to a tropical storm. winds as high as 70 miles per hour so at this hour, it is pounding the central and southeast part of texas with heavy rain and really high winds so some areas may get up to three and a half feet of rain, more than what some cities in the region get in an entire year of rainfall so this storm is expected to stall now over the area for the next few days. over 300,000 people currently without power and any minute now we do expect the governor, greg abbott, to brief the press on the current and future impacts from this storm. this will be his first major briefing of the day but joining me now with the very latest on the path of the storm and the tracking of harvey, msnbc meteorologist shana mendiola. what does the downgrade mean? good news or bad news? shana, can you hear me? all right, so we're going to get to shana in just a second but the big news right now is the downgrade of the fact that

harvey went from a hurricane to a tropical storm. now, greg abbott, the governor of texas, was expected to have a press conference in the last hour, and now we are getting information that he's going to be holding one in this hour. as you can imagine, with the impact of harvey, the fact that the governor wants to get as much information as possible before he comes out to give an idea to the press of just what the state faces, but the issue with harvey is the fact that this is going to be a camper, basically, this system is going to stall out and be a major rain disaster event for the state of texas. so it really adds insult to injury for this storm, which typically, you know, an event like this would not be such a drencher, but that's what is going to make harvey so infamous. shana is ready with us now and i want to go. shana, explain, i was trying to do the best to explain the infamy of this storm and the downgrade of harvey doesn't really take away the impact that folks are going to feel over the

next couple of days. >> no, it doesn't because we're talking about the strength of the storm and in relation to a hurricane, the strength goes down when the wind goes down so now it's not a problem about the wind. it is the amount of rain that's coming in. the currently position of it is mainland fall last night. northeast of victoria, texas, now. the wind is at 70 miles per hour, so very strong, enough to knock over trees, roofs,make some damage out there and it is moving very slowly. this is the thing we're watching right here. two miles per hour. if you're walking down the street, that's the same speed as if i were to walk down the street. so still looking at some life-threatening storm surge in the second part of the storm. again, the amount of rain that we're seeing here is impressive because the fact that it's not moving anywhere for the next several days will bring this rain and you can see the path of the storm, although it has been downgraded, will continue to move inland, we'll see this all the way through thursday with the winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour, so houston, big still,

still being impacted by all this rain that we are expecting. looking at the severe radar right now, you can see tornado warnings and watches embedded in these outer bands and the storm will pull some of this warm air into and it warm water will allow for it to really just dump the rain here so without a pushing mechanism to get the storm moving, we're looking at flash flood warnings and watches here, all the way down to corpus christi as we watch the flooding rain. from now through even thursday, days after days of rain is possible here and this is something, again, we have haven't seen here in several years happening to texas. big life-threatening event that we will continue to watch for you. >> shanna, thanks so much. and the governor of texas, greg abbott, is expected to brief everybody coming up this hour. the minute that happens, whether he take you there. that's a look at the podium where we expect the governor to be and as we've been telling you, over the last couple of minutes, because of the wind speed, harvey has been downgraded to a tropical storm but the state of texas is still

in a dire path of what could be deadly rains so the demotion from a category four to a tropical storm really hasn't stopped the threat of what is going on historic rainfall, more than 40 inches predicted and leaving nearly 300,000 people without power currently. can climate change be fuelling the history-making nature of this storm? it's a question a lot of people are wondering, and joining me now is the founder and senior meteorologist at paris weather, powell douglas. what's been the most surprising thing to you about harvey, the formation of it as we've been watching it from early in august to what we see now after making land fall. >> sure, well, hi, thomas, it's great to be with you. this thing went from a tropical depression to a category four hurricane, a catastrophic hurricane in less than two days. that's unusual to spin up into a monster that quickly, and the fact that water temperatures -- >> paul, let me ask you to stand by. the governor of texas is taking

to the podium. we want to take you there now. >> first, now that the hurricane has come on shore, our primary concern remains dramatic flooding. according to information that i was provided, there's been about 20 inches of rain in the corpus christi area, about 16 inches of rain in the houston area, and our biggest concern is the possibility of between 20 and 30 more inches of rain in areas ranging from corpus christi over to houston. because of the flooding, one of the top focal points that we are concerned about is ongoing rescue and recovery. we want to do everything we possibly can to keep people out of rising water. part of that is by constant warnings to the public about being vigilant, about observing

rising water around you, as you're traveling, if you are traveling out on the road, always watch for water on the road. remembering that when you come across water, it could be far deeper than what your eye observes or the swiftness of the current can be far stronger than what you perceive. you all know the well-known phrase, and that is, turn arounaround don't drown. don't risk your life. still the most important thing that all texans can do who are affect affected by the storm is to put your life and the protection of your life first and foremost. in addition to that, the state and various agencies remain very active in the search and rescue process, and that will be one of the foremost tasks that we undertake in the coming days. we have focused on working with and supporting evacuees, especially from around the corpus christi area, now

expanding to some larger areas. i had the opportunity yesterday afternoon to go to san antonio to visit with evacuees as they were getting off of buses that had come in from the corpus christi area. you could sense a sense of relief on their part, that they were out of what was an increasingly threatening storm. they were happy to be alive, and they were at peace in that regard. but obviously, also concerned about what they had left behind, about the possibility that they had lost or would be losing the place they lived as well as some of their property. but most importantly, they were just happy to be alive. i have issued a disaster declaration that originally included 30 counties, and this is a state disaster declaration,

and we have now added 20 more counties for a total of 6 counties. as you probably know, i requested a federal disaster declaration that the president granted last night. this is incredibly important and extremely fast. what the presidential proclamation about our disaster declaration does is it immediately triggers the implementation of fema, and fema's assistance for individuals as well as cities and counties for all of us to begin the rebuilding process as quickly as possible. something else that i did yesterday is i issued a proclamation waiving hotel occupancy taxes for all evacuees and first responders. so, any place in the state of

texas where there's an evacweue or first responder, they will be able to have the hotel taxes weight of the evidenc waived. i just got word from the fort bend county judge who has issued a voluntary evacuation for the brazos river area in fort bend county and a mandatory evacuation along the san bernard. this is one of the foremost regions in the state of texas that already has flooding and we anticipate the flooding to grow worse in that area. this morning, i had the opportunity to make phone calls to several of the mayors who were affected by the hurricane last night. i spoke with the mayor of victoria and spoke with the

mayor of port la vaca. i made phone calls to the mayors of corpus christi as well as rockport, and with the latter two, i did not have the ability to connect with them, but left messages for them. for the mayors of victoria and port la vaca, they seemed to be in strong spirits. they preside over cities that have suffered some very meaningful damage, but they are working very aggressively to try to help their citizens respond to their challenges, and i offered them, as well as the mayors of corpus christi and rockport, any and all help that the state of texas can provide. now, for some more granular detail. as a result of the briefing that i just had. looking at the texas military division, there are more than 1,300 service members who are currently activated, and we anticipate increasing that

amount by 500 more, getting us above 1,800 service members who will be activated to assist in responding to the hurricane and its aftermath. as far as the texas department of transportation, they are already undertaking clean-up operations around the corpus christi and yokum areas, working to clear pathways along roadways there, which is impressive that they were able to get in that quickly and begin that process. with the puc, they say that there are more than 338,000 outages, and it will still be several days, perhaps, before those outages will be able to be addressed. the reason for that is because the wind speed in the area of where they're going to be able to take care of those outages has to decrease below a certain

level before they are able to respond. as far as emergency services are concerned, which includes the texas military, includes texas parks and wildlife, it includes texas task force one and texas task force two, one of their primary focal points is search and rescue. they've already made several search and rescue operations, primarily hoisting through the helicopter process, and we have about a thousand personnel in the state of texas who were assigned to search and rescue. the texas parks and wildlife has about 1,500 evacuees at state parks, and again, any cost that would normally be incurred at a state park has been waived for

evacuees. for the texas department of public safety, they have assigned about 80 troopers to the corpus christi area to assist in law enforcement needs in that region. for the red cross, they have 21 shelters open already with a population of about 1,450, and they have 42 more shelters on standby to be ready. importantly, those are red cross shelters. there are so many other shelters across the state of texas, whether they be local churches or other local facilities, and we are very, very appreciative of everyone in the state of texas who is providing shelter, food, and other supplies. along those lines, i do want to express my gratitude at the shelter that i was at yesterday, there was a need for towels and for blanketing and bedding for

the people who were there. we made a public plea, and that plea was answered very swiftly, so thank you to the people of san antonio for responding to the needs of the people from corpus christi who have shelter in san antonio. on transportation, we have 228 buses that are available to continue to move evacuees and more than 100 bus trips for evacuees have already been undertaken. we have, across multiple agencies, we are in the process of getting water, ice, food, and supplies to needed areas. we're in the process of working to set up staging areas where those supplies will soon be able to be delivered to those who need them. with that, why don't i take a few questions. >> sir, can you confirm -- governor, what guidance have you been given about how bad the

flooding and flat flooding could be. are we expecting homes to be swept away off river banks like we saw in years previous flooding events and as that pertains to your search and rescue crews ready to mobilize, what would you say to those people who are in their homes and being advised to evacuate. >> sure, the best information we have are predictions about the rainfall that will come on top of the rainfall that's already occurred. and that is that in various key regions, ranging from corpus christi to the houston area, perhaps as much as between 20 and 30 more inches of rain could be coming down. that is coming down on already saturated ground and already filled up waterways, whether they be creeks, bayous, or rivers, and so there is the potential for very dramatic flooding. it's essential for people who are near those flood zones to do several things.

one is to obviously be aware of your surroundings. two is to listen to warnings given out by local officials and heed those warnings, and three, whenever you do venture out by car or any other way, be very cautious. knowing that not only is it rising water, but oftentimes it will be swift moving water that can carry you away. for everybody in the state of texas, your top responsibility is to protect your life so whenever you're near water, be sure that you're doing everything to stay safe. >> any confirmed fatalities in the storm? >> we don't have any information right now that we can confirm any fatalities. that's information that we will be working with local officials seeking -- and report later. >> do you expect to report that later? >> well, whenever we receive confirmation of fatalities, and

confirmation that it was a result of the storm, as opposed to some other cause, we will confirm it, but we cannot confirm it at this time. >> are there any unconfirmed reports that you're looking into. >> no. >> do you know about how many rescues have been reported? >> so, what's happening right now is our first responders are absolutely putting their lives on the line to get out there and do search and rescue for any of those that are still in need and i think what you're going to see over these next few hours and probably into days is that as the wind conditions and the weather conditions allow, they are going to get out there and do as many rescues as they possibly can. the message to those that may need help or rescue is to put that signal out there that you are still there and you still need help f. y. if you still have electricity and phone service at all and battery, send those out. make sure that we see them but i need you to keep our first responders in your thoughts and

prayers because they are absolutely risking their lives to get out there in these dangerous conditions to get to those in need. >> governor, can you share with us some of the human contact you've had, talking to the evacuees and -- >> right. it was so heartening to shake the hands of these evacuees as they got off of these buses and i walked about the school that they were being housed in and got to visit with them, and they are what i call typical texans. they were resilient. they were strong. they were strong-spirited. they were happy. they were just happy to be there and be alive. but obviously, they were in need. there was a part of them facing the shock that comes with displacement and there was a growing need for supplies.

they are receiving three meals a day, but they are -- they're just so warmhearted, so full of spirit, and so pleased to be alive. >> we have time for two more. >> do you have an estimate of how much it's going to cost the state. >> it's way too early to make any estimates about that. what i can say is that we are so pleased that the federal government and the white house have stepped up in the strong way they have by granting our disaster declaration that will enable texas and texans to be able to better deal with the financial consequences of the storm. >> we heard some reports in the field of undocumented immigrants being turned away at shelters. can you speak to that or to the directions you've given shelters. >> i have no information about that. >> sir, you suggested earlier in the week that there were people

not heeding the evacuation calls, maybe more than expected. is that still the case? >> well, i'll correct that. i didn't suggest that they were not heeding it. what i was suggesting is that if a local official has warned people to evacuate, it is very important that citizens heed those warnings by their local officials. great. thank you. >> there we have the governor of texas, greg abbott, just wrapping up in 1:00 p.m. austin time his press briefing. speaking for about 15 minutes and then taking some questions from the media that was there. he was talking about the dramatic flooding that has happened, rainfall in corpus christi has been 20 inches, in the houston area, it's been about 16 inches. the governor here trying to express the constant warning to the public and the phrase that they're using about standing in areas that some folks might

consider traveling through, saying, turn around, don't drown. right now they can confirm 338,000 power outages and saying that it could take several days to actually address those outages and do so effectively because of the high winds that are expected over the next couple days. again, it was just at the beginning of the hour that the storm downgraded to a tropical storm. it was a category four hurricane, but we do have the governor going on to say, for different areas of concern right now, like in fort bend, the san bernard area, that's under a mandatory evacuation. the governor also talking about the texas military, the national guard ramping up. 1,300 were in effect. those numbers will rise to 1,800 service members coming forward to assist in the days coming ahead. when we think about the rain event especially for areas like houston and corpus christi, the

predictions are getting north of about 30 inches or so, which is really dramatic for these areas. we want to go to nbc's joe fryer who was in galveston, texas, for us, and joe, explain what you've been witnessing on the ground there with the different changes in harvey. >> reporter: yeah, we've seen a lot of changes just today alone. right now, thomas, you notice this is a breath of fresh air for people in galveston, the first real break we've had from relentless rain that we've been seeing all morning, under a flash flood warning most of the day and have seen flooding in neighborhoods and streets, especially in the downtown area here in galveston. so, any break, they're going to take right now because they know this thing is far from over. there's going to be constant rain over the next few days. some people have likened this to a marathon and we're only a few miles in. that storm is slowly marching

north and east up into this area so there's more rain to come and people want to be prepared. there are some low-lying neighborhoods here, especially in the downtown area, a lot of people stuck around, chose not to evacuate because they wanted to keep an eye on their homes, see if there's anything they can do using sandbags to try and keep the water away. another reason a lot of people didn't want to evacuate from here is sort of the question, where would you go? because houston is going to get hit pretty hard. san antonio's going to get hit pretty hard. so what if you get there and there's major flooding issues, where do you go, so a lot of people are holding tight here. >> when we think about what you're seeing right now and obviously it looks dark and stormy, but the rainfall, what have you heard from officials about the exact totality of rainfall that they've received in galveston. >> they've been prepping all along for perhaps something in the 15 to 20-inch range total

over the course of basically friday through wednesday of next week. i looked at the rain totals so far this morning. it looks like in this area, they've received about 3 to 5 inches so far, which is a good amount of rain, though it pales in comparison to what we've been seeing a little bit farther down the coast. so, they know there's more to come. 15 to 20 inches is what they know is a possibility. but they also are afraid it could be more than that. >> yeah, this is going to kind of keep lasting, linger, a camper of an event over texas for a little while and you make a great point about those that evacuate, in which direction should they go to find proper safety. joe, we'll check back with you. thank you. we also will have much more on tropical storm harvey but we have a lot to cover when it comes to a hurricane of news and headlines that have come out of the white house with donald trump making sure that joe arpaio will stay a free man. and it's such a shock, even arpaio thought that his papers about a pardon were fraudulent. stay with us. thanks for loading, sweetie.

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mr. president, do you have a message for the people of texas? do you have a message for the people? >> they're going to be safe, good luck to everybody. there we have the president yesterday answering to a shouted out question about a message to the residents of texas. this is a major hurricane bore down on the fourth most populous city in the country. there with trump getting ready to sign a pardon for joe arpaio. arpaio was convicted in july and he had defied repeated court orders to stop throwing people in jail based solely on their suspicion of immigration status. arpaio was unrepentant and late last night, he was pardoned. the white house said arpaio's life and career, quote, exemplify selfless public

service. joining me now, attorney raul reyes, teresa kumar and msnbc contributor malcolm nance. it is great to have you with me and it seems as if hurricane harvey, now a tropical storm that we will continue to cover, but this was a hurricane of information that came out of the white house yesterday that was diluted because of the fact that there was such important and intense coverage about hurricane harvey. but maria, were you surprised at all by this news or do you think that donald trump tipped his hand earlier this week at that rally in arizona. >> well, first of all, he definitely tipped his hand earlier in arizona but if you look very closely at the major announcements coming out of the white house that are going to be controversial, they always happen late friday night. and this -- oh, shoot. >> hey, m.t., i think your mike fell off. don't worry about it. i got you covered. let's go ahead and listen to the reaction of joe arpaio last night being interviewed by the

arizona republic about any regrets. >> so, looking back, would you have done anything differently with these immigration sweeps? >> no. my guys did nothing wrong and i didn't do anything wrong and i hope that with the help of my attorney, we'll outline that at our press conference. >> so, from a legal perspective, was the former sheriff, you know, people say accepting a pardon is kind of, you know, your admission of guilt. >> right. >> so is that a complication of what he's saying there, that he didn't do anything wrong. >> under a normal administration, with a typical president, possibly. but under this one, i doubt it. and i want to emphasize something here that i think is very important. so often when we're talking about joe arpaio and his relationship to donald trump, we talk about him in the -- in terms of his fighting illegal immigration. that was really just a cover for

what he was doing all these years, which is racial profiling and not just racial profiling of undocumented immigrants, it was racial profiling that included legal -- long-term permanent residents, people with green cards, and american citizens. he was doing this systematically, intentionally and as much as donald trump likes to say that this is some type of witch hunt, something which joe arpaio also echos, this investigation started back in 2008 under george w. bush with his administration, joe arpaio's first civil conviction came under a judge appointed by george w. bush and the criminal conviction came under donald trump's own department of justice, so donald trump is this represent an enormous undermining of judicial authority. it should be very troubling because not only -- yes, it's an affront to american values and sort of a middle finger gesture to latinos but this represents enormous disrespect towards our constitutional rights of all people in this kpun. >> well, arpaio had said, kind of kick the football toward the obama justice department. it was under the bush folks that

this all began. maria teresa, i think you have the mike issues fixed. but no surprise in any of this with arpaio getting this pardon, but are you surprised at the way the president did it. if he wanted to do it with no regrets himself, why use blanket coverage of hurricane harvey to put it out there. >> well, thomas, what we're seeing with this administration is that they like to do news dumps on friday night when they feel that, yes, they're doing something wrong but they don't want to call attention to it. not only did he pardon arpaio but he officially signed the transgender military ban again under the auspices that no one was going to cover it sufficiently enough because we had a category four hurricane alert and texas was in a state of emergency. what we should be worried about, though, is that as raul laid out, this is actually going to set precedent not just for pardoning arpaio but for other government officials that may have gone wrong by the law fwhau stand with the president. and so every american should be

wary because this is thumbing his nose at institutions, thumbing his nose at the courts and basically saying that certain people are above the law. for a president who ran on law and order, this is definitely against those values. >> so, as we look at what the doj report said back in 2011, it said the maricopa county sheriff's office engages in racial profiling of latinos, unlawfully retaliates against individuals who complain, routinely punishes latino inmates for failing to understand commands given in english, a chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations. because of the ongoing robert mueller investigation in connective tissue way, do you think that the pardon really is a signal to those that would have trump's back during the russia investigation. >> that's precisely what i was going to say while you were speaking a little earlier. this could have a chilling effect on the people who are now under investigation by mueller.

it technically gives them carte blanche to, you know, act in contempt of anything that's brought up. they could suddenly start stonewalling the investigation if they are under the belief that the president will bail them out. the president will sanction any illegal activity that the investigation may find. you know, the only salvation that may occur here is the presidential pardon doesn't necessarily protect them from crimes done at a state level, but for the most part, i think that the president is sending a signal out here, not a dog whistle, but a bull horn, that, you know, i can pardon anybody now, and you know how donald trump is. once he gets it into his mind, he's going to do it. >> well, and there's been a lot of kickback, certainly people reacting to this. the arizona republic had an editorial posted today about this saying, by pardoning arpaio, trump made it clear that institutional racism is not just okay with him. it is a goal. that should trouble every american who believes that our

duty as a nation is to continue working on behalf of equal justice. >> absolutely. >> raul, when we think about david fromme, he was talking about how you cannot have a president who places himself above the law that way, no matter what he does, you know, the fact that these pardons are a one-man show, do you think this will come back to haunt him. >> maybe in the long-term. in the short-term, probably no. i think it is worth noting that even in arizona, five days ago, before this pardon was announced, the arizona republic ran a poll that they had taken of arizonaens, they know sheriff joe the best, whether they thought it was a good idea for president trump to issue this pardon. it was 50% thought it was a bad idea, against 21% who thought it was a good idea. so even the people in arizona were not cool with this. and i think it's also very important to step back for a moment. the president is just coming off a few weeks ago when he incited enormous racial tensions with his inadequate response to

charlottesville. right now we have a hurricane taking aim at the state with the second largest latino population until the country. we're coming up in a few weeks on hispanic heritage month. this is enormously disrespectful towards latino community. this shows such a disregard for our constitutional civil rights and our human rights and i think this, in arizona, which has been basically ground zero for these legal and cultural wars over illegal immigration, this makes it easier -- makes it clear for people that there should be no sidelines know. >> i'm going to ask all of you to stick with me because i want to have you back to talk a little later on. coming up, another bannonette leaves the white house. we'll explain that next. 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less,

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the dinosaurs' extinction... got you outnumbered. don't listen to them. not appropriate. now i'm mashing these potatoes with my stick of butter... why don't you sit over here. find your awesome with the xfinity stream app. included with xfinity tv. more to stream to every screen. even as harvey was making landfall in texas, there was a tidal wave of news coming out of the white house on a friday, including the announcement that the controversial national security aide sebastian gorka is out. gorka, outspoken defender for president trump, especially on the muslim travel ban and has

been accused of having ties to far-right groups in europe. but it's unclear whether gorka was fired or if he resigned or kind of a combustible combination of both. but back with me now, maria teresa, malcolm, joining our panel, msnbc intelligence analyst naveed. so let's dive into this one because it is according to the federalist that gorka sent a blunt resignation to the white house saying, given recent events, it is clear to me that forces that do not support the maga, make america great again promise are for now ascendant within the white house. malcolm, who do you think that gorka is talking about there? >> well, he's obviously talking about the three generals who have introduced common sense and american decency back into the white house. general kelly, general mcmaster, and you know, general mattis at defense department. gorka is an amazing character, you know, i can tell you from the counterterrorism community's perspective, he was never an expert in counterterrorism, and

no one could figure out how he was rising up through the ranks, so to speak, by using his islamaphobic and bigoted, you know, information that he was spewing out to the special operations in marine corps and when he got, as a fox news analyst, got brought over to the white house, it was just obvious that steve bannon had brought him over there. we have now reintroduced common sense back to this story and real expertise on to the national security council staff. good ri danddance. >> this morning, kund kind of a confusion over whether it was a resignation or firing, i sent three different e-mails to hope hicks, the new interim white house communications director. looking at my e-mail now, i haven't gotten a response yet. just to clarify how this all went down especially with the president being involved with his decision in yahoo news reporting, gorka did resign after kelly had told him that

his security clearance was going to be revoked. so maria teresa, does that mean that he felt neutered, basically, with his influence in this white house and the ascendant, again, the reference to gorka talking about thea ascendant in the white house. >> when steve bannon left the white house, i think all of his ilk felt they were getting shuddered and kelly is doing a good job of trying to ensure there's new discipline whnt white hou -- within the white house, gorka is poking his finger into decorated generals who have sacrificed for this country so it is the antithesis of what we should be looking for this this country and i think kelly had a very hard time over at department of homeland security and very much i would consider an imperfect record in reining in i.c.e.

agents but now he's trying to create discipline that mirrors what is usually seen within a chain of command in the military. best of luck to you. it's not going to be easy. >> and he certainly, you know, made a name for himself on tv. a lot of people have probably seen this interview but i want to remind you, sebastian gorka appearing on this network, when he was confronted about whether or not the president was going to speak out against the violence that was displayed at a mosque in minnesota where a bombing took place. take a look. >> i think that's a great rule, all initial reports are false. you have to check them. you have to find out who the perpetrators are. we've had a series of crimes committed, alleged hate crimes, by right wing individuals in the last six months that turned out to actually have been propagate bid the left. so let's wait and see. >> he says initial reports are false so based on that theory, gorka resigning is false. he was canned. but naveed, what does it mean, though, because there are so many people that wanted to see

sebastian gorka leave, but maria teresa had brought up earlier, you know, in discussions about the friday deluge we got out of the white house, with the trans ban for the military, arpaio's pardon, is this one step forward and two giant leaps back ward when it comes to what people expect. >> i think, you know, there's a term that i'm sure malcolm is very familiar with and that is red badge. this guy never had a security clearance. red badge is what you give to someone who doesn't have a clearance who enters a security facility and you're supposed to hide your monitors. there is no way that someone who is a national security advise e from that interview, who sunds like -- makes it sound like they have access to classified information, can do so without a security clearance. so take aside the bombastic claims, the sort of rhetoric that he's spewing, he didn't have a security clearance. how could he do his job. at the end of the day, besides going on fox, besides giving interviews, without a security clearance, he wasn't doing much in that administration and

frankly, i think that to say that the barrier to getting a security clearance is not being a nazi, that, you know, that seems like that's the path we're going on and again, security clearance has become such a lightning rod to the professional people that work in government, with the claims of jared kushner still having a clearance, it is refreshing on one level to see that at least sebastian gorka with his history was denied a clearance. >> thank you so much. i'll have you back with me in the next hour. thank you very much. i want to show you this. we have new images that have come in from overnight. this is video of what harvey looked like. the storm now is a tropical storm. as it slammed into the texas coast last night, this is kind of the mass that it was. we're going to update you on the very latest with that tropical storm and why some experts say do not be fool bed by the downgrade. ♪

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as we've been reporting this hour, harvey downgraded to a

tropical storm afteri smashing into the coast of texas. texas is still bracing for all the potential rain. this is a huge rain event right now, and it's going to cause major flooding. we're going to get the latest from houston coming up. our special coverage on harvey continues after this quick break. stick around. relief. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. when we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by overproducing 6 key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. flonase helps block 6. most allergy pills only block one and 6 is greater than 1. with more complete relief you can enjoy every beautiful moment to the fullest. flonase. 6 is greater than 1 changes everything. this timyou haveis turn. 4.3 minutes to yourself. this calls for a taste of cheesecake. new philadelphia cheesecake cups. rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries.

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welcome back, everybody. we continue to track harvey as it makes its way across texas. now downgraded to a tropical storm. 11 million people, they are under a flash flood watch as harvey is expected to slow down and dump historic amounts of rain over this region, taking aim at houston, which is the nation's fourth largest city. nbc's katie beck is in victoria, texas, that's the heart of the storm. katie, explain the conditions you're seeing there. we see the amount of water at your feet that's racing by, but this neighborhood has been evacuated, correct? >> yeah, thomas, actually, all of victoria is under a mandatory curfew right now, personnel are

saying basically stay off the roads so we can try and clear them. i'm at the corner of what was woodbridge and woodhaven. obviously you can see the street signs down. you can see the tree debris in the yard and you can see what i'm standing in, which is about 12 ichlnches of water. but as far as the people here, most of them decided to wait out the storm. they felt like they've been through before. they put shutters on their windows. they did everything they were supposed to do, stocked up on food but that still didn't stop the water from accumulating and that's really what they're going to be dealing with over the next couple days. this is what most front yards and driveways look like in the neighborhoods surroundings victoria. a lot of this debris is actually clogging up the drainage ways so we've seen folks out here trying to pick up branches just to let the water get off the street. and this is still very early for them. they're going to see a lot more rain. as you can tell, you know, folks here, they're hunkered down, they're without electricity. but they're sticking it out for the most part.

>> and so you're inland from port lavaca. when they talk about kind of sticking, you know, sticking it out, waiting it out, did they talk about provisions, folks in the neighborhood that you've spoken to, if it gets worse than what they've already seen, how they can stay safe and stay fed over the next couple of days. >> reporter: folks we just spoke to here in this neighborhood had a back-up generator, so they were -- a lot of them were prepared for this. i think, you know, what they weren't completely prepared for was how bad this flooding is going to be, and as you can see, this water is coming at a pretty quick pace and it's going to keep coming for the next several days. >> catie, thanks very much. stay safe with you and the crew. now a look at the bigger picture of this, the founder and senior meteorologist of eris weather back with us. paul, you were with us at the beginning of the hour. so i hope you got to hear exactly what the governor had to

say as they expect what they've already totaled for certain areas, corpus christi, 20 inches or houston, 16 inches of rain, that it could get worse over the next couple of days. how, i guess, infamous will harvey end up being in your estimation. >> i think this is going to be the biggest weather disaster since sandy. possibly since katrina. and i want to make a suggestion, thomas. let's stop talking about a downgraded storm. the wind speeds -- the wind speeds have been downgraded. the storm is just now entering the most dangerous phase. the national hurricane center is referring to a multi-day rainfall disaster. this is coming from the government, from the national hurricane center. we really have no precedence for this kind of a storm and i'm worried that our viewers in texas and louisiana may be getting the wrong impression when they hear downgraded, they think maybe the threat is over. it's not. there's no precedence for a

category four storm that stalls for the better part of a week. and houston, which is the most flood-prone city in america, is going to wind up with 20, 30, maybe as much as 40 inches of rain. the computer models don't dry it out in houston until sometime next weekend. >> paul, as we don't want people to be fooled again by the downgrade and the severity of what it means for the rain and the historic flooding over the next couple of days, but bigger picture, explain why this could be more to do with climate change. >> well, certainly climate change, a warmer climate is now flavoring all weather, thomas. weather and climate are flip sooiflip flipsides of the same coin. this storm would have formed regardless but the fact that it passed over water that is two to three degrees warmer than average, that helped to fuel the storm, and also water levels, sea level is a foot high ner in

galveston than it was a century ago so a convergence of factors, climate change flavored the storm. it probably will make the rainfall amounts much worse than they would be otherwise. >> so it started as a tropical storm, that categorization on the 17th. it's now back to that going up to hurricane force. paul, i may ask you back in the next hour. coming up next, we'll talk about houston getting hammered by harvey and we will also be talking to the mayor there after a quick break. stay with us.

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