a walk in the woods? the value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. morgan stanley hey there, everyone. i'm alex witt here at msnbc headquarters in new york. tropical storm harvey drenching texas with heavy downpours after making landfall last night as a category 4 hurricane. >> they got calls for help. there is no way their officers can be out in this. >> we just got word it's a category 4 hurricane. i hope and pray that people evacuate. >> some buildings have been

obliterated. >> there's very little they could do to respond to the fires when they're also dealing with a hurricane. >> rising water levels already setting off flooding concerns, and so far at least one person has died, 12 to 14 people are hurt in rockport, more than 300,000 people are now without power. and this is just day one of a very slow-moving storm. it is expected to last at least four days as harvey parks itself right above a large portion of the lone star state. >> our primary concern remains dramatic flooding. our biggest concern is the possibility of between 20 and 30 more inches of rain in areas ranging from corpus christi over to houston. >> all right. joining me right now with the latest on the path of the storm, meteorologist shawna mendiola. shawna, with a welcome to you. let's talk about where this

thing sits right now and where you expect it to go. >> let's talk about the positioning of the storm because it's going very, very slowly. 2 miles per hour heading north-northwest, but staying in the general area of texas right here pounding it with rain. the wind up to 70 miles an hour but it's been downgraded to a tropical storm because the wind has gotten lighter but it doesn't mean there isn't major threats. the wind is strong enough to knock over trees, damage buildings and cause damage all across the board, so that's a concern. but now we move into the stage where we're concerned about flooding. let's talk about it. light-threatening storm surge still possible at the coast but that's going to warm up as we head into the next few days. still looking again at possible lightning embedded in the tail of this system as well as flooding. watching through tomorrow morning, not really moving very much at all. still as a tropical storm. it will downgrade as it heads toward the southeast toward port lavaca and northeast toward areas east of use ton as a tropical low. day by day we're going to see

the rain hammer houston and areas out west towards victoria, so we want to take a look at the gaudalupe river at victoria where the rain gauges are going to go up. possibly historical records here. we're looking at the forecast crest on wednesday at 32.3 feet and the record is 34. that's going to be interesting as we see these levels rise and water spread everywhere. where does that water go afterwards? it's going to take time to get rid of it. after we get the rain, after this moves out when it finally does, it's going to be several weeks before we start to see improvement here because so much rain is moving in. we're also seeing, again, no steering current for this storm. that's why it is staying in place. we're looking at several issues here. in terms of flooding, that's the main thing we're talking about here. catastrophic danger in terms of the flooding as we head into next week with days and days on end of rain happening in texas. >> all right, shawna mendiola, thanks so much for that.

we appreciate that. let's go to rockport, texas. that's where one person has died overnight in a fire. we're seeing widespread damage in that area. i'm about to show you new video here that shows the powerful winds and rains that knocked down the palm trees, damaged grocery stores and left some neighborhoods literally underwater. then overnight a rockport high school was badly damaged. the building collapsed in the powerful winds there. heading south of rockport in corpus christi, harvey made its first landfall on the central texas coast, and the city tweeting here, swevacuees may return, but be advised we are under a water boil advisory and limited wastewater usage due to outages at treatment plants. from there let's go to victoria, texas. that's where that city is under a curfew until 6:00 a.m. sunday morning. katie has had a difficult time getting through to us with the winds and the heavy overcast and the rain. it has been pretty hard.

we're going to get to katie as soon as we can. we had her for just a moment and lost her. that's what it's all about when you're covering hurricanes and tropical storms. meantime, when america had its eyes on harvey, the president was busy with his own headlines. he had a ban, a pardon and also a departure. at first he signed a ban from transgender recruits signing onto the military. sebastian gorka, white house staffer and deputy assistant to the president. the big surprise came when he pardoned former sheriff joe arpaio who was convicted of formally being biased against latinos. katie beck joins us from victoria. let's get back to you. clearly your picture is not all that clear, so our guests and our viewers can see exactly why it's hard to make sure we're going to keep you there. talk quickly.

lots of water on the ground behind you. >> reporter: that's right, alex. most of these neighborhoods here in victoria are completely submerged, as you can see. front yards and streets under water at this time. i actually have a homeowner with me here. leslie werner, this is her home we're standing in front of. leslie, why did you choose to stay? >> there were several reasons i wanted to stay. the first was i have five dogs and a cat and what to do with them, and there's really nowhere to go. as you all know, san antonio is 15 inches and austin and houston is hitting really bad. toip i wanted to make sure i could stay. you can see from my yard i have potential damage and i wanted to make sure if anything happened that i could stay. not that i could really do anything. >> it does feel like it continues to pick up. there is a lull and then it starts picking up again. >> yes. that's what happens with hurricanes, of course, you get that little calm part and then it whips back around and you get the other side. so we're bracing for round 2.

>> reporter: tell me, in terms of what you've experienced last night, did you wake up to the sound of noise in the storm or what happened? >> we were awake. my son lives with me. he's 23. we had power probably until about 3:00 in the morning, i'm thinking, but yes, it was -- could hear a lot of banging. i have an awning in the back and i was afraid that was going to get ripped off, and just a howling and the intensity of the rain was so bad. it's scary. >> reporter: let's take a look at this tree in your front yard. it looks like it snapped in half here, a pretty large tree. were you concerned at first that was going to hit your house? >> i didn't even know about this, and i opened the door in one of the lulls, and oh, there's this little branch parallel. how nice it hit parallel. it wasn't until we had this calm here that i came out and said, oh, my god, it's like the tree branch. i know this sounds really quaint

or whatever, but if you do not believe in god -- when i do, but -- everybody is praying and praying for you. that could have hit my house. it's two feet from my front porch. it could have done substantial damage to my house, and i'm just so grateful and so thankful that that's all. i can get a chainsaw and cut that up. it's a tree. >> le >> reporter: leslie, we hope you stay warm and dry. we know you have lots of food and water inside. >> we do. >> reporter: thank you for being with us. we'll stay with you as this storm continues. alex? >> katie, can i go back to what you and i were sharing a few hours ago if our picture allows us? you talked to this woman who has five dogs and a cat. is she the owner of one of the dogs you saw running in the street and that i think you were going after to give him a snack and coax him home? >> reporter: no, that was a different dog in a different neighborhood.

we've moved quite a few times. but the animals in this storm are very disturbed by this whole scenario. their environment is very disturbed. a lot of them are staying with other people to try to remain safe and dry. this woman said she took in her sister's two animals as well as her five, so she has seven animals inside the house which i imagine is a bit chaotic. i wanted to tell you, too, we're joined by another neighbor whose name is casey. he lives just one door down from leslie. casey, you were out pulling branches from the storm drains, weren't you? >> yes, ma'am. just trying to help the drain. our house is in a little bit of a pocket so it doesn't drain well. if you can doolittle thin littl help it, it can prevent the flooding. it was almost at the bottom of our foundation. i kicked a few leaves away and that allowed the water to go. it went down about an inch from our foundation just by kicking a few leaves away. >> reporter: are you scared with what's coming? there's more rain and it's approaching covering the roadway here. >> no, not scared. i was in the navy in japan and i

went through almost a dozen typhoons, which is the same thing. over there you can't evacuate, it's an island, so i know the difference of what the wind -- the trees and the houses and the fences protect us quite a bit in here, but when you get out into the open areas, that wind is very strong. but we're more protected in these neighborhoods with established oak trees and stuff. although the branches can do damage, they do also provide their share of protection. >> reporter: yeah, and it seems most of the people on this street did stay home, most of your neighbors. >> quite a few did. we know a few that didn't. as far as the flooding, our neighborhood is not going to flood to the point where it takes you away. you may get inches in your house, and we moved all of our books and certain things. we moved them a few inches up off the floor, but we're not going to get flooding up where we are. it can't get this deep. we have a creek. it drops very steeply at the end of our street to a creek, so it would take a lotta, lotta water

to get this high. >> reporter: i hope you're right. i know there's a lotta, lotta water on the way so i hope not. do you have a lot of food to last you for a while? >> oh, yes. we have plenty of food and plenty of water and we can hunker down for probably three or four more days if we had to, but i don't think it will last that long. >> reporter: what is your expectation if the power is out for weeks? what are you going to do inside your house? >> for weeks? we have candles, we have books to read and we can see in the daytime to read. at night we don't need the tv and internet to have fun. what else is there, really? we have things like food that we can prepare that don't need to be heated. we'll be all right. >> i know there is a water boil advisory. are you guys doing that as well? >> yes. like in okinawa, we had water rationing. there would be all kinds of rain but we still had water

rationing. we had to boil water so we've done this a lot of years in other places. >> reporter: you have a good attitude about this whole thing. >> you can't change it so you might as well just enjoy it as best you can. >> reporter: it seems like you guys are safe and you have some good neighbors going through it with you. we wish you the best. we're glad you were prepared. thanks for chatting with us. >> thank you. >> reporter: alex, you heard the neighbors here sort of making the most of things, but the front yards, back yards are quickly becoming underwater and this rain is relentless. it's still coming down as hard as it has all day. >> pretty positive neighbors and they're probably getting strength from each other as well. katie, thank you very much for that. we're continuing to monitor the situation in texas as well as news from the white house and actions the president has just taken. stay with us on an active saturday on msnbc. non-drowsy allergy pill.

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the president and vice president meeting with the cabinet to talk about federal support for the hurricane harvey response and recovery. the now-tropical storm overshadowing a huge day of news yesterday in d.c. one of the biggest headlines, a presidential pardon for the controversial former arizona sheriff, joe arpaio. arpaio was convicted last month of ignoring a court order to stop immigration patrols that unfairly targeted latinos. joining me to talk about this, attorney and msnbc.com contribut contributor reyes. arpaio protected, quote, the scourges of crime and did he degradati degradation. that's not what the department found, so what is this man's legacy? >> the power of joe arpaio in

arizona basically terrorized communities. under pretty tethe pre text of illegal immigration was he was bakely profiling all latinos despite immigration status, including those who were here legally and american citizens. we just came through two weeks where the divisiveness of his response to charlottesville. it's hard to see this pardon as anything but a slap in the face to the hispanic community. he was voted out of office following a large -- arpaio was followed out of office by a grassroots-led latino youth out of maricopa county to basically offer joe arpaio amnesty. it's hard not to see that as an

affront to our american values and injustice. >> that slap in the face, greg stanton said our community voted him out of power. tell us some things he is said to have done. things i recall, for instance, putting up a tent city in the prison when it was cold in temperature the -- hot out there and the soles of those shoes of the prisoners were melting in the heat and making them wear pink underwear just to shame and humiliate them. that kind of thing certainly qualifies as terrorizing. >> exactly. what arpaio did was gross to human and civil rights. to be honest, it's so heartbreaking. that was the least of it. he denied medical attention to diabetics and people with hiv who were in his care. he had women working in chain gangs. he deliberately humiliated

prisoners by making them wear pink underwear, keeping them in these tent cities, also a paiding them around in front of the news media for his own publicity purposes. he himself referred to these tent cities as a concentration camp. these are his own words. as bad as this all sounds, these are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what he did. the doj, the initial report on him back in 2008, found that he ran a sheriff's office where they routinely referred to latinos as, pardon my language here, as wetbacks, as stupid mexicans and much worse. these are only the abuses that we know about. sheriff arpaio was even cited by the commission on refugees for his brutality and poor treatment of people in his care. so for donald trump to turn around and assert himself into a criminal proceeding that was not even finished, it speaks a disregard of the law and also undermines our faith as americans in a judicial process, the notion that all people are

equal under the law which is guaranteed in our constitution. with this pardon and trump in power making a mockery of that. >> and i guess befuddling is the timing of this. didn't charlottesville have that two weeks before today, and then in boston last weekend on saturday where you had maybe a hundred free speechers at a rally in boston commons and you had maybe 40,000 people protesting against that. it's beyond just the free speech. i mean, the conversation we're having nationally on racism, it's as if the white house has a deaf ear when it comes to this conversation right now with this pardon. >> it seems like they have a very deaf ear toward civil rights of basically all minorities when we talk about ongoing efforts of the transgender ban in all militaries.

this is an administration that i would think many latinos see at best as indifferent and at worst hostile on hispanics. we're coming up on hispanic month. we have this hurricane in south texas, home to thousands of latinos, so it seems unbelievably disrespectful that they would unveil this at this moment. the fact is, remember that the judge who initially convicted arpaio the first time, he was a george w. bush appointee. and donald trump, his own justice department was the one putting the criminal charges on arpaio. it's a tremendous disrespect for the people in maricopa county and latinos overall. >> alex, good to see you. thanks for that. tropical storm harvey still a very serious threat. that storm on a painfully slow crawl across texas. it is expected to cause catastrophic flooding. the red cross efforts today and in the weeks to come, coming your way next. shawn evans: it's 6 am.

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at 24 past the hour, you're looking at more destruction caused by hurricane harvey. it is now downgraded to a tropical storm but not at this time, you're seeing right here. it tore off part of a roof of this hotel in quero, texas. it's about 60 miles from corpus christi. 6 million people under a watch as tropical storm harvey expected to drop 16 inches of rain across northeast texas. brazoria county is expected to be hit hard by massive flooding. joining me now, the ceo for the texas gulf coast region american red cross, david brady. david joins me on the phone. welcome to you, david. there are a number of red cross shelters throughout the state, and i know they're ready to

support the thousands of evacuees. what are the first thing you guys need in terms of help from the public? >> alex, thank you for having me on and that right now is the most important question. i would say the three things i would want to communicate to the public about what the red cross is doing, our strategy about everything, whether it's natural disasters like this is repair, respond, recover. right now we're in that respond time frame for us which is so critical. the communication we want to get out is we still need volunteers. we still need volunteers to help these folks who are going to be in shelters, to help our neighbors here in texas that need support, and you can volunteer with the red cross by going to redcross.org/volunteers and it will get you there directly but on the home page as well. the second thing i would want to emphasize to your viewers is that this is going to be a very expen expensive storm. the red cross alone is going to spend tens of thousands of

dollars helping our texas neighbors recover from this storm. they can find that link on redcross.org as well to help supporters. to those who are in need of help, on our home page or by downloading the free red cross emergency app, they can access the location of shelters and when they are open. one of the things we want to stress is, we don't like to tell where the shelt ser is going toe until they're open because we don't want people traveling in unsafe conditions until they're open. that is the key we want to get across to folks watching today. >> yeah, and david, that last point you're making, those people who need to get to help and need to get to shelters, some people will have power outages, they worry about their phones not being charged. is there any other way other than going on line to find where they can go? >> we'll be communicating constantly to the media when we have those shelters open, so

having radio access, in particular radio access in case of losing power. for some of them it's a little too late to create those prepare kits, but it helps for those who may not be in the path of the storm that's hit them hard at this point. also there will be public servants in their area will know where those shelters are as well. one thing red cross does extremely well is work very closely and tightly with government officials, whether it's the city mayors, the county judges here in texas or the operation of emergency management. we're communicating with them constantly. there are people always on the phone with those mayors, judges and city and county officials throughout the state of texas at all time. anyone with the police department or sheriff's department should be able to direct people to those shelters that are open. >> david, one more concern.

i know you guys prepare as best you can for the inevitable, but when you have a place like -- for example, i was talking to one of my producers about the area of san antonio which is being used as a place where evacuees have gone to, but san antonio itself may be hit with some really heavy rains and flooding. there will need to be evacuations of its local citizens as well. how do you deal with things if you're really compounding two different facets of red cross needs? >> that's a great point, because alex, this storm is not just going through like many hurricanes do. they have an impact for a few hours in terms of the intense part of the storm. but this one is laying around for days. so what we're doing is we have potential shelters lined up throughout the state of texas. even with our neighbors in arkansas, we have shelters potentially ready to open there if we need to continue to push people farther out of the path of the storm. we are constantly looking at what the storm is going to do potentially, where we need to be

sheltering people and how we need to get them the knowledge of where those shelters are going to be. it's a very evolving process. it's a challenge, obviously, but it's what the red cross does. it's what we prepare for and how we respond. we're going to continue to work as hard as we can to support our fellow texans. >> david, with regard to what the red cross needs, you said volunteers for one thing and donations, literally, because you're going to be spending tens of millions of dollars. for those people who say, wow. i've got seven cases of bottled water in my basement, let me take it someplace for good use, do you want that kind of assistance as well or just the two ways you described earlier, volunteering and then donating? >> that's an interesting challenge, because everyone wants to help and everyone has got some items they can give. at this point of the response, while we know people want to give items like that, i would recommend to hold onto those, even things like one case of water. while it may be very important at some point, let's hold onto those until we make a call for

that. we also work very closely with some of our other community partners that may also be reaching out once our neighbors here in texas who are in shelters start looking for longer term placement. so there's opportunities down the road for things like that. right now our focus is let's take care of what we have at the shelters and some of the bigger projects that we're already working on. for example, we have tractor-trailerloads of food and water that are at the ready to move to these shelters once they open. for smaller donations like that, i would say hold onto those but your financial contribution will go a very long way at this time. >> okay. thank you very much, david brady, head of the texas red cross. best of luck and we appreciate your time. >> thanks, alex. texas still getting drenched at this hour by hurricane harvey. we're on the ground in victoria.

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welcome back, everyone. i'm alex witt at msnbc headquarters in new york. we're keeping a very serious eye on tropical storm harvey. it's already claimed one life and threatened at least a dozen more. rainfall totals already reaching 20 inches and could see another 20 inches in the coming days. health and human services secretary tom price declared a public health emergency in the state of texas as emergency and state officials urged residents to stay safe and away from the rising water levels. governor greg abbott held a press conference with some more details on the relief efforts. >> 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. >> right now more than 300,000 citizens are facing power outages, and the city of corpus christi is now giving residents the okay to return to their homes, but they must remain under a water boil advisory. meantime, houston, the fourth largest city in the country, has already seen at least 16 inches of rain. nbc's kerry sanders is joining me now from victoria, texas. what's the latest, kerry? >> reporter: well, alex, hurricane harvey is no more, but the problems left behind continue. i'm standing here where the water in victoria is flowing thousands of gallons a minute here. this is the spillways, the culverts, the bayous of all the rain that has dropped 16 inches of rain plus so far. the real concern, of course, is

that this is going to continue for days, because harvey sort of parked himself over this area right now, and the rain levels could exceed 3 feet, maybe upwards of 37, maybe even 40 inches of rain. that water has to go somewhere. the ground is soggy, it's flowing, as you can see. the problem is this system is working right now, but with so much rain and it's all flowing towards what the locals call the g gaudalupe river. it's all flowing toward the river, and when it gets there, it's already over its banks. the problem is if this goes for days, there is going to be a flood. homeowners in and around the area are going to find their houses underwater. i spoke to one homeowner who told me, look, i don't have flood insurance. if it happens, it happens, there's nothing i can do about it. but it's just a real bummer for folks who went through what was a category 1 here with downed trees, trees on roofs, loss of

electricity and everything else to think that it's finally over, only to find out the next whammy here could be a flood. alex? >> kerry sanders, thanks so much for that. as tropical storm harvey hammers the texas gulf coast, some areas further west are starting to feel the storm's strong winds. telemundo 60 san antonio on the ground in sabine, texas. >> it was a category 3 this morning. it hadn't hen meven made landfad now it's downgraded to a category 4. all the surrounding areas south of san antonio, austin and the northeast side of our town is completely devastated. there have been multiple reports of trees that have been knocked down, multiple buildings with roofs collapsed and thousands of people that still need evacuating. we're chasing the storm and

we're reporting absolutely everything that goes on in the inclement weather, and we're still hoping to see some improvement on the weather. but as this continues, our truck and our systems continue to report everything going on right now. the governor of san antonio is asking people to please stay away from the roads to avoid any more hazards and any more casualties. we'll continue to chase the storm and we'll have more information as soon as we have it. >> that was telemundo's sarah. thanks so much for that. joining me on the phone, san mateo ron nirenberg. ron, good afternoon to you. san antonio, you guys have been getting pounded with rain, haven't you? >> yeah, the rain here has been enter mi

intermittent, and we know nearby there is a storm continuing to brew and significant amounts of rain. san antonio is in flash flood alley, so we have continued to have work to do to make sure people are staying home, stay off the roads, making sure first responders can clear a path to the work they have to do as we continue our work regionally to welcome evacuees and make sure they have services they need. >> i know looking at the prediction of meteorologists, what, a foot of rain is headed your way? how much flooding are you prepared for? >> we are prepared. we know there are significant areas of low water crossings that we have to keep people away from. we're reminding people to turn around, don't drown. if they're on the roads, they shouldn't be. but if they're on the roads, not to approach low water crossings or go around barricades. and that's one event, just keeping folks safe here at home. we expect anywhere from 6 to 12

to possibly 2 feet of rain. but we're also working with crews. we had eight states of search and rescue teams staged here in san antonio this morning. they've been deployed to the coastal areas. we expect more evacuees to be brought to san antonio and that's going to continue to go throughout the next few days. we are ready and we are welcoming to anyone who is seeking shelter from this storm. >> that is extraordinary that you're opening your doors there and welcoming those to the south and southeast of you guys there that have been hit pretty hard. that said, san antonio is no stranger to flooding, so if things get pretty dicey for you, are you prepared to sort of double up and need to evacuate your own citizens? do you guys have shelters for that? >> we have local areas where people who are, you know, in need of a safe place to rest can go. we know in san antonio we do have some localized flooding if

the waters rise, but we do have good flood control here. the best thing people can do here locally, san anto nirks oa not tempt the weather. we want people to stay off the roads if they absolutely don't need to travel. >> how about power? any downed power lines or power lost at this point in san antonio? >> we have some downed trees and we've been working very dilig t diligently to get that debris off the road. we have had some power outages, but our electric utility is a first responder, too, and we've been working diligently also to get power restored where it has been down. and we're going to be sending crews from our utility out to the coast as well to help restore power in those coastal communities. this is a severe weather event. this is a historic event, potentially, and san antonio stands ready to help our

neighbors in need. >> i'm sure your neighbors in need are welcome hearing that. what about water supplies there? just very quickly, drinkable? have you had any contamination that you know of? >> no, we're in good shape with that. we don't expect anything like that. of course, our water utility as well is keeping an eye on situations. we are asking for donations for the evacuees who arrive here and who are sheltered in and around san antonio. we've got over a thousand evacuees who have been brought here from the coast. the food bank is expecting donations throughout this event and will continue to do so, and the red cross has been training volunteers. they've done an extraordinary job to make sure that our shelter locations are staffed with the services that folks need. this is a critical moment for our community and we want to make sure we've got all the resources necessary to protect our residents here but also our

neighbors who are arriving here in some pretty rough shape. >> well, san antonio mayor ron nirinberg. we can say so far so good. we hope it stays well for the people of the city of san antonio. thank you very much. >> thank you. the strength has lowered in this tropical storm. however, it is expected to sit around for days. the rain levels are high, and there's a lot of it. we'll take a look at that next. don't let dust and allergens get between you and life's beautiful moments.

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and the firing of sebastian gorka. welcome to you both. both of you asked this. have you guys seen white house administrations this prone to dumping news on friday nights? and during times when the public is otherwise distracted. there is this little matter of hurricane harvey. it seemed like a lot to wake up to on a saturday morning. what do you think, jae? >> since i covered the bush white house in the middle ages, it seems at this point. whi the white house knows not to put out anything that they don't want a lot of publicity during the week. i think last night's dump was a little different. it was donald trump turning that tradition on its head and saying to the mainstream media or the fake news media, as he calls them, look, i can do what i want when i want. i'm not going to follow any kind of standard or traditions, and i'm going to announce things when i feel like announcing

them. but it is a risky thing, alex. if this storm turns out to be really bad, if it's a killer storm, you don't want to be out there doing distracting things focusing on other issues, when you could have been focusing on visiting fema, making sure texas was prepared for the storm and that leads to accusations that you potentially dropped the ball if the government response isn't top notch now. >> quickly, shawn, you're welcome to address that as well, whether this seems out of the norm overall or not, and then i want to ask you about sebastian gorka. >> i agree, i think this is a strategy in general that politicians, white houses in both parties, democratic and republican presidents have used, but this is a lot to process at a time when there really is a serious storm happening. and it's a real test for the president because he needs to show and demonstrate to the american people, i think, what kind of president is he going to be in non-political settings? what kind of president is he

going to be in terms of handling a natural disaster of this scale? and i think people are watching his reaction. and now they're waking up today and they're looking at newspapers and they're watching >> let's take a look at the federalist publishing in the passages from sebastian gorka's resignation letter and we have a white house officials telling nbc news that they did not allow him to just resign. the word is he was pushed out by some. do you know who is telling the truth, sean? >> i don't, personally. but i think what we've seen over and ov and over again with the staff departures over the last few months, there seems to be some sort of dispute with so and so fired and so and so leave on their own accord but the big takeaway when you look at his departure is this is yet another sign that the bannon nationalist

wing that had power or attention from president trump earlier this year is basically a nonfactor at the white house. gorka was a close ally of bannon and we'll see if they continue to influence the president and whether he continues to listen to them and talk to them or whether they become less of a factor. at least inside of the west wing, they are not a factor any more. >> so jay, how much is this a factor of the newly installed white house chief of staff kel i, to get everybody on the same page -- and i guess get rid of those who had maybe a direct line to the president. he wants things to go through him. >> i think this is a large part having to do with general kelly taking over as chief of staff and he went through the white house and every position and said, what is everyone doing and how are they contributing and i've heard from white house aides that nobody knew what he was doing and the president just

really liked him on television. and if you are not really sure if -- what your job is, then and not sure what you are contributing, i'm sure general kelly would have questions on why you are on staff and what you are doing for the white house and garka made it clear he thought the direction of the white house was exactly why he was leaving and in his departure letter saying that those globalist forces that are taking over the white house are leading it in a very wrong direction and hopes they will course correct. >> quickly, sean, the new status for transgender military members, is it abundantly clear what happens to those that are on staff and serving right p right now in the military? we know what the president said he wants to have general mattis do going forward. but right now for nose serving, is it clear what is happening. >> it looks like the military will undertake a review and how they are going to implement this process going forward. and it appears to be at least at this point some variables up in

the air and there is a lot of disagreement between democrats and republicans who don't like this policy and don't want to see this implemented. so there is going to continue to be pressure from the outside on the president to back off of this or perhaps reverse his policy or thinking at some point in the near future. >> which means we have more to talk about and i'll see you both again. sean and jay, thank you so much. our first look at flooding in ft. bend county, even more rain is expected as hurricane harvey is stalling over southeast texas. we'll have a live report from the area coming up next.

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our coverage of tropical storm harvey continues. we'll have new coordinates at the top of the hour so stay with us here on msnbc live. and why a pro football team chose us to deliver fiber-enabled broadband to more than 65,000 fans.

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welcome, i'm alex whit back with you as we approach the top of the hour. texas residents are bracing for catastrophic flooding as tropical storm harvey is

barreling through a large portion of the state. at least one person is dead. 12 others have been hurt and the storm made landfall as a category four and downgraded about two hours ago today. >> it is hammering the area and i think the best way to demonstrate what the winds have done already is to look at this oak tree which has split here, falling two directions, going on to the roof of this house. >> i'm going to order my gurney now because i've never seen this before. >> multiple floods are possible for the city of houston. we just don't know how this is all going to play out. >> and you heard it and you could see it. the big concern now is the rain, the riedsing water levels are already setting off flooding fears. more than 300,000 people are without power right now. and this is just day one. of a very slow-moving storm which is expected to last at least four days as harvey lingers above a large portion of the lone star state. >> there