i'll see you next week. [ woman vocalizing ] as it reaches shore in texas tonight. david: good evening, i'm david as man in for lou dobbs -- asman in for lou dobbs. hurricane harvey was upgrade to a category 3. it's the most of powerful hurricane to target the u.s. since 2005. 4.5 million people are in the path of harvey which forecasters warn is bringing catastrophic and life-threatening storm surges. reporter: the first major hurricane to make u.s. landfall

in 12 years bears down on the texas coast, those who decided to leave have already gotten out. >> every time they say it's going to be spreal big, i'll take the extra precautions. >> those who decided to stay will face category 3 force winds. >> i'm scared so i'm going to do everything i can to protect our little place down here and hope and pray for the best. reporter: president trump is getting briefed regularly on the storm. and his homeland security advisor said that the lessons of katrina helped them get ready for harvey. mandatory evacuation is in effect for many areas along the texas coast. texas governor greg abbott

warning residents to get out of the storm's path. there have been long lines for food, water, gasoline and sand bags. now almost all stores are board up. four critically ill newborns were transport out of harm's way. oil platforms and ships have been evacuated and 700 national guard troops stand at the ready to help with what could be devastating flooding. >> the storms could hang around for several days and bring 30 inches of rain in some place. you may have to go inland more than 100 miles. david: president trump is

closely monitoring the track of the hurricane from camp david, ready to proad ride federal help if necessary. john roberts reports that the hurricane will be the president's first major test of dealing with a major disaster. reporter: this is the president's first being test of how the administration responds to a national disaster. and the president is determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past. leaving the white house this afternoon for camp david gave a thumbs up and sent well wishes for people in harm's way. the president made a point of letting the nation know he's dialed into the crisis saying he received a hurricane harvey briefing this morning. white house homeland security advisor tom bossert said the

federal government ready to respond. >> the state and local organizations and the non-governmental organizations seem to be well positioned. reporter: in a tweet this morning charles grassley urged president trump to keep on top of hurricane harvey. don't make the same mistake president bush made with katrina. >> how much is that in the back of your minds? >> i was in and through and with fema during katrina. so i think it's not just what's object my mind but on the minds of all the emergency managers in our community. especially those in texas and louisiana. that's still in their minds, their memories and muscle memory. reporter: there was a plan in

place before hurricane andrew and it fell completely apart. bossert insists the fema today is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was. the president will be monitoring the storm from camp david which the white house insists has the full logistical capability of the west wing. >> let's hope this event fizzles but i don't think it's the right thing to hope for. we'll do what it takes to safe people's lives and make their lives easier. reporter: the president is announce a federal disaster tonight. and he's planning to travel to to texas next week and he may

have to cancel this trip to missouri to kick off his tax reform. david: the storm has just been upgrade to a category 4 hurricane. this is huge. anybody in harm's way needs to get out. if you are going to hunker down you better have a lot of safe drinking water available. that's just the out ear of bands of the -- that's just the outer bands of the hurricane. the president's top economic advisor took time away from his push for tax reform to nitpick the president's repeated condemnations of charlottesville, two weeks after the fact. gary cohn revealed he was under considerable pressure to resign but stayed in his job to quote work on behalf of the american people.

he said citizens standing up for see quality and freedom should never be see quited with white supremacists, neo-nazis, and the kkk. i think the admin straiption can and must do better in condemning these groups. cohn sounds like the left wing media and congressional democrats and deep state dwellers who continue to question the even the president's sanity. >> you had people that were very fine people on both sides. reporter: after his post-charlottesville news conference and tuesday's phoenix rallies, critics of president trump have grown increasingly personal. questioning not just the visibilit -- theadvisability oft

his mental health. >> this is a man who is not well. >> the president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor confidence. reporter: the white house declined to respond to that last jab. but at 8:30 a.m., more than a week after the comments in question the president tweeted strange comments by james corker -- bob kosher. barry goldwater was declared unfit to be president. and since then the describing

association declared it unethical to do so. even observers sympathetic to the president say it's too easy to question his rationale. >> when someone is working counter to his own interests, people will push it further and claim he's not fit. reporter: he noted how richard blumenthal wept after false statements about his street a number record were exposed. david: president trump is heading to missouri next week to start a major push for tax reform. >> the president is 100% in

support of us passing legislation this year. david: we take up the tax reform fight with the dean, ed rollins. hurricane harvey intensifying as hyou always pay your insuranceas on time. tap one little bumper and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. liberty mutual insurance.

david: the "wall street journal" is reporting special counsel robert mueller is examining what role if any former national security advisor mike flynn may have played in a private effort to obtain hillary clinton's emails from russian hackers. the effort was reportedly led by peter smith who implyinged flynn was an ally and other trump supporters were helping which they denied. he made contact with five groups of hackers two of which he believe were compromised by russia. joining me, ed rollins.

first of all, do you know this character, peter smith? ed: i do not know peter smith. david: this source like so many other, it quotes people familiar with the matter said. who do you think those people are? ed: when you get into things like -- he passed away from suicide shortly after this broke. this guy is kind of a long pattern from what i read playing with the clinton stuff when it was going on. but my sense is i don't know him. it doesn't mean it's not valid. but it doesn't sounds like a good story. david: we don't have the absolute proof that hillary's emails were hacked. so the entire story is prefaced

on something we don't know is true. >> there are a lot of assumptions. there is going to be a lot of stuff he will look at. but at the end of the day they have to come out with something that's pretty solid. david: meanwhile there is a russian investigation we at fox business are involved in, that's the fusion gps thing. chuck grassley is also looking into it. they are squeezing glenn simpson a form colleague of mine at "wall street journal" who went on to work for opposition research for democrats and they were the ones who came out with this russian dossier. the liberal media is reviving the whole idea that the russian dossier proves there was

collusion between the trump am cane and russia. what do you believe? ed: i believe senator grassley. he has a great investigative staff. he's been around 40 years and is a tough investigator. if there was something there the former reporter had, it would be out there in the mainstream press in addition to the judicial investigation. david: senator grassley's office subpoenaed some of the documents glenn simpson has, gps fusion has. they received thousands of document that were blank pages to which one of senator grassley's associates said this shows they are stonewalling senator grassley. that won't continue for long. ed: grassley will subpoena them in a heartbeat. he's very, very tough.

a very good investigator. he will get to the bottom of it. david: the attacks on the president from republicans continue. we have this dust-up between senator corker and the president. why don't -- with the democratic opposition in such disarray against the president, why doesn't senator corker who we see here and the other senators and congressmen who have been criticizing the president for statement he made about charlottesville, this is an historic opportunity to change the tax system in addition to many other aspects of the government that are wrong right now. why don't they get their act together? ed: what the republicans have to understand is the president does not have good approval numbers they will be sunk. whatever his numbers are, 37,

40. that's their base. we have a bunch of senators in key races next time. unless they get off this thing of beating up the president and pushing some of his agenda stuff forward they will be in a lot of hurt. david: we have senator mitch mcconnell suggesting we won't have tax reform until after the next election. he said sometime in this congress which could be after november 2018. if we don't have tax cuts before the election the economy won't grow sufficiently to win the election. ed: even if they passed it next week it would be a year before there would be benefit from it. i think this should have come up first and they need to get this thing done as quickly as possible. david: be sure to vote in tonight's follow.

gary cohn reportedly drafted a resignation letter before he criticized president trump in the paper. a reminder to follow lou and twitter @loudobbs. on wall street stocks closing the week higher. the dow up 30, at volume on the big board a light 2.5 billion shares. for the week all three indices are up about a%. oil moving higher on fears hurricane harvey could reduce supply. listen to lou's report coast to coast on salem network. >> president trump promised strong action but maduro moved ahead and ignored his people's will. with today's announcement the president is keeping his promise

of strong action and continuing to show strong leadership. david: we'll discuss the prospect of military action in venezuela with general jack

david: the white house is dialing up the pressure on the communist dictatorship in venezuela. the white house announcing another round of sanctions making it difficult for maduro and his country to borrow money while the country is at unrest. >> we always have a broad rank of contingencies. but any decision would be conjunction with our partners in the region. no military actions are an is night near future.

david: for more on venezuela and and other global hot spots we are joined by former general jack keane. what would justify military action in venezuela? >> i can't see any military action unless they started to take extreme measures against their own people or against a neighboring country. but i think what everyone is so concerned about is maduro is becoming one of the world's top dictators. he's rewriting the constitution to give himself ultimate power. that takes away the vote from the people themselves. so there are two alternatives if he's a completely unacceptable leader and the people are economically strangled. they take the armed insurrection themselves. and that's called insurgencies.

we are quite familiar with that. and the other is his military. we are not going to advocate either one of those things as part of u.s. foreign policy. but either one of those things are on the horizon to begin with. >> the vice president of venezuela, he is of syrian descent. he's in charge of giving people passports and apparently he's giving as ports to terrorists. would that justify military action on our part? >> i don't believe so. i don't think we are seriously contemplating military action whatsoever. i think it would further complicate the problem. i don't believe we have a single ally in the region advocating that themselves.

david: we have breaking news from korea. apparently the missile launch was a failure. that clearly in my mind was a reaction or attempted reaction to our military exercises with the south, right? >> it's clearly what this is. they always do something during these annual exercises the united states and south korea is conducting to remind them that they are opposed to these exercises as a matter of policy and principle. this is not in reaction to the statements the president said about the ultimate impact on north korea if they did something that provoked the united states. quite frankly. north korea has toned down some of its rhetoric and also has not taken any serious ballistic testing since those statements have been made. i doubt seriously if that will last a while longer.

ultimately i think he will conduct six nuclear tests within weeks or months. david: we should just ignore what happened tonight? >> absolutely. the less talk about it, the better. our exercises will be conducted. and they bear a lot of fruit. we are testing important plans dealing with north korea. so those are very serious exercises. have a great weekend. we are coming right back with a lot more. please stay with us. president trump is taking on the republican establishment. >> nobody wants me to talk about your other senator who is weak on borders, weak on crime. nobody knows who the hell he is. david: michelle malkin says the gop establishment is more loyal to themselves than their

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david: we want to get you an update on hurricane harvey which is now a category 4 storm. rick reichmuth is live at the weather center.

steve harrigan is in corpus christi which is due west of where that eye is going to come on. if you are west of the eye of the hurricane you are really in harm's way. he had to shut down the camera baits was going in and out. rick: it's actually the opposite. david: if he was on the good side, imagine what the bad side is like. rick: that's the point. he's on the good side of the storm and had to close the camera down because things were getting so bad there. when i say the good side of this storm i mean that's where you are not going to get the storm surge. the bad side is where you get the storm surge. there is corpus christi. the stoirmts moving towards the midwest. this is the last images here from the visible satellite. this gives an idea of what this eye looks like. it's slows down quite a bit.

it's getting close towards this outer banks. 130-mile-per-hour winds, first category 4 storm since 1961 in texas. it's moving so slowly now. the goes-16 satellite allows us to study this. we are so close to shore, the storms interact with land and lose their strength, but not this one. the storm transmits more of the wind down to the surface where people are. you will see it's so close we'll watch all of this water filling into these bays and inlets.

a lot of refinery business. because it's moving so slow sit pro longs the rain event and as we see the storm make landfall and overnight and tomorrow move inland. it moves inland 50 miles or so. that means we continue to see an onshore flow for a long time. the storm surge you can see doesn't dissipate. it stays in. and over the next number of days it doesn't go anywhere. we have high pressure that will nudge it backwards. take a look what happens here with this model. saturday, by tomorrow evening it's moved in just a little bit. towards the day sunday. moves back out around corpus christi. it probably still is a tropical

storm and interacts with somewhat term strengthening again tuesday. going into the day wednesday. port lavaca which is getting hammered right now. wednesday tropical storm or hurricane right in the same spot. that's why we are talking about these rainfall totals that are almost unimaginable numbers in the 50-inch range by the time this is done. whenever one place gets hammered, another if area survivors. it helps louisiana from getting some of that rain. david: when you see 40 and 50-inch estimates coming you think that's a mistake. it's worst case scenario, but let's hope it doesn't happen. rick: you see the model run and you think it's a blip. they are really reliable models

that increase our confidence in our totals. house minority leader nancy pelosi ramping up calls to remove what she calls the reprehensible statues from the halls of congress. it turns out her father helped dedicate one of those monuments to honor confederate generals robert e. lee and thomas stone wall jackson. joining me now to discuss the hypocrisy of the left and a lot more as michelle malkin investigates on crtv.com. michelle, i guess now pelosi will have to denounce her father as awhite supremacist, right? >> disavow your own late father.

it's too choice and too rich is the word kellyanne conway used in reaction to this latest call from nancy pelosi. i just don't know where it's going to end. and, you know, with the left of course i have been saying, i know a lot of people have been saying. there is no appeasing the unappeasable. it's the double standards hypocrisy. and it's blowing up in their faces. this an example of that. david: the sanctimonious hypocrisy of this is so thick i suspect that's one won't americans overwhelmingly, americans want to maintain the statues just to be in your face with the sanctimony. >> in terms of entertainment value, it's been terrific. when you have antifa people attacking statues they perceive

to be symbols of white supremacy them realize, wait a minute, these were constructed by people who were trying to make peace with the past. i think sunlight is the best disinfectant. to see how far they overreached is another aspect and a trademark trait of the radical progressive left. they don't know when to stop. david: another group that doesn't know when to stop are the never trumpers. some republicans in the administration like gary cohn who continued to rehash this notion that president trump didn't say enough to condemn the violence in charlottesville. >> i think it's despicable. i think this shows you there are many elements within the republican party and unfortunately for president trump even within his own administration who feel it's more important for them to

disavow and to capitulate to the progressive left rather than stands up for principle here. you can argue until you run out of breath about how president trump expressed himself. we can all second guess what getter words he might have chosen. but the fact was he was making a principle stand. this kind of violence and hatred and bigotry exists on both sides. and it has for decades. david: there is one group we can't forget about and that's the corporate interests. the big corporations like apple, like jpmorgan chase who are funding groups like the southern poverty law center. they have a list of of what they call hate groups and they include some people you and i know like frank gaffty. and a hero of mine who has

spoken out against muslim extremism. she needs 24/7 bodyguards to protect her life. and they pointed her out as somebody to be hated. that's putting a bigger target on her back. >> i have been targeted as well. they made scene industry and a racket out of deeming hateful and hate groups anyone who expresses political opinions, thoughts and policy determinations that veer from left-wing orthodoxy. it's time to hold he corporate entities responsible for essentially enabling a hate group itself for attacking patriotic americans. they are going after the american legion and ben carson. david: there are plenty of other places to put your money that

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david: the former british spy behind the trump dossier has been ordered to give a deposition. christopher steel who authored the dossier while work for political opposition research firm fusion gps is fighting the ruling by a district judge in florida. co-founder of fusion spoke to investigators on the senate

judiciary committee this week. one investigate years accusing mr. simpson of stonewalling for giving the committee thousands of blank pages to answer to subpoena. tony shaffer, a senior fellow with the london center for policy. it's looking like this whole thing was a russian setup. >> i think it was in some aspects. it's no mystery about hot so-called republican customer was who first started gps down this path and it was taken over by the democrats at some point. david: but what senator grassley is trying to find out, he subpoenaed elements of what fusion gps had. what he's trying to find out is whether or not the russians supplied fusion gps with this

information rather than mr. steel the retired british agent. >> this is one of those points. apparently mr. steel is well respected. why would someone who is well respected put their entire career and reputation on the line by accepting something from a third party in this case, the russians. two other things on this. to me everything so far seems to have been completely false. there is no evidence any of the information in the dossier was real. and john mccain has now been indicated, he gave this information to the fbi, and james comey ran with it as if it was factual. there are some breakdowns in what should be due diligence. getting a second or third source. david: i must say fusion gps is a sharp outfit. they have interesting ways of

dealing. they knew the media would bite on this information as soon as they could because it showed trump in a bad light. even though it look like it came directly from vladimir putin's secret agents. >> you and i talked about this. the russians aren't good guys in any of this. i don't believe they interfered with the election. they did things to be very troublesome. but they never hacked into the data bases. by the shows the russians are up to no good. one of the tech systems i used to work for had the russians try to hack into their data base. so this is not new. david: i have a great recommendation for your reading list this weekend. it's called "putin's gambit." fans of the show are loving it.

every viewer whose comment is read on the show will receive an autographed copy of the book. senator robert menendez is asking the judge to recess his corruption trial for major senate votes. next we'll discuss what his absence could mean for the

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will hurt republicans in the midterm elections in 80% of you said yes it will. democratic senator bob menendez of new jersey is asking a federal judge to recess the corruption trial on days he is needed in washington and his attorney attorneys say the senator's absence from the capital could imperil votes to avoid a government shutdown. federal prosecutors oppose the requesting menendez is not entitled to special treatment because of his status. the trial is set to begin september 6 through joining me to talk about all of this founder and ceo of american majority ned ryun and rachel campos. rachel looking just at the numbers there a lot of elements that go into this if menendez hadn't been on that last vote on obamacare the repeal could have

won so this could really change him votes. >> it's a huge deal and by the way good for the judge for at least right now saying it's not going to move the trial and good for the doj first sending a memo reminding everyone there are people under the law that the camp behind the very opposite he's accused of corrupting in order to get out of the trial or get over to washington. i really could change health care. there's a ton of things up for legislation without senator menendez republicans might be able to get this agenda through. david: let me stay with you for a second rachel is it conceivable that the republicans could take a page out of harry reid spoke or nancy pelosi's book and put in a lot of votes just at the moment when menendez is not there? >> a code and by the way if he is convicted of this now what goes back to governor chris christie to appoint possibly a

republican, probably a republican. this has long-term implications. david: extraordinary thing is most people probably didn't know there was a menendez corruption trial. >> that is wise going to see dave -- say david. he's brought up on charges of making false statements as a u.s. senator and not only that menendez trial but the media has been colluding to cover up some of the scandals that are really on the democrat side of things but to tie in to what rachel was saying, can you have somebody that is being brought up on charges of bribery and corruption, here's the kicker david fran to actually be removed if he refuses not to step down if he's convicted and refuses to step down it would take 67 senators to vote to remove him from office so that becomes a question will democrats allow a felon or will

they remove him and chris christie can replace him? david: on the other hand rachel justice is supposed to be blind. justice is not supposed to take politics into consideration at all. maybe with the exception being an impeachment trial but in terms of a trial like this on corruption, so far the judge in this case is adhering to the rule of law and justice. the makia's. i'm very proud of that. makes all this feel good about our system that actually works. back here point the media, this is outrageous. if they don't watch "fox news" or "fox business" you don't know about this just like you don't know about debbie wasserman schultz. it's really crazy. david: i have to ask you about the hurricane because it's threatening a large part of our nation right now. turn political under president bush people thinking his flyover wasn't enough with regard to katrina. you think there's any chance this will turn political? >> 100% gave it to the left and

the democrats are going to look for any chance to score points on donald trump whether it's with confederate monuments or a hurricane. i'm fully expecting they will be trying to score points over this and right now the trump administration are prepared and they will do the best that they can to make sure people are taking care of. you can bank on it david. david: rachel very quickly the president is at camp david with his family this weekend. do you think he may have to fly to texas? >> he may have to. he is not going to get the past that barack obama got when he fumbled the bp oil spill. he is to prove that he's the ceo that we elected him to be and there's no room for era. they they are ready to pounce on him with anything that goes wrong. rachel campos duffy and dan ryan thank you for being with us. that's it for us. that's it for us tonight to thank for joining us. we hope you have a great weekend.

congressman trent franks and ambassador alton are among our guests on monday and please join melissa on "after the bell" at 4:00 p.m. right here on "fox business" every week day.od nigm gregg jarrett in for lou. kennedy: tonight the president is threatening a shutdown unless congress funds his wall. bret baier has the scoop. espn digging a deeper hole for itself over a memo, a reporter, a football game in charlottesville. and what are the worst and best college degrees for getting a great-paying job? brian brenberg breaks count list. when looking at president trump's poll numbers and his