welcome to "morning joe." there's so much to get to this morning. in storm battered texas, a chemical plant that officials feared with catch fire has endured several explosions. >> and president trump said that the time for talk is over. but does secretary mattis disagree. >> and the russian investigation now has a new york twist. and a focus group of supporters told the president to chill out, quit tweeting, as his poll numbers take another dive. >> the political stories are significant. >> what we're finding out about mueller suddenly makes the talk

of pardons irrelevant. and the focus group. what we hear from this focus group of trump supporters is the same thing i'm hearing from all of my friends from pensacola, alabama, across the deep south that are still trump supporters. they're trump supporters, though, with a caveat, which is we're getting tired of this, almost to a prn they'erson they saying the same thing, we're still with him but our patience are running really thing. >> we'll get to texas. the death toll has jumped to 28 and the heroic efforts to rescues people continue. there have been 25,000 rescues as of last night. this came near beaumont and port arthur. the size of the relief effort is enormous.

14,000 national guard troops activated. even the navy is sending ships out of norfolk to provide relief and several hundred marines are going as well. there are 32,000 people waking up in shelters this morning and 210,000 have registered for fema assistance. all morning we telling you about coastal port arthur, texas. the count ey took 20 inches of rain last night and at one point the governor wrote "our whole city is under water." this morning a potential crisis looming. a nearby chemical plant, multiple explosions have occurred from the facility with

black smoke inside. arkema said had it no way to prevent explosions. it makes peroxide and materials must be kept at certain lower temperatures or they could explode. a mandatory evacuation order was put in place for residents within a one and a half mile radius of the plant on tuesday and air traffic near the site was shut down by the faa last night. we go now to crosby. julia, tell us about the explosions there. >> mika and joe, good morning to you. i saw the plume of smoke myself earlier this morning just down this highway that leads northeast from houston to the town of beaumont. so i can also tell you that ten deputies have gone to the hospital, nine of them, i saw them zoom out of here driving themselves. another had to be taken to the

hospital. they were complaining of heavy and dizziness after apparently breathing in fumes closer to the plant where we are. flooding from hurricane harvey knocked out the power to this plant, the power and two backup sources as well. you can only reach the plant by boat because of the floodings that still there. plant officials saying they can't stop this from happening. people who live within a mile and a half from this plant have been evacuated for days. it's now a wait-and-watch situation and we'll see more of what happens as the sun comes up. >> thank you very much. we're going to go to bill karins for the latest. >> unfortunately, one more day of serious weather will develop, no into tennessee. the concern is what happens when this moves into memphis and near

nashville. we have a flash flood watch for that area. in beaumont the river is still so high and city raising. i feel horrible for them. in is the hill country as we get into tennessee. five to seven inches possible from memphis to jackson. the national weather service said it is possible we could have life threatening weather all the way from harvey all the way to tennessee. we have a high risk of flooding in that area. this is the time of year where you say what's next because we're at the peak of the hurricane specific. hurricane irma does take this to a major category three hurricane about five days from now. it's too early to see if it will head to the united states or not. if it did, it would be about ten days from now. >> bill, thank you very much.

>> with us this morning, pulitzer prize winner writer -- >> you have a pulitzer prize? do you have the picture to prove it? >> the answer is yes, yes, he does. >> and also with us -- >> love saying it, halpern. >> 56% believe trump is dividing the nation compared to 33% who think he's draws the country together. and with tax reform on the horizon, 43% believe it important that congress pass legislation this year.

eight in ten votes are do not believe tax reform will happen this year. and now the voters who lifted trump to victory are growing impatient. you get a sense, joe, with that 56 number that there is a tide turning. let's not overstate it, though. >> we don't want to overstate it. mike halpern, 7 out of 8 republicans still support him. i have been struck by how many friends i've spoken to, whether it's in pensacola or alabama, all the places i've lived across the deep south, which just is in the heart of trump company, i'm hearing now the same thing over

and over again, just like last year during the primary we kept saying he's going to win because everybody we talk to says he's going to for him. now it's the same. i say you still support him? yeah -- yeah, but he's not getting anything done. and i wish i hea-- i heard this night from a friend of 30 years. i wish he would act presidential. i knew he was a reality tv show guy but i thousaght hooves goie to at least pretend to act presidential, all the things he does. i'm just hearing it from everybody, all of my friends that all voted for trump that will still tell a pollster they support trump, it frustration and it'swide spre widespread. >> you hold in one hand the

daily drama, the back and fourth, the tweets, et cetera, and then you hold in the other hand a calendar showing the number of days congress will be working between now and new years day the first hand overshadows the reality, which is if he's going to get anything done and keep the base happy, he's going to have to get things done in capitol hill. now he wants to do tax reform. it is so hard to do tax reform. i hear increasingly from not just people in capitol hill but at the white house, they need to be back in control of their destiny if ne haif he have the possibility of getting things done and the clock is ticking so fast. >> the other thing i get a sense of is the feeling is if i tell a pollster i don't support donald trump anymore, then that means i support nancy pelosi, i support hillary clinton, i support the

media, i support bernie sanders, i support left wing protesters in the street. this has gotten more like 1968 than 2017 where you're either for nixon or you're for the hippies in the street burning their bras draft card and dragging your children off to communes and big sur. which you did. you were 5 at the time. >> well, we just dropped ours off. >> it is such an us versus them and they don't even like who is running their side, but it's such a bizarre binary choice now. >> i was thinking the or day about 1984, right, you have 49 states, ronald reagan carries 49 states. it's an entirely different political universe, and what was absolutely clear in 2016 was

there was, as you're saying, a cultural and political divide that were linked. one of the interesting questions is if there's not a significant deliverable this year, will that divide shrink somewhat? i think you're seeing it in the beginning with these numbers. i'm surprised seeing the 33% number. the people who i know who support trump really don't want to talk about it. maybe they just don't want to talk to me, which is fine. they baked in that they'd have mcconnell, they'll have paul ryan. paul ryan will run the country but he'll just preside. it's not working. >> they said they'll run the country but they can't get to that. >> and you have rob portman and

those trying to operate on a bipartisan level but they're doing it in a context in which they're saying we know we can't get anything from the president, we have to operate in the limits that we can. we don't think we can get anything big done because that would mean getting the president involved. >> and he insults a new member of his senate majority every day. >> he'll insult anybody. he's proven to be a cyber bully. he's crass, he insults people, he'll do it left, right and center, small, big. it's beyond targeted. >> he's doing it to allies, mika, to people that he needs to pass tax reform. >> it seems self-destructive you would think. >> the idea of outsourcing it to congress. we saw how that failed with health care. the president gave a speech yesterday that went little further than that one-page

outline that was widely mocked when they released it in april saying this was going to be the tax reform and yesterday he goes out and speak in platitudes. >> unlook with health care, there was a party at the white house and everyone was celebrating something that didn't happen and i think the voters at some point see through that. here are pittsburgh voters growing a bit impatient. >> trump voters. >> i am surely not his base, even though i voted for him. it was more, just to be honest, an anti-hillary. >> i liked his platform, making the united states great again, keeping jobs in the united states. >> my vote was for i didn't want more of what we already had. >> the thing that drives me crazy is all the tweeting he does. i don't pay attention to it,

it's on the news every day and every night. my wife watches it. it drives fry mao tse tung crazy because the television is on all the time. >>. >> did you vote for him? >> unfortunately yes. >> regardless of what he truly wants to get done, whatever that may be, he has got to be his own worst enemy. he couldn't be any worse at achieving goals in politics. >> what most disappoints me is he's such an incredibly flawed individual, who has articulated many of the values i hold dear and the messenger is overwhelming the message. i wish he was on the opposite side of where i hold dear because would be better for the causes that i like. >> as much as i thought he would be a quick learner and delegate to top notch individuals, he

hasn't done that. >> we know he's a nut. everybody knew he was a nut, but there comes a point in time where you are need to become professional. he's not even professional, let alone presidential. >> he's trending really the wrong way for quite a long period of time, but possibly he could have an epiphany and change and i hope he does. >> he hasn't lost my vote, wouldn't change my vote but i hope he makes changes in himself to right the ship. >> chill out, man. >> what would you whisper into his ear, russell snl. >> quit tweeting. >> what would you whisper into his ear, david? >> stop picking on the media. love 'em. >> brian? >> start listening to other people. >> tony? >> park the ego. >> god. wow. >> i remember you and john

heilemann brought a bloomberg focus group to us early, may have been in august or september of 2015. it was one of the most revealing focus groups i've ever seen because that's where you had working class people saying he's one of us. i think out of new hampshire. this is one of the most telling focus groups i've seen along with yours because those people are saying exactly what all of my friends are saying to me on the phone this week, this month, not what they were saying two or three months ago, which was is back off him, you're not giving him a chance, joe, relax, stop. all of my friends are saying the same exact thing as those people are, which is wait, okay, we knew he was crazy but we thought there was a method to the madness and thought he'd go and he'd be a quick learner and he'd change washington, he'd turn

things around, he ain't doing anything. and that's exactly from pensacola to pittsburgh, you know, it didn't take me long knocking on doors when i ran for office. you get to the fourth door and three of the four doors are saying the same thing, this is more than anecdotal evidence. this is where trump voters are right now. >> i'm confidence in my travels talking to trump supporters that it's pittsburgh, could have been pensacola, could have been milwaukee, detroit, could have been manchester, new hampshire because the president has got nowhere to hide on why his popularity has declined. and it's the three things you heard there that we hear everywhere, not getting stuff done, not changing washington, not acting the way people would look to see, president decks. >> how about that line, mark,

that he's not professional -- i'm sorry, he's not acting presidential. in fact, he's not even acting professional. people aren't stupid. they're like if i like he acted in the workplace, i'd be fired. donald trump need to understand theme people live in the real world, they work in real workplaces and they understand they would be fired if they behave at the -- they'll cut hmm some slack to behave in an unorthodoxed way but not if they doesn't see their lives getting better. >> there you go. >> and the unprofessional aspect of of this, people can see that. i always think people try to make politics harder than it should be. >> yeah. >> why did so and so win? because the other person just was a jerk. they didn't want so and so.

they'd never invite him to their dinner table. >> right. >> in this case, he's just acting so unprofessional. he is acting so abhorrent by social norms. >> right. >> and i'm not making it a negative statement, this is objective. you would not let somebody act this way at your dinner table, at your kitchen table, in your living room when you had guests over. and so americans aren't going to -- trump porers aren't going to sit back and let him do this. the question is he's got to know this. there's no place for him to run, there's no place for him to it's all about him. >> that's the headline of the erarks right? i mean, it's all about him, his view continues to be, i think, that everyone can say whatever they want but i'm president of

the united states and i think anyone is looking for a kind of clinton post-1994, 1995 shift is probably looking in vain. there's nothing in his biography if i that suggests he has the capacity to listen to those voters, who i put them on the white house staff who absolutely seem to get it. and this is also, to my mind, the down side of what created it. great tragedies about you have the vices of your virtues. he has become culturally u b bik -- >> the man who says my wife always has the tv on and i'm just so exhausted by it. you see this with everybody

presidency. i remember in 1986 for the first time seeing this, ronald reagan, the great communicator, he could go on and he could wow them. but by 1986, they're jurs tired. they've seen this act, the tilting of the head. it just wasn't going to do anything. donald trump is already exhausted. because like you said, he's ubiquitous. he's everywhere, he's every day, he's exhausting. >> every day he something that deliberately grabs headline news again until he exhausts stuff. >> he they want him to to be more professional, to be stop tweeting, he's not going to do any of those things. he's not cape kbl. >> and you look at the entoor white house and you will become alarmed if you're at least somewhat interested in politics. i mean, if you think about it, jonathan, every step of the way,

there has been nobody, not even general kelly who has been be a to get this guy to lie on twitter and bully people on twitter and he even did this this past weekend in the ms. approximately of a hurricane. this is just the bottom line. this is not good behavior on any level and it's not good for the country. is that okay to say? >> the narrative with general kelly has already sort of shifted where he's getting the white house staff in line. >> but the guy has got to stop tweeting. like i'm leaving if you tweet one more time, you lose general kelly. why can't that be said to him? >> general kelly has not been automobile to say that to him. >> that's amazing. >> chief of staff has reined in

some of the staff but has not been able to with general kelly. he seems to be deliberately pushing against the limit it's control of his chief of staff, that he's going to be his own man and he's inescapable, particularly in the age of social media where he is everywhere. >> he can be everywhere but he needs to be a positive force and the leader of our country and he is not. >> unfortunately we have seen this before, mark, throughout the entire campaign that every time stories came out that somebody was coming in to try to bring discipline upon him, like a child, and i've got to say, again i'm not even trying to be funny, but like a child, he will actually strike out and start acting more wildly to assert his control and bring chaos to a

situation where everybody's panicking and trying to bring order. >> we haven't talked about because of all the other news, we haven't talked about the stories today related to the russian investigation. but partly what's happening now is the pressure that's on him because of. russia investigation and we all know that that is the kind of pressure that causes him to behave in ways that are far from presidential and far from productive and no one, not his family, not his new disciplined chief of staff, no one can control and all of that is far from going if you're thinking about a comeback or chang or whatever, finding a way to get him to operate as a functioning president while the attorney general are all scrutinizes him with subpoena power, it doesn't go. >> coming up, for the third time in recent days, defense

secretary jim mattis appears to push back at the president, and this time it involves north korea. and later, president trump calls up a top senator investigating his son's russia contacts. we'll tell you what they discussed and why "the washington post" says the timing of their talk raises some questions. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ looking for clear answers for your retirement plan? start here. or here. even here. and definitely here. at fidelity, we're available 24/7 to make retirement planning simpler. we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear. ♪ time to think of your future it's your retirement. know where you stand.

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developments overnight. politico reports that robert mueller is working to the with new york state attorney general sharing evidence and discussing their investigation involving former trump campaign chairman manafort, who has denied any wrong doing. yet that could be problematic. politico sources, several people familiar with the matter reports that working with a state

partner could potentially provide mueller to get manafort to cooperate into the larger investigation of the trump cam pan. >> and this is where the rut-roh comes in. >> rut-roh. >> eric snyderman is a vocal critic of trump whose investigation into trump university resulted in a $25 million settlement last night as a russian lobbyist and soviet offic officer. the report says he gave testimony for several hours on the meeting set up about damaging information about hillary clinton from the russian

government. he told the "financial times," i don't know what you're talking about. what do you think? >> paul manafort is becoming central in this probe. but now the idea that he could be leaned upon here, this will be addressed in a state jurisdiction, the president can't pardon you. the president pardoning joe arpaio, the implication is he could pardon you but taking it to a state level takes that

away. there was dealings that snyderman would ping him on business dealings and trump would hit back. and the "new york observer", the newspaper here in the city run by jared kushner has run several scathing and some not particularly fact based damaging pieces on eric snyderman. >> so we should expect the "national enquirer" to follow through. >> oh, my gosh. >> donald trump, as we noted several times a day, he's a day trader. and he does things like fires jo james comey, which actually gets him bob mule aellemueller. he does things that he thinks is going to get him out of a trap makes things more difficult. there is now talk that any

pardons of anybody not on doesn't take care of the problems on the state level for these people, but also that that is an abuse of the pardon pow and would almost be prima facie evidence that it is an abuse of power and would lead to impeachment down the road. the question is is anybody telling donald trump this and is donald trump listening? >> mueller is a cyborg. >> can you say that again? >> he's a cyborg who has a head, a heart and a brain. one of the underappreciated aspects of how he's building this investigation is his ability to coordinate. his vettiinvestigative members not issuing immunity. he's coordinating within the justice department and the fbi.

you don't hear any unhappiness coming from there. now he's coordinating with another guy with subpoena power, another guy who is fearless and not afraid of donald trump and a guy who can bring charges that the president can't pardon for. none of this is an accident. we're seeing through a glass what the mueller investigation is like, we see only a tiny bit of it but it's clear there's a strategy here, a fearlessness and a level of coordination that makes anyone trying to help the president on this be put in a very defensive position. >> and the idea, john meacham, that they can fire bob mueller, by congress an investigators or buy states that will end up getting to the bottom of this is just a dream. we were seeing the pictures of bob mueller, the ultimate -- i mean, he's the last guy you would want on your trail. and then i went back to the

focus groups and what they were saying about donald trump being his own worst enemy, there would not be bob mueller but for all the missteps donald trump has made not over the past 30 years but over the past six months. that guy is on -- his face is on our show right now because of the actions, the missteps, the stupid political calculations -- >> the lies. >> the lies that donald trump has made over the past six months. forget the russian campaign. we'd still be dealing with comey. but not this guy. he's like ten times the challenge for trump. >> it also is all rooted in the monoo monomaniacal focus on the probe. it's like you're stopped by a police officer and whatever you do, officer, don't look in the

trunk. i think that's what happened with comey, and you're right, that's what gave you mueller. >> he went to war with the fbi before he even got elected -- >> and the intelligence community. >> 17 agencies. >> so what is the trump strategy? it's shoot the messenger in the kneecaps, shoot the media as much as you possibly can so that when mueller has something and it's reported in the press, he'll be able to say this is fake news. >> and tweet about fake transgender bans -- >> mueller is showing himself to be this fantastic strategist. this interview took back three weeks ago, this is the first we're hearing about it. trump pardons arpaio and mueller hits -- it's like they're paying chess. okay, we'll go to the state level and this is where you

can't pardon them. the way that mueller is handling this is strategically brilliant. he's keeping the investigation going but he's giving signals to trump he's not going to be messed with. >> i think mueller is playing chess and trump is playing whack-a-mole. >> mueller's playing three dimensional chess and trump is playing hungry hungry hippo. >> when it comes to north korea the president says talking is not the answer but the defense secretary says the opposite. we'll talk about that next. ♪ ♪ hey allergy muddlers

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>> the u.s. is carrying out a show of force following north korea's missile release this

week. >> the president yesterday took to twitter writing, quote, the u.s. has been talking to north korea and paying them extortion money for 25 years. >> this is true. >> talking is not the answer. but in his latest break with the president, defense secretary james mattis rejected the idea that the u.s. was ready to take diplomacy off the table. here's when he said while meeting with his south korean counterpart in washington yesterday. >> the president this morning tweeted that talking isn't the answer. are we out of diplomatic situations for north korea? >> no, we're never out of diplomatic solutions. we continue to work together and the minister and i share a responsibility to provide for the protection of our nations, our populations and our interests, which is what we are here to discuss today and look for all the areas that we can collaborate with. already very strong collaboration, we always look

for more, we're never complacent. >> katty, you do get a sense, general mattis is a good soldier and has been a good soldier his entire life. you do get a sense that there is a coordination to this, even if it's telling donald trump after he tweets out something, hey listen, i'm going to go talk to the south korean government now and i'm going to tell them this. >> i think with mattis, there seem to be two things going on. on the north korean issue, he's clearly very keen to make sure everybody understands america is not about to take military action or do something crazy to sort of calm allies down after the president sent out that tweet. maybe the president sending out that tweet will put the fire under the chinese to try and and get them to do more, which i doubt it because the chinese have had their rift with the

americans. i doesn't know mattis but others who know him well, he was clear he came into the administration out of loyalty to the country. he felt by being in the point gon -- pentagon, he could do the best job for the pentagon. patience is wearing thin for general. patience is wearing thin. >> with all due respect, i think it's a stretch to say there was some coordination thought out by the white house. when you look at what mattis said about the troops, when you look at what mattis said about the transgender ban -- >> he's doing clanean-up. >> he's going to go his way and he's not going to go when the president is wrong. >> except for the fact, john, that trump is a new york democrat and has been his entire life. he's a republican now, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, but this is a guy who has grown

up surrounded in a culture that would not have him at 71 years old suddenly supporting a transgender ban. so if he has somebody -- he's allowed to tweet that and say he's fighting for it and he has somebody at the pentagon saying hold on and it actually part of the order that they're going to conduct a review, everybody wins. >> that's really generous. >> nosh it's n, it's not generoa reality. >> i think it's generous. >> no, it's not. donald trump is being cynical about this. he wants his base to think he's doing one thing when actually mattis is playing clean-up. that's not being generous to donald trump. >> are they on the same page on this issue. >> that's what i meant. >> i'm not sure they're on the same page. >> anybody that does know

general mattis will tell you two things, one, he's doing this for his country and, two, he understands the chain of command. >> right. >> but then why does he -- if that is all the case, why does he come out on television in afghanistan and talk the way he does about these soldiers needing to hold the line because the country's in a very bad place? because that is not respecting the chain of command. >> because the country is in a very bad place and he didn't talk about the president of the united states -- >> directly. >> like we. general mattis may be more brilliant than all of us because we got what we wanted out of it and the troops got what they wanted out of it and i think actual lich he is ve-- actually nimble diplomatically.

>> one of the things when i'm thinking enthusiastically about the country, which is most of the time, i think about the number of people that talked about when president trump said if we have nuclear weapons, why can't we use them? mattis understands the korean conflict is about a potential nuclear exchange and i think that's reality to him and his life experience in a way that for trump, again, is kind of a video game. >> while his motivations are still clearly to be determined, we're seeing more and more senior aides and cabinet members being willing to speak their minds and rebuke the president publicly. we saw gary kone condemn the president's response to charlottesville and that the president speaks for himself and was not necessarily vocalizing american values. >> let's talk about policy then.

maybe we missing the forest for the trees. donald trump speaking out and saying bribing north korea for 25 years is actually factually true in every sense of the word. so there's this back and forth and washington policy makers wringing their hands as they always do and we think they're we're finally getting somewhere so what do they do? they fire a missile over japan. i'm sorry, but i'm kind of done with the good cops. when it comes to north korea and china. china is responsible support this crisis. just like china is responsible for pakistan having nuclear weapons, just look china is responsible for north korea firing missiles over japan. just look china will be responsible if seattle goes up in a mushroom cloud and we

continue to do nothing about it. >> north korea's missile capability and nuclear capability is significantly better than it was 25 years ago and there's no sign that it's stopping. the challenge of course is north korea is not our only business with china just like syria is not our only business with russia. the and the president's ability to have any leverage over china on this is minimal. i think the things they're trying to do differently than previous administrations so far mostly involve re rick and the threats of military action and the president's twitter account but that doesn't leverage china, it doesn't pressure china and i think -- if i could know the answer to any question, it's what do mattis and tillerson and mcmaster, where do they think the leverage over china is, in if i anywhere because how can you get china to want to get

north korea's nuclear and missile programs to go away? >> still ahead this morning, jared kushner is waking up to some serious problems and this time it's not about his father-in-law. his familiar lip's it but investors aren't biting. new details on a debt pushing hundreds of millions of dollars and how it could impact his role in the white house. plus, we'll speak live with louisiana's lieutenant governor on the latest rescue efforts in texas. back in a moment.

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damage from harvey is forcing the main fuel line to the northeast to shut down temporarily. the colonial pipeline company is the largest fuel transporter in the u.s. it closed its line carrying diesel and jet fuel yesterday and today carrying gasoline. they move more than 3 million barrels of fuel from houston to the new york harbor every day.

the main supplier for several major cities including washington. the news has already sent gas prices surging up 6 cents in just a week. all of this because of oil refinery outages including the nation's largest which was forced to shut down yesterday because of flooding in port arthur. up next, we continue to follow reports of possible explosions and smoke from a major chemical plant outside houston in the wake of harvey. we'll go live on the ground there. plus trump supporters weigh in on the president's performance so far. one saying that trump is not even professional, let alone presidential. >> it's one of the most interesting focus groups that i've seen, or that any of us have seen since the one that mark halperin brought us in august or september from new hampshire that suggested he may have a shot at winning the republican primary. >> we'll have more on that and the scraps for equal pay for

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ welcome back to "morning joe." it's thursday, august 31st. there's so much news this morning. in texas the waters are beginning to fall, but the danger is far from over. 25,000 people rescued by boat, or air lifted as a new catastrophe develops. plus the latest on the investigation into former trump campaign chairman paul manafort,

and the president says talking is not the answer to north korea as the u.s. participates in a show of force overnight. we'll go live to seoul. also signs that the people who helped put the president in office are beginning to lose their patience. as we said, it's a busy news day. especially in politics. but we're going to start with the situation in houston. the vice president is set to travel to texas today as the waters begin to recede. the death toll for the moment stands at 28 and worst fears were confirmed yesterday for six family members trying to outrun the flood waters. a man driving a van with his relatives inside, and it was swept into the water. he was able to escape through a window but his parents and their great grand kids died. there are 32,000 people waking up in shelters this morning and 210,000 have registered for fema assistance. in beaumont where they got about 26 inches of rain on thursday,

they've lost their primary and secondary water supply, and two explosions at a major chemical plant just outside houston in the town of crosby. they lost electricity on sunday and backup generators have also been flooded. one sheriff's deputy has been taken to the hospital after inhaling fumes from the plant, and nine others drove themselves as a precaution. a mandatory evak kacuation r was put in place for residents within a one and a half mile radius of the plant. joining us garrett headachaik. where do things stand today? >> reporter: we're watching the reservoirs. the big news in western houston was a mand doatory evacuation sh and west of downtown houston proper. that's near that barker dam and

reservoir, the second reservoir we were talking about yesterday. now there's concern that it, too, is going to start overflowing and continuing to flood some of these neighborhoods. these two reservoirs in western houston were built in the 1940s, and they were never built to handle this much water, and they have been processing a lot of it. we were in some of the downstream neighborhoods yesterday and saw the waters continuing to rise. unfortunately, more folks getting flooded out of their homes even after the rain had been over for 24 hours or so just as they're trying to process the water on the ground in the upstream neighborhoods. that's sort of the downside of this story. this water level hasn't visibly moved since we were here at this time yesterday. there's a slow motion nature to that disaster here in houston where folks think they're out of the woods but getting this water out of town is going to be a long process, i think. >> garrett hake, thank you.

let's go straight to bill karins for the latest. >> where garrett is, that water may be there until september 20th. that's incredible. that's another three weeks. the story is still unfolding. most of the water has been receding, but in some areas, a record crest, and in beaumont, their water system is going to fail in the next couple hours, the water pressure, that river near them is not going to crest until the upcoming weekend, five feet above record heights. the storm is over louisiana. the concern is up toward the memphis area, western tennessee when we get into the hill country. a lot of heavy rain later tonight. we're expecting the red and pumping, isolated totals up to 7 to 8 inches. we have a high risk of flash flooding in this region. they said even life threatening flash flooding is possible. the next system is irma.

this should be a major hurricane by the time we end labor day weekend. somewhere in the caribbean islands, we'll have to deal with that. too early to say if we will be threatened in the u.s. we're heading toward the peak obvious our season. >> with us around the table, we have john meechum, cat ty cay, mark halperin, and charlie sykes. >> a good conservative. >> also phillip bump, and phillip rucker. good to have you both. >> charlie, actually, it's easier to find out -- there are blessings to this cursed time

we're in. there are. it's a clarifying time. actually, there are a lot of people that have been snide and snippy through the years. whatever. but it's very clarifying. i finally know who the conservatives are and who the posers are, and who are the power hungry people that are just trying to grab ratings. it is clarifying. for instance -- >> the sheep are separated from the goats. >> they are. these are clarifying times. you also, don't you, you found out in the starkest of times -- i'm serious. you found out in the starkest of terms who puts their country first and who puts their party first on our side. >> yeah. and you always had wished there were more. we all figured maybe the number would be larger than it turned out to be. >> yeah. there are people that i -- you know, have not always seen as my natural political allies, people like mitch mcconnell, an

insider's insider. i went to washington as an outsider. i wanted to change everything overnight. john mccain and i have had battles with each other. >> scuffed each other up. >> yeah. but a lot of these people when push comes to shove, you go wait a second. they're tough and they don't give a damn what their small sliver of screamers say. >> where are the democrats in all this? not clarifying at all. >> and where is the democratic party? >> screwing it up. i don't know. >> we'll get to that conversation at some point. >> mika, where are the democrats? >> i'm praying. >> i'm serious. what's happening to this party? >> i'm serious too. i don't know. we're still angry? i don't know. >> right now they're on march that's vineyard. >> we need leaders, and we need people to step up and stand out. >> they'll be back tuesday. tuesday it all changes. >> they are. >> seriously, mark halperin, the

democrats have lost over 1,000 legislative, state legislative seat over the past eight years. they've lost the white house to a guy who nobody would'v even he as their ceo in a publicly traded company. more republicans control more house seats in the u.s. house of representatives than any time since i think 1928. republicans control more governorships since 1920. and the democrats still don't know who they are and they're still having trouble raising money. what is wrong with this party? >> it's always hard to compete with the megaphone of a president. when your party is lacking leaders, big ideas, and a strategy, it's impossible. and the president for all of his polling problems, for all of his legislative problems, he's such

a dominant figure in the news. it takes an epic storm to white him off the front pages. but i don't think the democrats, if you look at what they've gotten done since election day, they're raising money for house races. they're recruiting somewhat successfully there. i don't think you can point to too many things beyond that that suggest that they've made pro o progre progress as a brand from what happened on election day. >> booing and hissing at trump is not a plan. >> and being inclusive. i know -- >> i wrote that down too. >> i know, and this just shows you the trouble democrats are in. charlie, every time i say -- and i can even say it as an independent now -- but every time i say they need a message for all americans. they need to stop with the

balkinization of america, and suddenly somebody will tweet at me or e-mail to me, you're just being a racist. i go wait a minute. i'm being a racist because i'm saying you need a unifying message? >> the good news is that hillary clinton is finally coming to wisconsin on her book tour. >> that's good. how much is she charging? >> i have no idea. >> no, actually, i think there's a charge. >> it's a charge. i won't be able to afford it. >> yeah. >> but at least she found wisconsin. at least she was able to find the upper midwest. but you're right. it's just like almost every single time you think here is the vital center, there's that moment, what happens is the democrats decide hey, let's embrace single payer health care and double down on identity politics, and they wonder -- it's almost like there's something genetically that they have to offend sent rivers, make it more toxic, and that's -- republicans still have that going for them. >> and it's not just republicans that get this.

i keep coming back to it at the democratic national convention. joe biden, the sitting vice president of the united states, along with ed rendell said we have to have a unifying message. we're going to lose pennsylvania. we're going -- and they said. >> they knew. >> they said we're not going to win our base. we're not going to pull out the union members that we need to pull out to win this thing unless we get a better more unifying message, and guess what. rendell. who would have known? to pennsylvania guys. >> i would point out it's sort of hard to say with one hand that the democrats need to be more centrist and at the same time cite last year's election. the most energy and fundraising that happened last year was through bernie sanders and a hard left position on a lot of different things including health care. >> which will win primaries for

you all the time. >> right. but i think one of the things -- >> and lose general elections. >> there is an overlap between the racial demographics of the united states and the partisan demographics in the united states. and in a moment when race is a very big political issue that motivates a lot of people, it's important to remember that the republican party is primarily white and most african americans are democrats. and there's an overlap there. >> then why did so many people who in wisconsin and one out of five maybe in wisconsin, michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, that voted for braarack obama eight years ago vote for trump in. >> african american voters turned out less heavily. >> that wasn't about racism. that was about the fact that hillary clinton and al sharpton said this, hillary clinton does not energize the same base. >> absolutely. but this was my original point. >> what a surprise. >> it is a surprise. who could have seen that coming?

>> i really set myself up for this one. new polling finds that a majority of voters believe president trump is tearing the country apart. according to a fox news poll, 56% believe trump is dividing the nation. >> mika, can i ask you a question? >> yes. >> does he call fox news polls fake news too? >> when he wants to. >> the rupert murdoch fake news? i'm curious. >> you're being mischievous. >> no. i'm just curious. is rupert murdoch -- put the poll numbers up. is rupert murdoch engaging in fake news? i want the president of the united states to tweet out the answer right -- >> hold it up for a long time for him to see. >> yeah. that's fox news. >> tearing country apart, 26 -- 56 h 56%. 55% disapprove. and now some of the voters who

lifted president trump to a shocking electoral college victory last year are beginning to show their frustrations. a focus group conducted in pittsburgh by a pollster found the president's voters are growing impatient, to say the least. take a look. >> i am surely not his base, just to be honest, an anti-hillary vote. >> i liked his platform, make america great again, keeping jobs in the united states. >> my vote was more i didn't want more of what we already had. >> the thing that drives me crazy is all the tweeting he does. i don't pay any attention to it, but it's in the news. it's on the newscasts every day, evening, and night. my wife watches it. it drives me crazy, because the television is on all the time. >> crazy. >> why? >> that was a lot of it. the tweeting. it has to stop. >> did you vote for him? >> unfortunately, yes. >> because regardless of what he truly wants to get done,

whatever that may be, he has got to be his own worst enemy. he couldn't be any worse at achieving goals in politics. what most disappoints me is he's such an incredibly flawed individual that hz ar tickulated many of the values i hold dear and the messenger is overwhelming the message. i wish he was on the opposite side of where i hold dear, because it would be better for the causes that i like. >> as much as i thought he would be a quick learner and delegate to topnotch individuals, he hasn't done that. >> we know he's a nut. everybody knew he's a nut, but there comes a point in time where you need to become professional. he's not even professional let

alone presidential. chill out, man. >> what would you whisper into his ear, russell? >> quit tweeting. >> david? >> stop picking on the media. love them. >> brian? what would you whisper into his ear? >> start listening to other people. >> tony? >> park the ego. >> there's so much to dissect. what stood out to you the most? >> that people are openly saying that they want the president to do what his staff should be telling him every day and probably is, and i think the measure of this president has been revealed in his wild news conference that he held after charlottesville. this is life after bannon. life after gorka, life after all the people we called the dangerous influences on this president. life with the, quote, moderating forces of jared and ivanka. it's not any of these people. it's him. and he's really putting forward

a negative force on this country. >> charlie, i'm struck by a lot of things that were said there. and we've covered some of them. i really liked what the one man said. he said he's incredibly flawed, and it really kills me, because he actually represents a lot of the things i believe in. you can go to wisconsin. you can go to michigan. here was a guy that said if you put me in there, i'm going to put america first. we're not going to go around saving the rest of the world. they need to pay their fair share. we're going to rebuild america. immigration, a lot of people saying we don't want america to turn out like europe. we don't want america to turn out like london. we want wisconsin and michigan and pennsylvania and -- we want to have rational border control and a rational immigration policy. >> well, these folks were paying attention. i thought it was interesting how much they were focusing on his

personality and his demeanor, the disenchantment, and the point that one of the gentlemen made was how he's discrediting everything that he was hoping to fight for. as a conservative, yesterday my wife was taking the dogs out and they ran into a skunk. they got sprayed full on. do you know how long it takes to get the stink out of the dog? this is part of the problem conservatives are facing. it's going to take a lot of tomato juice for the dogs. i'm not sure what the republicans have. if you want lower taxes or reasonable immigration restrictions, he's actually undermining all of those cases because, of course, he's a prisoner of his own narcissism. >> okay. a prisoner of his narcissism and also very obsessed with the base? >> yeah. that's right. it's become cliche to say that president trump's base is never going to leave him. remember, he talked about how he could walk down fifth avenue and shoot somebody and voters would

be with him. this focus group is testing that. and what's striking here in the vulnerability and what the supporters are saying about him is they're speaking directly to character issues and temperament issues. those are not going to change. this man is 71 years old. donald trump has been the same way his whole life. he's not going to change. it's not like they're opposed to him over one specific policy decision that he made and maybe he can win them back easily. they're becoming disenchanted and disillusioned with who he is as a leader and president. that's a serious problem. >> mark, what's striking about this to me is all of my friends in pensacola and alabama and across the south that i know that i went to college with, that i went to high school with, that still support donald trump, three months ago, they were saying back off. give him a chance, joe, you're being too tough on him. now they're saying, i still support him, i still wouldn't have voted for hillary, but this

guy? what's wrong with him? and they're all saying the same thing. he's getting nothing done, and it's all his fault. >> they say a few other things too. >> yeah. a few other things i can't repeat on the air. >> i mean questions. they ask questions. >> they ask me about how -- >> him. >> how well he's doing. anyway, i -- i'm just struck by this focus group. i think it's just as telling as the focus group you brought us back in september of 2015. >> we talk about his inability to do the job in terms of getting results with capitol hill. we talk about his style which turns people off. i think another thing i see around the country is having an opinion about donald trump now is as common as an obsession with salty snacks. everybody has one, and the volume of the president's presence in our lives oblate night tv all day on cable, it's

so high. it's higher than any president's ever been, and over time normally by the end of a first or second term, people kind of get done with that person being the dominant figure in our life. this president in less than a year has just such a high volume in people's faces that i think even some of his supporters just want to see less of him. and it's not wearing well when you couple it with some of the stylistic things and the lack of results with congress. >> and we just saw ivanka there. we're going to be talking about equal pay later this hour. >> thanks for nothing. >> but catty, donald trump is on tv all the time. but he's addicted to it. people always ask why did he tweet on saturday mornings? they'd say why does he always tweet on saturday mornings and cause these media mushroom clouds? it's because he can't stand to be out of the headlines for one day. he's like again, i will say it. he's like some kids i've known

where they prefer negative attention to no attention at all. >> we even saw that with hurricane harvey. the fact that he, himself, said i tweeted about joe arpaio and the pardon on friday night because there would be great ratings. he wanted his story to get those great ratings. not the hurricane, not the hurricane victims, not the return survivors, but he wanted donald trump to capitalize from the great ratings. he finds it impossible not to get that attention. one of the things that struck me is that seemed to be a softish trump voting group. one of the guys said he voted for trump because he wasn't hillary clinton. >> right. not die hards. >> and i think it would be interesting to hear whether the die hards, whatever they are, what percentage of his supporters are die hard, but whether that 34%, whether they're starting to shift. i haven't heard that yet. >> there are two types of trump voters. we tend to lump them together.

the trump voters there were i don't like hillary, i voted republican. a critical aspect of this is pure research just released a poll. they asked people if you still approve of donald trump, why do you? by a four to one margin, people said they still approve because of his behavior versus his issue. because of the his demeanor, because people like that in your face sort of style and still approve of him, more than half of his approvers said that. >> phillip rucker, though, that same behavior keeps him at 32, 43 -- 43% in a lot of polls. >> it's the reason you see general kelley putting such a focus on the tax cut plan and trying to muscle that through and move it forward this fall. they feel like if he ends the year, if donald trump can end the first year of his presidency

without any major tangible legislative victory, there's no way they're going to climb out of the hole. >> and the fox news poll, 41% that's on the higher end of his approval ratings. still ahead on "morning joe," is the u.s. done talking to north korea or not? we'll talk about the trump administration's mixed messages. richard engel joins us live from seoul, and we'll also bring in christopher hill. oand on this day 12 years ao louisiana was ordering a total evacuation. now the state is opening its doors to the people of texas and dealing with it own flooding. we'll talk to the lieutenant governor of louisiana straight ahead. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. chances are, the last time you got a home loan,

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the u.s. is carrying out a show of force this morning

following north korea's missile launch earlier this week. with the u.s. flying several military planes over south korea. joining us from south korea, richard engel. richard? >> reporter: good morning. the u.s. military in statement released not long ago said that this mission lasted about ten hours with american aircraft taking off from guam and japan. they crossed over the korean peninsula but were careful to stay inside friendly south korean air space. >> it was a warning with aircraft into the united states can attack north korea if it wants, when it wants, and decisively. the u.s. flying two b 1 b super sonic bombers and four fighter jets over south korea overnight. the american response coming just two days after north korea fired a ballistic missile over japan. the flexing of its military

muffle following a tweet from president trump who declared the u.s. has been talking to north korea and paying them extortion money for 25 years. talking is not the answer. hours after the president's post, his own defense secretary seeming to contradict him. >> we're never out of diplomatic solutions. we continue to work together. >> reporter: but actions, not dloem si are setting the events now. u.s. marines were honing their skills today, running live fire exercises under stress 300 miles from the north korean border. the point of the drill is for u.s. and south korean marines to train together, to see each other's skills in case they need to fight north korea together. training that has a renewed urgency. a lieutenant colonel, the battalion commander. >> we're improving tactically

and technically. >> reporter: the exercises were previously scheduled, but there are growing concerns the one upsmanship between kim jong-un and donald trump will escalate and perhaps spill over into conflict. in a sign of unify, south korean and japanese fighter jets took part in this show of force mission. back to you. >> richard, thank you very much. joining us from denver, dean of the school of international studies at the university of denver, former u.s. ambassador to south korea, and former assistant secretary of state for east asia, christopher hill. mr. ambassador, good to have you on the show this morning. you call this extremely worry some. can you tell us more? >> well, first of all, i think the north koreans have shown zero interest in negotiation, and that's been pretty constant. but this idea of taking a missile and flying it right over

japan, panicking people, and really causing the prospects of missile debris, all kinds of potentials, is pretty in your face, so to speak. and then i think what they're really trying to do, and what they're trying to do is to say that they can really hold these populations hostage and there's little the u.s. can do about it. i think it's been quite appropriate for the u.s. to be enimpgaged in these exercises t get the japanese and koreans together, and i think it's really time for china to stop lecturing us about the need to calm down, but rather start doing something about this threat, because no country can put up with a missile directed right at its face. >> mr. ambassador, you and i over the last seven months haven't agreed with donald trump very often, but would you agree with his tweet that we've been talking to north korea for 25

years. we've basically been paying them off and talking has not worked. and i would add to that, what you just said, expecting china to be a rational actor here has not worked either. they've been reckless and irresponsible. they're putting not only japan at risk but fairly soon the people of seattle and portland and san francisco and los angeles. >> yeah. first of all, i think at the end of the day there will be a diplomatic process. i think it's important to keep the door open to that diplomatic process. >> how do we trust south -- north korea when they've lied to us time and time again. >> there's little scope for trust. to paraphrase tina turner, what's trust got to do with it? it has to do with verification. when we didn't get adequate

verifications year ago, that's when we pulled out of the talks. the south korean people want to see a diplomatic track and see our doors open to that. that's important. your point is also valid. that north korea doesn't appear to be at all interested in negotiation, and we shouldn't be pushing something that the other side doesn't want. so i think what we need to do is what we've been doing for some time. that is really lean on the chinese, and the problem with china is they don't want nuclear weapons in north korea any more than we do, but they, i think, are intrigued by the idea, the north koreans have a strategy to somehow push the u.s. off the peninsula. that is to put u.s. leadership in the position of either fulfilling our treaty obligations, and risking an attack on u.s. civilian populations, or pulling out of these treaty responsibilities, blinking, in other words, and causing wholesale problems throughout the world about our treaty obligations. so i think there are certain

people in china intrigued by that. certainly in russia where their foreign policy is more driven by spite than national interest. we need to be smart. that said, i don't think tweeting in the dead of the night is the way to get these people's attention. >> it's not clear what the president means when he says talking is not enough. it's not clear what his other options. the chinese today are talking act what they're calling necessary response when it comes to north korea, suggesting that actually the forces in china who are distancing themselves from the less hard lined policy are thinking it's time to do something act north korea. what would that necessary response entail that they're not doing at the moment? >> first of all, i think when you go to the chinese city on the river on the border with north korea, which looks like las vegas compared to north korea, i think there needs to be a real ramping down of any kind of trade there. i think we really, the chinese

really have to step up there, but i think more importantly, they have a lot of contacts in korean's people army, the north korean army, the kpa. they have a lot of sort of means to sew the notion in north korea that this cannot go on. and i think for now, the north koreans are -- i won't say having fun with this, but they're enjoying the limelight and enjoying the prospect that somehow they are standing up to the united states, and i think it's time that china be the adult. i mean, they always talk to us about pg tbeing the adult. they have to understand what being this country means to the rest of the world. that any support of this country is a civilizing question for china. it's one thing to have maritime disputes. everyone has maritime disputes exem except for maybe switzerland,

but support for north korea is unacceptable and they need to get on the right side of this. >> we need adults. >> christopher hill, thank you so much as always. we appreciate it. >> coming up, louisiana's so-called cajun navy helps texas even as harvey floods part of their own state. we'll talk to louisiana's lieutenant governor next on "morning joe." this is not a cloud. this is a tomato tracked from farm to table on a blockchain, helping keep shoppers safe. this is a financial transaction secure from hacks and threats others can't see. this is a skyscraper whose elevators use iot data and ai to help thousands get to work safely and efficiently. this is not the cloud you know. this is the ibm cloud. the ibm cloud is the cloud for enterprise. yours. the ibm cloud is the when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. i just snapped a photo and got an estimate in 24 hours. my insurance company

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>> louisiana's cajun navy is just one of many groups assisting with rescue operations in texas. the group consists of an ar maw da of volunteer boaters from louisiana originally formed after hurricane katrina. they have been hailed as heros for their work during deadly flooding in louisiana sailing through swamped neighborhoods on nonstop search and rescue missions saving thousands of lives. one member says that he knows what the victims are going through having lived through katrina himself and felt an obligation to help out. i get chills thinking about these rescues. with us on the phone, louisiana's lieutenant governor. good to have you on the show this morning. thank you for your time. tell us what the biggest sources

of concern for louisiana are at this point, and then we'll talk about the folks helping out. >> well, i think we kind of got out of the woods here when that rain stayed in the texas and really spared a lot of louisiana. we are still concerned as these rivers flow south with the winds past louisiana now, certain areas with the heavy rains could still see flooding. but i think we're out of the woods for the worst of it, and are moving a lot of our assets over to help the people in texas. >> as you saw the wrath of harvey kind of constantly pouring over houston, you guys have been through this before, and you know what it's like in the aftermath, and how long it takes. what were your feelings? >> well, you feel so sorry for the people of houston. i road out katrina 14 miles from the eye and rescued people myself here in louisiana. and to see these people wading through water, it just hits home. and so we want to do everything

we can to assist them. and the governor has sent state police and our coast guard because we can get there quicker. so we're assisting in putting a lot of assets into texas to help out our neighbors in texas. >> john meechum. >> what's the thing you would say to the folks who are really still under water? what -- from your experience, what's the next month look like? what's the next year look like? >> well, you're not going to be alone. there's going to be a lot of faith-based groups and people reaching out to help. if i could say one thing to the president and fema things, let these people have a voucher and buy a travel trail and park it in their driveway so they can get a work gutting their homes. with the amount of people affected, if we try to go

through the fema trailer process, it takes too long. it costs over $100,000 per household. they'll never get those people back in their driveway in a timely manner. we have to do it differently. lessons learned, and we got to move quickly through this process, because as time wears on, people lose hope. and we've got to keep an eye on this and move quickly to not drag this thing out for many years. it's going to be years, but we need to give it our utmost attention. >> we want to get people home again. >> lieutenant governor, obviously one of the things that you have the advantage of is having gone through katrina, louisiana was able to understand what the possible effects could be had the hurricane hit you directly. this is something that scientists suggest is going to happen more and more fwreektly, bigger and bigger storms. how is louisiana looking forward to prevent the worst effects of these kinds of storms from affecting the state? >> we have to get serious about

coastal restoration and get out there and pump back some of the barrier islands and build a speed bump. otherwise we're a sitting duck, and you're right, it will get worse. we need to get serious and get this bp money we received out there protecting the coast of louisiana. and you're right. we're going to see more and more of these events, and that's why groups like the cajun navy and self imposed groups will be called on more and more in the future. >> lieutenant governor for louisiana, thank you very much for being on the show. >> thank you. thank you for all your coverage. >> we'll go back to our reporter on the ground in a moment. "morning joe" is coming right back. >> today everyone is fema. >> these guys are with the cajun navy, a group from louisiana that drove through the night. >> when louisiana has problems, texas responds, and we're not going to leave our proers

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when it comes to categorizing people, men and women into a group, it gets to be very dangerous. when you have to categorize men and women into a particular group and a particular pay scale, it gets -- because people do different jobs. if they do the same job, they should get the same pay, but it's very hard to say what is the same job. it's a very, very tricky question, and i talked about competition with other places and other parts of the world, mika. this is one of the things that we have to look at very strongly. >> yeah. that was donald trump speaking with us during the 2016 campaign. one of his answers to the many times i asked him about the issue of equal pay. >> so he was -- >> right. >> that's complicated. it's not that complicated. it's pretty simple, actually. now the trump administration has suspended an obama era policy.

that would have required large companies to report to the government what they pay employees by race, gender, and ethnicity. the original executive action was meant to help address the gap between men and women's wages. but the office of management and budget is now reviewing it. the president's daughter, ivanka trump, who has pushed for equal pay for women in the past has issued a statement supporting the move. writing ultimately while i believe the intention was good and agree that pay transparency is important, the proposed policy would not yield the intended results. we look forward to continuing to work with the equal employment opportunity commission, the office of management and budget congress and all relevant stake holders on robust policies aimed at eliminating the gender wage gap. >> mika, what do you think? >> i find her -- i find -- i went in to talk to ivanka about the issue of women and how

perhaps she could really spread her wings, and stake a place in the white house to represent women. i was hopeful, and i am disappointed. >> ivanka praised her father. she said her father's administration would fully support the aim of equal pay for women. she made exactly that same point when she came back into the white house after the election and after the inauguration, and to see her row back on this and to say well, this wouldn't actually have helped this legislation that would get companies to have transparency on pay issues seems to me totally uncredible on her part.

publishing sal is will get women to equal pay. >> and there are a lot of. >> for women, seems to be scrapped as well. >> and on health issues. >> a lot of roll back on women's health issues. >> one of the pieces advice i gave ivanka when we were talking was to go talk to women struggling just to make ends meet. to maybe understand what that feels like. and also to talk to women who are struggling with equal pay issues, talk to small business owners to understand what that feels like, to really engage. because i think it would help her have a more firm view on this. given that her experience has

been very different. >> phillip, the animating sort of principle behind what donald trump does in the white house seems to be the opposite. >> that's right. >> of what barack obama did. just like for many years barack obama's sort of drive was to not be dick cheney and george w. bush. >> i would say this is probably more extreme. >> i don't know about that. >> well -- because barack obama was obsessed and made some very, very bad choices on foreign policy, because -- that we are still as a world suffering from. >> as i said, the rlist of things, environmental

regulations. trump has done a lot when it comes to undoing what obama did. this is another barack obama d. this is another example. it is, there are scores of things he has done. >> some of those things, charlie, are what conservatives, any conservative would want a president to do. >> exactly. this is zero surprise here, first of all. it's not the ivanka trump administration, it's donald trump, what a shock he would fought stand up for women. secondly, as a pro-business anti-regulation president, this is pretty much consistent with what he's doing and he has been rolling back a lot of these regulations. and i think it's very likely that any republican president might have done these kinds of things, saying, yes, wooer in favor of the concept. this is overreaching federal regulation, too much interference into the business community. so on those two fronts, the number one health pro-bass anti-regulation, look, this is donald trump who is never going to be a champion for women.

>> these have just come out. >> that he was going to change it. she couldn't have held it up. >> so, really quickly -- >> it's unlikely. >> i think if they keep their heads down, keep trump as far away from the possible perhaps. >> good luck. >> thank you. thank you, as well. and still ahead this morning, a texas deputy is sent to the hospital after inappropriate hailing fumes from an explosion at a flooded chemical plant. we'll get an update. plus a reviewing new focus group shows trump supporters are growing frustrated saying things like nut, flawed, stop tweeting. "morning joe" is coming right back. the military family, and it really shows. we've got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police.

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i helped build an army, defend a country and create the biggest drug cartel this world has ever seen. that sounds made up barry. tom cruise. stop now if you want. it gets crazy from here. woo! american made. rated r. >> good morning, welcome to "morning joe." there's so much to fet to this morning. in storm-battered texas, a chemical plant that officials feared would catch fire has, indeed, endured multimillion explosion there is this morning. we have a live report coming up. plus the pentagon revs up its fighter jets as president trump says the time for talk is over with forth korea. but issing is mattis on the same page or are we seeing yet another break between mattis and the president? we will break down new reporting on the mueller investigation into russia, which now has a new york twist. and a focus group of trump

supporters tells the president to chill out, quit tweeting as his poll numbers take another dive. >> there are so many significant stories today, obviously, we start in houston, but the political stories significant. what we're finding out about mueller and the new york's attorney general actually suddenly makes the talk of pardons irrelevant. and your focus group. what we hear from this focus group of trump supporters is the same thing i'm hearing from all of my friends in pensacola, alabama, across the deep south, better still trump supporters. they're trump supporters, though, with a caveat. which is we're getting tired of this. get some -- almost to a person, they're saying the same thing. >> wow. >> they're still with him. but our patience is wearing really thin. >> we will get to all of that. but we will start in texas as the waters begin to recede, they reveal the sheer magnitude of

destruction the death toll jumped to 28. the heroic efforts to rescue people across the state continue dangerously. by nbc news' count, there have been 25 water rescues as of last night. the video came in from the coast guard wrestling people near beaumont, texas and port arthur. the size of the relief effort is enormous. 14,000 national guards activated. even the navy is accepting the uss oak hill to provide relief and 700 marines as well. there are 32,000 people waking up in shelters, and 220,000 have registered for fema assistance and all morning yesterday, we were telling you about coastal port arthur texas, besieged by flood waters t. county took 20 inches of rain overnight and at one point the mayor wrote on social media, our whole city is under water. people posted to a facebook

page, pleading for help. let's bring in nbc news meteorologist bill karins. bill, where does things stand right now? >> for the first time if five nights, i don't have breaking into u.s. to report, no new levees, we didn't have problems with overstop topping, now new evacuation. it could change, storm is now over areas of louisiana, heading up two ready the memphis area, already new flashed into warnings have been issued outside of memphis. the concern is this is hillier terrain. if we get torrential rain, a short period of time, it collects in the valleys. that's where the small streams are located and life-threatening flooding is a possibly, through the overnight hours. 10 million people are under flash flood watches because of harvey. the heaviest rains are in central arkansas. notice it avoids little rock. from memphis to jackson, that's five inches of rain. that's significant. for that reason, we have a moderate or high risk of flash

flooding in these regions, new damage is done to homes or properties, are life threatening. so it would be in this area. joining us now from houston, we have nbc correspondent gabe gutierrez, yesterday i know you were in the flood water near the attic. now you are finding yourself in the shelters. how are things improving? >> reporter: good morning. well, this is the largest shelter here in houston. at one point it had nearly 10,000 people t. numbers are down to 2500 at the george r. brown convention center. harris is consolidating its shelters to two megashelters. today, fire department crews will be going door-to-door to homes they believe had three feet of what under the circumstances to make sure no one was left behind, there are still water rescues under way, again along some of the bayous, buffalo bill, we have been reporting still has plenty of high water, but one of the other news overnight is that chemical

plant explosion about 30 miles outside of houston, there is smoke reported there and the company is holding a news conference in a short time to talk ab the next step t. concern is that there could be moreic plosion, the radius around the plant has been evacuated. there are concerns about whapsz next. now, here in houston, as you mentioned between federal and local authorities, there has been more than 25 water rescues and the death toll is now up to 28. there are fear, however, that that could grow. phil. >> they may not even take 25,000 water rescues, is that the total over there they are estimating? >> reporter: yeah, 125,000 between state and federal authorities. in terms of the national guard, it has been maxed out t. governor updated 14,000 in texas. now 10,000 more members of the national guard from around the country are being deployed. >> thank for all your reporting.

we are floridaed to hear positive reports. getting people out to live locations or heading on home. the other thing we like to watch. we will be watching irma. this is way out in the atlantic. but here's the problem. in about five days from now this is supposed to be a major hurricane heading towards the caribbean island. we need this to be a fish storm. it's a myth land area, heading two ready the pique peak of the season. this is within they can be big and do sophisticate damage and over a large area. we'll watch that into the middle of next week. it's too soon to say if it will threaten our country nor now. >> thank you very much. so witnesses at the table, we have pulitzer prize historian. >> he won the pulitzer prize? >> yes from do you have a big to prove it? inside joke. the answer to that is yes, yes, he does, and white house reporter for the associated press jonathan le mere and ms

nbc mark halperin. >> a majority of voters believe that president trump is tearing the country apart is a fox poll. >> okay. according to a fox news poll, 56% believe trump is dividing the nation compared to 33% who think he is drawing the country together. in the same pom, trump had a 41% approval rating, while 55% disapprove and with tax reform on the horizon, 49% of the voters believe it's important that congress pass legislation on the issue that's here. but only 14% of vote, say that's likely to get accomplished. nearly eight in ten voters do not believe tax reform will happen this year. and now some of the voters who lifted president trump to a victory last year are beginning to show their frustrations, a pom found the president, his voters are growing impatient. >> the thing that drives me

crazy is all the tweeting he does, i don't pay any attention to it. it's in the news, it's on the newscasts every day. >> crazy. >> what? >> well, that was a lot of it the tweeting, it has to stop. >> did you vote for him? >> unfortunately, yes. >> because regardless of what he truly wants to get done, whatever that may be. he has got to be his own worsten my. he couldn't be any worse at achieving goals if politics. what most disappoints me is, he's is up an incredibly flawed individual that has articulated many of the values that i hold dear and the messenger is overwhelming with the message. i wish he was on the opposite side of where i hold dear because it would be better for the causes i like. >> as much as i thought he would

be a quick learner and delegate to top notch individual, yes hasn't done that. >> we know he's a nut. everybody knew he's a nut. but there comes a point if time where you need to become professional. he's not even professional let alone presidential. >> god. wow. >> i remember you and john heilemann brought a bloomberg focus group to us early, it may have been in august or september of 2015. it was one of the post-revealing focus groups i've ever seen. that's where you had working class people saying he's one of us. >> yeah. >> i think actually out of new hampshire. this is one of the most telling focus groups i have seen along with yours, because those people are saying exactly with what all of my friend are saying to me on the phone this week. this month, not what they were

saying two or three months ago, which was back off him. you're fought giving him a chance, joe. relax. stop. all of my friends are saying the same exact things as those people are, which is wait, okay, we knew he was crazy, but we thought there was a method to the madness and thought he'd go in there and be a quick learner and change washington, turn things around. he ain't doing anything, from pensacola to pittsburgh, you know it did take me long knocking on tours when i ran for officer, you get to the fourth door, three of the four people are saying the the same thing. okay. this is more than anecdotal evidence. this is a trend. this is where trump voters are right now. >> and i'm confident from my travels in talking to trump supporters since in the last couple months, that if pittsburgh, it could have been

pensacola, could have been milwaukee, it could have been detroit, it could have been manchester, new hampshire, it could have been anywhere. because the president has got nowhere to hide on why his popularity has declined. it's the three things you we heard there, we all hear everywhere. not getting stuff done, not changing washington, not acting in the way people would like to see presidential. >> how about that line, mark, he's fought professional, in fact, i'm sorry, he's not acting presidential. he's not even acting professional. people aren't stupid f. i act acted like he acted in the work place. >> i'd be fired. >> i'd be fired. >> donald trump needs to understand these people live in the real world. they work if real work places and they understand they would be fired if they behaved at their work site the way the president of the united states behaves at his. >> it was clear to me during the campaign. they will cut him slack to

behave in an unorthodoxed way, not if they don't see tear lives getting better. still ahead the trump and mattis vaudeville routine continues the president says one thing, his secretary of defense says no. >> good cop, bad cop, and it works. politico says robert mueller is working with u.s. attorney general. oh, are they putting together an insurance plan in case the president goes through a preemptive wave of pardons? >> repeatsable offense. >> can't do it on the state level. no power. you are watching "morning joe." wrook. four seconds on the clock, down by one. championship on the line. erin "the sharpshooter" shanahan fakes left. she's outside of the key, she shoots... ...she scores! uh... yes, erin, it is great time to score a deal. we need to make room for the 2018 models. relive the thrill of beating the clock. the volkswagen model year end event. hurry in for a $1,500 in available bonuses and 0% apr

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the u.s. is carrying out a show of forcecology a missile launch earlier this week they say the united states flew too supersonic bombers and two fighter jets as part of a

military exercise. >> this comes as a solution with the escalating standoff is no longer on the table t. president yesterday took to twitter writing, quote, the u.s. has been talking to forth korea and paying them extortion money for 25 years. >> this is tu. >> talking is not the answer. in his latest break, james mattis rejected the u.s. was ready to take diplomacy off the table. here's what he said in washington yesterday. >> the president this morning tweeted that talking isn't the answer. are we out of diplomatic sources to north korea? >> no, we're never out of diplomatic solution, we continue to work together and the minister and i share a responsibility to provide for the protection of our nation, our populations and our interests, which is what we are here to discuss today and look for all the areas write we can

collaborate with already very strong collaboration. we always look for more. we're never complacent. >> so, gabby, this sort of thing doesn't shock me the good cop, bad cop. >> that is certainly far more direct than you see in any administration, but you do get a sense, to me general mattis is a good soldier and has been a good soldier his entire life. you get a sense there is a coordination to this. even if it's telling donald trump after he tweets out something, hey, listen, i'm going to go talk to the south korean delegation now and i'm going to tell them this, the that works with you. >> i think with mattis two things seem to be going on. on the north korean issue, he is keen to understand america is about to take military action. he will do something crazy to calm allies down after the president sent out that tweet and maybe the president sending out that tweet will put fire

under the chinese to to more. i doubt it. they already have theorist with the americans, i also don't know mattis. i know people that know him well, he was very clear, he came into the administration out of a sense of loyalty to the country. it was fought particularly out of a sense of loyalty to president trump, he felt by being in the pentagon, he could do the best job for the pentagon. you we heard him say about north korea and afghanistan. we had that clip with him and the troops, patience is wearing thin, in general. >> yes. >> patience is wearing thin. >> with all do you respect i think it's a stretch to say there was some sort of coordination thought out by the white house. when you look at what mattis said to the troops. when you look at what mattis said about the transgender ban and what he is saying about this. he's going to go his way. he's not financial to go with the president when the president is wrong. >> except for the fact, john that trump is a new york

democrat and has been his entire lie. i know he's republican now, et set remarks et set remarks et cetera. but this is a guy who has grown up surrounded in a culture that would not have him at 71-years-old suddenly supporting a transgender basketball. there is a political stop to his base. so if he had somebody, if he's allowed to tweet that and say he's fighting for it, he had somebody at the pentagon saying hold on, it's actually a part of the order, they will conduct a review. >> that's really generous. >> no, it's not generous, it's a reality. i'm not generous to donald trump on this show. no, it's not, it's cynical. donald trump is being cynical about this. he wants his base to think he is doing one thing when mattis is playing cleanup for him. that's not generous to donald trump there the question is between mattis and trump, are they on the same page? that's what i'm not sure about.

whether it's a ban, i'm not sure they're on the same page. >> anybody that does know general mattis. i don't know him, but anybody that does know general mattis will tell you two things, one he is doing this for his country, two, he understands the chain of command. >> but then why does he come -- if that is all the case, why does he come out on television in afghanistan and talks the way he does about these soldiers needing to hold the line because the country is in a very bad place? because that is not respecting the chain of command. >> because the country is in a very bad place. he didn't talk about the president of the united states. >> directly. >> we, i think actually general mattis may be more brilliant than all of us, we got what we wanted out of it t. troops got what they wanted out of i. and i think actually he is very nimble, diplomatically. they may call him mad dog.

if somebody told donald trump, you thought you were getting patt patton. you got marshall, instead? one of the things i am feeling enthusiastic about the country, which is most of the time. i think of what you said when you reported the number of people who said that trump asked why couldn't we use nuclear weapons, if we have them, why can't we use them? ? right. >> i think mattis understands something, that the korean conflict is about a potential nuclear exchange and i think that's reality, a life experience, in a way tore trump that is kind of a videogame. >> coming up, live rescues been again before first light. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. wise man, i'm nervous about things i can't control...

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welcome back to "morning joe." this is like pictures ipics of air force two. president trump is scheduled to tour first hand what the hurricane did in the wind damaged area into rockport. we had up with fatality. he is supposed to meet with survivors there and see what the after math that they are dealing with. we have pictures still coming in

from nbc affiliate in the houston area, there is still water pouring out of those reservoirs, you can see the top middle of the screen. that the outflow from the reservoir, it's hard to tell, it's supposed to be to the north side of your screen, all in the middle is the flooding because of the release of the watt. it's supposed to continue through the middle of september. that how much water they still have to drain out of that system. >> that all goes into the buffalo bayou which is still flooding. a lot of the ought bayous have come down that one remains high, above flood stanl the next month. jacob rascone joins us live from near the capital plant. i we heard the scary story in the middle of the night, ahead of a plaque plume of cloud, what happened after that? >> they actually evacuated days ago, they were worried about this happening, this is as far

as they'll let us go. this is a chemical plant that produces capitals used to make plastics used in tanks. a lot of things around the house as well. what they say, they have a number of storm containers back there, where they hold these chemicals. they're supposed to be refrigerat refrigerated. but the area lost power. so up with of these containers, they're warm enough where they reacted. there was a big loud sound, people could hear it from far away. those flames have zooid died down, it's still burning back there. there are other containers with these chemicals the sheriff expects the same chemical reaction will happen, will see the flames again, what they're hoping is this is all contained. like i said, they evacuated a mile and a half around that facility as a precaution and ten deputies who are around the area initially went to the hospital bus they inhaled some smoke and they were worried about it t. company says that they think

that smoke is not toxic, you know, so so far they think that the deputies are fine. but still, they're making sure we're far away. they're mop toring the situation. they think that more of those reactions will happen. guys. >> jacob, i don't see anyone wearing a mask, is there any other concerns? they evacuated everyone, they think, that's it? not worried about the wind drift or ooeng anything like that? >> reporter: yes, they say they're sending air quality equipment in there to monitor, things were two-to-three miles away. they haven't told us we need to wear anything, but they don't want people right nearby. they say it's not toxic, but they still evacuate. so we're still waiting to hear weather, what is the real danger there, they're sending air casualty equipment in there. they will find out. we'll see. >> capitals into the air in the middle of a disaster. jacob rascone, we wish you safety along with your crew there and everybody else. so other developments that

happened last night the city of beaumont reported they are expecting the water pressure to go out in this city, the flooding is so extreme around there they had to back up, that's even going now, so a lot of people that have been stranded in their homes, waiting rescue, or the water went down, now you will lose your fresh water if your houses, we still if we have additional damage, it could be on the river southwest of houston. they had a record crest in morning, that's going up. the waterways, unfortunately, are supposed to go up through the weekend. that's where new additional damage will be done, if anything that has happened up to this point, it will be in western tennessee, this is where we see flash flooding to develop throughout the afternoon and the evening, about seven inches of quick rain should cause problems, this is also interesting, the hurricane center says there is now a 20% chance of a development in the western gulf. some of that moisture could head up into the flood zone.

so let's pray and cross our fingers this does not occur. again a 20% chance of that development. that's scary enough. back to you. >> bill, thank you. coming up on ""morning joe" another from the sauna to tennis courts and beyond, inside paul manaforts friendship with the ousted president victor yanukovych. >> we have to stop talking about this. >> why? >> it's in my mind. >> a high profile russian olegark is included as well. we are back after this. you always pay your insurance on time.

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new developments overnight with the federal probe into russian interference in the 2016 election. politico reports special council robert mueller is working together with the fork state attorney general, shearing every day and discussing their

investigation, involving former trump campaign chairman paul manafort who has denied any wrong-doing, politico sources several people familiar with the matter, reports working with a state partner could potentially provide mueller with additional lever annual to get panafort to continue in the company. trump does not have pardon power over state crimes. new york attorney general eric snyderman is a democrat and vocal critic, whose investigation in trump university resulted in a $25 million settlement last year. joining us now, ms nbc chief legal correspondent and host of "the beat" and follow and global and compare ty politics at the london school of economics is with us as well. >> ari, one day you are talking about this, the next day who breaks into the news? >> we were discussing yesterday

morning the president has absolute federal pardon power, in russia, that may not be if you have. this is an international case that touches potentially 39 states, it all depends on what local prosecutors do. i reported as you recall, one office told us they were looking at jurisdiction, we didn't identify which state and boom as you say, joe, this shows it. this is just the beginning. because of the more the white house talks about how they have this power, they can do whatever they want. the more they are tossing not only on bob mueller but investigators where we documented state crimes ma i have occurred. >> what kind, how would you bring this down to the state level? >> you where i this to the state level, by looking at what are the states, the federal the state violations which pay overlap with what mueller is looking at federally. the grand jury is investigating this, they may find, did someone help with the hack of the invasion law, did someone aid and abet conspiracy across state

line. aiding and abetting means you can get if trouble, that means go to jail, even if the crime plot didn't ultimately work, it can happen if crimes don't succeed. >> at that time why president mike pence on his way to corpus christi. >> so, ryan, we were talking this week earlier, yesterday i guess it was, about how the system seems to be working towards checks and balances, that's just on the federal level. >> yeah. >> it becomes even more complex when you start bringing in states attorneys general. suddenly the united states seems more difgs. >> it is extremely difficult. it's a good thing. i think they are playing checkers where politicians and people like mueller understands the checks and balances are playing chess. this is where you have a much more sophisticated aspect to mueller's behavior and strategy,

right? you have arpaio's pardon signaling, potentially, maybe you don't need to flip on me, i can pardon you. sure enough we have a few days later the revelation, oh, you can't pardon people, maybe the arpaio pardon, if it was intended on sending a signal is falling on deaf ears. >> we were having this conversation, somebody was saying, oh, it's so horrible. trump is going to become guilty of all these crimes and will pardon everybody. bob mueller, we're thinking about that right now. bob mueller was thinking about that. the guy really is, he's ten steps ahead of people in the white house who were day traders, amateurs. they are rank amateurs at best. >> yeah, he has the experience of having gone through processes like this before so he know what

is he can and he can't do. he knows where the bit itself of the law are on his side and he knows how to get thoem them on his side, he is working with workers in state level 2. you talk in terms of the people who we know have been subpoenaed so far, who mueller and his team have spoken to, are you starting to get a picture of what we might get something and what they're looking at? >> the picture is paul manafort's international dealings are under a microscope, keep in mind, no one's home was ever raided like a common drug dealer. that was partly because of the standoff of the fixen saps i tapes, at issue with power tested. oughts are basically seen as cooperating. you hand over the subpoena, they happened over documents. in the manafort case, there was evidence of a crime a judge approved in his home or he wouldn't cooperate. they said we got to knock done

the door. so that shows us again with the new york case, they are looking at manafort's financial dealings before 2016 the most fascinating question, like you, joe, as a careful lawyer, i don't pre judge the outcomes. one of the questions is where some of these individuals turned into foreign assets before they even joined the 2016 campaign. >> you are also right, it's a lawyer, yeah. you don't pre judge. you understand, nothing is over until it's over. but there are also times where you get a stack of files on your deveng and you open it up and about three pages in, okay. this one is going to last a long time. >> sometimes, briefly, some of you have evidence of criminal intent, which doesn't close the whole case, if you have, for example, someone say, we don't have dealings if russia, you open up the stack, joe, the e-mail says, hey, putin aide,

help us do a deal in russia. by the way, bob mueller had that document a lot longer than the public had. >> because i know we feed to go to our guests. i have to ask a question that other people have asked. what was paul panafort thinking with the background he had, with people in his own family were saying, what's that doing? >> i would be. >> what was paul manafort doing with his shady background, putting himself in this position where any wise counsel would say, might sound exciting. this will not end well. >> narscism, manafor the is a part of an industry in washington, particularly in the post-world i era that gets away with this there are many people that get away with things. >> so our next guest can probably touch on this.

there is a new report that find the ties between president trump's former campaign chairman and the russian olegark went on far longer than previously reported t. "wall street journal" report paul manafort worked with a russian olegark at one time banned from entering the united states t. $17 million he earned from 2012 to 2014 working for pro-russia parties in ukraine. joining us now is the national security reporter for the "wall street journal" who broke the story, thanks for being on the show. >> catty kay with the bbc has the first question. >> how much are we getting a sense of this latest news of just how deep those ties were, the business ties were between paul manafort and russians and/or ukrainians linked to russia? >> what our investigation reveals is like you've mentioned earlier that the relationship began earlier tan we previously

thought. it goes back to 2004 with a project if georgia following the rose revolution there. we also find that with the georgia project, it revealed a greater pattern, where he is behind the scenes and he views davis manafort company to advance vladimir putin's geopolitical goals. >> the in terms of this the few information here, this information that was not reported to an appropriate authority along the way or is this adding to the bank of only in about manafort's broad work? >> we're definitely adding to it, for sure. the broad outline of his work in ukraine has been known for a while. also his activities in montenegro on behalf of darryl passka have been more or less known for a while.

the events in georgia are new. and like i said, that reveals a wider pattern. if have you two dots, you connect two dots. maybe you have something. once you have three or more, then you are really, you do have something that you can sink your teeth into a little bit. >> what is your sense how manafort and his team are dealing with all of these widening revelations? >> well, as you know, on monday, manafort's spokesman was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury, so that was a surprise, and i think it definitely shows that the noose is tightening if you will. they are having real challenges keeping up with events. >> do you have a sense how the trump administration is distancing themselves, how are they trying to win this in a way that is not implicateing the

president in hiring this person? >> well, i think you've seen since the president took office he and his team had every opportunity publicly and privately have done all they can to distance themselves from everyone who might be troublesome for them going forward. you know, manafort, himself, you know, they dropped him from the campaign as we know when revelations appeared in ukraine about the plaque ledger that apparently showed secret payments, cash payments. so i think that was the first sign that the trunks at that point the campaign was ready to get rid of this guy who had done a lot of good for them. >> all right, "wall street journal," thank you for wibeing with us. just moments ago we saw vice president pence and his wife deport for corpus christi. he is expected to meet with

storm survivors and survey damage there. 96 to the human toll the storm's impact on the economy is already significant. c nbc sarah eisen joins us live from the new york stock exchange with more. sar. >> reporter: good morning, mika and joe, more disruption to the energy infrastructure in this country. in fact, a key pipeline, a colonial pipeline is now shut down, further sparking fears of gas shortages. this was a channel that actually brought fuel and diesel and oil from the gulf to the northeast, providing consumer fuel to new york city, washington, d.c. and atlanta. so oil prices are moving higher, but gas prices are really shooting umm. that's been the biggest impact already. we've seen fuel prices across the country rise 10 cents from last week. analysts are expect atlantic to move fumpltdz a silver liner, a grown-up of european fuel tankers is preparing to sail to the u.s. to make up for some of the fuel shortages because the

biggest impact of harvey so far, as far as the official production is concerned is the refinery shut down, a fifth of refining capacity in this country knocked out. i also want to mention tax reform front and center after the president's speech yesterday, in which he was able to tout good numbers on economic growth. listen. >> we just announce thad we hit 3 ', in gdp. it just came out. and on a yearly basis as you know the last administration during an eight-year period never hit 3% so we're really on our way. >> reporter: so we did get a surprise number on the xi yesterday, 3% growth for the second quarter. but we have seen that before during the obama years, in terms of quarterly growth spurts. they got a 3% number two years ago that challenges maintaining that level. president trump promised a

long-term annual growth target of 3%. it's come in waves. that will be the key. we talked to warren buffet. he says it feels like a 2% economy. most economists say it will be challenging to get to a sustained growth rate of 3%, tax reform might help in the form of corporate tax cuts, with i is something clearly the administration is pivoting toward today, wall street remains optimistic. >> all right. thank you so much. >> by the way, i have some shocked people. but the president's statement that the way it makes you feel. do you really want to say this? it was not correct that the obamaed a helpstration never oversaw 3%. >> factually challenged. >> it's factually challenge. >> it was fake news. >> this may be the first -- >> i think it may be the first interest he's got an fact wrong.

make a note. >> maybe he didn't know. anyhow. >> is this an exaggeration that rebounded to his benefit? >> we don't need to xanl rate. it's crowd sizes. >> you could have said 3%. >> gdp size, it's okay. it's okay. >> like we said. >> it's okay. >> all right. i'm going to go now. so we want to know this afternoon that the organization is going to be reading the "closing bell" on wall street. >> aamericare is amazing, it's a push to present relief effort to hurricane harvey. they are sending badly needed medication to the storm zone. if you want to help, please visit tear website at amer is isicare website.

americare. new reporting from bloomberg news is next. keep it right here on "morning joe." statins lower cholesterol, but can also lower your body's natural coq10. qunol helps restore this heart-healthy nutrient with 3x better absorption. qunol has the #1 cardiologist recommended

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what's the story behind green mountain coffee and fair trade? let's take a flight to colombia. this is boris calvo. boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm and invest in his community

to make even better coffee. all for a smoother tasting cup. green mountain coffee. you know win control? be this guy. check it out! self-appendectomy! oh, that's really attached. that's why i rent from national. where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me. which makes me one smooth operator. ah! still a little tender. (vo) go national. go like a pro. let me be very clear, i did not collude with russia, nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. i had no improper contacts. i have notary l relied on russi

funds for my businesses, and i have been fully transparent in providing all requested transformation. >> white house senior adviser and donald trump's son-in-law jared kushner denying he relied on the russian money to finance his family's business. a new report of bloomberg o'dell-s into the troubled finances of the kushner companies with specific focuses on one new york city skyscraper. with us now, the co-author of that report, reporter for bloomberg news, caleb mell vie. this stems from their building at 555 5th avenue, which i just think when the history books are written, in one building may have almost as much written about it as trump tower itself. >> it's funny. going back to 2007 the project has been an absolute boondoggle for them and there's just haunting shadows of that into

the present. our reporting shows they've been going all over the globe to look for a savior for this building to redevelop it or refinance their huge debts on it. >> of course when his sister was talking about selling access to the trump administration, if they were investors, to get green cards, right, but this is also, though, of course we've also seen it with qatar. at the same time they were trying to get money from qatar, well, soon after they were turned down, suddenly trump turned on qatar. >> that's certainly an interesting series of events. and we report for the first time this morning that they also approached eed saudi arabian developer and of course the trump administration already had its visit to saudi arabia as well. >> yeah. by the way, it is 666 5th avenue, something that of course makes it a bit more ominous.

a big ghost busters movie. >> 666. >> so but you write about some other countries that they've gone to trying to get money. >> yeah. they went to saudi arabia, they went to south korea, they went to france's richest man, bernard arnaud, he runs lbmh. they were hoping because he's into luxury brands and they wanted to build this huge mall at the base of a new tower he'd be interested. >> all nose. >> all the way around. that's the fascinating thing here, even though there's this broad concern about buying abscea access to the white house, nobody's really biting on this troubled project. >> too hot. >> all the way around the world. >> mika? >> does he go back to new york and get to work on his company or stay in the white house? what's he doing in the white house? >> that is a very interesting question, mika. and i don't think caleb -- >> i'm curious. >> for the table. >> for the table. >> katty kay.

>> i've lost track of the job responsibilities. snifs wondering what the time frame here is. so this money problem, the mortgages is do when? >> february 2019. >> and how much the it? >> $1.2 billion. >> this is kind of urgent, right? he has more than a year. >> company officials will tell you, look, in real estate finance, a year is plenty of time to solve our problems. but interest rates are going higher on the property. they're already losing money. that will become a more pressing situation the longer they wait. >> to make a very basic point here, this is someone who didn't take a salary in the white house because he passes hymn off as special and doesn't need this money, and you're telling us actually there's a $1.2 billion bill coming due that on the current rate they can't afford. >> right. right now the net income at the building is not enough to cover debt payments so, they need

to -- >> where's russia when you need them? >> they get money from russia. >> this is one of the huge things about foreign poll i, you never know where the risk going to crop up p if you think about historical analogies, imagine if there was a roosevelt tower in berlin or tokyo in 1940 that was undisclosed or rose veelts family was trying to find financing from berlin or tokyo, history may have unfolded differently. we don't know where these entanglements are going to lead us. we always have to ask this question with the white house, are they doing this foreign policy because it's the right decision or because it's good for his wallet or his son-in-law's or daughter's? i always said it was very bad for nato there wasn't a trump tower london or paris. i'm dead serious. it does seem that donald trump pays a little more attention to countries that have actually supported his projects. >> they're certainly ones he's familiar with through business

already. >> so where does this go? >> so we're going to be watching this closely. i don't expect these are all the people the company has approached to try and make deal for this tower. and look, they got to either knock it down and build a new one or refinance the debt so there's more news to come. there will be deal making around this building and it's going to mean good news or bad news for the kushner family. >> by the way, if you don't know the address, it's hard to remember, 666 5th avenue. final thoughts. >> caleb, what would convince you there was no conflict of interest going on between jared kushner and his position in the white house and this tower? >> unfortunately, he doesn't have to convince me. he's divested from these assets, but in most cases the investments were to his family. it's a very close-knit family. they of been in business together a long time. it's hard to believe that even

though there's that financial bright line there -- >> bloomberg's caleb melby, a series of opinion questions thrown at you and you've very professionally swatted every one of them away. if jared kushner were a tree, caleb, what type of tree would he be? well, i'm a reporter but thanks for asking. that does it for thus morning. stephanie ruhle picks up our coverage. >> thank you, joe. clearly caleb knows the bloomberg way. i'm stephanie ruhle, thrilled to be back you. start do you think in texas where all eyes are on a chemical plant in flood-ravaged area. at this hour, if it is not happening yet, it could. this chemical plant could be exploding and catching fire. >> materials could now explode. the high water and the lack of power leave us with no way to prevent it. >> serious business. a major fuel pipeline