Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20180724

Back. Reporter i spent 20 days without being able to speak to him. Every time they move me from one facility to another, i would say, and my children, what about my children . And no laughing matter. How the attorney general of the United States responded to chants from a high school audience echoing Trump Campaign rallies. Ha ha ha. Lock her up. [ audience chants lock her up ] and good day, im Andrea Mitchell in washington. President trump is setting off political fireworks with an an unprecedented threat to strip security clearances from half a dozen former Top National Security and intelligence officials, veteran officials, some of whom worked for decades under president s of both political parties. The president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because theyve politicized and in some cases monetized their Public Service and security clearances. But the white house did not check two of the officials, former fbi director james comey and his Deputy Andrew mccabe. They both had already lost their clearances automatically when they were fired. Still, the white house is pushing ahead with what appears to be an offthecuff idea to exact revenge from some of the president s most vocal and authoritative critics. The move marking a stunning shift in politicizing the security clearance process as the president continues to dismiss the intelligence communitys findings on Russian Election interference, as they attack him, or what he views as attacks on him. House Speaker Paul Ryan on the controversy. This is in the purview of the executive branch. Thats something they deal with. Its not really in our purview. Reporter the Banana Republic comments that some of your colleagues have made. I think hes patrolling peopl trolling people. Trolling people, really . Welcome, all. Peter alexander, the speaker can say hes trolling people, but if you are one of these people, its a serious threat ands unprecedented. We were checking with jeff smith, there are a number of jeff smiths in town but this is the distinguished attorney at Arnold Porter and former cia general counsel who said the last time there was someone stripped of their clearance without any cause it was j. Robert oppenheimer, were talking about the 1950s, and at least he got a hearing. Reporter youre exactly right, as one leading democratic senator said, this amounts to an enemies list for the president. This appeared to be an offthecuff idea for President Trump first initiated by rand call, the republican senator from kentucky, yesterday. But speaking to white house officials say, they insist this is something thats been on the president s mind for a while, something hes been upset about as evidenced by his venting publicly on twitter and in interviews. But if this is something the white house has been focused on for an extended period of time, it doesnt make sense that they would announce those names, including james comey and andrew mccabe, both of whom no longer having active security clearances. In the past when ive pressed the white house specifically on the topic of security clearances including jared kushner, ivanka trump, his own daughter, and rob porter, the White House Company line was always, we dont talk about security clearances. On this issue obviously they have changed their mind and its something they have chosen to make an issue out of, really reigniting this controversy and proceeding toward what would be, as you know, something unprecedented, having not happened in decades. Let me ask all of you, youve all covered the white house. Carol lee, other president s have had some, shall we say, looney ideas in the past, and some president s had problems with it, nixon comes to mind. In many cases, not always nixon, but there was someone, a chief of staff, top adviser, a press secretary, who would say, wait a second, sir, lets think this out. Is there any kind of filter between a president s resume nati ruminations, explosions, ideas, and what comes out of the mouth of the press secretary . Does anyone say, lets even check weathhether comey and mcc even have security clearances . Andrea, there are not many if any people inside this white house who can play this role. And also, even if someone was to say to the president , hey, this isnt a great idea, he doesnt listen. He listens to himself. In terms of the security clearances, i dont doubt what peter said, that this has been on the president s mind for some time. Im sure that he would have been thinking about how he can stop these individuals from saying negative things about him and criticizing him publicly. You know, this is a president who comes from the private sector for his entire career, used sort of intimidation tactics, employed these different ways of trying to stop people from criticizing him or blocking things that he didnt like or felt were negative towards him. Weve seen him do things like this as president before. Hes targeted the media. Hes said that what he doesnt like, something in the press, hes suggested he will change libel laws and make it easier for people to sue. This is how he operates. This is like many things that President Trump does. Ned, the president is tweeting again today, on the left side of your screen, you see hes arriving in kansas city, missouri, hes going to be speaking to the veterans of foreign wars. Hes done this speech every year, at least i remember in 2016 during the campaign, he spoke to them the same day as hillary clinton. It was a rip roaring state. Missouri is potentially a swing state, hes out there later in the day campaigning for the Republican Senate candidate. He tweeted today, get this, this is on russia, i am very concerned russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming election. Okay. Based on the fact that no president has been tougher on russia than me, they will be pushing hard for the democrats. They definitely dont want trump. We are in serious alice in wonderland territory. We have to hand it to President Trump, we have a comedian in chief on our hands. He is half right in that we know the russians are going after the midterms. We have heard that. Weve heard that from all the intelligence officials. Weve heard that from the entire intelligence infrastructure that we have including when you were in aspen last week and other venues since. But we also know that whats given Vladimir Putin the green light to do that is donald trump himself. Had donald trump been forceful in his interactions, not just helsinki last week but his multiple interactions, his phone calls with Vladimir Putin, had he been forceful and passionate and said we know what youre up to, we will not countenance this, this will not stand, i think there would be a much greater chance that the russians would stand down if they knew the consequences. But what donald trump very clearly signaled to Vladimir Putin again last week as hes done in his previous interactions is that there will be no consequences, that this is open season for you, because i am president and i will side with you over my own intelligence community. And speaking of the intelligence community, john brennan, Peter Alexander, as you know, is one of our top intelligence and National Security advisers here at nbc and at msnbc. So he is not backing off. He did not comment on the security clearance i mbrioglo bt he did tweet about trade and tariffs. Using tariffs as the Blunt Force Instrument against allies and partners is not only shortsighted but also plays into the hands of russia and china. Maybe you can fill in the gaps here, a senior official is telling nbc news the Administration Today will confirm billions of dollars in aid to farmers. They have with these tariffs unwittingly, perhaps, hit some of the very people who have long been Trump Supporters across the plains states, across the midwest, Soybean Prices crashing, theres a Large Community in agriculture. Were hearing it from republican senators as well. Reporter andrea, youre exactly white. Speaker paul ryan, the house speaker, a short time ago saying the same, he does not agree with the president on the issue of tariffs. I spoke to the head of the north Dakota Farmers union, this is the Largest Organization representing general farmers in the state, i think its 45,000 member families. He tells me that soybeans, the price has dropped 2 a bushel. Thats like 17 or 18 since the president first started speaking about this threat of tariffs, that in some places have now been instituted. He says the president s language has only, in his words, exacerbated the problem. Senior officials tell me at some point today the administration will be announcing what they describe as temporary relief. They say its not aid, they say its temporary relief for some of these farmers who have been hard hit by trade retaliation. So what exactly that temporary relief looks like, whether its a loan, which many farmers with whom ive spoken have told me is not what they need. This community is facing a significant issue, a lot of those key states, red states, as you know, andrea, who have supported the president in the past. As we watch the president driving from the tarmac in kansas city, missouri, to the venue where he will be speaking in a half hour, of course well bring that to you, the veterans of foreign wears. Theres air force one. Were expecting a repainting job, redecorating job according to the president s wishes. Lets talk about jeff sessions. We teased this in our opening. The attorney general of the United States with High School Students gathered here for a conference, theyre all apparently from local political organizations around the country of a conservative bent, and here is what happened when the attorney general was talking to them earlier today. Too many schools are coddling young people and actively preventing them from scrutinizing the validity of their beliefs and the issues of the day. I like this bunch. Ive got to tell you. Youre not going to be backing down. Go on get em. Go get em. Rather than moaning. [ audience chants lock her up ] lock her up, ha ha ha. So i heard that a long time over the last campaign. Lock her up, lock her up. Carol lee, so far as i know, the only people locked up are Paul Manafort awaiting trial. Nobody has made charges against hillary clinton. It does seem unseemly for the attorney general to be repeating this kind of a Campaign Riff when it was so grossly political and when we know how many indictments have come from the mueller probe. Right. Setting aside the irony youre referencing, this is the attorney general in his official capacity. We have seen time and again in this administration lines blurred, lines crossed, norms, things where there were traditionally separations, no longer exist. This is another example of that. In terms of jeff sessions, you know, he is in such a tenuous position with the president that in terms of his relationship, that, you know, even if he wanted to take a stand, he wouldnt, because in that clip, if he were to then intervene and do Something Like, say, john mccain did during the 2008 campaign where he defended thencandidate barack obama, you know, he would get the president s ire. And so we just havent seen these types of lines blurred in this way, particularly for someone in his official capacity as attorney general. Carol lee, always great to see you. And ned price, Peter Alexander, thank you so much. Were standing by at the white house. Coming up, clapback. Iran responding to President Trumps twitter threat. Stay with us. Told people about geico. harmonica interrupts how they could save 15 or more by. harmonica interrupts . By just calling or going online to geico. Com. harmonica interrupts sighs and chuckles sorry, are you gonna. harmonica interrupts everytime. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. To me, hes, phil micwell, dad. O golfer. So when his joint pain from Psoriatic Arthritis got really bad, it scared me. And what could that pain mean . Joint pain could mean joint damage. Enbrel helps relieve joint pain, helps stop irreversible joint damage, and helps skin get clearer. Enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. 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Escalating after President Trumps warning on twitter that iran would, quote, suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. Irans foreign minister firing back, tweeting, color us unimpressed. The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago. And iranians have heard them, albeit more civilized ones, for 40 years. Weve been around for millennia and seen the fall of empires, including our own. Be cautious. Joining me now, admiral james stavridis, admiral, thank you very much. This is a war of words that probably doesnt lead anywhere in particular, and it was started by president rouhani who is quite under pressure for even having negotiated with the United States, given the threat of imminent sanctions, showing the iran deal is blowing up in their face. That said, what do you think is going on here . Two things, andrea. First, as you say, all politics are local, and inside iran, the supreme leader, the president , are pulling and tugging and trying to create Better Outcomes for themselves politically inside the country. That has had the knockon effect of allowing the Trump Administration to energize its very deep antipathy toward iran. Lets remember, President Trump hated the iran nuclear deal. Mike pompeo equally. John bolton has been harsh on iran. Even jim mattis was famous for his fierce attitude toward iran. Those two things have kind of collided. Lets hope it stays a war of words. Youve got to worry any time the strait of hormuz is involved, because its so critical to the global economy. Lets talk about that for a moment. As we see how narrow that strait is, and iranian missiles and of course gun boats are all arrayed there. There is a lot of shipping, 17. 5 Million Barrels of oil a day go through that strait. Were more oilindependent than we used to be, but we still need that supply, and if theres a shortage in one place, it affects prices at the pump in the u. S. And it can become a problem for this president. But theyre talking about a strangle ho stranglehold, warning europe to get out of tehran. Iran was complying with the rather limited terms of the nuclear deal despite its aggressive behavior around the world. Youve got it exactly right. The strait of hormuz is 30 miles wide which sounds really wide, but with these massive ships going back and forth, ive been through that strait, andrea, dozens and dozens of times as a naval officer, sailing ships the size of a destroyer to the Aircraft Carrier enterprise. Its a very tight body of water. You mentioned patrol boats, diesel submarines, aircraft, missiles, and above all, mines, the threat of the iranians putting mines in the water. Weve seen them do it before. Weve had our navy ships hit by these mines. They can close that strait in a matter of days. It would take us weeks if not months to reopen it if mines were in the water. It takes a long time to get those out. So this is a credible threat. All the more reason we need to tone down the rhetoric, have a coherent strategy for dealing with iran. They are a bad actor. We need to be aggressive with of them. But pushing them to do something that leads us to a full scale war is not the right answer. Secretary pompeo in a speech yesterday, well hear from him again within the hour, in fact, from california, secretary pompeo had this to say in a threatening tone against iran, basically telling the iranian people to rise up against their regime. Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than the government. The regimes willingness to commit violent acts cannot remotely be called moderate. He went on to say, we the United States will stand with you. Is regime change an option . Its a very dangerous game to play. And we have tried it for decades in central america, in parts of south america, in africa, in the middle east. It doesnt tend to turn out very well. Now, i have a lot of regard for secretary of state mike pompeo. I think hes doing a very good job. Im going to argue with one thing he said. He said theyre a mafialaike regime. Not quite right. If they were the mafia, we could buy them off, we could figure out ways to negotiate with them. They are zealots. Thats a difference and its going to make regime change that much harder because elements of that society are ideological. So i would be cautious about pursuing a strategy of regime change. Something we did in 1953, perhaps, in iran, overthrowing the government. People have long memories. How did that work out . Exactly. Thank you so much. Unintended consequences. Great to hear from you, admiral. Thanks a lot. Deplororted. The government has until thursday to reunite all those children separated from families. Hundreds of families might already have been sent home. After a stop at late night with seth meyers, nbcs own Jacob Soboroff joins us. People, particularly the president , talk about whats going on at the border as if it is the most lawless, crazy area youve ever been to. Its some of the most wonderful people ive met in my entire life, some of the safest cities in america are along the southern border. Basically they make policies that rich children away from their families and are truly ripping apart the fabric of society based on nonsense. Southwest has 69dollar oneway sale fares for travel throughout november and december. So you can fill the rest of your year with all the fun. Book now at southwest. Com low fares. No hidden fees. Thats transfarency. No hidden fees. Overwhelming air fresheners can send you running. So try febreze one. With no aerosols and no heavy perfumes. So you can spray and stay. Febreze one. And i am a senior Public Safety my namspecialist for pg e. My job is to help educate our First Responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. Everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. I live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. Once i moved here i didnt want to live anywhere else. I love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other peoples lives. Together, were building a better california. We have breaking news. Welcome back. Joining me now is nbcs Jacob Soboroff and julia ainsley. Welcome, both. Julia, youve been checked on a new court filing against the aclu on behalf of children and separated families. Tell us what its all about. So, andrea, this is the response that the government has for a petition that the aclu said they need about seven days after these families are reunified so they can get to them and explain their legal rights before they have to make the tough choice between whether or not to leave without their children or with their children. They would leave without in order to allow them to seek asylum. What the government is saying here is they cant give the aclu that seven days because theyre short on resources and space and they frankly dont think the judge can tell them to hold off on orders of deportation. So were likely to see all that come to a head today, when the two parties come before the judge at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Now, jacob, im really confused about this, because weve been getting denials from all sorts of people, but the fact is, were talking about people who are being given the horrible choice, sophies choice, if you will, of leaving their kids here or taking their kids and leaving but giving up their right to hearings and asylum. And in some cases, andrea, that choice is not one thats even been apparent, according to the aclu, to the parents when theyre getting these forms to sign away their rights and essentially elect to be selfseparated and deported away, again, from their children. Lets put this into a much larger context. Were only two days away from the governmentmandated deadline to reunite all 2,551 children that the government says were separated from their parents. We know that 917 of them, a huge number, have already been deemed ineligible to be reunited in the first place. I think thats 35, 34 of all of the migrants, the children that came to the United States and were separated by this Trump Administration policy. So now the challenge is, what happens to all different kinds of subsets of these parents and children . We know that 463 of them as of yesterday, and we should probably get an updated number from the hearing as julia was mentioning today, may have already been deported themselves. What happens if you came here with your child, the Trump Administration separated you, and youre already back in your home country . Youre not going to be reunified, thats for ysure, wih your child in the United States. Julia, whats so incomprehensible to me is there was no system in place to identify kids and parents to each have the same number or the same wrist band, whatever you want to say, at the point of separation, that that was not in place when this zero tolerance policy was first announced. Now that its been done, and that these kids have been sent all over the country and their parents in separate holding facilities, so why they didnt keep them all in the same region is another, you know, big question. Sure. How can they say that children that parents should have to make this decision about giving up their right to asylum . Isnt the right to asylum embedded in our law, embedded in treaties, embedded in the Geneva Convention . It is true, andrea. Im sure you saw secretary nielsen speaking to Peter Alexander in aspen. Thats why im asking. Her answers were completely, with all due respect, muddled. They were all over the place. Peter kept trying to nail her down on it. Thats true, we all saw it happen. The only parents they can guarantee will be reunited are those who are already in i. C. E. Custody. Those who have been released into the United States while they seek asylum are those who have been forced to deport. Those people are no longer really in what they would consider an eligible class. Well see all of that be debated in the next 48 hours in court. But it seems that they dont really have a system. And when peter pressed her on it, she said, were just trying to move as ex pe ambitiopeditio can. But she would not commit to the timeline of thursday. Theres a new form that the aclu is asking these parents to sign before they deport so they really understand all their rights. One of the options they can choose is to speak to a lawyer so they can understand whether or not they still have an asylum case thats pending. As we saw before with the old form that jacob and i reported on, they were given two choices, deport with your children or deport without. And they werent fully explained their legal rights, including asylum. Andrea, if i could say real quick. Please. The reason were in this position today, we should be Crystal Clear about this, is that the Trump Administration and secretary kelly way back when, when julia was reporting on this many months ago if not a year ago, decided to use separation as deterrence. There was never a plan to put families back together. It was never thought through from a to z. The reason we find ourselves in the situation with children who came here and may never earned up reunited again, it was not a policy that was thought through. It was thrown together as a political proposition that would look good for the Trump Administration and i guess scare people away from coming to the United States. Thats been shown to be false, it was false in the 90s when they tried deterrence, and its false again this time. Its a man made crisis, not a natural disaster, that was put into place by the Trump Administration for political reasons, quite frankly, and these are the consequences. Amen, so true. And let me just say, a big shoutout to those lawyers, pro bono, the doctors, the nurses, the social services agencies, catholic charities, all the rest at the border, those wonderful people that jacob, youve been reporting on. Thanks so much for sharing all of that. Thanks, andrea. Thank you, julia. And coming up, president and vets. Were about to hear from the president before the veterans of foreign wars in the key battleground state of missouri. Stay with us. Be right back. With moderate to severe Crohns Disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. Is she alright . I hope so. So i talked to my doctor about humira. I learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. 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Lets bring in nbc News White House correspondent kristen welker. Paul rykoff, from veterans of america. And retired four star general barry mccaffrey. General mccaffrey, the president is facing the vfw. You might expect a Foreign Policy speech. Something tells me its going to be more political than that. Well, that has traditionally been a speech in which he announces unexpected viewpoints. Going to the va secretary, a massive agency in trouble, its been the death of the careers of many fine public servants. This robert wilkie, pretty positive, hes a savvy washington political operative. Im sure hes a good man. Theyll give him the benefit of the doubt. But hes got his hands full. I have personally felt over the years that the va, if you get into it, its incredibly good health care. But theres National Guard reserve troops all over the country who arent near va facilities. Ive wanted an option for our veterans to either go to the va or to civilian medicine like i do as a military retiree. So i hope thats on the table and not discounted unilaterally by the political debate. Paul rykoff, what would be the problem of doing a voucher system . Because there are geographic limits, as the general points out, on retired military around the country having access. Its generally too costly, it doesnt work, and most veterans dont want it. Its a great concept but the execution is questionable. The question is can we pull this off when the va is already overwhelmed. We dont know. It would be the great privatizing experiment. Veterans organizations have universally exposed expanded privatization. Theres no doubt the president will use this backdrop to talk about Many Political issues. Thats a deeper issue we should all be concerned about, the increasing politicization. The question is what is he going to say today, is he going to talk about veterans or a whole lot of other stuff. Kristen welker, youre the trump watcher there. You know him so well, you cover him every day. This is a set speech, and i know hes got a political rally later today in the hot senate race out there. Might this be more of a policy speech than what we have often seen at his rallies, which can be stream of consciousness, it can be build the wall, it can be no collusion. I mean, there are a lot of memes that you can hear. Reporter andrea, i wouldnt be surprised if its a little bit of both. This is a chance for the president to speak to one of his core constituencies. I asked Sarah Sanders what this speech will look like. She said its going to be pro american, pro veteran, and heavily focused on paying tribute to veterans, no surprise there, thats what you would expect her to say. I spoke to the folks here about what they want to hear. They want to hear him talk policy. They want to hear him talk about, in their words, how were going to take the fight to the enemy. Theyre hoping hes going to delve into these issues. It does come, of course, as youre saying, as this new va secretary was just confirmed. And he is facing some very tough challenges. I spoke to one top official with the va who said his biggest challenge is going to be improving morale within the va. He traveled with the president here Board Air Force one. So expect to see him today at this rally, andrea. And theyre going to expect the president to get into some of that challenges that he is facing. Some of those challenges include budgetary issues, the va looking for 1. 6 billion more. Theyre improving their medical records. Ive been listening to the speakers here, theres been a lot of focus on Mental Health as well. Youll hear the president talk about all of that and of course against that political backdrop, he has not been shy about supporting Claire Mccaskills opponent, josh hawley, the ag of missouri. Youll hear him weave between those different issues, andrea. General mccaffrey, we saw even today the president with a new tweet saying that hes very concerned that russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming election, based on, he wrote, the fact that no president has ever been tougher on russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the democrats. They definitely dont want trump. This is sort of flipping reality on its head. Yes, his administration has been tough on russia, finally, under congressional pressure, implementing some sanctions against russia, arming the ukrainians and trying to push back against russia there, against russianled forces there. But the fact is that the president himself in that helsinki summit was embracing Vladimir Putin to a degree that surprised a lot of republicans as well. Well, you know, that tweet is fantasyland. Its hard to know how to even respond to Something Like that. I think the biggest problem right now weve got, andrea, is there is no u. S. Foreign policy National Security policy. We have secretary pompeo, a very astute fellow, generally speaking, to include with iran tough public rhetoric, but pretty sensible. Defense secretary jim mattis dead on target, pragmatic. The cia is doing a great job staying out of the public controversy, giving the intel needed. But this is bizarre, you know. What is the president up to . The fact is we are in a confrontation with the russians, not just in cyber warfare but on the ground in Eastern Europe and on the ground in syria. And theyre creating mischief in afghanistan. So its just hard to know where this is all going to play out. But there is no longer a National Security council with rational policy options that are debated, one selected, and then rolled out. This is impulsive behavior by the commander in chief. And paul rykoff, all the veterans there, theyve all served and probably have relatives and siblings and kids who are in the service. Its a military community. Theyve got to be concerned. Here youve got a president who spoke of the eu as a foe but befriends Vladimir Putin, to the generals point, strips veteran intelligence officials who have worked under different administrations, or threatens to strip them of their security clearances, which is really for the benefit of their successors so they can consult their predecessors and find out whether something is accurate or not. Its got to be confusing to them as well. They may not be focused on it perhaps the way some of us in washington are. The Veterans Community is not a monolith, andrea. Its a very Diverse Community of over 20 million people. I think what they really want to see is a focus on the priorities facing the country. They want to know what are we going to do about nato, but our friends in iraq and afghanistan that are often forgotten. How will he take care of Women Veterans and deal with burn pits . The dod has implemented a policy change that will restrict transferability benefits. Is he going to stand with veterans and oppose that, or not . Or are we going to talk about parades and National Anthems and things that divide america . This is an opportunity to unite veterans on the issues and unit americans behind veterans on the important issues. Thank you. Hear, hear. Hear, hear indeed. Kristen walker is standing by for the president. The president tweets today, tariffs are the greatest either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on trade negotiate a fair deal, or it gets hit with tariffs, its as simple as that. And everybody is talking nbcs Vaughn Hillyard spoke to a maine businessman about the tariffs. Reporter the president said during his Convention Speech in 2016 that he alone could fix it. Right, yeah. Hes trying. Thats the problem. The alone part is the problem, right . He doesnt have the full picture. And hes making decisions without really talking to enough people. In the latest nbc news wall street journal poll, by a two to one margin people say they oppose raising tariffs. There are a lot of Interesting Data points. That one screams out at you, considering what the president has been tweeting and actually making policy. Yeah, andrea, two to one, where you have American Voters saying that raising tariffs ends up hurting them and hurting the country. And particularly, andrea, when i look at the 2018 midterms, putting on my political hat, all the races across the country, particularly Senate Contests in agricultureheavy states, indiana, north dakota, even missouri where President Trump is today, so you know that this has been a very big issue for him and it explains the reporting first reported by the Washington Post and confirmed by my colleague Peter Alexander, that the administration is looking for billions in temporary relief for these farmers. Temporary relief is farm aid, which is of course against the whole policy of socalled free and fair trade that he talks about. In any case, its a subsidy to farmers to counteract the retaliation to the policy that hes implemented. I want to talk to you about another big number that cries out for explanation from your new poll. On abortion, 71 of voters do not want roe v. Wade overturned. This is an alltime high in the survey. It includes 52 of republican voters. Only 23 of all voters believe roe v. Wade should be overturned. How, if at all, does that impact the confirmation . It certainly is the con tense, andrea, where so many people believe that roe versus wade is potentially on the line with the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation. And we have seen a steady increase in that number. And so 71 is the highest. It was 70 in a previous nbc wall street journal poll. But this is the all time high. In a question that dates back to 1989 in the fall lop survey. You do see a sense, andrea, while abortion is a highly charged issue on this matter whether it should be overturned or not, you have a decisive majority saying it should not be overturned. A lot to dig into, the nbc news wall street journal poll. The rest of the poll is online. I really do recommend people recommend it. Thanks so much. Now, you can see from the screen, were expecting to hear not only from the president but we heard right now secretary mattis and secretary mike pompeo are jointly meeting with australian officials at stanford university. Joining me now, courtney kube. And nbcs National Political reporter josh liderman. Josh, welcome. Thank you so much, andrea. Weve known each other a long time. Were tracking what pompeo is saying. First, to you, youve got a really important speech coming up from the from the president , the veterans of foreign wars. The officials are there from australia with pompeo and mattis. Threats against iran. No explanation yet of what the president said to Vladimir Putin in two hours plus of private meetings about what our policy is in syria regarding iran. I think the president is coming out. But courtney, if you could answer quickly what we expect to hear, what we want to hear, what the veterans want to hear. Well, like you said, theres an embarrassment of riches today. Things for us to cover. Were expecting to hear im sure hell start by saying by welcoming the new va secretary who was just confirmed. We have secretary of state mike pompeo and secretary of defense jim mattis who are talking right now about north korea and the threat. Im sure theyll get questions on iran of course. And the president s tweets. And the new language that were hearing out of this administration that is much harsher against iran. So far, what weve heard from them in their opening statements, though, is threat from north korea, that the u. S. Stands shoulder to shoulder with australia against that threat. And that the u. S. Will continue to keep up pressure on the regime despite some recent diplomatic breakthroughs between the u. S. And north korea. Secretary mattis made a point of saying what a great ally australia was by saying they were the first ones on the ground in afghanistan with the United States after the 9 11 attacks. So i suspect theyll want to keep the conversation on the endo pacific region, but its going to turn towards iran, andrea. This is a very friendly audience, of course, josh, the president might be giving a very political speech. Theyre now listening to long live the usa, the Lee Greenwood song. In terms of the veterans, they want to hear about the va. They want to hear about their medical services. Thats right, they want to hear about some really concede issues that affect their well being and that of their families and theyre going to be looking for the president to put some meat on the bones. To not just talk in generalities about patriotism and god bless the usa but to get into specifics about concerns that have been going on a long time. The president likely to point out that those started in a previous administration, if not even more longer in the past than that. But something that hes going to have to be able to really show he has a concrete plan to how to address it. And on his plate, iran, north korea, were beginning to see signs that perhaps north koreas disabling one of those Missile Launch sites as promised belatedly. Still, we havent gotten any details on the transfer of remains. We know that mike pompeo had a really bad trip in north korea. He had a trip that ended in essentially disaster with the north koreans and the United States exchanging really harsh word. We know the president have been really frustrated by the perception hes not making progress. That this whole thing has stalled. And hes really trying to show this is still on track. And right now the president s still thanking the group. This is a cheering crowd. Lets listen in. To pay tribute to the men and women who make freedom possible and what a special place, what a special group of people. The veterans of foreign wars. You people should be very proud of yourselves. I want to thank each and every one of you who have served our country in uniform, defended our nation in battle and protected our Great American flag. I also want to recognize a great kansas city legend. Who i met today at the plain. Somebody ive been a fan of a long time. A member of the Baseball Hall of fame. George brett of the kansas city royals. Wheres george . Hes around here. So george, how many years . What was your batting average . 305. Said thats pretty good, to years, special guy. I want to thank a true patriot, your executive director bob wallace. Along with your Outstanding National auxiliary. President dee gilroy. Thank you, dee. And congratulations to vfws incoming leadership, b. J. Lawrence and sandy gribal. Where are they . Great, great. Congratulations. Were also joined by a brandnew va secretary robert willki. Hes going to be fantastic. Who was just confirmed by the senate last night with an overwhelming vote. The only ones actually that voted against him were all of the people, super lefts that are running against me in 2 1 2 years. Every one of them. If you want to know whos running, just take a look at willkis score. Because every single one of them. Theyll probably quite a few more. Hes going to do a fantastic job. Theres nothing more important to me. Thank you. I also want to thank our acting va secretary Peter Orourke for doing such a fantastic job in the meantime. Holding down the fort until willki got approved. And peter is going to be joining the whole team. And they are doing numbers and theyre doing the job with choice and with all of the other things weve gotten approved. It was a very important commitment i made to you during the campaign and were fulfilling that commitment. Several terrific members of congress are here today as well. Great finds of mine. Theyve helped me so much. Were joined by kevin yoder from kansas. Incredible guy. Kevin. What an incredible guy. Members of missouris congressional delegation. Vicky hartsler, billy long, jason smith, along with your states attorney general. Hopefully. We need him so badly. Hopefully your new senator to be josh holly. We need josh badly. Josh. Thank you. In fact, josh, do me a favor, come up here just for a second. Just shake my hand. This guy is a special man. Come here, josh, come here. Its an incredible honor to be here today. Thanks to all of you for your service and what you mean to this country. How about the leadership of President Donald Trump . What do you think . You know, when i think about President Trump, theres one word that comes to mind. That word is courage. Do you agree . How many people over the years have said that theyll do this or theyll do that but theres one guy who had the guts to actually fulfill his promises . The guts to move our embody to jerusalem . The guts to actually stand up against our enemies overseas . The guts to put conservatives over the Supreme Court of the United States, and thats donald trump. You know, the president always says, the president always said were at a turning point moment as a country. Its a critical time for our country. And hes providing the leadership that this country needs as we lead the world into this new century. Now i tell you what, i think he needs reinforcements in washington, d. C. Do you agree with that . So lets do this. Lets show our appreciation again for President Trump and the leadership that he is giving to this country. And lets redouble our efforts and recommit ourselves to standing together, working hard and making America Great again. Wow. Goodbye, folks. That was great. What a great young man. Before going any further, i want to take t