some brief remarks on what he's seen so far, what he's learned so far on the ground. >> tell me when everybody's -- everybody's all lined up? we've got another member of congress here. well, to begin with, i just want to say thank you to the outstanding officials behind me who have been on the ground working 24/7 since this flood happened. it begins with outstanding leadership from the top with governor john bel edwards and we appreciate the outstanding work he's done. his better half, the first lady of louisiana, i know, has been by his side every step of the way and we are grateful for her. i know they've got their own cleaning up to do because the

governor's mansion was flooded as well. i want to acknowledge senator david vitter, representative gary graves, the mayor of baton rouge, kip holden and somebody who i can't brag enough about, one of the best hires i made as president, the administrator of fema, craig fugate who has done such an outstanding job not just in dealing with this particular incident but has rebuilt fema. everybody knows when a disaster happens fema will be on the ground cooperating with state and local officials rapidly and with attention to detail and keeping the families who have been affected uppermost in their minds so we very much appreciate everything craig has done.

it's hard for craig to be here because he's a florida gator and he's been seeing a lot of lsu t-shirts as we've been passing by. i had a chance to see some of the damage from the historic floods in louisiana. i come here first and foremost to say that the prayers of the entire nation with everybody who lost loved ones. we are heartbroken by the loss of life. there are still people who are desperately trying to track down friends and family we are going to keep on helping them every way that we can. as anybody i think who can see just the streets much less the inside of the homes here, people's lives have been upended by this flood. local businesses have suffered some terrible damage, families have in some cases lost homes. they've certainly lost possessions, priceless

keepsakes. i was just speaking to a young woman whose husband died shortly after the birth of her second child and she's talking about how her daughter was trying to gather all the keepsakes she had in her bedroom that reminded her of her father. that gives you a sense this is not just about property damage, this is about people's roots. you also have a situation where there are a lot of kids who are supposed to start a new school year and they'll need special help and support for a while. sometimes things happen that seem too much to bear but what i want the people of louisiana to know is that you're not alone on this. even after the tv cameras leave. the whole country is going to continue to support you and help you until we get folks back in

their homes and lives are rebuilt. the reason i can say that with confidence is because that's what americans do in times like this. i saw it when i visited displaced louisianaens when i came down here as a senator after katrina, i saw it when i visited new orleans for the 10th anniversary last year. i know how resilient the people of louisiana are and i know that you will rebuild again. and what i've seen today proves it. i want to thank the first responders, the national guard. all the good neighbors in a boat going around and making sure people were safe, showing extraordinary heroism and in some cases risking their own lives. governor edwards, the state of louisiana, city, parish governments have all stepped up under incredibly difficult

circumstances. i want to thank the people on this block as i was walking down, one woman at the end, elderly, she was on her own, she had just lost her daughter, yet a young man next door who was helping out his father but had also offered to help out that neighbor so she could salvage as much as she could and start the process of rebuilding. with respect to the federal response, over a week ago i direct ee eed the federal gover to mobilize. craig fugate arrived last week. jeh johnson visited last week to make sure state and officials are getting what they need. to give you a sense of the magnitude of the situation here more than 100,000 people have applied for federal assistance so far as of today federal support has reached $127

million. that's for help with temporary rental assistance, home repairs and flood insurance payments. fema is also working with louisiana around the clock to help people displaced by floods find temporary housing and any louisiana family that needs help you can find your nearest disaster recovery center by visiting fema.gov or calling 800-621-fema. i'm going to repeat that. fema.gov or 800-621-fema. now federal assistance alone won't be enough to make people's lives whole again so i'm asking every american to do what you can to get families and local businesses back on their feet. if you want to help, governor edwards put together ways to start at volunteerlouisiana.gov. that's volunteerlouisiana.gov and the reason this is important is because even though federal money is moving out volunteer

help actually helps the state because it can offset some of its costs. obviously private donations are going to be extremely important as well. we want to thank the red cross for everything they're doing but there are a lot of private philanthropic organizations, churches, parishes around the state and around the country who want to help as well. and that's how we'll make sure that everybody is able to get back on their feet. so let me just remind folks. sometimes once the floodwaters pass people's attention spans pa pass. this is not a one off. this is not a photo-op issue. this is how do you make sure that a month from now, three months from now, six months from now people still are getting the help that they need. i need all americans to stay

focused on this. if you're watching this today, make sure that you find out how you can help, you can go to volunteerslouisiana.gov or you can go to fema.gov. or you can go to whitehouse.gov and we'll direct you. we'll need to stay on this because these are good people down here. the families i had a chance to meet are safe and we're glad but they have a lot of work to do and should haven't to do it alone. all right? thank you very much, everybody. god bless. >> thank you, mr. president. president obama in zachary, louisiana is, which is just about -- let's go back. >> we discussed that on the way here. what you have is the stafford act provides a certain match. a lot of the homes have flood insurance but a lot of homes don't. and what craig fugate is doing, what i instructed him to do from

the start is let's get money out as fast as we can because we know that there's going to be a certain amount of assistance that's going to be forthcoming so there's no point in waiting. we make initial estimates and we start pushing stuff out. that helps us and helps the governor and all the officials here do their jobs and as we fine tune exactly what's needed we know for example how much permanent housing will have to be built. when we have a better sense of how much infrastructure has been damaged. that's when congress, i think, may be called upon to do some more. now the good news is is that you've got four members of congress right here and a number of them happen to be in the majority so i suspect that they may be able to talk to the speaker and talk to mitch

mcconnell but in part because of the fine stewardship at fema and, frankly, because we've been a little lucky so far, and i'm going to knock on wood in terms of the amount of money that's gone out there year, fema has enough money for now to cover the costs that can be absorbed. the issue will be less what we need to do in terms of paying for the short term, it's going to be the medium term and long-term rebuilding. congress should be back in session after labor day. by that time we'll probably have a better assessment. in and in the meantime lawyers at fema will be examining what statutory flexibility we've got making sure that louisiana gets everything it can get in order to help rebuild. >> reporter: do you feel like the trip here has been politicized? >> no, i don't. first of all, one of the benefits of being five months short of leaving here is i don't

worry too much about politics. the second thing i have seen, historically, is that when disaster strikes, that's probably one of the few times where washington tends not to get political. i guarantee you nobody on this block, none of those first responders, nobody gives a hoot whether you're a democrat or republican. what they care about is making sure they're getting the dry wall out and the carpet out and there's not any mold building and they get contractors in here and start rebuilding as quick as possible. that's what they care about, that's what i care about so we want to make sure that we do it right and systematically. but the one thing i just want to repeat is how proud i am of fema because if you think about the number of significant natural disasters that have occurred since my presidency began, you'd

be hard pressed to find a local official anywhere in the country, including those in the other party, who wouldn't say that craig fugate and his team have been anything less than exemplary and profession al and one of the things i did when i walked through each of these homes have asked "have you contacted fema? have you filed?" and uniformly they said that they'd been in touch with fema, they acted professionally, some of them had been out here for inspections and i think that does indicate why it's important for us to take the federal government seriously, the federal workers seriously. there's a tendency sometimes for us to bash them and think they're these faceless bureaucrats but when you get in trouble you want somebody that knows what they're doing who's on the ground working with

outstanding officials and that's true whatever party. i could not be prouder of the work fema has done. that doesn't mean there won't be folks who need more help and that we won't have some constraints statutorily and congress isn't going to have to step up but it does mean the basic backbone, the basic infrastructure and architecture that we have in terms of disaster response i think has been high quality and i'm very prude of them for that and i want to publicly acknowledge that at the moment. all right? thank you, guys. >> something of an impromptu press conference as the president continues to greet local folks in zachary, louisiana, as you could tell, wiping the sweat from his face. it's a blistering hot day which, of course, only makes the cleanup that much tougher. hang on, another -- >> we've got to have the podium. here, you get on one side, you

get on the other. >> just a photo-op. >> that way it will look like we're giving a press conference together. the president is just taking photos with pete souza, his official white house photographer who's along for the trip, as he is so often. this is the president talking to folks affected. we're in zachary, louisiana, there. almost due north of baton rouge and before we bring in our guests, just to repeat the facts, the places that got the worst of the sustained rains in mid-talk as this evil, violent low pressure system just parked itself over parts of louisiana got 30 inches plus that was sustained rain. at its height, the area covered in water was roughly equal to the area of the state of new jersey where it takes, of course, many hours to drive from

end to end if that gives you any perspective on the side of the area of damage. roughly 20 counties or parishes, as they're known in louisiana, are consider among the hardest hit. and estimates are hard to come by for damage. one of the more believable estimates are that 60,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. just an incredible numbers and a lot of folks have been saying that the money pipeline will open up, people need things as basic as ice and fresh water and food and shelter for the night but they're going to need help in hucking out, as it's sometimes affectionately called locally, getting the muck, the mud, their belongings out of their homes, beganing the process of going through what's left. we have two folks waiting to

talk to us from baton rouge, louisiana, peter kovacs is editor of "the advocate" newspaper and importantly was editor of the "times-picayune" in new orleans during hurricane katrina and next to him, lieutenant john russell honore, u.s. army retired, who came to national prominence as head of joint task force katrina. we all remember and have dark, dark memories of that time. general, starting with you. i love listening to you affectionately talk about the cajun navy and how they came to play these past few days and weeks, the spirit of volunteerism, the sense of family in louisiana. what do the affected -- since your area is emergency preparedness and emergency response. what do you think the folks in that area need most? >> well, we need prayers for some dry weather. we're still facing afternoon

thunderstorms and continue to work through that because the drying process in the homes, brian, once you muck them out, use that word, it can take a week or two weeks to try and dry the studs out if you only had a three or four-foot flood. we have some new team cals now that technology continue to improve that will reduce the amount of drying time, but we need dry weather so people can put the dry wall back in, get the tape in and sort of camp out in their homes, because we do not have enough hotels or available apartments for people to move in we don't have any options other than to have them in their homes and it's a miserable time with the heat and getting electricity turned back on and as you've adequately

described, it's miserable out there working and some have gone back to work now and they come back in the evening and work on their evening job trying to work themselves is back into their homes so my heart goes out to them, we need all the volunteers we can get and as stated by the president, there will be gaps between what the federal government offer them in assistance and what they will need to replace their furniture, their refrigerators, their televisions and i hope the president, as he and his staff look at this, that they get a little more generous with the stafford act because right now they follow very strict rules that are leaving a lot of people out of this federal assistance because of income and how much money people make. >> and general, we urge the folks watching at home to just stop and look around them and think of the environment where they're watching. think of the dry wall that surrounds them, the studs behind that, perhaps think of the hard wood flooring, the carpets, the

rugs beneath them and now think of all of that with standing water for several days, blistering heat. general, the minimal response always used to be cut the dry wall just above the water line, spray with a solution, 20% clorox, 80% water, hope for good drying weather as you said and really hope for the best. >> yes, sir, the good news is we have some chemicals now where we found out with the bleach and the water, too much of the water retained so technology has changed that, thank god, so you don't have as much drying time. but brian, a number i would like for us to collectively work on, we have at least 146,000 homes that were flooded and now there's a number of 60,000 floating out there and i hope between now and the evening news, collectively between the media and the state they can correct that number because the difference between 60,000 and

146,000 is key to the amount of support we will get from the american people. this is a substantial flooding event. for instance, new jersey during sandy had about 300,000 homes and we're already at about 146,000. >> general, we'll work at revising up that number of 146,000, thank you, sir. to peter kovacs. peter, you heard one question from the press corps about politicizing this response, this visit has already been politicized, donald trump visited louisiana before the president, it's been pointed out locally that you need infrastructure to support a presidential visit, he flew down on a smaller airplane, the 757 serves as air force one today. they tried to keep the traveling package of security smaller, still, it's a major undertaking but as you have always pointed out, it means a lot to folks to see their president.

>> yes, i think it does and i don't think that stops with the president. i think it meant a lot to folks to see donald trump. i think the leadership of congress, the republican leadership of congress should come. one thing -- and i met the general during katrina and i think one thing we both learned from kat kat is that a picture is not worth a thousand words because whatever you see on television doesn't convey the magnitude of it. you know, more than 100,000 homes flooded. if this was -- if this occurred in new jersey, you don't appreciate that unless you see it. and in hurricane katrina there were a lot of public officials, maybe 100 members of congress, pelosi and hastert both came down and they didn't get along and they led a bipartisan delegation so we believe having people on the ground is an important thing. the disruption lasts an

afternoon but the benefits last a whole recovery which could be a year to five years. >> you tell a story and so does michael beschloss that dates back to a visit to louisiana by president lyndon johnson but tells of the power of the traveling presidency. >> well during betsy, which was a different time, russell long called up lyndon johnson and begged him to come to louisiana and lyndon johnson, the phone call is enshrined on the web site of the johnson library and lyndon johnson says "i'm kind of busy but i'll send my best man." and russell long said i'm not the least bit interested in your best man. this occurred at 1:30 and by evening lyndon johnson was on the ground in new orleans and he went into a shelter in the ninth ward and, of course, it was dark and it was hot as it always is in storm season in louisiana and

he walked into that shelter and he shined a flashlight in his face and he said "any name is lyndon baines johnson and i'm your president and i'm here to make sure you get all the help you need." and they don't make presidents anymore. we're glad to see president barack obama here, we're glad to see other leaders here but we need that spontaneous compassion. >> do you think people will be satisfied with the president's visit there today and the attention like this coverage is getting right now? >> i think people will be satisfied. we were pleased to see that the president realizes that this is going to taken a extraordinary act, a congressional act to make people whole. that was what occurred in katrina and rita. it's what occurred in sandy. there are two priorities in that one is that there are homeowners who need to be made whole and if i'm going to rebuild my home on my street and i wasn't flooded but if i'm a home owner who was

flooded and i'm going to rebuild a home and i have flood insurance, i need to know the guy next door who doesn't have insurance will rebuild his home otherwise i'm going to have a blighted neighborhood and new orleans has had that problem. the second thing we need is some attention to flood control because as one of the things general honore told me in katrina, if businesses don't have confidence that a place can be rebuilt and it's safe and if businesses can't get flood insurance for their contents for private insurers you won't have a recovery. >> i want to thank both of these publicly minded gentlemen for joining us today. peter kovacs and 40-year plus veteran of public service u.s. army lieutenant general retired russell honore. general, thank you very much. from katrina to the b.p. spill to the flooding we've been covering sometimes -- and today

is one of those times -- it just feels like the state of louisiana has taken all any state should be asked to take. we'll take a break here in our live special coverage. thomas roberts will pick up on the other side. clean food. words you don't often hear. words we at panera live by. because clean food is food as it should be. with no artificial flavors, preservatives, sweeteners, and no colors from artificial sources. we think clean food tastes better, feels better, does better. 100% of our food will be clean by year's end. every bite will be food as it should be. ♪ can give you ans advantage.gether like trubiotics with immune support advantage. its unique formula supports immune health in two ways. with probiotics that work in your gut. and antioxidants that work throughout your body. trubiotics from one a day.

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burning of diabetic nerve pain, these feet learned the horn from my dad and played gigs from new york to miami. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and he prescribed lyrica. 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. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs, and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica.

don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. now i have less diabetic nerve pain. ask your doctor about lyrica. great to have you with me, i'm thomas roberts picking up coverage at msnbc world headquarters in new york. today republican presidential nominee donald trump is heading to texas. he'll be holding a fund-raiser in fort worth and a rally in austin and trump is hexed to hit hillary clinton over the link between her family's foundation and the state department. that line of attack that he launched last night at a rally in ohio. take a look. >> the clintons made the state department into the same kind of pay for play operation as the arkansas government was. the amounts involved, the favors done and the significant number of times it was done require an

expet died investigation by a special prosecutor immediately, immediately, immediately. [ applause ] >> we'll see what trump has to say tonight in austin, hugh hewitt joins us, he is the host of the hugh hewitt show, an msnbc political analyst and the author of "the queen, the epic ambition of hillary and the coming of the second clinton era." hugh, good to have you with me. as we saw, donald trump is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate potential ties or any impropriety between the clinton foundation and secretary clinton's tenure at the state department. this is basic red meat for trump supporters. how does this attract the undecided voter out there to a trump brand? what do you say? >> i think it works for him on many levels because it has the additional benefit of being true. what we learned yesterday from the release of only 750 pages of e-mail is that there were two state departments, there was the state department that served all

americans and then there were the state department -- the concierge service for those who funded the clinton foundation so if you were bono and you wanted a linkup with the space shuttle, the space lab, you can ask for it. you wouldn't get it, but you would ask for it. if you were a man who wanted to talk to the lebanese ambassador, then the foundation would call houma abedin. if you were the crown prince, you would call doug and they'd get back to you. >> but could the crown prince of bahrain get a meeting with anyone, hugh? >> possibly but i know he asked doug bannon. i know the e-mails show he went to houma and houma responded and said we got that one. what you had was basically a con yarj service for the clinton foundation. special treatment. and there's wasserman but mostly gilbert shagoury who was the business partner of none other than mark rich, the manhattan who had been indicted on 65

different counts, including doing business with iran when americans were being held hostage who was pardoned by bill clinton on his last day in office. the shagoury rich clinton connection is the one donald trump will pay the most attention to. but there are 14, 900 pages of additional new e-mails. secretary clinton had testified she turned over all of her business-related e-mails, turns out that's not true. >> well we had mark saying yesterday there were 14,900 e-mail, some considered work-related, some that are considered personal. so it's a combination, and the judge ordered yesterday that the state department stop slow rolling this and come up with a schedule that the american people can see because if we simply exponentially factor out -- we had five special favor conditions out of 750 pages which are unrelated to those 14,900 pages that means we have at least another 20 different scandals on our hand if it holds

on a straight line and if it's exponential, who knows? so i think trump will go back again and again to this is the old clinton two rules. one set of rules for the clintons, one set of rules for everybody else and i had james carville on my show this morning thomas and arguing with james carville is like draining against tony stewart the if you're a rookie. i only got a few words in edge wise but james is already kind of spinning that look at all the good work the clinton foundation did, why are people upset about that? they're curing malaria, all the people that are being helped were good -- donors to a good foundation. it has nothing to do with the fact that she had a special deal going for her friends, friends of the clintons and i think that donald trump's hit a rich vein here and i expect him to work it like any good politician should who's got a scandal exploding on the other side of the aisle. >> and meanwhile if he goes on the attack against hillary clinton for this he is also trying to clean up his own campaign house when it comes to the immigration issue and he

really secured the republican nomination by this tough promise about his immigration stance but it does seem he's shifting or changing the tone. i want to play what he had to say back then versus now, take a look. >> how do you deport 12 million? how do you deport 12 million illegal immigrants? >> you do it. you do it. they're here illegally. >> are you going to have a massive deforstation force? >> you're going to have a deportation force and do it humanely. we have to keep the families together. >> but you're going to keep them together out? >> we're either going to have a country or we're not going to have a country. they're going to go and we're gong to create a path where we can get them into this country legally. >> so, hugh, he's saying he's going to follow the law as it currently stands and we know donald trump will be in austin tonight, he postponed his denver immigration policy address for later this week, should his base supporters consider this to be a flip-flop? >> no. >> why not? >> i interviewed donald 15 times in the course of the election, was on four debate panels with

him, he's always said the same thing, number one, he wants to build the wall. if he said suddenly we're not building the wall, that would be a flip-flop and his supporters would go spiraling off but he's been in favor of something called touchback which is an ambiguous term and you have to consult with congress and get legislation about what do people have to do to get legal residence in the united states? and he's had kind of an ambiguous they have to go back to their country and then come right back. >> but is it anything that is not strictly what conservatives would want or what you talk about on the radio with folks? how does it not fall under the shade of amnesty that conservatives are so far against. >> thomas, i think most conservatives believe in regularization, i certainly do. i don't want 14 million people to leave the country. there are some hard-liners that do want 14 million people to leave the country. donald trump has been somewhere in between people like me who believe in regularization in place and that fringe that want everyone to leave forever. he's been the touchback guy. we'll see those details.

i think what's most important is that he remains fixed on the fence and he has. i will also say the president's visit he just completed was in response to a shrewd move by donald trump. the president had not indicated he was going to go down there. the president made a good visit, a great statement, louisiana needs all the attention it can get. it's a thousand-year event. it's destructive, it's terrible. donald trump has had a very good week in moving the ball on issues of presidential indifference to louisiana, on issues of immigration but especially on the clinton e-mails so i hope he keep this is up. he has a lot of gap to close with hillary clinton. he's behind but he's begun to make this turn towards scoring points as opposed to scoring points on himself and that's a good thing for republicans. >> hugh hewitt, msnbc political analyst and the host of "the hugh hewitt show." nice to see you. we had comedian jimmy kimmel giving hillary clinton an opportunity to prove she's not in poor health. did she pass the test?

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the democratic presidential nominee took to late night tv and responded to what her campaign has been calling conspiracy theories. >> this has become one of their themes. take my pulse while i'm talking to you. [ laughter ] >> oh, my god, there's nothing there. >> on the one hand it's part of the whacky strategy. just say all these crazy things and maybe you can get some people to believe you. on the other hand it just absolutely makes no sense. >> msnbc's kasie hunt is in los angeles. this is where clinton will hold a couple fund-raisers and as we saw there appearing on jimmy kimmel last night. cas kasie, does the clinton camp feel that this prompts them to

release additional medical information about the democratic nomin nominee. >> well, thomas they responded in a way they haven't responded to some of the other accusation s that have come out of the trump campaign. for the most part their policy has been to say, you know what? we'll take the high road. we won't respond to everything that comes out of donald trump's mouth, we won't get down in the mud, we won't engage. this has been different. this is an accusation that surfaced on hannity's show and has been ginned up on a light of right wing blogs and things along those line, the drudge report, for example. eventually the clinton campaign put out an additional statement. they pointed out the fact they don't think donald trump's letter from his doctor declaring he would be in the best health ever stands up to the same level of scrutiny they have. that being said, they haven't

put out the same level of detail that many presidential nominees have in the past. you'll remember john mccain faced questions about his health when he ran against president obama in 2008. they released his medical records in that case but the clinton campaign's argument points out the trump campaign has put out much less, just that one letter from that doctor declaring him to be in the best health. of course donald trump would be the oldest person ever to take the oath of office were he to be elected, thomas. >> kasie hunt reporting from los angeles. thanks so much. donald trump is continuing to make his pitch to minority voters across america, last night in ohio he took the stage with a message that echoed his words from four previous rallies. >> to the african-americans who i employ so many. so many people. to h t hispanics, tremendous people.

what the hell do you have to lose? give me a chance. >> new numbers out by nbc survey monkey show he's got some significant inroads to make in the area of diversity. he's got 8% of the african-american vote, 22% of the hispanic vote and 23% of the asian vote. the big question remaining is the current outreach that trump is doing going to do so much to change the minds of voters. i want to ask roland martin, the editor of tv one's morning show and news one now. roland, good to see you and let's dive into this. there's been a lot of talk about the outreach trump is doing to minority communities anded black americans but i want to remind everybody that this time in 2012 mitt romney had 0% of the black vote n n an nbc news "wall street journal" poll. so donald trump has made inroads. do you think his current language will help in november? >> this has nothing to do with black voters.

this is not outreach to black voters, this is outreach to white suburban women. donald trump has had an amber megan, lisa, makayla problem. he's not liked by suburban white women. for republicans to do well they must score tremendously among suburban white women. 1998 republicans lost a significant number of seats in the u.s. house. they retained the house, that was one of the reasons they forced newt gingrich out. why? polling data showed white women felt the gop was too antagonistic towards minorities. two years later texas governor george w. bush runs for president. compassionate conservative. white women came back to the fold. this is kellyanne conway saying donald trump if you want to keep suburban white women, change your tone towards minorities otherwise you'll get nailed. this has nothing to do with black voters. >> so we have a monmouth

university poll out that shows donald trump is trailing hillary clinton by 30 points among educated white women 57% to 27%. so you're saying the reason why donald trump has turned down the naacp convention invocation or anything from the urban league or the nabj to talk to minority folks in their own spaces -- >> right. >> is evidence the speeches he's giving last night are targeting people that could feel okay with voting for him because he believes in minority rights? >> precisely. precisely. that's what this is. here's the deal. ronald reagan when he ran for president he spoke to the national urban league. vice president george h.w. bush, george w. bush, john mccain, mitt romney, they've spoken to various groups. so donald trump, i get he didn't speak to the naacp because his

convention was in cincinnati but the national urban league is often considered the business oriented 1i eed civil rights organization. he could have had a twofer, speaking to a black group in baltimore but he chose not to do it, nabj and nahj, so to speak in a city with a largely white audience, they say no, we don't have to speak in front of black people because they're watching the news so we're speaking to them. this has nothing to do with minority voters. you have white women saying to their husbands you are not going to support that guy. they have their children as well. so trump has to make them feel comfortable that they're not supporting somebody called a bigot or racist. not only that, thomas, when is the last time you've seen donald trump sit down with african-american journalists in

the black press, folks in radio, television? he won't do it, they talk about oh, we might do it. he's not going to do it, he has to be challenged to do so. if you want to reach black people, come talk to tom joyner, largest urban radio show in america, eight million listeners. tv one, only black network with a news show but he won't do it because that means having to confront issues black folks care about on their terms. >> he'll give a press conference and take to a mike phone. hillary clinton won't take to take a press conference. to what is her pitch in contrast to donald trump? why do they believe so much in hillary clinton? >> because first and foremost republicans historically ignore african-americans black voters are some of the smartest voters in america. this is not where oh they're giving their votes away. no, african-americans are responding to who is responding to them and that is on issues such as hbcus, school choice,

criminal justice reform, voting rights. donald trump will not talk to black journalists because he has to answer what's happening in north carolina when it comes to voter suppression. so if donald wants to talk about black folks, talk to black folks. >> i know he has an open invitation to see you roland martin, managing editor of tv one's news morning show news now. the hillary clinton is leading with married women, that's a voting block that usually goes for the republican candidate. we talked about that right there and what's attractive to these women as they vet donald trump and hillary clinton. we sit down with women in the battleground state of ohio to find out why even trump supporters are having a hard time backing him. >> instead of being negative he should say the positive things he will do. not, you know, say nasty things about his competition. .. building a jet engine. we've been hearing so much about how you're a digital company, so you can see our confusion.

ge is an industrial company that actually builds world-changing machines. machines that can also communicate digitally. like robots. did you build that robot? that's not a robot, that's my coworker earl. he builds jet engines with his human hands. what about that robot? that is a vending machine, ricky. john, give him a dollar.

12k3w4r we've been talking about donald trump's efforts to win over female voters in the all-important state of ohio. erin car moan recently sat down with a group of married women voters, we know republicans have not won the white house without traveling through ohio so how are these women feeling about gop nominee trump? >> when we talk about the women's vote it's important ask which women. the women republicans have always needed to win in the face of a yawning gender gap where single women vote for democrats is that republicans really rely on married women, particularly married white women. that's why we traveled to lake county, ohio, a swing district that's gone back and forth by a number of about 300 votes to ask women who normally get together for community service how they feel we had trump supporters, clinton supporters and people on the fence. listen to what even the trump supporters had to say about his tone.

>> he's the boss and he's used to telling people what to do and how to do it and be successful at it. so i think that's an attribute, if he could just tone things down. >> what would you like to see donald trump tone down? >> instead of being negative all the time he should say the positive things that he will do not saying nasty things about his competition. or groups. >> i'd say 75% of the commercials i see on the tv are against donald trump and for hillary. >> okay. >> okay? and they take whatever he says out of context and, you know, i don't believe any of it. they say certain phrases and they stick them all together so that it sounds like, oh, my god, this man is terrible. he is outspoken, i will say he is very outspoken and he has to learn to tone that down if he's going to make in the politics. >> has he said anything that's offended you?

>> no, not really. because i think america needs to wake up, look into your -- the principles and everything that your candidate is. don't vote for them because they're a woman, don't vote for them because they're black. don't vote because they're a democrat or a republican, vote on their qualifications and everything else not on the fact that they are one thing or another. >> would you argue, then, that donald trump is more qualified than hillary just to be in government? >> not in that respect but he's got a strong person running with him as vice president who is very good in government, everything else just like hillary so i think he'll do o y okay. >> do you really think trump is going to listen to this person ? >> if he wants to get in, he's going to. >> has he listened to him since

he has accepted the nomination? >> i think he's the lesser of two evils, let's put it that way, trump is. >> i think of them and watch them talk about politics. >> they're amazing. >> it was interesting to see when you talked to patti about the qualifications of donald trump and then pivoting to the answer being mike pence and being involved and that's what donald trump promised he would do, find someone with government experience to round him out. >> patti is a strong trump supporter, she also does not believe that president obama was born in the united states which is a pretty common view, i guess. one thing i found interesting among republicans, one thing i found -- of course he was born in the united states. one thing i found interesting about her remarks that that first he said she didn't believe he had said these things then she said she wanted him to tone it down then she said mike pence would be a good influence on him. so you have a lot of differing explanation. in the end she ends up being a strong trump voter but other people may not come to the same

conclusions. >> ohio remains the battleground state, we have polling out that has hillary clinton ahead. side note, kasich is polling favorably for not supportsing donald trump so we'll see where that lands him come 2020. thank you so much. appreciate it. we turn to other news and this is concerning florida. health officials investigating five new locally transmitted cases of zika. this has moved 265 miles north of tampa, the developments after a quick break. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. when all of your clients are suspected criminals, how do you know who you can trust? this satellite-based husband and wife bail bond team rarely get it wrong. with over 30 years in the business, they share their secrets from screening clients. for more, watch "your business" sundays at 7:30 on msnbc. hotels.com makes it simple to book

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or building the best houses in town. or becoming the next highly-unlikely dotcom superstar. and us, we'll be right there with you, helping with the questions you need answered to get your brand new business started. we're legalzoom and we've already partnered with over a million new business owners to do just that. check us out today to see how you can become one of them. legalzoom. legal help is here. florida officials have announced they have found five new non-travel related cases of zika. one was found in pinellas county and four others in winwood, that's miami. all are non-travel related. this is very important. it means they were passed on by local mosquitoses or others already infected by zika.

i want to give you a microsoft pulse question for the day. i want to ask you whether or not you thought president obama waited too long or the right amount of time to visit the flood damaged areas of louisiana. 13% of you say yes, 87% say no. check it out. i'm thomas roberts, thanks for your time. kate snow picks it up now. good afternoon, i'm kate snow, we'll bring you the latest out of president obama's visit to louisiana. as it happens he's still there but we want to get you up to date on a busy day in the political world. 11 weeks to go to election day. donald trump is off to texas for a fund-raiser and a rally as questions arise about his seemingly evolving stance on deportation and immigration. his team is trying to focus on hillary clinton, they're calling for a special prosecutor to look into her deals with the clinton

foundation that comes as clinton sits on an 8-point lead according to our latest nbc news/survey monkey online tracking poll out today. last night she laughed off attacks about the state of her health. we'll get into that in a bit. we're learning she's set to give a major speech this thursday. let's begin with hallie jackson covering the trump campaign in austin, texas. hallie, a lot of movement when it comes to trump's immigration policy over the last few days or perceived movement. he cancels the speech he was to give in colorado on thursday now more comments from him and his aides. is the policy shifting? >>. >> i got off the phone with one of his top campaign aides within the last hour. this aide telling me nothing has changed with donald trump's policies. we knew this, we can go to donald trump's web site. his immigration position paper is still there, his policies are still outlined even though as you talked about