we start hearing not only about jared but also ben carson. we shall see. want to thank everybody for being with us. and stephanie ruhle, now it is her task to try to jam about six weeks of news in a one-hour newscast. stephanie, good luck. >> thanks much, joe. he's right, we got a lot to cover this morning. i'm stephanie ruhle. we've got to start with trump losing hope. just one day after meeting with the house intel committee, the president's longest serving aide resigns as white house communication s director. >> this looks to me like more evidence of a white house in disarray. >> taking ae ining aim. the president stuns republicans with a clear message he's ready to embrace gun control. lawmakers are doubtful he'll keep his word. >> is this the tuesday trump or the thursday trump? >> i don't know whether that was

a performance or that is actually the new position of the white house. >> your word is your bond. maybe not. and no reservations. just hours after president trump attacks jeff sessions on twitter, the attorney general fights back with an interesting show of solidarity. this is a joke. >> these attacks on attorney general sessions are inappropriate and unwarranted. >> crazy town. we begin today with a turbulent 24 hours for president trump. lashing out at his attorney general on the same day he loses one of his closest and most loyal confidants, hope hicks. she was like family to the president. ironically, it is a member of trump's real family that could be causing him the most headaches. i have a great team to break all of it down. but first, let's walk you through exactly what's going on because it's a lot. we're going to start with hope hicks. she's been part of trump's inner circle since the very beginning and is considered one of the very few who understand the president and his thinking.

her resignation means this white house will be looking for its fifth, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, fifth communications director in just 13 months. that's as many as obama had in eight years. hick was more on this just a communications director, she was the so-called trump whisperer and it will be difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to fill that role. now we got to turn to jared kushner, who is staying, at least for now, but for how long? on wednesday, we got word that foreign officials had been trying to manipulate him and robert mueller has been looking into his contacts overseas. today, there's reporting from "the new york times" that kushner's family business received half, ready for this, a billion dollars in loans from two companies just a couple of months after kushner met with their leaders, where else, the white house. i'll be speaking to one of the reporters who broke that story coming up. in the meantime, "the wall street journal" ed board says it could be time for jared and

ivanka to go. if there are other vulnerabilities, jared kushner and president trump would both be better if mr. kushner were out of the white house before they become public. mr. kushner and ivanka have to decide if they'd serve themselves and the president better by walking away from their former white house roles. can you imagine if president trump lost hope hicks, jared kushner and ivanka all at the same time? there would be absolutely no inner circle left. we know the president has a tough time trusting people to begin with. we could see more outbursts like this one. on wednesday, trump went off on his attorney general jeff sessions again, calling him disgraceful and demanding to know why he put a, quote, obama guy in charge of an investigation into surveillance abuse allegations. but this time, and that's why i said it was a joke, sessions fired back, saying, quote, as long as i'm attorney general, i will continue to discharge my

duties with integrity and honor in this department, will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial matter manner. and this is what i can't get over. hours after releasing this statement, sessions had dinner with none other than rob rosenstein and the solicitor general noel francisco. hitting trump where he hurts. showing the picture, social media. can you believe this is what's happening with the top leadership in the government of the united states of america? i want to bring in nbc's peter alexander, live at the white house. peter, i know we've said this before. >> yes. >> how can they continue to work together? but here's the thing. everyone in trump's inner circle and outer circle at this point seems to forge ahead. can they forge ahead after this one? >> yes, stephanie, this is a good question. it doesn't seem sustainable, right? you've got the president for months now publicly and privately berating his attorney general, calling him

disgraceful, as you just showed. which punctuates those past attacks, saying he was disappointed in sessions, dismissing him as beleaguered. for the president, session's original sin was recusing himself in the russia investigation. as for the latest tweet takinei at the swipe, the inspector general here looking into those alleged surveillance abuses. he's a career prosecutor. appointed by president obama. but he has worked in both democratic and republican administrations, and he's been critical in the past of the justice department under obama. simply the presence of the president's critique. behind the scenes, "the washington post" is reporting something interesting. the president has derisively referred to mr. sessions as mr. magoo, that bumbling character. sessions told associates he had been wounded by the attacks, but he insists he's not going to resign. this sort of heated cold war continues.

>> let's talk about somebody else who did resign, hope hicks. she did not resign one day after testifying because something specifically happened there. from all reporting, this has been leading up, this has been going on for months. her closest allies in the white house were rob porter. we know how that turned out. and while she's close with jared, ivanka and donald trump, she also knew they protect themselves first. it was simply time for her to go. >> the bottom line we're hearing is this is something in the works for a while. she's been thinking about this, she was both the most emotionally and physically drained. the president said to be sad to have learned about hope hicks departure. officials here tell us he's relieved for her because he knows how taxing her job has been. that would be a remarkable acknowledgement, right? he praised her as a truly great person. at the end of the day, it means basically that the trump original, with the exception of the president's family, are effectively gone. his inner circle eviscerated.

although hope was much younger, just 29, and a political newcomer, remember, she was a model back in the day, worked on behalf of ivanka trump's fashion line in the past. hicks was uniquely positioned as one of those few people in the white house, if anybody, who could rein in the president, so the real question now is who's the reiner-in at this place anymore. >> who's the reiner-iner, technically speaking. ben white, politico. christine quinn, vice chair, new york state democratic party. bob costa, national political reporter for "the washington post" and moderator of "washington week" on pbs. roberto, to you first, we have to start with hope hicks. she was someone who many of us thought would stay by the president's side indefinitely. a true loyal aide, especially in times of chaos. what do you make of all this? >> it has been an exhausting

time for most people inside of the trump white house. reas reince priebus, on and on of names that haven't lasted. hope hicks working at candidate trump's side. there has been so much controversy, so much scandal in this white house, it's the least surprising news of the week in some respects. >> all right, i want to read you part of a politico article where this leaves the president, quote with hope hicks leaving the white house, there's no metaphorical family, no core group of aides who have brought the ringer together, come out beat and bound forever, trusting each other, trusting the president and having him trust them. without hope hicks, he really is among strangers. >> he is. and, you know -- >> he has said he looks at hope like a daughter. she also fits the role, the mold that president trump loves. >> she does. the problem with this is, generalized white house chaos, not that it wasn't chaotic

before, but it's going to be more so. i think we're getting an indication of this just today. we're expecting president trump later today to announce a bunch of tariffs on steel and aluminum. the whole process for this has been a mess. the coordination between different agencies with the national economic council. there's all sorts of aides fighting behind the scenes -- >> that saga that goen -- >> when i was e-mailing, texting, white house aides yesterday, they said it is part of the breakdown of process. after rob porter left. he kind of coordinated that trade possess. he's gone. now hope hicks. there really is no ballast. there's no person within the white house who can connect with president trump and keep him on an even keel, not that he's ever on an even keel but we're talking about a sliding scale here -- >> this take us to john kelly. hope hicks was never the person charged with creating calm and order in the white house. john kelly is. he's the chief of staff.

i want to share what anthony scarmucci who of course was with the white house for a hot minute, but he said something i thought was pretty noteworthy this morning. >> this is a cultural thing, okay, the morale inside the white house, you're a great reporter, you've got great reporters open staff. morale's terrible. it will be up to the president if he wants to fix it or not. >> the question is whether or not the president -- >> i predict -- >> -- contributing to the turmoil -- >> there's a culture of fear, culture of intimidation, people afraid to talk to each other. >> coming from the president? they're afraid of the president? >> no, i think it's the chief of staff. >> anthony scarmucci is not wrong here. i've heard the same thing. john kelly is very difficult. he doesn't look people in the eye. he says things regularly in meetings like how lucky they all are to have john kelly there. what's it going to be like going forward? hope, a beloved character in the white house. i mean, people were in tears across the board. >> look, i think losing hope is terrible on a whole host of

levels. as you said, it's a sliding scale. on a good day, the president looks semirudderless. he is actually now rudderless. none of his people, quote/unquote are there with him anymore. that's a dangerous position at any point. but he is literally in a set of enormous crises and to not have anybody you look in the eye and know they've got your back no matter what is a terrifying position and it's going to push the president deeper into his bunker mentality, which is very dangerous place for him. now, look, general kelly's the chief of staff. and the president purposely brought in kind of an iron-fisted guy, and if you want to work in any elected official's office. the chief of staff is the chief of staff. you have to accept that or not, right? i don't have a lot of sympathy for people who went into the trump white house and are now saying oh, it's a tough place to work, nobody's nice, they're

mean. i'm sure that's all true. but they made their beds. now they got to either leave or suck it up and deal with it. >> suck it up ordeal with it. robert costa, weigh in. two weeks ago, we were talking about john kelly possibly being forced out of the white house. are we going to be talking about that again? this week, removing or downgrading jared's security clearance. you know jared will get whatever information he wants from the president. because president trump can declassify anything. but john kelly humiliated jared this week. what's in his future? >> well, the president said he's going to let general kelly make that decision. jared kushner at this point, stephanie, can't get the same access to information. his security clearance has been downgraded to secret. as we all know. will the president respect that process? jared kushner, officials tell me, really has a choice to make. does he want to continue in this white house with a limited role? can he accept that and still be the president's son-in-law and remain as a senior adviser, kind of a confidant who floats around

the west wing and is a presence, or does he have to be involved in these high-stakes negotiations? this is a choice. he really hasn't made a decision on at this moment. >> so jared's in the hot seat. john kelly's in the hot seat. ben carson humiliated himself this week, did something extraordinarily unethical and supposedly the president's mad at him, and he's also mad at jeff sessions. it's no surprise. he's been going after jeff sessions for months. and this is the first sign we have truly seen jeff sessions fire back. he goes out to dinner about rosenstein in a show of solidarity. >> i take from it sessions is getting tired of the tweets calling him disgraceful and other stuff. he's not going to quit. i think he would make trump fire him and deal with the repercussions of that before he quits. but, you know, i don't know if they set up that photo op. maybe they did. but they clearly want to send a message that, look, i've got rosenstein's back. the justice department is unified here. you can take your potshots.

we're going to keep doing our jobs. i'm not going to listen to you tell me i need to do something differently on this inspector general report or investigation into, you know, all of the fisa stuff. i mean, it's just gotten to the point where the attorney general's saying look, fire at me all you want, i'm not going anywhere. >> does that hurt president trump's position with robert mueller? because, bob, i want to share a quote from today's "washington post" that says the thrust of mueller's questions was to determine whether the president's goal was to oust sessions in order to pick a replacement who would exercise control over the russia investigation. so president trump continuing to attack jeff sessions. doesn't that help robert mueller in an obstruction of justice case? >> we know that this is something that mueller is scrutinizing as part of his investigations. there's so much under the umbrella of the mueller probe. the more you robert, people who met with his team, they're looking at the campaign, they're looking at the transition, they're looking at financial

records and looking at potential obstruction of justice. what were the decisions made inside the white house not only about that statement on air force one about the donald trump jr. meeting but about attorney general jeff sessions and the way the president has interacted with the justice department both publicly and privately. >> christine, can jeff sessions continue his job in this environment? a year ago, we were saying he can't possibly do it. but time marches on. >> i mean, it's how he defines his job. it's his job defending himself and poking the president in the eye. he seems to be doing that job pretty well. >> yes, he wasn't home eating cheeseburgers in bed screaming, watching cable tv news and tweeting. he was out to dinner. >> his job is to be attorney general of the united states of america. a job which requires you to be working in lock-step with the president. no, he can't do that, and hasn't been doing that for some time -- >> but now one can work in lock-step with this president. >> no, exactly -- >> i guess that's true, no one can work in lock-step, but

there's somewhere in the middle of lock-step and having been called mr. magoo repeatedly and disgraceful. if he's mad at cars, which he should be and he hates the attorney general, which apparently he does, fire them. you actually are the president. you could fire them. and it is something i can't explain. >> bell well -- >> i understand on sessions, but carson, politically, because of what it sends -- >> you can fire ben carson. i don't know you want to fire your only african-american cabinet member. >> that's a good point. >> sessions, obviously -- >> hold on, so loyalty and the fact you're a diversity candidate should save you for dropping 31 grand on a dining room table and a hutch? >> it's a -- >> giving your daughter-in-law a no bid contract -- >> if you were going to fire him over that, you would fire him over the fact he has no idea what to do with housing and urban development, no reason to be in that job in the first

place. the dining room table is ridiculous but no more ridiculous that ben carson is at hud in the first place. >> well, that's fair. >> lawmakers stunned at the white house, as president trump sides with democrats on a number of key gun control issues. but i don't think those democrats are getting too confidence just yet. late night jimmy fallon suggested the latest drama surrounding kushner could help the trump family grow even closer. >> jared kushner just lost his security clearance at the white house. they say it's because of shady business dealings, financial problems and lack of foreign policy experience. when he heard that trump said, okay, now you can call me dad. s. but i really love it. i'm on the move all day long... and sometimes, i don't eat the way i should. so, i drink boost to get the nutrition i'm missing. boost high protein nutritional drink

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big money, big politics, big problems, my favorite topics. this morning, new questions about conflicts of interest. haven't heard this before. in the president's inner circle. "the new york times" with a stunning report. jared kushner's family company received millions of dollars in loans from two companies months after the company executives met with kushner at the white house. here's how it reportedly happened. last year, president trump's son-in-law and senior adviser met with executives from apollo global management and citigroup. months later, apollo lent a hefty 184 million bucks to kushner companies. it was one of the largest loans

the kushner companies received last year. and an even larger sum came from citigroup which lent the firm and one of its partners 325 million bucks. kushner resigned as the ceo of kushner companies when he joined the white house last january but he kept the majority of his interest in the company and he still remains heavily invested. remember, it's kushner company. it's his family. his parents. his sisters. i mean, even if he wasn't directly benefiting, you'd think he'd want his family to. a spokesman for kushner attorney tells us, quote, mr. kushner has had no role in the kushner comes since joining the government and has taken no part of any business, loans or projects with or for the companies after that. i want to bring in one of reporters who broke this "the , my friend, kate kelly. walk us through about what we know about the white house meetings. because it is fair to say a lot of these people who came to the white house, whether you're talking about the president, apollo, the head of citi.

they already knew jared. it's not a surprise they would also go to the white house. >> there are a number of buckets. first, there was this infrastructure panel. some litigation over whether it was an unofficial planning body. for purposes of our discussion, there was this infrastructure panel. >> this was jared's baby, these infrastructure group, he loved them. >> right, all these industries, bill ford who runs general atlantic, josh paris from apollo, in addition to others -- >> and an old friend of the trumps. >> absolutely. to talk about this -- at the time, i'm sorry, it was a $1 trillion infrastructure spend. i think it's now $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion with a contribution of about $200 million from the government. josh harris of apollo was part of that. jared was in one or more of those. there were also one-on-one meetings that occurred between jared and josh harris of apollo. there was also a one on one

meeting between jared and mike corbett. as you know, again, lots of business executives on various topics but some very much related to what kushnerp companies, a real estate company, does for its living. jared decided early on he was not going to fully divest himself of his corporate ownership. he'd divest himself of certain things. but kushner companies is made up of a whole bunch of partnerp shs and llcs and he's still invested in many of them. even if you assume 100% good intentions on all sides. let's just say business with all the major lenders, that's just a fact of life. you've still got, at the minimum, a very awkward appearance of him having meetings with these people regarding business that could very well be dealt with by his family company and his family members. >> okay, but where's the line between awkward, doesn't smell good and inappropriate enough to stop it? we know that steve schwartzman who had not been a trump

supporter, of blackstone, became very close with the trump white house. he was there on that saudi arabia trip. blackstone then raised, what was it, 20 -- >> they had a $20 billion admitment from the saudi arabia sovereign wealth fund. and they went out and i think matched it or came close to it with other investors. the idea was a $40 billion infrastructure fund, funded largely by the saudis. >> let me ask a dumb question. >> there are no dumb questions. >> why would jared's family need special help on these loans? if these buildings, for example, they have in new york city, are decent. real estate, new york, if these buildings are decent, why do they need extra help? >> i think it's very much case by case depending on the development, right? there have been issues well reported at 656 fifth avenue, and they're trying to buy out the portion of that building they don't own. that would require refinancing. so that's been a little bit of a problematic project. other projects, though, less problematic. the one that apollo lent the

$184 million for is a skyscraper in chicago that houses at&t. so a solid tenant. a steady flow of revenue. but yes, kushner companies has had a number of troubled projects and these real estate companies are always in the business of needing loans. >> okay so we do have to say on that, so josh harris from apollo lends him money for the chicago building. >> correct. >> the chicago building is a decent building, maybe that's not so foul because josh is in the business of lending money. >> i should just say, by the way, supposedly josh -- this went through a regular process and he's not directly involved. >> got it. >> but it was the company that he manages. >> but you've got that building, 666 fifth avenue, how prol problematic is that? because if it's foreign investors he needs and they're from places like saudi arabia, israel, china, russia, that does get really sticky. >> absolutely. that's where you have very sticky questions. i've just been asking some experts how is this handled ethically? and it's, honestly, it's not

entirely clear. if this were an agency, it would probably start with the inspector general's office. for the white house not entirely clear. there are any number of members of congress or other government agencies that might take an interest. and i'm totally just speculating. but the process for dealing with this is not immediately apparent. >> well, here in the united states, we like the banana republic to be a retail store, not our government. we reached out to kushner companies. this is how they responded. quote, to suggest that jared, when taking on his role in the white house, has suddenly affected our long-standing relationships or that we do business differently than we have in the past, is made up and without substantiation. stories like this attempt to make insinuating connections that do not exist to disparage the financial institutions and companies involved. i understand a statement like that but are they remembering a year ago jared's sister went to china with a big org chart

saying here's president trump, here's my brother, here's what he does in the white house. the reason we have questions like that is because you've got a real estate project with the trump family in india where don jr.'s having dinner with him. so of course we question things like that. >> here's where you have to go back i think to the initial set of decisions. jared's decision vis-a-vis divesting himself of his company assets. doing some but not a lot. >> he didn't really divest himself. he's got his sister and brother-in-law working on it, come on. >> and then a number of meetingings with high-profile people who just naturally in the course of business are dealing with kushner companies. so it's that pair of decisions that i think is now creating some problems for them optically if not otherwise. >> okay, kelly, this is awesome reporting, but it's also on the heels of unforced errors. we have to remind the white house of that. it's why we ask so many questions. it was ivanka trump who had a -- who went on "60 minutes" and then six hours later, her own pr firm was going, and ivanka trump's bracelet from the eivana

trump fine jewelry collection can be bought at xyz. the white house has pushed us to ask these questions. kate, awesome piece. next, president trump leaves lawmakers shocked after an in depth meeting on gun control. i'll speak to senator joe manchin. ♪ hey, sir lose-a-lot! thou hast the patchy beard of a pre-pubescent squire! thy armor was forged by a feeble-fingered peasant woman... your mom! as long as hecklers love to heckle, you can count on geico saving folks money. boring! fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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welcome back. i'm stephanie ruhle. president trump left a group of bipartisan lawmakers shocked after a roughly one-hour meeting at the white house to talk gun control and school safety. the session kicked off with a challenge from democratic senator chris murphy to the president. come to congress, take a look. >> if you come to congress if you come to republicans and say we're going to do a manchin/toomey-like bill to get comprehensive background checks, it will pass. >> it doesn't make sense, i have to wait until i'm 21 to get a handgun but i can get this weapon at 18, i don't know. i'm curious what you did in your bill. >> we didn't address it, mr. president. >> you know why, because you're afraid of the nra, right? diane, if you can add what you have also, and i think you can, into the bill, can you do that? joe, can you do that? pat? can you add some of the

things -- you're not going to agree with -- >> if you help. >> i'll help. if you can add domestic violence paragraphs, pages, into this bill, i'm all for it. i think it's terrific, if you can do it. if you add concealed carry to this, you'll never get it passed. >> i'm all for it. time stamp it. record it. take that to the house. democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia was in that meeting. he joins me live from capitol hill. senator manchin, good morning. >> good morning, stephanie, how are you? >> i'm good. you had to be encouraged when you were in that meeting yesterday. but you always -- >> well, you know what -- >> well, you've seen president trump have a lot of meetings in that room, and they go very well. then things change when he leaves the room and he starts talking things back. how do you get president trump to stick to that? >> well, first of all, i think you're referring back to the daca we had just a few weeks ago, when it looked like he was supporting it, and then we didn't get the support. is probably what you're

referring to. the difference of this right here. he knows that 80% to 90% of the american public agree that you should have a background check. if the terrorists tell you to go to the gun show and buy your weapon of mass destruction, don't you think we ought to have a background check when you go to a gun show or on the internet where there's no knowledge of the person? transaction, commercial transaction? he knows that makes what we call gun sense. or common sense. he knows that. so it might be a difference because the public is totally behind this type of manchin/toomey bill we've had out for five years that we couldn't get support before. >> let's stay on that. he suggested let's bring back that 2013 bill. do you want to bring it back? are you ready? because your co-sponsor said earlier on "morning joe" he'd be up for it. >> oh, no, we're ready. i started drafting that bill in 2013 and i was shopping it, trying to make sure we had

bipartisan, republican. we had tom coburn, pat toomey. we made it a bipartisan bill. everyone brought their concerns to the table. we worked through that. and the thing that happened in 2013, when we only had 54 votes, we needed 60, was that at that time, with president obama, there was not -- rural west virginia would not believe president obama would protect their second amendment rights coming from a nongun culture that he came from. so they were reluctant to say hey, we like your bill, we think it does the right thing. it has gun sense to it. doesn't infringe on my second amendment rights. we like your bill. we're just afraid if it's passed that president obama will take more liberties and take more things away. there's not a person in west virginia that believes that president trump will not protect -- he will protect their second amendment rights, he will not take anything away. so we have an unusual, a unique opportunity to truly get meaningful change. >> that's very interesting. because i'm not part of gun

culture. so we look at this, or i see this and it seems like the nra has a stronghold and you've got single-issue voters who simply say "don't touch my guns." take me inside west virginia. do you believe there really are those who support a slightly different version of the second amendment? or more commonsense gun laws? because when the only thing we see is dana loesch or wayne la pierre, they don't look like they want to make a lot of concessions. >> i've been an nra member most of my life. i'm a lifetime member. i came into the nra membership way back when, when it was basically a safety, responsibility, ownership, gun ownership, and how to handle safely, teaching children the dos and the don'ts, and, you know, as the law-abiding gun owners, we're taught, you know, you don't sell your gun to a stranger. you definitely don't sell your gun to a criminal. you don't sell your gun to

someone you consider mentally unstable or insane. you sure don't even give your gun to a family member that's not responsible. that's what we're taught. so you have to assume ta lhat law-abiding gun owners will do the right thing. it make sense if i want to sell a gun, the easiest way for me to sell is a gun show and i'll get a table where i don't have to have any background checks. don't you think we should check that out and close that loophole? or you can get on the internet in your state and sell to another party of your state and send a gun through the mail and not have any background. all we did was close the loopholes that were causing people -- and when you have the terrorists saying on the internet if you want to do harm, go down to the gun show. we did things that made sense. and we gave incentives. and we did background. we fixed the nics in our bill. we have a lot of good things. the president believes that's the base bill he can work off of. he kept saying can you add this, can you add that? if we have his support, we can

make a good -- really, not only a good, but a great piece of legislation -- >> do you own an ar-15, because we haven't talked about assault rifles. >> i do not own an ar-15, nor do i have a need for an ar-15. but i have a lot of friends that do. >> well, walk me through kroger, walmart, are the latest companies to raise the age of restriction to 21 for gun purchases. this is a bold stance. dig sporting goods as well. a lot of lawmakers won't push against the nra because it's going to affect their contributions. it's going to affect dick sporting goods bottom line. how come lawmakers are going after businesses? you would think if elected officials are there to protect people, not corporate america? >> correct. let's go, first of all, there's an old saying, stephanie, follow the money. the markets are changing. we're so dysfunctional up here at times and it's such a toxic political environment that you would think the things that make sense to you and common sense to

the average person in america, why won't that happen up here? and everybody throws the money in. it's because this money here or support money there. it's really because they have the network and facility and the resources to go after people and say this is what this person believes. this is what they're going to do to you. right, wrong or indifferent. when you talk about fake news, this is truly fake news. when someone's trying to do something responsibly and an organization turns it around to thinking they're going to take away your rights, that's what they're concerned about. it takes a tremendous amount of resources to fight that. so some people say rather than fighting it, i'll just kind of let it go, not do anything. that's what you're seeing. and then inaction is what really upsets people such as yourself, stephanie, and everyone else. we've got to have people brave enough to say listen, public service is public service. it's not self-serving. the worst thing that can happen to me is i get defeated. well guess what, i get to go home. that's not a bad option.

but if you can do the right thing and live with yourself, you're fine. this is the right thing. i'm protecting the second amendment rights. the president protects the second amendment rights. he's now supporting gun sense which we've been trying to pass for five years. and i think we can get it done. >> i hope so. all right, joe. i just want to follow the money and the good people to west virginia. because teachers -- >> well, thank god for the kids. the kids are finally speaking up and they're making a difference. >> one of the reasons those kids are speaking up and they're doing it in such an articulate way is because they've got great teachers. west virginia teachers still have not come back to school, despite the governor offering them a 5% race. some of them -- >> they need to get back in. >> -- criticized the strike, having, quote, negative impact on student instruction and classroom time. where do you stand? we've got to get the teachers and the kids back in the classroom. >> i'm glad to see all that happening, trying to bring people together. i've said this, when i was governor, education and economy went hand-in-hand.

i could give away all the taxes and try to make people come to my state and invest in my state and i'm always trying to create jobs, but if i didn't take into consideration, if i kind hadidn a good solid education system, they're not going to come. with that, your priorities is based on your values. the children in education should be your highest priority. >> are the teachers getting paid enough? >> no, not at all. i mean, what we've done in this country in education is sinful. it's sinful. so what they're doing is fine. they're expressing their concern. their assurances. their benefit packages. these have all been to the point, no matter what increases they get are taken away from the benefits you have to pay for. so we're trying to balance that out. the state needs to come together and i think they have. the governor has put forth i think a very generous 5% on the front end the first year, he's frozen the rates so they don't have to -- you know, their rates won't be changing and adjusting as far as on insurance. they need to sit down to fix the

lo long-term insurance problem they have. he's addressed the pay right up front with the 5%. i would hope they go back to the classroom. if the legislature and they don't fulfill this, what the governor's laid out, they can't make this happen, then they can do whatever they want to and they'll have support from all the citizens of west virginia. people want to go back to the classrooms. educators want to educate. i know that. and the parents want their kids back in the classroom. >> without a doubt. parents want their kids in the classroom. the teachers want to be back. they want to be back and they want to be paid fairly. no teacher should have to be on government assistant. >> you're absolutely correct. they shouldn't have to work two or three jobs either. >> i got a feeling some of those kids airport in s aren't in a r wouldn't be. thank you for joining me. coming up, president trump wants coal. china wants the world. it is a tho tarrian state is taking dramatic steps by making new strides to be the global

leader in artificial intelligence. as trade tensions heat up within the u.s. first, march is women's history month. you know what i like to do, highlight our #onegreatwoman. dr. sally ride is the woman we're honoring today. on june 18th, 1993, dr. ride became the first american woman to fly in space. she later taught at the university of california in san diego, inspiring countless students, especially girls, to pursue careers in math and science. dr. ride's legacy continues to inspire today, even after her death in 2012. she is certainly one of my heroes. and today she's our one great woman. welcome to march. whoooo.

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powerful odor control with activated charcoal. free of dyes. free of fragrances. tidy cats free & clean. when no scents makes sense. time for money, power, politics. cnbc has confirmed president trump is set to announce tariffs today. white house officials did not say specifically what we'll hear from the president but president trump tweeted just this morning about steel and aluminum industries being decimated in this country. steve clemens is the washington editor at large for the atlantic and ben white back with me. berngs i go to you. ben, i go to you first. it is true, china is launching an economic war against us and for the most part, we're not showing up. but tariffs on steel and aluminum. china uses places like korea and turkey to take their cheap steel, dump it there and have it sent our way. >> yes. >> the correct response would be for us to work with our allies

from developed countries to figure out a way to not have china doing this. instead, we slap tariffs, we're hurting our allies. >> we're hurting our allies. we get a lot of steel from places other than china, obviously, from the european union, and others, from canada. our allies are not too happy about the idea of 25% global tariff on steel, perhaps 10% on aluminum we expect to come from the white house today. we could see significant retaliation from them. and then of course there's the knock-down effects to the other industries. the automakers, others who rely on a lot of this imported steel. there's something like 80,000 steelworkers in this country. there are millions morn who work in industries that rely on imported steel, and obviously there are hundreds and millions of consumers who see prices go up. this is not the smartest way, as you say, to target china and engage with china on trade policy. these tariffs are going to result in a trade war, higher prices for consumers and higher prices for manufacturers. it's just not a good idea. >> steve, this america first approach that the president is

taking is heavy-handed sloppy, and it's not working. if you look at xi jinping and his approach, it is working. if you go to africa and you drive through streets, you see signs written in chinese. xi jinping who is now going to be in control indefinitely is taking a far more strategic approach. and president trump's america first is going to leave us behind and alone. >> here is the real story as xi jinping looks at his options. xi jinping is about to make and has been making major investments in what he sees the future, the future where china will be. it won't be in the steel industry. they have a steel industry and that matters to them exactly like ben said, but this is small stuff. and what we have is one of the 201 tariffs and sanctions 20 years ago. he knows that world better than any other personal live. but this is his agenda 20 years ago. steel is something that the

chinese won't sweat big about. ai, automation, what is coming down the road in the future as vladimir putin once said, he who controls ai will control the future. and i think xi jinping is making that bet right now. he won't care about this. he will play with us in the wto, but not a big deal. >> this is massively important. and whether bob lighthauser is recognizing a 20-year-old plan that is the same thing wilbur ross looks to do. xi jinping is spending billions. exactly that intd f, whoever ow owns the future. i've never heard president trump reference artificial intelligence. to president trump, takes steak sauce and -- >> he prefers ketchup. but in terms of ai, obviously xi jinping is making an enormous investment in that they are outpacing us in the amount of investments. obviously we have leaders in

silicon valley and -- >> and our government where two different things. >> this is why so many in china say maybe the u.s. system isn't that great and we shouldn't be criticized for our one party rule because we can take massive state resources, pile them into the research and technology, make leaps and bounds in machine learning. the u.s. is not good at that. you have a mess in the white house, a political mess in your country and you are not focused on investing in a lot of these industries. the president and the white house not focused on that. they are focused on the russia investigation, tweeting against the attorney general. we have a crazy circus in the u.s. china is like okay, forget about your steel tariffs, we don't care, we'll do all these advances on ai and leave you in the dust. not a great scene for the u.s. right now on that front. >> steve, last point. >> i think when you see comes like ali baba hanging in there with google and defining what ai is in the future and i see us unfolding a brunch unch of tari

and remember china could say we won't show up to a treasury auction one day and we'll see how solid we are in our america first policies. >> it is an excellent point. these are companies of future. amazon, google, these are our on companies of the future. and you know how the president feels about amazon. up next, russia flexing its military muscle. vladimir putin touting new nuclear missiles that can reach almost any target on earth and claims weapons cannot be stopped by any defense system. how do you chase what you love with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis? do what i did. ask your doctor about humira. it's proven to help relieve pain and protect joints from further irreversible damage in many adults. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis.

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welcome back. russia is flexing its military muscle this morning or at least they are talking a big game. president vladimir putin unveiling a new line of nuclear weapons in his annual state of the union address. those weapons he claims could reach almost anywhere in the world and would render american defense systems useless. ali, this sounds like a direct message to washington. but do we believe it? >> good morning. it certainly sounded like a direct message to america, didn't it? a speech strong on russian security and military prowess that in part sounded like it

came straight out of the cold war era, throwing down the gauntlet for a potential arms race with the u.s. putin said that the u.s. military buildup would eventually render russia's nuclear arsenal pointless unless moscow acts now. he said russia has a new line of nuclear capable weapons that can breach u.s. defenses and that russia is testing new underwater drones which can carry nuclear warheads, developing new intercontinental ballistic missiles that couldn't be shopped and could reach anywhere in the planet as you mentioned. arguing that all of these systems have been developed in response to the united states not genuinely interested in meaningful dialogue with russia and that russia had no option but to counter a massive arms build up by america. putin also sent a message of defiance saying all of these attempts at trying to curb russia had failed. and all of the achievements and

advances were punctuated with videos and animations to back up what he was saying as the audience clapped in proud agreement as he delivered his speech. >> of course he had a crowd applauding his speech. that is how it works when vladimir putin speaks in russia. ali, thank you so much. i appreciate you giving us this pretty disturbing update. before we go, you know how i like to end the show. no matter what, there is always good news somewhere. and around these parts, we think good news rules. a high school in indiana is responding to the florida shooting and other threats by trying to spread some positive vibes. 30 students got together and posted more than 5,000 messages of kindness and support around their school. the idea was to lift people's spirits. and i'm going to say you definitely did. look right there. don't stop until you're proud. and every day, we should wake up and be able to feel that way. that wraps up this hour.

coming up right you now, more news with hallie jackson. good morning to you. i hope you have a wonderful day. you extraordinary talented rule. >> right back at you. >> it is women's history month. >> wait until you see the big picture. just wait. sigh you in see you in an hour. we'll talk new developments in the gun debate, not on capitol hill with the senate back in session, but inside corporate america. another company, another new policy from the private sector, but in the political universe fallout and skepticism. after 24 hours of tur moilg tmo triggered by the president's stunning comments to lawmakers. today i'm told he is meeting with families affected by gun violence even as it seems that he is trying to walk back a bit from those policies that pit him against his own party and against the nra. we'll have that gun rights groups response ne.