an independent actor who's not really part of the republican party. seeming to set up all of these people. the establishment are the ones to blame if this stuff fails. if -- if the attacks, the tax reform agenda fails. the health care thing already gone kaput. you see who he's blaming. doesn't help in 2018, and labeled failures from this president and fielding primary challenges. that doesn't help. sort of helps underscores trump's brand and sort of a party of one. the only person who can fix it and as an independent outsider with the right answers and certainly a lot of his voters believe that. they don't really like mcconnell, or -- >> yeah.

>> they don't like the establishment. >> mitch mcconnell will not hurt you with the right republican base. >> and so quiet after the feud. you haven't heard from mcconnell who knows the trump base supports trump more than him. >> it is a thing that this president attacks republican leaders of his own party more than in the modern era of any president attacked leaders of the opposite party. >> yes. >> he's more critical of mcconnell than obama was. more critical of mcconnell than george w. bush was of senate democrats. i mean, it's incredible. up next, are there new marching orders inside the white house now that retired marine general is running the show? stay with us.

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president trump this morning tweeting praise of his chief of staff tweeting, general john kelsey doing a fantastic job as

chief of staff. tremendous spirit and talent in the white house. the "new york times" reporting kelly is enforcing new marching orders in the west wing. what maggie haberman wrote, "mr. kelly retired marine general treated with a different level of deference inside the building aides said. staff members found they could defy reince priebus, but crossing a marine is a different matter." back with the panel. one of the things kelly has been doing is controlling the flow of crap information that somehow would get into the president's stack of information to read. stuff from fringe crazy websites. stuff from -- et cetera. and he's been good at that apparently. >> that actually isn't a huge departure from how white house in the past have done things. they actually -- keep a small pile that the president -- this is -- this is a reverse to a normal standard. the question is, i think, he's not going to change who trump

is, but does seem mildly promising that he has had his respect for a couple weeks now. doesn't always last that long. and what i said, i have a lot of respect for general kelly and don't want to find out a man of his skill, honor and sense of duty can't whip this into a little better shape. looks like there's some signs maybe something's happening in that line. >> and only so much you can do. >> yes. >> because look at the tuesday speech in arizona. there was a real effort to make sure that that speech did not go off the rails. they put out -- >> a teleprompter. >> briefed him beforehand and what does he do? goes out, goes on a 225-minute rant re-inventing what he said in charlottesville without naming names. respect on the hill, kelly does, the president listens to him only to extent. >> the single biggest dynamic in creating a really chaotic white

house and news cycle is that to what the republicans want the agenda to be is trump's tweets and public statements. right? those are the two things. and seems like kelly, who pacified anbar province in iraq, a slightly tougher mission for him. like getting in there and pacifying the trump white house. he's got a little bit of a break now, because some of the more independent actors, like steve bannon is now gone. reince is gone. so the factions within the white house have been lessened, but i was talking to a republican close to senate leadership today who said, you know, enthusiastic about all the reporting reading about kelly, but until they control the public comments, nothing's going to change. >> thanks for joining us on "inside politics." see you back here at 4:00 p.m. eastern for "the lead." the mayors of corpus christi and galveston and the texas governor holding news conferences in the hour ahead plus jim acourt ta

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i'm jim acosta in more wolf blitzer. whenever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us. people in texas bracing for the worst as a potentially deadly storm moves closer to the coast. it's hurricane harvey. winds well in excess of 100 miles per hour. storm surges more than 12 feet coming onshore from the 2k3wugu and more than three feet of flooding and 100 miles inland. and expecting to hear from the