Well sort them out. Also, were tracking issues inside the Trump White House from the departure of key aides to the reports of friction within the family. The Justice Departments Second In Command Playing Defense for his boss after criticism from the president. Not much happening. Lets get to it. Trade wars are good. So says the republican president of the United States. First from the fox news deck this afternoon, President Trump says the United States will win big in a trade war. But his plan for new taxes on steel and aluminum imports had stocks taking a dive the second day. President trump tweeted when the u. S. A. Is losing billions on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good and easy to win. Example, when were down 100 billion with a certain country
the president s allies are castigating the idea of tariffs. Listen to what marcy captor said. We dont want to wait for the Steel Industry collapse as happened to the auto industry. We cant afford to have the aluminum Industry Collapse in this country. The white house has not worked out the nuts and bolts of how this could work. There could be exemptions for certain companies, certain products. One of the ceos said yesterday he didnt want any exemptions. But that could be chumming the water to provoke discussion. Shepard certainly had that effect. John kelly, the chief of staff, had a meeting with reporters today, i understand. He did. One of the things that came up is this idea of Security Clearance that then got us into a discussion of rob porter. You might remember on the day
the Marjory StonemanDouglas School shooting happened, we were expecting that john kelly, the chief of staff and potentially the white house counsel, don mcgann would walk us through the whole process of what happened with rob porter. The chief of staff and what otherwise was an offtherecord conversation did put this on the record. Kelly first learned tuesday, february 6, about 5 00 p. M. , that there was a Press Inquiry about alleged Emotional Abuse of Rob Porters Second Wife by rob porter till he met with porter and he said he would resign over it. Kelly went to capitol hill, came back about 6 30 and there was a second Press Inquiry. This one about allegations of Domestic Abuse from his first wife. You saw the picture with the black eye. Kelly said that he needs to go after that. Heres where everything gets murky. Kelly fired porter. The white house put out several statements supporting him at a
press briefing the next day. Sarah sanders said that Porter Resigned but would stay on awhile. Kelly said he thought the porter issue had been taken care of and didnt know that porter was still in the building. Found out he was. He was telling his colleagues that he was thinking this idea of resigning and kelly was not aware of the photograph of his first wife with the black eye. Kelly explains that when he saw that picture of her with the black eye, everything changed. Thats when he put out the statement that there is no room for Domestic Abuse and that porter has left the white house. Kelly insists that he and the white house counsel, don mcgann had no idea that the fbi had handed over a partial file on rob porter to the White House Personnel Security Office in march and in june and he insists
the first he heard about this was the afternoon of february 6. He did said we didnt cover ourselves in glory in dealing with this issue, shep. Shepard the white house got told about this twice last year. The Chief Counsel and chief of staff didnt know until february. Thats what john kelly said today. He said they were unaware that the information had gone to the personnel security office, which is i dont want to say its an Autonomous Office but its compartmentalized and staffed by career professionals. What is interesting is that no red flags were raised about porter. But there were red flags that were raised about other employees. One, an employee who had a lot of Credit Card Debt and that could make somebody susceptible to influence from outside organizations or nations. And another person that said that they wouldnt get their
clearance. That person was let go, yet no red flags about porter even though the fbi had that photo that we showed you of his first wife in january of 2017. Shepard john, the justice departments number 2 official is defending Jeff Sessions after donald trump attacked sessions on twitter. Rod rosenstein will show that the doj acted with integrity under his watch. Were watching now as the president is landing down in florida. Arriving there for the long weekend. John roberts at the white house. On this matter, the criticism of Jeff Sessions is about one thing, isnt it . The one thing . Yeah, the one thing is that every time the president sees Jeff Sessions, he sees the word recusal. Because of the fact that sessions recused himself from the russia investigation which led to the appointment of the
special counsel and on and on. And Rod Rosenstein speaking to the American Bar Association defending the leadership saying he and Jeff Sessions are bound and theyre determined to not repeat the mistakes of past leaders at the doj. Listen here to what he said. I can assure you the Department Leadership team appointed by President Trump is very strong on ethics and professionalism. The team that was appointed by President Trump very strong on ethics and professionalism. Lets see. The president is upset at Jeff Sessions. Again, every time he sees him he sees the word recusal pasted on his forehead. He doesnt like Rod Rosenstein and doesnt like the overseeing of the mueller investigation. The best job security that Jeff Sessions has right now is Rod Rosenstein. If Jeff Sessions were to be fired or quit, Rod Rosenstein would become the acting attorney general. You can bet, shep, that
democrats would slowwalk any attempt by the president to nominate somebody to replace Jeff Sessions and install his own Political Leadership at the department of justice. If the democrats got rosenstein as attorney general, even acting, they would have a field day. Shepard slow walk like the beltway in morning rush. Worse than that. Shepard hardly moving at all. John roberts, youre the man. More on the ups Tariffs Announcements and concerns over a trade war. Lets go to gerri willis. We dont know what will happen. We know what the president said. Sometimes very often history will show and the facts are that the president says something and then none of it ever happens. Thats possible, too. Let me tell you what is true this afternoon, the dow is down about 230 points. As i see it here on my thompson financial. There it is, 226. Thats a real thing. Fears of this tariff, the companies are just were getting all kinds of statements. Heres what toyota had to say about its company and its
operations in the auto industry. The administrations decision to impose substantial steel and aluminum tariffs will adversely impact automakers, the Supplier Community and consumers as this would substantially raise costs. Theyre not the only ones complaining. Electrolux. They make vacuum cleaners. They were going to build a plant in tennessee. Theyre not going to do that anymore. Oil pipeline makers, home builders, all of these folks complaining about the possibility of higher prices in their businesses. Just to give you one interesting fact to take away. Talk about will this help workers. Theres 140,000 people, just 140,000 people that work in the Steel Industry. How many people work in industries that you feel as an input and could be impacted by higher prices . 6. 5 million. Is this going to be a help for
workers or maybe not . A help for a few workers. Heres the other thing. If they put this tax on from imports, the cost of the things that we buy goes up. But theres a tax. Who gets that tax . Where does that tariff money go . What you want to know, who pays the tax, return . You and i do. Shepard yeah. But who gets it . Did he say . He hasnt said. I thought about this. I keep thinking it must be the u. S. Treasury department that gets the other taxes. Wouldnt that make sense . I think it would. Since i dont know, i cant say. It would be interesting to know. Speculation. Shepard who doesnt i know im going to pay a piece of this. Shepard if it actually happens though. Right. We dont know. We dont know. Its a question. Shepard well know when we know. Meantime, watch your 401 k . Shepard have a great weekend. More ahead on the wild week in washington and john kelly defending the handling of the rob porter investigation. Remember what they said. Yes, the white house knew. They got told twice last year. Im the chief of staff and thats the main later. We didnt know. Till there was a picture in the daily mail. First, we head to vermont. And go to our coffee shop. And meet dave. Hey. Why is dark magic so spellbindingly good, he asks . Let me show you. Lets go. So we climb. Hike. See a bear. Woah. Reach the top. Dave says dark magic is a bold blend of coffee with rich flavors of uganda, sumatra, colombia and other parts of south america. Like these mountains, each amazing on their own. But together . Magical. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters packed with goodness. President s latest twitter attack and more on john kelly defending his top aide. Kelly brought it up again today. Lets get to the Fox News Sunday chris wallace. Wisdom with wallace. Good afternoon. I love this segment. How are you, shep . Shepard how is every little thing down there. Lets go through it. Hope hicks has quit. The person closest to the president among his white house staff. The president hates his attorney general. Gary cohn, the National Economic adviser is threatening to quit because of the fact that the president announced his tariffs over his objection. The president wants to oust his National Security adviser. Somebody is trying to get jared kushner. Theres a report in the New York Times today the president is telling kushner that hes
sorry hes taken all these slings and arrows while hes supposedly at the same time taking to john kelly Help Me Get Kushner and ivanka out of here. Other than, its puppies and unicorns here in d. C. A nice clip for whoever picks up clips. Ive been talking to people that say friends of the president , people that respect, admire him, want him to succeed and there to help him are concerned now in a real way. Take a look at just this decision on tariffs yesterday, which we can see the markets have not agreed with. Theres a market for them, a very strong against against them. What is really shocking though is just the process of the decision to announce the policy. He read the National Economic adviser and the chief of staff that thought nothing was going to happen yesterday. The president decides hes going
to have a Listening Session with top people from the steel and Aluminum Manufacturing companies. We know where they stand. He calls a presser supposed to be off camera. One of the reasons the staff didnt want it on camera because they were worry about what he would do. And then sure enough, he announced a 25 tariff on steel and 10 tariff on aluminum without having any paperwork being done. Reminds me of The Travel Ban the first week of the administration. Verdict now, trial tomorrow. So widespread disarray. Is he going to include canada and all these products. Theres the president and mrs. Trump. But we dont know because the president jumped his gun on the entire staff by announcing it yesterday. Shepard all of this fresh on the memory is his roundtable on
guns. The president of the United States said if you see somebody that doesnt seem right, take their guns and worry about the consequences later. Go to the court later. That is as unamerican as imaginable. Is there anyone there that is able to discern what has happened and why these things keep coming out in these ways that really end up getting walked back and bordering on none nonsensical. I agree theres disarray in the staff. Some say rob porter. He made the trains run on time and youve had a succession of cases now where and guns and tariff this week are both really very strong examples where the president seems to be talking before policy has been firmly made and all the is have been
dotted and the ts have been crossed. I mean, for instance, in that Listening Session on wednesday, you had the president mocking some republicans saying you guys are scared of the nra. You shouldnt be so scared of them. Then he has a meeting last night with the nra and then afterwards hes pull back for some of the things hes talking about. Seems to be that he gets fed up with his staff managing him and control him and he acts out. When he does, hold on to your hats. Shepard its not as if that gun example that the president gave is within bounds of the constitution. Its not. So i just wonder, is there someone giving him bad advice or are these just his thoughts . I think in that particular case, that seems to have been his thought. What people are talking about, what has been a big part of this
discussion, ever since this shooting at parkland has been the idea of red flag laws, which they have in about a half dozen states and the idea is if youre a family member, an authority and you think somebody hasnt committed a crime but you think they would be a danger to themselves or others, you go to a court and have due process and you can take away the weapons they have an prevent them from getting any more weapons. That was being discussed wednesday. The president wanted to up the ante and say why wait for due process . Seize the gun first and then do due process. It takes too long. That seemed to be going after the strongest Gun Control Advocates in the room. Shepard who replaces hope hicks . Is there a short list in your mind . Well, theres names and Capable Communications people. But theres one thing to replace hope hicks as the communications director. That will be done easily. Theres another thing to replace hope hicks in terms of the way
the white house operates that may be impossible to do. She was an extremely trusted aide. One of the things with this president , theres very few people with him bucking out at aides trying to control them. Very few people that seem to be able to persuade him to give something a second thought. She couldnt do that all the time, but she was as good as that as anybody could be because of his extreme trust in her. Thats going to be very hard to replace. Shepard fired up for sunday, chris. Yeah. Shepard i saw your promo from dollywood. You want to say it . Shepard i thought it was the greatest thing. You looked like grinning ear to ear meeting dolly parton. Shepard have you ever her . No. Shepard shes awesome. She is awesome. Im embarrassed looking at that picture. I was delighted to be in her presence. We were at the Library Of Congress of all places because she has got this fabulous program, which i must say im
dumb enough, called imagination library. For the last 24 years, shes been giving out a million books a month to kids around the country and she was at the Library Of Congress donating her 100th millionth book. Well also talk about gun control and tariffs and all of that. Yes, dolly parton. She even sings for us. Shepard cant wait i wish we could still go to dollywood. Who give against way A Hundred Million books . Astounding. What a great thing. She is whatever you think about her, thats who she is. Shepard its a lot to be said for that. Same with you, chris wallace. See you this sunday. The news continues after this. Smile dad. I take medication for high Blood Pressure and cholesterol. But they might not be enough to protect my heart. Adding Bayer Aspirin can further reduce the risk of another heart attack. Because my Second Chance matters. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. You or joints. Something for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. How much money do you think youll need in retirement . Then we found out how many years that money would last them. How long do you think well keep oooooohhh you stopped youre gonna leave me back here at year 9 . How did th