Investigation, the russia probe. Reporter well, jake, in the past he has expressed a great deal of competence in mueller. He was actually muellers boss at the Justice Department back in the early 1990s. He said mueller will not did i involve into a socalled witch hunt, but hes also expressed a bit of disappointment about the fact that some members of muellers teams have donated political donations to democrats in the past. He said this to the washington post, jake. In my view prosecutors who make political contributions are identifying fairly strongly with a political party. He goes on to say would i have liked to have him see more balance on the group, earningoing sentiments from President Trump as muellers team being angry democrats despite the fact that mueller himself is a lifelong republican, and barr has also expressed plenty about former fbi director james comey, about the fact that he was widely planned for flouting doj protocols, getting out ahead of the attorney general Loretta Lynch at the time when it came to the Hillary Clinton email probe, and on comey he says this, jake. Quote, i think its quite understandable that the administration would not want an fbi director who did not recognize established limits on his powers. It is telling that none of the president s critics are challenging the decision on the merits so defending the firing of comey there, jake. He aligns with President Trump a a number of these issues, and i think hes also said some things that Hillary Clinton and bill clinton should be investigated more when it comes to the uranium one deal f. There is a nomination of bill barr and he goes before the senate, i would be expected hed be asked about when he was attorney general last time for gooush, what and how his role was on signing off on pardons that bush senior issued for some reagan officials about irancontra. People are very concerned about pardons President Trump might issue. Certainly thats been one of the pieces of bill barrs tenure that has come under close scrutiny. Hes not backed away from t. Help said he supported pardons for the Reagan Administration officials and given President Trumps penchant for pardons that will be highly scrutinized in what is sure to be an ugly confirmation battle for bill barr or anybody else but already, jake, bipartisan support, pat leahy, top democrat on the Senate Judiciary committee, telling our ted barrett on capitol hill, that this is subwho will be supported by both democrats and republicans. All right. Laura jarrett, thank you so much. In our money lead, the dow closing down just 78 points, making a big recovery. At one point today the dow was down more than 700 points, continuing a volatile week over fears that despite President Trumps reassurances theres no actual threemonth truce between the u. S. And china in this trade war, and the situation has been exacerbated by the arrest of a chinese executive in canada at the request of the u. S. Government. She is the daughter of the founder of the tech jane the wahwa, its second larger manufacturer of smartphones in the world and apple is the third. The u. S. Commerce Department Said the u. S. Trade deficit increased to a tenyear high and a record trade shortfall with china. Despite this bad trade news and uncertainty about whether the president has a clear strategy, mr. Trump has been trying to project confidence about what he claims is progress on trade with the chinese. Cnns abby philip is at the white house for us. An Administration Official says theres a plan for the u. S. To seek extradition of this chinese executive. Reporter thats right, jake. Amid all the turmoil on wall street, the administration is saying that they plan to extradite this huawei executive to the United States, and some in the Administration Believe that this arrest can be used as leverage in negotiations on trade with china. As Global Markets spiral over fears that a trade war is on the horizon, President Trump only adding to the turmoil. Trump, who regularly takes credit for the soaring stock market, now silent as markets fall in the wake of a handshake deal with china that days later remains short on concrete details. Half hailing the agreement as an incredible deal its an incredible deal. It goes down certainly, if it happens, it goes down as one of the largest deals ever made. Reporter President Trump now changing his tune on china voicing concern that it might not materialize, tweeting we are either going have a real deal with china or no deal at all, at which point we will be charging major tariffs against chinese product being shipped into the United States. Days after trumps threehour meeting with chineses president xi jinping in argentina, the chinese have yet to confirm some of the key promises the president claims china made, to lower or eliminate auto tariffs hand immediately purchase american agricultural products. Administration aides also struggling to clean up the mess. The president expects, and i think hes right, hes going to get it, they will take their car tariffs down to zero. Im taking president xi at his word and his commitment to President Trump, but they have to deliver on this. Reporter all this as the u. S. trade dispute with china takes a dangerous turn. Canadian officials revealing wednesday the u. S. Requested the arrest and extradition of a top chinese official. The provocative move that could be described as the equivalent of arresting the head of apples Family Member came just as President Trump was sitting at a dinner table in buenos aires with chinas president on saturday. While details about the charges xi might face, remains scarce. Trumps National Security adviser john bolton says the company has long been accused of being a National Security risk to the United States. Weve had enormous concerning for years, about the practice of chinese firms to use stolen American Intellectual property so not respecting this particular arrest, and huawei is one company weve been concerned about. Reporter bolton did say that he did know that this arrest was happening on saturday, but he did not say whether President Trump did as well. Clearly a high stakes situation is unfolding right now as both sides try to sort out these trade disputes. In the meantime, it seems the Global Economy is hanging in the balance. Jake . Abby philip at the white house. Lets talk about it with our experts. First, lets start with the fact that on december 1st the cfo with huawei was arrested, the same day President Trump was meeting with president xi. We dont know if President Trump knew it. Now some Administration Officials are saying that this could be used as part of the trade negotiations. Does that seem odd to you . Does that seem unusual . Maybe its good news and they are arresting and doing the right thing by arresting somebody that deserves to be arrested. I guess im heartened by in and it sounds like the hey rest was legit and i would point out that china isnt Holding American citizens who are not guilty of anything right now and relatives of poem in chan who are accused of things. Toe it not had a bad thing automatically bad to do. I would separate foolish trade politics and this may be a reasonable thing. There used to be an ignorant snibs that would say markets dont like i remember him. Yes, he works at the white house right now and his name is larry kudlow. Maybe she deserved to be arrested but the timing is certainly spirks and if were use the Law Enforcement arm to enforce trade policies, i think were in new territory. No, no. I dont know. Truly the Treasury Department does iran sanctions and the Justice Department executed this. These are career people. Not necessarily in cahoots, but it does seem like the markets are very uncertain of how much strategy is going on here hand whether or not President Trump, his word can be relied upon when he and says president xi came to an understanding. And its about the timing, really of it, the tombing is very on opportunity and we had a more chomp hencive more logical policy this would make sense but markets are reacting to the uncertainty of the president s economic strategy. Its like if steve jobs was running apple and his doubt her been arrested in china. Of course theres going to be consequences in the market. Her father who is a very obscure person, used to be in the Peoples Revolutionary Army so hes somebody and theres going to be consequences and i dont think weve seen everything with regards to this. Cnn spoke to five different states ahead saying some of the deep ties to trump were fraying. Monty peterson in north dakota who voted for trump told cnn im wondering about that vote saying his regret really hinges on the way the trade negotiations turns out because he questions the methods by which were negotiating trade right now. They have every right to be concerned. Were talking about people who supported donald trump as were you reading. Were talking about ohio and iowa and north dakota, and its incredibly problematic. Farmers are going to be getting the blunt end of this, and they are. They are seeing this right now in realtime. Look, our economy and in particular the stock market, they thrive on stability, and were not seeing that right now. Donald trump is doing everything the opposite of stability, and its through his erratic behavior, his tweets, his lack of comprehensive policies, and it is incredibly problematic, and so, you know, its going to be its scary to see because hes using his twitter, the tirade that hes doing on twitter to prlt fight a trade washing and its not going to work. What about the politics of this, there was polling done in iowa and New Hampshire to do see what the primary challenges are. In iowa, somewhat to our surprise, we tested a bunch of issues, trade was a big actual voting issue among republicans who had supported trump, certainly supported him in the general election, some of them in the caucuses, and as you said earlier, these tariffs are not a hypothetical thing or indirect effect on our 401 k s. You know who was in iowa last weekend talking to farmers, amy klobuchar, and they are ready to make hay of this and trump wont get a free pass and all of the democrats are going to the farm states. That will be a key argument. We talk about how the market likes stability which is true. President trump in the last few days has written 13 tweets about china and trade policy since monday. That seems to suggest that he understands that there are people out there who are worried about this. Hes trying to reassure them. Thats been the tone and tenor of the tweets. I dont know that its been working. I dont know that tweeting is the way to get markets or people whose soybean farms are going bankrupt now to reassure them. I dont think his tweets are working any better than his Economic Policy and his tax reform. I think there are incentives in there that make it possible for gm and other companies to actually go elsewhere and not stay in this country. So much for his promise that not one job will leave this country. Experience matters but experience matters even more and if you have a policy based on tweets and inexperience in terms of setting Economic Policy we all pay the price. Its not just the 401 k s. People in gm, ohio. Bourbon, blue jeans. His base. Everyone stick around. New calls for one of President Trumps cabinet members to resign over a decades old deal he brokered as a u. S. Attorney and then a live look at the train carrying president bushs casket to its final resting place Just Moments Away from arriving at texas a m, home to president bush 41s president ial library. Dont you get the one of those travel sites . They tell you that, but when you book at hilton. Com, you get the price match guarantee. So if you find your room at a lower rate, hilton is like. Were gonna match that rate and give you an extra 25 off. What would travel sites do if you found a better price . Thats not my problem, its your problem. 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Its making her do hard work. And getting paid for it. vo snap and sort your expenses to save over 4,600 at tax time. danny jody. Its time to get yours vo quickbooks. Backing you. Welcome back to the lead. In our politics lead, one of the largest newspapers in florida is calling for labor secretary alex acosta to resign back to when he was an attorney general gave a sweetheart deal to an incredibly wealthy and powerful pedophile. Acosta is now damaged goods. He should realize it and move on. He does not deserve to be in the has of powers. He abused his power so tragically. Cnns renee marsh caught up with acosta to try to get a straight answer from him as to why he was willing to make that deal. Reporter this week labor secretary alex acosta is still avoiding questions about the lenient plea deal he helped broker for multimillionaire and alleged serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Secretary enspeen, renee marsh with cnn. As a florida u. S. Attorney in 2007 acosta helped orchestrate a deal with epsteins legal team just as the fbi was investigating years of alleged sexual abuse. Acostas agreement stopped the investigation in its tracks and helped epstein avoid federal charges and now momentum is building on capitol hill. Republican senator ben sasse has asked them to investigate an epic miscarriage of justice and Debbie Wasserman schultz sent a left sent by 5 other Democratic House members. If the bear minimum was sought off thats a huge prob m problem. Reporter in the end he faced two misdemeanor prostitution charges and about a year in jail. Somebody silenced them before they had a chance to speak out. That is antithetical to justice. Reporter a federal investigation discovered 36 underage victims. Several told the miami herald they were paid to recruit girls to perform sexual favors, including lewd massages and in some cases sex at his palm beach mansion. There was a steady flow all day long of girls coming in there. They were pimps. No other way to put it. Reporter courtney wild told the miami herald she was one of those girls. I started going him when i was like 14, 15, 14 turning 15. By the time i was 16 i brought him up to 75 girls. Reporter in a 2011 letter to reporters, acosta argued the deal was the best he could get given epsteins army of lawyers. By 2011 letter from acosta is it also provides more insight into why he helped broker that plea deal. In it he said, and im quoting, some may feel that the prosecution should have been tougher. He added that evidence that has come out to light since 2007 may encourage that view. Had these additional statements and evidence been known, the outcome may have been different, but they were not known to us at the time. Jake, it really does, based on that, beg the question why didnt he allow the investigation to run its course before striking that plea deal thats . Thats usually how this all works. This week in south florida there was a civil suit. We were expecting to hear from the victims. The first time they were going to take to the stand and hear their stories. Acosta, of course, would have faced more scrutiny, but in a lastminute move the case was settled silencing those victims just once again. Rene marsh. Thanks very much. Joining me now is Debbie Wasserman schultz of florida who wrote that letter from the Justice Department demanding that the Inspector General look into this. The deal that he got when they were u. S. Attorney, that was the best deal that he could get at the time and facts that have come out since then are ones he didnt know. Whats your response . Thats what investigations are for. Its in the Job Description of a United States attorney general to fully investigate and fully prosecute a case like this in which you had Jeffrey Epstein who was a serial sexual abuser, a serial sex trafficker and pedophile who was trafficking dozens of girls who would likely if the case had been fully prosecuted potentially gotten a life sentence, and when he did is cut a sweetheart deal to protect him because he