Good morning, everyone. Top of the hour. Im poppy harlow. John berman has the week off. Were so glad youre with us. A live look at brussels, nato headquarters. Were waiting for Vice President mike pence to come out and speak with the nato secretary general. Well monitor that and bring it to you when it begins. Its president s day, but no holiday for the office holder. President trump is facing social media backlash and from others about saying this at a rally this weekend in florida. You look at whats happening in germany. You look at whats happening last night in sweden. Sweden who would believe this . Sweden they took in large numbers. Theyre having problems like they never thought possible. Sweden and many others are scratching their heads, trying to figure out what exactly he meant, because there was no attack or anything in particular that happened the night before. A lot of questions about what the president meant and where hes getting his information. The president pushing back,
Departing, White House Communications director, mike dubke. As he left his home, no comment from President Trumps soninlaw, Jared Kushner, to the latest reporting he tried to set up a back Channel Communications with russia during the election. The president himself taking to twitter this morning, declaring, quote, russian officials must be laughing at the u. S. And how lame excuse for why the dems lost the election has taken over the fake news. This as president ial counselor Kellyanne Conway strongly defending kushner this morning. Kushner said from the beginning he is willing to go and share any information that he has with congress, with the fbi, and as you heard general mcmaster, as you heard secretary kelly over this weekend say, theyre not concerned. Back channels like this are the regular course of business. Thats really all we know. I think it is very important to recognize that the president has expressed full confidence in Jared Kushner. Nbc News White House correspondent Kr
Take a listen. We dont know that theyre going to work this time. It was something we needed to do. We said on saturday when we took the vote that this wasnt going to stop our north korea problem. What this is going to do is send a very strong message and a united message. It was a strong day for the United States. It was a strong day for the united nations. Now, President Trump touting the new sanctions on twitter as a diplomatic victory. At the same time today, hallie, he retweeted a story that cites unanimous sources. Let me read you the headlines of that story. U. S. Spy satellites detect north korea moving antiship cruise missiles to control both. What is significant about this is that President Trump has stories that rely on Anonymous Sources and, of course, his attorney general has vowed to crack down on leakers. So, all of this, the backdrop, as the president prepares to monitor the situation in north korea for yet another day, hallie. Kristen welker there in bridgewater, new je
It is day 400 of the Trump Administration that brings new legal trump for two former Trump Campaign aides. The Washington Post reports tonight the Deputy Attorney general warned the white house weeks ago about problems with Jared Kushners security clearance. Were going to have more on that just ahead. But we begin with the mueller investigation. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained another guilty plea. This one from former Trump Deputy Campaign chairman rick gates who stayed on during the transition. Today gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States as well as to lying to investigators. And he admitted to secret foreign lobbying, potentially illegal mortgage schemes and helping Paul Manafort cheat on his taxes. Mueller also got gates to plead guilty to lying to investigators after he was indicted. Gates is now cooperating with the special counsel. This is not good for his former Business Partner and onetime Trump Campaign chief Paul Manafort who was hit with bra
Well explain. President trump slapped china with import taxes. Fears of a trade war, remember . Assurances that china would never retaliate, remember . They just retaliated and now theres feel of a real trade war along with trouble in tech wars. Serious market implications. Lets get to it. The news is breaking on multiple fronts. Well begin with the markets in the tank today on the heels of chinese retaliation to President Trumps foreign tariffs and a trump tweet attacking amazon. A live look at the Dow Jones Industrial average. 100 points off the low. At one point, the dow was off 700 points. Off 3 . Thats more than the dow lost in the entire First Quarter of this year and the worst start to a quarter since the great depressi depression. The s p 500 is off 3 today alone. The nasdaq off 3. 5 . All three indices down for the year and officially in correction territory, which means theyre down more than 10 from recent highs. So what happened . Well, its simple, really, according to the a