house reporters at the white house. and then, joint sessions develop later, mostly with foreign leaders that the president has those sessions. and then, you have exchanges with reporters. those are the short q&a's that take place on the south lawn with the helicopter whirling in the background, or in the roosevelt room, or the oval office, and sometimes in the cabinet room. these are much more informal sessions. then, the third types are interviews. and so, the last two, the exchanges with reporters and interviews, have increased. in trump's case, he has had many more. when you look at the six presidents, trump has 442. these figures are by the end of june. 442 short question-and-answer sessions, which sometimes can involve one question, but most times are many minutes, and it can go up to 20 minutes or so. they are sessions where the president, especially in the marine one ones, it is a somewhat chaotic situation. and -- [laughter] martha: with people with ladders, cameras, edging their way in. it's a setting where in

one evening at the white house. the president and first lady were heading out. we saw his son, barron was up by the motorcade. i saw him walk across the lawn. normally, we are not allowed to photograph any of the children. we always give them that respect that we aren't going to photograph him unless the president is around. because he was around and we thought he was leaving, the ball started rolling, i thought i should get this. in case they see this video. so, i started photographing. as soon as the two boys saw the tv cameras, they put their jackets over their head. which made it kind of funny and different. you know, the boy, barron always has a secret service agent with him. so, just like every member of the trump family and like every member of the obama family group -- family, they had constant secret service around. i think they just like, sasha and melia, going to school, barron has secret service with him in school. brian this is a unique photo. : people can see your stuff independently on twitter. how do

>> look, nobody in this white house or few people in this white house spent as much time close to the president physically every day as madeleine westerhaut. she had an office just outside of the oval office. she was a gatekeeper for the president. if you wanted to have a chance to talk to him, she was a good person to know in the west wing. and so for her to suddenly be on the outs was shocking to a lot of people. she had been seen as one of the people in his inner circle. mind you, she had previously worked for other republicans. she was not originally a trump supporter in the primaries. but she had works her way into his level of trust. so when he heard about these comments, apparently she had made at this dinner, obviously, you know, pushed over a line that he was willing to tolerate. he says, as he always does, he blames the media. nobody in the media reported on these, that i saw. this got around the white house because they were pretty surprising things for somebody to say, even in a private setting. >> jill, it was interesting too, some of the reporting out there suggests mayb

and the white house rebuffing those efforts. that's information coming from multiple current and former senior administration officials to our own jake tapper. and we learned that dhs officials have been battling the white house for more than a year to get them to focus on domestic terrorism. and when the administration released a report, it was really scantily mentioned in this 20-plus page report. it was put out by the administration last fall. it is called the national counter terrorism strategy. in it, it says that ral islamic terrorists remain the prime threat to the u.s., that domestic terrorism in that document is only mentioned twice without much detail. now this despite the fact even fbi director chris wray recently testified last month that almost as many domestic terror arrests occurred in the first three quarters of this fiscal year as there have been arrested connected to international terrorism. the number of domestic terrorist arrests, about 100. and christopher said the majority were motivated by some version of

the white house denied it to us. the president was asked directly if he and advisors were talking about cutting payroll taxes and here is how he answered. >> so we're talking about indexing and always looking at the capital gain stacks, payroll tax. we're looking at i would love to do something on capital gains, we're talking about that. >> so there is confirming what his an mid station, at least some members were denying to us last night in addition to that he called on the fed to significantly cut interest rates, in order, between that and the tax cuts, the president called for just the kind of measures would one take the economy is slowing down, something top advisors have been going on the v and denying for days. just this morning one of the president's spokes people hogan gidley was denying payroll taxes were being discussed but actually admitted it seconds later in the same interview. >> it's not being considered at this time but he's looking at options to give back the hard-earned money they made. >> if there

the gardens of the white house. we will hear from dr. susan, programs manager for the u.s. botanic garden, jim adams, horticultural manager from the united states botanic garden, and jim mcdaniel, board of directors, like our previous panel, we will hear three short presentations and then our panelists will have a short conversation moderated by dr. chapelle. please join me in welcoming our speakers. [applause] >> thank you, it is an honor to be here today to speak with you about white house gardens. both of our other panelist our named jim and both worked on white house gardens. at the end am going to let you ask questions. we are the last panel of the day and we will finish the discussion by talking about gardens that have been established and modified since the kennedy administration. so from the johnson administration on. in many different ways, the white house gardens have been inspired and used. the start out by talking about garden trends and movements that have inspired and influenced the development of the

she is at the white house this morning. sarah, the white house portrayed a very different reception. they even released a sort of propaganda-like video on social media showing a warm reception, but the facts seem to counter the white house messaging here. >> that's right, jim. the white house did try to portray the president's visits to dayton and el paso as sort of a demonstration of the president's ability to act presidential in these kinds of situations. for example, his social media director, claiming that trump had been refused like a rock star at those places. and president trump, as you mentioned, had disputed the characterizations of local officials in dayton while he was flying from dayton to el paso to visit the scene of the other mass shooting, saying that they had mischaracterized his visit, even though democratic mayor of dayton, nan whaley, ohio senator sher odd brown, both of them had been dmikplitry of the visit itself. the eight surviving victims still being treated at the university medical center in texas

bush white house. she has degrees from new college in sarasota, florida and the university of missouri columbia. to her immediate left is tamara keith, who joined npr in 2009, and has been a white house correspondent since 2014. -- for national public radio since 2014. she co-hosts the npr politics podcast, which is the top political podcast in america. and i admit, it is something i listen to every single week. miss keith has covered the trump administration from day one. covered the final two years of the obama presidency, as well as covering the 2016 presidential campaign, when she was assigned to cover hillary clinton. in 2018, she was elected to serve on the board of the white house correspondents association. she has worked for a number of npr affiliate stations, including wosu in columbus ohio, and kpcc, southern california public radio. she has degrees from the university of california berkeley and the ucb graduate school of journalism. last but not least, she is a member of the bad news babes,

bush white house. she has degrees from new college in sarasota, florida, and the university of missouri columbia. to her immediate left is tamara 009,h who joined npr in 2 and has been a white house correspondent since 2014. npr politicsthe podcast, the political -- the podcast inal america. it is something i listen to every single week. miss keith has covered the trump administration from day one. as well as covering the 2016 presidential campaign when she was assigned to cover hillary clinton. in 2018, she was elected to serve on the board of the white house correspondence association. she has been, she has worked for a number of npr affiliate stations including wosu in columbus ohio, and kpcc, southern california public radio. she has degrees from the university of california berkeley and the ucb graduate school of journalism. last but not least, she is a aember of the bad news babes, media softball team that competes against members of congress and the congressional women softball game. >> and they

is anybody here surprised the president resisted this or the white house resisted this? i would be more surprised if you had atory that said donald trump had a meeting and when this came up, he said, you know what, those rats, they're infesting the country and i want you to go get those white supremacists, we're going to send the military and the border patrol and whatever we have to do to get them but that is not what he said when it comes to white supremacy and that is what he says when it comes to mexicans or immigrants seeking asylum who are trying to get a better life and not the people trying to restrict americans from having a better life. >> and the fbi director christopher wray, appointed by president trump, just testified that the number of arrest is about the same as international terrorism and both of those are white supremacists. >> but the president was clear before the incidents happened that the -- all types of terrorism and oversimplification to say white supremacists or some political line that satisfies a segment of the society, he's talking about all

we came back to the white house. typically, once you get inside the gates of the white house, there is a sense of relief that you have accomplished her mission. there is a little bit of a deep breath. just as we are pulling up to the oval office area where the president gets out, you have seen it many times in a press where he will walk up to the oval office, we got over the radio that there was a fence jumper. the french jumper was over on the ease part of the complex over by the treasury building. i was sitting in the right front seat of the limousine and i had to turn back to the president and say, we have a fence jumper and we have to stand in the vehicle until we get the issue resolved. and he said, a fence jumper, where? he started looking behind him and looking through. i was kind of glad for that response. after a few seconds goes on, he cannot see the fence jumper and i am not hearing it's all clear yet. then we say we have to get into the oval office. all that time i knew the uniformed officers and the agen

we came back to the white house. typically, once you get inside the gates of the white house, there is a sense of relief that you have accomplished her mission. there is a little bit of a deep breath. just as we are pulling up to the oval office area where the president gets out, you have seen it many times in a press where he will walk up to the oval office, we got over the radio that there was a fence jumper. and the fence jumper was over on the east part of the complex over by the treasury building. i was sitting in the right front seat of the limousine and i had to turn back to the president and say, we have a fence jumper and we have to stand in the vehicle until we get the issue resolved. and he said, a fence jumper, where? he started looking behind him and looking through. i was kind of glad for that response. after a few seconds goes on, he cannot see the fence jumper and i am not hearing it's all clear yet. than the president started joe, we have to get into the oval office. all that time i knew the uniforme

they said talk to the white house. i asked the white house. they said talk to the state department. not a whole lot of answers coming from the trump administration. >> they call that the old runaround. i got two people who worked for the state department, worked for a democrat and republican. jump ball for which of you wants to talk about how unusual and troubling it is the state department would be helping rudy giuliani on this. >> ambassador kurt volcker has an extraordinary reputation, bipartisan reputation. he was during the bush administration the u.s. ambassador to nato. so he's someone who respects and appreciates the united states' commitment to nato. honestly if i have to give my best analysis of this it is an example of the ukrainian leadership and state department leadership trying to placate an unhinged actor in the form of rudy giuliani and trying to mitigate the damage that he does when he goes out into the press making crazy product clamations. and when you look at rudy giuliani was at the forefront of donald trump's legal defense and missteps he had say on sean hanni

they keep marching around and around the white house. they circled the property four times or five times. they go back to cameron house on lafayette square and say, well, we are going to keep the pickets up. if you will not even meet with us, we are not stopping. we will keep going with pickets. so they keep it up throughout the spring of 1917. by the end of april, u.s. is now involved in world war i. now what do you do? do you keep criticizing the president in this very public way while we are at war? you know public opinion is going to turn against it will continue to be the biggest stumbling block. it says president wilson are deceiving russia. they say we are a democracy, help us win a world war so that democracy may survive. we the women of america tell you that america is not a democracy. 20 million american women are denied the right to vote. help us make this nation really free, that it must deliberate its people. this message is for photographs and newspaper coverage. today this would be a tweet. public opinion does turn against

can they pressure the white house? john: they can't ake a collaps in the stock market and can't take a collapse in agricultural ates. so not much more pain is the answer. robert: we'll keep an eye on what happens on capitol hill when everyone is back. for noin the summer, all eyes on the democratic race for president. th week 10 democrats qualifie for the deba in houston, texas. it'll be the first time vice president biden will share the stageagit senator warren. 10 others will tr to stay in the hunt the spite not making the stage. new york senator crirsen jill the race, ed out o all this comes as the political map is redrawn with georgia looking morend more like possible battleground. races in 2020, following the announcement this week by g.o.p. senator johnny isakson that he'll retire at the end of this year due to his health. we wish him the best. when you think about the iowa caucuses, there was big news on friday. you have theemocratic national committee saying, we dent want to have virtual caucuses. ucuses by pho

who was running that at the white house? >> my answer would be the white house communications agency and that is a part of the department of defense. when their sheet came in, it is the one that says the presidents call and it puts the time and it says the call to the sea of tranquility, the moon. we have those notes in the exhibition. how much time did he spend prepping for what he would say to the astronauts? do any of you know? >> i don't. >> i can't say. >> probable considerable time knowing him. i can imagine he was in the office with a pad on his lap and he wrote out several different thoughts you might have and how he would do it. this is a man who always prepared. he always wanted to tell the story about winston churchill and how one time someone came up to winston churchill and said how do you do that, it is so great. and winston churchill said part of the work i do is writing out those responses. >> one of the things we always did was have special remarks for anything he might be speaking about ahead of time. the p

house to make domestic terrorism a higher priority in the strategy, and the white house kept pushing back. what's your reaction? >> well, apparently he doesn't like to hear the words "white supremacist" in anything, so they cut back on any references to domestic terrorism and acknowledged that as a growing problem. as you know, chris wray only a couple months ago, acknowledged that domestic terrorism is a growing concern and that much of that is associated with white supremacy actions. >> sources tell cnn that the house judiciary committee is considering come coming back early to work on gun-related legislation, including perhaps red flag legislation, perhaps even a ban on some kinds of semiautomatic assault weapons, semiautomatic weapons, limits on high-capacity magazines. is there anything in there that i mentioned that you think could get through the republican-controlled senate? >> not as long as mitch mcconnell is in charge. we can't even get the law that was passed -- the bill that was passed by the house, which is just a background check law. so there are two people who are ho

bush white house invited the president of china hu jintao to come visit the white house. it was clear this would not work. it was clear it would be tense from the beginning. i mean in the first instance t chinese wanted hu jintao to get a full state treatment. george w. bush says no, it won't be a state's visit but an official visit, in terms of protocol and poms and circumstances. the chinese wanted hu jintao to have dinner at the white house. george w. bush says no, we want you to come but we are not going to giver y you dinner but how at lunch. the bush's administration, disaster rousley botched to the hurricane. it had to be called off the last minute because of katrina and got postponed until months later. april, 2006, they were at last able to do this difficult thing. it then turned out to be a nice day. jintao got his 21 salute and they brought out the drum cord which was a cool thing to see in the colonial drum core outfit. quickly things start to go off the rail. you can tell that in part. the archive ap footage summing up that day is slugged with this title. "an

here is one from the white house briefing room. doug: that one got a lot of interesting comments on twitter. it was a day when we had seen the president couple times, i believe. the white house press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders, who i have gotten to really know and respect, she has the toughest job in the white house so far, , by far, she was doing her daily briefing. because we had seen the president a couple of times and where my desk is at the white house reading room, it is all the way in the back. i can hear on the pa when the secretary comes in and starts speaking. i was not planning to go out and photograph her until question started. when she said she had a guest with her, i grabbed my camera and run up to the briefing room. that would be his first time in the briefing room. all of a sudden, a feed shows on the monitor. all of a sudden it was like, this is a first, i have never seen this. it was an interesting day. her face -- the questions that she got about it, they were interesting. but again, she has a tough job.

who was running the rope line at the white house. >> my answer would be white house communications agency. that's part of the department of defense. and when their sheet came in, it is the one that says the president's call, puts the time and says to, the call to the sea of tranquility, the moon. >> we have those notes in the exhibition. it says call to the sea of tranquility on the moon. how much time did he spend prepping for what he would say to the astronauts? do any of you know? >> i don't. >> i would say probably considerable time, knowing him. i can envision that he was over in the office with his yellow pad on his lap and that he wrote out several different thoughts that he might have on how he would do it. this is a man who always prepared. he loved to tell the story about winston churchill. how churchill, one time somebody came up to winston churchill and said how in the world, the spontaneous remarks of yours are so special. they're so great. and winston churchill said some of the hardest work i do is writing those spontaneous remarks. >> just to add to that, he often came out

donald trump is the white house. this is not a white house where you say what is the chief of staff saying, the acting chief of staff. what is the point person on gun safety? it really comes down to sort of what is the feeling? the mood? the last person to talk to the president? whenever this all comes together. >> yeah. you're exactly right about that. the reality is he did go out and say to his staff, come one some proposals and tell me about them. it is aides talking to other people. you're right. it will come down to what the president wants to do and what he's feeling about this. and we know that he is getting pressured from both sides, right? and there is a lot of politics involved here. so he knows, and people that are trying to prevent him from pushing gun legislation are saying to him, you're going to lose your base. they're not going to like. this you're going to lose support in this 2020 election. we also know that there are a number of people, republicans, who are saying to him, you can push some proposal

here is one from the white house briefing room. doug: that one got a lot of interesting comments on twitter. it was a day when we had seen the president couple times, i believe. the white house press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders, who i have gotten to really know and respect, she has the toughest job in the white house, by far, she was doing her daily briefing. because we had seen the president a couple of times and where my desk is at the white house reading room, it is all the way in the back. i can hear on the pa when the secretary comes in and starts speaking. i was not planning to go out and photograph her until question started. when she said she had a guest with her, i grabbed my camera and run up to the briefing room. that would be his first time in the briefing room. all of a sudden, a feed shows on the monitor. all of a sudden it was like, this is a first, i have never seen this. it was an interesting day. her face -- the questions that she got about it, they were interesting. but again, she has a tough job. just like

how about back at the white house? >> it was -- it was -- i mean, i felt personally like i had a split personality because on the one hand you were trying to figure out what do you need to do now. as i think dwight said earlier, it's out of your control. on the other hand you're sitting there thinking about all the other things that could go wrong in this chain of events that take place over more than a number of days. and it really -- i mean, you couldn't get it off your mind, but you didn't want to think about it sometimes. it was very unique. >> as you would walk down the corridor in the west wing, you could hear from room to room every television was on by every staff person in the white house. >> wow. okay. now, there has been a lot of attention paid in the last couple of weeks to william sapphire writing a memo to your boss, larry, called the in event of moon disaster, offering suggested remarks in the case of a mission failure and that the apollo 11 astronauts did not survive. has that been overstated a little b

isn't there an irony here that it is the white house itself that it is the white house itself thatis that it is the white house itself that is at times stoking extremism and online, on twitter? online and in mainstream media as well. i see this a little bit as a way of distracting from taking responsibility on the part of the white house for that and on the gun control laws. i'm not saying you don't need to do something, you do, it's difficult but it is by no means the only piece of response that we should be looking for from, particularly, the us government to think about how you deal with these incidents. do you think it is a deliberate smoke show by the white house to put out statements like this? yes. you believe so. in your view? in my view, yes. that is not to say we should do nothing online, of course we should, a lot of workers going into that. it is a handy fall guy for where the blame, perhaps, really lies. mike weston, thank you very much. shares of ride hailing giant uber have been falling sharply in extended wall street trade, that's after it reported weak results. the f

the white house issued a veto threat for a house democratic bill that contained those back in february. but yesterday as he was leaving the white house, president trump then told reporters that he does have an appetite for background checks. the white house and president trump at different times have also said that he backs red flag laws, red flag proposals exist in some states. even allies like senator lindsay graham are pushing broader red flag laws. he's even talked about strengthening the death penalty, making mass shooters hate crimes have to face the death penalty. so president trump not sending a lot of clarity on his gun control stance and time is running out. congress will soon be coming back and this conversation will get a lot more serious. >> if you look at the track record he's repeatedly backed off any subsequent gun control measures after shootings. sarah west wood at the white house, thanks very much. >> joining me lynn suite and michael sheer, white house correspondent for "the new york times." lynn, rachel bay of the "washington post" made what i thought was a smart o

bush white house. she has degrees from new college in sarasota, florida and the university of missouri columbia. to her immediate left is tamara keith, who joined npr in 2009, and has been a white house correspondent for national public radio since 2014. she co-hosts the npr politics podcast, which is the top political podcast in america. and i admit, it is something i listen to every single week. >> thank you. >> miss keith has covered the trump administration from day one. covered the final two years of the obama presidency, as well as covering the 2016 presidential campaign, when she was assigned to cover hillary clinton. in 2018, she was elected to serve on the board of the white house correspondents association. she has worked for a number of npr affiliate stations, including wosu in columbus ohio, and kpcc, southern california public radio. she has degrees from the university of california berkeley and the ucb graduate school of journalism. last but not least, she is a member of the bad news babe

we came back to the white house. typically, once you get inside the gates of the white house, there is a sense of relief that you have accomplished her mission. there is a little bit of a deep breath. just as we are pulling up to the oval office area where the president gets out, you have seen it many times in a press where he will walk up to the oval office, we got over the radio that there was a fence jumper. the french jumper was over on the ease part of the complex over by the treasury building. i was sitting in the right front seat of the limousine and i had to turn back to the president and say, we have a fence jumper and we have to stand in the vehicle until we get the issue resolved. and he said, a fence jumper, where? he started looking behind him and looking through. i was kind of glad for that response. on, he few seconds goes cannot see the fence jumper and i am not hearing it's all clear yet. we say we have to get into the over office -- oval office. time i knew the uniformed officers and the to get this

a white house spokesperson tells the "times" we would welcome them to the white house in the future should a future date work out. >>> a surprise news in the nfl over the weekend as the team's starting quarterback, andrew luck announced his retirement. nbc news correspondent ron mott has the detail sg. >> this was not an easy decision. >> a brutal sport has lost a warrior. >> the only way forward for me is to remove myself from football. >> indianapolis colts quarterback andrew luck after a string of injuries signdelined m for long stretches, including the entire 2017 season announced he's quitting at age 29. >> it's taken my joy of this game away. >> and now you're starting to hear the reaction of some of the fans. >> the news was not immediately welcomed by home fans who booed. one fan taking off luck's number 12 jersey. >> i'd be lying if i didn't hear the reaction. it hurt. >> former nfl player daunte sta stallworth understands the decision. >> to take as many hits as he has day in and day out, over 17 years, i can't imagine what he's going through. >> luck, cwas the number one pik of

who was running the rope line at the white house? >> my answer would be the white house communications agency. and that's part of the department of defense. and when their sheet came in, it's the one that says, the president's call, and it puts the time. and it says to, the call to, the sea of tranquility, the moon. we have those notes in the exhibition. it says call to the sea of tranquility on the moon. how much time did he spend prepping for what he would say to the astronauts ? do any of you know? >> i don't. >> i can't say. i would say probably considerable time knowing him. i can envision that he was over in the eob office with his yellow pad on his lap and that he wrote out several different thoughts that he might have on how he would do it. this is a man who always prepared. and he always loved to tell the story about winston churchill .and how churchill one time somebody came up to winston churchill and said how in the world, the spontaneous remarks of yours are so special. they're so great. and winston churchill said some o

and only this white house could see some advantage to being labeled white supremacist. >> but again, the president said it's not good. his campaign, though, according to axios saying -- >> that could be a good cop, bad cop routine. i can't imagine a worth epithet for a president or his administration. it appeals to do worst elements in our society. and i think it needs to be condemned. it is one of the reasons >> let's talk about background checks, guns. the president seemed very optimistic today when he was leaving the white house saying that there's tremendous support across the aisle, saying that mitch mcconnell is on board with this even though we've heard from mitch mcconnell's side that he hasn't actually endorsed specific legislation. do you think that anything is actually going to be done this time around? do you believe the president that really there could be movement on back gruground chec and getting legislation passed? >> i think there is a slim chance. the problem is that there's enough time between these tragedies and when congress reconvenes that once again it gets on

the white house has to be very cognizant of that. i think one of the big problems they're going to continue to have is that the american public is very straightforward when they're judging the economy. they look at whether their wages are rising, how their 401(k)s are doing, do they have a job? does their neighbor have a job? they don't look to debate the intricacies of the monetary policy and who is the chairman of the fed, and they don't blame the media. they do blame the person who is in charge, and the buck stops with the president. that's something this white house, as they plan their reelection, they have to be very cognizant, and they have to be cognizant of the trendlines. it takes six months for people's pin with the economy to change. if it continues in a current direction, where we start to see recessionary fears, it's going to hit at the wrong time for them, given the 2020 cycle. congresswoman love, i would think with the global recession encroaching on the united states, whatever the fed is doing, might be trying to work

the day before that the white house said they aren't. now today the white house says they are. just from a messaging standpoint they clearly seem disorganized. >> from a messaging standpoint it could be cleaned up a bit obviously. but i don't think -- look, i think if we learned, nothing is off the table in this administration, right? there's one decider in chief here, and until he says it's completely off the table, it's not off the table. so just because -- >> even if he says it's off the table, it may not be off the table. >> exactly. and that makes it difficult, right, for his republican allies in the congress to kind of move forward on plans like a 2.0. >> it also makes it difficult for folks like you to come on television and definitively state what the policy is. catherine, just in terms of the economics of this, i mean, republicans used to care about the deficit. under president obama there were, you know, there was so much focus understandably on the deficit and concern about it. you don't hear any republicans talking about the deficit. certainly this president going a

the white house wants -- not just the white house, i think this is coming from the president. they want the president to be hailed as a rock star, to be, you know, the democrats come out and say this was great. he did a really good job. instead they offer more muted praise for him. they said he did all the right things, that kind of thing. apparently that wasn't good enough. >> so ashley, texas congressman will hurd is among one of a handful of republicans now pushing for background checks. he, of course, is retiring. let's watch what he's talked about on "morning joe" this morning. >> i think everybody agrees that you should keep guns out of the hands of people, terrorists, mental health issues. i hope that the fact that the president has indicated that he's interested in strengthening background checks, i hope some of my democratic senators that aren't running for president start working with the white house, actually trying to get something done. >> this is something, ashley, where it seems like there's signs public opinion has moved really dramatically on this. frankly, pr

who was running that at the white house? >> my answer would be the white house communications agency and that is a part of the department of defense. when their sheet came in, it is the one that says the presidents call and it puts the time and it says the call to the sea of tranquility, the moon. we have those notes in the exhibition. how much time did he spend prepping for what he would say to the astronauts? do any of you know? >> i don't. >> i can't say. >> probable considerable time knowing him. i can imagine he was in the office with a pad on his lap and he wrote out several different thoughts you might have and how he would do it. this is a man who always prepared. he always wanted to tell the story about winston churchill and how one time 70 came up to winston churchill and said, how -- someone came up to winston churchill and said how do you do that, it is so great. and winston church hillside part of the work i -- winston churchill said part of the work i do is writing out those responses. >> one of the things we a

. >>> cnn has also learned exclusively the white house has been rejecting efforts by the department of homeland security to fight domestic terrorism. for more than a year several administration sources tell us white house officials only wanted to focus on the jihadist threat choosing to ignore the reality of rising racial supremacist violence. one senior source close to the trump administration says the white house has major ideological blinders on. when the national counter terrorism strategy was released last fall the white house did add a paragraph, one paragraph about other forms of extremism but even failed to specifically reference white supremacists. >>> new this morning, the national rifle association is warning president trump. cnn learned nra chief wayne lapierre spoke to the president on tuesday. the washington post reports lapierre told trump his support for background checks on gun purchases would not be popular among his supporters. here's what the president said about background checks on wednesday. >> i'm looking to do background checks. i think background checks are im

the white house typically gets the best of the best. somebody as pernicious as racist and nonintellectual as stephen miller generally wouldn't have a place to shine in the white house of any other administration but he's here because this administration has picked up a bunch of individuals to do their bidding. >> the post pressing this man credited with the most hardline immigration policies on claims from co-workers he harbors racist views listen to part of his answer. >> anybody who says that is an ignorant fool, liar, and reprobate who has no place in civilized society. >> what's your reaction to that? >> sounds crazy. even his response, the way his tone sounded, sounds a little unstable. look, stephen miller has been operating in sort of a shadows of washington for a long time. he worked for michelle bachmann, who, of course, notoriously held a hard line on immigration, and now he is on the front lines of the issue. he has singular control over one of the most important consequential issues of not just our lifetime but also going up

house pass doesn't work any more. >> sunlen you covered the white house and you know her and the dynamics. what are your thoughts? >> i think it is difficult to underestimate her influence for an aide who is not a prominent aide and not yet reached the age of 30. she carried a great sense of power. she's right outside of the president's office and i did atory -- a story this year to call up senators at any gyp given -- to call at any given time and one of the fascinating things that i picked up with my conversations with republican senators is they are told by the president to just call madeline. so i've heard voicemails saying the president has called you. you can call back at any time. and she was that access point, that gateway for so many directly to the president. >> it speaks i think so much to his loyalty thing. it is -- people have compared it to organized crime. if you go against him, that is it. i compared it to today in a piece i wrote to succession, the hbo show which is -- if you haven't seen it, you should. outside of his immediate family, if you cross him there is -- in his

joe johns is at the white house. joe, the president seems to have made some news both about gun control and north korea. >> reporter: that is true. from what we can tell the president did say in his view there was tremendous support for gun control for some type of regulation relating to sensible background checks, which is something we've heard before out of the president. however, perhaps this is different because, as you know, the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, has signaled that he, too, is interested in going forward with something, or at least trying to. the other thing i have to say very important about gun control, is as i can hear the president's helicopter taking off right now, the next question after the president says there's tremendous support for gun control, is, mr. president, what about the national rifle association? because they are the people so far who seem just a little bit reluctant, and have always been reluctant, if you will, on issues of gun control. so talking to insiders there, of

though some white house officials are pushing back. the president publicly supported background checks and the expanded background checks in the days after the mass shootings in dayton and el paso that killed 31 people. tonight cnn is learning folks in the white house from capitol hill and outside groups have all been pressures the president to turn away. that may be exactly what is behind this change in tone. >> we have very, very strong background checks right now. but we have sort of missing areas and areas that don't complete the whole circle. and we're looking at different things. and i have to tell you that it is a mental probable problem. i've said it a hundred times it's not the gun that pulse the trigger. it's the person that pulse that tryinger >> outfront now rob aft trin o. and our democratic strategist and comment tare. rob is the president kachg to the nra. >> it's typical like president obama would talk to planned parenthood. this is advocacy. there are 5 million people members of the nra. many more tens of millions not

bush white house invited the chinese president at the time to come visit the white house. and again, this is just one of those times in life when it was clear this might not work. i mean, it was at least clear it was going to be very tense from the beginning. i think it was maybe even clear from the beginning that it was going to go badly. i mean, in the first instance the chinese wanted hu jintao to be given the full state treatment. george w. bush said, no, it will just be an official visit, which is one big wrung down the ladder in terms of protocol and pomp and circumstance. the chinese wanted hu jintao to have a state dinner at the white house. george w. bush white house said, nope, we want you to come, but we're not willing to give you dinner. how about lunch? then an even bigger problem. hurricane katrina blew ashore in the gulf coast and devastated the great american city of new orleans and the bush administration, of course, disastrously botched the response to that hurricane. huh jintao's visit had originally been scheduled for the week new orleans had almost bee

we will speak with the white house's former top economist next. at t-mobile, what can you get when you a buy a samsung galaxy note 10? you get unlimited data while on a network that goes further than ever before. use as much as you want. when you want. a netflix subscription on us. stream all your favorite movies and shows. and for a limited time. buy any samsung galaxy note 10 and get one samsung galaxy note 10 for free. that's right. get one samsung galaxy note 10 for free. he borrowed billions donald trump failed as a businessman. and left a trail of bankruptcy and broken promises. he hasn't changed. i started a tiny investment business, and over 27 years, grew it successfully to 36 billion dollars. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. i'm running for president because unlike other candidates, i can go head to head with donald trump on the economy, and expose him fo what he is: a fraud and a failure. this melting pot of impacted species. everywhere is going to get touched by climate change. that a handle is just a handle. chair is just a

. >> joey, since he never worked in the white house or government, a campaign manager, if the white house decided they wanted to assert executive privilege, would they have a legal case? >> it does not appear so. but that doesn't mean they won't try it any way. so what is executive privilege? look, privilege is a very important. they are important because you want candid advice. you want say for example attorney/client privilege and when you sit down with a client you want them to tell you everything and not to repeat that. otherwise they will not give you their best so relate it by analogy to the president. someone comes in the executive office and you want them and there is an adviser and another government official, you want to have a conversation that will not be front page news as a result of that executive privilege is something very important. however, the issue applies to people working in the government to protect the internal deliberation process of the government. when you are talking back to your original question about someone who was an informal adviser and not a government

congresswoman appears to hit a nerve in the white house. a republican source saying the white house is telling sure ra gases a racist, such accusations are appalling. focussing on the four congresswomen is wedge issue. they barred two of the congresswomen last week. rasheed talib and ilan omar responded. >> we know donald trump would love nothing more than to use this issue to pit muslims and jewish americans against each other. the muslim community and the jewish community are being made into the country. >> she was going to visit her grandmother would decline siting the conditions that israel placed on her entry. joining me right now is stacey abrams that ran for governor last year and released a program to fight voter suppression. it's interesting on the voter suppression in the light of what the president now is yet again claiming about new hampshire and all these thousands of people who came in, just talk a little bit about, you know, the laws which are being pushed by republicans in many states because i've had people on and when they

let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. trump is dodging questions for now about the impact of the president's own rhetoric. >> reporter: that is right, wolf. president trump is laying low today and steering clear of the cameras as he prepares to head to ohio and texas tomorrow to check in on the communities devastated by last weekend's massacre. aides to mr. trump say he will make the trip despite some lawmakers in the states saying the president and his offensive rhetoric are not welcome. with the president staying out of sight, his aides are responding to leaders in the shell shocked cities of el paso and dayton who question whether mr. trump should just remain at the white house. >> what is your reaction to [ inaudible ]. >> the president is the president of all of the people. >> reporter: dayton mayor is encouraging her residents to speak out against the president. >> look, i know that, you know, he's made this bed and he's got to lie in it, you know. he hasn't -- you know, his rhetoric has been painful for many in our

white house wanted. so when this surprise visit came by the iranian foreign minister, and certainly a surprise to all of us journalists, it sort of ignited a bit of a spark with the administration. but as you noted, that was just one sort of turbulent moment in this day. we had earlier in the day administration officials trying to play cleanup with this idea that the president had second thoughts about his trade war on china, making some kind of strange statements. it was unclear to us whether he understood the question, but he certainly was said multiple times and answered the questions multiple times of whether he was having second thoughts on china. so it, as many of us expected has been an unexpected g7 summit, just as it was last year. >> shannon, talk about last night in the dinner. the readout there was it was not necessarily a kumbahyah meeting as they were breaking bread, and president trump was at odds with the other members of the g7 at that meal. >> well, president trump has really been tryin

this while the white house is saying the economy is go gangbusters. can the administration do anything if they're picking up steam? libby, great to have you with us what do you make of reports about a possible pay roll tax cut, and do you think congress would democrats, it's interesting because eamon was saying the administration is making clear to say there's no recession on the horizon, yet they might be behind the scenes advocating for some sort of pay roll tax cuts. the democrats on the other hand have an interest in saying the economy is weak, yet their likelihood of bailing trump out seems low. >> exactly it's not unusual for an administration to be brainstorming about possible ways to combat a possible recession. you know, for what it's worth, pimco doesn't see a recession necessarily over the next 12 months as likely, but i think this should be expected. now, white house brain storming is very different from actually seeing this pass congress. and i think there is very little chance that we see a pre-emptive tax cut pass its way through the ho

it's a disgrace. >>> that was the scene outside the white house. moments ago that was the president emerging talking to the press. we weren't sure he was going to on a range of topics. that massively escalated trade war with china featuring prominently in the questions and responses from the president. you see the first lady there joining him. they are on their way to france for the g 7 summit. our panel is still with us. ron and sona, one of the comments the president made and i think i heard him reiterate on the subject of china and the trade war, he said we will win it. you said this all but certainly sets off the path towards a recession over the next year. do you see a scenario through the economic pain he can achieve his goals and win it in his words? >> if china were to collapse and have internal strith to get the economy back on track, it's possible. china has been shown in the past to with stand internal political pressure better than a president of the united states. xi is president for life. donald trump is not. he has more political pre

one senior source says the white house has major ideological blinders on. when the national counter interest or rimp strategy was released last fall, the white house did add a paragraph about other forms of extremism but failed to even specifically reference white supremacists. >>> new this morning, the national rifle president is warning president trump. his support for background checks on gun purchases will not be popular. this is what the president said about background checks on wednesday. >> well, i'm looking to do background checks. i think background checks are important. i don't want to put guns into the hands of mentally unstable people or people with rage or hate. sick people. i don't want to -- i'm all in favor of it. >> the president, all in favor there, but he's gone back and forth on gun control before. white house officials say he's torn between wanting to do more and growing concern that doing more would cause a revolt from his base. >>> president trump spent wednesday visiting the scenes of both weekend massacres, dayton, ohio, and el paso

the white house can see it. i just published a piece updating some charts that the administration had used in september to show us all how great the economy was doing. and by almost every measure that they used to sell the health of the economy, things have gotten worse. growth has slowed. we're not in recession territory yet in terms of growth but manufacturing is essentially in a recession. and we have a lot of reason to be worried about the overall health of the global economy. so in that environment, yeah, there's real reason to be worried, especially if you are a president who has, you know, a stronger ratings -- poll ratings on the economy than on almost any other issue and you're facing re-election next year. they have every reason to be both trying to talk up the strength of the economy, trying to talk to consumers who remain the big engine of growth while at the same time making contingency plans for what if things get worse because of these external and self-inflicted headwinds? >> so you have, at the