>> lives can't be replaced. material objects can. >> neil: knox on top of the historic stob still slamming southern california and spreading far and fast. tropical storm hillary turning roads in to rivers. forecasters are calling the rainfall record-breaking and warning the impact could be life threatening still. here's what we know so far. schools in the los angeles school area will reopen tomorrow. around 12,000 are still without power in southern california. five million are still under what they call a flood alert across western states. we're all over it right now with fox weather in palm springs where the cleanup is just beginning. bob van dillon on the update and recovery. welcome, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. we have more of the political storm to get to ahead of the big debate. right now on top of the big weather story. nicole valdez joins us in california with more. how are things looking there? >> neil, the mess you see behind me is an example of how intense that flash flooding was across the coachella valley. you're looking at a mess of tree limbs and caked-on mud, this is one of dozens across the palm strings area that are still shut down because of what you're about to see. some roads still have running water over them. just so much rain, torrential rain fall. all of the washes getting filled with the water and all the run-off moving downstream. you'll notice the mess of debris and mudslides reported. we know a handful of people had to be rest used after getting swept away from some flood waters. one of the major roads closed, i-10 at cathedral city. a massive traffic jam there. we know some of those rescues were down by the california national guard who was prepared to respond to the potential of that catastrophic flooding. some did not expect the wind damage. we saw one home crashed by a falling tree. >> by the grace of god, could have happened to any one of us. it's so unpredictable and so sudden. we all prepared. we got sandbags out. who would have expected a tree to up root itself and fall on a your home. it's devastating. >> while things are clear now, neil and it feels more like the desert really a domino effect of problems still in place. earlier, the 911 system was down in palm springs. that's being re-routed. schools are closed as many roads will be impassable through tomorrow morning. >> neil: thanks, nicole. be safe. and now to bvan dill en dillon. there was more rain in the past couple days than the entire year. what are we looking at now? >> yeah, 70% of the rain fell in is one spot that they usually get for a use. the life line of this thing is good. it came ashore in northern baja, california as a strong tropical storm. you can see it wendt through lower parts of california and right now in northern parts of nevada. the rain showers are wrapping around, getting stretched apart. notice the upper level low pressure region. that's not even hillary. but as it gets up there, we have active fires. that is all smoke in the northern side getting thrown around through northern parts of washington state through oregon. heavy rain and smoke in the same stated. something you usually don't see often. how much rain is left? its starting to thin out a bit, a good swath of rainfall. 1-2 inches of rain. the darker shade by salt lake city. could see as much as 2 1/2 inches of rainfall. we still have the flood watches out there. we have the flood warnings. watches up to the canadian border. parts of canada especially. you can see the rain. most in the mountains. almost a foot when you get outside of the l.a. mountains and areas by nevada. 11.10 in some oh those regions. the bigger cities themselves, impressive. look at los angeles. santa monica, 3.5 inches. palm springs, 3.25 inches of rainfall. major cities are like big deal. you picked up 31/4 inches of rain in two days? hold my sandwich. for a place like miami that would be 47 inches worth of rainfall in the same amount of time. we could call hillary historic. >> neil: that is an understatement. great coverage. thanks, bob. karen is here from los angeles. she's been busy of late. major, very good to have you. how are things looking there? >> things are looking much better. you know, we prepared early, we were all in place. so we were able to weather this. just like the last reporter said, i know in other cities, this might look like a trivial, a of rain. but think, we are not used to rain in the summertime. also, there's many homeowners that have not recovered from the rains in january. there's plastic tarps on hillside communities. this really was a big event in los angeles. a historic event. >> absolutely. the first in 84 years, major. when it was first being tracked, it was a category four storm. and i'm wondering, mayor, if some people from los angeles let down their guard a little bit when it was ratcheted down, came in as a tropical storm. did any say, all right, nothing to worry about? >> you know, i was -- i'll tell you. that's what i was most concerned about. people did take it seriously. that's we we didn't have any major injuries or accidents. i do think it would have been a lot worse if angelinos said not much here. in the middle of that we had an earthquake. >> neil: yeah, that was a 5. 1 registered quake what do we know about it? >> that quake was about 1 1/2 hours north of los angeles. those areas that are not used to earthquakes, it can be 1 1/2 hour away, but that does not mean you don't feel it in los angeles. so we definitely felt it here. it was a tremor. putting that in context of historic rain, you can imagine that was jolting to the psyche of angelinos that are not used to this. >> neil: i'm sure. i'm getting reports that a lot of kids in school, are being told that they can return. maybe as soon as tomorrow. can you update us on that? >> yes. classes will definitely all schools will be open tomorrow. you know, the superintendent who, by the way, is from miami and used to these events and felt strongly that the schools needed to close today because the height of the rain was last night. he didn't have time to have his staff out surveying hundreds of schools to make sure there was no damage. schools will be open tomorrow. >> neil: what about the power situation right now? >> yes, there are probably about 4,000 or 5,000 angelinos that are without power. that's being restored quickly. i just have to say to the department of water and power and all the other first responders, they were so quick and ready that there wasn't a lot more damage to the city. >> neil: i also notice because there was ample warning to your point, mayor, a lot of people prepared for this. you were telling them to prepare, a good many did do just that. invariably there's does that don't get ready and don't think it's a big deal. how are they sorting out right now? >> and it was a handful. i think those were some of the individuals that were stuck because they didn't get the warning of driving through water. so they're the ones that are getting their cars towed today. again, i'm very glad it really was just a handful. the other thing we were worried about, neil, the unhoused angelinos that live by the river beds that could have drowned. because of the efforts, especially of the fire chief that was our incident commander, kristin crowley, the helicopters were out and hundreds of outreach workers were out notifying the unhoused folks to seek shelter. of course, we had shelters open there were no drownings and there could have been. >> neil: easily could have happened. major, it's going to take awhile for this water to recede what are you telling your constituents and these in the state in general to do? >> martha: to still be cautious and to get out of the way of any city workers that are trying to repair the damage. again is, so far there's been cooperation from angelinos. >> martha: that's encouraging to hear. could have been worse. thanks to your point. >> martha: you're very welcome. >> neil: thanks. mayor karen bass. many people did heed the wa warning. we're on top of that. something that was far more disastrous in hawaii. you know what's going on in maui right now. under 114 dead. 800 still missing. the president ready to pay a visit within the hour. we'll be following that closely. also political storms on going including this tidbit from vivek ramaswamy. where have you seen this buff body before? robert f. kennedy jr. comings to mind. many have said that i have to complete the hat trick myself. that won't happen, america, after this. with the freestyle libre 2 system, know your glucose level and where it's headed. no fingersticks needed. manage your diabetes with more confidence. freestyle libre 2. try it for free at freestylelibre.us more shopping? 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>> i am. the reason why, neil, is that if were about my quest for personal power, that makes sense. that's not what this is about. this is about reviving our missing identity. reaching the next generation of americans that are badly disaffected from politics. a crisis of national pride. >> neil: vivek ramaswamy talking about the fact that he's going for the top job and not the second banana job. he doesn't want to be a running mate. they all say that and someone does pick them to be a backup. to be a vice president can candidate. invariably they say yes. but he's not there yet. and bill melugin is in milwaukee right now. he's there with the candidates minus one particular part power house who did not participate thus far. bill? >> yeah, neil. that's right. donald trump not expected to be there. as we wait for the rest of the gop candidates hit the stage, we're getting new polling out of the state of iowa. this is from nbc news and the des moines register showing that trump still hold a very sizeable lead coming in at 42%. desantis at 19%. run the and desantis, the only ones breaking double digits in the iowa poll. if you're one of these other candidates in the single digits, you're thinking this debate is an opportunity to have a break-out moment, connect with some voters and move up the rankings there as the iowa caucuses are less than six months away. donald trump not expected to be there. he posted on truth social yesterday that he's got a commanding lead in polling over his opponents and he feels the public know what's he is and what he did as president. so he said he will not be attending the debate in milwaukee. but let's talk about who we are expecting to be there. these are the eight candidates that have qualified to be on the debate stage here in milwaukee. they have hit the rnc requirements for polling and a pledge to support the gop nominee. chris christie has harsh words for donald trump for not showing up here. take a listen. >> he's a coward. there's no other conclusion to come to than he's afraid of me and he's afraid of defending his record. if i had his record, i'd be nervous about showing up, too. >> neil, one thing that is interesting and jumped out when donald trump did his truth social, he said he won't be attending debates, plural. that's opening the door not to attend this one but any debates in this cycle period. we'll see. >> neil: thanks, bill. joe biden, the guy with the job, is not only ready to spend $25 million in a very heavy ad buy-in in battleground states to keep that job, this of course just as this gop debate heats up. lee carter is with us. we have daniel lipman and washington correspondent. lee and daniel, welcome. to you first, lee. the significance in the timing of the president's ad buy. what due make of it? >> it's perfect timing. he has to make his case on the economy. 34% approve his handling of the economy. 10% of americans say this economy is good or excellent. he's got to convince people other ways. he can't tell them they're wrong. not to say that it's not true. the economy has never been better. he says i believe the best days are ahead of us, not behind us. 70% of americans disagree there. you can't make your case by going in the face of other people's reality is. i don't think it's effective. he knows what his weak point is. this is it. >> neil: daniel, when you hear the white house tell it, they think is economy is better than portrayed or better than americans feel it is. they feel the trend is their friend. it's picking up steam. more jobs. we're seeing inflation coming down. not to where it was but not as high as it was. that will win the day. what do you make of that? >> well, it's a plausible argument. but the white house and the biden campaign realize just as lee said this is a weakness. just because you have a job, just because the unemployment rate is at pretty low levels and inflation has gone down does not mean that you feel like america is on the right track or america's best days are ahead of us as politicians say. so you often feel like there's a lot of sentiment on both sides that america is in long-term decline, that we're in the rome of the 21th century. so the biden campaign has to really say to their voters, hey, we need another four years to cement that progress. but they haven't laid out an agenda of what they would do the next four years. >> neil: sometimes they want to play at different levels. i'm thinking of vivek ramaswamy playing tennis. it was forward on his social media site as he's getting ready for the debate. seems to be quite the tennis prayer. i notice the shirtless thing and thinking about bobby kennedy thing when that was a big thing. i'm wondering how that thing resonates. many americans are clawing for me to do the same thing. i don't know, america if you're ready for that. your thoughts on this. >> gives new meaning to the question that you get in the bottles, which means do you think he's fit to be president? i'm not sure that's what everybody is thinking when they're talking about it. one of the things that the candidates are doing here are saying they're ready. they're relevant. they're human. they're just like us. think about any number of candidates over time, whether it's bill clinton that used to jog, i don't remembering w. bush, we like to see them being active making them who they are. that's what this is about. it's also a good reminder that the two frontrunners here are getting up there. >> neil: yeah, they are. i'm thinking sometimes you have to pick a sport or an endeavor that people can relate to. john kerry with the wind surfing thing, great. i know about four or five americans that are particularly adept at that. daniel, i think they never do the obvious thing like race through a ponderosa buffet, which i think is an athletic accomplishment. but i digress. what do you make of these type of approaches to win over people? look, i'm not only fit, i'm up to that job day one. >> it's one way for young candidates to say, hey, you know, even if i don't have a lot of elected experience, at least this is a good reminder that i'm young and there's no chance that i'm going to have real health issues or a low chance. we can't say the same for trump or biden unfortunately for the next four years. but last i checked, when we vote in november of 2024, we're not electing someone to be the best athlete. i can't see how that relates to getting inflation down to the low levels or, you know, fixing america's college education prices. >> neil: there is that. it's shallow but does rest nated. lee, i want to thank you. daniel, thank you very much. bob vander glass will be joining us. he challenged me to a pushup match in this next segment. no, he hasn't. we want his latest take what's going down next. >> vo: for us, driving around is the only way we can get our baby to sleep, so when our windshield cracked, we needed it fixed right. we went to safelite.com. there's no one else we'd trust. their experts replaced our windshield, and recalibrated our car's advanced safety system. they focus on our safety... so we can focus on this little guy. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ as someone living with type 2 diabetes, i want to keep it real and talk about some risks. with type 2 diabetes you have up to 4 times greater risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. even at your a1c goal, you're still at risk ...which if ignored could bring you here... ...may put you in one of those... ...or even worse. too much? that's the point. get real about your risks and do something about it. talk to your health care provider about ways to lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. learn more at getrealaboutdiabetes.com i'm patriotic kenny. and, hi, i'm amanda on tiktok. my scooter broke down. i went into a depression. how do you feel about that? pretty sad. and i posted it to show that kenny's not always happy. within 24 hours people had donated over $5,000. no, you're kidding. we set up the patriotic kenny foundation to give mobility scooters to veterans. it has changed my life tremendously. none of this would've happened without tiktok. >> neil: sometime later this week president trump has agreed to pay a $200,000 bond in the georgia criminal case. we'll give you more when we get more after this. the all-new ergo smart base from tempur-pedic automatically responds to snoring. so, no more hiding under your pillow. because this system actually detects snoring then adjusts to help reduce it. for a limited time, save up to $700 on select tempur-pedic adjustable mattress sets. >> neil: you missed it, america. bob and i were having a pushup content in the commercial break. i won. the iowa straw poll is out. in all seriousness, that was not remotely serious but it would be funny. the president, ceo, bob, great to have you here. >> good to see you, neil. i would challenge you on that result. but we don't want to go there today. >> neil: you'd have every reason to. let me go to this iowa poll. as you reminded me, those are one state at a time. iowa is unique with a few thousand votes. it gets the ball righting. it's close in iowa. you compare it to some national numbers. but you know, desantis is not being beaten by a country mile. beaten by a lot. you glean into that what you can. iowa sets the stage. it looks like a run-away for donald trump right now. what do you think? >> yeah, i just don't see that happening right now. when the poll came out today, i was almost surprised that trump was only up 42%. that it wasn't higher at that point. i've been hearing 49, 51%. to see that first or second choice, he's at 63% and desantis is at 61%, as you know, that second choice makes a big difference. that's how rick santorum go to be the iowa caucus winner 2012. >> neil: yeah, the irony, it didn't come to people's attention until days later. he didn't get the follow-through you would have thought. you have the midas touch. picking and getting the winner. the same with ted cruz in 2016. you're not as of yet supporting a candidate outright. when are you? >> we're not endorsing a candidate yet. somewhere twice christmas and thanksgiving. a lot of race to be played yet. i think iowa is wide open. there's a big percentage still looking for an alternative to the former president. so it's up to the former president to see if he can close the sales. for desantis, tim scott, nikki haley, the debate will be exceptionally important right now. for them to really make their play, but i think instead of looking at neighborhood, neil, you need to look at thanksgiving day for the iowa caucuses. >> neil: that would be later for you. the last three you endorsed went on to win. so i start raising the possibility if that could be the former president himself, donald trump. >> it could be. i'm in the camp of we need to turn the page. thank the former president for the good things he did. i'm afraid america made up their mind and he is our biggest challenge to defeating joe biden and the general election. so i think we should have at least give america a choice for the alternative to trump and let them make a decision. >> neil: doesn't sound like it would be donald trump one way or the other. >> for me probably would not be at this point. >> neil: all right. do you worry that iowa itself might be losing its umph? not that its an incentive for a potential candidacy. the candidates have had a hard time repeating in new hampshire and beyond. it wasn't what it was for jimmy carter, for example. >> it's a fair question. i think iowa does their job and does it well by narrowing the field. that will be our role this go around as well. i look at 2024 to be like 2000 when george bush won iowa caucuses and won't the nominee and then'tsy. i think you'll see that kind of coalescing in 2024. if trump gets defeated in iowa, it will be game on to the nomination. however, if trump whips in iowa, he runs the table and nobody will stop him. iowa is that crucial. >> neil: how do iowans feel about his not participating in this debate in wisconsin? it's been critical of the iowa governor. you'd think things like that would put a dent in his poll support. but as you indicated, he's wildly popular. yeah, he's still very popular. when you're slighting the most popular governor in my lifetime, that won't bode well for you long-term. skip an event like the family leadership summit we had on july 14, that does not help him. skipping the debates, doing a touch and go at the iowa state fair. i think iowans are very wise. they're very savvy. that is why i believe iowa will be wide open. i think there will be an iowa surprise come january 15. >> neil: really? real quickly. we joked about it. you're a good sport, bob. what do you make of candidates trying to show their youth and vigor, athleticism, whether playing tennis or doing pushups. it's clear reference to the fact that the two party leaders for the time being are old men. there's nothing wrong with being an old man. i have got ten used to that myself. what do you make of that approach? >> i think they're trying to stand out. as you shows vivek ramaswamy and robert f. kennedy, they're getting the attention. i remember in 2008 when i was with mike huckabee, he championed all the time about him being a runner and running marathons and playing the guitar. trying to connect with those unique bases that might expand the field, so to speak or expand that base and bringing him more support. >> neil: if only they could make miniature golf like an at athletic event, bob, we'd be off to the races. >> thanks. >> martha: bob vander plat, he will endorse someone's but not anyone any time soon. the anger developing over the special counsel handling the hunter biden case from republicans after this. the america's best celebrity sale is happening now. and it's making quite the spectacle. for a limited time, get two pairs of celebrity-inspired frames by privé revaux co-founder jamie foxx for only $89.95 book your exam today. #1 isn't a status earned overnight. it's earned in every wash, and re-earned every day. tide. america's #1 detergent. 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number on your screen. >> neil: all right. a special counsel or special treatment? a lot of republicans are getting increasingly vexed by revelations coming out when it comes to david weiss' behavior and hunter biden, he's not been diligent. mike emanuel has more on that. mike? >> hi, neil. a 32-page letter written by hunter biden's legal team threatened to put president joe biden on the stand. the letter reviewed by politco from attorney chris clark warned prosecutors "president biden now unquestionably would be a fact witness for the defense in any criminal trial." a broad plea deal for hunter biden between his legal team and prosecutors was crafted. after criticism of that agreement and questions from a federal judge, it quickly collapsed. leading republicans continue to insist that this is not just about the president's son. >> this is obvious that joe biden abused his powers as vice president for the sole purpose to protect his son, who was receiving millions of dollars from this corrupt ukrainian energy company. this e-mail ties joe biden and hunter biden in to this corruption scheme without a shadow of a doubt. >> there's the revelation that special counsel david weiss once work with president biden's late son, beau. that is adding to the doubts that weiss will produce results. democrats like to point to the fact that hunter biden is under investigation and who first appointed weiss? >> hunter biden's prosecutor, david weiss, is a trump-appointed prosecutor. they have this nonsensical argument. >> today house republicans issued four new subpoenas to irs and justice department official as after they refused to provide voluntary interviews. >> neil: thanks. john yoo with us right now. you can make the analogy that david weiss has to start over when this arrangement of the plea bargain was set and blew up. it's not going to unblow up. they're going back and looking at these issues that popped up and grew. i'm wondering whether david weiss will do that or you think he will do that because republicans now with this latest revelation have their doubts. >> first before i answer, can i put my pitch in for the nathan's hot dog eating contest as a true test of athletic ability for the presidential candidates? >> neil: meets my qualifications. >> me too. i love them. this shows why a new special counsel would be best. usualry if you brought in a new special counsel like a robert mueller, that person would start fresh. they would want to see everything. we've had these two records, one that this -- the defense attorneys for hunter biden were engaged with him. which is threatening the government that they're going to call the most uncomfortable witnesses, put them in the hardest spots unless you give us a plea deal or call off the charges against together. that's why you have to have a special counsel. joe biden is in that position and that's what hunters attorneys threatened to do. the second point about even though we need a special counsel, we ned a different special counsel. people forget that maybe the most explosive special counsel was ken starr in the clinton investigation. he wasn't the first one. the first one was thought not to be doing a good job. he was replaced with ken starr. it's happened before. >> neil: usually difficult to happen and usually copping has to force the issue. if nothing changes and it's weiss' case, do you think he will be diligent? you think enough has been raised in the last few weeks to start from scratch is oversimplifying it, i guess. but to start anew? >> this is tough for him. he comes from this small legal community, a small state, delaware, where the family you're investigating might be the most important political family since the 70s and 80s. it's demanding too much of the guy to say come to it with fresh eyes. bring to it the determination or the eyes that someone fresh from some other part of the country would bring. i don't think he's the best guy to do it. now, if he wanted to try to salvage all of this, what he should do is bring in younger attorneys from outside delaware and put them in a room and say you guys look at it with fresh eyes, virgin eyes. you have never seen it. i'll take whatever recommendations you give me. that's asking a lot. i don't think that weiss will do that. >> neil: real quickly on this other matter concerning donald trump and the fulton county election interference case. ready for arraignment by the end of the week. what do you think? >> it's another humiliating thing for a former. and current candidate to have to go there. we've seen him do it twice. to go through an arrangement, to be finger printed and processed like a common garden variety criminal, it's humiliating. it's a setback. but he has to do it. he doesn't want to show that he's defying the rule of law. he can criticize the prosecutors, criticize the charges. it's in his best interest to go through the process just like any other american would be who was charged. >> neil: all right, john. you run circles around me. i think i could swamp you in a nathan's contest. just saying. throwing it out there. >> oh, no, no, no. >> neil: you're going down, brother. you're going down. john, thank you very much. great legal mind. drawn together with hot dogs. controversy now about what to do with taiwan, especially now that china is performing all of thinks military exercises a little too close for some people's happiness after this. ♪ hit it ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a thing go right ♪ ♪ it takes two to make it outta sight ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a thing go right ♪ ♪ it takes two to make it outta sight ♪ ♪ one, two, get loose now ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a... ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a... ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a... ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a... ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a... ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a... ♪ stay two nights and get a $ 50 best western gift card. book now at bestwestern.com. here's why you should switch fro to duckduckgo on all your device duckduckgo comes with a built in engine like google, but it's pri and doesn't spy on your searches and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooki and creepy ads that follow you a from google and other companies. and there's no catch. it's free. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you around showing the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. >> neil: all right. china at it again. conducting military drills around taiwan. and everybody is perplexed why the candidates are not looking at it. you're concerned this is not coming up that afternoon even those these military tests and exercises are. >> will, the fact of the matter is, neil, there's no more significant geo political challenge that the next president will face than they posed by the chinese communist party. to the extent foreign policy comes up, i think we need all the candidates that want to be the next president, the next commander-in-chief to be pressed on this issue. the next president could find themselves in the middle of the fourth taiwan strait crisis. it is going to take a remarkable amount of presidential strength and fortitude to diffuse it, to deter xi jinping to stop taking taiwan by force if necessary. it's finally that the c.c.p. is ratcheting up pressure as the biden administration is looking to engage china. they're getting more and more aggressive. so if nothing else, this would create a political opportunity for republican presidential candidates to articulate a strong sinceable alternative to the neozombie engagement that the biden administration is putting forward, which puts us in a weaker position relative to the chinese communist party. >> neil: a lot of people look at china's weakening economy. it's moving south very quickly. you find unemployment around 22%. record high levels. factories are shutting down and closing activity on the part of chinese consumers just stopped. now i'm wondering whether that means to get more desperate, chinese leadership by deflect by taking military action or they can't economically because they're a basket case. >> we saw that xi jinping reversed his policy of covid zero in response in part of the internal dissent that he was seeing inside of china. the biggest protests. that suggests that he does fear his own people and reminds of the brittleness of authoritarian regime. they need to keep ultimate control of their people. when the people are not given a voice, they can go restless. i believe is that xi jinping will get more aggressive as he starts to confront these economic and demographic head wins that become most a cute at the end of this decade. we're in the window of maximum danger. the most recent military drills were largely in response to the trip of the vice president of taiwan to north america. he transited through america. this is an attempt to influence the taiwanese election. if that election goes the way i think it's going to go, then xi jinping will get increasingly aggressive having concluded that he can't take taiwan with political warfare. he may be considering actual warfare. that needs to be a top priority for any president, the current or next one. preventing war with china, which would be destructive. the best way to prevent it is through military strength. >> neil: thanks, congressman. good having you on. meantime, we were talking about this president shortly arriving in hawaii to survey the damage in maui. the latest on that after this. with the freestyle libre 2 system know your glucose level and where it's headed without fingersticks. manage your diabetes with more confidence and lower your a1c. it's covered by medicare for those who qualify. ask your doctor about the freestyle libre 2 system. what do we always say, son? liberty mutual customizes your car insurance... so you only pay for what you need. that's my boy. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ conquer financial reports. conquer 2000-word essays. conquer 300 thank-you notes. rule over what you write with the smooth writing, longest lasting gel ink pen in america. do you g2? >> neil: all right. the president is minutes away from arriving in maui, hawaii, to visit the site of the disaster that has ari claimed a hundred and 14 lives, 815 missing. with more. hey, matt. >> the president is scheduled to land here on the island of maui momentarily and he and the first lady are scheduled to take a tour by helicopter behind me and the town of lahaina and now he is supposed to visit with fire victims and local officials on the ground here in maui. any one of the president's moose today could provide us with more video or pictures of the fire zone here today because we have not been allowed understandably because their ongoing assessments, and their continued searches for any more potential victims. the latest number from the maui county mayor, he says, andrea 50 people still unaccounted for and a small historic town. and the governor of hawaii says any number of dose unaccounted for it could be children and right now and the fire zone and roadblocks are still being very strongly enforced, and we are not allowed to get any real assessment underground, however, we took a boat out on the ocean and we were able to see some of lahaina's famous waterfront some of that front street corridor, it is heartbreaking to see the irreplaceable structures along the water that have been destroyed. a local business owners and residents that we have been talking to on the island of maui over the past couple of days, they are outraged. they say this could have been prevented. they are asking us to relate the message saying that maui is not close. i had one or two business owners tell me directly, please ask people to come continue to visit this island and do it with respect. the island is fairly large and there are other communities and neighborhoods where people can continue to visit here on the island of maui. neil. >> neil: i heard about the back-and-forth and confusion about when to visit maui, that it is fine. others are saying it is not fine. then you have the added wrinkle about those who are scheduling them like scavenging the area to offer up money for homes that have been since destroyed. they want to rebuild there and they're looking for a quick buck. what can you tell us about that to >> sadly, bad actors always surface after disasters like this no matter where you are. tragically there could be just people trying to seize any opportunities behind me. there's so much heartbreak and devastation here. if you have been to this town, it is the story, charming, irreplaceable. irreplaceable. secret land to many natives here. of course everyone in this area is proceeding with caution, but this is a fairly large island. other communities that we have been to debtor operating normally and everybody on this island is operating with respect, but we are being told that by some business owners and local saying that they are very upset with any message that was sent not to visit. some people ask me to say please come visit. you don't have to come and take a self eat, but you can if your hotel is open and operating, visit the island of maui. >> neil: it's thank you, matt. president is due there momentarily. i do want to bring your attention. technology stocks are bouncing back a little bay here. everybody's waiting to hear what he has to say when he speaks on the state of economy. here is "the five." ♪ ♪ >> hello, everyone. jesse watters and greg got failed. 5:00 in new york city and this is "the five" " president biden is taking one day out of this vacation to visit fire ravaged hawaii he said to touch down soon after facing intense criticism for dismissing questions on his the ministrations response on his first getawa