here. so that's what the government is fighting back on, reminding the judge of the implications that they say this merger will have. what's interesting here, kate, is that after at&t wraps their closing a little bit later this afternoon, the judge will then sit down to write what he kp expects to be a 200-page opinion here, and we expect any decision will come before the june 21st deadline that is looming for at&t and time werner. kate? >> definitely a must read. thank you so much. thank you all also for joining me. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. president trump's team says they're not starry-eyed about the prospect of north korea giving up its nukes. south korea's leaders say it's proof to them that mr. trump

deserves the nobel peace prize. ronny jackson is still on the job in the west wing. after losing his chance to be va secretary, is he also out as the president's personal physician? the president talks tough as a caravan of immigrants arrives at the u.s.-mexico border. is he about to allow the increase of a number of people in to help the american farmers? >> we need people to come into the country, do their jobs, help people on their farms and then they get out, they leave. guest workers. don't you agree? we have to have them. we have to have them. we're going to have a lot of things happening, but then they have to go out. then they have to go out. but we're going to let them in because you need 'em. you need 'em. >> more on the president's curious guest worker comments there in just a moment. but we begin today with another immigration challenge, a standoff now at the southwestern border. customers of border protection

insisti insisting, we're already here at full capacity in the united states and nobody gets special treatment or special protections, even, especially, anyone claiming to be part of a so-called caravan. a mess is president trump's term of art for the migrants after traveling a month in southern mexico, often on foot, are now on america's doorstep. they can see across the border to tijuana's doorstep. on average 25,000 people cro00 daily. just two years a only 12% of worldwide applicants were granted asylum in the united states. that's just 20,000 people under a very different administration. even so, these individuals say they'll wait until each and every one of them is allowed in for processing. leyla santiago gives us an update from tijuana.

>> this group behind me, about 100 migrants from that caravan, many from central america, many saying they're fleeing violence and poverty with different stories of threats on their lives or their children's lives. they are now at the u.s.-mexico border. this is what they have been going toward when they go north on this journey. an annual march with religious roots that has become controversial given president trump's tweets early on in their journey. they are here to seek asylum under u.s. federal law, this is the way to do it through a port of entry. but this group has arrived here and has tents as well as tarps. then closer to the door, they are there, a smaller group of about 20 to 30 women asking for the same thing. they were stopped by a u.s.

official who said we do not have the capacity at this hour to process asylum claims. so i watch as together they said, in unity, we wait. they are willing, in this last stretch of their journey, to wait out here in the cold, in the dark with hungry children, to be able to get in that door and seek asai luck. how long they'll wait is the uncertainty for them. leyla santiago, cnn, tijuana, new mexico. >> we'll keep in touch with leyla as we watch this play out. julie davis of the times. you see the pictures. some will see them and have compassion, say, look at the children, look at the women. at least hear them out. hear them out about the problems they have back home and see if they should be granted asylum. others will say, strong border,

stand up. the president calls it a mess, he calls it a disgrace. he's thankful the mexican government is now helping. we're in the middle of an election year as we watch this play out. this was senate majority leader mitch mcconnell on capitol hill. some tried to ask him his thoughts on this. >> thank you, everyone. i'm sorry? >> the migrant caravan that we're seeing at the southern border, what we have to do there? >> i think i'll just stick with the subject today. thank you. >> why not? >> well, it's a difficult issue. mitch mcconnell, for one, for a long time has been very careful about the immigration issue. while he's voted alongside the hardliners in his party, he knows that espousing this hard line rhetoric is not especially helpful, especially to the guys who are in the senate races, with hispanic voters, and one of the incumbents is up for reelection. someone who has been more

supportive of a moderate immigration is the president. the president wants to fire up his base and think he can help them politically, but not everyone in this party is willing to take such a hard line on this issue which is what mcconnell is doing. >> this is the nigerian president arriving at the white house. the president greeting him on the west wing there. the two will head inside. we should get some comments from the president of nigeria and the president of the united states in a few moments. we'll continue when they get there. i'm sorry, please continue. >> the talk about caravan is such a res anatoonant image tha paints in people's minds, and this is a president that is gifted in images and politics. we've seen him moved on images of children before, especially in syria. when these images are being played over and over again on tv, there's children on the

border staying overnight, waiting and waiting, and it will be interesting to see if he has a similar reaction and how that will impact his view on military intervention in the middle east. >> for now his view is it's an assault on u.s. sovereignty, that these people are literally coming to the border thinking they can get across. listen to him saturday night in michigan. first he called the caravan a mess, saying it's a disgrace. he said it's weak democratic laws. there's a process for applying to asylum. but the president was at a political rally. don't expect everything to connect, shall we say. then he says, i'm going to get my wall, i'm coming back for more money on my wall, and if i don't get it, i'm willing to shut down the government. >> we need security, we need the wall, we're going to have it all. we come up again on september 28, and if we don't get border security, we'll have no choice. we'll close down the country. because we need border security. >> this is part of the great debate we're going to be talking

about six months from the midterms tomorrow. mitch mcconnell says this is not what you should be talking about. you should be talking about the economy and taxes. >> back when this happened last time, 30% supported the border for immigration. there was a new poll that came out and it said 40 to 50% supported putting the national guard on the border, but 70% supported keeping daca recipients in the country and letting them have a path wway t citizenship. so it's not a simple issue in terms of how americans feel about it. that may certainly rile up the base. midterm elections are also complicated. it depends where you are. it could turn people away. >> and i was watching the president on saturday night. this is the president of the united states in the middle of a speech in which he calls the caravan a mess, says those migrants must be stopped.

says he's willing to shut down the government if he doesn't get his border wall funded, and then this, a much more open approach to guest workers. >> to the farmers, okay, it's going to get good, and we're going to let your guest workers come in, because we're going to have strong borders but we have to have your workers come in. the unemployment picture is so good, it's so strong that we have to let people come in. they're going to be guest workers. they're going to come in, they'll work on your farms, we'll have the worker bees come in, but then they have to get out. >> in the spending bill, they stuck in language that allows the administration to roughly double the amount of guest workers allowed in. this language also existed last year. they allowed only a tiny number of guest workers in, angering the farm community, angering the chamber of commerce. does the president know something we don't know?

there is a lot of pressure from the business groups saying, please let these workers in. we need them. has the president already approved it or was that something to see if there was applause or not? >> this was a very free-wheeling vintage sort of trump rally speech where he was going from topic to topic and it was pretty strong rhetoric. at that point he looked down at his paper and you can almost imagine "guest worker" is written there. i do believe the white house wants to debate immigration going into the midterms. i don't believe people on capitol hill, mitch mcconnell or his colleagues, want to do that, but this is one way they could jump start a debate on immigration and try to get in all of these changes to asylum policy and all the other border-specific policies that don't have to do with people coming to work on farms but have to do with what do you do with people who show up and either claim asylum or who cross the border illegally and are here, and what do you do with them. i think he is trying to generate a sense that this is not all

about animous, this is not abou keeping people out, this is about doing what's right. i do believe there has been a hard line on tariffs, and the hard line on tariffs is going to make the farmers start to react on that. >> they were furious when it was put in. is the president willing to pick that fight with his base. even though he says give me my wall money, is he willing to be pro-business? >> the republican leaders in congress absolutely do not want a big shut-down fight over immigration weeks before the election. will the president relent and how will his base react? >> there is a little bit of this for the farmers. this also allows him to talk about the economy. the economy is doing so well that we need more workers.

skpaz jew and as julie mentioned, we're also talking about fisheries, ski resorts and trump properties. >> i was going to say, what about the trump properties? i wouldn't rule out the president backtracking, because if he doesn't like a policy, let's say daca, he will absolutely backtrack and go back to his hard line stance. >> i took it clearly as i'm going to say this publicly, see what happens, see how i feel about it, see where we go from there. up next, the president floats a positive essential ste big meeting with kim jong-un and asks his fellow tweeters. where do you think it should be?

welcome back. president trump today suggesting korea's demilitarization zone is the best site for his meeting with kim jong-un.

and the right is saying the president now deserves a nobel peace prize. mongolia is also on the short list, but the president says he wants to meet where south korea president, moon jae-in, met with kim jong-un. would peace house/freedom house, on the border of north and south korea, be a more representative, important and lasting site than a third party country? just asking. >> we've all been called a number of things. naive is not usually one of them. i think the president sees the potential here for a historic agreement. but as he says repeatedly, the potential for no deal at all is also there. >> this administration has its eyes wide open. we know the history, we know the risks. we're not going to take promises. we're not going to take words.

we're going to look for actions and deeds. >> it's a fascinating moment and you have the president's new team, new secretary of state, new national security adviser, who presumably say this will take place in three or four weeks. it's not scheduled yet. you have to test it, right? >> it will be interesting to hear them say what they're not starry-eyed about and what lessons they've learned from past attempts. because what we've heard from the president on here is mostly criticism. he doesn't want to hear what's failed before, advice from people who have done this before, and it's not clear what lessons they're really bringing away from it. as for the site, it would be amazing to have this meeting at the border. our reporting has shown, the washington journal has shown, singapore, and also geneva was in talks there. it seems like it's closer to singapore these days, but i

guess we have to watch trump's twitter, because that's where all the news on north korea and these discussions will come from from the president. >> it seems like his advisers, from what i understand, are pretty much against having it in the demilitarized zone just because it would be trump showing up at kim jong-un's doorstep, and it would really be seen as a gesture in that way. apart from the president himself, there's not a ton of support in the white house for doing it. >> he's president, they're not. >> exactly. that's where he wants to have it, and if he can get the agreement of the north koreans, that's where it will be. there's also the issue of what happened when kim jong-un just met a few days ago, and he basically pulled him over to the north side. that would be an awkward moment, to have an american president standing in north korea. but again, if that's what he wants to do, that's what he'll do. i think that the bar here, though, is pretty high, and that's part of the reason you're hearing john bolton and mike pompeo talk about not being

starry-eyed and not being naive. for them to get somewhere with the north koreans in these talks, if they would be able to say beyond what other american presidents have been able to push this issue, is as good or better than the nuclear program of syria, i think that would be a pretty high bar to clear. >> is this deal going to be different than, say, the iran deal. the president has criticized the iran deal as giving the incentives up front and then hope they would take steps to loosen their nuclear program afterwards. the administration has not ruled this out as a possibility with north korea, saying pompeo was asked point blank yesterday whether the administration would be open to allowing north korea to easing some of the sanctions on north korea before seeing some of these concrete steps taken. will they ultimately insist on

some of those concrete steps before easing those sapnctions? we don't know that yet. >> everything is looking at, what do we base this on? they talk about what happened in libya with gadhafi was still in power. we're looking at what north korea committed to previously, and most importantly, going back over a quarter century to the joint south and north denuclearization agreement. i said, wait a minute, gadhafi is dead. gadhafi lost power and it did not end well. blakely says i heard directly from the chinese that the libya model did not inspire confidence in pyongyang. i would be very concerned that the combination of libya and then trump tearing up the iran agreement sends exactly the wrong message to kim jong-un and undermines whatever hope exists for negotiations. the president's latest approach,

fire and fury. is kim going to sign a piece of paper with you if he thinks that once you do something he doesn't like you're going to rip it up? >> we reported on talks between pompeo and kim jong-un that that was basically the message along the lines of the libya approach. i'm not saying pompeo used those words, but the words he did eyes, he wants a big bang in this agreement, some major changes up front. meanwhile, kim jong-un is looking for a more phased-in approach. it will be interesting to see what here gets negotiated ahead of time. you mentioned trump seems to have a lot of leverage in this negotiation with the maximum pressure. >> you're right, john. if trump tears up the iran deal or walks away from it ahead of this, before the deadline, what's to stop kim from saying,

look, trump doesn't stand with his agreements, because he may rip up our agreement. >> you have two leaders who tend to say something and walk away from it. it's very hard to trust that when you say we're going to shut down the nuclear site and then end up not doing it, and then they can point to what trump does with the iran deal. there is that factor as well. >> to your point about people pushing for clarity, what do they mean about denuclearization, are they willing to give up sanctions up front? it will get them thinking about a deal, any deal. we'll see how this one plays out. when we come back tomorrow, tuesday, six months from now for the midterm elections. is the president a plus for his own party?

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in six months it's a midterm election year. if the president's party is up, it's a go. if he's down, he get hammered. see president bush, president george w. bush, president obama. where they stood six months and where they ended up in november. president clinton went down, president bush went down just a little bit. president obama down. it is 2010 and advisers said you should study. president obama down to 45% by november, and the president lost 63 seats in the house. can he go up? that's what republicans would

hope but history tells you it doesn't happen. those six months the president stayed pretty static. president trump, though, they could define in history. >> when you win the presidency, the person that wins, the party that wins, does poorly. they should take it easy, right? something happens. i guess it's 93 or 94% of the time. this is over a long time. you know what it is? you get complacent. we cannot be complacent. we have to go out, right? we got to go out -- we got to go out and we got to fight like hell and we got to win the house and we got to win the senate, and i think we're going to do great in the senate, and i think we're going to do great in the house because the economy is so good. >> it's fascinating to watch, and anyone who says, oh, he's

wrong, has to remember 2016 when everybody said he wouldn't run, everybody said he wouldn't win the republican primaries and everybody said he wouldn't be president of the united states. now so far, 2017 and 2018 tends to fall back to the original marks. but the president on the road, his own adviser is telling him you'll probably lose the house. the senate is in peril. he says no way. >> absolutely, and he says that in private with his advisers. they will tell him, these are the numbers, here's the history, and here's what's happening right now and it doesn't look good for republicans, and it doesn't look good in part because of your own numbers. and he says, that's not going to happen. he will say that he doesn't buy it. now, what you hear there, though, is a message to voters and to his supporters in particular. it's almost like remember barack obama's "pookie get off the couch" argument. it's like don't think we have this in the bag, people have to

go out and vote. will his message be relatable to other republican races and that's the key. >> it wasn't for obama. in his case, all his supporters hate paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. >> candidates matter. you can't get a candidate in some of these states and so far right they're not able to carry the message. that's what they're worried about in a couple different states. like obama, it's really interesting. trump's popularity with his base doesn't seem to attach to those candidates. also, it really does matter what happens in the next couple months. if voters are discouraged with what republicans are doing whether or not the economy is good, we'll have to see if they're going to head to the polls. >> the situation is dire for republicans. there are 23 seats they need to take back the majority. roughly two dozen are in the district. the poll numbers are not good and the enthusiasm gap in the

democratic base is ultimate in the election. the president is trying to energize the base. maybe the economy will help. who knows what it will be like in six months. >> i just looked at numbers on nancy pelosi on the democratic side. people keep saying she should go. she just raised $16 million for democrats in the last quarter and since march 18, has raised $7 million. she is by far their best fundraiser. the president will be part of this, do we have to make a decision on the republican side, focus on the senate because the house is gone? pour more money in the house, we think we can save it. this is to fred barnes in the weekly standard. a tax bill will be delivered just as soon as this political wind shifts. but there's not much any future

administration can do to revisit a 48-year-old strict constructional put on the circuit court for a lifetime. >> that's really all mitch mcconnell is doing right now is getting judges confirmed. that's what does energize the republican base. you have to remind them what they're doing. the president needs to stay on message and push them. we don't hear that much from the president, but that is clearly the message mcconnell wants to push sbheading into the electio year. >> the president does have more of a map on the senate side. to your point, that might be money more well spent. >> and to that point, when we come back, we'll continue a version of this conversation. the president goes after a senator who helped torpedo his last cabinet pick. that would be don tester of montana. we're on the ground there. we'll hear from some voters. i'm not a bigwig.

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checking our political radar today. a long-time republican running for senate in minnesota but as a democrat. richard painter served as chief ethics lawyer in the george w. bush administration, but is now offering a primary challenge to smith who took over for al franken. he won't take donations from russian donations. you may notice something missing from this picture. the small tree brought over from the world war i battlefield, gone. the french ambassador says it's simply a routine agricultural

quarantine and will be replanted after it's inspected. more fallout following the scandal of dr. ronny jackson who withdrew his nomination for secretary of veteran affairs last week after a string of accusations. he said he won't return to his job as the president's personal physician, although he's still in active duty and working in the west wing. the with the says the one who leveled the accusations against jackson should resign. he is in the home state to see if they agreed. >> when the president says he should resign, he has no information on him he could release, how does that sound to you? >> i'll stand by tester all the way. he's the only farm senator, one of 100. that's important when we have issues. >> there is a small percentage.

i don't know if this is enough to help senator tester. >> as you note on the ground in montana, he'll have a full report on what he's finding out there tonight on "erin burnett outfront." the president says he's got dirt on tester. if he wanted him out, he could. he's saying he should resign. he thinks he should circle montana on the map. he wants to go there. singling out tester should mean should be resolved. >> i think it's an interesting development here because don tester was not one of the five red state republicans. he went to the top of the target list. maybe he's not now as much because trump has such a personal animosity to him and is

directing his ire towards him. maybe that will change the contents of that race. we'll ultimately see. veterans, too, were concerned about ronny jackson. >> it doesn't change the conversation of what is an abysmal failure at the white house, even if all this stuff on ronny jackson is true. they should have known up front that this existed. that's how you protect your nominees. they did not do that. >> we'll see if this issue matters enough to montanans to really hinge their vote on whether senator tester led the charge or whether it was a bipartisan charge or whether the charge was true or they weren't true. it's a little difficult to imagine that people who had voted for tester and had voted for trump, i'm sure some group of people like that would change their mind about the senator just based on this one episode. it also depends whether the president keeps up the drumbeat on this. >> there are a lot of problems that trump doesn't have credibility and going on an

attack against him means you can jeopardize your own credibility as well. >> dropping innuendo on tester after saying in the same speech innuendo has been used on ronny jackson and others. welcome. will he slap import tariffs on some of america's closest friends around the world? to move california forward, we need to help more californians get ahead. that's why antonio villaraigosa brought both parties together to balance the state budget with record investments in public schools... and new career training programs. as mayor of la, he brought police and residents together to get illegal guns off the streets and keep kids out of gangs, and on the right path. that's antonio villaraigosa. a governor for all of california.

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it comes to america's friends in europe. >> the european union, which has tremendous blocks, it's very hard for us to sell stuff into the european union. it was put there to take advantage of the united states, okay? it sounds so nice. the european union. you know why, they literally did -- like i said, they formed to take advantage of the united states. >> it doesn't sound like a president who is willing to take the advice of a lot of pro-business forces here in the united states, a lot of his own republican establishment and direct appeals from chancellor merkel last week and around the world as well. it doesn't sound like he's going to back off. any reporting? >> it was a struggle for him to get to this point in the first place. he had to fight his own white house and now he has to deal with allies on this tariff issue. the reporting i have is this is a decision that's due by midnight tonight and i wouldn't be surprised if we don't hear

about this until midnight tonight. you mentioned merkel and macron were in town. they talked about the tariffs, talked about what you would do tonight, talked about the iran nuclear deal due mid-may. the north korea summit has to be decided here pretty soon. there is a lot of stuff -- >> and the president's team is on the way to china to talk about similar trade issues and china says it's not interested. >> an already understaffed white house. it's a major issue. so when you get into these trade assumptions, getting around to brazil, which happened to be the second largest steel imports to the united states, tariff start to fall down on a list of priorities, and it seems like the white house is really under water on this and i wouldn't expect anything until later today. >> i think there is talk that there is a possibility, at least, of canada and mexico who are in the throes of

renegotiating nafta could get an extension of a carve-out. there has been a lot of friction with the europeans. the white house wanted them to accept some export yoquotas. they said we'll give you an exemption if you limit your exports and the europeans did not want to do that, and they're not going to do that, and i think the president really wants these tariffs on. i don't think anybody has given him a reason he finds satisfactory to give them an exemption, so we'll have to see what happens. >> and the europeans are threatening to put tariffs on motorcycles, tobacco, motorboats and other things if the president doesn't back off here. if you listened to the president saturday night, he's essentially saying, i know you're mad at me, meaning farm state america, but the president says it's worth it. >> there may be a little pain for a little while, but ultimately for my farmers -- i love my farmers. they're great patriots. because it's short term, you may have to take some problems. long term, you're going to be so

happy. you're going to be so happy. we're going to get it opened up or we're not doing business with these other countries, right? >> it's a risky bet he's making. >> he absolutely is. to suggest farmers will be okay taking a financial hit because of some vague promise in the future? this is why farm state republican lawmakers have been furiously lobbying this administration to back off the tariff plan. the president has suggested some openness to that in these private meetings. he says he may go back into the tpp. but nevertheless, if he goes forward to it he'll probably get some backlash. if you were paying attention this weekend, the president says he believes the white house correspondents dinner is now dead. he skipped it twice. what's going to happen next year? including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase.

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. any minute now we're about to hear what the israeli team

said about the iran nuclear agreement. another debate here in washington, president trump declaring victory in his self-styled war with the white house correspondents association, calling it, among other things, its dinner, a total embarrassment, total disaster. big boring bust. he also believes he thinks the dinner is dead as we know it. a conservative married to one of president trump's senior advisers, they walked out during a routine considering it an a bra brasive attack. >> it makes me wonder if this dinner serves a purpose or not. >> part of his brand are liberal elites who don't understand america. the comedian's remarks teed it up and the president is using

it. >> i was there. i didn't think it was very funny, but some of the --comedi reporter. it does open up washington journalists for tit for tat. margaret talon on the show gave a beautiful speech. it was professional journalism and that should have been a focus. >> if you cover the white house, it was antagonistic, especially where the president is constantly attacking you and his people don't often tell the truth. the remarks went way over the line. margaret is a friend, she's a great leader of the association. she said the program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to free speech while honoring civility, great reporting. she went on to say that michelle wolf's mon -- monologue was not

in the spirit of the dinner. >> the comedian bombed. a few jokes were not that anyone, and i think that's really the broad takeaway. not everyone enjoyed the comedian in the room. i was there, too. it is a fun night, and i think it would be a mistake to make any big, broad pronouncements about the dinner itself or the evening because of a comment. >> it was insensitive, but at the same time it was celebrating the first amendment. she said what she believed, and a lot of people disagreed. >> the dinner celebrates the first amendment, yet should the association say, look, we're trying to be respectful, so be funny but find a line. people would debate where the line is. it's an interesting topic going forward. the first time the cameras were allowed in the room since 1993 in the bill clinton presidency.

thank you for joining "inside politics." you can catch us on apple. wolf blitzer picks up our coverage right now. hello, i'm wolf blitzer in washington. thanks very much for joining us. we have breaking news we're following any moment now. we're going to be hearing directly from the prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu. he's expected to announce what his aides are describing as a significant development on that nuclear agreement with iran that was worked out back in 2015. this comes amid rising tensions between israel and iran. also amidst the latest developments involving president trump. he has to decide if he will pull the united states out of the iran nuclear deal. he has until may 12 to make a final decision. but now the iranian president seemingly flipping the script a

bit, saying even if president trump recertifies the agreement, the u.s. would be in violation for all of the negative comments it's made about the deal. cnn's orren lieberman is standing by live in jerusalem. we understand the prime minister will be making the statement from the israel against ministry in tel aviv. >> reporter: that's where our security cabinet meeting ended just a short time ago, which is an indication of how significant the situation is, where the tensions are, which is to say very high here and where benjamin netanyahu is focusing his target here, which is on iran. his aides, as you pointed out, have said this is a significant development in the iran nuclear deal. netanyahu has never hid his contempt for the deal, so this likely one more reason netanyahu giving president donald trump to leave the iran deal. netanyahu has always said, fix

it or nix it. now with less than two weeks ago, he's making a very concerted lobbying effort against the iran nuclear deal as trump in the white house has yet to make a decision. wolf, i think it's fair to say at this point netanyahu will take at least one more shot -- he has two more weeks after this -- against the iran nuclear deal. it's important to point out the meetings between the u.s. and israel around this. in the last couple weeks, the head of u.s. central command was here. netanyahu and mr. trump talked on the phone. the defense minister is in the u.s. where he met the u.s. secretary of defense and the national security adviser. both of these governments are very much on the same page when it comes to iran. now we'll wait to see what netanyahu comes out with as he continues lobbying against the iran nuclear deal, not only to trump who is seen as his most open ear but also to the european leaders and to the other cigsignators of the deal