Years, ten years from now as this is the way to do it. This was of epic proportion. Nobody has ever seen anything like this. I just want to say that were working with the governor and his entire team and its been an honor for us. Governor, thank you very much. And we wont say congratulations. We dont want to do that. We dont want to congratulate. Well congratulate each other when its all finished. But you have been terrific. And you have been my friend too for a long time. Well likely hear from the president again in this hour as he is in the Texas Capital city touring the states Emergency Operations center and meeting with state leaders. Lets turn first to our panel. Clint watts, Msnbc National Security analyst and former fbi special agent. Msnbc analyst and Time Magazine columnist, elise jordan. Eddie gloud. And White House Correspondent anita kumar and from washington chief National Correspondent for the New York Times magazine, Mark Leibovich. Lets start with you, mark. Considering you live in our Nations Capital and are familiar with the cast of characters including the president of the United States. I think a lot of people will be trying to measure his demeanor or deportment as they used to say, his behavior as president of the United States today in terms of inspiration, leadership for the country in this First National disaster that he has presided over in his presidency. How do you think he is doing . Well, i mean, i think for starters, the timing of his trip is sort of unprecedented. Its very, very rare to see a president descend so quickly into the middle of a disaster area when, really, the situation remains very unsettled. The worst, you know, may or may not be behind houston. There is obviously a lot of continued rain and a lot of uncertainty there. In a sense, i mean, that itself is unusual. Today i think he conducted himself in a way that was not unpredictable. I think he obviously wanted to be there. He wanted to be seen as in control. He had, you know he was photographed with all the right politicians and command people. Again, i think this is the kind of thing where short term gain for a president , if in fact he is thinking that way, is secondary to the long game here, which is how will houston recover, how will the how will texas recover. This is obviously a very, very long, arduous process that will take months and years, and you know, this is the kind of thing where so far it looks as if hes done okay but this is not something thats paramount to anyones consciousness down there. As usual Mark Leibovich is on point. I have to say that so hell stick around for the entire hour. Anita, it raises an interesting question in terms of how the government reacts to this. This government was formed in the partial incubator of steve bannon who promised to deconstruct the federal government as we know it. Today in texas, i believe according to our reporting linda mcmahon, the head of the sba is there, ben carson, the head of hud is there. Scott pruitt, the head of the epa, another vital agency, is not there. Whats your sense of the way the government has operated thus far with poor staffing at various cabinet agencies. Will it be up to speed to the president s commitments that he makes today . Its interesting. You saw the governor say that he had heard from the president cabinet secretaries ten days ago, before the storm hit. So theyve clearly been on top of it trying to do something but they are missing a lot of people in their agencies. Theyre not fully staffed up still. Like mark said, its a long haul to see whether they can follow through. Many of those are not political appointees, they are just people, staff in the government. Can they get this done. Since its unprecedented it will be very, very tough to see what they do. Elise if i could jump in too. Sorry, mike youre not sorry but go ahead and jump in. I just want to point no. I just want to point out, ben carson is the head of hud. My first reaction was to suppress a snicker. He is a brain surgeon but he is the head of hud. Linda mcmahon, my First Association was World Wrestling federation. Again, its good for them to be there and be engaged but this plays out much more at the ground level. Scott pruitt, who mark failed to acknowledge, head of the epa. He is there really to deconstruct the epa in a sense. Over all of it, with the exception of the president , who is over all of it, but we have a new chief of staff in the white house, general kelly. And he has done great work, i think, from everyones reporting and anecdotal evidence in pulling tightness and cohesion together in the staff. When i find general kelly being in his position very reassuring. He was the head of socom, the southern command. And i am sure dealt with several hurricane disaster weather scenarios in that time period. He is experienced in how the whole of government is supposed to operate in these worstcase scenarios. What does scare me is that were only six months into this presidency. They have been notoriously slow to staff up. When Hurricane Katrina happened, in 2005 . 12 years ago yesterday. Already so they had already been through one full administration, and still we really, really struggled to deal with the entire enormity, with the just vast undertaking that it was to get a grip on this crisis. So right now we are going to see how the trump government is ready to operate in this kind of scenario. Kristen welker is at the white house. Can you bring us up to speed on what youve heard, what your reporting has told you about various cabinet agencies like scott pruitt, epa, like linda mcmahon, sba, ben carson, hud and other secretaries in the cabinet, what have they done to pull cohesion together towards what will be an enormous and longlasting effort in texas . Reporter its a great point. You see it at work today, many of them on the ground with the president. Ben carson, tom price. I heard you talking about linda mcmahon, elaine duke also there on the ground. The president is getting briefed and theyre separately getting briefed and also talking to hir counterparts in state and local officials there on the ground in texas. This is something that the administration has been very clear. They see this as the first steps in whats going to be a very long process. They also point to the fact that this has been a whole of government approach since the storm hit. You have the fema administrator, william brock, who has only been on the job for two months, but he is someone who is no stranger to fema. He was a regional director at one point in time, served under the former george w. Bush administration as well. Tom bossert, who is the Homeland Security adviser, someone who has been very engaged in this not only in terms of briefing the president , keeping him up to date including throughout the weekend. He also served during the bush administration. These are people who are broadly respected but also people who do have some experience in dealing with these types of disasters. And again, the strategy, it seems, at this point, mike, is for these various different cabinet secretaries to be in touch with their counterparts on the ground, and the administration saying thats something thats going to continue. I think well have both pictures and perhaps sound from the president perhaps soon from austin, texas, and well bring that to you as soon as they come. Right now the most important element of whats going on in texas is obviously the rescue of people who have been stranded and had their lives and families threatened by natural elements, lost enormous amounts of property, and the rescue effort is ongoing. For more on that, lets go to Maya Rodriguez on the ground in texas as to whats happening right now. Maya, where are you and whats going on around you . Reporter mike, we are on the west side of houston. As you can see, there is so much flooding here. These are some of the volunteers who have been helping people who have been coming in on boats basically from the neighborhoods. Here are some people coming in on a boat right now. What they are doing, volunteers are getting on boats, heading down the side streets basically looking for people who need rescuing. We have First Responders out here, we have the National Guard. A look over here. These are some of the boats being launched. They go back and do basically search and rescue at this point. Some of them are being loaded onto the National Guard truck and being taken up to the dryer areas near here. From there, they are getting on school buss and some coach buses and being taken to shelters that are nearby. Now, as you know, a lot of these shelters are beginning to reach capacity. You have heard the message loud and clear out here from people running the shelters. They will not turn anybody away. Another thing weve heard, we have seen basically strangers who have been coming out here and rescuing people and saying, hey, come home with me. I will give you a place to stay. Here are some more people right now who have been brought out of the flood waters from this neighborhood back here. You can hear some of the helicopters overhead. We have coast guard helicopters doing water rescues. We saw a helicopter marked ny for new york flying overhead a moment ago. We have people who are literally carrying what few possessions they could grab, putting them into plastic bags and getting off the boats here. These are the volunteers who are kind of trying to make this all happen. Excuse me, sir. Hi. Do you live back in this neighborhood . No. My office is here. Were you trapped back there . No. I am the owner of the office building, so i was here to help the tenants. Reporter you were back there and they had to come get you with a boat. Right. Reporter whats in your bag . Just a few clothes. I dont even have any money. Reporter whats it like back there right now . Whats the situation like in there, the water . The water just keeps going up. Nothing. I need to help tenants to clean and help move computers to Higher Ground and those types of things. Reporter thanks so much. Go get dry. The water is continuing to rise. We can tell you for a fact it has been since we got here. Maya rodriguez in houston. Thank you, maya. Clint, it strikes me struck me for several days now watching these pictures, the disparity between what we see, the effort being made on the ground and some of the language from washington, d. C. , over the past several months, especially among elements like the Freedom Caucus, members of the Republican PartyFreedom Caucus in the house about the need to pare down government. The only answer in houston is an enormous reach of government. Whats curious about it is its a state and local effort. Ultimately, it seems like americans, when they are in tough positions, if you look at katrina, the boston bombing, now you look at houston, it ends up being in all these situations, whether its sandy or out in houston. It is locals who come together and get this done. It is state and local officials who are making these things happen. When you look to the federal, you know, relief that comes, thats day three, day four. Thats when the feds come in. Thats when you start looking for support. Those things, those emergency things, always pop up in the budget. We had a surplus last year. We didnt use it. We havent had a really serious hurricane since katrina so maybe we dont need this anymore. Those things are oftentimes ripe for being slashed when you want to cut costs or save the budget but those are the things that help americans when we are in a crisis like this. I find it interesting that the talk of cutting budgets has come back to haunt them several times in recent months. There has been a lot of talk for many months out of washington specifically. Eddie, there was a talk the other day overseas by secretary the defense mattis to a group of troopers in iraq in which he spoke about well come back. Inspiration is missing but that will come back, dont worry about it, you know. We in the military dont have to endure what some of the civilians back home have endured because we have commitment to certain causes and we fulfill our commitments. As you have watched this unfold over the past several days, has it struck you that what we are watching actually, much more so than what we see out of washington, d. C. , what we are watching, is the real america . Certainly is a component of the real america. I dont want to put the other side, the darker side, as somehow not us, right . We have our more endearing components or parts and we have the ugly parts. General mattis said hold the line, hold the line. And we have to hold the line in relation to the values that ultimately define who we aspire to be. We judge ourselves as either succeeding or failing in light of those values. And they are the measure of our success or failure. My heart goes out. I am from the gulf coast. I have lived through hurricanes. This is a human event. Its tragic. We can talk about the political optics. We can talk about whether or not President Trump exhibits the requisite empathy, is he the consoler in chief. We can talk about politics with regards to the role of government. What we do know is that folks are losing their livelihoods, theyre lewdsi theyre losing memories. Theyve lost family members, people who are risking their lives to help others, folks who dont know each other are opening their homes to each other. Thats the capacity that we have as a nation. I just wish the better angels would show up more often and didnt require a disaster. I mean, maybe its up to us to show it more often, anita. You couldnt in houston or anyplace else where disasters like this occur, you could not find anyone pulling up in a pontoon, a 20foot boat or whatever, to someones house with the first floor submerged and saying excuse me, do you need help . Yes. I need help. Are you republican or democrat. Catholic or jewish, straight or gay . Those questions are never asked when strangers are helping strangers. You see the same thing on capitol hill. Congress is not back yet. You hear lawmakers say forget about what happened with Hurricane Sandy and fighting over money. Were going to put the money in right now. The president said at his press conference yesterday, its a bipartisan effort. Well get the money to you right away. So i mean, its like we all like to say these things. And it will be interesting to see next week if they really do that or if they fight about how who decided they wanted to fund Hurricane Sandy and who didnt. Next week. Its always its always next week or next month or next year. Were going to continue to monitor President Trumps visit to the lone star state. We will bring you any new remarks if he makes them. When we come back, while the president is focused on the storm recovery, special Counsel Robert Mueller is apparently focusing on his involvement in crafting the response to news of the trump tower meeting involving donald trump jr. The latest on the investigation next. Plus, the president is reportedly growing frustrated as members of his cabinet are distancing themselves from him. But will he do anything about it . Elise will answer her phone, too, when we come back. Havent you ever wanted something more barry . Watch your step. A pilot like you should be flying for the c. I. A. Holy shh. You are an airline pilot. Thats how you support this family. This is gonna be good for us. Based on an incredible true story. We need you to deliver stuff for us. Just dont get caught. Of c. I. A. s biggest secret. I helped build an army, defend a country and create the biggest drug cartel this world has ever seen. That sounds made up barry. Tom cruise. Stop now if you want. It gets crazy from here. Woo american made. Rated r. I expect a lifetime guarantee. And so should you. On struts, brakes, shocks. Does he turn everything to gold . Not everything. At midas were always a touch better. Book an appointment at midas. Com as far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a russian lawyer, not a government lawyer but a russian lawyer. It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast. Now, they dont teach that course at harvard law school, but thats called the he is a good boy defense. Thats now the latest thats under investigation which fbi special Counsel Robert Mueller. Three sources familiar with the matter telling nbc news that the team is looking into the role President Trump played in crafting the response to the reporting of a meeting between donald trump jr. And russian officials at trump tower. The initial response from trump junior to the meeting, first reported last month by the New York Times was that it was, quote, a short, introductory meeting where we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children that was active and popular with American Families years ago and was since ended by the russian government but it was not a Campaign Issue at the time and there was no followup. Now, i know this is going to be hard for some of you to believe, but that statement proved itself to be false almost immediately. Joining us now nbc intelligence and National Security reporter ken dilanian. Whats the latest on this investigation . What have you heard . Where are we going and how fast are we going there . Mike, to speak to your specific point on this statement and the meeting, my colleagues on the nbc news Investigative Unit dug out the fact that the mueller team is very interested in the president s role in crafting this statement from his son about this meeting because because, as you said, it has not proven to be accurate