he needs to. you look at polls coming up, early, small polls, particularly michigan one. they are disconcerting what s happening in texas and other states. just to make sure the president is paying attention to this, for the last months has been focused on robert mueller and that investigation and not necessarily what s happening on the ground in key states. the dysfunction, no one feels like, can your top adviser sit with you in the residence for an hour after dinner and talk to you? the only way they know to communicate with him is through leaks in the press. it s amazing. we know the reporting from the end of the 2016 campaign, they thought the pr pitch would end as he planned, in defeat, where he would have new deals and new notoriety and a huge microphone. they were all basically around him in a sickle calling the world to say it wasn t me, it wasn t me, it wasn t me. that s right. basically what you have is a leak out of the embryonic 2020
so why does it matter to you? because of this. the wall fight. the president demanding more than $8 billion for it, on top of the $8 billion he hopes to get from his national emergency. this is a re-election pitch. president trump basically saying, hey, the reason you should re-elect me is these are great, frankly, rosy predictions for the economy. with fears of another shutdown, what does this mean for the country s bottom line? we have a lot to get to. let s get to geoff bennett at the white house and garrett h k haake on capitol hill. let s talk about the pr pitch on this. in past presidencies, you often see the commander in chief going out, trying to sell his budget plan, even though everybody knows it is not going to go anywhere politically. reporter: right. look, for donald trump, retail politics has never been his thing, right? the view from the white house is that the president is selling his vision for america in tweet after tweet, in speech after speech, and even in this ne
welcome back, everybody let s start with the morning s top stories. it s day 18 of the government shutdown. with no end to this steal mate in sight president trump taking his call for money for the border wall is taking it to the american people. he s set to hold a primetime speech tonight as the impact of the shutdown continues to grow. nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has more. reporter: at the white house a shutdown sales job as the president makes a pr pitch aimed not at lawmakers but you with that speech and border trip to highlight what his administration describes as a humanitarian and security crisis. vice president spence says no decision has been made yet about declaring a national emergency. declaring an emergency on our border, an emergency that doesn t exist is probably the worst public policy idea i ve heard in about ten years. reporter: the white house
i think the next step would be mueller is goi to probably issue a subpoena and then we will have a show down as to whether he has to testify in front of the grand jury. this president has been all over the place on lots of topics. i don t see a safe harbor for him meaning i don t see a way for him to answer questions and not come out scathed. i think they are panicked what you do with this kind of a witness. perhaps the idea is we will just fight it as a constitutional matter. i think that that will ultimately fail in the supreme court but mr. giuliani is making the pr pitch for why we should take his client s position. this is what a lawyer would do. it s been a pleasure to have you on. our next segment, thank you. i know you have more to say. we are going to pick up on that idea, the idea that the president may or may not sit down with robert mueller. we are also talking about something else rudy giuliani said this time about james
asked whether retirement accounts would lose their tax-exempt status. take a listen. the secretary of the treasury and director cohn yesterday both talked about the current plan right now both for tax charitable giving and mortgage interest and that s it. the white house quickly worked to clarify those comments reportedly saying that 401(k) plans will not be targeted under the tax plan. but that s not the only backlash the president is facing over this plan. as critics argue is will significantly benefit the wealthy. nbc news national correspondent peter alexander has more. reporter: the president s plan to overhaul 70,000 pages of federal tax laws so far boiling down to barely 200 words. critics say it s a pr pitch, not a proposal. it s a plan to lower president trump s taxes. the taxes of his cabinet, and people as wealthy as they are. reporter: the biggest winner, according to most tax analysts, the rich. their tax rate dropping nearly