That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Thanks, mika, thanks, joe. Good morning. Ive got breaking news to cover. Starting with the doctor is in. Facing a barrage of new allegations, Ronny Jackson withdraws his nomination to lead the va. Theyre trying to destroy a man. By the way, did i say welcome to washington, welcome to the swamp. Scott pruitt heading to the hill this morning to potentially face a firestorm of questions. Basic questions from lawmakers. I cant think of any better way of putting it. Stop act like a chucklehead. Hes leading with his chin. A chucklehead, fighting words. Dodging a storm. Yep, pun intended there. Michael cohen to plead the fifth ensuring he will stay mum about the alleged hush money. As for the first time the president admits he is connected to the, quote, crazy Stormy Daniels deal. This is a staggering development. It cannot be overstated. This is a big deal. Amid reports giuliani himself has opened negotiations with mueller about a potential sitdown with the president. But of course we begin this morning with President Trump in a revealing new interview earlier this morning talking everything, i mean, this was a true donald trump greatest hits. If you like this guy, he delivered every song. From Ronny Jackson to Stormy Daniels to his impending meeting with kim jongun. Were going to start with that stunning answer regarding michael cohelp and what work he actually does for mr. Trump. Its a percentage of my overall legal work. A tiny, tiny little fraction. But my goal would represent me and represent me on some things. He represents mess like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal. He represented me. And, you know, from what i see, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no Campaign Funds going why is he pleading the fifth . Because hes got other things. Hes got businesses. From what i understand, theyre looking at his businesses. I hope hes in great shape. Heres what i dont get. He sees nothing wrong. It wasnt Campaign Funds used. Hes still not answering. Why pay someone 130,000 if you didnt do anything . You know, if michael cohelp is writing checks like that for mr. Trump or himself, giddy up, ill send you my address, brother. The attorney for Stormy Daniels was on morning joe and he reacted in real time. Thats whats beautiful about cable news. Heres what he said. This is a very damaging admission. It blows the entire argument weve heard for weeks out of the water. I want to send a shoutout to fox friends, thank you. What do you do after this . Well utilize the statement on fox friends in connection with our case. The Southern District of new york u. S. Attorneys office may also use it. I often say we need to bring decency back. There you go. Michael avenatti thanking the president. The president took to twitter and his 45 million followers this morning and said ill be on fox friends, enjoy, exclamation point. Lets bring in the msnbc legal analyst. In new york city outside the courtroom for a separate race related to the raid of Michael Cohens office. You know who won the election, lawyers and book publishers. Is it a big deal hes now saying he represents h s him in the st daniels suing you, you need someone to represent you. Fact ws we already knew or a least inferred. We know ec consultants was a party with contract with a ride theyre apparently identified tru trump. All trump did today was close the loop and make it more certain he was a party to one of the original contracts thats currently being litigated out in california. In terms of the case itself, all it does is establish what Michael Avenatti likely already suspected and everybody suspected which is donald trump was the David Dennison identified in that Stormy Daniels agreement what . Thats being litigated on the west coast. What . What . Everyone assumed that . Who knew. I was in the dark. Saying hes taking the fifth in the case. What does that mean . The civil action pending in Southern California in the Central District and Michael Cohen has filed a statement that he will take the fifth amendment if that case proceeds. Thats very significant. The reason hes taking it is because of the pending investigation here in the Southern District of new york and the reason behind that is that typically and ive had this happen in cases ive handled myself, you dont want a client proceeding in a civil matter when he has a pending criminal investigation. Not necessarily thats hes been indicted or that hes about to be indicted. The mere possibility of a criminal indictment, it should be sufficient to keep somebody from proceeding in a civil action and making potentially damaging admissions or statements. All right, danny, thank you so much. I want to bring my panel in. A man whos quite familiar with President Trump and the legal system. Tim obrien, executive editor. Ben white, chief economic correspondent for politico and cnbc contributor. Tim, i start with you, both of you, first, lets open our minds, open our hearts. Lets assume nothing. Lets pretend we just land eed earth, knew none of this back story. How big of an admission is it that President Trump is now saying Michael Cohen helped him or dealt with the Stormy Daniels situation which just a couple weeks ago is going, i know nothing, dont ask him, dont know her . In terms of the investigation in the Southern District of new york and the legal parameters around this issue, it is seismic. Hes no longer David Dennison, hes donald trump. Until now, i hear a lot from Michael Avenatti, lots from fox news. We dont hear of actual legal action being taken besidings in a civil manner. Why is it a real problem . Were not going to know about legal action until the prosecutors run this through. The issue in play is how much of whatever they suspect Michael Cohen did that involved criminal activities ultimately also cruise to the president. The same issues with the manafort investigation. However, Michael Cohen did dirty work for President Trump. When he says on fox friends, you know, Michael Cohen only did a little amount of legal work for me, thats true. Michael cohen was a fixer. He buriy eied problems. Thats a problem for the president. The extent he acknowledged hes tied into some of these, its a real problem for him. This is the kind of thing that driving trumps lawyers nuts. He freelances on tv. He says things that are injudicious. He says things that possibly implicate him. We could say that was a slip of the tongue, he was unhinged, what was he thinking. Or is he continuing to play to his base, this works, we all watched. We can call him a fool but the guy who became president of it is United States, married three dropde dropdead gorgeous women and others hes had dalances with. Whos the fool, trump or us . I think you could make the case were all fools in this scenario. While the base eats this up, trump unhinged and just saying what he thinks, but he puts himself in legal jeopardy regularly. The lester holt interview where he said specifically he had the Russian Investigation in mind when firing the fbi direct i which opened up an entire can of words for him. Now, heres he maintains hes had nothing to do with the 130,000 payment. Has nothing to do with him. If hes now saying he was engaged with him on this Stormy Daniels thing, then you get to the question of was this hush money paid to Stormy Daniels . Was it an inkind contribution to the campaign. He just threw himself right into the middle of. But did he . At this point, of course he knows. Hes had to deal with it for the last four weeks. Couldnt he still maintain the argument i only knew about it . Hes not saying i knew about it from reading the news. Hes saying Michael Cohen is my attorney and i know about it through that representation. I think the other thing with Michael Cohen pleading the fifth and saying he doesnt want to incriminate himself, i think it raises an issue in the Southern District case about whether or not that creates the criminal fraud exception around the Attorney Client privilege. If thats the case, this is going to allow prosecutors to get much of what they want to get in terms of correspondence between the president and Michael Cohen. To this exact point, heres what i dont get. He doesnt want to incriminate himself. Incriminate himself from what . Is Michael Cohen going to flip on trump . Theres nothing to flip on if cohen didnt do anything and trump didnt do anything. So why arent we hearing trumps old lawyers get up there and say Michael Cohen is an innocent man, as is the president . No. The conversation is about flipping. In fact, in the Southern District, his attorneys have said they would like the attorney to review these documents before prosecuteers get them. If the president has nothing to high, why are his attorneys putting the request in . Because maybe it just says he doesnt really have any dough. It could say that. Thats also something he wants to hide. But being embarrassed that youre not a billionaire is far different from committing a crime or being unfit to be the president. Although its that just makes you a cheesy liar. But that is, as tim knows well, one of the most important things is the perception hes a mega billionaire. I think he cares more about that than any of this potential legal jeopardy but lets get out of the now vortex. Its not the most important thing to the American People who care about their taxes and health care and education. So if youre the American People out there watching this, do you actually care . Beyond humiliating the president . Do you care if he has any dough or not . I dont think his base cares about any of this. Thats a lesson that hasnt been lost on the Trump Administration writ large. We know that with greg pruitt. Scott pruitt. Scott pruitt rather. We could come through this whole mess with him still in this office and Trump Supporters not caring about these ethical violations because thats what the president s allowed to do. I have a feeling the scott pruitt situation only getting stickier. Now on to the other big story. We learned about an hour ago that dr. Ronny jackson is dropping his bid to become the next secretary of veterans affairs. It comes the day after Va Committee Ranking Member jon tester released detailed allegations from nearly two dozen of jacksons former colleagues alleging everything from failing to appropriately prescribe medication to creating a toxic work environment. Then the tweet about trying to destroy Ronny Jackson. We call him doc ronnie. An admiral. Highly respected. I watch what jon tester of montana, a state that i won by, like, over 20 points, you know, really they love me and i love them, and i want to tell you that jon tester i think this is going to cause him a lot of problems in his state. He would have done a great job. A tremendous heart any idea who you might these are all false accusations. Theyre trying to destroy a man. By the way, didi did say welcomo washington. Welcome to the world of politics. But for jon tester to start bringing up stuff like candy man and the kind of things he was saying and then say well, you know, these are just statements that are made. Right. Theres no proof of this. I want to bring in nbcs Peter Alexander at the white house. The president makes some valid points in there. That were not seeing Ronny Jacksons complete reputation destroyed based on allegations and he is a twostar general. He served president obama. Admiral yes. Excuse me, admiral. He has served president obama. G. But the president is blaming washington and the swamp. Is the real issue here that the white house did not properly bet ronny for the big stage, a cabinet level position where youve got to go through Something Like this. That didnt have to happen had there been a wider vetting process ahead of time. The white house has said all the checks in the past have come up golden, that none of this information is true. Theyve pushed back, as is he, on what he describes as baseless and anonymous attacks on him. To be clear, this is a man who sort of lacked political skills more broadly to be prepared for this week. The white house didnt do a lot to prepare him. Saying he thinks he knows who the next nominee will be. Its someone the president says has political capabilities. Here specifically is what dr. Jackson said this morning. He said the allegations against me are false and fabricated. If they had any merit, i would not have been promoted and entrusted to serve. He adds, because of how washington works, these false allegations have become a distraction for this president and the important issue we must be addressing, how we give the best care to our nations heroes. A little bit of new information. White house official tells me this decision was made last night, communicated to the president. Then unclear whether it was dr. Jackson himself who told the president or the chief of staff. But thats when the decision was made. Though it became official by the white house when he announced it this morning. As for dr. Jackson, sarah sanders, the press secretary here, says hes back at work today, he remains a naval physician assigned to the white house. But one outstanding question is whether he will remain the physician to the president. The physician whos assigned to look after President Trump. Stephanie. I want to bring my panel in. To you first, again, these are allegations about Ronny Jackson. We dont know if theyre true. I mean, candyman is an aggressive thing to say, especially if were talking about long sleeping pills for long flights. How does he recover from this . Hes going to pull his name from the va secretary. Can he go back to being a white house doctor . I think thats a good question. I think politicos done good reporting on how these pills were handed out. A lot of people traveling on these trips took them. Put that to one side. On business trips, as soon as youd be on a long flight for work, you go to the office doctor and get the pills. The question to me thats more concerning are the allegations about his ranking on the job. These are just allegations but they have to be investigated further. If he is incapacitated in any way when charged with taking care of the president on these international trips, its a huge problem. Its a huge problem, but he also could have been on a work trip and it could have been after dinner when he was in his room, not serving the president. Did it need to happen on the world stage where now his name is destroyed . Theres another issue here before outside of his reputation at damage, is he signed off on the fitness exam. You dont think the president weighs 235 pounds . We dont get the documents. This say great point. From this white house that would substantiate the president s wherewithal, ie, his taxes, and we havent gotten an independent audit of his health either. Jackson made a public appearance at the white house and said a man who is clearly overweight could probably live to be 200. I think thats called into question too. Was he operating in good faith . Thats a good point. The fact that the va is a 400,000 person organization. It is very difficult to manage. It is a very difficult job. A critical job that people on the hill care about a great deal. He has no qualifications for that job. Then let that be the lead. This guy has no management experience. Hes not qualified for the job. Loads of people can agree on that. But thats not the route they took because if you were to make that argument it goes directly into the face of the president who says hes qualified for it. The argument did begin with that point. If he had gotten to hearings it would have gotten to republicans asking him what is your plan for the va . How can you manage all these people . Im not sure he would have had great answers for that. Ultimately the nomination, barring that, would have come down to his lack of qualifications. The problem with his lack of qualifications is it speaks to trumps management style. He does things by the seat of his pants. He thinks he recruits the best people. He doesnt. He thinks he promotes the best people. He doesnt. Ronny jackson is just the latest example of people whose name went up who had to pull, who couldnt get confirmed. Or who got jobs. These are all excellent points. The president s not wrong. That this public stage, this public smears of people, is going to deter top talented people from wanting to go to washington. The president s using that line to distract us from the real manner. This arrived because the president put an unqualified person in play. This isnt because washington is a vicious place. The problem is we have a chief executive in the United States who cant do his job well and he puts someone in nomination for a serious job who wasnt qualified, end of discussion. You are correct. Speaking of, in the next hour, epa administrator scott pruitt, he is heading to the first of two congressional hearings where hes going to be getting an earful, potentially about many, many, many allegationings that run the gamut from excessive spending to big ethics violations. Facing at least ten different investigations as we speak, including ones by the white house and the epas own inspector general, question is, how does this man from oklahoma survive . According to nbc, it including focusing on his accomplishments and trying to dispel these bad allegations. If that doesnt work, New York Times got a hold of an internal document that indicates pruitt, he is going to try to put some of the blame on his staff. Theres a High Integrity move. I want to bring in nbcs kacie hunt live on the hill. It wasnt me, blame it on my staff. We need to remember what pruitts staff looks like. Theres epa lifers who are sort of these obama holdovers. Then theres the people doing all the work inside who are the Trump Administration appointed republicans. And then theres the oklahoma mafia, surrounding scott pruitt. The people that got giant raises who are facilitating his glam lifestyle. Who exactly is he going to pin this on . So much for the buck stops here, scott pruitt under increasing fire from members of the president s own party. Thats really the main risk for pruitt as he heads to capitol hill. These are otherwise routine hearings about oversight of the epa. Its the first time were going to see scott pruitt answer questions in several weeks. Hes done that one interview which i assume they thought was going to be softball questions from fox newss ed henry that did not end up being the route that henry took. It was a tough interview for pruitt. He has stayed behind the scenes ever since. Just to tick through some of these piling accusations. Ordering his own security detail to flash the lights on his way to a diplomat. Which for anyone who lives here in washington, we say its a fancy french restaurant. It is sort of the place to go if you want to bump into a senator having dinner with a colleague or Something Like that. The symbolism of something around the idea hes going to flash his lights and sirens to go around everybody on the traffic on 14th street on the way there is particularly rich. He is spent tens of thousands on a new armored suv. He spent over 100,000 on first class flights. I asked Mitch Mcconnell a week or so ago, do you think this guy is fiscally responsible, and you could see mcconnell didnt quite know how to answer that question. Hell say hes a supporter of pruitt. Many will defend him for actions hes taken around environmental regulations. Hes become something of a hero on right wing talk. For example, theres a lot of people sticking up for them. The president has stood by him. But there is going to be a very serious test for him. This president is somebody that watches a lot of television. The answers that pruitt gives today, if its something that produces a lot of ridicule, i think Scott Pruitts job is in jeopardy. It is the one thing President Trump does not talk about in the interview, and, you know, were about being generous here so id like to give Mitch Mocconnell a favor. Is pruitt fiscally responsible . Id like to help you out. The answer is no. How do you think it will go . I think its going to go badly. The phone booth in his office. The first class flights. Diplomat stuff. Republicans dont like it. Answer me this. Why not find another republican to do the job . I speak to people inside the epa. Republicans who are working on this legislation saying scotts not doing the work. Were doing the work. Find another republican. What is so special about this gentleman from oklahoma that he needs to be in the seat . It speaks to a broader issue whether or not the gop wants to demonstrate courage in the trump era and whether or not they will step up about issues of Good Government and ethics in government. They just have to do with running the government well. They havent stepped up at all. They may end up in the controversy with them. Now when you sign off on it, youre just as guilty. I dont disagree with you. I think thats the problem. There isnt pressure being brought to bear on the white house to comb paport with gener good ethics in government. Up next, Rudy Giuliani reportedly in talks with Robert Mueller about a potential sitdown with President Trump. Heres a question, will President Trump go along with it . We see two travelers so at a comfort innal with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com and its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. 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Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Welcome back. We are covering a Major Development in the russia investigation. New signs that President Trump may sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller. A New Washington post report reveals the president s new p m personal attorney, the one and only Rudy Giuliani, met facetoface with mueller this week, reopening negotiations about a potential president ial interview. Trump spoke about the russia investigation of course during that interview fox interview just a few minutes ago. Im fighting a battle against a horrible group of deepseeded people, drain the swamp, that have come up with a great deal of phony charges against me. We have a phony deal going on and its a cloud over my head and ive been able to do to really escape that cloud. The message, everyone knows, its a fix, okay, its a witch hunt and they know that. Gang, youre in luck. Ive got some very smart guests here. I cant uncrack that. I dont know what deepseeded people are. Joining me, washington post, National Political reporter and msnbc political analyst, my friend robert costa, also of course the host of Washington Week on pbs. And joining me, matt miller. And tim obrien still in the house. Roberto, what have you learned about this meeting between giuliani and mueller . Talks between mueller and the Trump Legal Team had stalled back in may. But now giuliani on the scene. Hes functioning in essence as the new lead negotiator for the president s personal legal team. Met with mueller on tuesday. Theyre trying to figure out can the president actually sit down and do an interview . Thats a decision the president and his lawyers have to make. Theyre showing resistance behind the scenes in this huddle with mueller. Mueller continues to reiterate with giuliani and others he needs to talk to the president to figure out his intent on key decisions. Okay, giuliani and mueller, given their history, these guys have known one another for decades. Is President Trump does Rudy Giuliani realize the position hed be putting the president in if the president sat down with mueller . Mueller is a smart, smart guy. He certainly recognizes that. People familiar with the conversations say giuliani is trying to just feel out mueller where he is in terms of the investigations time line, whats the schedule, whens it going to end. But the president based on my reporting is now more reluctant than ever to sit down for an interview because of the Michael Cohen raid and other factors and so is giuliani and so are the other attorneys. Tim obrien, youve been in this position with the president. You were in a legal battle. He got deposed. It didnt work out for him. Why . We deposed him for two days in september of 2007 and it didnt work out for him largely because he came to the depositions unprepared. Anybody who sits for a deposition with an opposing team of lawyers who are talented does a lot of prep work. They do their homework. They figure out what they can and cant talk about. Then they come into it with a plan. Trump in our case, it was problematic for him because we had a lot of his business records. We were able to put those things in front of him and he couldnt refute what his own documents said. But on top of that problem is he kept cater walling all offer the place on things he shouldnt have spoke about or he spoke about things in an inaccurate or truthful way. The second thing i think is going on here with this negotiation is ultimately if bob mueller wants to, he will issue a subpoena and force the president to sit down in front of a grand jury which is what happened to bill clinton. This negotiation thing only will go on for so long. Bob mueller is not an agent of the deep state regardless of what trump wants to say. Hes a republican. Hes a well regarded career Law Enforcement official. And trumps a tax on him only to mean his office and continues his pattern of assault on the nations rule of law. Does President Trump not realize how dangerous this is . No doubt, hes an extraordinary salesman. Hes great at selling his story. He doesnt put himself into the position where hes called to the mat or questioned. He goes on fox news and hes not really asked anything. He uses twitter where he gets to present his information and doesnt get any pushback. If he sits down with mueller and his team, these are professionals at cornering you to get you to the truth. President trump is never in that position. Yes, look, i mean, its only dangerous if he goes in and does two things, either, one, lies to the investigators or tells the truth, and the truth is a commission of a crime. I find this entire premise, this entire debate over whether he should do the interview or not really deeply frustratinfrustra. If he wants to exercise his fifth amendment rights, then he can do that. But he has to do it as a private citizen. Theres long been a rule from federal government employees, to the most senior employees, if the fbi comes to you and wants to interview you for an ongoing investigation, you have to cooperate. If you want to take your fifth amendment right, you have a right to do that as a private citizen, but you have to leave government. I dont know how you have one standard for the junior employees of the government and another standard for the president. That its somehow acceptable for him to skip out on this interview. Its not acceptable. I think everyone should be sending a clear message to the president we expect you to uphold the same standards of negotiating with all Law Enforcement. Im going to tell you, this if you think in 2018 anything is going to be held to these are the standards, this is the history, youve got another thing coming. Unless it is written in the rla, the president s not going to do it. We can talk all day long about unethical, but unless the president s breaking the law, hes going to continue. I want to share a bit more about what we heard. The president was talking about the russia investigation and james comey, and what he had to say in his book. I went to russia for a day or so. A day or two. Because i own the Miss Universe pageant. I went there to watch it. I go to russia. Now, i didnt go there, everybody knows. The logs are there. The planes are there. He said i didnt stay there overnight. Of course i stayed there. I stayed there a very short period of time. His men yes said i left immediately. I never said that. I never said i left immediately. Why is this a big deal . To you first, matt miller, is it a big deal as it relates to prostitu prostitutes . Because if its about whether or not you need prostitutes, you dont really need a full night. Yes, especially if they ruined the bed, if youre staying there a full night, i dont know where youll sleep. Its not even 10 00. Not to get too graphic. It doesnt matter what the president says. Whether he stayed the night or not. Because we know he did. The flight records are pretty clear. It was recorded last week. Its pretty clear he did stay one night. He told jim comey as revealed in the memos that he didnt say overnight there. I think what this will get back to somewhat is a bit of the credibility debate between comey and trump who is telling the truth about their interactions. While that could at some point be a question of debate, i dont think its an open question about which one is telling the truth. Bob, you want to weigh in . This is another, as the president said in the interview, a cloud over his presidency. A lot talk about this cascade of controversy, scandal, just months ahead of the midterm elections. They watch this interview. They wonder where is the message for them in terms of pot tithe politics, the policy, as they try to sell this blue wave. You talk to all these other republicans. What do you think washington what do you think Mitch Mcconnell, paul ryan, what do they think about the interview with fox . They know him. They know publicly and privately he had a combative very fiery personality. Good, that was trump being trump, but is it a good or bad thing . They have bought the ticket and theyre taking the ride. Theyve accepted it. Some of them have not accepted it and they decided to retire, head for the exits. But most of the Republican Party now, when you talk to them, they say were controlled by trump, were dominated by President Trump. It is no longer our party, its his party. If youre going to stay in it, with him as president , thats the reality. Ooh. Tim, last point . I loved the characterization they bought the ticket and theyre taking the ride. However, they have a responsible to make sure the ride doesnt go off the rails for the rest of the American People. Guess what, youre in those jobs. Its your own free will. You dont have to necessarily stand behind him. Great vasiconversation, guys. Up next, money, power, politics. Heading to china to head off a trade war. Theres a lot of innovation that goes into making our thinnest longest lasting blades on the market. Precision machinery and highquality materials from around the world. Nobody else even comes close. Its about delivering a more comfortable shave every time. Invented in boston, made and sold around the world. Now starting at 7. 99. Gillette. The best a man can get. When it comes to travel, i sweat the details. Late checkout. Downalternative pillows. And of course, price. 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Com my fast part of the show, money, power, politics. Sending a team of top economic advisers to china. This as the administrations latest effort to halt, halt, even though theyre not afraid of it, a brewing trade war between china and the u. S. Ben white back with me. My friend eli stockles. Larry kudlow who used to speak of it on a regular basis. What do you think is going to happen . A number of interesting things about this trip. Its interesting were sending four trade advisers who have very different positions on trade with china. Youve got kudlow and mnuchin, the treasury secretary, generally free trade, antitariffs, really dont want a trade war. You got Peter Navarro maybe going who are very hawkish china. The United States doesnt send people who disagree themselves. How much are they going to be negotiating internally . Its also not clear whether they can ask the chinese to do to avoid a trade war. Trump has grandiose dreams about reducing the trade deficit. So can they get a face save thing done which avoids a trade war . Or will the demands be so much that china says bring it on . Kudlow is a media guy. They want to come home with a carrot. Something to present. But lets go through whats really at stake. The idea behind tpp, using the United States and our ally nations to put pressure on china collectively went out the window with the president saying its a rape of our country, it stinks, im out of that thing, im only rejoying inin ining rejoining offer me the best deal ever. I think people who watched the recent remarks dont expect the delegation is going to come home with that much. Maybe some concessions on trading in terms of autos, being able to sell cars over there. But generally speaking, i think people dont expect much. They expect it to be sort of a facesaving thing, where the u. S. Can come back and say, see, we extracted this, but people who really know this stuff wont be too impressed. Lets say if they do come home, they get concessions on autos from china, to you, ben, isnt that a win . That would be a win, that would be a good thing. Im not saying this is all negative. I think its unlikely theyre going to get a lot on this trip. I think its more about setting the stage about future talks between President Trump and president xi of china. But it would be good to reduce the auto tariffs on the u. S. All that kind of stuff. And credit to the president for saying he wants to take this on. No, no, absolutely, we should give him credit for addressing what are real imbalancing here and unfairness by the chinese. What hes done is set up an impossible standard for himself. Thats going to be incredibly difficult to achieve with china. He can say ive got concessions. At the end of the day, the trade deficit number is not going to improve that much. I disagree. Because the president s standard is to get a winning headline. It is not to have a longterm win true, but the to the American People, its an ultimate win. Hes looking for a winning news cycle and winning headline. The german chancellor Angela Merkel set to visit the white house on friday. I dont think were going to be getting all the hugging, kissing and dandruff swiping we saw with Emmanuel Macron but what should we expect . The german chancellor has not been nearly as effective, most people would say, in terms of her dealings with the president because she hasnt wanted to do those things that flatter him, that macron was willing to do earlier this week. I think this may be a tougher meeting and the president may be in less of a mood to be friendly given after he rolled out the red carpet for macron, macron went and gave this speech to congress yesterday that was a rebuke. There are tough issues on the table and trump does not have the perm rapport with merkel. That may be tougher on things like trade, the eu, worrying about the aluminum and steel tariffs obviously in terms of the iran deal set to expire on mate 12th. Macron saying he expects the u. S. To walk away from that deal. Does merkel have the standing to push trump . Or does the conversation push trump further into a corner to isolate himself . Well, well soon find out. All right, moving ahead. Democrats. They are hopeful of the fast approaching midterms. Heres my question. I ask it every day. What exactly is the partys message . A growing number of democrats say it should not be impeaching President Trump. Something former Senate Majority leader harry reid is stressing. Listen. Ive been through an impeachment. And theyre not pleasant. I think the less we talk about impeachment, the better off we are as a country. Theres also this warning from rahm emanuel, telling axios, impeachment should not be a political tool. Joining me, cothe democratic senator from hawaii. I understand the point the democrats are making day in and day out about the president s conduct. But the American People want their lives better. Is it a mistake for democrats to continue to push on how morally reprehensible and unfit the president is . People voted for him in spite of lack of morals. Well, i think what we have to focus on, when it comes to this, is the rule of law and the operation of law. I think when it comes to the question of impeachment that is a serious question and its a question of law and politics. From my standpoint, sitting in the United States senate, if there ever were to be an impeachment, the United States senate, senators individually would be serving as jurors. And therefore i think it is extremely unwise and unjust to Start Talking about that in advance of any process. I think its important were party of the rule of law and insist on the operation of law and insist that the Mueller Investigation allow is allowed to complete itself. That doesnt mean that thats what goes into our campaign commercials. I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time, which is to talk about middle class economics, talk about what an awful bill this tax bill was, talk about health care and college affordability. Okay, tell me, what are those platforms . Because i feel like when i hear from democrats on a regular basis, theyre just going after trump, and i get that, theres a lot to go after, but if you want people to vote for you, you have to deliver them you know, the proposals were thin. We have more than a dozen who will reverse the state disinvestment in higher education. Thats number one. Secondly, not only are we going to preserve the Affordable Care act but we are looking at expanding coverage through the public option act, medicare for all. There are a lot of good proposals out there. I think one of the things they made is they werent ready to govern. We have to be prepared for the hard work that we have a real legislative program. I think people agree with us but they dont believe that we mean it. One of the things im working on is to make sure we flesh out so that after the election we are ready to role. What does us mean in if you push to the left . You some who dont want to support President Trump. But those people in the middle who dont want to support President Trump dont want to support people on the far left. Their capitalists. They believe in the American Dream and they want to be rich. Sure. And so do i. I think a lot of progressives are totally supportive of market capitalism. They understand the need for regulation. They understand the need to protect the little guy. They understand the way market capitalism is working now is not to encourage entrepreneurship, not to help people purr see their American Dream. One of the things i noticed is when people are looking they with more concerned about tone than about policy. A lot of progressive policies are extremely popular. If you ask people whether they are comfortable with certain political views they think they are not progressive. What they dont like is the yelling. What they dont like the shouting. What they dont like is constant accusations. If you welcome at them a lot of them ran on progressive platform but a little more down the middle. Why do you think Business Sentiment and i mean small and large, why do you think small Business Sentiment is up under President Trump . If you look at his policies he is not necessarily going to help those people but they feel like he is. Why is that . I think the economy overall is improving. It has been improving for a number of years. Think one of the things they need to do a better job of is they help Small Business people to move from one endeavor to the next. Why it is the ladder up to pursue the American Dream, why it makes no sense to undermine net neutrality, why killing marijuana businesses, but i think youre right. We dont do a good job of framing what we are about. You need to sell it harder. I think back to tpp if and president obama while may have put together an Extraordinary Program didnt sell it. I want to ask you because President Trump talked about mike pompeo. He is set to be confirmed as secretary of state. He talked about his meeting with kim jong un. Take a listen. This is a much more dangerous wall game. It is going better now. Pompeo did go there. He wasnt supposed to meet with kim jong un. They did. They arranged while he was there to say hello. We have incredible pictures of the two talking and meeting which i would love to release. So it was yjust a hello . No. It was more than a hello. They were with each other more than an hour. Whats your take on that . Talking is always better than preparing for war. I was concerned when i heard mcmaster and others were preparing various war plans for the korean peninsula. There is no solution where the answer is the United States military. We would have to occupy north korea. Im pleased they are pursuing diplomacy. Do i have critiques . Sure i do. I think one of the problems is it has been we v we vis rated. This is better than we thought we were two months ago. There we go. Progress. Thanks so much. Appreciate you joining me. Next time well need to do the interview in hawaii. I feel disconnected. Niany time you want to come. First of two congressional hearings. I have a feeling you will. Targing influencers who helped spread the word. Today they have added jewelry and sunglasses to the mix and plan to keep ongoing. Weekend mornings on msnbc. baby crying dont juggle your home life and work life without it. And dont forget who youre really working for without it. Funding to help grow your business. Another way we have your back. 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Utilizing pg es talent and expertise in that area trains our firefighters on the gas or electric aspect of a fire and when we have an emergency situation we are going to be much more skilled and prepared to mitigate that emergency for all concerned. The things we do every single day that puts ourselves in harms way, and to have a partner that is so skilled at what they do is indispensable, and i couldnt ask for a better partner. Nonch we think good news rules. Today our good news is right here in nbc studios. It is stake yotake your daughte sons to work. We have them onset and we are all wearing our love button pins. This afternoon we will be making Public Service videos with these kids promoting kindness and reminding everyone that love is an action and we just need to be a little bit nicer im here with ansly, jackie, harrisson and rees. Well see you all day long on twitter. Coming up now with hallie jackson. Can we take a selfie . Please go do that. Great to see all of you here. Hope you all ate your wheaties this morning. President trump apparently did. He talks ability what he calls a crazy Stormy Daniels case. His l