North korea will reject the results of what it calls the forced autopsy which it says was not witnessed by north korean officials. Who knows if the north korean will ever get that body back or what that autopsy will say about the cause of death. Brian, thank you. Im brianna keilar. Erin burnett out front starts right now. Out front next, breaking news, the dow hits an all time high again seven days in a row. Trump taking the credit. Does he deserve it . And the secret Service Investigating an incident tonight involving trumps mor or the cade, what happened, and trumps twitter tirade. He tweeted, deleted, retweeted. Lets go out front. Good evening. Im erin burnett. One thing going right for trump. An alltime high. These are the facts. Stocks hit a record today in the midst of their best streak in 25
years. Its a dramatically different headline than the ones about chaos and turmoil in the white house. Those headlines are true, but so is this one. The economy is surging. Another fact. A survey at its highest level since 1984. President trump today taking credit at a boeing plant in South Carolina. Since november, jobs have already begun to surge. The president celebrating his boeing visit. But does he get the credit or would that headline be fake news . Sara murray begins our coverage tonight at the white house. Sa sara, the economy right now is the big bright spot for this president. Reporter thats right. Despite President Trump saying earlier this week he inherited a
mess, he does have an economy with a 4. 8 unemployment rate, incredibly low. When he was in South Carolina today he said he would spark even more job creation but didnt say how. I love South Carolina. I love it. Less than a month into his presidency hes breaking out of the bubble getting back into campaign mode. This was going to be a place that was tough to win and we won in a landslide. Reporter he visited a boeing plant today. The president trying to get back to his sweet spot touting his goal to revive american manufacturing. When American Workers win, america as a country wins, bigleague wins. Thats my message here today. America is going to start winning again, winning like never, ever before. Reporter with the administration under fire over
to give him a chance. I think whatever he says it changes from day to day, so i dont actually believe he has the vision and ability to follow through on policy. Reporter strong opinions on the topic. On both sides we heard on a number of issues people are passionate about. Thank you very much. Out front, former economic adviser to Donald Trumps campaign, steven moore and former chairman of the council of economic advisers for barack obama, alston goolsbee. Thanks to both. Four weeks into President Trumps term, taking credit for job growth, stong consumer confidence, surging stocks. Fair . I think there is a trump effect, no question about it. If you look at the stock market, after a level 2016, it started to surge after the november 7th election. No question about it. And its not unusual that a
president would take credit for things that happened on his watch. Hes only been in office for a month and some of these were let in motion. The big effect here, over the last week, the Whole Media Story has been, oh, a tumultuous week for donald trump and washington, but what most americans are paying attention to is not this kind of Palace Intrigue we in washington Pay Attention to but whats going on in the real economy, and trump has had a good number of weeks so youve seen an increase in consumer confidence, Small Business consumer confidence, the Factory Orders that came out last week were strong for january. So things are looking up and its not unusual for a president to take credit for it. Of course theyll take credit, whether fake nudes or real news we are at an alltime record on the dow. Some of the things that are
of wages and jobs is what americans will look at. You know, my attitude about the obama years, yeah, the economy did pretty well, but theres really only about the top 20 that saw gains in income and the other 80 , not much. I traveled around with donald trump and we went to places like michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, and people there were saying they didnt feel much of a recovery. Well, i would say that i disagree with that. You know, if you look at the actual data on wages, the last years wage gains were the biggest in the middle class on record that we have been Keeping Track of that. I get the feeling if you look at what Donald Trumps doing, you know, we just had the super bowl. Barack obama saves us from depression, hes been the starting quarterback for seven years, and with 30 seconds left in the game, and theyre way ahead, they bring in the backup. And hes going around saying i won the game he didnt win the game. Look, we had a crisis i was hoping you would give donald trump a little credit in this interview. [ talking over each other ] steve, heres the thing. Donald trump, say you want to give him credit. He cant take credit until things come to fruition. Optimism is one thing, right . Lets see what happens to those Small Business profits. Hes done a lot of meetings, airlines, the retailers, hes met with everybody. Tech companies. And here is what he has said after each one of those big meetings in recent weeks. Theyre all talking about the bounce, so right now everybody has to like me at least a little bit. But were going to try and have that bounce continue. The Auto Industry just left a week ago. They were here in the same room. And theyre very happy with what were doing and youre going to be so happy with trump. I think you already are. Theres a lot of youre going
to like me and be happy, but he hasnt put anything on the table yet, steve. Nothing. Theres no tax plan. Theres nothing on the table yet. Wait a minute. I worked on the campaign and the tax plan. We have a tax plan. There will be some nuanced changes to it but Everybody Knows what he wants to do. He wants to lower taxes for families and bring americas is he going to put his plan on the table . He hasnt done anything yet. This is so far all talk. One reason for that is theyve been focused on obamacare, which is another high priority for trump. But i would make this point to both of you. You know, i think the reason youre seeing a bit of a bounce in the step of the economy since the election is that trump ran a kind of pro worker, pro business platform, and you know what, businesses want pro business in washington. Im not saying, look, i agree with you, we have to make sure regulations are in place to safeguard safety and other things like that, but just
basically saying we want america to be competitive in the global economy, thats a very positive thing. I think businesses are responding in advance of some of these policies. Im not against that. How much time does he have, alston, before he has to have legislative victories in congress . Two things. One, i dont think he has much time. Most of what you get to do as president you do certainly in your first year and probably in your first just few months. I think the more they just kind of sit around and sign vague Executive Orders and dont actually put out details of what they want in a tax plan, the more danger they have that theyre just not going to be able to do it. All right. I agree. Ive been frustrated with the pace of i want to see these things i wanted them to rush out of the gate like secretariat. I agree, alston, i think a president has a bit of a honeymoon period but the press Hasnt Given Him much of a ho y honeymo honeymoon. But you have to get this stuff done quickly. Most president s get their agenda
passed in the first six months. As you know, President Obama got his Stimulus Plan done in the first month and a half or Something Like that. The first month. It was done by this point. He did come out of the gates like secretariat. The Executive Order that got shot down in court. All kinds of things that were secretariatlike, just not the ones you want. Thank you. Next, the Secretary Of State not staying with other World Leaders for a conference in germany. Wait till you see where hes staying. Is it a simple logistical error or something much bigger . And an incident involving the Trump Motorcade on the way to maralago tonight, the secret Service Investigating. And on a lighter note, well introduce you to the guys responsible for Saturday Night Lives newest star. I love how usaa gives me the and the security just like the marines did. At one point, i did change to a Different Company with car insurance, and i was not happy with the customer service. We have switched back over and we feel like were back home now. The process through usaa is so effortless,
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arent consistent. I think the good thing for mike pence is hell be talking to nato allies even though President Trump during the Campaign Said nato is obsolete and allies might have to defend themselves, hes since changed his tune and now weve heard the administration say multiple times that at least they are committed to nato. And, you know, speaking of the world order, the Secretary Of State, Rex Tillerson, at the g20 staying at a sanitarium 30 minutes away from the rest of the World Leaders. The g20 is a major event, known well in advance, right, that the State Department would have planned for regardless of who the secretary was. Does it speak to a lack of coordination within this administration . I think it points to a lack of everything being in place and you psi that throughout. There are people in top positions who are political appointees but who had decades of experience and were here for obviously multiple straights, asked to leave before those positions could be filled by the new administration. You have people within the state
department who arent sure what the policy is even going to be. So this is a little built of disorganization, although the State Department says, look, tillerson has been in office for two weeks and we didnt book it until we knew that everything was going to be in place. But it points to maybe them not being 100 certain he would be confirmed. All right. Thank you very much. Richard haass author of a world of disarray, also met with President Trump during transition. The Secretary Of StateRex Tillerson staying at a sanitarium 30 minutes away from where the players are at the g20 and bloomberg describes it as, you know, Security Agents in a parking lot, elderly people in wheelchairs coming for their spa treatments. Is this a logistical issue or reflective of a State Department behind the 8ball right now . Its a logistical issue on the surface but underneath it all i think it reflects two
serious things. One is the lack of support at the State Department. Rex tillerson is essentially home alope. Theres no staff. He wasnt able to get the deputy he wanted so thats one issue. Second of all, it highlights the basic issue of the relationship between the Secretary Of State and this white house. No Secretary Of State can be successful if the world does not think he speaks and speaks authoritatively for the president. Let me just say every day that goes by with this sort of thing happening, it begins to create doubts and doubts are poisonous for the ability of a Secretary Of State to be effective. Tillerson hasnt taken any questions on this trip as you know. He doesnt have a deputy. He hasnt had a press Conference Since he took over. How much time does he have . He is someone that does lend gravitas and credibility in World Leaderships to the Trump Administration, but as you said, the runway is short. The president has tome power his Secretary Of State. The president has to go out there and show that theSecretary Of State speaks for him, that the two of them theres no daylight between them. It would also help if there was a National Security adviser in place because we dont really have an administration to speak of when you Start Talking about National Security. So these are early days, only, what, less than a month since the administration began, but they cant count on the world remaining a calm place or a relatively calm place. Sooner or later, a real crisis rather than one general rated by the administration itself is going to come into their in boxes and they had better be up and running and ready for it. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a very important visit, obviously, this week. And trump was asked twice about antisemitism in america. Here at his Press Conference is how he answered a jewish reporters question yesterday. What we havent really heard being addressed is an uptick in antisemitism and how the government is planning to take care of it. There are people who are committing antisemitic acts or threatening he said he was going to ask a simple, easy question, and its not. Its not. Not a simple question. Not a fair question. Okay. Sit down. Number one, i am the least antisemitic person that youve ever seen in your entire life. Number two, racism. The least racist person. He didnt answer the question. What do you make of that response . Well, in what was an odd 77 minutes that was on the short list of odd moments. I thought it was a slow curve, but i thought the president it would have given him a simple opportunity to denounce antisemitism, say it has no place in american society. What i couldnt figure out is whether he simply misunderstood the question, he didnt get it all. You know, i know there are those reading into it saying he politically didnt want to say
certain things. Im not prepared to go there. Again, i just thought it was something of a missed opportunity to stay what needs to be said, that theres simply no place for antisemitism in any aspect of life in this country or anywhere else. He did seem to take it personally, im the least antisemitic person that you know. He made it about himself. Obviously something that on all of these issues something he tend to do. Again, i thought it was a missed opportunity but, you know, one thing i can bet on, hell have another opportunity because anytime a president does that kind of a thing with the sensitive issue, you know and i know that some other journalist is going to revisit it. Your name, richard, has been mentioned as a possible deputy Secretary Of State. Elliott aber talked about his meeting with Rex Tillerson