erin, it's great to see you, with s&p global. a record close for the s&p and the nasdaq. and here's the closing bell. melissa, you were absolutely adorable. melissa: that was fun, i lo it. david: no doubt. meanwhile, stocks are getting a boost, the dow inching closer to a record high while the s&p and nasdaq are making history with brand new highs. i'm david asman. melissa: and i'm melissa francis, this is "after the bell." we've got a very busy hour. apple just releasing details of its highly anticipated iphone 10, iphone x? iphone 10. at a price tag of $999. david: less than 1,000. melissa: right, exactly. also there's a less expensive iphone 8 there, an updated watch and tv. how it all stacks up to the competition, and look who's coming to dinner. president trump bringing senators from both sides of the

aisle together tonight in a big meeting for tax reform. it's a push just hours from now at the white house, and airports are beginning to reopen, fuel trucks are starting to make deliveries in south florida. but in the hard-hit florida keys, fema says a quarter of the homes are destroyed, millions still without power. we are on the ground with an update on the rescue and recovery effort. david: well, the dow is now just about 20 points shy of a brand new record driven higher by shares of pfizer, goldman sachs, caterpillar, but the s&p and nasdaq already getting the job done. nicole petallides, we have traced back all those losses from last week, and we're on our way to new highs. what's driving the market? >> i'm taking a look at the record close for the dow jones industrial average. the record close, 22,118, looks like we beat that by a point. the s&p 500, any gain there, gain would be a record. again, we hit that as well. and watching the nasdaq as well

which was close, but i don't have that up on my board at the moment. taking a look at disney, because disney had a lot of news going into the closing bell. disney sold off a little bit on the news that the "star wars" episode nine, that's the ninth installment -- that's for the year 2019 -- "star wars" fanatics and kissny shareholders are -- disney shareholders are excited for that. they have a changing of the guard, and j.j. abrams is going to write and direct that, and they are pushing it back six months, right? they're pushing it back to december from may. now don't forget, it's the second time this happened to them. they had the original filmmaker of another one, ron howard had to step in on that. and we are watching all things apple, apple's had a nice runup as it always does into the news. today is the big announcement. we have hillary vaughn all over for you there in california. but looking at the stock itself and as the stock hit the high in the middle of the cay of 163.96, but it finishes down a half of

1%. steve and melissa. david: and just put up the dow once again because we do have now a record high, we can say, on the dow. 22,118.86 is where it looks like we're closing. we're just inches above, tenths of a point above the previous high. but it is a new high for the dow as well. that's good news, nicole. thank you. melissa. melissa: all right. setting the path for new technology, apple holding one of its most important events in years. the tech giant unveiling a slew of new products including the highly-anticipated new iphone. hillary vaughn is live in cupertino, california, with the latest. hillary, break it down for us. >> reporter: melissa, the future of the iphone is here, and it's more expensive than ever before. apple announcing their tenth anniversary flagship device costs over $1,000 after tax. here's apple's tim cook announcing the new quite.

the new device. >> ten years later, it is only fitting that we are here in this place on this day to reveal a product that will set the path for technology for the next decade. >> reporter: here are some of the biggest hardware changes to the iphone. there's no home button which means you don't need a touch id to get access to your phone. all you have to do is look down because they're using facial recognition technology that tracks your facial features, maps your face, and that is how you get access to your phone. it works at day, at night, whether or not you have glasses on, change your apparel, wearing a hat, change your hair style, decide to grow a beard. all of this is a their advanced technology that they've incorporated into this new device. but also the big game-changer is wireless charging. they're releasing these wireless charging pads, that's part of

the new hardware they rolled out today. you can set your phone down without plugging it into a cable or looking for an outlet. but it also adjusts to wherever you are. i got a firsthand look at some of the interesting ways they're using this facial recognition technology and emojis, they're alling it an-emojis. take a look. >> just pick that up and use it as a sticker, crop it on my -- drop it on my message like that. we also manipulate these in full screen. you can audition your favorite, some really great ones. >> reporter: the apple tv is alsoing out with an update, they are now 4k-capable. they're also coming out with live sports and live news, and additionally the apple watch now has cell phone capabilities. you don't have to carry your iphone with you. if you want to receive calls, all of that happens right in your apple watch. there's a microphone and sim card included inside that. melissa, back to you. melissa: wow. all right, hillary, thank you. david: so let's compare the new iphone with its competitor.

tim cook, of course, calling it the biggest leap forward since the original. the iphone x, or 10 as we are calling it here, competing with the samsung galaxy s8 from a design perspective but not in size. and the removal of its touch id scan relies instead on this facial recognition feature. so are apple fanatics ready to line up for the next generation iphone? we hit the streets to find out. ♪ >> apple is set to unveil its new set of iphones today. are you guys going to buy them? >> nope. >> no. >> way expensive. >> probably not. >> no, because i already have one. >> i am going to buy one, i am. i'm so excited. >> i definitely am going to buy one. >> i absolutely am. my daughter's been telling me i need a phone that can do everything, and the iphone supposedly can do everything. melissa: here now is adam lashinsky and jonathan hoenig, adam, what's your reaction?

>> well, i think that it doesn't -- you know, i thought it was great the way system people want -- system people want one -- some people want them. melissa: jonathan, what do you think? when you look at the new features that it has, that facial recognition, i mean, the e moyy thing i think is ridiculous and stupid, i know i'm in the minority on that -- david: no, you're not. melissa: if you have that kind of time in your day, you are not doing enough work, met me tell you. but beyond that, i think the phone itself is pretty fantastic with the facial recognition. what do you think of the features? >> well, some of the features, melissa, you compared it with the samsung. a lot of those features already exist on the samsung like the bigger end to end screen, like being a waterproof phone or the fact there's no home button. so a lot of these features aren't as revolutionary as tim cook might have claimed. still, the apple watch, these

are real miracles. why doesn't the stock reflect that? it peaked throughout the day just before the news was released, and the more the news was released, the further the stock fell. it fell just down for the day, but often times with these announcements you see a big pop from apple despite a great announcement today in terms of the innovation, you didn't see the move -- melissa: so what do you interpret that to mean? you think it's not that great? there were a lot of announcements in there, i mean, a lot of products, jonathan. >> well, you know, the market always anticipates the news, and it's up 60% in just the last year and a half. this might be an example, just might be an example, melissa, of buy the rumor, sell the fact. melissa: okay. >> and the stock moving up ahead of the news despite the news being quite good. melissa: adam, can you hear us? it seemed like you were having audio problems, are you there? >> i can now, thank you. melissa: your interpretation, is in that revolutionary? jonathan was saying it was similar to the samsung, although they don't have the facial

recognition, and besides, who cares? it's apple, and we all want an iphone. [laughter] >> enough of us will want a new iphone. to that extent, i agree. it's not revolutionary in that we already have an iphone, and we've had it for ten years. but, you know, it's fantastic new things that people who care about this sort of thing will really care about. what i think is extraordinary about today is they announced a whole new wave of iphones, the iphone 8, the next step up, and then simultaneously the next step up or two steps up, if you will. so they are moving the ball forward at a very high price point which will appeal initially to a relatively small group of people which i think is just fine with apple. melissa: yeah. jonathan, i mean, it is interesting that they're doing that move. so that is astounding, a phone that's going to be $1,000. i mean, it's a jaw-dropping price. they've tried to have some really high price items before, but by differentiating that they have sort of a luxury model that you can buy and then they have

the also really awesome model that's not going to be quite as expensive, what do you think of that differentiating price point? >> well, i mean, it is expensive, you know, 999 list price, melissa, but i think apple's installed user base of 500 million users aren't going to step up and purchase this thing. when you think about it, it's 20, 30% more expensive than the current models. and, you know, the thing apple's always been a premium product, always been more expensive than the competition, and its technology has usually demanded that. melissa: right. >> we'll have to get it in our hands to see if they're willing to pay up for the level of innovation we see on this one. melissa: we'll see what the pre-orders look like. david: and you have to hold it, that's the bottom line. melissa: yeah. david: apple always uses technology that's always there, it's how they put it together. and once you hold it, you my, maybe i want to have this.

melissa: totally. david: millions are still without power from florida the south carolina. it's a massive cleanup underway. more on the timetable and the cost for recovery all over the southeast. melissa: and the president set to make a big bipartisan push for tax reform tonight at the white house. this as senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is now saying that bipartisan spending teal might not have been such a gift to democrats after all. we have a live report from the white house next. >> the president is reaching across the aisle and to cut deals that help the american people. the president truly believes as he often says that in order to succeed and grow we must work as one team, one people and one american family. ♪ ♪ so what else is new? how's your mother? umm..she's doing good. she needs more care though. she wants to stay in her house. i don't know even where to start with that. first, let's take a look at your financial plan and see what we can do. ok, so we've got...

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melissa: major tax reform push. president trump inviting senators from both party toss a dinner tonight in an effort to move forward with tax reform. blake burman is live at the white house and, blake, what can we expect from this dinner tonight? >> reporter: hi, melissa. six different senators coming to the white house later for dinner, three republicans and three democrats, to sit down and talk tax reform. those democrats, joe connolly, joe manchin, heidi heitkamp. those are democrats up for re-election, democrats in the senate in 2018 in state that is president trump won in 2016. the press secretary, sarah sanders, saying earlier today that they are hoping to start a bipartisan conversation going forward on tax reform. melissa, that was kind of a buzzword that we heard from the administration throughout today. for example, the legislative director, mark short, during an event here in washington, a question and answer session, gave the impression a bit that republicans, that the white house might, indeed, need

democratic support at least in the senate to get their potential measure at some point across the finish line. listen here to short from earlier today. >> we don't feel like we can assume that we can get tax reform done strictly on a partisan basis. so it's wise for us not just from a policy perspective, but from a vote-counting perspective to try to reach out and earn the support of democrats as well. >> reporter: however, at the press briefing the press secretary, sarah sanders, stopped short of saying it will be, indeed, democrats handing the president his tax rewrite win. is it the belief of the white house that you are going to need democrats in the senate to get this across the finish line? >> i think it's the belief of the white house that we want to have bipartisan support. as i've said several times earlier today, the goal is to have everybody come together and help provide tax relief for americans across the board. we hope democrats want to be part of that process, they certainly should. >> reporter: so stopping short there, melissa, of saying, yes, it'll happen, just that they

hope democrats are involved in the process. by the way, going forward you know we've seen the president out on the road in missouri, north dakota, for example, i've been told by several officials here at the white house we can expect more of this, the president going on the road to pitch tax reform at least once a week, i am told. also pairing that in the future with d.c.-based events as well. melissa. melissa: all right. see that tax reform push, blake, thank you. david: let's hope he works hard on that, i think he will. here now is republican senator mike rounds from south dakota. let's focus first on this meeting tonight. there are going to be three democrats there, joe manchin among them. i can imagine a joe manchin going along with a republican plan, one that maybe was started by the president's economic team. i can't imagine chuck schumer or nancy pelosi going along, can you? >> well, maybe not. but you've got to start someplace. and what we know is that even in reconciliation when you try to do it with 51 votes, sometimes you don't have 51 votes even

among republicans. so if that's not the case and if you're going to try to do something that's going to stand the test of time, maybe you do need to put something down that will get enough democrats and republicans to perhaps not only reach 51, but maybe even 60 because your hands are untied once we get to the 60-vote threshold in the senate, and you can do more than you can if you're going to do it just through what we call the reconciliation process. david: right. >> i commend the president for reaching across to both sides of the aisle -- david: yeah. >> i think it's a good idea. david: well, the question though, senator, really is when are we going to get it done? we just had kevin brady, our producer, chad, just cornered kevin brady in the house, he said when are you going to have a tax package? he said, well, first we have the special tax deals for the hurricane victims. that's very nice but, for you know sakes, you know, we've been at this for months. when are we going to get a package that you guys can vote on? before the end of the year?

>> man, you sound like us. exactly the kinds of questions we're asking as well. there's a lot of us that want to move forward, we're ready to go, but we also know you have to dot is and cross ts. we know we've got to have results. we're not done with health care yet, we know we've got to do some things there -- david: well, putting it all aside, maybe you can't put the hurricane relief, you've got to get hurricane relief in there, and that was done by the president. he put that on the fast track. but the fact is it was back in april, in fact, we put together a little montage. back in april when gary cohn and steve mnuchin, the economic geniuses from the president's team, came out and announced a pretty good package. let's just take a listen to a little clip of that. >> a 10% bracket, a 25% bracket and a 35% bracket. we are going to repeal the alternative minimum tax. we are going to repeal the death tax. we are going to eliminate most of the tax breaks that are

mainly benefits to high-income individuals. >> we will lower the business rate to 15%. we will have a one-time tax on overseas profits which will bring back trillions of dollars that are offshore to be invested here in the united states. david: well, senator, there you have it. you had about ten specific suggestions, just write up what those two guys said and vote on it. >> i'm ready, and right now if you're going to ask me to make an excuse for why it's not being done, i can't give you one because, quite frankly, there's a lot of us that feel exactly the same way. david: wow. >> but i will tell you this, there's also a lot of other things we need to get done as well, and i don't mean to suggest to you that leadership isn't trying. remember, in the senate it takes 60 votes unless you do reconciliation. david: yeah. >> if you do reconciliation, you've got to do a budgets first. and there's a whole lot that goes with that. david: all right. >> i understand they're trying, but we'd like to get it done.

david: -- the reason why the president is taking this on himself. he's not going to leave it up to the folks in congress, he's going to the people directly and, hopefully, he'll clear through all that, those weeds and get right to the heart of the issue. quickly. >> i'm all in favor of it. bring it on, we've got to do it. if you want the economy to grow, you've got to bring the dollars back in. you've got to do something to help keep the job ises here, you've got to give the meddle class a tax break -- middle class, and for goodness sake, it's time the simplify that tax cold. even if we just allow more people to take advantage of the 1040a rather than the long form 1040, think about what that would do for a whole host of americans in this country. david: just write it up and vote on it. >> i'm with you. david: thank you very much for being here, appreciate it. melissa. melissa: hurricane irma not only causing destruction and flooding, but also frightening crime in the caribbean. we are finding out how st. thomas is doing, that's coming up after the break. plus, are we witnessing a

humanitarian crisis in florida? irma tore through part obviously the sunshine state, now residents are wondering how they will ever pick up the pieces. ♪ ♪ >> the negative is, if you're in the keys, you've seen the pictures, the trailer parks, it's like everybody just tipped everything over. you just pray that everybody's alive. ♪ ♪

david: devastation in parts of the keya wreaking havoc, leaving a humanitarian disaster in its wake. recovery efforts underway, but the full scale of damage has yet to be determined. with more on this, a man who's determining it already is phil keating. he is in the keys, which part of the keys are you in, phil? >> reporter: hey, david. we're in isla mirada essentially halfway between miami, down the keys to key west. key largo to the north, then

marathon, then key west. this is as far as returning residents allowed to come in today can go. and what they're finding is what you see right here. the residents who had been evacuated for basically a week getting very frustrated, eager and anxious to get home and see what was left, and this is what they're finding. you can take a look at the video from sunrise this morning, a huge line of hundreds of cars have queued up overnight really. they slept in their car or didn't sleep at all, and as soon as the state troopers opened up the roadblock, everybody came in, hitting key largo first. that's where a lot of the people went was that's -- because that's where most of the people live in the keys as far as each particular city. down here this is a trailer park that was not transient. these are not snowbirds, this is basically people that lived here year round. it was a neighborhood. it's now 80% completely torn down and destroyed. a hundred trailers, only maybe 20 are salvageable. one of the men we talked to who

actually rode the storm out next door in a concrete house describing it as absolutely harrowing. he says he's going to rebuild, period. take a listen. >> my front porch came to here, my trailer started at the other side of this slab, so it started here. and that's how far the frame actually moved -- >> reporter: where's the trailer now? >> that's the frame of the trailer. the rest of the trailer is in the wind. >> reporter: now, the hurricane winds here not the 130 down there at cudjoe key, more like 120 miles per hour. still harrowing, and the storm surge anywhere between 5-8 feet, pushed all of this debris up this off the ocean as well as every trailer, everything that was inside, lives lost, homes, memories, everything. just absolutely tragic. david? david: the shot of that guy

standing on the foundations of where his house used to be, nothing says it better than that picture. unbelievable. phil, thank you very much. melissa. melissa: so people hungry, without power in the middle of absolute destruction, that's what american citizens are facing in the u.s. virgin islands. while much attention is paid to florida, the little-known u.s. territory bore the brunt of irma's wrath. here now is a witness to that devastation, a st. thomas native, he is also a u.s. citizen. mike, tell us what it's like there now. >> oh, it's like a mixture between a terrorist attack and the walking dead. melissa: that's dramatic. >> it is. melissa: what does it look like? i mean, what have you seen? what are people doing? >> well, they evacuated everyone in the hospital because the hospital is pretty much gone. [audio difficulty] it's not getting the attention it deserves because he's trying

to save face of the bad job they're doing. me, my uncle and a bunch of buddies had to clear roads to so we could check our families. the government wasn't doing it. there's looting going on, whether he wants to admit it or not. the post offices are destroyed, a lot of schools are destroyed. for the most part, the kids aren't going to school anytime soon. the supermarkets, for the most part, are damaged and destroyed. most of the gas stations have been destroyed. the line for gas that i stood in two days ago was three and a half hours long. just to get fuel. it's a nightmare that you don't wake up from. melissa: and the red cross is not there, there is no one providing assistance? >> the red cross, as far as we know right now, is not helping us, as far as we know. they are, the hotels are only -- the marriott had a million dollars supposedly to get their guests out of here, and they left 250 open seats on that cruise ship, and they wouldn't

take anyone else. there's a cruise ship here today evacuating tourists only, and there should be another one tonight, but as far as locals are concerned and everybody else who's got to get in and get out, it's not going to happen anytime soon. melissa: for locals, is that what you want, to get off the island? is that what you're trying to get, or you need supplies and help to arrive there? >> we need supplies. we need everything we can get. home depot's damaged, we have one store here, it's damaged. we're not -- they're only allowing six people into what grocery stores are left at a time, and we're not allowed to buy any meat, any dairy products at all, just basically cannedded foods. so we're just right now living day-to-day. no diesel for generators. they're stealing -- they just stole 250-300 gallons of diesel from my brother who's an electrician, and he's got a diesel stock. they stole that last night. it's getting pretty hairy down here. melissa: wow, that's amazing. and there is no one that, i mean, other than calling out and

trying to reach out to the media, is there anyone else that you've tried to reach out to for help? you say the government is not responding to the help, or to go and get the help that you need. other than publicizing this and trying to let people know, i mean, i don't know, the federal government? have you reached to out to anyone else? >> yeah, my ex-wife is doing that, and from right now while we speak, the only one who's doing anything right now is the president. he's actually deploying forces here. there's a navy ship that we can see outside acting as a temporary hospital. trump is the only one doing anything from what anybody can see here. the local government is not doing a thing. they're just cleaning their roads, taking care of their people. everybody else that's up here in the hills have to pretty much fend for themselves. melissa: wow. the pictures are just devastating. i hope that we can help you get the message out and get the help that you need -- >> what we need to do, honestly, is embarrass the governor. that's what we need to do,

embarrass the governor, shame him. because today and yesterday all he could talk about was re-election. melissa: amazing. >> we're sick of it. he's worried about getting reelected when we're down here trying to make ends meet. i mean, we're getting boats ready to go fishing to get fish in order to keep on going. melissa: wow. all right. we're saying prayers for you, we are going to stay on this story -- >> i would like everybody to know -- melissa: yep. >> -- that we all here are u.s. citizens. we're not a different country. david: that's right. >> we're just like guam, we are a u.s. territory. [audio difficulty] posted all over facebook that they need to get the u.s. people out of here. we are u.s. citizens as well, have lived in the states for a total of 16 years myself. i am a u.s. citizen. i pay a lot of taxes. we need help, and we need help now. melissa: all right. mike on st. thomas, we will help you get your message out. prayers for you.

stay strong. thank you. >> thank you very much. david: i hope they are listening inside the beltway to that conversation. that man is really in trouble as are a lot of the people in st. thomas. melissa: shocking. david: let's get down there. meanwhile, pushing forward on tax reform, president trump's bipartisan push to tackle tax reform. can his personal touch get a tax cut package on the fast track? and breaking news, just in from fox news' catherine herridge on an investigation into former fbi director james comey. the breaking news coming up. ♪ prevent bleeding gums. if you spit blood when you brush or floss you may have gum problems and could be on the journey to much worse. help stop the journey of gum disease. try parodontax toothpaste. ♪ :

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. melissa: winning on wall street. you are making money today with a trifecta. brand-new record highs from the dow, s&p 500 and the nasdaq. this is the 53rd record for the dow since election day. david: new details in the investigation into former fbi director james comey and handling of the hillary clinton e-mail case. catherine herridge chief intelligence correspondent is live in d.c. with the latest. it's actually not just that, how many investigations are there involving jim comey right now? reporter: david, to break it down, have you fired fbi director as the central witness in the special counsel investigation led by robert mueller into the election interference by russia and alleged contacts between the

trump team and moscow and the hatch act investigation, run out of the justice department. the hatch act looks at whether someone in the executive branch like the fbi director uses position or influence to interfere in a u.s. election, and the third is investigation by the department of justice and their inspector general. that's the internal watchdog and they're looking at whether the fbi director went outside the chain of command, colored outside the lines, when he made that public statement in july of 2016, but the clinton e-mails that he would recommend against criminal charges, and then also the reopening of the investigation in october. late october of 2016 just before the election, david. david: then there was also his public testimony under oath that seemed to be contradicted by the facts? reporter: well, the white house made a big play today and also yesterday about comey, they allege, giving misleading or

instint testimony to congress, and that relates to a recent development, senators graham and grassley who sit on the senate judiciary committee, they have been investigating comey's actions and the timing of decision in the clinton e-mail case and transcripts came to light that certainly indicate that he began, comey began drafting a statement, exonerating clinton in late april or may of last year two, months before interviewing by the fbi, handling of e-mails as well as 16 other key witnesses. the fact this is part of the hatch act investigation kind of got buried in the investigation of that particular case. david: lot of talk about bannon's interview, saying the president shouldn't have fired jim comey. i don't know, a lot of stuff going around jim comey that didn't look too good. reporter: stop for a minute and think about the last time we

had an fbi direct northis country who found himself at least as a principal witness in three, possibly four investigations. i mean, this is a lot. david: a lot. catherine herridge, breaking news, good stuff, appreciate it. melissa: the long road to recovery in florida. irma unleashing record flooding in jacksonville. how long it will take for things to return to normal? we are live on the ground in the sunshine state next. ♪ it's a highly contagious disease

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. melissa: irma's path of destruction in the southeast. the storm surge in jacksonville, florida, causing record flooding, turning streets into rivers. as hundreds of people are rescued from their home. fox news' rick leventhal is in jacksonville with the latest. rick, what is the scene like there? reporter: jacksonville got a foot of rain, the st. john's river was overwhelmed. the flooding was extensive.

this morning, things subsided until the high tide came in and the water started rising again, other damages beside homes and property including the browns creek bridge which is now closed. engineers say they believe the structural supports may have been compromised by the rough and high water so they shut the bridge down. this road leads to amelia island, you can't get there from here now, not this way. anybody on this side would have to go around, and anybody on that side of the bridge can get around the neighborhood but have to drive the long way down i-95 and not sure when the bridge will be repaired or reopened. browns creek fish camp got swamped. there were a lot of folks trying to clean the place up and when the high tide rolled, in more water swamped it, that water receding. someone told me when the evening high tide comes materials, be worse, they're dealing with that.

right across the street, this is mike krause's house, mike went down to houston to help out after hurricane harvey, and he found out about irma heading this way, he came home and got work it protect his property. here's what he told us a short time ago. >> the storm's coming and cut our trip short there, and booked it back to jacksonville to get prepared here. reporter: and your house wound up underwater. >> my house wound up underwater. yep, everything. luckily it was two level, i got most of my belongings upstairs and all, that the lower level was flooded out about, knee deep or more. reporter: melissa, i want to reference it, we're about 360 miles from where the storm came ashore, down to marco island. not only they flooding, look at the roof the house next door. big pieces ripped off. a fence was knocked down. a lot of tree damage, it was not a minor incident, not a minor storm, even all this way

from where it hit show in south florida. melissa: wow, that is staggering, wow, another place. david, we don't want to forget about the people in texas, looking at the people on the islands. so many territories and people are yelling online don't for get about this area. there is devastation all over. david: the road to recovery, the aftermath of hurricane irma. residents are searching for hope as folks get their first look what's left of their homes and businesses as we just saw. here now is james lee witt, former fema director. first of all, we talked to somebody in the virgin islands, i have to reference that interview. he was desperate. he said it was a combination between the walking dead and -- he said it's virtually a horror movie what they're experiencing and the governor is doing nothing. can fema or other federal agency jump over local authorities if they're not doing what they should be

doing? >> yes, of course, fema, the virgin islands and puerto rico and all part of the u.s. system and the territoryis and know when hurricane merlin hit, i went down there and had to rebuild the virgin islands at that time, and i'm sure fema has people on the ground now, getting whatever resources they need in there. >> i hope so, this guy saw absolutely no signs of it whatsoever. he did compliment the president for bringing in the u.s. navy, the u.s. navy making an effort to restore law and order which had fallen apart there. other than that, he hasn't seen much. i'm hoping for the best. by the way, the president is getting a lot of complements even from democrats like leon panetta like you was in the administration of bill clinton. it's nice to see a bipartisanship here in the relief efforts. >> well, you know, disasters affect people, it's not about politics, it's not about republicans or democrats or

independents or anyone. david: it has been, forgive me for interrupting, there have been cases where that did happen, and i'm thinking of sandy and other instances, certainly with katrina, there were bipartisan hits, but in this case, it doesn't seem like it's happened? >> i think brock long, the administrator of fema and the fema organization has done a great job and i think president trump has done a great job of seeing it top of this, and he deserves the compliments because these people are in need and need help and him being there and going there and reassuring them gives them hope that the federal government is going throb for them in the long haul. david: one of the key areas we keep hearing from residents of florida is power. they're hearing stories that it could be weeks before they get power, yet we've got a heat wave coming in, we have hospitals shutting down. how do you get fema and the feds involved in restoring power? . >> well, they've already

involved. all of the trucks, the power trucks and the crews that's going in there now is part of the resource that fema pays for to help get the power back up and restored. the other thing is they've got to get a lot of the roads cleared. lot of things out of the way to get everybody in there. i know they've restored a lot of power and have a long way to go, it could take weeks. david: james lee wit, former fema director. thank you for being here, appreciate it. >> thank you for what you are doing. david: melissa? melissa: getting your tax cut by the end of the year. president trump will break bread with leaders from both sides of the aisle. the "washington times" weighs in on the time line tax reform and if republicans and democrats can come together in time?

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. melissa: breaking out to both sides of the aisle, president trump hosting a bipartisan dinner hoping to tackle tax reform with both republicans and democrats. will it work? here now is madison gesiotto, what do you think of this move? >> i think it's really important we have bipartisan support heading into text reform. as we saw with health care, having 52 republicans in the senate just is not enough. republicans can't get anything done on their own and this is a bipartisan issue. this is something that affects republicans, democrats and we should all be on the same page. we want to see tax cuts and tax reform. melissa: you have to wonder where the common ground is. i appreciate the approach, going with republicans wasn't working, wasn't getting them anywhere and the president does not seem to be a member of any party in particular, that's one of the things people liked about him but at the same time, where is the common ground in

term what was they can agree on in the tax code? >> i think we need to look to middle-class americans, people that need relief. looking forward to 2018, many of the democratic senators are going to be in toss-up elections, and so three of the senators that are going to be at the dinner tonight are democrats up for re-election in 2018 in states that president trump won last year, and so i think they're going to have to really take this pressure and have to step forward and do something about this because i think they're in jeopardy of losing seats if they don't. melissa: the irony is they could come together on an idea, maybe raise taxes on limousine liberals. people at the high-end of the earnings spectrum tend to be democrats these days, the 1%, and ironic to see them come together to raise taxes on that group if they did to quote, unquote pay for tax cuts on other groups. you know, perhaps the middle class, but the fundamental principle, democrats want to grow the size of government.

the president, i think they want the swamp drained, smaller, so it seems like would be hard to find very much common ground. >> i think it's definitely going to be difficult. no one said it is easy but something the president will not stop until he gets accomplished. and once he's done with this he'll revisit health care as well. they are important issues affecting americans, and when we go to the complexity of our tax code, that needs reform for every american no matter what tax bracket you are in. it's too difficult. it wastes time and money. not something we can continue to move forward with productively. melissa: does he alienate republicans by courting democrats like this? . >> i don't think he should. if he does alienate congressional republicans, look to those districts or senate seats in 2018 as well, in states like ohio with senator rob portman and from ohio, he's done a lot of great things for the state. as a citizen of ohio, it's important to see him make the right decision on tax reform

and tax cuts. melissa: madison, thank you. david: thank you, breaking news on equifax, 36 u.s. senators are calling on federal agencies to investigate the sale of equifax stock by the company's executives allegedly after the company learned about the cyberbreach and before it made the breach public. the news about the breach. shares not yet moving much on the news after-hours, but wait for tomorrow. melissa: so as the recovery effort for florida begins, here are local heroes emerging from this catastrophe. that's next. anything worth pursuing requires knowledge, hard work and a plan. at baird, we approach your wealth management strategy the same way to create a financial plan built to last from generation to generation. we'll listen. we'll talk. we'll plan. baird.

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david: as irma and harvey devastate florida and texas there's good news coming out of tragedy. melissa: people are helping each other. this is the bell mark food mart in clearwater florida where many residents including my in-laws are out of power. the market didn't have power so they moved to grow our friend started cooking bacon and eggs.

hungry neighbors lined up very quickly as you can see. they are trying to clean things up. i love you, best wishes to you guys. david: "risk and reward" starts right now. 25% of homes destroyed in the florida keys. 15 million people still without power after months of cleanup ahead. we are in our way from president trump's tax cut dinner with moderate democrats and republicans. the president ratcheting up -- in 1000-dollar iphone so what do you get free money and is it worth it? will find out tonight and we have an inside track on what they attacked cuts are going to look like. welcome to "risk and reward." i'm a elizabeth --