Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20180726

Bolton called the Mueller Probe a witch hunt. As the secretary of state is put me he wi me pummelled by the senate committee. Ive listened to your political soliloquy. If you want to talk about politics, if president obama did what President Trump did in helsinki, i would be peeling you off the capitol ceiling. Please. And race against time. The Trump Administration has just 12 hours to get 1,600 kids back to their parents as confusion reigns over what rights these parents still have. Msnbcs Mariana Atencio spoke with one father who was lucky enough to be reunited with his daughter. Reporter all we want is to have our kids back. So they sold us youre going to have your kids back in 20 hours. Then it was more time. Good day, everyone, im Andrea Mitchell in washington where House Speaker paul ryan is answering questions about conservative Republican Caucus members trying to impeach the Deputy Attorney general. Their beef with trump appointee Rod Rosenstein, the man overseeing the Mueller Investigation. The claim, that he has not turned over everything they want to see, all the Sensitive Information about ongoing investigations. Do i support impeachment of Rod Rosenstein . No, i do not. I do not for a number of reasons. Since i got involved, weve been getting a lot of compliance from doj on document requests. Reporter do you view this as a legitimate effort or as a stunt . Look, i think they know how i feel about this. Joining me, nbcs kristen welker, nbcs Geoff Bennett, robert costa, National Political reporter at the patiewashingto post, and msnbc justice and security analyst matt miller, former chief spokesman for attorney general eric holder. First to you, Geoff Bennett, youre aware of the speakers position on this. First of all, the freedom caucus, socalled, these very conservative members, pitched this but didnt pitch it as a privileged resolution to really jam it onto the floor. So were they just trying to make a point . Whats going on up there . Reporter it certainly appears that way, andrea. And today we heard that House Speaker paul ryan did not publicly condemn the effort but ticked through all the reasons he didnt support it. He said it wasnt smart to be cavalier with the term impeachment. He said if it went to the senate it would jam up the republican agenda, including the effort to confirm Supreme Court nominee brett kavanaugh. What were left with isyes, this appears to be an effort to further politicize the Mueller Probe, and perhaps to lay the predicate, to give President Trump an excuse if he so chooses to get rid of Rod Rosenstein who as you know is Robert Muellers boss. You can point to this notion, hes the subject of this impeachment process on the hill. But it does not appear at this point, since the members of the House Freedom caucus arent using that maneuver to force a vote and because it doesnt have the support of House Republican leadership, it doesnt appear its going to move anywhere anytime soon, andrea. Kristen welker at the white house, john bolton, the National Security adviser, who has yet to hold a full, you know, principals meeting or deputies meeting on election hacking, we understand there may be one tomorrow, referring to the election probe, the russian hacking probe, as a witch hunt in announcing that that poorlyconsidered, many say, putin summit in the fall is not going to be held, in fact. This after a meeting with Republican Leaders and the president , saying the last thing they need before a tough Midterm Election for republicans is to have a rather toxic meeting, a return summit with Vladimir Putin at the white house. Reporter theres no doubt political pressure played a role in the decision to postpone that summit with Vladimir Putin. As you mentioned, we are anticipating theres going to be a National Security meeting tomorrow on the issue of election meddling. But andrea, it was striking that john bolton, the National Security adviser, essentially parroted what we have heard from President Trump in announcing that the meeting has been postponed. Let me read you the full statement so everyone can just get a look at what he said and the implications of it. The National Security adviser saying the meeting should take place after the russia witch hunt is over so weve agreed it will be after the first of the year. Striking to hear him use that term witch hunt, and it effectively plays into this broader pattern you and geoff were just talking about, undermining the investigation. President trump has taking aim at Rod Rosenstein, at special counsel Robert Mueller, ramping up his attack, saying its time for this investigation to come to an end. Putin never said, andrea, that he was going to come to washington to meet with the president , so there was no agreedto summit. And we still havent gotten a readout or the details of what happened during the president s first discussion with Vladimir Putin. So all of that really at the forefront as we continue to track this, andrea. And by the way, President Trump has left. He is traveling to the midwest today, to iowa and illinois. Reporters obviously going to try to press him on the details of all of this. And in fact, what mike pompeo is trying to do on the hill is try to reassure critics from both parties. Bob corker launched that hearing yelle yesterday, from the very first minute, with a bipartisan condemnation of the president s foreign policy, with the helsinki summit, the twohour meeting they didnt know anything about, and even suggested in his Opening Statement that theyre concerned that the secretary of state does not know what happened in that two hours with Vladimir Putin. And at that point, bolton says that its going to be delayed, which was supposed to help pompeo in this hearing, and instead he parrots the witch hunt meme, which undercuts the whole attempt by pompeo to say, yes, the president agrees with the intelligence assessment. Robert costa, youve been watching this kind of thing for years, as have i. That was a withering bipartisan critique, and pompeo, instead of being deferential, played right into it, rising to the bait. The secretary of state was defiant but he cant remove the fact that while the president may like that kind of talk, the Republican Party remains averse to many of the approaches the Trump Administration is taking on foreign policy, this pugilistic approach to our allies. Senator corker says they want to hear more about the policy and the strategy. And in fact, just to reprieve a little bit of this corker versus pompeo session, frankly bolton is under fire from a lot of people in the National Security field and from the hill for the way he handled that blindsiding of dan coats thursday. The white house tried to say coats was out of the loop, he was in aspen. The facts are that it is my understanding that pompeo was also blindsided, thatm none of them knew, and none of the consultation that you would expect from the National Security adviser took place before Sarah Sanders sent out that email inviting Vladimir Putin. Lets look at corker and pompeo. So somehow theres this idea that this administration is free floating. This is President Trumps administration, make no mistake, who is fully in charge of this and is directing each of these activities. I notice that you are not responding to what im saying. I think i responded to everything that you said, senator. No, you didnt. And the fact is that you just didnt, okay . We disagree. No, we dont disagree. Well let the transcript speak. Its the president s public statements that create concern among senators on both sides of the aisle. And i was asking you if in fact there was some, you know, some rhyme or reason that this type of distrust or discord would be created. Matt miller, the investigation and the intelligence assessment repeatedly undercut by the president. Pompeo has already said, yes, the president accepts that the russians hacked. But after the performance in helsinki, there are a lot of doubts about that. What he hasnt accepted is that it was aimed at helping him. Today, by the way, the white house finally restored the accuracy of the archival transcripts to show that question was indeed raised and answered by putin, yes, i wanted to help elect donald trump because we thought he would improve relations. But for john bolton to call it a witch hunt, to call the Mueller Probe a witch hunt, thats extraordinary. Hes the National Security adviser. Hes supposed to be coordinating intelligence. It really is. The president found out last week there are certain words he has to say. He has to say, yes, the russians were responsible for what happened, or he creates huge controversy for himself. But it doesnt mean hes backing down from casting doubt on that whenever he can. When the National Security adviser puts out a statement calling this investigation a witch hunt, he is in effect doing the same thing the president did last week in helsinki standing next to Vladimir Putin, and that is to take the side of the russians over our own intelligence agencies. If you look at what this investigation has produced, for all the questions of collusion, for all the questions of obstruction of justice, what its produced so far are indictments of 25 russians for interfering in our election. Guilty pleas from five people including three trump associates. The question for john bolton is, what part of that is a witch hunt . Is the indictment of 25 russians, is that the witch hunt . Are the guilty pleas a witch hunt . It is a completely inappropriate thing for him to say. It is functionally no different from what the president did this week. Betsy de la vega, you worked for bob mueller. Ive never seen a National Security adviser in all my years in washington, they may have been on differently pages, but ive never seen a National Security adviser be that political. The fact of him being this overt in undercutting the Intelligence Community is unprecedented. Its absolutely unprecedented, andrea. But from the point of view of mueller and his team, i can guarantee you that they are not concerned about all of these extraneous events. You can think of it as mueller is on really kind of a search and rescue and Accountability Mission for the united states. We have been attacked, and he and his team, as matt just summarized, have their hands full with existing cases, but they also have many cases still under investigation. We even know from filings in the manafort case that there are Still Matters under investigation with regard to manafort himself. So i see it as the team is on this mission, and all these people outside, including the National Security adviser and Rudy Giuliani and the gop House Freedom caucus being absolutely outrageous. But from muellers perspective and the teams perspective, its as if these people are clanging pots and pans and throwing smoke bombs but its not going to affect their Movement Forward and its not going to distract them in the least. Geoff bennett, we now understand that jim jordan has just spoken out about his decision to launch an internal Caucus Campaign for speaker of the house if the republicans end up winning in the midterms. Lets play some of that. Jim jordan of course from the freedom caucus, the conservative. Reporter why are you running for speaker . Whats your message here . I think theres some things that need to be changed. We have a letter going out to every Single Member as we speak. Well get you a copy of that letter as well, which lays out what we think needs to happen. The main thing is we need to get refocused on doing what we said we would do. Reporter how do you think the osu investigation and allegations affect your run . Everyone can see through that story. Geoff, as the door closes, the question asked of jim jordan is, there were allegations about impropriety by a coach and a doctor in ohio state wrestling, i believe. Reporter thats right. He said he had no knowledge about it, never saw anything about it, so hes firmly denied that. But there is, some people would say, a cloud hanging over him. In any case, hes challenging Kevin Mccarthy would be the anointed successor, perhaps steve scalise. Reporter thats right. And jim jordan denies any wrongdoing in that osu wrestling case but the controversy and scandal has notabated. This has largely been seen as Kevin Mccarthys race to lose. There was a question about really is the underlining motivation, is this a way for jim jordan to turn the page from the scandal hes been dealing with or could it be a preview to a speaker run . Now it appears that he also is going to throw his hat in the ring as weve just reported. So we help to get to talk to him some more about that and well of course bring you those details as we know them, andrea. Robert costa, as betsy de la vega was saying, mueller himself does not seem to be affected. Rod rosenstein, when we saw him in aspen in his speech, is standing firm. Everyone is poised. Whats going to happen in august, mueller, knowing that hes got to do something before the election period, are we going to hear something in the next a couple of weeks . Hes going to have to make a decision, Robert Mueller will, whether hes going to subpoena or not, if the president continues to drag his feet on making a decision whether he would sit for an interview with the mueller investigators. When you look at jim jordan and mark meadows, republican from north carolina, in the house, theyre often indicators of where this white house and where this president could be going with regard to doj and the russia probe. They take a harder line often before the president. For them to mount a speaker bid, one of their own, jim jordan, to think about running for speaker, for meadows thinking about going against rosenstein with impeachment, this shows you the white house is not in a cooperative mood, trump allies at least are not in a cooperative mood when it comes to the Mueller Investigation at this moment. Kristen welker, theres a new New York Times Maggie Haberman Michael Schmidt story thats just been posted, we havent had a minute to check this out but theyve been in the forefront of a lot of the reporting, saying that mueller is looking at some of the president s statements regarding sessions and comey, and that would involve, i suppose, trying to wrap up a report on the obstruction aspects of this case. Kristen . Reporter thats consistent with a lot of the reporting that i have done, andrea. So i wouldnt be surprised by that. We know that the special counsel has been focused on this idea of obstruction sort of at the forefront as opposed to the collusion piece of it right now as it relates to the president s campaign. To the broader question, is the president going to sit down and do this interview with special counsel Robert Mueller . I spoke with Rudy Giuliani, the president s attorney, a little while ago, who essentially said to me, look, we havent made a decision about that, in part because there have been so many other issues that have cropped up, including of course the release of those tapes with the president and michael cohen, the one tape. And so that ultimate decision has been delayed. They hope to make a final decision in the coming days, if not weeks, andrea. But its increasingly looking unlikely that the president is going to sit down and do that interview. Their sourcing, by the way, was three people briefed on this matter. So we have yet to well keep following up on that as well. Thanks to all for launching us today on a wide ranging set of issues, political and judicial, as this investigation continues. Thanks, kristen, betsy de la vega, matt miller, Geoff Bennett and robert costa. As the Trump Administration scrambles to meet a court order to reunite migrant families, well go live to the border next. Stay with us on Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. The chili pepper sweatout. Not cool. Freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting . Now thats cool coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. And no surgery. Results and Patient Experience may vary. Some common side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort,and swelling. Ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting. Com today for your chance to win a free treatment. Ahoy gotcha nooooo. Noooooo. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. After weeks of confusion over the Trump Administrations selfinflicted border crisis, government lawyers expect only about half of the more than 2,500 Migrant Children still separated from their parents to be reunited with them by todays courtordered deadline. Officials are scrambling to account for hundreds of mothers and fathers who may already have been deported without their children or unwittingly signed releases without understanding the paperwork, making reunification for them all but impossible. Now exclusive new audio obtained by nbc news from inside an immigration hearing as one mother, whose alikecysylum requs denied, begs a judge to be reunited with her daughter. Maam, do i wish you good luck in your home country. That is all. Translator and my daughter . Where is your daughter, maam . Translator new york. Would you want to take your daughter with you back to your home country . Translator yes. You might want to talk to the department of Homeland Security to see if its possible to reunite you and your daughter. Joining me now is im really speechless over this nbcs Gabe Gutierrez in texas who obtained this audio. Victoria di francesco also joins us. And the director of the aclu immigrants rights project. Gabe, tell me about that family. I believe you have some new tape from a family involved. Reporter hi, andrea, good afternoon. That woman you just heard from, she had that was part of an incredible fear hearing. Thats the first test for asylum. As you heard there, the judge denied the asylum request. In woman had a lot of questions about how she would be reunited with her child. We heard from her attorney that she now has been reunited but she is still in family detention. We did hear from another woman, another recording that we obtained. She said that her child was still in a at that time, earlier this month, was in a facility in arizona and she had no idea how to be reunited with that child. She begged the judge at that point that all she wanted to do was be reunited. Thats something were hearing over and over again from immigration advocates, that as the government struggles to reunite these families, that the whole process is chaotic and confusing. Right now were here in texas near mccowan. This is a shelter that typically deals with migrant families. They say from time to time they are seeing some of these family members come in, as this reunification process is under way. But the director here says there is some confusion here. And now some of these families are being reunited behind closed doors in the ft. Isabelle detende ten tension detention center. Lets here more from that audio. Reporter so again, that was the audio recording from that first woman that we were talking about, the woman that had her daughter in arizona. Again, andrea, we just heard that that woman has been reunited with her daughter. As we just heard, a very emotional situation when she goes before an immigration judge and her first instinct is to plead to be reunited with her daughter, even though her judge at that time had nothing to do with whether she would be reunited or not. She was told she needs to talk to the department of Homeland Security in order to make that happen. The aclu, though, has said that has filed a Court Affidavit earlier this week that several families have been misled in order to sign away their rights, in order to proceed with reunification. Certainly a lot of confusion here on the ground in texas, andrea. And what we just saw also was this mother with a 11yearold son, jeremy, explaining about how hot it was when he was put in the car and he couldnt stand the heat, and they have been reunited. To try to clear some of this up, the aclu is in court today, and you have asked i believe for seven days, so that some of these families, some of whom have signed away their rights to either hearings or their children, because they were given paperwork that they could not read or understand and they didnt have legal counsel. You want seven days from the court, if im correct, so that they can get some pro bono help here. Yeah, thats absolutely right. Well be having a hearing tomorrow. Weve submitted the briefs. Well be having a hearing tomorrow to get a sevenday stay of removal which is more than reasonable. The government has separated these families for months and months. And now all of a sudden the government wants to remove them immediately before the families have had any time to talk with each other but what is likely to be a lifealtering decision. We are asking for seven days so they can talk to legal counsel, they can come together to make this decision. It may be that some parents are going to have to leave their children behind because thats the only thing they can do to protect their children. But that is such a momentous decision, and the government wanted them to do it in brief phone calls when the child is so distraught and crying, the parent is crying. All were asking for is a few days for them to come together and get pro bono counsel and the government is saying no, we want to remove these families immediately upon reunification without any time for consultation together. Victoria, i read that some of these parents are signing away their right to asylum or signing away their right to be reunited with their kids, who they dont speak spanish or english, they speak indigenous languages, theyre from all over central america. Were getting a tremendous amount of pressure on these parents, the emotional pressure of being separated from their child, and were hearing that i. C. E. Officers are saying, just sign the papers, get reunited with your children, and not letting them know that there is a legal route. We have asylum laws in this country. What is so disturbing within this whole enterprise is that the administration is running roughshod over our asylum practices. These people are coming here and asking for that, and there is a process put into place for that. And we look at the numbers. Were only about half of the parents that are going to be reunited with their children, andrea. My next question, after we get past this deadline and maybe the sevenday stay, is what happens afterwards. Thats going to be the continuing story, where these kids are going to fall into a new class called special immigrant juveniles where theyre going to end up actually being eligible for long term permanent residency and perhaps even citizenship. So we have to think about the long term, something that the Trump Administration did not do when they put the zero tolerance policy into place. And i saw actually, gabe, i saw Kirstjen Nielsen at a hearing or an interview in the last 24 hours saying, well, they can go back to their countries and then call dhs and find their kids. How are they supposed to do that . Reporter andrea, thats what many immigration advocates have said, not only is it extremely difficult for these parents while theyre here to navigate through the government bureaucracy, but just imagine being separated from your child, being deported, and trying to find out that information. The government has said that some parents make that decision to be deported and leave their child here. But immigration activists, including the aclu and the texas civil rights project, say they dont buy that, that in some cases some of these parents are so confused, they may not be understanding what exactly theyre signing. So yes. In the interview we played a little earlier, as you mentioned, andrea, that 11yearold boy, he said that he had been bullied while in detention. He said that he and his mother had been separated for 45 days. That little boy told us he thought they were going to be separated for a few days but it was obviously more than a month until they were able to be reunited. As you heard there, an extremely emotional time, traumatic time from the time when theyre separated in detention to when theyre finally reunited, the government now trying to scramble to make that deadline today. It doesnt appear like they will be able to, andrea. Gabe, thank you so much for all your reporting, and victoria and lee, thanks for everything youre all doing. Coming up next, hitting the heartland. President trump in iowa today as local farmers struggle with the fallout from the trump tariffs. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports. Stay with us on msnbc. I woke up in memphis and told. harmonica interrupts . And 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. 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President trump is in the farm belt. Hes outside dubuque, iowa, where hes about to meet with Business Leaders after he yielded to pressure from congressional leaders and agreed to restart trade talks with the European Union, just the start of talks with the European Union which he had previously described as a foe of the united states. The latest nbc news wall street journal poll shows that americans by two to one oppose the tariffs. Nbcs Vaughn Hillyard and tom vilsack, former agriculture secretary and governor of iowa. Welcome, governor. Vaughn, first to you, have there been protesters or is this a supportive crowd . What is the temperature there . Youve been talking to a lot of farmers. Reporter andrea, theres a several hundred protesters here. Were just outside the Community College where the president is set to speak to a roundtable that includes a lot of iowa farmers here. The president rolled by about ten minutes ago to boos and chants of lock him up. There was also the chant of we love farmers because across the board, republicans, democrats, Trump Supporters and those that dont, there is a need for trade to open up here. There are lots of export markets. From candidate trump to President Trump, for the last three years he promised these farmers he was going to renegotiate nafta and open up export markets into china. But so far weve seen a dwindling down because of retaliatory tariffs. Soybeans, for example, 50 of soybeans in iowa go overseas. 60 of those go to china. When we talked to iowa farmers here they said they were not supportive of the 12 billion aid package, because they said they need markets to stay open. Its about having those export markets they can count on next year. That 12 billion in aid is only good through the end of the year. Usda says trade negotiations will ultimately result in a renegotiation of nafta and reopening of trade deals. But the question is when. Iowa farmers say they need it to happen by the end of the year. They trust the president but they need to to happen now, andrea. Thats certainly not what im hearing from the diplomatic sources in both mexico and canada, its not on track at all for that kind of a deadline. Mr. Secretary, welcome. I wanted to play for both you and vaughn something that happened on the hill this morning. Senator jack reed in an appropriations hearing quizzing ambassador robert lighthizer, u. S. Trade rep, during a Senate Hearing about whether canada should have been hit with these tariffs under the National Security provision of the trade law, as it was, which as you know was terribly offensive to the canadian government. Lets watch. Is canada a National Security threat to the united states, justifying this . Yes or no . In the case of steel, yes, absolutely, because of the nature of the program. Nobody is declaring war on canada or saying that theyre an unfriendly neighbor. Theyre obviously not, theyre a great ally and, uh, certainly one of americas closest friends and trading partners. But if you decide that you need to protect an industry, you cant be in a position where the protection is of no value. Here youve got a democrat questioning the ustr about free and fair trade which has always been a republican mantra. Your reaction, mr. Secretary . Well, look. If you talk to Dairy Farmers they will tell you canada has a very closed market, they would be supportive of a renegotiated nafta agreement. The concern is when this is going to happen, because its also impacted not just canada but mexico with retaliatory tariffs assessed by mexico. Weve lost the competitive advantage we had with mexico in terms of our dairy products. Our farmers are deeply concerned about markets closing. Theyre deeply concerned about the long term impact of these tariffs, because at the end of the day, if we lose market share to our competitors, its very tough to get it back. So i think the hope is that indeed nafta gets renegotiated. I think there are a lot of issues yet to be determined, whether that can be done in a timely way. Weve got a new Mexican Administration coming into play. Hopefully the pressure is now on and the expectation is building for nafta to be renegotiated very quickly. The problem is, though, of course, that the new president doesnt take office for another couple of months. The election is over. So he is not fully in charge. He may in fact be more open to renegotiating than his predecessor. But right now theyre in limbo. And in canada its just a nonstarter. As you heard, vaughn, you know what Prime Minister trudeau had to say about being accused of being a National Security threat when canadian soldiers are in afghanistan and all over the world fighting for wars that we have actually been leading on. Reporter it was just two weeks ago, andrea, that he called our ally countries in the eu a foe when it comes to trade. So its a little bit of a change. Two days ago, 48 hours ago, the president tweeted that tariffs are great. In order to actually open up these markets, its something to watch. He thinks that he can placate the demands of farmers, of republican congressmen and senators, with this 12 billion aid package. But the likes of senator corker have said the 12 billion aid package is not anything that is a long term fix to this. The farmers, they need, as the secretary said, they need to know whats happening now for future. And tom vilsack, what about the politics of this . How do you see it if at all, the Soybean Prices falling affecting midterms across the farm belt . Sometimes difficult policy ends up requiring good politics. I think the president , basically by putting out the plan he announced before his trip to the midwest, was basically buying himself some protection against a very hostile reaction that he may have incurred even more so from farmers and ranchers. I think its fair to say they dont want bailouts, they want markets. And at the end of the day, the president has got to deliver on his promise. If he does not, if there is a failure to renegotiate nafta, if there isnt some resolution to the chinese situation thats fair and balanced, i think what youre going to see is repercussions at the ballot box. I dont think theres any doubt about that. Tom vilsack and Vaughn Hillyard in iowa, thanks so much to both. Coming up, tackling the issues. Stay with us. This is msnbc. m ray and i quit smoking with chantix. I tried cold turkey, i tried the patch. They didnt work for me. I didnt think anything was going to work for me until i tried chantix. Chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. Chantix reduced my urge to smoke. I needed that to quit. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. 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And youll also get this free beneficiary planner, and its yours just for calling. So call now. The white house today not backing down in the face of widespread criticism after a cnn correspondent was barred from the president s open press event in the rose garden attended by all the other white house reporters. The white house complained about her earlier questioning of the president in the oval office when she was representing the rest of the press and asking the kind of questions that are asked every day and often answered. The unprecedented move sparked strong protests from the white house Correspondents Association, the news photographers groups, even prompting a response from rival Network Fox News whose president said, we stand in solidarity with cnn for right to full access for our journal iists as part of free and unfetterred press. The new deputy chief of staff and Communications Director bill shine came out to challenge reporters today. Reporter was it right to ban a reporter . Uh, you ask her if we ever used the word ban. Ive seen it on reporter what word would you use . When you ask her if we ever used the word ban, then i will answer that question. So they blocked her but bill shine says they didnt ban her. Kimberly atkins, chief washington reporter for the Boston Herald and sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast. Kimberly, this was unprecedented. She was doing her job and it did at least elicit universal press solidarity including the president of fox news. It did, it brought all the press together. She was acting as a pool reporter. She was doing her job on behalf of a broad number of journalists. All the rest of us. All the rest of the journalists to get information from the president , asking questions. Its very typical. Often after the press is told to go, shouting questions get answered by the president. It was her job to do that. But this is also a president who callsenemy of the people. Politically he calls this a win because it plays well with his base. There were questions about michael cohen, yes, sir about news of the day. Often he wants to answer those. Yeah, lets put aside that theres anything controversial that she did. This was a completely routine act of covering the white house. These are incredibly newsworthy moments and topics to cover. Any other reporter in that situation probably would have asked the same questions. What were left with is a petty, vindictive, scared, temperamental white house that is taking steps that are unprecedented. The problem is it was wholly predictable. I was at the Huffington Post when my outlet was barred from covering rallies. The problem is the Correspondents Association hasnt got to the point of retaliation so this stuff actually has a Penalty Associated with it. And it isnt private pleading. This is the only way we can have any transparency like followup questions in the briefing room, kimberly. Its true, thats the only way you can get it, is by asking the president. And what he has done is limited the amount of the white house has limited the number of press briefings, the availability the president has. He himself took a motorcade today to joint andrews. They called it a bad weather call. Right. Its a beautiful blue day. This week they said they werent going to give readouts of the foreign leaders he was going to speak with. It was collins of cnn who broke that story. The reporter were talking about. The thing the white house doesnt understand is this doesnt help them in the long run. It hurts them in the long run. The way were going to get readouts from foreign leaders is through foreign outlets at this point. They will never have a sense of what the press is inquiring about if they bar the press from asking questions. This is what makes a good white house function. Theyre damaging themselves in the long run. Stay with us, well have more from this panel after the break. 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These are key states, michigan, wisconsin and minnesota in the election, certainly michigan a narrow win for the president , 11,000 votes, wisconsin 33,000 votes and helost minnesota, right now he is upside down, 36 approval, 54 disapproval, thats the auto industry. And in wisconsin, hes got 36 disapproval, 52 approval. Kimberly, this is a red warning sign, or at least a yellow caution sign . Its clearly a onetwo punch from people not feeling the benefits of the tax bill that the republicans were pushing and also very frightened about the potential for a trade war, for the industries that you just listed for these states in particular. Trump narrowly won them and made the difference, that the margin in michigan was smaller than the votes that jill stein got, these are very, very narrow margins and he has to be worried about that. This is before theyre contemplating 25 auto tariffs. Its clearly that trumps nervous about this, thats why hes out in iowa today, and he keeps pointing out the need for patience in these tariffs. But this has rattled him politically. And as we know, a tariff is a tax by any other name. Well be right back. Stay with us. Its time now for your business of the week, what do car manufacturing and hair care have in common. Just ask dana white, the founder of paralee styles in detroit. Find out what she learned on your business sunday morning at 7 30 a. M. Eastern on msnbc. Possibilities than ever before. And American Express has your back every step of the way whether its the comfort of knowing help is just a call away with global assist. Or getting financing to fund your business. No one has your back like American Express. So where ever you go. Were right there with you. The powerful backing of American Express. Dont do business without it. Dont live life without it. With a 500,000 Life Insurance policy. 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And with so much late breaking news, we apologize, but we will be tweeting out that amazing lester holtMalcolm Jenkins interview about the political issue of the anthem, the standing of the anthem and the change from the nfl and also how Malcolm Jenkins views his role as an advocate for a lot of different issues. So we will have that mitchellreports. Craig melvin is up next. Gaood afternoon to you as well. Damage control, President Trump getting ready to leave for iowa right now, bound for illinois. His swing through the midwest to convince voters the trade war he started will not hurt farmers. This as were seeing new signs his support in the midwest may be slipping. Also a possible deadline, the Trump Administration required to reunite families separated at the border today. It is a court requirement they are not likely to meet. The massive uncertainty that many of these families still face despite the court order. And fall of facebook . The tech giant bracing for what could be its worst day ever on the stock market. So is it because of the headlines or could it be that the companys model just cant sustain itself anymore . Well dig into that in a bit. But we start with President Trump on the defense just a few minutes ago