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one of those senators joins us to explain why. but first, let's get to the reporting and the policy. joining me now is nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake with the president in hiroshima, nbc news chief white house correspondent kristen welker, and semafor's washington bureau chief, bengie sarland, garrett, i want to start with the negotiations themselves. where do they stand today? >> reporter: the negotiators have been meeting for hours in a room just below me in the capitol. what we're getting mostly is vaguely positive platitudes from the negotiators themselves and from the speaker. everybody agrees that it's the right people in the room now to negotiate a deal that could both pass a republican-controlled house, find its way through the senate and get signed by president biden. but where they are on the policy specifics is a bit of a mystery by design, you know, on the deals like this, we say it so many times, it's a total cliche, but it is true. you don't have a deal on
the fancy accounting that they do, they're only paying about 18%, so they're going to be paying less and less. and he's lied about it. this is not a middle class tax cut. as a matter of fact, he further goes on with the estate tax, where he wants to eliminate that altogether. and the only people who benefit from that are people who weearn $5.5 million or more. so, this president is lying, distorting, not telling the truth, taking care of his friends and the richest people in america. >> democratic congresswoman maxine waters from california, my home state, great to see you as always and i thank you for your time. >> you're so welcome, and thank you. >> you bet ya. now usa today capitol hill reporter eliza collins, kapoor with bloomberg politics and nbc political reporter bengie sarland. bengie, i want to start with you on this. when we look at the developments so far from president trump, he's continuing to praise his administration's handling of the puerto rican crisis and blasting
rhetoric going back and forth on the puerto rican situation here. so to you, saheel, are republicans, are they beginning to question whether this clear command and control at the top is absent, really, at this moment? are they saying, hey, hang on a second? >> well, you have figures like senator rubio who are just trying to stay focused on the situation. i think republicans usually like to steer away from president trump's feuds, unless it's with them, in which case they don't vl a choice. but you're seeing republicans do what they ordinarily do, stay as far away from the situation as they can. they don't want to get involved, they don't want to criticize the president, because they know what happens when they do that, and they don't like him doing this. but as bengie noted, it's par for the course. it's who he is. he doesn't take criticism well. he responds in this loop of a fashion where he'll feel slighted, he'll criticize, he'll see that criticism get news coverage and he'll get riled up and do it again. you know, we've seen this on many, many occasions.
we saw this last week in his feuds with nfl and with some nba players. so you know, it's partly to be expected. he's done this with figures ranging all the way, going all the way back to the campaign, a beauty queen, the parents of a gold star family. so it's not really a surprise, even though it is shocking to people. >> and the underline or the common thread here of many is that they're people of color is what you're saying, sahil. bengie -- >> not exclusively. it includes senator mcconnell, too, but absolutely, he doesn't take well to that. >> on tuesday, president trump heads to puerto rico, bengie. he will hope to make things better. he will face the mayor there of san juan, who's been quite critical, very clear about her messaging about what is not working out well. do you think he turns the corner there? do you think that will be the outcome? >> well, it's difficult to say. for one thing, with presidential visits, it's often about what you're trying to accomplish by being there. often, presidents wait to go to