Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Ali Velshi 20180309

We believe that ultimately were going to be able to trace this back in one form or another to a payment from the Trump Organization offer from the surrogate for mr. Trump. I think it is Crystal Clear they are doing everything in their power to keep this out of court and what does that mean . That means hidden from the american people. Lets get right to the white house and Nbcs Kelly Odonnell for reaction. We just had the completion of the White House Press briefing where this wasnt really covered. It was not the dominant topic in part because of the north korea news which well also talk about and in part because Sarah Huckabeesanders knows the land mines associated with this and took a much harder view of not engaging on the subject which is sometimes the back and forth between reporters and a spokesperson. If the door isnt opened at all, it is hard to keep going with questions. But as you point out, this is a case where Michael Cohen at least failed to properly protect the Trump Organization by engaging in the negotiations related to this with use of his Trump Organization emails. So if its only Michael Cohen then he had a misstep by inviting this question in and using Trump Organization or perhaps suggesting there is more of a path to the Trump Organization which of course is the private entity, it is not the white house and it is not the campaign. So there are a lot of questions that will still need to be asked about where this leads. But it is certainly a new detail with significance. And it goes against what cohen has been saying about a very separate process. Now questions did happen at the briefing from our colleagues here at the white house. And here is how today Sarah Huckabeesanders tried to shut it down. When did President Trump after that photo see Stormy Daniels . Text, mail, do you have any other information . I dont. Weve addressed this extensively and i dont have anything else to add. You acknowledge the president to follow up on aprils question, knows about the arbitration involving Stormy Daniels so does he remember speaking with his lawyer about that or does he remember meeting daniels ive addressed this extensively and nothing else to add. So it is a communication strategy to have her prepared and use it for any question to call up the Stormy Daniels issue. And part of the reason is why after Sarah Huckabeesanders acknowledged the president had by extension won in arbitration, that opened another crack in the door. Was the president a party to this in a more public way and arbitration, what had gone on behind the scenes. She had given a bit more information the other day that sort of stirred some of this up. The new reporting from colleagues here at nbc news with this email which gives us a paper trail is something that they were certainly aware of here at the white house and had a strategy to not engage today. I have sent personal emails from my work email address and vice versa because they are both on my phone and that can accidentally happen but i wasnt paying 130,000 to a porn star with no particular reason in mind for doing so. It could be inadvertent. We dont know. He was using bee using both h personal and gmail and if it was personal it may be an error of the cross over of the worklife balance. It is one of those things where now what cohen has done is if at best this is a sloppy mistake, it raises more questions for the Trump Organization. That is correct. That is where we are. Thank you very much. And i said the 52nd week of the Trump Administration. And clearly that is not true. It is the 59th week of the Trump Presidency because i have ari melber here. And kelly oconnell, well talk about north korea with you in a second. But the idea of the president being embroiled in a sex scandal is a salacious headline but that isnt the thing here. This isnt really about a porn star and not really about infidelity and an affair. It is about money and it is about whether federal laws were broken. And to explain why that matters im joined by my least salacious colleague, ari melber, the host of the beat, the nbc legal correspondent. It is easy to lose track in the conversation because somebody names Stormy Daniels and shes a porn star and the issue isnt whether it was for an affair or hush money it was that money that was paid that could have been influential in the campaign and the election of the presidency of the United States. That is right, ali. And the only reason weve learned what weve learned from Michael Cohen is because of the reason you just stated there is a federal election law complaint sitting that he has to answer to. You may think, oh, well, his boss is the president and they are in charge but we have a system of laws and we have an fec and that is put a lot of pressure on him to cough up some more information but he still hasnt said the source of the funds. And that is weird. I dont know the legality but people dont just generally drop 130,000 to somebody without any reason or explanation. But does the law compel him to give a reason or explanation . No. Right now hes well within his legal rights to keep this a secret but they are trying to have it both ways. Hes trying to suggest that because he facilitated the payment he might have been the source of the funds. This is a classic venmo defense. I put up the money so maybe i bought the whole dinner and then you you go i love you and had fun at dinner but i venmoed you back but here is the question. As i said to kelly, we dont a lot of people dont understand what they are supposed to keep on the personal mail and keep on their company email. Does it or not prove anything it was on the Trump Organization mail. Straight up alone doesnt mean that much. The reason why it matters and this a significant story because it is another brick in the foundation of this email that they were trying to hide something and indeed not only did he use the work email but then forwarded to his gmail which he used to talk about to to to talk to the Stormy Daniels side. And one more piece of information interesting with the lawyer, where he talks about what they think well learn from all of this. We believe that ultimately were going to be able to trace this back andn one form or another to a payment from the Trump Organization or from the surrogate for mr. Trump. Now that is Stormy Daniels lawyer, just one side of the case. But if hes right, and they can trace the money back to donald trump or the donald Trump Organization that is significant. And but were not hearing another side to the case. We are not the court of law. But were not hearing the other side. There is you drop the term hint of obfuscation which i would assume was an album title knowing you. But that is the point. There is something going on here that belies a normal explanation and if they were to provide one, if either Michael Cohen or the Trump Administration were to provide one, that would help. But in the absence of that, it sounds like Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels hush money. Yes. And that is why it is more than as you explained in your introduction more than a quote, unquote, sex scandal story. Michael cohen is taking someone to secret arbitration to keep them out of court. And this is many, many different types of coverup, if you have nothing to hide, why are you hiding. The court doesnt care if it is a sex infidelity or a porn star, that is not before the federal election commission. No. Did the 130,000 go toward something that prevented donald trump from being hurt in the polls. Yes. And in open court, which is again different than the fec and just a normal civil court where you have this out, if there is a valid contract that she said she would take money to be quiet, you could be paid to speak, a lot of reporters are paid in part to speak, you could be paid in a contract not to speak. If it is valid and they didnt do anything wrong, why do you need to be in secret arbitration. Just win that court case and be done with it. Hint of obfuscation if you were to drop an album. I like it. Ill think about it. Tune into the beat tonight at 6 00. It is always good stuff. Stormy danielss attorney will be one of the guests here on msnbc and just from the white house. Vanity pair is reporting the trumps list is set to include john kelly, h. R. Mcmaster and his daughter ivanka trump and his soninlaw Jared Kushner both of whom are Senior Advisers to the president. The author of that piece is on the phone. Gabriel sherman is a special correspondent for the magazine and a msnbc contributor. Gabe, this is interesting. Because putting aside Jared Kushner and ivanka and jared is getting himself into enough hot water why one would think he is more valuable outside of the white house than in but when it comes to mcmaster and kelly and people thought were the adults in the room, the people keeping the president from being more extreme than he normally would be and staying on track. Yeah. And you just pointed out the very reason that trump has so much difficulty with them. Because they are strong personalities in the case of h. R. Mcmaster. A threestar general and kelly is a fourstar general and trump doesnt like to be managed and hes had repeated clashes with both men and he plans to interview candidates for the job next weekend when he is down at maralargo. Let me ask you this, gabe, there are Different Reasons for getting rid of certain people. What are they . In this particular case, the president has seems to resisted john kellys controlling him as you said. But in particular, the things weve seen in the last week or so have been things that have specifically been worked around john kelly. In other words the president seems to be sending a message to john kelly, dont even try. Yeah. And that is what has alarmed a lot of people, ali. Is that the decision both on tariffs and north korea seem to have gone around the normal policymaking process. We should all point out that we saw secretary of state Rex Tillerson yesterday leading the day by saying there were not going to be talked of north korea and what did we see announced hours later, that in fact the president had agreed in principle to a sitdown with kim jongun. So this is the case of president going rogue and acting alone and as one source and friend of the president told me, this was availed shot at john kelly to say he is not going to be managed in the traditional way. And it seems unusual that a president should be able to work around his chief of staff. I think that says a lot about the chief of staff and the role that they are playing. But the bottom line is according to your article, the president is interviewing for replacements. I dont know how you do that with john kelly around. Tell him to grab lunch and then book an interview. Well, the president is saying it is for having his executive time on his daily schedule. But as i understand it, when hes in maralargo next weekend, where he has a little more flexibility and privacy to move around his private quarters, he will have some interviews and we should also point that the president on tuesday hosted john bolton, widely discussed around the white house as a possible National Security adviser. And just to your point about whether the president cares if john kelly knows or not, president has no doesnt mind at all if john kelly is twisting in the wind and as i reported weeks ago when kelly was in hot water about the rob porter scandal, trump let it be known that he was calling his predecessor reince priebus. And so part of this hes done this with Jeff Sessions in the past and he does it a lot. The president leaves people twisting in the wind. Is his hope at all that some of the people might just resign on their own . I think that is a very good way to look at it. One of the concerns the president had has been voiced to me by people is that he doesnt want these departures to be seen as sewing more chaos in the white house. So if he has to fire either john kelly or h. R. Mcmaster. That could be seen again as indication that there is more internal drama and if they just agree to go quietly in a smooth transition, thats the ideal outcome. Good to talk to you. Gabe sherman, vanity fair correspondent and a nbc news contributor. And more stunning out of the white house, the president agreeing to meet facetoface with kim jongun and the white house said north korea has agreed to denuclearize. Look, that is something that were going to continue advocating for and pushing for. But lets not forget that the North Koreans did promise something. They promised to denuclearize. They promised to denuclearize or talk about denuclearizing. The understanding, the message from the south korean delegation is that they would denuclearize and that is what our ultimate goal has always been and that will have to be part of the actions that we see them take. It seems puzzling that they would agree to do that without anything else. But the meeting would be the first ever for a sitting u. S. President. We dont know where, we dont know when, the white house said it should happen within the next two months. Is this a brilliant move or a brilliant distraction from the chaos in the west wing. Lets circle back to kelly oconnell. Kelly, lets not mince words. Sarah huckabeesanders has been known to lie in the past. I just find it a little hard to believe that the North Koreans have simply agreed to denuclearize in exchange for a meeting with the president of the United States. And i just want to be careful that the white house isnt getting free press in having that go around the world. Do we have any evidence that is true . Reporter well we have the south korean delegation with their National Security adviser in a meeting with the president and Vice President where he relayed the message from kim jongun who he personally met. So an individual both with President Trump and kim jongun. And he was the person carrying this message. We then had the president with the Vice President and a couple of steps behind popping his head into the briefing room. That set into motion the Public Events that followed. What stands out about todays White House Briefing is that the white house is now saying that there are constructive concrete steps and actions that must take place in order for this meeting to happen. That, i think, is obviously a walkback. It is not saying the meeting wont happen but putting more structure around this agreement. Whereas last night with the blessing of the white house, the south koreans said it would be a meeting urgent in nature in the next couple of months which on International Standards is fast to have a meeting of this nature, with all of the behind the scenes working going on. So very notable they are saying that we dont know what time and place and there must be steps taken. They did not identify who would determine if those steps had been met. Is there denuclearization, is there any cap on the ballistic acti activity. More questions now than last night about the president s likelihood of sitting down with kim jongun. That is very notable. Kelly, thank you very much. Kelly oconnell at the white house. Lets bring in expert voices on this issue. Sookie kim is a journalist of without you there is no us undercover north korea elite and spent a good amount of time in north korea with children of some is of north koreas elite. And lindsay ford is the director of Security Affairs at the policy institute, former Senior Adviser to the assistant secretary of defense for asian and pacific security ofairs. These two know a lot about north korea. Lindsay, let me start with you. I dont want to dismiss this. If this is true, it is amazing. But to what degree do you believe that the northans have actually agree the North Koreans have agreed to denuclearize. I believe we have good cause to be skeptical. All we have is what the south koreans have told us. We dont have any sort of confirmation of this from the North Koreans themselves. South korea will want to put the most positive spin they can on what we need to do Going Forward and on the north korean stance and the north korean have said in the past and the way they framed is if then. If the United States abandoned the hostile policy, things that we dont like, like the alliance and like having troops on the peninsula, and it gave us seek guarantees, then we would have no reason to have nuclear weapons. And you can phrase it as they agreed to denuclearize but those are two different statements and it is unclear which one they are making. The important thing here soaky is to make sure when were discussing this that we are not oversimplifying anything. This is a complicated set of developments, ab sent the normal process when negotiating with another country. Absent the sherpas and the early stage discussions which lead to two leaders meeting. Talk to me about what the North Koreans hold as proud. When were talking about the iranian negotiations, iranian people were proud they have a nuclear program. Do the North Koreans hold that as a source of pride. Because it is the power of the leader, they run at the absolute power of the great leader. And the reason the world is paying attention and the u. S. Sitting president agreed to meet with north korea is because north korea is a nuclearized state. So if that has actually won them this this much attention and power, it is almost odd to think that they would actually go through with the denuclearization which would only get rid of the power they have in order to arrive at this point. What is your sense of what they want out of this . Because obviously they do have something to trade because they have the Nuclear Power and dont have to trade it but can trade it partially as iran did. What do they want in return . They are not going to get the unification of the Korean Peninsula and they are not going to get the removal of u. S. Troops from neighboring areas so what is what looks like success for north korea . Well it is going to give them time and some aid from the United States and south korea. And weve been here before. They had agreed to denuclearize back in 2005 and it is almost like a repeat of what happened, almost identical and we have south korean president moon jaein who is so it is his whole agenda is about pronorth engagement. That is his legacy. And also hes in his first year of serving term. So this is going to be what hes going to be pressing. But weve also seen that before with kim jongun and the policy in the 35679. The only difference is the u. S. President without really giving any condition for this meeting has immediately agreed a real part of this is that it is going to be a spectacle and it has a huge p. R. Impact right now. Impact is the right word. We dont know if it is good or bad but it is huge from a p. R. Perspective. Lindsay, susan rice on Andrea Mitchell thinks this is very risky. Lets listen to what she had to say. I think it is very risky. It risks the president s credibility and the credibility of the United States and were still i think it increases the risk of conflict. If they go into something with very High Expectations and poor preparation and the president acting in his typically mercurial way, we could end up in a much worse place than we are today. Lindsay, that is one way of look at it and the other way is we had a breakthrough. To her point, we have had this breakthrough before. So while donald trump is portraying this as something that has never happened before the idea that north korea has participated in talks and made concessions has happened in the past, but also to Donald Trumps point, it is not resulted in a favorable outcome. What is your thought of this . About the strategy . I agree that it is high risk and it is fair, i think, to say, hey, the things weve tried in the past didnt work and so were willing to do Something Different but the reality is you do that and make take that risk in a very considered way and it is unclear whether this agreement to meet really happened in that kind of a thoughtful and considered way. Because the reality is it is not going to be the president and kim jongun just hammering out a deal. It is the staffers who do all of the work in the leadup to this meeting to make it possible. And you want to give those people as much time and space as possible so that you have the result that you want on the backend. You cautiously optimistic . Something good could come out of it. I have my fingers and toes crossed right now. What do you think . Were talking about donald trump and kim jongun, so that is my answer. Sookie is an author and it is an excellent book. It will give you an understanding of north korea. And lindsay ford is the director of Asian Security and the richard fellow at the Asia Society Policy institute. Two of my fafvorites on the topic. Back to california, police are at the scene of a hostage crisis at a Veterans Home. Migel almaguer has the latest. This is still a very fluid situation but we know dozens of Police Officers and fire officials have now arrived in the largest Veterans Home in the nation. There have been reports of one shot fired. Though others say multiple shots have been fired. We also have been told there are at least three hostages. All of those numbers are still early. This is sill at the very beginning of Police Investigation and were told dozens of officers from across north kor north california are arriving, including the atf to assess this active situation and told that there will be a press conference in a few hours in Northern California where officials are trying to get more information. What we know is there are no reports of injuries but still a very active and tense situation in Northern California. For people who dont know the area, it is wine country and on that map points out the one thing from people outside of the area no, the French Laundry cafe is down the tree. Well continue to stay on top of this. You could see heavy Police Presence in the Area Command Center being set up. Well continue to cover this with miguel. Thank you. Staying on top of this. Coming up, the white house is praising the president s tariffs but it could cost the Auto Industry 40,000 jobs. Those details after the break. Heres a question. With smart, revolutionary Hearing Aid Technology available right now, why does it take most of us 7 years when we know we have hearing loss to actually do something about it . Will you continue to feel left out. To constantly ask people to repeat themselves. And to miss out on so much in life. For all that time . Really . With the aarp hearing care program, provided by hearusa, why wait even 7 minutes . Call right now. And receive the highest level of quality, care and value in the industry. Which is why so many people have trusted us to get their lives back. Because the time to enjoy virtually invisible hearing aids. To enjoy how they connect with your tv. To enjoy their extraordinary sound quality. Is right now. Discover hearing care beyond compare. Attention aarp members. Call hearusa today to find out how you can save an additional 500 off your next purchase of a pair of digital hearing aids. Call us today. I needthats whenvice foi remembered that my exex exboyfriend actually went to law school, so i called him. He didnt call me back if your exex exboyfriend isnt a lawyer, call legalzoom and well connect you with an attorney. Legalzoom. Where life meets legal. Rick scott signed the Gun Legislation that was passed. It is the First Successful Gun Legislation in florida in more than 20 years. But he reiterated his opposition to one part of the bill, arming teachers, despite President Trumps previous suggestions. I still think Law Enforcement officers should be the ones to protect our schools. Ive heard all of the arguments for teachers to be armed, and while this bill was significantly was changed on this topic, im still not persuade pd and i know many believe this bill has too much gun control. I respect the sincerity and validity of both of these view points. Interesting from a governor with the highest rating from the nra. It requires a threeday waiting period for the purchase of long guns and raises the minimum age from 18 to 21 and created a 67 Million Program that would allow superintendents and sheriffs to arm School Employees rather than Classroom Teachers in a voluntary program and bans the sale of bump stocks which is ahead of the federal government plans to do so. But despite pleas from the students, the bill did not include a ban on assault weapons. The weapon that suspect nikolas cruz used in his deadly rampage in parkland, florida. Hours before the government announcement, cruz made a video appearance in court after withdrawing his not guilty plea earlier this week. The 19yearold stood silent before a judge and he faces 17 counts of firstdegree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. Joining me now from ft. Lauderdale, florida, outside of the courthouse is gabe guiterrez. Gabe . Reporter hi there, ally. Good afternoon. The governor walking a fine line as you mentioned, signing that controversial legislation. But lets talk about the Court Appearance this afternoon for the 19yearold suspect nikolas cruz. He stayed silent throughout the proceedings, looking briefly up at the judge and speaking briefly with his attorneys and arraignment will come as early as next week. The entire hearing lasted just a few minutes. The grand jury this week had handed over an indictment for 17 counts of attempted murder and in addition to those 17 counts of premeditated murder that hes been charged with previously. Now weve been hearing more information about the horror inside of that school. The 911 calls and the radio transmissions that were released yesterday. The School Resource officer, we heard his radio transmission for the first time. He was at the School Resource Scot Peterson that the sheriff failed to confront the gunman. Well in those radio transmissions, we hear that he did tell officers to keep a perimeter and stay away from the building. At least 500 feet and that they may indicate that he actually did hear a gunfire coming from inside of one of the buildings. His attorney said that his client acted appropriately and that he thought the gunfire was coming from outside. But those 911 calls extremely dramatic, including the story of one mother who was desperately talking to her daughter who was inside of the school. Lets listen to that exchange. We have possible gunfire. I think we have shots fired. Possible shots fired. We dont have any description. We just hear shots fired. Make sure i have a unit over in the front of the school to make sure nobody comes inside of the school. Do not approach the 12 or 1300 building. Stay at least 500 feet away at this point. But again, ali, within the past few minutes or so, governor rick scott in florida in tallahassee standing with family members of some of the victims of the Parkland School shooting had just has just signed the controversial piece of legislation which as you mentioned is the first major piece of gun control legislation in florida in more than 0 years. Thank you very much. A little over a week ago, President Trump steel tariffs were just an idea to create more jobs. Listen. I want to bring the Steel Industry back into our country. If that takes tariffs, let it take tariffs, okay. Maybe it will cost a little bit more, but well have jobs. Let it take tariffs. Now the plan is a reality. And critics including those in his own party say the broad tariffs on steel and aluminum will do just the opposite of create jobs. The argument is what may be good for steel may not be good for other industries. That is what a new analysis from the counsel on Foreign Relations found when looking at one Industry Impact on jobs. Based on the calculations, the analysis found the president s tariffs could kill up to 40,000 auto jobs. That number amounts to nearly one third of the overall steel work force or equivalent of that. Joining me now is the coauthor of the analysis ben steel, senior fellow of International Economics at counsel on Foreign Relations and with us is edward alden from the council on Foreign Relations specializing in u. S. Economic competitiveness. Good to see you both. Thank you for being with us. Ben, let me start with you. One of the reasons for thinking that there would be auto jobs lost is that the commerce secretary wilbur ross got on tv and said it will be maybe a 2 increase in the cost of cars. I think your calculation was 1. 3 or thereabouts. But there is a whole lot of Price Sensitivity in cars. Absolutely. And that is what hes underestimating. We calculate that that even less than a 1 increase in the cost of a car it would translate into a decline in global sales of up to 3. 6 . And historically sales have been a very good predictor of employment one year later. Correct. And i just want to remind people that americans have been really good when times are tough or when te dont want to pay for a car of increasing the average age of cars we drive. Americans we love cars probably more than anyone else on earth, were good at keeping our cars longer if our Economic Situation dictates that. That is a very price sensitive business. It is if you have rightly said when americans see the cost of a new car go up, they hold on to their old ones longer and look at foreperson alternatives. Edward, let me ask you about competitiveness in general. Because on one hand were talking about preserving jobs in a particular set of industries. Steel and aluminum. On the other hand, one of the other ways to deal with these trade deficits that i dont know that the president fully understands but he talks about is to become more competitive in the world. What are the ways in which we can achieve that other than by imposing tariffs . The best way to become more competitive is to make products more efficiently at a better price than other countries do. And there are a lot of things governments can do to help in terms of in vesting in research and development, world class infrastructure, training american so we have the best, most highly skilled work force in the world and promoting american exports around the world. There are a lot of forward, out word outward looking ways that pay off better than closing markets and protecting against imports. Ben, we cant get competitive in that way in bicycle and apparel and things like that because those are wagebased things. I was speaking to Richard Trumka of the afl cio and steel is not labor intensive. It takes one labor hour for a ton of steel or Something Like that. That is right. How do we get competitive in steel . Do we need to be much more competitive in a industry like steel. The Steel Industry is automating very rapidly so the labor component it is lower. That is right. You are looking to increase jobs. And in coal, which is the misunderstanding you cant c cre create more jobs because the component is increasing. And the United States economy uses far more steel than it produces. And were not a steelmaking country. We are a massive steelusing country. Consider the Construction Industry which employs 7 Million People and aerospace and the Steel Industry is down to 140,000 jobs and declining irrespective of what we do on the tariff front. Edward, how do we think about that. The president has said he said a number of things. When the conversation started it was about china and then mexico and canada. Then about steel jobs and then yesterday it was about jobs and it was about National Security. Give us some context. Because some of this might be true and not be. What are we supposed to think about the fact that we have declined in manufacturing of steel and yet as ben said, we consume a lot of it. Well i think the part of it that is most true is that china is a big problem. In a lot of sectors. And steel and aluminum and ship building, solar panels. You name it. The china subsidize intellectual property. And they subsidize and brother our Technology Rather freely. Creating global overcapacity in these industries and drives down prices everywhere. And make an often impossible for otherwise Good Companies to compete. That really is a problem that needs to be addressed. There is widespread agreement on that among american business. European business as well. One of the oddest things about this whole action is that it is aimed at u. S. Allies who buy enlarge trade fairly in steel and aluminum and other products. So it is just it is a very misguided action. Either from a broader competitive perspective or in terms of focusing on the source of the problem which is more china than anything else. So ben, if a martian came down to earth and wanted to know the definition of ham hi hamfisted, this might be the point. And legitimate trade concerns that america and the world have with china, there were 99 out of 100 other ways to deal with this than this. President trump should be declaring victory and keep his mouth closed. Weve got a wonderful jobs report. Over 300,000 jobs last month but instead of head biting the economy. In terms of china, we only import 2. 9 of our steel from china. And were already hitting them with steel tariffs. So this isnt going to reduce the imports from china. But it is going to hit our exports because our exports use steel. All right. Thanks. I appreciate you making it clear for us. Ben steel and edward alden, a senior fellow at the council on Foreign Relations. A good and important discussion that we all need to have. Up next, were looking past all of the distractions at white house and honing in on Robert Muellers russia investigation. A grand jury testimony and not one but two ankle monitoring bracelets. Those details after the break. Youre watching msnbc. 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Always the lowest price, guaranteed. Book now at choicehotels. Com but im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. I made my own way, now its time to make yours. Everything is working, just like it should im 85 and i wanna lifego home savannah [ding] [boxing bell ding] [applause] the Trump Administration is hoping many of us will be distracted by the announcement of his planned meeting with north korea but we couldnt forget there is a still a whole lot else going on. Campaign adviser sam nunberg spent his day testifying in front of a grand jury as part of Robert Muellers russia investigation. Hard to believe it was i couldnt believe it. I thought it was last week. Just monday when nunberg went on his mini media tour with katy tur and he said he wasnt going to comply with the subpoena. He ultimately did. Then there is paul manafort. Hes now wearing not one, but two ankle monitoring bracelets. He got a second one after pleading not guilty in federal court to tax and fraud charges. A trial date for that is now set for july. Paul manafort is accused of hiding payments from the United States in off shore accounts for work he did with russian linked politicians in the ukraine. As for the direction of the special council investigation, we know Robert Mueller is now looking deeper into a meeting in the seychelles and whether the trump team was working to establish a back channel to communicate with russia without u. S. Intelligence being able to listen in. Because that is awfully suspicious. And then the news on Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. For more on all of these developments, im joined by a guy who actually follows all of this stuff. Ken delanian is intelligence and National Security reporter for nbc. Tarti starting with the last thing first. Because im trying to make sense why it is important. Michael cohen, the lawyer of donald trump as a private guy, his longterm lawyer and his Trump Association lawyer, Trump Organization lawyer continues to not provide an explanation as to why he has paid Stormy Daniels, not her real name, 130,000. Here is why it is important. Because if this is construed as a campaign contribution, it could be an Illegal Campaign contribution and there is precedent. John edwards ran for president from 200 and a Million Dollars was paid to a mistress, prosecutors indicted him and charged him with crimes and not convicted but i was speaking to a Campaign Finance expert minutes ago who said this Stormy Daniels matter absolutely should be investigated. There is enough evidence to investigate whether this amounted to an illegal political contribution to donald trump. But then the main question is who paid it . Because if Michael Cohen paid, it couldnt contribute 150,000 to a campaign and donald trump could give as much as he wants to his campaign but that would have been disclosed as a contribution. So that is why people are interested among other reasons. In addition to Everything Else i listed before i came to another development from david corn and Michael Isikoff of yahoo and it is felt that they knew about the russian interference in our potentially in our election. But said the Obama Administration deliberately did not take action. That is right. And i have spoken to a participant in the discussions who confirms the accuracy of this account. Which is that you had people in the National Security council who once they learned that russia was essentially mounting a covert operation to interfere in our election through Cyber Attacks were planning a series of covert responses, including for example leaking embarrassing information about putins daughters and alleged corruption and mounting attacks on the russian propaganda sites and according to this reporting, they were told adamantly to stand down. To not even prepare the options for the president. They were told this bry former National Security adviser susan rice and lisa monaco because it was too dangerous because the options might leak and the Obama Administration said they were concerned about the potential blowback and they wanted to make sure number one that the russians didnt actually try to manipulate the votes and they say they were successful but people say you knew the russians were attacking us and did not share that with the public and so they went to the polls not knowing but you put aside the options to retaliate and there was a quote in the Washington Post that say we may have really choked on this. It is important to note that the decision made to not do this, and the choke, while critical and worthy of examination, was not done because of any potential collusion with the russians . No. That is aisbsolutely rightp and people look at this and say this is true but what is also true is the Obama Administration did take action after the election and levied sanctions and according to the Washington Post obama ordered a covert cyber action and handed it over to donald trump who has taken as far as we can tell no action. Ken, thanks very much. Nbc news intelligence National Security reporter. Coming up, it was the gap heard around the world. Your father her man is looking down. Hes very proud. Hes still alive. Oh, he is. Well then then hes even more proud of you. Then hes even more proud. Well i hope herman is watching because there is his son. He is a steel worker and a slightly awkward exchange. Hell join me after the break to talk about steel tariffs. Thank you so much. Thank you so were a go . Yes we got a yes what does that mean for purchasing . Purchase. Lets do this. Got it. Book the flights hai si si ya ya ya what does that mean for us . We can get stuff. Whats it mean for shipping . Ship the goods. Youre a go you got the green light. That means go oh, yeah. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. Were gonna hit our launch date scream thank you goodbye we help all types of businesses with money, tools and knowhow to get business done. American express open. You wouldnt accept from any one else. Ne. So why accept it from your allergy pills . Most pills dont finish the job because they dont relieve nasal congestion. Flonase allergy relief is different. Flonase relieves sneezing, itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose, plus nasal congestion, which pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. And 6 is greater than 1. Start your day with flonase for more complete allergy relief. Flonase. This changes everything. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. The bottom line is for you and families like yours and the one you described like your father thats right. This is real and its about jobs and its about money. Yes, sir, it is real. And were we werent sure if it was going to happen and we were called to go down and we heard a bunch of different things. Actually, they kept it quiet, you know . All of a sudden were called in and we heard it was on, and im going to tell you what, were very happy because it means a lot to us in the industry. And people indirectly to the industry it means a lot also. Well, like your towns and like mill towns, one of the things about steel is its like auto working, right . They create towns around it. So exactly. The pizza maker, the school, the car dealer, it all exists around an industry. But youve been in it for a long time. Your dad was a steel worker, too . Oh, yeah, my dad he was a steel worker like i said, back in the 80s. When you were in school, you went to college or you went to work in the mill. Let me ask you this, scott. Yes, sir. You saw this trend in the 80s. Saw that imported steel was hurting the industry. I guess my question is for Steel Workers around america, as i discussed with somebody earlier, a lot of this is technology, right . It just takes fewer human labor hours to make a ton of steel. At some point doesnt it make more sense to start to transition . I mean, you dont want your son being a steel worker i assume. My son actually got hired with u. S. Steel not too long ago. There arent going to be more steel jobs. There are going to be fewer of them. Well, you know what, if a man wants to make a good living and a good wage and still good benefits, the opportunity arises. Now, for a young man to come in and to have job security, this tariff that is put on across the board is going to help everyone out. And when i say this, heres something to ponder on. This is a defense in infrastructure study and they passed this. You go across these bridges every day and we take it for granted, our families. Stop and look under some of these bridges, how bad they are. Yep. Sooner or later they have to be built and you dont want these bridges built with compromised steel from china. And there is something to think about there. Your pipelines and your buildings, the buildings that were in right now. Yep. Good quality steel, especially from our company u. S. Steel. Theres a difference between quality and junk. Scott, i appreciate the time youve taken. I appreciate the decades that you and your family have put into being Steel Workers in america. And i thank you for your part in the discussion. Well, thank you, sir. Thanks for having me. Scott sarge is the president of the united Steel Workers local 2227. While the white house is touting these new tariffs as a way of protecting american jobs, some companies are worried they could harm their businesses especially if europe retaliates with tariffs that target americanmade products. Its tough for those companies who they already had their industries influx. Nbcs Garrett Haake went to Harley Davidson where they announce it is closing a plant. Garrett . That plant a visited in kansas city was scheduled to close before the tariffs announcement. The workers get this is part of a bigger Global Economic issue. Now Harley Davidson says these tariffs will make the plight of workers like these worse. For more than a dozen years, these men built Harley Davidsons. Ive been here for 14 years. 16 years. 16. 17 years. Reporter by the end of next year theyll be building new careers and in some ways new identities. Do you think of yourselves as harley guys . We used to. Yeah, when we got hired in here, it was an excellent place to work. Everybody ate and lived and breathed Harley Davidson. But theres been a lot of loyalty lost. Reporter facing declining sales at home, harley hopes to consolidate, adding 450 jobs in pennsylvania while closing kansas citys plant completely. How did yall find out this plant was going to be closing . I walked into a 5 00 morning town hall meeting. No warning . No warning. I was shocked. Reporter harley said their decision is final. A simple matter of too much supply, not enough demand. The demand theyre getting comes from overseas and to get around foreign tariffs on american bikes, the iconic wisconsinbased company is building its next new plant in thailand. A decision leaving workers like kevin amos fuming. If we were building widgets, no one would be standing here speaking to us right now. But were building Harley Davidsons. But were really on the brink of building hardly a davidson because theyre going to be moving to thailand soon enough to build a large portion of those motorcycles overseas. Made in america, Harley Davidson. Made in america. Reporter President Trump has held up harley as the kind of Great American manufacturer he wants to protect. We have deals where companies will send in a motorbike, we charge them nothing. But when we send a Harley Davidson or a motorbike to those countries, they charge us 100 tax. Thats not fair. Reporter but harley says trumps new tariffs on steel and aluminum would drive prices up domestically. And if European Countries followed through on threats to retaliate with tariffs against imported harleys, that could hurt sales abroad, too. And the very workers the president vowed to shield. Do you guys think d. C. Gets it with whats going on in places like kansas city . No. No. No. I mean, i believe its a great headline grabber for a politician, right, to say oh, yeah, we care, this and that. But when push comes to shove, its not affecting them on a daily basis like it is for people in this plant. Reporter ali, i was struck by how much these men get it that whether they want to be or not, working for harley makes them part of the Global Economic conversation. Its such an iconic american company. And these men wanted to say their piece about it, too. Yeah, it absolutely is. I mean, there are five things most people can name as quintessentially american, and a harley david motorcycle is that. Made from parts all over the world, but if you want to punish america, put a tariff on harley bikes. Garrett, you continue to amaze me. Youre from houston and youre out talking with harley workers. All kind of amazing. Garrett, i liked you before, i like you even more now. Garrett on capitol hill. Back to the breaking story in california. The fbi s. W. A. T. Team is on the scene. It is believed to be a Veterans Home in napa. There are no reports of anyone hurt. We are awaiting News Conference with officials in a little while. That is it for me. Thank you for watching. Deadline white house with Nicolle Wallace starts right now. Hi, everyone. Its 4 00 in new york. Donald trump is now officially mired in a fullscale sex scandal. The best education of his understanding of this new reality, maybe his announcement with direct talks can north korea and his declaration of a trade war. But neither bold move can erase the mounting evidence that the hush money wired to porn star Stormy Daniels may have been done with his