Satisfy debate requirements before wednesdays deadline. Ill speak live with senator corey booker who made the cut, about his policies and his plan to gain ground. And we have a deal. The president s tariff threat against mexico is dropped days before they were set to kick in. What else is in the agreement and is it really a win for the white house. And why pride will not fly high at u. S. Embassies this month. But we begin this hour with two big numbers. The two big numbers to keep in mind this hour, 18 and 19. Some 18 days until the first debate in miami and a 19 whopping democratic hopeful are converging on iowa this weekend. Candidates are kicking up campaigns as debate deadlines loom and the race heats up. Later this hour ill be joined live by corey booker. But right now our Team Coverage begins with a group of folks who can break down this makeorbreak weekend for the candidates. First up our road warrior ali vitale in des moines. Reporter kendis, we just hearing from mayor Pete Buttigieg and this is a big weekend, 19 candidates and some speaking at pride events and others tomorrow will be up in cedar rapids at the democratic hall of fame event and with so many candidates here it is most important to hear from voters to i want to bring in one. His name is blake from iowa. And you just listened to mayor Pete Buttigieg speak. If he were elected he would be the first openly gay president of the United States. What does that mean to you . I grew up in steve king country, northwest iowa and part of the state where being gay was not okay growing up and i had an experience in the last year with my family where it was just a positive experience. So with someone on that platform i feel very seen and very heard and i feel like youth and people of all ages around the country, could be very impactful and meaningful. You hear that Representation Matters in a role of politics like he is and he talks about his coming out story. You have voting for Pete Buttigieg, will you caucus for him. Im decided, caucus time ill be for pete. What brought you to that decision . Coming into the 2020 cycle, it was really for me at the time it was just kind of bleak and i was like anybody who is not trump. But now ive seen the Democratic Candidates open up into this wide field of people with so many diverse skillsets. But aside from the fact that hes the first openly gay candidate and the other skills and assets that he brings to the table. Hes jut so articulate and ive seen this is my third time ive heard him speak and im surprised about something new he brings to the table every time. Reporter thank you so much, blake. Because, kendis, when i talk to voters, the thing front of mine is it is now a question of i want someone who can beat donald trump but with a field of 19 candidates, most of the voters in iowa and across the country, with 19 people they feel like they have a tragedy of riches to make this decision. And it is coming to the point where over the course of the past few days talking to strategists, this weekend is viewed as an infliction point. All of the candidates are coming here and ramping up ground game. So clearly Campaign Season is in full swing. Weve been out here for the past few months and now kicking into summer and voters are kicking in. And were so far out from the iowa caucuses, why is it this particular weekend and we have the pride festivals taking place and you have so many, 19 of them picking this weekend to be there . Reporter well it is pride but also the hall of fame event tomorrow night in cedar rapids because it is the first of what i would call the candidate cattle calls where all of them get into the same place and make their pitch to the same group of voters and it is important to be visible in places like iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, where all of the candidates are going to be competing when you have a field of 19, voter may feel it is a tragedy of riches but there is that tragedy portion because it is hard to separate the candidates from each other and as much as i think this weekend theyll make lgbtqcentric pitches, but i think this is the introductory period of the campaign and weve been tuned in and tracking this race of course, but voters are coming to this for the first time and in iowa it is a place where they like to hear from you early and often and the voertds the voters take the role of caucusing seriously and candidates need to come here ray lot over the course of the summer and ramp up ground game to make the best case for themselves for next winter. So you have this weekend and of course you have the state fair that is coming up in a couple of months and big weekends ahead there in iowa. Ali vitale there from des moines. Now to the upcoming debate. There are 24 candidates vying for 20 spots. So far 13 candidates are definitely in, hitting 1 in three separate polls. And raising money from 65,000 unique donors. I want to bring in my panel. Emily tish sussman and from the center for American Progress and Evan Mcmullin a former cia operative and 2016 independent president ial candidate. Welcome to both of you. Emily i ill start with you, the deadline to qualify for the first debate is on wednesday and only a handful of candidates will miss out. The dnc, as you know, has doubled the threshold for the third and fourth debate. Are these thresholds fair . Its good and its bad. It is good because as ali correctly reported there is riches. There are so many candidates in the race that people not just in early states but people around the country looking to try to vote with their donation are having trouble landing, deciding who to support and that is why people are supporting a lot of different candidates to see them in the race. The way that the reason that it is raising the debate threshold to so many donors may not be good is because campaigns need to very quickly rejigger their budgets. They need to put a lot of money very quick lie into making sure they are hitting that x number of donors to bring them in which is significantly more than they had before which means that that is taking money out of the budgets, they may have put into field. Speaking to people directly, increasing press operations. So by putting so much money into digital trying to acquire, ive heard quotes of up to 40 that campaigns may be spending just to acquire a 1 donor which does not really seem look, they could be putting this money into policy shops. That is a great place to put it. But if they dont make the debate, it is an indication theyre not a serious candidate. They have to. And evan, i should point out you ran during 2016 as an independent but it was a crowded field on the republican side. So with that in mind, how can these candidates, so many of them, nearly two dozen, actually stand out . Well, i think the debates are obviously the big opportunity to do that. And in a debate is where someone who is polling at around 1 percent or below that can gain some attention and gain some opportunity to win support that otherwise they may not have been able to garner quite yet. Mayor they start off with the if you win this, would you go to the polls and say well see how it all shakes out, the debate. I think that in the first debate which may have a couple of rounds given how many democratic challenges there are, i would advocate for as open of a process as possible. I think it is im a little concerned about the fact that two of the candidates may be excluded from this first debate as our congressman seth moulton and also governor bullock of montana in the latter case, hes a governor who democratic democratic governor who won in a state that trump won. It seems like that should be someone we should hear from. Seth moulton is someone who i have different policy views on many issues. But hes also somebody who is a very honorable man and talented leader and i think he also should be heard from. And i think it needs to be open at this early stage and im not a democrat, but my recommendation would be to keep that process as open as possible. Certainly enough so that voices like that can participate in the debate and see what ends up resonating with the voters. Emily lets talk about the frontrunner because joe biden had a pretty rough week. He changed his stance on abortion and the Hyde Amendment of course. Get a sense this will hurt him in the long run . I do. Actually why. Because in a news cycle where nothing can break through, this has broken through. And i think it is for two reasons. And i think it is the places hes most vulnerable. One is that it goes to the idea that people have been talking about is he out of touch with the Democratic Party . Holding a stance on a position to try to appear moderating on a position that really disproportionately impacted lowincome women and people of color, that is not a place the party is right now. Maybe it could have been like i said moderating stance ten years ago but it is not where people are now and the second problem it goes to is the thing that everybody is talking about, authenticity. In many ways he comes as across as very authentic but changing your position on something you held for a very long time when it is coming from your mouth and your staff looks inauthentic and i think it may be something to chip away at his character that he cant come back from. And the other thing i should point out, evan, about joe biden, last week he missed that big event that took place, the convention out there in california and san francisco. This weekend hes not among the 19 democrats that are out there in iowa for some big events. Is he playing frontrunner a little bit too early . You know, i dont know. It is a being frontrunner is sort of you talk about tragedy of riches and sort of a firstclass problem. That is his situation. And it is difficult to know exactly sort of how to engage when youre the frontrunner. You cant youre not going to be doing the same things as the other candidates. But i have a slightly different view on his approach and on this whole hide amendment issue. Look, i think biden is trying to run a race that run a campaign that allows him to appeal to, yes, to moderates and maybe antitrump republicans. Hes thinking, i think, about defeating the president , defeating trump and replacing him, pulling the country back together. That i think has to be the number one issue. That is my view. Yes, hes switched his issue on this position and i think i imagine that that will be challenging. Sort of changing in his position on this in the democratic primary. But i also think his discomfort with opposing the Hyde Amendment is something that will that may actually help him attract Senate Voters and antitrump republicans, the fact that he may not have been comfortable changing his position. It is a difficult issue for him. And so i think, yes, it makes things dix in t things things difficult in the primary but biden is running a campaign intended to beat the president and that is what i think matters. I think that best happens in the general election, obviously, with a coalition of democrats, conservative independents who are opposed to the president and antitrump republicans. The same coalition that brought the democrats to power in the house. I think it is the key to defeating the president. Now that is difficult now for the primaries. But i think biden is playing a long game and i think this may work out not so bad for him. You get a sense that some people in this race are doing a marathon and others are running a sprint. Emily and evan, thanks to you both. And coming up later in the hour, a oneonone with senator corey booker as he stumps in eye waf. Still ahead after days of pressure from members of his own party, the white house reaches a deal calling off the tariff threat of mexico indefinitely. Well explain what is in the deal and what was left out of it. And hear what Speaker Pelosi thinks of the president s great negotiating tactics. And live to london where Meghan Markle made a rare public appearance today. There was a lot of pageantry on display but it was largely overshadowed by politics there. But before we go to break, some sad news to tell you about. And pass along from the clintonrodham family. Secretary Hillary Clinton announced by twitter the death of her youngest brother tony rodham. Now she tweeted that when tony walked into a room, he would light it up with laster. And he leaves behind a wife and three children. And he leaves behind a wife and three children your wifi stuff, Wireless Charging for your phone. And he leaves behind a wife and three children. Laster. And he leaves behind a wife and three children. Laster. And he leaves behind a wife and three children. Laster. And he leaves behind a wife and three children. 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Pickles dont be so dramatic. But yes probably. There they are. Aww threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate Foreign Policy. Those are the words of the House Speaker nancy pelosi. That is what shes saying today, following President Trump sus tending tariffs after reaching a deal with mexico on immigration late last night. In a series of tweets this morning, however, he defended his lastminute decision not to implement tariffs while also being optimistic about mexicos efforts to curtail illegal immigration. Okay, so the deal comes after the president received strong pushback from democrats and republicans who warned that the threats to impose tariffs on all goods imported from mexico would hurt the u. S. Economic growth. And joining me now is nbcs mike vick aria at the white house and chief washington correspondent john harwood. We start with mike. Give us a playbyplay of what this deal means . You know, good afternoon to you, kendis. Those tariffs would have had to impose the prese the tariff on mexican goods by 5 . This wasnt about trade, this was an effort, admittedly an effort by the administration to try to force and cooers coerce mexico to do something about the flow of migrants from guatemala, honduras and el salvador to the south of mexico. The elements included as announced by the white house in conjunction with the Mexican Government after three days of negotiations here in washington at the end of the week, mexico will Deploy National Guard troops, said to be about 6,000, to the southern border with guatemala. Mexico to increase actions to dismantle Human Trafficking operations and the pledge by mexico to expand a Trump Program or a program encouraged by the administration that makes some migrants wait in mexico while asylum claims are heard in the u. S. , a lot of people believe that is not legal. That is an outside of the guidelines and the letter of the law on asylum claims. This is a program that began in january, mexico will work with the United States to expand the program now but there are court cases that are challenging it, unclear how that will end up. Kendis. And john, it does seem to be a familiar playbook and pattern for the president when it comes to tariffs. Fire off a threat on tariffs, screw the world market, have talks and then have a pie in the sky deal. But what happens if the border crossings continue here . Reporter well, i dont think anybody expects that this deal is going to create a revolutionary change in the situation. But i think the president of the United States is counting on the fact that most americans arent going to pay close attention to exactly what is going on. So he as mike just indicated, he has a pattern of declaring a threat, declaring a crisis. And then announcing that he is solved the crisis. Whether or not that really relates to the underlying facts of the situation or not, there is clearly a problem at the border. The tariffs that he announced were not directly related to that. Which is one of the objections from not only democrats from but also republicans. But i think this is a matter of the president trying to remove the possibility of a massive unforced error in terms of damaging the economy, damaging the stock market, that is why he got so much pushback on it. And mike, it does appear to be an unforced error welcome back error within the party and how much does this expose a rift between trump and the Republican Party. Reporter the Republican Party now is the trump party. And it is the trump party and that term is defined ambiguously but weve finally found the threshold over which republicans are going to rebel. Orthodoxy has gone out of the window. But when it comes to threatening the seats in the senate, vulnerable republicans and states that would have been disproportionately effected by what the president had proposed, cutting back or raising tariffs which would have cut back on commerce with mexico, arizona, farm states like iowa, the automobileproducing state of michigan, where republicans had serious concerns, texas of course a huge amount of cross border commerce with mexico. So huge concerns, it was rebellion in the senate. This is the outcome that we have for the time being. But it remains to be seen just how effective this agreement is going to be in achieving the goal of stopping this flow of migrants coming from central america. And john, lets talk about the numbers for a minute. And kend is to mikes point, im