Certainty and predictability. Thats the best way to make business decisions. Having the president make this controversial announcement, then indicate right away they may or may not be committed to it is not the kind of certainty Corporate America is looking for. Those are some of the broader impacts. Whats the potential impact inside his own administration, and for his own Press Secretary who has to go out and defend a policy shes not sure is etched in stone . Obviously shes in an impossible situation. I think what it does inside the white house, its corrosive to any effort to put in place a process to make decisions. Because people know that the Decision Making process is precarious at best, that theres never a final decision thats made and theres an opportunity to influence it at a variety of junctures or to go in and intervene with the president at the last minute. It means theres no coherent process in place and the result is you have decisions that are halfbaked at best. This has a negative impact on the markets and negative impact on the broader economy and it also encourages people who would otherwise be supportive of the
president , people who a month or two ago were praising the republicans and the president for signing this Tax Reform Bill into law, are now trashing the president because of this illadvised trade policy. One of the people who is infuriated by this, as you and i have been talking to our sources about, gary cohn. Jim cramer said earlier today if gary cohn walked away, that would have an even larger impact on the markets than the president s sort of announcement we saw yesterday. There are reports that he is thinking about it, he threatened to resign if the president went through with this. Hes done this in the past. Listen, that is also true. That is certainly fair. I hope he doesnt do it when the markets are open. Wall street does watch what gary cohn does, whether or not you like it. I think back to moments, for example, in the fall before tax reform was done or right after tax reform was done and i saw cohn, is he leaving yet, whats going on, whats happening. All the reporting was he was
supposed to be gone well before this time. Hes stuck around. The tax cut plan was a big boost for him in the internal political world but he and Steve Mnuchin cant be happy about this. They are getting a lot of heat from Business Buddies that they left behind in new york and i think that you will see this play out. Im curious when the president s at maralago he will be talking to those friends of his down there. Lot of feedback, no doubt. They have a lot of money in the stock market. What will that influence be. Again, we started off talking about the chaos inside the white house, the fact that hope hicks, who is considered his gatekeeper, really, is leaving. We woke up this morning to these tweets, made a number of people giggle but theres a serious side to this. Let me remind everyone, 5 30 a. M. The president tweeted this. Alex baldwin, who is dieing, Mediocre Career was saved by his impersonation of me on snl. Now saying playing djt was agony for him. Alex, it was also agony for
there are plenty of people under fire in his administration, they would love a supportive tweet from him. There are plenty of policies hes issued in the last couple days in need of public defense. Thats not what hes focused on. Final point not exactly in a way particularly substantive. Not in a way i think many people will find all that persuasive. Final point before i let you guys go. Josh, you have pointed to the fact that in addition to all of this, its not just the staff inside the west wing. Its also his Cabinet Secretaries who have come under scrutiny for questions about ethics, whether it be pruitt or ben carson, who Just Announced hes returning a new furniture hopefully they kept the receipt. Hopefully they did. What do you make of that . How does this fit into the broader discussion . One of the things thats so interesting about this, i think theres a lack of appreciation for how this kind of culture really does start at the top. In some ways, people who have been looking at this situation with regard to the cabinet
secretaries have indicated that maybe David Shulkin is not a particularly good example for democrats to cite because mr. Shulkin had obviously served at the va under president obama. Hes an obama holdover. The fact of the matter is, actually David Shulkin is the perfect example, because there is no way that David Shulkin would have tried to take his wife on a tenday european vacation on the Taxpayer Dime if president obama were sitting in the oval office. He never would have sought permission to do that and if he had he would have been turned down. If he tried to do it without permission he would have been gone by the end of the day. It sets the stage for another very busy friday. Hallie jackson, josh earnest, thank you. Great to have you here. Great conversation. New york republican congressman peter king serves on the Financial Services and intelligence committee, and he joins me now. Congressman, thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Thank you, kristen. My pleasure. I have to start with this news that we have been talking about, the president s announcement yesterday on tariffs. House Speaker Paul Ryan warned through his spokesman yesterday about the quote unquote, unintended consequences. Are you concerned about unintended consequences, that it could ultimately hurt industries in this country . Yeah, basically i am not a protectionist and i believe that the small amount of Steel Workers and aluminum workers its going to help, is going to be more than offset by damage done to the other industries that rely on steel. No, i think it will increase prices, hurt jobs but again, this is what the president has been saying for 30 years. Thats one area where i have not agreed with President Trump on. Thats on the issue of tariffs. You think it could potentially spark a trade war, congressman . Would you go that far . Well, it can, but again, somehow these things do manage to resolve themselves. Other president s have raised tariffs and it sort of dies down after awhile. I think this dont ask me exactly how, but im sure there will be some ways made to cushion this and again, theres still time and also, congress may take some action. Again, i dont support it. I never have. I think that this is the economy was going along well. I voted against the tax cut because of an impact, it was definitely helping the country overall. I thought it was a plus for the economy. This could unfortunately take us in the opposite direction. Congressman, very quickly before we move to other topics, you say theres still time. Have you reached out to the president , lobbied him to change his mind before next week, when he says this is ultimately coming out . No. This came last night but i do intend to reach out to other members of congress today. Okay. I want to turn now to what has been described as the chaos inside the white house this week. We know that the president is losing the person whos been described as his gate keeper, hope hicks. You were in a Committee Meeting with her the day before she announced her resignation, that day she acknowledged she did tell some white lies for President Trump. You have downplayed that. You said hey, she was talking about business meetings, it wasnt a big deal. But how did she seem to you that day . Did you have any indication that announcement was coming . No. I think she did an excellent job of testifying. She was being vilified, she was being attacked. She never lost her composure. She was articulate. She answered every question about the campaign. The fact that at the end of the day, to me it shows how weak the democratic case was, after nine hours of testimony, attempting to find russian collusion, all they could get was hope hicks being as honest as anyone could be, as anyone should be, when they asked her have you ever told a lie, she said only a white lie, for instance, saying donald trump was not in when people maybe wanted to meet with him but she made a point of saying that her testimony was entirely truthful. Congressman, let me press you on that point. Let me press you on that point, though, because critics have said yes, she did use the term white lie. She couched it. But she really becomes the first trump official to acknowledge saying something thats not the truth. Thats significant politically potentially for the president , is it not . Politically, maybe politically but it was a stupid question. If i asked you, if you asked me,
if you asked anybody in the world have you ever told a white lie, of course you have. Its a matter of courtesy. You are going to tell someone he doesnt want to meet with you because youre a jerk, you say no, hes busy right now. Thats what she was talking about. The Fact Swalwell and schiff had to rely on that shows how does it take on new meaning, though, when you serve the president of the United States . First, her testimony did not involve, that part of the testimony did not involve when he was president. To be honest with you, if somebody calls the white house, i have called the white house a number of times. Not President Trump, by the way. Certainly other president s. They say no, hes busy right now. For all i know, hes not. He doesnt want to talk to me. I dont take that as a personal offense. When she says she never told untruth in anything involving policy, involving the investigation, involving russia, to me theres nobody in the world, anyone who doesnt tell a white lie at some time, who denies that is not being truthful. That shows how honest she was
being. Couple more topics. Jared kushners Security Clearance was downgraded this week. There have been mounting questions about some of his Business Dealings while he was in the white house. Are you concerned that hes becoming a liability not only to this president but potentially to National Security, congressman . Not to National Security but again, we have to see what comes out. My dealings with jared kushner, hes been totally honest, totally above board and anyone in todays world, when you have complicated international dealings, its going to take awhile to get a Security Check because theres so many different involvements you could have, all of which probably are entirely legal. But again, when you have International Financial commitments and are dealing with foreign countries, thats going to be an issue i think more and more as we have a worldwide economy. And just finally, i want to ask you about the other big issue that we have been talking about for the past several weeks, and this week again, the issue of gun reform. The president had that
remarkable hourlong open session televised live, Bargaining Meeting with a Bipartisan Group of law makers. A lot of people thought he was actually getting on board with a number of the policies that democrats embrace like universal background checks, like increasing the age to purchase some weapons, and then last night, in a closed door meeting, he met with the nra and the two seem to be on the same page. So what do you make of that, where do you think the president stands now . Well, i give the president credit for having these open discussions. I actually am one of those who does support universal background checks. I do support a ban on assault weapons. And i think the fact the president opened these issues up, raising the age to 21 and also the fact he did put the nra on the defensive a bit, this is more than president obama did. Hopefully it will amount to something. Do you think President Trump is really prepared to take on the nra, congressman . You have to see. He certainly did the other day at the open meeting he had. He met with the nra last night. The nra, like it or not, is a player in all this, and having said that, i think hes gone further than anyone expected him to go and certainly further than most republicans are willing to go right now. Congressman peter king, always enjoy our conversations and appreciate your joining us. Thank you so much. Coming up, job insecurity. Where National Security adviser h. R. Mcmaster may be the next Top White House staffer pushed out the door. Well take a look at that. Hey, sir losealot thou hast the patchy beard of a prepubescent squire thy armor was forged by a feeblefingered peasant woman. Your mom as long as hecklers love to heckle, you can count on geico saving folks money. Boring fifteen minutes could save you
fifteen percent or more on car insurance. 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. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Another possible staff shakeup at the white house. Nbc news has learned that National Security adviser h. R. Mcmaster could be replaced as early as the end of this month, but this morning, White House Press secretary Sarah Sanders disputed there was any plan for mcmasters departure. Joining me now, nbc news senior National Security analyst, michael lighter, former director of the National Counterterrorism center. Thank you so much. Great to see you. Great to be here. Lets just talk about this and the implications of it. We know that there have been some tensions simmering between mcmaster and the president , some of them have spilled out into the public. What is the significance of a potential departure and why now, do you think . Its really huge. The only position that this is sort of subservient to is the Chief Of Staff. The National Security adviser in my experience, thats one of the people who really can and has to walk into the oval office at any time and say mr. President , we have an issue, whether its north korea, iran. You have to have a degree of trust between that National Security adviser and the president. You also need to have that trust between the National Security adviser and the key members of the National Security council, and thats jim mattis of defense, Rex Tillerson at state. Thats where that trust has to be. Breaking that up can be very hard. Its our understanding this move is actually being orchestrated by the Chief Of Staff and defense secretary james mattis. Significant, or is that what you would expect in this type of departure . It varies. Sometimes its just the relationship with the president thats broken. In this case, there has always been a bit of tension between defense department, State Department and h. R. Mcmaster. H. R. Has a very different style than jim mattis and Rex Tillerson. As key members of that National Security cabinet, they have to trust that the National Security adviser is being an honest
broker with whom they can work. Im not sure that that degree of trust has always existed. Let me remind our viewers of some of the tensions that really spilled out into the public. This was at the Munich Security Conference when h. R. Mcmaster called the russian cybermeddling, quote unquote, incontrovertible. The president fired back with this tweet. General mcmaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the russians and that the only collusion was between russia and crooked h. The dnc and the dems, remember the dirty dossier, uranium speeches, emails and the podesta company. How tough is it when you Say Something publicly and the president calls you out like that . This piece on russia makes it frankly almost impossible to be an honest broker as National Security adviser. The fact is the entire National Security apparatus inside the government, we saw it when you had the director of the cia and
director of National Intelligence saying russia is doing this. When you have an occupant in the oval office that refuses to admit that and see it, its really hard to be his adviser. I have had so many conversations about the fact the messages on russia coming out of the white house and other branches of government are so different. That undercuts their efforts. Let me ask about the other big piece of news. Jared kushner has come under a microscope this week. His Security Clearance has been significantly downgraded. We learned theres a lot of scrutiny over some companies profiting after they actually had meetings at t