door. joining me now, nbc news correspondent, tom costello. tom, what kind of jobs are these? is this factory workers, management? what's happening? >> no, we're talking about middle level management people for the most part. and let's break these numbers down. because at the first, that 7,000 number is headline grabbing, but that's a global number. and in fact, most of these people are in europe. 2,300 people in the united states, midlevel manager types in the united states are going to be out of a job. however, 1,500 of those have already taken buyouts. that leaves about 800. and this week, 500 or so are learning that they are going to be losing their jobs. another 300 to 400, we'll hear that news by the end of august. ford says it's making this announcement because it has to get leaner and more flexible as part of their program called the smart redesign at ford. they hope it's going to save the company about $600 million overall. listen, the bottom line here, stephanie, is that ford has really been struggling, especially in china and in europe. they simply not competitive in those two key markets. and so that is why we're seeing the bulk of these layoffs in europe. they've struggled to gain a foothold in that market. and then here in the states, they simply were not willing to give up the sedan fast enough and embrace the suv, as some of their chief competitors have. and now it's forced them into a situation where they have got to really get leaner and more flexible really quickly. >> leaner and more flexible. they've got to optimize from the bottom line. >> can i just underscore one point. >> sure. >> we're not talking about factory jobs in the united states, we're not talking about factory closings. these are midlevel white-collar jobs in the states. >> thank you so much. we've got to turn to foreign policy. if iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of iran. that was president trump's message on twitter, warning the islamic republic, to, quote, never threaten the united states again. all of this is reminiscent of the president's volatile tweets about north korea back in the summer of 2017, which of course raised fears of war at the time. but in an interview with fox news which aired just hours after that tweet, the president seemed to back off his harsh tone. >> the thing that a lot of people worried about, they heard what you said in 2017 and they liked it when you said, no more stupid wars. and they hear this story about troops -- >> i just don't want them to have nuclear weapons. and they can't be threatening us. i'm not somebody who wants to go into wars. war hurts economies and kills people, by far, most importantly. i want to invade, if i have to, economically. >> now, let's bring in bill neely, nbc news chief global correspondent, live in erbil. bill, how seriously are the iranians taking the president's tweet and then hours later he backs off? >> reporter: yeah, well, predictably, stephanie, iran has responded, as you would expect they would, foreign minister, who likes tweeting almost as much as the president responding by saying that iran over thousands of years has responded and fought off aggressors like alexander the great and began gangis khan and he said, never threaten an iranian. try respect. it works. so this back and forth came after a weekend in which it looked like tensions were actually diminishing. iran backing off any aggressive warnings, even iran's revolutionary guard saying, we don't want war. but then the rhetoric ramped up again by president trump's tweet. and it's all led to a fairly unpredictable atmosphere. the u.s. oil company, for example, exxonmobil over the weekend, evacuating 80 foreign nationals from an oil field near basra in the south of iraq, just saying, look, no big deal. this is just precautionary. so everyone in this region really not sure whether, you know, it's war, war, or jaw, jaw. as you mentioned, it's all very predictable. we saw this with regard to north korea and in the lead up to what became diplomacy. but there was a period, stephanie, as you'll remember, when it didn't feel like diplomacy with north korea, at all. >> bill, thank you so much. bill neely joining us. now we have to move back to the president who could be preparing to pardon members of the u.s. military. those convicted or accused of war crimes. u.s. officials tell "the new york times," in a reversal of procedure, the white house sent paperwork to the justice department to review cases from iraq and afghanistan, including high-profile cases of murder, attempted murder, and desecration of a corpse, officials tell "the times." joining me now, kevin barron, executive editor of "defense one." kevin, this is your jam, your expertise. help us understand this report, how it's being received, and if it's likely to get approved. >> it's immediately controversial, and maybe a little history with how military justice works and pardons. you know, in the military justice system, it's different than the civilian world. commanders matter and there's something called command authority. where a senior commander on a ship, on a base can change the judgment and the sentencing of pretty much any case. it's what separates the military justice system away from the civilian world and it's been controversial. it was controversial in sexual harassment cases over the last few years. but for military pardons, this has sparked a real fury among military watchers, among the special operators themselves, among those who have followed these wars closely who are questioning why now, and you know, what's the merit of these things. additionally -- >> and why -- so, it has them questioning, but talk to a mere civilian like me, why are they furious? what does it mean? >> you know, there's no more serious crime than a war crime. and there's reasons why these cases have been brought forward. there's clear evidence and a lot of writing has come out in the last two days to push back on or to educate what's happened in these cases. but it's also a bit of a cultural shift. you know, this gets to the heart of special operators that are a very close-knit and closed group. there have been cases where operators or contractors like blackwater folks that have been involved in a case like this that there are some that come to their defense and say, this is fog of war stuff, and others that say, no, there's nothing more serious than a war crime. and you shouldn't have to have retired generals saying that. it should be the civilians who say that. what's troubling is how partisan this is. there are fox news voices that are saying, flat-out, we should support the president and middle america would like this and that's unusual. when it comes to war crimes, it should be just a war crime case. i think what we're seeing from the military voices that i've heard, a pretty overwhelming condemnation and a pushback on the president to not go down this path. but we're going to have to see what the white house comes up with. >> and what's the president's rationale? >> well, i don't think we'll know until we hear specifically from these cases, you know, the president has signaled before that a bit of a, you know, allegiance to any troops that are under this kind of fire. this isn't the first time he's reached out publicly to say, maybe we should give this guy a break. these are soldiers that are out there in the fog of war. that's different than having the authority of pardon and for something to be the level of a war crime. we'll have to wait and see what happens with this request. if this comes as it was initially reported by memorial day, you will see a really strong outpouring of condemnation from military veterans. >> kevin, thank you so much for helping us understand it. moving on, let's go deep into politics, because republicans are piling on a sitting member of their own party after michigan congressman justin amash made his case for the president's impeachment and did it on the president's favorite medium, twitter. ensuring it would be seen in the white house. in a series of tweets, amash said the president, quote, engaged in impeachable conduct, something the congressman defined as conduct that violates the public trust. according to amash, the mueller report provided multiple examples of conduct satisfying all of the elements of obstruction of justice, adding that impeachment, which is a special form of indictment, does not even require probable cause. the president, surprise, surprise, responded on twitter saying he was never a fan of the congressman, capping off his reply with a predictable insult, justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents hands. wow. joining me now, nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson and former assistant u.s. attorney mimi rocah. mimi, let's talk the law before we talk politics. what exactly -- what argument is amash making that takes us out of the political realm where he's saying, this is just the law zp law. >> yeah, look, amash looked at the document. it sounds like he actually read, which i think distinguishes him from a lot of members of congress who are saying, who are defending trump's conduct. and he is looking at the specific facts and saying the elements. there are three elements. you need an obstructive act done with intent, in connection with sort of ongoing proceeding. it's not that complicated. and mueller laid out 12 acts. there are nearly 1,000 former federal prosecutors of both parties, bipartisan groups, who have signed a statement saying what amash has said. so, they can pile on him all they want. but the facts are on his side. and if people actually read the report, if you look at the efforts fire robert mueller and then get don mcgahn to lie about it, when that comes out, there is just no rational way someone can say that is not obstructive conduct. and that's just one example. >> the facts are on his side, hallie. but the president and the gop are not. justin amash is a relatively unknown name nationally and people have said, as soon as he came out with this, democrats are going to get behind him. but the reason we've gotten so much attention, it's because the president came out against him. we know that the gop did. why are they so concerned with one single congressman saying. >> so, i'm not -- it is interesting, steph, when you look at the response from both sides of the aisle, right? let's start with republicans, as you're talking about. and yes, the fact that they are talking about what congressman amash said could be indicative of concern or, frankly, it could be indicative of them closing ranks around president trump and trying to show the president, the guy sitting in the white house behind me here, that they are on his side. they are on his team, and that dissent in this sense is not going to be something that will be condoned. you've had everybody from the head of the rnc, for example, come out and call it sad that amash is saying and tweeting what he's been saying and tweeting. as for democrats, even democrats, though, don't see this as the crack in the wall that's going to lead to the flood gates opening. that's something that adam schiff, a powerful chairman has said, that this is simply a tool. senator mazie hirono was out saying, this is not something that's going to be seen as a bipartisan call for impeachment. as you know, that has long been nancy pelosi's bar for moving to impeach trump. if there was a bipartisan ground swell of support for this. and frankly, one congressman -- and that congressman being justin amash -- is not going to cut it. he is not somebody who is like a kevin mccarthy-esque or steve scalise-esque figure in the party, someone with his finger on the pulse of where most of the gop caucus is. he is often an outsider vote or an outsider voice. that's some important context to remember here. >> but he's an outsider voice, but as a freedom caucus guy, this move and his views are core to what they've always cared about, right? they don't like the big deficit, they don't like a lot of spending and they don't like government overreach. it's not that amash has jumped the shark. couldn't he look to mick mulvaney and say, nick, you're not standing by what we stand for. >> reporter: but the jumping of the shark has jumped the shark long ago. keep in mind that he is even an outlier on the freedom caucus side. mark med dadows is someone who key to the freedom caucus, and they are close allies of president trump. there's this question of conservatives that are okay with a deficit getting bigger, adding to the national debt, et cetera, which go against conservative principles. but mick mulvaney is an example of that. somebody who under the donald trump era and in the trump administration, looks to other priorities now, growing the economy, i think he and others would tell you, in different ways now. >> mimi, let's go back to the report. because the president and his closest allies continue to say that the president is completely exonerated when, of course, the last line of that report, no person sits above the law, and then they cited u.s. versus nixon. but the special counsel also highlights the president's conduct involving moichael cohe, his personal lawyer who he told to stay on message when he was testifying to congress about the moscow project. stay on message? >> yeah. i mean, when you say it, when you look at the words of the report, and thank you for doing that, steph, because we need to focus back on the report and not just the legal battles over it, the conduct is stunning. i mean, as a former prosecutor and again, i'm going to go back to that statement, because we're talking about decades of experience of former federal prosecutors, who saw conduct like that and there are people sitting in jail for conduct like that right now. he engaged in mob-like tactics with cohen. >> but oftentimes with the mob, the mob boss is smart enough that he never has blood on his hands. and this is obviously a different scenario. but the president may have communicated stay on message, but it was michael cohen who lied, not the president. >> absolutely. but i think, you know, if you look at that in isolation, if you're looking for a handwritten note from donald trump to michael cohen to lie or an explicit statement to lie, you're not going to find that. but all the circumstantial evidence to show that is there. everyone knows that the reason michael cohen was lying was to stay in message with trump. he basically said his own message publicly and he got him to lie about the stormy daniels affair. i think that was more explicit. and he really intimidated -- first, he tried to get cohen not to cooperate through inducements and positive messages. and then when it looked like cohen was cooperating, he engaged in witness intimidation. this is blatant stuff. >> all right. mimi, hallie, thank you both so much. next, all things 2020. we're going to dig into kamala harris' equal pay plan. plus, mayor pete buttigieg at his fox news town hall. what he's saying about the competition. >> how would you handle the insults and the attacks and the tweets and all of that? >> the tweets are -- i don't care. [ applause ] [ applause ] comes miracle-gro performance organics. it's miracle-gro's next big thing. ♪ ♪ organic plant food and soil that finally work. ♪ ♪ and work... and work. ♪ ♪ and yes we did say organic. for twice the bounty, guaranteed. miracle-gro performance organics. organics finally grow up. and up, and up. i have heart disease, watch what i eat, take statins, but still struggle to lower my ldl bad cholesterol. which means a heart attack or stroke. could strike without warning, pulling me away from everything that matters most. (siren) because with high bad cholesterol, my risk of a heart attack or stroke is real. ♪ repatha® plus a statin seriously lowers bad cholesterol by 63%. and significantly drops my risk of having a heart attack or stroke. do not take repatha® if you are allergic to it. repatha® can cause serious allergic reactions. signs include: trouble breathing or swallowing, or swelling of the face. most common side effects include runny nose, sore throat, common cold symptoms, flu or flu-like symptoms back pain, high blood sugar, and redness, pain, or bruising at the injection site. i won't let a heart attack or stroke come between me and everything i love. neither should you. tell your doctor to lower your ldl and reduce your risk with repatha®. pay no more than $5 per month with the repatha® copay card. you eat right... mostly. and reduce your risk with repatha®. you make time... when you can. but sometimes life gets in the way, and that stubborn fat just won't go away. coolsculpting takes you further. a non-surgical treatment that targets, freezes, and eliminates treated fat cells, for good. discuss coolsculpting with your doctor. some common side-effects include temporary numbness, discomfort, and swelling. don't imagine results, see them. coolsculpting, take yourself further. do any of you know captand here we go. [ "good to be alive" by andy grammer ] it's snowtime baby. [ screaming ] oh, snowball. uh, is he ok? not in any way no. take that ok. you were just beaten by a rabbit. you don't even know it. [ ding ] oh, my pizza rolls. welcome back to "velshi & ruhle," as the 2020 race for the white house heats up, some democratic contenders are looking to expand their reach. south bend mayor pete buttigieg, for example, joining the very small group of candidates willing to show up for a town hall on fox news. and in pete's case, even getting a standing ovation. watch this. >> when you got tucker carlson saying that immigrants make america dirty, when you've got laura ingraham comparing detention centers with children in cages to summer camps. summer camps. then there is a reason why anybody has to swallow hard and think twice before participating in this media ecosystem. so let's put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in that situation. if it's that late in your pregnancy, that means almost by definition you've been expecting to carry it to term. we're talking about women who have perhaps chosen a name, women who have purchased a crib, families that then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetime, something about the health or the life of the mother that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice. >> how would you handle the insults and the attacks and the tweets and all of that? >> the tweets are -- i don't care. [ applause ] >> we need to make sure that we're changing the channel from this show that he's created. because what matters -- and i get it, look, it's mesmerizing. it's hard for anybody to look away. me, too. it is the nature of grotesque things that you can't look away. someone volunteering for somebody, i hope you'll join me in making sure that that next era is better than any we've had so far. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you, mayor. and thank you -- wow, a standing ovation. >> all right! >> well, the president thought it was a waste of time. apparently chris wallace did not. joining me now, "washington post" political reporter, eugene scott and msnbc senior politics editor, beth fouhy. beth, last night, a major democratic donor called me on the phone, a democratic donor who has not been enthused thus far and said, we woke up tonight. and never-trumpers woke up tonight. not only will pete see big dollars head his way, but many of those never-trumpers reluctantly have grown to support the president over time saying, well, the economy is doing well, many democratic candidates are really far to the left or joe biden is sort of a status quo vote. do you think pete changed things last night? >> well, he's done this before. he's gone into sort of untraditional arenas to make his case. he's a very smart talker, as we know. he's extremely articulate. he's still pretty far down low in the polls, stephanie. so i would hesitate to say he broke through and changed everything. right now what we're seeing is joe biden really lapping all the other candidates in that space, particularly the kind of space that pete buttigieg is trying to appeal to. that sort of moderate, middle, reach out to voters who completely rejected hillary clinton in 2016, bring some of them back. obviously not all of them, but start to talk about unity, start to talk about places where the two sides can agree. as you know, there are many candidates who don't agree with that approach. that they just feel like fox news is poison for democrats. that to win the nomination, you've got to pull out those voters that are really part of the democratic base. pete buttigieg is in the other camp and he's done very well by that message so far, but he's got a long way to go to catch joe biden. >> in terms of pete buttigieg and joe biden, that message of unity and specifically to those trump voters, how strategic is it? last night, we just showed the sound where we remember when hillary clinton -- and understandable, things were very emotional -- and she said, trump supporters, deplorables. we know that did not work out for her, the backlash. and pete buttigieg very last night divided things, saying, there are not some honest brokers, ie, those fox news hosts and the information they're spreading, but those viewers and voters, they deserve better. and we know that joe biden is on the trail with that message. how important is it? >> it's very important. i wrote about that today in my piece for "the fix" in "the washington post." pete has found a way to attack trump without attacking trump supporters. we heard him last night call trump's tweeting and his social media engagement grotesque. he didn't call supporters grotesque. what he's found a way to do is speak to the issues and the concerns that they have about america without completely isolating some on the left who he knows will be the bulk of his support, but also trying to win some of these people who really are looking for a third path. >> should democrats be taking a page from pete with regard to slowing the pace? right there, when he was asked about abortion, he didn't get caught up in it. and he was able to articulate, hold on, the way the argument is being framed is wrong. this is not about infanticide. this is simply about a woman's health and reproductive rights. do more democrats need to stop playing trump's game and running at his pace, because that's not what the argument is about. >> right, and you know, we, of course, know from 2016 who anyone who tries to run at trump's pace doesn't succeed. he knocked down 16 points on the republican side in 2016 before taking on hillary clinton and beating her. so, yeah, that was a very -- that's a very, very tough issue, that third trimester abortion discussion, which there are many on the right who want to have that conversation and certainly we've seen that in conservative media. he was clearly prepared for it and he had a very good answer. but that's just one question where taking on trump is going to be tough. trump does this better than anybody. and mayor pete is, you know, clearly very smart. he's a good talker. he's good at that game. but it takes more than just going on tv, on to fox news and making the case. >> so i'm just going to say, i think he did two things last night in that moment. he was speaking to the abortion issue, as well as the immigration issue. that just really challenged fox personalities. he did something that they don't do often. he humanized them. he talked about, this is a mother, a human being, who probably picked a name by now. he said, these are children. people are behind policy. and that's one thing i think he's trying to communicate to people who are more right of him on policy issues, just to be mindful of the people behind him. >> kamala harris, who is one of the candidates who is not appearing on fox, came out with a policy proposal today to close the gender pay gap. we know she came out very strong after announcing. she's been trailing in the polls. but here, putting the onus on companies to fix this or they'll pay a fine. is this something that more candidates can get behind? because it's not like minimum wage where we hear many businesses say, i simply couldn't afford to do that, i can't afford to offer more paid parental leave. in this case, there's no justification for two people who do the identical job getting paid a different amount of money. is this something that, a, could end high up as a priority for candidates or is it too obscure? >> it's something a lot of democrats have been talking about and she's rolling out a specific policy proposal, in party because elizabeth warren has really kind of done that, she's been the candidate of policy. and kamala harris, who's tried to be a little bit more aspirational, inspirational, talking about big themes but not necessarily going in deep on policy, is giving that a try. because as you said, stephanie, she's sort of stuck a little bit. she came out hard and fast when she announced her candidacy, but has been languishing there, so they need to switch it up. >> if weapon don't see more candidates get something like gender pay gap, there's an argument, we need more diverse candidates. if you're a man running right now, how do you not get behind that? what's the argument? >> i think most men will be afraid of companies and how big business will respond to this. but the reality is they should pay attention to the 2018 midterm elections and pay attention to women voters. we saw what women do when they're upset, they go to the ballot, and they'll be going to the ballot box in 2020 and they want these votes. and this is one of the main issues they can reach women voters with. >> well, those men candidates might be afraid of companies and the ceos of those companies are going to be afraid of being exposed for pushing back on why they wouldn't want to pay their employees fairly. eugene, beth, thank you both so much. next, pregnancy is not an injury. nike now changing its policy toward pregnant athletes thanks to one olympian and a mom, alicea montano who spoke out right here on "velshi & ruhle." she is back with us this time to talk about her latest win. one might say she's running a victory lap. you're watching msnbc. stick around. victory lap. you're watching msnbc. stick around i felt i couldn't be at my best wifor my family. c, in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all common types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant, other liver problems, hiv-1, or other medical conditions, and all medicines you take including herbal supplements. don't take mavyret with atazanavir or rifampin, or if you've had certain liver problems. common side effects include headache and tiredness. with hep c behind me, i feel free... ...fearless... ...and there's no looking back, because i am cured. talk to your doctor about mavyret. onmillionth order.r. ♪ there goes our first big order. ♪ 44, 45, 46... how many of these did they order? ooh, that's hot. ♪ you know, we could sell these. nah. ♪ we don't bake. ♪ opportunity. what we deliver by delivering. tto harrison, the wine tcollection.. to craig, this rock. the redwoods to the redheads. the rainbows to the proud. i leave these things to my heirs, all 39 million of you, on one condition. that you do everything in your power to preserve and protect them. with love, california. welcome back to "velshi & ruhle." nike is changing its policy for pregnant athletes after it was criticized for cutting their pay. last week, olympic runner and mom alysia montano called nike out for not supporting its athlete mothers. in a video for "the new york times," she suggests the company penalized women for being pregnant. >> i was sponsored by nike and then when i told them that i wanted to have a baby during my career, they told me, simple, we'll just pause your contract and stop paying you. companies like nike tell us to dream crazy. we say, how about you stop treating our pregnancies like injuries. then they tell us to believe in something. we say, how about maternity leave? how about when you tell my daughter she can achieve anything, you back it up. >> now nike says, quote, last year we standardized our approach across all sports to support our female athletes during pregnancy. and moving forward, our contracts for female athletes will include written terms that reinforce our policy. alysia montano joins me again. alysia, first of all, congratulations. before you got involved, you may have thought, is it worth it. it certainly was. is nike's response good enough for you? >> to be completely honest, nike, i have to acknowledge, it is a step in the right direction. their response isn't good enough from the simple fact that we haven't seen it and i do have some concerns about producing it. we've seen companies like burton, ultrarunning, noon hydration make quick changes. so ultimately, once i see those changes and i actually can confirm them, then it would definitely pose itself as a victory. >> but is that something we would normally see? we would would we see a specific contract for a specific athlete? >> we would be able to see the bullet points and the verbiage that they would include to let us know they truly are protecting their athletes. as nike said, they've supported thousands of female athletes. so the importance of them taking a stand and let us know, when you say in your contracts you're going to provide assurances, they did state they were going to provide the assurances. so when i'm thinking of the assurances they're going to provide, i'm curious as to what that is. we haven't seen those assurances, so ultimately that's what i'm looking for. >> but you do feel like it's a step in the right direction. is it one step or do you actually feel a shift? when you were going through this, we talked about it last week. this didn't seem like something you could talk about with nike or other female athletes. and now, it feels like this is a moment of change. do you feel that? >> i absolutely do. honestly, i am so moved by the movement in general. i mean, it allows for our voices to be heard. it allows for other women to know that their voices are important. and it allows for them to push themselves into a position in which they give themselves a seat at the table. sometimes the seat isn't always there, but we can definitely make one for ourselves. >> you know what, sometimes we can move over and make some room, together we rise. alysia, thank you so much for joining me. alysia montano. >> thank you. next, president trump railing against "the new york times" for a story about his ties to a place i once worked, deutsche bank. we're going to look at the allegations involving suspicious activity reports. you're watching "velshi & ruhle" on msnbc. etsy is the place to find new favorites. the things we hold on to. sold by real people and made for all of life's moments. our belongings don't just show what we care about. they show who we are. shop etsy.com you get the freedom of what a 7-day return policy. this isn't some dealership test drive around the block. it's better. this is seven days to put your carvana car to the test and see if it fits your life. load it up with a week's worth of groceries. take the kiddos out for ice cream. check that it has enough wiggle room in your garage. you get the time to make sure you love it. and on the 6th day, we'll reach out and make sure everything's amazing. if so... excellent. if not, swap it out for another or return it for a refund. it's that simple. because at carvana, your car happiness is what makes us happy. openturning 50 opens theuard. door to a lot of new things... like now your doctor may be talking to you about screening for colon cancer. luckily there's me, cologuard. the noninvasive test you use at home. it all starts when your doctor orders me. then it's as easy as get, go, gone. you get me when i'm delivered... right to your front door and in the privacy of your own home. there's no prep or special diet needed. you just go to the bathroom, to collect your sample. after that, i'm gone, shipped to the lab for dna testing that finds colon cancer and precancer. cologuard is not right for everyone. it is not for high risk individuals, including those with a history of colon cancer or precancer. ibd, certain hereditary cancer syndromes, or a family history of colon cancer. maybe i'll be at your door soon! ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. covered by medicare and most major insurers. welcome back to "velshi & ruhle." president trump today on the defense. he's slamming a "new york times" report about his ties to deutsche bank. that report alleges that deutsche bank staff saw suspicious transactions connected to president trump and jared kushner's accounts, but according to the times, former employees who raised concerns said their managers told them not to file suspicious activity reports. joining me now, nbc news intelligence and national security reporter, ken dilanian. first, ken, i must note, i worked at deutsche bank from 2002 to 2012. and while i never worked with the trumps, i never worked with the kushners, deutsche bank has the reputation and it is justified that it runs fast and hard. compliance is not the top priority there. and employees know, it's a firm that takes huge risks and those who take huge risks can get massive payoffs, or completely lose their shirt, but that's the way the game is played there. talk to me about how this report is different. i mean, we know president trump always had deutsche at his bank of choice. >> i think that's fornt conteim context you just provided, stephanie. and the other context is that deutsche bank has been dinged by regulators over money laundering allegations, laundering russian money. and deutsche bank lent trump and his company some $2.5 million over the years, according to the times. but what this report says is that "the times" found people who used to work for that bank who said they saw suspicious activity reports that were flagged on some trump and kushner transactions and that the bank overruled the employees who wanted to file those reports and ultimately did not file them with the treasury. and as you know, having worked there, banks tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to any transaction that they think could possibly be suspicious. they file the form. it doesn't mean they're accusing their client of a crime, it simply means they're reporting to the government a financial transaction that could possibly be suspicious. not necessarily wrongdoing. well, in this case, the deutsche bank former employees, whistle blowers, are telling the times, they proposed filing suspicious activity reports and they were overruled and in the case of kushner one source said it involved transactions with russians. so it raises a lot of questions. it doesn't really answer many of them, stephanie, but it's certainly something that congress will want to get to the bottom of. >> we know that deutsche bank compared to other global banks took a tremendous amount of risk. after the russian crisis, basically all global banks except db left russia. deutsche continued to do business there. now, we do not know if the business he did there -- the business that deutsche did in russia is directly connected to president trump or the kushners. but the fact that it was humans who overrode -- there's automatic controls put in place. you said this, but i want you to go through it a little slower for our audience. >> sure. >> the deutsche bank has an automatic control system, right, around know your customer. when they catch illicit activity, right, a customer that's doing something that seems out of character, out of favor, and doesn't make sense and it's immediately reported, deutsche doesn't get in trouble for that. in fact, the customer may not get in trouble for it. but the bank wants to cover their own hides and say, let's make sure. have they given any reasoning why individuals in the banks, managers, would have overridden that? >> they have not. now, the story quotes the whistleblowers as saying that the private wealth division, which was lending trump the money, dismissed these concerns as overblown and these transactions really weren't questionable, but just to go over what you were saying, every bank has these systems in place. any kind of transaction that seems at all questionable. there are both computers that look at them and there are human beings, there are investigative units throughout the bank. and in this case, an investigative unit flagged some of trump's transactions and said, we should file with the government a suspicious activity report. it doesn't mean we think it's illegal, it just means we think the treasury should know about it. and again, the bank decided not to do that. and it raises a whole host of questions. congress is going to want to know about these transactions. the other thing weapon don't know, stephanie, is robert mueller did go down this road at all? did he look at all at donald trump's banking relationship with this bank that has laundered russian money? because if he didn't, i know that the house intelligence committee at least wants to do that. >> how about the southern district of new york? because we know last month trump's personal business, assuming db, or pushing db not to release any documentation regarding his business. >> they don't want db to comply with those congressional requests for information, those subpoenas. in terms of the southern district, the prosecutors would need a nexus, they would need a reason to go digging around in these transactions. but you know, they're opening a lot of doors in terms of the trump organization and who they're investigating and we may well see that they go in that direction, stephanie. >> this thing is going to be so, so interesting. if risk management, if compliance officers flagged it, and if the businesspeople inside the bank overrode it, especially if those businesspeople were bringing in big money to the bank or big commissions, at many organizations, you'd see those people sort of get a free pass. if this is that case, it's going to be bad news bears. we're going to find out. it's a very, very interesting story. ken, thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> thanks, stephanie. next, a $40 million student loan surprise. we're talking about a massive gift to the graduating class at morehouse college. the senior class president joins us live from atlanta. you are watching "velshi & ruhle." you do not want to miss this. i can't wait to meet this person. welcome back to "velshi & ruhle." a billionaire just did a whole lot of good for hundreds of college graduates. >> on behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we're going to put a little fuel in your bus. this is my class, 2019. and my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans. >> did you hear that? billionaire robert smith shocked the commencement crowd and the country at morehouse college on sunday when he announced that he and his family would be paying off all the graduates' student loans. the gift is estimated at about $40 million and with nearly 400 grads, that works out to about $100,000 per person. joining me now, a very happy young man, juan clark. morehouse's senior class president. juan, congratulations. >> thank you. >> explain to me what happened. when he made that announcement during your commencement, what was going through your mind? did you even understand it at the time? >> i -- so initially when he made that statement, it was shocking. you know, me and my classmates, we started looking at each other, and we realized, we just said that. and immediately we just jumped up with a huge applause and praise. so that was truly like an astonishing moment, because that was unexpected. no one expected him to say that. and truly, that was a blessing. >> one of your classmates has described this saying this wipes out a generation of wealth inequality. for the 400 of you now starting your professional life with no student loans, how does it change the game? >> wow, that changes the game completely. so me, my father actually passed away at the age of 10, so i was raised in a single-mother household. so in 2017, my brother was at morehouse, i was at morehouse, and my sister was at spellman. you can only imagine the financial strain it had on the femal family. so to have the opportunity to have my debt completely wiped out is truly astonishing. people don't realize that college can be a burden not only on the student, but truly an am opportunity. i'm just thankful to be a part of it. >> how are you going to give back? when the gift was granted, he got up there and said this isn't a one off. this is a pay it forward. it's your turn to do something great. what's the plan? >> we are talking this morning about how we can start that. we plan to start a campaign with our class to help raise money throughout our year. so the the first year as alumni has been covered by the alumni association. any donation we make will be a donation to the college. we're now starting plans to make donations to the college for the next following year for the class of 2020. >> if you could say anything to robert smith, we hope he's watching. what would it be? >> truly just want to thank you on behalf of the clasp that you mutt such an emphasis on not having coming from fluent families or stable backgrounds, the fact that you're making it affordable is is truly a a blessing that we cannot repay back. we want to thank you on behalf of the college. >> what are you going to do next? >> i will be starting my career at atlantic health system in new jersey. >> there you go. moving to jersey. i can tell you firsthand i know that's a win. thank you so much. congratulations again. i join him in saying robert smith, thank you so much. next our latest reporting on migrant children separated from parents. the number keeps going up. this time way up. what happens to these children and how many years could it take to reunite them with their families. could it take to reunite them with their families to a single defining moment... ...when a plan stops being a plan and gets set into motion. today's merrill can help you get there with the people, tools, and personalized advice to help turn your ambitions into action. what would you like the power to do? ♪ with venus, you're in charge of your skin. so, write your own rules. because no one gets an opinion on why you shave - or how you show your skin. ♪ listen to your mom, knuckleheads. hand em over. hand what over? video games, whatever you got. let's go. you can watch videos of people playing video games in the morning. is that everything? i can see who's online. i'm gonna sweep the sofa fort. well, look what i found. take control of your wifi with xfinity xfi. let's roll! now that's simple, easy, awesome. xfinity xfi gives you the speed, coverage and control you need. manage your wifi network from anywhere when you download the xfi app today. welcome back. this story matter rs. we're following breaking news right now. customs and borders protection is report iing the death of another mite grant child in custody. five migrant children have died since the month of since. joining me now is jacob soboroff who has been covering this story from the begin ining. what do we know specifically? >> let's stop and repeat what you said. we have had five migrant children, the majority of them from guatemala, die since december. we talked about on the border when this aggressive deterrence policy what happens when you put deterrence policies in place. people go more dangerous, more deadly roots and people end up dying. this is something we could have predicted and now there's a 16-year-old. >> you want you to back it up. we see an increase because they are concerned the border will close. >> that's right, but throughout the modern history of border enforcement, prevention through deterrence was the official name of the policy is. all that infrastructure, all those walls and aggressive posture now by the trump administration makes people take bigger risks to get to the united states. now we have five young kids die since december. the latest 16-year-old in the rio grand valley where agents determined he pass ed away durig a welfare check just by walking around as this children was waiting to fwo to the next stage of the migration process. >> tell me about this new number. children who have been separated from their parents at the border for the last year and a half, you have sat across from me and talked about reuniting the kids that we know are separated. now the number of kids who have been separated has gone up. >> if you thought it was bad 2800 kids separated by the trump administration, it's now almost double all that much worse. that number may yet go up. these kids were separated before the zero tolerance policy was put in place. the only reason we know about this now is the court ordered them to go back and search 50,000 records and come up with each and every one of these kids. >> so 100 kids. there's 3,000 and 50,000 records they have to go through. >> think about that. >> take me back to the child separation policy. what is the rational for the trump administration. why was this a good idea? i can't imagine that this is saving us money or effort or it's helping us in terms of national security that bewe know of thousands of kids unaccounted for. >> two stories, five kids have died since december. 50,000 records to figure out how many children were separated from parents. those 50,000 it was to deter people from coming to the united states. >> so that failed miserably. now they have this big problem on their hands. >> and here's the issue. most of those children, if not all the children that are in those 50,000, have been discharged by health and human services. they have either been remove d from the country with their parents, parents have been deported, we have no idea. and so now pain stakingly, the trump administration is tasked with going through 50,000 records to determine what the number is of children they took away from their parents. even they don't know. >> here's what we know. we want all of them to be safe. thank you so much. this reporting is so important. thank you for watching. this hour. i will see you tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern. connect with us. right now, i send you to the district of columbia where kasie hunt picks up coverage. thank you so much. good afternoon, i'm kasie hunt. it's 11:00 a.m. out west. 2:00 p.m. here in washington. republican justin amash hasn't found any allies after becoming the first congressman to call the conduct of trump impeachable. he laid out his argument over the weekend after he finished reading the special counsel's report and explains his opinion in a twitter thread. days later he remains the only republican lawmaker to break ranks on impeachment and he has drawn the ire of his party's leadership. the president took to twitter to say he's never been a fan of amash. he labeled him a lightweight and a loser. and then there's the minority leader of the house who questioned whether he's a republican at all. >> he's got to understand justin a mash. he's only asked one question. he votes more with nancy pelosi than ever with me. it's a question whether he's even in our republican conference as a whole.