the coming days. i'm trish regan. i'll see you every day at 2:00 p.m. on the fox business network. maria will be back. howie: nuclear tensions rising again as north korea announces it tested a hydrogen bomb that can be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile. john roberts has the reaction. john: this could be a game changer. pictures last night released by north korea. jim jong-un inspecting what is said to be a thermonuclear warhead that can be fit on an intercontinental ballistic missile missile.

the white house is paying a lot of attention to it after that explosion that measured 6.3 on the richter scale. sarah sanders saying the national security team is monitoring this closely. the president currently is across lafayette park at church praying for victims of harvey. the white house statement on north korea. china is trying to help but with little success. the president is saying south korea is finding that appeasement won't work with north korea. only one thing they understand.

we don't know what that one thing is. buttress are you secretary steve mnuchin said he will deliver a package of measures to put the screws to people doing business with north korea. >> it's clear this behavior is completely unacceptable. we already started with sanctions against north korea. i would draft a sanctions package to send to the president for his consideration that anybody doing trade or businessth them will not do trade or business with us. people need to cut off north korea economically. this is unacceptable behavior. how much * howie: , there is plm to ratchet it up. the thing the president wants to have happen is he wants china and russia on board with strong sanctions.

that so far has proven to be problematic. howie: joining us to analyze the coverage. mollie hemingway and erin pike. the president took criticism for his fire and fury talk? mollie: i don't know if we remember back to the earlier things trump was saying, those were backed up by the defense secretary who was using similar righi am --similar rhetoric. the media should remain calm and not make everything about personal animosity toward donald trump. when we are talking about the possibility of thermonuclear

war. howie: the foreign policy establishment cements to me diplomacy and sanctions are preferable to tough talk. could that be changing? >> it could be but i don't think it's only the media consensus. i think it's probably the consensus of the military establishment. i don't think the military wants a war. this is a war -- it hasn't worked well in the past, but it has saved off the situation up to this point and we haven't had direct diplomacy for many many years. other people would argue it hasn't been tried. howie: you look at the president's tweets, rogue

nation, hostile and dangerous. only understands one thing. is twitter a good vehicle for these kind of threats? erin: i think mollie is right in some respects that this is not just about donald trump. but the media should do a better job of helping the american people understand the threat. i have gone to pentagon briefings where they say the u.s. is three years ahead of north korea's technology. "fox and friends" showed the difference in the technology north korea has and the bombs they are trying to create. we should see more segments like that. howie: we should educate the public about the situation and

not just reduce it to donald trump versus kim jong-un. we'll have much more on the north korea threat. let me turn to the hurricane situation in texas. the media set this up as a major test for donald trump. after his first visit to corpus christi, many in the press accused him of insufficient compassion. >> very little in terms of empathy or emotion or talking directly to the people of texas. >> it was very striking he didn't mention the number of people who died or even sort of try to empathize with the fact that people are genuinely suffering. >> president trump went to texas but he forgot to bring any empathy for him. but he did bring a hat, a hat that is for sale.

>> this is a dangerous thing to be playing when you think feeling are more important than fund. feeling don't save lives. they don't. howie: the press remove the yardstick. >> it was an unbelievable focus on empathy. last august there were deadly floods in louisiana, and president obama stayed in martha's vineyard. the media coverage said it's good not to go down there, it would just cause more problems. every single person was talking about empathy. it was bizarre actually. howie: i think it's fair, it's a comparison to bill clinton and obama.

but to reduce it and put an intense spotlight on did he hug anybody. michael: i think that's fair, and i think obama deserves the criticism. mollie: he didn't get some. michael: i am saying he deserves some. he should have left martha's vineyard. and george bush went way too late and it hurt him in the polls. i think trump -- it's not a question of going. going is good. and he started out on the wrong foot about that thing about how great his crowd was. howie: the effort seems to be going all right so far. this reinforces the media never has anything good to say about

the president. erin: i think the president walked into the media's trap on this. one story saying he didn't need a single victim or floodwaters, but he's trying to say he's working on this problem. but the president often steps into it when he shouldn't. because he later in the week he tweeted saying he saw the devastation firsthand. then andrew base who traveled with the president tweeted he traveled with the president and would not claim to have seen the devastation firsthand. howie: the rescue efforts were taking place and the flooding was out of control. the president went to houston yesterday, he visited a place where a lot of children were and

he had this to say in an impromptu session with reporters. it's being done efficiently. there is a lot of love. it's been well received. even by you guys it's been well received. mike: i was watching the channels, nbc and be i msnbc *. mollie: when we have such a focus on optics, and the obsession with melania trump's stilettos. howie: we want to put up headlines on this subject. she for 5 or 6-inch heels.

"vanity fair," who wears stilettos to a hurricane in. michael: that was heartless but silly. howie: it portrays the first lady -- michael: she is not the first fir lady to get picked on. hillary clinton got picked on when she wore a page pant suit to a press briefing. this thing he said about the media not getting in harm's way and being cowards as you off key. howie: a lot of journalists did go into dangerous conditions there. erin: when the president was focusing on tack reformulater in the week i saw a number of cable news chryons saying the president is pivoting to tax

reform when there is a death toll in can. that's too much to say pause we expect the president to walk and chew gum at the same time. howie: these are on msnbc. trump talks taxes as gulf death toll climbs to 19. erin: i remember seeing that. on cnn as well. that was just irresponsible. when i talked about the media setting a trap for the president, they did that with that. mollie: you talked about how he fell into the media's trap. they meade it all about empathy. then you have the kid running up to the president and the family members talking about how much they love him. howie: the dual traps as you guys would put it. we'll go to houston and check in

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howie: the "houston chronicle" is covering the monster storm. joining us is vernon loeb. what happened when you tried to walk to your newsroom to your home 4 1/2 miles away? vernon: i found water up to my waist two blocks from my apartment. i knew a big storm was coming, but i was emotionally unprepared for how much water was

everywhere. our initial challenge was getting a few people into the newsroom and deploying from there. we basically told everybody if you can't get in, work from home. start reporting from your community and stand by and we'll send you where you need to go. howie: you say you were emotional unprepared for the sheer magnitude of this hurricane. you reported from afghanistan. and people kept asking you, are you okay? vernon: yeah, all week. it's one thing to go to a war and be embedded with soldiers. and get prepared for such an extraordinary event. it's quite another thing to have an extraordinary event come to your neighborhood. an entire city. i remember thinking as i'm sort of slogging my way into work.

where is all this water going to go? i think the latest count is 27 trillion gallons. i thinker sort of reacted that way. your instinct as a journalist kicks in and you start reporting. howie: we have been showing pictures of your reporting in the "houston chronicle." people working dane night while they have their own flooded homes and their own families to deal with. vernon: this is the first time in my career that i put the entire paper on one story because nothing else mattered at that point. numerous staffers lost their homes. everybody had some sort of flood damage. i put a narrative in play

monday, the second day of the storm. a 6,500 word narrative. two of the writers told me i would love to do this but i'm watching the water creep up to my front door. let me get back to you. one of them actually evacuated his house. he lived in an area that got hit by tornadoes on day one. i had evacuees working on this narrative. howie: it's heartbreaking to hear these details. journalists take a lot of abuse, and some of it is well deserved. something like this happens you see the value of journalism in a crisis. vernon: it was inspiring to me to see everybody step up and be available and say i want to do

more, where can i go. we had a bunch of people who just won't stop working. you do reach physical and perhaps even more important emotional exhaustion at the end of the week. we are starting to tell people to go home and take a day off. but most of of them i can't get to stop. howie: vernon lobe, thanks for joining us from houston. ahead. is the press rooting for president trump to keep obama's dreamers program? patrick woke up with back pain. but he has work to do. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve. all day strong.

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bomb. james rosen joins us. it seems like kim jong-un has his own media agenda. he was quiet during charlottesville. and he does this test as the hurricane news is starting to fade. james: during 2014 when the united states was preoccupied with the threat of isis and beheading american journalists. kim jong-un laid low during that time. but this speaks to a rationale n rationality that isn't often covered by the western media in our portrayal of him. howie: you are saying he's describes as an erratic madman and that's off the mark? james: his concepts of

rationality differ from our own. one of the people he killed, a relative of his, was destroyed by anti-aircraft fire which is not a typical means for execution. the north korean regime over time has displayed a sort of rationality in its pursuit of nuclear capability. when to seek talks and when to give concessions. they are fond of saying, if the americans, you have the watch, but we have the sun. howie: a lot of journalistic reports are staying we are not speak with one voice. president trump said talking is not the answer. jim mattis said we are never out of diplomatic solutions. rex tillerson, is he a factor here or is foreign policy being

run out of the white house? james: he's a factor. he seize the president weekly. heads of state respect tillerson and say he has genuine influence with the president. but tillerson is frustrated that he's probably going to leave after one year. you hear he's also staying simply because he believes that his time is needed right now. we hear that about other officials surrounding the president. but it's true that the united states has not spoken with one voice on north korea. but that's also true in the middle east the rift between our gulf allies. we didn't speak with one voice on that either. howie: the press does tend to pounce on every little difference. james rosen, thanks for calling in. as the president decides on the

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howie: reaction from the state department after north korea boasting about its most of powerful weapons test, a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted on an icbm for delivery. reporter: rex tillerson has spoken to the foreign minister. the president's national security team monitoring events closely. they are meeting what they call their pressure campaign against north korea. the secretaries traveled to the region repeatedly said all options are on the table and have tried to convince allies

and adversaries to cut some of north korea's funding. additional sanctions have been passed against north korea. south korea says it will seek the most of powerful u.n. sanctions to completely isolate north korea. that would require china and vush to again sign off on additional sanctions on the security council and that seems unlikely. the russian foreign ministry says sergei lavrov emphasized there is no diplomatic way to overcome the tensions on the korean peninsula. and he said any further strengthening of sanctions on the dprk are counter productive and dangerous.

treasury secretary steve mnuchin said on "fox news sunday" that he's drafting a sanctions proposal to cut off trade to north korea. howie: russia's position is basically do nothing. even as much of houston was first being submerged by the catastrophic flooding, the "washington post" focused on a story about russia. the "new york times" said an email from american businessman telling cohen, our boy can become president of the united states. but the effort went nowhere. >> apparently no one in the

presidential campaign no one thought to mention for five months of the presidential campaign the trump organization was aggressively pursuing the building of a project in russia. that the government was going to finance. >> that's a big, big part of the puzzle. howie: the email that helped elect our boy president. mollie: i thought they would say something what more proof do we need of a secret trump-russia connection. how about any proof. anything that leads us to something substantive. people making claims. but the deal never happened. there is still no evidence of collusion. all these stories make it seem more like we have people who are unwilling to accept a legitimate

election. howie: the trump campaign folks were so non-wired, he sent his email to a general press inbox and got no response. but candidate trump was talking about russia when his people were trying to do a deal in moscow. your take on the story. michael: it's an important story. just flip it. if president hillary clinton fired an fbi director who was conducting a probe into her campaign, i think conservatives on this network and other conservative media outlets would have a hue and cry. it's not as if the media has to wait until it has a smoking gun in its hand to write news.

if news pops up, write it. howie: robert mueller has obtained an early draft firing james comey it was opposed by counsel because it had an angry tone. erin: it changes the white house story a little bit. what we understand from that story is vice president mike pence was in that room and knew of that draft as well. sufficient to look at that timeline and what the white house has been saying. it shows their story isn't completely lining up with the many different stories donald trump has given. mollie: there were many reasons donald trump gave for yes fired comey. among them the mishandling of his job throughout the previous years. we learned that comey decided to exonerate hillary clinton months before the investigation was

actually done. further verifying this was a person who had problems with his job. howie: msnbc and prime time devoted a lot of hours to these stories. cnn went to houston and did a lot of reporting on the hurricane as did fox in prime time. there has been chatter in the press about president obama making a decision in the future about barack obama's dreamers program. that decision expected tuesday. take a look. >> mr. president, a decision on daca? >> sometime today or over the weekend we'll have a decision. we love the dreamers. we love everybody. howie: we love the dreamers. is there any question in your

mind that the press by playing up the dreamers, paul ryan and other republicans saying don't end the program will couple with a fix in congress. that the press feels this is a humanitarian issue. michael * i guess. i don't know if it's fair to say that as a statement about the entire media. but overall i suppose there is a consensus that that is the case. it's driven by completely legitimate factors in a democracy. there are immigrant advocate groups out there feeding media organizations to these kids who are dreamers who went to harvard or whatever. you are not going to do those stories? of course you are going to do those stories. howie: the president seems conflicted about this. he has take and hard stance on immigration but he has sympathy

for the dreamers. i am not seeing much coverage of this program. mollie: there are a lot of failures reporting this program. 10 state attorneys general have given the government until november 5 to rescind this program. they successfully sued the federal government. so this entire thing fails on the rule of law question. and that's what i think is interesting. the media don't care about rule of law or see how rule of law is a way -- enforcing rule of law is a way to be charitable. there is a lot of emphasis on dreamers but not on citizens. howie: it was very controversial when president trump did this in 2012. mostly because he acted

unilaterally. even obama said it was temporary. erin: republicans say they want to act. what i would say is this. the media is covering this in such a way that show there are points stacking up against republicans. another republican orrin hatch and others are coming out against the president. the media is missing a big shift going none the business community, i'm sorry to say, the business community is moving to the left. and republicans are moving with them. you are seeing that on tariffs, you are seeing it on this issue. transgender in the military and what happened after charlottesville. mollie: the important thing is for the media not to just be beholden to corporate issues, but the american people might be at odds with the corporations.

howie: we have a rare agreement. thank you very much for joining us this sunday. (con artists...) they'll try anything to get your medicare card number. so they can steal your identity, commit medicare fraud.

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howie: a fox news alert.

we have just gotten word that president trump attending church near the white house in what he calls is a day of prayer was asked by a reporter. will you attack north korea. the president's response was "we'll see." joining us is jennifer griffin. the generals have a lot of responsibility in this. reporter: based on the conversations itch had with senior military official and commanders, and those doing the planning for any sort of military strike. i would say these military commanders know the cost of what a military plan -- how the potential for it to go wrong in this case and what the down side is in terms of the realities of

the korean peninsula. you have a situation where across the north korean border to south korea, there are tens of thousands of artillery units with their eyes set 30 miles south on south korea's capital seoul where there are 25 million people living. i'm told within 4 minute 800,000 round of artillery could land on seoul. there are very few clean military options. there are military options but you have to look at what secretary mattis said sitting side by side with his south korean counterpart at the pentagon. he said we are not out of diplomatic options. howie: that was noteworthy. a new tweet from the president today. i told south korea their talk of appeasement with north korea

will not work. they only understand one thing. the seems in the international community that sanctions are better because of the risk of war. but kim jong-un is being so provocative. reporter: that's true. but wednesday the meeting mattis had with his south korean counterpart. the media made a lot out of the fact the president tweeted that moment that the time for talking was over with north korea. the defense secretary mattis said we are not out of diplomatic options. many people in the media took that to mean he was contradicting the president. mattis spoke to us in the pentagon the day after, and he was hot under the collar for being misinterpreted.

he said just base said we are not out of diplomatic options didn't mean we shouldn't talk to kim jong-un or that we don't have military ass. the potential for miscalculation given the unpredictable nature of north korea, the risk is high and mattis knows that. howie: jennifer griffin, thanks so much for calling in. after the break we'll go to houston and talk about the personal challenges of covering a disaster of this magnitude. it's time for the biggest sale of the

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howie: what's the personal impact on journalists covering this flooden and devastation in houston. griff jenkins joins us. is it a little intimidating? griff: absolutely. the biggest challenge has been mobility. the magnitude is more than a week, 51 inches of rain. it's gladded out. the road, the highways. so getting from one place to another has been very difficult. we have had to get boats and paddle ourselves. we have had to tuck our way into law enforcement boats. mobility is the biggest challenge. my cameraman david williams and producer a.j. hall. i could not have been with a

better team that was more fearless and willing to go everywhere we went to bring you the story as it unfolded. howie: is it a bit overwhelming? you are in a position where people are dying, tens of thousands of people have lost their homes. the emotional impact on you as you tell these stories. griff: any reporter's job is to harness and this was a story, the nation's fourth largest city. i'll continue telling that story today. in this one area the residents are furious they couldn't be evacuated or told to get out earlier. so while it feels like most of of the area is under recovery. one part is still flooding and they will be under water for

weeks. i want to add one of the differences in covering this, twitter was created a year after hurricane katrina in 2005. when this was unfolding when it was hitting hard. we were seeing people tweeting directly. sheriff gonzalez told me i'm at such and such 12th lane. so social media propelled us to be on the tip of the spear. we were trying to overcome the mobility challenges, but we had a better sense of where this story was hitting the hardest when on social media it just blew up. we realized, it's literally everywhere. howie: it's fascinating the victims reached out to first responders and journalists can use it to get out the story. griff jenkins doing a terrific

job for us in houston. thank you very much. griff: thank you. howie: sarah palin loses a lawsuit.

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howie: we have just gotten the video of a pool reporter having a chance to question president trump as he came out of church about the tensions with north korea. >> mr. president, will you attack north korea? howie: "we'll see" is what he said. some people show tenacity and courage. these qualities were on display when houston was under water and reporters turned into

responders. >> we have a boat coming. we have a boat coming. i'm going to flag these guys down. there is now water filling his cab. i'm trying not to break your ear drums as i scream, i can't imagine how terrifying it would be to be stuck right there right now. you are stuck in that place, your car is filling water. help is on the way. he's incredibly lucky. howie: khou was knocked off the air for hours. >> get out, dude. get up out of that water. don't fall backwards. no, ma'am, we have a car in a

ditch. we just pulled a fella out. lord have mercy. are you all right? >> i want to thank these guys for saving my life. >> if no one was here doing a live shot, that fella would be gone. howie: it's an important remind her however divided we are in the political and media world. a federal judge has thrown out the sarah palin lawsuit against the "new york times." on connecting her to the gabby giffords shooting. the judge said she is a public figure. check out our facebook page.

give us a like. this is labor day weekend and look at all the breaking news we have to deal with. reporter: north korea defying the united states and the world claiming a successful test of what would be its most of powerful weapon yet. a hydrogen bomb that may be able to reach the u.s. president trump condemning the test and saying appeasement won't solve the north korea problem. arthel: i'm arthel neville. north korean state television reported that they have conducted their 6th nuclear test.