our doctors are amazing. i mean, everyone i feel like has been just above and beyond, so kind to us and helping us. it is a horrible situation, but you see so much more good in the world than you do bad. it stinks that it takes something so tragic to see all that, but, i mean, we do try to stay positive. i try to keep him upbeat. we try to keep everything as normal as possible. it is is sometimes a little bit challenging. >> you have a go fund me page. we will put it on the screen is. i'll put it out on facebook. it is hard for me to read the small print.

obviously you have raised money. there is kyle giving the thumbs up. thank you both so much. thank you for telling us your story. thanks to our international viewers for watching. for you cnn talk is next. for our u.s. viewers, "new day" continues. we do begin with breaking news this hour. president trump amping up the rhetoric, now threatening china with an additional $100 billion in tariffs. bay ying is vowing to fight the u.s. at any cost. the white house is also facing an ethics scandal involving the president's cabinet. the officials at the epa were demoted or sidelined after raising questions about secretary scott pruitt's spending. despite his mounting ethical issues, president trump floated the wrd of having pruett replace attorney general jeff sessions. is and the president speaking out about it for the first time, breaking his silence. it could have legalism

indications. the president said he did not know attorney michael cohen's $130,000 hush payment to stormy daniels. the attorney for stormy daniels, michael avenatti, will join us in a few minutes to discuss that. we want to begin with ivan watson live in beijing with with a top story concerning a new potential round of tariffs from this administration. ivan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, david. this is why everybody is talking about the risk of a trade war between the world's two largest economies. just look back at this week. monday china imposed tariffs on $3 billion worth of u.s. goods in retaliation for u.s. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. u.s., u.s. threatens $50 billion tariffs on chinese goods on theft of intellectual property. wednesday, china retaliated on $50 billion tariffs on u.s. goods. thursday, the white house issued

a threat of $100 billion worth of tariffs on chinese goods in retaliation for that. the white house saying this is because of threats to american farming from the chinese threats of tariffs. the response so far is to call this latest move a provocation saying we don't want to fight a trade war but we are not afraid of it. now, there are fears now from what china has already threatened. there are fears certainly within states that have a great deal of agriculture. and we're hearing those concerns echoed by some top lawmakers within the republican party. among them, senator ben sasse who said, hey, this looks like president trump is threatening to light u.s. agriculture on fire. here's more of his statement. hopefully the president is just blowing off steam again but, if he's even half serious, this is nuts. let's absolutely take on chinese bad behavior, but with a plan

that punishes them instead of us. this is the dumbest possible way to do this. if china seeks to retaliate, as they have pledged in the past, they are running out of u.s. exports to china to slap tariffs on. we'll have to see if this is more posturing or will someone follow through and impose tens of billions of dollars of tariffs. >> thank you so much. the white house embroiled in a series of controversies as the president stands by the embattled head of the epa. abby phillip is live at the white house with the latest. what's happening there, abby. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. the controversy around epa administrator scott pruitt continues to grow today. but prestige delivery for now is standing by him in part because he's happy with what pruitt is doing over at the epa. the question is how many more scandals will come out and how much longer can pruitt hold on to this job? >> i think that scott has done a

fantastic job. i think he's a fantastic person. >> reporter: president trump telling reporters despite a growing list of controversies he thinks pruitt will be fine. cnn learned thursday that multiple senior officials were sidelined or demoted at the agency after raising concerns about pruitt's pricey travel, management of the agency, allegations an epa spokesman disputes. separately, multiple sources tell cnn, after pruitt took over at the epa, he asked his 24/7 security detail chief to use lights and sirens to get through traffic. after tell him no, he was reassigned. and a pay raise of $80,000 for two of his closest aides. he said he was not aware of the

raises until this week. >> i did not. my staff did. and i found out yesterday and changed it. >> reporter: and renting a d.c. condo for $50 a night from a lobbyist who donated to his past campaign. president trump was asked if he was bothered about these reports. >> i have to look at it close. i hear different versions. but i'll make that determination. >> reporter: as recently as this week, the president floated the idea of replacing attorney general jeff sessions with pruitt. >> scott is doing a great job where he is. >> reporter: this as president trump breaks his silence on stormy daniels and the payment to keep quiet days before the election. >> no. no. what else? >> then why did michael cohen make those if there was no truth

to her allegations? >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney, and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> reporter: trump's comments were help his case. >> you can't have an agreement if one party claims they knew nothing about one of the principle terms of the agreement. so the president just shot himself in the foot, thrown his attorney basically, michael cohen, under the bus in the process. >> reporter: mr. trump literally tossed out his prepared remarks about tax reform. >> that would be a little boring. >> reporter: choosing to resurrect some of the rhetoric used on the campaign trail. >> everybody said, oh, he was so tough. i used the word rape. yes, they came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before.

>> reporter: well, the president has announced he wants between 2,000 and 4,000 national guard troops to the border. with mexico. meanwhile, mexico responding defiantly yesterday to the harsh rhetoric. they will need to cooperate with the president if they are going to control this immigration situation at the border. meanwhile, president trump has no events on his public schedule today. but threre is a white house briefing scheduled for this afternoon. >> an pweurbgs you are giving us too much to talk about. thank you for all of that reporting. joining is us now cnn political analyst john avlon and hope of" smerconish," michael smerconish. dow features are only down 200 points. and that is better than the first time the president floated the tariff threat idea where they were even more rattled. these things go up and down and fluctuate with the trump

administration, these threats? >> my deep belief is insane is the new normal. and the markets are at uncertainty when it comes to trump and trade wars. they are trying to message this is negotiation. this is blinksmanship. no question it is escalating. what's really stunning isn't we can debate the merits of whether they're getting tough. ben sasse, conservative senator from nebraska saying we should be tough with china but this is the dumbest possible way to do it. the proposed tariffs on agriculture, it ends up impacting trump's base. 82% of prospective jobs loss will affect his base. >> this is the point. china has a way to respond that really hurts american consumers. that's the bottom line. it doesn't change the fact that this president wants to do things much differently. a lot of other people have come on the program saying we should

talk, engage, apply pressure. i think the president would argue we have tried that many, many years. so there's two things. one, is the lesson of the weak that this is really the prelude to a grand bargain or is the president prepared to tell his voters, you have to be prepared to take some pain on this if we win the overall plan with china. >> when the cost of retail goods impacts his constituency, that's when there will be political consequence for the president. but up until that time he is responding to an issue that has been out there for some time. figuratively, they have the chinese have been eating our lunch, hurting u.s. manufacturing, giving us cheap goods, and another issue that you have been talking about which is porous borders. they see him taking action on on two longstanding issues that up

until now no one else in their view has been willing to address. >> yes. . and i already hear in the director of office of trade framing it as, yeah, you should be upset about all of this and look to china for -- don't look to the president. he is trying to fix this. listen to how they are spinning it. >> what we have is they have been punching us in the body for years. all we are doing is defending ourselves. the way they expect us to react is to punch us some more and basically try to hit american farmers most directly. and i don't think the american people will respond very well to those kind of threats. >> what do you think of that? will american farmers blame china because the u.s. has been their punching bag or will they blame the president for this tariff escalation? >> people ultimately vote with their pocketbooks.

if people feel the economics of it. part of the reason free trade is good, it tends to lift all boats eventually. but there are imbalances. people are sympathetic with the idea that it is time to get tough with china. not only with cheap goods but counterfeit goods. this goes right out of trump's crippled america playbook. we have been taken advantage of, humiliated. the fact that we are taking initial action is self-defense. but if the impact hurts the people he is trying to defend, that won't fly politically. >> if we turn to scott pruitt at the epa, michael, this is another classic case of tension on donald trump's brain. one hand, a tough guy who is doing things that the conservative base loves with regard to rolling back epa regulations, helping the businesses that they regulate. and yet he is getting all of this negative attention making a lot of mistakes and new

reporting about pushing people out, called him on that. what does he do? what is pruitt's future? >> i think the more we talk about it. and the more pruitt becomes a lightning rod by critics of the president without one real tangible example. it is probably that $50 a night room. i think the president becomes emboldened. if he were -- i know this sounds odd. if he were to inclined to cut him loose, he doesn't want to do it in the face of criticism. oddly the more hot he becomes the more longevity he becomes in the short-term. >> if the rapt against the critics is they are criticizing his ideology. >> yeah. that's the argument you've got. there is a series of ethical scandals, problems, and distractions. one thing the president doesn't like is when people get too high

a press and start distracting from the administration's message. he did interviews -- the white house is sending mixed messages on pruitt behind the scenes is. trump supporting him publicly yesterday in normalville that would be a positive thing. except that's exactly a precursor to big fire by tweet. >> just one thing. it is beyond the $50 a night for the room. we know from the "new york times" that five of his staffers, four of them high level advisers, have been reassigned, have been moved out when they have tried to raise questions about his spending and management. that sounds like retaliation. that sounds like an ethical spider web beyond just getting a sweetheart deal at a friend's house. >> understood. but i'm just saying that in order for this to be saleable as scandal, there needs to be something tangible that people can understand and appreciate, right? we all understood the watergate burglary. a burglary is something we don't want to happen at our house.

whitewater, it was more ephemeral and you couldn't wrap your head around a land transfer that went south. i'm not sure yet in the pruitt issue what that one item might be. >> maybe it's forcing his staff to drive-through the streets with sirens and lights. >> i don't think so. that's my point. >> i hear you. but there is a drunk with power feeling. >> arrogance of power, abuse of power, and one of the classic problems is death by a thousand cuts. a lot of people see an epa administrator who sued the epa 14 times as a fundamental problem. but it is the distraction and the drip, drip, drip of ethical problems and allegations of abuse of arrogance of power. >> the question is for whom? president trump would be willing to withstand that. i don't think he's so worried about it unless he gets to a

point where it is so distracting to him or he gets too much attention with stealing his thunder. >> michael, a new tweet the president just put out in terms of what we have been talking about in terms of tariffs. despite the aluminum tariffs, aluminum prices are down 4%. people are surprised. i'm not. lots of money coming into the u.s. covers and jobs, jobs, jobs. >> this is part of the contradiction of what he does. he announces something with such a bold vision and immediately negotiates back from it. the question is whether the issues that we are discussing today, the new tariffs that are proposed, not initiated will ever come to pass. i'm sure president xi doesn't know either. >> when two leaders of the two most powerful nations on earth don't know the outcome, that's usually a bad thing. michael makes a good point. the president's negotiation strategy isn't carrot and sticks.

it is a big stick and then offer a bunch of little carrots. simply saying jobs, jobs, jobs is as convincing as trade wars are as easy to win. >> you were pointing out the tariffs would mostly hit trump country that voteed for him. we have a natural traffic that illustrates. there were these counties. 2,783 that went for him. and the 82% of those counties are the ones that would be directly affected by china's tariff if it all happened. so there you go. all right. gentlemen, thank you both very much. the so the president is breaking his silence on stormy daniels. did he hurt his own case by what he said yesterday? that's coming up next. is it possible to save someone's life... from thousands of miles away? yes. thanks to the dedicated technicians at the american red cross... who worked with vmware... to develop technologies to help redirect the flow of blood to the areas and people needing it most.

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this, if there was no truth to the allegations? >> ike al is my attorney and you have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money? >> no. i don't know. >> this made a bunch of news. let's bring back john avlon and michael smerconish. michael, this was seen as a big deal if you're stormy daniels's legal team. somehow he is opening the door here to -- yeah, right. to being deposed or somehow changing the story. you go. you do you. >> michael avenatti, i think michael avenatti is a skilled trial lawyer and has emerged as an enormous burr in the saddle of president trump. at this point what are we fighting over? stormy daniels is seeking to get out of a nondisclosure

agreement. for what? so she can tell her story? what did i say on "60 minutes" three weeks ago with with anderson cooper? she's already told her story without any blowback. as far as i know there hasn't been an attempt by michael cohen to collect from her the million dollars that the contract speaks to. i don't know that it's all that surprising what the president said. he is trying to thread a needle. what he is trying to say is i wasn't part of that agreement. that was michael cohen's business. i wasn't in the loop. and i don't know where the money came from. but nevertheless it is a called contract. and stormy daniels needs to be held accountable for that regardless of whether i was in the loop. i don't think this necessarily gives mike avenatti the opportunity to take the deposition of president trump. >> he said this is about the truth. the american people need the truth and there is more to the story than stormy daniels told on "60 minutes".

michael avenatti was very, very pleased that the president even alluded to this yesterday. here he is last night on cnn. >> you can't have an agreement if one party claims they knew nothing about one of the principle terms of the agreement. so the president has just shot himself in the foot, thrown his attorney basically, michael cohen, under the bus in the process, put him in dire straits with the state bar of new york because, according to the president now, mr. cohen was negotiating this agreement and doing this all on his own without consultation with the president. >> rare public comments from michael avenatti. i go back to michael's point, which is what is it we're trying to get to here? there's nothing we don't know about this situation from stormy daniels. so is it just at this point she shouldn't be held accountable for that financially?

>> i think there are deeper principals at stake even if you take a generous discount for michael avenatti's self-interest here. he is trying to avoid stepping on land mines. but he couldn't resist talking about this when asked, even in limited fashion. don't take mike al of tphavenat word for it. he said i have no idea. if he didn't sign and has no knowledge, is there a contract? paying money to awe porn star in the weeks up to an election. whether it will lead to a deposition, that's premature. the president, the reason he has been quiet is he knows there's a problem. but he walked right into it because he couldn't resist commenting yesterday. >> michael cohen, the president's attorney, has always

maintained this was just a deal between he himself, michael cohen, and stormy daniels. that's why the president doesn't know anything about it. that's why he was able to reiterate that he doesn't know about the hush money. of course there is a law involved here that is the federal election commission if he was doing it to try to sway it in donald trump's favor. so that's what the issue continues to be. and i don't know what changed yesterday. >> so you're absolutely right in saying there might be a federal election issue for michael cohen distinctly different from the issues that may surround the president. i think michael cohen -- by the way, as you know, has not been out defending himself in this regard. sometimes gets undersold. i scrutinized that settlement agreement. i myself have negotiated and litigated settlement agreements much less sophisticated than the

one used with stormy daniels. what straeubgs me is this was negotiated 10 days before election day. presumably michael cohen was a very busy man at that time. yet it is a very sophisticated agreement. it is not boiler plate. it makes me wonder if it had been used in the past. it has language specifically expressing and/or. it allows donald trump not to be part of the contract. by the way, why did stormy daniels, at the time she was given a check for $130,000, say i'm not going to take this check until you sign the contract. when she took the check and cashed it, there was a problem. >> to michael's point, this has all the heraldry of almost a form letter for michael cohen and the administration. it was not written up on the fly. it was thoughtful. that gives the impression that

perhaps it was used before. that is one of the many reasons this was solid and relevant. the the complaint is serious. that ain't watergate, folks. it is deadlocked for a bunch of different reasons. that's its own disgrace. the president has shown discipline on it. moth to a flame, he couldn't help himself. >> more on twitter law on our website. >> what the president has been saying about this caravan of 1,000 people mostly from honduras heading to the u.s. border. they are asylum seekers. they are fleeing violence and persecution. the president is send 2g,000 to 4,000 national guardsmen to the borders. you know, look, people are debating whether that is a military response to what should

be a paperwork response when people are seeking political asylum. but he also said this about i think what's happening on the caravan he was trying to suggest. so listen to this. >> remember my opening remarks i used the word rape. yesterday it came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before. >> michael, these women and children are fleeing rape. they're not being raped on the caravan. >> and it's a reminder that the campaign tone and process is really never ending. we had an election. the election had an outcome. the pace, the tonality, he has never stopped running. witnessed yesterday when he was delivering that speech in west virginia when he threw out the speech. i'm just making an observation. it is a continuum. he feels vindicated despite the point you just made as to what these individuals are fleeing,

not what they are subjected to now. >> he haoe sees himself as the greatest show on earth. from the rape comment to the allegation, conspiracy theory, millions and millions voting illegally is just false. folks need to hear that and understand. >> thank you both very much. so the controversies around scott pruitt continue. but his policies are having a major impact at the epa. up next, the former director of the agency about what the policies are and what they're doing.

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all right. embattled epa administrator scott pruitt under fire for a series of ethical lapses. but he is fulfilling president trump's anti regulatory arena. joining us to discuss is the former director of the epa under president obama, gina mccarthy. good to have you here. >> thanks, david.

it's good to be here. >> you know, there is -- i know you don't want to render judgment on ethical concerns being raised against mr. pruitt. but there is a concern among his supporters that it's his potency as epa director, the moves that he is taking that fuels a lot of heat against him causing his critics to raise the temperature. is that fair? is some of this overblown because a lot don't like what he is doing at the epa? >> listen, i would probably be the first to say that i don't believe that scott pruitt is acting in the best interest of the environmental protection agency public health. our ability to live healthy lives. our ability to address climate change. those are the things he should be talking about and thinking. now, clearly the ethics lapses are real. i don't think anyone is making those issues up. and i think they are compelling. i think they speak to his

judgment. but to me the more critical issue is judgment and how he is doing his job. how is he fulfilling the mission of that agency. is he really protecting public health. >> and i want to get into that. just to button that up, you served in this job with what you know at this point would you have lost your job had you been responsible for these decisions? >> i really -- i can't make a judgment whether or not i would have lost my job. i think i would have felt i lost my mind if i thought president obama would tolerate this type of behavior. it never would have happened. it wouldn't have crossed my mind to do it. i'm a public servant. i have a responsibility to protect the public trust. so regardless how i was doing my job at epa, it was important for me to act like a public servant, respect the public trust, to make sure that the money that the public gives is being used

properly. i never would have considered flying first class. never mind spending $50 a night for an apartment for a one room and having that sort of set aside for me forever. it never would have happened. that's the way the job got done. and it had to be done that way. >> you well know in my research of both you and pruitt are looked at as people who took advantage of the advantage to fulfill policies that were consistent with the view of the president of the united states. and this is one of those areas, environmental regulation where elections really do matter.

so given that, what is your view? what is your primary criticism of the direction that pruitt is giving the epa and the impact on public health? >> i think there is a great example of executive orders and executive authority. i work for the executive deposit. my job in that branch of government was to do what congress told me. that means i can force the law. that means i did what the law told me. i actually used the public process. i was transparent. i was not secret. in the decisions i made, i followed the law. i followed the process. and i relied on the courts to make judgment. >> all right. let's give examples, though, of of areas of public health. >> that's what he should be doing. yes. >> supporters say he has been incredibly effective so far. the clean power plant, centralizing clean water, revising fuel efficiency standards. that's in the news today. easing clean air act

regulations. he has been a driving force behind saying to the president, look, don't sign on on to the paris climate change treaty. so where has he gone astray in your view as a matter of public health? >> well, let's talk about this. all of those issues, the only thing that scott pruitt talks about or seems to consider is whether or not it's reducing costs to business. now, i understand you want to keep costs low and keep the economy moving. but his job is to protect public health and the environment in ways that continue to keep the economy moving. and i would suggest to you let's just look at the rule. all laws are proposed to be changed. none of them are gone. none of them. and i highly suspect with the way he has locked himself in a room and not engaged the korea staff, fundamentally looking at science and the law correctly, that when you go to court you will see that we will continue

to move these rules forward because we did them right. and all he's looking a the is reducing cost to business. now, again, i appreciate that. but if you look at the car sector, when we first regulated them and we demanded cleaner and more efficient cars, they have had record sales ever since. they came into the obama administration ready for bankruptcy. they were bailed out. we regulated. we worked with them. they are doing great and those regulations are protecting public health. they are taking carbon pollution out of our atmosphere and protecting the planet. what is wrong with the scenario that protects public health and delivers sound business? >> there are proposed rollbacks of the fuel efficiency standards. however, there may be a deal between the federal government and california before it gets to litigation. that is potential. we will have to leave it there. gina mccarthy, thank you for your time. >> david, thanks.

e cigarettes are a trend picking up. dr. sanjay gupta on why they fear vaping could turn into an epidemic for teenagers. that's next. so, i needed legal advice, and i heard that my cousin's wife's sister's husband was a lawyer, so i called him. but he never called me back! if your cousin's wife's sister's husband isn't a lawyer, call legalzoom and we'll connect you with an attorney. legalzoom. where life meets legal. ♪ ♪

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attention with all the political news. an epidemic among middle school and high school students known as vaping. these same kids who would not smoke cigarettes are turning to e cigarettes known as the brand-new jule to vape. it is having serious consequences with regard to addiction to tobacco and nicotine among these kids. cnn's dr. san is jay gun ta has more. >> in millford, connecticut, francis thompson is trying to snuff out a problem that teachers are having across the country. >> they would come in here and you would have four or five kids at a time congregating and they would start to vape. >> it is a trend many parents are not even aware of. e-cigarette use or vaping has grown 900% in recent years according to the surgeon general. in 2016, national youth tobacco survey found 1.7 million students and 500,000 middle

school hers have used e cigarettes skwr tphuft a 30-day period before the survey was taken. in rempt on on, massachusetts, he said he is overwhelmed by this epidemic. >> students are vaping in hallways, classrooms. >> in the back, two desk in the corner, they had their hands like this. there was a blue light coming from between their hands. >> the most popular item is the juul. it looks like a flashlight. it's not. and the kids can tuck it away when they're done. it's not just the design of these products. critics say all of these flavors entice kids to start vaping. one study out of harvard found some of them cape a chemical linked to severe respiratory disease. >> the kids i talk to believe nothing is there in dangerous.

it's nothing more than water. >> it is e liquid not water. when heated it changes to aerosol. researchers using this machine found the vapor has toxic metals like chromium, zinc, lead. people are not fully aware of what they're consuming. i sat down with fda commissioner scott gottlieb and asked about this e-cig phenomena. >> we will take actions to target companies that we with think are marketing products in ways they are deliberately appealing to kids. i'm going to be having conversations with some of these companies trying to inspire them, if i can, to take more corrective actions on their own. >> don't forget, nicotine is one of the most addictive substances out there. i think it is the next epidemic among teenagers. >> sanjay, thank you for turning your attention to this.

it is a hideous problem. these tobacco companies, as you pointed out, are marketing to kids by having the flavored pods. it is outrageous when they say they are trying to help smokers cut down on smoking. to get to the heart of it is not only so easily undetectable, but it is the gateway, right? it is the getting -- if you smoke is a juul, if one pod is the equivalent to two packs of cigarettes in terms of the nicotine delivery, what is the impact on getting kids hook odd nicotine and where does it go from there? >> that is the exact rub. if you talk to experts within the government they are saying, look, there may be some evidence of decreased smoking among adults. it was marketed as a smoking cessation tool. but you see staggering numbers, 900% increase, among youth. we know among youth, combustible cigarette consumption has gone

down. but a quarter of them roughly start out with e-cigs. it does appear to be a gateway thing. it may have an impact on adults. we are paying the price with regard to youth. that's the real concern. >> sanjay, just so i understand. my kids haven't encountered this yet. god willing, this won't. is it the same as when teenagers smoked in the '70s, '80s, '90s, or because of all the metals is it somehow worse? >> it is a totally unregulated thing. smoking has been totally unregulated as well. now they are talking about upper limits in regular cigarettes. with e-cigs, vaping, there's all of these other substances in there. >> there are ways to get pods with thc in there. they get high from the nicotine because it is so concentrated. >> that's right.

>> sanjay, thank you for sounding the alarm. the white house prepares for the release of the jobs report. >> so here's the trade war are rattling investors yet again after president trump threatened china with $100 billion worth of new tariffs. we're watching the dow. it is set to fall 250 points at the open. that's off the lows. dow futures tanked 400 points initially. some investors are hoping that the threats we're hearing are a negotiating ploy that the march jobs report could add more volatility today. economists predicting 185,000 jobs were created, a slowdown from february. it would mark the 90th straight month of job creation. the jobless rate could also dip to 4%. that's a fresh 17-year low. wall street also watching how fast wages grew. 2.7% is the prediction. anything stronger could raise

fears of inflation and higher interest rates. alisyn? >> thank you very much. so the focus at the at&t/time warner merger court battle with the justice department turning to another media merger. how a past deal is playing a big role in this case coming up next. movie theaters, exercise r and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. if you have moderate to severe or psoriatic arthritis,

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attorneys focusing on a different merger in the at&t/time warner trial as the justice department sues to block the telecom giant from acquiring time warner which owns cnn. let's bring in cnn media correspondent and host of "reliable sources" brian stelter and media and business reporter hadas gold. hadas, bring us up to date -- we're talking about the

nbc/comcast deal, the last big merger in media land. how was that brought into the trial? >> when nbc and comcast merged, instead of a lawsuit between the justice department and the companies, they entered into a settlement agreement that included conditions that would keep them from being anticompetitive. now the government lawyers are looking at internal communications that at&t executives had in preparation for that settlement condition to expire which happens this year. they're saying that the arguments that at&t were having internally about how those settlement conditions expiring would affect the industry are exactly the same arguments they're having against at&t's merger with time warner. they say it will raise prices, that at&t and time warner will somehow be able to keep their content hostage from other distributors, they're saying that's what at&t executives were talking about with connemcast a nbc. the head of the justice department was in court yesterday. i asked whether i should look into whether he was there on the

day we were talking about comcast, he said no, i'm just coming here to support our team. the last time he was in court is when a comcast executive was testifying. a lot of people con nexting the dots there. >> brian, if we look at comparisons, anybody watching this wants to know what's it going to mean between access to content, prescribes i have to pay. there's the political backdrop in washington of all of this as there was in that merger as well which was about media getting too big and monopolistic. >> the obama administration did approve comcast nbc almost ten years ago but with the conditions hadas was describing. the world has changed quite a bit since then. you think about the rise of netflix, the popularity of facebook and snapchat and other social networking sites. tech giants have become bigger and biggerment that's why companies like time warner and at&t and rivals like verizon feel they need to get bigger, to buy more content and have more muscle in the marketplace.

comcast nbc owned braf va and e and nbc broadcast network. this deal is a little different. it's about hbo and cnn and tnt and warner brothers. you think about what these companies can do when they get together, your phone can be smarter, your phone can connect more directly and stream shows from your tv set to your phone to your ipad. that kind of connectivity is what's behind the comcast deal and the at&t time warner deal. the argument we're hearing in court from the government side is owning time warner will give at&t too much power in the marketplace, the company will be able to use hardball tactics against its rivals. a similar argument we heard about comcast nbc almost a decade ago. >> we'll be following the trial every day. hadas and brian, thank you. we're following a lot of o news. let's get right to it. >> for many years no president wanted to go against china. we're going to do. >> the chinese government has called this a provocation. i think it's very unfortunate.

i don't see many winners in any trade war. >> i just love coal and energy country. they love scott pruitt. >> the republican congress continues to give this administration a pass. >> the president demands ethical behavior. we're looking into this. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> i don't know. >> when he tells the reporters, go talk to my lawyers, it's an invitation to drive into attorney-client privilege. >> he's put himself and mr. cohen in a world of hurt. if he caves, the administration could be in a very bad place. this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> welcome to your "new day," it's friday, april 6th, 8:00 in the east. happy friday. one more hour until you -- >> and a lot lof news this hour >> breaking news every hour. president trump is amming up the rhetoric, now threatening china with an additional $100 billion in tariffs. beijing is vowing to fight the

u.s. at any cost. the white house is facing a growing ethics candle. sources tell cnn that officials at the epa were demoted or sidelined after raising concerns about secretary scott pruitt's spending, despite the mounting ethical issues, the president floated the idea of having him replaced. the president gave him a radio interview, after the president literally tossed out the script yesterday at a speech finding his base plenty of red meat, offering it to them, resurrecting some of his greatest fact-free hits and debungt claims. we want to begin with cnn's ivan watson live in beijing with our top story involving more tariffs from this administration potentially. ivan, good morning. >> good morning, david. the chinese government today said we don't want to fight a trade war, but we're not afraid of it. take a look at how quickly this trade