Man explain to me, will you . Im joking. All right. Guess what, that does it for us. Yasmine will pick up the coverage right now. Im sorry, the 52 extra seconds is on me. Come on. Thanks, joe. Hi there, and yasmine vossoughian. What is the big idea, the ideological battle for 2020 is already under way. Call it the billionaires versus the progressives candidates. Clashing over ideas that could reshape the electorate and the country. Ive been criticized for being a billionaire. Elizabeth warren wants to criticize me for being successful. Any minute now, high level trade negotiations will resume amid reports the president will meet with chinas lead negotiator tomorrow. After the u. S. File charges against huawei which the Chinese Government called unfair and immoral, are the talks already over before theyve begun . And shared intelligence. The heads of the cia, the fbi and director of National Intelligence testify in unison against almost everything the president has said about foreign threats. The president saying this morning perhaps the intel officials should go back to school. Isis is intent on resurging and still bds commands thousands of fighters. We have won against isis. North korea seek to retain its wmd capabilities. Things are going very well with north korea. Welcome. We begin with a debate shaping the 2020 race on the democratic side and potentially the future of the country. On one side, you are seeing aggressive proposals to reshape the countrys social safety net. Others say those plans are straight up unamerican. Ive got a great team to help break it down. First, no one can say these candidates are playing it safe at all. More than 600 days out from election day 2020, the conversation isnt so much about straw polls or fundraising. It is about big, bold plans and some equally ferocious pushback. Take elizabeth warrens wealth tax on the richest americans, a plan that could raise nearly 3 trillion by 2028. Considering that the entire federal revenue stream is between 3 trillion and 4 trillion annually. You can see how much that is. Potential opponent who happen to be billionaires themselves say thats not what our country is about. Watch this. If you want to look at a system thats noncapitalistic, take a look at what was perhaps the wealthiest country in the world and today people are starving to death. Its called venezuela. I think she believes in programs that will lead to a level of socialism in america. Shes a smart woman. I respect her. This isnt personal. I just dont agree with her. So warren fired back on twitter write whats ridiculous is billionaires who think they can buy the presidency to keep the system rigged for themselves while the opportunity slips away for everybody else. The top. 1 of 1 who may my ultramillionaire tax own about the same wealth as 90 of the United States. It is time for change. Kamala harris who launched her democratic run a few days ago is push agequally drawingic plan and declared her support for a plan to replace private Health Insurance with medicare for all. Bloomberg and schultz shot that plan down, as well. Health care fundamental right for every american . Yes. Every american should have the right for Affordable Health care. Absolutely. But you believe mend it, dont end. Amend it specifically because premiums have gone up. You could never report that. Youre talking about trillions of dollars to replace the entire private system where companies can provide health care for their employees would bankrupt us for a very long time. Its not a practical thing. I want to bring in the panel, tim obrien, editor of Bloomberg Opinion and grace rou is a podcast host for Spectrum News new york 1. Tim, im going to start with you. Medicare for all wealth tax. Theyre all really big ideas. Weve heard this from progressives before. Is it practical . Well, i think you have to assess practical in two wayses. Can you sell it to votes are and win on that platform . Does it function, as well, a policy that gets the result you want. Theres a long history of progressive taxation in this country and it works up to a point. Theres a point at which you can excessively tax people and it doesnt create extra revenue from that policy. So i think that has to be considered. Health care is the same thing. Weve had a Health Care Crisis in this country for a long time. I think obamacare was a Blunt Force Instrument that did a lot of good towards getting people to rethink how to deliver health care to people who need it. But theres still a lot of holes in that system. And i think theres a lot of thinking that a single payer system of some sort makes a lot of sense. But how you get there programtically, how you sell it to voters and private sector is complex. You hear the Michael Bloombergs and Howard Schultz saying these things wont necessarily work. We saw income inequality at the forefront with this government shut down. We saw federal workers who are middle income having to go to food banks to get food who arent able to make their mortgage payments. At what point do politics say look, we need to bridge this gap, whether you call it capitalism, socialism, whatever title you want to put on it, we find a way to bridge the gap between the multimillionaires and middle class people. Youre seeing an eooh electorate demanding that and even people have been painted as sort of fringe members of the Democratic Party like alexandria ocasiocortez pushing her home run tax hike on wealthy americans. Thats an idea incredibly popular in polls. I think youre going to see Many Democrats clamoring for that type of tax reform in this president ial election and from their candidates. When it comes to Mike Bloomberg who is a billionaire, thats something he cant hide from, thats part of his story, its central to it. Hes been more nuanced when it comes to taxes. He denounced the trump and the republican tax plan for instance. So it is a more complicated story but as we know in elections, Everyone Wants to boil things down to a butcher sticker. He may be branded as the billionaire who doesnt want to raise taxes on himself and his billionaire friends. I also think the real paths toward healing inequality, an issue building since the mid1980s, the middle class left behind is access to education and job creation. So true. I think job creationings is a really important issue for democrats to get their arms around both from a messaging standpoint and programtically. It hung Hillary Clinton up a little bit. Trump had a message that was smoke and mirrors. Immigration is a problem. Those people are stealing your jobs, china is stealing your jobs. In reality, a lot of the industrial jobs that got displaced were because after innovation. How do you deal in a world do you think it would be smart for the candidates to hang their hats on job creation than they are with the wealth tax and medicare for all . Would that be a smarter tactic for them . Job creation has to be part of the stool. I dont think they should ignore the other things. Democrats have to really, really embrace job creation and i think the issues of income inequality. Thats what created trump. En ot job creation front, we have record low unemployment right now in this country. The question is not even about creating jobs but create krg the right kind of jobs. These Democratic Candidates are going to have to make the case for raising the minimum wage, for jobs that pay better, have more dignity, are something that people can use to pay for their rent, pay for child care. All of those things because what were seeing are more americans holding more jobs but its not bringing in enough money to pay the bills. Grace, what is the impact of billionaires like Mike Bloomberg and Howard Schultz throwing their hat into the ring for the president ial race . I think one of the impacts is going to be theyre going to be an easy target right away. Its easy. Elizabeth warren can run the field by throwing out a tax hike like she did yesterday and saying look, these billionaires dont want it. They want to keep the money for themselves it becomes easy to paint a billionaire opponent into a corner, but on the flipside, candidates like Howard Schultz and Mike Bloomberg having money at their disposal. They dont need to depend on donors the way that the rest of the democratic field does. And so they have the ability potentially to tell their own story effectively to the electorate in a way we havent seen before in a president ial contest. Howard schultz on morning joe saying hes not running as a democrat because he no locker believes in the Democratic Party. Is he making it worse for himself by rubbing as an independent . Nobody wants him to do it. I know. They dont. Its true. Its true. Youre seeing you are seeing so much ire directed at him from all sides. Ive examined this every which way in 2008 and 2016, he poured a lot of money into figuring out if there was a way forward through a third party or through an independent candidacy for the white house. He said it couldnt be done and that it would only lead to a reelection of President Trump. So i think Howard Schultz needs to figure out who his constituency is is, how to build it. Otherwise, youre going to see democrats in particular taking shots at him and then the president himself saying this is great privately telling people that he wants sthoults run because it would be good for him. He wants Howard Schultz to run. Donald trumps survivor mentality and reptilian instincts have taught him its in his interest to have an independent candidate in this race because you knows it will splinter the democratic vote. Democrats have a long memory and remember ralph nader in florida during the bush v gore race. And that vote got tilted in bushs favor because of ralph naders presence in that race. I also think theres a long history of other independent candidates who have never surmounted around 5 of the vote. What is the point though to running as an independent for Howard Schultz . Hes not going to win as an independent. Im going to put that out there. Whats the point for running . He must think there is some pathway forward. Otherwise this seems like. Or you know, theres a great argument to be made we need a robust third party in this country. I think theres an argument against that you dont want to do that in the middle of a campaign in which people have concerns about donald trump getting reelected. Yeah, grace, i want to talk about this decision to have Stacey Abrams deliver the rebuttal after the state of the union address. What are we expecting from her and do you feel its a smart choice . I think it is a smart choice for the Democratic Party. As we know, theres a long history of people delivering these rebuttals where theyve been considered a rising star and they sort of fall flat because the format is difficult. Youre standing in front of a camera. People may be somewhat exhausted after listening to the main state of the union, the main show. It may be not the best plat for for her sort of like hosting the oscars. You want the invite to come in but youre not sure whether its a good thing in the end. Tim, ive got to ask this question. Who do you think is going to be the toughest contender for donald trump . Who does he not want to get the nomination for the democrats . Thats a great question. Hes going to having antipathy towards other Business People because he campaigned as a businessman but hes been proven in the shutdown not to be a good dealmaker and his track record as a businessman. What about the art of the deal . It ended up being the art of the collapse on this one. It seems like he had a good contender in nancy pelosi. Hes got to be worried about kamala harris, too. Stick with me. Youre coming back. Up next, everybody, 17 congressional members charged breaching a deal to avoid another shut down. 17 days from now will meet for the first time today. Did the president s tweet this morning scrap any deal before they get started . We just finished talking about the 2020 race, Howard Schultz tried to paint himself as an independent. And Steven Colbert is wondering what that actually means. Schultz is considering running for president as a centrist independent which is the politically correct term for most obnoxious guy at the dinner party. When he was asked what he thought the Corporate Tax rate should be, he said i dont want to talk in the hypothetical what i would do if i was president. Thats literally the only thing youre supposed to be doing while running for president. What, instead of yes, we can, its what will we . Es, we can, its what will we . [cell phone rings] where are you . Well the squirrels are back in the attic. Mom . Your dad wont call an exterminator. Can i call you back, mom . He says its personal this time. If youre a mom, you call at the worst possible time. Its what you do. If you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. Where are you . Its very loud there. Are you taking a zumba class . Your mornings were made for than Psoriatic Arthritis. 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Dont let another morning go by without talking to your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. Not long ago, ronda started here. And then, more jobs began to appear. These techs in a lab. This builder in a hardhat. The welders and electricians who do all of that. The diner staffed up cause they all needed lunch. Teachers. Doctors. Jobs grew a bunch. What started with one job spread all around. Because each job in energy creates many more in this town. Energy lives here. The latest inisnt just a store. Ty its a save more with a new kind of Wireless Network store. Its a look what your wifi can do now store. A get your questions answered by awesome experts store. Its a now theres one store that connects your life like never before store. The xfinity store is here. And its simple, easy, awesome. Welcome back. We are just a couple weeks away from the deadline for lawmakers and the white house to come to an agreement on Border Security. And later today, it is the first meeting of 17 as you see it there congressional negotiators trying to figure out how to avoid another government shutdown. The president tweeting this morning, if. The committee of republicans and democrats now meeting on Border Security is not discussing or contemplating a wall or physical barrier, they are wasting their time. Msnbcs Garrett Haake joins me live from capitol hill. Good morning to you. It seems from the president s tweet were not having much luck getting anywhere with these meetings but well have to wait and see what happens. Talk to me about whats going on today. Reporter good morning. This will be the first meeting i would tell folks at home dont expect a breakthrough. You have a lot of experienced negotiators in this meeting from both sides of the aisle. Expect more of a statement of values. This is the opening positions of both parties coming into this thing. The real work will be done as it always is on capitol hill behind the scenes and oftentimes by staff as they negotiate this. But as the president s tweet lays out, were in the same position here quite frankly, we were over the last few weeks. Where do we go on the wall . That will set the tone and direction for these entire negotiations and as republicans have been saying in interviews and on television over the last few days, they expect democrats to come to the table with something different. Take a listen. The speaker, nancy at the pel, and schumer would always say, i cannot discuss anything until you open up the government. But if you open up the government, we will discuss about Border Security. And that meant the wall and barrier. So its really going to be on the democrats who made this promise today at 1 30 when they walk into that room, if they have the same language, that is wrong. So yasmine, the wrinkle over the last few days has been the increasing number of democrats saying things were willing to talk about fencing, about barriers in places where we deem its appropriate. Wall is still very much a fourletter word among democrats here, but the idea there might be something that could be semantically twisted into something the president might be able to accept as a wall but democrats see as more fencing or traditional Border Security might be the way out of this. I dont think well see the answer today but well see how this is going to play out and get a good clue how this is going to play out starting this afternoon in the first meeting. About three weeks or so. Hope they get something nailed down. We dont want to head into another government shutdown. I dont think anybody wants that. Thanks, garrett. Up next, everybody, the nations top intelligence chiefs testify on capitol hill about worldwide threats. And they are all in agreement on one thing, and that is that they disagree with President Trumps assess ment of some of our biggest adversaries. The president firing back saying his intel chiefs should go back to school. At least four people have died so far from the recordsetting freeze and then gulfed the midwest including one in wisconsin where 7,000 people lost power in negative 30 degree temperatures. In chicago where the windchill was down to negative 49 degrees, they lit the train tracks on fire in order to keep them warm enough to use. Things are only getting worse. Nearly 1800 flights have been canceled across the country. With windchills hitting 70 below zero in some cities today. Well be right back. Man im here with the cortezs, lawsons, carnevales, at their Family Reunion to show them the family of chevy suvs. All cheering this is the trax, the equinox, and the traverse. Looks amazing. So, which ones your favorite . Going for the trax, actually. Its more compact. Man the traverse . Equinox is jumping out at me. That red is saying, like, im a fun car. If i wanted to be a cool dad, the traverse. I like the blue one. The red one. And i would take that traverse. Well, luckily you dont have to agree, because no matter what you want in an suv, chevy has the perfect one for you. Man 2 i think you got it covered. Woman i love them all. laughing man 2 now audible members get free fitness and Wellness Programs to transform your mind and body. Download the audible app and start listening today. I thodid the ancestrydna toian. Find out im only 16 italian. So i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors was eastern european. This is my ancestor who i didnt know about. Moving . Thats harder now because of Psoriatic Arthritis. But youre still moved by moments like this. Dont let Psoriatic Arthritis take them away. Taltz reduces joint pain and stiffness and helps stop the progression of joint damage. For people with moderate to severe psoriasis, 90 saw significant improvement. Taltz even gives you a chance at completely clear skin. Dont use if youre allergic to taltz. Before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. Taltz may increase risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, symptoms, or received a vaccine or plan to. Inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz, including worsening of symptoms. Serious allergic reactions can occur. For all the things that move you. Ask your doctor about taltz. This morning the president is firing back at his intelligence officials including the heads of the fbi and the cia and the director of National Intelligence after they gave their annual assessment of worldwide threats. What they said during their testimony very different from what the president has said. While isis is nearing territorial defeat in iraq and syria, the group has returned to its guerrilla warfare roots while continuing to plot attacks and direct its supporters worldwide. Isis is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighters in iraq and syria. En and we have won against isis. Weve beaten them and weve beaten them badly. North korea will seek to retain its wmd capabilities and is unlikely to completely give up its Nuclear Weapons and production capabilities because its leaders ultimately view Nuclear Weapons as critical to regime survival. Weve made a lot of progress that has not been reported by the media. But we have made a lot of progress as far as denucle denuclearrization is concerned. Things are going well with north korea. Not only have the russians continued to do it in 2018 but weve seen indication theyre continuing to adapt their model and that other countries are taking a very interested eye in that approach. I have president putin. He just said its not russia. I will say this. I dont see any reason why it would be. I want to go to Peter Alexander from the white house. Peter, good to talk to you this morning. The president responding pretty forcefully this morning to say the least. Take us through it. Reporter yeah, thats exactly right. We saw this right out of the gates this morning. The president with a series of tweets going off most recently about the Intelligence Community which will make his only item on his schedule today his intelligence briefing that much more interesting. Heres what the president said in reaction to gina haspel. First heres the sound bite from the cia director. He says the intelligence people seem to be passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of iran. They are wrong. When i became president , iran was making trouble all over the middle east and beyond. Since ending the terrible iran nuclear deal, they are much different but a source of potential danger and conflict. Heres what his cl i a director gina haspel said on iran yesterday on capitol hill. Take a listen. Is iran currently abiding by the terms of the jcpoa in terms of their Nuclear Activities . Senator king, i think the most recent information is the iranians are considering taking steps that would lessen their adherence to jcpoa as they seek to pressure the europeans to come through with the investment and trade benefits that iran hoped to gain from the deal. But since our departure from the deal, they have abided by the terms. Youre saying theyre considering but at the current moment . Yes, theyre making some preparations that would increase their ability to take a step back if they make that decision, so at the moment, technically, theyre in come compliance but we do see them debating amongst themselves as they failed to realize the economic benefits they hoped for from the deal. So that was the cia director gina haspel teak speaking on the hill yesterday. The president effectively calling her and the rest of the Intelligence Community out today. We heard from the democratic senator joe manchin who expressed real concern about the president s comments this morning. He said he cannot to let his feelings overtake the fangts. From the House Intelligence Committee their adam said its a credit our intelligence agencies continue to provide realistic analysis of the threats we face. He writes its deeply dangerous that the white house isnt listening. The bottom line, yasmin, the baseline is there is this disconnect between the intelligence analyses, what the Intelligence Community is telling the president and the white house and perhaps what the president may be hearing from others, john bolton, his National Security advisers and others including whatever media it is he consumes. Thanks, peter. Want to bring in nbc National Political reporter carol lee and chief global correspondent bill neely. Before we get into everything the president has been tweeting there morning, i first, carol, want to get your perspective what took place. Your take aways from yesterday. What you saw was almost line by line item of the president s Foreign Policy initiatives rebuttal or counter narrative. I think the most devastating piece of that for the president is that he talks in these very kind of from the gut, what he wants to believe, what his feelings are, kind of emotional reactions to his Foreign Policy initiatives. This was a very factbased assessment, and because of that, it dramatically differs from everything that he has promised whether its north korea denuclearizing or you know, the isis being defeated and so you just see this disconnect and you also see in his reaction something very familiar pa weve seen even before he took the oath of presidency which is he takes on Intelligence Community and challenge what they have to say. He during the transition compared their assessments to nazi germany. He has a long history of defying what his intelligence officials are telling him. If you know anything about gina haspel, i dont think anybody would call her passive or naive to say the least. This woman has spent her career at the cia. Dan coats, all of them. Noun of them are passive or naive, but the president is calling them out saying theyre passive naive. Because of what gina haspel said about iran, sees this as them coming out and saying he shouldnt have pulled out of the jcpoa. Thats why hes now coming out against them specifically about iran and the iran be nuclear agreement. These tweets are not going to go down well in langley or anybody else especially when you add insult into the agreement. Its not unusual for the president and intelligence communities to disagree about one or two things but its unprecedented for them to disagree from everything from north korea to iran and so on. And yet, its oddly unsurprising. Why should we be surprised that this president disagrees with his Intelligence Community. Except this is critical. This isnt a he says, she says dispute. This is binary. Isis is defeated. No it isnt. North korea isnt a threat anymore. Yes, it is. Mexico and the wall is the chief National Security concern. Its not even mentioned till page mexico isnt mentioned till page 16. This is crucial. Lets talk about them, the north korea summit that could be happening in a month or so. Wondering if the president will take any of the intelligence into the summit considering the fact he thinks he has this is love affair with kim jongun talking about the letters kim jongun has been sending him and hearing from the chiefs that kim jongun has every initiative or every hes committed beak to keeping his nuclear arsenal. Intelligence officials have for months said that you know, north korea shows no signs of wanting to denuclear rise. Basically the regime sees the program as essential to its survival. Theyre not interested in denuclear rising. We have reported theyre concealing Ballistic Missile sites. Theyre continuing with their program. And so theres this rhetoric from the president about whats happened since he had his first summit in singapore. And compare that to what north korea is actually doing. Theres a real disconnect. One of the fears that weve been hearing from people not only around the president but allies in the region is that the president s going to get in this meeting with kim jongun and make beak proms where he gives weigh more than he gets. And that we may never know about. Theres a little bit of a syria effect in the sense that the president has this is conversation with the leader of turkey and suddenly says were withdrawing all troops from syria. So theres concern Something Like that can could happen when he gets in the room with the leader of north korea next. On top of that, the fact that north korea has no interest in actually denuclear rising. Bill, director coates says when it comes to china and russia, the two u. S. Adversaries are more aligned than at any point since the mid1950s. What do you make of that . Which should worry us all at the height of the cold war. Its not unreasonable if china and russia and north korea and iran see the United States as their main adversary, enemy, they would Work Together together. And you just have to look at these tweets this morning and what happened yesterday in congress to see actually china and russias work is coming along very nicely because its in their interests to sow division to, sow doubt, discord in the west. Thats what they want. And thats exactly what they were watching in congress yesterday. And they will be watching. One of the things thats interesting about this moment and that hearing yesterday and this report is that its coming at a time when you see republicans in Congress Starting to push back on president on his Foreign Policy, on a number of fronts. The fact that Mitch Mcconnell came out and had this amendment that called into question the president s decision to withdraw from syria and potentially afghanistan, you know, its not something weve seen before in two years in, youre now seeing the president s Foreign Policy wear on congressional republicans. Isnt it incredible were now at a point that american adversaries can now use the word of the intelligence chiefs in this country against the president himself. Were at that moment in time. Weve got to go. Thank you, bill, thank you so much carol. Up next, everybody, after pleading not guilty at his arraignme arraignment, roger stone continues his media tour. Are all of his appearances aimed at audience of one with that person having the power to pardon him . But before we go, you meed to check this out. Head over to nbc news where you can stephanie rhules interviewing with bill ready of pay paul talking about the Digital Economy and how businesses are remaking everything we know about american entrepreneurs by simply giving people easier access to Financial Services. Well be right back. Access to Financial Services well be right back. For your heart. Your joints. Or your digestion. So why wouldnt you take something for the most important part of you. Your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. I couldnt catch my breath. It was the last song of the night. It felt like my heart was skipping beats. They said i had afib. Whats afib . I knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. I needed answers. 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Before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. Learn all you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. Talk to your doctor about xarelto®. boy got it. To help protect yourself from a stroke. dad its slippery. boy nooooooo. grandma nooooooo. dad nooooooo. dog yessssss. vo quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is two times more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. boy hey look, i got it. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. This morning, Chicago Police say they are investigating a possible hate crime after empire star jussi smoe let was brutally attacked. He described being approached by two men yelling racial slurs and he told investigators he was attacked and at some point one of the men wrapped a rope around his neck. At this tile, Chicago Police say they have not identified any suspects and have not been able to find video of the reported attack. Nbcs Steve Patterson is following the story from our los angeles bureau. Thanks for joining us. Good morning. Give us the latest on the state of this investigation. Yasmin, police say theyre doing everything they possibly can on this. Last night, they announced theyve extensively canvassed the area near the crime reviewed hundreds of hours of video and expanded the search to the chicago waterfront and beyond and found nothing. So far they say no description of the suspects has surfaced or any sign of a suspect vehicle. He told police he was outside of a Subway Sandwich shop about 2 00 a. M. Local time when the two the men approached yelling slurs. He said the two then jumped him starting a physical assault with repeated blows to the face and at some point during the attack, he says one of the men wrapped a rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical substance on him before both took off. Smollett took himself to the hospital for treatment. The alleged attack caused outrage across the country from stars like carrie washington to viola davis to Reese Witherspoon to steve harvey and lee daniels. Both posting messages of encouragement on social media to org guaagss like glaad and the naacp condemning the alleged attack highway his family says hes now out of the hospital and now recovering at this point. Unbelievable. A lot of questions. Not a lot of answers to say the least. Steve patterson, good seeing you. Want to look to the legal battles surrounding the president siver circle. Longtime adviser to the president roger stone due back in court on friday after pleading not guilty to seven charges from the special counsels office. But thats not stopping stone from sounding off in a media blitz. Legal analyst Cynthia Alksne joining our panel now. Im going to start with you on this one. Good morning. Last night on fox news, Laura Ingraham asked roger stone if his only path out of this legal mess is a pardon from the president. Lets take a listen to what he said. I dont know many fbi agents who know much about politics or Public Relations or the law in many cases. The truth is if you read my book stones rules, i believe when youre falsely accused of something and you said nothing, or roger stone was unavailable, most americans assume youre guilty. The whole purpose of this over the top raid on my house in which they sent in more men than were used to protect our compound in bekz was to aint a picture of me. That is so ridiculous. As public enemy number one. Weve got a plug in of his book, but he dodged the question, as well. Cynthia, what do you make of the strategy where hes docking the question . Is that a reapout directly to the president where hes not directly answering it. I think his reachout is when he constantly says he wont bear false witness and says those types of things. Hes obviously reaching out. When you read the indictment, its a pretty strong case. He is hes kind of out of options. He has to either cooperate with mueller or come up with a plea deal or plead to the indictment which seems unlikely or get a pardon. Those are his own choices. And he doesnt seem to be the type of guy who is prepared to cooperate. So he doesnt have anywhere else to go. All hes really doing in my opinion is hurting himself with all these an constant statements. He is poisoning the jury pool himself. Its a small jury pool in d. C. And hes hurting himself. But thats his choice. Lets talk about barbara mcquades latest headline in the daily beast. She asks this question, why is mueller hide who ultimately directed roger stone to contact wikileaks. She points out in this piece the wording of muellers indictment, its very careful to not actually include the name of the person that we have all been trying to figure out who it is, who directed stone to contact wikileaks. What are these charges against roger stone, what do they tell you the direction regarding the Mueller Probe . Well, the indictment is looks to me and to many other prosecutors like its a Building Block indictment. It has not only a discussion of what roger stone did and how it affected the victims in the case and the people he was directly lying to and with, but it also it reaches up to people who really dont affect the indictment, right . So if some big shot like the biggest big shot in the Trump Organization told a slightly smaller big shot to call roger stone, that wasnt information that was important for the roger stone indictment. But it is a Building Block for a future indictment. So it looks like there is a future indictment coming, and thats what all this discussion of the famous paragraph 12 is all about. Tim, lets talk about matthew whitaker, what he said the other day. Whether or not it was deliberate or a slipup. Who knows what it was. He said obviously that the Mueller Probe seems to be wrapping up. Weve talked about this over and over since the probe began we thought it was wrapping up and it doesnt seem to be wrapping up in any way, shape, or form. What do you make of this assessment of whitakers here . We havent been the one saying its wrapping up. Its agents or representatives of President Trump who repeatedly said this is going to wrap up soon, going back to dowd in the fall of 2017. I dont think Matt Whitaker is a Civil Servant carrying out the rule of law. He was put into this position for a roby the president. I think hes got an interest in saying its wrapping you soon because the trump camp wants it to wrap up soon. He may be right but the thing to remember around all of this is that bob mueller has been proceeding the same way he always has as a prosecutor, deliberately, strategically and tactically, he doesnt feel i think like he has to hit a certain time frame on any of this. He knows much more than the public knows and probably knows much more than most of the trump camp knows. I think hes going to see this through to the end. Grace, have you been covering President Trump for quite some time, new york politics, new york news in general. You know who the president has chosen to surround himself with over the years, over decades. And you also know what loyalty means to this president. How does that play in to this entire Mueller Probe and the really the conversation surrounding stone . So roger stone and donald trump go way, way back. Back in 1999, when donald trump was first testing the waters considering a run for the presidency, roger stone actually led his president ial exploratory committee. So decades ago, the two of them were side by side plotting this out and it was really roger stone au along who was the one fanning the flames of any type of president ial interest from donald trump. They have been together hand in hand throughout all of this. When it comes to roger stone though, this is somebody who describes himself as a political dirty trickster. In new york, he made headlines, he had to resign from jobs with the Republican Party with Republican Leaders in new york because he was accused of making a threatening phone call to governor spitzers father. Hes someone who has sort of acted in the fringes of what is acceptable in politics for years and now its gotten incredibly serious because of these charges. Youre not surprised at all by his role in all of this considering what youve been covering with him and his history. He is going to push the envelope as much as possible and its led to this indict. Cynthia dprrks appreciate it. Up next, moments ago the trade representatives for china and the u. S. Began their latest round of negotiations, but after the charges filed against Telecom Giant huawei, are the talks dead in the water. Money, power and politics is next. In the water. Money, power and politics is next thisyeah. 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This can happen during or after treatment and may be severe and lead to death. See your doctor right away if you have new or worse cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, diarrhea, severe stomach pain or tenderness, nausea or vomiting, rapid heartbeat, increased hunger or thirst, constipation, dizziness or fainting, changes in urine or eyesight, muscle pain or weakness, joint pain, confusion or memory problems, fever, rash, itching, or flushing. These are not all the possible side effects. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, including immune system problems, if youve had an organ transplant, had or plan to have a stem cell transplant, or have lung, breathing, or liver problems. katy vo where i am now compared to a year ago, its a story worth sharing. avo living longer is possible. Its tru. Keytruda, from merck. With more fdaapproved uses for advanced lung cancer than any other immunotherapy. Bennett. Time now for money, power and politics. Its back to face to face trade talks with china. Negotiators are sitting down in washington d. C. For two days of work. The deadline for a deal is march second. If no deal is reached by then, the u. S. Is going to raise tariffs on 200 billion of chinese imports. Joining me now felix sam. Thank you for coming in. I appreciate it. What is the likelihood anything fruitful could come out of the negotiations . 60 , id say. I think theres a good chance theyll come to some kind of agreement if they dont manage to get everything agreed. Thats almost impossible. These trade negotiations normally take a couple years. They will maybe coming to a handshake to extend the selfimposed deadline. Its only donald trump who wants to get us wound up. No one else feels this sense of urgency. If they feel like theyre make progre progress, it could get pushed back. Whats driving the urgency . If you look back at what donald trump has said, hes been obsessed with china. He thinks china is the enemy. He hates a bunch of stuff. Hes like this is one of the things that i can do with executive power. I can put these tariffs in place and really hurt the chinese and he kind of likes the idea of threatening that and maybe even doing that. I want to talk about huawei as well. The criminal charges that were brought against huawei and their cfo. Mnuchin is saying its not going to effect the there are two issues but theres certainly an issue there. As far as the chinese are concerned, its like its all one big thing. They are considering this arrest as a declaration of economic war, basically. Its as big if not bigger than the tariffs. Of course theyre connected. And trump himself has actually said impromptu that maybe he might drop charges if we come to an agreement on something. I doubt that, but its going to make any agreement that much harder. Were going to be watching the trade talks and see if anything fruitful comes out. Thank you so much. Coming up the author of the latest tell all book, cliff simms is here. F simms is here. gasp singsong budget meeting sweet. If you compare last quarter to this quarter. Various mmm. Its no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream. Just as important as what you get out of it . With the creamy taste of philly, our broccoli cheddar is made with aged melted cheddar, simmered broccoli, and no artificial flavors. Enjoy 100 clean soup today. Panera. Food as it should be. Unstopand its strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. Which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. Well almost anything. Leave no room behind with xfi pods. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Click or visit a retail store today. Welcome back. Now know how we like the end the show. No matter what theres always good news somewhere. Last week we brought the story of a maryland mother of three and a federal employee battling cancer. She did not receive her paycheck and had to make a choice between paying rent or for her chemotherapy. After the report on the story, a Good Samaritan sprang into action, calling the hospital to wipe out her entire balance and paying her february rent. Latimer received her final chemo treatment on monday and we wish her a very speedy recovery. That is incredible. That wraps up this hour. Coming up right now, more news with hallie jackson. I love that story. We had her on this show as well. People were asking how they could help. Its amazing to find a Good Samaritan who did. So incredible. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. This morning the billion dollar questions, two men so far not putting their money where their mouth is with democrats on edge. So what are Howard Schultz and Michael Bloomberg waiting for, and what about another 2020 contender . Shes not walking anything back when it comes to mid caedicare all according to her team. Where harris stands as she tries to work her way into the white house. President trump is reupping his war with his own officials blasting the countrys top spies after they contradict him on isis, on north korea, on russia, and hes going after a former aide, too, after that not so nice book went public. That onetime staffer cliff sims, author of team of vipers