>> later, the president moved on to orange county, texas about 30 miles from lake charles and met with officials including governor grade -- greg abbott and senator marco rubio, the president took some questions after the briefing. >> are at rest, let's go. >> thank you very much everybody, i'd appreciate you being here. we love the state, it has been a great state for me and a great step -- state for everybody in this room. arere here to help, we joined by governor greg abbott, a special man. he is doing a fantastic job for

the state of texas and he has from day one. lieutenant governor dan patrick, a friend of mine. you did incredibly well representing the state, and state attorney general ken paxton, he is a very aggressive attorney general and that is what we like. you've got some very big ones including the mail-in ballots, right? like to call them the unsolicited mail-in ballots where people are sending them home and they just get hit with mail-in ballots. i hope you will be successful, i hope it is a -- it is actually a very important case. wenow you are really on top, have got 18 of those cases throughout the country, and pennsylvania, north carolina, we have a lot of them. thank you very much, i appreciate it. a man who has really been there when we need him and he has been incredible for texas, ted cruz.

we spend a lot of time before and we are looking to get texas everything they need, we will bring it back. congressman brian babb and --babbon, thank you very much. randy weber, thank you very much. we have a couple of people who have been friends of mine, i won't mention too much, but they get a shot at covid and i understand they are going to be absolutely fine. i want to say hello to becky ames, thank you very much, you're doing good, right? were you hit hard? >> not as hard as it could've been a -- it could have been a lot harder we are recovering. >> thank you very much, becky, i hear you are doing a great job. we are talking about the path, the path could've been much more

because the power was incredible. louisiana took a hearted, but even louisiana was lucky because the power was record-setting. and 175, 150 miles an hour when it hits, but it was even more than that. it came very quickly. i guess you would say they were looking at it as a storm and all of a sudden the storm became a monster. >> 36 hours, category four. with 185t to a storm miles per hour, i think they say it was the most -- strongest they have had in louisiana and texas in 150 years. the path was a little bit lucky, so that is great. i want to also introduce chad wilson, he's doing a fantastic job, homeland security.

hopefully that will be pushing that very hard because he has done a fantastic job, thank you very much. you'll do it right? >> yeah we will get it done. >> if he says that that means that, that is a good sign. fema administrator who has been with me for a long time, we have not had a loss yet, we do good and we do it fast. we will get you back up, and everything i think has been signed and you are ready to go, right? >> yes. >> with all of the different numbers, you know what they are, we went through and they have been hit hard. i've never seen anything quite like it, you have trees ripped out from the roots. pine trees that were broken in half, we just don't see that kind of power. we went through something that was pretty bad, i don't think you have had anything like

that.. we we took the emergency declaration and give it to the governor immediately, and called about it also and i appreciate that. one to punch,t the governor told me himself. 200 50,000 meals already, we have worked with the private sector to restore power to 200,000 residents and they think the power is going to be restored quickly. all of the other things we have been doing, the infrastructure, all of the elements we have been working on and are working very close with ted cruz who i hear is doing very well. we have been working with the governor, with dan and i think maybe it would be good if you would tell us how are we doing and what can we do and how can we help you. >> sure, first, thank you for

the way that you have stopped up -- stepped up. people don't others, but on midnight as the storm was crossing the shoreline, you called me. time and00 a.m. your then restart -- spoke again the morning after it happened. you have been there every step of the way, never have i seen such a swift response for a request as we have here. we cannot thank you enough, i call him, he knows in advance i'm going to be calling him and he says yes, immediately. of all the storms i have been through, which as you know has been a lot, i have never received a swifter response from the administration. so, on behalf of everybody across the state of texas, we want to say thank you. thank the local officials, we appreciate you and your

leadership. becky and the other mayors of the region, we appreciate everything you do, and of course can -- ken. if i can share some details, i had declared a disaster in 52 counties and the president has inilarly declared a disaster each of this county so on behalf of that we say thank you for that. right now our focus is on power, water, safe return of evacuees, and then assessment. for power and water restoration, peak power outages exceeded 350,000 locations across 35 counties, but current outages are about 120,000 locations in 23 counties meaning that emergency repair crews have quickly restored more than 250

-- 230 of those power outage incidents. assessments,water 111 of 171 drinking water assessments have been completed. systems, inational addition to things like that, we have 19 points of distribution set up in the impacted regions that are providing things like , water and mras power systems remain inoperable. there are thousands of evacuees throughout the state and approximately 3300 hotel rooms of the shelter residents, the texas division of emergency management is tracking more than 2200 shelter residents who are from louisiana. it is very important that more than 10,000 of those evacuees are what is called non-congregate settings, that means they were in hotel rooms, typically. that is important because we had

to respond to hurricane laura well also responding to covid-19. place for someone evacuating is not in a congregate setting, but instead we succeeded in getting through hurricane hanna without the spread of covid-19, i believe we will succeed in getting through hurricane laura without spreading covid-19. 808 residents were returned on 43 buses with more missions scheduled for today. 160 state buses are ready to assist the ongoing repopulation efforts. is about it, we continue to assess damages throughout the region. we are on top of this because of the swift and effective leadership, we are better capable and swifter in responding to this hurricane

because of the way you and your administration so swiftly stepped up. >> thank you very much, you did a great job. i notice you say covid-19, many different names, at least 20 different names, you call the covid-19, that is ok with me at least for today. [laughter] >> generally i call it something else, but you are doing very well. so is florida and, arizona has been incredible. well, i likedoing what you're doing. separatedn keeping with this problem of the hurricane, great job, really great job. mr. president we appreciate you being down in texas once again and let me say something that i just told the fema administrator which is that the consistent report from the

governor, local officials, state officials is the responsiveness of the administration throughout this hurricane has been extraordinary. in many ways, we had a blessing with this hurricane in that it could have been much worse, there was significant damage from this hurricane, but compared to what we have seen in the past, texas could've gotten hit much worse. we agree that louisiana took the brunt of the storm, and just as louisiana stepped up and helped texas particularly with hurricane harvey, we are now stepping up to help our neighbor who are really suffering. one of the thing that that's one of the things that is impressive is the level of coordination. we were laughing about how we have got an inadvertent expertise right now in that texas has been through some major disasters and what we see

consistently is a degree of interaction between the city officials, county officials, federal officials, where you don't get bickering, you don't get turf jockeying, you just get everyone together. as these disasters,, you have reached out repeatedly -- as these are is that -- as these disasters, you have reached out repeatedly. now,aid then as you say everything texas needs, the federal government will be there. thank you for that leadership, it is important and a testament here to the strength and expertise to the texas -- texans at the stable working with the federal government that we minimize the damage as much as possible. >> dan, please. >> i was in the state senate when ike hit.

the difference in your response personally and the response of the men -- administration of of one and you are a 10. the fact that you call the governor in the morning -- >> i knew he was going to be up. [laughter] went yearsd day, we where we were not paid by the former administration for our counties and cities. covid, our highest 10,800n the hospital was in july, we are now under 4800. 60%ovid and icu we are down in some hospitals. the leadership here and all of us texans working together really turned a corner. >> we were here two days ago and the judge said we are working as

hard as some other areas, so whatever we have that our people need -- so many texans, we the texas brigade, the texas volunteers, i've seen on all the newscasts thousands of texans have gone over to louisiana and that is the spirit of america. >> judge, thank you. >> right away you said you wanted to help everyone else, so thank you mr. president. >> thank you very much, i appreciate it. >> mr. president, i did not grow up in texas, one of the things i cultureut texas is the of texas and getting stuff done. have gotten the resources -- this governor has been exceptional in handling disasters, i wanted to say thank

you. >> thank you very much. >> yes, sir, thank you for being here mr. president. it is an honor to have you in our district and i can't thank you and the administration enough for the rapid response. we are still actually cleaning up after harvey and other storms that have hit us. your administration has been absolutely on the money. brag a also like to little bit on the orange mayor who is not here, that is larry spears. he has done a tremendous job -- i am a former mayor myself, i appreciate mayor spears and what he does. mr. president, your administration -- am i supposed to get political here, i realize that, it has been like night and day from what we have seen in

the past. >> thank you very much, appreciate it. i also want to say one quick thing, chad wolf, i met your dad yesterday. do you grub and orange at all? -- did you grow up in orange at all? >> i did not. he is checking them out, right? [laughter] >> he is doing a great job, thank you very much. randy, please. >> thank you mr. president. i am probably the oldest guy in the room, i grew up on the gulf coast, i have probably been through more hurricanes than anybody here starting in six the one with hurricane carla -- 61

with hurricane carla. i have never seen this kind of responsiveness from the federal government. you, thank you, thank you. our great state people are here too, our governor, lieutenant , younor, attorney general have done everything you said you would do for texans and more. my district loves you and we appreciate you. >> thank you, randy. >> thank you mr. president, i want to thank the local andcials and texas mayors county judges are the only ones to make a mandatory evacuation. , the decision you did save lives. thank you for doing that. to the leaders here thank you

for giving us the authority and funding to go do good work, but from our regional administrator and secretary wilkie, thank you for the dedicated leadership. think 17 or 18 major disaster declarations, we have never had to this festival response, so thank you for that -- this festival response, so thank you for that. >> great people, great state, we have to keep care of the people of texas. >> thank you, mr. president, i echo everything that has been said here. ike and harvey, we declarationsederal -- i 1963 and 19 of them was elected mayor in a seven --

07. i've gunned another people at this table very well. i just thank you for coming, it means a lot to us, it means a lot to the people who work here that you take the time to come. >> thank you very much, you are doing a great job. judge, i want to thank you very much. the job you do is incredible and i can see the passion you have. is fantastic, i cannot tell you how much we appreciate you coming, the governor has been here multiple times. we have a great concern for our communities, we have a great concern for louisiana, we are going to help them. butte to single people out, thank you for the response you

enter the governor's office have had answering calls and covid outreach. i have been in office four years, this is disaster number six for me, we are getting good at something we are not wanting to be good at. things other to than the storm is getting our energy back up and getting our power backup. ceo of the president entergy texas and their team is in force getting this power restored as quickly as possible so the citizens on their way home can have power when they get back to repairing their homes. there is so many people that do so much for texas, one of the big projects we have -- china the governor -- i know the governor is not here, but everybody involved with the coastal spine levy project.

it has made huge progress in the the generaleeks, office has helped orange county's share of that portion of it and because of that we are able to move forward. we are working at the next legislative session to move forward. >> do you think that will work? >> it is absolutely going to work. we are up to 300 miles, it is going good. >> how's that working? >> for the wall? >> no, for the levy. >> we are excited, as the judge said we are moving forward with design, we have about 25 miles of wall and also about seven spaces in 30 days. >> that will stop the water from going in? will,, it will also create walls.m to improve the

collectively those three projects are going to improve connection on growth in this community. critical infrastructure and energy infrastructure. >> what is your plan there? >> we are looking at all three of those projects being beat between -- being between 2025 and 2027. what is great as we are doing with this with the local community, it is a partnership from top to bottom. it will not only withstand the storms, but also allow communities to take care of these projects. >> what you think the cost will be? >> right now with the bipartisan toget act we got $4 million move these projects forward, we have the funding in hand. also as a part of that act we

received additional funds to study the remainder of the gulf coast. we're going to publish findings in the next month, it looks at houston, galveston -- >> is that part of the original approval? >> that is part of the bipartisan budget act, the study was a part of that. me andgovernor called said can you do me a favor, it is very small. i said how much governor? he said it is not much, $10 billion. he said that would really do something, every time you ever that will also take care of the impact. congress has already directed 3.8 billion and that was with strong bipartisan support.

studying the continued expansion to complete it and also a lot of families families and homes and businesses and energy infrastructure is along the gulf coast. pres. trump: and it will work, right? we are not going to build it and it fails? it is a big project, but it will work, right? >> yes. [indiscernible] pres. trump: you've done a fantastic job. you have anything to say? >> i appreciate you being here. our community appreciates it. i also want to think the judge somebody we didn't mention, our management coordinator. they've done an outstanding job and we appreciate the work they have done. i want to thank everyone in the room that has helped us in the community. thank you very much. us in the community. thank you very much.

>> one things texans have shown whether it be harvey, all of these other storms, they have been through it and it shows the resilience and perseverance texans have. we are made even stronger by the swift and found a defective support we get from our leaders in washington dc. you are the builder president. you are helping to build the spine that will help protect texas and you are helping texas rebuild in the aftermath of this hurricane and we say thank you. president trump: do you have any questions? status in the galveston bay with the hundreds of chemical plants? if you could share an update on the economic and environmental impact? >> the commission on

environmental quality continues to monitor those with regard to air quality and water quality. they have mobile units engaged to make sure they can adequately go to all the impacted areas. if there is any type of environmental situation, it will be swiftly contained. pres. trump: anybody else? this is an important trip to visit these communities. do you plan to visit kenosha, wisconsin? pres. trump: probably so. we have had tremendous success as you know. we were able to get the go-ahead from the authorities. we were finally able to get the go-ahead from local authorities to send in the national guard and we sent in the national guard and within a few minutes of the guard, everybody cleared out and it became safe. that was three days ago and we've had absolutely no problem. we sent in 1000 national guard and that is not even a big force. we could fix portland and i would say 45 minutes.

the people in portland should protest because the mayor doesn't know what he is doing -- he doesn't have a clue, he doesn't have a clue. this is been going on for years in portland and it has now been going on 94 days. if you would call, or they would ask, the governor would ask, we would have the national guard in their in a short time -- in there in a short time it would be cleaned out in a metal of minutes and they would have a safe portland. with kenosha, it has been in very good shape from the moment they set foot in that area. the sheriff has been great, the police commissioner, the police chief has been great. we've been working with all of them. the governor let us do what we had to do and we cleaned it out and we will see what happens. we have to keep it going. but we won't have any problem. >> yesterday you did comment on the killing of jacob blake and said you did not like how it looked. i wondered if you could comment

on the other shooting that took place in that community. you mentioned the national guard going in, but this was a young man, a 17-year-old facing murder charges for having shot two people. some folks have said, conservatives are holding up this young man as having done so within his rights to self protect. i'm wondering if you have read much about this case or have concerns about ordinary residents with guns in situations like this and what dangers that might present. pres. trump: that is under investigation right now and they will be reporting back to me over the next 24 hours, 40 eight hours may be max, and we will have a comment about it. right now, we are looking at it very carefully. what we are doing -- it is a great state, wisconsin, a great state, and they should not have to put up with what they went through. the national job -- the national guard has done a fantastic job. >> why is the dni no longer going to be updating the house and senate on election security

issues? pres. trump: mark? >> [indiscernible] has been giving briefings and he will ultimately give full briefings in terms of -- not oral briefings, but full intel briefings. it comes down to a simple thing, the last time they gave briefings, a few members talked to the press and disclosed information they were not supposed to disclose and he will make sure there are proper tools for oversight and make sure they contain it in a way that does not jeopardize sources and methods for the intel we get. pres. trump: director radcliffe brought information into the committee and the information leaked. whether it was shifty shciff -- schiff or someone else. you have leakers on the

committee who are doing bad things. we will look into that separately. they were leaking the information as it was brought in. you don't have that in texas, you would not allow that in texas. >> no way. pres. trump: ken will not allow the leakers to be doing that. he wanted to make sure it doesn't leak. >> one question about laura. in june of this year, noaa release a report that climate change is in part responsible for increasing sea temperatures that is in part responsible for hurricanes like harvey. how do you balance that with climate change and storms that continue to ravage the gold coast? pres. trump: you've had tremendous storms in texas for many decades in many centuries and that way it is.

we handle them as they come, all i can do is handle them as they come and nobody has done a better job of it. we love the people of texas, and governor, it is an honor to be with you. thank you very much. thank you very much, everybody. [indistinct conversations] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] thank you, judge. >> good to see you again. [indistinct conversations]

>> the office of the director of national intelligence says it will scale back its update to members of congress on voting security and will no longer provide in person briefings. in response, house speaker nancy pelosi issued a statement saying -- "the office of the dni has informed us that it will no longer provide briefings to members of congress including the house and senate intel committees on foreign efforts to interfere in our upcoming election. this is a shocking abdication of its lawful responsibility to keep congress informed." she goes on to work -- she goes on to request the in person briefings resume saying -- we will consider the full range of

tools available to compel compliance. will reportedly continue to provide written briefings to members of congress. c-span's washington journal. every day we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and we will discuss policy issues that impact you. sean trendyng, discusses campaign 2020. then foreign-policy analyst brandon talks about his latest book about the importance of american dominance in space. watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern sunday morning. he sure did join the conversation. vice president mike pence made a campaign stop in duluth, minnesota, where he talked about the administration's efforts to bring economic prosperity to the state in the wake of the coronavirus. presid