u.s. was going to implement these tariffs. the big open question for investors is how long is this going to last. you don t have this right now. if that s $500 billion, that could have a dramatic effect because we would be moving from these indirect tariffs targeted on semiconductors, equipment, things like that, to the stuff we buy in stores, on shirts, on clothing, and that would potentially have a much harder hit on consumers when they go shopping. let me also bring in the washington post economics correspondent heather long. so heather, for the average american who s sitting out there and donald trump has said he ran on this, he s going to make things better for them what should they be looking for as a result of this back and forth between china and the u.s.? we are in a trade war now.
it s a big legislative accomplishment and one that, frankly, a lot of people didn t think we would get to this point, the republicans could get everything together and get onboard and united around this. at the same time it s a gamble, a political gamble given the unpopularity of what they are doing, and it sets up the stakes for next year where they do have something to run on. there was a return republicans would not have anything to run on heading into the midterms and now they do. it s a big open question whether they can sell this to the public, you know, starting today, really, and starting to get that push. the other question is whether this provides any legislative momentum? does winning for republicans on this make them, you know, turn to other issues early next year and get some other accomplishments under their belt? right, right, like infrastructure and et cetera. selena, in mitch mcconnell s
proportion. what does it tell you about president trump and what he may have known? it raises the question of what he did know. one of the things i want to know is did the president continue to have communication for michael flynn, for how long, and how recently has he spoken to the former national security adviser? we know the president for one kept in contact with a lot of these deposed these officials who are no longer part of the administration, part of the campaign. he continued to talk to paul manafort afterwards, to talk to corey lewandowski. did he talk to michael flynn afterwards? that tweet about praising vladimir putin after putin did not retaliate of sorts after the sanctions were imposed has to beg the question, someone must have told him about these conversations right beforehand, otherwise, you know, it really defies logic. this is a very small transition.
and it was a small group of people meeting in mar-a-lago at that time. lying is not a crime. you can lie to the press and it is not a crime. part of the administration s defense, you know, during both during the campaign and during the transition was, listen, we were a small team, we didn t you know, we weren t washington insiders, we didn t know how all of this kind of stuff worked. but we were all the best. i don t know if mueller could use that as no, gloria, it goes to the point if they were so small as we know they were, how is it possible that the president, who is very involved and very much a micromanager would not know? right, i don t think you could say it is a disengaged president, which is what during iran contra what the reagan administration said about ronald reagan, disengaged. this is a president who is very engaged, and i think the question here is why. why so much emphasis on russia and why so much lying about this? why if you have nothing to hid
of reporters here who have been covering this story very closely from the beginning. pam, you ve been covering this story from the beginning as well. really a momentous day in this investigation and for this administration as well. that s right, because michael flynn is the first official that was in the white house to be charged in the investigation, and so what happened today really brings the focus on the others in the white house, too, how this might impact them. gloria borger, the big question, how does this deal threaten president trump? we don t know the answer to that yet, but what i can say is, first of all, we know that flynn has flipped. so this takes mueller into the oval office, into somebody who was in the west wing, and he has cooperation from somebody in the west wing. the white house has always said that it was misled by flynn about his russian contacts. so now we have to ask the question, is that true? were they misled? of course it gives us a whole new view of th