shuts down travel. you can make the case that a presidential visit there actually hinders recovery. if he is not seen there though, or if the federal recovery is seen less than effective, mainstream media and his political opponents will be hammering away. take note for sure that regardless of what the response is, it will be in some way, shape or form politicized. to the extent that the federal government can help here, it generally happens over the long-term and we ve seen the initial stages with the travel disaster, and home repairs, low cost loans to cover uninsured property losses to help individuals and businesses to recover. these are key hours,the next 48 to 68 hours or so, we ll see how the administration does here. elizabeth: that we will. thank you for the latest, doug, appreciate it. leland: a little perspective. let s bring in former fema director james witt. appreciate you being with us.
the coming days. the timing of the visit is uncertain, but the white house has to balance the good optics of such a visit many would say it s an obligatory visit against the potential downside that it poses. here s michael brown, former fema director. it s that balancing act, because the president travels with a huge bubble, and that bubble shuts down everything. it shuts down air space, it shuts down travel. reporter: but with as many as five days of heavy rain still ahead, that in and of itself could potentially shut down any planned presidential visit, mike. mike: and, doug, with all the blockbuster stories going on, did a blockbuster story there at the white house perhaps get lost a bit in all the hurricane coverage? reporter: yes. you re talking about the pardoning of sheriff joe arpaio, the maricopa county sheriff in arizona. perhaps the reason that the president waited until he arrived at camp david to issue the statement and he did it through twitter he tweeted,
even attacking the judge, who was appointed by a republican president, george w. bush. quote, the opinion of this so-called judge, which takes law enforcement away from our country is ridiculous and will be overunder the. and, quote, if something happens blame him and court system. but even lawmakers in trump s own party, says the system of checks and balances is working as it should. we don t have so-called judges. we have people from three different branches in government that takes an oath to defend the constitution. we want to try to keep terrorists out of the united states. but we can t shut down travel. reporter: tonight, ten high-ranking former officials, including cia directors and secretaries of state, have told the appeals court the ban would undermine the national security of the united states and danger u.s. troops and help isis. as the fate of the travel ban hangs in the balance, people
quote, the opinion of this so-called judge, which takes law enforcement away from our country is ridiculous and will be overturned. and, quote, cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. if something happens blame him and court system. but even lawmakers in trump s own party, says the system of checks and balances is working as it should. we don t have so-called judges. we don t have so-called senators. we have people from three different branches in government that takes an oath to defend the constitution. we want to try to keep terrorists out of the united states. but we can t shut down travel. reporter: tonight, ten high-ranking former officials, including cia directors and secretaries of state, have told the appeals court the ban would undermine the national security of the united states and danger u.s. troops and help isis. as the fate of the travel ban hangs in the balance, people from the seven banned countries are rushing to get in under the wire. like th
irreparable injury from the executive order in areas of employment, education, business, family relations and freedom to travel. the ruling angered trump who fired off tweets, even attacking the judge who was appointed by republican president george w. bush. quote, the opinion of this so-called judge which takes law enforcement away from our country is ridiculous and will be overturned. and quote, just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. if something happens blame him and court system. even lawmakers and his own party say the checks and balances working as it should. we don t have so-called judges, senators, presidents, we have people from different branchs of government who up hold the constitution. we can t shut down travel. reporter: tonight ten ranking national security officials including cia directors and