Post and moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Two men who know the president well. Brian, i must start with you because you have this weeks cover story for Time Magazine and it is all about the president s reelection strategy. Bottom line, he plans to focus on his base and has no intention on trying to win over any new voters. Well, he is going to try to amplify his base and amplify exactly the plan and strategy he followed in 2016 and try to find even more people who will sign on to his unique brand of politics and have that sense of outrage and victimhood that the president talks about so much. So his plan is to double down on his strategy from 2016 and amplify it and he has a really incredible, very Massive Campaign strategy for doing digital ad buys and amplifying and exaggerating exactly the things that he did that captured the news cycle so effectively in 2016. Bob, is the trump voter bigger than we realized . Yes, the president s rhetoric and what he says and does at those rallies speak specifically to his core base. But since being elected, the Corporate Tax cuts, what weve seen in the markets, has he added on the Business Class to Trump Supporters . He has added business minded republicans into his coalition. But that original core trump voter who comes out of the reagan democrat mold from the 1980s, theyre susceptible to being wood by these democratic president ial candidates especially on the issues of trade and the economy. If the economy slows down and the trade wars dont seem to pan out to the voters in Industrial Areas around the country many democratic strategists im talking to say they can be won back because the Democratic Party traditionally has always had more populace positions on trade. Brian, if the economy holds or if you see the fed cut rates and the economy at least trudges along, is the president in a position to keep many voters, even if theyre not thriving, the idea on the other side, lets tear up the script, create something completely new, is too foreign and people dont want to break the system. What is so interesting is you look at past incumbent president s that have run reelection campaigns in a similar position where they had a good economy. They would focus on the economy and say, look. If you like how things are going then vote for me. Give me another four years in office. Trump is actually not doing that. He talks about the economy but it is not the focus of his campaign and not the focus of how the campaign is being engineered to amplify his message. Is that because the people who the Trump Administration has served from an Economic Perspective arent his base . He serves his base on the cultural front with his build the wall, with his antiimmigrant stance, but as far as the economy, hes hooked up the rich. That is a tough thing to talk about on the campaign trail. The campaigns internal polling shows a disconnect. Even people who feel like theyre benefiting from the current economy dont give the president credit for that. They feel like they have a gap theyre wanting to close on that. But the fact is the president is who he is. He loves to dominate the news cycle. He goes out as we saw in his orlando rally speech and uses divisive wedge issues to mobilize his base and excite the crowd. And that runs counter to a traditional incumbent reelection strategy of trying to pivot to the middle and reach out to a broader base of voters. That is not what this president is going to do. And it is historically unprecedented and hasnt been tried. I think it is going to speak to whether our politics have become so tribal, trump is betting republicans are going to go and vote for him no matter what. And that is what is going to be tested. Oh, brian, youre newly on the show. If you say unprecedented and you just said it twice you owe me 2. Youre up to 4. Bob, in 2015 and 2016 President Trump was all about draining the swamp. In his words. He tapped into this frustration, the American People felt over washington not working for them. Can he still go with that line since hell have been the president sitting in office for four years . He is the incumbent and incumbents always have to face the fact that reelection campaigns are a referendum on their record. President trump when you talk to his top advisers, he believes that his overwhelming personality, his tweets, his ability to dominate the news cycle, in many respects distracts from some of the scandals and controversies from his administration, including cabinet members, former cabinet members like scott pruitt at epa and so the idea of the swamp he just continues to rally as he did in florida this week that he is going to drain it. But the details of that story are of course more complicated because his administration has had many problems over the past two and a half years. Indeed they have. Brian, i want to play part of what the president said about his enemies last night on fox. The fact is they were spying on my campaign, using agencies to intelligence agencies to do it, going after others. Were trying to find out whether they actually listened and that would be the ultimate. If they spied on my campaign and they may have, it will be one of the great revelations in history of this country. Brian, does it work for the president to paint himself as a victim of his political enemies as opposed to giving people vision of how he is going to help them live better lives . A lot of people voted for him for the latter. This is a personal obsession of the president. He continues to talk about the russian investigation, about the 2016 campaign and the russia investigation. Even inside his campaign looking at polling and what moves voters they dont see the Mueller Investigation or these attacks against democrats and the relitigation of 2016 moving voters. It is something that still weighs heavily on the president s mind. He talks about it because he fundamentally sees it as a threat to his legitimacy as a president. When we sat down in the oval office, we spent an hour with him. He originally was going to budget about 20 minutes and we started talking and he ordered a diet coke and settled in. We started challenging him on the Mueller Investigation and he continued to push back hard and say its a witch hunt and spent a lot of time on that. Youll see him spend a lot of time on that. It is not a political calculation but really a personal obsession, something still heavily on his mind. I mean, it is fascinating to see how the campaign is thinking about this. They do sell decals and bumper stickers on their website about the witch hunt and all of that but really it is not messaging. Theyre doing that because they want to draw voters to their website to give information to build up their list. It is a list building exercise and theyre coming up with interesting, innovative ways to try to bring in more people they think will mobilize for trump. Maybe there are more voters out there interested in coming out for trump and are still on the sidelines. And we know the president s Digital Campaign was strong last time. Lets go from political calculations to miscalculations. Bob, you know hope hicks well. Were democrats naive to think that she was going to play ball yesterday . They seemed to be surprised that she wasnt going to answer questions. But hope hicks, even though she is not currently in the white house, remains a very close ally of this administration and, specifically, the trump family. She is working at the Fox Corporation right now, which is part of the Murdoch Family empire. In the business world. And she remains friendly with many people inside of this white house. House democrats were aware that if they asked any questions about her time in the white house that she wouldnt exactly assert executive privilege but she would cite the letter from the white House Counsel that leaned in that direction. They were challenged because they wanted to find out more about the campaign, about possible russian interference, and different interactions, but because it was private testimony that was later released publicly, they didnt have the whole pressure of a Public Theater in that kind of moment to really try to push ms. Hicks to reveal more about what happened in the campaign. Again, democrats remain frustrated. Theyre trying to bring up witnesses to tell a story to the American People about what happened in 2016 but at every turn this white house and this white House Counsels office is trying to stop any kind of public unraveling of what we already know. Brian, i want to ask you about one other thing as we head into next week when the president said the i. C. E. Raids are going to begin going after undocumented immigrants. The president spoke about this with our own jose diaz balart. Listen. Going back to the latino vote, granted a percentage definitely supports you but there are some who fear your rhetoric, who fear whats been going on at the border, who fear that you have said you will be deporting millions of people. They want me to do it. Theyre here illegally. Mr. President , they do not. They do. You ready . They dont want to lose their jobs. They want to keep their salaries and wages up and they dont want crime. When people come through you have ms13 coming through. That is not the majority, mr. President. But its a lot of people. It may be some. If it was one in a hundred it is too many. The mothers coming with their children arent ms13s. I agree. But if its one in a hundred its too many. Brian, the president believes what he believes but inside the white house, is there any concern that this plan of the president s could backfire on him, like we saw with the zero tolerance policy . Well, actually right now the white house staff recognize they have to follow the lead of the president and there is no controlling him. One told me he blows the hole and we have to all run into the breach. That is what is happening especially on the immigration moments. He threatened to close the border with mexico in late march then threatened to up the tariffs against mexico. Now he is hitting the hot button issue on the border again by threatening to launch raids that could target millions of people in the United States. There is a calculus to this for the president. He knows that it gives him a sense, gives him some legitimacy with his hard core supporters. Also the campaign capitalizes on this. So when the president generates a news cycle like the one were in now about these potential raids that he is talking about, there are algorithms the dpan is using on facebook and Google Search that the campaign is using that put more solicitations and ads in front of possible voters for trump and they collect more data. So there is a cycle to this thats benefiting trump in his campaign. Of course, it also is unnerving and there could be a longterm cost when it comes to latino voters in the country. I think also the campaign recognizes latino voters will vote as one bloc so there are different cross sections. They are looking to target hispanics in florida one way. Theyve seen some internal data that shows maybe they could get hispanics in nevada or new mexico on trade. Brian, fascinating. I highly recommend you reading his cover piece in Time Magazine this week. Brian bennett, robert costa, thank you both so much. Up next joe biden defends his past working with segregationists in congress. And later, the last bank that would lend money to trump now under investigation. [ alarm beeping ] wake up theres a lot that needs to get done today. Small things. Big things. Too hard to do alone things. Day after day, you need to get it all done. And here to listen and help you through it all is bank of america. With the expertise and knowhow you need to reach that blissful state of doneness. So lets get after it. Everything is all right what would you like the power to do . ® all right. Or trips to mars. 4. 95. Delivery drones or the latest phones. 4. 95. No matter what you trade, at fidelity its just 4. 95 per online u. S. Equity trade. rates vehicles for safety, andr hsome reach a level of top safety pick. But only a select few of the very safest vehicles are awarded a top safety pick plus. The highest level of safety possible. How many 2019 top safety pick pluswinning vehicles does your brand have . One. Two. How about eight . Subaru has more 2019 top safety pick plus awards than honda and toyota brands combined. Theres safe, and then theres subaru safe. Xfinity mobile is a designed to save you money. Whether you use your phone to get fit or to find the perfect gift, youll use less data with a network that automatically connects to millions of wifi hotspots and the best lte everywhere else. So you save hundreds of dollars a year on your wireless bill. Xfinity mobile has the best network. Best devices. Best value. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Click, call or visit a store today. Get ready. It is almost show time. Six days until candidates take the debate stage but the gloves are already coming off. The main target . Frontrunner joe biden. The former Vice President under fire after citing the work he did with segregationist senators as an example of the civility that used to exist in congress. Speaking at a fundraiser in new york city tuesday night, biden told the crowd this. I was in a caucus with james o. Eastland. He never called me boy. He always sald me son. Herman talmadge one of the meanest guys i ever knew. Well guess what . At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didnt agree on much of anything but we got things done. But today, you look at the other side and youre the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We dont talk to each other anymore. Many 2020 contenders including Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris quickly responded to bidens comments suggesting that he was celebrating segregationists. Senator cory booker went one step further asking joe biden to apologize. But it does not seem like an apology is coming any time soon. Last night while speaking to reporters before a Campaign Event in maryland, biden doubled down on his comments. Saying that you have issues talking about race are you going to apologize . For what . Cory booker called for it. Cory should apologize. He knows better. There is not a racist bone in my body. Ive been involved in civil rights my whole career. Period. Period. Period. That answer did not satisfy senator cory booker. What matters to me is that a guy running to be the head of our party, which is a significantly diverse and wonderous party, doesnt understand or cant even acknowledge that he made a mistake. Whether the intention was there or not he knows better. And at a time that donald trump never apologizes for anything and starts to create that kind of i think toxic sentiment that you never apologize, never apologize, never apologize, i know joe biden. Hes better than this. Here to weigh in Michael Steele former Senior Adviser to jeb bush, Jason Johnson politics editor and sharp dresser at the root. Com and an msnbc contributor. And the one and only Donny Deutsch branding expert and the host of the must see show saturday night politics here on msnbc. Jason, i turn to you first. Joe biden was not applauding or complimenting the segregationists. The point he was trying to make was, these are the deplorables of the deplorables but for the country because thats what were here to do i found a way to even work with them. Right. So heres the problem. Its not about what you mean. Its about what people hear. Trent lott learned this lesson 14 years ago. I dont think trent lott was praising segregationists. He was praising another senator and saying what a great guy he was in an interpersonal way and george bush kicked him out of office. Joe biden needs to realize the political environment he is in and be more responsible. Here is the other thing. This inability to say im sorry this inability to say, all right. This is what i meant one way or another, that is a problem. And the core of this when he is saying civility, when he is saying i can work with these people, an underlying message of joe bidens campaign has always been im a white guy and im able to work with these people and that is not going to work with Mitch Mcconnell. It is very interesting when you have a black guy and a white guy talking. And it happens. We are hearing, the reality is i hear it as a white guy you hear it as a black guy. So i hear that and i have to show a sensitivity the same way something is being talked about in the holocaust, im a jew. Somebody else wont hear it. What i heard was basically the way steph set it up. There was no celebration. He called them mean. It was a strictly, look. Those are bad guys. I got to work with bad guys to make good things happen. That is what this white guys ears heard. So once again, i cant say to you, no. You cant be offended by it. Or you cant think its wrong. I did not see a scenario there as i was listening to it. I was like, say today there is a wall hook and quadruple down on i. C. E. And to me that is todays definition of segregation. Would i not sit down with him . No. Id try to beat him or her at her game and fix the problem. Here is the thing. As a black guy who lives in this country i hear white people hear, too, because i have to. I understand what youre saying and i dont disagree. Im talking about from a strategic standpoint. I know what joe biden meant but he has to recognize he has 20 people gunning for him and he keeps giving them ammunition to shoot him down whenever he says Something Like this. The difference between politicians. I think the average american black, white, green, purple, can hear that and understand what he is saying. The average american is not paying any attention. A good point. The average american hears joe biden made another gaff about race and refuses to say he is sorry. That is how this is trickling down six days before a debate where he will be on stage with senator harris and have to explain that. If that wasnt lensed through Elizabeth Warren and cory booker, politicians with an agenda to go after him would people see it as a gaff . It was said this is being taken out of context, is the bigger issue Michael Steele among democrats that joe biden is saying, im going to reach across the aisle because the way you get things done is youve got to work with the other half of the room and there is an enormous part of the Democratic Party saying no. I think the problem is not that it makes him seem like a segregationist or seen through a prism of race but makes him seem old. Im all for working together and reaching across the aisle but bragging about working with the dixiecrats is like bragging about working with the w. I. G. S. I expected him to end that by telling the reporters to get off his lawn. This makes him seem like a man out of time in a party that is in a multicultural society. What is out of time by saying i need to work with the other side to fix the problem . Do we have to live in the donald trump world that he is setting up that says we cannot, we have to stay divided . To me, i come in as a business guy and, steph, you come from that world also. Youve got to play ball. Thousands of hours i spent in my life with reprehensible, not people i disagree with. Im trying to fix a problem. Here is the issue that i have with this though. Joe biden hasnt been able to convince most voters including activists that he can work with Mitch Mcconnell and republicans who dont want to work with him. That is why people find it frustrating. He seems to say we can do this chummy thing we did 35 years ago and it may not work anymore. I dont think it is about the liberals being we cant stand to work with anybody. Its dude, you cant convince us Mitch Mcconnell isnt going to give us a Supreme Court justice either. Some are saying its time for a revolution, lets break the system and start over. While there is a big portion of the country suffering there is a bigger portion saying, listen. Things arent great for me but i dont want to scrap things. And if the Democratic Party goes very far left, they miss the opportunity to get those voters in the middle who say, hold on. I dont want to start over. I cant think of any of the top five democrats who are actually Pete Buttigieg is about as central as you can get. Senator harris is as centrist as you can. The only far liberal is Bernie Sanders and he is cratering. If even warren, i dont think she is as far left as Bernie Sanders so the fear of this overtake by a bunch of aoc clones i just dont see it happening and i dont think joe biden is smart to say im the resistance against that. Youre talking about the real world and real policy. I turn to you, Michael Steele. You have millions of people every night who tune in to fox news. And while the majority of candidates might be somewhat centrist and dont have far left opinions, fox news would tell you they do. Fox news would tell you, and the president , that every democrat running is a left wing loon who wants to take away all of your rights as a citizen and give them to someone from another country. So while jason might be right in fact, people hear what they want to hear. Sure. I think arguing that Elizabeth Warren isnt on the left is not going to be a winning argument for these centrist voters. Donald trump has a very hard ceiling in his support. He gets about 45 tops. The only way he wins this election is to convince the American People that the democratic candidate is unacceptable. Too far to the left. A radical socialist. And thats what he is going to do every day from now until election day. And i want people to work across the aisle. I think we need to get back to that. We need to get back to bipartisanship. We need to get back to working together to get things done. I just dont think citing examples of working with dixiecrats in the 1970s is the kind of argument to convince people you are the right candidate to do that. That is the advice Michael Steel is giving to joe biden ahead of the debate. Donny, i didnt invite you for your fashion sense. I brought you here because you are the marketing i mean, obviously jason the guy with the orange shirt and the blue checkered tie . This was like a pretty good. You are here, my favorite segment of your show on saturday nights is debate prep. Thank you. Lets say you are in the war room with a number of these candidates. Six days to go. I want to tick through what do you tell them to do to stand out . Start with tim ryan. Tim ryan, you know, is interesting. With him i say, show me your authentic self. I would say to all of them dont get up there and do a policy spiel. But donny, doesnt everybody say show your authentic self . You didnt let me finish what that means in this case. He is a young, talented guy. He is a football player. Hes kind of a street guy. You know, basically everybodys going to be lensing it through who can duke it out with trump. I always say, imagine on stage this person, this man or woman versus trump. If im tim ryan i want to show that level of strength. You know what . Im a guy from the midwest. You grew up with a silver spoon. Im from the streets. Im a youpngstown guy. Be mr. Youngstown. So you agree with donny that we should be looking at those candidates who can face off against trump . Because you know trump is going to be live tweeting the entire debate and try to get in the conversation. It depends who you are. I wouldnt do that if im tim ryan. He used to be my congressman. He needs to show, hey, im here. He has a different strategy than some of the others. If im joe biden i am saying, hey, i can take on trump. If im senator harris im saying i can win the coalition Hillary Clinton had before and win this election. Everybody has a different strategy depending on where they are on the numbers. Hey, im still here. Remember, i can do the things joe biden can do but be more charismatic. They all have different challenges and i dont think the branding is going to be the same. The biggest concern is the second night which is basically the hunger games death round. If anybody screws up, you have joe biden, Bernie Sanders, pete, Kamala Harris, you dont want to make a mistake because that person will take a huge hit in the poll. Steph, it is all about here and not here. You have to get them to fall in love with you as a human. Because i think once people start going, health care and this people kind of shut down. I need to be left with the, at the end of the night who is that human i want to invite in my living room a bit more over the next few weeks . That can take very, very different form. If i was joe biden the waid handle this thing id elevate myself. Hey, guys. Look. Maybe you guys are new to this. Ive been doing this for 50 years. Unfortunately, you do have to work with people you cant stand. Thats the way you fix problems. And almost kind of be the grand elder statesman in the room. Thats the way i would handle biden. Some of the other people that are, anybody else . Mayor pete. It is interesting. Mayor pete, i would come back to the veteran part. I think a democrat he hasnt talked about it much. The thing that makes him so different is we all know his resume, harvard and rhodes scholar. Six languages. And the guy decides you know what . Im not going to go work for mckinzy right now. Im going to afghanistan. There is a lot of talk. Hes got this great line, while trump was doing Celebrity Apprentice i was packing my bags for afghanistan. Id like to feel a lot of that in there. I see mayor pete right now, he has a shooting of an unarmed black person in his city he needs to talk about. He has had numerous issues with the police in south bend. He needs to be prepared to explain how he can represent a full coalition of the Democratic Party when he couldnt necessarily keep control of his own police force as mayor. That is his biggest concern Going Forward especially on stage with somebody like senator harris who says i am an a. G. And i know how to handle cops or joe biden who can say we went after things like that. Pete buttigieg has to address that issue before he can talk about what a great veteran he was. Donny mentioning pete should lean on the fact that he is a vet. What about those who didnt make the stage . Is it game over . Seth moulton not going to be there. Does he have a chance come a week and a half from now after were digest goto outcome of the debates . Probably not. Lacking that kind of Primetime Exposure i think governor bullock may have a chance to fight his way on to the debate in the next stage. But remember, it gets harder at every stage of the game. Right . You have to survive in advance and it is very hard to get back on that stage if youre not there. I think the veteran card is exactly the right thing for mayor pete to play. I think that Donny Deutsch was exactly right about tim ryan. I think all of these guys in the first debate have to tell a positive story about themselves, what they bring to the fight against trump, what they bring to this campaign. Donny, quickly just before we go, you said dont go policy, policy. But leaning on policy is exactly whats helped Elizabeth Warren in the last six weeks when she started the campaign. That is her this is not in 60 second bites. One final thing on this. If any of the moderators or the dnc incorporates trump tweets shame on you. Do not let him produce this event. It will show a weakness. If you let him into this event, you are fools. And you are showing your weakness. Ooh. Jason, michael, thank you all so much. Donny. Stick around. We have more to cover and we have to turn to breaking news out of the middle east where an american drone has been shot down by iranian forces. A u. S. Official telling nbc news they consider it to be an unprovoked attack on the United States. Weve been working on the story all night. She is in the uae just south of iran. Kristen welker at the white house where she has been speaking to administration officials. Courtney, you first. What exactly happened . We have conflicting reports. Reporter thats right. So there are conflicting reports from the United States side and the iranian side. What the u. S. Military is saying is a global hawk, an rq4 was shot down by an iranian surfacetoair missile last night. What the u. S. Is saying is it was in International Air space at the time. The iranians, however, are saying it had drifted into iranian air space. One reason for this dispute could be the fact that iran sees much of the air and waterways in this region particularly the strait of hormuz as iranian t e territorial waters and air space. The rest of the International Community generally does not agree. They see it as international. This comes just one day after the u. S. Military delivered what they called hard evidence that one of the tankers attacked in the gulf of oman last week was targeted by a limpit mine. They didnt say it was specifically placed by iran but did say it is the kind of explosive iran has in its inventory. Kristen, what is the white house saying . Reporter i spoke with a white house official earlier today, steph, who told me the administration is assessing the situation right now. The conversations are basically ongoing behind the scenes here at the west wing at this point. It is expected there will be a meeting about the latest provocation at the white house a little later on today. Overnight mr. Trump was pressed about tensions with iran. This was before the news broke. It seemed like he was really trying to down play any escalation to fox news. Take a listen to what he had to say. Iran is a much different country. I will tell you, much different today than when i took over. When i took over it looked like there was no stopping them. Right now you say they never get Nuclear Weapons . I would say if i were you dont worry about a thing. Dont worry about a thing. Now, that tone really echoes what the president said last week after u. S. Officials blamed iran for attacking the japanese oil tankers in the gulf. In that instance the president said while he would go to war over Nuclear Weapons he cast doubt over any military action for other types of clashes. Bigger picture here, steph, tensions between the u. S. And iran have been increasing ever since the president walked away from the iran nuclear deal. That was about a year ago. Now, what is going to happen today . The president is going to be meeting with the Prime Minister of canada. Sororitiers will undoubtedly ask him questions about all of this. How does he see the latest provocation and what if anything will he do about it . Hopefully well get some answers. Thank you both so much. Stick around. Were talking fed. Lets get down to business. The business of getting it done. The business of road trips. The business of getting everyone back together. The business of hustle. And hard work. And whatever this is. Modernized comfort inns suites have been refreshed because whatever business youre in, our business is you. Book direct at choicehotels. Com woman on phone discover. Hi. Do you have a travel card . Yep. Our miles card. Earn unlimited 1. 5 miles and well match it at the end of your first year. Nice im thinking about a scuba diving trip. Woman ooh gasp or not. You okay . Yeah, no, im good. Earn miles. Well match em at the end of your first year. 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Build for whats ahead℠ time for money, power, politics. The Federal Reserve is holding the line for now on Interest Rates leaving them unchanged. The central bank predicts one or two rate cuts in the future but not until 2020. This sets up a possible confrontation between fed chair jay powell and President Trump who is pressuring the fed to cut rates. Joining the conversation, the New York TimesSenior Correspondent neil erwin who is the author of a new book how to win in a winner take all world. Back with me Michael Steel and Donny Deutsch. Neil, to you first you think jay powell should have cut rates because we are heading for rocky times in our economy. We should remind our audience it was october when jay powell said the economy is great as far as the eye can see. The president continues to say, greatest economy ever just look at the jobs numbers. Why cut rates . If you look at the backward looking numbers yeah the economy looks pretty good. If you look forward, what is happening to inflation expectations, industrial indexes surveys that come out every month these are the real time barometers and those are sending signals the fed raised rates too much last year. If you make a mistake you have to fix it. That is kind of the rules of being the grownups like the fed. Donny, we were supposed to get extraordinary growth because of the record breaking tax cuts. So wall street will get a rate cut potentially which is exactly what the president wants and borrowing costs are going to be low. That is going to be a huge win for the president. It is interesting. The president twoonwants to low rates and doesnt understand the fed doesnt report to him and the judicial system theoretically does not report to him. Donny, doesnt matter if he understands the system. What if he gets the outcome he wants . Here is the scariest number, the precursor every time were heading to a recession. Look, it is going to happen whether it happens next week or next month. But i still think even with that, every single thing when you start to look at manufacturing, when you start to look at obviously escalating trade wars, i do think we are heading south and even with this rate hike, there are two economies out there. This is what the democrats need to know. There is the trump economy which is wall street, 50 of americans dont own stock. 10 of americans own all the stock. But when you say wall street, thats not just rich people. Because its 401 k s, pensions. You have firefighters and teachers out there. Half this country makes under 30,000 a year. There are still so Many Health Care bankruptcies in homes. The average american is still hurting. And thats what we have to separate. What happens and what stimulates a comcast and what stimulates, i dont mean to cast as perfections. Im just saying any Big Corporation versus what stimulates a guy from youngstown, ohio. Michael steel, when donny talks about trumps economy he is talking about the winning economy and trump won the last election on the losing economy. So how do democrats address this . The broken economy, youve got the losers on one side and the winners on the other. The president identified those losing and said, im here for you. Yes. He then came into office and said the economy is great and he hooked up the winners again. How do democrats play their hand . They need to find a way to make an emotional connection with voters who they believe their plans will help economically. The voters who havent necessarily been helped by the trump economy. At the same time the president has a really good story to tell. We have unemployment lower than weve seen in decades. We have people who stopped looking for work coming back into the labor force. The reason he is fighting so hard for this rate cut is because his biggest fear is a slowing, slumping economy going into his reelection next year. Donny is exactly right. We are in a record long Economic Growth period. We are overdue for a recession by conventional metrics. Thats why the president is so desperate for the fed to goose the economy going into 2020. Historically its been the economy, stupid. We go back to 2018 when the economy was roaring. Guess what . Trump lost 40 seats. I think the economy is just a term and a unit to itself and is becoming less and less a defining factor. Because there are so many ways the health care is the economy. A lot of ways to look at it but it is not purely the economy stupid. 2018 proved that. We started with jay powell and the Federal Reserve. The worst reason to not cut rates is because the president wants it. Just as you want to be independent, independence cuts both ways. If you think it is right for the economy, you do it. In your book you talk about what its like for the worker out there, for the labor force. Many people didnt necessarily stand with the president or even know who he was before 2016 but the system wasnt working for them. Is it working for them now . Its not for a lot of people. Absolutely not. What my book is about is how to navigate a career and deal with the economic cross currents that make life hard if youre trying to figure out what to do next. That really favors people who are educated, who can work in the technologically advanced industries, work in these big, complex organizations. I think there is a recipe for learning to become that person but it doesnt come naturally. If youre working at the steel mill in youngstown it is not something youve spent your life learning how to do. Has anyone delivered or have you seen a candidate tell that disenfranchised worker, heres what im going to deliver for you. I talk about west virginia, for example. Mike bloomberg comes out with his beyond coal plan and says we need to give back and retrain these people and give them better jobs. Is there any evidence of that actually working . Because you hear lots about apprenticeship programs and retraining but i have yet to see my life is changed. Now im working here. They need the answer to trumps either lie or hyperbole where trump says everything is great for everybody and i changed everything. You need a data point or a way to capsulize and say that is wrong and this is right and this is what im going to do in a simple message. It is not just about nostalgia and trying to go back to a manufacturing economy but figuring out ways to make sure jobs of the future in retail and hospitality, in the industries that arent going anywhere, that those are good jobs and offer long and durable careers. It is not impossible. We just have to make choices to make that happen. But you have to offer those people jobs immediately. If i lost my job at a coal mine and youre saying, whoa, there is going to be a job in the future. I got to make rent next month. How am i going to get paid . And by the way that job is going to pay onefifth of what you made at the coal mine. That is the great challenge. There is no inherent reason working at walmart or a hotel has to be a terrible job, lack job security, bad wages, bad benefits. That is a choice we make as society. Thank you all so much. Weve got more to cover here. Up next, the last bank that would lend money to trump now under federal investigation. Names youll never know. The brighteyed, the brave, the visionaries. Where challenges exist, youll find them. At citi, we empower people who are out to change the world. Because tomorrow belongs to those who welcome it with open arms. Citi. Welcome whats next im and im an emt. Erer when i get a migraine at work, its debilitating. If i call out with a migraine, thats one less ambulance to serve a community. 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With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Welcome back. Im stephanie ruhle. New this morning a damning new report reveals federal authorities are investigating whether one of the key banks that did business with donald trump complied with laws meant to stop Money Laundering and other crimes. The New York Times cites seven people familiar with Deutsche Bank probe that includes a review of its handling of socalled suspicious activity reports known as sars that its employees prepared about the potentially problematic transactions. The times reports some of those transactions are linked to President Trumps soninlaw and Senior Adviser jared kushner. Full disclosure, i worked for dutcha bank for eight years. Joining us on the phone one of the journalists behind this incredible new reporting who has been following the Deutsche Bank money trail exclusively. His forthcoming book on Deutsche Bank and President Trump is titled dark towers. As i said, i worked there. I know just what those towers look like inside. So tell us what youve learned. What are the details about these transactions linked to jared . It came to light in 2016 when an employee in the bank in jacksonville down in florida saw some suspicious stuff. Kushner companies was moving money and she complained about this and tried to file what is called a suspicious activity report with the federal government. But when her managers figured out she wanted to file this warning with the government they blocked her from doing so. Not long after she was transferred to another part of stifling whistleblowers, i think. It is something that now the fbi and federal prosecutors are beginning to investigate and know they have reached out to the whistleblower, Tammy Mcfadden and her lawyers and its something they are taking very seriously. Overriding whistleblowers is a huge red flag. I know you reached out to deutsche and they said we remain committed to cooperating with authorized investigations. To silence a whistleblower, have they answered to that in any way. They deny a silencer. They believe they handled her complaint appropriately. She vehemently denied as an example of the bank prioritizing its business over the very bright red flags she was seeing around potential Money Laundering or other illicit activity. This is something they all had a similar story. This is not an isolated incident. All right, david. Thank you so much. Incredible reporting. I highly recommend you read his piece. Any minute now were expecting decisions from the Supreme Court with very serious issues still left on the docket, including those dealing with religious freedom, gerrymandering and controversial Citizenship Question being added to the census. Time now for a little made in the usa. Two childhood friends, jake and chip, these two guys are more than friends. As career men they disrupted, of all things, cookware industry, starting brand made in cooked and manufactured in family owned factories, tennessee, illinois and pennsylvania. As they explained, its got nothing to do with tariffs or cost, it all about building a product they and their consumer can trust. The u. S. Is known for making great metal products. What we wanted to be able to do, when were launching our first product, get on a plane and get to the factories quickly and be sure were making the products we want to make. In the United States, some of the opticals of the tariffs hasnt affected us, but uncertainty in the markets whether from sourcing or raw material side has material effects on us. The biggest challenge for us is really convincing people to care about a category thats historically been sleepy. We have to make people care about investing in this cookware which for the last 20 or 30 years they really havent. H for years they really havent. Be right back. 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With humira, remission is possible. Applebees new loaded chicken fajitas. Now only 10. 99. When a plan stops being a plan and gets set into motion. Todays 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 . Today, lifechanging technology from abbott is helping hunt them down at their source. Because the faster we can identify new viruses, the faster we can get to stopping them. The most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. Life. To the fullest. Majority leader mcconnell cited civil rights legislation as he should. He was alive to witness harassment, jailing and betrayal of those responsible for that legislation by a government sworn to protect them. He was alive for red lining of chicago and looting of home owners of 4 million. Victims of that plunder are very much alive today. Im sure they would love a word with the majority leader. Journalist and author going directly at majority leader Mitch Mcconnell during yesterdays congressional hearing on reparations. On tuesday mcconnell said he doesnt believe reparations is necessary and the u. S. Has made enough major gains by passing civil rights legislation and electing an africanamerican president. Jason johnson, Donny Deutsch back with me. Jason, whats your reaction to coats comments and how strategic Mitch Mcconnell is whether you like him or not. Two, what coats said is true, brilliant, factual. You know everything about how the Republican Party feels. Democrats put up economist, phd, brilliant writer. Republicans put out columbia junior and an nfl player from the 1907s. The absolute refusal to even have discussions, this is just a bill to research it. Have a discussion. People dont realize, jason, this is just for a bill to discuss how do we improve things. Mitch mcconnells attitude is i dont care because Mitch Mcconnell isnt overly concerned about the lack of humanity large swaths of america are perceived. Reparations are not just an issue about feeling good. I dont care about feeling good. I feel about a nation that is justified in its behavior. I feel that a nation should treat me and people that look like me fairly. This didnt end with the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther king killed massive discrimination in our economy, government, criminal justice today. To the degree Mitch Mcconnell doesnt want to address that, defines the Republican Party today. The ignorance and abhorrence, we elected a black president evens the score of deplorable history of who we were with slavery as a country. Having said that, we keep going back to the world is not okay until we beat donald trump. You want to solve racial issues, you want to solve immigration issues, this issue forget that the issue itself morally and nobly is the right thing to talk about and address, weaving it into the political discourse in this political cam paper is going to be very damaging to the democrats. I am just talking about i want this evil man out of office. Jason, to this point by the way, giving him that, mold it the way he wants to mold it, the way he molds socialism. I keep coming back to evil in the white house, got to get it out, maybe a discussion for another day. This takes you back to joe biden. Exactly. Many people saying why is he saying that . This week the president doubled down on his take on central park five. In 1989 he took out an adin the New York Times and said, lets bring back the death penalty. Were not talking about that. Were talking about how joe biden should have chosen different names. Is this a mistake. Central park five, deportation, the discussion is if joe biden has these kinds of attitudes hes going to be Donald Trumplike. Is Donald Trumplike better than donald trump. If youre dying on the streets joe biden is a far way from donald trump. Yes, he is, but the perception he would be Donald Trumplike is a perception on the part of the voters. Thank you. That wraps up this hour. Youll see you at 1 00 p. M. More news with Hallie Jackson. I am Hallie Jackson in washington. As the world holds its breath waiting and watching to see what the Trump Administration will do after a drone was shot down by iran, whether the white house will escalate. Questions on that. Something else. Investigations by the House Democrats as Judiciary Committee discusses live, starting now, whether to take hope hicks to court. Thats after members spent hours asking questions without getting the answers they want