that landed tom price in hot water and then out of a job, why hasn t scott pruitt been fired? what s your sense? do you really think mitch mcconnell just a couple of a month before the midterms wants to have another senate confirmation on his desk? look. you look at some big donors who are aligned with administrator pruitt who want to see him stay. also, this is about the president s energy agenda. in terms of that, there s a lot of folk who is want to see that consistent policy whether you agree with it or not from the administration s perspective, they want to see that consistency carried out. because again, any type of senate confirmation debacle would take months just before the midterms. and i think this senate has enough with senate confirmation hearings coming up with regards to director pompeo. they ve got their hands full. melanie, the white house is also being asked to explain some
decision. meanwhile, steven s parents have spoken to sidney about what happened to her dad. from my viewpoint, he gave his life for her. that s all for this edition of dateline. i m craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning. i m milissa rehberger in new york. it is 7:00 in the east, 4:00 out west. here s what s happening. boots on the ground. the national guard deploys hundreds to the u.s. border with mexico while thousands are approved to be assigned. are the skies clearing for stormy? while her legal team is enthusiastic following comments from the president on air force one. and sticking by scott. the president feels that the administrator has done a good job at epa. why the white house shows no signs of parting with pruitt. we begin with a live picture of the white house where pressure is mounting on the
president to fire his embattled epa chief. the associate ed press reports scott pruitt visited the white house yesterday to discuss the recent steps to roll back air efficiency standards for cars. but according to two administration officials he also fought for his job. this as kelly has been urging president trump to fire pruitt. that s according to the new york times and the wall street journal. but this morning, no clear direction from the white house on whether pruitt s job is safe. i m not going to go through hypotheticals until we have time to go through a full review. that s what we re doing right now. but again, the president thinks he s done a good job on the purpose of carrying out the goals of the epa. will he have a job by midnight tonight? look, the president is the one who makes those decisions. i can t say we all serve at the pleasure of the. as you know, if the president is
bunch. in terms of where the end goal is, the chinese are asking to have a more direct contact. president xi jingping has just reorganized the entire chinese government coalescing all of his power and restructuring the government. when i talk to sources inside the white house, they roll their eyes at that. they say, look, there are back channel trade negotiations going on. quickly i would just note that yes, you have wall street getting jittery over this. and farmers getting jittery over this. but the administration rightfully or wrongfully believes that the base of the trump movement, the workers who railed against nafta when he was running for president are behind them on this. that s an interesting political gamble we ll have to watch. all right. let s move onto the controversy surrounding scott pruitt. a republican source tell your colleagues that house oversight committee chairman trey gowdy has begun looking into his $50 a night home rental deal. how serious is this considering
white house reporter for the associated press and an msnbc political analyst. i know you have insight into the meeting with pruitt and the president on friday, what can you tell us about it? we reported this on the a.p. wire, scott pruitt was in the white house yesterday for a prescheduled meeting about fuel regulations, done dog one of those things that the president is so fond of him that he s sort of advancing president s agenda. rolling back some of the protections put in place by the obama administration. while pruitt was there, he made his case to president trump that he should keep his job. he pointed to the successes he s had at the epa. and to the support that he has outside the white house. and that s a key point here. pruitt has lost much of his backing within the west wing. the chief john kelly, has advocated he be dismissed. other senior white house aides feel like he has not been fully truthful about this sort of never-ending drip drip drip of scandals. this constant