obviously republicans are focusing on a lot. so there's a lot to talk about. >> get ready, one hour from now. we'll all be watching. >> yes. >> appreciate it very much. thanks very much to our viewers for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "out front" starts right now. "out front" next, what is trump afraid of? the president on the defense about his son's subpoena. is there something president trump knows that he wants to hide? plus the democrats say they have the backing of millions of voters who want president trump impeached. and a fight for 2020. a record number of women are running for president. why aren't they in the lead? let's go "out front." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "out front" tonight, what's trump afraid of? the president going on a nearly five-minute rant about the subpoena of his son, donald trump jr. a subpoena from the

republican-led senate intelligence committee. trump was in a furor on defense. >> mr. president, as you saw the senate intelligence committee has subpoenaed don jr., that's the republican-led senate intelligence committee. what do you make of that. >> the mueller report said he did nothing wrong. my son was totally exonerated by mueller and my son's a very good person. works very hard. the last thing he needs is washington, d.c. >> of course, donald trump jr. did not cooperate with the mueller investigation. we know the committee, the senate intelligence committee wants to talk to donald trump jr. about issues related to the russia investigation. one example the infamous 2016 russian meeting that he only told jared kushner and paul manafort about. he told everyone else. what else did he lie about? he's trying to block congress

from finding anything out and he's banking on help from one of his father's most ardent supporters these days, senator lindsey graham. >> to me mueller is the last word for me. i'm over, i'm done. he testified before the committee. he testified to the special counsel. >> okay. let's just be loud and clear about that. testified to the special counsel did not happen. that is false. and it was not for a lack of trying by mueller. mueller very clearly writes about one of the key incidents that he looked at, that russia meeting, and of that in the report he writes, quote, the office spoke to every participant except trump jr. the latter of whom declined to be voluntarily interviewed by the office. then as you can see, three lines of redactions grand jury related. are these redactions what trump is afraid of? could they reveal trump jr. was considered a target or a subject of the special counsel? we simply do not know. but we do know that he didn't voluntarily sit down or answer any questions from the special counsel.

why? well, the president sure seems to be spooked. he's already making it clear that congress may never hear from his son again. >> are you going to fight that subpoena? >> we'll see what happens. i'm just very surprised. >> abby phillip is "out front" at the white house. abby, there is real frustration on the subpoena from don jr. we played clips there. the president really going on a rant for five minutes about it today. >> reporter: yeah. you could see the frustration in his face and his demeanor when he was answering these questions about his son, donald trump jr., repeating that his son had tried to stay out of all of this, stay out of washington. he had helped out with the campaign but didn't want to get caught up in this. the president seems to be frustrated that this is not coming from the democrats, this is coming from the republican-led committee and it's bringing donald trump jr. back into the middle of the russia investigation that he has been spending weeks trying to discount, trying to say case closed. those were the words of the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell that a lot of other republicans had coalesced

around. president trump and his allies now fear that what this is doing is giving democrats a new opening to say this is a legitimate line of inquiry, that going over some of these lies that have actually already been addressed in the mueller investigation is a worthy task for the senate and for the house and president trump, i think, has very limited recourse here. unlike a lot of these other individuals who face subpoenas from the democratic-led committees on the house side, don jr. never worked in this white house and does not work in this white house now so it might be a case where president trump can do very little to stop his son from going before this committee unless, of course, don jr. decides to invoke his fifth amendment rights which could create some more political problems for him and for the president going forward. but this is clearly a tough situation. both the president and his allies today deeply frustrated by what is going on in the republican-led senate intelligence committee. erin? >> abby, thank you.

david guergin, jewulia and john earl. so, david, i don't know why lindsey graham said that he was -- you know, sat down or was interviewed by the special counsel. lindsey graham should know. there's no excuse for lindsey graham not to know that that's false. i'm going to presume he didn't know and that he was not intending to mislead. does it look like don jr. has something to hide here? >> well, it certainly gives that indication, especially if he's going to invoke the fifth amendment. basically so he won't incriminate himself. if he hides behind that, i think it causes other political problems as you just suggested. if he doesn't show up at all, he could be held in contempt and thrown into jail. i -- you have to believe that's not going to happen but he's -- you know, just because he's the president's son does not mean he's above the law no more than

the president is. >> julia, why do you think the committee wants to hear from don jr.? obviously there's possible inconsistencies, cases referred out and as it's clear here, the redactions come right after they say he refused to be voluntarily interviewed by the special counsel. >> well, it appears that what they're looking at is determination of whether don jr. perfe pu purjured himself. both of them have to do with volume one in the mueller report's, not the obstruction of justice. one is of course the meeting -- exactly, the russia meeting in trump tower, which don jr. tried to minimize and testified that it wasn't a big deal but, of course, we have evidence and testimony from a whole bunch of other people contradicting that. the second though, let's not forget, is trump tower moscow which was really in don jr.'s orbit. he was pushing it with michael

cohen. michael cohen now has testimony out there of which he says don jr., i briefed him almost a dozen times on trump tower meeting. that goes to the question of why was the trump campaign so willing to accommodate russia during the election? it was because they had business interests that they were presuming they would continue under the belief that donald trump would lose. so both of those are huge issues that are simply contradicted by too many others for the senate committee to ignore and one would suspect that don jr. has to take the fifth so that he doesn't perjure himself. >> i want to play something that don jr. said about the mueller report. >> the mueller report came out. that's the bible. the mueller report came out. and they said he did nothing wrong. the only thing is it's oppo research. >> he's got schizophrenia when it comes to the mueller report and sometimes it's the bible and

a complete load of lies. it depends on the day when you ask him, i suppose. the reality is mueller clearly said don jr. would not voluntarily sit down with him but he let him go without an interview, didn't push it there. should that matter to congress? do you read anything into that? >> that's a good point you're making because congress isn't bound by what mueller found or didn't find. congress is free to have its own investigation. they have the right to conduct oversight of spending federal dollars about how the justice department is doing its investigations and i guess if they want to see that the justice department properly investigated donald trump jr. for alleged campaign finance violations or collusion itself, they're free to do so. and you're quite right also. i think the reporter made the point that since he's a private citizen, since he's serving the government, he doesn't have the right to serve executive privilege or a lot of other means to keep things confidential. that people in the government

like don mcgann or white house counsel would have available. >> that's interesting, david, because obviously that could mean that donald trump jr. simply, you know, he's out of luck on this one. he's going to have to eventually do this. and -- unless they're willing to throw him in jail literally. the president seemed to lament that his son ever got involved. here's what he said about that. >> i was very surprised to see my son. my son's a very good person, works very hard. the last thing he needs is washington, d.c. he would rather not ever be involved. >> what's the risk, david, to the president of his son being forced to testify and come in here again under oath? >> i'm sorry, what was the worst thing for the president? >> what's the risk to the president? >> the danger? >> yeah, the danger for the president. >> the risk is there's more to this story than has come>> juli:

julia made two big points. we need to know that. mueller didn't give him a complete pass, after all. he did say he was in violation of campaign laws but he just didn't think he ought to bring it -- i'm not sure if he thought he could win the case but he left it on that. i think the other extreme thing is the role republicans are playing in this. this is the first time we've had a major conservative republican like senator burr who's well respected break with the white house. he must feel some compulsion to do that, but -- but we have to remember that burr has also told the washington post in past days that even if donald jr. was found to be lying to the senate, he was not inclined to pursue perjury charges. at some point you have to ask what is this all about? why are they calling him? >> right. if it isn't about whether he perfe perjured himself, it has to be

something new. >> yes. >> that's what that means definiti definitionally. don jr. in recent days is just one of many examples of trump trying to stonewall congress, right? comes to don mcgahn testifying, comes to the mueller report itself, comes to the backup data and all of the volumes of that. don jr. now. is the president taking this too far on all of these inquiries saying no, no, no, no, no? >> both branches have constitutional interests at stake. congress has a right to conduct congressional oversight and the president has the right to keep some things secret, such as i would say discussions between him and the white house counsel. what the supreme court has made clear what president trump can't do is declare blanket resistance to refuse to send any witnesses to the hill to allow any documents to be produced. the supreme court has made clear it's an issue by issue, document by document process. you can't say i'm producing nothing. i think both sides here from i see rushing they want to have

some kind of constitutional confrontation rather than stepping back and reaching a deal which is the way most presidents and congress settle these conflicts. >> thank you very much. david, before we go, happy birthday. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. thank you. >> you don't look a day over 50. >> i know. i moved the marker. i wouldn't guess a decade as long as they want to hold onto it. thank you all very much. next democrats claim they have signatures from millions of voters, 10 million, in fact, calling for the president's impeachment. >> i always tell people this is your house. you tell us what to do, and this is us telling this house what to do. >> will the house act? you just saw her there. congresswoman rashida tlaib who is leading the impeachment record up next. a record six women seeking the election. are they being held to an unfair

standard. >> i'm working around the clock to give you free college. look in there there is beto owe dork in the starbucks. >> trump's former ghost writer breaks his silence calling him a failure and clueless when it comes to business and wait until you hear about this book they wrote together. he's "out front."

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speaker nancy pelosi moving towards impeachment? here is the speaker earlier today. >> the president is almost self-impeaching because he is every day demonstrating more obstruction of justice and disrespect for congress's legitimate role of the subpoena. >> this as democrats rashida tlaib and al green delivered a flash drive. on this, get this, 10 million signatures demanding the house begin impeachment proceedings against president trump. >> this is incredible because this is how movements start and i always tell people, this is your house. you tell us what to do. and this is us telling this house what to do. >> congresswoman talib is out front. she introduced a resolution. congresswoman, 10 million signatures. that is a lot. you hear speaker pelosi now

saying president trump is now self-impeaching. those are the words she's saying now. do you think she's coming over to seeing it your way? >> what i think is important is to recognize that 10 million people said that we need to hold this president accountable. that speaks volumes. just alone think about it, 10 million people want us to uphold the united states constitution. 10 million people want us to investigate this president and whether or not he has violated the united states constitution and whether or not he's acting above the law and i think that is tremendous, you know, movement that is moving -- saying to all of us as members of congress, please, please do something. take back our democracy. get back our country. because for so many of us we're seeing this becoming a slippery slope and to a president, you know, really does believe that he's above the law. i think any of us, yourself, erin, or myself doing anything that he's done, including not divesting in his businesses while he's president, all of the interactions between the trump organization and the trump

administration, we would be under investigation today. we would probably be prosecuted within 24 hours. >> all right. so, you know, you have these signatures. nancy pelosi is talking about self-impeaching, which is not dismissing at altogether which is where she was not too long ago. there are some democrats in the house judiciary committee which would begin and oversee impeachment proceedings who have weighed in on this. here's a little bit of how they're putting it, congresswom congresswoman. >> there is no question that at some point if the president's effort to stone wall and prevent us from getting information continues, that that may form an independent basis for obstruction in and of itself. >> i think we're inching close to it every day. >> we're on the road to impeachment. it's not one that we want to go down but it's one we may have to go down to to save our country. >> at some point inching on the road. are they dodging this? >> no, not at all. i mean, the president of the united states is pretty much

acting in defines. i me -- defiance. there's checks and balances. we have to hold the president accountable to the rule of law. the fact that, you know, continuously members of his administration and others are not cooperating and providing documentation that we can be transparent, open with the united states of america, you know, the american people and the public is really important. look, i'm new here but i have watched while people on the outside are screaming, why aren't you doing anything about the president. >> you're new, but you've introduced this impeachment resolution, right? you've taken a leadership role. >> yeah. >> you have seven co-sponsors. are more lawmakers talking to you about adding their names and putting their names on something that would be taking a stand as opposed to just words? >> well, more of them are getting engaged by coalitions like move on that collect the 10 million signatures across the country. they're hearing from the american people and the american public who want an end be to

this. we spent almost two years alone just on the mueller report over close to $20 million being spent on the investigation. we just did an accountability. we want this to end. we want our democracy back. we want some rule of law and order back into our democracy and our process and that's not happening with this president continuing to defy our requests and continuing to make a mockery of it. >> so the person here who would initiate these proceedings, the individual of cures is the chairman of the judiciary committee, chairman nadler. he is now saying we're in a constitutional crisis, but he says impeachment may just not be the answer. let me play his exact words for you. >> we've talked nfor a long tim about approaching a constitutional crisis. we are now in it. >> why are you resistant to moving forward with impeachment? >> the short answer is that may not be the best answer in this constitutional crisis. >> does that frustrate you?

it may not be the best answer. >> you know, look, i try to do the right thing. i don't look at things with political strategy. when i look back at this remarkable moment in our country, i want to look back and say i did something. right now doing nothing is not an option. 10 million people just told us do something and so i'm going to continue to advocate and elevate their voice here in the halls of congress. i know, i know slowly but surely we'll be able to hold this president accountable. >> congresswoman tlib, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. coming up in the next hour on cnn, don't miss the town hall with former fbi director jim comey at 8:00 with anderson. next, the fight for 2020. the women running for the democratic nomination make their case to voters. >> i've got a plan. i have plans. i've got a plan. >> but why aren't some of the men sucking up all the oxygen? and president trump's former ghost writer breaks his silence saying his book about president

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"out front" tonight, the fight for 2020. new polling in the crucial swing state of new hampshire showing joe biden, bernie sanders and pete buttigieg out front. m.j. lee is "out front." >> that's all anybody wanted to talk about, what i was wearing, how my haircut was. >> reporter: six women seeking the democratic nomination for president in an historic election. four senators, one congresswoman and a spiritual writer. >> as a young mom i will fight for your children as hard as i would fight for my own. >> reporter: female voters across the country telling cnn that it is time for a woman to finally take the white house. >> we make up i think 51% of the population. >> i don't think a man could ever handle the pressures of that office any better than a woman. >> reporter: but there is another darker sentiment, sexism fueled by hillary clinton's flashback in 2016. >> i know we still have not shattered that highest and

hardest glass ceiling, but some day someone will. >> reporter: democratic voters describing a lingering trauma from the last presidential election. >> some have voiced concerns about you getting hillaried in the election, meaning you get held to a higher perspective. >> reporter: and concerned that a woman will hand donald trump a second term. >> most people didn't vote for her because she was a woman. i think they ended up voting for trump because he was a man. >> i worry about the old boys club. >> reporter: nine months out from the iowa caucuses, some of the women who want to see a female president leaning towards supporting one of the men. >> i would vote for joe biden because i think he has the best chance of winning the presidency. >> reporter: on the campaign trail the female candidates making a forceful case for why women are just as electable as men. >> and people tell me it cannot be done. they're not ready for you.

it's not your time. >> it will be hard work. and i listened. we won. >> someone once said, and i agree with part of this but not all of it, that women candidates should speak softly and carry a big statistic. so i think you know i don't always speak softly. >> it's going to be fun when i say, and i won because that's what girls do. >> reporter: a recent cnn poll showing no indication that women are overwhelmingly supporting the female candidates over the male candidates. this man telling cnn he does have a gender bias. >> if there were two equally qualified candidates, one was male and one was female, i would support the female. it's high time we had a female president. >> reporter: as the election heats up and we enter the next stage with the democratic debates beginning in june, electability is a word that we will probably hear more often as all of the candidates start looking ahead to next november. snern. >> m.j., thank you.

and now former republican congressman myia love. angela, i have to say, it frustrates me as a woman, as a parent that we have been having these conversations still and yet we are because of what we hear, you know? some of these women voters who are not convinced a woman can win. they may want a woman to win but they're not convinced a woman can. you look at the polls, you have joe biden, bernie sanders and pete buttigieg. is this about gender or something else? >> it has a lot to do with gender and being able to understand that we actually are very capable. there was a tweet put out the other day by dan zach who said warren gillibrand harris and klobuchar have never lost an election in their political careers but biden, sanders,

buttigieg and booker all have. the 2008 election, in my community, the black community, there were tons of people saying they were with hillary clinton because america was not ready for the first black president. here's what will make america not ready. people not believing that women have the ability to do that. and i would think, right, as we go into 2020 the 100th year anniversary of women's suffrage we would believe it was high time women can actually win. >> it is shocking. you can look at a lot of countries where you don't have all of the things that this country has in terms of gender equity, obviously there's still plenty of challenges and issues here, and they've had female presidents. >> right. >> i don't understand what the issue is. i mean, you're actually pointing to a poll, right? >> yeah. yeah. >> tell me about that. >> georgetown university. >> georgetown university actually stated that one in eight americans still believe that women are emotionally unequipped to deal with the --

with the pressures of office. i found that absolutely incredible because, i mean, if you think about this, women run the economy. they take care of kids. you have children. i mean, i have three kids. and i remember -- i kept getting, you're not experienced enough. you're not educated enough. you're not ready for office even though i ran a city successfully. got the city completely out of bankruptcy. i still continue to get all of these things and i might note that in this study it also stated that republicans, that number doubled among republicans which i think is sad because we as republicans know how much women give to the economy. >> angela, i just had a flashback to a moment i had in eighth grade when i ran for class president. i lost to a boy. i remember over hearing two girls in sixth grade say, well, erin's really nice but she's a girl. that was a long time ago.

and i think there's a part of me that i literally still get hot inside when i remember that comment. that kind of stuff is still happening. >> erin, that's just the thing. it is still happening so it's good that you get hot about it, but i think the question for all of us, right, is what happens when we get hot about it? how do we respond to it? the first call to action for all of us is the 53% of the women -- white women who voted for donald trump and did not vote for hillary clinton, what makes the interests of the men in their lives more important than their own? what makes you doubt your experience? when you go into your job and you second guess yourself on whether or not you should be paid the same as your male counterpart when you're probably doing the work way better than them, why aren't you -- why don't you deserve that same paycheck? once we start kind of decompr s decompressing and understanding all of those things, unpacking all of those things, i think we'll be a whole lot closer to a

woman president. >> i want to play a moment of snl to you, my a. this is the kate mckinnon playing elizabeth warren. >> i'm over here working round the clock to give you free college but, oh, look there, beto odourke did parkour in starbucks. woops, i just figured out universal pre-k. what's that. mayor pete buttageg auclair speaking -- >> a woman has to wield a statistic. you know, i could tell you even back in the day, right, you'd get all of your facts, everything all together, that the standard did seem to be so much higher. >> i think what's sad is that when you think about it most women when you get into office, at least all of the colleagues on both sides that i know, they got into it completely

selflessly. like it was -- it's a major heart ache. think about this. i had to figure out -- we all have to figure out what are we going to do with our kids when we're going back and forth. >> right. you're commuting across the country in congress. >> across the country in congress. running for office is an incredibly difficult thing. you have to make a lot of sacrifices, more sacrifices as a woman. and, again, having that double standard or having to rise above what the norm is doing much better than most people expect that you're going to do. it's a very difficult thing. you have to do twice as much work in order for you to get anybody to get to where they are, any woman. >> right. thank you both very much. and i think there's a lot -- i want to keep having this question. i feel like we're at the tip of the iceberg here. >> you need a town hall, erin. >> we do. thank you. >> thank you. next, trump's former ghost writer speaks out. was the book he wrote with trump fact or fiction? look at this thing that we found

and wait. this next. kim jong-un wants president trump to know he had overseen the missile launch. that's no longer true as the u.s. seizes a north korean ship. what happened to this? >> and then we fell in love, o being? no, really. he wrote me beautiful letters. plants capture co2. what if other kinds of plants captured it too? if these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees

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how far would you go for a togo? tonight calling trump out. a man whose job it was to get inside donald trump's head and share his story with the world says trump is a failing real estate developer who had little idea what he was doing. charlie leer son was trump's ghost writer for his 1991 book "surviving at the top." he worked with trump that showed he had over $1 billion in losses. in the couple years double the next biggest loser in america. it is a starkly different picture than the one painted in "surviving at the top." charlie learson is "out front." he sits down with you, you write it. you get his voice. i encourage people to read it.

he at thtalks about an open mar and all of that. during this time things are turning around for him very much to the south. >> right. >> we now see a billion dollars in losses and now you feel like you need to speak up because obviously that's not what he said in the book. >> i thought it was interesting that from the story that the times dug up the other day about the ten years of income tax, you think of chaos and misery, but in the center of that was this quiet office where he was going through fabric swatches most of the day and in the middle of all this sturm and drong, he was oblivious to it. he wasn't really paying a lot of attention to the plaza hotel and the trump shuttle and the other things he just invested in. >> let me just show some examples because he wanted to use this to portray -- i guess when you got in his head, did he believe the spin that he was giving you? >> well, as i say in the piece, the only thing i think he's above average at is

compartmentalizing. he was able to put all that bad stuff. >> aisle the failure. >> in a box that he didn't think about during the day. i think it only really bothered him when it became public. at this time things were really going to hell in his business, but the public didn't know about it yet so he wasn't that concerned. >> then he wants to put this book out to -- i'm curious what word you'd use. let's talk about a yacht. he bought a yacht. he calls it the trump princess in 1987. >> right. >> actually a relative from jamal khashoggi. he had to turn it over to lenders because he was so far in the hole that he lost the boat. in the book he said after a couple of years i started to think about an even bigger boat and i had plans drawn for a second one. this is a classic example of how i keep trying to top myself. as much as i've enjoyed it until now, i don't need it anymore. i don't want it anymore. in that year when it was taken from him -- >> right. >> -- he had $42.2 million in business losses.

this was not spinning. >> right. >> this was just a blatant lie. >> oh, yeah. and i can -- i can still see myself at my kitchen table writing what you just read. >> you remember him telling you this. >> no, he didn't tell me that. we had -- each time we had a whole book of braggadocios stuff all prepared. then as we were ready to go to press "forbes" magazine and some other people came out with the news that he actually had a below zero net worth, that everything was going south. his wife ivan na left him. mike tyson, his meal ticket kept getting knocked out. we had to come up with lame explanations, meaning me and the editors. >> to try to sell the whole thing. >> he wasn't involve. >> interesting he makes a point in here he's the one who left iv iv ivana. >> trump shuttle. you got a picture with the trump shuttle is the boast airline of any kind anywhere. he bought the shuttle for $365

million. it never made a profit. lost $182 million that year on his business losses. so that was also b.s. >> it was and all of these deals were really stupid deals that he made for the plaza hotel, the trump shuttle. he simply paid too much for them and he did the equivalent -- if you bought a house and only put $10 down your mortgage would be astronomical. you couldn't pay it every month. that was the position he was in. >> what was your impression of him? >> at the time i thought he was a goofy -- what we call new yorker, bridge and tunnel guy. >> based on his family. >> i appreciate your time. >> the north.

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breaking news. we now know kim jong-un personally supervised north korea's missile launch overnight. these are the new images from north korean state media which show kim apparently overseeing the launch of two suspected short-range missiles. this comes as the united states says it has seized a north korean cargo ship alleging it was in violation of sanctions. trump and kim who of course most recently met in person two months ago once again appear to be on a collision course. michelle kosinski is out front. >> reporter: after two meetings with kim jong-un all of that pomp and circumstance yielding zero. one of the few things they could keep taughting was they were talking and they hadn't fired off any missiles since 2017. well, no more. all in a matter of days kim

jong-un is back at it, testing weapons systems friday and multiple short-term missiles. president trump decidedly less glowing on the subject today. >> nobody is happy about it. i don't think they're ready to negotiate. >> reporter: the other positive trump could still point to is north korea agreed to return the remains of u.s. soldiers from the korean war. well, they've stopped that too, stopped answering calls. big setbacks to what trump had hoped would be a foreign policy crowning glory. >> i like kim. he likes me. >> he's never had a relationship with anybody from this country. >> reporter: from the early days of name-calling, trump calling kim a maniac, little rocket man. kim calling the president a loser, lunatic mean old trickster and human reject. in 2017, north korea returned imprisoned american student otto warmbier in a coma. he died days later. then things started to change

with north korea invited to the olympics in south korea. kim wanting to talk to the united states. there were letters, big oversized letters from kim that trump called beautiful. >> he wrote me beautiful letters. >> reporter: missives back from the president. trump sent kim a cd of elton john's rocket man. the first trump/kim summit almost a year ago, and trump talking about kim in over-the-top praising terms. >> and then we fell in love. >> reporter: there were ups and downs in this bizarro romance. but without even agreeing on a definition of denuclearization, trump's second summit with kim in february all fell apart. no other meetings planned. kim jong-un looked thrilled and beaming in those pictures north korea released of these latest missile launches. what are essentially a show of muscle and anger towards the united states for not lifting sanctions, and to south korea for continuing military exercises with the u.s. so yeah, you could say that this provocation could have been much worse and much bigger. still, though, the message here

to trump of course is the opposite of a love letter. erin? >> all right. thank you very much, michelle. and next, breaking news. we are just hours from president trump slapping higher tariffs on chinese goods, which means higher prices here. plus a special week coming up on cnn. highlighting the champions for change who left an impact on us. take a look. >> some people. >> some stories. >> are so powerful. >> they leave their mark. >> nobody has ever affected me the way your son did. >> their work creates real impact. >> on their communities. >> on their country. >> on us all. >> meet the change-makers we have never forgotten. >> what a difference seven years makes. >> this is the place where you jumped. >> yeah. this is the place where i live. >> wow.

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>> let's hope that letter was better than kim's letter, which also is apparently so beautiful before the missiles started flying. phil mattingly is "outfront" on capitol hill. phil, look, just so people know, 25% on chinese goods means that affects prices here, right? those are goods coming here. that gets passed along. republicans have been really vocal about this. they have not liked it. it's hurting many states, including red ones. what's the reaction on capitol hill to what the president is doing? >> erin, just a few short minutes ago, i texted a senior republican aide who works on these issues, asked what republicans are feeling right now just four hours before that deadline. the one-word response, anxiety. that really reflects where senate and house republicans have been on this issue over the course of the past months. their opposition is ideological. this isn't necessarily how republicans traditionally operate on trade. but as you noted, they're also very concerned about retaliation that would hit several sectors of the economy, agriculture

sectors, consumers face price increases that would significantly impact their states. the economy right now robust in first quarter growth. a bull market. jobless rate is down as low as it's been in about 40 years. why would you want to mess with that right now? but there is also a kind of a reality that is they can't do anything about it right now. it's about the negotiators that are in the room with the midnight deadline. >> so congress can't do anything to stop this, even though they so desperately want to? >> what's been most interest, it's not just with china, it's with the section 232 tariffs related to allies on national security grounds republicans are viscerally opposed to. congress over the course of decades, over the course of multiple administrations have largely abdicated their responsibility to trade, turned it over to the executive branch. we've seen efforts in the past start to tick up little bit and never really go anywhere. there is a sense we're trusting the president on this. we hope that he can get this there in the end. they hope that this is saber rattling in a way to get a deal, but they're all waiting like everybody else, erin.

>> all right. thank you very much very much. and thanks for joining us. "ac 360's" town hall with fbi director james comey starts right now. ♪ [ applause ] good evening. welcome to the town hall with former fbi director james comey. i'm anderson cooper. director comey spent his career in the justice system, working as the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, then as the deputy attorney general in the george w. bush administration. he was appointed director of the fbi by president barack obama in 2013 and led the bureau's investigation into hillary clinton's emails. they cleared her of criminal wrongdoing, but not without extraordinary controversy that still goes on today. president trump fired mr. comey two years ago today about an hour ago two years ago. that firing and the events surrounding it triggered the appointment of