Foreshadowed pardon of controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the latter drawing open and direct criticism from Speaker Paul Ryan. Also over the weekend as the president focused on responding to his first major domestic crisis he took on notable fire, incredible comments from defense secretary james mattis and his secretary of state Rex Tillerson. Well play those for you and explain why they are so significant at this point in this presidency, and finally, a brand New Washington post report that trumps business sought a deal on a trump tower in moscow while he ran for president. Well speak with one of the reporters who broke that story late yesterday but we begin with the texas flooding, more rain is in the forecast and there is simply nowhere for the water to go. Stories of heroism, neighbors and people from hours away helping each other in the depth of the catastrophe. The latest, two people are dead, 290,000 without power in the Gulf Coast Region and many of houstons sprawling freeways are simply impassable with abandoned cars and semis littering the roads. Last night in darkness, a Traffic Camera caught this water rescue in katy, texas on i10. First responders pulling a person from the flatbed of a truck. As of yesterday afternoon the Harris CountySheriffs Office said there had been 1500 to 2,000 high water rescues since harvey began. The warnings dire, Emergency Management officials requesting the highest floor of peoples homes becomes dangerous, get on the roof, not inside the attic. You just see the water come up, come up, making sure all our family is safe. We kept looking at the water and it kept getting higher and higher from 4 00 to 7 00 in the morning. It came into the home, so were giving up. So many images of bravery and tenderness have begun to emerge already, like this sheriffs deputy carrying two children to safety. There was no major Evacuation Order given, a choice that has already begun to draw questions. People have started to arrive at the Houston Convention center, and dallas nearly four hours inland is going to open a mega shelter at their Convention Center as well. There have been tornado warnings overnight and we may only be half way done with the rain, and thats the issue here. The National Hurricane center said the houston area could see a total of 50 inches of rain. Lets bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins, youve been covering this and warning us about this from the start. What are we looking forward to . This ending and its going to take another two othree days. Were only a little more than half way past done. We have bay town east of houston up to 34 inches of rain, widespread over two feet through the region, flash flood warnings and emergencies, why theres so much water all over the place. The breaking news everynight, two dams that feed a bayou that goes through downtown houston they started releasing that water a little after midnight. Buffalo bayou is going to go up about four to six inches an hour from here on out until the water level gets lower. All the rivers in major flooding, some record flooding. I want to show you the Buffalo Bayou that flows through down sto houston. We think it will go up to 73 feet in 24 to 36 hours, that is going to be 12 feet higher than the previous record and six feet higher than what happened yesterday and you saw how horrific the pictures were yesterday. We have new areas that are going to flood. Were going to have new evacuations. Were probably going to have new rescues because of this water is going to continue to rise and were going to continue to watch as one of the huge stories that developed last night. I also want to show you the radar. We are fearful that the heavy rain would set up overnight in houston. It was only there for an hour or two, it poured and moved out and headed toward louisiana, texas, border. Beaumont got drenched overnight, where we have new flooding concerns. Houston has been spared. Closer view of the city. There are showers and storms but not these thunderstorms that youre now over the beaumont area. Joe the new forecast path in the Hurricane Center just came out at 5 00 a. M. , it does drift the storm through wednesday south of houston, and then it accelerates it to the north thursday into friday so about two more days of this and we should be done. Yesterday obviously its some good news finally, yesterday of course a lot of people thought the eye was going to go back over houston. Bill, weve been doing this you and i together talking about hurricanes on here for 13, 14 years. Usually people go to sleep, its coming at you, it barrels through, and me being a florida resident, being through a half dozen of these, a dozen of these things, you know what to expect. Why is this so different . Why hasnt this barreled through . Because the day after you worry about tornadoes going here, tornadoes going there, power lines, and everybody recovers. Unfortunately the people of texas, the people of houston theyre just, theyre still struggling with this. Why is this storm different . Because nothing was able to push it out of the way. There was no cold front to catch it and throw it north. There was nothing to send it south. We call it the steering currents, the jet streams that are high above us, thats what controls the weather across our country and right now, the winds are very weak. It hasnt pushed it. I did a stat yesterday that victoria, texas, you put it on a map, this storm has been near victoria, texas, within a 60mile radius for the last 60 hours which is just insane. Wow. Everythings going to be compared to katrina, probably for our lifetimes. 24, 48 hours after katrina it was sunny. It was nice. We were showing you helicopter pictures and the coast guard was going in and rescuing and plucking people off roofs ease pill. These rescues are done in torrential rains. With the heavy rain continuing the release of the dams, we had to wait until new orleans was pumped out. We had to wait until the pumps went back online and the water slowly lowered. We have a similar problem here because were adding water to the bayous that go through houston. Additional flooding in areas that havent had it yet. Where are we putting these people . Well have people evacuated and in shelters in the Convention Center theyre not getting back in their homes in the next week. It could be two weeks. So remember after katrina we had all those mobile homes brought in for people and the trailers. Were going to need something similar because people will need showers, theyll need food, and not even the mention all the debris once we actually can clean up. Were just talking about having the people survive for the next week. Unbelievable. Bill karins thank you. Well be back with you very shortly. Joining us now from rockport, texas, which is about four hours south of houston on the gulf coast, nbc news correspondent katie beck. What is the latest on the ground . Reporter well, i think there is lots of fear and anxiety still as to what is going to come and concerns with the weather, more flooding. Obviously people have now been without power for days, theyve been sitting in the dark. Victoria, texas s one of many areas bracing for whats coming. If your town is along a river in texas and theres additional flooding those rivers are supposed to crest and when they do, the entire town can be left underwater. We spoke to a gentleman yesterday in victoria, texas, who was in tears at a gas pump, hes a father of six, a Small Business owner, and he was telling us that if this river, again floods, as it did in 1998, and destroyed their entire town, that hes going to lose everything hes worked for. So he was in sheer panic, filling up gas cans and crying at the gas station. So this is the type of anxiety were seeing as people brace for another round with damage still on the ground, a lot of cleanup to do, theyre getting ready to get hit again. Catie beck thank you very much. Well cover this throughout the morning. With us mike barnicle, nick confe confessori and julie pace. Good to have you all on board in this incredibly busy morning. We could have had about four political lead story this is morning, but for this incredible weather story. President trump says hell be traveling to texas tomorrow to see some of the storm devastation firsthand. The president spent the weekend monitoring the storm from camp david, sending a fleurry of tweets, many focused on dealing with the deadly weather. As the New York Times frames it Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath has energized mr. Trump, giving him the first major external crisis of a presidency that has manufactured most of its own upheavals. Giving him the first major external crisis of his presidency, okay. But the president s attention was also focused on unrelated issues like the border wall tweeting mexico will pay for it through reimbursement, other. He also tweeted about nafta saying the trade deal may have to be terminated. The president promoted a book by controversial Milwaukee County sheriff david clarke who endorsed trump in the president ial campaign that, book plug came just over a day after the president pardoned another controversial sheriff, controversial to say the least, joe arpaio, who was found guilty last month of criminal contempt. Were going to have much more ahead on that very controversial pardon. Besides that pardon, the Trump Administration also made news friday evening for a series of polarizing announcements. National security aide sebastian gorka, a vocal hard right advocate, left his position. Another departure in the white house. One white house official said he resigned, while another said gorka did not resigned but confirmed he no longer works at white house. Also on friday President Trump signed a directive banning transgender military recruits. Senator john mccain the chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee criticized the move saying it would be a step in the wrong direction to force currently serving transgender individuals to leave the military solely on the basis of their gender identity rather than medical and readiness standards. Interior secretary ryan zinkes daughter, Jennifer Detlefsen who is a navy veteran sharply criticized the ban calling it inexcusable and then went on to use language we cant say here, in direct to the president. Nick, confessori, New York Times friday night, gorka, the transgender ban, arpaio, every one of them are fairly significant. Thats right. Of course, just what do you make of the friday night news dump and what was the most significant one . Its fascinating. Its almost like the narrow casting where they drop a bunch of news on friday, some of it intentional, some of it not. The people who want to hear that news are going to hear it, and the rest of us are going to focus on more important things, the hurricane. The transgender ban i think just sticks out to me, because there is a practical case for it. You cant find people in the Service Branch saying we had to have this now. It seems political. Most of them were against it. Were against it. I remember the president s speech during the campaign that he would be the great defender of the gay community. Right. What you have here now is a political so to people who needed some standing up. Mike, it seems to me at least, i could be wrong but seems to be so obvious that every time he thinks he has bad news that he has to deliver to the base or bad news that comes, he does something in the completely opposite direction. The morning of the raid, what does he do the morning that Paul Manafort is raided . He tweets out this transgender announcement without passing it by anybody at all. Couple hours later, everybodys like why did you do that . He knew that would grab the headlines. And so gorka, the lapse of the hard, i wont say right because hes not conservative but the last of the crazy nationalists booted out of the white house, and he knew that there would be a narrative the next day that there had been a complete purge of all of Steve Bannons people, and it would kill him with his base he thought. So what does he do . Goes to the transgender ban. Again, bad news. Lets kick around people serving our country, and then of course joe arpaio, which is just an affront to the judiciary. Heinous. He doesnt realize again, because he plays, hes a day trader, he doesnt realize when he did that, he enraged a federal judiciary and even state judiciaries that are already enraged at how little respect he shows the court system. Well, i mean, the president has always been and remains an expert at manipulating the media, an expert at look at this shiny object over here and thats what we go to in the midst of the epic flood, a major urban area in this country under siege because of nature, two critical things happened over the weekend in addition to the flood obviously, general mattis statement to the troops in iraq, and secretary tillersons statement. Why dont we take those one at a time, and which one do you have queued up . Lets start with Rex Tillerson on the sunday shows. Play it. When the president gets into the kind of controversy he does in the u. N. Committee responds the way it does, it seems to say they begin to doubt our, whether were living those values. I dont believe anyone doubts the american peoples values or the commitment of the American Government or the governments agencies to advancing those values and defending those values. And the president s values . The president speaks for himself, chris. Okay. I like him. I like barnical much more this morning. Talk about how extraordinary that statement is. By the way its also accurate because if you listen to Rex Tillerson, james mattis, the Vice President of the United States, they all go out and they speak traditionally the way president s, democratic and republican, speak. To the point you raised prior to showing that clip, one thing general kelly cannot control is the president s tweeting behavior and the president s decisions he makes on his own without bouncing them off of anybody. And allie pace, i think what were looking at also is that tillerson may have been saying, some might say, that the president s values dont necessarily reflect the american way. There have been too many times the president said one thing on prompter and shown whats in his heart in real life when hes talking off the cuff. It looks like tillerson and mattis are getting a little fed up. It was a stunning answer from Rex Tillerson coming on the heels of what gary kohn said publicly own the remarks mattis made to troops overseas and it does hit on something that i think is becoming a real part of the conversation with the president. It feels like hes speaking for himself, not speaking as an american president , that he seems to be missing that part of the job which is to put yourself, your own personal trillions on the sidelines and recognize you hold an office that is so much bigger thatten yourself. And that your job is to carry on the values so many of your predecessors and americans stand for. Sometimes you feel like thats missing with the president , he doesnt fully understand that part of the job hes inherited. Secretary of defense jim mattis delivering an impromptu speech to the troops last. A great example for our country right now its got some problems, you know it and i know it. Its got problems that we dont have in the military and you just hold the line, my fine young soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines. Just hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it and being friendly to one another, that americans owe to one another were so doggone lucky to be american. Mike barnicle he said so many great things. He said they got some problems right now that we dont have here. You focus on your job and do your job and hold the line and basically keep upholding the American Values you always have. Squle also talked about right now the lack of inspiration in this country that just hang in there inspiration will return, because we are americans, and julie paces point which is absolutely spoton, the president unfortunately is so selfinvolved that clearly he cant see one aspect of his job and thats to lead the nation in times of crisis. I mean hes tweeting out book recommendations in the middle of this epic flood. In the middle of an epic flood. Nick, julie also talked about gary kohn, extraordinary statement talking about how shocked he was, thinking about quitting. Rex tillerson being dead on. He was accurate. The president speaks for the president. Of course james mattis, extraordinary. Mitch mcconnell, we have reports of him calling Business Leaders saying how shocked he was by the president s racially insensitive statements. Could you go down the line. The most powerful people, and even paul ryan came out, if not as directly and harshly by name as we would have all liked, i would have liked certainly, paul ryans starting to even stick sort of his neck out a little bit. It seems that so many of people who should be his allies are the very ones saying were going to have to keep this country going ourselves. Its almost like a veiled assurance. Traditionally the president is almost kind of a father figure to the country or surerinchief as well as being commander in chief and whats different here we have cabinet members of his own cabinet who are kind of reassuring us about what hes saying, and its actually on top of the criticisms weve had on policy over nato, on nikki haley, i recall she had to reassure people who he is aid abosaid abr that on foreign policy. After donald trump was talking down nato he said nato is so important if it didnt exist wed have to create it. Julie pace, before we go to break, give us a sense of the p