unlikely to end quietly, hallie. >> we'll check back in with you throughout the morning. that does it for us. this busy hour of "msnbc live." right now craig melvin picks it up in new york. >> craig melvin here, msnbc headquarters, new york city. messy and confusing, that's how a trump administration official describes what the white house position may look like now that the president is retreating on background checks. the nra may be why. i'll talk about what happens now with the ground swell of momentum behind gun reform with two of the parkland shooting survivors now at the forefront of the movement. also a hard sell. a team of female trump loyalists spreading out in key states looking to woo suburbans specifically but with a low approval rating, their job only going to get harder. pushing the limits. the latest move by the trump administration that would keep migrant families detained even

longer. we'll dig into that in a moment. we start this hour waiting for president trump due to leave the white house any moment now. and if he talks to reporters, we may find out more on the president's thinking about his changing positions on changing this country's gun laws. tuesday the president appeared to be backing off, open to expanding background checks on gun buyers, the week after mass shootings after shootings in dayton and el paso, he seemed to be at odds with the nra. now with a conversation with the nra chief, the administration and nra seem to be in lockstep. lapierre tweeting on tuesday, quote, the president supports our right to keep and bear arms. let's break it down with l.a. times white house reporter eli sokols, former deputy of state and spokesperson for hillary clinton is also with me. eli, i'll start with you.

president trump 12 days ago said he was in disagreement with the nra, perhaps. here's what he said then, and what he said on tuesday after that conversation with wayne lapierre. >> look, the nra has over the years taken a very, very tough stance on everything. and i understand it. it's a slippery slope. they think you prove one thing and that leads to a lot of bad things. i don't agree with it. i think we can do meaningful, very meaningful background checks. >> a lots of the people that put me where i am are strong believers in the second amendment, i am also. we have to be very careful about that. they call it the slippery slope. all of a sudden everything gets taken away. we're not going to let that happen. >> we have seen this from the president before, eli. how do you know where the president actually stands on an issue? >> it's hard because he's often saying completely opposing and contradicting things. i was with the president the day that he traveled to dayton and

el paso following the mass shootings in those cities. and he was, you know, expressing a lot of confidence. not just publicly but privately to reporters on the plane on the way home that this was going to happen, that it was a done deal, that he could convince republicans and the nra and bring them along. that obviously was overstating the reality. he'd had conversations that day, i'm told, with wayne lapierre and those conversations have continued. for the president, he often says what he thinks he needs to say in the moment. you know, and this is why we as journalists mostly we pay attention to what he says but we have to watch what he actually does because a lot of times the things he's saying when he's seeing coverage of these mass shootings on television, they change when that coverage goes away. the salient of an issue corresponds with how much coverage it's getting on television because the president is such an avid consumer of news in that form. and i think, you know, not just

the conversations with wayne lapierre but, perhaps, he senses the urgency of this has waned a little bit who is allowing the president, who is obviously very concerned about not losing his base heading into re-election, a lot of those factors are credibilityi in contributing to what we saw yesterday and the president backing away from the notion of congress doing background checks with his support. >> i talked to senator chris murphy on this broadcast, democrat from connecticut, about the problems of getting gun legislation through. this is part of what senator murphy said to me. >> there's in mythology in the republican party that if you cross the nra that you will lose a primary election or you will lose a general election against a democrat. that's just not true. it's never been true. the nra has never been as powerful as republicans think they are. and today the nra is in absolute chaos. >> you've been in the game a

long time. if what senator murphy just said is true, that it's an organization that's in chaos, how do we then explain the kind of control it seems to have over the legislate ty agenda? >> well, i would say two things. senator murphy brings up something interesting, which i think is a misunderstanding about the nra. for the longest time i thought the nra represented, you know, half the country. we always dumb every issue down to half republicans, half democrats. that's not the case. the nra has fewer members than people realize. the numbers are not public. but their revenue is public. and based on some back of the envelope math, they seem to have several million members. obviously, that's a lot of people. but the nra does not represent every gun owner in america. the reason that's important is because you see at moments like this that you have incredibly high across-the-board support for background checks.

whether it's 92% among democrats, 89% among republicans. same thing among independents. those numbers are remarkable. we don't see that anymore. in terms of the nra being in chaos, look, i got to say, wayne lapierre just earned every penny of his crazy, you know, clothing and wardrobe budget, these millions they're paying him for his home. he earned it in a 30-minute phone call because, you know, i have to give a little -- an inch here in that donald trump is not a gun nut. i mean, he's a new york republican when it comes to guns. this is something that if people put a full press on him, something would happen. instead, we're going through the same cycle because, frankly, he has the attention span of a flea, but so do we. we keep having these same conversations every time there's a shooting. the nra's real weakness is

they've lost their talking points going all the way back to parkland -- actually, to vegas. they no longer can say what they had said for years, which is that people would have gotten the guns anyway. in almost, i believe, every case or near every case in the last two or three years, the guns were purchased legally. the bump stocks, the incredibly strange large magazines. until the moment these people open fire and started to shoot and kill people, they had not broken the law. and this notion that there's a slippery slope to background checks, to overturn, the second amendment, that's insane. the second amendment is never going anywhere. if we're at a point where we're opening the constitution to the second amendment, the republican party has a much bigger problem in terms of what we would go after for change. >> in "the new york times," a colleague says the president desires adulation but also a

recognition that turning out passionate supporters in 2020 may be a better route to a second term than trying to attract undecided voters. what's the sense you get from covering this white house, eli? does re-election, does it cover pretty much all of the policy decisions the president makes or does he not consider them a great deal? >> i think overall that is the strategy the president adopts and so does this campaign. it's a base election, you have to juice turnout. there are fewer undecided voters out there at this point. an issue like this, even though 90% of the country supports background checks, they don't see this as an issue that is going to be the deciding thing for those few undecided voters. trump obviously much more concerned about some erosion of his base. that is a point that a lot of these gun groups and folks pushing away from the president to back away from background checks, they made that point over and over because they have observed this president for the

better part of three years. they know one thing that animates him and freaks him out is the prospect of losing his core supporters. >> eli, thank you. you'll come back and join me in a few minutes. if the government won't take the first step in reforming this country's gun laws, some activists say they certainly will. the organization march for our lives today rolling out a new initiative to cut gun violence in this country and cut it dramatically. the group was founded in the wake of that february 2018 mass shooting at stoneman high school in parkland, florida. 17 students and staff members were killed in that attack. the group's first effort, marches in washington and across the country and around the world, in fact, on march 24th of that year brought out more than a million people to demond action on gun reform. with us, two co-founders of the march for our lives movement, david hogg and tia roberts, both students at douglas high school. both survivors of that 2018

shooting. a big thanks to both of you this morning. before we talk about the initiative, tia, your reaction to the president and what appears to be once again some wavering here on expanding background checks. >> of course. well, it's not like the wavering is unexpected. all we ask is that if you don't agree with us, if you don't agree with our plan, then come up with your own bold plan. and so that's what we ask of all politicians, really. >> david, in a nutshell here, tell us what your group is calling for in this new peace plan, as you guys are calling it. >> well, we're calling for a multitude of things, none of which could be fully covered in this interview. that's why i would encourage people to go to marchf marchforourlives.com to take a look at the plan. the plan is a bold response to the amount of gun deaths we have every single year in the united states right now.

it's not a plan looking to get democrats or republicans elected. it's looking to get americans that are morally just leaders elected, that care about people dying across the nation on a daily basis. we see all the mass shootings that happen on tv, but we don't see the everyday shootings that happen nearly as much. we especially don't see the majority of gun deaths, which are suicides, predominantly in rural and suburban areas. we never hear about the root causes of gun violence which are unjustice. we hope this plan can address that in the first place. >> what about the president's assertion that so much of it goes back to mental illness as well? >> i think it's important to remember that what is not going to get us out of this issue is stigmatizing mental health more. we need to realize that as americans that people that are mentally ill are significantly more likely to be the victims of gun violence rather than the perpetrators. we've seen a massive double-digit increase in gun suicides and overall suicides over the past decade.

and only talking about mental health, instances where you're talking about the motivations of someone committing a mass shooting, is not going to help resolve the situation or help anyone in the united states. >> this past weekend we saw protests in all 50 states. some large, some smaller. protesters calling for changing the gun laws in this country things appeared to once again be stalled on a federal level. are you seeing progress on the local level, on the state level? >> of course. there's always progress that's being made by grassroots activists, people who are on the ground in those same protests. that's what we really tried to highlight in the peace plan. we brought together people from all over the country. we brought together survivors, policymakers, real game-changers in this movement that are talking about gun violence prevention. and the peace plan we've created out of those same sentiments and

the same people who are on the ground marching really came through. >> you know, from time to time, we hear from both of you on the broadcast here and i see you on other stations as well. and i don't think we always ask you how you're doing. you're mass shooting survivors. you've devoted your lives to crisscross the country to affect some sort of change. on a personal level, how are you doing? how are you coping? >> i think what we need to think about isn't so much how are we doing but how are the people not currently on tv doing. how are the survivors that walk over blood-stained sidewalks on a daily basis that don't get the recognition of historical injustice that causes gun violence in so many communities across the united states. that's what we hope to address in in plan. behope to come up with community-based solutions and creating federal funding for programs that address the root

causes of gun violence. not just creating stronger gun law says and not just talking about mental health but by talking about every single aspect of this issue sz what it is, a public health issue that won't be solved by more mass incarceration. we realize that if mass incarceration solved our issue, tyah and i won't be sitting here right now when we have the highest prisoner population in the world. >> i think that's a good spot to end it. give us the website one more time. >> if you want to check out the peace plan you can go to marchforourlives.com. even if you don't agree with what we say, go out there and look. right now we need some leadership in this country and we need politicians to go out with a plan. when they only debate these things again and again after every mass shooting, and donald trump goes out after parkland and says he wants to ban assault weapons and backtracks and then another mass shooting happens and he does the same thing, we

need to show him that's not okay. we need to work with anybody that's willing to work with us to get these policies enacted. if donald trump wanted to come to us and have a meeting with us to talk about how we can address and reduce gun violence as a public health crisis in the united states, we're more than willing to do that. >> you correct me if i'm wrong, but i feel like you were at the meeting at the white house in the wake of the shooting where the president did publicly proclaim something was going to be done. were you not? >> i wasn't at the white house but many of the other survivors of the parkland shooting were there. what i hope we can understand is that we need actual federal policy and a plan. universal background checks is not enough. we need to recognize what the framers did not intend the second amendment to be was an issue that ended up taking 40,000 american lives annually. we need to realize we need to properly interpret it because up until d.c. versus heller, the second amendment was not interpreted the way it is currently. >> we'll leave it there. tyah, thank you. david, thanks as always as well.

winning over women. that's the goal for a team of the president's loyal female supporters as they fan out across the country this week. but with a low approval rating among women especially and those growing economic worries, how tough a sell is that going to be? also, nearly all of the 2020 democrats are in iowa today. they are set to address a labor convention. we'll head to iowa as elizabeth warren is scheduled to address the crowd this hour. owd this ho.

president trump surrogates hitting the road tomorrow making a tough sell to suburban women in a multi-state blitz. it's about economic empowerment and trying to win them over for 2020. with a possible economic slowdown looming, will it be enough to mobilize women republicans who abandoned last fall. i'm joined by gabby orr who looks at the trump strategy coast to coast and cornell belcher and lynette lopez. what exactly is the trump campaign trying to do to win over these voters? >> well, craig, the first point they're trying to make is that the president has a record of empowering women during his last 2 1/2 years as president. through economic empowerment, doing things like including a

paid family leave plan in the white house budget, including -- they've been talking a lot about lowering the unemployment rate for women. so, that's something they plan to take to at least 13 states thursday night. they'll be hosting this evening of empowerment. that's the way the trump campaign is billing it. this will include surrogates ranging from former governors, jan brewer in arizona will partake in this nationwide event, to campaign spokespeople like katrina pearson. the main goal is to bring women voters to the tablk about the president's record and their view to deploy them as pro-trump spok spokespeople in their own community. the biggest obstacle they face is the warning signs of an economic downturn. the questions they'll have to answer these women may have. i spoke to a trump volunteer

yesterday in iowa. i said if women come to this event and they ask you, we're seeing all these warning signs of a possible recession, what is your response? essentially she told me, i'm just going to tell them it's a lie, it's a hoax. beyond that there's nothing she can say to asuasuage their concerns. >> those polls gabby cites, they should be troubling for the campaign. there's the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows a 33-point gap in support for trump among college educated women. that's a staggering gap. there's this approval rating that stands at about 34% for women in general. how hard of a sell is this going to be for the surrogates crisscrossing the country? >> well, it's monumental because, with all due respect, it's not the economy, stupid. particularly when it comes to women. if you look at what happened in

2018, trump did his worse where the economy was actually doing its best. and it was -- and democrats did well on the backs of college educated white women moving strongly -- moving to democrats in a way they hadn't before. hillary didn't win college educated white women. barack didn't either. obama lost white voters by 20 points. hillary lost white voters by 20 points. this past election democrats lost white voters by 10 percentage points. if you can't compete among college educated white women, if you look at the suburbs like philadelphia and go further, look at orange county, what's happening in orange county right now, once a republican stronghold. it means they're less competitive across the board. and the top issue driving these women away from the republican party, i hate to say it, but it -- i don't hate to say it. it's not the economy. i mean, the economy is always an

issue but what they're seeing coming from this white house and what's represented by these republicans are a lot more visceral to these women than simply a pocketbook transaction. >> i want to play just a bit here. of the president's daughter-in-law, laura trump. this is what she said at the launch of women for trump. here's what she said. >> what you need to think about is your life. is your life better now than it was before donald trump got elected? do you have a little more money in your bank account? did you get a break on your tax returns this year? >> in a way the messaging seems to mirror what we heard from the president during the campaign that he pitched to african-americans -- >> what do you have to lose? >> what the hell do you have to lose? it didn't work with african-american voters. what does he have to sell this time to women this is. >> women know what they have to lose this time. that's the thing. think about the tariffs, right? president trump got on television yesterday and said, no matter what happens, no

matter how bad the economy gets, we're going to do this thing with china because i said we're going to do it and we have a trade war on and this is what we're going to do. the american people increasingly do not like this trade war and they see the damage it's doing to the economy. we know we're getting a round in september, we know we're getting a round in december. that scares people. not only do they know the economy could possibly be weakening, they know it's a man-made weakness. in is about donald trump's trade war. so, you know, a lot of people didn't get as much money as the wealthy back on their tax returns. this was not a particularly great tax cut for the middle class, for the people that lara trump is talking to. she's not one of those people, so i'm sure she actually doesn't know. but the point is is that the economy wasn't that great. and it looks like it's not going to get any better. that's thanks to donald trump. the economic messaging is all wrong. >> meanwhile politico also reporting here, cornel, that the

trump team is bracing republican donors, apparently, for this moderate and short recession. this is a piece by nancy cook. how do they square that warning to donors and what they're selling to voters? >> brother, i have no idea i have no idea. >> i say that every day. i say that every day. >> it's nonsensical. look, part of the problem is also if you look at the polling numbers early on, it's not like the vast majority of americans were giving donald trump the credit for the -- for the economic -- for the economic sort of upswing that we're in. but be clear, if the economy turns downward, the president always takes the fall for it and it's going -- it's already hurting him with college educated white women and it's also going to hurt him with blue-collar workers. look at north carolina, there's a bicycle manufacturer in south

carolina that can't expand directly because of donald trump's trade war. not only in blue places but i think in a lot of the red states, it's going to hurt him as well. >> and, meanwhile, inettlinette have the president saying he's considering a payroll attack cut, considering other mechanisms by which he would cut taxes. not capital gains, but -- >> the payroll tax would give americans an average of $84 a month back in their pockets. it is nothing. so, this is not going to save americans. maybe it's a cute pitch but hopefully the american people are smarter than to hear this kind of gloss. according to jpmorgan, american households are about to lose $1,000 a year on the trade war. we've -- it hasn't even ramped up yet and the chinese promise to retaliate. we have to see what that looks like. no, this payroll tax isn't going to do much for people, but it is an admission that something is

seriously wrong and that the trump administration needs to do something. so, again, the president's talking out of two sides of his mouth here. i'm great at managing the economy. help, we need a payroll tax cut and i'm going to beat up on the federal reserve. >> thank you. fascinating article, gabby. thank you for your time. labor intensive. the entire roster of presidential contenders will be addressing a major labor contention in iowa today, including elizabeth warren. she's expected to speak this hour. we'll head to the hawkeye state live next. also, the latest presidential outrage. this time over his comments about jewish voters. >> any jewish people that vote for a democrat, i think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or grace disloyalty. k of knowlee or grace disloyalty.

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all eyes on iowa once again today as they frequently are this time of year, as the democratic presidential candidates make their pitch to the state's nearly 100,000 union workers. nbc road warrior garrett haake is in altoona, iowa.

set the scene for us. there appears to be -- i think that's john delaney going on behind you. what can we expect at this thing? >> reporter: that's right. i'll keep my voice down. congressman delaney is the first speaker. this schedule scrambled by bad weather. you have union leaders from across the state of iowa whose votes are important but so too are their support. these are organizers, activists, folks who will go back and talk to their shop stewards, talk to folks in their factories and offices. a lot of people people say they want to hear from all 15 candidates who are here today. they want to hear from issues you might expect. like right to work laws, how to fight back against union-busting around the country, particularly here in iowa, how to build union membership. the other sleeper issue a lot of folks want to hear about is health care. specifically things like medicare for all, how that would work with their own union plans

many of these folks fought for very hard. should be an interesting day. >> garrett haake there using his golf commentator voice inside the room in altoona. i want to bring in tiffany cross, editor of the beat d.c., and back with me spokes american haveman for hillary clinton, fa phillipe ryan. how important are these labor candidates who want to win the primary and to democrats' big picture, do unions carry the kind of weight in iowa that they always have? >> well, i mean, the popular belief is that unions don't carry the same weight they did over the years, but that doesn't mean they don't carry any weight. to the extent that people, you know, the candidates are, you know, currying their vote, it's because, one, they need every vote in iowa. and, two, because to the extent

the unions do still have power, it's on the very important side of organizing. and iowa is all about organizing. the caucuses and getting people out, getting people to the caucuses, it's a very different and difficult process and the unions can be a huge help. it's why you see them all trying to win over their vote. >> i wanted to float something here. it may not go very well with people that live in iowa or new hampshire. this idea that iowa and new hampshire both have such an outsized importance in a democratic primary contest when neither one of the states accurately represents the primary demographic for the party. is that a conversation that's been had behind closed doors, at least? >> it's definitely not one that's been happening out in the open, that's for sure. that's the surest way to lose

iowa and new hampshire is to question their importance in the process. look, you know, if you look at the last few nominees, there has been a correlation between iowa and the ooeeventual nominee. for a while that was not true. in terms of the general election, democrats have not always been carrying iowa and particularly new hampshire, which hillary clinton did carry, was incredibly close. so, you know, i think diminish their roles in the process at your own risk. whether they reflect the demographic or not. >> tiffany, i want to get your reaction. this is video we just got in of beto in marshaltown, iowa. as we take a look at the congressman from texas, doing what the democratic contenders will have to do between now and the caucuses early next year.

retail politics in the hawkeye state. i want to get your reaction to something the president said yesterday. on the other side, i want to talk about the correct and appropriate response. this is -- everyone's probably seen it and heard it. president trump, ol' offival of talking specifically about jewish americans. >> i think any jewish people that vote for a democrat, i think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty. >> whether he's saying something like that or talking about buying greenland or any of the other ridiculous things this president has been known to say from time to time, what's n your view, the best way to handle these things? is it to criticize the president ad nauseum or just ignore him? >> ignore him, ignore him. the man who paid off an adult film actress seems to think he's

the god of the israeli people. there's a good reason he's saying this. in the 2018 midterms, nearly 80% of the jewish community voted democrat. now this president is suggesting members of the jewish faith should vote for republicans. he's trying to conflate the interest of netanyahu's right-wing government with religious beliefs which we all know are not the same. and he's really trying to destroy the credibility of two members of congress by making them the face. they're the new face of this evil thing that people must target. and i have to say, craig, congresswoman tlaib and omar it's because this president has said something ridiculous. they have introduced -- this speak to underrepresented

communities. congresswoman omar focused on school lunch and kids getting shamed by not having enough money to pay for school lunch. i say we ignore him and focus on more substance. >> we were just showing some candidates in iowa. elizabeth warren also spending a fair amount of time in iowa. gq, as you've heard, they dubbed this the summer of warren. it's been a slow and steady climb for her in the campaign. do you see this as elizabeth warren's moment or the beginning of something even larger? >> listen, i think in politics, a week is an eternity. i think there will be a lot of moments. i do say elizabeth warren has had a slow and steady rise. she's coined the phrase, she's got a plan for that. i want to go back to something you talked about with iowa and new hampshire. you hit it on the head, craig. iowa and new hampshire are 90% and 94% white majority. with the way the primaries are set up when california weighs in, when nevada weighs in, these

are going to be communities that are much more reflective of where america is going. so, we have to see how those states respond to candidates like elizabeth warren, kamala harris, like cory booker, like beto and pete buttigieg. we have a long way to go before the first round of voting so we'll have more breakout moments. the next detat is at texas university. i think that will bring a lot of attention to education issues, which we haven't talked a lot about. can i quickly weigh in on the labor issue as well. other pane point but i think labor workers have a lot of work to do. when you look at leaders across the labor movement, there hasn't been a lot of outreach to some of their base. that's why in 2016 you saw a lot of labor movement fracture and some of those people voted for donald trump because there hadn't been a lot of engagement with the big labor movements here in d.c. so i think we have to make sure

that labor is focusing on energizing some of their members who aren't frequently engaging with the big umbrella. >> we'll leave it there. thanks for pulling double duty. appreciate it. detaining migrant families with no limitations. that's what the trump administration is hoping a new rule will allow them to do. what we're learning about that plan and how they're bracing for the expected legal challenges. i. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. ...and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com. my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. and this is me now!

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right now in iowa, altoona, iowa, more specifically, elizabeth warren, senator from massachusetts, candidate for the democratic nomination, is speaking at this labor union. let's listen in for just a bit. >> giant oil companies. it's just not working for people who are worried about climate change. it's working great for giant drug companies. just not for people who are trying to get a prescription filled. when you've got a government that works great for those that can hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers and make huge campaign contributions and set up their own think tanks and bought and paid for experts, but it's not working for working people. that is corruption, pure and simple. and we need to call it out for what it is. [ applause ]

corruption. corruption that keeps this government working great. for big pharma, for big banks, for big ag, for big tech, and not for working people. so, i got three ideas about what we do about that. number one, we have to attack the corruption head-on. we've got to be willing to go after it, call it out for what it is, regardless of what party it is in and just say, we're in all the way to fight it. that we want a government that works for us. here's the good news. because money is felt everywhere in washington. here's the good news. i now have the biggest anti-corruption bill since watergate. that's the good news. here's the bad news. we need the biggest anti-corruption bill since watergate. it's just not working for us out there. let me tell you a couple parts of it.

my bill says end lobbying as we know it. block the revolving door between wall street and washington. and just one more on that that i'll mention. you really want to root out some corruption? make some every single person who runs for federal office put their tax returns online. [ applause ] >> there you have it, senator elizabeth warren speaking at the iowa federation of labor. this is their annual convention. some 100,000 union members there in iowa. they're expecting roughly 19 of the presidential contenders to address that group. senator elizabeth warren there detailing parts of her plan. meanwhile, trump administration taking an issue among widespread criticism, lawsuits even pushing that issue further than it has before. it has to do with the detention of migrant families. acting secretary of homeland

security kevin mackcaleenan jus announced a new plan on how long it can detain migrant families. this is what the acting secretary said to reporters this morning. >> it allows us to keep families together through the immigration proceedings. we have three family residential centers, about 3,000 total family beds in those centers. what this will do is substantially increase our ability to end the catch and release challenges that have fueled this crisis for families. >> let me bring in nbc correspondent who kors the homeland security and president and ceo of lutheran immigration center, and policy director to former first lady michelle obama. walk us through the new plan and i understand you have brand-new reporting to share with us as well. >> i do. first of all, to the plan this morning, this is their work-around on the flores agreement that only allowed children to be held for 20 days. in 2015 they said that applies to children even in custody with

their parents. they now want to say that i.c.e. can license these facilities. they don't need the state to license them. somehow that's their work-around. what we can be sure of and administration officials are sure of already is this will be challenged in court. even though there's a 60-day effective phase, they don't expect this to take 60 days. i do have new reporting i can share with you now, craig. we have documents that show there is anxecutive order under consideration by the trump administration that would allow states and local jurisdictions to deny refugees the right to resettle there. according to this, it says the federal government will resettle refugees only where both relevant state and local governments have consented to participate in the refugee resettlement program. so, this is a huge blow to human rights organizations who believe that refugees should be resettled in communities with people from their home country,

to allow them to build that community as they assimilate into american life after they've already fleed violence and persecution in their home countries. this would allow those states to say, no, to say no, we aren't taking them in. the only exemption is for spouses and children. again, this is all under review. i should say spouses and children going to a place where a family member already lives. but this is under review. it could be tightened, some of this could change. as of now we know the administration is considering allowing states and local jurisdictions to say no to refugees who want to resettle there. >> your organization works with these migrant families at the border. how well this proposed executive order change what they face when they come to this country? how will the plan that the acting homeland security secretary outlined this morning, how would it affect these families? >> it will cause significant

issues and exascerbate what we'e seeing. part of the issue is when you allow for children, for babies to be put in prison-like conditions you're reverting to interment comments. the question i think everyone should be asking is how can the leader of the free world revert to the days of interment camps. the second thing that deeply concerns us is here we have a situation where we're allowing for i.c.e. to regulate and to i license these facilities. it's allowing the wolf to guard the sheep. if you want to have a sense of what kind of conditions we could see under this new rule, think about the fact that under the current flores protections which prioritized childrens' interests, we have seen six children die, thousands of children that have been stripped from their parents' arms, as

well as thousands more who allegedly have been abused. >> what do you make of the timing of all of this? do we surmise that there may be some sort of motivation behind the timing? >> i do think it isn't coincidence only we're seeing an uptick in the number of new immigration rules that coincide with a lot of kind of downturn in the economic forecasts in terms of the prospects of a recession. just in the last several days, we've seen the public charge rule that was instituted last week. the week before we did have murmurings that was white house was considering zeroing out a program allowing refugees to be resettled. a program that had always had the highest bipartisan support of any of the policies in place. president reagan resettled the highest number of refugees. i do worry that some of this is

to distract from other news. >> thank you for sharing that new reporting. we're keeping a close eye on the white house where president trump has reportedly -- we're told now stopped to do as he does, speak with reporters there on the lawn before he leaves for kentucky. we'll bring you those comments as soon as we get the tape. u ths as soon as we get the ta chair is just a chair. that a handle is just a handle. or... that you can't be both inside and outside. most people haven't driven a lincoln. it's the final days of the lincoln summer invitation event. right now get 0% apr on all lincoln vehicles plus no payments for up to 90 days. only at your lincoln dealer. stop struggling to clean tough messes with sprays. try new clean freak! it has three times the cleaning power to dissolve kitchen grease on contact.

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breaking news now, president trump is talking to reporters right now. he's about to leave the white house for louisville, kentucky, where he's going to be speaking at a veteran's convention. nbc white house correspondent kelly o'donnell is standing by. what have we heard from the president so far, kelly o., as we wait for the tape? >> reporter: well, craig, the president is making news, disputing some reports about his conversation with the head of the national rifle association. where we had been learning the president may have backed away on background checks, the president insisting he'll do something on the area of background checks. saying he discussed concepts and insists he'll take some action there. we have seen how the president has been talking about taking

some action to make the situation safer in the wake of the el paso and dayton shootings. we've seen how the president has been saying he could get mitch mcconnell, the top republican in the senate, to work on that. and at the same time, we know he's been on the phone with the head of the nra a number of times. there's considerable pressure from that gun lobby about that. he's also been taking questions about the curious story of the sudden cancellation of his planned visit to denmark and his upset over the fact that the prime minister of denmark called it absurd that the united states, particularly the president expressed public interest in purchasing greenland, which is a protect protectorate of denmark. he thought it was not the primary way for the prime minister to address it. that interesting story gets more

interesting and the president again insisting that he wants to take some action on the matter of gone safety. and the details, of course, make all the difference in that arena and there have been reports that the president was cooling on that issue under the pressure of the nra. so we'll have to wait for the specifics of the tape. we're in that period where our colleagues are talking to the president but we don't have access to it yet. i am jumping ahead here, i'm in louisville, kentucky, where the president will address the 75th convention of the american veterans. this is a service organization of veterans. there are a lot of concerns here. this is a non-partisan organization, but the commander in chief speaking here is always an important event. we spoke to veterans earlier and one of the topics that's on their minds is suicide president. hoping the president will address that today when he's in a roomful of veterans. >> kelly o'donnell, ahead of the

president's speech, thank you. we can tell you that the president on the economy once again talking about the fed chair, jerome powell, saying, quote, he raised rates too fast, toofute furious. "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," on ice. president trump canceled an upcoming visit to denmark, announcing on twitter because the danish prime minister refused to set him greenland, a sovereign territory. what's the fallout from denmark? a nato ally whose troops have died alongside americans. donald trump insulting american junes ews say when thee for democrats they show great disloyalty. indefinite detention. the trump administration announces new rules to reverse court