Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20190625

Administration transfers Migrant Children under the age of 12 from a transfer facility in texas after a National Outcry over the reported conditions they have endured. The children arent being given enough food. They are hungry. The facility is very cold at night, children have told me that they have had trouble sleeping because theyre so hungry, and they wake up because of the cold. Good day, everyone, im Andrea Mitchell in washington. The day before the first president ial debates here on msnbc news. Heres a live look inside the debate hall in miami where the stage is set for a special two night prime time event and the anticipation is building as the lar largest and most diverse field in history prepares for the first high stakes political test of the primary season. Joining me now is nbcs Peter Alexander in miami. Joel payne, and democratic strategist. Ruth marcus, columnist and msnbc contributor, and sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast and an msnbc contributor as well. Well, Peter Alexander, tell us about miami, how hot is it down there . Reporter i was going to say, as long as im the one outside, i hope you let me go first today. The heat index a cool 102 degrees right now. It is, the president likes to say, drain the swamp, it feels like a swamp out here. 63 humidity. Suffice it to say, the spotlight, the heat will be on these democrats when they take the stage. To give you a little bit of a backdrop, they are now converging here on miami. Elizabeth warren this evening will host a town hall to warm up. Beto orourke has his own event this afternoon. Julian castro, jay inslee Holding Events as they get ready. Others are preparing more or less in private, joe biden among those. Of course he is the front runner, expected to arrive down here on thursday. His aides tell nbc news that they anticipate the other candidates who share the stage with them. On thursday night well be looking for breakout moments. Theyre convinced they dont need one of those. Their strategy going in will be to try to deflect, focus on a positive vision and a contrast with President Trump. But whoever does the talking is going to have to do it quickly. Each answer is only given 60 seconds, 30 seconds to respond to any follow up questions that take place. There will be no opening statements, andrea. There will however be closing remarks, the bottom line, for politicians who can be a bit long winded, brevity might be the key. Peter as they all get ready, a couple of candidates are actually Holding Town Halls in miami, prep sessions in public. Elizabeth warren, beto orourke today, Leann Caldwell posted an Instagram Video showing cory booker lifting weights for debate prep. Thats an unusual debate prep but the candidates as peter has just said have very short windows here. Theyve got to score and punch through and show their stuff in 60 seconds. Ruth, we have seen a lot of these debates before. I moderated a couple of them. This is very hard to do, and then the moderators have to figure out, do you intervene if the bell goes off, and do you interrupt. Its really hard to do. It is harder for some of them than for others. We all have a little bit of a tendency to be verbose, and there is not just the shortness of the time, but the need to grab some attention that i think could really interestingly turn up the heat, especially among some of the lesser known candidates because this is their moment to shine. They might not get another one. And sam, lets talk about some of the movement in the straw poll, in the move on straw poll among progressives, primarily. This is a callin poll. Yeah. So its not an online poll, rather, i should say. This shows Real Movement with Elizabeth Warren. Youve got this sub contest between warren and sanders with warren just, you know, taking off. Well, first off that cory booker weight lifting is my prep work when i tweet. I think he stole it from me. Secondly, with Elizabeth Warren, shes always been the candidate of the activist movement from my reporting. It was a question of did they feel like her launch was so bad, the issues surrounding the attacks from trump and the handling of the accusations, was it so bad they had flocked away, the clear response is they havent. Theyre coming back to her in droves. Whether that translates into the broader voting public is to be determined, but if you talk to anyone in democratic politics, there is a growing enthusiasm and excitement for her candidacy, and a growing recognition that she could very well be the candidate that emerges from the primary, and that could translate into volunteer hours, donations, everything that the activist Community Brings with it, which is not necessarily votes. There are tangible elements that help benefit her candidacy. As a Morning Consult poll, joe, that shows biden is holding, despite the controversy over his comments, controversial comments about how he got along with people, segregationist senators, we found a divide in South Carolina over the weekend where the civil rights leaders from the movement itself, john lewis, jim clyburn were certainly excusing, forgiving and understanding of it, younger African Americans and white activists very upset by his comments, by the example that he used to talk about jim eastland from mississippi, a mississippi democrat who was a supporter of violence and, you know, not only segregation but violent action and deprivation against africanamericans, but hes at least holding in this poll, the weekend Morning Consult poll. I think that reflects voters are holding their powder dry. We have this debate come up. There are a series of other debates. I think voters are showing a streak of pragmatism, focussing on the fact that they want somebody who can beat donald trump. Big picture, i think that generational divide that you pointed out, andrea is important. The generation divide between a biden and buttigieg is being reflected in the electorate, between younger africanAmerican Voters and older africanAmerican Voters. Its interesting how the candidates are reflecting some of the tension within the actual voting base itself. And i wonder how much we overestimate how much people are paying attention. You think we might . We might be. I like to think everyone is tuning in, and i hope they are. I think we are really in to this stuff and not necessarily the voting elector rate. That helps biden. Hes associated with barack obama, and if he were running right now, he would walk away with it. The president in the hill tv interview after joe biden who he seems to certainly think is not the front runner but the one thats gotten into his head. This is what the president said about what joe biden had said to explain that president obama is not endorsing him. Lets watch. How he doesnt get president obama to endorse him, there has to be some reason hes not endorsing him. He was the Vice President. They steam to haeem to have got and how president obama is not endorsing him is a big secret. If you know the answer, please let me know. It could be that president obama knows something. There is something going on in that brain of his. Theres something going on in that brain of his. This is the president trying to do what he did with Hillary Clinton, with his republican opponents, Peter Alexander, during that primary where he was trying to inject some concern and let people, you know, start thinking, this is his attempt at branding. That said, there are a lot of reasons why president obama would not want to preemptively endorse anybody in this primary. A lot of criticism that he endorsed Hillary Clinton too soon, and that elevated Bernie Sanders and gave sanders a lot of leverage with a lot of democrats who felt that they wanted an alternative to hillary. Of course. Sor sort of the ironic backdrop, President Trump when he was asked if he would support his Vice President mike pence if he ran for president in 2024, President Trump said i cant make that decision right now. It is striking as you hear President Trump routinely go after joe biden, and i hear this from aides and allies regularly, that they are most concerned about joe biden in a general election. They believe that he is the toughest guy to kind of caricature or to sort of brand the same way that they did with Hillary Clinton in 2016. One of the president s top ally, said to him, he said, americans feel like they have a pretty good sense of who joe biden is, its a tough guy to sort of change the american view of. Thats why the president was so frustrated in recent weeks as we saw him lashing out about the polls. They say those polls were outdated and indicated the worst case scenario. The bottom line is they showed President Trump in 15 out of 17 states battle grounds as they describe them. Thats a pretty wide battleground map, losing to joe biden. The president is trying to soften him up right now in the words of aides and allies, whats striking is they try to do that with the pocahontas slur that President Trump used against Elizabeth Warren and now some of the president s allies, and apparently were told the president in private has been concerned as he watches her recent surge that perhaps he did a little bit of that too early on, it may make it more challenging to brand her as a potential candidate, a potential opponent later on. And one of the other new factors today, weve got a new poll from monmouth, all voters, a third of all American Voters now saying abortion will be a top factor in their vote for president. Now, since this is all voters, not just democratic voters, this is a significant number ruth marcus. It shows that these new state restrictions, missouri the most recent, that is penetrating with voters, particularly with women. Sure. When you have these laws that are as frontal challenges to roe as weve had in alabama and elsewhere, where people can really see were not just chipping away but really threatening to take away abortion rights either legally or practically by closing down clinics, that tends to get peoples attention. Both abortion rights supporters and opponents, and i think maybe finally people are understanding the conservative voters have understood this for a long time. Thats one reason we have President Trump, the importance of the court in protecting that right. I dont think its a coincidence that the one policy issue on which joe biden has made a notable shift in this president ial primary is the hide amendment. He obviously was for it and against it. He has been asked to reverse course on a number of issues. He has not. He notably came out and said my position has changed over time. When we look at the issues now, race is also a big issue. Race, abortion, in these debates coming up, and you have Pete Buttigieg stuck in south bend, i guess hes leaving today but he missed a lot of South Carolina weekend, and a lot of push back, a lack of diversity in his police force, this latest incident, an africanamerican man killed, the body cam turned off, and the community is up in arms. In the past this might have been an annoyance, this is a existential crisis in the buttigieg campaign. Its not the mechanics. He has attempted to intervene in really really responsible ways. Its the optics, its the picture of him on the bull horn with the really unfortunate interaction with the mother of the victim. Its that town hall which he actually had some good moments but really also some tough moments as well. I think probably the best bit of news that just came out a few minutes ago, the fraternal order of Police Actually came out and said buttigieg was being difficult on the police officers, which may actually have a reverse boomerang effect of helping buttigieg with a lot of folks in the community who feel like he has not been on their side. Its an interesting game of chess or checkers or whatever board game you want. Times have changed. Thank you so much, ruth marcus, and sam, and Peter Alexander, sweating it out there in miami. See you there tonight. And coming up in our next hour, 2020 president ial debate governor jay inslee joins ali velshi and Stephanie Ruhle for a live interview on msnbc. And coming up here next, flying solo, President Trump says he does not need congressional approval to strike iran. Really, well get democratic reaction from senator chris murphy from the Foreign Relations committee coming up next right here. Stay with us on msnbc. Ng up next right here. Stay with us on msnbc. [ done melody plays ] in big ways and in small, bank of america is here to help you get things done. What would you like the power to do . ® done i want it that way. I cant believe it. That karl brought his karaoke machine . Aint nothing but a heartache. No, i cant believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my Car Insurance with geico. I never wanna hear you say. No, kevin. No, kevin believe it geico could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. Welcome back. President trump has been sounding off this morning, hours after iran shut the door to diplomacy, following the newest round of u. S. Sanctions, irans president adding new insults today saying the white house is afflicted by mental illness. The white house tweeting a few hours ago that iran leadership doesnt understand the words nice or compassion, continuing he wrote they never have, sadly. The thing they do understand is strength and power. Any attack by iran on anything american will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. Connecticut democratic senator chris murphy serves on the Foreign Relations committee. He joins me now. Senator thank you very much for being with us. Forgive me if i have sort of a state of, i dont know which president were hearing from because hes talking about obliteration, hes also talking about not wanting to kill iranians, he pulled back on the military strike, then we understand there was a cyber strike. So were hearing kind of a whiplash effect from the president. It almost seems like they wake up every morning and decide what their iran policy is going to be for that day. We also have this White White House telegraphing to the iranians not more than about a week or two ago that they were willing to sit down with iran with no preconditions at all. And now you have the president once again making these threats for a Ground Invasion of iran, which is the only way that you would be able to obliterate that country. The fact of the matter is trump has been engaged in escalation from the very start. All of this could have been avoidable had the president stuck to the Iran Nuclear Agreement and used the opportunity of setting aside, at least temporarily, Irans Nuclear program to rally the rest of the world to stop the other nefarious activity that iran engages in around the region. You sort of have to wake up every day today to find out what our new policy is going to be towards iran, and it frankly makes it impossible to build a coalition. It makes it impossible to ultimately try to get into negotiations. And it just means that a miscalculation is still just as likely as ever before. Senator, the president had, as you say, opened the door to talking, there were reports from teheran that there could have been messages from oman, an intermediary in the past, and then the secretary of state, when he was on his way to saudi arabia the other day, went on camera at Andrews Joint base, andrews, and said there are no talks going on through oman, period. He did something unusual to sort of shut that door. Do we know what may be going on behind the scenes . Well, to the extent there might have been something going on behind the scenes, they seem to shut that door even more completely by sanctioning the foreign minister, the individual that you would actually be entering into negotiations with. That is a very unusual move. Normally when you are sanctioning individuals inside a government that you eventually want to lure into negotiations, you wouldnt actually sanction the person whos got to travel to show up with your negotiators. I dont have any information to suggest that we are talking to the iranians, and i have counselled from the very beginning that at least opening up some ability for our military to talk to their military is really important right now, so as to prevent some miscalculation that ultimately gets us into war. The president told the hill newspaper that congress does not have to approve anything that he does militarily. The speaker of the house said thats not true. Tell us what you believe is the case . Well, of course thats not true. The constitution is about as clear as you can be on this question. The president cannot declare war or engage militarily overseas without the authorization of congress. Thats for good reason. We didnt want to create an imperial presidency who could bring us in and out of war without consulting the people. And this is the Peoples Branch of government, the congress. Yes, the president likely has the ability to strike militarily if he is preventing an imminent attack against the united states. But absent that imminent attack, there is no argument that the president can take strikes against iran or any other country without coming to congress, and were going to try to force a vote on the senate floor this week to put republicans and democrats on record to make that point clear. Now, senator, mitch mcconnell, the republican majority leader, you know very well has said he will not delay that vote, you have half a dozen Democratic Senators who will be in miami for the debates. Senatorial courtesy has been for things such as this, the leaders of both parties will make an exception and delay the vote. Hes refused to do that. Senator mcconnell is playing games here which is not unusual. He could easily have scheduled this really important debate and vote on a bill that authorizes all of our defense spending at a time when democrats could make it. I just think the principle is simple here, if the majority leader is not going to allow us to debate whether or not we go to war in iran, then we shouldnt vote to proceed on this important legislation. We should demand that we get a debate on what is happening right now, this very real and present crisis in iran before we vote to move towards final passage of the defense legislation, and i hope many of my democratic colleagues will join me in that. What if he proceeds, what if you dont show up . In order to proceed to a piece of legislation, the majority leader needs 60 votes and so it actually doesnt necessarily matter whether democrats are here or not. Its actually the majority leader who needs to find 60 votes in order to close out debate. And there are a number of republicans who are not willing to close out debate on the defense bill unless we debate this question of whether or not President Trump can take us to war in iran without a vote of congress and so there may be republicans and democrats that are going to vote later this week. Senator chris murphy, as always, its great to see you. Thank you very much, sir. Coming up, a house divided, democrats are split on whether or not to support emergency funding for the border, with kids. Some fearing that the money will be used for the president s harsh immigration tactics. The latest on todays vote and an update on children being held in his or her ri horrific conditions. Stay with us. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. G andrea mitch reports on msnbc got it . Got it. Its slippery. Nooooo. Nooooo. Nooooo. Yeeeesss. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. Now with new prints featuring characters from Disney Pixars toy story 4 now playing. Welcome back. President trump is not only denying writer e. Jean carrolls allegations that he sexually assaulted her three decades ago, he is telling the hill newspaper, ill say it with great respect, number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, okay. This comes after carroll revealed the alleged incident in new York Magazine in graphic detail, excerpt, she said donald trump attacked her in a swank Department Store in the 1990s. Carroll is the 16th woman to accuse trump of sexual misconduct. A friend says she shared that account the very next day. Joining us is Washington Post political reporter eugene scott. Welcome both. So this is the 16th allegation against the president. Hes denied all of them. This goes beyond some of the previous allegations of touching on a plane. This was a much more graphic physical contact. She described penetration. She disputed after the fact whether or not its the word rape, but that is the technical definition. Shes describing a rape and in another interview she called it painful. Thats the very definition of rape. This has gone way beyond other accusations. And its serious because its coming from someone who has power in her own right. Like think about how many other women, of these other women, were cowed in terms of speaking out or how many more there may be out there that havent spoken out because this woman has her own power and her own right, and you know, this is something that the president has a pattern with each one of these accusations, andrea, which is that he denies it, he attacks the woman. He says something denigrating to her, and what is that denial anyway, i wouldnt have raped her but, what kind of a denial is that . She wasnt my type. In fact, heidi and eugene, he said something similar in response to an accusation of a woman in 2016, jessica lead came forward and said he touched her inappropriately on an airplane. And this is what he said in response to that accusation in denying it. Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that i can tell you. Man. You dont know. That would not be my first choice. So that is a response to a womans accusation of, you know, a put down of a woman, if you will. I dont even know how to describe it or define it. Who would be your first choice, there should not be a first choice. This is sexual assault, and whats very troublesome about how he responded today, he said number one, shes not my type. Thats not number one. Number one is i dont do it. I would never do anything like that. And that is absurd. But whats really absurd is this is the new norm with this president , and were learning, going into 2020 that were having some of the same conversations that we had in 2016. The idea that someone running for the top seat could be accused of just one of these things is just not heard of. Theres been a lot of criticism of the media from some people, some write, viewers that this has been underplayed. We have been reporting on it, and jean carroll did her first interview with lawrence odonnell, and joy ann reid but the New York Times was criticized internally and externally for not reporting on this. The New York Times executive editor, the top editor says that the times was overly kaurcaution their reporting on carrolls allegations, the fact that a well known person was making a public allegation against a sitting president should have compelled us to play it bigger, so this is an acknowledgment by the New York Times that they underplayed the story. Good on him first of all, for apologizing. But isnt this whole scene also an example of how we have really reached the pinnacle moment of decencitization, this was not shocking enough to play it on the front page of the New York Times. And again, andrea, not to down play this episode because i think thats whats happening here, but if you look back at the Stormy Daniels incident, thats very different, right, thats an affair with a porn star that occurred right after his wife gave birth. Even so, more people believe stormy, but still only 5 of people said, according to polling, that if they had known that before the election they would have voted differently. So were at this moment now, a bit of a treacherous moment culturally that people, the broader public, as well as journalism has become somewhat desensitized of these accusations. You guys stay with us, were going to leave this here for now, but coming up, breaking news from that texas facility where hundreds of Migrant Children have allegedly been living in deplorable conditions. Stay with us. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell on msnbc. Mitchell on msnbc here you go little guy. A cockroach can survive submerged underwater for 30 minutes. Wow. Yeah, wow. Not getting in today. Not on my watch. Pests never stop trying to get in. We never stop working to keep them out. Terminix. Defenders of home. Terminix. Defenders of home. osamah cancer is. The ugliest disease mankind has ever faced. henry i thought it was unfair. When when you hear those words that you get diagnosed with cancer. osamah successfully treating it still remains one of the most enormous challenges facing us today. We realized that, if we developed the technology that could take 2dimensional patient imaging and convert it into 3dimensional holographic renderings, we could enable surgeons to dissect around the cancer so we can precisely remove it. When we first started, we felt like this might just not be possible because Computing Power just wasnt there, but verizon 5g ultra wideband will give us the ability to do this. We wont rest until we see this technology being able to change lives. woman you have the support of a probiotic and the gastroenterologists who developed it. vo align naturally helps to soothe your occasional digestive upsets 24 7. woman so where you go, the pro goes. vo go with align. The pros in digestive health. But were also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company. From the day youre born we never stop taking care of you. From the day youre born iand i dont add up the years. But what i do count on. Is staying happy and healthy. So, i add protein, vitamins and minerals to my diet with boost®. Boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals your body needs. All with guaranteed great taste. And now try new boost® peaches and creme natural flavor. With 27 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. Boost®. Be up for life™. Hundreds of Migrant Children have been transferred out of a Border Patrol facility in texas after reports of filthy, dangerous conditions. Many children lacking basic necessities like soap, toothbrushes, blankets, clean clothes, this as democrats in congress scramble to pass emergency aid for the children before congress leaves at the end of the week for the july 4th recess. But House Democrats are actually divided. Some opposing anymore funding that could be used instead to carry out harsh immigration laws rather than humanitarian aid, including threatening deportation raids. Joining me now from outside that facility in clint, texas, nbcs gabe gutierrez, back with us, heidi par heidi prisbola and eugene scott. I understand some of the children were moved back into the facility, the question is were they given the Bare Necessities they did not have when it was so overcrowded . Reporter hi, andrea, a short time ago, we heard from a customs and Border Protection official who says that about 100 children have been moved back into this facility in clint, texas. As you mentioned, nearly 300 or so were moved out. Now what happened to the other 200 or so or those 300 children, the cpb official says many have been sent so other facilities around the country run by the department of health and human services. As you know, andrea, that is part of the process. First these children are brought to facilities like this, managed by cbp, and then they are sent to hhs, and the office of r refugee resettlement. The 100 children include new children that are being processed right now. Again, about a hundred are back at this facility, but the question is, what are the conditions inside some of these facilities, andrea, the government is saying they are simply overwhelmed that these cpb facilities are meant to be shortterm, and are not equipped to deal with this huge surge in undocumented migrants that we have seen over the past couple of months. Now, regarding the allegations of civil rights abuses that were alleged by many of the immigration advocates and attorneys that visited this facility, the cpb official that we heard from this morning said they are taking those allegations seriously, and referring them to the office of the inspector general. However, when he was pressed on the specific allegation that the children in some of these facilities were not provided with snacks and didnt have adequate food, that official said simply, quote, i dont buy it. Andrea . Gabe, i want you to, i know you know this, i want to share with everyone the testimony of a lawyer, laura mujer and her account was horrific. Shes an eyewitness. Lets watch. We met with children who hadnt changed for weeks. They have bodily fluids on their clothing, mucus from their noses, breast milk, urine for the children who are very young. It is a filthy and disgusting situation because of the lack of access to soap and the inability of children to properly wash their hands, diseases are spreading. Theres also a lice infestation and these are the most appalling conditions i have seen in my 12 years of representing children and families who are detained. Heidi, we know that money is available. They dont have to wait for the congressional authorization. They have money for soap and toothbrushes. Of course they do. The president transferred emergency funds when he wanted to build part of the wall, so that is not an excuse, and we also saw a lawyer on camera in the 9th circuit, an hhs lawyer saying that she was not willing to admit to the judges, to a threejudge panel that tooth paste and toothbrushes and soap were a part of safety and soundness. The other piece is the law says they should not be held for more than 72 hours, and some of the kids have been there for weeks. We the media need to keep doing what were doing. These cameras need to be there. What we are seeing is it is only but for cameras that the change is happening. The ap wrote a big story and a number of children were moved, a number were discharged. Heres the great humanitarian tragedy of this moment, andrea. Many of these children have families that they could go to. They have aunts and uncles. They have cousins. They have grandparents who are in this country, who could be taking care of this them. It doesnt even make sense from an economic standpoint for us to be putting them into these inhumane facilities and so heres the thing, heres the rub, right is that right now, they immediately need these supplies and like you say, the money is there, it could be there tomorrow, and are we going to have a debate here in the house where the progressives push nancy pelosi to torpedo what is a bill that would immediately get some more funding there while they work on a bigger, kind of package, to try and just move these kids out. Or is it going to be torpedoed. Or is it going to move in the senate. Theres a veto threat from the white house, eugene. Absolutely. Because there seems to be some level of denial coming from Administration Officials who are responsible for this. I dont buy it. Its very different from i went there to inspect and to figure out if there was a need, and i saw for myself that that is not what was happening, and so people want to know what is happening. We have seen volunteers bring diapers and tooth paste to the facilities to be turned away and told they dont need it. This is a crisis thats only going to get worse. The president told us hes going to move forward, possibly with this arrangement, if he wins reelection. Were going to have to leave it there. Let me say this is not the same as what jacob and others on our team saw themselves weeks ago. This is so much more critical. These are children warehoused in a hell hole, eugene, heidi, gabe, thank you so much, and coming up, hawks versus doves, the political war at play inside the white house over dealing with iran. Admiral william joins me next. Stay with us right here on msnbc. Lliam joins me next. Stay with us right here on msnbc. S about humpty dumpty. And youll say, he broke his pelvis or whatever, now back to my creamy heinz mayonnaise. Heinz mayonnaise, unforgettably creamy. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . vo cascade platinum does the work for you. Prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. mom wow thats clean vo cascade platinum. Car vending machines and buying a car 100 online. Vented now weve created a brand new way for you to sell your car. Whether its a year old or a few years old, we want to buy your car. So go to carvana and enter your license plate, answer a few questions, and our technowizardry calculates your cars value and gives you a real offer in seconds. When youre ready, well come to you, pay you on the spot, and pick up your car. Thats it. So ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. The president has held the door open to real negotiations, to completeliy and verify fie, its support for international terrorism, and its other maligned behavior worldwide. All that iran needs to do is to walk through that open door. John bolton, the National Security adviser in israeli today saying that the u. S. Is open to talks with iran but laying down preconditions including eliminating a Nuclear Weapons program that iran and un inspectors say does not exist. Joining me now is retired four Star Navy Admiral william fallon, and Washington Post, we have a new White House Press secretary. Melania trump announcing it writing i am pleased to announce steph grisham, will be the next press secretary and potus and i think of no one better to serve our administration and country. Excited to have stephanie working for both sides of the white house, east wing, west wing, all come together. Stephanie grisham is known as a fierce defender of her current boss, melania trump, and i expect shell probably be the have the same basic working relationship, which is been a good one overall with most reporters. But shes fierce. And that i expect will continue, and we just hope we see more of her at the podium than we have recently of sarah sanders. Enough said on that score. Thanks, anne, for that, and well be talking now about iran of course. Admiral, first to you, to say you are open to talks, then to slap sanctions on zareef, who is the foreign minister when whom you would have to talk, if youre going to have talks with the political wing of the regime since we have a regime that is divided, hes the foreign minister, hes the secretary of state. How does that work . I think the reality here is that this is a totally different ball game. The mo is quite different than the Historic Good weve observed. Part of that is good. Part of it is not good. My view is theres potential to break things open. Give you an example, back a couple of years ago with the north koreans, wed been in a stalemate for decades, going absolutely nowhere, and then some of the things that were said piqued their interest, got their attention, and at least things began to move. So the good here, the potential is that anything can happen. I think theres no desire whatsoever on the part of certainly our side, nor theirs to actually have a wrar, a real war, but that doesnt mean there couldnt and wouldnt be some dust ups and events occurring along the lines of which we have seen recently. Let me just follow up with you for a moment. Fire and fury perhaps got kim jong uns attention, and his wanting a summit, wanting that kind of recognition led to talks. No breakthroughs, and one step forward, one step backwards the not monolithic, youve got the ayatollah, the clerics, the revolutionary guard, the military wing and now youre sanctioning the diplomatic wing if you will, and they have been damaged by the trump withdrawal from the iran nuclear deal, damaged with the harder liners, im not going to call anyone a moderate. So its harder to get something going, plus accidents are more likely in the strait of hormuz with all of the proxies and the Iranian Military outfits there, the small boats and the tankers . Correct in that north korea, kim jongun is the boss, the one time guy. He makes all the decisions and probably matches up very well with the personality of President Trump in that i do what i want and when i Say Something thats what were going to do. Iran obviously much more difficult, but everybody wants s something, and right now iran clearly wants some relief from sanctions. I think longterm they want to be recognized as a power in the region and were the people that might be able to help facilitate that and so when theres a need on both sides, which there is, i think theres a potential to actually have some discussion. How you get into it, difficult to say right now, but its what were seeing is a very, very interesting play of carrots and sticks and the problem is that if a mistakes made on the edge, particularly with the military forces that are nearby, these things can spiral out of control, so i think it was controlled the last time, the next incident may not be. Its probably going to be more difficult, and thats what we have to be aware of and watch out for. Before you covered the white house and state department, you covered the pentagon. We dont have a defense secretary. Things can get out of control, and youve got john bolton and mike pompeo both very hawkish towards iran . Absolutely. I mean, the president is more comfortable with brinksmanship certainly than his military advisers are now. Hes also very comfortable with not having a strong secretary of defense, and its a longer conversation than we have time for as to why he feels that way and what the potential ramifications of that are, but what you have now is the president essentially being the voice of more moderation within his own administration and kind of having this strange dynamic where hes telling iran and the rest of the world, whoa, i am saving you all from john bolton, like, you dont know you dont know how bad it can get kind of an attitude, which is really funny considering that bo bolton works for him, but there isnt a strong civilian pentagon voice coming to him and really laying out what could happen if brinksmanship goes too far. Good cop, bad cop could go awry. I should just point out the secretary of state made an unannounced trip to afghanistan and is now on his way to a previously scheduled trip to india. Thank you very much, good to see you. First Lady Melania Trump announcing her former Communications Director Stephanie Grisham is the new White House Press secretary and Communications Director replacing Sarah Huckabee sanders. Much more ahead. Stay with us. When a plan stops being a plan and gets set into motion. Todays merrill can help you get there with the people, tools, and personalized advice to help turn your ambitions into action. What would you like the power to do . rates vehicles for safety, andr hsome reach a level of top safety pick. But only a select few of the very safest vehicles are awarded a top safety pick plus. The highest level of safety possible. How many 2019 top safety pick pluswinning vehicles does your brand have . One. Two. How about eight . Subaru has more 2019 top safety pick plus awards than honda and toyota brands combined. Theres safe, and then theres subaru safe. And more breaking news, we have just confirmed that the acting customs and Border Patrol director john sanders is resigning and stepping down. We dont know under what circumstances, but we should point out that he is stepping down in the midst of this crisis and very negative publicity in the last couple of days about the facility in texas, the conditions. Gabe gutierrez standing by. Gabe, take it for me. Reporter hi andrea, as we knows as we were just discussing, about 100 children have been brought back here to this facility, this cbp facility in clinton, texas, and cbp official we just talked to has said that the number of children, unaccompanied children that are in cbbs custody are down from 2,600 a week ago, so about 1,000 today, but andrea we still have many unanswered questions, and again, the breaking news you just reported that the acting chief commissioner is to resign. We dont know the circumstances of that right now. This certainly comes at a difficult time as cbp struggles to manage this ongoing crisis here at the border. So many of these unaccompanied children are at these facilities. They should only be here for about 72 hours. As weve been hearing from immigration advocates and attorneys, they have been here for many days more than that, in some cases weeks, so certainly a lot of questions remain unanswered as we head throughout the afternoon. As Congress Debates this emergency funding for unaccompanied children here at the border. Again, the breaking news, the acting cbp chief to resign, and also were told that the conditions in this clinton, texas, facility, that about 100 children are being moved back into this facility after nearly 300 were moved out several days ago. Andrea. And gabe, the acting customs and Border Protections chief, john sanders, had only been there since he replaced kevin mac lean who replaced kirstjen nielsen. Hes only been there for a few months. He is going to be stepping down. He is going to be replaced we dont know by whom yet. I believe hes going to be stepping down on july 5th, just after the july 5th, 4th holiday. Gabe gutierrez, thank you for being down there in texas. Thats going to be it for today. That does it for this edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Follow the show online on facebook, on twitter, weve got a lot of breaking news as we have had every day recently. We are heading to miami to take part in all of the coverage surrounding the debates, but here is ali velshi and stephanie rule for velshi ruhle. We will see you in miami. I look forward to the day when you say not much going on this hour. Right. Here ali and stephanie. I do not look forward to that day. Were in the news business, ali. Thats a very astute point. Have a great afternoon. Its tuesday, june 25th, coming up this hour, breaking news, big announcements about staffing changes at the white house. Whos in and whos out. And as andrea just said, the debate countdown is on. Were just 32 hours from night one right here on msnbc. Were going to take a look at the latest polls, whos gaining traction as 20 candidates make last minute preparations for the stage. Plus, hundreds of children in a state of crisis here in the united states. They are sick. They are