about mexico, here is president trump announcing the cancellation of his meeting with the mexican president in philadelphia today. >> the president of mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week. unless mexico is going to treat the united states fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless and i want to go a different route. we have no choice. >> so david, was this sort of a mutual agreement, a mutual cancellation, or do you think that the mexican president pulled the plug? >> i think that the mexican president pulled the plug, and he did that because donald trump frankly put him in a corner. he kept in a tweet sort of pushing mexico saying you know you have to pay for the wall. i think nieto has to worry about his own political audience, mexicans were outraged, angry at him for months, if we talk this way to china, chinese are not going to stand for china backing down. this is very different from a business deal where you're bluffing. foreign leaders have to stand up for themselves just for their own political survival. they just started. it's a dangerous pattern. >> mark, i want to talk about the time line here because the mexican president said he was still planning to come to washington despite pressure at home to cancel the trip. and early this morning it came out on twitter, donald trump said if mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting. and then a few hours later the mexican president tweeted this, this morning we have informed the white house that i will not attend the meeting scheduled for next tuesday with the president of the united states. so president trump has not even been in office for a week and already kicked off a major diplomatic spat, what is your reaction? >> well, a couple of things. he certainly was not rolling out the welcome mat in the tweet. as david said, the president of mexico was pushed into a corner. if you just go back a few months, you know that donald trump made an unprecedented visit to mexico, the mexico at that time. and they had a joint news conference and there were questions about whether or not the wall was discussed or not. but the president of mexico is under an incredible amount of pressure at home, and to look like he is bending at the knee and kissing the ring of donald trump is not going to look well for him. but had he publicly declared they were not going to pay for the wall, had they gone to the magazine and said they were not going to pay for it. i think donald trump dodged one by not having the mexican president come to the united states. it's not going to be donald trump and the mexican president who were going to be able to figure out the trade deal. it will be those who work underneath him who really do the dirty details. >> michelle, the mexican foreign minister is in washington, responding to president trump tonight. watch. >> we simply cannot accept the concept of a neighbor paying for your own wall. that is something that does not happen. in communities, between -- between citizens, and something that would be totally unacceptable between nations. this is something that we would not do, we would never do. and because this is about -- this is about our dignity. and our pride. >> it sounds pretty final, michelle, is that the final word on the thing -- >> i mean, it does sound that way. i think the trump administration seems determined to find a way to make mexico pay. we're talking about tariffs and a trade war that would ultimately affect the consumers. or an aide that the u.s. provides to mexico. this relationship is important to both countries. we are neighbors, obviously. trade is a big deal. it's a big number. but so are things like counterterrorism, stopping the flow across the board, mexico does that as well so mexico has a few cards to play here. and did anyone not see this coming? i mean, before the election there was all this talk about the wall. you know, hyper-heated words like calling mexicans rapists. president pena nieto referred to donald trump as hitler in the same sentence. i think this was bound to come to a head. maybe once this has gotten past and everybody sees exactly what is in these executive orders and finds out a lot more detail about what is being proposed then the relationship can move on from there. but it looks like it's going to be rocky for sometime, to say the least. >> david. >> the odd thing is, there are not tides of people coming over the border. there is not a great threat, there is a debate over whether we even need the wall. and the mexican immigrant specialists say the wall won't stop the problem anyway. so the narrative is not really supported by facts. >> most people are coming in via airplanes and over-staying their visas. thank you, appreciate it. and one man who maybe has the toughest job in washington, that is sean spicer who speaks for donald trump. we'll talk about that. sometimes you 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president. >> sean spicer is now one of the most visible people in the world. >> thanks no coming out to our first official briefing. >> reporter: white house spokesperson is always one of the hardest jobs in washington, but speaking for president trump takes hard to a whole new level. >> what evidence do you have of widespread voter fraud in this election if that is the case? >> the president does believe that, stated it before. >> spicer spent two decades in washington working up to this. the naval officer who was still an active reservist, was a press secretary and on the committee. >> you're not draining the swamp with him. >> spicer was at the rnc, they did battle but also did good, making bets for charity. >> he is a good egg, someone who i think is really a decent and good person. you envy somebody in that role. >> why? >> well, i mean, you know, there are a few of us in this business. that i would really like to do that, i would like to be white house press secretary. >> spicer's friends tell cnn that being the press secretary is his dream come true, yet the first full day was like a nightmare. >> there is a lot of talk to hold donald trump accountable. i'm here to tell you that it goes two ways. >> a quickly arranged meeting, a direct meeting from the president. >> this is the first time in our nation's history that floor covering was used to protect the grass on the mall. >> after getting pounded, spicer came back looking for a do-over. >> there are certain things we may not fully understand when we come out but our intention is never to lie to you. >> at the rnc during the primaries, spicer publicly criticized trump. >> as far as painting mexican-americans with that kind of a brush, that doesn't help the cause. >> when trump won in november, spicer with the help of long-time boss and chief of staff reince priebus began to lobby to be presidential spokesperson, coming right back to work as transition spokesperson after his father passed away, which sources say showed trump how much spicer wanted the job, because he was not an early loyalist, at times spicer appears to go out of his way to prove his mettle to his abu boss. >> he has not changed a strange habit. chewing multiple packs of gum and swallowing it. his wife and two children always come first along with his country. >> one thing about him, he is a true patriot. he will focus on the right priorities. >> even before he worked for president trump, spicer has always been eager to do battle with reporters he thought were unfair or getting a story wrong. but he also has a long history of good relationships with journalists. balancing those two dynamics is a learning curve for any press secretary, especially one constantly watching from down the hall. >> there is no reason for anybody to expect the white house will stop taking shots at the media. but does fighting with the press actually help the president and his agenda? if you have medicare parts a and b and want more 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to any screen. one of the president's chief advisers, steve bannon slamming news media as opposition party. let's discuss it now with cnn's senior correspondent, and cnn contributor, salena zito. hello, we have been talking about "the new york times" interview where they interviewed the white house's chief strategist, steve bannon. said the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep their mouth shut and listen. they don't understand the country and why donald trump is president of the united states. labelling the media as opposition party, saying keep our mouths shut. we're playing his hands. he knew it would be covered. >> he's sowing divisions, trying to play the base who is skeptical of the media against it. but it's corrosive to media to hate the press this way. >> salena, do you think his helps his agenda to fight with the media? >> it's always been part of his thing right? up until he won the nomination used us very effective and brilliant way. and as soon as he won the nomination, he understood we were the opposition. low approval ratings and easy target. anything said, that's just the media. and so that definitely plays into his hands. look, what bannon said has not ever been said ever in an administration, just using inside voices. he actually said it out loud. and it escalates this battle between us and honestly, i don't think it helps anybody. because it just tunes everybody out to the whole dialogue, and we're not paying attention to the important things like you know what is his policy? what will he do going forward? we're so focused on all of this sort of white noise that you know it's keeping us from reporting on everything that he is doing and in some ways that does help him. >> i was just e-mailing with the head of the committee, and normally they try to help countries like syria and russia and iran, he is now paying more attention to the united states, he believes it undermines the press. steve bannon sought to promote that. don, i think it gets to your point how bannon wants us talking about it. he wants the media to be offensive, we have to note it but keep playing our own game. >> i thought it was interesting that our colleague, maggie, the words dishonest, trump does not hate the media. doesn't mean he understands what it's like being potus. there are a lot of people -- >> he was up watching fox news this morning at 55:00 a.m. this issue on criticizing the press, partly it's about creating confusion so people don't know what is true or what is false. today, trump said the murder rate the philadelphia has been increasing. the murder rate in philadelphia has been on the decline. the mayor of philadelphia is blasting trump for that, yesterday, he said there were two people shot in chicago when president obama was giving his farewell address. the tribune confirms, nobody was sh shot during the speech. there was another person shot, he continues to mislead people and sews confusion, sometimes it helps people in power. the point is to refuse to be confused. >> he has very strong support with the police, and saying that they worked hard to protect him in philadelphia. salena, the president sat down with fox news and the cia speech came up again, watch this. >> there was one standing ovation, the whole thing. so i get back and i will say fox treated it great. they said it was great. when our new person running, mike pompeo is fantastic, he said to me the other day that was so great. everybody loved it. when i got back i saw the speech, they didn't like it. it was not respectful. it was a smattering of applause, there were over 300 people in the room. over a thousand wanted to come. if i took a vote right now i would have won 350-0, but even that was demeaned as much as they can demean it. what i'm saying, sean, is this, much of the media is very, very dishonest, honestly it's fake news. it's fake. they make things up. >> so the cia story, his speech, maybe mentioned in passing on this show, i can't remember it. maybe somebody mentioned it in a response, had he not spoken about it we would have moving on to something else. so my question, is he expecting the media to pander to him. it seems like somehow he thinks that anything other than glowing coverage is unfair criticism. >> here is what i think, i think he has had a breathtaking week. if we took all of this noise aside and took a look at everything he has done from tpp to mexico city, to taking that back. to meeting with the ceos, and meeting with the head of the car companies. talking with all of those labor unions and trade unions, and i mean, obamacare, it's just -- in egypt, this has been a fast-paced great week. and the only thing that has gotten in the way of it is just focusing on these things that don't matter. and i haven't quite decided yet if it's to his advantage or disadvantage, but as the press i would like to be talking about policies, the effect they have on people, the economy, the national security, i feel like that is what we should be doing as a press but we sort of have been boondoggled by all of this white noise. >> yeah, when the president talks about something he is the leader of the free world and we talk about it. >> but i think some things were crucial, if he didn't bring up the ratings or the crowd sizes then there wouldn't be these distractions. there would be more conversation about the policies. it's about the fundamental fact of his taking criticism. he is still watching tv in the white house. we're all wondering if that will rise. >> if you don't want to talk about it, don't bring it up. you just let it go. >> and he is doing interviews. >> that is a positive. listen, you're out with a new piece on cnn.com, brian, you say that the president is fox news's top pr guy. >> what i mean by that, he is promoting fox, he said to david muir, turn on fox, they gave my speech a positive coverage. this is a continued spin on opposing the media that he doesn't think is fair, but preferring another. he is consuming a lot of media. and i hope that had when he is watching this network and other coverage, he is learning more about how to govern the country. it is very clear, especially for this businessman, there is a learning curve, maybe cable news has a responsibility to educate trump and his news. >> there is so much opposition because of that. thank you, president trump turning out executive orders as fast and furious as he can at a fast and furious rate, but do all of these actions have teeth? o shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tuberculosis. before starting stelara® tell your doctor if you think you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. always tell your doctor if you have any signs of infection, have had cancer, if you develop any new skin growths or if anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions can occur. do not take stelara® if you are allergic to stelara® or any of its ingredients. most people using stelara® saw 75% clearer skin and the majority were rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. be the you who talks to your dermatologist about stelara®. for a man who cares so much about ratings president trump cannot be happy about the latest polls that we have here. joseph bareli, new york city councilman, and democratic strategist and host of the pod cast "working life." >> i'm here. >> i want to make sure. so you're ganged up tonight -- >> i'm ganged up on, i handled it before. >> all right, matt, let's talk about this new poll, only that 36% of americans approve about how he is doing his job, 44% disapprove. how does he turn it around at this point? >> well, the only people less popular are at this table. so step one, to keep a campaign going and go after the media, that is part of it. look, this will sound you know, hackneyed maybe, but it's an opportunity. if you start off very high with huge expectations, there is nowhere to go but down. donald trump can now build from this. he has to turn it around. how will he do that? if people start to get jobs, the economy turn around, those numbers will fix themselves. >> i don't disagree with you -- >> politics is always about over-promise, under-achieve. >> welcome to the show, do you think republicans, joseph, in congress are concerned about those numbers? >> well, i think as far as the republican base they should not be. because republicans in this poll were very supportive of donald trump. i think republicans in congress are looking at this as somebody who is fulfilling nine out of ten promises he made on the campaign trail. and i think they have to be happy about his performance so far. he is doing what the party wanted him to campaign on and what he in fact promised himself. they are willing to make good on funding the wall and repealing obamacare. >> i think we have been reporting here on cnn that he is doing what he said he is going to do. now whether or not these executive orders have teeth, he is doing exactly what he said he is going to do. if not for the self-inflicted wound -- let's weigh on the analysis. the republicans approve 81%, right? democrats disprove 77%, independent voters, 45%. so far it's not actually you know know -- >> his approval ratings and likeability ratings have not been strong for quite sometime. to be honest, i don't think their team cares about p populari popularity, they care about performances and policies and promises. as joseph said look, he campaigned on repealing obamacare and building a wall and securing the border and already he is out of the gate. i think you have to give him credit for focusing on what is important is doing the job of president and not being like president of his fraternity. he is president of the united states. >> but his team does not care about the polls and numbers, i mean, you know he does. i just wonder if you're worried about -- you can weigh in, the independent numbers because that is where folks that -- >> well, certainly, we saw from the coalition that actually elected donald trump, he pulled over a significant number of independents. the q-poll is not the only one out there, the rasmussen poll last week was gospel when it had barack obama at 60%, and the media talked about him at the highest ratings ever. now they have donald trump at 59%. >> we never use rasmussen polls because they're heavily weighted the other way. >> and then you -- the huffington post did a story on -- >> do you believe "the huffington post"? >> donald trump did not win the popular vote in the election, that is just fact. >> democrats love pointing that out. >> i didn't mean it to bring it up in terms of illegitimate numbers. a lot of people don't go to the polls, i assume -- i don't know if they were just registered polls, look at what is happening in the street, there is a rebellion going on, the march, that was unprecedented. the number of people who turned out to protest against donald trump. donald trump is not a liked politician. and he is reinforcing that by frankly his personal behavior. when you try to govern by twitter, i think people out there, the average person is reacting. this man is out of control. >> even his even supporters say he would show a little by -- >> it is a polarized country, too, if hillary clinton were president, i don't think her numbers would be terribly high right now either. >> my colleague, van jones said when you were talking about the number of people out there the day after the inauguration, he said all you have to do is look back remember? we covered the tea party, all you have to do is look at the tea party and how those things can become a movement. so when i bring up the independent numbers i just wonder if it's concerning. at the same time, 53% of americans say they're optimistic about the next four years. 44% say he will help rather than hurt the economy. again, those are not great numbers. should there be some concern within the republican party and within the trump administration that -- >> well, republicans -- >> and that maybe he can't -- >> yes, but that then reflects it's in two ways, the republicans control congress and the white house. >> the mid-terms will be really tough. >> so in the next two years it's going to be very hard to democrats to stop most things with the exception of potentially the supreme court nominee. but that is different than the movement in the streets. and i want to say as a democrat, that rebellion, at least the things i have seen also gets the democratic party, not just donald trump, there is a rebellion against the elites. >> they should be concerned. i think the pink hats are as poised to have a new movement -- if the republicans are not on guard they could lose seats in 2020, the thing they're not doing is focusing on who is the trump coalition. you saw the women's marchers focusing on social issues. you're not going to win over to the republican party people who fundamentally disagree with them on social issues. the blue belt, the democrats, those are the people he is working for right now focusing on jobs and american progress and focusing on renegotiating. >> there were people out there at that march though, who were front those rust belt states. those people, not all of them are happy with the democratic party. >> i think the difference is they need to organize. and they need to find a single message and resonate on that. because the tea party was limited government and fighting obamacare. the pink hats, they were all over the map with their issues. but they had a lot of energy and enthusiasm. they just need to organize. >> and do what -- and which was very smart of the trump campaign then, i mean, immigration. build a wall. jobs. and those were among the two, right, that he just kept hammering home. >> and obamacare. >> and clinton had a whole variety of things, that is all he talked about, basically two or three things, we'll be right back and continue our conversation. using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and sequence their dna to fight disease. there are over 100 million pieces of dna in every sample. with the microsoft cloud, we can analyze the data faster than ever before. if we can detect new viruses before they spread, we may someday prevent outbreaks before they begin. be the you who doesn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that 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ingredients. most people using stelara® saw 75% clearer skin and the majority were rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. be the you who talks to your dermatologist about stelara®. you won't see these folks they have businesses to run. they have passions to pursue. how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. get a 4 week trial, plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. back now with my panel, jonathan, unlike the last president, president trump has a congress that wants to do business. here is vice president mike pence speaking to congressional republicans today. >> the point is by sticking to the president's agenda, we're going to kick the economy into overdrive, so as i said in my first visit to capitol hill say with great respect to members of the house and senate. buckle up, we're ready to go to work work. >> so he -- the president has signed a lot of executive orders, but do they have any teeth? >> well, it depends on executive orders that require money he will have to go to congress to i assume build the wall and other things like that. there will be some lawsuits around the executive orders, for example, his threat that they will hold money from states or cities that want to provide sanctuary for undocumented immigrants who trump tries to deport. he will try to with hold that money and there were already signs that there will be lawsuits around him. so we'll see. >> the threat of a lawsuit will not scare him. but the thing is, withholding funding to sanctuary cities is nothing more than him asking the cities to enforce immigration laws, why is that so hard? why would they have a problem with that? and for the money with building the wall, there is already funding in place under a george bush law that is sitting there. they just have to continue the funding for that. i don't see that being a big of an issue -- >> i thought the price tag they were talking about this crazy, stupid wall that is completely unnecessary, a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. that money, they're talking about a price tag of $14 billion, 20 billion -- >> i don't think you can say there is a problem that doesn't exist. i think you can say they're making the problem bigger than it is, you think more people are going back the other way -- than who are coming across the border. >> it's actually a fact, now i can tell you that this is the pugh study that said that actually the number of mexicans coming to the country have declined dramatically. >> people are still coming. >> but there are central americans going through, even of you look beyond the immigration issue the obama administration put out a study in 2011 say there is $190 billion in laws -- >> it's not about the drug trafficking o trafficking -- no, no. >> there is no problem in terms of the flow of people that this wall is required to deal with. it is just nonsense. it was all about fear and division. >> i think the positive thing that could come from this too, though, which is to say if we ever want to do immigration reform. if it's something with the dreamers or treating you know people who came here a long time ago compassionately, i don't think the american public is going to go for it until they believe that we actually can and have secured a border. so building a wall -- would be -- >> i want you guys to discuss this. because again, we're dealing in facts here, jonathan is right here, more people are going back, there was a whole series on the border wall. you still can tunnel under the wall. most people come into the country illegally on airplanes from places that are not mexico and they overstay their visa in numbers that are larger than people coming from mexico. that is the real problem. >> that is why he is adding 10,000 officers and 5,000 border customs agents. this is a bigger problem -- >> but that is not what people believe. they think it's people coming from mexico, when you think of immigration you think of mexicans. >> going back to the campaign, donald trump used the wall to symbolize, it was division and fear. and what he said to people particularly in the midwest and it worked politicly in the election, he said it was them. which was false. that is not the reason people have lost their jobs in the industrial midwest, not the reason wages have declined, it is because of corporate greed. >> it's -- >> it's not the -- it is the driver. not the main thing. it's not because of people coming from mexico. it's a completely. >> do you remember ten to 20 years ago to match point when a moderate position was we should allow people who are here to stay here but before we do that we should build a wall. that was something that bill clinton, hillary clinton -- >> you did preface it by saying ten to 20 years ago, i'm not saying it's right. i'm not saying it's right, i'm just -- >> even reagan's amnesty on securing the border -- >> i think the american people are generous and compassionate, but if time after time you tell them we're going to secure the border. and then but we're going to do it with amnesty but never secure the border. >> but you have to be honest with them about the facts of the border just that you have to understand the coal industry, i understand my brothers and sisters in the industry, automation -- >> it's a prime example where there are fewer people to run the factory. >> there are several reasons behind building the wall, obviously the influx of people coming here and taking haven in this country using our goods and services and health care and education without having to pay for it. there is also the enflux influx drugs, that president trump mentioned numerous times. i talked with farmers and those who live along the border. they say it's hell on earth along the border with illegals coming into the country and the easiest way is to build a wall -- >> i do hear people say you don't understand unless you live there. but the raw facts show that immigration -- >> and people contribute to the economy, billions in the economy. >> thanks everyone, that is it for us. no sir, no sir, some nincompoop stole all my wool sweaters, smart tv and gaming system. luckily, the geico insurance agency recently helped baa baa with renters insurance. everything stolen was replaced. and the hooligan who lives down the lane was caught selling the stolen goods online. visit geico.com and see how easy it is to switch and save on renters insurance. . . . children: grandpa!