i still have to deal with it, obviously, on a daily basis, but i think there's a lot more to me and i'm trying to just pay attention more to that. >> and your words will mean so much for so many. it's great to see you. thanks for coming in. >> you too. thanks for having me. >> and tune in this weekend 9:00 p.m. for the premiere of "the 2000s." thanks for joining me. "inside politics" starts right now. thank you, dana. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. the united states and china ratchet up a trade war. president trump says the economy is strong enough to handle the turbulence. and a new jobs report gives him some new ammunition. plus, new court challenges as the trump administration struggles to meet dpexisting deadlines deadlines to reunite families

separated at the border. >> we're in the #metoo generation, so i have to be very gentle. we will very gently take that kit and slowly toss it, hoping it doesn't hit her and injure her arm. >> back to that story, but we begin the hour with a trade war that became very, very real today. in a new economic report, the president believes proves he has the stronger hand if the tariffs war is a long one. the first billion volley came while most of america slept, president trump officially slapping tariffs on $34 billion worth of chinese goods. as promised, china responded immediately with equal tariffs aimed at the u.s. auto industry and major agricultural goods like soybeans and meat. the state newspaper, "the china daily" writing that the trump administration is, quote, behaving like a gang of

hoodlums. this morning, americans living in farming states woke up to headlines like these. north carolina farmers caught in the cross fire. minnesota farmers fear the worst. wisconsin cheese industry hopes trump has a strategy. in a moment, the new jobs report and the strong numbers the white house says prove the u.s. economy more than strong enough to handle a trade war. first, to wall street, where the markets are holding steady despite fears a lengthy trade war could smother global economic routes. alison, what are the numbers telling us today? >> well, we are seeing strong green arrow, john. the dow up 133 points. part of the reason you're seeing less worry here on wall street is because today is what wall street has really been ramping up for over the past few months, trade war fears have been simmering, investors have literally been selling stock, repricing stock based on companies that had the most exposure to china. so that was already done before reality hit overnight when the

trade war really took action. what you're really seeing is wall street in a wait-and-see mode. the thinking is that a compromise may actually come out of this between china and the u.s. meantime, we've got this game of chicken that we're watching and waiting to see what will happen. as we wait and see what happens, there is a real economic impact that can happen right here in the u.s. with china placing those retaliatory tariffs on high-value american exports like crude oil, cars, cash crops like soybeans, and poultry because if demand drops for those american products that are sold in china, that means corporate profits here, companies here in the u.s., will feel the pinch. they'll feel it in jobs. they may not hire as much. they'll certainly feel it in their revenue, in their sales, in their bottom line. that could filter through to the greater economy. that's the ultimate worry, but today those worries are sort of put to the side as we wait and see how this game of chicken could play out.

john? >> we'll keep track of the markets and the rest of the numbers as this game, as some call it, does play out. alison, appreciate the reporting. team trump insist this fight is necessary and the president says long overdue. the white house says the new june jobs report is proof the american economy is strong enough to handle trade turbulence. cnn's christine romans has the new numbers. >> john, the jobs report, another very strong month for employment here. 213,000 net new jobs. you can see that april and may was a little stronger than expected. so the last three months averaging more than 200,000 jobs each month. that is strong. that means employers are hiring. they need workers. the unemployment rate rose just slightly to 4%. why did it rise? about 600,000 people came off the sidelines and started looking for work. so maybe encouraged by these headlines, hearing from friends and family that there are plentiful jobs in this country. 600,000 people trying to get a job. that's why statistically it nudges up the unemployment rate. still, historically low here. where is the hiring? this is in information services,

manufacturing. almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs created over the past year. that is a bit of a renaissance for manufacturing in the united states. high-skilled manufacturing. health care, another 25,000 jobs there. that has consistently been a very, very strong part of this economy. wages, though, john, only 2.7%. it's not the fire you'd expect to see in employers having to pay people more money to get workers. that's still a riddle here, john. >> christine romans, thank you. let's dig deeper into these numbers. the jobs report and the trade war. let's start with the president. he's been consistent on this issue. on other issues, he's alwal ove the place sometimes. as president, he says he's going to stand up. listen to him last night in montana.

>> please, just leave it the way it is. leave it the way it is. i said, no, no, we have all the cards. we're the bank that everybody's stealing from. the war was lost. but now we're going to win it because we have all the cards. >> he says we have all the cards. the white house would say look the at jobs report today. yes, next week, next month, next six months might be turbulent. the u.s. economy is strong enough for this fight with china and with the european union and with canada and mexico. is he right? >> the economy is strong. the economy is looking pretty good. these chinese tariffs in and of themselves, they're not going to cause a recession. they're not going to cause that much damage. $34 billion of goods taxed in a $20 trillion economy doesn't move the dial. the problem is we're launching all these trade wars with all of these trading partners at the same time. this could escalate into something that involves a trillion more dollars of tariffs, and then you really are talking about a real risk to the economic underpinnings of business in america. >> and the president's economic

team says, you know, he's the art of the deal president. he's going to sort all this out. here's the white house economic team just this morning saying worry not, the short-term might be rocky, but the president will fix it. >> i don't know about short-term pain, but i know that the president promised the american people he would fight for them, that he would fight to make the trade deals fair and reciprocal. we're moving in that direction. president trump wrote "the art of the deal." he's committed to making better deals. he's going to deliver better deals. >> we're 17 months in. they keep saying we're moving in the right direction. he's going to negotiate better deals. he's going to make better deals. they have a framework with south korea but no details on that one. does it take this? does it take actually starting the war to negotiate the peace? >> it's interesting. kevin hassett was just talking about the book "the art of the deal." i was just looking fthrough it yesterday. there's a big element that says use your leverage. the president is trying to create leverage with all these threats. china, i'm going to impose tariffs on your aluminum and steel.

now he's saying $200 billion in additional exports from china. he's trying to create leverage with the european union on this whole auto issue that could be coming in the weeks to come. so the problem for the president is that everyone's calling his bluff. even harley-davidson. they refused to back down from their plan to move some jobs overseas in order to escape some of these european tariffs. when you have all these countries simultaneously calling the president's bluff, it makes his position look weaker. we know he takes that very personally when someone makes him look weak, and educational background -- he could escalate things even more. >> china saying they're behaving like a gang of hoodlums. what's the off-ramp, if you will? is it canada and mexico? do you start with china because that's the biggest one? >> the chinese have a very clear strategy. it's true of all these countries involved. they tried to have retaliatory tariffs that are maximizing the political pain for the president, minimizing the cost to their own consumers. that means soybean farmers, other american agricultural producers are facing big new

tariffs. they're trying to put the screws to the president, cause problems with his domestic politics. and you know, it's a tried and true strategy. the question is how much pain is the president willing to take? h . >> the chinese and other countries are being political in their economic retaliation, if you will. these are the china tariffs disproportionately hitting counties where president trump did well. we've seen the very same thing, whether it's whisky from canada and european union. it's economics, but boy, there's some pretty raw politics. >> absolutely. i think as we head into the midterm elections, if we keep having strong jobs reports numbers and see strong quarterly growth numbers, the president is going to stick to his approach. as soon as things start to slip, if there's evidence that companies are cutting back, not investing, hiring starts to go

down, maybe wages flatten, and some of these companies maybe go belly up or farmers start to panic, the white house is going to have to re-evaluate. as you get closer to november, especially in some of these red/blue states, they'll have to recalibrate. >> this first round of tariffs, this is mostly industrial goods. it's ball bearings, all these industrial products. it doesn't really hit the pocketbooks of people in a direct way. if this escalates further, which it shows all the signs of escalating, then it'll start to hit consumer goods and more of the goods you buy at the store. you'll see price increases if this keeps escalating. >> and cars potentially too. that could add up to a lot of money. >> things that americans go to buy. we saw the other day toyota saying $1800 added to the price of a camry. that's real money. one of the questions is, will the president hold fast? chamber of commerce is yelling. republicans in congress, especially republicans in farm states up for election this year are screaming. you mentioned the long-term economic impact. this is from a piece you wrote about the tools available. the president can negotiate his way out of this or just back

down, but what else is available? you write in your piece about the fed, for the past 11 years, the fed's tools were reasonably well suited to the challenges that presented themselves. the central bank became more central than usual to every economic discussion. but this time, the economic risks are different, and if the conflict over trade practices starts to cause damage to the broader economy, we shouldn't count on the fed to bail us out. because the fed's tools are not trade war tools, right? >> this is going to cause both inflation and a hit to growth. so that means if jay powell tries to turn the dial one direction, causes worse problems in the other direction. this is an issue for the president to solve one way or the other. i think the challenge, and you alluded to this earlier, is not having off-ramps. it's not clear what the chinese can do that's within the realm of possibility that can end this. their asks are very large. it essentially involves restructuring the entire chinese economy. the question is what is the off-ramp? where does this end?

it's not clear at all. >> and because it's global. it's not just china. it's the united states versus china. it's the united states versus canada and mexico and the neighborhood here. a very important economic neighborhood. united states versus the european union. again, a very big economic piece. there are some people who say if this continues, they worry that european growth that's already starting to slow down, you could smother growth to the point of a global recession. this is from a reuters story. the chief economist for ing saying this is not economic armageddon, we will not have to hunt our food with pointy sticks. but it is applying the brakes to a global economy that has less durable momentum than appears to be the case. is that the sky is falling, or is it real, the risks of a global recession? >> i think it's real. if this continues and continues for months and months, the chances of that get higher and higher. listen, the united states is the largest economy in the world. it's in no other country's interest to be in a trade war with the united states. i'm sure they're looking at ways they can try to appease president trump, make it look like he got a victory so they can make this all go away. the problem is they don't know how much he wants.

is he asking for the moon and he just wants something small, a token thing heading into the midterm elections? or does he want china to restructure its economy? that's very difficult to do. until they know what he wants, i think it's going to be harder to resolve this. >> how strong is the u.s. economy? the president says we've never had anything like this. the economy is certainly booming. no question about that. if you look at the final 17 months of the obama administration, including january 2017, the average monthly job gains were 203,000 a month. at the end of the obama administration, the economy was coming back. the first 17 months of the trump presidency, average monthly gains, 189,000. so the final 17 months of obama were a little stronger than the first 17 months of trump. but the last six months since the tax cut kicked in, job growth is averaging 214,000 a month. so the president can certainly make the case and republicans can since the tax cut, they're getting even more. how much is trump and how much is the economy was on a good ramp that he inherited? >> i think the economy is doing very well. i also know that the last time the economy was doing this well was right before the great

recession. so things can change very quickly. and when you have external shocks, you know, they're hard to predict. but when there's internal shocks that precede them, it can make things worse. >> interesting. gentlemen, i appreciate you both coming. you're a lot smarter than i am to go through these numbers. up next, the trump administration faces its first family reyuan aunification dead today. how it's dealing with that process in court. your paycheck. your family depends on it. but if something happened to you... you need life insurance! and chances are selectquote can get it for you for under a dollar a day! selectquote found michael, 38, a $500,000 policy for under $23 a month.

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the trump administration now facing its first big deadline in the court-ordered process of reuniting families separated at the u.s./mexico border. today officials have to make sure all separated parents have a way to contact their children. by tuesday, the government is supposed to reunite parents with their children if those kids are under the age of 5. and by the 26th of this month, a judge says all children should be back with their parents. cnn's nick valencia is live in san antonio tracking this for us. a big deadline for the

administration, nick. how are they doing? >> reporter: john, we just don't know, if only because the trump administration refuses to give us a breakdown in those numbers. about nine days ago it was last when we heard that they had 2,047 children still in government custody. it was yesterday in a phone call with the health and human services secretary that he put that number at less than 3,000, saying he was dealing with a more comprehensive set of data. the reunification process has been painstakingly slow, and there's been a lot of confusion here on the ground, but there are plenty of organizations trying to do work to make those reunifications happen. we're here in san antonio at an organization that has created a phone bank, inputting data, trying to a track of detain knedetainees and connect them with their children. the executive talked to me about that process. >> we have to call out to detention centers, all of which

have different protocols. there are detention centers that at this point are hanging up on us once we call them. even when we have been able to connect with people and be able to pay their bonds -- yesterday i went to immigration to try to pay five bonds. they're five women who should be free right now. we were essentially rejected at the front desk because we didn't have bus tickets and airplane tickets. >> reporter: and today is the deadline that the trump administration must have children connected with their parents through phone contact, some sort of communication. we're hearing in some cases, though, that's not happening. john? >> nick valencia live in san antonio. nick, keep in touch as the day progresses. appreciate the update. as nick noted with those deadlines looming, there are still a lot of questions about how many children are actually still in government custody. back on june 20th, the department of health and human services said it had 2,053 migrant children in its care. those are children who are separated from their parents. six days later, it was 2,047. now hhs says it has just fewer than 3,000 kids in its

facilities. the government won't give exact numbers or day-to-day updates. officials have 20 days now unless they ask for an extension to reunite all families. families like this one reunited just yesterday after being away from each other for two months. [ cheering ] [ sobbing ] >> emotional reunion there. again, deadlines to facilitate the rest of the reunions looming on the administration. with us in studio to share their insights and reporting, molly ball with "time" and cnn's nia malika henderson. you see the government not being willing to say what are the numbers, what exactly do they have in place. the justice department might ask that judge today for a little more time because this is

difficult. it's a giant policy challenge. and it is. give the government a bit of grace. they're the ones who separated these families. now reuniting them is hard. politically this has become a giant headache. >> absolutely because now you have the president having sort of gone back on what he originally said was a no holds barred policy, a zero tolerance policy. he signed that executive order to try to get this problem under control. he didn't want to do it. his base didn't like he had to do it, but he did it because had become a problem that politically was not sustainable for them. but instead of turning it around, that has -- there's no real sign yet they've gotten a handle on this reunification process, which is very complex. our colleagues at "the new york times" have also reported that they made what sounds like some huge errors in this processing when these separations happened. when these kids were sent away from their parent, when they became unaccompanied because of the trump administration policy, they destroyed in some cases the records of which kids go with

which parents. now they have to sort of re-create all of that. that's why you're hearing them talk about dna tests and the like. it's a giant mess. the fact they won't give the numbers really tells you there's not a good story to be told here, at least not yet in terms of getting these families back together. >> so they have to go to court, most likely, and ask for more time. so if you're these interest groups involved, these humanitarian groups, you have every right to ask. give us the accounting. if you're an american taxpayer, you have every right to ask how much money is being spent, where these people are being kept, what are the numbers. what does it tell us that the trump administration either can't or won't give them to us? >> i think that's the point, that they either can't or won't. it's been a fine line throughout this story of what is it that they just messed up and what is it that they're sort of intentionally doing. you noerk know, as julie was sa it's a policy problem on both ends. there are three different government agencies here that were not coordinating well and

in many cases just -- well, overall did not have a procedure in place. the idea was just that the policy was separation and then after that, who knows. then going forward, it is also very unclear the executive order that the president signed was very vague, and they're still trying to figure out what exactly it called for, what exactly it means. are they going to erect these giant tent cities on military bases, what advocates are calling family internment camps. how are they going to handle this problem going forward? congress unsurprisingly not having passed a solution to the problem, how does the administration tend to handle this? that's really unclear too. >> and the health, the safety, the reunification of the children should come first and foremost, whatever your views on the immigration issue. that's the policy challenge. the political challenge for the republican party and the administration, "the washington post" out today, do you support or oppose a policy that separated immigrant children from their parents? 29% of americans support.

69% oppose. that's a lot of republicans. that's not just democrats. that's not just independents. seven in ten americans say bad idea. again, this other number shows you that the zero tolerance p l policy, the president would have been on safer ground through the flores act. going forward, what would you prefer happen to the families accused of crossig the border illegally until their case is solved? hold families together in a detention facility, 58%. temporarily release the families until a hearing, 39%. so the president would have support for zero tolerance if you held the families together. they say they couldn't do that because of the law. now they're trying to challenge or change that law. they should have done that on the front end, right? >> yeah, i mean, they should have done a lot of things on the front end, right. including keeping these records of where the kid is and who the parent is and where each of them are going to be separated. but there -- it's so disheartening to look at that child who's been away from her

mom for two months and then they of course get reunited. the reason they're reunited is not even the government. there are all of these nonprofits on pro bono lawyers who are really trying to make these matches happen. it's going to be painstaking, and it's still not clear where the leadership is. you obviously see the hhs secretary on the call yesterday. he's sort of the face of this, of the president. ivanka trump tweeted about it a couple days ago, saying now it's time to get these families back together. well, you know what, you're right. it is time to get the families back together. >> you make a key point. the president, look, he won the republican primaries. he thinks he's president in part because of his views on immigration. he likes to talk tough on immigration. when it comes to this, the administration retreated. he washes his hands of it, lets his cabinet agencies deal with it. publicly he won't say, we got this wrong, we're going to fix this. he says things like this. >> we want tough, strong,

powerful borders, and we want no crime. and we're going to protect i.c.e. we protect i.c.e. they protect us, and we protect them. >> at a time when some people are actually calling for the abolition of i.c.e., in this white house, let me be clear. we are with you 100%. as the president said last night, we will always stand proudly with the brave heroes of i.c.e. and our border patrol. >> the democrats may have given the administration a gift by coming forward at this moment and talking about abolishing i.c.e., but am i just naive to think that in the middle of a crisis like this and the government trying to reunite these families, the president changing his policy because of the political blowback, that the president and vice president might take the lead in trying to help explain the process to the american people? >> this would be a core thing that you'd expect a president to do. look, there's a huge crisis in

the country. it's affecting children. you have all of these horrible images. i'm going to take responsibility for it. we're going to get this fixed. that's all he would actually have to say. i think that he feels so much to blame, obviously, in this situation because it is because of this policy. >> i think the problem for republicans is going to be there's obviously going to be some horror stories that come out of this. the administration is no way prepared. hhs is calling on volunteers to go through dna records and do that. this is going to probably be a disaster. there's going to be some kids who are with the wrong parents or something like this. the president, as usual, has decided hard line on immigration is the best political stance for them. midterm elections, there's a lot of sympathy for these families. >> this one is a mess of their own making. up next for us, the secretary of state in north korea. a very tough project ahead.

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welcome back. today difficult business for the secretary of state. mike pompeo in north korea trying to fill in the blanks and trying to turn north korea's paper promise to denuclearize into something real and verifiable. sources tell cnn the process so far has been slow and unsteady. right now still no timeline for denuking or even an administration consensus on who should be secretary pompeo's point person to do the critical detail work. "the new york times" reporting today the secretary is telling outside advisers he expects these talks to fail. but the president says all is on track and says those who say he got played by kim jong-un are wrong. >> so remember they said, he's too tough, he's going to cause a war, it's too tough. now they say, he's too nice, he's too nice. what do they say all the time? i didn't give anything up. what do they say all the time? they say, he went there.

i went there. i went to singapore. we had a meeting. they couldn't find anything, so what do they do? they say he met. i met. that's what we lost, folks. he met. >> what we in the media and some other people, including a lot of republicans, actually say is where's the beef, i guess would be one way to put it. since the singapore summit three weeks ago, yes, there are ongoing high-level talks. that's a good thing. we want the governments to figure this out. but north korea has actually built up nuclear sites. the united states and south korea canceled military exercises, a big concession, to the south. has the north reciprocated by giving an inventory of nuclear materials? no. has the north reciprocated with a gesture like returning u.s. remains from the korean war that the president says was promised? no. where are we now as secretary pompeo is at this table? >> i think that actually the president in that very wide ranging speech last night, by

the way, sounded a little defensive to me right there on this issue. i think he realizes that, you know, the beef is not materializing. i think this was always going to be the hard part, to get them to do something. there's been these reports, you know, that north korea is still engaged in a lot of the activities. when he says, well, i went to singapore, that's to show he didn't actually go to north korea. i just think they're in for the same slog that at least two previous administrations have gone through and come up empty. and to me, he sounded a little bit like, you know, starting to build the explanation and justification for why it hasn't quite worked out. >> i tried, but. >> and i agree with that, but he's actually been making it more difficult for himself to even defend what he's done because you have him tweeting he averted a war. you have him saying right after the meeting that the nuclear threat is gone. so you have mike pompeo, secretary pompeo over there

being much more realistic about what the prospects may be and trying to actually put in place a process to get there. but you have the president making a victory lap. now that it appears that at least in the short-term there are no real material gains that the united states has achieved. he's having to go back not only to defend the meeting but to defend all of his own rhetoric, sort of overstating what he achieved just by going there. >> and secretary pompeo trying, as he gets to the table, a little bit of humor. >> a new secretary of state, new to this job. i mean, what a task right out of the box. >> yeah, and the expectations obviously set up by donald trump. no clear sense of what plan b is, if this fails, and it sort of look looks like it already has failed. do they go back to maximum

pressure? is it going back to the rhetoric of war and threats? you know, it's unclear. pompeo has a tough job ahead of him. already seems to be in this "new york times" article telegraphing failure. in the meantime, kim jong-un has got an lot. he's been elevated on the world stage in a way that he had never been before. >> and they've repeatedly mocked the iran nuclear agreement process, which took forever. the question is will they invest months and months and months. we'll keep an eye on that. up next for us, what's up next? the answer is jeoparwhen jeopar the russia investigation collide. ion, you don't see the car in front of you. (tires squealing, crash) so get allstate, and be better protected from mayhem like me. so get allstate, jimmy's gotten used to his whole room smelling like sweaty odors. yup, he's gone noseblind.

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topping our political radar today, the president's allies opening their wallets to support his eventual nominee to the supreme court. america first policies is planning a seven-figure ad campaign to push the president's pick. the campaign will start next week after monday's big announcement and will focus on democratic senators from red states carried by the president. and republican primary ad wars also in full swing. a republican candidate for congress in tennessee launching this new ad against his opponent with a promise to voters he'll help the president build that wall. >> hey, jason. are you really going to help president trump build the wall? >> you bet i am. i'm jason emmert, and i approve this message because unlike butch jones, when i say i'm going to do something, i actually mean it. >> running in a republican primary, hoping to replace congressman john duncan, who representing tennessee's second

congressional district. and i'll take russia meddling for a thousand, alex. only the smartest of the smart get to be on "jeopardy," right? so what does this little exchange last night say about the nation's focus or lack thereof on the whole mueller/russia meddling and collusion investigation? >> in 2017 this ex-national security adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. suzanne? >> who is kelly? >> no. steve? >> who is gorka? >> no. >> i would bomb on "jeopardy." but i'd get that one right. the answer is, who is michael flynn? when we come back, the president on the road last night putting in a plug for republican senate candidate, talking about his agenda, and mocking the #metoo movement.

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montana, the latest stage for a president who prefers combative, often coarse political rhetoric. it's no secret this president enjoys thumbing his nose at what he calls the politically correct crowd. last night's rally included fresh digs at ailing senator john mccain, a dig at 94-year-old former president george h.w. bush, and a new twist on this president's fascination with elizabeth warren. >> po >> pocahontas, i apologize to you. to the fake pocahontas, i won't. we're in the #metoo generation, so i have to be very gentle. we're very gently take that kit and slowly toss it, hoping it doesn't hit her and injure her arm, even though it only weighs probably two ounces.

>> now, mocking the #metoo movement is a risk for a president who's been accused of misconduct by at least 15 women. and it's another reminder to republicans on this year's ballot that, yes, there's no one like president trump in rallying the base, but there's also no one like president trump in exacerbating the party's biggest proble problems. these are the latest quinnipiac poll numbers. 63% of women disapprove of the president's job performance. when it comes to voting for congress this year, men favor republicans. but women favor democrats by a whopping 25 points, 58% to 33%. so the president's not helping his party when he does that, is he? >> i don't think so. no, i mean, look, it cannot be said enough that this midterm election hinges on women voters. it hinges on the activation of women voters. it hinges on suburban women

voters in particular, college-educated women voters in particular. that mostly affects the house of representatives. it mostly affects the republicans who are in those types of districts. but anything that the president does to remind those women of why they're mad, and they are mad. we've already seen in special elections and marches and all the activism that's gone on, anything he does to remind them of that i think doesn't help. usually in politics, there's sort of a for every action, there's a reaction. but i don't think that we have seen, you know, men being galvanized in response to either the #metoo movement or the president's rhetoric, saying, yeah, we're just as mad, we want to go vote and stick it to those broads. we're not seeing that. so it's really all downside and not a lot of upside when the president does things like that. >> he's holding and republicans are holding pretty traditional numbers among men, whereas the democrats are off the charts in the search among women. yet, he knows this.

he follows the cable shows. he follows political news. he thinks he's bullet broof apr most republicans think he doesn't give a you know what about them. >> and he just wants to have fun and tell his jokes and rally the crowd. >> that's fun, mocking the #metoo movement? >> i think he thinks so. it was almost like a stand-up comedian doing a bit that he maybe practiced in the white house before he got there. so yeah, this is energizing to him, not clear that it helps that candidate in montana. maybe. i mean, tester is probably going to have a tough race, but he's also a tough candidate in that state. so we'll see. >> all right. quick break. when we come back, scott pruitt is gone, and he thinks life has been so unfair to him.

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scott pruitt is finally gone, but don't hold your breath if you expect him to man up. lawyer up is something he is doing. the epa administrator resigned yesterday after white house chief of staff john kelly told

him if he didn't, he would be fired. in his letter to the president, pruitt took zero responsibility, saying he was leaving because, quote, the unrelenting attacks on me personally and my family are unprecedented and have take an sizable toll on all of us. let's translate. what pruitt sees as unrelenting attacks are at least 14 federal reviews of alleged misconduct. reviews, by the way, being led by the republican trump administration and the republican congress. they range from wasteful spen g spending of taxpayer dollars to asking government workers to find his wife a job, to perhaps breaking the law by scrubbing controversial meetings from his calendar. pruitt has complained to friends in recent days about mushrooming legal costs to defend himself. "the new york post" mocking pruitt's exit this way, casting the trump administration as an episode of "survivor." for me, the news isn't that he's gone. the news is what took so long. >> i think that the president, this is just my theory, was

reluctant to do it because he would be giving in to all these attacks. he had some affinity for pruitt. i think obviously in any normal circumstance, this would have happened long ago. the thing that always got me about it was pruitt's hardly indispensable. there's a lot of conservatives around town who can unwind environmental regulations without all this surrounding trouble. and i think maybe that's what we'll see now. you know, they've learned, hey, let's just keep our heads down and do this. >> but some republicans have been making that argument for weeks and weeks, that andrew wheeler, the deputy, who's now going to be in charge, that he can do the pruitt agenda without doing the pruitt circus. that's been the argument. this jumped out at me. this is in "the washington post" today from a republican donor. the president should have protected him better, said a dallas donor and prominent trump supporter who fund raises for the pro trump america first pac. i'm extremely disappointed. he's the only cabinet secretary who has done what he was told to

do. so the people who said lock hillary clinton up and that the clinton family was this giant pay-for-play organization, now that they're in power, the government is there to be their atm and do their bidding and the president should let this guy stay. >> i think there was a personal affinity there, no question. but this whole drain the swamp theme that donald trump ran on, this was the epitome of the swamp. any one of those 14 investigations, it was very swamp-like behavior. it was all sort of while he was doing this deregulatory campaign. all of those actions had nothing to do with his actual job. yes, he may have done the job as the donor said that he was supposed to do, but he also did a lot of things he was not supposed to do. there are a lot of republicans not just outside the white house but inside the white house who have been telling trump for weeks and months that he was bad news, the trajectory was not going to get any better, and he needed to cut him loose. i think he was reluctant to go back on something he had decided was fine with him. >> i talked to somebody close to

pruitt yesterday, says he now understands he's going to need a team of lawyers and this is going to go on for months because these investigations aren't going anywhere. andrew wheeler is now in charge. most republicans think essentially you'll have the same policy. this is andrew wheeler at his confirmation hearing on the question of climate change. >> do you believe human activity is driving the temperature increasing on the planet? >> i believe that man has an impact on the climate, but what's not completely understood is what the impact is. >> a lot of people in the science community, most people in the science community would tell you, no, we do know the impact. it's time to have a debate about what to do about it. let's stop debating the impact and start debating what to do about it. >> it's unclear if he gets the nomination. he's honestly the actor now. i think there's a time limit for the amount of time he can stay in that. we'll see if he gets the ultimate nomination or someone else who needs to come through and get nominated and confirmed by the senate. >> 200 days or something like that. he'll be there for a little bit. we shall see.

again, scott pruitt is gone. i wouldn't place a bet if you're waiting for big policy changes. thanks f thanks for joining us today. hope to see you back here sunday morning 8:00 a.m. eastern. jim sciutto is in for wolf. he starts right now. hello. i'm jim sciutto in today requester wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in new york. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks so much for joining us. deadline day for the trump administration on reuniting families separated at the border. the first of three deadlines defined by court order demanding the federal government reunite parents and children separated there, but the trump administration won't say exactly how many children they've separated. all they will say is that the number is under 3,000. our sunlen serfaty is in washington covering this story. do we have any more details about not only how many children are s