Speaking, of course, is going to vote for a tax increase. This is not the party of reagan anymore. Code words. Donald trump uses a racial slur at a bhit houwhite house ceremo aiming it at Elizabeth Warren, but also insulting the world war ii native american heroes he was there to honor. You were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in congress who say was here a long time ago. They call her pocahontapocahont. It is very unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur. Good day, everyone, im Andrea Mitchell in washington where President Trump faces a showdown in congress only days before time runs out on a budget and his tax cuts. Nancy pelosi has canceled the meeting they would have with the president after the president slammed them on twitter. Joining us is Garrett Haake and Kristen Welker. First to you, garrett, nancy pelosi cancelling the meeting this afternoon. Reporter this is part of a tweet that the president wants to get done today. You had the president tweeting about this meeting saying the democrats wanted more borders and less crime, and he said, why would we want to go to a show meeting at the white house if there is no real deal to be discussed . And their statement says as much, that they dont see much value to go to the white house to essentially be a photo op for a president who a lot of folks on capitol hill can see, especially on the democratic side, has not been especially involved in this process, especially on these spending deals, from the getgo. So you have Chuck Schumer, nancy pelosi saying we would rather just go ahead and meet with paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell and continue some kind of good faith negotiation rather than be a pawn in a president ial political gain. And, garrett, to Kristen Welker at the white house, the other side of this argument. The president had already created another kind of new controversy insulting the native American World war ii heroes. They were 90 years and plus, and they were at the white house for this honor. He slammed Elizabeth Warren, using a slur of pocahontas to their face. That caused a reaction. I want to play for you what you did in questioning Sarah Sanders immediately afterwards at the briefing. Do you think it was appropriate for the president to use a racial slur in any context . I dont believe it is appropriate for him to make a racial slur or anybody else. He did make a racial slur, so why is it appropriate for him to do that . Like i said, i dont think it is. Does he see political value in calling out racial slurs . Look, i think senator warren was very offensive when she lied about something specifically to advance her career. I dont understand why nobody is asking about that question and why that isnt constantly covered. Kristen, you tried to pin her down on that, but the answers were only creating more problems for this white house. Reporter there is no doubt about that, andrea. You saw the white house really try to shift the focus back to Elizabeth Warren. But bottom line, republicans close to the white house acknowledge that, look, that statement yesterday about pocahontas came out of nowhere, it came at a ceremony that was aimed at honoring native American World war ii veterans, and it also came at a time when this president wants to be focused on tax reform, wants to be focused on his end of the year agenda, trying to strike a deal with chuck and nancy, which, as you ask garrett were just talking about, has taken a major step backwards. So this really did overshadow the president s messaging. Ill point out, andrea, the fact that the president has sent out a lot of tweets today, none about Elizabeth Warren. Its possible he wants to try to turn the page on this controversy and redirect the focus on tax reform ahead of his big visit to capitol hill where the taxes have not been higher. Will that continue to be the case . I wouldnt bet on it, because Elizabeth Warren has not only been critical of this president , how he has handled the transfer of power at the Consumer Protection bureau, but she considers to criticize him on a whole range of issues. I think thats part of what prompted yesterdays comment, andrea, so he might stay quiet when it comes to Elizabeth Warren today. Will that hold in the coming weeks if she continues her criticism of him . Not clear that that will be the case, andrea. And thanks to kristen and to garrett, but of course the president has not stayed quiet on Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi. And that could potentially blow up his tax plans as well, because he could use some democratic votes if he loses those deficit votes on the republican side. So garrett, i know youll be standing by for the president s arrival on capitol hill in the next hour. Well see what he has to say going into the Republican Caucus. Joining me here, Republican NationalCommittee Chairman michael steele, both nbc political analysts. The president is going up the hill to meet with the republicans. He already has a problem with the deficit hawks, the corkers, the flakes, lankford and others. He needs to hold as many of them together as he can and not lose, you know, any more on that side. There is a possibility of picking up some democrats who like some parts of this tax bill. Now, what has he done in blowing up the meeting with Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi . He obviously has made it much harder to win over democrats on what could otherwise be a bipartisan opportunity for him to get particularly those democrats in the United States senate who are facing tough reelection campaigns in 2018. There are a number of democrats who represent states that the president won by large margins. You would think clair mccaskill, joe donnelly, these would be targets for a common sense mainstream tax reform proposal. That is not what republicans have tried to do. There is not a proposal theyve put forward in this senate. They have been passing these proposals behind closed doors. Every time we get a report about a change, a quote, unquote improvement they made to the bill, they are making enhancements to corporations and reducing the benefits provided to working people. That is an indication of where the president s true preferences are, and its going to make it harder to entice democrats to vote for that proposal, any democrats. I want to play for you what was actually said by peter mcdonald, the Navajo Tribal leader. Honoring these heroes in the white house yesterday, what he said in his very moving speech before the president s slur that attracted all the attention. Lets watch. We hit the beaches of guadalcanal with 15 navajo talkers. These were the first where to never hold code was to be tested in national battle, to test how our memory would be under heavy enemy fire. Well, three weeks after the landing, general van degrift, general of the first division, sent word back to the United States saying, this navajo code is terrific. The enemy never stood it. He said, we dont understand it, either, but it works. Send us some more navajos. As Lawrence Odonnell made clear last night, these native americans were going to battle for the marines, for the United States in world war ii only some years after the u. S. Army, up until world war i, had been fighting and killing their native american brethren. Yeah, the contrast and the symbolism from yesterday is powerful, and at the same time, very disappointing. Powerful in that you see these individuals who represented our country served our nation at a critical time, in the battle, as he said. Nobody understood it but it worked. We need more navajo. And overlooking the ceremony, of course, the history of Andrew Jackson perjurying native americans across the country. And, nask, in the president s own mindless response by bringing up senator warren and pocahontas. It was a contrast in, sort of, history and silliness. I think the president trying to be quippish or cute or whatever he was thinking went to a space he didnt need to go to. Just stay with the script. Dont ad lib, because when you do, your ugly comes out and here we are. There is again going to be a 4 00 federal Court Hearing this afternoon on competing heads of the Consumer Finance protection agency. When have we ever had a time in washington where an independent, one who is the omb direct to recall with his day job. Two different heads claiming to be running an agency, one of whom had promised to destroy that agency. Its not just what you would expect nick mulvaney, weeks before a Government Shutdown, weeks before he used to be chiefly responsible for delegating on capitol hill, and the ability to. He is ruining an agency that they seek to destroy. It is disconcerting that the Trump Administration is taking their eye off the ball when it comes to a Government Shutdown, but theyre taking their eye off the ball to tear down a fight of an agency thats supposed to be independent and supposed to protect working people from big banks and other corporate agencies. This is an agency thats been successful. They have succeeded in helping 10 million americans collecting 20 billion total. This is an agency that has a track record of success. I imagine theyll see the same type of success. In fact, josh, when Sarah Huckabee sanders was asked at yesterdays briefing to give one example of where that agency has messed up, she said, ill have to get back to you on that. She had no answer to that. To the merits or demerits of the tax bill, you saw corker, flake and others. You saw the deficit hawks. Nick mulvaney on meet the press said to me, well, its a gimmick to get that number under the budget rule so we only need 50 votes to pass itme. He acknowledged it could be closer to 2. 2 million. What corker was talking about in a late night meeting was some sort of trigger where, michael, they could put the tax cut in as envisioned, but then take it back if it turns out it doesnt produce the revenue t. This is such a farce, andrea. I cant believe republicans are so desperate that they are willing to sacrifice the core principle that they have advocated for lo these 10 to 15 years, certainly during the obama administration, that they would spend a dime more of the nations money on things that they thought were frivolous were willing to shut down the government, and did shut down the government, because of the spending priorities, spending too much money, raising the national debt. Theyre now comfortable with spending 1. 5 trillion minimum that we dont have. Theyre like, oh, our fix will be it will just be a little trigger. If it looks like it wont work, well just take it all back. Recalls. They have to answer specifically to their base. If a ton of bricks. Many there are donors desperate for this legislation who will enjoy the benefits of it and the last election. Have to leave it there. Thank you. Coming up, state of chaos. The top official in charge of revamping the state department calls it quits after only three months on the job. He joins us to talk about state Department Death function. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Stay with us. Im tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. Its why i left my Investment Firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. But here we are nine years later and this president and the Republican Congress are making a bad situation even worse. They wont tell you that their so called tax reform plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. It blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. Its up to all of us to stand up to this president. Not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. Join us. Your voice matters. That was just aight for me. Yo, checi mean,t dawg. You got the walk. You got the stance. But i wasnt really feeling it. You know what, im not buying this. You gotta come a little harder dawg. You gotta figure it out. Eh, i dont know. Shaky on the walk, carriage was off. Randy jackson judging a dog show. I dont know dawg. Surprising. Whats not surprising . How much money lisa saved by switching to geico. Wow performance of the night. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. A top official that Rex Tillerson who Rex Tillerson brought in to redesign the state department and justify tillersons controversial job freeze has now quit after only three months. She leaves the secretary of state before a longplanned stream line. Today the share was, shall we say, diplomatic. I have a very Good Relationship with secretary tillers tillerson. We meet fairly often. He knows were concerned about the vacancies. I think hes concerned about the vacancies, but the redesign has, lets face it, been problematic and hasnt occurred, and were going to have a briefing over the next couple days just to sort of understand why that is. Joining me now is senator ben cardin, the top democrat on the Senate Foreign relations committee. Senator, thank you so much. Rex tillerson has been over at the Wilson Center speaking about Foreign Policy, and he was asked about all these reports of the hollowing out of the state department. Here was his response. Were keeping the organization fully staffed. Weve had over were still running our Foreign Service officers school, weve hired over 3 million this year. So there is no hollowing out. The numbers people are throwing out are just false. What is your take on that . Well, andrea, first of all, this is now the 11th month of this new administration, so its no longer new, and the reorganization plan is nowhere to be found, which is causing in and of itself a morale issue within the state department. We do know that there has been an exodus of experienced, key, highlevel officials at the state department, there are a lot of Unfilled Positions at the state department, we know that people are not getting the direction they need in order to carry out Foreign Policy. Our diplomacy and Development Assistants are critically important to our National Security, and its clear we dont have our team in place, and there is a lot of just information out there that is uncomfortable for people who look at a career in state department. And ive been told, in fact, that applications to even take the Foreign Service exam are dramatically down. So the pipeline is also being cut off. The other problem is, hes complaining about the confirmation process, but you had a hearing today on a couple nominees, but in fact the nominations are so backlogged that youre not holding up nominees, they just havent even nominated people to fill these jobs. Another issue is ivanka trump. There has been a lot of talk about Jared Kushner taking over the middle eastern negotiations, ivanka trump now traveling in india today snubbed by the secretary of state, reportedly, because she is not being staffed by any highranking people when she goes to this summit which has been covered by the secretary of state, kerry and others, in the annual meeting. Lets listen to her discussing this Global Entrepreneur summit in india today. In some countries women are not allowed to own property, travel freely or work without the consent of their husbands. In even more countries, the cultural and family pressure is so great that women do not feel the freedom to work outside of the home. Our administration is striving to promote greater opportunity for women around the world, both through our domestic reforms and our international initiatives. Is she the best ambassador for womens empowerment in these countries when the company that still bears her name hires below market paid women to manufacture her goods in india, bangladesh and elsewhere . Its clearly a mixed message, because we do know that part of her tour is she sells womens apparell under her name. There is a conflict here, but youre absolutely right, it would be a lot more credibility if she spoke out against some of the practices in india concerning women and labor. We know there is a significant trafficking issue there in labor. She didnt mention any of that, and she talks about the Trump Administration. President trump just came back from a trip to asia in which he hardly even mentioned anything about human rights and all the problems were having in asia. It is unclear about what ivanka trump was doing as far as Foreign Policy in the United States and in