All options are on the table. It has to be atax on the rich from sea to shining sea is the most ineffective way to do border security. I believe we have to build a wall in portions and then so, hold on. So hold on a new investigation aimed at taxpayer money spent at trump businesses. Government Reform Committee just made the announcement moments ago the democrats say this follows reports taxpayer dollars flowing to the president s businesses. The man who knows this best in the house is Nbc News National Security reporter ken dell lain yan joining us now. This is an effort by House Democrats to send a letter to every federal Agency Seeking information that any business that the federal government is doing with the trump organization. This comes in the wake of a series of reports, for example, in february the state Department Spent 15,000 to rent rooms at the trump property in vancouver where the family was hosting a grand opening. This comes amid a climate where the head of the office of government ethics resigned and said last month that the United States has become an ethics laughing stock because of the president s conduct and unwillingness to deal with these conflicts of interest. And you know, the president would respond hes exempt from the federal conflict of interest law and b, hes super wealthy and not paying attention to what the federal government is doing. Thats n thats not material to his bottom line. Ethics experts say this is creating a climate and sending a message that were not paying attention to this stuff. This stuff used to matter. Theres the paerngs of impropriety if the federal federal government is acting to enrich the president of the United States and raises questions whether individual employees faced with these decisions are making a decision to do business with a trump property or not and what pressure they are facing. Ken, thanks very much in washington. This morning President Trump is marking his 201st day in office as he continues his working vacation at his golf resort in bed minister, new jersey. He took new aim at north korea, a very serious situation tweeting after many years of failure countries are coming together to finally address the dangers posed by north korea. We must be tough and decisive. That after north korea had tough new sanctions imposed, it says it will never give up the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile programs. Joining us live from the White House Deputy assistant sebastian gorca. Greetings. China getting china and russia to gri agree to the sancs was a success. This is now the fifth or sixth or seventh round kpening on how you count them and generally none of them served to stop north korea. Kim jongun boosting about being able to hit u. S. Cities and long been able to strike seoul and troops in south korea with traditional weapons. What makes you think this is going to do it . Have you thought out the dangers of a military escalation with north korea . We, we have, why is this got a chance . Because this is the toughest sanctions package against north korea in u. N. History. The fact that through the good offices of secretary tillerson and Ambassador Haley and the president , we not only have the ten temporary rotating members of the Security Council agree but we have the five permanent members, including russia and china agree means that they are completely without north korea and pyongyang have painted themselves into a corner and the only option they have now if they are rational is deescalate. Lets talk more broadly about terror strategy, which is something youre directing for the wougs. Most of the extremist inspired attacks on the west have little or no material or operational connection to isis. Lets call it isis 1. 0 versus 2. 0. The new attacks seem to be inspirational i am employee ploring attacks to use whatever they have at their disposal and a lot of people say it wont wane. It jettisons the Political Correctness of the last eight years and call the enemy for what it is, we dont say they are Unemployed People and need more jobs. How does that stop an attack . May i answer your question without being interrupted . Go ahead. You cannot solve a problem unless youre allowed to talk truthfully about it. We call it radical islamic terrorism. This is the crucial part, were not here to invade other peoples countries and occupy them. He thinks thats unamerican. We are here to help those nations that share our values and interests and help them fight the fight, whether its the iraqis and kurd s in iraq or egyptians in the sanaa or european allies that deal with this Severe Threat to their own countries. I dont understand how calling it by its name helps stock the attacks in paris or belgium if you god forbid caught cancer and the hospital was forbidden from calling it cancer and said you have the flu, go take aspirins, would you have the right treatment . No, but theres still no cure for cancer have you not heard of chemo . I have and it can still cancer can still kill you but cancer distant matter what you call it. If i call it the flu, whats going to happen . There must be a better response to that. I asked a straight forward question. And i gave you a simple answer, if you misdiagnose misdiagnose anything. Right. A serious disease or International Geopolitical threat youll never solve it in an administration that says its economic and these people are disenfranchise. Lets agree hold on a second. Its about people have ideology that is evil and has to be destroyed. Lets agree the question im asking is about what do you do with people committing terror attacks inspired by as opposed to operationally guided by isis. The fact you destroy isis doesnt have an impact on western attackers, what do you do to fight that . To get the lone wolf loon ticks . Theres no such thing as a lone wolf. That is a phrase invented by the last administration to make americans stupid. Theres never been a serious atash no, sir. Never been a serious attack or serious plot that was unconnected from isis or al qaeda, at least through the ideology and ttp, tactics and training and techniques and procedures that they supply through the internet. Never happened. It is bogus, this is an International Global threat. Not only to destroy organizations like isis which they are doing, they will be annihilated. But delegitimize the ideology so it will be become as heinous and reject as fashism and naziism is today. It has to be globally rejected like the swastika and well work with muslim partners to overtly and covertly delegitimize their message. Thats the definition of victory. When people dont want to become jihadis, thats when well have one. Lets talk about different kind of partners, the mosque in minneapolis that was attacked. We heard the governor calling it a terror attack over the weekend. Will the white house be commenting on it . When we have some kind of finalized investigation, absolutely, so, theres a great rule, all initial reports are false, you have to check them and find out who the perpetrators are. We have a series of crimes committed by right wing individuals in the last six months to turned out to be prop pull gated by the left. Lets allow the local authorities to provide their assessment and then the white house will make its comments. But the president commented on an attack that toopgs in london a couple of months ago before we had Additional Information confirming exactly what happened. Well, sometimes an attack is unequivocally clear for what it is, when someone shouts as they are stabbing a police officer, its pretty clear its not a case of a mafia robbing the bank. You think throwing a bomb into the mosque the question of who does it, when people fake hate crimes in the last six months with some regularity, its wise to find out whats going on before you make statements when they could turn out to be not who you are expecting. You dont have to make a statement about who did it but you can make a Public Statement denouncing how terrible it would be to attack a building of worship. Thats fine, im sure the president will do that. Why do you think he hasnt . Not like in the last 48 hours the president hasnt tweeted. He tweeted about his base, about a u. S. Senator. Hes tweeted by the failing New York Times and made no mention of the mosque and no mention of the three fallen marines who lost their lives off the coast of australia. Im not going to give social media advice to a man who won the election in large part thanks to his understanding of social media and to destroy the fake news Industrial Complex about who will win the last election. Hold your horses and count to ten and the president will do what he deems fit. Then, sir, we are in agreement. If the president would like to tweeting, i welcome him to do just that. Excellent. Sebastian g toorka. My pleasure. Eric prince is a former navy s. E. A. L. Officer best known for founding blackwater. Does his plan have any hope of working . Were keeping an eye on markets throughout the hour. Last i checked it was down. Now its up. I want ali to answer to me, a president whos got a stock market running like this, do the math. Why is the Approval Rating hes got so not going the same direction. Well see you on the other side of this break. Y at mom, in. As chief everything officer, lynne smith, gets ready to launch the school year. Binders, done. Supercool notebooks, done. Laptop setup, done. Thats mom taking care of business. But who takes care of mom . Office depot office max. During our taking care of back to school sale, order online and pick up instore in just one hour. And shes off. To another important business meeting. Office depot office max. Taking care of business finding the best hotel price is whoooo. Now a safe bet. Because tripadvisor searches. Over 200 booking sites so you save up to 30 on the. Hotelock it in. Tripadvisor. Ugh. Heartburn. Sorry maam. No burning here. Try alkaseltzer heartburn relief gummies. They dont taste chalky and work fast. Mmmm. Incredible. Can i try . She doesnt have heartburn. Alkaseltzer heartburn relief gummies. Americas longest running war has continued to cost the country lives and quite a lot of money. As the pentagon prepares to send dozens more marines into afghanistan days after the remains of most recent casualties in the conflict were returned home, 2,263 americans have died there since 2001. Over 20,000 wounded. So Many Americans still asking what are we doing there . The pentagon has spent more than 714 billion to date on just military costs fighting in afghanistan. Lets talk about solutions to this here. Former navy s. E. A. L. And blackwater ceo, eric prince will join us in just a moment but laid out his vision for a new strategy in a wall street journal oped. His plan includes appointing a federal official with broad powers to conduct the war and reducing troop numbers in afghanistan by training local units under private military leadership. Maintaining a small special operations presence in the country, also talks about lowering the cost of the conflict that stephanie just talked about by spending an estimated 10 billion a year on private military units rather than the 45 billion that the fund the conflict is expected to cost through the end of 2017. It also talks about containing terror groups and this is key, choking off the trade they use for funding their operations, that being the ultimate goal of this. Our next guest is eric prince, he is the executive drektder and chairman of Frontier Services group, former ceo of military contractor blackwater. He served as a navy s. E. A. L. And brother of the education secretary, betsy devos. Great to see you. Thanks for having me. Lets talk about this plan. Nothing has worked in afghanistan in the last decades and last hundreds of years and you could go back more than 1,000 years, afghanistan seems to be a very tough place to mana manage. What about your approach will work better . Let me clarify the pricing difference, 10 billion, thats not just on private military efforts that would include the continued support of the afghan army, which the pentagon is spending 4 billion on plus billions more for the socom guys. So that isnt a total cost . Correct. Youre saying its 10 billion versus a bigger number than 45 billion. Correct and the pentagon has 52 approved for next year. We like the money saving but my question is the effectiveness, nothing has worked there. Least, right or center, they want to say how do we end this thing in afghanistan. People say advice, not as a colonial figure, its about unity of command. Youve had 17 commanders in those years and different ambassadors and chiefs, you have you have to one person in charge of policy spending and rules of engagement since they are link ed. View that as a bankruptcy trustee that can scale away the bad spending we have and scale down. What is the goal in america for afghanistan . Do deny terror sanctuary, thats it . If we strengthen the the Afghan Forces from the battalion level up, the u. S. Isnt doing anything below the core level. But the battalion is 600 people. By putting in a structural support mechanism of those that live with and train with and operate with the afghan unit, by even the u. N. Definition, would not be mercenaries, those would be contracted people that can go in for a few months and home and go back into the same unit again and again. Let me ask you questions, afghanistan and pakistan dont Work Together pakistan is not interested in having americas choosing involved in it. Youre not interested in nation building nor is President Trump but the fact is you cant just be in a country thats not your country . Afghans can say get out, we dont want an occupy here. Of course but the afghans heres the thing, the president could pull everybody out, United States leaves. I dont agree with that necessarily because i think youll have the taliban or isis battle flag flying over the u. S. Embassy in six months or a year. That becomes a rallying cry for every jihadi want to be around the world. If they feel they beat america theyve got space in yemen, i agree with you. Not looking to do that. Thats one consideration. If we keep doing what were doing, like secretary matis said were not winning in afghanistan. This is a scaled down rational approach that puts unrelenting pressure on the terrorist groups and strengthens afghans doing it. Doesnt require american soldiers driving around getting killed like last week. Is 10 billion the cost to simply keep a lid on it . When you say a bankruptcy trustee, that makes sense but where is the turnaround guy and wheres the strategy that shes were going to end it . Its not 10 billion a year forever . Certainly not. For the 16 years weve been there, thats not a mining law or energy law. Theres a trillion dollars of wealth but we dont have the legal structure someone wants to say im going to spend 100 million and build this mine, you cant do that legally. The taliban ought to do that. They are making money off the illegal mining gold, opium and hash. We havent legalized capitalism really. Is the white house signing on to your plan in any way . Have they given you an answer . If i was a member of the military, one of the dozens being sent into afghanistan next i would say whats the game plan here. The president has heretofore rejected the pentagons approach for more money and more troops, kind of the same approach the last 16 years. Have you seen what you are suggesting work somewhere else . Sure, i mentioned in the article and say the east india company, not that im advocating a colonization of afghanistan, farther from it. We want to prevent terror sanctuary and leave. When they operated for 200 plus years they deployed with that model. One mentor to 20 local troops ill tell you as somebody of indian ancestry, it was a different situation versus a small armed force. Never more than 500 brits in india any time. The afghans have never been quelled by anybody, the russians, americans, brits, alexander the great, has never ever great. Correct. I agree. Were not looking to make jefferson yan democracy or anything elimination but put training wheels to continue to operate and not fail. They had a bad week, entire company annihilated on tuesday. Is there a danger this becomes the ability for the administration to now put this aside and put it in a little box as a commercial venture that blackwater is dealing with or your company is dealing with not blackwater anymore and not be on the books as a continuing conflict that america has not been able to solve . Look, from a spending side, 45 billion, versus 10 billion, thats good math. If theres a solution. Youre offering what sounds like a really big discount for no potential end to the problem. Heres the difference though. Remember, right after 9 11, you had a few hundred 100 cia officers in a couple hundred special forces officers backed by air power devastate the taliban in three months. They dont stand 10 feet tall not widely supported in the country. They can be beaten and pursued. The more weve gone to a conventional military approach when bagram became a absoluting zone, progress is largely stopped and drifting backwards in a conventional war ever since. If we go back whats worked, the special forces operations were shut down why . Because cop vengs generallies t too risky for them. Im not saying you shouldnt and certainly an undertaking like this should never be a Community Service but for you a 10 billion spend, financially how much would you stand to benefit . Where are you a stake holder in this . I dont know. I mean, i priced out. I naed that oped, come up with what the math would look like, i dont know exactly what theyd hire i doubt very much they would say lets do this you would be the contractor, right . I dont know. Again. If you presented this and the white house said yes, and you won said contract, what would that mean for you financially . It depends, it would probably put all of the risk performance on us on a place where aircraft were shut down and men were our own men were killed. This is not theres easier ways to make money. Back in iraq, that was a huge issue in the early 2000s, contractors all over the place seem to be making lots of money operating in iraq and place was getting worse by the day. Again, in that case the contractors were there for security job or to logistics or mail or food service or base support. In this aspect they would be doing it would be attached to the afghan army, teaching learning training them and held under the ucmj and tried if there is an evil act by one of the guys accountable and incarcerated in the United States. Than trying to do back in federal court system back in the United States. I dont want to be unfair, one of your former partners al clark when he quit said the reasons he quit was because you wanted it to be a playground for your rich friends. That is the concern here. Are you going to profit . Come on, that was from 1997. Doesnt matter what you said it. Okay, yeah, sure i started blackwater after i got out of the s. E. A. L. Teams because my father died and wife had cancer. I built a place to stay connected to the s. E. A. L. Teams and a lot of people thought it was a rich kids play grounds. Clearly it was not. We answered the call after the cole was attacked and columbine high school, trained s. W. A. T. Officers and answered the call after nefrn and said yes when the government needed us to do anything we dont argue good profitability, we argue about a good solution. When you think about afghanistan, 2,263 americans killed since 2001, 20,000 wounded since 2001. You said they had a tough week last week, there was talk from the president hes angry with how his generals are doing wants to replace nicoleson. What do you think of the president s take . Maybe they need to fire generals, would you agree . Look, the president is frustrated because the pentagon has only come with the more troop, more money approach, the definition of insanity, if you do the same thing, expect a different results, what good is going to come from it . You put a suggestion on the table. Thanks for joining us on the new afghanistan plan. Well get to more reaction to this latest afghanistan plan and talk with our msnbc military analyst general Barry Mccaffrey after this break. Hey this is lloyd. To prove to you that the better choice for him is aleve. Hes agreed to give it up. Ok, but i have 30 acres to cover by sundown. Well be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. Yeah, i was ok, but after lunch my knee started hurting again so. More pills. Yep. Another pill stop. Can i get my aleve back yet . For my pain. I want my aleve. Get all day minor arthritis pain relief with an easy open cap. Youany profession,ob, image matters. I want some gray. But not too much. Only touch of gray uses oxygen to gently blend away some gray, but not all for that perfect salt and pepper look. Satisfaction guaranteed. Just you and the look you want. Just for men touch of gray breathe easier with your vicks vaporub. Soothing cough relief that starts working instantly. Welcome back to velshi ruhle. A few minutes ago we spoke with formal navy s. E. A. L. Erik prince about his plan for afghanistan. You have to have one person in charge of all u. S. Government policy spending and rules of engagement since they are linked. We havent had that. View that person almost as a bankruptcy trustee that can scale away the bad decisionmaking and bad spending that we have and scale down. What is the goal for america in afghanistan . To deny terror sanctuary, thats it. Lets bring in nbc news military analyst and retired four Star Army GeneralBarry Mccaffrey. And just said, Barry Mccaffrey is going to say this is the worst plan hes ever heard of and we should spend billions more and put more troops in afghanistan. Hes a very intelligent and impressive guy, no question about it. This is not a strategy, its what we call a National Security policy and ninen pop idea. Petraeus, mcchrystal, mcmaster with the ph. D. Were not going to out of our 2. 2 million Person Department of defense hand over to private contractors the use of lethal force. Were not going to recruit special aging commandos from the international community, have them employees of the Afghan Government, have them responding to u. N. Direction, what, handing over 10 billion to the Afghan Government . Any, way, none of this will happen. Erik prince wont run his own intelligence service. You cant train at the battalion level unless you have a structure supporting you. People will get killed for 120,000. They will get killed for a bronze star with valor. So none this will happen. Erik tries to make the argume argument, with all of the lives lost and no Clear Strategy or one that works in afghanistan, we need something different. Its as though he implies that hr mcmaster or other leads in the forces, its an ego hit to him, they couldnt adopt the idea because they are simply too proud. Is there any weight to that argument . No. I think its ridiculous. Look, at the end of the day there is a problem in afghanistan, were trying to create a centralized federal government and group of warring tribes essentially the pashtun against the rest of them. There isnt going to be a win in afghanistan. The question is do we sit in there and try to prevent it from going down the tubes and become a terrorist haven or do we withdraw . And i think you know, to be blunt, no political system has been willing to step forward and make a dramatic move in either direction. Right now it is looking very serious on the ground, the afghan army and police are coming apart. The centralized government is corrupt and incompetent. But again, were not going to hire a bunch of aging commandos and stick them in a battalion level and see it improve. The question, general, is erik says were not in the business of nation building and in the business of getting regimes out and not good at the second half. Is afghanistan going to solve itself if we dont get more involved or get better at nation building in afghanistan so the american president s can one day be re presence can one day be removed. Were there for 25 years with the current approach, that is one strategy to adopt. The other one is come out, the other one is go back in with more definitive force. Look, afghanistan is not japan, its not germany. They are not heterogenous under lying political control system and culture. Its diverse populations, its a mess, not going to change. Certainly not going to change with a 10 billion contract trying to replace these brave marines and special forces soldiers and Ranger Regiment on the ground now. I think this is a diversion from a serious discussion of what should we do . American people do not support major reintervention. Thats clear to me. And its also clear to me that the existing solution on the ground wont create a centralized state under the rule of law. So were in a dilemma. General, good to talk to you, thanks very much for being with us. Barry mccaffrey. The general says something we need to say every day, we should thank our armed forces in places every day like afghanistan. When he was talking about the general and for a long time. More than half of his life there. Put that in perspective. Many of us when something isnt going our way or according to plan well stop doing it. The military and those Service Members have never stopped doing it in afghanistan in the face of all of this criticism, they go out and put their lives online every day. This is worth remembering. And we appreciate it. Next, lawmakers meeting voters face to face in town halls across the country. Well have highlights from the heated moments on health care and taxes. Mike and i are both veterans, both served in the navy. I do outrank my husband, not just being in the military, but at home. She thinks shes the boss. She only had me by one grade. We bought our first home together in 2010. His family had used another insurance product but i was like well ive had usaa for a while, why dont we call and check the rates . It was an instant savings and i shouldve changed a long time ago. Theres no point in looking elsewhere really. Were the tenneys and were usaa members for life. Usaa. Get your insurance quote today. A warm welcome back to velshi ruhle. The president is holding what hes calling a major briefing at the golf club in new jersey. Last week the White House Commission suggested the president declare a national emergency. Warm to you, not to you, ali makes it freezing in here. After stopping in thailand urging u. S. Allies to take a tougher stance against north korea. Pushing thai lieders to crack down north decrkorean front and turn it up in here. And take my life. Thats yours . Thats stephanie. Go ahead. Lawmakers are back in the home district for the first august recess but the welcome mat isnt out for many of them. In the latest series of town hall metermeterings, they are g an earful after Health Care Repeal to obama left the government struggling to focus on the next item on the agenda which is tax reform. Ill vote to continue to work to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act and increase the quality of care. The most talked about thing in the last two weeks is actually been a proposal that Lindsey Graham has been working on and that is with granting medicaid and obamacare subsidies, well get into that later. Im with stephanie, if they are out there and talking to their constituents, thats a beginning. Whats the reception been like generally . Talk about not getting a warm welcome, right . Many of the lawmakers facing the music in their district. You got a little taste of what is on constituents top of mind. Weve heard some questions about immigration, the environment, veterans affairs. Mostly people are on health care, health care, weve seen them venting at the town halls and of course with republican lawmakers people are holding them accountable at the failure to fix the health care system. Today were monitoring two republican lawmakers, carter in georgia as well as will herd in the state of texas. Buddy carter is holding nine town halls today. The first one just wrapped up and i want to play sound for you, two questions that came up, not reaching across the aisle and exchange you might remember, lets play the sound from the town hall. Will you support stabilizing the marketplace and Bipartisan Legislation that will appropriate those funds if the president continues to just say obamacare is imploding and then failed to support it. Im not one who likes to throw good money after bad. I think it needs to be repealed and replaced and start over from scratch. Thats my personal feeling. Were going to have a transition period. Were not going to pull the rug out from underneath anyone. Your response was you were going to snatch [ bleep ] youre representing everybody from the first district. If i said up here today, everybody should punch buddy carter in the gut, these fine gentlemen would put me in handcuffs. Do you regret that or say it differently . I might not use the last word. But let me explain that statement to you and refute what you interpreted and the urban dictionary interprets it to be. When it was brought up in my family, it meant get your act together. That was one of nine for buddy carter. Well monitor herds town hall happening right now on Facebook Live and a dozen or so Holding Town Halls across the country. Well flag you if anything comes up or any of your interviews im glad he cleared that up because when he said it on air, i never heard that expression i didnt know whether he said a bad thing on tv or not. Apparently other people heard the expression and for a little while it was trending can i say one thing before you go . I want to talk about all of the twitter feedback were getting in the last ten minutes about you and i sitting do you know with erik prince and gorka, its important to hear what the white house has to say. It doesnt matter how ali and i feel about Sebastian Gorka personally. The person says greetings, does it make me feel great . Its irrelevant. This is our white house as a country and this is the representative the white house is putting forward. We dont choose that. If you dont want to hear what he or she has to say, that is a bigger problem. Dont you want to know what the white house message is . You saved me a lot of at which time twitter responses stand by, everyone, were taking a look at the latest capitol hill investigation into the trump organization. Think about this, the latest investigation. Not the one and only, but the latest. Well speak with ben cardin. 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We have been having a conversation with eric prince, formerly of blackwater who wrote this oped of how he wants to privatize the war in afghanistan. Sounds like the president s intrigued by it, open to it at least. We spoke to general Barry Mccaffrey who said it is an anyoni nimcompoop plan. The losses are heavy and the costs are high. To the extent hes introducing a new idea, what are your thoughts . Well, first, good to be with you. I think using private contractors makes no sense whatsoever. This is a military function and it needs to have the accountability of u. S. Military control. So i am very much opposed to using private contractors to do what our military should be doing. But i do want to underscore, we dont really have an arctticulad policy from the trump administration. They have been in the office for almost seven months. This war has been going on for 16 years and we dont have an articulated strategy for our role in afghanistan, what are we trying to accomplish. Clearly we want to stop afghanistan from being a safe haven for terrorists. But what should the u. S. Role be in accomplishing that goal . The administration really hasnt articulated that. Well, it is not like things have been going right. Dont we need a new strategy . And im certainly not advocating for what eric prince is selling. Well, we clearly need to know how we can accomplish our objectives. I dont think anyone wants to see american troops stationed in afghanistan or doing the actual fighting. We also want to have a functioning national government. In afghanistan, thats challenging knowing how the tribal authorities work. So the question is, what is our ultimate objective and how can we accomplish that and how can we prevent afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorist organizations. So thats what we need to hear from the administration, they need to do that in open transparent way and how is our military fit into accomplishing those goals. They really havent articulated that. President trump did articulate during the campaign that he doesnt think his world view involves the u. S. As being involved in nation building activities. When you look at afghanistan or look at libya or syria or iraq or yemen or a lot of places, in fact, that is part two of the need in these countries. One is to eliminate the terrorist threat, and these have to be operating, functioning countries. Well, there is a Common Thread in many countries. One is that there is no u. S. Military victory from the point of view of longterm peace. Secondly, you need a government that can represent a diverse population. It has to have the authority to be able to give the confidence to people that theyre being properly represented. And it has to have the Security Force that can make sure that there is security in all part of the country. Thats been a Common Thread we have seen in afghanistan and other can countries in the region. So, yes, we have not been successful in carrying this out. That is clear. But 16 years is a long time. Candidate trump said he would have an answer. We havent heard his answer. Lets change topics. Tell us more about this letter, you and other democrats have released sort of questioning, saying, lets take a closer look at some expenses to put it on in a basic way, around where the government, where the government is spending taxpayer dollars, paying trump organization. Well, there is no question that President Trump has set this up for conflicts. Only president that failed to divest himself of his business interests. That this is a Standard Practice for incoming president s. He didnt do this. Now there is concern of conflicts. We have agencies that are spending significant money in Business Ventures that are owned by mr. Trump. We have but, sir. Circumstances where is there a legal issue . President trump and his family love to smile ear to ear and say i cant be conflicted. Well, i think there is a legal issue. There is some, if youre dealing with foreign countries, under the constitution. I think there is a legal issue. But more importantly than that, there is the Public Confidence that the president is making decisions based upon our national interests, or business interests. Thats something the president should be very concerned about. Senator, good to talk to you as always. Thank you for being with us. Good to be with you. Senator ben cardin of maryland. Coming up do the right thing, never had multiple choice answers until now. Do the right thing. I thought it was black and white. President trump tweeted hell hold a major briefing on the Opioid Crisis today. Watch that live here at 3 00 p. M. Eastern here on msnbc. Ill be here for that. Hell be at his golf club in new jersey. And so far out of 201 days in office, he spent 63 of them at trump properties. And 48 days at golf properties. Thats a lot. 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He used the same tactics in seeking to bully and intimidate the special counsel bob mueller by drawing red lines and implying conflicts of interest. Sending a different kind of message, u. N. Ambassador Nikki Haley Says all options are on the table. What we did was we tried to ask him what is your endgame. Now that were doing this what is your endgame. Now we have to zrid if decide, strikes the United States, is that something we can win. A Google Engineer is trouble for trying to explain the silicon