weighs in on her new possible challenger. and developing now, florida on alert. we just received a new update on tropical storm erika. and it could impact florida as a category 2 or even 3 hurricane. major concerns this hour. we'll have a live report. good morning, everyone. i'm tamron hall. we begin with the on-air tributes and tremendous outpouring of grief and love for the victims in that shocking -- in the shocking murders that unfolded during a live news broadcast less than 24 hours after they were carried out, the difficult task of reporting on their colleagues' death this morning. wdbj held a moment of silence for alison parker and adam ward at exactly 6:45 a.m. >> we are approaching a moment that none of us will forget. it was yesterday around this time that we went live to alison

parker and photojournalist adam ward. we are ending this moment with our continued thanks and support from all of you at home. you've been our rock, our strength during this time. this hurts all of us so much as you can see. but we will with time and the blessings of our many friends out there, all of you, we will heal from this. >> parker's fiance, chris hurst, is an anchor at that station. he appeared on the "today" show and described what he hoped would be their future together. >> it was the best time of her life and she was just about to get started working on a new long-form special report. she was looking forward to life. i was looking forward to a life with her. >> we're also learning much more about the man who carried out the horrific act. vester lee flanagan. his disturbing past. the station manager appeared on the "today" show also and described how he figured out the gunman's identity. >> our chief photographer came

over to me and said, you have to see this. and everybody was gathered around it and said, that's vester. and i wasn't sure, they were. and we immediately passed that on to the franklin county sheriff. >> court documents obtained by nbc news shed light on flanagan's tumultuous time at wdbj. flanagan known as bryce williams on air was ordered to contact an employee assistance program after confrontations with photographers. he was ultimately fired but did not go away quietly. police had to physically remove him from the building. in a chilling 23-page fax sent to abc news, flanagan described himself as a human powder keg just waiting to go boom. he also said he was, quote, pushed over the top by the charleston church massacre and expressed admiration for the shooters at columbine and virginia tech. last night, a spokesperson for flanagan's family read a statement.

>> it is with heavy reports and deep sadness we express our deepest condolences to the families of alison parker and adam ward. we are also praying for the recovery of vicki gardner. our thoughts and prayers at this time are with the victims' families and with wdbj television station family. >> nbc's hallie jackson joins me now from moneta, virginia. hallie, i'm curious what authorities have been able to uncover about flanagan's day and even the days prior to this attack. he was fired two years ago. and i'm wondering what kind of contact, if any, did he have with the station or with other people. >> reporter: people at the station, we've learned, had been told if they saw flanagan come on to wdbj property, they were to call 911 immediately. what police have said here in southwest virginia is that it appeared as though his life was spiraling out of control. those anger issues that you

touched on had been brought up by folks who have worked with him in the past, dating back 15 years or so. he'd been hired and fired at a news station in tallahassee, florida, back in 2000. confrontations happened with flanagan there. and the day he was dismissed from wdbj, there were violent outbursts recorded on videotape. and the person photographing that was adam ward, one of the victims of this shooting. so we talk about the day he was dismissed. you mentioned the fact that he had been physically removed. police had to be called. flanagan according to court documents obtained by nbc news had to be physically lifted out of his chair. police were called. the following weekend, off-duty police officers were stationed outside the building to make sure he did not come back. that's sort of what we know about flanagan now. as for the other part of it, the supports and the tributes we've been seeing for these victims, nbc did an interview with alison

parker's father a few minutes ago. he said he found out about it when somebody from the station texted him yesterday morning letting him know what had happened, shots had been fired during alison's live shot. they didn't know what was going on but would try to tell him more. he said she was just 24 and breaking down crying but he said, she lived a great 24 years. obviously struggling, going through unimaginable grief. but he said his mission -- he's a man on a mission to push for stricter gun control laws. he says he hopes that is alison's legacy. >> and we should also point out that vicki gardner, the third victim who was shot in the back and was in surgery much of the day yesterday, her husband says she's in good condition and hopefully will be recovering rather quickly here. but, again, a third victim that we cannot forget in all of this. thank you so much, hallie. we greatly appreciate that live report from you. i'm joined by professor robert

denton from virginia tech. in 2011, adam ward was one of his students. he is a political analyst at wdbj. thank you so much for joining us. obviously seeing what happened to people very close to you, our thoughts and prayers are with you as well. let me get your reaction to obviously the news but also these young lives and the promise that you were so close to regarding their future. >> it was just a delight and joy for me to be able to work with them. i took great joy and delight -- they were so young, using their degrees, showing great enthusiasm, loved doing what they were doing. they were also great individual people. and as someone who's been in higher ed for over 30 years, it was so gratifying to see on the other end, the beginning of the career, the hopes and the ambitions. and it was just delightful working with them. the early show is not easy when you get up at 4:00. but i never said no to them because they were a joy and pleasure to work with.

>> you're the political analyst at wdbj. were you familiar at all with bryce williams, vester flanagan? >> i was not. i was not. i did not -- he was not a political reporter and i worked more with joe deshield in terms of the staff there who is a political reporter. i had no contact with him. >> how would you describe the atmosphere at the station? is it the typical close-knit newsroom that we know as on-air people and as folks in the news but perhaps maybe those at home are not familiar with? >> it is absolutely a family. people don't understand the weird hours, the close proximity, the teamwork that it takes to do just this for a couple of minutes or what have now. it is a family at wdbj 7. and i cannot explain how they are getting through yesterday and what they're doing today. there are moments when we hug and we cry. and then there are other moments when they're doing their best

and they're working. it's highly emotional but very professional. i'm so impressed and i frankly cannot do what they're doing. >> and that is the feeling that we've all had watching them on air this morning and watching chris do live interviews, talking about his girlfriend and his grief. and it's just past the 24-hour mark of when this all played out. professor, thank you so much for your time. our thoughts and prayers are with you and the entire staff there as well as certainly the families of those young people. we've been reporting that flanagan took to social media while he was on the run. in fact, during this hour, that's when it was discovered he was live tweeting. his tweets, several of them, even included uploaded links of videos of the moment that he opened fire which we are not showing on air. those online postings haved aed more shock waves to the already horrifying aspects of this case. both facebook and twitter took down the posts. but now it's stirring a national

conversation about where we as a society should draw the line regarding social media. nbc's anne thompson has more on that part of the story. >> reporter: it is this perspective, the shooter's perspective, that horrified social media, we're only showing you a freeze frame. vester flanagan wore a camera when he shot his former colleagues and posted the video on twitter and facebook. >> it was just utterly terrorizing, paralyzing. >> reporter: one of the many who watched it, eric crimple. >> it takes social media savvy on the part of this killer. and that is a terrible, terrible thing to consider. >> reporter: instantly on twitter, users demanded the video be taken down. stephanie writing, do not retreat, do not touch, go hug someone you love instead. is that the best way to police this? >> no. we constantly struggle with the

reality of something that's been posted, things that -- unfortunately this video was true. >> reporter: twitter and other platforms pulled the video down, facebook saying the page and profile violated its community standards which prohibits celebrating any crimes posters have committed. >> social media is a reflection of who we are. and sometimes that's not a very flattering picture. >> reporter: magnified by technology, this is the latest workplace homicide. between 1997 and 2010, there were almost 900 committed by a co-worker or former co-worker. the difference this time is we could see it. >> joining me now, editor at large and chief correspondent at mashable. thank you so much for joining us. you have people saying, don't retweet this, don't post this, feeling that that was their responsibility. but then you had so many others, quite honestly, i'm sure normal nice people sending it out on facebook telling their friends, can you believe this happened. how do we draw the line on

something like this? >> i don't think it's really about drawing the line. i think it's understanding the reality that we live in. this was a pure reflection of our digital world. but what was remarkable to me is how this killer was using social media in real time. i've never seen anything quite like it. i did see the video. as a journalist, i was researching flanagan and tried to see who he was. and i saw the video. this is how a lot of people saw the video. it autoplayed. they didn't even have an opportunity to stop it. that's the way the social media is designed nowadays. this killer was basically a digital citizen. that was what shocked me is that i have never seen somebody showing this stuff in real time. i didn't believe the video at first until i realized how it matched up with what was happen. >> i think people match up

digital citizen as someone who's trying to do good work, others would refer to him as a digital monster in that he used this to show his work here. but 2013, derek median posted a picture of his wife's dead body on facebook, online told his friends they would hear about him in the news. february, according to police in pennsylvania, a teenager killed a classmate, uploaded a selfie with the victim in snapchat. we are not using any of these images obviously. this is unprecedented in that it was live tweeting. we were on air live. as soon as we got the note saying that flanagan was live tweeting this, i couldn't believe what i was reading. that part of it is unique. but there have been a few heinous crimes where people have posted rather than tried to cover them up. >> right. these people have all of that in common, that they wanted to say, i am the person who did this and how do i normally share this information in my life? through social media, for this heinous act, i'm doing the exact

same thing. we are surrounded by technology. it permeates our lives, it's all around us. but technology is stupid, it's dumb, it is not a creator of these crimes. it is the people, it is the criminals. it is just their latest tools, their latest way of disseminating information and it's become almost like a knee-jerk reaction. i don't even think that flanagan necessarily planned to use social media in this way when he was planning out these killings. this is not like isis where it's a p.r. move, where they show things very, very carefully. it seems like he has, i have this, i have that, i have phone and access to mobile broadband. the most horrifying way imaginable of using these tools that i am devoted to and love. >> let's speak quickly to the fact that within minutes, twitter suspended his account. facebook also made that move. are these major companies -- these major social media sites prepared for these events as it seems i just pointed out two

other instances where these things have happened? >> honestly facebook has well over 1 billion users. how can they prepare -- they are not filtering content before it arrives there. so they moved as quickly as they could to pull it down. i don't think this is the last time we've seen something like this. and, of course, linkedin did the same thing, pulled down his account. everybody tried to scrub his digital existence offline. we don't know what people are going to post. we can't get fully ahead of it. i give them credit for going as fast as they could and i blame the people who reshare this stuff. that to me seems insensitive and senseless. >> lance, a conversation sadly we'll probably have again. thank you so much, lance. coming up, vice president joe biden speaks out about a possible white house run. his first comments. >> if i were to announce to run, i have to be able to commit to all of you that i would be able to give it my whole heart and my

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we are back now with major developments in the 2016 presidential race. vice president joe biden speaking out for the first time about a possible run indicating he's struggling with the decision. in a conference call with members of the democratic

national committee yesterday, the vice president said he's still grieving over his son, bo's recent death. >> if i were to announce to run, i have to be able to commit to all of you that i would be able to give it my whole heart and my whole soul. and right now, both are pretty well banged up. and we're trying to figure out that issue. that's the truth of the matter. but believe me, i've given this a lot of thought and dealing internally in the family about how we do this. >> meantime, it's a busy day on the campaign trail. right now, hillary clinton is holding an event in cleveland. she took the stage just moments ago. on the republican side, donald trump is about to hold an event in south carolina. at the same time, carly fiorina and governor scott walker, both in iowa. we're keeping an eye on all those events looking for any big headlines that you need to know. let me bring in the "news nation" political panel this morning, curtis lee and matt

schlapp. thanks for joining me. i want to pick up on what happened in virginia. two of the candidates already speaking out, hillary clinton and donald trump. but i want to play what alison parker's father said on fox news regarding his -- actually on nbc where he discussing his fight to change legislation. let's play it. >> my grief which is still apparent and will be that way for a while, it's turned to anger because how many times are we going to see an incident like this happen? newtown, charleston, the movie theaters, you name it. it's got to stop. nationally, locally, we've got to find a way to keep crazy people from getting guns. mentally unstable people. look at -- the people that do

this are mentally unstable and somehow they're able to get guns. and the nra is fighting it tooth and nail. and my goal is to call these people out, which i'm doing now, and i'm going to do it on national television every chance i get. >> and that was alison's father just a short time ago with nbc. hillary clinton obviously saying very similar things we've heard from president obama that she wants to take on the gun violence issue, make a change in america. donald trump speaking on cnn said, it's not a gun problem, it is a mental problem here. curtis, here we are again, presidential election and we are having the gun debate. but not everyone is commenting on both sides, quite honestly. >> it's something that certainly comes up after a number of high-profile shootings. we saw it in 2012 after the aurora theater shooting as well as after newtown. there was a big push by the obama administration to have

congress act and call for universal gun background checks. those efforts stalled in congress and it fell to the states. after those shootings, connecticut and colorado passeded stricter gun reforms. but on the national level, it's really stalled it's an issue that comes up after those high-profile shootings. >> and we have another gop debate around the corner in a couple of weeks here. will we see any deviation from what we've heard from gop candidates in the past regarding this? >> tamron, i don't see us making -- i don't see any of these candidates deviating from their support of the second amendment. but there will be distinction on one thing in particular. when i served at the white house and worked with other pro second amendment groups, they were always willing to allow background checks on someone's mental health to be a part of this whole background check questions. it's the courts and a lot of civil liberties groups that oppose that.

a lot of judges say you can't take mental health issues into account. pro-nra folks are not going to agree that, quote, crazy people, should have these weapons. the problem is the courts don't uphold. i respect the father of the victim in this horrible crime for trying to do something to change these laws. >> we've seen victims' families from newtown to aurora where james holmes was just sentenced to life. we hear from people who know personally the pain but there's been no action from those in washington. let me transition to joe biden. we just played his comments, grappling what to do with his political future, many people calling on him to jump into the race. let's play what hillary clinton said about a joe biden possible run. >> i have a great deal of

admiration and affection for him. and i think he has to make what is a very difficult decision for himself and his family and he should have the space and the opportunity to decide what he wants to do. >> measured words from hillary clinton, kurtis. what do you know is happening behind the scenes with her team? >> this is obviously a big decision for the vice president. and he wants to take his time in making it. his son just passed away in may. and we're going to see the first debate coming up for the democrats in mid october. and he has this window to decide. and i think that obviously the vice president wants to make sure his family is fully on board with this before he moves forward. and we're seeing him take his time in making a decision. and i don't know if that decision is going to be immediately. he said by the end of the summer. so it's all kind of just wait and see right now. >> it's interesting, a quinnipiac poll showing this morning donald trump, 16-point lead now over ben carson with jeb bush, senator ted cruz,

senator marco rubio tied for third. so much is made over what hillary clinton and her team thinks of a possible run from joe biden. what about the gop? might he be the candidate they fear the most in that what seems to be popular are the republican right now is, say it as you believe it is, attitude, which we know that joe biden provides that authenticity. >> yeah, i have to say republicans love the idea of a joe biden candidacy, talk about unscripted and quotable. it will definitely be that. >> not more than donald trump, i bet they'd say. >> well, in a different way. that would sure be an interesting match-up. but i think most republicans actually believe that hillary clinton has demonstrated such a weak campaign structure and she herself has been such a weak candidate, i think a lot of them are thinking she's the candidate, besides bernie sanders who's an avowed socialist, she's the candidate they want to run against. joe biden gives democrats to reset this whole conversation.

he could be a lot stronger and a lot more formidable. >> thank you both. we'll talk more about politics. so stick around. meanwhile, i want to get you caught up on another developing story in the atlantic where tropical storm erika has strengthened overnight. the storm is now moving towards the southeastern u.s. where it could become florida's first hurricane in a decade. joining me now from miami, the weather channel's mike seidel. little rain there but nothing like what could potentially happen in a few days. >> reporter:-year, potentially, that's the key. erika could move over the dominican republic, haiti, espanola. that could rip it to shreds in the next day or so. also it's dealing with wind shear. right now, we don't think erika will strengthen at all. may weaken in the next day or so. if it can get through the caribbean in towards the bahamas by sunday, then it has the potential to become that first hurricane to impact florida

since wilma back in october of 2005. take a look at the satellite loop. you can see the blob of convection over in dominica, they've had nearly 9 inches of rain. one report of three fatalities, we're trying to confirm that. and the heavy rain is moving through guadalupe and the rest of the leeward islands. hispaniola could be dealing with mud slides. the average track is about 240 miles in five days. that's the width of the cone. you need to be prepared and you'll have to watch all weekend. so many questions to be answered on this one, intensity and track. we'll have a better answer over the next couple of days. but here in south florida, watching it very closely. and you should also watch in georgia and the carolinas. it could have some impact on those beaches, those rip currents and surf issues up the east coast as we head towards

labor day weekend. >> let's just break it down here for clarity, mike, for people who are watching. earlier there were reports that the worst case scenario, possible cat 2/3 here. you're tracking the model. clarify what we were hearing earlier and what we have now. >> reporter: the official forecast has never taken erika above a category 1 hurricane. 80, 85-mile-an-hour winds. i'm not sure where the cat 2 or 3 came from. i think some of the high-end hurricane models, the individual models are saying that. but the official forecast from the national hurricane center in miami are saying no more than a cat 1 at the end of day five. beyond that, uncertainty. right now, gosh knows, we'll be here all weekend and see how it shakes out. stay tuned to msnbc and the weather channel. >> thank you very much. coming up, the former prep school student accused of rain finishes his testimony on the witness stand. in his own defense.

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new bayer pro ultra omega-3. closing arguments are under way right now in the closely watched trial of a former prep school student accused of raping a younger classmate. this comes after an emotional testimony in which the defendant himself took to the stand as the defense's only witness. 19-year-old owen labrie told jurors that his encounter with a freshman was consensual and that he put on a condom but that the two never had sex. >> it hadn't been any intention going into the night to have sex with [ bleep ]. but we'd had a good time. but it just didn't feel like the right move. >> at one point, the accuser left the courtroom in tears as labrie read from e-mails they

exchanged just before the encounter. under cross-examination, prosecutors argue labrie plotted the meeting for months as he competed with friends to see who could, quote, score with or slay the most girls. >> you were excited about having sex with [ bleep ], correct? >> i was excited to see her. >> you were excited to see her because you wanted to have sex with her? >> no. >> you were excited to see her because you wanted to slay her? >> like i said, i was waiting to see how the night went. >> jury deliberations in the trial could begin as early as today. labrie pleaded not guilty to all the charges. if convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. joining me now is former u.s. attorney kendall coffey. thank you for joining us. i want to talk about in cross-examination this young man admitted to deleting more than

100 facebook messages from his account, including one in which he wrote that he used every trick in the book to have sex with the girl. labrie said that that comment and others were just crude jokes. he also testified he deleted the messages under advice from his mother. >> it was a joke but today it's a lie, right? >> yes, it is a lie. i wanted to boast to my friends afterwards. and i misled them. >> just to be clear, these are the messages that were deleted from your facebook account? >> yes. >> 119 messages, right? >> yes. >> kendall, what's your take on that? >> well, generally when you eliminate evidence, it makes you look guilty. the impact might be not quite as severe here as it usually is because, one, he's young, two, yeah, do teenage boys brag sometimes falsely, that has

happened before. and is it possible that a very, very worried mother could push her son to do something like that? so it's not completely inplausibinmraummrauz ab implausible. >> the jury is made up -- a majority of the jurors are men here. and i heard some analysis yesterday that his testimony may be relatable to men in the way, as you pointed out, that, yes, boys apparently can sometimes exaggerate certain interactions with girls as a boastful way to curry favor. >> but men also have daughters and they have sisters and other family members that they care about deeply. so i don't think the gender breakdown is going to be as critical as is, did the accused

come off well enough and even perhaps more importantly, did the alleged victim convince the jury because she had some inconsistencies. it wasn't a perfect prosecution case. but she was very clear when she said, no, no, no. and if the jury believe those words from the alleged victim, then the jury's words could be guilty as charged. >> to your point, the accuser did leave the courtroom in tears yesterday in direct questioning by his attorney, labrie was asked to describe his relationship with her. let me play how he described it. >> friendly. increasingly over the course of the year sometimes it got pretty flirty. nothing serious but just affectionate, i don't know, playful, nice, polite. >> how would you describe her personality?

>> i thought she was great. she was a really nice girl, really easy to talk to, which makes it a lot of fun to -- whenever you bump into her to have a quick chat or something like that. >> does their relationship prior to the alleged attack -- is that relevant at all? >> i don't think it helps the defense very much because that explains why she would trustingly spend a little time with him. certainly there are plenty of situations where people that like each other can nevertheless -- it can go somewhere where the woman doesn't want it to go. whether you call it date rape or any other former of sexual assault, it's a crime. >> kendall coffey, thank you very much. closing arguments and could go to the jury in the next day or so. joe biden's possible run for the white house, why the team says it's more like throwing water on 2016 speculation.

nbc's senior political editor marc murray will join us to discuss that. imagine - she won't have to remember passwords.

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we are back with the first read. on politics this morning, the vice president joe biden now throwing cold water on the speculation that he's jumping into the race? plus hillary clinton takes on a different tone in the controversy over her private e-mail server. will it turn things around? joining me live now, nbc news senior political editor marc murray. you seem to think that joe biden's comments translate to, everyone, calm down. >> yeah. he held a conference call with dnc members yesterday. the topic was about the iran deal but he ended up addressing 2016. and he ended up telling the dnc members on the conference call that his heart and soul are pretty banged up after his personal tragedy from losing his son, bo biden, to cancer. and, of course, i think anything is possible.

he could decide to run. he might not to. but the message and big takeaway is there is distance between all the buzz around a presidential bid and him actually going through with it right now. he has to be able to get over some of this personal stuff. >> and let's talk about hillary clinton's latest comments on this e-mail scandal. she's now saying that it was not the best choice to make. to have that private server. let's play what she said in iowa -- she said, i should have used two e-mails, i take responsibility for that decision. first read seems to believe that this is a different tone from her. >> that's right. and focus on the "i take full responsibility for that." we've seen her defiant about the e-mail use. we've seen her joke about it. i think this is the most contrite that we've seen so far. of course, this isn't a full apology. but as my colleague chuck todd pointed out earlier this morning, where would we be if

she was saying, i take full responsibility three months ago? still the biggest thing for her in all this is what the fbi decides to do. and that, to me, is going to be the biggest indication on, is this a story that dies away in a month or two or is this a story that lasts for another year? >> thank you very much, marc. see you tomorrow with our first read around this same time. coming up, we return to new orleans. ten years after hurricane katrina, despite the stories of success, we'll look at what has actually improved and what's still there to be done as president obama heads to new orleans right now. doers. they don't worry if something's possible. they just do it. at sears optical, we're committed to bringing them eyewear that works as hard as they do. right now, buy one pair and get another free. quality eyewear for doers. sears optical

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just minutes ago, president obama boarded air force one to head to new orleans where he will make the city -- mark the city's rebirth ten years after hurricane katrina left new orleans devastated. in a few hours, the president will speak at a newly opened community center in one of the areas hit the hardest, the lower ninth ward. that area is still struggling to

recover. the "associated press" reports 39% of new orleans' children live in poverty, a number that's virtually unchanged since before the storm and rents have skyrocketed by 43%. we'll discuss where new orleans stands in a moment. but first, a look back at our coverage on msnbc that day as the entire gulf coast braced for the worst. >> gulf coast devastation, hurricane katrina slams new orleans and other areas of the coast with 145-mile-an-hour winds, torrential rains and massive flooding. >> hurricane force winds have moved into biloxi. and also what we're concerned about here in the biloxi area is the big threat of tornadoes and also storm surge flooding. >> this is what it's like in downtown new orleans right now. it is just after 8:20 in the morning eastern time. >> mobile, the storm surge really coming through now and we are just waiting for the rest of downtown to be under water. >> i was speaking to the

governor a moment ago trying to get a handle on these rumors and reports coming out of new orleans right now. we hear rumors of levees that have been breached. and he said, no, the water is simply rising above the levees. and there's also an industrial canal, that is also overflowing its banks. in her words, she said, this is bad, this is very bad. >> joining me live now from new orleans, talk radio host corey johnson and jeff hebert. thank you both for joining us. >> jeff, let's talk about -- i claim new orleans as a second home. i go there as much as possible. and this story line of the two separate new orleans. it's been reported every year, here we are marking ten years later. and that is the major headline. there are two new orleans that

have emerged in the area after katrina. how do you describe it? >> i think we've had problems in new orleans for a very long time. katrina did not create the problems that we've had. it exposed problems that existed for a very long time that really weren't being addressed. i think the difference is today that we've put forth plans over the past five years to address many of the issues dealing with homeless issues, connecting to opportunity those residents that still do not have jobs. and i think the way forward for us is going to have to be dealing with connecting people to job opportunities. the root cause of a lot of our issues before katrina and after katrina is we have a huge population, 52% african-american unemployment, men unemployment in this city. that's something that has to change. so that's training. that's educational opportunity. all those things that get people on a path to educational -- to economic sufficiency. and i think that's part of our strategy for the future of this city. we can't be a city that has the

best walls in the world to protect us, the best levees if we don't have citizens that have access to jobs that pay well and can support families. >> corey, that is the obviously katrina exposed problems with the levee and questions that should have been asked well before the storm. but it also exposed the issues of education and the public school system there. crime, which is still a problem even in the heavily traveled tourist streets of the french quarter, which is right where you are now. >> right. yeah, but i think we've seen a dramatic improvement in education. i kind of disagree a little bit about the two separate new orleans because i know the urban league was saying something about that. i think they've got a bit of an agenda. i think every city in america has disparity in incomes and like. but i think new orleans post-katrina is such a better city for everyone, black, white, old, young, gay, straight, asian, latino, whatever. we've made dramatic changes that

would have taken years or decades. and we almost did it overnight. i would say from prekatrina to post katrina new orleans, a ran, we are a much better city. we are gearing up like a austin, texas, or research try ang until north carolina instead of a detroit/flint, michigan path. >> i will allow the urban league to obviously respond to the notion that there is an agenda. i think you will a preesh shapp the fact that there are people who live in the ninth ward who look at the rents and what's happening in new orleans and feel they are being left out when you talk about the unemployment rate, for example, when you talk about the rise in rents where people who are trying to get on their feet cannot afford to in some cases to move even in the areas they were rushed out of by the waters. >> i think pre-katrina it's kind of like the opposite of a bubble. we were a depressed city.

i think now it's no different, say, than manhattan. a lot of people would like to live in manhattan. they have to live in brooklyn or queen or sort of in the suburbs of exurxs of the city in connecticut. for a lot of lower-income folks, no matter what color they have they have had to leave the, i guess the now slightly expensive city and move to the suburbs or exurbs. >> you're saying, well, if you can't afford to live in new orleans, then move out of new orleans. part of the city is that it is built on the backs of the people who wait the tables, the people who drive the taxis. and if you're forced to move further away from working out, that means more money to commute back into the city when the city should be pushing for affordable housing to replace some of the housing that was destroyed by katrina or eventually torn down so that you could have what we used to refer to as the yuppies to move in. why should the poor have to move

further out? >> the plan we released two days ago talked specifically about actionable strategies that connect people to job opportunities so their wages can lift and they can afford to live in the city, number one. also, the preservation of affordable housing is a huge issue for us. we're tackling that head-on. both by preserving what we have now but adding additional density through our zoning code and other things in order to preserve that affordability that makes new orleans a unique place and allows for the creativity and culture of the city to thrive. that's a huge part of our strategy. we understand that's a huge issue. we've seen what's happened. we've had incredible progress. there have been some people who haven't been able to connect to that progress. we're taking an actionable effort to move forward on that so people can connect and be a part of the renaissance of this city xwl listen, the fact that you two gentlemen are able to stand where you are on a beautiful day in new orleans is proof that certainly things have gotten better and we want to see

the best for all. i know that's what you both want as well for that great american city, that deserves the love it is receiving. thank you both. i greatly appreciate it. i hope to get there soon. we'll be right back. ♪ mother nature can turn in an instant;

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that does it for this edition of "newsnation." thank you for joining us. up next, "andrea mitchell reports." luke russert is filling in for andrea. married my high school sweetheart... and pursued a degree in education. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and she prescribed lyrica. nerve damage from diabetes causes diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is fda-approved to treat this pain. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new, or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision.

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(penguin 2) the future, boys. the glorious future. (vo) at&t and directv are now one- bringing your television and wireless together- and taking entertainment to places you'd never imagine. (rick) louis, i think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," heavy hearts. a day after two lives were cut short. the staff at a local tv station reaches deep to find the strength. >> this is a newscast like none other. we come to you this morning with very heavy hearts. holding hands here on the desk. the only way to do it. we will heal from this. thank you. >> this morning the father of one of the victims voiced his rage against the man who took his daughter's life. >> he's