in chief. >> and on this subject of pardons in the past, u to justify all of your own choices as president within their own realm. you don't get to say this is better than what someone else did in the past. so the reference to clinton is a political reference and unfortunately, it does have a real effect with voters. and we heard that real effect when we were talking to voters during the presidential campaign zbloor pardoning mr. arpaio sends a message that law enforcers can ignore court orders and get away with it. thank you for being here with me and that does it for this hour. "mtp daily" starts just a couple seconds late with katie tur in for chuck. >> good evening. president trump just wrapped up a joint press conference at the white house with the president of finland. it was the first time we've heard from him on camera since a

series of storms, political and literal intensified over the weekend. president trump addressed the rising water in texas moments ago. >> we've pledged our full support as texas and louisiana battle and recover from this very devastating and historic storm. there's probably never been anything like this. >> president trump is scheduled to go to texas tomorrow. he also said he might return to texas again on saturday. and possibly to louisiana as well. and promised funding wouldn't be delayed by congress. . >> you're going to see very rapid action from congress, certainly from the president. and you're going to get your funding. it's a terrible tragedy. and i think you'll be up and running very, very quickly. >> we'll bring you the latest on harvey's devastating flood a little later this hour when we go live to the disaster zone. but that's not all that happened at the press conference.

president trump was asked by a reporter from dpin land about the growing threat from russia in the balance ticks and whether or not he considers that country a security threat. >> i consider many countries as a security threat. we have great relationships there. we have a great relationship with finland. and so i would consider many countries threats, but these are all threats that we'll be able to handle if we have to. >> and we also got to hear from the president for the first time since his controversial decision to pardon arizona sheriff joe arpaio. the president appeared to be reading off notes, saying he's standing by his decision and why he chose to do it in the middle of a category 4 hurricane. in true trump fashion, the timing was deliberate to maximize the effect. >> a lot of people think it was the right thing to do, and actually in the middle of a hurricane, even though it was a fray evening, i assumed the ratings would be far higher than they would be normally. i stand by my pardon of sheriff joe and i think the people of arizona who really know him best would agree with me.

>> last but not least, president trump said once again mexico will pay for the border wall, quote, one way or another. so there is a lot to get to. let's go first to my colleague peter alexander at the white house. peter, a lot of talk about that hurricane, but what jumped out at me was that donald trump deliberately pardoned joe arpaio in the middle of it because he said people would be paying taxi. >> yeah. the bottom line is this is a guy that's famous for the art of the deal, but i think a lot of americans certainly the president's critics will certainly view this as the art of defiance if it were. he pulled out that list of names of the infamous as he described them come mutations in the past, pardons in the past by past presidents obama and bill clinton, really pushing back on that narrative. obviously the story line as it's been viewed by at lot of the president's critics is this was in effect a friday night news

dump right in the middle of a massive hurricane barreling towards the texas coast when he made my announcement. but today was in effect sort of a speaking of the news football just in the eyes of all his critics right there saying i do it because i believe in it. i stand by it and i thought all of you would be watching. speaks to the base of most people that support joe arpaio. how frustrated the critics can be with this president and his handling of situations like this. >> isn't it also part of -- you want to make a pun on his book, the art of the steel the spotlight from the millions of americans who were in the path of a category 4 hurricane. there's been questions about whether or not he's been paying full attention. yes, he's been tweeting about the storm. he's talking about it in interviews saying he's been updated about advisers and what not. he's also tweeting about other things including an endorsement of a book. he's going to texas tomorrow and there's real concern that his

going there is going to have to divert at least some resources away from the rescue effort and toward him. >> i think it's premature to make any judgments about how the federal response has been to this hurricane and there's still torrential rains that are falling in large swats of texas and in louisiana, which is the very point that a lot of people are making today as the president prepares to head likely to corpus christi with his first stop tomorrow morning. corpus christi where the hurricane hit. governor abbott saying the intention is that the president wopt go to houston where the emergency responses still so active, where the evacuations are still taking place. the president insisting that he wants to go down there. white house officials really view this as a moment to demonstrate their support for the people of texas, but obviously as you note, it takes resources for a presidential trip like this. and some of the president obama's old aides say they support the idea that the president would go down there, but this is simply too soon, kate. >> peter alexander at the white

house. peter, thank you very much. and joining me now is former virginia congressman tom davis. thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks. >> he's going to corpus christi and he will be diverting at the very least some resources away from them. there's an ongoing search and rescue effort. it could only intensify and get worse by tomorrow. do you think it's the right thing to go. >> well, i don't know. you lose either way. either you're too late, too early. whatever this president does is going to come under some criticism. we haven't seen the worst damage yet. >> no. >> rain is still coming down. and what's the federal response going to be two, three weeks from now? we've seen presidents come down and showboat on the jersey shore and then not guilty happens over the year. so there's a long way to go on this. but i would weigh in going earlier than later. could you have waited a couple of days, sure, until it was

over. >> what about the pardon saying he did it on purpose because he knew people would be paying attention? what was your reaction when i said that? >> well i thought he was kind of rebutting some of the media criticism that he was trying to hide this on a friday night and just went back in the face oh, no, i did this on purpose. it's hard to tell what the motivation was. this is a base vote pardon. the country is divide odd this. i don't think he lost any votes over it. but, you know, to his critics it just gives them one more reason to pile on. >> putting the storm aside, we've been talking about donald trump and whether he is a republican, whether he is and else, who are his supporters, are they republican, are they something else? is the republican party maybe just not republican any longer. he wants to start something of a culture war it seems. is the republican party going to lean into that? >> well, i think it depends. not if they want to be a majority party. you've got to be big tenlt. you've got to be a national party and right now what we have are really two one party countries. there are people in the middle that get caught up.

but republicans need to be a party of inclusion. >> does that party include donald trump sm. >> well, it could, but you're going tow to change -- you've got to grow the majority and at this point politics is a game of addition, not subtraction and he's going to have to riech out and change for his own sake, for the party's sake. he's gt to make that own decision. and that's why you're seeing some republicans rebell at this. i can't get re-elected in the -- >> john danforth wrote in the "washington post" the other day is maybe it's not that trump isn't the gop is the gop isn't what he was, isn't what you are, isn't what you guys think it might be any longer. do you think there's any truth to that? >> sure. if you take a look at how the party has kind of mu at a time over the last 12, 16 years, it's moved from the country club out to the country. it's become a much more rural working class base party, losing votes with educated voters in high income areas like my old

congressional district. that's been of cultured alissues, coal, these kind of things have driven that apart. but long-term the demographics are without welcoming -- >> you have a president who is not trying to expand rt tent. he's somebody who has ale naltd minorities. what does the republican party do for the next four years and moeshlel the next eight years. >> that's why you see the scram binge of the leadership. this midterm election is going to be a test for that. you're seeing some republicans in these swing districts having to define themselves not being aligned with the president because they need a broader base to win. this is still in transition. this will work itself out in the next two, four, eight years. as you follow what's happened over the last decade and a half, the party has been moving in the direction of president trump.

and i think that bush skprl christy and john kasich didn't realizes that the party base had started to change, and trump just put an exclamation point on it. >> so the white house is dealing with as axios put it cascading crises. there's a number of things that are going on. there's the debt limit, donald trump saying that elshut down the government if he doesn't get fund be for his wall, tax reform. the timeline keeps get being paushd back. the midterm elections are around the corner. we're getting more news about russia. he's getting a lots of heat for this pardoning of joe arpaio. we're also hearing that he reportedly went to the doj and said how do we get this arpaio trial donna way with. can you get this moved on instead of -- before he went on to do the arpaio pardon. how does a presidency, an administration handle all of those crises? while dealing with a natural disaster. >> and how do you stay an

outsider when you're the insider. that's part of the point here. they've got to get the debt ceiling done, no yes. and congress whatever he puts on his desk i think he'll seib at the end of the day. the wall is his signature issue and the last congress for the first in history they had a prohibition to put any money on the wall. he's going to probably draw a line on that and we'll see what happens with that. i think they'll move ahead with funding on an interim basis for the problems with the hurricane harvey. they can do a supplemental separate from thatel and move that so it's not wound up with everything else. we haven't had the goth funded on time since 1996. >> is there enough money, though, to fund this recovery effort, which is probably going to be massive and also fund a border wall and do all the other funding of the gov needs done. >> it depends what you think about the deficit. the deficit is a big deal when you're not the in party. we're seeing -- i think we'll see that on taxes. i think we'll see that with this. >> going to get a lot on their plates when they come back and start working again. >> yeah.

>> thank you so much for joining us. tell me on kaifs, former congressman. appreciate your time from virginia. please come back and talk to us again. >> thank you. and our roundtable weighs in on the presidential news conference in just a moment. stay with us. it's time to rethink what's possible. rethink the experience. rethink your allergy pills. flonase sensimist allergy relief uses unique mistpro technology and helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. most allergy pills only block one. and 6 is greater than one. rethink your allergy relief. flonase sensimist. ♪ you don't let anything lkeep you sidelined. come on! that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals... for the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. ensure, always be you.

welcome back. as we mentioned at the top of the show, on friday night president trump pardoned former march i copia county sheriff joe ar pie oh. common place for then candidate trump on the campaign trail. here are some of his greatest hits. >> i want to thank sheriff joe. he's tough, he's strong and he's smart and he's done an amazing job. who is better than sheriff joe of arizona? joe arpaio from arizona knows about borders. do we agree? when sheriff joe endorses me, that means i'm the one. there's nobody tougher than sheriff joe on the border. what a great guy. sheriff joe, i love you, sheriff joe. tough cooky.

good guy. actually good heart. probably knows borders better than anybody in the history of the world. they don't love tough people in this country any more that know how to do their job and tough people. he's tough and fair. >> the washington examiner had a report this arch that arpaio was weighing a primary challenge to noted senator jeff flake. but he was none committal with nbc news later today. >> so would you consider running against jeff flake? >> i don't know. i don't know. i haven't even decided whether i want to run for office again. >> if the president called you and asked you to run against jeff flake, would you run? >> that's a tough one to ask because i said i'll do anything to help the president. if he does, i'd have to consider it. >> more "mtp daily" in 60 seconds. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah.

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mexico pay for the wall? >> yes, it will. one way or the other mexico is going to pay for the wall. it may be through reimbursement, but one way or the other mexico will pay for the wall. >> on tuesday you said if we have to close down -- >> let me just say. yeah, i hope that's not necessary. if it's necessary, we'll have to see. >> welcome back. let's bring in our panel. you know this first question is going to you, robert. >> am i blond? >> there are many blondes in finland. surprising. >> i'm not one of them. >> and they all look alike to certain people. >> back to the topic at hand, mexico paying for the wall. eventually thooel do it. were you reassured at all about donald trump's answer he's going to shut down the government in order to get funding for his wall. >> no. he's playing to his base.

we know that mexico is not paying for the wall. we also know it doesn't appear to be any legislative vehicle for a wall to be builtment there also doesn't seem to be any legal vehicle because of imminent domain. what he's doing is he doubles down and reclarifies what he means. but, look, it doesn't really matter because what really matters is what congress is going to do, and congress is more interested in funding the government and not shutting it down and making sure that the debt ceiling is raised. those are the most important legislative items. >> those are all happening. well, the votes on them are going to be happening at some point. donald trump, though, in the meantime is facing what looks like an unbelievably large crisis in texas, in houston. he's going there tomorrow. he's going to be directing, redirecting resource to them. there's no other way around that. he's going to be in corpus christi. it's not the height of the flood zone, but at the same time, you know, is it a good idea to go down there this early or is it a double-edged sword situation?

>> look, the experts that i've spoken with about this, a limited number, obviously, but they said it's a good sign that the president is not going to houston that the white house has done a relatively good job responding to this, but they pointed out to me that there are two fema deputy directors that the republican senate has not scheduled hearings on. that's the job of the committee on homeland security and that's the most concerning aspects. that's not the responsibility of the president, but i think the senate should be stepping up to make sure that the federal emergency management kajts with installed. >> speaking of the storm and lawmakers, i spoke to texas senator ted cruz a moment ago at 2:00 this afternoon about his vote for hurricane sandy relief. he voted against it along with a number of republicans. let's take a listen. >> the problem with that particular bill is it became a $50 billion bill that was filled with unrelated pork. and what i said then and still believe now is that it's not right for politicians to exploit a disaster when people are

hurting to pay for their own political wish list. disaster relief needs to be focused on the victims of disaster relief. >> and, ruth, your reaction? sorry about that. your reaction to ted cruz just then? >> well, there's always going to be some jockeying. but nobody can get in their special perks as part of that. i think with a disaster of this -- i'm sure that if senator cruz knew then that this storm was coming to houston, he might have found it in his heart to pony up a vote for sandy relief. let's be -- disaster voting should not be a tit for tat situation where i vote against yours because you voted against mine. it's not a -- >> it's a not a political situation. >> the chickens always come home to roost and i think the larger issue is whether or not disaster funding can be clean. in other words, just a cleanup

or down bill. because here is what we know. we know that hurricane season happens every year and we know that the gulf coast particularly are the most vulnerable states in our country. can we just agree on that and just make sure that we put people first and not politics. >> agree that we're going to have funding no matter what regardless of what happens. >> right. >> that sounds easily said. done is another story. so on friday night the storm was is hitting trump dumped a lot of news. that was the arpaio announcement which he said now will get higher ratings so that's why he did it at that time. but there was also this news that he's potentially going to end the dreamers and do something about daca. he also haults p pentagon palts for transgender surgery. we knew that was coming. it feels like he is -- there's a fire hose of headlines even on days where there is massive natural disaster heading its way. is this ever going to slow down? >> i think the answer to that is no, but i think on the border

wall funding, which we discussed just moments ago, i think the issue to watch with that is daca, which is the undocumented -- the issue with undocumented immigrants where there are white house officials who favor some sort of a trade with congress of getting rid of daca in exchange for the funding of the border wall. and there are some people in the white house who simply want to abandon it. it was one of the president's key campaign promises, but white house aides told me the president is really conflicted about this. he wants to project strength and being advocate of law enforcement and enforcing the law, but he also genuinely feels compassion for children who were brought here in their youth. and that's why he hasn't acted. i think it's because he does feel conflicted about this and i'm told that this time around it was discussed very early in the administration, this time around it hasn't reached the presidential level yet, but it's something that's going to be decided in the next couple of weeks. >> if he's a law and order candidate how does pardoning

arpaio fit into that scenario. >> i think it depends on who you ask. if you ask his base, they're like amen this is exactly what we hired him to do. the question in my mind -- >> throughout the justice system for somebody who was convicted of racial profiling of flouting the courts? >> so that's one side of the coin. i think the other -- and i'm not advocating one way or the other. i think the other side of the coin, his base would say he's doing exactly in terms of rounding individuals up and putting them behind closed doors. i don't agree with that, but i'm just saying that's what the base is saying. donald trump, the one thing you have to remember about him is he is a producer at heart and i think his political instincts are much more rooted in his base reality -- >> so you think it was on purpose for him to announce that. >> absolutely. >> he wasn't trying to bury it. >> no. >> i think when donald trump does not joke when he talks about ratings. he takes ratings pretty seriously. so i think he was clear, he was very clear in phoenix earlier in the week that this was coming.

so i'm taking him at his word on that. but i just want to say donald trump's vision of law and order is not the same as my vision of law and order. violenting people's constitutional rights, not limping to a federal judge, those are not the kinds of things that you pardon people for. and by the way, you don't give pardons because they get good ratings. you give pardons because an injustice has been done. no injustice was done to joe arpaio. and justice was done by him to thousands of people. >> and he hadn't yet been sentenced. arpaio running against flake? >> certainlyel president would be eager to endorse -- obviously he is eager to endorse a challenger to flake. what you said about arpaio says something broader about the trump presidency. i think it's more of a culture alpresidency than it is a policy president. >> da. >> when you talk about arpaio when law and order and how it plays in, i do think it's more of his nod to the kind of cowboy

cultured alinstincts that arpaio represents aern a literal, you know, nod to being a law and order president. >> policy was not top of mind during the campaign and it doesn't seem at least the moment to be top of mind at least during this presidency. we'll get to the latest in the russia investigation later this hour. stick with us for that. but first, an update on the rescue efforts in texas as tropical storm harvey moves into louisiana. a full report ahead. >> we are just beginning the process of responding to this storm.

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you will breaking news, south korea's military says north korea just launched an apparent missile. nbc's hans nichols is at the white house. he also coffers the pentagon for us. hans, what do we know right now? >> well, we know that there's a projectile that's been fired from north korea around pyongyang from the pyongyang province. it's gone towards the sea of japan. so that's to the north and to the east. now, that's confirmed by south korean military officials to nbc news. we also know that there are media reports from japan that the missile has indeed flown over the island of ha kie dough. that would be interesting because that could give you an indication that this is at least an intermediate medium range missile. now, remember, over the weekend on friday night that north korea fired three projectiles. all of those were short range. they're basically skuds.

they went about 250 kilometers to the east. what this looks like is a slightly more serious launch. again, nbc news has not confirmed to from the pentagon that these missiles have gone over japan, which would indicate that they are longer range. and we have not actually confirmed through the pentagon that they fired these missiles. normally those, kate, when the south koreans put something out as well as the japanese, they have it about 10 to 15 minutes ahead. we get official confirmation from the pentagon. the white house is aware of it. they are working on a short statement that they should have shortly. >> do we have any indication that this missile has landed somewhere yet? >> no. no, we don't. we know the time of the take off, which was about it looks to be about 33 minutes ago it launched. now, again, you'll remember in the past that the time aloft of a missile gives you an indication of how much range it has. so if it's still aloft, that's an indication that it does have range. normally it takes a little bit longer to get all the details on just what its arrange was, how high the loft was and how far it traveled.

and crucially, katie, whether or not strat come and north come the two defense agencies that follow this so closely deemed it a threat and whether or not they made a decision or not to shoot it down. >> there was talk from north korea about potentially firing some missiles into the satisfies around guam. >> yeah. >> sometime in mid august. we're rapidly approaching the end of august right now. hans, is there a heightened amount of alert right now within the pentagon about what exactly is going on in north korea? is there any indication that any of these behind the scenes back channeling with state department diplomats and the north koreans are making any progress? and i'm sorry if that's a question you can't answer. >> well, there's a constant level of alert at the pentagon. so i wouldn't say it's heightened now. they are always watching what north korea does through a variety of surveillance mechanic nichlts. and you see howic requestel we learn about a lauchl.

this launch from the direction it's heading is to the northeast. guam is to the southeast gs so this wouldn't follow through on kim jong-un's threat to have it land 30 miles to the west of guam. that's the one that had all the sabers rajtsing. we had secretary mattis saying it was game on, that that would mean war if they did indeed attack the u.s. launch towards guam. this looks like it's heading towards the ocean, but again we don't know its ultimate destination and we don't have confirmation as to -- pebt gop confirmation whether this is a medium, intermediate range or the bim, intercontinental ballistic missile that could put potentially most of the rest of the united states in range as well as parts of the west. >> i know you're going to keep an eye out on this. if you get any new information, bring it to us first. and tropical storm harvey continues its devastating past right at this hour. we'll have an update on the

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welcome back. what is now tropical storm harvey is continuing to wreak havoc on southeastern texas and much of the surrounding area. the biggest issue right now is historic rainfall leading to unprecedented flooding. texas governor greg abbott praised the federal and local response to the immense destruction from harvey this afternoon. >> this is fp not the largest, has to be categorized as one of the largest disasters america has ever faced. and to see the swift response from the federal government is pretty much unpair held. and so we are grateful for what's happened so far, but we know we're still early in the process. we nied to maintain this. >> president trump said he plans to head to texas tomorrow, and he pragsd the spirit of the people on the ground amid the

historic flooding. >> they're saying it's the biggest, historic. it's really like texas if you think about it. but it is a historic amount of water in particular. there's never been anything like this. so the people are handling it amazingly withel and the people of texas accident as you know, have really persevered. >> and joining me now is nbc's mia rodriguez from lakewood forest, texas and nbc meteorologist steve from new york. mia, i want to start with you. you've been watching rescues all day. talk to me about what it's like on the ground right now. >> reporter: well, as you can see it's pouring like it has been all over this area for it seems like days now. we're in lakewood forest as you mentioned. you can see the entire area is flooded. this kayak, there is what people have been using here to get out of their flooded homes and over to some streets where they can get out of this neighborhood

because there is so much water here. joining me right now is one of the neighbors who is one of the lucky ones, jennifer adams. >> yes. >> your home is okay for now, though. talk to pe me about these cones that you have set up here in your driveway. >> absolutely. well, yesterday evening when the water started rapidly rising, we set this out at 2:30 a.m. and the water was rising at the bottom of the cone. and the water on the south side of our house was happening at the foundation. and so the water was starting to come in the back doors and we were extremely worried because already a lot of our neighbors have been evacuating. and then the rain stopped about 3:00 in the morning and we lost power about then. and so this morning when we got up, the water receded, and we put this pie lon out and this is about 730:00 and the water has already come up. >> so that's some of the good news out here. we know with all this rain coming down that might not last for long.

>> and mia, the rain started up again. the bands, how heavy have they been getting? >> it is very heavy. and it's a consistent heaviness, if you will. i mean, the rain is just pouring. and it's been pouring all day no matter where we went in the houston area, it was like this. it's just sheets and sheets of rain falling on these neighborhoods that are already just so saturated. >> remarkable rainfall totals already. steve sos that, steve, what should residents of houston and of southeast texas expect for the next few days? >> all right. well, we have some changes for you. houston is now back under the flash flood warning. so you saw her live shot. makes complete sense. it's pouring. and so part of the reason for that is harvey's center has come back over water now of the and so there is that reservoir, if you will, of moicht for it to tap back into and that's bad news because we're starting to see another band set up over

houston with that heavy rainfall. earlier today we had a break but look at how this really has just blossomed here in the last couple of hours. you see these darker oranges right now, that's some of the heavier rainfall. you're not seeing the incredible rainfall amounts back from saturday night. that was when it was coming down at almost 6 inches an hour, but one to two inches an hour after you've had two feet of rain is going to cause some damage. the winds are up to 45-mile-per-hour. not expecting significant strengthening, but anything will make it worse at this point. flash flood warnings again. not safe to be outside and out and about here as conditions continue to deteriorate through the nighttime hours. one to two inches an hour possible with these storms. and meanwhile to the east the neighbors in louisiana they're now starting to get in on the action with the potential for

tornadoes. new orleans also seeing its wettest summer on record prior to this storm even arriving. so here with some of the rainfall totals that we've seen across the area. these are just, again, hard to digest. and remember, it's pouring over these areas right now. so that 50 inches is certainly possible. you saw there's 35 inch totals on the east side of houston, range 1 to 2 inches an hour. you can do the math. if we get that for another 12 hours we're going to get those 50 inch totals. we wanted our predictions to be wrong with this, but it looks like it's going to be on the money and these areas really have a tough two days ahead of them. >> steve, how many more days, just two. >> two more days for the houston area but louisiana and further north, they're going to have to deal with this at least through wednesday or thursday. you have the bayous, trib u taers, so even along those areas, that will continue at least through the end of the week. even after the sun comes back out.

>> steve, thank you. joining me now from the main command center in his town of victoria is texas mayor paul poll she can. thank you for joining us. how is your city faring right now? >> we're doing actually pretty well. you know, the worst part of it has passed for the most part and the storm is actually diminished more than we expected. so we're very pleased. >> are your residents prepared to evacuate if they need to in there's a problem with the quad loupe river? >> yes. we've actually already gone to those low lying flood prone areas. we're actually familiar with which areas do flood and we have notified all of them and working on providing places for them to go to for those who do not have a place to evacuate to. it's going fairly smoothly. >> the glued loupe river it is pea i don't understand flood stage right now, right. >> yes.

but it hasn't crested. perhaps tomorrow. it hasn't reached its peak. tomorrow or actually wednesday early sometime. >> and is your city getting the resources it needs from the federal government right now? >> oh, we have. we have. the command center has operated flawlessel the and koops among all agencies has been pretty good. we're pleased with that. the state government has been particularly helpful. >> if the rain picks up, if that river crests, do you have enough resources to get out and do the remaining rescues for those who might not have evacuated or those who might be in other areas that were not expecting significant water? >> yes, we do. we do. and, you know, the only issue that comes into play occasional when some just refuse to leave and then require rescue later. it's unfortunate, but some people do that and we can't always force them out. i hate to see them put first

responders in harm's way, but there may be a few cases of that. i hope not. i think most poem at this point have heeded our warnings. >> and what about just basic necessities, food, water, what sort of areas do you have set up for residents to make sure that they're getting nourished? are there shelters open? >> we did have two shelters open. this is actually like having two events. the first event being the wind along with the hurricane and then the rain event is operate s separate now that the wind have died down. we have a short term shelter, two of them opened during the peak of the hurricane because of the potential problems with winds. and then now the flooding that's affecting a specific geographic area. the wind affected everything. we do have pods set up where we're giving out ice and water. and there's plenty of resources. and we actually have had tremendous amount of support from outside the community to provide meals, et cetera. and some of our private large

box retailers are ready to open and have opened, actually, today to people can get what they need. there's a little shortage of gas. some of the gas station lines are a bit long, but things are flowing and looking much better. >> we're really happy to hear that, sir. thank you for joining us. good luck. >> thank you. >> and we will be right back with an update on that breaking news of a projectile launched from north korea towards japan. stay with us. ♪

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welcome back. back to that breaking news out of north korea. japan's prime minister shinzo abe told reporters that they believe a ballistic missile was fired toward japan. japanese television cites sources from the government there saying it looks like the projectile may have split into three parts. intelligence analysts from the u.s., south korea and japan of course analyzing what happened. we're expecting a statement from the white house shortly. we'll be right back. managing blood sugar is a series of smart choices.

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would you consider russia as a secretary threat? thank you. >> well, i consider many countries as a security threat, unfortunately, when you look at what's going on in the world today. >> time for "the lid." with that the panel is back. he will not say that russia specifically is a security threat. whenever he's asked did russia

interfere in our election, well, many countries could have. they might have been russia, could have been someone else. many countries are a threat that he considers. >> well, the president is really good at attacking all sorts of people and countries and anybody who has something bad anybody w has something bad to say about him. but he's incapable of saying anything critical about russia or vladimir putin. >> what is the rub with this? "the wall street journal" had an interesting break today, talking about how trump's attorney, michael cohen, was trying to broker a deal for a trump tower moscow during the campaign back in the fall of 2015. and the winter of 2015. right around the time that donald trump was saying nice things about vladimir putin, refusing to say whether or not that they were a real security threat. also, when putin started to say nice things about trump. do you think the timing of this could potentially be coincidental, or is this just another notch in the very long

coincidence list that we have going? >> look, it certainly doesn't look good for trump. but the deal fell through around the end of the primaries, which makes it before the first primary in january. so even prior to that. so it makes it inexplicable to me why now he continues to be completely equivocal about russia and about president putin when the one thing he could do to defuse the stench around the administration would be to act on tough on russia and condemn in no uncertain terms putin and russia and label them as aggressors and enemies of the united states. >> unless he still has some financial ties to russia, which we don't know. because of the tax situation. look, it's obvious he's playing footsies here. he's never de clar tifl said russia and putin are bad people and bad actors. here's why, i think. it's because there is some

financial transaction that's pending or perhaps maybe -- we don't know. the point is, i think there's something here with the finances. >> why go after the republicans? why go after mitch mcconnell? >> because they're not defending him. >> yes, but what happens if the democrats end up taking over the house and then suddenly all of those financial records can be subpoenaed by house democrats. who's advising him to not pick fights with the republicans? >> you would think that would be his attorneys that are saying, mr. president, you need to dial this back, and here's why. but we don't have to spend a whole segment talking about this, this president is not in control when it comes to his finances. time will tell. >> quick points about the significance of the russia stories. yes, the deal did not go through. but it gives some understanding of why he might have been so conciliatory towards putin and russia while it was pending. number two, we didn't know about

it. we weren't told about it. what we were told when the subject of russia came up was, i have no investments there. i have no dealings, financial dealings with russia. that might have been true at the time. it kind of was like the what the meaning of "is" is. but at the very least, the trump campaign, the trump organization was not transparent. it wasn't just that they were interested years back in building something in moscow, it was that they were interested in having dealings while he was running for president. you might think that if you're running for president of the united states, and you're having financial dealings with a major adversary, that people might want to know about that. >> there were two types of defenses that you could see from republicans. one is the affirmative defense where they're coming out and saying that these accusations are spurious. but the other type, i think, is it's noteworthy that the republican congress has passed a

veto-proof bill imposing sanction on russia. it's inconceivable in the george w. bush or george h.w. bush administration that the republican congress would impose that sort of a bill on a republican president. that really suggested to me that his defenses are completely crumbling. and i think that's the biggest thing short of impeachment that you're going to see republicans do is foist these sorts of bills on him. >> the other thing is north korea firing another projectile, could potentially have been a missile. they're really ratcheting up the pressure. >> big-time. and the big question becomes, how does the president respond to this. how does nato respond to it. it's a clear threat because it flee over japan, as i understand it. the question in my mind is tomorrow at the podium, what does the president say when he goes to texas. >> and does he address this or focus on the storm. >> or both. >> or address everything all at the same time. which he tends to do. robert, ruth, eliana, thank you very much. good to see you. in washington, next up, the

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we have another philadelphia eagles related story for you today. this is not about pallbearers about an awesome sanction by someone we know. this actually does connect to politics. what if you got -- what if you called an uber, got in, and this guy was behind the wheel.

no, not john boehner. although that would be amazing. and something we would definitely want to hear about. i'm talking about the other guy in this picture. now, former republican congresswoman john runnion spent retired in 2015. but before that, he played 14 seasons in the nfl. as an offensive tackle. nine of them for the philadelphia eagles. now he drives for uber in his spare time. why? well, because he can. and sometimes he doesn't have anything else to do. he said he doesn't need the money. he's vp of policy and rules administration for the nfl. so if you're in philly and your uber driver looks like a pro football player turned congressman? he might just be. and believe it or not, this isn't the only politics-football-uber connection out there. ben sass has also been known to drive an uber from time to time in both his state of nebraska,

as a way to connect with constituents, and in iowa after losing a bet over, you guessed it, football. that's all for tonight. chuck will be back tomorrow with more "mtp daily." the beat with ari melber starts right now. >> thank you very much. we have breaking news right now. newly revealed e-mails show donald trump's top lawyer directly asked the kremlin to help with a trump business deal in moscow. and this was at the height of trump's presidential campaign. this is a potential turning point in the russia inquiry. and we'll show you why right now. number one, it undercuts donald trump's claims that he never sought russian government help with his business activities. according to these brand-new e-mails leaking out this afternoon, trump's top lawyer michael cohen e-mailed a top putin aide asking the putin government to help the trump organization make money. that means contrary to trump's claims, which w