. >> you heard him say, chris fugate, not to bring him. chris fugate was jeb bush's hurricane guy. so, you know, for all this talk of obama being so polarizing he hired jeb bush's hurricane expert as his fema executive. >> i think to richard's point, this bipartisan bologna that mitt romney has been proposing over the last few days, is absolutely nonsensical when you look at his record in massachusetts, but also bear in mind mitt romney called republican governors yesterday. the president didn't. he called governors who are in states that are affected. and that's the big difference between these two men. and i think that that's what the audience, the public, sorry, and your audience, alex, are beginning to get hold of. this man is for the whole of america, the whole. >> that's the benefit presidents have. you can take the national perspective, you look like you're an executive at a time of crisis. you can do things. candidates are less on a stage with a microphone talking about doing things. there is an advantage at this point when for all the challenges that a natural disaster tha

janet napolitano, and then of course chris fugate who is the head of fema but he was brought in as sort of -- he was jeb bush's head of emergency planning in florida during that period, if you recall, when florida went through four hurricanes. all of the other states didn't seem to do it and this guy was seen as nonpartisan super emergency management person, if you will. and that's the guy running fema. the president is getting constant updates. you've got to wait it out. you've got to find out a middle storm. and you're managing and brought everything in and waiting for the storm to pass to figure out, okay, how bad is the cleanup? right now it's just hunker down. >> hold on. we got an update. sandy is now a post tropical cyclone, still very powerful and expected to make landfall in one hour right near us. let me show you a picture. this is chris christie who is affected by this situation. he's speaking very positively of a democratic president. >> i thank the president for his telephone call inquiring about how things were going here and assured him that things were going well. so far

taking that helicopter ride, airborne for about an hour, chris christie, with the fema administrator, craig fugate, looking at many of the areas. we have seen through media shots, aerial shots, including atlantic city, the boardwalk there, long beach island, places called ship bottom, seaside heights, which has now been almost obliterated. at least the portions that are closest to the beach. the president seeing that firsthand. then these two men, these three men, i should say, governor christie, the president, and administrator fugate going to brigantine beach, the community center there, housing as many as 200 new jerseyians who needed shelter, who were displaced and in distress. the president spoke with them. and again, governor christie speaking in very -- praising the president, praising his response. saying the president really means what he says when he says the federal government is going to do everything it can to help get new jersey, get to the jersey shore, which governor christie calls the soul of new jersey, back on its feet. they spoke with some of the people there at the shelter. th

chris christie. they got aboard marine one. administrator fugate was with them. they traveled about an hour. long beach island, ship bottom, seaside heights, seaside heights, in particular, as we have seen from our media helicopters hit particularly hard. the president has landed on the way now to a community center that's sheltered as many as 200 at the worst part of the storm at a place outside of atlantic city. there we expect the president to tour the shelter, helping out those in distress and then make a statement, steve. i think we can expect the president to try to project calm, concern, empathy, authority if you will. what we'll not see the president project is any sort of overt political age toll this. this is all very serious and chris christie by his side as he had all afternoon. >> it's still tore and talk about the tone of the president today, not overtly political. everything is politicized with chris christie who's very emotional in the situation. this is the jersey of his youth be destroyed. >> reporter: right. >> how does the president deal with this to strike the right bala

chris christie speaking of nonpartisanship. >> i have to say the administration, the president himself and fema administrator craig fugate havending with us so far. we have a great partnership with them and i want to thank the president personally for his personal attention for this. >> jennifer: i have to say chris christie is becoming my new favorite republican. what do you think of that strategy that he's -- it is just an honest praise for a good job done. >> that's exactly right. they're partners right now. that's what they need to be. he's right to do that. it would be a wrong step for him politically and morally if he didn't do that. so good for him. and that's where you see -- it is tremendous when you see moments like 9-11 when folks are working together and you see people stepping out. leaders at both the state local and the federal level coming out to do that. we've seen it with past presidents coming together, right? with president bush senior and president clinton. that's what america expects. when they don't see that, they will hold leaders accountable. so these leaders are doing the right thing in this moment an

me saying this there's been nothing but praise for fema and craig if fugate from republican governors. mcdonnell in virginia. chris christie in new jersey. even bobby jindal in louisiana. have praised the fact right now there is a close partnership between the white house and the governor's republican and democratic governors. but listen talk about fema. paul ryan, his budget cut -- "new york times" reports this morning. congressional republicans cut 43% out of the primary fema grants that pay for disaster preparedness. remember eric cantor. remember peter, eric cantor, the hurricane struck his district fema wanted to go in there. they wanted more money because of some of the disasters. they asked for more money to deal with the earthquake. even in cantor's district. he said no. we're not going to give fema anymore money unless you cut money from healthcare, you know. so they've been -- anti-disaster relief and again, mitt romney who wants to give it to the states, get rid of fema, put it in the hands of the state or maybe the private sector. can you imagine, can you imagine with this hurricane hitting the coast l

chris christie who is at a briefing. >> the president responded very quickly and the staff at fema, craig fugate and his staff, are outstanding folks. they helped us with our pre-landfall application to make sure we didn't have to go through -- oftentimes you go through a few drafts back and forth to make sure it has all the information you want. they helped us up front to make sure when we sent it in it was perfect the first time from their perspective. the president assured me yesterday on the telephone we'd get his immediate personal attention. obviously it did. he signed it late last night. so it's going to allow us to have access to federal funding and federal assets we otherwise would not have without the preland fall declaration until after it was over when we asked for some declaration of emergency afterwards. we appreciate the president's efforts in that regard. he and his staff worked tremendously hard. >> has the storm gotten more intense than -- what does that mean for the area of the impact or the size? >> it's gone back and forth, michael, you know. i've heard them talk about it being more intense and less inten

just moments ago, and being greeted by chris christie, the governor of new jersey, who, of course, was one of the chief surrogates for mitt romney, now with craig fugate of fema, and the president of the united states, walking towards marine one. this was moments ago. we showed you live and now they are preparing, of course, as we see they were boarding marine one, preparing to take the aerial tour leading from atlantic city and going up the coast. meanwhile, further north we see the aerial view showing the devastation in hoboken, new jersey, where national guard troops have arrived to help evacuate thousands still trapped in their homes. it is especially treacherous because of live downed power lines dangling in the floodwaters. nbc's katie tur is in hoboken, new jersey. what is the hope -- look behind you, the first i'm seeing of this picture, it is devastating. what are you hearing from the rescue -- the rescue and relief forces there? >> well, they said at one point this town was as much as 50% under water. the water has gone down a lot. 500,000 gallons they need to pump out and that will take not one day but probably two days. we're seeing right

chris christie today. the president stop by fema headquarters to get an update. with him were the most director rich fugate all my security secretary janet napolitano, defense secretary panetta, and hud secretary shaun donovan. the president again heading to new jersey. vice president biden continues campaigning for the president. you will be in a call of florida and we'll have live coverage of his remarks. that will start at 3 p.m. eastern. you will be able to see it on c-span. later, it's the republicans turn, senator rob portman and governor john kasich, live at 5:30 p.m. eastern c-span will have the also. later, it's the nominee himself, mitt romney will speak in jacksonville, florida, joined by former governor jeb bush. that stores live 8 p.m. eastern to see it on c-span. >> you were watching c-span2 with politics and public affairs, weekdays featuring live coverage of the u.s. senate. on weeknights, watch key public policy events. and every week until it's nonfiction authors and books on booktv. you can see past programs and get our schedules at our website. and you can join in the conversation on so