Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20180402

You look at the economy, you look at whats happening, nothings ever easy, but we have never had an economy like we have right now. And were going to make it bigger and better and stronger. Our military is now at a level will soon be at a level its never been before. You see whats happening. Unplugged. President trump on a twitter tirade against daca today but getting his facts all wrong, saying the dreamer deal is dead even though hes the one who killed it. The democrats have really let them down. Theyve really let them down. They had this great opportunity. The democrats have really let them down. Its a shame. Now people are taking advantage of daca. Thats a shame. And saks hack. 5 Million People have their credit card information stolen from saks fifth avenue and lorde taylor. As a customer, it seems this is happening more and more. Its kind of scary. I would be very cautious before coming back here again for shopping. Good day. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. We have a lot of news coming out of russia after the kremlin announced it, the white house now confirmed the president did suggest meeting with Vladimir Putin even at the white house. Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirming putin and the president discussed the meeting during their march 20th phone call. A white house meeting was suggested as well. Nbcs National Correspondent Peter Alexander is at the white house. It was remarkable watching the president on the truman balcony addressing his achievements. Lets just say the easter bunny kept a straight face. Yeah, the easter bunny, whose face is stuck with that smile. This is sort of remarkable. It seemed odd to hear the president there as he welcomed these guests from around the area and frankly around the country for the easter egg roll, talking about the military and some of the economic achievements that the president likes to tout as well. Andrea, you brought up, i think, another item that were focused on here at the white house, which is what were hearing from a russian president ial aide that in that conversation the president recently had with Vladimir Putin that he offered up, among other locations, the white house as a possible venue for a summit between the two men. This aide to Vladimir Putin saying there havent been any concrete discussions. Theres been no further discussion about that more broadly. But it does, i think, ignite an interesting conversation given the fact many people have been critical of the president for not being more critical of Vladimir Putin himself. You recognize this comes not just amid the russia investigation headed had up by special counsel robert mueller, but also this titfortat back and forth, the expulsion of Russian Diplomats. And the fact that the president has yet to call out russia for meddling, even though theyve imposed sanctions on russians whose names were first made public by that special counsel. And the president has yet to speak about the russian poisoning, the kremlin suspected poisoning of the former russian spy in england and also of his daughter. None of that has been mentioned by the president in person. While the administration has taken tough actions on these expulsions, there has been no comment at all from the president. Some people say that the actions should be a lot tougher in any case. Plus, to have the president invite him for a summit at the white house when ukraine is still invaded and partly occupied. Its just going in the face of any Foreign Policy advice from experts. I have to say that both the National Security Council Advisers and state department were blindsided by this offer. On top of that, remember the last time the president had top russian leaders in the oval office. That was sergey lavrov, then the Russian Ambassador to the u. S. , whose name is familiar to a lot of us. Also excuse me, Sergei Kislyak being the foreign minister. When he reveals classified information, hes simply sharing it, but he did appear to jeopardize a critical source of intelligence as it related to isis. That source, as we would report, being israel at the time. So thats the president s past experience dealing with a russian leader of some kind here at the white house, which would make for kwietd quite an intere scene if Vladimir Putin were to be invited here on behalf of his country to meet with the president in the weeks or months ahead. Once again, the kremlin announcing all this first. Thats the way weve learned of every conversation, every interaction the president has had with putin, also lavrov. All that comes from the kremlin first and then the white house is scrambling to catch up. More to come, of course. Thank you so much for starting us off, peter. Now to some major breaking news. The dow plunging more than 500 points today. Cnbcs dominic chu joins me now. Dominic, is this all about china and trade, or are there other factors as well . There are a lot of other factors, andrea, that are going on right now. China and trade obviously front and center. It doesnt help, also, that amazon. Com seems to be a very big focus for President Trump given todays news flow and everything else. Amazon is a very large part of the u. S. Market and a huge part of the s p 500. You have all of these things happening at once. This idea that the market has run up a lot over the course of the last couple years and some traders and investors are worried that that run may be running out of some steam. Thats the reason why youre seeing some of this move to the downside happen just in the last couple of weeks or so. Its important to point out here this is in no way a panictype move, but its some of the winningest trades that have happened over the last couple years that have selling off the most. Namely big names like amazon. Com, facebook has been a big culprit. Larger Company Technology stocks. Those stocks that have done really well since the election are the ones that are pulling back by some of the most in todays trading and over the last couple of weeks. So andrea, its something that a lot of traders are watching very closely. Theyre watching to see if those charts indicate this downside move may have legs. To see if its more than a normal correction. But how unusual is it, dominic, for the president of the United States to be using his office, his megaphone to go after an individual company like amazon . In my time covering the markets and being in the markets, i havent seen a president really go after individual companies the way that President Trump has. Remember, even during the election cycle, before he got elected president , he was already targeting individual companies, talking about what he was going to do with regard to negotiating better terms and deals and whatnot. As we talk about this administration, when President Trump targets individual Companies Like this, it adds a certain amount of risk because those traders and investors who are invested in those particular companies always have to keep an ear and an eye out for what President Trump will say. Its also important to remember that President Trump and his administration are ones that have championed the stock market move higher to record levels as being validation for his administration. Almost like the jury, if you will. So it will be very interesting to see whether or not there are comments being made from the administration with regard to the Market Movement weve seen if those movements continue to the downside. That of course remains to be seen. Dominic chu, thanks so much for joining on with us. Its down now 545, actually. Thanks again. Well keep track of that throughout the hour. Joining me now is jim macina and rick tyler, Communications Director for the cruz 2016 president ial campaign and an msnbc contributor. Thank you, both. Jim, first to you. You were involved in a lot of white house events. Have you ever seen an easter egg roll with the president stands ne standing next to the bunny and trumpeting his achievements . No, i havent. Of all the big events the white house puts on every year, the easter egg roll is really a special one. Its a nonpartisan moment for thousands of kids to come and get a chance to be at the white house. I felt bad for these 4yearolds who just want a darn egg to have to sit there and watch the president go after his own achievements, talking about how great the economy is. At the same moment, the dow is down 500 moments. It was just surreal. And there are 30,000 kids or more at the whouite house for ts o on a chilly morning. There was already a chill in the air there. Rick tyler, when we talk about daca and the president s tweets, one of his tweets about a caravan of supposedly Illegal Immigrants coming over from mexico, factually not correct. He goes after mexico on nafta. This was is a sunday tweet. It came only moments after a similar inaccurate segment was on fox news. We can see perhaps his inspiration, or maybe hes reading the same blogs. I think thats the most troubling. As the president of the United States, you shouldnt watch the television and react to it and then create what essentially is realtime policy. The president has access to the probably unequal information that any one single individual can get. You would think he would check with his policy advisers to see if this was actually true, whether it was actually going to be happening, and even if it was, whether they would qualify under the law as refugees. Instead, he just looks at this sort of outrageous story that occurs in the moment and replies to it, effectively making policy object spot. The fact is that, first of all, hes the person by executive order who canceled daca. Then he negotiated and seemed to be indicating he was going to come up with a deal with the democrats. Then that got blown up by republicans on the hill. There has been a net minus migration from mexico, of mexicans to the United States. Mexicans are leaving and going back to mexico, not coming back in the other direction. So if you wanted to fact check. Plus, anyone coming in now couldnt qualify for daca. You had to have come over in 2007 to qualify for daca. And the people who qualify for daca are young people. 16 or younger at the time. And you have to now be either in school, meaningful employment, or in the military. That leaves people with two choices. Either the president doesnt know what the daca policy is hes suspended and it threatening not to negotiate on it at all, or he did know what it was and hes using it as political leverage to get people excited about misinformation about immigration policy. The fact is we need a rational immigration policy. We cant be using daca to keep pingponging people back and forth. Hes trying to put himself in a position where he looks like he has compassion for them and the democrats really want to use it as a political issue. Theres plenty of blame to go around for democrats and republicans using the issue as a political issue. In the meantime, there are real lives of people affected. We need to have a rational immigration policy. Its a lack of leadership that has gotten us to this place were in. Jim, as someone whos run president ial campaigns and other campaigns as well, this is most likely energizing his base because hes speaking to those issues that get people excited, even if theyre not factually correct. Yeah, look, we know that President Trumps a oneplay football team. He just goes back to his base over and over and over. I agree with rick on both those things, but i think theres a third option here. We know from reporting that he spent all weekend with sean hannity and a bunch of other folks who are real hardliners on immigration. President trump has proven he pretty much listens to whoever is the last person who talks to him. So when hes having dinner saturday night and hannitys telling him all these terrible immigration things, he wakes up and tweets on it on sunday. So its kind of like, you know, when you have to take your 5yearold to the class and make sure the last person he hears is you, pretty much we know that President Trumps been hearing from right wingers on this issue. So he says things that are absolutely incorrect, as you pointed out. He ended daca. No person arriving in the country now can actually get into the program. Theres actually a net minus immigration from mexico. But none of those things matter because he just believes whoever he talked to last. Jim, also on amazon and the fact that steve miller was with him, not the chief of staff john kelly. So he had the hardest antiimmigration voice from inside the white house with him all weekend in maralago. Those maralago weekends are really dangerous for fact checkers. Theyre keeping people busy all weekend. But the amazon hits. I mean, when he was talking about boeing and about Lockheed Martin during the transition, arguably hes talking about renegotiating deals with the federal government. Theres no government contract in play here. No, this is about politics. Hes upset at jeff bezos because he thinks the Washington Post has been too tough on him. But this is unprecedented, right. You and i have been in politics for decades here. American president s are usually cheerleaders for american companies. Theyre not people who take to their twitter feed and attack Companies Based on their own political beliefs. Its really unprecedented, and its starting to damage the stock market. And you know, the stock market has been trumps crown jewel, however bad it can get with his own personal stuff, he always pivoted to that and says the economy is great, stock market is great. Hes now starting to do real damage here based on political vendettas. Its like an authoritarian dictator, not the president of the United States of america. Jim, rick, thank you both for being here today. And coming up next, taking credit. Cybercriminals breaching the Payment Systems of saks fifth avenue and lord taylor. Details coming up next on Andrea Mitchell reports. Youre watching msnbc. Your by begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. Learning from him is great. When i can keep up anncr thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. Dads got all the answers. Anncr prevagen is now the numberoneselling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. She outsmarts me every single time. Checkmate you wanna play again . Anncr prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis was intense. My moms pain from i wondered if she could do the stuff she does for us which is kinda, a lot. And if that pain could mean something worse. Joint pain could mean joint damage. 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Saving you time, so you can keep saving the world. Kids safelite repair, safelite replace you know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. And another massive data breach, raising new concerns about cybersecurity. This time, luxury retailers saks fifth avenue and lord taylor both hit by a wellknown ring of cybercriminals that stole more than 5 million credit and debit card numbers. The data firm that uncovered the breach says the hackers began to steal the information in may of 2017, continuing through last month. While the extent is unclear, the firm says 125,000 records were put up for sale on the dark web. The company that owns both retail chains declined to identify how many customer accounts or stores were affected and just when. Joining me now is sean henry, former assistant director of the fbi. Sean, first of all, what is the obligation of hudson bay to disclose to their customers that this has taken place . You know, when we see a breach like this, companies oftentimes bring out their outside counsel in to take a look and see what their disclosure obligations are. When youre using credit cards, when certain pieces of information are taken, organizations are required oftentimes to reveal that publicly. Unfortunately, there are about 48 different laws, different states have different laws, so it really requires the lawyers to navigate kind of a treacherous mine field. Saks put out a statement saying weve identified the issue, have taken steps to contain it. Once we have more clarity around the facts, well notify our customers quickly and offer those impacted Free Identity Protection Services and credit monitoring. So we dont know of when they first learned of it and how tardy they are in any kind of consumer notification. This was different. This was actually going into their payrollme systems. It was an inside job . Not necessarily. Weve seen organizations before ive seen banks that have been hacked, actors that have gotten into the back office, if you will, of the organization to manipulate data, to open up fraudulent accounts, to transfer money using automated Clearing House transfers, to wire money. So its not really clear exactly what they had access to, but its not unusual for the actors, especially the fact that the company that identified this said theyd been in since may of 2017. Youre talking about almost a full year, completely u undetected. When adversaries have that much access for that long a period of time, theres going to be trouble. And russians, what could they have gotten besides the credit card information . Social security numbers . Would saks have that data as well . You think oftentimes Companies Collect the information to extend lines of credit. Its not clear what they had access to, but the type of information that people provide when theyre applying for credit, when theyre using the store credit system. They may have had access to all that information, in addition to potentially information about employees, some of the personal data that organizations maintain. What should people do who are saks customers or have credit cards with saks or lord taylor . I think in this case, credit monitoring is a good thing. This really is a much broader issue. When i think about the consumers, theres limited things that theyre able to do to protect themselves. What we have to see Going Forward is these organizations protecting their networks to stop these attacks from occurring. Theres something we call dwell time, which means the time the actor gets on the network until the time theyre able to get off or theyre detected. A year is too long. Organizations need to be much more aggressive in patrolling their networks because theyve got to protect consumer data. Now, let me ask you about the battle of the i. T. Giants. Tim cook versus Mark Zuckerberg. Tim cook with kara swisher and chris hasyes on the msnbc progrm critical of facebook. Now Mark Zuckerberg striking back. Lets watch. You know, i find that argument that if youre not paying that somehow we cant care about you. To be extremely glib, and not at all aligned with the truth. The reality here is that if you want to build a service that helps connect everyone in the world, then there are a lot of people who cant afford to pay. And therefore, as with a lot of media, having an advertising supported model is the only rational model that can support building a service to reach people. That doesnt mean that were not primarily focused on serving people. I think probably to the dissatisfaction of our sales team here, i make all of our decisions based on whats going to matter to our community and improve the experience and focus much less, you know, very little on the advertising side of the business. What are the implications of this . Zuckerberg beginning to speak out but still has not spoken out publicly on a broad enough platform, arguably that was on vox and still under pressure by a number of committees to show up on capitol hill. I think this all comes down to one word. Its privacy. I think for far too long, consumers have been afraid of the government and what the government is collecting. I think what were learning now is that the private sector, the commercial sector is collecting a lot of data, which they can use to monetize, whether it be through advertising or selling that data. This is something that congress is absolutely going to look at. They may look to regulate it. Its something that i think American Consumers are becoming much more aware of, and they may decide to change their purchase habits based on how the retailers or other organizations are collecting and most importantly protecting their data. And these companies are losing a whole lot of market cap as well. So that may be the most important determinant. Thank you so much. Good to see you. Be well. And up next, class dismissed. More than 40,000 teachers in oklahoma walking off the job today. Well explain why next right here on Andrea Mitchell reports. Youre watching msnbc. Liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. Yeah, my dad says our insurance doesnt have that. What . you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. School districts across the state of oklahoma are closed as more than 40,000 teachers in oklahoma are staging a walkout today. In kentucky, teachers are rallying outside the State Capitol to protest a pension reform bill following a wave of protests since last months strike by West Virginia teachers. At todays oklahoma demonstration, the teachers are demanding more money for Public Schools and better pay despite lastminute legislation, providing a 6,000 annual pay raise. We need funding for the classroom. We dont have enough desks in classrooms for kids. Our building was built for about 1200 students. We have over 2,000. We have teachers that dont have classrooms. They travel from classroom to classroom while other teachers are on their planning periods. My criminal justice textbooks were from 2002. We need funding for our students, for our supplies, for our classrooms. Blake mccoy joins us now from oklahoma city. Tell me more about the issues there because people are confused. They did get more money, but we know teachers are famously, you know, underpaid across the country. Reporter yeah, andrea. Lets put that 6100 raise into context. It was their first raise in more than a decade. So while theyre happy theyre getting more money, it was less than what they were asking for, which is 10,000. And in addition, there are no guaranteed raises Going Forward. They were asking, okay, well, can we get a pay bump in year two, pay bump in year three. All of that was left off the table. Its not that the teachers are ungrateful. They dont trust the legislature. They want more assurances that theyre going to get more money in the future. I want to bring in lawrence lane, a high school teacher. Youve been a longtime teacher in your district. You work four jobs. No doubt about it. Ive had to. I work parttime at a Retail Outlet in tulsa. I also officiate high school basketball, announce high school football, as well as teach full time. Reporter and i imagine its not because you just love working and want four jobs. No, its because id like to do some things that probably people who normally would have an opportunity to do some things in. Be able to visit my grandkids, watch an Oklahoma Sooner Football Game every so often. Just do things you think regular people would do. Reporter you guys got that 6100 pay raise. Why isnt that good enough . Its not good enough because they didnt Fund Public Education adequately. Weve got outdated textbooks. Weve got teachers that are emergency certified in our classrooms. Weve got custodial staff thats grossly underpaid. There are a lot of things the legislature neglected. We would have still been teaching whether were making that 6100 or not. Wed still be in the classroom because we love doing what we do. Reporter in addition to the pay raises, only 50 million were added to instructional and buildings, which is hundreds of millions less than what educators believe schools need. Over the last several years, weve lost approximately 1. 3 billion in tax cuts and moneys that have gone other places. As a result, education has suffered in the state of oklahoma. Thats the kind of moneys were trying to get back. We want our legislators to value Public Education in the state of oklahoma. I lobbied in 1990, 28 years later im still back here doing the same thing that we thought the problem had been solved 28 years ago and its not been solved yet. Reporter well, lawrence, thank you for speaking with us. Im going to have you step out of the way. You see some folks here with their signs. Back there, theres a line to get into the capitol building. Thats because theyve shut the capital down. There are too many people inside. The fire marshall said no more. Its one in, one out. Everyone is waiting to get inside to speak to their legislators. The big takeaway i want people to leave with here is, yes, teachers got that pay raise, but they want guarantees that more Education Funding is coming because they do not trust their legislators at this point. And briefly, blake, youve laid that out so clearly. So has your guest lawrence. What is the governor, what is the legislature saying to these teachers who are advocating for more money for the kids of oklahoma . Reporter yeah, well, they did increase taxes last week. So they feel like theyve done a lot to bridge this gap with educators. They believe theyve done all they can, at least for now. They say any more pay raises, any more education increases are going to have to wait until at least next year. We have not heard the governor come out and make any new comments today. Well see if this massive protest changes that and if theyre able to come up with more money. Blake mccoy, thank you so much for being there for us in tulsa. And winter just will not let go of its grip on millions of americans. A quickmoving snowstorm is blanketing the northeast today. That is forcing the new york yankees to postpone their home opener. The last time that happened was back in 1996 when their regular Season Opener in cleveland was postponed due to snow. The yankees went on to win the world series that season. Lets hope as nats fan thats not a harbinger. Coming up, condo controversy. Environmental Protection Agency chief scott pruitt is under fire following reports he paid below market rates to live in a pricey condo linked to an energy lobbyist. Is he going to keep his job . Well find out coming up on ann dree kb Andrea Mitchell reports. Im only in my 60s. Ive got a nice long life ahead. Big plans. So when i found out medicare doesnt pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. Then i got a Medicare Supplement insurance plan. 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So we found a plan that can travel with us. Anywhere in the country. [ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only Medicare Supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an Organization Serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. Remember, all Medicare Supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesnt pay. And could save you in outofpocket medical costs. Call now to request your free decision guide. And learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now and down the road. I have a lifetime of experience. So i know how important that is. This was a brutally unprofessional transition. This was a transition that didnt vet people for these types of judgment issues, which i think could have been seen very easily in a lot of these people. And the president has been ill served by this. If mr. Pruitt is fwhoigoing to dp does he have to go . I dont know how you survive this one. If he has to go, its because he never should have been there in the first place. Former republican governor and trump surrogate Chris Christie who did leave the transition before he was fired from that, slamming epa chief scott pruitt, who is facing new scrutiny, this time over a deep discount he got for a highpriced capitol hill apartment rental, linked to a lobbyist whose clients have distinct interests in the epa. For six months last year, pruitt paid 50 a night for a onebedroom in a building about a block from the capitol. Prime real estate. About a third at least a third less than the price for Similar Properties in that neighborhood. This comes after backlash over pruitts expensive travel habits on the taxpayers dime, including a firstclass trip in december when he and his staff spent about 40,000 flying to morocco to promote natural gas, an export not part of the epas jurisdiction, and also linked to the same washington lobbyist. Joining me now is john podesta, former white house chief of staff, former chairman of Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign. John, thanks very much. Thanks, andrea. Very striking pruitt would not only get this deal on the townhouse but also be flying to morocco. These connections to lobbyists, where does that theyre saying it was all approved, that its ethically okay. Well, look, first of all we keep learning more and more. Now his daughter stayed with him through the course of the summer, which means they carved out a very narrow version of this apartment and said hes only renting the bedroom. Hes got his daughter staying with him for over three months, who was a law student then, interning at the white house. The trip to morocco, to give that some context, scott pruitt doesnt have anything to do with promoting exporting of natural gas. But one of the clients of the lobbyists who is married to the lobbyist who rented him the apartment was, in fact, a lobbyist for the only l g export terminal operating in the u. S. At the time. So it all smells to high b heaven. I think in an ethically challenged administration, pruitt is going, i guess, for the gold medal. I just cant see how he can last. Now, the reason he can last is because the president likes his deregulation on climate issues, which of course is one of your passions, dealing with climate change. Im sure that on just those policy grounds, you have a problem with scott pruitt as well. Let me point out another former republican governor of new jersey, Chris Christie, who was the head of the epa, Christy Scott whitman was on. This is what she had to say. We did everything to make sure there was a good distance between me and anyone who had business before the agency. We were very careful. Certainly lobbyists would never have that kind of a personal not relationship, because maybe you know them outside of their lobbying times, but this kind of thing where youre renting an apartment and clearly getting it for less than market value. You just wouldnt put yourself in that position. Having been the former epa leader during the bush 43 administration. But if theres no, quote, regulation and if they keep getting these ethics rulings from their own departments, where does it go . Well, you know, look i think the pressure is mounting against him. Youve seen editorials across the country, including in conservative papers, calling for him to step down. I think you noted, i think the real problem here is the epa is there to protect human health and to protect the environment. All scott pruitt seems to do is help his lobbyist buddies and the polluters they represent. At some point, it becomes untenable for the administration to keep putting up with this publicity. He also has the problems with firstclass airfares. Theyre going to have to add, i think, staff to the igs office hes got so many Inspector General investigations going on. I think the pressure is mounting on him, and at some point its going to hit the breaking point. Except what were hearing from inside the white house is the president really likes what he is doing because he is deregulating and Going Forward with policies at the epa, at energy department, and other places, which follow the president s criticism of climate change. Because of the course of conduct with lobbyists in which he overruled the advice of his own experts and failed to ban an agricultural pesticide that causes brain damage in children. Hes going i guess what the president wants. Maybe the president will protect him, but the president has been known to throw people overboard pretty quickly once that negative publicity mounts. I think its going to happen in this case too. Now, the other cabinet position that has been in the news is David Shulkin, now the former va secretary. He telling chuck todd on meet the press do we have that sound . This is David Shulkin saying that he was fired, he did not quit. He didnt go gracefully into the night. I came to fight for our veterans, and i had no intention of giving up. There would be no reason for me to resign. I made a commitment. I took an oath. And i was here to fight for our veterans. So why would the white house say technically you resigned . Did you submit a letter of resignation . No, i did not. Were you asked to submit a letter of resignation . No, i was not. For a guy whos famous for saying youre fired, they certainly seem to be trying to back up off of the question of the fact that they in fact did, as mr. Shulkin noted, did fire him. The reason, of course, is because they have a legal problem now with the person they put in to run the va whos coming from the defense department. Based on a law that was passed in 1998 that tried to restrict to some extent the president s ability to fill these vacancies under this vacancy reform act that was put in place when i was working in the white house for president clinton. You know, if youre fired, its not clear that he can move the person he moved into this job. He would have had to put his deputy into the job. Mr. Shulkins deputy also does not favor privatization, which is really probably the reason why mr. Shulkin was forced to leave in the first place. And to underscore your basic point about the president s inability to fire someone face to face or in person or on the phone, just hours before he was fired on twitter and warned that was coming by john kelly, the president was on the phone with David Shulkin as he told chris hayes last week and was chatting about reforms and where they were going. They actually had scheduled a meeting for the next morning at 11 00. Meanwhile, he gets fired on twitter. To be continued. John podesta, great to see you. Thank you. And up next, off the same script. Why dozens of local news anchors at stations across the country were forced to air identical promos blasting, quote, fake news. This is Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Im trying to manage my a1c, then i learn type 2 diabetes puts me at greater risk for heart attack or stroke. Can one medicine help treat both blood sugar and cardiovascular risk . I asked my doctor. She told me about noninsulin victoza®. Victoza® is not only proven to lower a1c and blood sugar, but for people with type 2 diabetes treating their cardiovascular disease, victoza® is also approved to lower the risk of major cv events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. While not for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. announcer victoza® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. 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With claimfree rewards. Switching to allstate is worth it. Russia and the United States will continue to face complex and difficult issues. Yet, we made great progress in a very short period of time. Today, because were working together, both our countries and the world are more secure and safe. I want to thank president putin for the spirit of our meetings. Together were making history as we make progress. President bush 17 years ago marking Vladimir Putins first visit as president to the white house. Now were just learning President Trump suggested a white house meeting with putin when they talked two weeks ago. Despite russias Election Hacking and and the kremlins suspected poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter in england. Lets get the inside scoop from luke marcas and charley savage. First to you, its been notable that despite the expulsion of Russian Diplomats which was completed this weekend, the president has not yet spoken about the poisoning. And its not just they talked about a white house meeting in the near future or a meeting in the knee fewer tour near fut house meeting. Thats the kind of privileged venue that you dont grant to someone who has been acting as an adversary. The most interesting thing about the revelation, they talked about some kind of a meeting, the symbolism youre talking about is were learning of it from the kremlin, were learning about it from moscow and so the decision to put out this information today by putins government teams to me to be an attempt to change the subject from the explosions last week. Russia is hoping thats the end of it as opposed to the beginning of it, the poisoning attempt the attempted assassination in england and trump with his sort of arms length approach to what his administration is doing may be trying to leverage that gap. And it comes after the president in an off handed way spoke about pulling out of syria. For the first time i think he mentioned it at the rally in ohio, the political rally in ohio, and then it was confirmed there have been a lot of conversations. But to pull out of syria is to undercut our Syrian Kurdish allies and other groups weve been working with on the ground. Plus, it puts syria in the hands of russia and bashar al assad. Not to mention completely contradicting what his own state department and his own department had said essentially moments before hand. So what weve seen all along with this president is government by improv and that works pretty badly in general on domestic policy. I think it works particularly badly when it comes to Foreign Policy when foreign governments, foreign adversaries and your allies have to understand that youre speaking with one voice and they can trust what it is youre saying and understand where your Foreign Policy is headed. I want to differ a little bit with charlie in the sense that it seemed to me to be kind of icing on the cake of insult that this information once again came out of the kremlin. The really big problem from my point of view is that President Trump by inviting president putin, the poisoner in chief, to the white house is rewarding him. Wherever the information leaks from or is announced by, you do not reward him for bad behavior by giving him this present and this honor and, by the way, add to that his silence and, by the way, add to that as well the fact the 60 expelled diplomats, its my understanding, just swap them out. So it might be inconvenient having to train some new spies from the russians point of view but that doesnt sound like real punishment to me. It does make the point, also, just to emphasize that every time we hear about something whether its the meeting in the oval office, its always from the kremlin first. Theres not a single instance i can recall in the past 1415 months where the president of the United States or the white house has announced anything before lavrov, putin. The president was just tweeting this morning complaining his Justice Department didnt have enough transparency and documents it was giving to congress, so theres another for you. Hes been tweeting about sinclair and this very conservative owned broadcasting outfit. There are a number of our affiliates there. Heres just a taste of the group think of individual local news anchors from sinclair outlets who are now apparently being given the same scripts all across the country. We are extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that we produce. But we are concerned about the abuse stories plaguing our country. Plaguing our country. Sharing a biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming, some Media Outlets publish the same fake store jis without checking facts first. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. They arent true without checking facts first. Unfortunately, some members publish their own bias and agendas to control what people think. This is extremely dangerous to our democracy. Well, thats what local news viewers are getting in markets across the country praising the white house and just doing it with one script. Now i have to say the script itself was not offensive. It was talking about problems with bias. We all can say we do not want to see bias in our news reporting, talking about problems with fake news which we all disdain depending on what our description is of them. The concern, i think, is that while sinclair owns these local stations and if the merger is approved will own an increasing number of them, one of the values of having local stations and one of the reasons there has been a limit on the numbers in previous years, on the amount of stations that individual broadcaster can own, is that you do want a diversity of viewpoints in your local broadcasting. That department sound like a diversity of viewpoints to me. You differ with me a little on the last point quickly wrap it up. They were conflating fake news and biased news and then that allowed them gas light to go say were only talking about pizza gate conspiracy. The fake news is sitting there and President Trump this morning tweeting in support of this and using it to attack mainstream outlets like cnn and this network. This is functioning as an attack on a nontrump cheerleading media. Fair point. Good point. Thank you, ruth and charlie. Thank you so much. Thank you so were a go . Yes we got a yes what does that mean for purchasing . Purchase. Lets do this. Got it. Book the flights hai si si ya ya ya what does that mean for us . We can get stuff. Whats it mean for shipping . Ship the goods. Youre a go you got the green light. That means go oh, yeah. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. Were gonna hit our launch date scream thank you goodbye we help all types of businesses with money, tools and knowhow to get business done. American express open. And thanks for being with us. Chris jansing takes it over in new york. Chris . Andrea, thank you so much. I am Chris Jansing here in our msnbc headquarters in new york. Stocks tumble. The dow was down at times more than 570 points. It comes as President Trump threatens tech giant amazon and pulls the u. S. No a trade