you have been on many of our shows and it is an incredible reminder what it is like to cover a trump administration. >> bret: fast and furious as we look live at asheville, north carolina. significant president trump is stopping in north carolina first. u.s. army corps of engineers only half of the recovery done there and making a statement before he heads to l.a. with the fires. i will have a wrap-up on special report. >> dana: after los angeles he is going to nevada with a rally as well. this is the opposite of sleepy, everybody, buckle up. it will be a wild ride. history is being made and we get to be along for the ride. thank you for joining us and thank you for being my co-anchor today. "the faulkner focus" is next. here she is. >> harris: and we have that breaking news. president trump on the ground in north carolina and he has yet to

come off of air force one. we're here for every moment of it. he wants an update from local officials on the recovery efforts after a category 4 hurricane helene hit this summer. i'm harris faulkner and you are in "the faulkner focus." president trump will be looking at fema and comforting people still hurting after losing everything, particularly in the western part of north carolina in the appalachia. then he will travel to southern california later in the day to tour the surreal destruction there from the wildfires and some have picked up in different parts farther south in san diego with those punishing high winds continuing. we'll get into that when it happens this morning. the president lashed out at the federal response to both of those disasters. >> president trump: i'm going to north carolina to see the horrible thing, the way it has been allowed to fester and we'll

get it fixed up. should have been done months ago from the hurricane that took place almost four months ago. north carolina has been treated very badly. we're stopping there and we are going to then go to los angeles and take a look at a fire that would have been put out if they let the water flow. they didn't let the water flow and still haven't for whatever reasons. >> harris: on capitol hill the u.s. house passed a bipartisan fix our forests act as a response to those monstrous fires that killed 28 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. a former fema administrator had this to say. >> fema is immersed in terrible bureaucratic process. recovery, response and recovery has become way too complex. it is piece mealed together.

there are several bills to revise fema. that is like strapping new shiny parts to a rusty bicycle. we need one bill to reform and rebuild that frame to make it less bureaucratic, empower the governors as the president says. i totally agree with that. make fema a supplement to help state and local governments. >> harris: i have a better idea, take it out of dhs. it is too big right now. jackui heinrich is in asheville, north carolina with more as we await remarks from the president as soon as he comes down off of air force one. jackui. >> 122 days after hurricane helene hit this community it is still recovering. you have businesses just in ruins on these streets. piles of rubble everywhere. and debris everywhere. people on the ground say that there is really a problem in getting fema to approve requests fast enough we're told, asheville is doing better than

the surrounding areas but you had this month thousands of victims told suddenly that their hotel vouchers were expiring and prompted calls from local officials to fema to try to get that fixed including calls from congressman chuck edwards who represents this district. he will be meeting with the president when he lands here today. he supports trump's calls for a big fema overhaul. >> president trump: what they've done with fema is so bad. that is a whole other discussion. it complicates everything. fema has not done their job for the last four years. unless you have certain types of leadership it gets in the way. fema will be a whole big discussion very shortly i would rather see the states take care of their own problems. >> democrats who heard that scrambling to join the president's fire round table in california. governor newsom said he will be on the tarmac when trump arrives

later today following threats to the withhold disaster aid to that state until they better manage their resources. we're watching -- >> a lot of relationships in the trump world. a lot of relationships of trust. i communicate with a lot of folks around him. folks that have his ear and influence. so i don't want -- this is a side show a lot of this stuff. i know it's a show that will probably be the focus of a little too much tomorrow. when all i care about is what we can do together. >> we're seeing the president just descend the steps of air force one. he is on the ground in fletcher, north carolina and get a briefing in a hanger there from local officials. he hasn't tell graphed much about what overhauls to fema he is planning. it follows criticism that the agency is biased against republicans. they fired an employee on the hurricane relief worker.

there was a lot of criticism over fema's response to the hurricane in asheville. it was too slow. if you look at an update it shows cleanup is only 50% done. they've taken out a million cubic yards of debreeze they haven't gotten to the waterways yet. >> dana: great reporting. >> harris: i want to see the scene with the president. it hasn't been a full week yet and he is on the ground and doing things that didn't get done contemporaneously under former president biden. if you recall it too biden several days to get there and trump got there as a candidate. we have -- jackui, i want to thank you as the remarks will made we'll come back to you. i want to bring in as we watch the president on the tarmac talking to those local officials, as i said he would, he wants to talk with everyone down there from the governor all the way down to fema and find out why the recovery efforts

have been so slow. and they are punishingly expensive with all that people have lost here. as i mentioned later today he will go to southern california where more disaster zones are still forming with fires out there unfortunately. but for right now all eyes on north carolina. kevin o'leary is with me. welcome to the "focus." i want to ask you about the cost of rebuilding where people have lost billions in homes and businesses. you know what that looks like on the ground to take it from the ground up and say yeah, we'll rebuild this part of america. >> you know, it is not just the cost of rebuilding the home that is so punitive. over the decades, the regulatory environment about permitting. removal of waste, which contractors can work when, who is accredited to do the work. the unions involved. the cost of a home is half the

physical goods and labor and half the regulations you have to go through to get it done particularly in a state like california. it is not going to be possible to rebuild california or anywhere else unless these regulations are dramatically changed so they are not -- they may have to be removed during this period. i not enough people have looked at what this costs. 40% of the cost of a house in california is regulation. >> harris: we have the president on the move right now and we do anticipate at times like this that he would make some remarks and want to catch all of that. we can see the microphones coming into place and all of the reporters gathering. let's watch. >> president trump: everybody thought i was going to california. i said no, i'm stopping in north carolina first. they've been abused by what has happened. it is terrible. it should have been done and a lot of things should have happened that didn't happen. we're here and fix it out. we're working with the gentlemen behind me.

you know who they are. we'll fix it. and we are going to fix it as fast as we can. it is a massive amount of damage. fema has really let us down. let the country down and i don't know if that's biden's faults or whose fault it is. we'll take over and do a good job. we'll assign mr. whatley, who is fantastic, frankly, and the governor and everybody else that's going to work. we'll supply the money, supply a lot of the money. maybe have to chip in a little something like maybe 25% or whatever. but we will get it done as quickly as we can. and we want to take care of the people of north carolina. it is so interesting, everybody is talking about california and that's a mess. but i said i'm not going to california until i stop in north carolina. so here we are. we will visit the site and we are going to work with probably three of the congressmen, republican congressmen who have

been fantastic whose areas have been affected and with michael whatley, the governor, and whoever else is -- we decide to get involved. probably less fema. fema just hasn't done the job. and we are looking at the whole concept of fema. i like the concept when north carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. when florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it meaning the state takes care of it. to have a group of people come in from an area that don't even know where they are going in order to solve immediately a problem is something that never worked for me. but this is probably one of the best examples of it not working. and there has been some others like in louisiana, etc. so we will be doing something on fema that i think most people agree. i would like to see the states take care of disasters. let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen and i think you will find it a lot less expensive and do

it for less than half and you will get a lot quicker response. so that seems to be the recommendation but we'll be making that recommendation over the next couple of weeks. we will go to the site now and we are going to figure out a plan for really demolition and cleaning because not a lot has been done. and we are very disappointed in the biden administration but we'll make up for lost time and i said i would do that and this is about the earliest we could possibly be here. and we are honored to be here. this has been a great state. great people and really been mishandled. but it is all -- this group will be great and we are going to get it taken care of. any questions? >> do you expect to ask congress for additional aid for north carolina. >> the aid will go through us. rather than going through fema, it will go through us. i think maybe this is a good place to start. because in all fairness to the

governor and all fairness to everybody else, fema was not on the ball and we are going to turn it all around. yes. >> a lot of americans think this is symbolic of what your campaign was all about. america first, putting your priorities to americans even going to california where their policies might have been one of the biggest reasons they have had these problems but putting the american people first. your thoughts on that. >> president trump: i like that question. i want more questions like that. that's even a statement. thank you very much. he is a good man that guy and professional reporter, i have to say. thank you very much. we're putting america first. we're putting in this case north carolina and california. we'll do a good job in california. that's a disaster like i don't know if we've ever seen anything like it frankly. the biggest in the history of california. has anything bigger than that happened in the whole country ever? it looks like -- i don't want to say what it looks like. you know what i'm going to say.

it looks like something hit it. we won't talk about what hit it. it is a bad, bad situation. i guess i'm going to meet with some government officials. but much more importantly in california just to revert to it for a second, millions of gallons of water are waiting to be poured down through already the halfpipes that are already built. they've been up for 40 years. and about 20 years ago they turned off the water. it is the water that comes from the pacific northwest, some of it comes out of canada. and it flows there and it probably has flowed there for a million years and they route it out to the pacific now. you don't have water in the hydrants, no water in the sprinkler systems. the craziest thing i've ever seen. everyone is trying to figure out why aren't they turning it on. they say it is a fish. i find that hard to believe.

we'll figure it out. and without doing that, you will continue to have problems. >> what are you projecting to do if they opec doesn't respond to cut prices for oil prices? >> president trump: we want them to drop the price and stop what is happening in ukraine. tremendous number of russian soldiers are dead and ukrainian soldiers and a lot of people are dead from the bombing of the cities. but right now it is just bullets whacking and hitting men, mostly men, almost in all cases men, and over a million men are killed and they are losing thousands of people a week. it is crazy. it is a crazy war and it never would have happened if i was president. would never have happened. this is crazy that it happened. we want to stop it. one way to stop it quickly to

for opec to stop making so much money and to drop the price of oil. because they have it nice and high. if you have it high that war is not going to end so easily. opec ought to get on the ball and drop the price of oil. and that war will stop right away. >> mr. president. more funding to los angeles because of a sanctuary city policy? >> president trump: i want to see two things in los angeles. voter i.d. so the people have a chance to vote and i want to see the water be released and come down into los angeles and throughout the state. those are the two things. after that i will be the greatest president that california has ever seen. i want the water to come down and come down to los angeles and also go out to all the farmland that is barren and dry. they have land that they say is the equivalent of the land in iowa, which is about as good as there is anywhere on earth. the problem is it's artificial

because they artificially stopped the water from going onto the land. so i want two things. i want voter i.d. for the people of california and they all want it. right now you have -- you don't have voter i.d. people want to have voter identification. you want to have proof of citizenship. ideally you have one-day voting. i want voter i.d. and water to be released and they'll get a lot of help from the u.s. we'll see you at the site. >> deportation flights. >> we're getting the bad hard criminals out. murderers, people that have been as bad as you get. as bad as anybody you've seen. we're taking them out first. thank you. >> thank you, press. >> harris: i want to give a chance for any shouted questions. sometimes the president, as he

did answered that last question that came. that was a news conference pop-up that went almost 15 minutes and got a lot of information not only what the president is anticipating seeing today but how he intends to help alleviate the pain of the second deadliest hurricane hit area in our history second only to katrina. 104 people died in north carolina alone and as you know, almost double that amount for the several states that were hit by that category 4 hurricane helene and really this is about as much attention as they have gotten since trump went as a presidential candidate. yes, biden went there, but this is different. you heard the president talking about money and about helping fema and he is going to do it by executive order. he will go around fema. i want to bring back kevin o'leary if i can now. kevin, let's talk and give you a chance to give a reaction to

that. it is going to take a mighty effort and more than just the rebuild. but it sounds like they are going to get the help they could have used 122 days ago. >> in a different way, though. what trump is saying. let's unpack what he said there. first start with north carolina and go to california. he wants to direct the capital directly under the management of the state governor. the governor of any state is the ceo. the reason he wants to do that is if he gives billions in aid he wants to be able to measure its effectiveness. how it is being used. to put some kind of milestone in place as he doles out this money and be able to make sure it is being used as it was intended. that was impossible with fema because that bureaucracy diluted the amount of capital going to any one location specifically. it was hard to audit that. so what he is saying is let's scrape away the bureaucracy and let's give this capital directly to the governors and check in every month or quarter and year and see exactly how that capital

is used. i think every taxpayer including me listening to that says i like that idea. i want some accountability and want to see executional skills in action. >> harris: before we get to california i do want to just kind of jump away from this and i appreciate that answer so much because it really does get to the heart of how this will directly potentially help people much faster than what was being reported to our correspondent jackui heinrich, kevin, was that fema is so slow to release funds and process things that's why it is taking so long. i argue that dhs, with the border problems, because they have homeland, with all that we faced with all of these monster storms this past year, hurricane milton and helene and more rick it has gotten too big and fema underneath all that is exact will i what you said, bureaucratic and just slow. >> you can't measure it. that's the problem. any time you give away billions of dollars through a federal

into a state system the, who is accountable? that's the question. you can point fingers at each other. the fed or state. you want to eliminate that. i think that's what trump's mandate is. this is the doge idea saying if we give away that much money let's measure it. >> harris: southern california. voter i.d. and the water released to flow to the people. those were the two things. he said if you do that in california, speaking almost directly to governor gavin newsom who stumbled out of the gate and reacting to the wildfires. if you do that the help will come. what is your take on what he is wanting? >> well, he wants to resolve an issue that doesn't have anything to do with these fires. voter registration for citizenship, number one. no one understands why the water wasn't running. we need an answer for that. i've been highly critical of

gavin new some's management effectiveness for a year now. having heard from so many people in california, including our own shark tank family, many of our 250 people who work on the show have lost their homes. they need relief now. now, this is for gavin newsom in a crazy way who has been so immensely unpopular in his own state lately. this is his giuliani moment. he emerged as a global figure. he has had other issues since then. giuliani and matt higgins, those two guys rose to fame coming out of that. thi this is giuliani's chance to show. if he can pull it off he does -- he has the political -- >> harris: we'll go back to the asheville, north carolina airport and the president

greeting people impacted by hurricane helene. >> president trump: it should have been done a long time ago. >> thanks for solving the problem. >> thank you. >> oh my gosh. >> melania, you look beautiful. you are a beautiful first lady. >> appreciate you. >> you are beautiful. >> i love you, man. >> you married up, sir. [laughter]

>> love your hat, mrs. trump. >> harris: we were trying to listen there to see what some of those people -- you could hear thank you for the help, president trump. we wanted to kind of hear what the people said. many of them, some of us as reporters have been keeping in contact with that part of the state. my first tv market is not far from there. many people said they felt unseen after the hurricane and suffered so mightily. it was across the appalachian mountain range and crossed several states, tennessee rick others were touched. some of the worst of that storm, the biggest punishment from

helene was this area and west of asheville. so we wanted to listen to those people being heard by the president of the united states. we've got kevin o'leary. i want to bring in trey gowdy, former south carolina republican congressman and former federal prosecutor. trey, good to see you. i know you are from south carolina and some of the communities where you live were affected by helene. as you see the president touchdown today, how critical is it that he goes here first and he said he felt like he needed to go there first. yes, california is important. it was later in the game. this area didn't get what it needed when it needed it most. >> two reasons, one is practical and one is inspirational. if you came to my home today i would show you trees that were knocked down by helene that still have not been moved. i'm an hour south of asheville. so my hometown of spartanburg was devastated.

without power for multiple weeks. you go north to asheville and others if it weren't for private citizens, private helicopters, that body count would be quadruple what it is now. there is a symbolism to him going there but also the practical impact. there is a democrat governor in north carolina. this has nothing to do with politics. henne mcmaster knows better what south carolina needs than anybody in d.c. ray cooper knew better than anyone in d.c. what north carolina needed. fema is a federal apparatus and it is too slow. he is exactly right. block grant the money to the states and let the governors decide. how many lives could be been saved with roy cooper or chuck edwards was in charge other than a nameless bureaucrat in d.c. >> harris: it was days later they discovered that beautiful

family of 11 people. we don't know how long others may have suffered after the hurricane because it was so hard to get up into those areas of appalachia, that you were mentioning. so many others. so fema, you know, it is just so filled with red tape not being able to get there. not being able to process or do what it needed to do. its leadership not on the ground for quite some time. we were on the ground before they were in some instances. not everybody but in some instances. piggyback off what you were saying, trey. you were talking about the debris you still see south carolina. the u.s. army corp of engineers update hurricane helene is less than 50% done. people involved in the cleanup are saying fema is not approving requests fast enough.

they haven't touched the waterways. and i want to be careful how i phrase this and not be indelicate. i have had sources on the ground from the beginning say that may be where you find more victims in all of this. more than 1 million cubic yards of debris have been removed so far but this is the part that you spoke of, trey. more than 2 million cubic yards of vegetation still have not been picked up. >> i didn't wait on fema. i paid a friend to come haul off stuff from our yard. people aren't waiting on government. they are using their own resources, if you have the resources. if you have the resources. most people don't have the resources to say hey, one of my employees, a tree split her family's house in two. now a duplex. went from a home to a duplex. if they didn't have family members to stay with fema wasn't on the ground putting them in a hotel. it was the community doing it together, which is why kevin is

right and trump is right. let the governors handle it, not bureaucrats in d.c. >> harris: talk to me if you can, because i know you've been there. i have been but it has been many years, about trying to reach people still who may need help. are we talking about a lot of people? you know the territory. >> oh, harris, there are certain places in western north carolina think where there is literally one road. if that road is gone. asheville is a vibrant city. it is on most people's top 50 cities in the u.s. it is vibrant. it was literally cut off. it was cut off. if it were not for franklin graham and others flying helicopters and others in there the body count would be much, much higher. >> harris: we were watching the president of the united states and slapping and giving him applause some of the people who greeted him at the airport who are among the victims as people

most affected by hurricane helene. he is now in a motorcade going to the first site talking about what he might see at the first site. do we have kevin o'leary and we can chat for a moment? i want to shift gears a little bit to california for one. kevin, you had said over the last year you were critical how governor newsom had run things. i want to hear from you, trey, what you have witnessed from out there from afar saying this is what needs to be done. >> well, i don't want to get him in trouble, harris, kevin mccarthy is one of my best friends. when they had a fire several years ago president trump, then congressman mccarthy toured with newsom and said this is what you need to do to prevent the next calamity. newsom prioritized fish over people and environmental causes over human life. this may be -- i don't ever

disagree with mr. wonderful but this could have been his -- >> harris: the fire season isn't even officially there. from what we understand, they had downloaded, whatever they did with the reservoir. i haven't gotten a straight word out of it yet from sources. i'm still waiting. we want every detail that that water wasn't able to flow from the reservoir. whatever happened they were off line because it is not exactly fire season. fire burns when fire burns and spreads because we had hurricane-force winds and now we have new fires. so i say in arizona where i have a home you have to stay ready so you don't have to get ready. this is heartbreaking and really from what trey is saying we had

a chance to prevent some of this. >> it is not just los angeles. you think of the devastation that's occurred here and i've got a heartfelt from the people there but it is also san francisco, which is currently a war zone. and just think of policy in the state regarding taxes and regulation and chevron leaving, that was a core company that built of california over a hundred years ago. i would argue for bass, the mayor of los angeles, this is really -- the microscopic focus on them like an ant being fried by a magnifying glass. they have to deal with that and people are on the ground homeless. they have to change the laws to even remove the burnt lumber. this stuff has to start happening very quickly or none of this will work. think about the olympics in three years and two months. it wouldn't happen in l.a. if

it's still a burnt wasteland. >> harris: what we were watching on the screen was the motorcade that is heading to a hangar at the airport where the president will now get a briefing. you saw some of the north carolina officials on the tarmac with him. then he turned to go spend time rightfully so with the people and while he was doing that people were pulling into place for this briefing that is coming up. we don't exactly know how long that will take or what that will look like. we're all over the story. this is huge for those people on the ground in north carolina in those areas hit and even beyond that. for all of this to be focused on at this point trey, you said something so important. this is not about politics. this is about americans. americans who got left out. >> yeah, it is about practicality and inspiration. north carolina is a bipartisan state. the governor and a.g. are both democrats. thom tillis, chuck edwards and others republicans. politics doesn't matter when you

need water or when the roof is off your house or your family members are missing. there is -- look, asheville is hard to get to, i get that. i-26 is the best way to get there. but helicopters? frankly graham is not the only guy in the world with a helicopter. fema dropped the ball. if it weren't for these proverb at entities that body count would be go up hire than what it is now. >> harris: the waterways accordings to the u.s. army corps of engineers haven't been tackled with. sources told me on the ground and publicly reported now after 122 days that that's where we could see more victims. trey, that's what you are talking about. we are looking at the department of public safety, asheville regional airport where the president of the united states landed a few moments ago and now he is going to this hangar at the airport for a briefing.

that's where you see all of those officials. some of the ones that trey just mentioned. all of those officials are seated. we'll hear from everybody from emergency management to public works, anybody who has anything to say and an update for the commander-in-chief. i want to get your thoughts on this, kevin. >> this is very inspirational for every american because this is what you want the commander-in-chief to do. to take a problem like this. make it personal. look them in the eyes, go there and say i'll take care of this and figure it out. that's what a leader does. i think trump is scoring huge points doing this so early in his mandate. this is just days from when we were all in washington at the inauguration. this is what you are supposed to do. it gives comfort to people in other states. they know when they get hit like this, they will have somebody in the white house who actually cares. and i think that messaging is

exactly what got trump elected with the majority mandate in the first place. someone emotionally involved and directly connected. i would think the branding of fema now is so damaged that that agency has to either change its name or get eradicated. all it means to people now is failed management. that's what fema -- that's the definition of fema now. failed management. i think it has to be changed. basically. it doesn't work. >> harris: trey, your thoughts. we see the president pulling up and into place here. if those microphones come on i'll cut in. let's second and see what's about to happen here. >> president trump: a little cold outside. you are getting used to the cold. one of the things that is very important to me and one of the reasons i'm happy that we won so convincingly is to help north carolina get fixed up. they supported us in record numbers and i'm supporting them in record numbers, too.

and they had me set. i want to go to los angeles and see what was going on with california, why they aren't releasing the water. millions and millions of gallons of water. they are sending it out to the pacific. someday somebody will explain that one. they have no water in los angeles where they have the problems. but so we're going there but i said what about north carolina? well, you can do that -- no, i can't. i said we are stopping in north carolina first and then we're going to los angeles. we just appreciate the-out pouring of love that we have had here. laura was instrumental in the campaign and lived here and is loved and we appreciate it and michael whatley has been incredible, wherever michael is. hello, michael whatley. he has been great and your congressmen have been great and what we thought we would do is take a quick look around, first

we want to do this. i want to say we're very disappointed in fema. your new governor, it is not his fault. he is brand-new to the whole situation. but we are going to work together with the governor and work together with the senators, but really we are going to work a lot with you. congressmen, the three in the area and michael whatley and i would like to put michael in charge of making sure everything goes well. and franklin graham has been unbelievable. we've made a big contribution to franklin and continue to do so. i've been hearing nothing but praise for the job that samaritan's purse has done with franklin and we appreciate it. franklin is around here someplace and good looking guy. he has always been a good looking guy. his father was a good looking guy, too. we loved his father. i saw his father in the latter

years. i said he doesn't have long to go. he was having a hard time and he lived three or four years after that, right? they say it was good stock. he had the ultimate good stock. i want to thank you, franklin. you've been fantastic here and everywhere he goes he is always the first one i see. people don't realize how good it is. a lot of people they go maybe it's the people that he has got and you guys know because you are here, but the people that he has got have done amazing work. so i just want to thank everybody. we'll get over and take a look. we'll say a few words. i do want to introduce some of the people that we have and our first lady, we'll start with our first lady. she wanted to be here because of north carolina and i said well, you can do that but you'll have to come to california, too. she said that's okay. and we got to fix that one up, too. if you've ever seen anything

like that one. who would have thought that could have happened. so governor josh stein, thank you very much. we appreciate it and we are going to have a very long and good relationship. representatives maybe stand up if you would so the press can see. representatives chuck edwards, chuck, thank you. thank you, chuck. tim moore, virginia, you know virginia foxx, a legend. she is such a powerful woman. pat harrigan, thank you very much. your agriculture commissioner who i hear is excellent, steve foxler. good job, steve. you have plenty to do, right? >> more. >> president trump: more than you ever thought. north carolina speaker dustin hall. thank you, dustin. very good. house majority leader brendan

jones. thank you very much. we are making progress, brendan. state representatives dudley greene, carl gillespie. kevin corbin, warren daniel. thank you very much kevin and warren. county commissioner jennifer best. thank you, jennifer, thank you. so hurricane helene was one of the worst natural disasters in american history. it was far worse than billed. i have never seen such water damage, largely water damage. nobody has ever seen. i've been here numerous times but now i'm here in a position where we can do something, meaning i've been in office for four days and i wanted to come sooner but actually they had a little problem with getting logistically in here. i would have been here even sooner.

104 north carolinians have lost their lives. is that now a fairly firm number or are they still finding people? what do you think? still finding people? pretty much okay? a lot of people. 104 people lost their lives. 73,000 homes were severely damaged or destroyed. and i will tell you, i've been to a lot of them and this was like lots of hurricanes -- i've never seen such damage done by water. and the water came. it was violent, left and nothing left. it was pretty amazing. at one point half of the energy calls to fema went unanswered. that's real bad. fema wasn't doing their job. the city of asheville went without running water for two months. a whistleblower testified that some fema employees refused to help people who displayed trump signs on their property. i think that's true, isn't it? i read that.

that's not nice. that's not too nice, is it? >> but whoever those property people were, thank you very much. michael, is that true? it's not good. about the property owners you put a trump sign on and they wouldn't help, fema? earlier this year fema kicked 2,000 north carolina's out of housing and into the cold temperatures. what happened? tell me. >> we had an incompetent administration under biden and we call it the disaster after the disaster, the fema response. >> president trump: nothing but disaster since then. it doesn't matter at this point. biden did a bad job. some residents still don't have hot water, drinking water or anything else and many of them don't have anything. they have a stipend for what they lost and we will take care of it. this is totally unacceptable.

i will be taking strong action to get north carolina the support that you need to quickly recover and rebuild. we are working on it very hard and i think michael whatley, if he does half as good a job for north carolina as he did for my campaign we'll be very happy. he and lara were a powerful team. do you think you can handle it? in many ways this may be easier. but you will lead the team. you want to say who the congressmen are that you want to appoint? >> chuck edwards and -- [inaudible] >> president trump: they are the districts most severely impacted, right? you were affected? >> yes, sir. >> president trump: i will sign an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling fema or maybe getting rid of it.

frankly, fema is not good. i think when you have a problem like this, i think you want to go and whether it's a democrat or republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling fema and then fema gets here and they don't know the area, never been to the area and they want to give you rules that you've never heard about. they want to bring people that aren't as good as the people you already have, and fema has turned out to be a disaster. and you could go back a long way. you could go back to louisiana, you could go back to some of the things that took place in texas. it turns out to be the state that ends up doing the work. it just complicates it. i think we'll recommend fema go away and we pay directly, a percentage to the state. but the state should fix this. if the state did this from the beginning it would have been a lot better situation. i think you guys agree with that, right? so i just want to tell -- say that asheville, i know it well. it is a great place and we'll have it be a great place again.

it with as the one most severely affected. but north carolina is going to come back bigger, better, stronger than ever before. and you will be very thankful. you have already seen -- i know that it really began four days ago but you have already seen more action than you have in the last three months. and we will get it together. we're informing the army corps of engineers to get going because you have a lot of river breaks and a lot of areas that you will need some pretty big work. they are on their way. they will be working much harder than they've been working in the past and we'll take care of it. any questions from the press? of any of the congressman, governor, anybody? >> getting rid of fema. can you talk about that? >> president trump: fema has been a very big disappointment. they cost a tremendous amount of

money. it is very bureaucratic and very slow. other than that we're very happy with them. okay? i think when there is -- when there is a problem with a state, i think that problem should be taken care of by the states. they take care of problems and a governor can handle something very quickly. one of the things i've noticed because i've been doing this for a while. we had a pretty good fema but i noticed when they come, they end up in arguments, they are fighting over who does what. it is not a good system. this system is so beautifully designed over 250 years approximately, you know, we'll soon be celebrating the 250th year. it will be a very big celebration. but it has been designed very well and we will leave it that way. when north carolina, south carolina, florida, tennessee,

when everybody knows the governor of tennessee, i think, everybody. do you know everybody here pretty much? i never thought of it but you are right over the ridge. so you are here to help. >> the people in this region including tennessee, the people in appalachia are grateful that you are here and that you haven't forgotten them. there are other disasters but this was enormous for north carolina and tennessee. thank you. >> president trump: i've seen a lot of disasters. i came here the day after and when i came here i couldn't believe it actually. i couldn't believe the damage. i've seen a lot of them. this was more like a tornado than it was what we witnessed. we'll get it very much taken care of. good job. nice that you came. so you call you are right over the ridge, right? >> right over the ridge. >> president trump: tennessee. i hate to tell you north

carolina, i got more votes. it was tennessee. >> one of the counties in this disaster that had 88% to you. >> president trump: the people are incredible people. do you have any questions, press? >> you talked about conditions being placed on california voter i.d. and the like. are there any conditions you will put on aid to north carolina? >> president trump: we'll do a lot for north carolina. they've been very slow. i don't know why it has been so bad. this has been one of the worst i've seen. katrina, of course, was something that obviously that was a long time ago and not good. this has been very slow. i don't know if it was for political reasons because they lost the state. biden lost the state. maybe he felt he doesn't care. maybe there were other reasons. i don't know. this has been very slow by any standard this has been very slow. we are going to make up for lost time. >> no conditions you'll push for aid? >> president trump: in california i have a condition. we want them to have voter i.d.

so people have a voice. right now the people don't have the voice because you don't know who is voting and very corrupt. and we also want them to release the water. if they release the water they wouldn't have had a problem. if they released the water when i told them to. i told them to do it seven years ago. if they would have done it you wouldn't have had the problem. you might not have had a fire. so here i don't have that. it is a different thing. you got hit by a storm. the people are incredible. they worked really well. franklin was fantastic and other groups. other groups came in that were also fantastic and other states came in, tennessee and a couple of others came in and they really helped. that's the way it is supposed to be. this is a different kind of a thing. >> [inaudible question] >> president trump: i haven't decided. i have to see what it is.

>> [inaudible question] >> senator schiff was too busy to join you. >> president trump: i was told he would travel with us to california. i wasn't thrilled, to be honest with you. i saw him last night on television. likes like he got hit with a baseball bat or something. what happened to him? something happened to him. it looked like he got hit. looked like he got beat around. but i'll ask caroline to find out what happened to him. if he wanted to come out i would have done that. but i don't know, somebody said he wanted to come on the plane but i think he is staying back for the votes. there are some pretty good votes going on. >> what is your timeline for getting rid of fema? >> president trump: for this one? >> you talked about getting rid of fema. what time limit are you looking at. >> president trump: we are looking here to start. we'll start immediately timeline. and to finish it will be a

period of time. people are also rebuilding their houses. how long does it take to build a house? takes some time. i want them to build houses bigger, better, nicer than they had before. this was a real disaster. timeline will be fast in terms of infrastructure very fast. i want to thank elon because he was able to get us communication systems as you know, starlink. we had no communication. the first day i got here i was asked by one of the really great representatives, professionals is there any way you could get starlink here? they had no communication whatsoever. and i called up elon musk and he had hundreds of units brought here. brought immediately. it is hard to get. they couldn't get them before. it made a lot of difference. i think it saved a lot of lives actually. infrastructure wise we'll do it quickly. >> can you talk about how long

you think it might take to get rid of fema, the timeline on that? >> president trump: as far as i'm concerned, i'm not really thinking about fema right now here. i'm thinking about michael whatley and i'm thinking about the three congress people that you just heard from and also the other people in congress and they will be working with the governor. they will be working with the governor. that's what i see. >> change the subject quickly, the laken riley act was signed by speaker johnson yesterday. when do you anticipate to sign that? >> we're honored by that. i was there at the time and we had a big meeting with their parents after that took place. you know what the act represents. and there was a bipartisan bill. many democrats signed on to it. that's something that is a tribute to laken.

a beautiful young lady who was killed viciously by an illegal alien. and we passed a very powerful bill and it was just approved and we'll have a ceremony sometime very shortly. i will be signing it. in other words, i will definitely be signing it. >> the security detail for anthony fauci was terminated last night, sir. do you have a comment? >> president trump: no. when you work for government, at some point your security detail comes off and, you know, you can't have them forever. so i think it's very standard. if it would be for somebody else you wouldn't be asking the question. the question is very fair but, you know, you work for government. we took some off other people, too. but you can't have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government.

we'll see what happens. >> [inaudible question] >> president trump: no. they all made a lot of money. they can hire their own security, too. all the people you are talking about can go out. they are very good security people. they can hire their own security. they all made a lot of money. fauci made a lot of money. they all did. so if they felt that strongly, i think that certainly i would not take responsibility. >> north carolina allows -- >> president trump: the tariffs will make our country rich. we will be a rich, rich country very soon. tariffs will make it rich and competence. common sense, competence and tariffs. the word tariff is one of the most beautiful words in the dictionary. >> the business secretary of the united kingdom said that there is an even trade between the

u.s. and the u.k. so they shouldn't have tariffs. does trade imbalances or a balanced trade effect tariffs and your decisions? >> president trump: unbalanced and balanced and also deficits. like with canada we lose 200 billion a year with canada. that's because we allow them to make cars. we allow them to take lumber. we don't need their cars, lumber or food products. we make the same products right on the other side of the border. sort of crazy. we have just allowed that bad management has allowed it over the last four years in particular to become very unbalanced. i said to -- i call him governor trudeau. he have is prime minister trudeau when he was prime minister, i asked him why would we do that? he was unaible to give me an answer. he said i don't know. i said do you think it's fair we're paying $2 hundred billion to keep canada going? what would happen -- i asked him

what would happen if we didn't subsidize candidate? he said we would be a failed nation. i said then you should be a state. because why are we paying all of that money to canada when, you know, we could use it ourselves, right? so we take care of their military. we are going to order 40 coast guard big ice breakers, big ones, and all of a sudden canada wants a piece of the deal. i said why are we doing that? i like doing that if they are a state. but i don't like doing that if they are a nation and very nasty to us on trade. historically canada has been very bad and unfair to us on trade. we'll see how it all works out. i would love to see canada be the 51st state. the canadian citizens would get a big tax cut. they're highly taxed and you wouldn't have to worry about military or about many of the

things. you would have better health coverage. you would have much better health coverage. so i think the people of canada would like it if it's explained. they have a massive tax cut and they would have a lot more business because then we would let business go to canada routinely and no tariffs. if we did that there would be no tariffs. >> the united kingdom is better off then. >> president trump: reverend franklin graham has been a big part of samaritan purse and north carolina and get your thoughts. >> president trump: he has been a big asset to the state. his father was a big asset to the state and the country, both of them. i just think this. i think franklin and other people doing what franklin have done. i've known franklin so long. he was at the inauguration and made a speech, beautiful speech, beautiful prayer.

just he does a great job and we gave -- we made a big donation and it was money well spent. sometimes you make donations and it is not well spent. he has done a really great job here. thank you. we're going to the site now and one of the sites and we will -- i think for those that haven't seen it, you won't even believe it. not enough work was done. we'll get it done fast and speak for the republican congressmen we'll knock it out, right? we'll knock it out. and i think we take it very personally because it was -- north carolina was very unfairly treated. it was too obvious. we'll make up for lost time. thank you to the people of north carolina. thank you, everybody. >> harris: president trump there being flanked by all the on the

ground officials in north carolina. he talked somewhat about tennessee as well and he wanted to bring attention to the tennessee officials who were there with him because, of course, just over the ridge of the appalachia mountain range they were hit hard by hurricane helene as well. it turned out to be more than remarks. a news conference. i want to bring back kevin o'leary and trey gowdy and last thoughts. this was a lot of information. a lot of focus on fema. trey, honestly i'm a little confused whether or not you take away fema and replace it with executive actions for just north carolina or if he is talking about it as a whole as an agency. what did you take away? >> both. immediately he is going to bypass fema and use michael whatley to get what north carolina needs. in the long term he is pinging to do away with fema. you may have one coordinator to

make sure the money gets to the states hit by natural disasters. i read both into that. >> harris: kevin o'leary, quickly before we let you go. off topic a bit here but something the president has kept his eye on as they begin to go to the first site in north carolina and see some of the damage that is still remaining. tiktok, are you going to buy it? are you ready? >> yes, we are. i think a lot of hype and a lot of, you know, just -- you have no information you get speculation. but i will tell you one thing about this deal that is so complicated. no one has read the order from the supreme court 9-0 decision by all justices. they further defined it you can't use the chinese algorithm. the only deal that has -- so i think it comes back to us. >> good luck with that. i know there are a lot of tiktok users who will lov