Plus i. C. E. Protesters run down by a corrections officer and trump tv comes to his defense. He sought to do what is within his rights which is to proceed to park his vehicle and go to work. And trymaine lee and Nicole Hannah jones on the legacy of slavery in america, 400 years after it began. All in starts now. Good evening from new york. Im ali velshi in for chris hayes. Donald trump appears to be in deep trouble when it comes to winning reelection, and he seems to know it. He is reportedly rattled after a week in which we saw the markets tumble on fears of the economy could be heading into recession. And now hes facing a round of new poll numbers that border on catastrophic. A poll conducted by none other than fox news finds that trump isnt cracking even 40 support in matchups against the leading democratic president ial candidates. He trails jooib 50 to 38 . He is down to Bernie Sanders. He is down Bernie Sanders is at 48 to Donald Trumps 39. He is losing to Elizabeth Warren, 46 to 39 . He is trailing Kamala Harris 45 to 39 . And his Approval Ratings continue to be pretty terrible. Nationwide, fox found that 56 of registered voters disapprove of trumps Job Performance and things are not looking better for him in key states. Polling this week found trump with a net negative Approval Rating in states like arizona, michigan, north carolina, pennsylvania, and wisconsin, all states that he won in 2016. Republicans are trying to put the best possible face on the disastrous poll numbers after a conservative think tank released a poll showing that trump barely leads the democratic contenders in north carolina. Republican National Committee chair Romney Mcdaniel posted a celebratory tweet, crowing that trump is beating every leading 2020 democrat. That prompted a data journalist for the economist to respond with this. A poll from rightleaning think tank shows trump within the margin of error versus biden, sanders and warren in a state that leans six points to the right of the nation and the republican chairwoman thinks this is good news . Of course, polls can and with move in the runup to the election, but things probably arent going to get better for trump if the economy falls into a recession that can be traced at least in part to a trade war with china that he created. Just this week, the dow had its worst day of the year, dropping over 800 points in a single day on signs that a recession could be on the horizon. Now publicly, trump has been pretending that all the fine with the economy, but privately, its a different story. Hes reportedly, quote, sounded anxious and apprehensive, and essentially been retreating into fantasy to make himself feel better. A republican close to the administration telling the Washington Post that trump has been telling some confidantes that he distrusts statistics that he sees reported in the news media. Quote, he is rattled. He thinks all the people that do the Economic Forecasting are a bunch of establishment weanies, elites who dont know anything about the real economy and theyre against trump. Last night in new hampshire, trump told his supporters that they have to back him or face financial ruin. I know you like me, and this room is a lovefest, i know that. But you have no choice but to vote for me because your 401 k s, down the tubes. Everything is going to be down the tubes. Joining me now to talk about all of this, zerlina maxwell, senior director for progressive programing for siriusxm. Former senator Barbara Boxer, former policy director for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obamas president ial campaigns, and the president of the progressive think tank, the center for american progress. Welcome to all of you. Neera, lets start with you. The president moving as we said into a hard sale now. Its no longer im the better candidate, but you better vote for me or somebody else is going tank the economy in a week that its widely thought he is tanking the economy. Bad Economic News is bad for any president. But trump is in a particularly precarious position. Because first of all, his Approval Ratings are lower than his peoples views of the economy. So its clearly the economy has been bolstering him. Now, the economy goes south and it can be tied to his actions, which is very unusual for president s. They have good Economic News, very bad Economic News. But its not usually their actions that can be so directly tied to what he is doing. So obviously the trade war. And just the general lack of ability to plan, Business Investment itself is declining. Its very much related to the erratic nature of this white house and the decisions they make. I think he understands he is particularly vulnerable to poor Economic News, and thats why he is saying insane things about your 401 k plan. Obviously, its just a massive scare tactic that any rational person which never applies to him, but applies to him less this week than in prior week. Barbara boxer, the fear goes deeper. There is reporting from around the white house that his advisers are saying theyre not prepared for a recession. Theyre not even thinking about how thats going to work out. Were ten years and two months into an expansion. R everybody should be thinking about the fact there might be a recession. Does somebody who doesnt acknowledge his contribution to an economic downturn and certainly has no planning in place for what would happen if there is one, i think the issue is going to be how does he possibly even start to see america through such a thing . Exactly. And i was there during the great recession, the greatest recession since the great depression. And i remember standing on the senate floor. My state just was losing jobs hand over fist. There were hundreds of thousands of jobs lost month after month, and then remembering when we got calls from the bush administration, you to bail out the banks. Its a nightmare. Were going lose our whole economy. And here you have a man who criticized deficits and debt, and we dont really get to talk about that much you. Do once in a while. Right. But most people gloss over it. Hes got trillion deficits as far as the eye can see. What does that mean . It means when you do start to tank, you have nothing in your tool box. Interest rates are fairly low. So where do you go . And so i do agree, there is really no thought. And in my very early days, i was an economics major and i was on wall street. Then it wasnt thought of as such a terrible villain. And people hate volatility in the market. Its very its very worrisome, because one day you think youre going okay, then youre not going okay. So they flee the market. And youre right. He doesnt have anything in his tool box. You know, zerlina, im not sure if Barbara Boxer got the memo that the tax cuts are going to pay for themselves. Theyre not actually going to cause a greater deficit or greater debt. But this is the thing. Thats what donald trump says. He says these things. He goes on, he speaks at rallies, and he just says things that are now provably wrong. Some people dont even bother correcting him anymore because theyre just lie after lie after lie. But the fact is there are some people who are believing him. There are some people who believe you cant let the democrats touch this economy because theyll tank it, not his trade war with china, not his economic policies, not his tax cuts that have actually increased the deficit, something Barbara Boxer said he railed against when campaigning. Look, the number that i always have to remind myself of every single day is that donald trump only got 26 of eligible voters. And so the economy, to neeras point, absolutely has bolstered his support, and he is up in the 30s because there are a lot of people who did get tax cuts, corporations and rich people, not necessarily the average american worker. And so i think that donald trump, you know, has essentially been coasting here on a 77,000 vote margin that gave the electoral college. And the chickens are coming home to roost. You cannot, you know, perpetually lie every single day to the American Voter and then when it comes time to tell the truth about the economy, know ones going to believe you. Yeah, i think he is probably fairly rattled because the only issue he had going for him was the economy, and i guess racism, which isnt really an appealing message. He uses that at rallies as well sometimes. Neera, heres the question. Are the chickens coming home to roost . Obviously, if there is an economic downturn in which unemployment increases, wages fall, that will have a material effect on people. Theyll feel it. And probably if prices go up because of this trade war, as theyre starting to, people will probably see it. So at what point does the president s ability to say anything he want at these rallies coincide with reality . So we should be clear that already lots of americans feel like they that there has been an economic boon for other people, not for them. So he already has to deal with that. And it does affect a fair number of his voters. The big challenge he has is as you see in polls, and its not just one poll. Its multiple polls. Its not just states he won by a little bit, its states like arizona. A republican hasnt faced a real race in arizona in decades. The fact that trump is underwater in the state like arizona is probably one of the reasons why he is rattled, because that should be rattling for anybody. And thats from where the economy is now. So i think this is a real i think he is rattled for a very good reason, and i think hell do what he always does, which is attack the opposition. He cant really blame obama for this economy, though he may try because he has taken so much credit for it. He will do what he tried to do yesterday which is to say if you vote for democrats, this terrible thing will happen. The economy will tank more or worse, because thats really his only tactic. It is to destroy the other side. I assume people will remember that the economy was pretty good, particularly in the second term of obama. But democrats have to make the case, and we have to be clear that when there are challenges there, his challenges, and its because of the actions like the trade war and the deficits and other things, actions hes taken. Barbara boxer, lets talk about congress. The count and the number of democrats supporting an impeachment inquiry now 124. Representative Anthony Brown came out in favor today. Talk in an environment like this where donald trump is weakening. I tend to take my cues from speaker pelosi. I know her for so long. And i think what she is coming around to is theres just no choice. You know, if there is high crimes and misdemeanors, and it goes way beyond the Mueller Report and obstruction of justice to a president who winks and nods at White Nationalism and tells women of color in the congress to go home and the rest, i just think there is no choice. And i do believe the congress is going to have to do everything. Theyre going to have to keep on passing legislation. I want to point out, they have passed great legislation, such as raising the minimum wage. Its been 12 years since thats been done. And where is the check from mexico, mr. President , to help us with our deficit . You know, we have to keep reminding the people of these things. Where is the infrastructure bill . You gave it away, mr. President , when you gave that huge tax cut. That puts people to work. I know that i was proud to lead the environment and public works committee. So, look, we have to look at this president. We have to uphold the constitution, the congress does. They take that oath. And if it leads to impeachment, so be it. But there are lots of other things out there including a backdrop of chaos and diversion and narcissism. And as Vice President says, the soul of our country is really on the ballot. Barbara boxer, zerlina maxwell, neera tanden, thank you for joining me on this friday night is. Coming up next, Union Workers had their pay held ransom unless they attended a speech by donald trump. His captive audience, after this. The first survivor of alzheimers disease is out there. And the Alzheimers Association is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Join the fight with the Alzheimers Association. The business of road trips. Adventure. And reconnecting. Modernized comfort inns and suites have been refreshed because our business is you. Get the lowest price guaranteed on all Choice Hotels when you book direct at choicehotels. Com. Hey i live on my own now ive got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. Unlike my parents. You rambling about xfinity again . Youre so cute when you get excited. Anyways. Ive got their app right here, i can troubleshoot. I can schedule a time for them to call me back, its great you have our number programmed in . Ya i dont even know your phone anymore. Excuse me . what . I dont know your phone number. Aw well. He doesnt know our phone number you have our fax number, obviously. Todays xfinity service. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Ill pass. All right. On tuesday President Trump appeared at a pennsylvania shell petrochemical plant to give what was build as remarks on American Energy and manufacturing. It was a nonpolitical event, if there is such a thing in 2019. Of course, because it was a trump event, he bragged about the economy and he attacked Hillary Clinton, joe biden, Elizabeth Warren, the media, and the Academy Awards for good mexico. Now the pittsburgh postgazette reports that the workers standing behind donald trump in their matching high visibility clothing were not given a realistic option to not attend. The postgazette reports the rules said to Union Leaders said attendance was not mandatory, but, and this is a very big but, quote, only those that showed up at 7 00 a. M. , scanned their cards and prepared to stand for hours through lunch without lunch, would be paid. No scan, no pay the rules said. These people are standing there as if they all chose to be there maybe some of them are trump supporters. Now that we know the option was to attend or take the day off and not get paid, it casts their presence in an entirely different light. One union leader told the postgazette one day of pay might around to around 700 in pay, benefits, and a per diem benefit that out of town workers receive. Basically the workers had to go, basically it was going to cost them 700 not to attend in some cases. Not only that, they were given a list of rules about their behavior. No yelling, shouting, protests or anything viewed as resistance will be tolerated at the event, the paper read. So these workers stood like props behind the president at an event that was not supposed to be a rally and listened to him say things like this. Im going to speak to some of you Union Leaders to say i hope youre going to support trump, okay . And if they dont, vote them the hell out of office because theyre not doing their job. Its true. Vote them out of office. Then President Donald Trump stood in front of those workers and claimed responsibility for the project theyre working on. You have thousands of tons of concrete, aluminum and steel and nearly 6,000 of the strongest, toughest and most talented workers anywhere on earth. I know. It was the Trump Administration that made it possible, no one else. Without us, you would never have been able to do this. That last part is just straight up untrue. As the Associated Press reports, quote, shell announced its plans to build the complex in 2012, midway through president Barack Obamas term in the white house. Lots going on here. Joining me with more on the president s captive audience is chris lu, white house cabinet secretary under president obama. Thank you for being with us. Absolutely. Your thoughts on, this a staged crowd, people who were told you dont get paid if you dont show up. It does seem a little not the way things are supposed to be in 2019. Ali, we have seen a lot of bizarre events from donald trump since he first announced four years ago. This someone of the most bizarre. This idea of holding a captive audience offends me as somebody who helped plan president obamas travel. We never had to force people to show up there. We never made people stand for ten hours without lunch. We never docked them their pay if they didnt show up. It offends me its a the former secretary of laner who worked to ensure that American Workers had opportunities. And one of the opportunities is you dont have to listen to a forced speech by your president. But there are so many crazy statements that he makes, this idea that obama would have stopped this project. This project was, as you said, proposed in 2012. It was approved in june of 2016 before obama left office. In fact, if there is one person who potentially impeded the construction of this plant, its donald trump. Pat toomey, senator pat toomey from pennsylvania complained that the president s steel quotas on foreign steel were preventing the construction of this plant. So actually, if there is anybody who potentially held this thing up, it was donald trump. And then there is a whole litany of just misstatements and gaffes and lies. And the kicker of all this thing is that this ended up becoming an official event. So ameri