Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle 20190307

Cages . To my knowledge, cbp never purposely put a child in a cage if you mean a cage like this. And mind the gaps, the federal budget deficit ballooning 77 in the first four months of the fiscal year as the trade deficit hits an alltime record. Both driven by the president s tariffs on china and a trillion dollars tax cut. Is this a case for his unconventional policies now catching up to him . Im still looking for the trickle down. Well begin this morning with the kind of headlines that would be stunning in normal political times. The president s former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort is about to be sentenced to prison, possibly for the rest of his life. The president s former lawyer Michael Cohen has been handing over evidence that he said sheds light on what the president and his attorneys knew about cohens false testimony and all of the while the shadow of president ial impeachment is hanging over both the white house and capitol hill. I have a fantastic team here this morning. To break all of it down, first i want to get up to speed on exactly where we are. There is a lot going on. Later in afternoon, the president s former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort will be finding out just how long hell be spending behind bars. Remember, this man was convicted on eight felonies last year including tax fraud and bank fraud. Manafort could get 20 years, which would essentially be a life sentence for the 69yearold. Back in d. C. , the president s former fixer Michael Cohen has delayed the start of his prison sentence in part by continuing to work with congress. On wednesday he spent another eight hours talking to the house intelligence committee. Everything went very well. I believe that theyre happy with my responses. It was it has been a long day. It has been a long couple of days. But again i believe theyre happy and i have given them my assurance that any Additional Information that they need, im here to cooperate and will continue to cooperate. He answered every question that was put to him by members of both parties. We had requested documents plaintiff coh plainti documents of mr. Cohen and he has provided documents and there may be additional documents to offer and his cooperation with our committee continues. Now according to House Democrats, like Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings it provided a road map for investigations an several are underway but republicans say base them on Michael Cohens testimony is a mistake because that man perjured himself back in 2017 and they say he did it again during his testimony last week and here is what they are talking about. I am ashake i am ashamed of my own failures and taking responsibility by pleading guilty in the Southern District of new york and ive never asked for nor would i accept a pardon from President Trump. Okay. So he said that last week. But now Michael Cohens attorney lanny davis is admitting that his client did direct his thenattorney steven ryan to reach out to Rudy Giuliani last spring to discuss just that. The possibility of a pardon. This is complicated. I want to bring in ken dilanian who covers intelligence and National Security for nbc. So walk me through it. Is it clear whether or not cohen committed perjury last week and if he did, if he did reach out to Rudy Giuliani and ask for a pardon, and Rudy Giuliani said no, how much do we believe in Michael Cohens testimony because sounds like if he asked for the pardon and he got it, he would be willing to lie to this day. Stephanie, i dont think well see Michael Cohen charged with perjury out of this. But there is clearly a contradiction. He said i never asked for a pardon at that hearing under oath. And now were learning that he did reach out to his lawyers back when he was in the joint Defense Agreement with donald trump to explore the possibility of a pardon. The way lanny davis explains that is that there was a time when he was cooperating with trump in the liars club as davis puts it and then a time when he broke and came clean and that is what he is referring to this latter time in his testimony. We have some sound from lanny on that. Lets take a listen to that. When he decided on july 2nd, 2018, i will not lie any more, at that point he said i want you to publicly say i wont accept a pardon if he begged me to take it. And i said, are you sure . And he said yes. But again this was not made by cohen under oath at his hearing. And so it does create a credibility problem for him, n stephanie and well see where that leads. And he already has a credibility problem and doesnt it seem disingenuous if he asked for a pardon and it didnt go anywhere and it is sure easy to say i dont want a pardon. We got it brother, they didnt offer you one. Reporter but there is the question of what was the president s intentions and what were his lawyers intentions. That is what Congress Wants to know. Was there any intimation that bby lying he could get a pardon. You have your work cut out for you. My panel, kim whaley and a professor at the Baltimore School of law and Glenn Kirshner a former federal prosecutor and boxing enthusiast and paul charton. Glenn, to you first. What is the significance of these documents related to skoeens previous testimony . To me it is so hairy and it doesnt show he is a good guy and decided to tell the truth. Ive seen cooperating witnesses fall into the trap where they begin to believe their own righteousness. Lets face it. Michael cohen is a liar. Hes been a liar for a very long time. Hes been a fixer and a thug and enforcer and did he all that for who . For donald trump. For a decade. Prosecutors dont get to pick their cooperating witnesses because if we did, i could tell you, steph, i would walk out of the door and go up to the Shiloh Baptist church at noon on sunday and would you wait for the congregation to poor out and pick three churchgoing grandmothers as my witnesses. I never gott to do that. I had to develop as cooperating witnesses and thugs and killers and liars and business cheats just like Michael Cohen is. The problem is we do all we can to clean them up and impress upon them they have to tell the whole truth. Dont even fudge a little bit. Dont tell a little lie, even if it is a little lie that makes donald trump look more guilty than he is. Why . Because then you damage your own credibility and you hurt the governments case. I think Michael Cohen has hurt the government and the countrys case a little bit because it does look like he continues to fudge. When hes lived the life hes lived, it is kind of hard to purge all of this illegality and false life out of him and he may have gotten caught up. I dont know, glenn. There is a lot of things in this world i would consider hard. Im not sure i think it is so hard to tell the truth. Ken, does it appear he committed perjury and if he did what does that do to the rest of his testimony . Well, he said that he never asked for a pardon. Perjury is difficult to prove. He could say i didnt personally ask for a pardon. Okay. Fine. If his lawyer did. Not for giggles or fun, he did it for Michael Cohen. There are two issues here. One has to do with whether he could be charged criminally. It is difficult to prove that case. Other has to do with his credibility in congress and right now i think were moving into a era where the president s accountability for established wrongdoing, we know from the Southern District of new york he was part of one felony involving Michael Cohen, we dont know if there is any additional crimes or wrongdoing that mr. Trump himself could be linked to. But it is happening now in congress. Which is a politically accountable body and it really matters if the American Public feels that this process has integrity because it is either probably going to come down to an impeachment process or throwing mr. Trump out of office at the next election and if that if that is the case, he cant escape the statue of limitations for his own liability so it does matter politically whether he could be indicted and charged and tried for perjury, if there is a perception that hes continuing to lie, i do think that is a problem for the broader case for potential impeachment or at least accountability for what has been happening in the white house which under the republicans in congress have turned a blind eye to. Paul, we know the cooperating witnesses are rarely the sacred sisters of notre dame. But this could this be the string of hearings that are involving potentially compromised witnesses and if that is the case, how do democrats approach these hearings . Well youre exactly right, stephanie. And as glenn said, we used to stand in front of juries all of the time and say swans dont swim in sewers. Sow begin with the understanding hes a convicted liar and now look for kroob rating evidence. What makes the allegations all the murkier we have to remember these are Trump Lawyers talking to cones lawyer and talking to a lawyer being advised by a lawyer and the public needs to hear clarification on what happened here in order for him and the allegations to gain greater credibility. At the end of the day, what will win or the day or fall the day is the corroborating evidence. What evidence corroborates what mr. Cohen has said. That is why congress is right to ask for these documents and that is why the white house has to respond with the documents that theyre seeking so we can determine, is mr. Cohen telling the truth or is he not. Glenn, i have to ask you about Paul Manafort. It is sentencing day. What are you looking for . Im looking for the judge to impose probably two decades of confinement on Paul Manafort. I say that with no glee in my voice. Any time we sentence offenders to lengthy prison terms it feels like a loselose. Lose for the victims certainly and lose for the defendant and his family. But this indictment really does have a feel of a Lifetime Achievement award for everything Paul Manafort has been doing frankly to the detdryment of our National Security and of americas interest. So i think were going to see a sentence that will result in him being guest of the federal bureau of prisons for the rest of his life. My goodness. Thank you, all. Well leave it there and take a quick break. Up next, Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in the hot seat. Appearing yesterday before lawmakers, telling them there is in fact a crisis at the border and also taking very tough questions about what the administration knew about the trauma family separation causes. When you officially began family separation in spring 2018, were you aware of research sewing it causes trauma that can do both immediate and longterm damage to Childrens Health . The information that i was aware of at the time was that the trauma is part of the journey to come up to the border illegally. No more excuses with cologuard. We all make excuses for the things we dont want to do. But when it comes to colon cancer screening. Im not doin that. I eat plenty of kale. Ahem, as i was saying. With cologuard, you dont need an excuse. All that prep . No thanks. That drink tastes horrible but. Theres no prep with cologuard. I cant take the time off work. Who has two days . And i feel fine no symptoms everybody, listen all you need is a trip to the bathroom. If youre 50 or older and at average risk, cologuard is the noninvasive option that finds 92 of colon cancers. You just get the kit in the mail, go to the bathroom, collect your sample, then ship it to the lab this is your year own it cologuard is not right for everyone. It is not for high risk individuals, including those with a history of colon cancer or precancer, ibd, certain Hereditary Cancer syndromes, or a Family History of colon cancer. Ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. Covered by medicare and most major insurers. Ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. Was a success for lastchoicehotels. Comign badda book. Badda boom. This year, were taking it up a notch. So in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn 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. Nobody glows. He gets it. Always the lowest price, guaranteed. Book now at choicehotels. Com welcome back. Im stephanie ruhle. Democratic leaders in the house are walking a very fine line trying to pursue investigations into the president and his allies while claiming that any talk of impeachment is premature. But on wednesday Freshman Congress woman Rashida Tlaib made it clear shes not willing to wait. And remember, this is setting a plus den precedent. If we dont hold impeachment proceedings today to follow the u. S. Constitution, think about this. That is not the last ceo that runs for the president of the united states. This is not going to be the last person that tries to get away with this. Charlie sykes, from the bulwark and msnbc contributor and felipe ryanus secretary of state and spokesperson for Hillary Clinton and twitter ore fish an ado join me charles, lets turn to you. And this is a push by a small group of democrats. Does it risk undermining all of the investigations and sort of the game of chess that nancy pelosi, Elijah Cummings, adam schiff are trying to play, pursuing investigations and crossing every t and dotting every i. But not overreaching. That is a good analogy, they are playing chess and you have members of the caucus throwing the board over. Why would they do such a thing . The investigations have the ability of the ability to make the case, tell the stories, build it, change public opinion, lay the groundwork. All of that sort of thing. Because if you go right to impeachment, and that may eventually happen after the mueller report, there is the risk of overplaying your hand because the harder they push, the harder the republicans are going to push back and the harder the trump folks will play the victim card. So there is there is a strong argument to be made for being tactically savvy step by step. Tactically savvy. So if you, felipe, were advising democratic leadership, how woud you tell them to play this. It is not just smart to do your homework and get everything lined up like adam schiff and jerry nadler and Elijah Cummings is that it wont happen at all. That what wouldnt happen at all. Impeachment and taking the office back and the tension is that it is not that simple. But you know what is this this is what it was designed for. If it wasnt designed for this situation. I dont know what it was for. The leg work is being done. But clearly we know just from what we see on television that the guy should be impeached. He has committed numerous high crimes and misdemeanors under any definition and he should not be in office. There is only one way to do that. But hes at over 40 approval rating. If you want to do that, and impeachment isnt easy, get your ducks in line. You will never convince that 40 . That is not true. Sure it is. Those 40 theyll be with him in he starts shooting up fifth avenue. He has a strong base. But we have seen do you have a fan this a beyonce. And what is the flip over the bottom. The bottom is a mirror. He has a fan toward him. Charlie go to this. I feel unprepared. I knew there was a wind machine, i would have one for myself. The democrats need to be smart about this. But do not give the Trump Administration a gift. And you watch the last week and it does appear that they are by the meltdown on a variety of other issues, the division, the kind of things happening with antisemitism actually doing playing it is writing the playbook for the Trump Administration. The trumpettes are figuring out, no matter how bad trump is, the people in ohio and wisconsin will go into the ballot box and he know how bad trump is but the democrats have made themselves toxic and gone too far. I never thought i would say that nancy pelosi is the voice of centrist moderation but there are women who went and voted democrat at the midterms said, donald trump is too disgraceful and let me find something better. If democrats get toxic, then theyre all swimming in the pool. Why are we not talking about Abigail Spamberger or conor lamb or the democrats who ran as centrists mikie sherrill. And who won control of the house as opposed to the loudest voices that are pushing the party possibly into a tactical mistake. I dont disagree that this is exactly what impeachment is for. This is and we may get to that point. But it is not an argument to be weak to say you ought to be smart. We keep talking about the Democratic Party pushing tloeft forgetting all of the centrist democrats that won seats last november. I want to bring ben wittes in and legal analyst. Ben, is that a real push toward removing the president or is it a political statement . Because if you want to remove the president , truly, it would require convincing twothirds of the senate that means getting every single democrat and 20 gop senators. The only way you are possibly going to get gop senators is if Robert Muellers report and all of the other investigations are bulletproof and were certainly not there yet. So i think you just articulated in posing that question exactly the potential resolution between charlies point and felipes point, right. Right now the record that exists will convince a certain number of people that the president should be impeached and removed from office but it will not convince enough of those people to get it done. And so the question is whether you want to proceed now, when it would be principlely a political statement and that is not disparaging, political statements are legitimate but it would be a political statement, not a functional act. Or do you want to let the record develop in the perhaps expectation that the worse the record gets, the closer it could be to a functional act. That is a strategic and tactical decision and i think what youre seeing in the Democratic Party is a split over it. Between the people who actually want to hold the impeachment fire until it is a functionally meaningful action versus the people who are interested in it now for reasons of the political statement of the unacceptability of the president s conduct that it would make. Charlie, i want to play part of what Lindsey Graham said this week. I think the authority for all of this is mueller for from my point of view and if the democrats want to look at other things, everything trump, they do so at their own perrel. I remember the public felt we were pushing clinton too hard and went too far on impeachment and it sort of blew up in our face. And it will probably happen to them. Do you think sort of the lessons of the clinton impeachment are valuable today. We are and i have banned the word unprecedented on the show, we are living in unprecedented time in the Trump Administration so referencing clinton, does that do anything . Yes, there are lessons of the clinton impeach. But there are alsoon lessons from the nixon impeachment and you remember that the house judiciary chairman peter reddino had a bipartisan approach. He had southern democrats and worked with the republicans and he worked to build the record and made everybody participate in this. The difference between the nixon impeachment and the clinton, was clinton broke down on partisan lines and therefore failed. The nixon impeachment was more bipartisan and the record w overwhelming and that is one of the model to keep in mind. Weve had successful and unsuccessful impeachment proceedings. And nixon last the statement of the tapes and the indictment was being drafted and he respected the law. Donald trump will never get to a point where he said okay, im going to leave because the court is about to throw me out and that is a real problem. The other thing that drives me crazy is this notion that the stop looking at the fan. He literally is on sit with a wind machine in front of him. Can you hand that . I cant. The notion that the republicans suffered for impeachment in 98, im not sure what that mane what that mean. They lost a couple of seats and they won the presidency in 2000 for eight years and back here with donald trump. I would make the argument that the republicans did a damn good job of poisoning impeachment forever more and benefitting from that right now because all were doing is saying, well, it didnt work out so well for them for bill clinton so we shouldnt do it again. How did it not work out sore well for them. Ben, Paul Manafort sentencing, what are you looking for. The Justice Department has asked without specifically asking for any specific amount of time, has put on the table what would be a lot of time for Paul Manafort. That is what the guidelines ask for or suggest. And i think the relevant question right now is does judge ellis go there or does he buy in any sentence that anything is mitigating. I suspect he will throw a lot of time at Paul Manafort and that will send a message. It certainly will. Well have our eyes on that sentencing today for sure. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Up next, Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in the hot seat, doubling down on the president s claims that a serious crisis at the border and well fact check that. But first, the awkward moment in a conversation and the person slips here i go. And they slip your mind. President trump is no different. While he enjoys inventing nicknames, he does not always remember peoples names and yesterday he added one of the top ceos to that list. Homeland security investigation special agent Celestino Martinez and he goes by d. J. And c. J. He said call me either one. And what we saw at pleasure what an end right now. What we just saw, we just left pleasure or paradise. And youve really put a big investment in our country. We appreciate it very much tim apple. Tim apple. Biopharmaceutical researchers. Driven each day to pursue lifechanging cures. In a country built on fostering innovation. Here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. And a new therapy that gives the blind a working gene so they can see again. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. With tough food, your dentures may slip and fall. Fixodent ultramax hold gives you the strongest hold ever to lock your dentures. So now you can eat tough food without worry. Fixodent and forget it. Your favorite restaurants now it doesnt matter dash. Where you are. It doesnt matter what youre hungry for. It doesnt even matter how many you are. Restaurants come to you. Delicious at your door. Download doordash. First order, no delivery fee. Just yes or no. Are we still putting children in cages . To my knowledge, cbp never purposely put a child in a cage if you mean a cage like this. Ive seen the cages. I just want you to admit that the cages exist. Sir, theyre not cages. Can you tell the American People this is not a manufactured crisis, this is a legitimate National Security. This is a legitimate National Security crisis and we could do better as a country. Kirstjen nielsen defending the trump immigration policies and the controversial zerotolerance policy which separated children from their parents. In the first hearing since the president declared a National Emergency at the border, nielsen implored lawmakers to do more to protect the countrys National Security. Much of her argument was rooted in new data from the border. Customs and Border Protection reported this week that illegal border crossings in february were nearly double compared to last year. During february more than 76,000 unauthorized immigrants turned themself in at ports of entry or apprehended crossing the border marking an 11year high. To put this in context, while the numbers are high, they are still lower than previous spikes. In 2000 crossings readed 1. 64 million and for this first year 268,000 have been apprehended but this time the change is in who is crossing. In the past, it is largely been single men looking for work. Now many of those crossings are families escaping dangerous conditions at home and while the president and his team argue that the new numbers give more reason to build a wall, many others say these numbers only prove that the administrations harsher immigration policies are not working. Joining me now to weigh in, a man who spent an enormous amount of time at the border and seen the cages, nbcs Jacob Soberoff and charlie and felipe still with me. Jacob, youve been to the border and seen this play out firsthand. When you saw secretary nielsen testify, what did you feel like . Like sister, please, in your head. It was like, in my been, gas lighting 101. How are you saying that we didnt see i dont know if we have the footage when we took the tour of the Border Patrol security, they literally took me this is the photos. They took me inside the epicenter of separations and allowed us to look at the cages on a dhs sanctioned tour, her own department walked us around and showed us children in cages that were separated by the Trump Administration and they said that wasnt true and no policy. Here is some more of the footage. And they were the ones that took us there. So how can she say that it didnt exist when not o not only did i see it with my own eyes an the children did and the American Public saw the images and all of us with our own eyes. To me, i was just like it was nuts to hear her say that. Charlie, walk us through this. Because look at recent numbers and this surge. On one hand secretary nielsen and the president make the argument, see, it is a National Security. Look at these extraordinary numbers and now we need new hospital facilities and new detention centers. But on the other, theyre saying people are so scared now theyre running for the border. Well first of all, her testimony was or wellian because we know the definition of daj. There is a humanitarian issue when you have families coming from central america. They are not the drug dealers or the rapist or criminals. They are also not crossing areas where you would build a wall. They are turning themselves in. But i also think that it is really important to go back to the center of this policy which jacob is documented so effe effectively. Which is to make the cruelty part of the tactic, the cruelty was designed to deter people from doing this. This was a conscious decision to do this. To put the children in cages, to deter people. That is obviously not working. Felipe, another person pursuing the president getting his way on Border Security is Vice President pence. He said to congress, put politics aside and stand up for Border Security. Now there is many people in the country who have not seen the wall, it is not a priority for them. But when they start to look at these numbers, and me realize the resources that we need to go into protecting the border, some of them are saying, just build the damn wall because i want hospitals in Rural America and i dont want hospitals to serve these people. I think the more people see the data, the argument, the less they see a need for this. And a need for what . Border security or a wall. The two get confused. And they shouldnt. People understand we need to secure or borders and that a wall might help that but not at 25 billion and cost of everything else, including shutting the government most things that donald trump screws up is by neglect or not being not that smart but what is amazing about immigration is how much time he and his team spend on it and they cant get it any worse. If the four of us sat here months ago and talked about secretary nielsens odds of being in the job and we would say no and the problem is shes there because she is actually enacting the number one policy of the Trump Administration, which is lie, lie, lie, to get yourself out of it. And frankly watching it, i was almost more upset with congress yesterday than i was with nielsen because she provably perjured herself a number of times last year in terms of what the policy was, what the child separation policy was. Subsequent to her testimony, documents were released and found. There should be a conversation about why is she saying these things . Why is she still in office . Because, look, she get shellacked yesterday but she knew she would and there is only one person she cares about and that person looked at her and said great. Youre doing great. Ill keep you on another six months. And senator merkley has asked the fbi to investigate the statements by secretary nielson and pogo has documents showing he signed into place the separation policy. I just think i cant say it enough. We have to remember the numbers are going up. And the reason the numbers are going up are not because of some crazy phenomenon weve never seen before. Donald trump and his policy and rhetoric are encouraging people in some cases, forcing people in other cases, to cross the border illegally. We saw it at the end of the obama administration. Doesnt that help his argument for the wall. When democrats say a wall wont work and people run for the border because the wall is coming. They keep coming. Deterrence doesnt work. Clbts put in the first waves of walls walls and infrastructure and it does slow people down they come in dangerous places and in the last couple of months, there are real consequences of deterrencebased immigration. And there has to be a broader conversation about going down to the northern triangle countries and secretary nielsen did mention that but it has to be substantial and not just based in a Law Enforcement strategy that says you cannot come into our country because that just simply doesnt work. And the evidence shows over the past decades that it doesnt work. A complicated situation. Jacob, charlie, felipe, thank you so much. Great to see you here in new york. Is President Trump losing ground on something he tries to build a legacy on. This is what i like to talk about. The u. S. Trade deficit, what he promised to erase is now hitting a record high. Ting a recordig hh. So we improved everything. G. We used 50 fewer ingredients. Added onehanded pumps. And beat the top safety standards. Johnsons® choose gentle. Half of Small Businesses fail within 5 years. Ne. And more people than ever struggle with debt. Intuit is here to change this story. 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For the first time, maybe ever, the trade deficit just fell think of that by for the quarter 52 billion. Nobody reports it. I think nobody would have thought that would be possible so quickly. 52 billion reduction in the trade deficit for the quarter. Nobody reported it because it is not accurate. Now despite the figures he continues to reference, the actual Commerce Department is telling a very different story. We just received the data yesterday showing americas trade deficit in goods rose above 891 billion. That is the highest level in the nations nearly 243year history. Meanwhile, the trade gap with kline h with china hit a report of 419 billion despite the promise of reining that in with tariffs. With me ben white and a cnbc contributor. Walk me through this. Ben, is this a sign that President Trumps policies are a failure or he doesnt understand trade deficits because weve sat here over and over and said i think hes confusing a budget and trade deficit. It is both of those things. Good. A failure of the policy the tariffs on china and the tariffs on solar and washing machines have been retaliatory tariffs and he havent been able to sell abroad and he based his campaign and presidency that was the deficit was a problem but it means in good Economic Times americans have a bunch of money and they like to buy stuff abroad. We do sell stuff abroad too. But there were a number of things, a stronger dollar and u. S. Economy lead to trade deficit. They dont tell us anything about the health of the u. S. Economy. So he said he will bring the trade deficit down and then implemented policies that made it worse. So it is a failure of how he conceived of it and the policies. We know the administration loves the line, promised checks and tick through Campaign Promises but i dont understand how they could make that argument. And john navarro with mixed support he wrote a oped in the New York Post and he praises the administration for keeping promises on trade. But amazingly, he makes no mention of the higher trade deficit. So i wonder, who is he writing that for . Or does he write it for the New York Post thinking that is not a paper larry kudlow reads because there is zero shot larry kudlow looks at this and said right on, brother. And they have very different outlooks on trade policy and trade deficits. But the fact of the matter but they both need too tell the same story on the president and they cant possibly in this case. They cant possibly. All they can argue is wait and see, our trade policies havent taken full effect yet and we havent gotten the new nafta in place and we may not because congress may not fas and we havent made a trade deal with china and to be fair to them, that deal will include some big purchases of u. S. Goods by china which could reloose the by lateral trade deficit but that means it will grow elsewhere and overall it wont reduce the trade deficit at all. Lets talk budget deficit. It is up 77 from a year ago. We know that that in part is caused by the tax cuts but tax cuts, were waiting for growth out of it. But it is also caused by an increase in spending and that spending isnt going away. Is there any chance this ship is going to get righted given the Current Administration . No. Were not lightening up on spending in any way. No. And were not reversing the tax cuts. We probably wouldnt do a big spending bill like last time. And trump said before the midterms, were expecting a middle class tax cut. No. He said he would reduce the budget deficit and erase the National Debt in eight years which was a completely ridiculous claim. And what hes done with a giant tax cut is in crease deficits to a trillion dollars every year. And every Single Person said this tax cut will not pay for itself and it will increase the deficit and low and behold that is what happened. And macro economics who do this for a living who said the trade deficit would go up they were right and they were right and trump was wrong. And you wrote an article in politico and the Real Estate Market and the outlook going forward. We know real estate. This is President Trumps jam. It is. What made his father a wealthy man and what made trump a wealthy man. Talk about the health of it and how it could impact the 2020 election . It is not great. We sort of jump off from the manhattan highend Real Estate Market which is what trump knows the best and that suffered a good deal partly because of the tax cut bill which eliminated the state taxes so all of the super rich move to florida. And hurts all of the blue states. But overall Construction Spending is down and investment in building new homes is down. The affordability index for millennials and who want to buy homes is off the charts bad. And generally what that means is if you get an economic slowdown, it will be worse because housing andance illary stuff is 15 of the economy and if housing does poorly like in 2008, it wont help the trump economy, it is great to be here. It is great to have you here. It makes us a little bit smarter and better. And democrats are divided on how to respond to Freshman Congresswoman illhan omars comments on israel again. Now holding off indefinitely on voting on a resolution condemning antisemitism and bigotry. Well go live to capitol hill to dig into that next. To capitol ho dig into that next psoriasis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. 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In response to the latest controversial comments made by Freshman Congressman ilhan omar, House Democrats plan to vote on a measure to condemn antisemitism. What was expected to be a simple vote has exposed a deep rift within the party and sparked a larger debate on how to handle these situations. Omar was criticized again, this time many suggested that she said supporters of israel had allegiance to a foreign country which lawmakers and groups like the antidefamation group labeled as an antisemitic trope. Now theyre split on how to move forward. Lawmakers on the left calling on leadership to broaden the resolution and include other forms of discrimination like islamophobia. Garrett haake is on the hill with the latest. Youve got breaking news on this resolution here. Whats going on . Yes, two democratic sources tell nbc news the house will vote on this resolution today. It had not been on the house schedule last night or the house schedule that was released this morning but its our understanding that the resolution has been completed. Well expect to see texts some time this morning. And some time tonight the house will vote on a resolution condemning hate. What exactly is in this resolution is the subject of a lot of debate among House Democrats over the last couple of days. First a resolution very narrowly targeted at antisemitism. Essentially focused on ilhan omar and her comments without naming her specifically. There was some pushback from some elements of the democratic caucus. Younger democrats, progressives saying omar was being unfairly targeted. What about islamophobia, what about White Nationalist speech thats been pref lent over the last few years. They wanted to see all of this condemned in a resolution, not just a pileon, on ilhan omar. I talked to nancy pelosi about this yesterday afternoon. She said this was something theyre working on. She didnt think omars comments were intentionally antisemitic, but there was a widespread feeling among democrats they had to do something to condemn these comments and at least the broadest possible terms. It appears theyll now take that action today. And as soon as we find out whats in that resolution, well be back to report it. I have my panel with me. Charlie and philippe. Ive spoken to prominent democrats this morning who are frustrated by this. Theyre watching the leadership fumble because theyre afraid of certain progressive factions from the left. I dont understand that. Hate seems pretty clear to condemn and move forward. Because if not, you are swimming in the dirty pool that you condemn republicans for being in. Ive seen this movie played out on the right before with steve king. This is not a good look. The disarray in the party, i think, was on full display. And i think that, look, the blast radius of this is going to be significant because any semitism, and this was intentional antisem tim. This is she apologized the first time and then doubled and tripled down. If you want to see what this does to a political party, look across the pond and see whats happened to the labor party under jeremy corbin. You do not want the democrats to corbinize themselves on this. Theyll pounce on this and weaponize this and one of the strongest arguments the democrats have going into 2020 is that they are the party of inclusion. They are the party of diversity, the party that is the antitrump in terms of his racialized rhetoric. And now the script has been seriously muddied. So theres real danger for the democrats in this. I dont understand this. Politico says this puts nancy pelosi in a tough spot. It says if pelosi comes down too hard on omar, she risks alienating progressive lawmakers. Why . Why would coming down hard on antisemitic speech alienate progressive groups . Im a dope. Help me out. It shouldnt, or im a dope, too, but just to go back for a second, weve not seen this movie on the other side. You cant cite steve king because steve king has been a racist for decades before someone finally said something and did something. I wouldnt tout that as i just mean tolerance and inability to push back and call them out. Democrats have been able to say, we dont conduct ourselves that way. Only they do. They lose that now. As an american, i know that israel is vital to our security interests in the region. As an american jew, i am very sensitive to any kind of antisemitism whether its intentional or not. Id like to give her the benefit of the doubt and think it wasnt, but what she said was antisemitic. As an american jew who is a democrat, this drives me crazy that we get bogged down in these things where we just rip ourselves to bits because were democrats because we just these are things you dont see the republicans doing. And i have to say, at times like this, i wish we didnt go through what the republicans doorg. Vote to condemn antisemitism. Vote to condemn hate. Lets move on. Because this from a strategic go ahead. Shes in a Stronger Political position now, omar is in a Stronger Political position now than she was before when you think about it. Why . Well, because of the backlash. Because you have president ial candidates rallying around her. You actually have nancy pelosi appearing to try to soften the criticism that was not intentional. Okay, fine. She has doubled down on antisemitism and has strengthened her standing in the political party. Thats a bad omen. A shortterm positive for her but in the big picture, is it not bad for democrats . Should democrats not be in lock step . Its us versus him . I think its good for democrats because it is a healthy debate to have. Its not a healthy degbate to have for weeks and weeks on end. Its a healthy debate to have . I think its a healthy debate about whether something is antisemitic. You have to look at twitter today. I dont want to debate it for weeks. We have teachers on strike, we have rural hospitals closing down. We can walk, chew gum and we can do better than debating is this antisemitism . I wish we could just move past this, but were not, and the truth of the matter is, it seems like theres a political dynamic to this, where this is an argument that were surprised we didnt see two months ago. Not in the form of antisemitism but in new versus old of far left and the old establishment. And it seems like, you know, nancy pelosi ditched or avoided this when she first got it and now were stuck in it. We just need to get past it. Its not political. Its about humanity. How about decency first. Thank you for joining me this hour. Now i hand you off to my dear friend Hallie Jackson with more. Im Hallie Jackson in washington where the focus is on all the president s men, including his former Campaign Manager. In a matter of hours, Paul Manafort will learn whether he could spend the rest of his life in prison. More on his first round of sentencing today, including what we will and will not learn about the mueller investigation. And the chances of a pardon with plenty of questions about