Happy wednesday to you. Hump day. And its 11 00 a. M. I always find that funny. 11 00 a. M. Out west and 2 00 p. M. On capitol hill. Where despite his budding bromance with President Trump, french president Emmanuel Macron called the american president out on his isolationist agenda. In a rare address to congress, the socalled trump whisperer spoke pretty loud and pretty clearly on the need for the u. S. To reject the politics of fear and anger. Also on capitol hill, dr. Ronny jackson was supposed to appear today for his confirmation hearing to be the next secretary of veterans affairs. Instead this afternoon the white house physician is facing questions about his ability to lead whether he overprescribed pills, and whether he drank on the job. Thats a big, big problem to the point where some of the white house call him the candy man, he passed out in the room, that there was some folks that needed some help and another person got what they needed out of the medical kit and took care of the problem because he was too intoxicated to handle the problem, belittling the people below him, screaming, hollering. I think if these accusations are found to be true, i think it puts him in a world of hurt. Not only is he still the president s pick, despite the headlines, the administration is mounting a full defense on his behalf. We think he deserves his chance in a fair hearing. Theres a process within the department of defense for active military people to bring those concerns as to why they would bring allegations to the Ranking Member of the veteran Affairs Committee if it wasnt politically motivated. Certainly hes a very highly qualified, highly respected person in the military and in the medical community. And thats something that we strongly feel that veterans need and the v. A. Needs. Defense jackson will need if he still wants to lead the department that serves more than 9 million veterans. The big question we are asking today, is there anything jackson can do right now to get his nomination off life support . Remember, it was candidate donald trump who sold himself to voters as the president who would protect the men and women who have fought for this country and that only he could fix what ailed the v. A. I love the vets. The vets are treated like fourth class citizens in this country. Our vets are being treated worse than theyve ever been. I will say this, i am with the veterans 100 . Theyre our greatest people. Theyre being treated terribly. Were going to take care of these people. Okay . Were going to take care of them. And yet it was President Trump who fired his former v. A. Secretary after just a year and nominated dr. Jackson via twitter. A president who just yesterday admitted his pick doesnt have the experience to run the federal governments second largest bureaucracy thats been plagued by mismanagement. He added he doesnt think other people do either. He added if he were in dr. Jacksons position he would not go through with the position. Words that so far the white house physician has yet to follow. In minute were set to hear Sarah Huckabee sanders in the daily press briefing. Lets go to our team of reporters. Guys, welcome. The president himself isnt giving what we would call a ringing endorsement for dr. Jackson to lead the v. A. Hes saying its up to him, but the white house is pretty for forcefully defending him. I think youre nailing it. The White House Briefing has been pushed back 15 minutes. And i expect that Ronny Jackson will dominate most of the questions here today. So, yes, the white house is mounting this really intense and frankly rather belated Crisis Management push to try to make sure that they are circling the wagons around Ronny Jackson. Theres an acknowledgment in some circles this may be too little too late. Right now theres a sense of trying to get jackson over this if not the finish line at least through this hurdle, these accusations against him. I can share more of what we learned about the Oval Office Meeting between dr. Jackson and President Trump. We knew it was positive and up beat. Those are the words that sources use to describe it. Now we know that jackson in that meeting today the president that the allegations against him were false and misleading. Ive been told by sources inside the administration that jackson wants a confirmation hearing and clear his name f you will. He doesnt want to step aside what you might call a cloud. The accusations include, for example, overprescribing medication, like sleep aids for example on overseas flights. Drinking on the job which is a specific allegation that jackson has denied in conversations with senators and creating a toxic work environment. John tester, senator tester, the Ranking Member of the veterans Affairs Committee said in an interview on the today show 20 people have come forward current and former to share their concerns about jackson after his nomination. What this is doing more broadly just to step back for a minute here is raise real questions about the vetting process for people in these kinds of high level positions. White house Officials Say he cleared his fbi background check. This is a guy who is next to the president , doing physical exams on former president obama and pointing to performance reviews where former president obama praised jackson. But, when you look at the issues that might have come up, i think there are folks who are asking why didnt the white house know about these issues . Why wasnt there some sort of Situational Awareness prior to these coming out on the congressional side. The big point, of course, is no new hearing date has been set, probably wont do anything, no movement until mid may. At least if they knew about it because they had done the vetting process they would have answers at the ready to push back on the allegations. But as serious as the allegations are overprescribing, drinking on the job when youre treating the president , thats serious, yes. But kimberly, isnt the bigger issue that this is a man who has no experience in management, no experience in management especially for the second biggest bureaucracy we have in this country . That is a major issue. I mean, this is someone who we have seen in this case weve seen it in other cases have a rapport with the president. The president liked him. The president was clearly pleased at the physical report that he gave, saying that just with a few changes the president can live to 200 years old. And that seemed to have been enough for him, despite the fact that as you said this is the second Largest Agency in the federal government. Its the largest medical Governmental Agency in the world. It has 375,000 employees and its tasked with providing health care to our 9 million veterans. Its also been plagued by controversies and problems. So you need someone who not only has governmental Management Experience in there, you need somebody who is a turn around artist of sorts to help get to the root of these on going problems at the v. A. And fix them and having somebody who is a doctor that you like is not in itself enough qualifications for this. Yeah. We need somebody who can triage not just one patient but the entire system here. Also, you have reporting that lawmakers have been instructed to no longer push for jacksons confirmation. What else can you tell us . Well, our sources on capitol hill are telling us that officials and folks both in terms of the president s allies and also people who arent friendly to them both on the republican and democratic side, something that has been spooking them as people have been coming forward with these allegations, what has really caught their attention is how a lot of them sound very similar and the intensive volume of these allegations and rumors, such to the point that it seems to be establishing a pattern in their mind, that this isnt if the allegations are true, not necessarily a one off or twooff incident, its something that has happened perhaps over and over again and within the white house even though they are in sort of a rescue mode at the moment to try to prop up dr. Jacksons nomination, there is a burgeoning suspicion among senior aides who we have been talking to in the Trump White House that their efforts on this could perhaps implode at any second now and a lot of them are considering his nomination all but finished. Wow. But are hoping for some sort of early in the game revival at this point. Al Hallie Jackson pointed out just a moment ago, his confirmation hearing has not been rescheduled. And that says a whole lot. Guys, thank you very much. Thank you. Im joined by the founder and the ceo of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. Paul, good to see you. Good to see you. Whats the pulse within your organization about dr. Jackson . It was already skeptical and its falling fast. Only 29 of our members nationwide supported him and that was before this news continued 29 were neutral according to your poll. 12 strongly support. There was skepticism of his then qualifications. He hadnt managed anything large. Hes not a voice or a fixture in the Veterans Community he was already facing an uphill battle before any of this stuff happened. At what cost will this go forward . The v. A. Can push it out for a couple weeks if they want, but veterans will pay the price and at what cost more broadly for the political damage this is going to create across congress . The kind of person you need to run the v. A. , what does that person look like . Lets use two recent examples. Bob mcdonald was a west point grad and ceo of procter gamble. Eric was chief of staff of the army with 1 million employees. This is like going from single a baseball to yankee stadium. This is a big jump for someone who is a white house doctor. Now, maybe hes spectacular and maybe he can do it. Its probably unlikely and thats why we were looking forward to having rigorous confirmation hearings exposed. One ounce is true, hes done. Thats clear at this point. What is the major issue, the Biggest Issue for the v. A. That needs to be addressed immediately . Leadership. It sounds like a throw away. We had seven secretary nominees since 2011. It sounds like every two years im on cable tv talking about a new secretary nominee. Has anybody lived up to the needs . Bob mcdonald was generating a lot of momentum. At the end of obamas term, when President Trump says theres nobody qualified, nobody can do this, bob mcdonald did it and most major veteran Service Organizations recommend he keep him on but he went with dave shulkin who was fired or resigned. We still dont know. This chaos engulfed this agency for a decade and a half. Thats really, really bad for the employees who work there. This impacts budget, hiring, firing, management, everything around an entire organization has a footprint in every community in america. What is the feeling among your members about the president right now . Because the president took up Veterans Issues as a major component of his pitch to the American People. I mean, he didnt come out with a lot of policy papers during the campaign. But he came out with one for veterans and came out pretty early on making sure that nobody had to wait for health care and making sure that women had the right doctors in place for Womens Health care. He was really ahead of the curve on that. Is anything happening to his support within the Veterans Community by not having somebody in place who can really try to fix things . Yeah. Its falling. He had strong support for the military and the military is a diverse group. Hes had pretty strong support, but its falling. People want to know what kind of leadership choices hes making and why. He didnt ask veterans what they thought before he put Ronny Jackson forward. I dont think he talked to any veterans groups. Its not like he held the town hall or picked up the new suicide line. Theres no input coming in. This seems like an easy pass lane type choice and could have engaged the Veterans Community and now hes finding out the hard way what they want to see and whats most important. Is he finding out the hard way . Does he hear any of this feedback . Most importantly our generation of veterans are kind of a political jump ball. What we see in our membership is the Fastest Growing group are independents. I think this will have a longterm impact on his support, on his partys support and our political dialogue. Theyre fed up. Theres an impact to the moral of our Veterans Community and active duty. There are people overseas right now fighting and potentially dying and they dont know what theyre coming home to. Thats a problem. What sort of care if youre fighting and you lose a limb or something, you want to make sure youll come home and youll be taken care of. You dont have to wait in line or wait for treatments and your v. A. Is being managed correctly by somebody who has the Management Experience, i imagine. Every president says theyre going to fix this and every president had the same problem. Thank you very much for joining us. Always good to see you. Oye is the best way to describe it. Meanwhile, is the love fest between Frances Emmanuel mack ron and President Trump about to come to an end . Well have more on the french president s sweeping address to congress, the one where he called the president out on his policies. Thats next. Without starting from scratch. It brings your business up to speed, doing more with systems you have in place. It can bring all your apps to life and run them within your data center. It is. The ibm cloud private. The cloud thats built for all your apps. Ai ready. Secure to the core. The ibm cloud is the cloud for smarter business. Secure to the core. Roundup for lawns has arrived to put unwelcome lawn weeds to rest. So draw the line. 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It can be tempting to us as a temporary remedy, but closing the door to the world will not stop the evolution of the world. I believe in building a Better Future for our children which requires offering them a planet that is still habitable in 25 years. France will not leave the jcp because we signed it. David ignatius is an associate editor for Washington Post and msnbc political contributor. David, its really good to see you. I was struck over the past few days over the touchy feeliness of the relationship between donald trump and macron. I was talking to a lot of folks i know in france and lot of reporters in france who i asked them, does he really find is this relationship authentic . Or is he trying to manipulate him by overflattering him and playing this game with him in front of cameras when it seems like everything he stands for is the exact opposite of what donald trump stands for. Well, i had the same feeling. I wondered how president macron was going to find his way back to both French Public opinion, which is not like not favorable to donald trump and also back to the positions that hes taken. And we saw today just how he was going to do that. After really flattering the president , stroking him, all the hugs and handshakes and kisses his address to joint session of congress was emphatically in defense of the values that we used to associate with the u. S. s leader of the western alliance. Macron clearly wants to be in that position now as a leader and spokesman, but he said we favor multilatterism, we favor remaining in the iran deal. We favor values of freedom around the world. It was just one issue after another. I thought on Climate Change he was especially powerful when he said there is no planet b. Theres no choice but to protect the planet. I thought he really laid down a marker pretty powerfully. If i were donald trump, i would probably just be smiling thinking, i just got played. Oh god. I want to keep continuing this conversation, but Sarah Huckabee sanders is taking questions. David, im sorry. Lets listen to sarah. Or an alleged hipaa violation. Do you have anything more on the allegations against jackson . The white house saying anything about it . Dr. Jacksons record as a white house physician has been impeccab impeccable, in fact, because dr. Jackson has worked within arms reach of three president s he received more vetting than most nominees. Given his unique position of trust and responsibility, dr. Jacksons background and character were evaluated during three different administrations. Dr. Jackson has had at least four independent Background Investigations conducted during his time at the white house, including an fbi investigation and conducted as part of the standard nomination vetting process. During each of those investigations, dr. Jackson received unanimous praise from dozens of witnesses in the investigations revealed no areas of concern. Dr. Jackson received glowing evaluations from his superiors including several from president obama which said such as dr. Jackson should continue to promote ahead of his peers. What about the allegations of overprescribing . I think that makes pretty clear in terms of very thorough investigation and vetting process has taken place. None of those things have come up. Were continuing to look at anything beyond that. Despite what you just said there, is the white house doing any sort of additional looking into dr. Jacksons background in light of all of the allegations . Theres been again a pretty thorough vetting process done by the fbi as well as three other independent investigations, but thats part of what the nomination process of congress should do and what its supposed to look like and why they should move forward with a hearing. Since the white house and the president are standing behind him, will you ask the Senate Veterans committee to reschedule the hearing . Were continuing to work with members on the hill. Major . I have one on this and a couple on foreign policy. A couple . Administration that the people who have raised these allegations are lying . Thats not what i said. I said weve done multiple background checks have taken place and were continuing to look at the situation. Do you not find them credible, in other words . These allegations. Again, these are new. We can only speak to motivation behind them . I can only speak to some of the personal accounts that those of us have as well as the records that we have that are substantiated through a very detailed and thorough Background Investigation process. So on north korea, during the state of the Union Address the president described the north korean regime as one that is shamefully tried an american otto warmbier, sent him back to the country nearly dead, starves its own people and is a dictatorship worst than almost any other, thats what he said in the state of the union, how can that also be true if kim jongun is honorable and open. How do you reconcile those two assessments of the leader and the regime in north korea . The president s referencing the conversations that we have had on going over the last month or so in regards to the meeting to take place and their willingness to denuclearize on the peninsula. Changed his appraisal of kim jongun . Certainly not that but he wants to have the ability to sit down and have these conversations. And in that process, they have been open with their willingness to denuclearize and thats certainly been the focus and what we have been pushing for and expect to happen. Sarah so the regime has changed . He thinks the regime has changed . We think the maximum Pressure Campaign is working. Were not going to let up on that campaign until we see some of the words that theyve made go into concrete action, but theyre moving in the right direction. John . Thanks a lot, sarah. I wanted to get your reaction to the ruling that came down from a Federal District court judge here in washington concerning daca. He said that the president s decision to end daca was arbitrary and capricious, whats your reaction to this ruling the third federal judge to rule against the president on daca . The daca program violates federal law, president obama went around congress and created the illegal daca program. We believe the judges ruling is extraordinarily broad and wrong on the law. Whats worse sit creates an incentive for more immigrant youth to come here and causes them to expect similar judicial policies. This is good news for smuggling organizations and criminal networks and horrible news for our national security. Its time for congress to do what the president has called for them to do and offer and fix this problem. Is it still the main argument by the administration that the reason why it was necessary to cut off the daca program was because of the threat of lawsuits by republican attorneys general . That was certainly a big part of us knowing that this is an Illegal Program and something that congress has the ability to actually create laws and theyre the ones that have to be part of this process and fix this problem. Steve . Yes, sarah. I would like to ask you about the drop in the ranking for the United States and the World Press Freedom index, the United States now down to 45. And according to reporters without borders, much of the blame for that goes to the president for his attacks on the media. Whats the reaction of the white house . And does it accept that the president s comments has denigrated the freedom of the press in the United States . Certainly would not would reject the idea that the president or this administration has halted freedom of the press. I think were one of the most accessible administrations that weve seen in decades. I think by my mere presence of standing up here and taking your questions unvetted is a pretty good example of freedom of the press. And i think its ridiculous to suggest otherwise. John . Thank you, sarah. Two questions, one on the macrons visit and the other on foreign policy. Yesterday there was some scuttlebutt late in the afternoon that no democrats were invited to the dinner last night. And then later check of the list showed that there were at least four democrats and five. However the accurate report was there were no Congressional Democrats invited. Now, going back to state dinners to when president roosevelt hosted the king and queen of england in 1939 and invited potential opponents, there have always been Congressional Democrats at state dinners. Why the exception last night . Again, as you said, there were democrats present at the dinner and the focus of this dinner was to keep it intimate and small and thats exactly what we did. There was a wide range of individuals that participated. We think it was a Great Success and very proud of not just the dinner but the entire visit and certainly the relationship that we have with our great ally in france. And no but no Congressional Democrats. Was there any discussion of that in preparing the list . Look, we talked with Congressional Democrats all the time. We dont have to have dinner with them to have conversations with them. Well continue to talk with them about policyrelated issues. And again, i think that the fact that there were a number of democrats that were present kind of negates the fact it wasnt a bipartisan dinner. Charlie . Sorry. The proclamation the president signed regarding our meeting in turkey. He used a word which is armenian for atrocity or ka its a fi. I havent had a detailed conversation with him about that. But i understand that the resolution the president signed was consistent with past administrations as well. Charlie . Thank you, sarah. Rap superstar ken ya west has been in the news for supporting the president and expressing his admiration for president. Covering all range of topics today. Im curious whether the president has reached out to ken ya west and whether he would be willing to meet with him at the white house . I dont know of any conversation that theyve had over the last week or so. Ill keep you posted if that changes any time. Matthew . Sorry. I know they met during the transition. Thats the only meeting im aware of thats taken place or conversation. Before everybody has a meltdown and thinks that we had a meeting last week. In Todays Supreme Court arguments about the travel ban, there was much discussion of the president s proposal during the campaign that all muslims be barred from entering the u. S. And it was noted during those arguments that the president has never actually disavowed that proposal and it was also noted that he had not made those comments since being sworn in as president. I wanted to ask, does the white house disavow that Campaign Proposal or does it stand by it . The administrations top priority is to ensure the safety and security of the American People. For that reason, the administration has put in place enhanced Global Security measures to improve screening and vetting capabilities and share information. Its working. There has been significant improvements in Identity Management and information sharing with foreign governments because of this our International Partners have raised their own baseline requirements. Without the ability to impose entry restrictions the United States may be forced to unsuspectingly allow dangerous criminals or terrorists into the country. Additional without the restrictions foreign governments have little incentive to improve their information sharing and Identity Management practices. The focus of this travel ban has been on safety and security. It is limited to a small number of countries. And a lot of muslim majority countries have the same abilities to travel to and from the United States as they did in previous administrations. I think that alone and action answers your question clearly. Jim . I just wanted to follow up on dr. Ronny jackson. Yesterday the president suggested that dr. Jack sovereign does not have the experience to run the department of veterans affairs. Is that a Fair Assessment . He lacks experience. Thats not what the president said. I think youre taking some of his words out of context. Based on your tweet today i know you dont appreciate when people take your words out of context. So i appreciate if you not do that to the president. If he didnt think he had the experience, he wouldnt have nominated. That would be one of the questions that people have posed about him. Obvious the president he has all the experience necessary to run the department . Look i think he has an incredibly strong background. Hes a highly qualified, highly skilled individual. And if he didnt think he was capable of doing the job he wouldnt have announced his nomination in the first place. Let me just follow up if i can. Just since you brought up being taken out of context. It seems to be a pressrelated question. Are you trying to say that this administration is a champion of a free press . Certainly think as i stated a moment ago, we support a free press but we also support a fair press. And i think that those things should go hand in hand and theres a certain responsibility by the press to report accurate information. I think a number of people responsibility on the part of the president i think a number of people in this room do that every single day. They do their very best to provide fair and accurate information. Certainly support that. And thats one of the reasons im standing here taking your questions. And we appreciate that. A lot of time taking your questions in a tone thats unnecessary, unneeded and frankly doesnt help further the conversation or help the American People get any more information in a better way which is your job and my job and thats what im trying to do. I appreciate that. But sarah david, go ahead. The president s tone towards the press obviously is not helpful at times. Thank you, jim. I think thats plain to see. David . Inspector general had problems with the way jackson ran his medical staff which only has 50 people. What makes him qualify to run a Big Department with 350,000 people . I saw a number of members of both the house and senate do interviews today. Just earlier this morning in which they said, look, weve tried this a number of other ways with people who have run massive organizations and hasnt worked out very well. This is a different approach but it certainly doesnt mean its a wrong approach or that hes not qualified. This is somebody who has been on the battlefields, made decisions at a very high stress level and saved a number of individuals lives in some of the most trying circumstances. Somebody that understands the relationship between veterans and the needs and the care that they have as a veteran himself or as a Service Member himself and somebody who has a relationship and a deeprooted care and concern for those individuals that may be far and above what weve seen from previous administrators that have overseen that agency. Hes a highly qualified individual. Were coronet looking at this and moving forward. Julie . Are you tells us that the white house is not aware of any of the allegations before the president decided to name dr. Jackson just to clarify . None of those things came up in the four separate Background Investigations that have taken place. Theres been no area of concern that was raised for dr. Jackson specifically. Can you describe to us what the vetting process was a at the white house before he was named given that as david just mentioned there is an Inspector General report and there have been allegations in the past that are now coming to light that they existed before the president chose him . Again, dr. Jackson has undergone four separate background checks. One that was conducted by the fbi and all of those revealed nothing and came back with clean recommendation. So the only vetting that was done of him as a nominee was to look at his past background checks is what youre telling us . No. Theres a number of things but you also have to remember this is somebody that spends more time with the president than just about anyone. These investigations are very thorough. And certainly something that was taken into consideration. Blake . Let me ask you a couple questions about the tim cook meeting that is either wrapped or going on right now. Do you by chance have a read out . It was still on going when the briefing started. I know the primary focus and purpose of the meeting is to discuss trade. Something thats been on the president s schedule for the last couple of weeks. If we have any Additional Information well let you know. Let me ask you in the last month the president has met with bill gates, who is the second wealthiest individual in the world now, now hes meeting with tim cook who runs the Largest Company in the United States, does the president have any intentions at any point to meet with the wealthiest individual in the world, jeff bezos and if so under what conditions would that be . Im not aware of that being on the schedule. I certainly havent seen it. We know that i think the president would be open to it, but im not aware of anything being locked in at this point. Ashley . Sarah, scott pruitt lived for below market rent at a row house owned by an Energy Lobbyist and reportedly directed staff to give raises to top aides. He spent over 150,000 of taxpayer dollars on first class travel. And he reportedly once even tried to get his security detail to use their sirens so he could get to a reservation among other ethical lapses. Yesterday you said you were looking at reports about him. Can you sort of explain why he still has a job in the president s cabinet and also how his behavior is in keeping with the values of draining the swamp . We expect the epa administrator to answer for them and well keep you posted. Just to follow up on that. When you say you expect the administrator pruitt to answer for these accusations, where do you expect that to happen . Are you looking for this in hearings . Is the white house asking questions . Were having on going conversations. And also, just to follow up on jackson. When you say hes been through four background checks. Can you say but these allegations have now come up and some of them are very serious, is the white house going to look into the allegations that have been made against him about drinking on the job . Certainly something that we would look at, absolutely. Sarah . One last question. Francesca . Thank you, sarah. I wanted to clarify about these four background checks. Were any of these background checks since President Trump took office or since he was named as the nominee for v. A. Secretary and has the white house ever been informed of allegations like these, like excessive bli drinking on the job or passing out medication like candy, as it were, since he physicianed for President Trump . Im not aware of any of those allegations being made until the nomination was made. And sorry, to follow up on what i was asking about the background check. When was his most recent background check . I would have to look at the specific date, but my understanding is that a new one took place at the time of the new administration. Thanks so much, guys. Well see you tomorrow. Sarah Huckabee Sanders finishing the briefing. A lot focussed on dr. Ronny jackson. One point to make, she got into a cur if you feel, lets use that word with jim acosta over the freedom of the press. She said that by standing in front of reporters and taking questions shes actively involved in promoting a free press. Absolutely yes the administration does have a press briefing everyday and absolutely, yes, we have a lot of access to the president in those pool sprays, but lets not forget the way the president treats the press and the derogatory terms he uses for the press, both on his twitter account and in interviews or in dealing with reporters. Hes called reporters sleaze bags, son of bs, third rate, little, for instance. So, if youre going to talk about the way this administration upholds the free press, lets not forget how the president himself treats the press. Hallie jackson with us from the white house. Hallie, a lot of that briefing was focussed on Ronny Jackson. The white house saying theyre Still Standing behind him. But just in the last couple minutes we found out four background checks on him but they still didnt know about this ig report or the other allegations that go back many, many, many years . So, i think the thread that you saw reporters trying to pull here was the idea that, sure, Ronny Jackson has gone through background checks in his role of high profile role, very close contact with not just President Trump but past president s as well, and you heard a couple reporters try to get at this did the white house go beyond that . What else did they do . What else did they try to do to vet Ronny Jackson prior to the president was a surprise tweet that sort of came out unexpectedly even to some inside the administration that jackson would be the nominee to lead the department of veterans affair. I do think what you saw from sanders was a definitive and defiant push to defend the president s pick. I think that is a notable contrast to what you heard about somebody else who the president picked to lead one of his agencies and thats the epa, which is frankly letting scott pruitt based on Sarah Sanders own words twist in the wind, saying that administrator pruitt is going to have to answer for himself in which pruitt will do that in front of lawmakers tomorrow. Broadly as you and i talked about just prior to the briefing, there are some real questions about the cabinet members that the president is choosing to put in some of these very high level or cabinet level positions. Absolutely no doubt about that. And the fact that pruitt still has a job is surprising when you consider the way that price was forced to resign over his spending habits. What is the difference there . Why was price forced out so quickly and why can pruitt rack up these bills and face controversy after controversy and i dont know potentially lie to ed henry in a fox news interview about giving his employees raises and yet still maintain a job . So, because of policy i think would be the answer to your question what is the difference between these two men. Tom price, remember, departed after the massive failure any kind of Health Care Reform on capitol hill. There was real displeasure the way price was handling that. If he had been successful, there would be questions about whether or not he would have stayed in. In this situation, yes the optics are incredibly similar. Its a drip, drip, drip bad headlines related to questionable spending the taxpayer money and related to questionable decisions when it comes to questions on ethics. The epa will say no one crossed the line and defending pruitt. Scott pruitt is rolling back obamaera regulations repeat lid. I do think that is because i think its a fair question to ask, what is the difference . The difference seems to be policy. My question is when do you hit that Tipping Point . Theres a new story about scott pruitt every couple days as you and i know reporting on them. At what point does that mountain start to cast a shadow . Yeah. And what point does being frugle steward of taxpayer money outweigh rolling back regulations . Who are you here for . Are you here for the businesses and their desire to roll back regulations or the taxpayers who are paying the money and paying the salary and paying for all the upgrades of pruitt in first class and whatnot. Hallie, i do want to get one other question do you, so stick around just for one second and i want to bring in Ashley Parker in real quick if i can. Ashley, you asked about pruitt. What is your sense of when the Tipping Point or what the Tipping Point is going to be . Its a great question. And theres sort of two different levels. In sort of resent days it feels like there has been a Tipping Point among people in the white house who are really fed up and frustrated with him and by his behavior and by this trickle of sort of damaging news articles that seem to come out every single day. And hes also losing a lot of his support on capitol hill. Even some of his allyings and chief patrons are starting to question his behavior and all of these alleged ethical lapses. The Tipping Point that really matters, of course, however, is that of the president and thats a more open question where we dont entirely understand the answer. You know, one point that you guys were just talking about but which is true is that even though the president is sort of aware of all these reports and may have concerns, he likes the fact that in an administration that has struggled for key legislative achievements that scott pruitt at the epa is sort of pushing his environmental policy and rolling back a lot of the obamaera regulations. So its a sort of question when does that outweigh all of this alleged bad behavior . Hallie, why did Mick Mulvaney not come up . Well, probably because theres avalanche of news and can only ask so many questions. She likes to do about 20minute press briefings. Thats the standard for this administration. If we had 30, that would be on the list. Well cover Mick Mulvaney and the scandal surrounding him. Ladies, thank you very much. Thank you. Here is Mick Mulvaney. President trump told roaring crowds that because he bought off politicians he was the only one who knew how to stop corruption in washington. So why is his budget director unabashedly promoting pay to play on capitol hill . The president must be pretty mad about this. Right . I had tried to quit before, i had tried the patch. I tried to go cold turkey; it didnt work for me. I didnt think i could quit until i used chantix. Along with support, Chantix Varenicline is proven to help people quit smoking. Chantix reduced my urge to smoke. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. Serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking or allergic and skin reactions which can be lifethreatening. 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You know what, when i need something from them two years later, three years later, i call them, they are there for me. And thats a broken system. I contribute to every i have given to democrats. I have given to hillary. I have given to everybody because that was my job. I have got to give to them because when i want something, i get it. When i call, they kiss my [ bleep ], okay . Its true. They kiss my [ bleep ]. True. Right there. There you have it. During the 2016 president ial race, donald trump bragged often about the donation he is made to lawmakers on both the left and the right. He said that paying those politicians had nothing to do with whether or not he supported their agenda, it was all about buying their vote so they would support his agenda. He said the same thing to the wall street journal back in 2015 of july, quote, as a businessman and a very substantial donor to very important people, when you give they do whatever the hello health you want them to do. He argued that because he knew how the swamp worked he alone could drain it. Mic mulvaney, the budget director and speaker rim director of the Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau must not have gotten that memo because theed vice he gave to banking executives tuesday sounds swampy. He told the officials if they wanted a favor from lawmakers they would have to pay them first. We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress Said mulvaney, if you are a lobbyist who never gave us money, i didnt talk to you. If you are a lobbyist who gave us money, i might talk to you. Unbelievable. Mulvaney is openly admitting to a room of bankers that the best way to get influence in congress is buy it. Sure we all knew that that was the way things worked. But wasnt that supposed to change when donald trump was elected . Wasnt getting rid of the graft the whole point . We imagine this hypocrisy will not stand with the president , right . Aaron blake is a senior political reporter for the Washington Post. The president has to be pretty upset about this. I mean this is something he campaign on, he campaigned on not doing this. So has he pulled his budget director aside and said you have got to stop . Well, there is you know, it would have been great if we had asked in the briefing just a little while ago but it didnt seem to come up there. You know, there are certainly many things which the president talked about on the campaign trail as far as draining the swamp that havent come true or that weve seen, you know, the inverse of in this administration. But this is striking in its contrast to the way President Trump talked about things. You know, the president talked about this as being a system that he exploited. He used his Campaign Contributions as an example of something you know, he was the guy who was going to come in who exploited the system and was going to clean up that same system and really put an end to this kind of thing. And Mick Mulvaneys comments here are the kinds of things that you expect to hear in private but you wouldnt expect somebody to say when they know there are press in the building or that their remarks are going to get out. This is a really difficult one to explain, at the same time, much like scott prooutd, Mick Mulvaney is someone the president seems to like quite a bit. I think that is probably going to lead him to overlook this at least for a little while. Is it more of a comment on the atmosphere where mulvaney is not worried about saying this stuff, a topdown atmosphere where this thing is aokay now that donald trump is president . I think you could say that about a lot of this travel stuff that has come up with so many cabinet secretaries and cabinet level officials like scott pruett. The fact that this stuff could even be said, what does that said about the environment that exists and the accountability thats been happening behind the scenes . If there is an environment in which we are talking about draining the swamp, if thats really a point of emphasis in this administration, it sure doesnt seem to be something that people like Mick Mulvaney and scott pruitt are all that concerned about. Maybe thats being reinforced as they make these decisions. Just a talking point it seems more than anything else. Yes. Aaron, mulvaney reportedly received 63 grand in donations from pay dahleners during higgs his congressional ins kpa. Im quoting the New York Times. Since then, the New York Times says he scaled back efforts to go after pay day lenders, auto lenders and other companies accused of preying on the vulnerable. More specific chi, vox reports a organization has shut down a probe into 4500 put into his election campaigns. Is he putting the interests of those who paid him above those who elected him to office . Certainly a of the the very least he is giving them a seat at the table in a way he is not giving people who havent given him money a seat at the table. He says in his remarks the people who get the priority here are the constituents who always get to meet him. But in order to have a chance the meet him you have to have made a campaign contribution. You cant be a lobbyist and not have given money and get a chance to meet with him. I guess the president just doesnt know about it because i imagine he would be really angry because this is obviously something that he talked a lot about on the campaign. Wasnt going to happen. Aaron blake, senior political reporter for the Washington Post. Aaron, thank you very much. Coming up in our next half hour im going to talk to elizabeth wauren. Senator lelizabeth warren about all of this. Im sitting in the chair the next hour. Lucky you at home. I am a sitting in for ali velshi. We are talking about facebook under fire again for not being clear about whats not allowed on the site. And how this man helped a democrat candidate get within a striking distance in a solid red district, and why it matters for the mid terms in the future. Time now for your business of the week. They built their watch movement on instagram promoting the word about their reasonably priced brand. Today they added jewelry and sunglasses to the mix and plan the keep on growing. Dont make a first impression. Or a lasting impression without it. Dont turn your house into a home without it. Dont go live. Or even share a moment without it. And dont watch her dance like nobodys watching without it. Whatever you do, dont forget that the more you live forward, the more you need someone at your back. The powerful backing of american express. Dont live life without it. It was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. 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The Current Interim director of the Consumer ProtectionFinancial Bureau is under fire today. The New York Times reports Mick Mulvaney told banking executives if they wanted to get time with lawmakers they would have to