Virginia Lieutenant Governor ralph northam. Democratic candidate for governor. Well be watching next week to see how you do. Thank you for joining us, sir. Thanks so much, katy. That wraps things up for me this hour. Ali velshi, my friend it is friday. Are you done . The president is overseas. Right. I think were going to have a quiet weekend. I dont know. Just say it. Might have a quiet weekend. Theres always one. I have property to sell you in florida. Katy have a great afternoon and i hope you do have a quiet weekend. I hope we all do. Im ali val shi, as katy alluded to, President Trump will arrive in hawaii, the one stop before he kicks off his highstakes visit to asia. The longer overseas trip of any president since 1991, but the president is traveling with some hefty political baggage as the russia investigation looms. Mr. President , do you remember George Papadopolos during that march meeting i dont remember much about that meeting. It was a very unimportant meeting that took place long
time i dont remember much about it. The russia investigation is not the only conflict traveling with the president. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson on the took, joining trump in asia, which could make for an awkward trip since the president said this last night. Rex is in there working hard, doing his best, doing the best he can. Hell be with you the duration . I dont know whos going to be, well see. Your state Department Still has unfilled positions. I told my people, where you dont need to fill slots dont fill them, but we have some people that im not happy with. We have reporters covering all angles of this. Well Kelly Odonnell live in hawaii, and start with you, kelly. Whats going on in hawaii, of course, the least contentious part of this trip. Reporter well, i guess im obligated to say, aloha, ali. You are. Reporter indulge me for a moment. Yes. The president will be here in a matter of hours and this is both a refueling stop and an
appropriate way for the president to begin an asia trip. To come to the Pacific Command where u. S. Military operates from, and, of course, we had pay respects at the uss arizona sight of pearl harbor. For President Trump, this is a way to acclimate and to begin the conversations that will be so critical in the larger scope of the trip over the next couple of weeks, because hell be able to meet with military leaders directly responsible for the kind of security thats required for our partners, the other nations the president will visit and certainly protecting the United States, and it gives the president a chance to have a more sentimental moment during his trip where hes able to pay those respects to the uss arizona. This is, of course, the first time he is here at president. It is a very different experience for hawaii, which has been accustomed to president barack obama, a native son of hawaii. So there is certainly some expected protests here as well. We saw how the president was
talking about secretary of state tillerson who will be part of the trip in asia, and has been sort of the diplomatic front man for the president. On some of these really difficult issues, namely north korea. There will also be talks about trade and the partnerships with china, with japan, with south korea. The two summits vietnam and manila, but for President Trump, hes also making things somewhat difficult arguably for secretary of state tillerson, talking about the fact that he may not need to fill all the positions at the State Department. Something that many who watch the State Department say is not the best practice, but the president says as a businessman, not filling every slot in an organization is something he thinks is valuable and can be helpful. Heres how the president described the future of secretary tillerson when asked how long hell be around. We dont need all the people that they you know, dont forget, im a business person. I tell my people, where you dont need to fill slots dont
fill them, but we have some people that im not happy with there. But assistant secretary of state, not getting rid of that position . Let me tell you, the one that matters is me. Im the only one that matters. When it comes to it, thats what the policy is going to be. Reporter the only one that matters. That will be a quote that will linger over this trip. Its also difficult for president s to ever predict how long any Senior Member of their cabinet stay on, but typically you would expect more confidence shown in someone with the prominent role of secretary of state. Especially on the eve of a trip with so much at stake. Ali . All right. Let me bring hans into this. As kelly outlined, incredible diplomatic implications and big trade implications. A lot of ceos on the president with this trip, but military implications as well as things ratchet up with north korea. Tell us about whats at stake . Reporter in general you see from the administration a focus
on the diplomaticled effort in terms of north korea and hot rhetoric from the president as assets are moved into the region. Just the other night, b1 lancers left guam. A strong reaction from north koreans on that. In general when the u. S. Does a lot of these trainings and exercises they want to stress the Tripar Tide Nature to say japan involved and south korea involved. Where the president ing first two stops . Japan and then south korea. I think, ali, yesterday when we heard from mc345master, we hear timeline. Give the dip marry push and every time secretary mattis talks he makes sure its a diplomaticled effort. And attaches a timeline. A couple months. Give diplomacy, the sanctions, pressure. Thanks very much. Hans nichols at the pentagon. Kelly odonnell in honolulu. Well be back with you as we follow this trip. Former acting Attorney General sally yates answered
questions from members of the House Intelligence Committee today for about three hours. According to florida congressman Tom Rooney Yates was asked about collusion and whether she leaked classified information about Michael Flynns ongoing foreign ties to the press. But its the march 2016 meeting, this one, attended by President Trump and Jeff Sessions and George Papadopolos thats making headlines. Like this headline from the New York Times. Trump and sessions denied knowing about russian contacts. Records suggest otherwise. Joining me now, one of those reporters from the New York Times. Hes an msnbc contributor and contributed to that story. Matt, quite simply, there are two narratives here. One is that both the president and Jeff Sessions said clearly on numerous occasions they had no contact with anybody who knew anything about russia, and both of them were in that meeting where were now getting more and more information. The concept, not just of russia, but of George Papadopoulos setting up a meeting with russians and the campaign was brought up. Yes. Two narratives and bob mueller puts documents on the Public Record in court along with some documents that George Papadopoulos, that aide, attested to under oath that said actually the narrative is, i did have russian contacts. I was pushing for a russian meeting and we know from Court Records and from interviews of people in that meeting that he was touting those contacts in front of Jeff Sessions. In front of, at the time, candidate donald trump, saying i can set up a meeting. Get a meeting with you, donald trump and with high russian official. When donald trump stands up earlier in the year as the newly swornin president and says nobody i know was in touch with russians. Jeff sessions go to the senate, i dont know anybody in touch with russians those are flatly at odds. From the story that youve written it says trump and sessions denied knowing about russian contacts. Mr. Gordon, j. B. Gordon, no one
should talk about it because mr. Sessions thought it was a bad idea and did not want it associated with the campaign. Today, just today once again after calling papadopoulos a lowlevel guy, lowlevel volunteer and trump associate referring to as the coffee boy, donald trump said i dont remember much about the meeting because it was an unimportant meeting. I cannot stop but go back to watergate and references to the burglary being a thirdrate burglary. At some point it starts to catch up to you, when you say it was unimportant, nothing discussed and drip, drip, we find out russia was discussed, a National Security meeting with a National Security adviser meeting team the president himself disclosed to reporters. Frankly with President Trump and his campaign, the problem, they keep saying things that turn out not to be true. The problem is actually not that George Papadopoulos said i can
set up a meeting. Theres nothing illegal about that. Youre allowed to do that. Campaigns are ay lewed to meet with foreign leaders. Thats totally okay. The problem is weve heard the past year nobody was meeting with russians. And again and again and again and again and again we find out theres were more meetings and even George Papadopoulos lied about his contacts when approached by the fbi. So its not like we know theres a there there. We just know every time somebody is asked about it the story is changing. The fundamental question. Thank you for joining me. Coming up next, we are going to dig into the gop tax plan that calls for doing away with the estate tax, which the president call as burden on americans. The thing is, killing the socalled Death Tax Benefits only the wealthiest of the wealthy. Surprise, surprise. Happening right now in houston, looking at the victory parade for the World ChampionshipHouston Astros celebrating the teams first ever world series title. The Team Dedicated their
enterprises. So begin to make the merits whether or not we should tax someones assets after death, i suspect my next guest will say we shouldnt do it anyway, but the president says this effects millions and millions of americans. It doesnt. 5,500 in 2017. 600 of which are farms and businesses, 80 are family businesses. Dont pretend it affects anyone other than a small group of the wealthiest americans in the United States. Two out of every 1,000. The estate tax is one small portion of the 400pluspage bill. Congressional republicans are hope it will be their first major legislative victory during President Trumps first year in office, but first i need to actually agree on the aspects of the plan. They need to. To bring unique perspective on this issue, heres the guy we want to talk to grover norquist. President and founder of americans for tax reform, and i would say the most prominent and
a confiscate everything over the problem with the all miv minimum tax. 100 . Not that it existed, but it kept grabbing lower and lower income americans . No. Its deliberately expanded when people want to do it. You suggest it only affects the people that pay it. The largest lobby in washington, d. C. , im in washington, d. C. , i look out the window and see the Life Insurance company is lobbyists. Who has killed and weakened every effort to get rid of the death tax . The Life Insurance lobby. Why . Because the kennedys insure around the death tax. If you buy hundreds of millions of dollars of Life Insurance, and you die, you get the 100 on the other side taxfree. Who gets rich . Life insurance companies. You wont argue about the lobbyist about to sink their teeth in this bim and go everywhere . We dont agree on a ton on taxes but agree on that. A lot of the nonsense in the tax code is because of lobbyists. That said no. But many, many people are
affected by the death tax, because not only does the Tax Foundation say its abouts 150,000 job loss to have the death tax in, people that insure around the misallocations of resources, the Tax FoundationConservatives Group that does calculations on what taxes do argues that it actually reduces total revenue of the government. A good thing, but it does so by contracting economic growth. I want to latch on to something you just said about jobs. Sure. You had an oped, that im putting up on the screen. You say the republican tax bill is an amazingly powerful job creation measure. You talked about the estate tax creating jobs. The president killing it. Right. But the, sorry. The removal of the estate tax created jobs. And the president keeps talking about this is a jobs act. Talk to me about this. Where do the jobs come from . Well, two things. Were now competing internationally with a 35 business tax on american
companies. Socialist china okay. Its 18. 6 , an effective rate. Not 35 . The effective rate Doesnt Matter. The marginal rate matters. You can drown walking across a river with an average depth of a foot. What matters is, the margin. On the next dollar earned, how much do you keep . How much gets taken away . All decisions are made on the margin. They even taught me that at harvard, for crying out loud. The margin matters. Not the average. So lets keep on going down this road. If the margin matters, we have a situation in the United States where corporate profitability is at record high. Stock prices at record highs. Capital basically free and available to companies. What will they do with it . You say matters, matters to whom . Shareholders . Two things. No. Of course, the person who wins the most out of the tax reform and Tax Reduction republicans put forward is the person who didnt have a job who got one. Talking about the Unemployment Rate going down. One of the reason theUnemployment Rate is down, people have been leaving the workforce. The Labor Force Participation rate fell last no. Not because of Corporate Tax policy at all. Several reasons. One is that people dont think their jobs that are matched for them. Yes, you do have Government Programs that make it difficult for some people to get certain jobs. But we have a very important project, and that is, we need to become more competitive internationally. There are 5 million americans who work overseas. We double tax those people. Many more earn ins should be working overseas, they count at American Jobs. I wish trump would talk about that. Hes talking about American Jobs you have to live, be in the country to have an american job. If youre an american working in london, thats an american job. Hearing this and dont disagree. Good. I still dont understand how the Corporate Tax cut either puts the 4,000 in everyones pocket or creates jobs. Youve asked people to sign pledges. Weve talked many times about the holistic nature of tax cuts. For people to live in hightax states, the inability to duct the state and local taxes off your federal taxes is going to mean for middle class workers in california, in connecticut, in new york and new jersey, for many of them a net increase in their taxes. Why do you support that . First of all, it wont for many of them deal with middle income people having tax increases. You will have people paying a 13 rate, top rate in california, will have to go to the governor of california and tell him to stop being an incompetent idiot and get that rate down to a normal level. Telling you its a tax increase is my point. Not because we cant do middle income people in california do not pay 13 . Thats what it is in the Silicon Valley thing. Its offset doesnt make up for me. You agree some people in, including ohio, in connecticut, in new york, in new jersey and california, who will pay more as a result of getting rid of the state and local Tax Deduction . No. Two things. One, getting rid of the income Tax Deduction, a factor for higher income people and getting rid of the death tax, ep hads out. That will irver, ever, ever affect the middle class person. Youre switching. Talked about the high rates of income taxes. Hit higher income people in connecticut and new jersey. You pay state tax. State income tax. Not only the rich pay it. Right. In terms of its a Percentage First of all, the first 24,000, if youre a married couple, the first 24,000 of your income is taxfree. You dont have to itemize deductions which is your income tax, Property Taxes and things like that, and or contributions to churches. And thats very little money. For middle class people they generally earn more than 25,000. It may become useful for them they dont have that much and only 5 of americans will itemize. You can drown in a river thats an average of two inches deep. The point, the only 5 a lot live in new y