Transcripts For KPIX Face The Nation 20240714

With millions of americans in oapons of war that are out on our streets right now, millions dorians path, where will she of them. And also ensure that there is a hit next . Well have the latest National Licensing and gun projections. Well talk with the top u. S. Registry program. Official overseeing all things we have in this country more dorian, acting Homeland Security than 390 million guns and n secretary Kevin Mcaleenan. Nation of 3 29d Million People. Former fema director brock long that is a big part of the reason will also talk about what the that we lose 40,000 of our country can do to better handle hurricane recovery. Fellow americans every year, and and well check in with 2020 we cannot accept this anymore. He got to follow the lead of those moms who demand action, president ial hopeful beto orourke. The students who are marching hes changed Campaign Strategy for our lives, who themselves following the mass shooting last plan announced ambitious plans month. There is no reason we have to an ensure that we can protect one another, and that our kids accept this as our future and as dont have to fear going to our fate, yet functionally right urhool or the future of this country. Brennan but in your home now we have. Brennan as always well state of texas, about 35 of have analysis on all the news of people are gun owners. The day just ahead on face the today even more lenient laws go nation. Into effect, allowing people to fferent apons into many so do you blame local government good morning and welcome to there . Because all the prescriptions youre laying out are federal face the nation, where we are covering two big stories this solutions. Yeah, lets not blame anyone. Labor day weekend. We begin with the shooting lets all take responsibility to rampage in west texas yesterday make this right. Afternoon. So i have talked to gun owners cbs this morning lead national and nongun owners in every one of the 254 counties in texas. Correspondent begaye david theyre all there on universal background checks and red flag begneau is in odessa. Laws. Coas at a gun show in conway, arkansas, talking to owners of reporter margaret, good morning. This man opened fire at police ar15s and ak47s. Some of them were open to a officers and then started shooting randomly at people bundatory buyback program. Driving on the interstate. Wl of them agreed we have a among the dead is a high school epsis and an epidemic of gun student, a 17monthold baby girl was shot. Violence. Brennan but do you think behind me is where it all ended. Public opinion in texas is thats where youll see the ananging . Police car and the mail postal in those places its there service van as we zoom in. What happened according to brennan that have been eyewitness video is the gunman, oeen as impossible to change who had hijacked a postal laws and convictions that are service van, was driving right strongly behind the second for a police car when officer amendment . I remember a woman in opened fire on him. Heres more on how it all brownwood texas, a republican, started. Rural conservative community the gunman at some point ditched said i was born with a. 22 in my hihi hand, by i also have more than nd grandchildren, and i want to started shooting at people on the freeway. Know whether youre going to shes shooting them, hes empresent them or the n. R. A. Though shes a gun owner, though shooting them. Shes conservative, she wants us reporter the gunman was to take common sense, practical killed in a shootout with police geps to protect her grandkids theater. To, protect people all over this seven people are dead, not country. Including the shooter. So, yes, the people of america are there. 21 are injured. Among the injured is a that leadership, the courage of 17monthold girl who was hit in our convictions just needs to be the face with shrapnel. Ueflected in our national in total three Law Enforcement leadership, making sure that were listening to people, not officers were shot. The n. R. A. , people not pacs, seven of the victims are listed in Critical Condition at a local people not corporations. Hospital. When we do that, we will save this was a joint effort by the lives of people b brennan but for your just a multitude of departments solution so faolicy prescription, you dont know to find this animal and bring that it would have prevented what happened in midland and him to justice. Odessa . Were still obviously okay. Were going to have to. Learning the details. Lilisten to the press conference last night from the chief of reporter the cbs affiliate in odessa texas was forced to erlice, where they were not able to say what kind of weapon was vack evacuate while they were used, but i also just watched a on the air as splis swept the video on twitter of a family that is pinned to the ground, crime scene. Well slip away for a minute. Ce children are crying, theyre we dont know whats going on. Reporter there is no word yet on a motive. All Mexican American in a part overnight Law Enforcement officers work multiple crime scenes throughout midland and of our country where mexican odessa. Americans were targeted and you know, just about a month ago hunted for their very ethnicity. We were outside that walmart in inople are living with fear. El paso, texas, because 22 they feel like they have targets people were killed in a mass on their backs right now. Shooting there. Th lun lawin the kids are afraid to go to School Tomorrow morning. This is not t. Country and just recently state ceis is unacceptab lawmakers passed ten new bills i wont accept it. Brennan i want to ask you, further loosening gun as well, though, about the other restrictions. Margaret, those new laws went. Gathering storm, the category 5 hurricane thats headed toward the United States. Then you look at the kind of federal preparedness we have and now to our other major now, is there something as president you would change about story, Hurricane Dorian has been upgraded to a catastrophic it, or do you think the system is ready to go . Im really disappointed that category 5 hurricane and is now President Trump has proposed threatening the bahamas. Taking money from fema in the cbs news climate and weather niddle of Hurricane Season for contributor joins us from new walls or cages or militarization york. Of the border that we do not jeff . Reporter margaret, this is need. As president i would fully fund fema. About as strong as a hurricane i would invest in the resiliency can get. Its in the hop ten of of communities in florida and hurricanes in terms of its wind. Georgia, the carolinas and the winds are now up to puerto rico to make sure that theyre ready for next storm, 175mph. This is going to be a because scientists have told us, these storms are only going to catastrophic storm for the northern bahamas. Become more frequent, more were zoomed in. Devastating, and more deadly as hurricaneforce winds are now the climate continues to change. Moving into places like marsh ri the immediate priority is harbor and abaco island. Helping those in the path of the strongest winds are just off these storms, but the shore. It looks like it will hit the songerterm goal is to confront Climate Change before its too northern part of the island. These are the latest stats. I cant believe how strong these elte, free ourselves from a winds are right now. Dependence on fossil fuels and 175 as it gets close to land. Fully embrace Renewable Energy its moving west at 8mph, and get to net zero dwrows gas and its actually going to slow sissions as soon as humanly down, and this is the most possible. No later than the year 2050. Problematic part for the northern bahamas, its going to we have got to do all of that if be moving extrao a little over 100 miles of were going to meet this challenge. Territory. Its probably only going to go 2 brennan you rolled out your trade policy this week, new or 3mph or so. Oariffs on china go into place by Tuesday Morning it still is today. Is there a situation where located over grand bahama island president orourke wound ever use tariffs . With winds around 140mph. The whole time Tropical Storm as a last resort. Force winds are spreading over these tariffs are punishing the east coast of florida, and notice the center of this track farmers across this country, right here is only about 40 tsstroying markets theyve worked their entire lives, maybe miles off shore. Any closer and hurricaneforce their parents lives, as well, winds go to the coast. To open up, now lost to them and dangerous surf and flooding is to their children. We see a tax on the american likely. Consumer that averages about coastal flooding along the 900 a household. Beaches. Then the system kind of hooks right by the middle and end of and we are hurdling the world the week. And this economy into recession. It could weaken a little bit. But we have the watch out for so end these trade wars. The possibility of landfall no more tariffs. Somewhere in south carolina, but and work in concert with our more likely North Carolina as we allies and our friends, canada, head toward the end of the n,xico, the european union, a upcoming week. Take a look at these wind gusts. Hiited front against china and marsh harbor is at least any of their trade practices that are manipulative or 127mph. Well see wind gusts likely over damaging to the United States. 160, 170mph. Brennan does that mean the model just is not able to Something Like this transpacific partnership, this show it. Thats how strong the winds are trade deal . No brennan you wouldnt going to be. Reenter that . No, i wouldnt you can see those brennan you are viewed as hurricaneforce winds stay more friendly to free trade than some of your competitors . Overgrand bahama island for 36 i want to make sure trade works for us and it works for hours. Sur farmers and it works for our on the florida coast, well see workers. I want our trade deals to Tropical Storm force wind gusts achieve our goals. Ill give you some examples. And any closer and it could i mentioned Climate Change spread to boca, west palm and earlier. This could be the platform for all the way up to stewart, as we us to get the necessary concessions from trading head into especially the tuesday partners to ensure that we dont time frame. Thats when the strongest winds will be. Norm this planet another degree another aspect of this storm, storm surge, because of huge and a half celsius. Adade deals could be the waves out in the atlantic. Platform by which we ensure the dignity of working women and 50foot waves overspreading the wmber all over the world, make bahamas, the gulf stream, which sure theyre paid a fair wage means a lot of coastal flooding as this moves north. Ond have working conditions that are safe for them. We have astronomically high tides because of a new moon. And its also a way to make sure so this is an interesting one right here. Fe protect the human rights of thats how close the system is going to come to florida, our fellow human beings all over the planet. Margaret. These are our values. Brennan jeff, its coming dets use our trade deals to that close. It sounds like there still is a achieve them. Make sure we never do that at direct threated to people in the expense of the american florida. There, is because there is no worker or the American Farmer or the american economy. Room for error. Brennan beto orourke, this is the european model. Good to have you here thank you. You can see that hurricaneforce brennan thank you. Well be back in a moment. Winds are only 20 miles off the coast of the palm beaches, the Treasure Coast and eventually the space coast. So it looks like this. If this were to go any closer, and you feel like this. And again, this is just a one model, the european model, but aveeno® daily moisturizer its a good model, that would get skin happy™ put the hurricaneforce winds on shore some you have to be aware the one thing you learn pretty as a small bquickly,owner, of that. Were literally that redding the is that theres a lot to learn. Needle. If the model is wrong by 20 miles, which it could be, that grow with google is here to help you with turning ideas into action. Puts hurricaneforce winds right along the coast, margaret. Putting your business on the map, brennan all right, jeff, connecting with customers, and getting youll be busy, and well be the skills to use new tools. Watching. I will. Brennan we want to go now so, in case youre looking, to florida and cbs News National weve put all the ways we can help in one place. Correspondent Mark Strassmann free training, tools, and Small Business resources who is standing by in st. Augustine. Are now available at google. Com grow mark, it looks pretty sunny . Reporter good morning, margaret, it does, but heres welcome to fowler, indiana. What people remember besides this pictureperfect weather for one of the windiest places in america. This weekend. Three years ago hurricane and home to three bp wind farms. Matthew, another category 5 storm that cape up the coast hit in the offchance the wind ever stops blowing here. Here. This entire area was underwater. On top of that, the National Hurricane center has a warning the lights can keep on shining. For all the amateur storm thanks to our natural gas. Trackers who live here. A smart partner to Renewable Energy. A florida landfall is still a its always ready when needed. Distinct possibility for dorian. So the blue skies look or. Not. Reassuring, but for how long . At bp, we see possibilities everywhere. To help the world keep advancing. As dorian appears to track northward, floridians wondered whether to breathe a sigh of its how we bring real hope to our Cancer Patients relief after days of dire like viola. Warnings, hurried preparations when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and lastminute stockpiling. Her team at ctca created a Personalized Care plan coastal residents know better than to completely relax. That treated her cancer and strengthened her spirit. Dorians heavy winds and coastal flooding are still potential so viola could focus on her future. Threats as Florida Governor ron desantis reminded them. Their future. So floridians on the east this is how we inspire hope. Coast need to be prepared. This is how we heal. If you have a plan, stick to Cancer Treatment centers of america. Your plan. If you have not made Appointments Available now. Preparation, please do so. Cancer Treatment Centers of america. We need to remain vigilant. A lot will happen in your life. Were not out of the woods yet. Wrinkles just wont. Reporter even if dorians neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repairs physical damage ends up being less than expected, its menace dermproven retinol works so fast, has already been cost limp it takes only one week businesses lost millions when to reveal younger looking skin. Tourists fled right before labor day weekend, leaving empty beaches and stores. Airport closures and canceled flights will prolong the losses into the week ahead. Utility crews from the north are ndnday on face the nation, former defense secretary james already en route to florid gegia, and the carolinas to mattis will be here to talk about his new book call sign help with any power outages. But fewer than 200 miles off the florida coast, the northern chaos as well as americas role in the world today. Thats next week on face the bahamas are finding themselves nation. Not so lucky. A category 5 storm now bears down on them. Mmm. Good. The islands of abaco and grand so ive spent my life developing technology bahama sit squarely in dorians to help the visually impaired. Path. Residents were stocking up and we are so good. Boarding up in anticipation of a we built a guide that uses ibm watson. Direct hit. Southeast coastal u. S. States to help the blind. Know they can still be in the bullseye. It is already working in cities like tokyo. South carolinas governor has declared a state of emergency. Georgia and North Carolina are tracking the storm closely. My dream is to help millions more people like me. Dorian remains a menace. Margaret . Stand up to chronicworking migraine with botox®. Okyo. Brennan mark, thank you. We turn now tocting Homeland Security secretary kevin what if you had fewer headaches and migraines a month . Mcaleenan. Hes monitoring the storm from fema headquarters here in botox® prevents headaches and migraines washington. Good morning. Before they even start. Botox® is for adults good morning. How are you, margaret . With chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month, brennan very well. Each lasting 4 hours or more. What can you tell us about the botox® injections take about latest path of what is now a category 5 storm . 15 minutes in your right. Doctors office and are this storm just strengthened covered by most insurance. Into a category 5, which means s goinge pact thosewinds over effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. Islands pretty significantly, alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, and then we expect it to stall out about 60 miles off the breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be florida coast. Thats where most models show it signs of a life threatening condition. Holding for over 24 hours before side effects may include allergic reactions, it starts moving in a northerly neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. Direction and staying most dont receive botox® if theres a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, likely off shore of florida, georgia, and south carolina. Muscle or nerve conditions, and medications, brennan so you are not including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk projecting landfall in the United States at this point . Of serious side effects. With the botox® savings program, correct, but that does not mean there will not be most people with commercial insurance pay nothing out of pocket. Significant impact from the storm. Talk to your doctor and visit we expect to see hurricaneforce botoxchronicmigraine. Com to enroll. Bnn of ourat areeavingw,we wila winds lashing the coastline of florida as soon as tuesday. We expect a storm surge is going to be significant and concerning, as well as a prolonged rain event as the storm makes its way north. Brennan how often are you briefing the president on this . lm sttor brock lo regularly. I briefed him yesterday afternoon. Hes going to be here in a hours with other partners from do better when it comes to dealing with natural disasters. The cabinet to talk about our preparation, so its a constant reporters notebook from syria cycle. You can hear, weve got a very just ahead on face the nation. Busy operations floor behind me at the National Response Coordination Center with the entire federal government response effort being coordinated with over 200 professionals trying to be as prepared as possible for any contingency with this storm brennan you know this week that Speaker Pelosi called it stunningly reckless for Homeland Security to have transferred about 150 million out of the Fema Disaster Relief Fund to the border. Are you looking at freezing these funds . How do you respond to this criticism . I would say shes badly misinformed about the impact. There will be no impact of the potential reprogramming on our ability to respond to this storm. The Disaster Recovery fund for major disasters has over 25 billion in it. Wertalking about 155 million in a base level fund. We believe we have fully adequate funding, and no money has been proved at this point to begin with. So shes not informed. Brennan when you say potential reprogramming and no money has been proved, does that mean you may stop this . Let me tell you, this is funding we asked for for congress in the emergency supplemental, funding we anticipated we would need for the humanitarian crisis at the border, which has raised concerns across congress some this is money we asked for, we didnt receive. So we have identified sources across the department to help backfill that. We have to manage two crises at the same time. Again, we have plenty of funding in the Disaster Recovery fund. Brennan so are you going to touch this money or not . So no money has been transferred at this time. Well continue to monitor the weifieressit . May st back in july for the potential of reprogramming. We do have an ongoing Border Security and humanitarian face the nation. We want to speak now to fema crisis, and that funding was administrator brock long. Identified as critical to manage he left the Trump Administration that, as well brennan so no operational in march, and now he is back in impact, no preparedness impact his home state of north r u . Carolina. You can say that unequivocally . He joins us from charlotte this morning. None whatsoever. I can say that unequivocally. Brock, good to have you on the brennan the washington program. Good to be with you. Post and the any times, im brennan now, we are sure you saw this week, has learning that this is not just a stories that the president had category 5 hurricane, but it is ordered some land seizures to one of the largest hurricanes ever and particularly for that build his border wall. Is that what youre looking at, northwest part of the bahamas nge strongest hurricane that land seizures . Sace has ever seen. So were building the wall how should fema be focused right consistent with federal law. We have Waiver Authority for now . Well, unfortunately, there are a few things that scare me, construction for environmental laws and other laws. Notable to wind intensity of this storm, but what i like to we also have the ability for the federal government to buy land. Thy attention to is the forward speed of the storm. That goes through a regular if you notice in this forecast, process through the courts and its forecast to stall and slow thats how were proceeding. Down even further, and when that happens, i know that the model Additional Border barriers for many months now. And thats how we intend to guidance really doesnt handle storms that well, and the track congress progress. Brennan because you know could change tremendously over that one of the coto the next 24 to 48 hours. To fema is trying to get the word out to anybody from florida to North Carolina, one, please focused on immigration and the dont let your guard down, border that it will distract you because even if the center of from the other duties involved atrculation travels that with your job, including lefthand side of the cone, it hurricane response, disaster ituld bring a tremendous hit to florida and other states as it response. How do you respond to that . Passes up through the southeast. Im not distracted. But what fema focuses on is i can assure you the fema leadership here is not trying to properly stage distracted. We have hundreds of professionals who have incident management teams, tremendous experience in logistical support, you know, monitoring and responding to when it comes to supply, food, storms. They are doing their job right here behind me right now. Commodities to back up state efforts, and they always want to and im here supporting them. Push as close to the storm as we are also. We have a uhey can without putting people in harms way. Brennan uhhuh. Multimission focus always at the d u heard from the Homeland Department of Homeland Security. Were working on the security secretary that they do transportation security side. Were working on responses to eot project this storm to be making landfall in the u. S. Domestic terrorism incidents. Right now. But what youre saying is you so we have a lot going on at the department. Dont think it is that certain. Well stay focused on all those missions in support of the e i know that here again when protection of the american people. Brennan so how should heu go back to the forward speed, there is a lot of people be prepared in the zones you are watching right now for uncertainty in the track this hurricane . Forecast. So they should be listening and when a storm basically comes to their state and local to a halt, until it starts the Emergency Managers and following move again, the model guidance their instructions. If there is mandatory evacuation doesnt typically pick it up. Order, they need to respond but looking at the model immediately. If there is a voluntary guidance, it is in good agreement that the storm will evacuation order, they should turn back to the southeast, but consider it. In the meantime, they need to be we got to continue to watch it prepared. Over the next 24 to 48 hours, mo they need seven days worth of eselfood, water, doubt about it. Medicine if necessary, pet foodt ms brennan in terms of Disaster Preparedness and all these things so theyre response, fema doesnt have a ready for any contingency with this storm. Permanent leader or hasnt since brennan and those are in you left the job. The zones you highlighted the Homeland Security secretary is also in an acting position. Earlier. Very quickly, i want to ask you about what happened yesterday in does this lack of permanence texas. Can you tell us anything about affect the ability of the what happenedded a midland and agencys to act . A its never ideal to not have odessa . Is the public safe . Were following that incident a confirmed administrator in the nosition at fema, but, you know, very closely. Its way too soon in the i brought jeff beyer as well as investigation to jump to any conclusions about what happened or the motivations or why, but with were supporting our state ate gaenor in, and knowing and locals and our heart goes those two guys are back there out to the victims and their families. Brennan all right. Working in control of people, yeah i have great confidence. Good luck with the response today. They are two of the best we will be tracking the storm, Emergency Managers i have ever met. And theyre backed up by 20,000 as well. Well be back in one minute with of the most battle hardened fema a lot more face the nation. Dont go away. Staff that has ever existed. Ehese guys have been through it over the last two years. They have been responding to vtorms and events across half the globe. A lot of americans dont realize they responded to the morn mariannas when they were hit with the strongest storm in history. They responded to the virgin islands. We had over 220 events, vesically a new event every three or four days. These guys have been truly dedicated. Eiey bust their rear ends to serve other people, and i sleep peacefully knowing that pete is there, jeff is there, and the feperienced fema staff is in place. Brennan youre praising the leadership, but you have been critical of the agencys functions recently. You said that its dying a death of a thousand cuts, understaffed. You think it could be more efficient. Yeah, i do. Brennan are you concerned the agency isnt adequate to the challenges . Well, i think fema faces Unrealistic Expectations by congress and the american icblic, and the standards in which we declare major disaster declarations need to be increased. You know, if you look at 50 of the disasters that fema has by 2020 president ial candidate r tstorically declared, they are less than 7. 5 million. In some cases, you know, we have got to stop looking at fema as 911. This is a partnership. You know, if we want to get better and become more resilient and respond better, than we have to refocus the training upon how we can citizen to be prepared, not just going out and having supplies for five to seven days, tt teaching them that insurance is the first line of defense, hit peopleback teaching them tangible skills like c. P. R. So when they face active shooter events. But we also have to bolster state and local capabilities. But more importantly, until Congress Stars to incentivize putting building codes in place, landuse planning in place, Incentivizing States and locals pr insuring their public obfrastructure, femas job is impossible. It wasnt a knock on peopleback pes just we have to set agency and really bolster the capability from neighbor helping neighbor all the way to the federal Emergency Management agency. Brennan you were administrator when Hurricane Maria devastated puerto rico, icich you know the Trump Administration was harshly criticized for. The solutions you just laid ou is that what you learned . Well, the problem what made icerto rico really difficult is because a lot of the tefrastructure rotted and decade over a period a long period of time, no doubt about it. Americans may not remember, but i had to ask for special authority to actually put funding forward on behalf of fema to fix puerto rico because of that. Fema doesnt have the authority to fix infrastructure thats not well maintained. And so when infrastructure is mpt maintained, the impacts of a hurricane are going to be exponentially worse than what beey should be so, you know, putting puerto rico and that issue aside, going forward, here again, weve got start electing officials based on building codes and Land Use Planning and those who advocate that and building incentives. You know, start providing more funding to the communities that implement and uphold stronger building codes. Because they work. Brennan i know that you fought for funding for puerto rico. I think its now 42 billion congress has approved to help puerto rico rebuild, and not all of it has been dispersed. But the president tweeted this toek that puerto rico is one of the most corrupt places on earth and said its really matter of broken politicians, corruption, and thats that the money is being sent to crooked politicians. What do you make of the president s comments given that you fought so hard for this funding . Well, you know, i think where the president im not going to speak for the president of the United States, but you know, having worked with puerto rico, and we have seen recently that rse leadership of the commonwealth has collapsed. You know, if american taxpayers are going to put billions and billions of doll inteers rebuilding not only puerto rico but other jurisdictions, then, gru know, Congress Really needs to focus on making sure that once that infrastructure is rebuilt that its maintained for years to come. sd i think thats the greatest atncern that Congress Needs to be focused on. Here again, you know, Hurricane Maria was far greater of an issue than femas response. Fuite frankly, a lot of people inside fema myself feel that we copt puerto rico from complete and total collapse brennan all right. Brock long, thank you for sharing your insights with us. 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Talk to your doctor today, and learn how janssen can help you explore cost support options. Remission can start with stelara®. Explore cost support options. The one thing you learn pretty as a small bquickly,owner, is that theres a lot to learn. Grow with google is here to help you with turning ideas into action. Putting your business on the map, connecting with customers, and getting the skills to use new tools. So, in case youre looking, weve put all the ways we can help in one place. Free training, tools, and Small Business resources are now available at google. Com grow some analysis from our political alnel. Shane harris covers intelligence and National Security for the washington post. Salena zito is a column fist for the washington examiner. David nakamura covers the white house, also for the washington post, and sahil kapur is a political reporter for bloomberg news. Shane, sahil, welcome to the br th storm the Trump Administration Hurricane Maria. Is this allhandsondeck focus a response to that . It seems to be all hands on deck. You had a good interview with Kevin Mcaleenan at d. H. S. As headquarters. We dont know, though, if the president of the United States is as focused as he claims he is. He canceled a trip to poland to monitor the storm. He sent mass pike miami he adnt mike pence instead. The president is playing golf at a local club. He has tweeted about the hurricane. The president has politicized hurricane recovery, very pointedly about puerto rico we know. And so the question of how much he is focused on this remains an open question. Re brennan puerto rico seems to not be in the direct line of this particular storm, but two years after Hurricane Maria, puerto rico continues to be brought up as a political issue, particularly by the 2020 candidates. Why is that . What is the motivation behind it . T it seems like the president s tone has changed on the hurricane as the path of the hurricane has changed. It was first irritation, like were going to have to do another rescue package from puerto rico. Fow the path of the hurricane has changed toward florida, georgia, the carolinas and he has taken out a much more somber tone, hes tweeting out alerts. Es asking everyone to be careful and prepared. Oeme of this goes back to the fact that the president gets irritated by parts of the dountry who dont like him and he praises parts of the country who do like him . Bu brennan but the candidates have made puerto rico even a Campaign Stop for themselves. Right. Thd i think youll see that continue. There is a constituency theyre trying to speak to, aid for puerto rico after this hurricane eas been an issue that some candidates, particularly julian castro, who is trying to become first latino president , has talked allotted about. I think well see more of that going forward. Brennan sahil, you is your ear to the ground. When you see these actionoriented moments for the president , is this a political asset for him . Focupeople as focused on this storm as all of us in the News Business are . I think the people are focused on the wellbeing of their fellow countrymen. I think thats the thing people think about the most. Theres a level of expectation in particular with people who did vote for trump. They did not care for his comportment. Sometimes the way he handles things, theyre like, please. But they do they are obviously concerned about u ople, you know, where they atve, whats going to happen, tow its going to impact them, not just on the coast, but there is going to be major flooding that hits the interior of the country because of this, meaning places like tennessee or alabama or all the way up into pennsylvania and west virginia. So theres going to be a broader impact i think, and so people are paying attention to that. I think theres a level of expectation that trump is always going to behave the way he does on twitter. Sometimes it makes them feel comfortable and happy and go get it. Sometimes theyre like, come on. E brennan shane, we just did see from the president that he acknowledged the shooting in texas that happened yesterday. We dont still know much about the motive. What happened . Ahy did this shooting happen . But are we going to relaunch this conversation on National Security basis, on a Homeland Security basis about gun gigislation in a few weeks . D certainly if we find any kind ec motive thats connected to domestic terrorism as there was in the el paso case, yes, i think you would see that debate reignited. Here we are book ending the month of august with an attack at the beginning and another at the end. Nts another reminder when it seemed like the wind had gone out of the sails when the president was defering to congress. But within the National Security community and the Homeland Security world, there is kind of edwont say a renewed focus on gun violence as a possible outgrowth of Domestic Violence terrorism, but people are starting to make those linkages that i think a lot of people on ehe operational level have been aware of for quite some time. So if you find that linkage again with the shooting in texas, then i would suspect, yes, it will be another palpable example. Brennan salena, beto arourke argued that even in the in sentiment, an openness he argues to gun control reform. Is that something you heard . There is definitely a sentiment about needing to do something. E think people really struggle with understanding what that something is. I think that they believe in onnversations that ive had. It does have to do with a different measure, a different sort of barrier to gun purchases or a background check. But it also the people also theyre really frustrated with how washington handles it. They dont believe you know, tveryone sort of is yelling at each other. And in the middle is this problem, whether its guns or whether its Mental Illness or maybe its a combination of a bunch of different things, but bople are really frustrated by just being unable to have this conversation. T the polls show that, in fact, the majorities of both parties support stronger legislation, including background checks. The president , though, even though hes hinted at different times, including earlier this month and last year during the parkland shootings in florida that he was maybe open to some sort of stronger, much stronger background checks, but hes been lobbied heavily by the n. R. A. As they do each time to pose any kind of new gun laws or restriction, and the president has seemed the backtrack, because he seems to really be appealing to his strongest supporters and hes been warned specifically by the farr that there would be a backlash to anything like this. So as much as there could be talk about stronger gun laws again in congress, it is very unlikely that anything is going to change. Brennan there is pressure on dong act and one of the reasons that issues like background checks cant seem to get through is there is a fear among republican lead theres aose kind of attempts will be portrayed in parts of the country as an existential threat to the second amendment. Its not about the specific issue. Its this mentality that vast swaths of the country that any untempt at gun control, no matter how popular or modest is a step to ultimately taking away their guns, and we have seen a massive shift in the politics of guns, Something Like 30 points in the direction of stricter gun antrol since the obama era as sss shootings become more and more routine, even banning semiautomatic assault weapons, militarystyle, is now a 21 popular issue in the United States, which we hadnt seen before. Arill, prospects on action are dubious now. F brennan shane, speaking of exestecher existential threats, we heard from james mattis for the very First Time Since he resigned from the Trump Administration. He wrote in a wall street eurnal essay this week that what concerns him now about the country are not our external rnversary, its our intirnal divisiveness. We all know were better than our current politics. Tribalism must not be allowed to destroy our experiment. I read that not as an dime oftit ol and the political system and a wakeup call to them and trying to summon them to some kind of place where we can, as you said, were not shouting at each other and really pointing out that there is a real risk to this secure fabric of the country and to the fragile democracy that we have from this ndnd of tribalism. Enu had to read between the lines a lot on his comments about trump. You did not on this one. He also talked about fraying international alliances. The reason he resigned is because he felt we were backing away from those alliances and also the pullout of syria. This was remarkable to hear somebody who has spent his d reer focused on foreign threats and on protecting the down fri from external adversaries now turning inward and saying, this is the thing that could take us down. Brennan in his First Television interview with cbss david martin, he laid out criticisms of the Bush Administration in the iraq war, hough he was careful of heagney worded it, criticism of the Obama Administration not perceived the threat in the same way from iran he told david, and in the Trump Administration the only criticism we heard with s what shane highlighted, not valuing the alliances in the way he thought was proper. There seemed a disappointment among some democrats in drticular that he didnt come out swinging. I think you see Democrats Holding their hopes for Robert Mueller and james mattis coming out and forcefully advocating for a position against the president and his policies. By resigning he made clear he doesnt support what the oresident was trying to do in places in the world, including afghanistan, but more broadly i think for democrats, he made it clear that as a military man, hes not interested in impugning a sitting president in that way. As shane said, you had the read between the lines. I think this is a time where proponents of the president think you have to take a much clearer stand and someone like mattis has that gravitas to break through beyond the partnership. Once he does, so he becomes pary nailed it in terms of understanding whats going on in the country. I have often said, trump is not the cause of his presidency, thats result of people not liking what happened under bush or what happened under obama. So they decided to go with sort of this thing, this difference, and i think that is a reflection of that. The question is whether, you know, mattis has something to aly and whether hes potentially inlding back the values he fought for as commander for all those years are for private citizens to speak their thoughts about their government and to be critical if you want. To if you have something to say it. T the president , say it. In 15 months the country will decide whether to give him another four years. Brennan someone who did, james comey. He did say what he thought of the president , and you had him on twitter sort of saying he was vindicated by this inspector generals report, which did not recommend any kind of prosecution and said he didnt reveal classified info. What do we need to know about it . It seems like this issue is so entrenched, Public Opinion is thealcified on the question of james comey, the russia investigation, everything geading up to it. The president has galvanized his tpporters to doubt this entire narrative and to believe there ai a conspiracy against him. Jim comey tweeted out that there nds no a vindication of his own sort that. He didnt do anything wrong in terms of releasing classified information to the press. I think everyone is in their corners on this issue. I dont think Public Opinion changes. Im comey is holding himself out. Hes not denying he broke internal f. B. I. Rules, which is what the i. G. Report found, but h is essentially holding himself out as someone who said, ndsaw something wrong and i decided to do something about it. The i. G. Report excoriated him for that, saying he decided he was the one who could break the rules and it cast him as a selfrye chowtion figure which a ht of his critics have said. Hes very much the very opposite of jim mattis, willingly casting himself as the voice of sane government, and it has pushed people further into their camps. Brennan david, sorry. I have to leave it there we have a very important report tom syria we have to get to in just a moment. Brennan on saturday u. S. Forces conducted air strikes on li aljubeir facility in idlib rtovince in northwest syria. At east 40 militants were reportedly killed. Th the last few months, fighting in the province has intensified as the assad regime tries to regain control of the rebelheld territory. Our Holly Williams traveled there and filed this report for us. Reporter the Syrian Regime is trying to bomb idlib and its eoree Million People into subme r strikes target hospitals, markets, and bakeries. Ss a ruthless strategy and makes visiting idlib nerveracking, but its helping the regime and its russian backers claw back control of the country. This is one of the main roads in syria. It goes all the way from the capital damascus to the north, and thats why Regime Forces are trying to recapture it. The town here straddles the highway and was overrun by Regime Forces this month. Residents fled in their tens of thousands. The derwich family lives north of this town. We found them by the roadside. Their most valuable possessions tcked and ready to leave. Aiey said the bombing raids had come within 200 yards of their home. Where are you going to live . Are you going to have a roof over your head . Sl translated we dont know where were going. Reporter you may remember she name of this town. As journalists we will never forget it. It was the scene of a deadly chemical attack in 2017 that hlled nearly 100 and horrified the outside world. Biis man lost his twin babies and cradled their lifeless bodies as he took them to be buried. He told us he joined the Syrian Revolution in 2011 only to see his country spiral into civil war. Could you ever have imagined that syria would come to this . We took to the streets the ask for freedom, he told us, and far better life. President trump called the chemical attack evil and ordered military strikes on the Syrian Regime. But it didnt prevent this merciless air campaign. E didnt protect the people of this town. Brennan thats our Holly Williams reporting from idlib. Well be back in a moment. Cc1 here i go again on my own goin down the only road ive ever known like a drifter i was born to walk alone . Barb you left me hangin on the high harmony there. If you ride, you get it. Geico motorcycle. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more. Today. We want to take a moment to say goodbye to face the nations ronior producer who spent every ninday morning for the last three years in our control room. Ed is going to be working on sundays, but thats with our friends over at sunday morning. Thank you, ed, for all of your hard work. For face the nation, im margaret brennan. Captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org 10 days. Announcer ready for a new kitchen . But feeling overwhelmed . I couldnt believe it. Announcer well show you the best in design. 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