Legislation. This morning, trump tweeting out republicans should stop wasting their time on immigration until after we elect more senators, congressmen and women in november. Dems are just playing games. Have no intention of doing anything to solve this decades old problem. We can pass great legislation after the red wave. Just two days ago the president reportedly promised House Republicans that he would support them 100 and vowed he would not leave them in the wilderness. But the president s tweet risked stalling what little momentum that republican legislation had. It is also a dramatic reversal for an administration that spent days demanding action from congress. Congress and the courts created this problem, and congress alone can fix it. The president isnt trying to kick the can down the road. Hes actually trying to work with congress. Were going to be signing an executive order. Were also going to count on congress. We look forward to, you know, congress playing a big role in this. There are a lot of things that need to be done, can only be done by congress. Were also wanting to go through congress. We will be going through congress. Amid the political back and forth, the fate of roughly 2,300 children lost in a confusing labyrinth of bureaucracy remains unknown. On thursday the pentagon announced military bases were being prepared to shelter as many as 20,000 Migrant Children. Time magazine reported the navy is preparing plans to construct, quote, temporary and austere detention camps for tens of thousands of immigrants. Politically this is adding up to be one of the toughest weeks of trumps presidency. Today he shared the stage with families of loved ones who lost children to crimes. You never hear this side. These are the families the media ignores. They dont talk about them. Very unfair. For more, im joined by yamiche alcindor, White House Correspondent for the pbs news hour and an msnbc political analyst, brett stephens, columnist for the New York Times and a political contributor. Raul reyes. Yamiche, let me start with you. The politics of immigration, and the messages hes sending. You had two bills in the house the republicans were working on. One, a hardline bill, one designed to get more moderate support. The president this week was supposed to go there and rally support for the moderate bill. Instead he ends up putting out that message saying, just dont do anything. We need more votes. Then supposedly after that, he called and tried to backtrack a little bit. At the end of the week, is there any push from the white house for any specific legislation on immigration . Well, i talked to a white house source only a few minutes ago, and that person told me that the president still supports either one of the bills that the house is considering. That person said if they pass the hardline bill, if they pass the compromise bill, the president will sign it. The problem is that the president doesnt believe that the bill can pass the senate. They are complaining that republicans have such a slim majority in the senate that they dont feel like they can get that bill through, which means it cant actually get to the president s desk. The president then, because hes so frustrated, hes now tweeting out this is a waste of time. Hes trying to make it a midterm issue. Im told that the president , if the president wants, if these bills next week fail, he wants a bill specifically on the floor on the settlement, that court case that said it tristrictly limits how immigrant families and imMigrant Children in particular are housed much the. Republican party itself, the republicans in the house cannot seem to get on the same page on this. Youve got this hardline measure and this compromise measure. The difference between them, in this compromise measure, they got the wall. They got family detention, and they got the path to citizenship for the dreamers. The hardline measure doesnt have citizenship for the dreamers and does have reductions in Legal Immigration numbers. Can you see a way the compromise measure is terrible because it takes the United States in precisely the wrong direction. We have an immigration problem in this country. We dont have enough immigrants. We need a lot more immigration if were going to continue to fund entitlements, if were going to continue to have a vibrant, diverse, effective workforce, if were not going to have japanesestyle stagnation. Whats the market for that message in the Republican Party . You know, as a matter, at least until a few years ago, back when i actually affiliated with republicans, there were a lot of republicans who understood the basic free market case. Leaving aside the case for decency, the case for american values, the free market case for having a strong proimmigration policy. You will find there are many republicans in states that depend on immigration and do not want this kind of hardline position that has overtaken fox news and the other organs of conservative nativism and extrem extremism. You have a Republican Party riven on its own ideology and its own incompetence, unable to actually arrive at what ought to be the proper conservative free market position, which is a proimmigration position. Did it feel to you like the base of the Republican Party, the voters, the folks who picked trump in these primaries, is it even plausible theyre going to land where youre talking about on this . Look, i think there is i dont want to say a silent majority, but there is perhaps a great many middle of the road conservatives who understand even if they want, you know, a more sort of legalized system, a more regular system, that immigration is fundamentally good for this country. My mother was a displaced person, a refugee to this country. My father came from mexico, that represents millions of people who understand that. But they dont really have a voice in todays republican or conservative establishment because the moment you try to make the case for immigration, youve got some jerk yelling amnesty and open borders and globalists. The president s tweet by the way also exacerbated challenges faced by republicans on the hill. Lets take a look at the dramatically different reactions to what he had to say. The president s saying lets have a red wave. Get more people elected to congress who want to vote yes on a solution. The longer this issue festers, i think it will have the reverse effect. Rather than create a red wave, it may very well be part of what creates a blue wave. On the house floor, democrat ted lieu played an audio recording of crying Migrant Children to bring attention to the children still separated from their families. Lets watch. [ child crying ] the gentleman will suspend. For what reason, madam speaker . The gentleman is in breach of quorum. Cite the rule, madam speaker. Rule 17 of the house. Theres no rule that says i cant play sounds. The gentleman will suspend. Why are you trying to prevent the American People from listening to what it sounds like in a defense facility . These are kids at a defense facility. Why do you not let the American People hear what they are saying . Raul, looking at the politics of this on capitol hill right now, what you see ted lieu talking about right there, the politics of family separation, every poll ive seen are toxic for republicans. Right. You find a split in the Republican Party, and you go outside the Republican Party, and you find everybody else is looking at this largely and saying, we want no part of this. Right. So on that front, it seems clear where the politics fall. Im wondering when you get beyond that question, say, okay, what do you now do with migrant families who are caught going across the border without documentation . What then because the republican compromise approach would call for what theyre trying to put in this law would call for what theyre calling their compromise. Im wondering do you see grounds for compromise when they say, okay, keep Families Together in detention while the adults await processing, while the adults await trial. Keep the family together, but theyre in detention. Is there going to be any buyin on that from democrats . I do not think so because i think democrats and many independents would regard that type of approach as giving in to, say, a hostage situation where the president is using these young people in the migrant camps, these families, as bargaining chips to achieve what he wants. One thing thats very problematic when were talking about this situation is we have this certain segment of the electorate, the majority of the republicans who have bought into the completely false notion that we have a socalled ilLegal Immigration crisis, which we do not. The president himself mentioned it. Its Something Like a 17year low. All of the metrics show that this is actually the best time for Immigration Reform. But the president has pushed this false narrative, and now we are at a place. This week is so unusual because of the president for once on immigration, on ilLegal Immigration, is very much on the defensive. And when you want to talk about policy and solutions, its very hard to compete against pictures, audiotapes, and these very disturbing images that are now out there. And wire onere only going to se now. I take your point. I agree on the action. We have these polls. This struck me this week, some of the polling this week. I want to run this by the panel. The question here, as we said, when you poll the family separation, extremely unpopular. But when you poll the underlying policy, the Trump Administration has this zero tolerance policy. When you ask in the poll, the idea of arresting and jailing and holding anybody until trial anybody crossing the border illegally, you get plurality support of that. The second question, okay, you got the families crossing illegally. What do you do . And that idea of family detention, you hold this is true among democrats and republicans. That has plurality support right now. I imagine, look, as this issue gets litigated in politics, these numbers will change. Right. Maybe the democratic position changes. I dont know. When i looked at that it surprised me and made me wonder, i think theyre very clear on family separation. Im not sure theyre as clear when you move away from that. In part because theres been such a poverty of alternatives. There is an issue of families coming over, sometimes at great risk to children, and people think, well, you know, there is a law, and theyre breaking it. And you have to do something about it. But where is the politician out there, first of all, saying, why dont we just open the doors much wider instead of building walls . Why are these people who are coming here just trying to build better lives for themselves and contribute to their communities here in the United States as well as back home . How are they in any sense a threat to us, and why arent we working cooperatively with our partners in mexico. George bush was doing that 10, 12 years ago to come up with solutions because we are not going to solve this problem longer term unless we turn latin america into an area of prosperity, not defendant tusti just in the last ten days, i think all sorts of people in the public have received this crash course in immigration law. What is the flores settlement. What is asylum . What legal rights do undocumented people have . That is only going to intensify as we go forward. We havent heard a lot of talk about solution because right now solutions which do exist such as investing in central america, because right now people are still processing all of this. I think the more coverage that goes on, people will realize when we talk about detention, that is jail. I think maybe if we have polls that say when they start bearing down and saying, do you support putting mothers and babies and 5 and 6yearolds in jail indefinitely, perhaps overturning a law that mandates that they receive recreation and that are allowed to, you know, to be in licensed shelters, when you start getting down into the details, i think the polling will start to change. And the great weakness for the republicans, especially right now at a time of record unemployment, where is the policy argument to support this other than being against amnesty and saying that they broke the law, which Asylum Seekers are not . Where is the policy they can back this up with . They dont have it. Thats their weakness, why they keep shifting explanations. Can i talk a little bit about the reporting that i did today . Please. I just want to jump in and just say theres also a poll from the Quinnipiac University that was released on monday that showed 55 of republicans actually supported separating families, and you think, okay, well, maybe they were asking the question differently. I went down to duluth, minnesota, where the president had a rally, and there were multiple people who told me these families deserve to be separated. These kids are being taught a lesson to break u. S. Laws and they need to be taught the lesson that they cant come here and that theyre not welcome here. There are people who also think that the president s narratives that there are families that are permanently, quote, unquote, separated because of crimes that illegal or undocumented immigrants have done to those families, kimmilling people, ev though thats a false claim, there are a lot of americans who agree with the president s stance, the original stance of actually putting these kids in detention camps. I think theres a large group of people who really believe that the president s narrative and love the fact that he was talking about separating them as a deterrent. Yeah, no, i think thats fascinating. I looked at it just from the standpoint of, you know, hey, yeah, a majority of republicans support it. But were in this area where it seems like every question is 90 of republicans over here, 90 of democrats over here. Here is one with only 55 of republicans. I think thats work keeping in mind that you still did have a significant chunk there of republicans saying theyre with the president on that even though the overall number was very slanted. Thank you. Appreciate the time from all of you. Coming up, a closer look at Donald Trumps cozy relationship with the National Enquirer. It seems trump and his team were working as shadow editors of sorts during the 2016 campaign, signing off on stories before they went to print, even pitching damages articles about rivals. Plus the president went on a tweet storm this morning, handing out ah flurry of endorsements. But tonight trumps message is getting stepped on. A blistering oped, a leading conservative says vote against the gop this november. And First Lady Melania Trump has dominated headlines this week. But today a different first lady is speaking out. Were going to hear from Michelle Obama later in the show. Finally, the hardball roundtable is going to be here to tell us three things we might not know. This is hardball, where the action is. Hey, no big deal. Youve got a good record and Liberty Mutual wont hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. You hear that, karen . Liberty mutual doesnt hold grudges. How mature of them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. Yeah butch growls at man . Hes looking at me right now, isnt he . Yup. butch barks at man butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. laughs vo you can never have too many faithful companions. Thats why i got a subaru crosstrek. Love is out there. Find it in a subaru crosstrek. So what do you call a roseanne show with no roseanne . Abc is going to call it the connors. Less than a month after the roseanne reboot was canceled due to a racist tweet from its star, abc now says that the spinoff is going to premiere this fall. Meanwhile, barrs exhusband tom arnold says hes teaming up with Donald Trumps former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen to, quote, take down trump. More on that straight ahead. Youre watching hardball. Or t . Its show of strength. Or its sign of intelligence . In crossing harsh terrain. Or breaking new ground . This is the time to get an exceptional offer on the mercedes of your midsummer dreams at the mercedesbenz summer event, going on now. Receive up to a 1,250 summer event bonus on select suvs. Mercedesbenz. 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The tabloid frequently attacked trumps opponents often with unverified headlines, many of them aimed at hillary clinton. The post also says trump was particularly interested in stories about clintons health. However, the enquirer is probably best remembered for printing unsubstantiated stories about ted cruz including allegations of marital infidelity and that cruzs father worked wit