Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Special Report With Bret Baier 20170829

Families are homeless, the official death toll is growing with the drowning of a Police Officer who was heading out to help people. We are clearly seeing the better side of america in these images as celebrities and athletes, politicians, regular folks for chin with money, supplies, and hard work to help. We have Fox Team Coverage of the president s visit, the flooding of the politics. Rick leventhal is in lake charles, louisiana, as harvey dumps on that state. Trace gallagher is in houston to show us where the flooding their stance. We start with peter doocy in Corpus Christi on the president s visage. Good evening. Good evening, bret. The president left the white house for a fire house here in Corpus Christi where he told the men and women responsible for handling harveys aftermath he has a history of them. We want to do it better than ever before. Minutes after air force one touched down at an airport that was closed this weekend, the president told officials gathered at Corpus Christi firehouse number 5, he wants the relief effort to set a historical standard. We want to be looked at five years, ten years from now, that this is the way to do it. Harvey was still hammering the houston area. He knows that what looks like a wellplanned rescue and recovery effort still fail. We will congratulate each other when its finished. The pentagon thinks the effort will go so long they announced today the possibility that 20,000 to 30,000 Additional National guard troops could deploy. Just like our First Responders get tired and burnout, guardsmen will also get tired and burnout as we do this. This has to be a phased approach. Texas is planning for it. Emergency operations are being coordinated in the capital city of austin and President Trump toward the nerve center this afternoon. The sad thing is this is longterm. No one has ever seen anything this long and no one has ever seen this much water. Fema predicts people will ask for federal assistance. Its prepositioning 2. 8 million meals and 2. 9 million liters of water in texas and louisiana. The red cross says shelters are packed with the 17,000 people so far. Probably theres never been anything so expensive in our countrys history. No matter what happens before the water receipts, President Trump told locals of the category 4 harvey was no match for the spirit of the lone star state. This is historic. Its epic what happened. But you know what, it happened in texas, and texas can handle anything. Air force one is on its way right now from austin to joint base andrews just outside d. C. She tried to stay out of 1st responders is way, the president didnt actually tour any harvey damage but hes coming back to the state saturday. Bret peter doocy, thank you. Governor greg abbott will join us later with the latest. The rainfall amounts are staggering. So are the numbers of people driven from their homes. Shelters are filling up at this hour, and its not over yet. Not by a long shot. Correspondent Trace Gallagher is in houston with the latest we are in houston where it is still raining. Hundreds of homes around the lake with water to the secondstory. They all look the same. There are hundreds of people who have been rescued from this area today. People are still out there in their homes and so are the boats but some people are refusing to leave. The authorities are telling them if a boat comes by, you better get on it because there might not be another one. Overwhelmed, summary of what waterlogged residents and we are a First Responders are dealing with as Tropical Storm harvey hovers offshore. Preparing to reload and restrike. Houston police alone report 3500 people rescued from floodwaters. The National Guard adds another 3,000. Of immediate concern, two reservoirs just north starting to overflow their banks despite controlled releases. Some nearby communities seeing water levels suddenly rising 7 inches an hour. We are looking for four victims. The problem we are having is when they call number one there evening physical street addresses and we cant see the street addresses. Dramatic before and after photos showing the inundations swallowing roads, entire neighborhoods. Kept rising, kept moving. Just got wetter. With 911 emergency systems jams, residents and their rescuers are using social media to prioritize. Knowing the dangers will last indefinitely. We are expecting a peak in the reservoir at the end of the week but to get the water to receipt, and to get it out of homes it will take several weeks. With 30,000 residents displaced from homes and growing rapidly, local shelters are over capacity. Downtown houstons Convention Center has now doubled its capacity with some people lying on towels and cardboard. Its not your home. We understand that. Its a shelter where people are safe. People are dry, and people are out of the floodwaters and thats what we need to be doing. Some cities as far away as dallas and san antonio are setting up mega shelters to handle the overflow. At least 14 people reportedly killed so far, among them a family of six caught in their van when waters rose. A similar fate for Houston Police Sergeant Steve perez, trapped in his patrol car. As much as we wanted to recover him last night, we couldnt put more officers at risk. What we knew in our hearts was going to be a recovery mission. As heartrending as these stories are and these images, keep in mind people have their own stories. This woman just lost her husband. Shes 80 years old. This family down here had just finished renovating the house after a flood earlier this summer over memorial day. Bret Trace Gallagher live in houston. Thank you. Louisiana, as we said, as bracing for major flooding from a reenergized harvey. This on the 12th anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina stormed ashore as a category three hurricane. Rick leventhal is in lake charles with the latest. Good evening. Good evening, bret. Calcasieu parish has been pounded by rain for seven days and theyve got more rain today and they are expecting more tonight. They have been seeing waves of it. They expect to get quite a bit more. Youve been hearing a lot about the cajun navy. We have examples of some of the boats and their drivers are staged here in the parking lot of the Lake Charles Civic Center. Theyve been told and stayed here and prepare for emergency calls in this area. There were hundreds of people rescued last night. There could be more in need today, and the governor approved today bringing fuel here to this parking lot to give these guys the fuel they need for their boats and trucks. And also food. So they can make nachos rescued here but also to travel between lake charles and houston and surrounding areas. One of these guys told me they tried to get to texas this morning and were turned around because the roads were too bad. Meanwhile the Lake Charles Civic Center is being turned into a massive rescue shelter. Another shelter in town was swamped earlier today by water. The Purple Heart Rec Center surrounded by floodwater earlier today so thats one reason why they had to open a bigger shelter. Also the need potentially for hundreds, if not thousands of evacuees from texas making their way to this area. We are told some texans are in this chapter already. We saw dozens of rescues last night, in fact we are told the sheriffs department, fire department, wildlife officials and the National Guard pulled some 500 people out of several neighborhoods surrounding lake charles. High waters that rose, heavy storms overnight, swapping their homes. We went to the same neighborhood and the streets were better. The water had dissipated but the streets were still flooded, just not into houses. Again, because this area so saturated, they are fully expecting more people will need rescues tonight. Again, the National Guard, one of the agency helping out here. We spoke with the major they are about the assets they have in place, and the work they are doing. We drive in. We helped load them in the back of the truck. Sometimes physically we have to pick them up and get them in the back, the elderly, the disabled. They have to be picked up and put in the back of the truck. Have you been doing . Doing outstanding. The guardsmen in the state of louisiana, we are welltrained, wellequipped and we stand ready to respond to anything that the local authorities need. We also saw a resident putting sandbags artist home not just because of floodwater but because snakes are in the water. The snakes have been coming into some homes. Thats another reason they want to put sandbags outside. We have flash flood warnings in effect and the possibility of tornadoes overnight and throughout the day tomorrow in the region. Bret unfortunately they know that all too well. Rick leventhal in louisiana we will continue our harvey storm coverage shortly. I will ask Texas Governor greg abbott about his meeting with President Trump and his concerns. Governor abbott in a few minutes. Stocks up. Nasdaq jumped 19. President trump is dealing with more than just the harvey aftermath. There is of course other news. To make a new wrinkle to the investigation of russian interference in the u. S. Election. It has to do with mr. Trumps attempts to put his mark on moscow. Chief White House Correspondent john roberts fills us into night. The project launched in september of 2015 was a gleaming hotel, office tower, and residents that would dominate the moscow skyline. At the center of the proposal, Trump Organization Attorney Michael Cohen and deal broker felix slater who would act as liaison between the Trump Organization of the russian government which would have to grant permits for the project. November 3rd, 2015, an email to colin breaking that the project would be a boon to then candidate donald trump. Writing our boy can become president of the u. S. And we can engineer it. I will get all of putins team to buy in and manage it. In a letter, laid out the timetable for the project, signed by late january 2016 it became apparent the proposal wasnt feasible and should not be pursued any further. Cohen said seder sometimes used colorful language. President trump said he had no business dealings with russia. I have nothing to do with russia. I know nothing about the inner workings of russia. I own nothing in russia. People thought i owned Office Buildings in moscow. I dont have property in russia. What the president said at the time he said it did not appear to contradict the timeline. An attorney for the president also points out the project never got beyond a letter of intent that there was never any kind of business deal signed with russian entities. It wasnt for lack of trying. In midjanuary 2016, what it was apparent the project was stalled, cohen sent an email and writes as this project is too important, i am hereby requesting your assistance. I respectfully request someone, preferably you, contact me so that i might discuss the specifics as well as arranging meetings with the appropriate individuals. Cohen did not know peskovs email. He says less than two weeks later he decided to abandon the trump tower project. Doesnt recall hearing back from peskov. Attorneys who are close to cohen are saying its evidence of anticollusion if he didnt even know peskovs personal email address. We can report donald trump jr. Has agreed to talk to investigators. He was facing an subpoena. Jared kushner spoke with the committees. He will sit down with a transcribed interview. We dont yet know the date but it looks like hes gotten away from a subpoena by saying i will sit down. We can talk with each other and you can transcribe what i have to say. Bret thank you. There are growing concerns that the Recovery Efforts from harvey could be hampered by hundreds of federal jobs still unfilled since President Trump took office. James rosen tells us the president himself weighed in and does not think its a problem. Fox friends in the morning is the best show, and its the absolute most honest show. A week later, the shows most loyal and influential viewer was dutifully tuned in to hurricane coverage only dizzy pointed questions raised about the Trump Administrations confidence in staffing the executive branch. I know right now, you know how much is on the line. You brought up a great point last night. Where is the staff . At homeland security, fema, u. S. Trade representatives office. They are doing a huge renegotiation of nafta. Bob lighthizer doesnt have a permanent deputy. Thats a massive undertaking. They are doing it with a smaller staff and its not ideal. 20 minutes later the president tweeted. We are not looking to fill all of those positions, dont need many of them. Reduce size of government. Of the more than 4,000 political appointments the president makes, 1100 require senate confirmation. Of those, only 124 are on the job. Roughly 145 more are awaiting senate confirmation. More than 800 are filled by holdovers with time left on their appointments or are on field awaiting a nominee. In order to reduce the number of political appointees in that category, you need to do it in a systematic and structured way. You need to change the actual operations of government and so far, he hasnt been doing that. Stick with the Trump Administration has announced the elimination of several dozen high and midlevel post at the state depe special envoys for climate change, syria, sudan, south sudan. Senior representative to the minsk group and special coordinator for haiti. Bret special report continues from the white house. I will talk with Kellyanne Conway when we come back. Liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. So he got home safe. Yeah, my dad says our insurance doesnt have that. What . . With Liberty Mutuals 24hour roadside assistance, get a jump, tow, and more any time of day. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Bret welcome back to special report live from the white house. President trump and his team dealing with their first Natural Disaster and is one of historic proportions as weve been telling you on this program. As the president is on his way back to the white house, theres also a lot of other news to cover. Thats get the latest from counselor to the president , Kellyanne Conway. Thanks for joining us. Your assessment. You have heard from the team. The president s thoughts about his visit and take away. The president and first lady and key cabinet members along with some of the senior staff visited Corpus Christi and austin. To get a briefing from local officials, see the volunteers in action, the neighbor to neighbor, stranger to stranger rescues. And then go to the state capital and receive a briefing from governor abbott. He stayed away from houston which has been impacted the most and does plan to perhaps visit the area if appropriate on saturday. The president was struck today by two major things. One is for sure coordination, the effort thing put forth by our local, state, federal government. The prepositioning of assets. 2. 5 liters of water 2. 5 million liters of water. I think the second part is the best of the u. S. In action. People helping other people and making sure folks are getting the information they need. We want to think the media for connecting people with the information they need. Diapers, pet care, housing, food, the supplies people need. Bret i heard the president say funding is going to come through, that hes going to push the funding through. If you look at the fema budget submitted, it was submitted with a decrease of 7. 4 . Obviously this is for this disaster but thats a drop of 838 million. Do you think theres a reconsideration now about that, considering how much you are relying on fema question the president made clear yesterday and again today, he expects congress to act to get the recovery money that the people of texas need. We all know recovery takes a long time. Nobody should put in artificial time frame on it. A lot of people suffering, a lot of folks have a long road of recovery had. Will be there for them. The funding will be there but in terms of fema if you look at the effort put forth by the head of fema, brock long, and his team. We have 2,000 members from fema on the ground in texas right now helping along with acting director and her team. Its been a remarkable coordinated effort. The president has made clear he wants to make sure the funding is there and that we focus on those in need. Bret for the money has to come from somewhere. He was going to decrease it but is he reconsidering . He wants congress to act with him. Bret there is big news out of north korea. We are getting worried that the north Korean Leader kim jong un was at the actual launch of this missile going over japan. Nikki haley, u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Said enough is enough today. We heard the president saying the threats cannot last. What is enough is enough. What does it mean . The president says all options are on the table. He had an extended conversation with mr. Abe of japan, their sovereignty was attacked in such a brazen way. I read a couple different reports today that this type of attack has not been seen in decades if ever. Obviously the president has been working with south korea, china, japan and others. He talked about sanctions, other options. I think the president will do what hes always promised to do witches consult with his larger Security Team and not broadcast ahead of time what hell do. The real perpetrator here is north korea. Lets be frank about that. This violates basic International Standards of behavior. North korea shows its willing to brazenly attack other nations sovereignty. Bret the last time you were here we asked about the Russian Investigation how things are progressing and you said it was hillary clinton, not the russians, that propelled donald trump the white house. Now there are these news storie stories. Here is candidate trump and then President Trump talking about ties to russia. I have nothing to do with russia. I have drawn. John, are you a smart man. I have nothing to do with russia. I have nothing to do with russia. I have nothing to do with russia. Maybe they say donald trump is involved. The answer is no. I had nothing to do with it. I had nothing to do with russia. I have no deals there. I dont know anything. Still we saw john roberts report about michael cohen, trump attorney, executive Vice President of the Trump Organization emailing with dimitri pesek off to push through this trump tower deal. That was in january 2016. We are told mr. Trump signed off on a letter of intent. Nothing came of it. You will recall michael was besmirched by many earlier this year because they had the wrong michael cohen. Saying he had been in russia. Michael cohen said he had never been in russia. He was out with his son when they said he was there. Hes already been besmirched once. Nothing came of it. No deal was made, no visit was made and when the president says he doesnt deal in russia, watched gas said again and again what he has said again and again is that he was there for the Miss Universe pageant. He has no business dealings there and in this case no deal was made. For the trump towers all over the world, moscow does not have one. Bret sure about the deal was being talked about it. There was a push in february, january 2016. You would think nothing at all might not be the accurate statement. Lets look at what the investigation is supposed to be about. Everybody breathlessly predicting youre going to see interference, collusion, and affecting the election results. Last time i said hillary clinton, not the russians, propelled donald trump to victory. I think no one can argue with that. Thats what we promised. But for collusion, that donald trump would not be president , thats just not true. Adam schiff and mark warner, the democratic members and the committees, they spend more time on tv than they do investigating. Bret the investigation is not over. Do you expect it to end soon . Its churning up a lot of interest. The president and others have said they will cooperate. People are revealing informatio information. Don jr. , jared kushner. Others have said they will come forward. What do we have so far, when the president says it hasnt gone anywhere, we cant even get most people in the media to cover what we do know about Debbie Wasserman schultzs i. T. Aide who was charged and arrested. We cant get people exorcised about things we do know yet we are constantly looking, a conclusion in search of evidence. Bret finally, tax reform rollout tomorrow. Will there be a specifics to give a road map to congress of what the president wants . The president will provide a rollout tomorrow in springfield, missouri. We spend about 7 billion hours by some estimates trying to complying with the tax code. It benefits those who can afford lawyers and attorneys and accountants to show them ways around the tax code. He wants to make sure we lower the rate, middleclass tax reform and do away with the special interests and the swampcentric handouts that exist. This is a jobs bill. The best way to stimulate growth and create more jobs and unleash prosperity is reducing the tax burden on job creators and job holders. In september, candidate trump put forth 25 million jobs over ten years. He is still talking about that and it included deregulation. He has eliminated about a dozen or so, reducing the tax code and we Hope Congress will step up and support the president. Bret we appreciate your time. Governor of texas greg abbott joins us with the latest on harvey and his meeting with the president today. Its time for the biggest sale of the year with the new sleep number 360 smart bed. It senses your every move and automatically adjusts on both sides to keep you effortlessly comfortable. And snoring. Does your bed do that . The new 360 smart bed is part of our biggest sale of the year where all beds are on sale. And right now save 50 on the labor Day Limited Edition bed. saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico. Goin up the country. Later, gary i have a motorcycle wonderful. Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. But their nutritional needs vremain instinctual. D, thats why theres purina one true instinct. Nutrientdense, proteinrich, real meat number one. This is a different breed of nutrition. Purina one, true instinct. Bret National Weather service says harvey has dumped 52 inches of rain in some parts of texas. We are getting word about this, as we speak. We are getting the totals coming in as the rain continues to fall in various elements of the state of texas. Thats where we find the governor of texas who spent his day with the president. Harvey is still a Tropical Storm. President trump was in the state to view damage and coordinate the response. Lets get an update on where the rescue and recovery effort stands. Texas Governor Greg Abbott joins us. Thank you for being here. I know youre busy. My pleasure. Bret your thoughts on the day today as the president came to your state and really saw and heard about all the rescue and Recovery Efforts. We hosted the president for two stops today. First was in Corpus Christi which is close to where the initial land fall of the hurricane hit the texas shore. That was the first catastrophe we had in this whole weather incident. The president saw similar damage but got to hear firsthand from the people of Corpus Christi. Rockport and those areas, learned firsthand the challenges and the needs they have and the reality that this is not going to be an issue thats going to be solved in a couple days. There was the briefing about whats transpiring in houston, texas, as we spoke. The challenge of people in houston are facing. Most importantly, the compassion and concern i could see on the president s face and his reactions. The president is very concerned about texans and is very committed to helping us address our needs. Bret whats your biggest concern at this hour . You are trying to rescue people from their homes but the logistics of all of that and possibly the levees and the concern about those. There are multiple challenges taking place at the same time. First is saving lives, and that means the rescue part but also the levees and doing everything we can to prevent and reduce the amount of flooding that may or could take place. And then of course at the same time, dealing with the evacuation and the housing of these people who have been evacuated. Thats something thats not going to be done overnight. Its going to take weeks or months. Thats just stage two. Stage three will be the longterm process of helping everyone whose homes have been flooded, that have been wiped out, get back on track in permanent housing. Bret its Pretty Amazing that 12 years ago tonight, Hurricane Katrina stormed into the gulf coast. We really felt all of the after effects, days, weeks, even months after. Can you tell somebody in houston how long it might be before the floodwaters receded, just by talking to your experts and what this potentially looks like timewise . Listen, we are hoping the rain and we believe the rain will be ending here within hours, if not days. If the reality is with the high water, it will be many more days before the water recedes. Just because the water recedes doesnt mean that all the problems are fixed. Because of the size and magnitude of this flooding, we all need to come to the sober reality that this is going to be a long time process. We have been dealing with the fema director brock long all day long. Hes been emphasizing the necessity of everybody coming to grips with how long this is going to take. In order to rebuild the houston area because of this once in a lifetime flooding incident. Bret last thing, governor, your assessment of the coordination between your state and the federal government and how thats going. The coordination between texas and the federal government has been seamless. In fact, ive never seen it work as well. The coordination began about ten days before the hurricane even hit our shore. We were prepared in advance. The president and his staff, including every cabinet member. I have talked to almost all the cabinet members the last ten days and from top to bottom, they have all work sidebyside with the state of texas providing us everything we needed. Bret governor abbott, i have received a lot of texts and Facebook Messages and twitter and tweet about people praying for you. We would love to have you back to get an assessment. We thank everybody. I need to tell you there are so many states that have been helpful. Pretty much every state across the country has sent out, and we appreciate it all. Thank you, america. Bret thinks to governor abbott. One of the most famous tv pastors in the world is dealing with a Public Relations issues. On by social media. Religion correspondent lauren green reports on how this is all coming together and how joel steen is dealing with damage control in a fair and balanced reports. Joel goldsteins reputation took a hit. Not opening his church during the storm. Exclusive pictures showing parts of the building underwater and inaccessible. When waters receded, osteen opened the area. Liquids doors are open another photo showing air mattresses on the floors. Lakewood, one of houston area churches that canceled services because of a deluge of water. Several churches turned to social media to reach out to stranded. These are dark days but i believe god has set the church up to shine bright. Critics targeted the Lakewood Church because of the arenatype auditorium. Social media posts supposedly pressured the osteens to open the church but in a statement osteen said weve never closed our doors. Will be a distribution center. We are prepared to shelter people once the cities and county shelters reach capacity. That point was reached tuesday. Government officials calling for more places for flood victims. We are looking for other shelter locations. The church will be used as a Police Command center while Police Headquarters are underwater. And its taking donations for its distribution center, asking for diapers, baby formula, baby food and other supplies. Houston is home to several mega churches. Many becoming mega shelters in the storm. Thank you. We talked about it with Kellyanne Conway. Up next, President Trump says all options on the table after north koreas latest missile test. Hey, is this our turn . Honey. Our turn . Yeah, we go left right here. woman vo Great Adventures are still out there. Well find them in our Subaru Outback. avo love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Get 0 apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 Subaru Outback models. Now through august 31. I tabut with my back paines, i couldnt sleep and get up in time. Then i found aleve pm. Aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. Im back. Aleve pm for a better am. Bret you heard earlier from Kellyanne Conway. President trump says all options on the table when it comes to north korea. He is considering or threatening military action to deal with north korea following yesterdays Ballistic Missile test that flew over japan. Tonight Benjamin Hall has the latest on what japan is doing and how its reacting to this missile launch. 6 00 a. M. In northern japan. Siren sound. The alert system warning citizens a missile is on its way. Across japan, people could only look on. North korea has conducted dozens of missile tests under kim jong un but this was the first over japan since 2009. The midrange Ballistic Missile designed to carry a Nuclear Payload flew 1700 miles, just 300 short of the distance to guam though in a different direction. Condemnation of swift. No country should have missiles flying over them like those 130 Million People in japan. President trump responded quickly saying north korea had shown contempt for its neighbors. And that all options are on the table to deal with the isolated regime. South korea responded by releasing video of their own. They conducted bombing drills, a rehearsal for taking out the rogue states artillery. The Japanese Military participated in a drill of its own Ballistic Missile system. Despite previous threats to shoot down north korean missiles come on this occasion they refrained. Japanese Prime Minister abe said he had been reassured by a 40 minute phone call with President Trump. President trump said the United States is 100 with its allied japan. And expressed his commitment to defend japan. Kim jong un seems unafraid or unaffected by condemnation. His latest test, like the others, seems likely to go unpunished. Once again, the u. S. And International Community seem uncertain about how to respond. Sections just arent working and short of military action, there are very few other options. Bret. Bret Benjamin Hall in london. Thank you. Another fox news alert. Weve learned about indictments related to the beatings last month outside the turkish ambassadors residence in washington. 19 people, including 15 Turkish Security officials, have been indicted for attacking protesters during the washington visit of turkish leader recep ergogan. We will have details on that. President trump tours the damage from Hurricane Harvey while washington politics loom in coming days. We will get reaction from the panel when we come back. Theres only one egg that just tastes better. Fresher. More flavorful. Delicious. Only one egg with better nutrition like more vitamins d, e, and omega 3s. And 25 less saturated fat. Only one egg good enough for my family. Because why have ordinary when you can have the best. Egglands best. The only egg that gives you so much more better taste. Better nutrition. Better eggs. Better nutrition. Its ok that everybody ignoits fine. N i drive. Because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months im accident free. 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And provided by Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. Apply for a Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan any time you want. So dont wait. Call unitedhealthcare now to request your free decision guide. I just want to say we love you. You are special. Were here to take care going well. I want to thank you for coming out. Were going to get you back and operating immediately. This has been a total cooperative effort. Again, we will see you soon. I will tell you, this is historic. Its epic what happened. But, you know what . It happened to texas. And texas can handle anything. Thank you all, folks. Thank you. [cheers and applause] bret texas can handle anything. President trump in texas today talking in Corpus Christi there as he gets ready to come back here to the white house. Lets bring in our panel tom rogan commentary writer for the washington examiner. Katie schlapp columnist for the Washington Times and here at the white house julie paste associated editor for the associated press. So far logistically things are going well and this trip kind of showed that with cabinet members and with the governor of texas. Certainly the white house and the administration at large feel pretty good so far about the way that the federal government has been responding. I think its clearly important to the president that he be on the ground. He talked about taking a second trip on saturday. These storms though are really longterm thing for a government. Its the immediate response, which is so crucial, getting people out of their houses that are flooded. Getting them to shelter. But then its the longterm recovery effort. Thats where we saw in new orleans after katrina that the government also fell down on the job a bit. So this is going to be something that this administration is going to have to manage but certainly shortterm the people are feeling good about the response. The president seems energized to get down there and take a firsthand look at what was going on and talk to First Responders. Bret talked to Kellyanne Conway about the cut to fema in the 2018 administration budget. Obviously relying heavily on fema now. So that may all change it . Definitely does change. This is where Congress Plays an Important Role, special when it comes to emergency funding for this sort of catastrophic storm. I think for the president at this moment, he is the comforter in chief. Its an incredibly Important Role for the president to play. President trump has basically stepped into that role very effectively. He is showing that there is strong coordination with the cabinet secretaries and local and state counterparts. So, i really think for the president this has been an incredibly important step and this is something that we didnt see, for example, when it was Hurricane Katrina and president george w. Bush and he received a lot of criticism when he did not go and visit the devastated areas back in the day with the Rapid Response and i think you have certain members in that White House Team that recognize that have been there before who went through Hurricane Katrina and are basically helping to ensure that President Trump does this the right way. Bret yeah, back then the bush people didnt want to get in the way either and obviously had a different local and state but you have got to be there. Bret government body dealing with the storm. I want to turn to other topics. Other news and that is north korea. Here is thu. S. Ambassador to th. No country should have missiles flying over them like 130 Million People in japan. Its unacceptable. They have violated every single u. N. Security Council Resolution that we have had. And so i think something serious has to happen. I think enough is enough. Bret enough is enough, tom. And trying to get this administration to say what enough looks like is tough. It is. And that speaks to the nature that you are dealing with a state actor that has nuclear weapons. I think we will see a few things happening in the coming days. Number one, i think there will be an agreement between the United States and japan about potentially shooting down a Ballistic Missile should this happen again. I think you will see u. N. Action led by nikki haley to try to crack down on north korean imports. I think you will see a buildup in the region of u. S. Military Striking Forces that would be predisposed towards hitting the north korean Ballistic Missile development sites. Bret that would change the dynamic. Julie, that is the Number One International issue they are dealing with. It absolutely is. I think what we have seen over the last several weeks is that they are dealing with the exact same dynamic that president bush and president obama dealt with which is that the north koreans are simply not deterred by tough talk or sanctions, economic pressure, unless it comes from the chinese. And the Trump Administration has put a lot of effort into trying to prod china along. China just moves on its own time frame. They do not tend to move rapidly. They do not tend to change government policy quickly even if th in the face of threas of economic pressure from the u. S. Thats the situation the administration has to face now. If north korea continues to move in the directions we have seen for the last several months and years is, there anything they can do with china and is there a military option. Most people i have talked to in the administration say despite the threat of military action, despite the talk of all options on the table there really isnt a great military option that we are looking at right now. Bret we will turn to tax reform with a rollout tomorrow that were told is going to last a number of states a number of speeches from this president. Panel a little shorter tonight. We apologize for that thank you. When we come back, people helping people hurt by harvey. We cant see enough of these stories. And got an estimate in 24 hours. My Insurance Company definitely doesnt have that. You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. People spend less time lying awake with aches and pains with advil pm than with tylenol pm. Advil pm combines the number one pain reliever with the number one sleep aid. Gentle, nonhabit forming advil pm. For a healing nights sleep. Pretty bret finally tonight, people across the nation continue to help victims of Hurricane Harvey in big and small ways. Anheuser bush, for example is trading in beer for water this week. The company put beer production on hold and is, instead, producing 50,000 cans of Safe Drinking Water to distribute to flood victims. First thing you want to do is get people hydrated because usually when a disaster happens its in the summertime. There is a lot of heat. There is a lot of humidity. Bret people from all over the country getting involved. One little boy in Philadelphia Running a Lemonade Stand raising money for harvey victims. He recently to philadelphia from houston. He said he weighs worried about his family in texas and doing his part while wearing a texan hat and superman cape. Was a little concerned the past few days. And his grand patience we have been talk to them luckily. We were trying to think of things we could do to help. We feel so far away. Bret good job, you can help too. There are countless go fund me pages online. Obviously a lot of celebrities running a number of different donation operations. You can raise money for everything from Disaster Relief to animal shelters to all kinds of specific towns. Families affected by the storms. Research the funds donated on the sites like the Better Business bureau so you dont contribute to a scam but go fund me is pretty good. Thats it for this special report, fair, balanced and unafraid. The story with martha starts now martha it is 7 00 p. M. In new york city and 6 00 p. M. In houston, texas. Im Martha Maccallum tonight on the story the houston Convention Center now has twice as many people as it planned for over 9,000 people. Red cross was ready for 5,000. Some of them getting ready to sleep again tonight on cardboard. There are a few reports of women going into labor under obviously difficult circumstances here but everybody is too long the best that they can under these circumstances. We will hear from the mayor of houston live in a moment. He is going to do a News Conference and we are ready to take you there as soon as that get underway. Meanwhile the pentagon standing by with 30,000 National Guard troops to help texas tonight. This as