coverage. >> i leaned into your shot by accident. >> i like that. >> any chance to be on television. >> we shared a moment. i'm thomas roberts here at msnbc health cares in new york. president trump spending the weekend at his golf club in bedminster, new jersey amid the latest tweet storm slamming the mayor of puerto rico and suggesting that workers rnts -- aren't helping enough, saying they want everything to be done for them when it should be a community etch f community effort when they are dealing with a growing humanitarian crisis following hurricane maria. >> if anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying. and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy. so mr. trump, i beg you to take

charge and save lives. >> so harsh words there from the mayor of san juan. now it is day 153 of trump's presidency and we have another top cabinet member out. health and human services secretary tom price resigning after mounting headlines revealing his opulent habit of private jet travel on the taxpayer's dime. so price isn't right for the job. but was he the only trump cabinet member using taxpayer money to jet set for the job. we take a look at that. and plus the russia investigation and social media. what twitter executives found and one with senator isn't totally convinced. we'll dive in that that thhour. but we begin with the territory of puerto rico. the mayor of san juan making clear she is focused on the matter of saving lives and her citizens. despite the president's attacks this morning lambasting her leadership and her management.

>> i could say this to you with a smile. i am not going to be distracted by small comments by politics, by petty issues. this is one goal and it is to save lives. that is all that matters. >> so we have retired lieutenant general russell honor e and he led the relief efforts after hurricane indicate decimated new orleans and he had this to say about the tweets. >> the mayor is living on a cot and i have the president have a good day y'all. >> a good day because the president is spending the day in bedminster. this is where the president has his private club in new jersey and the official schedule is devoted for the president today of an hour of calls with officials in puerto rico and also speaking with the governor kenneth map of the u.s. virgin islands. the last hour we have the president tweeting about that conversation with the governor of u.s. virgin islands saying just spoke to governor

kennethman who stated that fema and military are doing a great job and the governor is joining us by phone. it is good to have you with me. >> good afternoon. how are you thomas. >> i'm doing well and we're curious because you've had the opportunity to speak with the president a couple of times this month concerning damage from irma and maria. explain how today's call went and what was discussed. >> i thought it went very well. it wasn't well with the vice president and brock long this morning, for the virgin islands. the federal folks have been just great in terms of making sure we had our own pipelines of supplies and the meshing with the local government and the local nonprofit community. we were really able to get significant supplies and out to the community and so we're pivoting on st. croix and the territory from rescue to recovery. we are talking about getting our power distribution up and

running and i took the opportunity to take the president and having two cat five storms in a small period and plan for reopening of schools and dealing with some of the help that we're going to need. the virgin islands is nowhere back to normal and the president knows that and we were clear on that today. but there are some work that we need to do with the u.s. congress and i ask the president for support there. but all in all, the folks at fema, at the department of defense, at the white house, their response to the needs of people of the virgin islands have been awesome and we made sure that we have our only team operations and we were able to put teams together to make this work for the people of the territory. we're about 104,000 people, but spread across four islands. >> and sir, when we think about the characterization of saying

you are using your own fe-- peoe and the fema approach and what was the president's mood given the headlines about the public anger that he seems to express toward how the mayor of san juan has been crying out publicly for help saying that it hasn't been enough, that people could be dying. their lives are in danger, about a potential humanitarian crisis for our brothers and sisters in puerto rico. >> the only comment that the president made with me about puerto rico, about his concern in terms of getting out into the communities and the realities in terms of what has been going on in the road system, i'm not a part of that recovery effort. i'm not in the ground in puerto rico. i know this is my fifth hurricane rodeo in the virgin islands and when folks rnts -- folks rnts receiving food and water and shelter there is out cries. but the president in our

discussion did indicate he was deeply concerned about what was going on in puerto rico and they are going to focus more and ramp up more on in particular area. he wanted to know specifically how things were going in the virgin islands and if there were any additional needs that we had that i felt were not being attended to and he -- any gaps in the system and i've been able to work through those issues with tom bossert at the white house and with brock long and they've got a great federal coordinating office on the ground here by the name of bill vogle. we are just moving in the recovery. it is not an heeasy process. the storms are brutal, they destroy homes, i've lost hospitals. i've lost four schools and i've lost a host of homes. unisland, 90% of the distribution system is on the ground and 60% on the other island, on the big island and 40%, 50% on st. john. so this is going to be a long

road. but we in the virgin islands have been through this and so we've had systems in place in terms of how do we respond in hurricanes, how do we prepare our people for these disasters before they hit in terms of protecting themselves and then how we roll out rescue in the early days and then we roll out recovery. >> well sir, that is also the job of why we have fema and why our tax dollars go into having federal preparedness for emergency management like the stages assets for continental states like texas or florida before irma or before harvey. do you think that it is fair for the president, obviously the population of puerto rico is about 29 times higher than the combined population of the u.s. virgin islands, do you think it is fair for the president to politically attack the mayor of san juan for fighting for her people, saying it isn't enough so far? >> well i don't know that -- that that is happening. i will tell you, we don't have access to cable here.

it is down on the ground. i don't know what is really going on in terms of the national news that is happening. and in my particular corner, i'm at my office and in my meetings and i just finished a meeting with the business community on st. croix that went three hours. we are focused on the recovery. i don't know what is going on in the national stage. i heard you reference a tweet that the president made following our course and until i heard you mention that, i did not know that it occurred. all i'm -- all i could tell you is that the efforts of the federal government to the american citizens and the folks in the u.s. virgin islands have been met and in somin stans have exceeded our expectation and it has lou -- allowed us to focus on recovery and those in sherltss. >> real quickly. if we think about when you announced on september 11th that the president would visit within six or seven days, this is after irma hit and then maria came.

but you are saying that people are still out of the loop. you are not even getting information about what is happening on the national stage with the headlines because of lack of service there. what did the white house -- what did the president say about what you could tell your citizens about when they could feel like things are getting back to normal for the islands. >> it is not me to tell the citizens that things are getting back to normal, it is for the citizens to experience that and they are experiencing that through folks in the private sector being -- going back to work. they are experiencing that in terms of businesses being open and they are experiencing that with shorter lines or no lines in service stations and experiencing that with access into the supermarkets and seeing the shelves filled. they are experiencing that as they prepare to send their children back to school -- >> and governor, you are representing all of these people right now telling us how great things are going on the island and defending the administration but you are not also responsible for letting your citizens know about when they could expect the power to come back on. >> well we have said that and we told -- and well that is all

part of the process. i do a daily briefing with my citizens at 5:30 every afternoon. and they know that we're going to have a about three to 400 linemen on the way to the virgin islands and they know our expectation is by mid-december to christmas we might have 90% of the power energized in the territory. so they are aware. we keep that part of the recovery process, that we go out to the community and the citizens on a daily basis and have the department and agencies report to what the progress has been. what the next steps are, how they could access aid and how they could get thur lives back to normal. i don't tell folks whether we are been to normalcy or whether the recovery is great. they tell me based on their lives going back to normal and their ability to take care of their families and operate their businesses and go back to work. >> well, sir, i think from this conversation we thank you for your time because we know that it is a one-two punch. >> yes, it has been. >> to deal with.

and this isn't an overnight fix. >> it is not. >> and we are in this for the long haul. >> thank you so much. governor kenneth mapp from the virgin islands. i want to turn to the attention facing puerto rico, the dire situation where ron mott is standing by at the port of san juan and ron, i know there is a lot of headlines about the dialogue and this public spat between the mayor there and the president, but there was the bigger story the other day about this port and containers that were sitting idle of goods that people could be utilized right now. so give us an update of what is going on with the port. >> reporter: well, hey, there, thomas. the manager of freight services telling us that the reporting about fema hurricane goods sitting here in the port and no one coming to pick it up is grosslia grossly exaggerated. he said they started with 40 foot long containers and in 20 minutes they are expecting to

shut the port down for the day and they say, we'll have to check, they are able to get all 214 of those loads out here. the sport has been accepting barge loads since last saturday, after hurricane maria blew through puerto rico and those containers have been moving out. now where they go from the port, we don't know. and now we spent part of the morning and early afternoon on the east coast of puerto rico, a rural area, near the area less populated than the capitol here in san juan and harder to see the aid. ly tell you that. it is harder to see the aid there. we spoke to a number of people living day-to-day with food and grocery stores are open, lines everywhere. so people know that this is sort of the post hurricane reality, that you have to stand in line for everything. whether it is food and water, to get a five gallons of gas at the gas station, so there are a lot of lines and that is where the frustration comes from. i think a lot of eyebrows went up last night when mayor cruz took on the president and the trump administration over getting relief here much faster

and that this should not be a crippled by logistics an the president responded on twitter this morning. it is going to make for an interesting tuesday when he schedules his visit here and perhaps over to the virgin islands. >> we do expect that to come up next week on october 3rd. ron mott reporting there in san juan. i want to bring in darren soto of florida. his dad hailed from puerto rico and representative of florida's largest district there. in the ninth district of florida. it is good to have you with me. your reaction to the president tweeting toward the mayor of san juan and questioning the leadership and also the ability of workers to help themselves within the community. what do you say to that? >> now is the time for leadership and not getting into twitter wars an playing golf all weekend. we're seeing containers finally get out, but are the roads going to be cleared? the key has been from the very beginning that the trump administration is totally underestimated the extent of this damage that we had of over

3 million americans and didn't put themill assets down there within day one, two. we're finely getting there in day ten and 11 to really meet the need of this urgency but it was far too long. >> but sir, the issue of the tweet today, seems to be kind of a pattern coming from the white house, one of not having staged assets, potentially in place ahead of what was expected and forecast with these storms, also knowing that the president only recently gave the go-ahead to relieve the jones act for the coastal efforts of getting supplies in there. something that was waived for texas and florida and harvey and irma and the fact that the president has tweeted about the debt of puerto rico, making it seem as if -- it is not our responsibility to help our u.s. territory. what do you say of the disconnect between local and federal officials. >> i think you could have as

manyality turn nat facts and as many counter punches on twitter but people see things for what they are. people here in florida can't get in touch with their families and they haven't heard from the forward government generating supplies here in central florida and i'll see the island firsthand tomorrow after being blocked by the administration with other democratic lawmakers but the truth will come out no matter how much trump and others try to kick and scream, and try to paint this as not the crisis that it is. >> we know that the washington post pointed out that after maria hit that area, the president spoke or spent a long weekend at a private golf club and spent most of his times over the four days about escalating public feuds with kim jong-un and fell ore republicans in congress and the national football league over protests during the facial anthem. and he also recently tweeted out over the fake news media working in conjunction with democrats.

when it comes down to the basic level of what we have fema for and how we join together after mother nature style events, why do you think that there is an attempt to point fingers, coming from the administration? >> because they know the response wasn't adequate. in day two to three to four, we should have seen major naval as -- assets go down there and the army go down there and not wait until day ten before getting a first tar and now a three star general. we should have people in trucks sending these things ow. even helicopters to drop down supplies. instead we have an island of 3.3 million americans waiting for gas, waiting in line for groceries and waiting in line for water and it is a base of existence, i think most americans don't even understand how terrible it is. >> democratic congressman darren soto of florida. thank you so much. and we appreciate your time and we wish you safe travels. report back to us what you see when you visit. and if you want to learn how

to help those devastated by this hurricane season, and specifically maria, go to msnbc.com/puerto rico. coming up, tom price now paying the price, the fallout from his exit as hhs sektd and now joining along with the cabinet members with an early exit from the trump administration. we have an excellent political panel that is going to weigh in on all of it coming up and what lies for the week ahead, after this. believe the health of our water sources is essential to the health of our communities. which is why we're helping to replenish the mighty rio grande as well as over 30 watersheds across the country. we're also leading water projects in more than 100 communities. and for every drop we use... we're working to give one back. because our products rely on the same thing as we all do... clean water. and we care about it like our business depends on it.

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>> he may have paid $25,000 for that trip. which is disgraceful. >> do you think you still have the president's confidence? >> i think so, yeah. we're going to work through this. >> i will tell you personally, i'm not happy about it. i'm going to look at it. i'm not happy about it and i let him know it. >> so in the latest edition of

white house apprentice, political addition. tom price is out. he's fired. the secretary of health and human services offering his resignation and the president accepting it after price's use of private air fratravel at the expense of taxpayers. he spent over $500,000 and he wrote a check to cover his seat on the plane but that represents only a fraction as could you see there of the travel costs. so here to discuss this, former george w. bush white house chief ethics lawyer richard painter and assistant professor of public policy at harvard university, leo write rigger and joan walsh and national affairs correspondent at the nation and i think joining us here in a second, if we could cheat the cameras, washington post columnist, david roth, who is never late for a party. and you are first up to bat.

so when we think about the resignation of tom price means for this administration, and the headlines of other cabinet members and going over their travel, is there an issue with overspending and no oversight within the trump administration when it comes to more career folks that have political backgrounds like price. >> yes, sir. you've got the price and the issue of a couple of other cabinet secretaries, pruitt and zinke and the president of the united states off spending hundreds of thousand of dollars golfing and protecting the president's kids who had a $300,000 ski vacation. we don't have enough money to help the people of prv puerto rico. we have plenty of money to get the people of the trump administration out in style often with their wives and families. >> and i think a lot of people are going to -- joan, draw a

distin distinction when it comes to the first family. all right, maybe we'll raise an eyebrow at that. >> right. >> but we'll have to deal with it and we have a history of dealing with this and maybe they'll crack down in the future but when it cox -- when it comes to cabinet members an taking d.c. to philadelphia, private jets, why would this happen with career folks that in a system where they know they are going to get busted. >> and when he was in the house, was always railing at nancy pelosi for her use of private or military planes so it is not like it was a brand-new issue where this never occurred to him. i think david is right, it is not so much about the safety or the pre tection of the president's family but it is about the self dealing sh the fact that so much money is being spent at his own properties. that he's in bedminster, while people are drowning in puerto rico. that he didn't -- it is the lack of norms in this administration from the top. he didn't release his taxes. he didn't divest himself of all of his business hold gz and

created some bizarre trust relationship you know he is d k dauk -- talking to don jr. and eric. i could almost feel bad for tom price perhaps feeling like he's blindsided and rules apply in my case you when it does to the president. >> and do as i say but not as i do. but those in the administration should be smart and price did have a rallying cry against over spending and certainly flying around the country to trash obamacare, all these failed attempts to get this repeal and replace taking place in d.c. that hasn't happened yet. but either wise you spin it and we look at donald trump's message of draining the swamp and the president said he didn't like the optics of it. do you think there is more to come for other members. >> i agree with what the panel said before, which is that this isn't really draining the swamp. that trump has been filling the swamp. and that a lot of this is coming

from the top. and it is -- lead by example and a lot of examples are excessive spending and suggesting that the rules don't apply. but i think one thing that we can't discount is that in it all of this, it coincides with repeal and replace and the failure of repeal and replace. so i wouldn't be surprised if a lot of this and a lot of what donald trump is really upset about the optics, it connect connected back to the fact that repeal and replace fails at the exact same time that it comes out that price is part of the swamp. so he's not only -- it is only about the excessive use and not draining the swamp and kind of exploiting the resources of the white house and the taxpayers, but it is also about this continuing legacy of failure -- legislative failures and combination. there are no wins. >> if you are not completing your weekly task and you are not getting good headlines for this white house, then really what good are you, especially if you draw negative attention about

opulent spending. but richard, when it comes to the oversight or the ethics involved for members of this white house, because now it has turned to ryan zinke or steve mnuchin and kellyanne conway who flew on private jets and sought to use them, is this something an issue for the white house moving forward, that they are going to be people not only that need the turn around in their habits but going to get busted and kicked out like price for doing this. >> well, i don't see any efforts in this white house at all. the ethics lawyer wrote the government ethics and said they don't apply to the white house staff after kellyanne conway got in trouble. and what i see here is that the tone is set at the very top that they are going to spend taxpayer money however they feel. and that the president wants to go down to mara laga for a weekend, it will cost us hundreds of thousand of dollars

if not million for him to do that or go to bedminster. for us that are fiscal conservatives an want a smaller more efficient government we found out a long time ago we are not getting to get it with this administration. they are going to spend taxpayer money and live the lifestyle of rich and famous while people are drying doubt in puerto rico. it is a very tragedy -- tragic for our country that this is going on and that is amazing to me as a republican that i'm seeing this happen in a party which is for years stressed good budgetary sense and fiscal conservatism. this is sheer waste and irresponsibility and beyond what an ethics lawyer would tell someone they could do and not do. it is unpatriotic. it is just wrong. >> i think folks are going to look at this and it is one thing to think about the president and how he is living but if you are having robin leach do voice over

work for your cabinet members, it is different. young folks out there don't know who robin leach is. google. richard, great to see you, and thank you joan. coming up next, the russian hacking during the campaign season and what twitter executives are doing to fight that problem for future ae elections and what some of the senate intel committee are saying still needs to be done currently. what is that? it's you! it's me? alright emma, i know it's not your favorite but it's time for your medicine, okay?

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the presentation that the twitter team made to the senate intel staff today was deeply disappointing. the notion that their work was basically derivative based upon accounts that facebook had identified showed an enormous lack of understanding from the twitter team of how serious this

issue is, the threat it poses to democratic institutions, and again begs many more questions than they offered. >> so there we have senator mark warner slamming twitter for the presentation at the senate intel committee on thursday when the company disclosed it has shut down more than 200 accounts that were tied to the same russian operatives who bought at least $150,000 worth of political ads on facebook. now of 450 accounts, looreleasey facebook as part of the investigation, twitter was able to match 22 of those to its own site. so joining me now is msnbc justice and security analyst matt miller and technology writer for ad week marty swants. let me start with you, matt, the issue that senator warner was talking about there, with twitter and its records, are based only on information already unearthed on facebook. but if people are sitting at home and thinking that there was

a billion dollars spent in this campaign cycle to elect the next president, why would a spattering of accounts and $150,000 investment of facebook ads make the big balance of difference? >> well, i i think the problem is we don't know that is all of the spending that took place on either twitter or facebook. it seems clear that neither of the social networking sites has a really handle on how much russian activity there was on their sites. twitter especially hasn't done much investigation except looking at accounts that facebo turned -- questions that turned over to them. and the criminal question is there any american citithat helped the russian operatives help ad or post on twitter or fash and t-- facebook and the s is it is a policy question and it is illegal for foreign

governments to participate in u.s. elections and if they are, not through paid advertising but through bots that drive the conversation, if they are doing that, if twitter and facebook don't do more to police the active on their sites themselves, is there something that congress should do to step in to force them to. >> we know that house intel committee chair adam schiff had said it is clear that twitter has significant forensic work to do to understand the depth and breath of russian activist during campaign and this additional analysis will require a far more robust investigation into how the russian actors used their platform as a part of their active measures campaign. and if there was an investment made and as matt is pointing out we still don't know the final figures on that, but if americans are complicit in being activated by this information that we see, that gets our attention, we share it. >> i think if you look at things in general, facebook, google,

twitter, they are all organizations that have only been running ads for the past few years and i think even the average american doesn't realize how an ad gets in their feed in the first place. so whether or not it is from a bad actor or whether or not it from a legitimate organization is still -- there is still a lot of learning to be done on the user side and let alone think about how organizations governor themselves or people are calling for there to be some sort of governance within them. >> and matt, what do you think about that, when it comes to the regulation of how it will figure out,o can i, who is a good actor who could advertise here and who is a real person and not a bot. >> it is clear that facebook and twitter and we should say google as well with youtube will have to do something to try to identify that. look, if the russian government wants to come in and buy an ad to run on msnbc, there are people at the network as in all of the networks that would look at that ad and review it and try to see where the funding is coming from because as i said, it is illegal for foreign

government paid propaganda influencing investigation to run in the united states. so twitter and facebook if you want to buy an ad there is no type of review. it is a computer algorithm or network that reviews it. no actual person lays eyes on it and it seems that will have to change going forward if we are going to weed out the foreign government propaganda. >> it is a big ask when we think about the international companies with footprints that seeps into what we are doing. thank you, sir, we appreciate it. and the politics in puerto rico as the island tries to recover from the devastation left after maria and politics taking center stage as the president is in a bitter war of words with the mayor of san juan. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss

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so again, and i could say this to you with a smile, i am not going to be distracted by small comments, by politics, by petty issues, this is one goal

and it is to save lives. that is all sma matters. >> so that tl we have the mayor of san juan, carmen cruz speaking out against president trump and some is of the nasty words that we've seen being tweeted today. so now we have this from the president that just came out earlier today saying, we must all be united in offering assistance to everyone suffering in puerto rico and elsewhere in the wake of this terrible disaster. now we do know that there is some expected concentration of help that is going to be arriving in puerto rico next week with the comfort that is the navy's medical and surgical ship that should arrive to the island territory by tuesday. also president trump has expressed his interest in arriving on tuesday as well. and visiting puerto rico and going on to the u.s. virgin islands. but this was an area that was already very damaged because it had been hard hit because of hurricane irma and then maria came through and residents though have been struggling for

some time just the basic needs and all of this has been a big outcry trying to get the attention of the federal government but the president then did have this series of tweets earlier today that was critical against the mayor of san juan because she was foc focal -- vocal about more help and the commentsin fury ated lyin-manuel miranda tweeting this, she's been working 24/7 and you've been golfing and you are going straight to hell. fastest golf cart you ever took. so that is from the creator of hamilton. and trump announcing he is going to be planning this tripp. he wants to go there on october 3rd. for more on this i'm joined by reporter alana tween. and explain the calculations of what we're witnessing in realtime via the president's tweets because it is a saga playing out here with the president not being able to stay on message. is he mad at the mayor of san juan and thing we need to rally around to help puerto rico, or

what is the message? >> he definitely, as you could see from the tweets earlier this morning, took her message from the past few days an especially yesterday when she said people are dying, we need more help, he took that as a personal attack. he sees this as her attacking the federal government, him as president, and the federal assistance efforts and he wants to defend himself and that is what he does on twitter, he takes to twitter to get out his own personal message. >> four minutes ago he said results of recovery efforts will speak much louder than complaints by san juan mayor. doing everything we can to help great people of p.r. there has been a big lag time, in thinking of what staged assets were in place not only before maria, but also before irma. for what has been forecast for a heavy hurricane season. this will go on for the next several weeks. so how does the president get back on message when we could all see with ourine eyes and we

know what is happening to the people in the territory of puerto rico, that this is not going to be a struggle that is mixed overnight or in weeks but it will take years. >> right. well i think that as you see puerto rico is very different from texas, from florida, where they are much wealthier states and had republican governments. so his response is very different to puerto rico. but i think that he really needs to be more united in this. it is not a game of he said, she said. it is not a political problem as you heard the mayor say. it is one goal. you want to save lives. and he needs to get back on message with that. and i think he's also probably concerned about the optics of where he's staying this weekend in bedminster and a lot of people are criticizing him for that. and so he needs to have a more unified response for sure. >> we just are looking at the tweets from today because he did tweet the governor, republican ricardo rosello saying they were

working together and that he was doing a great job in every way for the mayor of san juan, it has been a completely different instance today and we do know that the president had conversations with leaders in puerto rico as well as the u.s. virgin islands today. alana, thank you so much. and we appreciate your time. and straight ahead, what the president expected to go to puerto rico, and the u.s. virgin islands next week, we're going to talk about what the schedule could look like. now the president said he wants to go on october 3rd. but the president just four minutes ago saying that the results of recovery efforts will speak much louder than complaints about the san juan mayor. so will the president go to san juan? we will talk about that as we dive a little deeper in this and explain what we are seeing on the ground in puerto rico. what started as a passion...

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attacks against the pair of san juan, carmen cruz and her being out spoken about the administration's response to hurricane maria and the president has accused the mayor of san juan for poor leadership. critics of the president's words point that cruz has been working in a shelter and sleeping on a cot and eating the other food as hurricane survivors afterer home was flooded with maria and the president tweeted that results of recovery efforts will speak much louder than the complaints by san juan mayor and i want to bring in form you are u.s. ambassador to the un. and former governor of new mexico. it is good to have you with me. what do you make of why the president is taking this to such a level of attack against the mayor of san juan, punching down so hard? >> well, i don't understand the president. you he gets into those fights with kim jong-un and north korea, with the australian prime

minister, with the mexican president and now with the mayor of san juan. this is his nature. this is unfortunate. but he's not going to change. this mayor has been living a tragedy in san juan. people are hurting. so she should be excused, i think, to just say that the federal government, tom, should respond more efficiently, more rapidly. and the problem is i could tell you, i was a governor, we had to deal with fires and all kinds of natural disasters, sometimes the bureaucracy responds not as fast as they should. you have to sign a lot of papers and declare disaster areas. and in all fairness to our disaster people, our fema people, they've had this tragedy in texas, in florida, and they are overwhelmed right now. so i think both sides should cool it. both domestic politics has gotten into it. and i think the president, he's the leader of the country. and too many times the

territories -- i'm glad he's going to the virgin islands. they need some help. puerto rico needs some help. let's carve out some special fema assistance for the territories. assistance for the territories. they're always left out in many of these tragedies. but the president and the mayor should cool it, they should concentrate on helping people getting their supplies, medical equipment. you know, politics at this level when you have tragedies, just stop it. >> well, when it comes to thinking about, as you point out, for florida, and for texas, the assets that were put in place in anticipation of those storms, we know that fema and folks that are in charge of this type of relief, they have been stretched, but it doesn't mean that mother nature or the forecast of what is expected through hurricane season is really going to subside. this expectation has been there. so, sir, when it comes to the president visiting puerto rico,

showing attention to the u.s. virgin islands, as you say, is a good thing. but do you think that he'll be impacted in any way that really changes his behavior and treatment of puerto rico, considering the fact that he claimed that they're an island nation in debt and was also slow to help waive the jones act, and has now taken on the mayor of san juan in such a demeaning way when people are struggling? >> well, with a focus on this dispute, the san juan mayor's criticism, the president's response, if the president is going there, you can bet that there's going to be all kinds of assistance accelerated to the puerto ricans and to the virgin islands. that's good. but unfortunately, it's possibly because of this dispute. what i'm saying, tom, is that the virgin islands, puerto rico, they're not on the mainland. so we should find ways to

ensure -- they're american citizens. they serve in the military. they're great people, that they should have a carve-out within fema so that they don't get left behind. i think fema has done well in houston, in florida, our efforts. i think the president, he just gets so sensitive with any kind of criticism. that's going to happen if a county commissioner in the city of punsig, puerto rico, criticizes him? is he going to respond to that? he should just stay out of that. >> it depends on how much attention that official gets for their words. because if it raises to his level and he sees, it he just might. but i want to draw your attention to the very serious concern of the contact of our country with north korea and the escalation of what they have kind of done with their military flexing of their weaponry. we have this report with secretary of state tillerson acknowledging in china on saturday that the administration is now in direct contact with north korea and that they're trying to stem some of the

issues over the escalations and the -- not just the military muscle that's been shown, but also the words that have been back and forth between our president calling kim jong-un rocket man, kim jong-un referring to president trump as a dotard. how do you think that this can repair what seemed to be a closed road? >> well, i think what secretary tillerson and the administration is doing makes sense. direct contact. not negotiations, but basically both said saying to each other, hey, let's cool things down. i don't think the administration's policy is that bad. i mean, the more sanctions, the military exercises, and now this diplomacy, possibly saying to each other, hey, let's cool things down. but this is not helped by the president and kim jong-un just getting so personal.

these perjury insults, i've dealt with the north koreans for years. these little things get them very bothered. i remember when the father was called a dwarf by president bush, now rocket man. you know, asians, north koreans saving face, egos are very important. the north koreans are worried that what we want to do is knock kim jong-un off. and i think this message of the administration talking to him and basically saying, look being, we got to tamp things down. you gotta change your behavior. so i'm encouraged with this contact. i hope it results in something. >> sir, thank you very much. great to have you here. stay with us. we're back with much more right after this. causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish.

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>> stay with us, the response in puerto rico, congressman luis gutierrez joins me next.

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helpful information about healthcare options. leaving you more time to think about more important things. like not having to think about healthcare at all. surround yourself with healthy advantages at aarpadvantages.com/health. >> hi, everybody, good to have you with me. i'm thomas roberts at msnbc headquarters in new york. puerto rico recovery. new video from san juan today. we know that the president is taking time away from the white house. he is in his golf resort, bed minister, new jersey, for the weekend. we have heard from him tweeting. early today he spoke to the governors in puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands, putting out praise that the administration has received from both leaders, coming just hours after he fired off a series of tweets attacking the mayor of san