that wraps up this hour of "msnbc live." i'm see you tomorrow on today. "andrea mitchell reports" starts now but it's not andrea, it's jeff bennett. thank you. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," executive action, president trump is trying to make matters into his own hands to get the citizenship question added to the 2020 census after the supreme court ruled the administration did not provide enough of a reason for why it was even necessary. >> you see justice roberts throwing it back to the district courts and saying you better come up with a rationale that's real. i guess president trump is

looking for every rationale that's in the oval office. secretary acosta goes to great lengths to defend his decision about jeffrey epstein. did he convince the audience of one, president trump? >> we live in a very different world. today's world treats victims very, very differently. today's world does not allow some of the victim shaming that would have taken place at trial 12 years ago. and who is the boss? nancy pelosi tries to rein in the progressives as alexander ocasio-cortez accuses the speaker of singling on congresswomen of color. >> i'm not going to be discussing it any further. it's good to see you.

i'm jeff bennett in for andrea mitchell. at this hour, president trump is refusing to take no for an answer in his fight to get a controversial citizenship question added to the u.s. census. with the courts stopping him, president trump is expected to announce he's taking executive action to get that question included in the national head count. his announcement alongside attorney general bill barr is likely to happen during what the president is billing on twitter as a news conference later today. if he takes questions, you can expect him to be pressed on the census, but also the nationwide i.c.e. raids on thousands of immigrant families set to begin sunday and the future of embattled labor secretary alex acosta. joining me now is nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, julia ainsley, jeff mason, and msnbc contributor barbara mcquaid. christen welker, let's talk about why we're expecting this

news conference. the president pushing for a citizenship question on the census. and our first team led off this morning with a question, they say is pushing for a citizenship question as valuable for trump as getting one? look, one thing we know about president trump is that he always wants to be seen putting up a fight. sometimes that matters as much if not more than the actual result. right? break down the raw politics at play here. >> i think this is about raw politics. this is about the fight. the president wants to be seen as tough on this issue. it's his signature issue, it's deeply controversial as well. and of course he was blocked by the supreme court, which effectively said you haven't provided a good enough explanation for why you feel you need to add this citizenship question. this is something that energizes president trump's base and so even if he proposes this executive order, even if he gets

blocked legally, which we expect there is going to be some type of legal battle surrounding this executive order. he can go back to his base, head out on the campaign trail and say i continue to fight for this signature issue. this issue really that i launched my whole campaign on. so he sees this as energizing even if it doesn't wind up on the census. of course the census has already started to be printed. there are real questions surrounding how practical this actually is and what the timeline of this would look like. >> can you help us understand the legal aspect of this? because the constitution makes clear the census is the domain of congress. it's right there in article i, section ii. the supreme court when they ruled on the census question, it was very specific and narrow. they said the administration's rationale didn't hold up. from a legal perspective, when is this all heading? >> yeah, i would be very curious to hear how president trump and william barr think an executive order can solve this problem.

i don't think it can. as you say the constitution gives the power of conducting the sensing to congress. congress has delegated that power to the department of commerce to execute it, to figure out how to go about doing it and provide the resources and the manpower to actually conduct the census. when they make a decision, they have to explain the reasoning. as the court said, that gives people an opportunity to challenge action by agencies and gives courts an opportunity to decide whether agency action is appropriate. what the supreme court decided here is that the reason given, that is it was important to enforce the voting rights act to understand whether people were citizens was pretecturxtual. they said you're not saying you can't ask this question, but that you have to give us a valid reason. if you can find one, go ahead. the justice department has said that june 30th was the hard

deadline for putting the census. they use that as a basis for skipping appellate review and going directly to the supreme court. which may by the reasons the original lawyers from the justice department have withdrawn from the case and don't want to go back and say now we've come up with a new reason or that deadline we told you about wasn't real. i see them as in a place where there is no path forward. i'll be curious to hear what path william barr comes up with. >> let's turn to your reporting on these rescheduled i.c.e. raids. how big is this operation going to be? why is the dhs giving a heads up about these raids days in advance? >> we expect them to target up to 2,000 people, especially families. they've seen the number of families crossing the border tick up in recent years. these are families who have been given recent orders of deportation. a final order of deportation

from the courts. but oftentimes they're not targeted because they're not seen as a threat. president obama, for example, wanted to focus his resources on national security threats and immigrants who had recently crossed the border as well as serious criminals. about the heads up, that's a good question. it started with the president. it started with a tweet three weeks ago when the president said he was going to be deporting millions of immigrants. it's not possible to be deporting millions in one single sweep or one single week. the other thing i would say, let's keep this in context. even if we see 2,000 immigrants rounded up in a single day in the united states, which would cause a lot of fear in these communities, it's spread out to ten major u.s. cities and on a given day -- and last fiscal year 2018, the average was 434. you're not going that much further. under president obama in 2012, the largest year of deportations, they crossed over 1,000 a day. this would be less than double

what would have happened in a single day in that year. in a lot of ways, this is supposed to be theatrical. it's supposed to rally his base. a lot of people in immigrant communities are worried about the fear that this could cause. >> this is hardly political theater if you're worried about the fate of yourself and your family. let's talk about secretary acosta. immediately after his press conference yesterday the when you say officials seemed to signal they were for the most part pleased with how acosta handled himself. even though his defense of himself what he actually said is deba debatab debatable. we've been watching the president's twitterfeed and nothing on the labor secretary so far. >> reporter: right, not a thing. if he does end up doing the press conference that he's likely to get a question about the secretary. yeah, i think in general right now, we're in a holding pattern of wait and see. the secretary did go out and give his press conference

yesterday, took questions for about an hour. many people were not necessarily happy with his explanation with regard to the victims. you're right to say that the white house so far feels at least he offered an explanation and he took those questions and got his statement and his view of what happened 12 years ago or so out there. so for now, i guess we'll wait and see if the president ends up weighing in more. in general, the secretary is popular with some people here at the white house. larry cudloe saying he hoped he did not resign. we'll see. the ultimate decider on this, as with many other things is the president himself. >> that's true. barbara, the secretary, he didn't directly answer a question put to him yesterday about whether jeffrey epstein got special treatment due to his wealth or influence. we did hear him say, acosta, he tried to get the best possible outcome. he blamed the florida state attorney for initially failing to prosecute the case

aggressively. let's listen to some of that. >> the palm beach state attorney's office was ready to let epstein walk free, no jail time, nothing. prosecutors in my former office found this to be completely unacceptable. and they became involved, our office became involved. without the work of our prosecutors, epstein would have gotten away with just that state charge. >> well, the man who he invoked, the former florida state attorney, he says this. if mr. acosta was truly concerned with the state's case and felt he had to rescue the matter he would have moved forward with the 53 page indictment his own office drafted. instead mr. acosta brokered a secret plea deal that resulted in a non-prosecution agreement in violation of the crime victims rights act. barbara, what do you make of all this? >> i thought that alex acosta's explanation rang hollow when he

said it. after i saw the statement from the palm beach county prosecutor, i was even more convinced this sounded pretextual. there is nothing about a state court case that precludes the u.s. attorney's office from pursuing its own charges. if they were dissatisfied with whatever it was the state was doing, that's fine. sometimes global resolutions can be negotiated because it's in the best mutual interest of the state and federal authorities to put together one package that includes all of the conduct. here, if they thought it was unsatisfactory, there's nothing that stopped alex acosta from pursuing his own case. certainly cases can be challenging, especially sex trafficking cases. but in a case like this where there are 30 victims, even if half of them were reluctant to come forward or made poor witnesses, you only need one. chances are they had multiple witnesses who could have told the story of sex trafficking. so i think to blame the county prosecutor for the inability to bring this case is really

misplaced and blame shifting. >> and kristen welker, what's the signal from the white house? is the labor secretary's job safe for now? >> based on my conversations, jeff, it is safe for now. why? because he effectively stopped the bleeding. i am told. he did that by giving his would be defenders ammunition. in other words, before his press conference and as you've been discussing what he said is certainly debatable, but they didn't have anything to defend him with. now they have that. the question is will the pressure continue to grow and will it become so intense that president trump changes his mind. >> all right. my thanks to each of you. coming up, family feud. speaker nancy pelosi addresses the criticism from freshmen progressives in her caucus. that's ahead right here on "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc right into these crise, and we do not leave until normalcy is restored.

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we respect the value of every member of our caucus. the diversity of all it is a wonderful thing. diversity is our strength. unity is our power. and we have a big fight and we're in the arena. >> that was house speaker nancy pelosi trying to set the record straight, despite an escalating public war of words within her own caucus. it comes after pelosi admonished

democrats for personally attacking one another, warning in a closed door meeting yesterday the infighting could jeopardize their house majority. remarks appearing to be aimed at a group of progressive freshmen members of congress, including alexandria ocasio-cortez who says she's singling out elected women of color. joining me now is msnbc analyst elise jordan. joel payne, i want to start you. as both of you well know, votes are curarency on capitol hill. nancy pelosi has the hard power. yet these four congresswomen, they have huge followings, they have huge influence and it's power of a different sort. that seems to be root of the

struggle. we heard pelosi say diversity is the strength of her caucus. when you hear aoc call out pelosi for targeting women of color, what kind of problem does that present for democrats who would rather focus their attention on donald trump? >> it's a regrettable thing to have to deal with. it mirrors what republicans dealt with over the last half decade or so when you look at what john boehner dealt with with an increasingly wieldy caucus. talking about women of color, anyone who knows nancy pelosi's career knows that's an outrageous charge. everyone knows she's not somebody who purports herself to not be supportive of the agenda. this is generational. nancy pelosi has been in congress for a long time and who does things a certain way, and

now there's these new wave of members of congress who tweet, who go online and engage their supporters regularly in a different way than nancy pelosi does. i think that's the real dividing line here. >> congresswoman presley was asked about this today and here's what she had to say about it. take a look. >> ask you about the feud between the speaker and aoc. >> i'm not aware of any feud. i've had 18 shootings in my district, that's what i'm focused on. >> okay. well, picking up on a point that joel made, what could democrats learn from what republicans went through? john boehner having to deal with his own right flank. it's not the best apples to apples comparison because john boehner was pushed -- >> now he's working on marijuana lobbying back home. i think that's the cautionary tale completely because john boehner didn't see what a potent force within the party these insurgents coming in were. if they go out of their way to antagonize the bright shiny new

objects that do have incredible social media followings. that have a lot of grass roots support, then that's not helpful for the overall caucus. i agree with joel's point, that this is a generational battle. but nancy pelosi has to be careful how she wages this battle in the press, because, again, it's counterproductive to try to go up against -- especially these young women who have shown that they have quite a command of the media landscape. >> she got a lot of questions about this. what do you think she should say when she's asked about how she handled the squad? >> presley said i'm focused on the shootings that are happening in my district and i want to push policy forward. while it might be easy to be baited into playing into the media narrative of a feud, which is certainly a great and juicy story to cover, it sdrakts and it only i feel like stokes the rancor within the ranks over th

donald trump. >> this was the challenge with pelosi being the speaker. you have to remember, aoc did not commit to supporting nancy pelosi. that's why she beat joe crowley in that primary. this is a feud that goes back a long time. i know that congresswoman presley didn't want to use that word. it's a feud that some of my sources on capitol hill told me had died down a bit because these members had found their place. they had found a way to, you know, express their concerns without being disruptive to the larger caucus. i think the dynamics have shifted. the bill that passed a few weeks ago, some of the fights around president trump and impeachment, i think that's intensifies a lot of the tension in that caucus room. i think we're going to see more type of eruptions like this. >> my thanks to you both. joining me now is congressman eric swalwell.

this isn't an abstract argument for you because you're living this. what's your take on this feud -- feud is not the word i want. the power struggle of sorts between the progressives and house speaker. >> i love working, you know, with all of them. you know, i'm going to say i'm focused intensely right now to prepare for bob mueller coming next week. those four members i believe have called for an impeachment inquiry. i have as well. i think the speaker plays a different role. she's the conductor if we go to that place. she's going to make sure all the instruments are tuned and all the performers are playing off the same sheet of music. with great respect to all of them, i'm focused intensely on the job i have to do as one of the only members of both the intelligence and judiciary committee. >> let's talk about your work on the judiciary committee. today the house committee as you know they're soon going to vote whether to subpoena several more members of the trump administration, including jared

kushn kushner, john kelly, jeff sessions. the white house has not been cooperative so far as one of your democratic colleagues put it to me, the white house has put up a wall of defiance. what do you expect to happen with the next round of subpoenas? what's your plan, i would say if, but we know it's when, the white house ignores the subpoenas? >> we're going to hear from these witnesses. we're not going to hear from them as fast as we want because they're obstructing by orders from the white house. i personally believe that empty chairs should amount to empty pockets. that there should be fines for people who aren't going to come in. you don't have to follow a lawless order from the president. if you're a good person who wants to do the right thing and help your country understand what the russians did, just say screw the president and, you know, his obstruction. i'm going to come in and do the right thing. i think it's time for people to step back and say do i want to be a patriot or do i want to be an obstructer and protect this president? >> we also know that the house

is going to vote next tuesday to hold bill barr and wilbur ross in contempt of congress regarding the adding of the citizenship question to the 2020 census. what's your take on that? >> it's an effort by the president to erase the existence of hispanic families in america. it will affect so many communities, including my district which is one of the most diverse districts in america. one of the largest hispanic populations in america. it will prevent us from getting the resources we need. it's punitive. we're not helpless. we're going to go to court and use the new majority that the american people gave us to stop this. >> you're also on both committees that's going to hear from the former special counsel robert mueller next week. what is the metric of success for that hearing? he has already made clear about what we hiwill and will not say. he said the report speaks for

itself. >> the detail the past but tell us what we need to do to protect future elections. bob mueller will raise his right hand and lay out the case of russians interfering in our elections, the trump campaign welcoming it and the trump campaign benefitting from it and never telling a soul who could stop it that this was occurring. i'm mostly interested in what's going on now. nowhere does bob mueller lay out where these contacts are now. what can we do to make sure we're never in this mess again. just because a prior congress never imagined a campaign would act this way and never wrote laws that would hold someone accountable for acting this way, doesn't mean any of us want to see this happen again. this was a mess they made of our democracy. we have a responsibility to protect from any country working within a campaign in this fashion. >> thanks for your time. >> my pleasure.

thank you. coming up, world stage. joe biden shows off his foreign policy chops as he makes the case for his candidacy. this is "andrea mitchell report reports", only on msnbc. reports", only on msnbc. i don't keep track of regrets. and i don't add up the years. but what i do count on... is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. boost® high protein. be up for life. hi, i'm joan lunden. when my mother began forgetting things, we didn't know where to turn for more information. that's why i recommend a free service called a place for mom. we have local senior living advisors who can answer your questions about dementia or memory care and, if necessary, help you find the right place for your mom or dad.

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i don't believe there's anyone in this race more prepared to lead the world today than me. that sounds like i'm bragging, but it's what i truly believe because i've been if gauged in it this whole career. >> joe biden is flexing his foreign policy experience as he prepared to roll out his vision for u.s. leadership around the world. biden's campaign released adnew attack video, aimed at president trump which paints the commander in chief as embracing dictators, threatening war and alienating u.s. allies. joining me now is nbc news correspondent mike menale. >> reporter: this is a speech i know the vice president has been wanting to give for some time. it comes at an opportune time for them. returning to really what they consider to be areas of strength for the vice president. that foreign policy experience

and also raising the stakes of what it would mean for another four years of trump in office. this, of course, focusing on that foreign policy context. they're going to set apart what they called the trump doctrine, embracing dictators, threatening war with the three pillars of a biden foreign policy. it would begin with repairing our democracy at home, pursuing a foreign policy for the middle class and putting the u.s. back at the head of the table in terms of leading the world, leading the free world. interestingly what they're going to say the first year in office, biden will invite all the world's democracies for a summit to repair the damage they see done. you heard the vice president there in that sound, he thinks he is the most qualified person, but his rivals are not ceding that territory. bob gates, the former defense secretary, not just in the bush administration, but also in the early years of the obama administration saying no one has been more wrong on foreign policy than joe biden. just earlier here in new york,

the governor of washington, taking a shot at biden on foreign policy saying he should in the speech apologize for his vote to authorize the war in iraq. jay inslee was a member of congress at that time and voted against it. we did get a taste of how biden might address the iraq war in that yes, he did vote to give bush the authority. when he was in the white house with president obama, obama put him in charge of fixing iraq, bringing american troops home. >> thanks for your time, we appreciate it. montana governor steve bullock joins me now from iowa. thanks for your time, good to see you. >> great to be with you. >> let's start with this foreign policy speech from the current front runner in your race. joe biden brings decades of experience on the world stage. how do you counter that? >> no, i think that my policy would be protecting americans, strengthening the alliances which need to be rebuilt, deterring our adversaries and really promoting those american

values from human rights to democracy around the world. unfortunately, this president has taken this america first idea and made it american alone. that's both in military security and that's in trade policy. so yeah, i've been to kuwait and afghanistan visiting soldiers i sent as the national guard commander in chief, done trade missions, this is about judgment. >> i spoke with eric swalwell a few minutes ago, his withdrawal means there's an opening on the debate stage for you. you'll likely be the one to occupy that spot. what did you learn from learning the last debate? what message do you hope to bring to american voters? >> i'm pleased i'll be on that detroit debate stage. missing from that stage is someone who won in a trump stage who bridged divides and got meaningful things done.

and somebody that the fight of my career has been on dark money and campaign finance. we've got to make sure through these debates -- we have to make sure we have someone who can beat donald trump. second the debate isn't disconnected from the challenges people face in their daily live sa lives. >> let's talk about iowa where you're joining us from. you're making a major push there. you haven't seen a big payoff in the polls, there was a lawmaker who invoked your name. >> the clencher for me is the way he connects with people. it's extraordinary. he kenconnects with people bett than anyone i've seen in the iowa caucuses except for barack obama and bill clinton. >> barack obama and bill clinton. that's rarefied air in democratic politics. one did you think when you were standing there? secondly, what do you think of

the comparison? >> i appreciate it, attorney general miller's endorsement. i only had been in this race for seven weeks. my legislature was still meeting. but it means a lot to me to have folks like this coming out in support of me. iowaens take this seriously. we still have 200 days before they express their preference. even yesterday, i was in communities that a candidate hasn't been in. a third of their counties voted obama, obama, trump, we need to be able to win back those places. not just for the presidency, but also for their local state houses. >> why isn't that translating in the polls just yet do you think? >> well, i think to be honest, jeff, my legislature was meeting until -- not that long ago. only six or seven weeks into the race. if i had to choose between saving healthcare for 100,000

americans like i did with getting medicare expansion reauthorized or chasing 100,000 donors, that's the easiest decision i'll ever make. to have someone that's outside of washington -- because washington has become a place where talking has become the replacement for doing. won in areas that we need to win back that can provide something like i have. even though the press really wants to move things along quickly, i think voters will make the right decision, not the fast decision. >> governor, thanks for your time. good to see you. >> thanks, jeff, thanks for having me. coming up at 1:00 p.m. eastern, new york city mayor bill de blasio joins velshi and ruhle. could several assault accusations stall a confirmation hearing? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. is "andl reports" only on msnbc just scan the sensor with your reader,

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and rubbing against her in 2017 while she was one of his aides. he was cleared of any misconduct by the air force. and in a statement the pentagon wrote this, they write after a comprehensive investigation by the air force office of special investigations, there was insufficient evidence to support any finding of misconduct on the part of general hyten. joining me now is the senior national security correspondent for defense one. she broke this story. what did the air force's investigation entail? >> well, the air force's investigation according to pentagon officials was extremely thorough. they interviewed lots of different people that were potentially able to tell them something about the series of incidents that this officer is alleging against general hyten. at the end of the day what that investigation found was there was insufficient evidence to either prove that the allegations happened or prove she was lying. at this point, what they've turned up is kind of a he said/she said. and what makes this interesting

is that this is part of larger debate over whether or not allegations of sexual assault in the military should be handled by the chain of command or whether they should be outsourced to an independent prosecutor who has experience in handling this kind of case. now in this case, the air force investigator who made the division about whether or not to either charge him or recommend an administrative action against him is one of about a dozen four star generals in the entire u.s. military. which means there is -- it seems very likely he would have had some kind of relationship with hyten in some way or another. that's the kind of thing you'll see get a lot of attention on the hill. >> let's talk about where this goes next. senators warren and duckworth are both members of the armed services committee. they sent a letter to the acting secretary of defense about this nomination. and they write this. he remains in command while under criminal investigation

raises serious questions about whether the department is affording general hyten pref preferential treatment. >> she's from illinois. and we have been in contact with her and she has contacted several other offices as well. i am taking her allegations very seriously. they are deeply concerning to me. i would like the rest of the committee members to hear from her. >> so she wants the rest of the committee members to hear from her. sounds like this puts a pause on his confirmation process or does it? >> well, almost certainly. the thing to remember about general hyten up to this week it was seen as an uncontroversial nomination. outside the beltway you may have never heard of this guy. inside the pentagon he's a well-known name. he has a lot of respect on both sides of the aisle.

until we knew this, you know, as far as we knew this nomination was going to sail through the senate. now it takes one lawmakers to put what's known as a formal hold on his nomination. i spent a lot of time on the hill yesterday. as of yesterday afternoon, that hasn't happened yet. lawmakers were reviewing the report from the air force investigation which is apparently lengthy? but i think watch this space, watching the female members of the armed services committee of which several of whom are former members of the armed services themselves. you'll see a lot of scrutiny paid to these allegations. >> great reporting there from defense one. we appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. coming up, troubled waters. al tensions rising once again between the u.s. and tehran after iranian forces tried to seize a british oil tanker. this is "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. this is "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. (vo) parents have a way of imagining the worst... ...especially when your easily distracted teenager has the car.

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forced the three iranian boats to turn away. iran denies any attempt to stop the tanker. but the british government responded saying, quote, we are concerned by this action and continue to urge the iranian authorities to de-escalate the situation in the region. joining me now is a formerna supreme nato commander. what is the message that iran is trying to send her? is this saber rattling on the high seas or more substantive? >> more substantive than a simple rattle of the saber. it's a pattern of escalation that began just months ago when the u.s. pulled out of the nuclear deep and imposed sanctions. those are getting tighter and tighter and tighter. iran has launched a serioes of attacks on tankers. they've attacked six tankers in the last few months.

they've launched drones over saudi arabia. the next step in esclaugalation would be to sooezeize iranian t so you could see where the iranians would feel as though harassing the british and potentially taking one of their tankers would be a response to that, point being, tensions are rising. this is something we ought to be quite concerned about. >> let's talk about that. iran's president called britain scared and hopeless for sending its war ships to escort the commercial vessels through the gulf. he says you will soon realize the consequences later. that is a quote. is he signaling that iran is prepared to start retaliating? >> i think he is. if anybody is desperate and hopeless at this point it's iran. their economy is under such pressure.

we're seeing not only this escalation on the high seas, but we're also seeing it in their nuclear program where they are raising the amount of enriched uraniuim they are holding and they are increasing the percentage of the actual lethality of that uraniuim both part of the old agreement we pulled out of but iran is still in. we're seeing escalation on both sides here. the british maintain a small number of war ships in the persian gulf. we, the united states, have an enormous number, including a very powerful nuclear aircraft carrier. if the iranians make a serious move, at a great britain tanker, we are going to get pulled into this. that's why we should really be concerned and watching this closely. >> given the dynamic you just laid out should we expect more incidents like the ones we've seen? not just near the strait of hormuz but with the drone being shot down and all of that? >> we absolutely should. the next logical escalation for

iran -- because what they want to do is demonstrate to the west that they can close the strait of hormuz. they can impact events. they think that is a way to get relief from sanctions. so look for further interdictions in oil facilities, possibly in saudi arabia. look, potentially, for iranian backed terrorist organizations like hezbollah operating against israel or iranian kuds forces operating against u.s. troops in afghanistan which is on the border of iran. iran has options to play here. we'll see more escalation as this long, hot summer goes on. >> all right. admiral, thanks for your time, sir. we appreciate it. >> thanks so much. coming up, state of emergency. flash flooding sub merges part of new orleans. is the worst yet to come? we've got a live report there next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ing cold.

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in parts of new orleans, they are already under water today as rain continues to pound the city. nbc's kerry sanders is at the armstrong international airport with more. >> reporter: we see that jefferson parish with portions having mandatory evacuations, same thing in plaquemines parish. this is all to get ahead of what is expected to be a drenching rain. as you noted yesterday we had a tremendous rain, more than 7 inches in a very short period of time which inundated portions of new orleans. back down in the french quarter there was so much water that even canal street and some side streets were under water, cars under water, really causing a mess. for buildings, into the lobbies of some of the hotels. here at the airport right now things are running smoothly. no cancellations. but the airport has just completed a meeting here going over what their plans will be. the airport will remain open. they're bringing in potentially 60 staff members to keep the airport operational.

it's really up to the airlines to decide when they will stop operating at the airport. at this point united airlines has already told its passengers who have flights today, tomorrow, that if they want to they can choose to change their flight schedules at no cost. i expect other airlines will likely follow in those foot steps. if you're a passenger, check with your airline. much of this can now be done on the app on your phone to make those changes. the real concern of course is it is a beautiful day in portions of louisiana with sunny skies and if you're on vacation you're probably not paying a lot of attention to the weather threat. but it is definitely out there and right now the forecast is as you said tropical storm barry. but by saturday it could well be hurricane barry. category 1. the real question is where will it come ashore? the general sense was initially it might be as far west as texas. it now looks as if things are shifting a little bit, more from

louisiana east over to alabama, mississippi, and maybe even a portion of the florida panhandle. but as you know so well, trying to predict mother nature even with the advanced technology we get from the national hurricane center, is still a little bit of watch it all as it unfolds because things change. the weather as we know it is very complicated. >> all right. there in new orleans, thanks to you. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." andrea is back tomorrow. remember to follow the show online at facebook and twitter. here is velshi and stephanie ruhle. >> good to see you. have a great afternoon. hi everyone. it's thursday, july 11. coming up this hour on "velshi and ruhle" i.c.e. raids are set to happen in ten cities this weekend rounding up undocumented immigrants including babies and children. we'll speak with new york's mayor bill de blasio here. >> jeffrey epstein's lawyers are

asking for a $77 million bail package. we'll have details on their pitch and why they say the sex offender should be released as he awaits trial. and u.s. intelligence chiefs have new details on active threats to america's elections. they just briefed congress. we'll speak to one of the lawmakers who is in the room, michigan's democratic congresswoman debby dingle. today president trump is expected to take executive action on adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census according to an administration official. this morning the president tweeted he'll speak in the rose garden this afternoon. this is all happening despite the supreme court ruling last month blocking the question for now, stating that the congress secretary wilbur ross did not have adequate reason for why the question was necessary. >> the house will be voting next tuesday to hold ross and attorney general bill in contempt of congress for defying