a manager said there was consider cleanup ahead. unbelievable pictures there. thanks for joining us. happy tuesday. i'm sandra smith. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 at trump tower in new york city. we expect to hear live from the president. he's expected to talk infrastructure. other headlines threaten to drown out his message. advisers trying to set up meetings with the russian government. what the e-mails show and why trump aides say why they prove there was no collusion. and the accusation that the obama team knew years ago there was going to be meddling in the election. and kim jong-un may actually be backing down. he's still making noise including a threat about crushing america's wind pipes.

let's get to it. good tuesday afternoon from the fox news deck. the president expected to seek this hour at trump tower in midtown manhattan. his first visit to his new york city home since moving into the white house. right now we're told he's holding meetings to fix our country's infrastructure. the president made rebuilding america's crumbling bridges and roads a top campaign issue in the 2016 presidential election. the white house trying to change topics as the trump administration faces a growing number of issues. fallout continues to his initial response in charlottesville, virginia. and more stepping down from his manufacturing council.

the ceo from intel gave a statement. the president wrote on twitter, for every ceo that drops out, i have many to take their place. grandstandings should not have gone on. jobs! president trump faced criticism from both sides of the political aisle. really, across the nation after it took him two days to come out against white supremacists and neo-nazis. police say last saturday, james field jr. mowed down a crowd of counter protesters with his car killing heather heyer. hours after this attack, president trump blamed violence on many sides, many sides. it wasn't until two days later that he read from the teleprompter that perpetrators were white supremacists and neo-nazis.

and records coming out today that an adviser tried to set up meeting with the kremlin -- including russian president, vladimir putin. all of this comes as tensions between the united states and north korea are at an all-time high. there's word today that the dictator there, kim jong-un, appears to have backing down from that regime's plan to fire missiles near the u.s. territory of guam. we'll have more on those stories ahead. first, to rick leventhal live in new york city. rick? >> shepard, as you mentioned, the president is slugging off the wave of resignations from the american manufacturing council calling them grandstandings. the most recent to step down after the president tweeted out criticism of the other ceos that resigned. scott paul wrote in a statement simply that "i'm resigning from the manufacturing jobs initiative because it's the right thing for me to do." we also heard from doug mcmillen

who is walmart's ceo. he issued a strong rebuke last night of the president's response to the charlottesville protest. the president missed a critical opportunity to bring our nation together. those remarks made to walmart employees last night. there's other talk that members of the president's council may be reconsidering their position since none have stepped down since this morning. >> shepard: what more can you tell us about the president's statement on fixing the u.s.'s infrastructure problems? >> fixing the crumbling structure is one of the big campaign points. in june, the president said one of the biggest obstacles is the painfully slow and time consuming regulations to build.

so that's the subject of a meeting he's having with steve mnuchin and elaine chow. the president says he wants to establish discipline and account ability in the environmental review. he says he believes he can turn $200 billion of government spending into $1 trillion in projects like privatizing air traffic control and other projects. these are things that the president is expected to talk about in the lobby of trump tower 3:45 this afternoon. >> that's about 40 minutes from now. we'll have live coverage here. thank you. now russia, a new report shows a campaign adviser tried not once but multiple times to set up meetings with the then candidate trump and high level officials in russia. officials including russian president, vladimir putin. according to the reporting of "the washington post" newspaper in march of last year, three

days after the president named his foreign policy team, the adviser e-mailed seven campaign officials with the subject line, "meeting with russian leadership including putin." the post also reports the adviser offered to set up "a meeting between us and the russian leadership to discuss u.s.-russia ties under president trump." the adviser said his russian contacts welcomed the opportunity. he reportedly tried for months to make the meetings happen, even after some campaign officials raised their concerns. the adviser did not respond to the post for comment. catherine herridge is live in washington with me. paul manafort said he turned down one of the adviser's request. >> that's right. he provided fox with a statement saying the e-mail from "the washington post" show manafort turned down the offer. they read in part, mr. manafort's swift action

reflects the attitude of the campaign. any invitation by russia directly or indirectly would be rejected outright. his request that it came from a low level staffer said it did not enter consideration. this is concrete evidence that the russia collusion narrative is fake news. asked if why manafort didn't turn down the trump tower meeting with trump jr., jared kushner and others that promised negative information about hillary clinton, fox was told by a source familiar with the matter that there's really no evidence that manafort read the entire e-mail inviting him to the meeting which turned out to be a ruse. it was about discussing u.s. sanctions against senior russian officials. another adviser copied on that request, carter page, who has been interviewed by the fbi, he told the post the e-mails show in fact the offer was very benign, shep.

>> shepard: catherine, there's word that the president obama's team received information about russian meddling as early as 2014. >> what we have confirmed, after russia's annexation of crimea, military activity and efforts to influence the ukraine presidential elections two months later, there was deep concern that putin was developing tools to affect democratic elections. some republican lawmakers were dismissed by the obama white house because they were eager to reset their relationship with moscow. as evidence, you'll remember this video of then secretary of state hillary clinton and her russian counterpart. ned price sent fox this statement that reads "the obama administration was nothing but proactive in responding to russian aggression in all of its forms, especially as moscow

became more brazen with and following its military moves against ukraine beginning in 2014." at a recent security conference, the former cia director went even further. >> people have criticized us and the obama administration for not coming out and saying it. president obama will say the russians are trying to get mr. trump elected. i don't think that would have went over well. he is the head of the democratic party. >> for some context here, what is not clear from our reporting is how widely circulated these intelligence reports were and how they percolated to the top and got to a policy level where the warners were discussed in a concrete way, shep. >> shepard: catherine herridge, thanks very much. >> you're welcome. >> shepard: the united states would like to talk to kim jong-un. that's new today. the state department heather nauert making though comments

later. >> we would like to have kim jong-un when the time is right. when they show that they're serious about an effort to move towards denuclearization. we have not seen that yet. >> shepard: they say they won't do that. tensions between the united states and north korea are seeing signs of calming down for the moment. according to north korean state media, kim jong-un has decided not to launch a missile attack on the u.s. territory of guam or near it despite his earlier threat. kim jong-un also warned that he could change his mind in the united states continues to provoke his country. his language was a bit more salty. state media quoted the dictator saying such a strike would be a most delightful historic moment that would "ring the wind pipes of the yankees and point daggers at their necks." last week president trump threatened north korea with fire and fury and power and said the united states military was

locked and loaded. the chairman of the joint chiefs of staffs is looking for a peaceful resolution and that military options are more of a last resort. rich edson is at the state department. rich? >> well, shep, kim jong-un is now walking away from this threat to envelop guam in missile fire. the people's army said they presented a plan to kim jong-un about that attack. he decided to hold off for now. this is the rhetoric between the trump administration and north korea has cooled the last couple days. the kim regime still has nuclear capability, successfully launched intercontinental ballistic missiles since july. and the u.s. continues the pressure campaign against north korea to surrender the missiles. that's what the administration is pushing here. it says it prefers that diplomatic route to any type of military option. those the secretary right field

of defense mentioned if they shoot at us, it's game on, shep. >> shepard: rich, under what circumstances will the united states negotiate with north korea? sounds like they won't even talk unless they want to talk about denuclearization? >> they believe north korea has entered into the agreements and walked away. it's not an honest broker. the u.s. wants some type of signal that north korea will enter into serious negotiations. they want the testing to stop and the missile development program to halt before they even begin to talk north korea. north korea wants the u.s. to give up the military exercises upcoming next week. the u.s. has said they're defensive. we're not doing it. schlepp? >> shepard: thank you. the tension with north korea could heat up again soon. that's according to our next guest who says the upcoming war games in the region could enrage

the north koreans. that and much more coming up on the fox news deck as we're waiting for the president to speak from trump tower. stay tuned. this is joanne. her long day as a hair stylist starts with shoulder pain when... hey joanne, want to trade the all day relief of 2 aleve with 6 tylenol? give up my 2 aleve for 6 tylenol? no thanks. for me... it's aleve.

>> announcer: no one loves a road trip like your furry sidekick! so when your "side glass" gets damaged... [dog barks] trust safelite autoglass to fix it fast. it's easy! just bring it to us, or let us come to you, and we'll get you back on the road! >> woman: thank you so much. >> safelite tech: my pleasure. >> announcer: 'cause we care about you... and your co-pilot. [dog barks] ♪safelite repair, safelite replace.♪ >> shepard: more now on the situation between the united states and north korea. i reported there are signs from both sides that tensions are calming for now. just last week president trump threatened the regime with fire and fury and north korea called

the united states a lump that we can beat into jelly any time. turning to gordon chang. a foreign affairs author. a win for the president here? >> at least a minor win. it's also very temporary. >> shepard: why is that? >> because there's the exercises that are starting on august 21 between south korea and the united states. they're held every year. the chinese are upset about them. the north koreans are upset about them. this could be a time where kim jong-un says look, you have not responded by restraining yourself, so i'm going to fire those missiles toward guam. we don't know what he will do. every year there's provocations around those exercises. >> shepard: there was this fire and fury bluster from the north koreans. there was pressure on the chinese. >> yeah, i think so. what you have is two things that occurred last week. first of all, you have message

discipline being imposed from the white house. we saw that in that extraordinary op-ed from mattis and secretary tillerson. that was yesterday in the "wall street journal." that set out drop policy on north korea. yesterday you had the president going before the cameras, announcing an investigation into china's trade practices, especially the stealing of intellectual property that sent a signal that the united states was going to start to impose cost. the chinese put pressure on the north koreans after the u.s. put pressure on china. >> shepard: we used leverage. >> i think we did. certainly the chinese saw the message discipline and said oh, my gosh, the americans are starting to get their act together finally. >> shepard: kim jong-un says he will watch what the yanks will do. one can only assume that is about the war games. >> probably. there's other things that the united states will do. we'll work with our allies, japan, the north koreans don't

like that. indeed, it can be anything. we don't know what is going through the mind of kim jong-un. i guess all the time i'm wrong more than half the time about what goes on. so i don't know it will be. but it can't be a period of calm for too long. there's problems inside the north korean regime that will push kim jong-un to do things that we will not like. >> shepard: their economy is say to be going very well. >> the south korean central bank said north korean's economy grew 3.9%. that was very good. in 2015, it contracted by 1%. they have broken out of this range of 1% growth on average. something is going on in the north korean economy. it's probably more trade with china. that very well may end because of the security council sanctions, especially in the trump administration puts pressure on china to enforce them. the chinese have not enforced the previous six set of u.n. sanctions. we'll see. >> shepard: thanks, gordon.

it was tensions with north korea that the analysts say helped drive down stocks last week. with signs that north korea is backing away from the brink, traders are calmer as well. the dow is up friday. we have up periods throughout the day. we're up right now. very big numbers for apple and there was another one, apple and american express both up in a big way today. a live look at where things stand. it's been slightly up and down. gerri willis has the news from wall street for us. hi, gerri. >> hi, shep. good to see you. last week, what a disaster, right? north korea just lots of shrivers through the marketplace. traders nervous about this. here's what we saw. the dow and the s&p 500 were down so much so that we hadn't seen such a down day since march 24th. the nasdaq even worse. the worse since june 30th. you can see the numbers there.

the vicks was higher. people were really shaken. investors shaking. they went to safe havens, went to gold and treasuries and finding a place to hide out. we're not seeing that anymore. better movement today, better trading, shep. >> shepard: what is affecting the markets right now? >> it's about retail. home depot down a whack load. that's a technical term. taking 30 points off the dow alone just that stock. why? they had bad earnings, this is strange. we had a monthly report on retail that said everything was getting better. we had the highest retail sales in seven months. i have to tell you, this home depot things, the earnings from the last three months not looking great. that drove the dow down earlier. shep? >> shepard: thanks, gerri. protesters taking matters in their own hands rallying against a racist display in charlottesville, virginia. see what a crowd did in north carolina next.

>> shepard: just days after the deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in charlottesville, crowds pulled down a confederate statue in north carolina. demonstrators in raleigh chanting "no trump, no kkk, no fascist u.s.a." happened in durham. vigils and demonstrations have spread across america after a white nationalist plowed his car into a group of counter protesters in charlottesville. the kkk, neo-nazis and white supremacists were there to protest the removal of a confederate statue. there's a memorial set for the woman that died.

doug mckelway has more. doug, are you there? >> try again, please. >> shepard: doug, it's my understanding there's a memorial set for the woman that died there. >> i got you. i got you now. i think you're talking about the memorial service if i'm not mistaken for heather heyer. i'll have a few more details for you. it's at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow at the paramount theater, which is on the pedestrian mall here in charlottesville. doors open up at 10:00 a.m. they are expecting a overflow crowd. police are telling people if you want to come, there will be monitors on the pedestrian mall. you can watch it from the outside. the family is asking that people wear purple. what is the significance of purple? nothing more than it was heather's favorite color. the charlottesville police are offering their cooperation issuing a statement that said the police are working with the family to ensure safety. we will not go into specifics,

but we have since learned they will not permit backpacks or weapons for the service. virginia has an open carry law. you can see it's a surprise to a lot of people from around here. but you see a lot of people walking around with guns. shep, back here at emancipation park right now. you can see behind me, people have elected a temporary sign at the foot of the robert e. lee statue that says heather heyer park. a lot of people want the name of the park changed to that and see the statue of robert e. lee come down, which still and the pending a court injunction. vigilantes want to take it down with chains and trucks or a bulldozer. one told the richmond times dispatch, this is a beautiful equestrian statue and i don't want to be like the taliban, but this has to go.

it has already happened in durham, north carolina. last night we saw the statue come down at the hands of protesters even though there's a law not to dephase or remove statues unless you have the approval of the state's historical commission. >> shepard: thanks. the federal government is demanding the host of a website which organized anti-trump protesters hand over the records of everybody that visited that site. we'll talk to the fox news senior judicial analyst, andrew napolitano who says this is radically unconstitutional. that's coming up on the fox news channel. with my daughter. roller derby. ♪ now give up half of 'em. do i have to? this is a tough financial choice we could face when we retire. but, if we start saving even just 1% more

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to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. >> shepard: headlines from the fox news deck. 300 people have died after mudslides crushed homes and flattened buildings. that's according to officials in sierra leone. emergency workers say tons of

mud trapped people as they slept in their homes. the red cross says 600 people are still missing. an update on tiger woods. he had five different drugs in his system when he was arrested for dui during memorial day weekend. that's according to espn. back in may, the cops said they found woods asleep at the wheel near his home. woods said he got professional help to manage his medicines. in maine, fire officials say a wall of foam took over a building at an airport trapping four people inside. investigators blamed a malfunction in a fire suppression system. nobody was hurt. the news continues next. ms. i thought i was doing okay. then it hit me... managing was all i was doing. when i told my doctor, i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease even after trying other medications.

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>> shepard: bottom of the hour, top of the news. the justice department is demanding details on more than a million visitors to a website that organized demonstrations against president trump. so trump's department of justice is doing this.

that's the word from the site's web provider called dream host. dream host is now fighting back after the department of justice requested information on visitors that logged in to disrupt j-20.org. not just their computer addresses but user's photos and contact details. the government claims that the website was used in the developing, planning, advertisement and organization of a violent riot in d.c. on inauguration day. the request should be enough to set off alarm bells in anybody's mind and the site's attorney says chills the right of free speech. let's turn to judge andrew napolitano to be clear, these people organized a demonstration against president trump on inauguration day. now president trump's department of justice wants to know who these people were. >> and can they continue to organize demonstrations and most probably. we don't know it to be so.

organized one against him here in new york city. some constitutional problems with this. it's privacy. when you log on to a website, it's between you and the webs e website. if you read the agreement, they promise not to reveal who you are. if they try, they will resist it. the website's lawyer probably called chilling. chilling is what occurs when government behavior causes you to have seconds thoughts about exercising your freedom of speech. so if i know the government will find out who i am, will i stop going on that process? the mental process of reevaluating of whether or not to go on the website is prohibited under the constitution. this search warrant that the government got has a lot of us scratching our heads. there's no criminal investigation, there's no evidence that the i.d. of these people will produce evidence of a crime and these things are

absolutely required before a search warrant can be granted. >> shepard: the website's attorneys resisting. >> yes. >> will they be successful? >> i don't know if it goes before a judge that signed this. this is another oddity. the justice department did not go to a regular federal judge because none of them will sign it. they went to a superior court judge in columbia. the feds never go into state court for something like that. >> shepard: so a friendly judge? >> they found a friendly judge to sign this thing. it's beyond me how the prerequisites for a search warrant, the existence of a grand jury, the existence of a criminal investigation, the futility of obtaining this information by a less obtrusive means could be justified here. can you imagine if eric holder did this to find out who the protesters were against barack obama were? i dare say there would be a different reaction. >> shepard: i'm not seeing any reaction.

>> that's the problem. there should be an uproar over this. if they can get away with this, they can subpoena any information they want from any website that any of us uses to get our photographs and our browsing habits. that's just not something available to the government in a free society. >> shepard: has the government given the reason for this? >> the original reason was to make it easier to protect president trump so they know where the demonstrations are. >> shepard: the president needs to be protected against demonstrators? >> there's so many off duty cops amongst the demonstrators. the place know where they're going. >> shepard: is there a stop gap? a protection in the system? >> the protection would be if the federal judge that issued it -- excuse me. the supreme court supreme court of d.c. judge that issued it changes his or her own mind or if they appeal it in an appellate court invalidates it.

>> shepard: judge, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> shepard: luther strange fighting to hold on to his seat today. voters in the state of alabama head to bottles for special election primaries. the state's then golf appointed strange to replace jeff sessions after sessions accepted the job as attorney general. the president endorsed the incumbent and today he tweeted big day in alabama. vote for luther strange. he will be great. senator strange is facing a tough primary fight from the former alabama supreme court justice, roy moore. and the gop congressman mo brooks. jonathan serrie just outside birmingham. what are senator strange's opponents saying? >> senator strange enjoys strong support among the republican party establishment, which is a double edge sword today. mo brooks is trying to exploit

that, in particular a rift between president trump and one of those establishment supporters, mitch mcconnell. watch this. >> mcconnell and strange are weak. together, we can be strong. mr. president, isn't it time we tell mcconnell and strange you're fired? >> meanwhile, roy moore that rode to the polls on horseback is a favorite among religious conservatives because of his battle to came a ten commandments monument in state court. he could benefit from low voter turnout because his supporters are loyal and active. >> i appreciate the people understanding it's not the money from washington that will buy this election. it's the people of alabama that will vote in this election. >> shep, with nine gop contenders, it's highly unlikely that any one candidate will surpass the 50% threshold needed to avoid a september run-off.

>> shepard: the democrats are saying, in the state of alabama they have an outside shot of winning. >> yeah, it's a long shot. democrats are hoping that they can remain unified and take advantage of the political in-fighting going on within the republican party with the various factions. right now there's seven democrats running in this primary. one candidate, doug jones has by far the strongest name recognition because of his successful prosecution in a civil rights era church bombings that claimed the lives of four girls. he could get enough votes to avoid a run off. the december election will be an uphill battle for democrats. remember, this is a state that donald trump won by a 28-point margin in the last presidential election. >> shepard: jonathan serrie, homewood, alabama. thanks. bret baier will have extended coverage this etching. with the summer ending its final

works, there's word that the white house is expecting a brutal september. details and the reason why coming up next as we wait for the president to speak live from trump tower scheduled to begin minutes from now. fox news channel will have live coverage.

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tap one little bumper and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. liberty mutual insurance. >> shepard: a live look at trump tower in new york city. president trump set to speak at any moment as we wait for the president. there's word that september will be brutal inside the white house. that's a word from senior officials inside the white house speaking to politco. officials say it's because of the number of complex issues coming up, including debt ceiling, budget, tax reform and another go at healthcare and trump aides say they're trying to partially temper the president's expectations. alex is here from politco and live in the newsroom. a brutal september. lay it out for us. >> look, it's going to be a hugely consequential month.

you have members of congress coming back from august recess and a number of big issues on the table. those range from everything from tax reform to whether there's going to be a government shut down. they're all going to be converging in this one-month period. it really happens against this backdrop when trump is already -- there's a lot of tensions between trump and republican party leaders, particularly mitch mcconnell, a week ago who trump was going against aggressively in twitter and press conferences, this is a big deal, september. >> shepard: party leaders say the best chance at getting something on the president's agenda done is in which area? >> look, you know, one of them clearly is going to be tax reform. in part because both -- this is something the administration really wants and something that republican leaders really want. there's a lot of common ground on that. but there's disagreement in the administration and how exactly do you move forward on tax

reform. you know, for example, steve bannon is pushing for a tax on the wealthy. not everybody in the white house agrees with that. so you know, you'll see people like mitch mcconnell and paul ryan talk about tax reform but it's unclear how they will proceed. >> shepard: are there differences in the party on how to proceed on tax reform? >> there is. but there's common ground that it's something that the party has wanted now for some time and something that the party donors really want. >> shepard: they wanted a lot of things. they wanted healthcare reform. they didn't get there. is there a way to come together on tax reform? >> that's the question. can you do that when you're dodging all kinds of other issues. the government's funding fight is something that will take up potentially a lot of oxygen and a lot of time in september. you can have a situation where

party leaders come to trump at the end of the month and say look, here's a bill to keep the government funded. it won't include funding for the border wall, which is something that trump promised voters again and again and again and hasn't come through on it yet. they can say look, here's a bill to fund the government. doesn't include border funding. trump will have to make a decision. do you sign that bill and not have border funding or do you not sign the bill and go to a government shut down? that's another example of can you juggle all of these issues in a very short amount of time and at a time when some conservatives are pushing for some version of healthcare reform. they haven't given up that fight, a lot on the docket here. >> shepard: let's get -- stay with us, alex. rick leventhal is at trump tower. i understand we're less than five minutes away from the president. any heads-up on what is about to happen? >> we did get a five-minute warning that the president will be down here with elaine chow

and steve mnuchin. the president is expected to talk about the executive order which will streamline infrastructure projects. it was a big talking point during the campaign and rebuilding america's roads and bridges. in june, he spoke about how painfully slow, costly and time consuming the process was or the getting permits to do anything. secretary chow said the average environmental review talks five years and projects can be subjected to 65 different requirements and permits. the president's goal is to get that down to two years or less and come up with one federal decision for the infrastructure project. we believe this is what the president will discuss in less than five minutes from now. >> shepard: thanks, rick. one of the matters we're focusing on is healthcare. we've gotten new word, insurance premiums for many people on obamacare will sky rocket if president follows through on his

threat to stop billions in payments to the health insurers. that's the word in the last few minutes. it now estimates a 20% hike for people with standard plans if the president carried through with his threats. in respond, the white house has come out and said, regardless of what the flawed report says, again, attacking the congressional budget office, obamacare will continue to fail with or without a federal ba bailout. officials with the dnc say this. this latest cbo report shows how truly devastating trump's sabotage of health insurance markets will be for millions across the country. let's turn back to alex from politco. this is a matter of who will control the narrative here. it's without any question that the president's actions, this president's actions will make these prices go up as stated by the congressional budget office. it's the actions of the president that will do that.

who carries the narrative? for democrats will believe one side. republicans will believe the other and facts be damned. >> this is something that the president has been threatening for some time and hasn't followed through on the threat. it's harder for him to do so. >> alex, i didn't mean to interrupt you. i wouldn't. fox television stations up and down the line are about to join us. let's pause. we're letting people watching our location stations join us on the fox broadcast network right now. >> shepard: from fox news in new york, i'm shepard smith. we're waiting for the president to speak at trump tower in new york city. our viewers along with us on fox news channel know that the president is back in the big city for the first time since he was inaugurated and coming in with a infrastructure plan. that's the word from the white house. we're expecting him to speak in the golden elevator lobby moments from now.

on the president's agenda today, exactly what to do with a infrastructure plan that has some degree of bipartisan support. it's widely believed by the president's inauguration that infrastructure might be an area where republicans and democrats can come together. without question that roads and bridges are in disrepair across the country, that our infrastructure is severely lacking and the power grids, the upgrades trillions estimated to bring things back up to the standards to which americans have been accustomed. so far, there's no agreement. rick leventhal has more. do we know an area that the president and his team will focus on to get bipartisan support on this? >> they do say, shepard, they want to encourage private spending on public infrastructure projects. the president has said he wants to streamline the process. he says it takes too long to get the permits necessary to get the projects off the ground. he's signing an executive order

today and flanked by his treasury and transportation secretaries. he will talk about how he can get the permitting process down from five years perhaps down to two years and make this easier for the projects to fix our roads and bridges to maybe that happen. we're waiting for the president to emerge from the elevator any minute now to talk to the press. >> shepard: he hasn't held a formal news conference in quite some time. do we have word on whether he will take questions today? >> well, we know some of his -- the folks taking part in this meeting are scheduled to answer question. the president may not. we're told he could speak up to five minutes. whether or not he answers questions, we'll wait and see. >> alex isenstadt is joining us from politco. alex, the question of the day, of course, the question for every day would largely be about the russia investigation. more recently, his problems within his own party with leader

mitch mcconnell and others. >> you know, it feels, particularly the last few weeks, the president has been increasingly isolated and ali alienated from his own party. that was accentuated this week when a number of republican senators came to mitch mcconnell's defense and just differentiated themselves from the president in term of what happened in charlottesville. it felt this weekend like the president was on an island. you talk to people that are close to the president. what they'll tell you, he does not see himself as close to the republican party as he once did. this is going to be a really interesting dynamic to watch in the months to come as we head closer to the mid terms and as republicans running in 2018, they'll have to make the decision. are they going to run with the president or away from the president and how doesn't trump contend with that? how does he deal with that going

forward? >> it's interesting the fallout from his presumably add-libbed comments, action from both sides, whether you consider that we're talking about a kkk, neo-nazi, nationalist rally that turned deadly. it was their rally. the president trying to have moral equivalency there, just seemed so completely and totally out of touch. that was an ad libbed moment. two days later a scripted statement. left a lot of people saying within his own party, republicans saying, that they wondered how in the world that he can make those statements on the heels of something as anti-american as everything that happened in charlottesville. >> that's right. really highlights the disconnect between trump and rank and file members of the republican party. by the way, since trump made that statement clearing things up, he's made some comments on

twitter that have further confounded republicans. so this is the problem going forward. trump does have a new chief of staff, john kelly, who has vowed to clean things up and clear up the process in the eval office, in the west wing. the reality is, you still have a president that marches to the beat of his own drum. that is frustrating leaders from mitch mcconnell and those that are for less prominent. >> shepard: this is from the president's twit. made additional remarks on charlottesville and realized once again that fake news media will never be satisfied. truly bad people. he was able to come up with "truly bad people" for the media in minutes but we still haven't gotten to that level of consternation with people that were responsible for the death 0 a young women and who are out there in neo-nazi garb. it's perplexing to people within

his own party. you wonder if more doesn't need to be said on this matter. >> the other thing about the tweet, it goes to a central part of the president's mindset. he spends a lot of time criticizing the mainstream media. he deeply cares about the mainstream media and what people say about him and he's very sensitive to their perceptions. so he did not like apparently that he got some heat on cable outlets for how he handled charlottesville. >> shepard: the steve bannon wing of the white house, alex, there's this battle that has been brewing for a very long time. questions now about how long steve bannon may still be around. he's the one that ran breitbart.

>> it's a question if he stays or goes. if he stays in the white house, he will push for conservative policies, the president ran on the campaign trail for. but if steve bannon least, he can be a massive force on the outside of shaping the president's agenda. he's very close to the until ordinary conservative donor robert mercer that has a lot of sway. he could go back to breitbart. he control as lot of machinery. so if you have these fights playing out in september that we talked about earlier on, things like government funding, things like tax reform, steve bannon could become a real force if he leaves this administration on the outside shaping some of those fights. that's going to be a really important dynamic to watch going forward. >> shepard: and are people inside the white house

suggesting that that may be the reason that he's still part of the white house team? >> potentially. the question for people who disagree with steve bannon, woo we're talking about jared kushner, h.r. mcmaster, is steve bannon more of a threat to them on the inside or on the outside. he's a really important figure. it's hard to overstate how an important figure steve bannon is to this presidency. yes, he has a lot of detractors on the inside. people that don't like the way that he conduct himself. he's sharp elbowed. the reality is that if bannon leaves the white house, he's going to be a factor. >> shepard: there's a book called "the devil's bargain" and gives steve bannon a lot of credit for the president's electoral win. and that upset the president and

could have turned the president against him. it's my understanding from what i've read that he hasn't been having face-to-face meetings with the president. >> that's right. he's somewhat isolated in the white house in recent weeks. it's not the first time that he really wrinkled trump with that narrative of being the mastermind early on in this administration, you may recall. he was on -- bannon was on the cover of "time" magazine with the headline "the great manipulator." trump doesn't like it when other people around him in his orbit seem to be credit for his success. he's sensitive to that. this book gave bannon a lot of credit for trump's win. >> shepard: thanks, alex. rick on scene. here's the president at trump tower in new york city.

>> hello, everybody. great to be back in new york with all of our friends. some great friends outside the building. i want to thank our distinguished guests that are with us today, including members of our cabinet, treasury secretary steven mnuchin, omb director mick mulvaney and of course, our transportation secretary, who is doing a fabulous job, elaine chow. thank you all for doing a really incredible and creative job on what we're going to be discussing today, which is infrastructure. we just had a great set of briefings upstairs on our infrastructure agenda. my administration is working every day to deliver the world class infrastructure that our people deserve and frankly that our country deserves. that's why i just signed a new

executive order to dramatically reform the nation's badly broken infrastructure permitting process. just blocks as way as the empire state building. it took 11 months to build the empire state building. today it could take a decade or more. many stores takes 20, 25 years just to get approval to start construction of a fairly routine highway. highway builders must get up to 16 different approvals involving nine different federal agencies governed by 29 different statutes. one ago i can stall a project for many years and decades. not only does it cost millions of dollars but denies our citizens the safe and modern infrastructure that they deserve.