I started this place, i run it, im responsible for what happens here. He is ultimately a free trader. Were not trying to pubbish c punish china. They may think it is a negotiation, and it may turn out to be that. The climate of uncertainty thats created is pretty dangerous. Trade wars are stupid. Agriculture is one of the first things that is going to be retaliated against. Trade policy is all about the intensity of the pain that people feel. Less money for church. Less money to send the kids to college. Less money to save and reinvest in our farm. President trump said he would drain the swamp. I dont look is draining the swamp renting an apartment from the wife of a washington lobbyist . I dont think that thats even remotely fair to ask that question. This guy is corrupt. Crrupt. He is unfit for public service. The president thinks hes done a good job, particularly on the deregulation. Again, we take this seriously. Were looking into it and will let you know when we finish. One got a pay raise of 28,000. The other was 56,000. Do you know what the Median Income in this country is . No. 57,000 a year. Okay. One of your friends from oklahoma got a pay raise that is the medium they didnt get a pay raise. Thats the thing. They did. Thanks, fox, for doing that. 100 did get a pay raise, sir. You know what else . It is absolutely appropriate for ed henry to ask you if it is ethical to rent an apartment from the wife of a lobbyist. Yup. Absolutely fair. Ed henry, good on you. I thought it was interesting, listening to larry kudlow say that the president is the ultimate free trader. Again, not its a lie. Thats actually a lie. The president is on record for decades as being an antifree trader. Thats where we start the day. And stunning news from facebook as the Company Reveals data belonging to 87 million users may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica. Close to half of all american facebook users data may have been harvested by the trumpaffiliated firm by the time it was hired by the Trump Campaign in 2016. We should mention, Cambridge Analytica disputes the number, insisting it only accessed the data of 30 million users, making me feel much better. Okay, maybe Cambridge Analytica is right, 30 million. Still a problem. Yup. That revelation is just the tip of the iceberg. On a Conference Call, facebook ceo zuckerberg admitted users data could be collected with a simple search. Everyone has a setting on facebook that controls its right in your privacy settings that controls whether people can look you up by your contact information. Um, most people have that turned on, and thats the default. But a lot of people have ls turnturn also turned it off. If you have someones phone number, you can put it in and get, you know, a link to their profile, which pulls up public information. I certainly think that that it is reasonable to expect that if you had that setting turned on, that at some point in the last several years, um, someone has probably accessed your public information. Heres what i want to happen. I want someone to ask Mark Zuckerberg, does he have that setting on . Does sheryl shorthaandberg have setting on . He paused and said, well, most people have that on. If it is a risk, if people dont understand the information theyre letting out, i think its most likely ethical to let them know. That setting was on by default. It is stuff people are sadly learning about their behavior on facebook. On monday, facebook will inform users if their data may have been shared. Itll appear as a link at the top of your news feed. Look for it. A feature appearing just one day before Ceo Mark Zuckerberg is slated to testify to be the only person testifying in a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and commerce committees. Can i ask you, ali, for a moment, i know youll go to the interactive here, but john pa dor john was saying something on morning joe. Of course facebook has done this, he said. We use facebook 10, 15, 20 hours a week, put our pictures and information on, and we dont pay anything for it. Correct. That is the deal. Thats the deal with the devil we all made to get the free internet. Dont we need to own that a little bit . Sure. I want to ask that question. We have to understand. Do we need to own that were using that . On some level, i accepted that theyre going to give me targeted ads about my belly fat, my need for botox and teeth whiteni whitening. I need ads for belly fat. I wasnt sure they were going to use my information to win peoples elections for them. Interesting stuff. Boom, right there. I think youre right. We own some of it. We have to understand our relationship. Belly fat, teeth whitening, you can have me. Cambridge analytica, no. Lets talk about what happens ahead of zuckerbergs testimony on capitol hill. The chief Technology Officer outlined updates but it reads a long list of ways facebook has exposed users data. For the tens of millions of users whose data has been compromised, changes are coming too late. Previously, apps were able to get permission to access guest list and posts of events you created. Facebook now says apps will no longer have that permission. Some will regain access in the future. Facebook promises, quote, strict requirements to gain access to your guest lists and events. Apps were also able to see information about people and conversations in a closed group if the administrator of that group granted access. Now, apps will not only need to get approval from administrators but from facebook itself. The programs will no longer be able to see Group Members personal information. Apps interfacing with facebook had access to more data than necessary. Thats a quote according to facebook. As of today, the company will oversee an approval process by which apps can access information. In the Conference Call you heard a little of, Mark Zuckerberg noted that a search of your email address or phone number could give anyone access to a trove of personal information. Facebook now says that feature is disabled while it makes changes to reduce the risk of data being scraped. Were going to explain that term in a minute. A point of concern among privacy advocates is facebook keeps your call and text history if you use the messenger app. Facebook now says those logs will be deleted at a year. Thats still a lot of information thats being retained. Now, the company is promising more user controls over the apps you use. Starting monday, theres going to be a link your news feed allowing quick control over your app settings. To stephanies point, this is where you come in. You have to take some responsibility for this. Facebook did the wrong thing the whole time, but you have to take some control over this now. Measures are going to certainly help make your data more secure. But it is a bit like installing a Security System after your house has been robbed, assuming youre one of the 87 million or whatever million number of people with information harvested. Youre not going to say, the party is over, leave the front door open forever and keep robbing me. Time to clean it up. Close it and install the alarm system. Joining us now, social media editor kirk wagner. Heres what i dont get, the scope of this keeps expanding. This data breach happened years ago. How is it that facebook only in the last days is now saying, oh, lets up the number to 87 million . Well, we didnt really know about it until three weeks ago when the New York Times and observer came out with stories saying, Cambridge Analytica, the firm that promised they deleted this data three years ago, actually didnt delete it. Facebook was operating for the last three years under the assumption the data had been deleted. Once reports came out it was out there, they had to say, okay, lets figure out what the scope of this might be so we know where were looking and what were looking for. I understand youre saying, we only knew a week ago for the New York Times report. Did they know . Facebook has known for years. Well, facebook, again, had this written statement from Cambridge Analytica saying, we promise we deleted that data. The company was operating under the assumption that the data was deleted. Whether or not obviously, now, it looks silly. They never did their own check to verify Cambridge Analytica was telling the truth. Facebook looks silly there. Thats why they hadnt been looking for it until recently. Lets step back for a minute. Something stephanie said earlier is something we do have the remember. Thats what responsibility do we all have . Maybe we didnt all understand that in using facebook for free, which is a remarkably powerful tool, possibly one of the most powerful tools thats come about in our lives free, nothing, zero. Right. We may have to understand that. Despite all of this, people are probably a little hazy on what the term scraping is. What does it mean to have your data scraped . How is it done . How important is this . Whatever it is, i dont want it. Its not a pleasant term, right . Basically, if you are an outsider and you scrape data, it means youre using some Computer Software to collect vast quantities of data very quickly across, you know, many different profiles. Instead of simply coming in and manual ago entering, you know, ali, your phone number, pulling up your page and collecting that data, youre using a Software Program to do it across, you know, thousands, if not millions of profiles. Its really the same as going in and collecting it in a way that anybody could collect it, but it is doing it at scale. Lets talk about Mark Zuckerbergs future. Hes saying this delete Facebook Movement is not taking a lot of users away. We said that here. I dont see my feed getting lighter. Dont see it. Is Mark Zuckerbergs position within the company in jeopardy . I think peter thiel is remaining on the board. Peter thiel is still on the board, correct. I dont think theres kwconcern with Mark Zuckerberg losing his board. One, the board has been together a long time. They believe Mark Zuckerberg is the right person to lead the company. Also, Mark Zuckerberg is the controlling member of the board. I believe he still controls some 60 of the board vote. There is nothing that happens at facebook without his final approval and permission. Mark is not going anywhere. This is the first time though that i have seen people even ask that question, are you the best person to run facebook . Weve assumed for the last 14 or 15 years that the answer was an obvious yes. Now, if for the first time, people are questioning that. Hes not going anywhere. Let me ask you this, kirk, when he goes before the senate on tuesday, what is it that people want to know . Sometimes, these congressional hearings are interesting, and sometimes theyre grandstanding for people who want to nus thuse in election ads. What should we ask that we dont know . He will be sworn, so he can deny but not lie. The biggest question we still have is what impact did facebook actually have on the 2016 election . What impact could facebook have on the 2018 midterms or other elections around the world . Weve seen the data. Weve seen how many people may have been exposed through this Cambridge Analytica situation, how many ads were purchased. We really dont know what that ultimately led to. I dont know if facebook has that answer. Im sure theyve tried to find the answer to that question. We havent heard it yet. I would love to hear someone ask Mark Zuckerberg, what was your impact on this whole situation . Kirk, good to cere ysee you. Senior social media editor. This is a time of reckoning for everybody, facebook and digital media. They have to figure out their responsibility with respect to privacy and fake news, and so do the rest of us. We have to learn, and it might be hard, how to deal with our privacy, and we have to learn not to spread crap on the internet. This didnt happy itself. The garbage on facebook and twitter got spread by people. We have some responsibility. How often, when you look at your facebook feed, people you know have articles posted with these wild headlines, and then you look and they are from cockamamy, who knows sources. You wonder, this is a smart person, a person i grew up with, so what are they doing spreading this . Yeah. The white house is trying to calm fears, you know about what, a trade war, as china retaliates with tariffs of its own. Reality is sinking in for americans who would be hit hard in trump country. Well take a look at whether this is a negotiation tactic, what is what larry kudlow is telling us. The market is believing larry. Youre watching velshi ruhle. From the very beginning. It was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Specialists focused on treating cancer. Using advanced technologies. And more precise treatments than before. Working as hard as we can doing all that we can for everyone who walks through our doors. This is Cancer Treatment centers of america. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Treating cancer isnt one thing we do. Its the only thing we do. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. That goes beyond assumingl pet ingredients are safe. To knowing they are. Going beyond expectations. Because our pets deserve it. Beyond. Natural pet food. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Welcome back to velshi ruhle. Were keeping an eye on wall street this morning and your money, money, money. Stocks up almost 300 today. A day ahead of what is expected to be a positive jobs report. By the way, facebook shares are up because of the comments that zuckerberg made, that says there has been no meaningful impact on users in the wake of all the stuff facebook is facing. Remember, the markets have been jittery for a few weeks. Some has been because of facebook. Some has been because of what the president has been saying about amazon. Some is trade war stuff. All week, these expectations have been competing with a concern of the trade war with china, announcing new tariffs yesterday or more than 100 u. S. Products. If anyone is concerned, it should be voters who helped put trump in the white house in the first place. Trump won eight of the top ten soybean producing states in the country. Joining us is managing director at the asia society. Larry kudlow actually was defending the idea of the tariffs earlier today. Mmhmm. Our intention is not to punish anybody. Our intention is to open markets and investments and lower barriers. Thats the deal. What larry is trying to say, because hes someone in the past who has been against tariffs, hes not protariffs, but hes saying, this is just the beginning of a negotiation. Is that what it means like to you . Well, it certainly doesnt. I think this is a high stakes exercise. The administration has been very clear that it views the practices that china is undertaking with respect to intellectual property and technology to be unacceptable, and criticized negotiations taken in the past to address these measures. I think negotiations, they should happen, but theyre going to be very difficult. Y i think the administration has set expectations very high for these negotiations and what would need to be achieved to be successful. The wall street journal has warned of the possible ramifications of these sanctions. It says, president donald trump, who initiated the tension over chinese trade practices, has put himself in a position to face mounting pressure from lawmakers and intense campaign for corporate lobbyists and outcry from businesses big and small, all feeding tremendous volatility in stock and commodities markets. Whats the risk here for the president . I think, you know, there is a great risic. Risk. The minute we announced our tariff list, every lobbyist and company in the country was looking through line by line to see how theyd be affected. Theres been business groups, farmers and Congress People who have been very vocal about the ramifications. On top of it, once china announced its tit for tat retaliation, hitting u. S. Farmers directly, hitting u. S. Automakers, that kind of ups the stakes and, i think, really will lead and feed into a vocal opposition about tariffs. I dont think anyone disagrees with the administration, that we need to address these unfair trade practices in china. Without a doubt. Good to talk to you. Wendy, thank you. A former trade representative, currently the managing director of the asia society. We have to remember, even the aluminum tariffs, remember when they were first announced and we thought they were going to be broad based . You had people within the administration, sort of the gary cohn side of the house, whittle it down and narrow it so it wasnt going to affect our allies. The question is, will larry kudlow, who has the similar views, be able to influence the president . Not if he lies. Not if he lies. He lied to reporters by saying the president is, at heart, a free trader. Thats a lie. We know that. Theres evidence. Larry does this a lot on tv. Its a lie. We know the president doesnt want the market to go down. The president s first outing after he won, when he snuck out of trump tower and went to the 21 club, loved seeing the rich people and said, im going to lower your taxes. We doesnt want to go to maralago and have the market down 500 points. Larry may have the ability to n influence the president. Well find out. Different topic, thousands of oklahoma teachers may be close to a victory on day four of their walkout. These are live pictures from oklahoma city. The state senate is taking up a bill that would add millions of dollars for education. Were live with the new developments. And the u. S. Surgeon general is making a major announcement regarding the nations opioid crisis. Dr. Adams is urging people to cary an antidote to an opioid overdose. This is a game changer. Atrisk users, their friends and family members should keep it on hand and learn how to use it. 115 american s die every day frm opioid overdoses. This can reverse the effects. Stay with us. Youre watching velshi ruhle. Its ok that everyone ignores me while i drive. Its fine. Because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months im accident free. And i dont share it with mom right, mom . Righttt. Safe driving bonus checks. Only from allstate. Switching to allstate is worth it. Thisat red lobsterest. With exciting new dishes like dueling lobster tails and lobster truffle mac cheese. Classics like lobster lovers dream are here too. So enjoy these 10 lobsterlicious dishes while you can because lobsterfest wont last. Welcome back to velshi ruhle. Here are the top stories were watching right now. Facebook says almost 40 million more accounts may have been improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica. The Political Data firm hired by the Trump Campaign with connections to the Trump Campaign. Facebook originally said the data of 50 million users had been shared. Now, the number is up to 87 million. Cambridge analytica, however, disputes those numbers. This all comes as Ceo Mark Zuckerberg gets ready to testify before several house and Senate Committees next tuesday. President trump signed a proclamation to send the National Guard to the u. S. mexico border. Troops will not have contact with immigrants but be work with Border Patrol agents in support roles. Theres no word yet how many in the National Guard will be deployed or how much the mission will cost. Lets turn to oklahoma where thousands of teachers demanding funds for education may be closer to victory. The state senate is set to take up a 20 million online sales tax bill, collecting taxes from thirdparty internet retailers like amazon, and use the money for the schools. The bill has already passed the oklahoma house. This morning, schools across the state remain closed, as teachers enter their fourth day of protests outside the states capitol. Msnbc is live in oklahoma city. Mar mariana, where does this bill stand now . Reporter that bill, which was seen as a small victory for educators, we still dont know if it is even going to be heard in the senate today. I just got off the phone where senator pitman, who tells me that it usually requires at least 24 hours, which can take up to three days, for the new bills to be read and discussed. But, there is a special Senate Session going on right now. Thats why you see these huge crowds behind me. Who knows . They may amend senate rules to be able to discuss it because theyre certainly feeling the pressure from educators right here in the state capitol. Lawmakers, guys, theyre finding themselves in a bind, especially the republican ones, because they argue, they dont want to keep increasing taxes. They want to appease the teachers, but there is just no money to do it. I spoke with representative macintyre from district 50, and this is what he had to say about the situation they find themselves in. Lets listen. We have so many other areas in our government to fund, whether it be department of corrections, health care, theres a lot of problems. A lot of times, we feel, as legislators, like, you know, were the guy with our finger in the hole in different areas and water keeps spurting out. Reporter this is a decade long problem, as you heard. Thats why theyre trying to come up with this amazon bill. The senate is poised to discuss a socalled bill that will tax ball and dice games at casinos here. Theyre trying to fill in the holes. There is a trust issue, also. These teachers, after the legislation passed last week, 50 million was taken from it, they dont trust whats happening in the legislature. Thats why theyre vowing to stay here and willing to come back tomorrow. The senate is saying they will meet tomorrow. They dont usually do that on fridays. Again, theyre feeling the pressure from the crowd. They got really loud. Check out whats going on there and let us know. Theyre active. Mariana in oklahoma city. Now to tensions with russia. New sanctions could come as soon as today. The Washington Post cites officials who say the u. S. Will target russian oligarchs with ties to the kremlin. Lets make this clear, all russian oligarchs have ties to the kremlin. Dont get to be one without that. The post reports the sanctions are focused on the individuals on influential russian leaders list. It is an issue the president has approached differently than h. R. Mcmaster did. How do you see Vladimir Putin . Is he a friend or foe . Mr. Putin may believe that he is winning in this new form of warfare. Well find out. Ill let you know. Itll be a time when ill let you know. Russia brazenly and implausibly denies its actions. Probably, nobody has been tougher to russia than donald trump. We have failed to impose sufficient costs. I know youre nodding yes because everyone agrees when they think about it. We might all help mr. Putin understand his grave error. Lets make something clear, thats h. R. Mcmaster. Gone. And President Trump. H. R. Mcmaster giving his last address as National Security adviser. A different message from the president. Natasha joins us live now. What do you make of the new sanctions . It seems that any time this happens, it pains the president greatly. Then, we learn afterwards that the sanctions arent as tough as theyre going to be. Sort of like kicking out the of 60 and swapping them out for other ones. This is a huge step and something most of the experts ive spoken to about the appropriate punishment for russias election interference hoped would happen. The diplomatic tit for tat is a cold war response to something that is more of an obviously, this is a much bigger and much larger issue between russias poisoning of skripal in the uk and their interference in the 2016 elx. Election. This is a move in the right direction. We dont know which oligarchs have been sanctioned or which the state Department Plans to sanction. Of course, this was taken, apparently, from the list of russian oligarchs that the treasury put out in late january early february, which was a who is who of russia. It included cabinet officials, roughly 96 billionaires which were on the forbes billionaire list. They got pushback on that. It seemed like a copy and paste job from that list. It is definitely going to send a stronger signal to russia than the expulsion of diplomats which was something russia could retaliate for in kind. So, the sanctions are made through the treasury. Are they signally any other change in an approach to dealing with russia as a result of them . As of right now, we havent heard of any additional methods of punishment in terms of what they did with the election. This is something that, of course, congress has been pushing for since last year and that the president declined to do earlier this year. They said that it was never taken off the table, essentially, sanctioning the oligarchs, but it was something they were certainly going to look into. Whether or not this is the last step they take, that is very unlikely. It just rehainnremains to be se which oligarchs are sanctioned and whether it is ongoing. Youre super focused on russia. Talk to us about what people in washington, in the white house, on the hill are saying about the different message we hear from an h. R. Mcmaster and the response from the president , nobody has been tougher on russia than me. The next day, maybe well pull out of syria, which we know is what Vladimir Putin would love to hear. Right, of course. That would have been a big win for russia, if the president had determined that he was going to completely pull out of syria. But, it is interesting. Trump never wanted to be the face of the big policy moves with regard to russia. We saw last week, nbc reporting that he has given the green light to certain policies that are tougher on russia, including arming the ukrainians against russian, you know, aggression there. He has wanted to down play it. He has not wanted to roll out a big, kind of pr campaign to publicize the fact they are being more aggressive with russia. He wants to say no one has been tougher on russia than trump. On the other hand, he doesnt want to publicly tout the decisions hes made. Maybe because he doesnt want to anger vladimir muteputin. Maybe he wants to keep the door open for further cooperation. Rex tillerson gave up on that idea, the former secretary of state. He tried, you know, playing nice with the russians, then he ultimately realized that they it was going to be impossible. He wanted to impose tougher he wanted to have a tougher posture toward russia, which the president , you know, because of all his advisers around him, was willing to go along with but still would not was not willing to, in phone calls with Vladimir Putin, for example, raise the issues. Instead, inviting him to the white house for a meeting and congratulating him on his election victory. There is a dichotomy between the policy moves weve seen with the administration and trumps attitude toward them. You had a piece out in the atlantic on how the House Intelligence Committee broke and the role specifically played by its chair, devin nunes. Please, walk us through this. Yeah. So, everyone i spoke to for this article pointed to the same moment, where the committee and the investigation started to unravel. The committee was actually fairly bipartisan and was really fairly cooperative before the russia investigation was launched. The moment this really started to all break down was when devin nunes, the republican chairman, made the midnight run to the white house last march, where he was called by someone at the white house, invited over to view classified material that allegedly showed that the Obama Administration had improperly surveilled members of the trump transition team. From that point onward, members of the house intel committee, democrats and, of course, outside onlookers, saw it as tainted. There was really that became the point of no return. The democrats viewed nunes with suspicion, like he was cooperating with the white house in trying to stymie the investigation. Republicans didnt like how adam schiff was going on television, rebutting the claims by nunes. There was the friction that all stemmed from that moment that devin nunes went to the white house and began his more direct communication with the president. That, of course, was the jumping off point, then we saw what happened during the committee over the course of the year, which was just leaks, press conferences and kind of overall dysfunction. Natasha, thanks for your great reporting on this. Atlantic staff writer and msnbc contributor. When we come back, scott pruitt again defending himself from the controversies surrounding him. Were learning more about why an epa lawyer did not flag some of pruitts spending. Details next. Youre watching velshi ruhle. It comes when your Insurance Company says theyll only pay threequarters of what it takes to replace it. What are you supposed to do . Drive threequarters of a car . Now if you had Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, youd get your whole car back. I guess they dont want you driving around on three wheels. Smart. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. 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. Welcome back to velshi ruhle. The white house is not giving what youd call an emphatic defense of epa administrator scott pruitt. I cant speak to the future of scott pruitt but where we are now. That is, the white house is aware of these reports. Were obviously looking into those. We dont have any announcements to make in regards to staffing right now. Were aware. You know, we believe that some of these questions need to be answered. That comes as pruitt finds himself at the center of several controversies, including his rental of a luxury condo owned by the wife of a d. C. Lobbyist, paying just 50 on the nights he stayed there. He defended that last night on fox news. So, why did you then accept 50 a night to rent a condo from the wife of a washington lobbyist . Lets talk about that. That is something that, again, has been reviewed by the officials here. They said it is market rate. Renting it from the wife of a lobbyist. Mr. Hart has no exxonmobil he is a member of a law firm. To take his relationship youre not answering the yes. It was like an airbnb situation. When i was not there, the landlord had access to the entirety of the facilitfacility. When i was there, access to a room. They used the facility at the time i was there. You paid for the nights you were there. Exactly right. Thats kind of a sweetheart deal. No, its not. Yes, thats exactly what a sweetheart deal is. With us thousand,now, covering change and the energy sector, amy. I spoke to hugh hewitt and he said, this is the media, the left, who doesnt like scott pruitt is winning on President Trumps agenda. Can we separate the two . This issue with the apartment isnt the first controversy for scott pruitt. It is first class extravagant travel, massive security detail, to places like morocco. Its the 40,000 plus phone booth in his office. If you were va secretary shulkin, if youre tom price, youre saying, what about me, brother . We did way less. Thats a great point. I think the difference between epa administrator pruitt and the other cabinet members is pruitt has long been a favorite of President Trump. He has largely ruck se lly succ continues to roll back environmental regulations, which is something the president likes. This is a striking fall from grace for one of trumps favorite cabinet members. Because hes traditionally been one offavorites, he has longer to fall than the other cabinet members, who were not carrying out a key part of his agenda. This is the latest, and it is more egregious compared to the previous ones. Even some of his supporters are having a hard time defending it. Instead, they criticize other people, such as media and skrier environmentalists. Lets turn to one of the few republican lawmakers to defend scott pruitt. Rand paul tweeted, pruitt will help President Trump drain the regulatory swamp. The problem is, the swamp seems to be having some hes living in the swamp. Literally. Right, right. Figuratively, too. With the, administrator saying he was dumbfounded, finding this controversial so allies of pruitt outside, they say he is either arrogant or ignora ignorant, neither favorable. Is this is the end of the controversy, the white house seems to want to ride it out. Seems unlikely. Take us inside the controversy. One of Scott Pruitts closest aides and allies, samantha drivers, resigned. Shes worked and traveled with scott pruitt, socializing with him, its been reported, on a regular basis. Those who are sort of career epa people have said, they dont have access to this guy. Hes got his own staff. Career ap, epa people who cant even brief him. They have to brief his team. Tell me, whats going on inside that place . Well, i think an important point is that, you know, this condo deal has really brought to the surface and to the publics eye longsimmering conflict within the epa and the white house about how pruitt does his job. Everybody is pointed in the same direction. Most people want the regulations to go away, but theres long been controversy within the administration about how 20prui goes about his business. Theres concern among different aid aides. Youre seeing the fallout after that. Sources say if theres not more bad headlines, the white house will probably keep him around. That seems unlikely, just over the last 12 hours, the epa inspector general, the ethics official, says that he didnt have all the information he needed to clear the condo deal. Were not going to be were going to keep talking about this. Scott pruitt was offended when ed henry asked him about the apartment. His defense, which was the same i got from hugh hewitt, is the ethics people reviewed it and said it was okay. Now that the ethics guy is saying, i didnt have all the information, kind of makes it sticky. Well look at this. Amy, thanks very much. Thank you. Amy harder, energy and Climate Change reporter at axios. Just over one week since President Trump signed 1 trillion spending package. Its the spending package thats irking many in his base. Now, republicans are trying to figure out ways to slash funding from it. Were going to break down how it is even possible. You know what youre watching. Its velshi ruhle. Alice is living with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. Shes also taking prescription ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women with hormone receptorpositive her2 metastatic Breast Cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. 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Right now President Trump is looking for ways to strike items from the spending bill that he already approved, and he signed. The president line item veto has been ruled unconstitutional but republicans might have found a way around that detail. It is a little used provision of the budget act of 1974 known as impoundment. How does it work. First, the president selects which funds and programs he doesnt want to spend money on from the funding bill. He then sends whats called a rescission resolution to congress detailing the programs he wants to deny funding. It can be several different resolutions, or a big one. Once Congress Gets the resolution, it has 45 legislative days to approve all, part, or none of the president s proposal. In the house, republicans hold 238 seats. Plenty to pass the request. But the senate, thats a whole other story. Republicans currently have a 5047 majority. Going to 5147 when former senator todd cochrans replacement gets sworn in. The new fiscal year starts on october 1st. And if the president sends them a rescission resolution, they need to act fast. As of now, there are 63 legislative days when both chambers are in session before the new fiscal year. It is a move that carries immense risk to the future of bipartisan cooperation. Let me just say this one more time. He is looking for an out from the spending bill that he signed and he approved last week. Yeah. Last week. Lets bring in forbes contributor and former staffer on the house, stan collendar. Stan, you wrote a column in forbes. The staff did a very good job of explaining the way the law is supposed to work. The president is supposed to send a message to congress, and if Congress Approves it, then they dont spend the money. But my impression is that the president is going to act a little more autocratically and decide hes just not going to spend the money and Dare Congress to stop him. That is, he is going to violate the law, not obey it, not apply it. Weve seen him do that before with the 120 million that was appropriated for the state department to look into russian hacking of elections and he didnt spend that and didnt inform congress of that. So theres precedent. It fits trumps personality perfectly. Are there any consequences . Technically, no, not immediately. Yes, if we raise an issue about it, if people get upset about it, they vote against republicans at the next election for not taking action gagainst the president thats not real consequence. Well, no. And if congress decides not to do its job and provide oversight on another law, then the president gets away with it. Can this work in favor of the republicans . Because a lot of people are actually upset about this spending bill and the size of it. There are a lot of comments how this is almost a democrat spending bill. Democrats got what they wanted and a lot of conservative republicans dont want this spending bill like trumps base. So could this work in republicans favor by saying, yeah, we went out of our way not to spend the money. Lets distinguish here between the republican or trump base, excuse me, and the overall republicans voters. Remember, if the president is propose being to cut back on spending, its got to have somebody whos very in favor of it. Its got do something for certain districts. It will likely be very difficult to get the 50 51 votes simply because it will hurt the peoples constituents. It will the base will like it, they will think that trumps acting strongly, as a strong man. But on individual districts or states, its going to be very, very difficult. So im not sure it is going to help overall or in the bottom line. It sounds like were going to be left with gridlock. And gridlock is what millions of americans voted against. Well, thats exactly right. There is little impact in whats going on, that is the president not obeying a law. But there is a moral and ethical impact of signing a deal deal, agreeing to a deal and backing out. If you were a democrat, would you ever agree to anything with Senate Republicans against or House Republicans with house democrats, would democrats ever go along with that if they thought the president was simply going to back out of it later. Stan, good to see you. Despite how enthusiastic stephanie was in her greeting of you, you know i loved you. You might like stan, but i just want to point out stan paid me two compliments. Stans my peloton buddy. Well be right back. Youre watching velshi ruhle. Thank you so much. Thank you so were a go . Yes we got a yes what does that mean for purchasing . Purchase. Lets do this. Got it. Book the flights hai si si ya ya ya what does that mean for us . We can get stuff. Whats it mean for shipping . Ship the goods. Youre a go you got the green light. That means go oh, yeah. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. 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Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. All right. We want to keep talking about this scott prurt thiitt thing b it is important that we understand scott pruitt is now looking like he may be losing the support of the white house as new information comes out. But earlier this morning people were saying that his conduct was being investigated. It is not being investigated. It is being reviewed. Vee viewreviewed by the insp general for the epa. Ethic people at the epa says, while he says it was cleared to rent this apt for 50 a night from a lobbyist people from the white house said this is particularly challenging from the president because the president doesnt have a lot of people anymore that he truly trusts because he trusts and likes scott pruitt. See how it plays out. Thanks for watching this hour of velshi ruhle. Ill see you back here at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. Ill see you back here at 9 00 a. M. Tomorrow. Connect with our sho shoshow velsh show velshiruhle. Right now on Andrea Mitchell reports, border wars. President trump orders National Guard troops to the border with mexico creating an Immigration Crisis without showing any evidence. Leaving the pentagon and Homeland Security scrambling to catch up. Why toda