Did you know comcast business goes beyond fast with a gigspeed network. Complete internet reliability. Advanced voice solutions. Wifi to keep everyone connected. Video monitoring. Thats huge. Did you guys know we did all this stuff . No. Im not even done yet. Wow. Business tv. Cloud apps and support. Comcast business goes beyond at t. Start with internet and voice for just 59. 90 a month. Its everything a Small Business owner needs. Comcast business. Beyond fast. Good to be with you from msnbc World Headquarters in new york. Its two minutes past noon in the east. Welcome to weekends with alex witt. Alex is off today. Happy mothers day to all you moms and mom figures out there. Game over or constitutional crisis . Washington tries to find solid ground while the president makes a move to block more than a dozen probes. Whether the white house stonewalling could cost some people around the president 25,000 a day. Plus, breaking up facebook. A former employee gives his idea on this. Developing this hour, democrats and republicans hardening their lines in the battle between the white house and congress. A new analysis suggests the president and his allies are trying to block 20 separate investigations by democrats. And the administration is not complying with at least 79 requests for documents or other information. One of those investigations may come to a head tuesday. A federal judge is expected to rule on whether the president can quash a subpoena demanding financial records from his personal accounting firm. On friday, the new subpoena deadline to release the president s tax returns. The chairman of the House Intel Committee says hes convinced the special counsel ultimately testify before congress, and on impeachment, this is the advice from adam schiff. Its certainly true these addictional acts of obstruction, the president having obstructing the justs department does add to impeachment and that will divide us further. Once wes like pushing a bolder off a cliff until it hits bottom which is the senate, then were trying to push the boulder back up the hill, but he may get spared. He seems to be trying. Maybe this is his perverse way of dividing us more. Seth moulton has a different idea of impeachment. I think we made a mistake as a party by waiting until the Mueller Report came out. The fact of the matter is that this is ourduty, and a lot of people make the argument its not a politically opportune time for us to proceed with this. Im not saying we should vote on impeachment yet, but lets have that debate. Some investigations being blocked by the administration include topics that have received bipartisan support. Thats something the House Minority leader concedes. Dont you think there are some investigations here with merit . There are some with merit. The problem that i have is the situation like chairman nadler is doing. Chairman nadler just held the attorney general in contempt. This is a time that the country wants to move forward. We want to move forward about health care, we have trade, we have a crisis on our border. The democrats are more interested in subpoenas than solutions. Another trump ally is also defending the attorney general, even as some democrats have called for his resignation. Barr is going to stand strong. Hes not going to give in to these unreasonable demands. Mueller had a chance to do his job. Its now over. As Mitch Mcconnell said, case closed. Also developing today, tariffs on chinese goods in their second day, the president s top economic adviser said no more talks with china have been scheduled, but theres a strong possibility the president may talk to the president at the g20 summit in june. Larry kudlow is acknowledging tariffs will hurt consumers as prices increase. Maybe the toughest burdens on the farmers and agriculture sector. We get that. We have helped them before. We will do it again if we have to. The economic consequences are so small, but the possible improvement in trade and exports and open markets for the united states, this is worthwhile doing. And a republican senator rand paul has this message for the white house. I have talked to the administration about this. I have said my concern is that the great benefits of the tax cut, which have low unemployment and incredible Economic Growth could be erased by this, but i still have advised the administration get this done because the longer were involved in a tariff battle or a trade war, the better chance there is we could enter into a recession because of it. Lets turn to matt bradley who joins us from the white house. Matt, larry kudlow was also pressed on a false claim by the president related to tariffs. Whats that all about . What you heard was fox news Chris Wallace pushing larry kudlow, director of the National Economic council, to acknowledge really basic truths about these tariffs and who will be paying them. Take a listen. In fact, both sides will pay. Both sides will pay in these things. The president says that china pays for the tariffs. They may suffer consequences but its u. S. Businesses and u. S. Consumers who pay, correct . Yes, to some extent. I think this is a risk we should and can take without damaging our economy in any appreciable way. Maybe the toughest burden is on farmers and the agriculture sector. We get that. We have helped them before on lost exports. I think we had an authorization of 12 billion. Well do it again. So this isnt even really economics 101. This is really just the basic dictionary definition of what a tariff is. And who will be paying. And its only remarkable because it flies in the face of what the administration has been saying so far about what these tariffs mean to the american consumer. Now, of course, all this is is attacks. Thats what a tariff is. And the reason why larry kudlow is right in saying this is because the idea behind these tariffs is to incentivize consumers and importers who are bringing in chinese goods to just make in america. To build manufactured items here and to sell what is sold here and build them here using American Workforce and american products. Now, the reason why that hasnt worked in the past and has really gone out of style since world war ii is because economic orthodoxy in the past 70 years says that these sorts of trade wars hurt both sides. They hurt the American Consumers who would be paying a higher price for their goods that are imported from china and it would cause the chinese in this case, the chinese, to increase tariffs on american exports. Especially agricultural goods. That could hurt the heartland of america, many of whom voted for mr. Trump. Certainly, those farmers out there are very crucial in that. Matt bradley at the white house, thank you. Joining me now is tessa barrett, a White House Correspondent for time, and charlie savage, msnbc contributor. Lets start off with you, charlie. How long is the president prepared to wage the trade war knowing the impact on americans . We saw the full screen, things that will be affected. Things like soap, smartphones, groceries. You heard rand paul saying this could take the country into a recession. Right. Well, thats the impact on americans who are buying goods. Everything is getting more expensive. Washing machines and dryers are up 100, i think, already, according to some reporting i have read. But the larger impact may be politically, the damage its imposing on american producers. Especially agricultural producers. We talked about that, our colleague just talked about that in the heartland. People selling soybeans and other products to foreign markets, to china. Suddenly the prices of all the goods are collapsing. The commodities, because of the retaliatory tariffs from china. Were caught in a spiral now thats getting worse and worse, and trump can keep trying to get congress to bail out the heartland. But this really does fly in the face of 70 years of economic orthodoxy which says we should have fewer barriers and well produce the stuff were best at producing and our consumers will get lower prices on the stuff were not as good at producing at a competitive rate. This is a question where he breaks with even normal republicans economic policy. Turning to congress for a break in that, but hey, theres a showdown already going on. It started out as partial resistance, has blown up into a full blown war. The Washington Post broke down the actual numbers of investigations and document requests the president s team is stonewalling. Heres the numbers right there. Does the white house view this as a winning strategy, running out the clock . Thats something theyre trying. And i think the key point here is that for both sides, the democrats continuing to hammer these investigations and then the administration continuing to shut down, this will be litigated by voters in 2020. So we will see. But you are definitely seeing from the white house right now after the Mueller Investigation, the administration is feeling very frustrated by the end of that investigation and the fallout, and they cooperated pretty fully with muellers probe. Now they feel like were done. We cooperated for two years. And so now were just not going to cooperate anymore, especially because these investigations were talking about now are in congress, which is another branch of government, whereas the Mueller Investigation was nested within the executive branch. Voters, the course might have to litigate this as well, but the voters will be able to weigh in in 2020. Meantime, you have democrats here who are caught in a bind, trying to figure out how tough theyre going to get. Politico reporting jerry nadler is facing pressure from his caucus to get tougher with the Trump Administration. Talks of fines, jail time. So how does the leadership walk that fine line, this tightrope . Part of what youre seeing in the calls for inherent contempt, the sort of obsolete idea that congress could try to arrest people on its own or impose fines on people on its own without going to a court, its coming from the rank and file. Sort of the back benching bomb throwers. And the house leadership is saying look, we dont own a jail. No one has ever been fined. We dont have the ability to go arrest the attorney general, but we have a couple, a sergeant in arms, but hes got the fbi and u. S. Marshals and the dea and all these security forces. Thats not a realistic idea. The realistic idea is to go to court and ask a judge for a judicial order to say you must comply with these subpoenas so its not just contempt of congress but contempt of court on the table and you have two branches against one. So these ideas are out there, but dont really look for that to happen. I want to look into that because congressman adam schiff was talking about that this morning. Talking about some of these rules to enforce it. I want to ask tess about it too after we listen. We are going to have to consider other remedies like inherent contempt where if the courts take too long, we use our own judicial process within the congress. And look, i think if you fine someone 25,000 a day to their person, until they comply, it gets their attention. All right, so there may be action that must be taken that needs to be taken here. Well, i agree with charlie that i think the most likely outcome here is that the courts get involved and the third pranch of government, but that gets back to the last question you asked me about running out the clock because that can be a very lengthy process. There are ways to expedite it, but in theory, it could last months or even years. Especially because we have 20 different investigations. So if were heading to multiple Different Court sites and that could be a really long process to eventually figure out where the court is going to come down. So you know, this might run out the clock to the election. Were not that far away. So we could be heading to a situation where a lot of this isnt resolved in the near future. Charlie, i want you to reflect on this week. You have this showdown with congress. North korea, trade talks with china, also iran, all these. What do you think is the peril for the president . Whats the most peril . Well, i dont know, because you know, focusing in particular on the stonewall strategy of trying to block all democratic subpoenas, all house subpoenas not differentiating get ones that may be more or less legitimate and say were not going to cooperate with oversight, that seems to be driving democrats closer toward the impeachment question that democratic leadership like pelosi have been trying to avoid. And it almost looks like, and shes actually said, trump wants to be impeached. Hes trying to make democrats overplay their hand, so is that risky for him or is he crazy like a fox here . Thats the really interesting question to ask about this very fraught circumstance were in right now from a separate of power perspective. Thank you to both of you. Charlie and tessa, for kicking us off this afternoon. Thank you. The firestorm surrounding the don jr. Subpoena. Hear from a member of the House Intel Committee next. This daughter was Home Visiting when mom saw a chip in her windshield. 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Joining me, mike quigley, a democrat from illinois and a member of the Intelligence Committee. I appreciate you being with me. I want to start with this. How do you and your fellow democrats counter the president s narrative without overplaying your hand. Is there a delicate balance or not . I think there is, and first, happy mothers day to my wife and mom. So i get that out first. This is a tough balance. I think the most appropriate and important thing we do is let the American Public know that we respect the rule of law, unlike this president. I would like to think the contrast shows, that what were doing is lawful and appropriate. What the president has done is attack the rule of law and frankly the constitution. So we are going to abide by this. Were going to use the subpoena and the courts to get the president to do what he should have done all along. When it comes to actual action, other options out there for that to happen . Because right now, were not seeing any. The chairman of your committee repeated today his suggestion that officials dont comply could be fined 25,000 a day. Heres a suggestion from a top member of the ways and means committee. Lets listen. We should consider the power of inherent contempt, an old doctrine that allows the congress itself to issue a summons, an arrest warrant, to an official, and demand that they appear at a congressional hearing, be subject to fines, to jail time. I think we ought to explore contracting with area correctional institutions, provide some Additional Support for our sergeant in arms so the white house will get the message that we are serious. So when it comes to fining officials and issuing arrest warrants, is that something you support . Would you see it in any case here that backfiring to help the president and the republicans politically . I think thats exactly why the president is doing what hes doing. Whatever we think about richard nixon, lets remember. He acted and he abided by a court order. A Unanimous Supreme Court order that he release the tapes. I dont think this president will. Thats what concerns me. We talked about a constitutional crisis for some time now. And i think we have been in that crisis. When it really, really becomes an extraordinary test to the fabric of our nation and our constitution is i believe this president wont abide by orders like that. I dont know how long the Court Actions will take. I think we should ask for expedited action by all of the courts on all of these matters. Look, its very clear that the special counsel left it to the congress to decide whether or not there was crimes committed and obstruction. How are we supposed to act and make decisions on that when this is a typical part of the redacted report . Theres nothing for us to look at. So its part of our, as a coequal branch, authority to review these matters. The president is obstructing, continuing that process. We have to act. Understanding that we are before the court of public opinion, and that does matter. When you say act, do you see the avenue of going through the courts the only effective way of actually seeing something through . Clearly at first. Depending on, again, how chairman schi