goal to protect miamians? you get the difference there? i do. it s a great question. it s a question of infrastructure, the built environment versus the people living in it. i think the seawall or the flooding or the flooding walls that are proposed are a really good example of that, that perhaps putting a seawall will protect when that big storm happens, but people have to live with it. and these are seawalls, there are flooding walls running through the middle of neighborhoods. how does that impact their mobility in their neighborhood, the liveability in their neighborhood? i think these are difficult questions and it s difficult to look at from a living perspective. it doesn t necessarily lead to positive outcomes for the residents that are living there the rest of the year when there is not a storm happening.
do you think this is helpful to him, frustrating, has no effect? what do you think? no, i don t think it s very helpful at all. you know, you don t want the president to be making casual statements about the possibility of a storm happening and conveying the impression that somehow we are going to be engaging in perhaps some kind of military action. secretary of defense doesn t need to deal with that. he s got problems enough just trying to figure out what strategies we might have to put in place if something goes wrong in north korea or iran or countless number of other places in the world. so i think jim mattis would prefer to have a president that speaks more commonly to the american people about things that involve the lives of their men and women in uniform. something else that the president said to the military commanders i d like to get your
them. but it is a risky thing, alex. if this storm turns out to be really bad, if it s a killer storm, you don t want to be out there doing distracting things focusing on other issues, when you could have been focusing on visiting fema, making sure texas was prepared for the storm and that leads to accusations that you potentially dropped the ball if the government response isn t top notch now. quickly, shawn, you re welcome to address that as well, whether this seems out of the norm overall or not, and then i want to ask you about sebastian gorka. i agree, i think this is a strategy in general that politicians, white houses in both parties, democratic and republican presidents have used, but this is a lot to process at a time when there really is a serious storm happening. and it s a real test for the president because he needs to show and demonstrate to the american people, i think, what kind of president is he going to be in non-political settings? what kind of president is he
first and foremost goal of the safety of those near or in the path of sandy. governor romney canceled some events in virginia, particularly because he didn t want to be in the way of first-responders and those who may need help after sandy goes through. we have utilized our victory centers in north carolina, virginia, pennsylvania, new hampshire to accept donations for people who might be affected. he is out there in ohio, wisconsin, iowa today. we re keeping an eye on the storm, staying in touch with the governors of the affected states. so, you know, but that is going to be our priority until this storm is over is making sure that people are safe, that we stay out of the way of those who are there to respond to those who may be affected by it. jenna: are you taking down any attack ads in the states you mentioned because there is a storm happening? there is a level of appropriateness that we re all paying attention to? the governor went out, yeah, the governor went out this morning