Today is the stars of a pr it describes how President Trump is really rebelling against the criticism and restrictions from his chief of staff. We pb prks theyre trying to make the case that donald trump did not obstruct justice had he fired james comey. This is going to be very interesting legal maneuvering about this mika has the morning off today. We have washington anchor for b Bryan Pagliano c word news in,. Prp sfrnl also Senior Writer at politico and a washington, d. C. Senior political analyst for nbc news and msnbc, mark hall principle. Katie kay, take us through the thus in argue fshlg now and texas finally able to dry out little by by little bit. A number of communities remain in the very real threat danger. Their road pb prrnl has been reduced to an island, the coast guard hacked away at a come would many frrm surrounded by floodwaters, the 120,000 people who live there have nothing to drink. Imagine that, its august and they have nothing to drink. All eyes are on crosby, texas. The gym meanwhile, there are signs that help is on the way from the president and the administration. Fema says theyre already approved who opinion. That will be split between the Disaster Relief fund and a Small Business low fund. There was hope passing a budget. Yesterday the Vice President toured the area, even helping to clear some brush. Prum has pledged a Million Dollars of his own money to help the relief. Joining us now from southwest houston is msnbc correspondent garrett hate. We understand some people are gradually starting to there on this. As it sflrnls were. That means theyve got to tear out the sheet rock, the furniture as ruined pup but theyre lummy. This nabbed frood ffrmt that the reservoirs are dams, they still have water in the streety, houston, it as issing is loo narks ive been trying to wrap my head around all wook. Am as far as we know, di. They said take the astro dome, the on baseball and foom familiar f. And that stl doing it, if Vice President pence down there, gloves on, claring the brush, lk beingin purngs. Suspiciously president ial. But, yeah, i talked about it brp frrm and youre suffering, it max a huge difference. When you ficht reported in your are why are zplrnlt her rur cane andrew in 1992. And George K Tran a fwrshlg weeks ago, it has can sfrurks tell is on stwrafrmt and again that message is sent loud and clear to the people of texas, isnt it . In the face of horrible strategy, youve soon this administration at its not just the symbol imand uplift but also the implicit understands that maprn for a lot n going to be dealt with in a her more furmt but also the remarks he mapd fuchlt in the beginning as much as theyve been on anything in a normal why. Andy kpef list. And steve kornacki, as it is, these first few days and first few weeks are very important for an administration showing up because it sets the pace for the relief efforts. If they care enough totogo down there, then feel sba the other agencies that really have it pay inn, which becomes sfrrks sflrchl, the symbol being power of the presidency. I tip that is f sfchlt. This do have a statemen statement sfchlt isnt is here, you have is sfrrk but think sets prmt about are pshl maybe the debt ceiling shut down that on but a frchlt frnlts. At to sort of a normalization of the legislate of prots fnchs sffrmt certainly for percentages th that, in somehow pushing to the forefront may help when it comes to passing a sane and rational del krelg expense. And all the auj, which seems be to be the best respected in looking that,al month of the President Trump pr sfrfrm. Tn frurk youllly gradually. This to keep the frrnl amid all of this, theres a new report of friction be sfuchlting at chief of staff john kellys moves to rain him in. Kohlis actions rb o lets the who said who for sfrnlt there as one great statement in the article where somebody said the president is being kept like a mushroom, hes being kept in the dark and fed and you fill in the blank. Heidi, some members have to staff member through the white house and obviously a lot of angry people that theyre not allowed to just go in tlnd and hand him some affect or gossip about somebody else in the administration. Badly about other administrat n administrationsfrig, he can handle a couple of petulant little brats trying to take and himself tem nrm nrnl think about what is happened as soon as kelly came in. Were not just talking about trump potentially sfrrchl but also in seen sense sif. L lot. Sffrmt. Not on is the president belling in terms of how much hes being and ld inside the witho without, if fwlirchlt hes tried the general has tried to tring a the fchls hes got i dont know rid of so many of the desfrukt sfmt, spnl trpt sfrchlt the again saed, well on, not so far. The pardoning a shear i who is in the new jerseyal process, federal judges are enraged, conservative federal judges are enraged. They see an attack against one as an attack against all and, as heidi said, go down the list. Charlottesville. You won when the general on ductor is service and donnie was making a fool out himself in that sfrrks all hes doing is dropping l Approval Ratings to 356 ever. Fox news said this presidency is tearing across the country. Elet down like did. From again, hes only punching himself in the notice f who stel is push nshlgt fushlgt members of congress who are used to who had frng and blow plim. In hoose in the going change himself sole even zwruchlt theres a lot of members of congress on capitol hill who woont furchlt . Stoof call i dont know department is. From zbrfrmt, there as all has to inc. Er ons and party and now the of the frchls. Yeah, of course i do. All it the fuchlt and that he is angry when secretary sfrchlt sfrchlt the opposed reports that the prz continues to call frfrmt. Also in that cart kprmt zbrrmt gary kone criticized trumps sfrnchs sfrnchs the monday ton you need to jersey. And some sfchlt sofrl people cles to trump aid sffrmt is tiller sun go or cohen kbrn gchblt probably, if a reputation as ceo of the Largest Experience in f prchl sfrchlt sfrchlt sfrchlt sffrmt and trying to run the state like he ran xon mobile and a very small circle of people need to reach of the maybe he does and just doesnt want to deal with it. In this Washington Post stories, a lot of internal leakers inside the white house who seem to be gunning again for john kelly. The question is who and why and why what do they want to get ut of it because a lot of people laugh would want to be chief saf staff ef sur. Now it gone bleak money prrch pb prchl becausepnchs there as if doubt in my mind its coming from the pchg staug a if september is going to be crazy because theres no mott opinion like opinion sfrchl what has been partnered with secretary men uch. Fuchl p. So him leave nvg obviously he had to go out be a flrchlt we. In gave you kone co of. F event actual frchlt sfrrchlt that really didnt happen but this year it was donald trump again who had one selfinflicted wound after another. This was a really horrific month for him when you look at charlottesville, when you look at his open warfare with the most powerful man in washington, d. C. In mitch mccome. Of brp. And myself ps fnks. In. I feel like this is the month. A lot of people have been saying this all along but i think this puts to rest the notion that this is a motion who in any way will pivot with a normal legislative agenda with normal cooperation with leader on the hill, rack up an achievement here, a compromise here, a bill signing over here. Thats a normal path for a presidency thats the normal way we gauge well. I used to gauging the president is is drft will always piend pie a i think theres just two things hes got to rely on if this is going to work long term for him politically temperature does he continue to get Economic News and does it kick up a level or two . A roaring economy can do wonders for any president politically. And the other thing, if thats not going to happen, hes got to count on somehow the rules of politics changing from what weve none them to be and what we have been conditioned to think they are. Its a complicated thing but i think when you get into it, ju look at how he won last year. You put that up with a 34 Approval Rating. 56 of americans think their there are words in the poll tearing the country apart. No politician can survive with that. 60 of voters last year said they didnt think he had a sense of decency. Does that say certainly about changing the rule of politics . Thats the only thing youd have to count on. This time last year, heidi, you had paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell saying, all right, the guy may be a little crazy, he may be unconventional but we can work with him because were going to run the jaentd. Thats certainly what they were telling people close to them. Now you have a speaker and a majority leader that Donald Trumps gone to war with. Of all the remarkable political stories in august, is that the most that he decided to go into warfare with Mitch Mcconnell, the man who holds Donald Trumps legislate of fate in his hand . I dont know if its the most surprising because were constantly saying what he does is surprising but i think it is the most consequential. Right after charlottesville and the president launching the attacks, what did you see . You started to see leaking from pim around Mitch Mcconnell questioning whether this presidency can even survive. You are absolutely right that many of these republicans saw donald trump potentially as a vehicle to get their agenda through. Even though this hurricane funding is going to temporarily bring people together, its going to push all of these fights off to the rest of this your and get things down will be dominated instead. In dacts you know, theres an old stay or get out of the way. For the members on capitol hill, theyre getting to a point where they just want him to get out of the way, stop insulting members, some insulting lisa murkowski, stop playing a game of subtraction, sfrrks right now lets bring in nbc meteorologist bail karins. The remnants are harvey are still making trouble in texas and now were looking carefully at irma. The first time i show youthese pictures, joe, learning harvey has done go be and on a creek that had flooded and brought them to an Emergency Shelter. Here we are six days later were still dealing with problems heavy rain. The pictures i showed you, the water has receded since then but there was a lot of damage done there. Now for irma, its well out here in the atlantic. This is a storm nobody has to deal with for at least a four or to to sea form is to 140 Miles Per Hour wind potentially by the get to the u. S. Ands that a big with by tuesday of nbs wook i should bible to pinpoint it a little better for people. Thank you so much, bill karins and we appreciate all the grau purchase with the good people across the out. And theyre going to be facing some real challenges as they move ahead. And here on morning joe, were going to talk to houston mayor Sylvester Turner about how his city is turning now. And also ahead, Donald Trumps legal team is already trying to make the case that firing james comey wasnt obstruction of justice. Well talk about that and much more when morning joe returns. 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. Theso when i need to book tant to mea hotel room,tion. I want someone that makes it easy. Booking. Com gets it. And with their price match, i know im getting the best price every time. Visit booking. Com. Booking. Yeah except when it comes to retirement. At fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. And well help you make decisions for your plan. To keep you on track. Its your retirement. Know where you stand. 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Find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. Can you speak to what the president has done regarding flood relief . I would like to tell you that he would like to join in the effort that a lot of people across the country do. Hes pledging a Million Dollars and hes asked that i check with the folks in this room since you are very good at research and have been doing a lot of reporting into the groups and organizations that are best at helping and hed like suggestions, if you have them. Thats interesting. An olive branch of sorts. Thats much better than calling them enemies of the people. So well take that. Baby steps, as they say in what about bob. Catty, interesting back and forth between and of course thats what good lawyers would do. Getting ahead of the surf saying we understand youre talking about this were here to explain to you why its not. So tell us a little bit about that, whats going on. A reminder that despite harvey and everything, bob mueller is still hard at work. The wall street journal reports that in documents and meetings, trumps attorneys have presented muellers team with arguments that the president did not obstruct justice when firing fbi director james comey become in may. People spitted that here and fires as see hes fit calling him prone to exaggeration, unreliable in congressional testimony and the source of leaks to the news media. Trump attorney ty cobb said out of respect, we will not be discussing increme atroo there was no good time o do it and, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i toe know, this rush thing with russia is a made up story, its an excuse of the democrats. And Preet Bharara weighed in tweeting there may never be in charges but defense lawyers tonl dont usually waste time on Preet Bharara is trying to get in there early with their side of the case in. I dont think its surprising at all. Youd want a lawyer to get ahead of it and up better to make these arguments privately attorneys behind closed doors than doing it in an open courtroom after charges have already been brought. Men, you look, so many of himself chap chan be smchsnchbl what he said to the u. S. Ambassador to the United States when they were in the oval office and that leaked out saying that kiem is get who fsnlt and without subpoena powers, the reports we had several months ago of the president calling dan croats and other members of the intelligence community, trying to get them to put pressure on the february and at part of what would be the considered the coverup portion of this. More reports yesterday about more pursuits about paul man for the and about the meetings they had to talkgetting help from the russian government to beatily Hillary Clinton. And the scrutiny of mant. Were seeing a little bit of what is a very large investigation. It was reported this week that rob mueller roo lease in that air for prp in fact, if actually took it upon himself dra prp sflchgs and or news roar rg sfrj sfm, it keeps protesters. Im not saying everything sfchl nm. Forget about russia. He always sort of slipssfrn a trump power in who is kwoucht because more and more evidence just keeps piling out m robert is that all of this this many they pounce on the at the present time v and then this can dpchlt the working and nm sfchl pnl to bible to ut the. These arin credibly this was going on during the campaign. This was going on at a time when donald trump kept telling us i have nothing to do with russia. Theres no deal. Well, he had signed a deal actually, he signed a letter of attempt to pild this project. E, if the most important part for donald trump, before iowa, before new hampshire. That really was the point of the cam pawn with he refused to say what Vladimir Putin had done to journalists and political allies. He kept defending him. Well, now we know why. At least in part. Stay with us. Coming up, the president be about to break with another obama era programs that popular among the big tech communities. Well explain that when morningio once and real go. You can morning joe will be right back. Did have already hundreds of Business Leaders are speaking out. 300 Business Leaders urged prum to keep the program in place. Of course houston has a major his fan panic population and thats adding another complicated layer to the aftermath of hurricane harvey. Joining us from the george brown center, which has been serving as a massive shelter, how is this affecting young, particularly and potentially undocumented down in houston, harvey. It has a hume undocumented immigrants in houston. Its the city with the Third Largest undocumented population in the country. What we have seen in the shelter as many of the people are headed home, now is when you start to see undocumented immigrants start to trickle in. I spoke to about who have a dozen yesterday who told me they took their time to come here because there is a lot of of fear in the community that if they come to these shelters, they be be turned down or put into a database even though theyve been told they wont get into any lega