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 sunday, three storms. the first hurricane harvey. >> it sounded like a the hurricane force winds are gone but the big threat now is rain and catastrophic flooding. a flash flood emergency is in effect for houston. storm number. two president trump's pardon of sheriff joe arpaio. >> do the people in this room like sheriff joe? >> the bipartisan criticism, what we now know about what the president wanted to do and what it could mean for the russia investigation. storm number three, the

president versus his party. president trump goes after john mccain -- >> one vote away! i will not mention any names. >> goes after jeff flake -- >> nobody wants me to talk about your other senator who is weak on borders, weak on crime. >> why does president trump think attacking his own party is a winning strategy? i'll ask another republican, governor john kasich of ohio who has not ruled out taking on president trump in 2020. plus the democrats, do they have a strategy against being against all things trump? can they avoid a culture war trap? joining me for insxit analysis are katy tur of nbc news, "washington post" columnist, from "the new york times," and the american enterprise institute. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press."

>> good sunday morning. we are covering three storms today. one of them is president trump's pardon of sheriff joe arpaio and what we know he wanted to do. the second is the president's fight with his own party and we'll get to both of those in a few minutes. we do begin with hurricane harvey. once a hurricane, it is now a tropical storm but the worst is surely yet to come. devastating flooding is feared. as the storm is expected to linger over southeast texas for days. already a flash flood emergency has been issued for the city of houston. america's fourth largest city and residents are being urged to stay indoors. it is essentially a rain amounts with amounts to be measured in feet, not inches. and our meteorologist is calling it one of the worst flood disasters we have ever seen in the houston area. the worst damage so far is in

rockport, texas, which took a direct hit when harvey came ashore with winds at 125 miles per hour. lester holt is standing by for us in corpus christi, texas. lester, i know it is hard for people to believe. we're in the middle of this even though you're not in winds and rain. how bad is it now? and how much worse do they think it will get? >> well, corporalus chri, you ce there are rain bands coming through. they expected a lot of rain over the next several days. about a half-hour, 40 minutes in that direction is rockport. that's where we spent much of our day yesterday. power lines down, there were some building that's had collapsed and there was flooding. we drove our way in with little effort. coming out was a different story though. there were flooded passages where you begin to move the

vehicle and there is no stopping and you're not sure whether you will get through. flooding is amazingly deceptive. there were huge rain bands that would come through and suddenly the street would be flooded. i think that's what folks in houston are dealing with. how much more will there be. can i drive through it? that's why they're saying, if you can, to shelter into place there. a hurricane is one thing. you can feel the wind. you can see the trees, you can see things flying at you. you recognize the danger. but flooding is amazing. the rain will come and suddenly a street that was uncovered a moment ago is now covered and your options for getting out may have narrowed. that's what folks around here are facing. the system is just lingering over southern texas and producing a lot of rain. as the sprinkles begin here in corpus christi. >> are you seeing efforts stalling a bit because of this flash flood fear and actual flooding? >> i saw very little in the way of clean-up.

i think yesterday we saw a lot of coast guard and national guard rescues doing search and rescues in areas cut off toward the islands. i've seen very little in terms of recovery. we saw a few power trucks being staged. the issue is, is it over? and it really isn't. the high winds part, the hurricane part is, but the flooding will make it extraordinarily difficult for them to get their sfleks and begin stringing lines and all the things you see after a hurricane passes. >> all right. lester, appreciate it. thank you. i know you'll do more reporting and we'll see you tonight on "nightly news." >> welcome to "meet the press." >> good morning. >> let me start with this clean-up effort and the fact, what lester was just saying and understandably, that some of it is delayed or stalled because more is to come. what kind of extra efforts are you having to, resources are you

having to martial to deal with issues of flooding? are you having more air support, coast guard coming in? what are the resources you're having to start now? >> so first of all, i would like the say president trump is extremely concerned about. this he has given me all the authorities to amass the resources from the federal government down through our state and local partners. right now we have nearly 5,000 staff that we have coordinated across the federal government within the states of texas and louisiana, helping governor abbott and the chief as well as the locals respond. right now, we're not doing recovery. there's no such thing as recovery right now. right now we are deep into the life safety mission of helping people be rescued through swift water, swift water rescue, search and rescue. what i mean is tunneled national response framework, we mission assign the coast guard, d.o.d.

as nets support of our state and local efforts and you're seeing that take place right now. >> let's talk about, look. you have to implement the national flood insurance program. this has been controversial at times even when there isn't a major storm and major recovery effort here. this insurance program is in debt. are you going to have the money to dole out? are you concerned that congress may have its own fiscal problems and it hurts your, hampers your efforts to dole out the money that you need to deal with this right this instant? >> we're toward process all claims and we have well over 1,000 people in the field toward implement that program. that's part of the program right now. we're already mobilizing. we're encouraging people the reach out to their local insurance policy holders and begin starting the process as soon as they start to experience flood damage. regarding the nfip program, congress has a lot of work the

fix that program. we need to fix the business framework going forward. i can't worry about that. i have to worry about the policies and we're ready to go. >> no doubt. so you have the money, the authority to pay out all of this regardless of what's happening in congress right now? that's sort of the question. i get that there's a larger, longer term issue here. every policy, everybody who files a claim, there won't be a delay in the money? >> no. we have what we need to support the policies. these things take time to put into place. there's an inspection process. it is not just an med-payout. the bottom line is we will follow the process and we're ready to go. >> let me close with he this and say for people looking for help, wondering in the storm area, what should they do? continuing authorities have said, stay in place. explain why you want people not venturing out right now in that area.

>> so first of all, citizens should listen to their local officials. 15a does not issue warning order communications directly to the citizens. that would be stepping on our state and local partners so it is very important that citizens listen to their local officials. only call 911 if you are in an emergency and a dire situation. do not call 911 if you are seeking information. only shelter in place if it is a safe place to be. if not, you need to be contacting your local officials on what steps they want you to take. one thing that is important is the s&p the president's major disaster declaration is expanding. it is dynamic. we are turning to assistance to all counties being impacted, in conjunction with our governor, the governor in texas. but i want to be sure that we're not letting paperwork get in the way of pushing down resources to support the best way we can. we are moving forward, leaning

forward. >> all right. the fema director, brock long. this will be weeks and months of recovery effort. not just days. >> it will be years, sir. >> thanks very much. appreciate you coming on for a few minutes here. let me turn to politics. president trump versus his party. seeing a president run against congress is not new. harry truman ran against the so-called do nothing congress. this week president trump went to war with his own party calling out either by name or implications senators john mccain, jeff flake, mitch mcconnell, bob corker, and speaker of the house, paul ryan. so what is president trump up to? does he want to take down the republican party and remake it in his own image or blow up everything? either way, he is going to need those republicans he's mocking

right now if he wants to get anything done in the fall. >> our friends in the senate, oh, boy. >> faced with declining poll zmums few accomplishments, president trump is intensifying his attack but on fellow republicans and starting at the top. >> do we have to speak to mitch? >> i'll very disappointed in mitch. >> even suggesting that mitch mcconnell could lose his job. >> if he doesn't get repeal and replace done ferks doesn't get taxes done, then you can ask me that question. >> "the new york times" said that he has privately expressed uncertain uncertainty, mcconnell released a statement not disputing the report but saying we are committed to advancing our shared agenda together and anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly not part of the conversation. mcconnell is hardly alone. just since he was inaugurated, mr. trump has attacked seven senate republicans by name calling members of his own party weak, the publicity seeking and

toxic, much harsher language than he's used on democrats. and he's suggested at a rally on tuesday that he will support a primary challenger to senator jeff flake who has criticized him. >> weak on borders, weak on crime. nobody wants me to talk about him. nobody knows who the hell he is. >> mr. trump also attacked home state senator john mccain at the arizona rally. the president made no mention of mccain's battle with cancer on. friday, mr. trump alded tennessee's bob corker to the list who questioned trump's stability and competence in the wake of charlottesville. a strange statement by bob corker considering he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in '18. >> if you want to break the gridlock in congress, you'll vote. >> but it is unusual for a president to run against members of his own party and for a

divorce to happen so early in an administration. and more senate republicans are becoming more comfortable breaking with the president. >> the fake news and the crooked media -- >> i don't believe there's such a thing as fake news. >> we have to close down our government. we're building that wall. this notion of the 2,000 mile wall, for anyone other spends time on the border, just out there. >> still, many elected republicans are nervous about their own voters and they remain hesitant to balk president who four out of five republicans still support. >> he's a street fighter. i think most people who voted for him voted for a street fighter. >> joining me now, the republican governor of john kasich. >> before we get into this, i said to my wife this morning, we need to send a droiks teeth salvation army or the red cross myself mother used to say, if everybody does a little bit, it's amazing how much will build up in the jar. when that flooding comes in,

your house is never the sail. everybody across the country does a little bit. it will be appreciate in the texas. that's what we have to do. >> sadly, not only will those houses never be the same, some of them will have to be condemned. let me jump into what happened on friday didn't involve a hurricane. the former vice president joe biden wrote this today in the atlantic, reboth to arpaio and charlottesville and i'm curious of your reaction. we have an american president who has emboldened white supremacists with messages of comfort and support. a week after charlottesville in boston west saw the truth of america. then a week after boston we saw the truth of this president. he won't stop. his contempt for the u.s. constitution and willingness to divide this nation amongst the bounds. now he's pardoned a law enforcement official who terrorized the latino community.

do you see the sheriff linked? >> there is no similarity between hate groups and everybody else. that's number one. i did it at your network and people across the country applauded it. number two, i actually have the power of pardoning in my state dwoeflt clemencies over time but we make sure that people did proper restitution. i wouldn't have done it this way. it is not, it is absolutely, it should be out of bounds for somebody to use that as some sort of a political wedge. it appears as though that's what it was. it is not the way i operate here with the power to be able to give people a second chance. but the president has that power. i don't agree with what he did. it's not the way i operate. i can't be any more loud in what i have to say than to tell you what i do. because my actions reflect way i feel. >> what the former vice president was saying is that this is sending, first it sent a

chilling message to african-americans and jewish folks on his message in charlottesville. pardoning arpaio looks like a thumb in the eye to hispanic americans. >> i am worried about he's i. krerks folks that go into people's homes and they grab mom and dad and try to ship them out of the country and they leave the kids on the front porch. we talked about this on the campaign. i was one of a few voices that said a lot of things that didn't happen. tear up the iran deal. we'll throw everybody out of the country. we'll ban all the muslims. sort of funny. i was on the stage and i was saying, no, i don't think that's the way do you public policy. what you find is most of the things are being done, a lot of them are being reversed or they haven't happened. in terms of the targeting of people in this country, look, we don't, when people illegally got in here, we don't condone that. but if they've been in this country and they have not been committing crimes, they've been

building businesses and being part of the community, going and grabbing them and shipping them out, that doesn't bring our country together. look, i think at the ends, we keep talking about the president. maybe starting with the flood business. it is time for to us figure out what institutions we're a part of. from the bottom up that can bring some unity in this country. everybody focuses on washington. what about everything else happening in this country? whether it's gouging profits by businesses or whether it is putting sports figures on the field who did improper things or the clergy that does things are out of bounds. nobody is looking for saint hood but the whole country needs on come together and stop looking at washington. figure out what do you know as part of your entity to raise the country and bring some unity. >> i get the sentiment and plenty of people both sides will applause that. the reality we're in is the reality we're in. >> schong assert itself.

let them fast agenda they want. their problem is they're fighting, not only are we fighting across the aisle but they're fighting internally. and these leaders, they the cannot just and go force somebody to cast a vote a certain way. look, i do believe there is a path toward stabilizing the exchanges on health care. and working with john, a terrific guy, there's a way to deal with our financial problems. get it done internally and then push it to the other party. paul ryan like you criticized the president's decision to pardon. congress scrutinized the pardon with 9/11. when bill clinton pardoned mark rich, a donor with with questionable ethics, congress scrutinized but in both cases, the other party was in charge shflt speaker ryan instruct them

to scrutinize this? does it deserve more scrutiny? >> we have enough problems. we have enough problems to start figuring out why he did this. i don't know. i just think that we keep grinding this down. and to me, what paul ryan ought to figure out is how he can get his people together to pass a health care law that won't cut 20 million people off the rolls. he ought to figure out how to deal with entitlement reform at the same time we pass the debt limit. he has to figure out how we're going to do the things we need to do to make sure that we begin to move the country forward. we can't keep looking backward. we have to look forward. it has to be a strong agenda and i am absolutely convinced that you cannot deal with those way out here playing politics all the time. you have to build your coalitions from the middle out. and that includes involving democrats. that is not a dirty word. the republicans get to call the

tune but you just can't do it alone. how do you think you're going on get tax reform if you don't have both parties involved? it will not happen, period. >> let me ask you about that. with both parties. there was is that fun speculation about 2020. you mentioned john hicken loomer, the governor of colorado, you're trying to come one one a bipartisan way. and someone said there could be a 2020 unity ticket. could you imagine yourself leaving the republican party to do something like this? >> look, kasich-hickenlooper. you couldn't pronounce it or fit on it a bumper sticker. >> that's not a denial. just because you can't fit it -- >> the answer is no. here's what i do want people to think about this. because we work together, they say we want something west want

to stabilize health care and make sure poor people want something, people assume there's a motive. sometimes people actually do things because they're trying to help somebody. when we do that, everybody ought not to say what's in it for them? this growing cynicism eats at the fabric of this country. there's not much that aggravates me. that does. >> whose party is this? donald trump's or the republican party you joined 30 odd years ago? >> i have a right to define what the republican party is. he has a right. you can respect the president but so what he? you can disagree with him i'm the governor and i have a legislature that has overridden me with some vetoes that i gave. they have a right to say what they want to say and i have a right. you hope you can pull together to have a defining philosophy. the problem with the democrats, i can't figure out what they're for. they have a golden opportunity, right? to come in and win elections but they can't figure out anything

other than they don't like donald trump. they'd better figure out what they are. what has happened to the democratic party? it is almost lost its soul. and it better get its act together if they want to compete. competition in this country for ideas, positive ideas, that's the essence of politics. but chuck, i have to say one more time. if you're in business, you work for a pharmaceutical company and you have sky high profits and you're cutting people off for not giving them what they want or not doing r&d and investing in stock buyback, stop it. everybody needs to do something to trays bar and stop waiting on somebody else or blaming somebody else and say, well, they didn't do it. therefore, i don't have any responsibility. baloney west see with the dysfunction in our country, we can't wait for it to be fixed out of the white house. we have to do it where we are. and that includes you, chuck todd, being responsible in the news. >> look, and i have to say this, john kasich, did you a good job of previewing our next segment.

one of the segments is, what does the democratic party stand for besides being against trump? you previewed it. obviously you're a veteran of coming on the show, sir. >> if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >> thank you. coming up, what we now know about president trump's doigs pardon arizona senator joe arpaio. ♪ hey, is this our turn? honey...our turn? yeah, we go left right here. (woman vo) great adventures are still out there. we'll find them in our subaru outback. (avo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. get 0% apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 subaru outback models. now through august 31.

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welcome back. katie tur, author of the book unbelievable. and national political reporter for the "new york times" and danielle from the american enterprise institute. very quickly, i want to get to hurricane response by the president. these were the series of tweets did he after super storm sandy criticizing then president trump saying it would be nothing -- saying it would be a photo op. it is good luck for obama again.

he will buy the election by handing out billions of dollars. there's a tweet for everything when it comes to president trump. he just tweeted this this morning. i will be going to texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. the focus must be life and safety. this is a case where the president realizes, his own words and optics may look bad here. >> people don't remember about the president didn't go at first. interest police are involved, the ambulances are involved. he has a big footprint. so the decision makes sense. >> katy, let's go to this friday night, what he did. the fact the hurricane, you would think all the focus of this white house would be on the hurricane. instead, he threw in the arpaio pardon, did the transgender ban. it was like news explosion 8:00 a friday evening while we're all

glued wondering how bad will this storm be? >> bad news comes on fries. there's a reason you put it out on fridays and a lot of bad news should be on friday where everybody's attention is focused on something else. there's a point to be made his focus was not on the millions of people who were under threat from the hurricane and he should have been focused on that and not trying on work other things would get negative attention. the arpaio tweet was coming. he hinted at i not so subtly the other day when he was in arizona. maybe the staff was trying to bury it. maybe this was donald trump trying on return attention on himself. both of those arguments are easy to make but he criticized the past president for his response to this hurricane. it's not a hurricane any longer but the damage and the devastation is still ongoing and this morning he's tweeting about himself and how he's going to missouri and how he won that

state by a lot. he's tweeting an endorsement by a book by sheriff clark. so his attention is not wholly focused on the millions of people in this country who are dealing with a massive flood situation. >> and danielle, another thing has republicans on comment hill at best and apoplectic at worst. >> i see all the republicans responding to the criticism that he has laid out against him in his war against his own party. the problem is they its own narrative. what is at this time republicans on capitol hill are doing some what are they standing for? where are they? >> this is question all conservatives have. what are they doing? >> isn't the answer, they assumed the president would detail all this? >> i think there's that but there's this idea that the president and chronic in this almost business-like

relationship. you have senators trying to in some ways do this dance where they're trying to support the president. they're trying to hold on to their own legacies. not just when it comes to elections. in the actual elections, they'll be facing donald trump's base but they're really trying to, in their own conscience, make this argument that they're being did people by pushing back on him. >> where is this going? i think republicans on capitol hill have given up on him but they can't say it. >> i agree. i think it was a turning point because of phoenix. when he talks about reconciliation from a teleprompter is bored. when neglects and defends arpaio and defends the guy that tweeted in phenix, he is fully engaged. i think republicans are looking at this and saying, he is revealing his heart. the question is, can they have a shadow government --

>> yes. >> can you have a separate identity from the president of the united states. it is very, very difficult. >> i think when you think about, the president always gets this, the people say the president doesn't have an ideology. that he is not really a republican. i think what he is in some ways is someone who really believes that immigrants are terrible people, he really believes this country in some ways was originally a white country and is a country that is now pushing away its culture, and that southern culture. something that struck me when he talked about phoenix. he said that people are trying to take away our history and our heritage. and i think there in that window, what he's talking about is the original idea of america. when i think about how the president goes and pardons sheriff arpaio and then is saying that sheriff clark's book is something that you should

buy, what you're seeing, the strain there is that he endorses racial discrimination. he looks at a sheriff who almost bank rupt his own county trying on pursue people who were latino and racially profiling them, he wasn't going after sex crimes because he wanted to go after people who were sometimes american citizens and he says that's what excites me. >> i was shaking my head because i don't think the republicans on capitol hill are competing with the president. i think they've given up and i can't understand why. i think a lot of us don't understand. it is not a shadow government. they are an equal branch of government. they can legislate and he will sign anything. if donald trump is all the things you said. i'm not persuaded he is. i don't think donald trump has ideas like you described. i think his main idea is donald trump. that's what he's excited talking about. it is himself. >> the republican party is

really diverse and that's why they can't get things done. they're all over the place. they don't have the president leading and they can't go against him because they're in a really tough position because they don't who know will turn out to vote for they will in the next election siflt trump voters or republican voters. this is donald trump. this is not the same as it has always been. >> i'm not going to resolve this here. when we come back, for all the dysfunction of the republican party, what about the democrats? do they have a strategy beyond criticizing the president? i'll talk to sheriff brown of ohio after the break. comfortable you are in it.

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welcome back. can the democrats learn can the democrats learn to stand against anything except president trump? from the pardoning of sheriff joe arpaio to veteran statues to transgender people in the military. president trump is delighted to fight. democrats know the cultural left is an ally for them but not enough on win a majority. see 2016. what do they do? joining me, the democratic senator from ohio where culture may have played a bigger role than anything else in moving the state from barack obama to president trump. let me start with answering a question that your governor put out there. the democrats have a golden opportunity and he doesn't know what they stand for beyond being

anti-trump. he didn't realize that's how we were setting up this segment. is that a fair criticism that both us in the media and republicans are making right now? >> i'll start with this. i applaud my governor, i'm a democrat. i applaud him for standing with us to fight back against the republican plan to take health insurance away, in my state, 900,000, around the country, 22 million. a bunch of members of congress in both houses to who have get insurance paid for by taxpayers are willing to take it away from millions and millions of americans. i thank governor kasich for standing on that. that's what democrats stand for. fundamentally, you win elections by contrast. and we've seen a president of the united states who probably won ohio because in many, fundamentally, ohio, most ohioans slnlt a raise in the last 20 years. they've seen wages go up, they've seen profits go up,

executives' compensation go up, this president has done nothing for workers. i have. i've fought for workers. i've done it in the past. i'll continue to do it. that's what democrats stand for. that's how you win ohio. >> let me point out something. the chair of the democratic party in mahoney county, ohio. he wrote this in a memo after the election. he said i'm as progressive as anyone. people in the heartland thought the democratic party cared more about where someone else went to the restroom than whether they had a good paying job. do you understand why some people in the heartland saw that? >> i understand what the press coverage is of all this. i understand the democrats will always stand up to hate speech. whether it is coming from the president or from the klan or the nazis, or the anti-semites

and the racists in virginia and the 35 organizations in ohio. i understand. democrats stand up for that. we are the party of justice. connie and i were at a party last night talking about human rights. i know that people in my state support my position on trade. i oppose nafta. one of the first votes i ever cast. i stood up to presidents of both parties against bad trade agreements. when president obama, his last couple years in office, the secretary of labor came out with an overtime, 130,000 people in my state got a raise from that. this president, the white house looks like an executive retreat for goldman sachs. they're trying to weaken this overtime rule. it is really whose side you stand on. i stand with them on exactly what he said. and he's right about democrats fighting for workers.

i've always done that. i wrote a book trade. i understand what we need to do for a different trade policy to raise wages, to help those workers. in the end, it is whose side are you on? he is on the side of wall street and big oil and drug companies. my career has not been. you understand that. >> let me ask you about trade. this president is, he keeps threatening to cancel nafta. i assume that might be welcome news to your ears. if that's what he does, are you going to support this president in doing that? >> i would first do a shout out to u.s. rep from my wife's own town in ohio, he is the best appointee in the trump administration. i talk to him at least every two weeks. we are talking about nafta, renegotiation. how do we do it? we start off with the pre conditions for negotiations. starting with buy america

provisions, with anti-outsourcing provisions. i want workers' voices at the table. i don't want these trade agreements written by the corps interests and then using them to shut down work in toledo, ohio, and sell those products back to the united states. the president's problem is he is surrounded in the white house with a bunch of people that like those trade agreements. so representative lighthizer has to figure out, how do you get this white house to support him when wanting to renegotiate nafta and put workers first. that's the problem we face. that's what i fight for. >> but you will work this president. if he sticks by this, you will continue to work with him? >> two days after the election, as disheartened as i was, and my friends were and so many of us in ohio were, i called the president's head of his transition and offered to help him renegotiate nafta. offered to help him reinforce trade rules. especially for steel.

i talked to him about the transpacific partnership. i sat with my republican colleague, with senator dole who was his boss, sat with him on the finance committee to introduce him to my colleagues. i work with this president when he is right on trade. it's mixed. i don't know if he'll be right trade because he hasn't done anything on it yet except give speeches. >> is the democratic party a big party -- you ran, for instance, on tougher border security in 2006. you voted for the security, in these days can you be a democrat in good zpang have that, take a tougher line on immigration? or will the base of the party throw you out? >> the base of the democratic party isn't throwing me out. i fight for all the things, the values this country stood for for decades. i think the border wall is

ludicrous. i stand for a strong immigration policy because i want to see us bipartisanly do what we tried to do a few years ago, even with president bush and later when president obama. i want to work senator rubio in florida and with others. i listened to what governor kasich said. it is terrible when we're taking immigrants who have been here 10 or 15 years, working hard, active in their church, in their communities, and throw they will out. governor kasich is right. we have no business doing that. the inhad humane policy is part and parcel. >> what is the difference between you supporting a fence and the president's call for a wall? >> there was money for security and they had some language in there as many people in both parties voted for. but not to spent tens of billions of dollars to build a wall? i've never supported. that i've spoken against that from the day candidate trump proposed that. >> all right.

i'll leave it there. thanks for coming on this morning. well, president trump's pardoning of sheriff joe arpaio has liberals jeering. when a fire is going on, you're not thinking clearly, so they called the fire department for us. i could hear crackling in the walls. my mind went totally blank. all i remember saying was, "my boyfriend's beating me" and she took it from there. and all of this occurred in four minutes or less.

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and life's beautiful moments.ns get between you flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. it helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause symptoms. pills block one and 6 is greater than 1. flonase changes everything. welcome back. in this week's welcome back. we'll look at the turbulent career of sheriff joe arpaio who was just pardoned by president trump. he came to national prominence in the early 1990s for building a tent city as a way to get tough with prisoners in overcrowded jails. he forced prisoners to wear pink underwear, work on chain gangs and served green baloney sandwiches. in office 24 years, he first won

election in 1992 and was reelected five times after that before being voted out of office in 2016. for a stretch of time, he was the most popular politician in arizona with approval ratings in the high 60s to mid 80s. but he wasn't always on the right side of the law. during his tenure between 1993 and 2015, cases involving arpaio and his office totaled $142 million in legal fees, settlements, and compliance costs, according to the arizona republic. that includes two lawsuits over the wrongful deaths of prisoners and tens of millions in civil rights and discrimination suits. how do we get to the pardon of arpaio? ? 2011, a judge ordered arpaio to stop racially profiling people, latinos, primarily, based on us is, the suspicion of their status. he just received president trump's first pardon. by the way, he is now the first

president to issue a pardon the year he was inaugurated since george h.w. bush in 1989. when we come back, why president trump believes pardoning arpaio is smart politics for him and why he might be right. where, in all of, is the stuff that matters? the stakes are so high, your finances, your future. how do you solve this? you don't. you partner with a firm that advises governments and the fortune 500, and, can deliver insight person to person, on what matters to you. morgan stanley. i'm gonna get ya', get ya', get ya', get ya'♪ ♪one day maybe next week, ♪i'm gonna meet ya' ♪i'm gonna meet ya', i'll meet ya'♪

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back now with the panel. i did the hits runs and errors of joe arpaio because he is somebody that's actually got higher name id among hispanic americans than all americans. the spanish language news has covered him extensively.

donald trump and him became kindred spirits over -- congratulations to real sheriff joe on his successful cold case posse investigation. that's how they became kindred spirits. here we are, danielle. >> you caught me rolling my eyes at that tweet. you know, it is absolutely staggering that he chose to make this decision and chose to use the power of the presidency in this way. and the response by some of my kindred spirits, which is that barak obama pardoned people who were undeserving of a pardon is not an excuse for donald trump. this used to be a country that was built on immigration. this used to be a country that loved the infusion that we got, the energy from hispanics, italians, africans, whoever they were. and suddenly the president of the united states says no this kind of a scumbag is really worthy of my attention from the white house and worthy of my constitutional power.

>> michael, there's a lot of precedents this could set that many people are concerned about, from law enforcement to the russia probe. >> yeah. i mean, this guy has a career of dehumanization. that's what he stood for in his position. and it fits, though. in a certain way metaphorically i think trump is pardoning his own approach to politics. he's pardoning himself by pardoning arpaio because this is a politics based on dehumanization. in his case, muslims, migrants, refugees. >> don't forget members of the media. >> right. exactly. yeah. but so i think that, you know, in a weird way this is a self pardon. >> everybody that goes against us, x, x, x, he said that in december of 2015 at a rally in grand rapids, michigan and he means that. anybody that criticizes him is his enemy. anybody that supports his ideas and supports him as a president is his friend. and joe arpaio really embodies

that. he was somebody -- their relationship blossomed after that birtherism. it cemented itself in july 2015 when the president -- or donald trump as a candidate went to phoenix. and joe arpaio stood with him. they campaigned together. they are one in the same when it comes to the immigration issue. donald trump's beliefs are joe arpaio's beliefs. and when we talk about him and we talk about all the wild things that donald trump does on a daily basis, we're not talking about anything else that's going on in this country. our attention is solely focused on whatever donald trump says or does on a given day. >> you know, it's interesting. i just want to point this out because we've talked about the fight between donald trump and the party. there's a fight in the administration between donald trump and his own administration. rex tillerson, secretary of state was on another sunday morning program on fox and he's asked by chris wallace if the president speaks for american values on race, and rex tillerson's quote was simply the president speaks for himself.

>> rex tillerson hopes that that is actually true. he hopes that people watching the republican party, voters that are looking at this, he hopes that people look at that and thinks that donald trump is speaking for himself. but in reality donald trump is one, he's the president of the united states. and when he speaks, he's speaking for the country and he's speaking for republicans. when i think about joe arpaio and what he -- president trump is pardoning himself because he's cementing to progressives and people who spend years fighting back against him defeating him in an election and in the court system to actually get him convicted of a courtroom. he's telling them like i won and this is the way the country is going to be won. >> roger stone was like eat at liberals. danny, does anybody care? >> well, i think some people care, we care about rule of law and i think the democratic party care about rule of law. we've said again and again this is not a normal presidency in the normal sense of the word. he's like a sultan.

his family is around him. and loyalty is everything. you're exactly right. joe arpaio who deserves to be pardoned because he was good to donald trump. that's the only standard that matters. >> and that may be the ideology there. we'll be back in 45 seconds with end game and a gift that hillary clinton may be about to give donald trump. that hillary clinton may be about to give donald trump. i wanted to know who i am and where i came from. i did my ancestrydna and i couldn't wait to get my pie chart. the most shocking result was that i'm 26% native american. i had no idea. just to know this is what i'm made of, this is where my ancestors came from. and i absolutely want to know more about my native american heritage. it's opened up a whole new world for me. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com.

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which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after harvoni treatment. tell your doctor if you've ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. ready to let go of hep c? ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. back now with end game. it's possible the president's twitter feed is going to explode in mid september. first because of your book, katy tur, of course. also because hillary clinton is coming out with a book. and they clearly are wanting to

market it. they released this audio excerpt of her feelings about the second debate where they roamed the stage together. take a listen. >> do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space? or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, back up, you creep. get away from me. i know you love to intimidate women, but you can't intimidate me, so back up. >> wow. can't wait to hear -- how is donald trump going to handle, katy -- >> crooked hillary clinton is the first thing we're going to hear. listen, donald trump always benefited whenever hillary clinton was in the news. when she was criticizing him, he could use her as a foil. he doesn't have that good foil right now. mitch mcconnell is not the foil that people want him to be going after. hillary clinton works because it's somebody that animates his base, not only his base, it an mates independence who held their nose and voted for him. an mates soft democrats. and it underscores once again that the democrats don't have a unifying force that is leading them through this.

they don't know where to go. so hillary clinton is certainly a gift. >> sounds like her book is going to be very backward looking. and democrats, they're going to get split on this. i don't want to read about it, but at the same time they do feel her pain. >> the thing that the party wants to do most is focus on a better deal and focus on rise and organize. they're having real issues because their slogans are so vague. when i was talking to her, i said what are your actual goals here. she said we have to be a party that stands up as senator brown said to racism, to bigotry, but we also have to be a party that has an economic message. i told her that kid rock is using rise or organize because it's so vague. >> all right. i have to leave it there. a week that i needed a lot more time. i apologize. you guys have a lot more to say. we'll talk about it after the show. we'll be back next week, though, and we'll have this conversation next week as well because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." because if

it's sunday, it's "meet the thanks for joining us here on msnbc. i'm richard lui. still lots of water and danger. we're of course watching harvey, the tropical storm as it moves through texas temperature . so far at least two people have died. and look at these pictures that they have to face live right now in houston. 6.5 million people at risk in that metropolitan area. torrential rainfall turning to deadly flood waters making the city's worst storm on record so far. hundreds of people aretr