your perspective this morning. >> thank you. lauren: we have a lot to look forward to. [closing bell rings. ashley webster, cheryl casone. cheryl: a busy news day. we're well off session lows at least. s&p is fighting for gains in the final moments of trading. nasdaq closing solidly in the green. i'm cheryl casone in for melissa francis. ashley: i'm ashley webster in for david asman. this is "after the bell." we'll have more on big market movers. here is what else we're covering this very busy hour. houston, america's fourth largest city crippled by unprecedented floods. can you believe this? overwhelmed by more than 11 trillion gallons of water. turning streets into rivers, the rain is still coming down. more than 30,000 people are expected to use city shelters.

texas governor greg abbott updating residents this afternoon. >> there is reality we have to come to gyps with, and that is we are just beginning the process of responding to this storm. we are still involved in the search-and-rescue process. our number one goal from corpus christie all the way to east of houston is still protecting and preserving life and rescuing every person that we can find. ashley: this as president trump is expected to address the national disaster sometime this hour. ahead of that visit to survey the damage in texas tomorrow. of course we'll be, he will be making comments and taking questions live from the white house. we'll take you there immediately that begins. cheryl: we'll be waiting on president trump. right now we have jeff flock. he is live on the ground in houston, texas. thousands are being forced from their homes seeking shelter.

jeff what are conditions for you right now. reporter: oh, boy, cheryl, i tell you i didn't think it could be much worse. we're in the a neighborhood adjacent to the barker reservoir because where they are releasing water because they have to or they lose control of the dam. these folks are sweating it out. look down the street, already flooded. these homes flooded. only one family remaining in second floor of a house out here. these folks are sweating it. you guys still dry in there? >> so far. reporter: so far. fingers crossed, hey. >> what channel? reporter: fox business network, we're live. >> keep it dry. reporter: we'll keep it dry, thank you. >> be careful. reporter. the rain has not stopped all day. we had a break of about an hour this morning. and then, it opened up an

continues to open up. this caused flooding on sunday is that, sunday night into monday morning, that tremendous downpour that we had. and so, we got the same sort of thing happening. the water is rising. you know, you think we would be over this by now, but this, boy, this one just won't quit. i don't know what to say about it. i've been in lot of disasters and floods, a lot of hurricanes. i don't believe i have ever seen anything quite like this one. cheryl: jeff, for somebody like you to say something like that i want to point out to viewers that is incredible because you've been covering hurricanes for 20 years, jeff and the fact that the rain, the storm will be sitting on top of houston i think is kind of the most daunting part. reporter: that is the thing. right, cheryl. you know. obviously texas girl, you know, storms can sit down here but, as big of a storm this is, sitting

offshore now, pulling that moisture and just dumping it on top of us for the length time and for forecasters to say we're nowhere near done with this yet. i don't know what to say about that. i don't know what to say about that. i was in katrina. i hate to compare disasters. only thing i can say about this one, loss of life has been minimal. that is the positive i would put on it. cheryl: that is good news. jeff flock live of course for us in houston, texas. jeff, thank you. ashley: doing an amazing job, jeff flock. with three feet of rain falling in some texas locations you would think the worst is over, right? jeff pointed out, maybe not. harvey is rewriting the history books. the rain may not be over, so joining to us talk about this joe bastardi, weather bell chief meteorologist. we're running out of words to use to describe this situation. the bottom line is, we already know what has fallen. can we expect more in this very,

very flooded part of texas? >> well, yeah. this is getting back out over the water. our forecast has been since tuesday warning about the loop, sudden intensification of this loop. part two of the storm is it starting trying to figure out the track and intensity over the next 36 to 48 hours. i do think another landfall as this gets out over the gulf, another landfall, that will occur east of galveston. perhaps as far as east as beaumont, port arthur area. as this system is tightening up off the coast, it will continue to push rain bands into the houston area. it will continue to see this kind of rain at least for the next 24 to 48 hours. the, the most interesting, i don't know if you want to call it interesting, but, wild card here is, if it tightens up enough, if it intensifies enough, it may pull the rain bands in towards its center, become a more focused storm at

the center, and then houston could actually get out of the heaviest rains. another aspect of this is if it regained hurricane intensity, the wind would turn to the north and blow galveston bay into galveston from behind. that water has to be up. with you will at water flowing into the galveston bay. storm surge water back into galveston bay, it has to be higher than normal. so far the wind out of galveston is southeast from off the gulf. but we're seeing a lot of northeast win blowing around houston. they're blowing 40 to 50 miles an hour. that is another aspect. there is new orleans where some of the pumps are down. i do think new orleans will get rain. they may see flooding over there. it's a complex situation here with the endgame over next couple days. i believe the center will be onshore by noon wednesday, if not quicker. i do think the conditions will start to improve later wednesday and thursday around the houston area.

ashley: wow, we're only on monday. you have been doing this a long time, joe. have you seen anything like this? we're talking about hurricanes, just about a four when it hit? normally they blow through and dissipate. this one blew in, the winds dropped but it is just sitting there and we're seeing these biblical proportions of rain? >> listen, i have seen them, because i look at weather all over the world. this happens, you see storms stall all the time. weather geeks like me watch them stall out in the middle of the ocean. what i do a lot of times i practice, how would i forecast this, and then if i see it close to land, i could try to make a forecast. let me give you the strongest example in the western hemisphere. hurricane flora, 1963. category 4 in southeast cuba. stalled for four days. dumped 100 inches of rain, had fidel castro accusing the united states trying to destroy his island. you can see this happened before. if you go back and look at paths

of hurricanes and understand what's going on you know why things like this happen. by the way, guess what? because it is so cool in the central part of the united states and jet stream buckled, because we didn't have the normal ridge in the central part of the united states that keeps these storms move, it stalled because of all the cool going on. it is ironic given what people are trying, picture they're trying to paint that it is cool trough of low pressure that caught this thing and stopped it dead in its tracks. david: just want to see the back side of it at some point soon. joe bastardi, always great information. thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. melissa: we're right now waiting as ashley mentioned at top of the show from the comments from president trump. the president will hold a joint news conference with the finnish president before he heads down to texas tomorrow. corpus christie to be specific. fox's blake burman has the latest what we hear from the president. blake?

reporter: we expect president trump to make remarks off the east room of the white house 15, 20 minutes from now if they keep the meeting with the finnish president. he complimented not only people texas and not only authorities and emergency management agencies dealing with the situation. president complimenting of spirit of everybody involved. also the huge foreshadowing potential battle in congress to allocate emergency funds for the area. he will potentially head back down to the region on saturday, whether texas, louisiana, potentially both. the schedule very much in flux. whenever the president travels there is massive security details that follows.

right now folks will tell you that the police officers, the emergency responders, and everyone down the line, many of those need to be on the ground helping the people of texas, not necessarily tying up the security detail. that is part of the challenge they are dealing with. but we do anticipate president trump to leave here from washington, d.c., as he said, tomorrow morning 8:30 to head to texas. we will hear from the president. meantime in about 15, 20 minutes or so. we expect him to make additional remarks on harvey off the top. take questions from reporters where this could come up as well. cheryl: seems governor abbott of texas, blake, basically told the president, corpus christie might be a better spot but not anywhere near houston tomorrow. reporter: it is still flooding and raining there. as far as away they can get. this is not just a challenge for president trump but for presidents past. how do you get into the region and not necessarily tie things up. he needs to to there first-hand to see the damage.

cheryl: and be a distraction. blake burman. see you in a bit. ashley: dow slightly lower given the disaster in the gulf, settling down five points. s&p and nasdaq closing in positive territory. let's go to nicole petallides on floor of new york stock exchange. the markets are positive given all the scenes in texas. >> the images are horrific. obviously catastrophic storm and rescues happening now. the big market picture doesn't illustrate happening in each sector. dow down five points. s&p up one. dow down two last three sessions. we saw movement. we saw movement in the u.s. dollar lowest since january 2013. gold $1300 a troy owns, highest since 2016 of september of the we did see moves. i want to talk about travelers in the dow jones industrial average which shaved off more than 20 dow points when you talk about insurance and all that will come from this.

if it weren't for travelers, the dow would have finished in positive territory. then we took a look at some other names in that group. you can see names like progressive down 2.2%. travelers down 2 1/2%. fidelity national, all those down more than 1%. you had other storm-related stocks that have been moving. we know energy came under pressure. look at names like generac generators. they have the industrial competitor. home depot, you know everyone is running to home depot. some of these places have exposure to texas. on one hand might be winning baselling all materials needed for search-and-rescue and rebuilding but at same time exposure for retailers, restaurants, energy, airlines and the like. we'll go sector by sector. we won't really get a good gain for at least another week or some back to you. ashley: indeed. nicole petallides at new york stock exchange. nicole, thank you very much. cheryl: the president expected to make remarks at any moment on the national disaster that is happening in texas.

now possibly into louisiana. all of this is ahead of his trip to survey damage of the heading down to corpus christie term. we'll bring you comments live when they begin. there is live picture. ashley: are state and local governments properly prepared to has the potential of worst flooding in american history if not already? retired general, russell honore, commander of the hurricane katrina joint task force weighs in next. >> you can say it will rain over five days, over 30 county jurisdiction. pinpointing exactly what water shed that rain will go into, it is dang near impossible to figure that out. so new touch screens... and biometrics. in 574 branches. all done by... yesterday. ♪ ♪ banks aren't just undergoing a face lift. they're undergoing a transformation. a data fueled, security driven shift

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♪ ♪ data, applications, customer experience. ♪ ♪ which is why comcast business delivers consistent network performance and speed across all your locations. fast connections everywhere. that's how you outmaneuver. ashley: live look at the white house where the president

is expected to make remarks and take some questions on the federal response to the catastrophic flooding in texas. the president today already declaring a state of emergency in louisiana as well. of course we'll bring you back live to the white house when the president begins his remarks. we're expecting that within minutes. cheryl: obviously we've been watching of course the situation when it comes to happening down on the gulf coast and refineries. this storm hitting the heart of the u.s. oil and gas industry. you have now tropical storm harvey knocking out 15% of the nation's refining capacity. that is as of now of the storm forcing 10 major oil refineries to shut down. let's bring in john hofmeister, former shell oil company president. john great to have you here on a day like today. second largest refinery in baytown in particular, that is shut down. how long before the storm passes over the weekend to get the refineries back up and running. >> really depend how much

flooding they suffered from and how much they were able to make changes in layouts of refineries since we learned from hurricane rita what flooding does in a refinery. go back a few years. all of the electronics and electricals were basically ground-based. many refineries have lifted them up to about 12 or 15 feet off the ground in the period between rita back, in 2006. and in the present time. so, it won't take them much longer than a week to 10 days to get back up and running, if they have not suffered too much flooding. cheryl: obviously companies want to make sure their personnel are safe and they can go into refineries to get things going. talk about overall supply issues that can affect the east coast in particular. gas prices, petrochemicals, all will be side-effect of this. how long do you think we'll sustain these higher prices throughout the nation in the wake of hurricane katrina, excuse me hurricane harvey?

>> i really don't think really long. i think the price fluctuation is normal after you have refinery shutdowns. it's a traders marketplace. but if the refineries get back up in a week to 10 days, i think we'll see a settling down of the prices. a lot of supply is, exported. that will cease. once you get the supply chain back up and running it, doesn't take long to sort out what the prices will been. i think we'll be revert to where we were. cheryl: we're obviously tracking the storm from a weather perspective and human perspective but also the business perspective if the storm heads up towards louisiana. that is still somewhat unknown what harvey is going to do. if the storm heads over to the louisiana side, are there preparations put in place for those refining operations to be shut down and advanced as well? >> yes, you would believe they would. we had a lot of experience on the gulf coast in the last 15, 20 years. people know what they are doing

and they know what the risks are and frankly you mentioned it already, a primary issue is a safe operation. the second issue is having people on hand who can actually run the refinery. we do, as companies, do, they take consideration of their employee needs to be with their families. to look after their homes, and so if they're not available to work, then you can't operate the refinery. which leads to an unsafe situation. so the two are really mixed together, safety and people. and that's why you shut down. cheryl: the good news, john, we should say real quick, you have got experience after katrina and also rita that hit the gulf coast in the same year. that those hurricanes really made refineries, they really went through and added to their operations to make sure the electricity grids were stronger. so lesson learned there. hopefully that will be the case this time as well. john hoffmeister, great voice on all this. >> thank you. cheryl: we want to go live to the white house. looks like president trump is at

the podium. let's is in. >> my great honor to welcome president niinisto to the white house. i want to begin by extending my thoughts and prayers for those affected by hurricane harvey and the catastrophe of flooding and all of the other difficulties that they are currently going through in houston. in southeast texas and now looking more and more like the state of louisiana will be also affected. my administration is coordinating closely with state and local authorities. in texas louisiana to save lives. we thank our first-responders and all of those involved in their efforts. we're working directly with texas governor greg abbott, who by the way is doing a fantastic

job, and his entire staff likewise, as well as with governor john bel edwards who is very much involved in starting the process of louisiana. we've pledged our full support as texas and louisiana battle sand recover from this very devastating and historic storm. probably never been anything like this. under the supervision of fema administrator brock long, there has been a tremendous amount of work done. he has, he has been so outstanding in some ways. more than 8500 federal workers are involved in the texas effort alone. i've also today declared emergencies in louisiana, at the request of governor edwards. recovery will be a long and difficult road and the federal

government stands ready, willing and able to support that effort. right now the single-most important thing is the safety and security of those still in harm's way, including the first-responders who have been so terrific, and brave. protecting the lives of our people is my highest priority, every asset at my command is at the disposal of local officials. tragic times such as these bring out the best in america's character, strength, share, and resilience, are those characters. we see neighbor helping neighbor, friend helping friend and stranger helping stranger. you see that all over. you watch it on television. you just see such incredible work and love and team work. we are one american family. we hurt together, we struggle together, and believe me, we endure together.

we are one family. to the people of texas and louisiana we are 100% with you. we're praying for you. we're working closely with your leaders and officials. i will be visiting the impact zone tomorrow to insure that you're receiving full support and cooperation from the federal government. and on saturday we think we're going back to texas and also we will be going to louisiana. nothing can defeat the unbreakable spirit of the people of texas, and louisiana. right now, every american heart sends its love and support to those whose lives have been upended, totally upended, totally, by this very horrible storm. we ask god for his wisdom and strength. we will get through this. we will come out stronger and believe me, we will be bigger,

better, stronger than ever before. the rebuilding will begin and in the end, it will be something very special. i just want to thank everybody in the affected area because it has been absolutely incredible to watch the spirit, the cooperation and the love. i would also like to share a message to the people of finland. who have recently suffered a terrorist attack in turku. we stand in solidarity with you against the terrorist threat. we must all work together to deny terrorists safe havens, cut off their finances and defeat their very wicked ideology. mr. president, americans are grateful for your steadfast support as an ally in the fight against terrorism. appreciate it. including your membership in the coalition to defeat isis. finland makes important

contributions to the coalition, and its effort in afghanistan and has troops on the ground in iraq, training iraqi soldiers. in afghanistan, finland provides troops and financial contributions and to support the afghan defense and security forces on a modern-day frontier between barberism and civilization. finland is a leading expert in cybersecurity. in fact, we should be calling you pretty soon. you do a fantastic job with cybersecurity and i congratulate you. and i think in a very short period of time we'll be right there with you, believe me. the united states is a very proud partner of finland's european center of excellence to

counter modern threats including cyber attacks. in addition we look forward to your leadership as chair of the arctic council. the arctic region has strategic and economic importance for both of our nations, very much so. the foundation of our friendship is our shared love of freedom, on behalf of all americans. i congratulate you and the finnish people on the 100th anniversary of finland's independence. 100 years. that is fantastic. in honor of finland's centennial, the united states is contributing an additional half million dollars to the fulbright finland foundation. through the fulbright program, we are sending more of our best and brightest to finland, forging lasting connections between americans and fins. on the economic front we seek fair and reciprocal trade to

benefit both of our countries. i applaud finnish companies their commitment to increase investment in the united states and adding new technologies and adding good jobs for hard-working americans. thank you. the u.s.-finnish partnership is rooted in our shared interests and common values. as president, and i must say, i want to thank you, president, we discussed and we look forward to further strengthening these bonds of culture, commerce and cooperation between our two countries, so that our citizens and our nations can thrive and prosper together. mr. president, i would like to thank you very much for being at the white house and, had a great meeting in the oval office. it is my honor to have you here. thank you. thank you very much. >> mr. president, i want to thank you for your very kind words and i just want to tell

you that it is a great pleasure and honor to be here today. i thank you, also for the discussions we have had. they have been of most interest. >> thank you. >> we have been closely following hurricane harvey. our thoughts are with the people of texas and louisiana. they and you, mr. president, have shown strength and courage to overcome this catastrophe. it has been touching to watch the tv and see how people help each other. that is what we basically are built of. helping each other. finland highly appreciates our close relationship with the united states. today they are bolder than ever

ranging from security to defense cooperation to trade and innovation. we have indeed celebrating our 100 years of independence. i want to thank you for the generous gift presented to the fulbright finland foundation. i want to also, to take this opportunity to greet the almost 700,000 americans who have finnish origin. mr. president, and i exchanged views on several international issues. our brodhead line was security. we discussed the importance of the transatlantic bond between the european union and the united states. the history has taught us europeans the value of unity. the u.s. and nato presence in

europe are -- are most important and they are increasing rapidly. finland is doing its part to promote dialogue, to reduce risks finland has proposed steps to improve flight safety in the baltic sea area. there are broad steps reopening nato dialogue between us and russia. we are supporting afghanistan and we are dedicated member of the global coalition against isis. finland took the chairmanship of the arctic council from the united states in may. we can't afford to losing the pristine arctic nature. finland firmly believes that business and the environment can both be winners in the arctic.

a good example is reducing black carbon. mr. president, i'm looking forward to even closer cooperation with you and your great nation. i want to thank you. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> so we'll take a couple of questions. how about we go to texas. todd gilman. todd? >> thank you, mr. president. >> yes. >> i'm wondering what you can tell the people of texas to expect in terms of long-term recovery efforts and in particular you have been feuding with some key congressional leaders. you have also threatened a government shutdown potentially next month over border wall funding. are these going to hammer long-term the funding that will be needed long term for recovery? -- hamper? >> no, todd. you will see rapid action from congress, certainly from the president. you will get your funding.

it is a terrible tragedy. your governor has been absolutely outstanding in the job he has done and his entire staff. and i will say that i just spoke with greg and he is, working like 24/7. we expect to have requests on our desk fairly soon. and we think that congress will feel very much the way i feel, very bipartisan way. that would be nice. but we think you're going to have what you need and it is going to go have. text sass is a unique place. it's a great state, great people. i think you will be up and running very quickly, really very quickly. so, yeah, i think you will be in fantastic shape. i have already spoken to congress and everybody feels for you and feels for what you're going through, but at same time they have great respect, even additional respect for the state because you have handled it so well, so brilliantly. it's a long road. still pouring. a lot of rain.

nobody ever seen anything like it. i heard the words epic, i heard the word historic. that is what it is. i think you will have what you want very, very quickly. todd, you can ask a question to the president. >> thank you. does this situation make you reconsideration the possibility of a government shutdown? >> i think it has nothing to do with it really. this is separate. this will go really, very quickly. again i have spoken to many of the people we're talking about. and everybody feels the same way i do. >> thank you. and mr. president, i wanted to ask you, your neighbor, russia, has meddled in u.s. politics. they have a military exercise coming up next few weeks in the baltic. there are tensions over there. what advice can you offer and have you offered to the united states in dealing with this adversary? >> sir, we are not feeling ourselves as advisors but, we are feeling ourselves as doing

all what is possible to maintain peace. and that is what we are doing in baltic sea area too. with the, actually, you referred to different kind of military training which is going to happen there. i have to tell you that a couple of weeks ago i met president putin and the media, very interested in why chinese navy is having a training together with russians in baltic sea area? putin answered that, it is not blocked, not against anybody. my answer was, that we are also training in baltic sea with the united states and sweden. and it is not a block. it is not against anybody. so, we have to be very careful

that this huge training, huge military trafficking over the baltic doesn't cause any accidental problems. because we know that from accidents might grow whatever. and that is why i think it is important that we continue to work with nato to enhance, like i said, dialogue between russia and nato, and it is going forward. >> do you have a question? >> finnish broadcasting company, where you are. okay. >> thank you, mr. president. i have a question to president trump, if i may. as a president niinisto, he is raising issue about the security situation in the baltic region and the baltic sea specifically and has been concerned about the russian planes flying there

without transponders on. so my question to you, mr. president, would be, mr. trump, would you consider russia as a security threat? thank you. >> well i consider many countries as a security threat unfortunately, when you look at what is going on in the world today. as you know a few weeks ago, our great vice president, mike pence, who is right here was in the region and spent quite a bit of time there. we consider that a very, very important part of the world. we have great relationships there. we have a great relationship with finland, and so i would consider many countries threats but, these are all threats that we'll be able to handle if we have to. hopefully we won't have to handle them. but if we do, we will handle them. >> can i have a follow-up as he had also? so if the situation in the baltic were to escalate, what would the u.s. be ready to do in that unfortunate circumstance? >> we are very protective that of region. that is all i can say.

we are very protect t we have great friends there. we have great relationships there. we are extremely protective. >> thank you, sir. >> a question for the president? yes. >> no. sometimes, do you have a question for the president? do you have a question for the president? that is all right. >> you don't have to. >> mr. president, from finland. did you speak about climate change at all, and what about your, mr. president, minister, initiative about cleaning up the arctic and doing it together with the united states? what kind of response did your idea receive here in washington, d.c.? >> we discussed a lot about black carbon. and to explain to everybody, what happens is from the atmosphere, black carbon covers

the arctic. and we know what happens when the sunshine meets black. it melts the ice. and the problem is not only the act tick. if we lose the arctic, we lose the globe. that is reality. so we must fight against those emissions spreading black carbon. i understood that the united states is going to put it in half and we know that black carbon sources are, a lot of them in russia. they are old-fashioned energy plants. producing heating. the other problem is flaring. you know that in oil fields they flair up. the extra gas and the amount is huge yearly. they flair 40 times more than

finland has been -- so if we can, here comes also business into the picture. it would be a good business to renew those old-fashioned plants, to make more with less energy. it would be the business to stop flaring to take use of that gas which is now burned for waste. i think this element are things we can continue to discussing in the arctic council. we have inherited the chairmanship from the united states and we continue the work. >> we had a very good discussion, in particular on the arctic and black carbon. and i think we have much in agreement. one of the things we also agree on, we want crystal, clean water, and we want clean air, the cleanest ever. very important. so, we have a lost agreement.

john roberts, yes. >> mr. president, thank you so much. president niinisto, i have a question for you as well, but if i could start with president trump, in the middle of hurricane harvey hitting friday night, you joe's to pardon sheriff joe arpaio. could you tell us what was behind the thinking issuing a pardon for the sheriff? as wells what do you say to your critics, even some in your own pardon saying it was the wrong thing to do? >> well a lot of people think it was the right thing to do, john. and actually in the middle of a hurricane, even to it was a friday evening i would assume ratings would be far higher than normally. the hurricane was just starting. i put it out as i pardoned as we say, sheriff joe. he has done a great job for the people of arizona. he is very strong on boarders. very strong on illegal immigration.

he is loved in arizona. i thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly when they came down with their big decision to go get him right before the election voting started as you know. he lost in a fairly close election. he would have won the election but they just hammered him just before the election. i thought that was a very, very unfair thing to do. when i mentioned him the other night you saw the massive crowd we had, the people went crazy when i said what do you think of sheriff joe, or something to that effect? the place went absolutely crazy when i was in arizona last week. as far as pardons concerned i did it before the meeting. i have souped somebody would ask the question. as you can attest, you didn't even know you would be called. i thought i would. sheriff joe is grit veteran of the military. great law enforcement person. somebody that is won many, many elections in the state of arizona. but i wanted to look at some of the other people that were

pardoned over the years and if you look at as an example, president clinton pardoned marc rich, who was charged with crimes going back decades, including illegally buying oil from iran, while it held 53 american hostages, wasn't allowed to do that. selling to enemies of the united states. he was pardon after his wife donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the clintons. then you have dangerous criminals, president clinton pardoned susan rose enberg, a member of the weathered underground, charged as part of a bank robbery that led to a guard and two police officers being killed. drug dealers. president clinton commuted sentence of carlos vignali, central player in a cocaine ring that stretched from california to minnesota. criminal leaker, you herd the word leaker.

president obama commuted the sentence of chelsea manning, who leaked countless classified documents to wikileaks, perhaps and others. but horrible, horrible thing that he did. commuted the sentence. and perhaps pardoned. president obama commuted the sentence of oscar lopez rivera. who was charged as part of a violent independence group, from puerto rico, responsible for 28 chicago area bombings and many deaths in the 1970s and 1980s. sheriff joe is a patriot. sheriff joe loves our country. sheriff joe protected our borders. and sheriff joe was very unfairly treated by the obama administration, especially right before an election, an election that he would have won. so, and he was elected many times. so, i stand by my pardon of

sheriff joe. the people of arizona who know very best would agree with me. thank you very much. >> mr. president, i am afraid you did all the research, the question was fairly obvious. president niinisto, president trump briefed you today or you are aware of the new plan for afghanistan, lies at core bringing taliban to the table for negotiations, given the history of the ideology of the taliban, do you ever believe that they would honor any kind of an agreement that was ever made or would they, when the united states and finland and other countries leave afghanistan renege on that deal? >> yes. first of all, i want to underline finland has been involved from the very beginning to all of the attempts to solve the situation in afghanistan. we have troops there. we have also financial aid going

on all the time. we have to try. we have to try in all possible ways, to solve the situation in afghanistan. it has been ongoing, quite a long time before decades. but to solve it by negotiations show you have to have full respect toward the one you negotiate and also, full belief that what is negotiated is also fulfilled. these elements has to be all the time present when you discuss, whichever party in afghanistan. >> i know there might be a couple more questions. do you want to take one more? would you want to take one more? go ahead, pick. go ahead.

>> please. >> again, you give to the same one? >> no, she is not the same lady. >> go made. >> they're sitting side by side. >> a lot of blonde women in finland. mr. president trump, what kind of role do you see finland having in the u.s.-russia relations? do you think finland could be assistance helping the u.s. get better relations in russia? >> i hope we have good relations with russia. i've been saying it loud and clear. i say it is great if we have good relationships with russia. that is very important. i believe some day that will happen. it's a big country. it's a nuclear country. it's a country we should get along with. i think we will eventually get along with russia. finland is respected by russia. finland has been free of russia really, just about one of the now countries in the region has been for 100 years. an russia has a lot of respect for finland. that is owls good. i think finland doing fine with

russia. i hope the united states will some day have a very good relationship with russia also. i think that is very good for world peace and for other things. thank you. >> as a follow-up, if finland's relationship with russia were to deteriorate would the u.s., what kind of assistance would the u.s. be willing to give to finland unilaterally if we need it? >> i said before our relationship with finland is a very close one. we're always ready to help finland. what is happing you're purchasing large amounts of our f-18 aircraft from boeing. it is one of the great planes, great fighter jets. you're purchasing lots of other military equipment. i think purchasing very wisely. i know all of the military equipment. i actually agree with everything you purchased. we talked about it before. i think finland is really a respected country militarily. it has large armed forces for

its size, proportionally one of the biggest in the world, if you think of it. they're very respected militarily, and very respected militarily. hopefully it will never come to that. thank you. >> and president niinisto? president niinisto, did you discuss russia and offer any assistance to the u.s. with their relationship with russia? >> we like i said earlier on we did discuss russia, but i don't feel like i'm an advisor to anybody, but we tried to do our best and hopefully we get also results from that. i want to remind you that in nato meeting, a year ago, approximately, it was stated by all nato countries that with

russia you have to be deterrent part, you have to exercise dialogue too. these two-way elements have to be there. >> yeah, go ahead. >> thank you, mr. president. tray ingst, with one america news. in the aftermath of hurricane harvey, do you believe cutting fema's budget is the right thing to do? >> no. i think what will happen, the fema money is relatively small compared to the rebuilding money. we have the money necessary for texas and louisiana if we need but the real number which will be many billions of dollars, will go through congress. i think it will happen very quickly. i want to congratulate you on the network. it's a great network. >> thank you. if i may follow up on one question earlier, the southern border wall, is your plan still to have mexico pay for the wall. >> yes, one way or the other mexico will -- may be through reimbursement. one way or another mexico will

pay for the wall. we're negotiating nafta. in my opinion mexico is very difficult as she should be. why wouldn't they be. they had a sweetheart deal for many years. one of the great deals of all time for them. one of the worst deals of all time. i guarranty you, mr. president, finland would not signed nafta with russia. this is not a deal you would want to sign. this is not a deal that finland would know b nafta is one of the worst trade deals signed at anytime anywhere in the world. i can understand why mexico is being difficult. why wouldn't they be. they had it their way. mexico will pay for the wall. may be through reimbursement. we need the wall very badly. mexico has a tremendous crime problem, tremendous, one of a number two or three in the world. that is another reason we need it. and the just, to add on, tremendous drugs are pouring into the united states at levels that nobody has ever seen before. this happened over the last three to four years in particular.

the wall will stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country and poisoning our youth. so we need the wall. it is imperative. we may fund it through the united states but, ultimately mexico will pay for the wall. >> sir if i may follow up on tuesday if we have to close down our government, we are building that wall. >> i hope that is not necessary. let me just tell you, yeah, i hope that is not necessary. if it is necessary, we'll have to see but i hope it is not necessary. the wall is needed from the standpoint much security. the wall is needed from the standpoint of drug, tremendous, the drug scourge, what is coming through, through that area, through the areas we're talking about, as you know i have general kelly here. we stopped traffic coming through 78%. it is going to be 81% this quarter, which is a record. in other administrations if they stopped it just a little bit, like one or two or 3%, they considered that a great thing. we're up to almost 80%.

we'll soon be over 80%. but you need the wall to do the rest. and you need the wall for the drugs. the drugs are tremendous problem. the wall will greatly help with the drug problem. and ultimately, that is a good thing for mexico also. we have a very good relationship with mexico. but i will say that dealing with them, i have always said, i have talked about nafta, you heard me many times. i have said we will either terminate it or renegotiate it. we're in the process of renegotiating it right now, renegotiating the deal. i believe that you will probably have to at least start termination process before a fair deal can be arrived at, because it has been a one-sided deal. this includes canada by the way. great respect for canada. great love for canada but it has been a one-sided deal for canada and for mexico and the united states workers, all of these incredible people who have lost their jobs because of nafta, they're not going to be suffering any longer.

it has been unfair for too long. so we will build the wall and we will stop a lot of things including the drug, the drugs are pouring in at levels like nobody has ever seen. we'll be abe to stop them once the wall is up. thank you very much. thank you. thank you, everybody. >> thank you. ashley: all right. there you have it, ending on a talk about the border wall, the funding for it, maintaining mexico will pay for it, some form or earth he says. he says the mexico difficulty to deal with. especially renegotiation of nafta. even finland, finnish president said he would not sign the deal. get back where we began about the news conference, talking about texas, quote, we will get through this with regard to recovering from hurricane harvey. we will come out of this stronger. he says 100%, resources of the federal government are available to people who need it in texas. he says he will go there to make sure that local authorities are getting everything that they

need. so that was a headline with regard to texas. when we went off talking about relationship with russia. also defended the pardoning of arizona sheriff joe arpaio. cheryl: yeah. bring in the panel to ask them about that in particular. ashley and i were both fascinated what we heard there. noelle nikpour, gop fund-raiser, dennis kucinich, former democratic congressman from ohio. now a fox news contributor. mr. kucinich your response to mr. trump's defense of joe arpaio? he singled out presidents clinton and obama they had done controversial pardons as well that were politically motivated. >> to be sure the constitution permits a president to pardon whoever he or in the future she wants but each pardon is subject to scrutiny. with respect to sheriff arpaio, his treatment of immigrants and his violation of their basic rights is an issue. however, as president trump said, there are issues with pardons that president clinton

made and that president obama made. this is, but i think that it is a fair discussion in the country about the purpose of a pardon and also the reason for a pardon and what does it say about public policy? i think that is the major concern about people, because there still is some serious questions about how undocumented immigrants are treated. cheryl: noelle, other big thing i think line of questioning from reporters, they wanted to talk about a possible government shutdown. that is the budget deal, congress on the way back finally to washington, noelle. he said not only is the funding for texas separate from any type of budget negotiations, but he was very clear saying that hopes it doesn't come to a budget shutdown to get a deal across. can he make it happen? >> yeah. you know. i really like the fact that he let everybody know that the funding for texas, for the relief is not getting caught up in a -- held ransom so to speak

with a government shutdown. that is very important. at-people have been fearing, oh, my gosh, federal relief, will it be part of the deal. if it doesn't happen will the government shut down? people will not get it? the fact that he doubled down on that is very good. i know governor abbott will be very appreciative of this. as far as the government shutdown, you know, this is really looming and hoping we can get this done. there is a lot of factors in it. i have really faith we'll get through this and whack this out. cheryl: they're going to need democrats on a lot of this, particular when tax reform finally comes up. i wish we had more time. president took most of it. thank you for standing by reacting to the press conference. >> thanks. ashley: back it houston, underwater. life-threatening flooding in and around america's fourth largest city. are officials doing enough? to talk about it, retired lieutenant general russell honore, former commander of the

katrina joint task force. your initial assessment how the federal government, more importantly state and local government has responded what we've seen with the traumatic and disasterous flooding from harvey? >> well, i think they have been on script. i am concerned that the city did not evacuate of course. that is our doctrine, as indicated by the governor, he softly said, left it to the mayor of houston to make the decision. he used his judgment. but our doctrine in this country, that is why we spent so much money in weather prediction and being able to predict where it will go, to reduce the amount of risk to people by evacuating. so that didn't happen. that being said, right now they're still in search-and-rescue phase. tomorrow might be it might be the worst day of all because of

accumulation of water in and around houston. the focus on search-and-rescue. our systemmians and good samaritans showed up to try to save lives, trying to do a great job. every hour more and more of them show up. they're helping where they can. that has been the tradition of this country from the flood in 1927 when neighbors came to help neighbors. and if it comes to remind everybody the government isn't good you have in to do all of this simultaneously. it takes people who are willing to help one another to get through these type of disasters just as they did through katrina. the volunteers saved more people during katrina than the organized first-responders. that being said. tonight will be a hard night. tomorrow will be a hard day as more infrastructure get torn up in texas and more people find themselves in water tonight. ashley: because of president we're always short on time. . .

>> this is a landmark event, we've not seen an even like this, you cannot dream this forecast up. >> i don't know what to say. >> unlike catarina, which passed clear. we're still operating in midst of a tropical storm. >> you don't have to go very far to find people, rooftops from second story. >> people need help. >> and we're working to provide it. >> it terrifying. water coming up, whack in, and coming in. >> swift time frames that i have seen to approve disaster declaration.