albreakthrough withyou back. non-drowsy allegra® for fast 5-in-1 multi-symptom relief. breakthrough allergies with allegra®. hello. i'm jim acosta in for wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in the u.s. wherever you're watching from, thanks for joining us. coming for desperate residents who lost they are homes and businesses, help. others are still under water. military on the ground helping rescue people trapped by floodwaters and seeing evacuation of the most fragile people in these communities like these tiny babies. look at this. a hospital neonatal intensive care unit in beaumont, texas, moved to hospitals not affected by the hurricane. the numbers are staggering. at least 47 deaths are blamed on the storm and flooding, more than 72,000 rescues so far and

as many as 136,000 homes and other buildings flooded. many damaged beyond repair and look at this. it's a traffic jam there. unbelievable traffic jam of tank of trucks at a fuel transfer station in houston waiting to fill up so they can get the gasoline out across the state where we are seeing some very long lines at the pumps. that being one of them. wow. 14 babies. 11 from the neonatal intense ish care unit evacuating now from a hospital in beaumont, texas. cnn national correspondent miguel marquez is there. miguel, talk about precious cargo. what can you tell us? >> reporter: there is no more precious cargo than this. a newborn baby. a healthy newborn baby is fragile enough. imagine having to turn over your prematurely born baby to hospital staff to be transported by air? that's what's happening here today. we had been told they were going to go by helicopter, but when the doctors and nurses started

looking into it. in large incubator devices. a little video of some of those babies before they were transported. they didn't want to take the risk of putting those incubators on a chopper, might have been squeezed into and maybe not quite as stable and made the decision to move them by ground, and ambulance to a local airport here and then fly them out to galveston, texas, or a fixed-wing aircraft to be cared for until the water crisis here is over. there was still 83 patients in baptist beaumont hospital this morning, and there hasn't been a big pace of individuals leaving. we've seen one helicopter taking one patient away. part of that due to the fact there might be a solution to the water issue here in galveston. several companies along with the city have been working for a temporary solution to the water problem here. it is not clear they have that

solution, but what has happened, some residents are reporting they are seeing water flowing from their spigots and from their households. the city now put out a boil order. if you see water coming out of your faucets here in galveston, or in -- in beaumont, excuse me, you have to boil it, because it's not entirely fresh. they are now testing this temporary fix. seeing if it will work. seeing if it will survive the cresting of the neches river and seeing if it will be able to pressurize the system enough to get water out there. all of those big "ifs" right now. the system may be coming back online a little earlier than expected. officials krogs fingers, but so far no promises. jim? >> critical for people to heed the warnings. miguel marquez, thank you very much for joining us. k kaylee joins us from beaumont.

people are desperate for water. trying to fix the situation, and it may not come soon enough, sounds like? >> reporter: it may not. already it has not. we were thinking about what, 36 hours now? a little more than that when these people have been without clean water to drink or shower with. the city set up this water distribution point earlier this morning. started handing out water. about three hours ago. this line, jim, it goes as far as i can see, down towards the interstate of i-10, around this block. cars have been inconstant motion here. when operations began this morning they were services five car as minute loading them um with two cases of water and two gal, of water. now up to 11 car as minute. incredibly efficient and by our math that means they've serviced at least 500 cars already this morning. the situation so dire in this town as people look for clean water. one local reporter told me that she went to a store last night. saw people literally fighting over what was left on the grocery store shelves and when she tweeted out there were still

baby wipes and diapers on the shelves she saw that tweet get more attention than anything she's ever put on social media. because people were so hungry for anything information of that sort. just a couple of minutes ago we actually learned where all the water you see fork lifted behind me came from. 16 trucks from the grocery store agb traveled from houston. took six and a half hours to get here. i've made that trip before. good day, traffic, 2.5 hours. 16 trucks with 32 pal i palette water. they will run the site in supplies run out or it's dark, whichever happens first. the southeast food bank just opened their doors for a distribution point as well and will be open until 3:00 this afternoon, jim. >> much-needed relief. hope it keeps coming even though it's happening incrementally. thank you so much, for both updates. the army corps of engineers is

sending eight water pumps to beaumont, texas, to help the city deal with its water problem. left the city with no drinking water, we've heard all day. brian todd is live in beaumont. brian, you just got into beaumont a few moments ago. we just heard from kaylee that a two-hour drive in those parts might take you six and a half hours. tell us about some of the complications you're running into. >> reporter: we had complications getting into town, jim. but it's not as bad a drive today as it was yesterday. from houston here to beaumont. here is kind of ground zero for the efforts to try to get the water pumping again in beaumont. this is the water treatment plant here in beaumont, texas. of course, the water has been out since 1:30 a.m. thursday. this is what they're doing. there are engineers from exxon/mobil, a company called echo, a company called tiger industrial. came in along with city experts to try to get the watered pumping again. look here.

photojournalist will zoom into that pump. a temporary pump set up coming from the neches river, which is normally the water comes from the neches river to this pumping station. but because the main pumping station up river, it has three pumps inside it is flooded and under water and the engines, the motor shorted out, that's done. they have to try to set up temporary pumping stations that are pumping water from the neches river into those orange pipes. look here. basically coming through this pipe here. and going -- up to -- the water treatment plant right here. now, it's slow going. they're trying to do tweaks to the system. they're trying to get this up and running, and, of course, there are different systems that need to be activated here, but they are trying to get the water going, and i'm here with actually a spokeswoman for exxon/mobil. ashley, talk about, tell me basically the efforts going on here and how urgently your teams are working.

>> oh, man. this is all about teamwork. the storms that occurred over the past week, exxon/mobil together with the city of b beaumont and tiger industries have come together. you see a crisis, how do you put something together and fix it. >> reporter: without getting too technical, i said it to our audience. as we show that pump over there. tell us what they're doing over there with that temporary pump and how it's working. >> sure. so the regular water was flooded. it will take a little time before the neches river gets running again. we've together with our collaborative partners developed a temporary solution with the pump that can get things going, powered by generators and equipment. we've got a lot of equipment that's being -- been brought in

just to make this work. >> reporter: do you know -- you may not know -- but, do you know how long it will take water from the neches river to get through this pump to the station and actually to people's homes? >> that's a really good question and glad you asked. the water is actually been running since last night. at a slower pace. slowly we're working with the city to get that reservoir filled up. a lot of stull stistuff still n completed. go through the water treatment phase and work through all of the treatment fasts you need to get back into the homes. i know the city doesn't have a timeline on that just yet, but we're definitely moving in a faster pace than yesterday. >> reporter: give us even an estimate on the timeline? say anything to the 100,000 residents of beaumont so desperate to get their water back? >> hopeful to take a shower tonight. >> reporter: all right. tonight. there you have it. ashley's hopeful to take a shower. all of us hopeful as are the 100 residents of beaumont. you can see here just a furious effort taking place to try to

get these temporary pumping stations working. the pumping station upstream was completely under water. it's got to be above water. it has motors in it. it shorted out. a secondary source, additional pumping stations off a well not far from here. they got flooded as well. that's how this all happened, jim and they've got the best engineers in the world trying to fix this. >> brian, i remember during katrina, i lived on a boat a couple of weeks. getting a shower is not easy when in an area like that after that kind of devastation. i can understand why that woman there you were just talking to would say something like that. can you talk about that a little bit? just how it has been for you and other people that you've come across? i mean, just dealing with the daily basics in life? just, i can't imagine what folks are going through down there. not able to take a shower. not able to turn on the faucet and get a drink of water? >> reporter: it's, of course, extremely difficult. very basic things that you expect to have those at your

disposal any time. what we -- our colleague kaylee hartung. cars, the line is immense. likes like a mile around the corner, down the street. troopers here but trying to get any water and depending on efforts to get that for them. people are being stoic. they're tough here know how to fend fend for themselves and imp pro prize. without water, basic thing, tough for them and probably will be much of the day. >> brian todd, appreciate it. we want to tell ow viur viewers expect to hear from the president in a few moments over at the white house, we understand. pool reporters brought in and he was asked about not just the situation down in texas, the flooding down there, which he commented on. also asked about this upcoming decision that's expected over at the white house on the so-called

dreamers. that is in reference to the daca policy that was implemented during the obama administration. the obama administration giving relief to kids who were brought in to the country by their undocumented parents. they've had relief the last several years. here's the president now. let's go to the president and hear what he has to say on those topics and more. hearon the president in the oval office just a few moments ago. >> a decision on daca? >> sometime today, or over the weekend we'll have a decision. >> -- [ inaudible ]. >> we love the dreamers. we love everybody. thank you very much. thank you. we'll issue it sometime over the weekend. maybe this afternoon. >> [ inaudible ]. >> we're working on emergency funding. we're doing everything we can, and we're working very well with the governor who's done a terrific job. >> thank you. >> [ inaudible ] -- right now.

>> dreamers are terrific. thank you very much, everybody. >> thank you. >> have a good afternoon. >> thank you. and so you hear the president there just a few moments ago in respect with the vice president and others in the oval office talking about storm funding. for people dealing with the aftermath of harvey. he was also asked about this decision that's coming up on daca. dealing with those dreamers that are here in the country awaiting for some kind of decision from the government. it appears that the president may be doing that here shortly. here with me now to talk about this, betsy woodruff, reporter for "the daily beast" and manu raju, and the president tweeted about former fbi director james comey. the "new york times" reporting that special counsel mueller has a letter written by president trump and his team laying out his case for firing comey. it's not a letter we have seen before. its contents. the newspaper says that the president has i guess given his rationale for doing this. let's start with that and then

talk about the other issues. how significant is that, betsy? >> depends what's in the letter. it's possible that mueller's team could use this letter to put together what prosecutors refer to as mosaic of intent. you want to bring charges against him for obstruction of justice you have to show they were actually trying to obstruct justice. it was perfectly legal for trump to fire comey. had that power as president. what mueller has to do to get him on that particular charge is show why he did it. if this letter shows that the president had a corrupt purpose when he fired comey, a useful letter. it's an open question. >> i agree. also, you look at the way the president and the white house handled explaining the decision for firing james comey. i think what this letter does is shows, underevery cuts in ways exactly the timing. when the president decided to fire james comey. they've given conflicting

responses about their decision to fire comey as well as whatever this letter says. if it contradicts what the president said publicly that would also be problematic for this white house. and as we know, the president said that, you know, comey's credibility was tarnished and in a later interview with nbc news said the russia investigation was on his mind when he fired comey. >> of course, he could say other things were on his mind. seems there could be an explanation from all of these looking at there-of-this from the white house point of view. let me ask you both about daca. i don't know how much time we have to talk about all this. i thought the president's comments were interesting. a decision may come down today or sometime over the weekend. we heard from our sources it's not expected today. but you heard the president there saying those remarks that we love the dreamers. the president is also saying that he would approach this issue with heart. with great heart and a lot of critics asking, betsy, how can

you show great heart to the dreamers while at the same time ending this program? even if you give these folks a year or two to sort their lives out, i suppose some of them do face the prospect of having to go back to a home that they fled when they were babies and may not know the native language of that country? a big problem for this white house. >> absolutely. a number of these from venezuela pap current that's changed drastically as we've seen violence unfurl there. and dacas recipients shouldn't be worried. they're very worried. this isn't calming. what's important, he is torn by two very powerful forces. one hand, of course, folks like gary cohn, business people. people in the academic world who have been unflinching in support for daca, and his own attorney general jeff sessions one 67 the most outspoken opponents of

daca. the funny thing that could happen here, the president decides to keep daca in place, a handful of state attorney generals republicans are going to sue. then the justice department has to decide, are they going to argue that daca is legal? that would be session's decision. >> we've heard the white house may just decide to let the attorney generals go ahead and do that see what happens and give congress time to look at it. play the video from earlier this year, manu. this was back in february. at the president's, his only full news conference when asked about daca. let's listen to that. >> we're going to deal with daca with heart. i have to deal with a lot of politicians, don't forget and i have to convince them what i'm saying is, is right. and i appreciate your understanding on that, but the daca situation is a very, very -- it's a very difficult thing for me. because, you know, i love these kids. i love kids. i have kids, and grandkids. >> there you have it.

he loves kids and grandkids and of course many dreamers are the kids and grandkids of people who have been in this country a very long time. they've been in this country a very long time. >> and of the most sympathetic of the folks undocumented in this country to really bipartisan support on the hill to try to figure how to deal with the dreamers without deporting them, but -- >> and house speaker paul ryan said the president should not -- >> right. and to that point, the president on the campaign trail, vowed to get rid of it. one reason he won the republican nomination. because of his hard-line view on immigration policy. if he backtracks on that he is going to get criticized from his base and we'll see what he decides to do. if he decides to punt and say congress should fix this, even though there is bipartisan support fixing it, it's a thorny issue. the issue of immigration. getting anything done in congress would be very difficult meaning the white house 34may he to do something

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as floodwaters drain from buildings and roads many in the houston area are starting to return to their homes, at least what's left of them. cnn was there as one woman opened her front door for the first time since evacuating. take a look. >> feel like crying ben i'm joyful because i could have been in the water and it could have got us. so i'm just grateful. i'm just getting back to see was left. water is a powerful thing. it toppled over the sofa. and that love seat. and it just moved all of this stuff. >> when you see it -- whoa! the sink came up. >> the refrigerator. >> and the refrigerator door --

lord, lord. whoa. >> hmm. let's see what this is. i put this up here. thank you, lord. these are pictures from a long time ago. and -- yeah. this thing kept that dry. didn't get wet. that's good. hi. hi! i know that storm scared you. i'm glad you made it. lm. hmm, hmm-hmm. [ sobbing ] >> it's okay. it's okay. >> he always takes care you us. >> i know. this, too, shall pass and i know

that it will. today is my 66th birthday. what i'm going to do after we go through some of this is, i just want to eat seafood. i love seafood. if i get some seafood i'll be happy. and if i get a martini, i'll be happy, but if not, i'm just glad to be here. i'm glad to be here. >> and that is houston area resident winnie who says she's like a martini. i'm sure a lot of folks down there could use a drink. rosa flores joins us now. you were there with winnie when she saw her home for the first time. rosa, remarkable and gives you a sense what people are going through. sometimes, they just have to break down and cry. >> reporter: you know, it's a very emotional moment. we've seen a lot of gratitude. people are just grateful to are alive, but then they come home and learn they have lost everything there is just this heavy sense of grief. we are actually just a few streets down. this is a home.

ms. evelyn hawkins. hi, ms. evelyn! say hi to everybody. glad you're doing okay. you doing fine? >> i'm doing fine. thank the lord. >> reporter: yes. so neighbors saved her. took her to safety and now her entire church, jim, is here helping her rebuild. now, these folks tell me that ms. evelyn that given so much to this community, to all of the people at her church, that they felt that it's time for them to help her as well. now, if you see inside -- it's difficult. we don't want to kind of get in the way. we're going to show you through a window. but you can see that everything was toppled over. it was a giant soup inside. [ inaudible ] [ no audio ] >> rosa, you're -- rosa, your shot maybe -- i think it's back. keep going, rosa. i think your mike broke there for a second. it's back. yes. what were you just saying?

>> reporter: okay. let me bring you over here. this is the fourth time a storm hilt her home and every time her church comes out. she gives so much. you can see even kids coming out, helping out. helping her get all of this soaked stuff out of her house so she can rebuild. she has a great spirit and they all say hi to wolf blitzer. they are huge fans. hi to wolf and so grateful that, you know, she survived and that, you know, all of this stuff, all of this stuff can be replaced. she's okay, and that's all that matters, they say. jim? >> rosa flores. that's great. just gives you a glimpse there of a community pulling together, and i loved how she was just so wonderful a few moments ago. i mean, she's in such great spirits, despite the fact that, you know, her house has really been torn apart there. we wish the best for all of them as they recover from harvey.

thank you very much, rosa flores. appreciate it. a local foisht estimaoffice more than 1,000 federal housing inspector are on the ground in texas and another 200 on the way. what happens serino. when you see scenes like that we saw a few moments ago with rosa flores, it's just incredible. seems like it's overwhelming to figure out how to begin. what do you do? i suppose you just need teams of people to go from neighborhood to neighborhood to assess all of this? >> one of the things we saw in that story. she said, she's appreciative she can do this, but i can do this, we can do this, it's really bringing the whole community together with the support from her neighbors, from the faith-based community as we saw. that's going to repeat itself thousands and thousands of times

across all of text and louisiana as well. i think it's good to remember that this is about the people. this is about what they need. and the force of government coming to help, federal, state, local, bringing that ability to work across the whole community with the faith-based community, nonprofits, red cross, also you have different groups, samaritans purse, team rubicon. mopping out people's homes to go back and live in their home. this isn't something one agency can do, not anything one individual can do. this is not one city can do. this has to be all of us coming together. working together to support the survivors in this time of crisis. >> and many homeowners in the area, i think this is a very important question. they don't have flood insurance. obviously, people who live in certain areas, they don't think a 500-year flood will happen to them so they don't get the insurance and then something catastrophic like this happens. what are they supposed to do?

>> this is one of the problems. 80% of the people in this area have no flood insurance. so that means they will qualify hopefully for fema assistance, but fema assistance wasn't designed to make people whole. the maximum somebody gets is about $33,000. even with that, the average only $6,000 to $7,000. it's going to help people jump-start but not help them get back on their feet. that's where all of the volunteers, all the donations people are making both monetary and in time, not just initially in this week, really looking how you can help and volunteer through affiliated good organizations that you're familiar with that can come in and help mop out these peopling homes, help them rebuild. they'll need money and people to help as well. organizations like the red cross, team rubicon. the southern baptists, feeding 20,000 people a kay. it's og organizing and all of

those folks coming together and important how we look at this, that we'll have the ability to be able inform across the different agencies, administrative law doing a great job, the state director in texas, informing people how they're able to do that and also inspiring people. inspiring people how they can help out. what they can do. understanding that it's not one agency that's going to be able to do this. this is a whole government approach. the whole community approach. neighbor helping neighbor as well. it's going to be a long haul. this is not something that's going to be resolved in weeks. this is going to take months and in some cases years. >> absolutely. richard serino former deputy of fema. thank you for that expertise and perspective on this. thank you so much, sir. still ahead and as you're looking now on the other side of the screen, these are live pictures of evacuations taking place now. they're in beaumont, texas. they're being evacuated from a hospital there. patients evacuated from a hospital by air and in beaumont,

texas. seeing live pictures right now. we're going to continue to bring the pictures in to you as they come in. and so stay with us on that. meanwhile, the impact from harvey is being felt from texas to new york. why you're going to be paying more at the pump for weeks to come. that's when we come back. no splashing! wait so you got rid of verizon, just like that? uh-huh. i switched to t-mobile, kept my phone-everything on it- -oh, they even paid it off! wow! yeah. it's nice that every bad decision doesn't have to be permenant! ditch verizon. keep your phone. we'll even pay it off when you switch to america's best unlimited network.

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adding insult to injury in texas, storm victims trying to get basic necessities experiencing long lines for gas. it happens in storms like harvey and in cases facing exorbitant prices. a convenient store in houston reportedly charging $99 for a case of water. which is just totally ridiculous. why you're hearing authorities saying they want to crack down on this. cnn correspondent alison kosik in dallas. are gas prices spiking there and

what's happening across the country? >> reporter: we are seeing gas prices spike here. most of the gas stations we're seeing in and around dallas, they are up, according to the national average says it should be. this particular gas station is a little on the high side. at $3.49 a gallon. usually around $2.50. a buck over. we are seeing lines continue as the day goes on. as the day goes on, in addition to the lines we're seeing, also seeing gas stations run out of gas. look at this one here. the yellow tape here. it means that these gas pumps no longer have gas. about 40 pumps at this gas station. only 8 can offer gas, because they've been, just run out. they're not getting new supply. why is this happening? because refineries are shut down, because their flooded. refineries in port arthur and in houston. vital pipelines, colonial and others are not running at full capacity. not only are you seeing prices

spike here in texas, you're seeing them go up across the country. north carolina a spike of 29 cents a gallon since harvey hit. same with georgia. more bad news. when you thought this, you could see the light at the end of the tunnel, analysts saying we might see gas prices go up more because it could take a while to get the refineries back online. at gas stations you may see it go higher than that. >> a punch on the economy. alison kosik, thank you very much for that perspective. that's right. still to come, we'll talk to the man who wrote the book on the great deluge after hurricane katrina. what lessons can we learn and what can we learn as houston tries to rebuild and the president heading down this weekend. that's next. nutrient with 3x better absorption.

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this time last week people in southeast texas were nervously watching weather forecasts waiting for harvey to make landfall hoping it would go easy on them. days later, under water, feet g i many fighting for their lives. a look back at harvey and what it left behind. >> these are about some of the worst conditions i have ever been in. >> we need help. we need help right now. there's water. drowning. >> just because skies are clear doesn't mean the threat is over. >> we thought we were fine and the water started coming up really, really fast. >> literally you're in moments of panic. >> go. go, go, go, go, go! >> get out, dude! >> guy's truck is floating away.

>> see people -- it's heartbreaking. >> i seen three dead bodies. lord, please help us. >> i feel like "wizard of oz" man. seen a lot of things but that terrified me. >> waiting on the boat. a lot of people swimming. trying to save the kids. they try to -- reach a safe place. >> we have been there like five days with no food. no lights and nobody came. like, nobody came. >> we were on a roof. it was raining so hard. we didn't care. we just wanted to live. >> the current just lifted up the van. >> and the kids were screaming. he could hear them screaming, yelling, climb out. get out the back doors. >> had e couldn't do anything. the van went into the water. >> i told the sheriff, i'm so glad you saved my brother. >> even after watching that,

it's hard to grasp how much damage has been done in southeast texas and harder to understand how long it will take to recover. i want to talk about what the future might hold for the folks down in that part of the country with the story and dougly teaches in houston, and author of "the great deluge." doug in a few moments we expect video to come in of the president talking about daca and the dreamers. we might get to that in the middle of this and show that and talk to you about this, but first, after showing footage what's happening over the last week, goes to show you how a natural disaster like this can come on suddenly and unfold and totally unpredictable ways. writing that book on katrina, what does the future hold for the people in texas? >> recovery's going to be tough. fema's done a better job than

with browny in katrina. nevertheless, fema is going to be inundated with requests. they'll have a hard time meeting some of them. you'll see the town of houston pull together. this weekend the houston astros are playing a doubleheader, giving out free tickets. the city's taking pride in houston and they'll want to talk about local heroes. hue to houstonians saves houstonians. in katrina, gulfport and mississippi. don't forget port aran is and rockport. the towns that really took the brunt of the storm head-on. >> and, doug, don't mean to ket you off. new footage of the president talking about the dreamers. let's listen in. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, everyone. >> [ inaudible ]. >> we'll release on daca sometime over the weekend. probably -- sunday. saturday.

latest will be monday. >> thanks, everyone. >> great feeling for daca. excuse me? >> daca is -- [ inaudible ]. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thanks very much. >> thank you. >> we'll be making a request. absolutely. for the state of texas, yes. tomorrow i'm going to louisiana with the first lady, and texas. it will be texas, louisiana. okay? thank you. thank you, everybody. okay. we just want to get viewers caught up what we just saw. talking to douglas brinkley about this. earlier in the hour you saw the president talking about this decision on daca. he said it might happen today or over the weekend. in the last few moments, pointing out a slight distinction. the president saying tomorrow, sunday or monday we might see a decision on daca. sounds as if this holds, the

president saying we won't get a decision on this today. doug, since talking about daca, how big of a decision is this? this seems to be a larger decision, a more profound decision that could be very defining for him than it was for pardoning joe arpaio. because you have so many young kids affected by this. >> absolutely. i mean, one has to hope that president trump does the right thing and allows these daca dreamers to stay here in the united states. the idea of booting them out, giving them a year or two to move to a country where they may not even speak the language and to leave the skyexiling of a wh class of people, a horrible story unfolding in the coming months and years so let's hope that doesn't happen. i can't imagine he's going to make saturday a daca day. he's got to get down to the gulf, show heart and emotion. he only got medium reviews going there before, jim, when we went down to corpus christi and kind of stood half a football field

away from people, and i can't imagine many of the people struck in the gulf are of latino heritage. seems to me to be farfetched. probable leaking at sunday, probably monday morning. >> i was go to ask you, doug. you're from that area and know it well. i imagine you have a good number of dreamers who live in the houston area. and can you imagine if you live in an area that's been flooded out, maybe your home taken out, and you're a dreamer, and then find out that the president has taken away your doaca status. sounds like a very bad p.r. problem for this white house e potentially. >> hoar risk. i promise you in houston where the latino community is very large he's not a beloved president, yet people are hoping that he'll show some emotion. so what a cold thing to do if he went down to houston or louisiana and did a daca speech

dlo saying we're going to boot you. i don't expect that to happen. i'm hoping when the president gives hints, i love the dreamers type thing, he means it and ends up doing the right thing monday and getting this issue behind us. these >> and he's under so much pressure inside the white house. you have people like steven miller, his policy writer who is a veteran of jeff sessions senate office and the attorney general who are pushing him to get tough on these d.r.e.a.m.ers, get tough on immigration, and yet you have people like gary cohn, the economic adviser, the more moderate folks inside the white house who are saying the president should be careful with this. and you have the president, he has promised time and again to show great heart to these kids. how can you even pull the rug out from under them after saying, repeatedly, you're going to show great heart. >> i think it would be a public relations disaster for the president, but we've seen him

walk into pr disasters before. so, anything's possible. but it seems to me the moments high here for the president to do the right thing, so what if miller doesn't like it or some of the alt-right doesn't like it. he seemed to be able to purge the bannon crowd lately. hopefully this is showing a new donald trump where he doesn't polarize our country more on an issue that polls show they don't agree with the president on. most people want to embrace the d.r.e.a.m.ers. they recognize they're essential american citizenship and for him to go that far right and that draconian and do something that filled with malice seems to me it's only going to see a president who's already struggling with below 40% approval rating sink much lower. >> and speaking of how he's going to be perceived down there, you mentioned he was in the region just a few days ago and there was a video that got everybody's attention when he said, look at this crowd here, look at this turnout, and it did leave a blemish on his

performance down there. he didn't really get up close and personal with very many people either, in contrast with the vice president who was doing just that yesterday. how do you think he needs to handle himself when he goes down to texas and louisiana tomorrow? >> well, i think what he needs to have a trump moment when he shows empathy. it seems to be his short suit, and by that, i mean, look at what bill clinton did after the oklahoma city bombing and the empty chairs of oklahoma and the heart that he showed. look at president barack obama after the tragedy in charleston when he sang "amazing grace." look at ronald reagan after the "challenger" disaster. he needs a moment where we're feeling a kind of empathy from him and he's often been described as having a narcissistic personality. that means you don't have an ability for empathy. you're basking in self-love. he needs to transcend that just like the people of houston and the gulf south are transcending the storm, he needs to transcend that hesitation and get to the people, hug the real victims of

the storm. >> yeah, and doug, apparently just a few moments ago, the president praised the first responders down there in the region. let's show that footage. >> thank you. thank you very much. the first lady and i are pleased to welcome gail mcgovern of the american red cross, david hudson of the salvation army and kevin easel of southern baptist disaster relief. these people have been absolutely incredible in what they've done. we'd like to thank them and their staffs and volunteers for the incredible work they're doing and in helping people affected by hurricane harvey. sounds like a very innocent name, but it's not an innocent hurricane, that i can tell you. it's of epic proportion.

these organizations and the many other nonprofits involved represent the generosity, determination, and unbreakable spirit of the american people, and mike pence was there yesterday and represented this country so well in the love and the care and i had so many just great comments about your visit. so i appreciate it. >> thank you, mr. president. >> and when a disaster strikes, they work to help others in the time of need, which was over the last week, believe me. they've already provided tens of thousands of displaced gulf coast residents with meals, water, shelter, fresh blankets, and clean clothing. when one american suffers, and i say this quite a bit, and especially lately, when you see what's going on, we all suffer. we're one american family brought together in times of tragedy by the unbreakable bonds of love and loyalty that we have for one another and there is a great love and a great loyalty

in this country, and i think we've all seen it, maybe more so than ever before over the last four days. so, i think we really have seen it. nowhere is our unity more evident than in the actions of our volunteer and charitable organizations that rally to their neighbor's aid when disaster strikes. the people of texas and louisiana were hit very hard by a historic flood. in their response, they have taught us all a lesson, a very, very powerful lesson. there was no outbreak in crime. there was an outbreak of compassion only. real, beautiful, strong compassion, and they've really inspired us as a nation. to be honest, they've inspired the world because the world is watching. we're pleased to receive an update from gail, david, and kevin on the work of the red cross, salvation army, and the southern baptist disaster relief. the federal government is on the ground bringing in significant

resources to bear, and i want to assure these organizations and the others involved that we will continue to coordinate with them and bring all of the relief and the comfort and everything else that we absolutely can to the gulf coast, and i want to also thank the governor and lieutenant governor of texas. they have been outstanding. just the coordination and the level of relationship has been, i think, pretty much unprecedented. so i just want to thank them. i want to thank all of the folks working on the ground for the administration, tom bossert is here today. tom, thank you very much. we appreciate it. every american heart is with the people of texas and louisiana. they're strong and resilient, and they have really overcome, and we're in the process of just about where i can say overcome this horrible devastation. now it's going back to work, but the coast guard in particular have to also thank. they saved probably thousands of

lives. we were just talking about it. going on to seas that very few people would want to be on in the worst of times and they were saving a lot of people out there. together, we will help them all recover from this tragedy. we'll renew our hope in community and will renew our hope and rebuild those homes and businesses and schools and places of worship with a strength and vigor that comes from the love within our souls, and i just authorized and signed a proclamation for prayer, and we're going to have on sunday a prayer sunday, and mike, that was something that was very special that just took place, so i think it's going to be something to see. and to witness. it's been a long time, and our country deserves it, frankly. i want to thank my wife, melania, the first lady. she's been so involved in this and helping so much, and so i want to thank you. would you like to say a few

words? >> it's great to be here with an amazing people, and i want to thank all the volunteers all across the country that have came to help to texas, and fantastic job, and we are going tomorrow to visit them, and i just want to tell them to be strong and everything will be okay on the end. >> i didn't tell her i was going to do that, steve. and she did a great job. but she really has, she's been so dedicated to this. this is very much affected her, what's happened in texas, and neighboring states, frankly. so, i want to thank you, first lady. thank you. salvation army. >> yes, well, we're, first of all, very appreciative of this opportunity and appreciative of our partners in service. we are working hand in hand with groups like the red cross where

they provide shelter for people and we're able to provide meals and even though we're limited in being able to get in to a lot of the impacted area, we've already served hupz served hundreds of thousands of meals and literally millions of meals will be served and we can only do this as we partner together, and as i've told my coworkers, this is a time that we're all texans, and no matter where you're from, we're all about serving americans in need, and i'd like to thank you, mr. president, the red cross, and the baptists and all the other agencies that partner with us. together, we can make a difference. >> thank you very much. very nice. so, southern baptist. >> we're three different organizations but we work best as one, and the joy of this is we really do lock arms and have the capacity to feed over 400,000 people a day, and mr. president, thank you for fema. they've been incredible through this. we've come through many disasters, and they've done a -- just a fantastic job of stepping

to the plate and being prepared and allowing us to volunteer in the way we're prepared to do. >> well, i think we should thank brock long and all the people at fema and the people at homeland and i have to say general kelly, who's been so much involved, as you know, he just left, and he's now in the white house, but his spirit and everything else that's been involved over the last few weeks getting ready, because really, this has been probably now almost two weeks since we felt it was probably going to hit that area, but general kelly's done a fantastic job, and elaine duke, who's -- has been terrific. so, i want to thank all of our folks. tell me, red cross, how we doing? >> so, first of all, our hearts go out to the people of texas, and on behalf of the entire american red cross, so many people have lost everything, and presented in our shelters with just the clothes on their back. i visited one