Transcripts For KNTV Meet The Press 20240713

And meeting with angry democrats. Engaged in nothing. And an agreement to push out the kurds hailed by the president. Great day for the kurds. Its really a great day for civil ag civilization. What we have done to the kurds will have a blood stain in history. And now here who ran syria policy for trump. And also the signature race. To have a plan for everything except this. Ill talk to maher buttigieg who had his aggressive debate yet. Join me for insight are dan balz, danielle plet ka, and Joshua Johnson of the daily b. We welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, longest running show in history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. This week we saw President Trump test the limit of his presidency gambling how much the public, the party and the world can stand at home. How much the public is ill with go to believe. Shortly after the staff said yes held back aid as part of quid pea q2, he had to revise his remarks saying there absolutely was no quid pro quo. On capitol hill what his party would except. They overwhelmingly condemned the president s abandonment of the kurds. Then after Vice President pence, the president called it a great day for civilization. And overseas as retired admiral wrote in an oped essay, if our promises are meaning less, how will our allies every trust us. Until fact, apparently there are limits. Last night he gave in to critics and reversed his decision to hold next years g at his resort. But despite cracks in washington, President Trumps Approval Rating remains so far as it has throughout other cry sisz in his presidency. And his base is showing its being tested yet. I took a lot of heat. Even from some of our congressman, even from some of our senators, but now they are all happy. But thats not true, after a week of damaging impeachment depositions, a much criticized seize fire in syria, and add mission of a quid pro quo in ukraine, the president s republican support in congress is showing signs of erosion. Ong monday, the president s former top adviser on russia testified that former security adviser john bolton called Rudy Giuliani a hand grenade that is going to blow everyone up. Describing giuliani deal as a drug deal. On wednesday 6460 a stinging bipartisan review. We see then effectively syria over to russia and turkey. That afternoon, the president exploded in a closed door white house meeting with democrats after comments from speaker nancy pelosi. I have concerns about all roads leading to putin, that seems to have angered the president. On thursday, the president a acting chief of staff mulvaney admitted what the president has long denied. There was no quid pro quo. But mulvaney said President Trump did hold up military aid to ukraine to pressure its president to assist in a Justice Department investigation into the 2016 election. Described it as a quid pro quo. We do that all the timei Foreign Policy. Just hours after confirming the quid pro quo, mulvaney walks it back in a statement there was absolutely no quid pro quo between ukraine yank military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election. Some have defended. But increasingly there is skepticism and now criticism. You dont hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative. And the socalled syria seize re predent announced it wanted at no cost. Rkey what what we have done to the kurds will stand as a blood stain in the annals of american history. They worn of cleansing and calls it a grave strategic mistake. While the majority of republicans continue to oppose impeachment, cracks are beginning to appear. Does this rise to the level of impeachment . I now believe it does. Very mindful of the fact that after watergate everyone said it was a witch hunt to get nixon. Turns out it wasnt. It was correct. Joining me now are news chief from Northern Syria and Stanford University former special envoy for the Global Coalition to defeat isis for both president s and trump. Welcome back to meet the press. Richard, let me start with you in Northern Syria. Yesterday president erdogan said in the speech about the pause, cease fire, whatever we cant to call this. If it works, it works. We will keep crushing the heads of the terrorists. I know youve been in touch with the commander on the ground there. In 48 hours is when this expires. Whats going to happen . Reporter well, the commander told me he fully expects that the violence is going to resume because the Kurdish Forces here led by the commander i spoke toen a the turkish government which brokered a deal with the United States dont agree on the terms. They are talking about two different things. Turkey says unless the kurds pull out of a very large area, they are going to restart the violence. But the kurdish commander says its a much smaller area that hes talking about. So they are set up to resume a collision course. And while this is happening, there is ethnic cleansing under way. That is a very, very big word, but it is the only word we are hearing right now. Already a quarter of a Million People have been forced to leave their homes. And the kurdish commander thinks once the turks restart this offensive, the rest of them will be forced out. You just heard that report from richard, i know youve been to syria, youve been to where richard is at right now. Ethnic cleansing is a strong phrase. Is there any other way to describe it though . Well, first, where richard is standing that is the heart of what used to be the isis caliphate. So i think its important to remember why its important and why we are there. This was the headquarters of isis, main supply routes which came from turkey when they were enslaving thousands of women, holding slave markets to trade them around with different fighters. Planning and plotting attacks against us here in the United States. And against our friends in europe. Thats why this is so important. Erdogan by his own terms, i think we have to listen to what hes saying. Hes saying that he is planning a safe zone and he has agreement with President Trump which runs 450 kilometers by 30 kilometers which is the entire river all the way to iraq. And he will then repopulate that zone with 2 Million People. And he claims this has been agreed to with the United States. U. S. Officials describe it as a much far more narrow area. And i think kurdish fighters will begin to pull out of that area, but then to be replaced by Turkish Backed extremist groups. Another reason why this is a real strategic da da back cal ends, that is where the fate of the kurds, other areas in this strip that are majority christian, and the fate of those areas unfortunately as we are evacuating our bases and feeding all of our influence, will be decided by president putin of russia. Richard engle, the defense secretary announced earlier today on his way to i believe hes headed to in afghanistan, he announced these troops are not coming home. Theyll be moved from syria to iraq, which actually already has some republicans who actually supported the withdrawal going whats the point of this now if you are not even bringing them home, sending them to iraq. What are they zbrog to be doing doing in iraq . Reporter well currently continue to fight against isis. But effectively what they are going to do is leave that you are old friends the kurds 2 Million People who supported them who did not attack them in Northern Syria, leaving them to a broad end campaign of ethnic cleansing. Now, bret was just talking about these extremist groups. They are fundamental to this entire equation. Because there are about 10,000 of them according to kurdish and u. S. Firofficials who are now operating within the government. Its not just that the nato country is assaulting has pause now, will soon assault again in 48 hours, it seems very likely this area. They are using about 10,000 extremist fighters going house to house, killing people, terrifying peopl putting out videos threatening to behead people, that is why so many people are running for their lives heading toward regime areas, heading toward the iraq border, heading anywhere they can because they are afraid theyll be slaughtered. What is syria fleur . Is it a full fledged country . Is it being carved up . Is turkey annexing a piece of it . What is the future of syria here . Well, its always been one of the most complex situations. And the situation President Trump inherited actually was on the road to some stability. And we executed a plan. And i served two years in his administration in which we defeated the physical isis caliphate and stabilized a third of syria. The rest of syria, most of it is under the control of the assad regime. And northwest syria, another serious problem, thats where the 0 p sigs is, but also the dominant home for al qaeda in syria largest in the word. So kind of in these dwree zones. The zone in the northeast was pretty stable. And we had it about 2,000 american troops. It was peaceful. I used to go in there every couple months. Really when this started to get harder when President Trump in december a flounsed he wanted to leave entirely. He then somewhat reversed that but cut the force arbitrarily by 50 and that sent a message to you will a the other players in the region here to putin, to erdogan, to assad, that the americans want to leave. It also significantly decreased our leverage and influence to manage the situation. Sot happened on october 6 in this phone call the president threw all of our leverage out the window. So now im afraid the future of syria will be determined by actors quite hostile to our interests. That includes, iran, erdogan and putting 1,000 troops in western iraq is good because we want to help the iraqis but its not going to make a significant difference. Okay. One final point. Leaving syria gives so many to our add ver ar sversaries, and president sent troops since may, so he cant tell they are getting troops out when hes sending 14 times the amount back into the region. And excellent point to end on there. The special envoy that was essentially in charge of the isis policy for president s obama and trump. Richardening zbel in Northern Syria. If as always, stay safe out there. And also joining us now left the Republican Party shortly after reading Robert Muellers report. He does back impeachment. Congressman, thanks for joining meet the press. Thanks for having me on. I want to start with the syrian position. You have a stand when it comes to Foreign Policy and you seem to be caught in your own principles. You voted for the president. On the other hand you were uncomfortable. Expla inthis conundrum for you. Thats right. We never had congressional approval for the mission. I think the president should have withdrawn troops long ago. But when you withdraw troops you have to plan ahead of time how to handle it. And he could have prepared in advance for the obvious consequences. He certainly knew what turkey would do. Then he acted surprised they are coming in and committing acts of violence. I think you dont wait until after with drawing the troops to make a plan to go pressure turkey to ease up and then call for a cease fire. What can be done now . I know where you are philosophically. But what do you think we should do now . I think its really difficult to put it all back together. You cant i think return the troops into the combat zone. Int dohink thats feasible right nowment and i defer to military experts on that. But certainly if you are going to put troops in harms way, you should get congressional approval and go back to congress and ask for approval from the American People. The president has talked about this as sort of, hey, hes fulfilling a promise. That he made that troops need to come home. Do you believe people in michigan that voted for him will view this move as a sense of fulfilling a promise that hes bringing troops home from the middle east . I think there are people who support the president who believes things he says. But its pretty clear he is not bringing home the troops. Hes moving them to other parts of the middle east. He tweetded about that this morning. The troops, he said words versus actions. Right. Hes moving troops back into high rack. Hes moving other troops into saudi arabia and hes using our forces almost as mercenaries, who are going to go in. And as long as saudi arabia pays us some money its good to go. What happened to the American People having their voices heard through their representatives in congress . We should make those decisions in congress. And, frankly, weve been in the middle east for way too long. Weve been in afghanistan for obviously way too long. And we should bring people home. If there was a vote right now in congress to decide its time to open an impeachment inquiry, and i know there is still a debate, how many of your former republican colleagues do you think after this weeks actions might actually vote with the democrats on that . I think maybe one or two. We may have heard one of them in there with francis turny. But realistically politics drives this. And they represented every two years. And frankly a lot of the republicans will be worried about primaries. And they think the president is popular within the primary elector y electorate and he is. In order to stick tour principles, thats why you left the party, you probably would have been voted out, right . I dont think sochlt i was comfortable stick to go my principles regardless. And i built up enough representation in my district. They know im independent and know what ill do what i said on the campaign trail. But you left the party anyway. Yes, but ive been frustrated for a long time with the party system. With the way washington works. Ive been frustrated with the top down approach to everything in washington where a few leaders dictate everything to everyone. Whether its the president of the United States or the speaker of the house or the Senate Majority leader. We need to open things up zbin. All right. How can you do that . Im curious, you left the party, what has that meant . Does Kevin Mccarthy still talk to you . Not in a nice way. Do you feel as if you could be effective . Yes, i can be more effective. Why . I can reach people on the other side of the aisle that i couldnt reach before. But have you been rejected by your former members . No. Actually, they are less frustrated in many ways. Because when you are a republican and break from the party, they treat it like youve abandoned the family or something on a particular issue. So i can be more effective because the people in my former party are more respectful of my decisions now. They are more accepting of the fact that im going to vary from their views on a whole bunch of issues. And then peoplen 0 the other side of the aisle will be more accepting of me because they dont think im just going along with the republicans. Stt house the most effective place for you to make your political arguments these days . Or is the senate or running the presidency a better place . I think im very effective in the house. I think my constituents want an independent congressman. My support in the distrikct has been great as a ipd. But we do need people running for national office. I dont think the current Democrat Field is sufficient. They are all over 70 years old. The president is over 70 years old. I think there is a large segment of the population that is not represented in the top candidates on either side of the aisle. And thats something i think about. Are you concerned what would happen if the president survived impeachment . Meaning the house impeaches him and the senate a quits . Im more concerned about what happens if we dont go forward with impeachment. I think congress is so neglected checks and balances. And over the years the executive branch has become so powerful. And we need to restore that power in congress. We need to restore separation of powers. And, yeah, there are consequences to finding him not guilty in the senate. But there are consequences to not holding him accountable in the house. I guess the fear, and ive heard this, he will think, boy, im untouchable now. Hell think that anyway. Heres a guy thinks nothing matters. Everything he does is applauded by people that are afraid of had imfrankly. I dont think hes that concerned about it. What is it that you think that voters in michigan saw in him versus . Was it about him or do you think it was about Hillary Clinton . I think it was a little bit of both. In my neck of the woods on the west side 69 state, he wasnt Hillary Clinton. T neither was but i do think that hillary, you know, upset a lot of people in the midwest. That she did not connect with them in a way. And she certainly connected with people in the northeast and on the west coast, but in places like the midwest she didnt really connect. And people were drawn to donald trump because they thought she wasnt kebting. 100 you are running for congress or could you still run for another office . No, i wouldnt say 100 of anything. Right. But there has been talk about a libertarian president ial . Im running for congress but i keep things open and wouldnt rule anything out. Thanks for coming on and good to be here on meet the press. Appreciate it. When we come when you look at the world, what do you see . Where others see chaos, we see patterns. Connections. Relationships. When you use location technology, you can see where things happen, before they happen. With esri location technology, you can see what others cant. But allstate helps you. With drivewise. Feedback that helps you drive safer. And that can lower your cost now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . When i was diagnosed with ms, the firstwas my family. Ht about i came home and cried. But, as ive seen my disease progress, the medicine has progressed right alongside it. Trying to make medications more affordable is important, but if washington isnt careful we might leave innovation behind. Lets fix the system the right way. Innovation is hope, and the last thing you want to lose in life is hope. Welcome t back. Panelist here. Q daniel pletka, the country is entering a new and precarious phase in which the central question of trump is whether his base starts to notice or care. Joshua johnson, it certainly feels like theres Something Different about the president this week, perhaps not to me yeah . People have been talking about whether trump is unraveling hes just unwrapping this is still the same person who has dealt in conspiracy theories including against his predecessor, barack obama, who was, in fact, born in the United States, and this is the same person that came to prominence through his representation on the apprentice. I dont know why washington has not learned the lesson, when people show you who they really are, believe them the first time and what is really interesting is whether or not his base is going to start to move yaway, or i would suspect, i am not sure this week for the base moves the needle, what may move the needle is how congress may react to force him in another direction is this a week where congress is starting to get more uncomfortable with him when you see the majority leader coming off the president of the United States in the wages of the washington post, yes, this is a real split. The question is will it widen or remain that way . Its up to the democrats if the democrats end up with a far left set of choices then the republicans are going to stick with donald trump. If, in fact, it looks like other options, then maybe you start to see the split become wider well, i think the last several weeks, i think since ukraine became the central since the start of impeachment i think we have seen a different donald trump, and i take your point that donald trump is donald trump, but theres more of a sense of a franticness on his part, a sense of urgency on his part to keep his view pushed forward, and i think it has manifested in a variety of ways. We have seen it in the tweets, and we have seen it in oval office sprays, and on the south lawn and at the rally, and he is feeling under pressure in a way that i dont think he felt quite as much during the russia investigation. At the same time the shift in his behavior does predate the initiation of the impeachment conversation the longer hes in office the more comfortable he is going with his gut and following his instincts and the turkey decision was the perfect incap sawlati incaplation of that. We saw him withdraw the groups, and without a plan its not just because of the trend line but because of how it impacts his base a sub plot of the last two weeks has gotten lost because the last two weeks were so crazy the extent to which the son of billy graham was part of the conversation about syria, and once the president announced the decision to pull troops back, graham urged his followers on twitter to pray trump would change his mind, but when mike pence would be close with graham and evangelicals negotiated the ceasefire, then graham was in favor of it. Didnt take much. It seems as if maybe he got buzzed by the electric fence for once there were members of Congress Credit saoeu criticizing him. I think the optics are not good, said duncan, but we have a lot more problems to worry about and the profit issue has to be transparent. And marco rubio says as a floridan it was good for florida to have an event yeah, and it does feel like he knew that he was putting too much pressure on his own party he was putting too much pressure on his own party, and this is not just corrupt, and you are taking those tweets today, brother i covered south florida for a long time and that region has dealt in a very open and naked, almost brazen corruption the idea that the president would deal a federal contract to himself is unlawful. Its a bad place to hold this event, and its right under the flight path of mia, and its inland, and surrounded by property you cant buttress it on one side with water, and its a bad place. The idea this is the best place in the whole country to hold the g7 is ridiculous, and beyond that i am not sure g7 cares that much because they have bigger things to worry about. This week they were more concerned with facebook crypto currency, and at the end of the day it may not matter that it even happened at all i dont know. I wonder donald trump is so adept at throwing things out to distract you from what happened last week nobody can remember what the outrage was at two weeks ago, and i wonder maybe he did it on purpose, it seemed so ridiculous what was weird was sending mulvaney out there to me its inexplicable they always insist on calling him acting i would disagree with you slightly by the idea that this administration has never seemed to be that cleverly strategic in the kinds of things they do, and its chaotic in the way they operate. My thought is theres too many fronts hes fighting right now, and just take some of the pressure off and back away and give his allies, friends or critics an opportunity to say he did the right thing. The mulvaney press conference was truly one for the history books and for people outside the white house, many of his close allies, even before he got to the quid pro quo part, there was head scratching why the white house would have a press conference to brag about this situation this week when they have complained about the biden family being inappropriate it was a weird call and did not go the way it hoped. As Everybody Knows mulvaney did not make that decision by himself. When we come back, Pete Buttigieg. But elijah cummings, he was one of the most powerful democrats in the country and he was that rare figure in current day washington, a man who decided to built and not burn bridges between people of opposing viewpoints when cohen testified before congress, cominummings reminded all of his humanity and grace. When we are dancing with the angels, the question will be asked in 2019 what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing . One of the windiest places in america. And home to three bp wind farms. In the offchance the wind ever stops blowing here. The lights can keep on shining. Thanks to our natural gas. A smart partner to Renewable Energy. Its always ready when needed. Or. Not. At bp, we see possibilities everywhere. To help the world keep advancing. And i recently had hi, ia heart attack. It changed my life. But im a survivor. After my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. Its for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. Brilinta is taken with a lowdose aspirin. No more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. Brilinta helps keep platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. In a clinical study, brilinta worked better than plavix. 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See what a Raymond James Financial Advisor can do for you. The one thing you learn pretty quickly, is that theres a lot learn. Grow with google is here to help you with turning ideas into action. Putting your business on the map, connecting with customers, and getting the skills to use new tools. So, in case youre looking, weve put all the ways we can help in one place. Free training, tools, and Small Business resources are now available at google. Com grow welcome back Pete Buttigieg burst on to the scene with good press and Campaign Contributions but after th of good campaigne impressiveont. After that start impressive sta did fall back into the second tier of candidates behind joe biden, Elizabeth Warren and bernie sanders. A tuesday debate, the south bend mayor tried to regain the initiative with a more aggressive approach. We heard it tonight, a yes or no question that didnt get a yes or no answer. Your signature, senator, is to have a plan for everything. Except this i dont needlesssons from you on courage, political or personal. You can put an end to an endless war. You ended the regime is the question. Mayor Pete Buttigieg joins me, welcome to meet the press. Thanks for having me. Before we start the campaign, you may inherit the situation if you are president where the turk versus this sort of uneasy oversight over Northern Syria, the kurds are a bit displaced. We have multiple nations in sort of with troops in syria. What do you do . What do you do now . We know what you wouldnt do. I understand that. What do you do now . If things are going to evolve in so many different ways, its hard to gauge the future. Except this we know we need to promote stability. We need to stand by our allies and that there will be legitimate Turkish Security concerns, that will also be a part of the equation. Right now whats happening is the future over there is being decided by everybody but the United States. Russia, iran, turkey. And we are nowhere because American Leadership has been withdrawn. And the implications of this arent just the Regional Security picture in the middle east is the credibility of the United States ourselves. And the first order of business will be to restore u. S. Credibility. Not just with regard to the middle east but globally. One of the first relationships that might need reorienting is turkey. Does turkey belong in na no . Well, what we know is they are not behaving in a way thats consistent with stability and i think if they continue to behave in this way, there has to be consequences, but right now. Is a sppg or kicking out some form of suspension from nato one of those consequences . Well, right now what weve got to do is engage turkey as an ally. I served alongside turkish troops in afghanistan. Its leverage for us to make sure that we use our influence to prevent bad outcomes like the one that donald trump green lighted that theyre doing right now. If they dont act like an ally in the long run, thats going to have consequences. I want to ask you about afghanistan, Peter Barnett reacted to your debate performance. He writes this, over this headline, democrats are hip quit for condemning trump over syria, if it makes it harder for buttigieg to look americas afghan allies in the eye, the same might be said that buttigieg and the other Democratic Candidates are proposing in afghanistan, itself. Is there a lesson learned, what we are seeing in Northern Syria about the situation in afghanistan . Yeah. But the lesson validates my position. Because what ive said about afghanistan is where we need to get to and by the way it will involve negotiations. Its not a unilateral nonnegotiated withdrawal. What we need to do is get to where we have a light foot print presence of counterterrorism specialized special operations troops and whatever intelligence capabilities we need to protect the homeland and know more. And in your mind, for the foreseeable future, were going to have some force the way to end our unending massive ground troop presence there is to have this other footprint in the median term. Heres the thing, thats exactly what me had in syria. A mother of a few dozen troops, special operators in just the right places making it possible to prevent the dissent into chaos we are seeing now. Sow see what was withdrawn from syria is exactly the sort of thing if we had it in afghanistan, would prevent endless wars on the scales we are seeing now. One of the criticism is the president is not respecting sort of deals that america has made walking away from the kurds in particular. This is this part is unamerican. How constrained are you going to feel by deals that President Trump cut because on one hand you got to restore faith among folks around the world when you cut a deal with america, america will stick by it. If you dont like a deal what will you do . Make a better deal. By President Trump . No what President Trump does is wake up in the morning, have a phone call over a tweet and completely cnge yrs or even decades of u. S. Policy surprising his own generals and country in the process. Thats not how this works. If we think that there is a commitment, a treaty or a deal that we can improve on, we go to the table and we make it happen. But the credibility of the United States is something that our lives depend on. And when the president undermines it, with things like the action in syria, that is going to cost us for years and years. We got to be a country known to keep its word. Let me move to the debate and the back and forth in particular you had with senator warren. Wurp tough on her and her ability to tell you how she is going to pay for her medicare for all plan. Ehave been evasive how you will spend on yours. You said it will be cost savings, plus Corporate Tax return. You havent said much about that what are some details how you are paying for your med square for all who want it. We score it out as 1. 5 trillion over that period of time. The vast majority of that can be recovered by rolling back the Corporate Tax rate cut portion of the trump tax cuts. So it will go from what to what . That will take care of the 1. 4 trillion if we revert to the pre trump level. You basically want to roll back the entire tax cut. Thats easier says than done . Govern secretary easier said than done. We have a responsibility to make sure that dollars that have gone to line the pockets of pele that didnt need it are instead going to make sure the American People can get healthcare. Now to give you a full mathematical answer, thats almost enough to deliver what i say that we need. But there the a little bit more we are recover through the savings to the government from my Prescription Drug plan. Because when we allow the government to negotiate drug prices that actually leads to a return to the treasury. So the bigger point here is, my plan is paid for. And we have an opportunity to get everybody healthcare, without kicking people off their private plans and without the multitrillion dollar hold that appears to be there unexplained in senator warrens plan. Before i let you go, im curious if you had any reaction to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton implying that congresswoman chelsea bab guard might be a russian asset. Im saying im not going to get into their dispute. What i will say is we know right now owe zploe is it appropriate . I suppose when you become a private citizen you can say whatever you want. I understand that, a sitting member of congress. She served. Certainly honored her service as we saw in the debate. I have strong disagreements with her on topics like syria. But the bicker issue here is russia is working to interfere with our elections right now. And we know a big part of how theyre going to do it is exploiting division among the American People, with their information operations. Weve got to become a harder target and as president , i will make sure using all of our tools, diplomatic, economic and security there is enough deterrence that russia or any country would never again calculate that it is in their interest to mess with our democracy. I wonder if you are comfortable. Throw a charge out there making her deny it. Thats a trumpian move. Well, we got to focus on the task at hand right now. And that includes making sure that this presidency comes to an end. That is my focus. That and what happens after this presidency comes to an end. You are comfortable with Hillary Clintons critique . No, im not. Im not getting in the middle of it. We as a country and a party have to focus on the future. Soon to be ten more weeks. Stay safe on the trail. Good to be with you. 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Use caution driving or operating machinery. Tell your doctor if youve had Mental Health problems. The most common side effect is nausea. Quit smoking slow turkey. Talk to your doctor about chantix. Welcome back. Day to download time. It happened after the general manager of the houston rocks tweeted support for the hong kong protesters. Why so many other american businesses should be breathing a sigh of relief its the nba taking the euros publiclyot any of them. Last season nearly 800 million in china watched an nba game. Thats more than twice as many people as there are in the United States. The nba as a standalone business is estimated to be worth more than 5 billion in china. But the leak is not alone. There are hundreds of companies here in america with ties and deep roots, everything from amazon and westinghouse. Start with general motors, the big detroit auto maker currently involved in contract negotiations with the united auto workers. The contract story is a big one here. There are thousands more workers in china hand the uaw workers in the estates. Then there the nike. They have about 5400 employees here in the United States. Compared to 145,000 in china at over 100 factories according to its website. What is more american than Kentucky Fried Chicken . Well, you count restaurant locations, the c in kfc may stand for china now. As of late june there were more than 4,000 kfc locations in the United States and more than 6,000 in china according to fast food chains parent company. Like, while its fair to criticize the nba and its stake in china is no different than many businesses in this country, so politicians who are grandstanding about this issue may want to look in the mirror and side why their outrage appears to be so selective and why so Many Companies can legally do what they are doing. When we come back, exactly what did introducing even more value from fidelity. Fidelity now has zero commissions for online u. S. Equity trades and etfs. 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Juul is following big tobaccos playbook. And now, juul is pushing prop c to overturn ecigarette protections. Vote no on juul. No on big tobacco. No on prop c. Back now with end game to try to figure out who the front runner for the Democratic Party is, sometimes you should ask the candidates actually running for president. I think thats a good way, if you ask the candidates, they told us who the front runner is, take a look. We heard it tonight, a yes or no question that didnt get a yes or no answer. I appreciate elizabeths work. But again, the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something that you can actually get done. I went on the floor and got you votes. I got votes for that bill. I convinced people to vote for it. So lets get those things straight too. Dan balz, Elizabeth Warren, the democrats think shes the front runner, not joe biden anymore. Well, shes the person who has been rising in the polls and roughly with Vice President biden and is moving in iowa and run a disciplined campaign. I think as we saw in that debate, there are questions shes going to have to answer that she is unwilling to answer. Those arent going to go away. Sheets going to have to figure how to power through that. So far she hasnt been prepared to sigh what she would do on that medicare plan. She didnt take the bait directly from anybody. She tried to brush it all off. Thats right. She wanted to seize back the center of gravity in a way that provided her some protection. But these attacks are only going to get more intense. Now shes the front runner she will be facing it not from democrats but of course from the president and his allies. That is something that is difficult for her. This week itself was challenging for the warren campaign. She not only had that tough answer in the debate. She didnt give a clear pay plan for voters, on top of that alexandria ocasiocortez and her allies in the house endorsed bernie sanders, thats a big loss opportunity for warren. Josh, what does this say about biden . I think, i said the before, i am viewing the field like they are the avengers and joe biden is Robert Downey jr. Junior, hes the bankable guy. Hes the one you can put at the top of the marquee people will show up. Im not convinced hes the front runner getting the fervent response, yes, i want you to leave the country. You got one or two ideas im so passionate about. These guy we know is bankable. He has the barack obama halo around him, understandably, deservedly. I think hes the defacto leader right now. In a way its great for democratic voters. A lot of People Democratic voters said in 2016 they dont like told who the front runner is supposed to be. If were going around enthusiasm, andrew yang has a tremendous center of gravity. He is getting ignored, lots of the democrats, no, no, no, we like this guy. So i think the fact that the front runner keeps moving in a way for the democratic voting base is probably a great thing. It means they are still driving the process. I think the Biden Campaign wishes they had the ironman suit. I like that, Robert Downie junior looks old, sorry. Hes a bankable star. But hes not. I dont see joe biden being able to take this back from Elizabeth Warren, she is the disciplined candidate. Maybe theyll change around and get back to the top of the batting order with him. He doesnt have what it takes shes shown in fundraising and personal discipline hes not ready. Does buttigieg, if there is anybody if tear a, not the top tier, this full fledged second tier in front runner purgatory maybe . Well, hes moved in iowa in a place you can envision him being in the top three in a sense and maybe the top two if biden were to fall significantly. Im not predicting that, frankly. But i think that what weve seen with him is that he has Clear Campaign skills. Yep. But we dont know whether he has a low ceiling. This question of can he expand beyond that kind of well educated white electorate . I will move to the bizarre Hillary Clinton attack, betsy, on gabbard. I think theyve got their eye on somebody currently in the democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third party candidate. Shes a favorite of the russians and thats assuming jill stein will give it up, which she might not, shes also a russian asset. So a russian asset. Chelsea gabbard you the queen of warmongers, its now clear that this primary is between you and me. Dont cowardly hide behind your proxies. Tulsi gabbard is not making it into the next debate. Hillary clinton gave her a lifeline. Either Hillary Clinton has some very explosive information that none of the rest of the public has access to or she fleetd Conspiracy Theory about tulsi gabbard, claiming somebody who deployed twice is currently being groomed by the russian government. There is not public evidence for it. Okay. Its understandable gabbard would respond with immense anger, she was saying he was using her corporate proxys to conspire her to be a successful candidate. Cmon, but this particular episode was criticized her for hanging out with bashar alassad. That a fact. None of this is fact based. Not fact based. Also im not sure like you said im not sure it will make a difference at the end of the day. If she had said this about Elizabeth Warren, totally different story. Tulsi gabbard the center of gravity around her is not that long. In the end it might not move the needle. Especially when people are lecturing conspiracy lecturer in chief. Donald trump. Thats all for today. The world story starts tuesday. Eighth local story for us. Houston you have a problem, our Washington Nationals are coming. Well be back next week. Because if its sunday, its meet the press. The olympic cnnel, homef team usa. With a personal best show program where she put it all together, american Bradie Tennell leads the way. But sakamoto of japan has won the last two medals and shes close. While 15yearold shcherbakova of russia has not won for the ladies fre