The president fired fbi director james comey. There is a serious obstruction of justice going on against the president of the United States. Well be fully transparent with his investigation and frankly i dont have anything to add beyond that. All of this as the president weighs whether to bring to an end deferred action for childhood arrivals, or daca. I dont think he should do that. We love the d. R. E. A. M. Ers. We love everybody. This is new day weekend. Does saturday morning. Thank you for being with us. The next hour President Trump and the first lady will head to texas and louisiana. One week since harvey slammed into the gulf coast. The waters there are starting to recede but we know this morning that the death toll has risen. The president and the first lady are leaving the white house as we said in just about an hour. Their first stop is meeting victims and survivors of harvey at an airfield on the out skirts of houston. I just want to tell them to be strong and everything will be okay. The president s promise of quick government response could be coming soon. The white house is requesting almost 8 billion in disaster aid. That is a couple of billion more than initially suggested. A vote on the aid money has been scheduled for late next week in the house. And some other political news, the New York Times reporting special Counsel Robert Mueller has new details about the reason President Trump fired former fbi director james comey. The times reporting that the Justice Department handed over a letter drafted to comey but never sent in which the president explains his rational for the firing. The white House Counsel thought the letter dictated by the president to a top aide was, quote, problematic. Is this the new information that is pointing to where the investigation is heading at this point. And plus the future of about 800,000 young undocumented migrants to be decided by the president next week. His decision on d. R. E. A. M. Ers and the daca program coming on tuesday and he is not giving any hints about the direction he is leaning. Should d. R. E. A. M. Ers be worried. We love the dreamers. We love everybody. We are going to get to that but we do want to tell what you is happening with harvey and the aftermath there in texas this morning. As victor said, the death toll is at 50 now. And texas ofish officials have ordered mandatory evacuations where the water is still rising. Stephanie elum is live at a shelter outside of houston. Good morning and giving us an idea, are the numbers of people in the shelters dropping or are some people going home, going to other places or are we seeing an increase there . Reporter right now we are seeing the numbers go down at this center. We are at the Energy Center here in houston. And if you look behind me right now, and you could see that there are people lined up. Because there are three shifts for volunteers and one of them is at 7 00 a. M. And that is where we are right here in our time zone. These folks have signed up to come and help out as they can for the people who are here in the shelter. We know that more than 4,000 people have come to the shelter since it opened tuesday night. Right now they say there is just over 1600 people who are here. But what theyve said has been really heartwarming, are the number of people who have shown up to offer up time to work with the people here. And there is a lot that they are doing with the folks that have been displaced and found themselves here. They have fema help and the ability to go online and see start to look at that paperwork that is ahead of them to figure out what their next moves are. They are taking care of people, keeping Families Together and including their pets and a kid zone as well. All of that happening here within this building that is large enough they could accommodate 10,000 people here. But the numbers are going down as some people have been able to go home. They found out homes were fared okay. And some people going with friends and family. But still they are seeing some other shelters around the area close down because they were maybe businesses or other locations, schools that now are consolidating some of the people moving here. But it is a heartwarming sign to see the turnout of people who are willing to volunteer. But they are very, very clear that the next steps are going to be cleaning out a lot of homes as the water recedes and they nil need a lot of they still need a lot of manpower as people go back to work. A lot of folks and students are not working so they are reminding people here in the houston area that your help is needed moving forward. No doubt about it. Stephanie elum, thank you so much. And as floodwaters are receding in some places but Health Officials are warning this storm is leaving some major health risks behind. Infectious diseases, mold also a threat. Elizabeth cohen looks at the biggest threats. We went out and tested these waters here in houston and when we got the results back, they were shocking. Not only is the water contaminated, it is highly con tom nated. Numbers that some experts have never seen in their experience. Lets take a look at ecoli. This is an indication of how much fecal contamination there is in the water and other bacteria. We took three samples in one area of houston. The first sample had 8400 colony forming units and the second one 3700 and the third one 6300. Now the lab that did this for us. A b labs in houston they say the epa standard for recreational water is zero. You you are not supposed to have any ecoli and now look at another indication of fecal contamination. The first sample, 57,000 cfus, the second one 43,000, and the third one 45,000. The epa standard for recreational waters, less than 100. So as you could tell, these numbers are stunningly high. The lab manager who was out testing with us, he said these numbers are huge. His lab, is a professional Water Testing lab, this is what they do for a living and he said they do this day in and day out and never seep numbers like this in water that are publicly accessible and he is also not concerned about fecal bacteria, but the flesheating bacteria. And these numbers show that there could be a likelihood that that is also in this water. So what does this mean for the countless people wading in this water. If they had a cut in their skin and it was big enough and didnt get cleaned out quickly enough, it could be a serious problem and cause a serious skin infection that could actually be lifethreatening. And that will be true even if the person were very healthy to begin with. Now another concern is if the water splashed into someones mouth. If you ingest this and you are healthy, you will probably get a round of diarrhea that you will get over. But if you are older and if you are weaker and if you are your immune system is compromised, it could be much more serious. Back to you. You just feel for these people. Yes. And people climbing out of windows, they get scrapes and countries. So many people are probably in danger there. Elizabeth cohen, thank you so much. Now to the white house. Jeremy diamond is there. Wheels up is what time this morning . Well that is in just under an hour. We expect President Donald Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump to head for texas and louisiana. The president and the first lady will be visiting houston, texas, where of course many parts of the city remain inform several feet of water. The president there expected to meet with storm victims. And also First Responders as well. And well be doing the same in southwestern louisiana and this is the president s second visit to the area since the storm made landfall but the first opportunity for the president to meet with many of the victims and to kind of demonstrate some of the president ial ability here that many people expect in the wake of the natural disasters. Meeting with some of the victims, hearing their stories, expressing sorrow for their losses. We did not see a lot of that during the president s first visit to the area. All of this coming just after the president yesterday, his administration sent a request to congress for 7. 85 billion in Disaster Relief aid. That is expected to be just the first in a series of requests that this administration is going to make of congress. To approve billions of dollars in aid for the recovery that are expected to stretch not just months but years into the future. We expect the house of representatives to vote on that measure in the coming week. Work starts on tuesday. Jeremy diamond, thank you so much. As we continue watching what happens with harvey, believe it or not there is a new storm that is formed in the atlantic. It is hurricane irma. Allison chin kara is watching it and i know the trajectory is in question but the strength is not. And that is the key thing to notice. Is that this thing really is trying to hold its own. At one point it has been a category three, and then went back down to a two and then back up to a three and back down to a two. And it is going through eye wall replacement cycle meaning it is trying to get into a good form and it may get back to a category three. But the longterm of this storm, actually shows it could get Even Stronger than that. Here is why. So in the coming days, the Training Camp is going to push farther south, in doing so it is actually going to enter much warmer water. That will allow the storm to strengthen up to a category four which is what the Hurricane Center expected, potentially Even Stronger than that. Especially if it doesnt encounter anything atmospherically or even in the ocean that could hinder any further development. So again, certainly something that we will have to keep a very close eye on in the coming days with this storm. Especially, say, day seven to ten as it edges closer to the u. S. But another story that weve been keeping a close eye are on the fires out west. Now right now across the western half of the u. S. , we have 88 active large fires. This does not even include some of the smaller fires and weve had several around california. That is the video you are seeing here on the side of the screen. Unfortunately for today we do have a lot of fire threat out for watches and even red flag warnings because not only do we expect winds to increase but the day time humidity is less than 20 which is not what you want to hear when you already have fires in place. Another factor that is not helping, are the triple digit temperatures, excessive heat warnings and advisories up and down the west coast. And were not just talking temperatures say five or six degrees above average, were talking records. Nearly two dozen cities have the potential to break records not just today but also tomorrow. Victor, christi, take a look at the numbers. Sacramento, california, 111 for the high. That is 20 degrees above average. San francisco, also going to be awfully close to tripledigit temperatures, the by way, yesterday in San Francisco they hit over their alltime record, it had been 103 and they hit 106 in San Francisco yesterday. My goodness. That is miserable. Allison, thank you for the update. Fire on the west coast. Flooding on the east coast. A lot going on. So let s turn to the new yok times reporting that Robert Mueller has details about why the president fired former fbi director james comey. A new draft of a letter. Well talk about that. And a judge throws out the most serious charges in the penn state hazing case. While the parents who lost their son in this case, theyre speaking to cnn about this. You have to see the interview. And dehydrating and starving, a mother waded through water after Hurricane Katrina with baby boys and now they are 12. Shes comes facetoface with the man she credited with saving her life. General russell honor a and we were there for their reunion in houston. You know who likes to be in control . This guy. Check it out selfappendectomy oh, thats really attached. Thats why i rent from national. Where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me. Which makes me one smooth operator. Ah still a little tender. vo go national. Go like a pro. Mikboth served in the navy. S, i do outrank my husband, not just being in the military, but at home. She thinks shes the boss. She only had me by one grade. We bought our first home together in 2010. His family had used another insurance product but i was like well ive had usaa for a while, why dont we call and check the rates . It was an instant savings and i shouldve changed a long time ago. Theres no point in looking elsewhere really. Were the tenneys and were usaa members for life. Usaa. Get your insurance quote today. If you could book a flight, then add a hotel, or car, or activity in one place and save, where would you go . Expedia gives you the world in your hand, so you can see more of it. Expedia. Some new reporting from the New York Times, the special counsel investigating russias meddling in the 2016 election now has a draft of a letter explaining why President Trump fired former fbi director james comey. According to the report, Robert Mueller obtained the letter weeks ago and said the White House Council did not use the president s letter publicly because of the angry tone was problematic. The president would later admit on national television, yes, he was thinking about the quote, russia thing, when he fired comey. And meanwhile sources tell cnn the long time trump aide who hand delivered the firing letter to fbi headquarters intends to leave the white house. Sources tell cnn that keith schiller, director of Oval Office Operations is leaving over Financial Resources but one source said under john kelly is a problem. And the president considering skirting daca to protect young undocumented migrants from deportation. People who were brought here as children. Joining me now, kelly James Torrance and tom low bianco, good morning. So tom, once we knew the president sat down with lester holt, that the russia thing was on his mind when he decided to fire james comey but this is tangible written evidence, about why the president was thinking about. This obviously is becoming a central element in this investigation of potential obstruction of justice. Absolutely. Remember, the chaos of this administration, especially at the beginning. Prejohn kelly has consequences. And look at the on the one hand you had the attorney general, jeff sessions, working together with the newly appointed Deputy Attorney general rod rosen stein to lay out one area where they were going to argue how they were going to handle this, the reason for firing, the clinton email handling and then the president and Steven Mueller according to the president undercutting that. And don mcgahn, the lawyer steps in and said, no, there is no way that is getting out there. But then trump himself comes out a few days later after the firing and said yes, it was the russia thing. So this supports that argument and under cut his defenses and it is a Huge Development and goes to show we are some of the sources kind of put this t this waxt a lot of times were like the blind men touching an elephant. That is how were getting bits and pieces but the more the further we go along, the more information we get, this they connect. They connect backwards. And this supports the russia thing. His statement. Well kelly, you remember on the night there in the dark in the bushes there, former press Secretary Sean Spicer said there was no white house involvement, but this reporting shows that not only was there white house involvement, it was led by the white house and from the very top. Now what does it let me ask the big question here. And we get into the minnisha, but what does this mean for the degree of confidence in the system, in rosenstein and the fbi and the Vice President that said this was led by the deputy a. G. When he was in the oval office and given a copy of the letter before rosenstein was brought in. Those are all excellent questions, victor. And i have to say the New York Times raises more questions than it answers and it feels to me when you were a kid and you had a friend who say, i know something you dont know but wouldnt tell you what that was. I feel that way reading the New York Times report because it said the New York Times did not see this letter. It is relying on the testimony of those who did. And it says it does not know how much of the letter laid out the rational it had to do russia. So there are still a lot of questions. But it seems to me that if the white house had just stayed out of it, that donald trump might have gotten what he wanted, which was to fire comey without having it possibly harm his presidency. If you read the New York Times reporting, that jeff session and Rod Rosenstein were looking into firing comey for separate reasons. They were unhappy with his testimony about the clinton email scandal and when comey said he felt mildly nauseous that he had effected the results and when they gave him the letter and Rod Rosenstein looked at that letter before finishing his own memo. And that is when the process gets very mixed up and very confused and that is when the president should not have been involved to his own benefit but he couldnt resist it. I find it fascinating that don mcgahn told the president by firing james comey you will not end the russia investigation and he said i know that, but i feel like i have to do that any way. Maybe that is the defense to the accusation of obstruction of justice. An